So we went out to Cici’s pizza buffet the other day to celebrate. Eliana saw us dipping bread in spaghetti sauce. She started imitating us. Now she dips everything in sauce… Here are pictures from dinner today.
We’ve been on a row… this is one of many curry recipes that we’ve enjoyed - taken from fishinnards.com
Also, two other curry dishes we’ve been eating a lot of: Aloo Gobi - recipe taken from one of the extra videos from Bend it like Beckham… it’s a cauliflower and potato curry dish… and chickpeas and spinach curry… recipes coming soon.
Chicken Curry (fishinnards.com)
2 medium to large onions
½ cup of oil
½ tsp Black cumin seeds
2 Black cardamom pods
1″ stick of cinnamon
4 whole cloves
7 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4-6 chicken thighs
2″ piece of ginger (pealed)
7 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of turmeric
2 tsp (regular) cumin seeds
1 ½ Tbsp. coriander seeds
½ cup yoghurt (plain w/ no gelatin)
2 medium tomatoes
1 ½ tsp. hot pepper powder (more or less depending on you and your pepper)
2 tsp. salt (kosher)
¾ tsp. Garam masala
So here it goes: Take one onion and cut in half and then slice each halve into very fine half rings.
Heat the oil. Heat the oil in a wide nonstick pot or high sided pan that has a lid. So, heat the oil and add the sliced onion and sauté it over medium heat. When they reach a uniform light tan, turn off the heat. Put a sieve over a small bowl. Pour the onions into the sieve, allowing the oil to drain into the bowl. Pour the oil back into the pot.
Now, chop the other onion and the ginger and garlic. Put them in a blender with a little bit of water (1 Tbs. or so) and blend to a paste. Put the (regular) cumin and coriander seeds into a spice (coffee) grinder and grind to a powder. Wisk the yoghurt to remove and lumps and chop the tomatoes. Skin the chicken pieces and dry them.
Heat the onion flavored oil in the pot and when its really hot add the black cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, cloves, and bay leaves (this is the “whole garam masala”).
Put the chicken in the pan and brown it well on both sides so the pieces are golden brown. Take them out and put them in a bowl. Turn the heat to medium and add the blender paste. Stir the paste, add the turmeric, and stir, stir and keep cooking it for about 5 to 10 minutes. It may turn green and then brown, it looks cool and smells good.
Next add the ground cumin and coriander. Add the yoghurt a spoonful at a time quickly stirring and incorporating after each spoonful. All this stirring is called bhunno, that’s Hindi for sauté, but you add liquid to keep stuff from sticking, a little at a time so everything “caramelizes”.
Add the chopped tomatoes, salt and hot pepper and cook some more. Add the chicken and stir around a minute or two. Add 2 cups of water and bring to simmer. Lift the cover and add the fried onions and the (ground) garam masala. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
Serve with lots of rice (white, unsalted, properly cooked plain rice) or chapattis or Naan. Happy eating!
This is one of our favorite korean dishes… It’s a stir-fried rice cake in hot pepper paste. It’s an easy and delicious dish that you can find vendors selling on the streets of Korea.
Duk Boki
1/2 lb. Duk (Cylindrical rice cake)
1 tbsp Gochujang (hot pepper paste)
1/2 tbsp miso
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1/2 tsp red pepper powder
1 stalk bok choy
1 scallion chopped
Sesame oil
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tsp sugar
1/4 lb beef chuck
1 Carrot, sliced
Black pepper1. Soak Duk in cold water for 10 minutes
2. Cut beef into 1/4 inch thick 1″ x 2″ slices.
3. Mix beef, black pepper, garlic and 1 tsp sesame oil in bowl
4. Brown beef in a frying pan
5. Add in carrots, scallions, bok choy and duk, mix and cover and steam for about 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
6. Mix the gochujang, hot pepper, miso, sugar and 2 tsps water in bowl until blended.
7. Add mixture to the pan and stir. Add broth as needed if sauce becomes too thick.
8. Ready to serve when the duk is soft!
Here’s our latest recipe: Persimmon bundt cake, taken from astray recipes.
Ingredients
4 Ripe large persimmons
1½ teaspoon Baking soda
1¾ cup Sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 Extra-large eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 cup All purpose flour
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Ground allspice
¼ teaspoon Ground cloves
¾ cup Chopped walnuts
¾ cup Dried currants
Powdered sugar (opt.)
White Chocolate Hard Sauce
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 F. Butter and flour 10 inch diameter (12-C capacity) Bundt pan. Peel persimmons. Press pulp through coarse sieve into medium bowl. Measure 1 1/3 C persimmon puree into small bowl. Mix baking soda into puree in small bowl; set bowl aside. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (mixture will be grainy). Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon, salt, allspice and cloves onto butter mixture; blend well using rubber spatula. Mix in persimmon mixture, walnuts and currants. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cake in pan on rack 5 minutes. Turn out cake onto rack; cool completely. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Wrap and let stand at room temperature.) Sift powdered sugar over cake, if desired. Serve with hard sauce. Bon Appetit/October/94 Scanned & edited by Di Pahl &
This is a quick and easy recipe for those with old kimchi and lots of leftover rice. Learned this from watching my lovely wife who hung out with too many Koreans in a previous life. I think it works better.
Recipe Ingredients
4 cup of cooked rice
1 cup of kimchi with liquid (pickled fermented vegetables)
Half can of SPAM
1/4 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 egg
Sesame oil
Salt & pepper
Cooking Directions
Cook rice as directed in a rice cooker or in a pot (leftover rice is the best).
Chop kimchi into small pieces. Save kimchi liquid to add to rice
Dice and mince green onions, onions, and garlic.
Add rice and cook until soft
Mix all ingredients well.
Add salt and pepper to meet taste.
Cook egg sunny side up (or scrambled).
Put rice on a dish and place a fried egg sunny side up on top.
There’s probably a million other variations, so experiment and have fun!
We bought a bunch of persimmon and they were starting to go bad… so instead of trashing them, we did the next best thing… google persimmon recipes. We found this:
http://www.seasonalchef.com/persimmonrecipes.htm
4 cups cooked rice
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup raisins
2 cups persimmon pulp
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup chopped nuts
Combine rice and pulp; set aside. Combine sugar, milk, flour, egg and vanilla.
Add rice mixture and mix well.
Stir in nuts and raisins.
Pour into a greased 3 quart baking dish.
Bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes or until set.
Serve hot or cold.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
We ate it hot with a scoop of ice cream on top. I think you call that a la mode… :)