Wow, it's definitely been two years since I wrote anything here. Prof life is busy, y'all. Quick update: Still teaching at Swarthmore, married Matt, got an InstantPot for a wedding present. And somewhere in there we watched a lot of Great British Bake-Off on tv and just loved Nadiya, who (spoiler alert!) won a season or two ago. So I recently followed her on Twitter, where she's generally a ray of sunshine, and found out she has some cookbooks and bought one. And then thus week made the lamb bhuna, because of course that's the first thing I go for.
The bhuna was pretty great. Even though I didn't quite follow the recipe. First of all, it comes with a recipe for garlic naan, but instead of 200 grams (1 1/3 cups) of flour (yes, it's ll in grams and weight measurements. Brits.) I somehow misread and put 800 grams (5 1/3 cups) in the food processor, and didn't notice til I'd mixed in the other dry ingredients so it was too late to turn back, and so I quadrupled everything else too and we ate a LOT of naan. Which really isn't a bad thing. (NB: My kindle version of the book says 'add the water' in the naan recipe but doesn't ever say how much. If you believe the BBC version, it's 100ml - just under half cup, or 7 tablespoons - for a normal 200g-of-flour batch. Also: 1 cup self-rising flour = 1 cup all-purpose + 1.5 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt, says King Arthur.)
Then also the recipe called for 800 grams (1 3/4 lbs) lamb, and I only bought just under a pound, and because the recipe already only uses half the curry paste it makes and I didn't want to divide by four, and also yay leftovers, I made up the difference with eggplants. And left out the bell peppers b/c eew. And made it in the InstantPot instead of on the stovetop, because that thing is magic for getting tender falling-apart meat bits. (As Chekhov said, introduce an InstantPot in the first paragraph, you have to use it in the third.) So what follows here is almost but not really the real thing, converted into cups and pounds for us Yankees, and really quite tasty. Cheers.
InstantPot Lamb-Eggplant Bhuna àla Nadiya
~1 lb lamb cubes
2 medium-small eggplants
7 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh ginger
2 small onions
2 hot peppers or to taste
5+ cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp curry powder, whatever that means to you
1.5 tsp garam masala
chopped cilantro
1. Roughly chop the onions, garlic, chilis, and ginger. Use a small food processor or, even better, an immersion blender in a tall measuring cup to whiz them into a smooth paste together with the oil, salt, spices, and 1/3 cup of water.
2. Chop the lamb into bite-sized cubes if it isn't already. Same with the eggplants.
3. Put the curry paste in the InstantPot, turn it on to the Saute function, and cook 5-10 minutes, until it starts to separate. Stir a lot - the saute setting is blazing hot and burnt curry paste is no good (though a little sticking & browning is just fine).
4. Add the lamb to the pot and brown the sides for another ~5 min. Add the eggplant and stir to coat with curry goo. Add 2/3 cup more water, put on the lid, and set to pressure cook for 30 min. This is a good moment to cook the naans (see BBC link above) and/or put on some basmati rice.
5. When the InstantPot's finished doing its thing, let it rest for another few minutes then vent the steam. take the top back off, set it back to Saute, and cook another 5-10 mins, stirring, til the sauce reduces. The eggplant will suddenly collapse into mush, which is fine. Taste for salt, serve with chopped cilantro.
Showing posts with label lamb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lamb. Show all posts
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Thursday, October 29, 2015
To Remember
Awesome:
NY Times Moroccan Herb Jam:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017742-moroccan-herb-jam
Make with carrot tops, kale, spinach, fennel, parsley, cilantro, etc etc etc. Spread on bread with hummus or eat on toast with harissa and a fried egg.
Awesomer:
Quick Banh Mi:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014140-shortcut-banh-mi-with-pickled-carrots-and-daikon
(Slice chicken thighs thin and marinate in all the stuff you're supposed to cook with the pork, then cook on a hot grill pan. Add a splash of fish sauce and sriracha to the pickles and a splash of soy to the marinade. Skip the Mayo.)
Awesomest:
Xi'an lamb burgers (A cross between this and this.)
