This is probably my favorite recipe that I make. It also has a nice little story to it:
The story-
In our ward in India, there was a family names the Katukas. They were from Andhra Pradesh, in the south, and sister Katuka made fantastically delicious south Indian food. The best was her lemon rice. It was bright yellow, just spicy enough, flavorful, fragrant, and AWESOME. I drooled over it for years and my last summer in India, I finally learned how to make it. The Katukas had us over for dinner and sister Katuka ushered me into her tiny kitchen and taught me the magic of lemon rice as I frantically took notes. So here it is!
Lemon Rice
what you need:
-3 or 4 cups of cooked Basmati/Jasmine rice. It's especially good if it is a day old. You can use other types of rice but it is best when the rice isn't sticky.
-1 tbs black mustard seeds
-1/2 tbs cumin seeds
-2 green chilies, slit in half or chopped. If they are halves, they are pretty easy to take out if that's what ya want (2 chilies or to taste. This can totally be omitted and spice lovers can add cayenne or chile flakes to their portion)
-4 or 5 sprigs of curry leaves, stems removed
-1 lemon, halved and with as many seeds as you can get at removed
-1/2 cup raw peanuts
-2" chunk of ginger, grated. (use a box grater, it's super fast and easy. Just don't grate your fingies)
-3 tbs cooking oil
Optional but encourages for added yumminess and effect:
-1/4 cup masoor dal (if you put this in a mug and then pour REALLY hot water over it and let it sit for about 5 min it will be the perfect tenderness for this. Just drain the water out)
-a generous pinch of ground turmeric
What to do:
1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large enough frying pan to accomodate everything.
2. Add your cumin and mustard seeds and leave them alone until they start "sputtering," they will pop a little and start smelling delicious.
3. Add your peanuts, curry leaves, chilies, and ginger and cook until the peanuts start getting a little translucent. Mush them a little to break some of them in half. Keep a close eye on your chilies and your curry leaves to make sure they aren't burning. You can turn the heat down as needed. ***frying chilies can hurt your nose, lungs, eyes etc. this recipe has gotten me a few times.
4. Add the rice and masoor dal and mix all the ingrdients thoroughly over low heat. Add the turmeric at this point if you are going to. Turn of the heat and squeeze the lemon juice over the rice, mixing it thoroughly. Serve!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Cry for Help: Curry Leaves
So I was reorganizing my spice cupboard, which had become woefully un-alphabetic, and was reminded that I bought curry leaves (dried, obviously) before Christmas and haven't used them. I remember Taryn once gave me a recipe for scrambled eggs with curry leaves, I think, so this question is mostly for her probably, but if anyone has favorite ideas for them I'd love to hear them before I use my expensive curry leaves. Thanks, yay!!
Omuraisu
I feel like we may have posted something about this before, but I can't find it, so sorry if it's a repeat.
This is something we like to do when we have rice left over in the rice cooker from the night before. If your rice cooker has a keep-warm feature, and you leave rice in it overnight or longer, it gets a little dry, and that's the perfect time to make fried rice dishes.
Ingredients:
cooked white rice, a couple of cups or so worth
6 eggs
grated parmesan cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
ketchup
pepper
vegetable oil
milk
1. Heat some oil in a wok. Toss in the rice and stir fry it. Season it with a couple of squirts of ketchup and some ground pepper. Sprinkle some parm over it while you're stir-frying.
2. When the whole thing is a nice pink color and smelling good, transfer to dishes. This recipe makes enough to two people. Make a nice mound of rice in the middle of each plate. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top. It should have almost entirely melted by the time you're done with the next steps; you can cover the dish with a plate to make sure it melts, if you want.
3. Mix the eggs together in a bowl with a little milk.
4. Heat more oil in a frying pan and pour the eggs in. The idea here is to make a really light fluffy omelette (omuraisu=omelette over rice). While the eggs are frying, keep whipping them in the pan with a pair of chopsticks or something to keep them frothy. When the omelette has solidified enough on the bottom, roll it up in the pan with a spatula.
5. Cut the omelette in half with the spatula and place each half on top of a mound of rice.
6. Here's the cool part. If the omelette has come out right, you can now take a sharp knife and cut it lengthwise and unfold it so that it covers the mound of rice, and the inside should still be runny/fluffy enough to turn into a steamy mess on top of the rice. Top with ketchup. Voila: you're done.
You don't normally associate ketchup with Japanese cooking, but this is a standard recipe in Japan. It even comes up in one of my favorite Japanese movies, Tampopo. Enjoy the scene here.
This is something we like to do when we have rice left over in the rice cooker from the night before. If your rice cooker has a keep-warm feature, and you leave rice in it overnight or longer, it gets a little dry, and that's the perfect time to make fried rice dishes.
Ingredients:
cooked white rice, a couple of cups or so worth
6 eggs
grated parmesan cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
ketchup
pepper
vegetable oil
milk
1. Heat some oil in a wok. Toss in the rice and stir fry it. Season it with a couple of squirts of ketchup and some ground pepper. Sprinkle some parm over it while you're stir-frying.
2. When the whole thing is a nice pink color and smelling good, transfer to dishes. This recipe makes enough to two people. Make a nice mound of rice in the middle of each plate. Sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top. It should have almost entirely melted by the time you're done with the next steps; you can cover the dish with a plate to make sure it melts, if you want.
3. Mix the eggs together in a bowl with a little milk.
4. Heat more oil in a frying pan and pour the eggs in. The idea here is to make a really light fluffy omelette (omuraisu=omelette over rice). While the eggs are frying, keep whipping them in the pan with a pair of chopsticks or something to keep them frothy. When the omelette has solidified enough on the bottom, roll it up in the pan with a spatula.
5. Cut the omelette in half with the spatula and place each half on top of a mound of rice.
6. Here's the cool part. If the omelette has come out right, you can now take a sharp knife and cut it lengthwise and unfold it so that it covers the mound of rice, and the inside should still be runny/fluffy enough to turn into a steamy mess on top of the rice. Top with ketchup. Voila: you're done.
You don't normally associate ketchup with Japanese cooking, but this is a standard recipe in Japan. It even comes up in one of my favorite Japanese movies, Tampopo. Enjoy the scene here.
fresh chickpeas
Hello, all! My goal for 2011 is to stop eating total crap all the time and watch my diet. In conjunction with exercise, I am hoping this will help me get my butt in shape. Anyway, I went to my local awesome-tastic Asian grocery to take advantage of their preposterous amount of produce and saw these: FRESH CHICKPEAS
Not knowing what I was going to do with them but knowing it would be an adventure, I bought some :) The internets told me that you can treat them like edamame but nowhere was I reading that you should steam them. So I did two things:
1/2 the batch got sauteed in olive oil until slightly charred (pods on!) and then salted. They were very delicious and like fresh, nutty-veggie tasting edamame with oil
1/2 the batch got baked on 400 degrees for about 20 min with a little drizzle of olive oil and salt.
The oven-method was better I think but both were good. If you see any in your grocery store, I would recommend them! They are very easy to deal with, you can eat them raw if you want (I believe), and they taste yummy,
THE END
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Big Biscuit
For this, my first posting to the family food blog, I am going to keep it very, very simple. A friend recently reminded me of something I invented in graduate school: the "big biscuit." It was born of puzzlement and necessity, as are all truly great inventions. I think it's especially appropriate for kids to try.
Recipe:
1. Follow the directions on the yellow Bisquick box for a single batch of biscuits.
2. Instead of making lots of regular sized biscuits, use all the dough and form a single, "big biscuit" in the middle of your cookie sheet.
3. Bake until slightly golden brown on top.
The fun of the "big biscuit" is in its preposterous size. It's easily eaten by breaking it by hand and adding butter and jam. Enjoy!
Recipe:
1. Follow the directions on the yellow Bisquick box for a single batch of biscuits.
2. Instead of making lots of regular sized biscuits, use all the dough and form a single, "big biscuit" in the middle of your cookie sheet.
3. Bake until slightly golden brown on top.
The fun of the "big biscuit" is in its preposterous size. It's easily eaten by breaking it by hand and adding butter and jam. Enjoy!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Sausage and Sauerkraut Stew
Made this in the crock pot last weekend, and it was goood. It's basically this recipe here, but with a couple of slight modifications.
Ingredients:
1 lb kielbasa sausage*
1.5 pounds sauerkraut**
2 Granny Smith apples
2 pounds small red potatoes
1 medium-size white onion
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
*The original recipe calls for 2 pounds, but I cut it to just under 1 lb and it was plenty, plus another pound of sausage wouldn't have fit in our slow cooker.