1lb ground lamb
2 whole star anise
at least 1tbsp ground cumin
toasted Szechuan peppercorns or peppercorn oil
Sriracha or chili flakes
Small red onion, sliced thin
garlic, minced
pinch sugar
pinch cinnamon
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
2-3 tbsp rice wine (or mix of sake and vermouth)
Cilantro leaves
Chopped scallions
1) Cook the lamb in a pan with some oil and the star anise until just brown but not crispy. Add everything else and give a good stir. Cover for a few minutes, then take off the lid and let the liquid cook down. When nearly done, mix in the chopped scallions, and cook a minute more. Taste for spiciness and cumin - it should taste strongly of both. The meat should be wet like a sloppy joe but not swimming. If too wet, keep cooking.
2) Serve on flatbread, over rice or thick flat wheat noodles, or on a roll, with cilantro leaves scattered on top.
NY Times Moroccan Herb Jam:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017742-moroccan-herb-jam
Make with carrot tops, kale, spinach, fennel, parsley, cilantro, etc etc etc. Spread on bread with hummus or eat on toast with harissa and a fried egg.
Awesomer:
Quick Banh Mi:
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014140-shortcut-banh-mi-with-pickled-carrots-and-daikon
(Slice chicken thighs thin and marinate in all the stuff you're supposed to cook with the pork, then cook on a hot grill pan. Add a splash of fish sauce and sriracha to the pickles and a splash of soy to the marinade. Skip the Mayo.)
Awesomest:
Xi'an lamb burgers (A cross between this and this.)
1lb ground lamb
2 whole star anise
at least 1tbsp ground cumin
toasted Szechuan peppercorns or peppercorn oil
Sriracha or chili flakes
Small red onion, sliced thin
garlic, minced
pinch sugar
pinch cinnamon
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
2-3 tbsp rice wine (or mix of sake and vermouth)
Cilantro leaves
Chopped scallions
1) Cook the lamb in a pan with some oil and the star anise until just brown but not crispy. Add everything else and give a good stir. Cover for a few minutes, then take off the lid and let the liquid cook down. When nearly done, mix in the chopped scallions, and cook a minute more. Taste for spiciness and cumin - it should taste strongly of both. The meat should be wet like a sloppy joe but not swimming. If too wet, keep cooking.
2) Serve on flatbread, over rice or thick flat wheat noodles, or on a roll, with cilantro leaves scattered on top.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Catching Up: Meat and Potatoes, but Classy
I just got back from a four-month stint living and doing dissertation field research in West Papua, Indonesia. (See Climbing Volcanoes to read about that.) The food in Indonesia is wonderful, full of spices, chiles, coconut milk, tofu, tempe, and deep-fried bananas. What it is not is varied, and while I absolutely love my landlady's young jackfruit curry, by the time December came around I was seriously jonesing for some bread, prosciutto, red wine, and real cheese. White rice is good, white rice three meals a day gets old. So when I got home one of the foremost things on my mind was to catch up with all the old delicious things that I'd missed, and one of those things was lamb chops. Rare, seared, salty, tender lamb chops like the ones I got in New Zealand, with a side of green beans and oniony potatoes. For one thing, lamb costs rather a bit more here than it did in Auckland and isn't quite so fresh either, but I got a decent package of loin chops from the co-op here. The potatoes are adapted from a recipe I got from Saveur a while back, but with olive oil instead of duck fat because even I have limits I couldn't find duck fat on short notice. (The original, amazing but slightly pickier recipe is here.) The beans are an old family favorite. Altogether my kitchen smelled amazing and it made me happy to be back in the US, despite the January weather. The hot showers helped too, but there's definitely something to be said for the lamb.
Lamb Chops
This isn't even a recipe; I don't know why I'm even writing it down except that it would be odd to post about a lamb dinner and not put in instructions for the lamb. So here goes.
Set lamb loin chops on a plate; generously salt & pepper both sides. Let sit for a few minutes.
Put a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet and let it get really hot. Add the lamb, and let each side cook til it's brown and crusty. Cover for a slightly less rare chop. In any case it'll be pink in the middle and delicious. Hold the edges onto the pan and let them brown too. Let rest for 10 minutes, then enjoy.
Potato-Onion Galette
Waxy potatoes
Half as many onions, sweet ones work well.
Caraway seeds or chopped sage leaves
Olive oil, butter, duck fat, or some combination of the above.
Salt & pepper
Bacon or prosciutto (optional)
Preheat oven to 425. Slice the potatoes thin (it's easiest with a mandoline); put in a large bowl. Slice the onions equally thin; add to the same bowl. Add an handful of chopped sage leaves or caraway seeds, plus S&P to taste. Finely chopped bits of crispy bacon or prosciutto are good too, added either now or as a garnish at the end. Toss everything until well-mixed. Add a healthy amount of olive oil, melted butter, or whatever fat you're using and toss to coat. Put the mixture in a pyrex baking dish and bake 45 minutes to an hour, until potatoes are tender and everything's nice and brown.
Lemon-Garlic String Beans
String beans, washed
Garlic
Lemon juice
S&P
Oil
1/4 cup broth
Slice the end off of the string beans and cut them into reasonable lengths. Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium -high heat. Add the beans, and let them cook, stirring, til they turn bright green. Turn the heat down and add the garlic, stirring so it doesn't burn. Cook a minute or two, then add a large-ish splash of broth. Cover and cook for a few more minutes, not so long that the beans lose all their crunch. Take the top off so the broth evaporates. Add a few squeezes of lemon juice and s&p to taste.
 |
| Lamb chops wit the works. |
Lamb Chops
This isn't even a recipe; I don't know why I'm even writing it down except that it would be odd to post about a lamb dinner and not put in instructions for the lamb. So here goes.
Set lamb loin chops on a plate; generously salt & pepper both sides. Let sit for a few minutes.
Put a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet and let it get really hot. Add the lamb, and let each side cook til it's brown and crusty. Cover for a slightly less rare chop. In any case it'll be pink in the middle and delicious. Hold the edges onto the pan and let them brown too. Let rest for 10 minutes, then enjoy.
Potato-Onion Galette
Waxy potatoes
Half as many onions, sweet ones work well.
Caraway seeds or chopped sage leaves
Olive oil, butter, duck fat, or some combination of the above.
Salt & pepper
Bacon or prosciutto (optional)
Preheat oven to 425. Slice the potatoes thin (it's easiest with a mandoline); put in a large bowl. Slice the onions equally thin; add to the same bowl. Add an handful of chopped sage leaves or caraway seeds, plus S&P to taste. Finely chopped bits of crispy bacon or prosciutto are good too, added either now or as a garnish at the end. Toss everything until well-mixed. Add a healthy amount of olive oil, melted butter, or whatever fat you're using and toss to coat. Put the mixture in a pyrex baking dish and bake 45 minutes to an hour, until potatoes are tender and everything's nice and brown.
Lemon-Garlic String Beans
String beans, washed
Garlic
Lemon juice
S&P
Oil
1/4 cup broth
Slice the end off of the string beans and cut them into reasonable lengths. Heat some olive oil in a pan on medium -high heat. Add the beans, and let them cook, stirring, til they turn bright green. Turn the heat down and add the garlic, stirring so it doesn't burn. Cook a minute or two, then add a large-ish splash of broth. Cover and cook for a few more minutes, not so long that the beans lose all their crunch. Take the top off so the broth evaporates. Add a few squeezes of lemon juice and s&p to taste.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Have a little priest!
After two months of eating and loving meat pies in New Zealand, I decided to make my own. Mike, Nicole, and Trevor came over to help, so kudos to Mike for fantastic mash, Trevor for owning the crust, and Nicole for having the foresight to bring salad to mitigate the fat/carb/salt bomb that is a meat pie. This recipe is kind of long and involved, but if you buy the crust it's mostly chopping and stirring. If you make the crust there's some additional mixing and rolling involved. Anyway, it's not hard.