**User comments on allrecipe say you can use Bavarian sauerkraut if you want a milder taste, but I used regular and it was fine.
1. Cut your sausage into one-inch pieces, your potatoes into quarters, your onion into thin rings, and your apples into half wedges or smaller. Don't peel the potatoes or the apples unless you want them to disintegrate.
2. Put the potato in the crock pot first, followed by the sausage, sauerkraut, onion, and apple in that order.
3. Add the broth, then sprinkle the caraway seeds on top.
4. Cook on high for 4 hours.
The apples probably sound like the weirdest ingredient, but they add a welcome touch of sweetness that goes surprisingly well with the sauerkraut. The red potatoes are amazing - I wouldn't use any other kind. The original recipe recommended sprinkling shredded swiss cheese over when you serve it, but we liked it better without. Instead, serve with a good sourdough bread for dipping.
Ingredients:
1 lb kielbasa sausage*
1.5 pounds sauerkraut**
2 Granny Smith apples
2 pounds small red potatoes
1 medium-size white onion
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
*The original recipe calls for 2 pounds, but I cut it to just under 1 lb and it was plenty, plus another pound of sausage wouldn't have fit in our slow cooker.
**User comments on allrecipe say you can use Bavarian sauerkraut if you want a milder taste, but I used regular and it was fine.
1. Cut your sausage into one-inch pieces, your potatoes into quarters, your onion into thin rings, and your apples into half wedges or smaller. Don't peel the potatoes or the apples unless you want them to disintegrate.
2. Put the potato in the crock pot first, followed by the sausage, sauerkraut, onion, and apple in that order.
3. Add the broth, then sprinkle the caraway seeds on top.
4. Cook on high for 4 hours.
The apples probably sound like the weirdest ingredient, but they add a welcome touch of sweetness that goes surprisingly well with the sauerkraut. The red potatoes are amazing - I wouldn't use any other kind. The original recipe recommended sprinkling shredded swiss cheese over when you serve it, but we liked it better without. Instead, serve with a good sourdough bread for dipping.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Pesto-Potato Soup
I made this soup today and it was the easiest tasty soup I've ever made. It's a crock pot dish but you could do it stove top pretty easy, too.
2 Tbs olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
6 cups vegetable stock
enough pesto to put dollops in your bowl
1/4 toasted pine nuts (optional)
Set your cooker to high and add oil and garlic. Peel and chop the potatoes while the garlic softens up. When the garlic smells nice, add your potatoes and broth and set the crock pot to low for 6 to 8 hours. When you're ready to eat, puree the potatoes with an immersion blender or run it in batches through a regular blender or food processor until smooth (it shouldn't take long).
After you pour your soup into bowls, swirl in a spoonful of pesto and sprinkle some pine nuts on it.
Notes: your broth is a major flavor here, so pick a good one that you really like. You can make your own pesto, of course, but I just used a pre-made one that I like.
2 Tbs olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
6 cups vegetable stock
enough pesto to put dollops in your bowl
1/4 toasted pine nuts (optional)
Set your cooker to high and add oil and garlic. Peel and chop the potatoes while the garlic softens up. When the garlic smells nice, add your potatoes and broth and set the crock pot to low for 6 to 8 hours. When you're ready to eat, puree the potatoes with an immersion blender or run it in batches through a regular blender or food processor until smooth (it shouldn't take long).
After you pour your soup into bowls, swirl in a spoonful of pesto and sprinkle some pine nuts on it.
Notes: your broth is a major flavor here, so pick a good one that you really like. You can make your own pesto, of course, but I just used a pre-made one that I like.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Butternut squash pizza
The idea for this just came to me out of the blue over breakfast this morning. I did a little research on-line for ideas, but basically I just made it up. It came out surprisingly well. I'll definitely do it again. It could be done a lot more seriously (you could make the crust from scratch, which I've never done, or roast and puree the squash yourself), but this was about all I was up for after work. It took an hour start to finish.
Ingredients:
1 readymade sourdough pizza crust
1 can butternut squash puree
1 hunk smoked gouda cheese
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion
1/2 cup frozen corn
ground chicken (optional)
ground sage
cream
fine-grated parmesan cheese
lemon juice
1. In a small saucepan over low-medium heat, mix the butternut squash puree together with a little bit of cream, maybe a couple of tablespoons. (All the measurements are really approximate.)