I found two recipes that looked like they were along the right lines and mixed & matched. (Yes I know these are Aussie rather than Kiwi. Shut up.)
www.taste.com.au/recipes/11987/basic+meat+pie
http://australianfood.about.com/od/beeflamb/r/AussieMeatPie.htm
I always preferred steak pie to mince, but you can either get a fairly cheap cut of meat and cut it into bite-sized chunks or use ground beef/lamb/pork/turkey/buffalo/whatever. What animal(s) exactly you use are entirely up to you. These recipes all call for a puff-pastry top, but the two little stores near me didn't stock puff pastry and damned if I'm gonna make it myself, so we did the classic mashed potato top instead. Personally I thought it was pretty wonderful, but that might just be all the garlic talking. As always, a little crisped bacon and/or grated cheddar would not be an unwelcome addition to the filling, if you're into that sort of thing.
The result was something along the lines of this:
New Zealand Awesome Meat Pie
Filling:
~1 1/4 lb meat (lamb or beef is good; pork chop was a little dry but shoulder/butt would work)
1 onion
2 carrots
1 stick celery
3 cloves garlic
Other veggies (peas, zucchini, chopped tomato, whatever - also optional)
Bouquet garni - take your pick of herbs, I used thyme, rosemary, and smoked paprika
Worcestershire sauce
splash of cider or red wine vinegar
2 tsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cups broth of your choice
1/2 cup red wine (optional)
Salt &pepper to taste
Cornstarch or flour to thicken
Bottom crust:
Buy frozen shortcrust or google a recipe. I used this one: http://britishfood.about.com/od/recipeindex/r/scpastry.htm
Lid:
Use frozen puff pastry, or:
2 big Idaho potatoes
milk, butter, a dollop of garlic-chive cream cheese
garlic
S&P
1) Cut the meat into small (1cm?) chunks, unless you're using mince. Chop all the veggies into small pieces. Peel your potatoes, cut them into big pieces, and set to boil.
2) Drop the meat in a pot with some oil and brown over high-ish heat. Put the meat to the side in a bowl; leave the oil in the pot. (I'd crisp the bacon here if you're using it the get the juices in the pot, then add it to the filling at the very end.) Add the onions to the same pot and saute on medium til they start to soften. Add the carrots, garlic, tomato paste, and celery. If you're using something like turnips that takes a while add it now; things like zucchini and peas should wait. Saute for a couple of minutes.
3) When the veggies start to soften, add the broth, wine, and a few good shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Stir and scrape up all the good brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add you herbs, put the meat back in, stir once, turn the heat down and leave it to simmer. If the liquid gets low, add more broth or water. You want some gravy in this, so it shouldn't be soup but is shouldn't be dry either.
4) Start on the crust, which takes longer than you think. I blind-baked it thus:
- Preheat your oven to 325.
- Roll out the dough thinner than you think - it'll double or triple in thickness when it bakes. Use lots of flour to do so.
- Sprinkle a few breadcrumbs in the bottom of each pie tin (I used over-sized muffin tins for individual-sized pies). Drape a sheet of dough over the pie tin. Push it down, form it to shape, smooth out the sides, and cut off the extra. You now have little pastry cups for the sides and bottom of the pie. Repeat for each tin, rolling out the extra you just cut off to re-use it.
- Prick the dough a few times with a fork. put a layer of tinfoil in each cup to cover the dough. Fill each foil cup with rice, beans, small stones, pie weights, whatever. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Take out the foil and weights to expose the dough. Up the temp to 350. Bake another 10-ish minutes until it gets golden.
- Set aside to cool.
5) When the potatoes are fork-tender, drain them and let them sit for a few minutes so all the water evaporates off. Then mash them with lots of salt & pepper (potato absorbs salt like it's its job, so taste as you go and don't wimp out with the shaker), crushed garlic, and the dairy products of your choice. We used a few tbsp butter, a splash of almond milk, and a big dollop of my vegan coconut-based garlic-chive cream cheese, which was really friggin good, but plain milk and normal cream cheese will also do the job, if you can digest the stuff.
6) Taste and season the innards as necessary. I found mine needed a little salt and acid. You could use lemon juice or a touch of vinegar; I stirred in a good squeeze of ketchup, and it did the trick. We're real classy here. This would also be a good moment to stir in any bacon or cheese you're using, probably before adding any extra salt.
7) Take some liquid out of the pot of filling (1/3 cup, maybe?), and mix in a few tbsp of flour or cornstarch, as much as it'll hold. Then stir that glop back into the pot. This is a good moment to add things like chopped zucchini. Simmer 5 minutes more to thicken. Make more slurry if need be - you want thick, gloppy, oozy gravy.
8) Fill the pie tins with filling. Maybe sprinkle some cheese on top or add a slice of tomato. (I didn't.) Cover with a sheet of puff pastry, extra short crust, or a dollop of mashed potato. (We pressed little pie-sized patties of potato together in our palms, then set them on top and added more around the sides as necessary. If you're trying to impress someone you could pipe it on.) Cut an X in the middle of the top if you're using pastry. If you like, brush it with egg to make it shiny.
9) For a potato top, bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, mostly to heat everything through, then broil for another 3 to get the top a little brown around the edges. For pastry it's more like 20 minutes at 375, until golden. Set aside to cool.
10) Eat with plenty of ketchup and plenty of napkins. Salad is a good idea.
Update, Pi Day 2015: I made this for a Pi(e) Party with 1lb ground beef, 1/2 lb bacon (chop into bits, crisp up in the pan, and use the fat to cook everything else in), mushroom broth, carrots, celery, onion, and peas, (seasoned with thyme, herbs d'Provence, and a bay leaf), and it was phenomenal. Better than the steak pie the actual Aussie made. I win.
I found two recipes that looked like they were along the right lines and mixed & matched. (Yes I know these are Aussie rather than Kiwi. Shut up.)
www.taste.com.au/recipes/11987/basic+meat+pie
http://australianfood.about.com/od/beeflamb/r/AussieMeatPie.htm
I always preferred steak pie to mince, but you can either get a fairly cheap cut of meat and cut it into bite-sized chunks or use ground beef/lamb/pork/turkey/buffalo/whatever. What animal(s) exactly you use are entirely up to you. These recipes all call for a puff-pastry top, but the two little stores near me didn't stock puff pastry and damned if I'm gonna make it myself, so we did the classic mashed potato top instead. Personally I thought it was pretty wonderful, but that might just be all the garlic talking. As always, a little crisped bacon and/or grated cheddar would not be an unwelcome addition to the filling, if you're into that sort of thing.
The result was something along the lines of this:
 |
| Pie, salad, sauce. |
New Zealand Awesome Meat Pie
Filling:
~1 1/4 lb meat (lamb or beef is good; pork chop was a little dry but shoulder/butt would work)
1 onion
2 carrots
1 stick celery
3 cloves garlic
Other veggies (peas, zucchini, chopped tomato, whatever - also optional)
Bouquet garni - take your pick of herbs, I used thyme, rosemary, and smoked paprika
Worcestershire sauce
splash of cider or red wine vinegar
2 tsp tomato paste
1 1/2 cups broth of your choice
1/2 cup red wine (optional)
Salt &pepper to taste
Cornstarch or flour to thicken
Bottom crust:
Buy frozen shortcrust or google a recipe. I used this one: http://britishfood.about.com/od/recipeindex/r/scpastry.htm
Lid:
Use frozen puff pastry, or:
2 big Idaho potatoes
milk, butter, a dollop of garlic-chive cream cheese
garlic
S&P
1) Cut the meat into small (1cm?) chunks, unless you're using mince. Chop all the veggies into small pieces. Peel your potatoes, cut them into big pieces, and set to boil.
2) Drop the meat in a pot with some oil and brown over high-ish heat. Put the meat to the side in a bowl; leave the oil in the pot. (I'd crisp the bacon here if you're using it the get the juices in the pot, then add it to the filling at the very end.) Add the onions to the same pot and saute on medium til they start to soften. Add the carrots, garlic, tomato paste, and celery. If you're using something like turnips that takes a while add it now; things like zucchini and peas should wait. Saute for a couple of minutes.
3) When the veggies start to soften, add the broth, wine, and a few good shakes of Worcestershire sauce. Stir and scrape up all the good brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add you herbs, put the meat back in, stir once, turn the heat down and leave it to simmer. If the liquid gets low, add more broth or water. You want some gravy in this, so it shouldn't be soup but is shouldn't be dry either.