2. Add two or three tablespoons of parmesan cheese and maybe a tablespoon or so of ground sage and a squirt of lemon juice. To taste. When everything's mixed and tastes right, turn off the heat and set aside.
3. Slice the onion in very thin rings. Slice the pepper in very thin crescents (or rings).
4. Grate the gouda, coarsely. Since I was using gouda instead of mozzarella I used a cheaper American smoked gouda, kind of soft and oily, instead of the hoity-toity Dutch import we get for snacking on. It worked well. I think a real hard gouda wouldn't have worked on pizza. Grate as much as you need, which will obviously depend on how much cheese you like on your pizza. A cup? Two cups?
5. If you're using meat, brown the ground chicken, seasoning it as you do with your choice of seasonings.
6. Thaw the frozen corn kernels in the microwave. Putting corn on pizza is, as some of you will remember, a Japanese thing, but in this case it really makes the pie: don't skip this ingredient. Be generous.
7. Preheat your oven to 450.
8. Ladle the squash mixture onto the pizza crust, spreading it evenly.
9. Arrange the onion and green pepper on the pizza all purty-like. Then put on your ground chicken, and then the corn. Finally, top it all with the gouda.
10. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until everything's melted and bubbly and the crust is starting to get crisp at the edges.
The sourness of the sourdough, the sweetness of the squash and the corn, and the smokiness of the sage and the gouda combine really well, and the fresh pepper and onion, while they're standard pizza things, really stand out against this background. This was a really good pizza, if I do say so myself.
Updated 4/23/11:
You'd think that using straight squash puree and cream like in the recipe above would be purer=better. But we tried it the other day with a readymade pasta sauce (Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce - real good on ravioli), which had tomato and spices mixed in, and it was real good. Used browned ground beef, liberally seasoned with mesquite, and some chopped olives I had left over from another recipe. It came out even better than the first time.
Ingredients:
1 readymade sourdough pizza crust
1 can butternut squash puree
1 hunk smoked gouda cheese
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion
1/2 cup frozen corn
ground chicken (optional)
ground sage
cream
fine-grated parmesan cheese
lemon juice
1. In a small saucepan over low-medium heat, mix the butternut squash puree together with a little bit of cream, maybe a couple of tablespoons. (All the measurements are really approximate.)
2. Add two or three tablespoons of parmesan cheese and maybe a tablespoon or so of ground sage and a squirt of lemon juice. To taste. When everything's mixed and tastes right, turn off the heat and set aside.
3. Slice the onion in very thin rings. Slice the pepper in very thin crescents (or rings).
4. Grate the gouda, coarsely. Since I was using gouda instead of mozzarella I used a cheaper American smoked gouda, kind of soft and oily, instead of the hoity-toity Dutch import we get for snacking on. It worked well. I think a real hard gouda wouldn't have worked on pizza. Grate as much as you need, which will obviously depend on how much cheese you like on your pizza. A cup? Two cups?
5. If you're using meat, brown the ground chicken, seasoning it as you do with your choice of seasonings.
6. Thaw the frozen corn kernels in the microwave. Putting corn on pizza is, as some of you will remember, a Japanese thing, but in this case it really makes the pie: don't skip this ingredient. Be generous.
7. Preheat your oven to 450.
8. Ladle the squash mixture onto the pizza crust, spreading it evenly.
9. Arrange the onion and green pepper on the pizza all purty-like. Then put on your ground chicken, and then the corn. Finally, top it all with the gouda.
10. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until everything's melted and bubbly and the crust is starting to get crisp at the edges.
The sourness of the sourdough, the sweetness of the squash and the corn, and the smokiness of the sage and the gouda combine really well, and the fresh pepper and onion, while they're standard pizza things, really stand out against this background. This was a really good pizza, if I do say so myself.
Updated 4/23/11:
You'd think that using straight squash puree and cream like in the recipe above would be purer=better. But we tried it the other day with a readymade pasta sauce (Dave's Gourmet Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce - real good on ravioli), which had tomato and spices mixed in, and it was real good. Used browned ground beef, liberally seasoned with mesquite, and some chopped olives I had left over from another recipe. It came out even better than the first time.
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