4) Start on the crust, which takes longer than you think. I blind-baked it thus:
- Preheat your oven to 325.
- Roll out the dough thinner than you think - it'll double or triple in thickness when it bakes. Use lots of flour to do so.
- Sprinkle a few breadcrumbs in the bottom of each pie tin (I used over-sized muffin tins for individual-sized pies). Drape a sheet of dough over the pie tin. Push it down, form it to shape, smooth out the sides, and cut off the extra. You now have little pastry cups for the sides and bottom of the pie. Repeat for each tin, rolling out the extra you just cut off to re-use it.
- Prick the dough a few times with a fork. put a layer of tinfoil in each cup to cover the dough. Fill each foil cup with rice, beans, small stones, pie weights, whatever. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Take out the foil and weights to expose the dough. Up the temp to 350. Bake another 10-ish minutes until it gets golden.
- Set aside to cool.
5) When the potatoes are fork-tender, drain them and let them sit for a few minutes so all the water evaporates off. Then mash them with lots of salt & pepper (potato absorbs salt like it's its job, so taste as you go and don't wimp out with the shaker), crushed garlic, and the dairy products of your choice. We used a few tbsp butter, a splash of almond milk, and a big dollop of my vegan coconut-based garlic-chive cream cheese, which was really friggin good, but plain milk and normal cream cheese will also do the job, if you can digest the stuff.
6) Taste and season the innards as necessary. I found mine needed a little salt and acid. You could use lemon juice or a touch of vinegar; I stirred in a good squeeze of ketchup, and it did the trick. We're real classy here. This would also be a good moment to stir in any bacon or cheese you're using, probably before adding any extra salt.
7) Take some liquid out of the pot of filling (1/3 cup, maybe?), and mix in a few tbsp of flour or cornstarch, as much as it'll hold. Then stir that glop back into the pot. This is a good moment to add things like chopped zucchini. Simmer 5 minutes more to thicken. Make more slurry if need be - you want thick, gloppy, oozy gravy.
8) Fill the pie tins with filling. Maybe sprinkle some cheese on top or add a slice of tomato. (I didn't.) Cover with a sheet of puff pastry, extra short crust, or a dollop of mashed potato. (We pressed little pie-sized patties of potato together in our palms, then set them on top and added more around the sides as necessary. If you're trying to impress someone you could pipe it on.) Cut an X in the middle of the top if you're using pastry. If you like, brush it with egg to make it shiny.
9) For a potato top, bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, mostly to heat everything through, then broil for another 3 to get the top a little brown around the edges. For pastry it's more like 20 minutes at 375, until golden. Set aside to cool.
10) Eat with plenty of ketchup and plenty of napkins. Salad is a good idea.
Update, Pi Day 2015: I made this for a Pi(e) Party with 1lb ground beef, 1/2 lb bacon (chop into bits, crisp up in the pan, and use the fat to cook everything else in), mushroom broth, carrots, celery, onion, and peas, (seasoned with thyme, herbs d'Provence, and a bay leaf), and it was phenomenal. Better than the steak pie the actual Aussie made. I win.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Makin' Couscous
Last week I found myself in Marseille for a day (grad school perk #4591: spring break), so I decided to take advantage of that city's history as a point of entry for North Africans coming to France and find some good couscous. The reviews all said La Kahena; the reviews were all right. There is a lot of couscous in Marseille, a lot of it cheaper than what La Kahena has to offer, and a lot of it, I'm sure, very good, but this stuff was worth the trip. I couldn't decide what kind to get - veggies? lamb? merguez? - so for 16 euro I ordered a complet, which had all sorts of things in it, and if I spoke any French I could tell you what they were. What I do know is that they were delicious. There was merguez - I adore good sausage, and this was awfully good sausage - and chicken; a shish kebab and some sort of chop, both of which I suspect were lamb, though I wouldn't swear to it; a big, fluffy, heavily-cumined meatball (nope, I have no idea what the meat was, but it sure tasted good); a hard-boiled egg; and all sorts of veggies, including chickpeas, zucchini, carrots, celery, turnip (I think?), and some others I'm sure I'm forgetting. The toppings came heaped over a mound of couscous, accompanied by a bowl of the deeply spiced, dark red liquid they'd cooked in, for spooning over top. The whole thing was enough for at least three meals, and I left wishing I had an extra stomach to put it in, or at least somewhere other than my carry-on to keep a doggy bag. (Do they even do doggy bags in France?) I don't really recommend Marseille as a place to visit - busy, dirty, supposedly dangerous, reminiscent of Palermo but with less interesting stuff to see - but if you do find yourself there I would urge you to find La Kahena, and bring your tupperware.
Five days later, back in New Haven, and desperately missing the south of France. My Nicoise cookbook is still in the mail, so first up on the "recreate amazing things I ate over break" agenda is couscous. Nica's doesn't have merguez, so I got chorizo instead. I really don't feel like grilling five kinds of meat, so that'll have to do in the protein department. I picked up all the veggies I could remember, plus some potatoes, just because. Claudia Roden's "Book of Middle Eastern Food" has a wonderful couscous recipe, and she encourages you to improvise around it, so I did, based on memory and preferences. She also included instructions for steaming the couscous over the simmering stew i the traditional way, which I did with a jerry-rigged vegetable steamer, a couscousier being one of the rare kitchen gadgets I don't actually own (though my birthday is coming up, you know...). Glad I tried it, but steaming's totally not worth the work - next time I'm just boiling it in stock, the old-fashioned way (see Mark Bittman for more detailed instructions on that). The stew, however, was absurdly easy (chop, simmer, eat) and entirely delicious, and now my apartment smells wonderful. Instructions are below. As always, adjust to taste, and based on what's on hand at the moment. I put a lot of things in; you don't have to, though I should mention that even though I usually don't like hardboiled eggs or turnips, they're delicious in here.
Moroccan-ish Couscous (adapted from Claudia Roden)
1/2 lb chorizo (or merguez, or other appropriately-spiced sausage)
1 can chickpeas
1 onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
A few carrots
A few small potatoes
A few small turnips
1 or 2 stalks celery
1 medium tomato
1 zucchini
1 egg
1 thick-ish coin of ginger
Half of a small cinnamon stick
A generous amount of cumin
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil
Couscous (or, for the gluten-free, quinoa or millet)
1) Chop the veggies and sausage into the kind of chunks you'd want to find on your spoon, not too small but still bite-sized.
2) Put everything but the couscous, egg, tomato, and zucchini into a pot. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Cover with water and simmer for an hour.
3) Add the zucchini and tomato, taste for spices, simmer for half an hour more.
4) While all that is simmering, cook the couscous and hard-boil the egg.
5) Serve the stew over the couscous, with the hard-boiled egg on top. salt to taste. Devour. Makes great leftovers.
Five days later, back in New Haven, and desperately missing the south of France. My Nicoise cookbook is still in the mail, so first up on the "recreate amazing things I ate over break" agenda is couscous. Nica's doesn't have merguez, so I got chorizo instead. I really don't feel like grilling five kinds of meat, so that'll have to do in the protein department. I picked up all the veggies I could remember, plus some potatoes, just because. Claudia Roden's "Book of Middle Eastern Food" has a wonderful couscous recipe, and she encourages you to improvise around it, so I did, based on memory and preferences. She also included instructions for steaming the couscous over the simmering stew i the traditional way, which I did with a jerry-rigged vegetable steamer, a couscousier being one of the rare kitchen gadgets I don't actually own (though my birthday is coming up, you know...). Glad I tried it, but steaming's totally not worth the work - next time I'm just boiling it in stock, the old-fashioned way (see Mark Bittman for more detailed instructions on that). The stew, however, was absurdly easy (chop, simmer, eat) and entirely delicious, and now my apartment smells wonderful. Instructions are below. As always, adjust to taste, and based on what's on hand at the moment. I put a lot of things in; you don't have to, though I should mention that even though I usually don't like hardboiled eggs or turnips, they're delicious in here.
Moroccan-ish Couscous (adapted from Claudia Roden)
1/2 lb chorizo (or merguez, or other appropriately-spiced sausage)
1 can chickpeas
1 onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
A few carrots
A few small potatoes
A few small turnips
1 or 2 stalks celery
1 medium tomato
1 zucchini
1 egg
1 thick-ish coin of ginger
Half of a small cinnamon stick
A generous amount of cumin
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
Olive oil
Couscous (or, for the gluten-free, quinoa or millet)
1) Chop the veggies and sausage into the kind of chunks you'd want to find on your spoon, not too small but still bite-sized.
2) Put everything but the couscous, egg, tomato, and zucchini into a pot. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Cover with water and simmer for an hour.
3) Add the zucchini and tomato, taste for spices, simmer for half an hour more.
4) While all that is simmering, cook the couscous and hard-boil the egg.
5) Serve the stew over the couscous, with the hard-boiled egg on top. salt to taste. Devour. Makes great leftovers.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
What I ate yesterday
I'm unemployed. It's cold out. I'm bored. Hence, I cook. In an effort to keep track of some of the more delicious things I've made (let's be honest, who reads this thing but me?) here's the first in a series of tasty things I've made.
Iranian Pasta
Probably not Iranian at all, but vaguely Middle-Eastern, and "Iranian Pasta" sounds good. You don't like it, get your own blog.
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1/3 pound lamb
garam masala*
half a zucchini
half an eggplant
half a cucumber
plain yogurt
feta cheese
1/2 box of spaghetti or any other pasta
cayenne pepper to taste
1) Chop the onion and garlic very fine and saute for a minute in olive oil. Add the lamb, a generous amount of garam masala, and some salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is no longer pink. urn off the heat and let sit until you've finished everything else.
2) While the lamb is cooking, put the pasta on to boil.
3) Also while the lamb is cooking, slice the eggplant thin, salt it, and set it aside. Slice the zucchini thin, salt it, and grill it. I used a George Foreman oiled with olive oil; a real grill or probably even a hot skillet or toaster oven would work. When the zucchini's done, grill the eggplant the same way. Chop it all up into chunks.
4) Peel the cucumber and chop it into small pieces.
5) When the pasta's tender, drain it and put it in the serving bowl. Add a few dollops of plain yogurt, a handful of feta, the veggies, and the lamb. Mix it all up until the pasta's coated with the sauce. If you want more sauce, add more yogurt. Add cayenne and salt to taste.
*Garam masala is (roughly):
1 tbsp cardamom seeds
1 2-inch stick cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 of a nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
Grind it all together in a (clean!!) coffee grinder until smooth. Or just buy a packet at the store.
Iranian Pasta
Probably not Iranian at all, but vaguely Middle-Eastern, and "Iranian Pasta" sounds good. You don't like it, get your own blog.
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1/3 pound lamb
garam masala*
half a zucchini
half an eggplant
half a cucumber
plain yogurt
feta cheese
1/2 box of spaghetti or any other pasta
cayenne pepper to taste
1) Chop the onion and garlic very fine and saute for a minute in olive oil. Add the lamb, a generous amount of garam masala, and some salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lamb is no longer pink. urn off the heat and let sit until you've finished everything else.
2) While the lamb is cooking, put the pasta on to boil.
3) Also while the lamb is cooking, slice the eggplant thin, salt it, and set it aside. Slice the zucchini thin, salt it, and grill it. I used a George Foreman oiled with olive oil; a real grill or probably even a hot skillet or toaster oven would work. When the zucchini's done, grill the eggplant the same way. Chop it all up into chunks.
4) Peel the cucumber and chop it into small pieces.
5) When the pasta's tender, drain it and put it in the serving bowl. Add a few dollops of plain yogurt, a handful of feta, the veggies, and the lamb. Mix it all up until the pasta's coated with the sauce. If you want more sauce, add more yogurt. Add cayenne and salt to taste.
*Garam masala is (roughly):
1 tbsp cardamom seeds
1 2-inch stick cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 of a nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
Grind it all together in a (clean!!) coffee grinder until smooth. Or just buy a packet at the store.
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