Coconut Red-Lentil Curry

 

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (2 1/2 inch) fresh jalapeno or serrano chile, finely chopped, including seeds
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups dried red lentils
• 1 (14 oz) can unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 lb zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro (optional)

Steps:

Cook onion in oil in heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until edges are golden, about 6 minutes.

Add ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute.

Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, salt and chile and cook, stirring 1 minute.

Stir in water, lentils and coconut milk, then simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.

Stir in zucchini and simmer, covered, until lentils and zucchini are tender, about 15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and serve with cilantro sprigs scattered on top.

Serve with rice or naan.

Source:  Touchet, Alexis. "Quick Kitchen." Gourmet, December 2006: 181

Salmon smoked with tea

This recipe came from my November Daring Kitchen Challenge.

We drink a lot of tea.  While we have favorites (Chai and Vanilla Earl Gray) we also have a lot of variety in our cupboard.  Some days just call out for a certain tea flavour. Even Liam enjoys a nice cup of Rooibos tea before bed.

I was intrigued by this challenge.  I knew very little about cooking with tea.  Hilary had made a Chana Masala dish some time ago where she soaked the chickpeas in chai tea to flavour them before cooking, but that was the only savoury dish made with tea that I think I've ever had.

Sarah from Simply Cooked provided us with 3 recipes but I decided to do some research on my own before committing to anything.  That is how I came across the recipe for "Tea Smoked Salmon with Wasabi Latkes" on the Food Network website.  Since one of the reasons I joined The Daring Kitchen was to push myself in the kitchen, I decided to try it for 3 reasons: 1) it had tea; 2) I don't really like salmon and had never cooked it before and 3) smoking was a new cooking technique that I figured would challenge me even further.

First things first, I had to get some tea.  The recipe called for either Oolong or Black Lychee.  We may have a lot of variety in our tea cupboard, but we didn't have either of these.  Hilary enjoys Oolong, but I find it too strong and smoky for my taste.  Luckily our local mall has a newly opened tea shop, so I was able to go and sniff a few options before I settled on High Mountain Oolong.

The next step was to marinade the salmon.  It's a mixture of mirin, sugar, ginger and peppercorns.

Then I mixed the tea with sugar and rice. 

The recipe said to line the bottom of your pot with tin foil before placing this mixture in.  I almost skipped this step.... good thing I didn't! The sugar caramelized/burnt and the whole mixture was one solid mass by the end.  The only way to get it out of the pot was to lift out the tin foil.

While the salmon was smoking, I made the potato latkes.  It involved mashed potatoes mixed with green onions, horse radish and wasabi that were formed into patties, dredged in flour, dipped in egg and then coated in Panko bread crumbs.

The recipe then called for deep frying them, but I simply pan fried them in a deep skillet.

The end result:

Even I liked the salmon! I was worried at first because when I took the salmon out of the pot the escaping smell of smoked tea was overwhelming in the kitchen.  I thought that if the fish tasted anything like the smell that I wouldn't like it.  But the taste was much more subtle.  You could still taste the tea, but it did not over power the salmon.  The latkes were amazing, and I think they will become part of our regular rotation of potato options. They were even good cold the next day.

I'm feeling much more comfortable in the kitchen these days.  Thanks Daring Kitchen!!

Best Dip Ever

and it's the simplest recipe ever:

Combine 1 packet of Knorr Vegetable soup mix with a large container of sour cream.

Stir well.

Let sit for 1 hour so that the dehydrated vegetables can hydrate and the flavour can develop.

Serve with veggies or chips.

Pizzelles

Pizelles are traditional Italian Christmas cookies.  Both my Grandmother and my mother have made them for years, and now it's my turn.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 tsp Anise flavouring
• 1-3/4 cups sugar
• 5-1/2 cups flour (approx)

Steps:

Mix all the ingredients together until well blended, using your hands at the end as it can be quite stiff.  If your dough is too wet, add a bit more flour.

Roll the dough into small half inch balls, place in the middle of the hot press and slowly close it tight.  It takes a couple of trial cookies to get your balls just the right size, not too small like the one below, but not so big that they leak out the sides and make a mess.

These cookies do requires a Pizzelle press. You can get an electric one, which my Grandmother used, but I found hers made the cookies too small and too thick.  I much prefer this one, though it does mean making the cookies one by one (most electric ones do two at a time)

Because there is so much oil in the dough, there is little need to oil the press before you use it.  Just make sure it's very hot to start.  The risk of these cookies is that you will likely set off the smoke detector at least once and will end up with all the windows open, even though it's December.  The oil also splatters and can cause small flare ups on the burner, so you must be very attentive to each cookie.  Once your press is hot enough it only takes about a minute per side to get them cooked just right.

 

 

 

Spaetzle

Spaetzle
from The Joy of Cooking

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk or water

Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Pour liquid mixture into flour mixture and combine. The batter should be slightly elastic. Boil 6 cups of salted water in a large saucepan. Press batter through a large-holed colander or spaetzle maker. Don't try to use all the batter all at once. As the noodles rise to the top of the water, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and place them in a colander to drain. The noodles should be light - if they're on the heavy side, add more milk to the batter before continuing with the next batch.

Greek-Spiced Baked Shrimp

Serves 4
Active time: 15 min; Start to finish: 1 hr

Ingredients:

• 1 med onion, chopped 
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 
• 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 
• ½ tsp hot red-pepper flakes 
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon 
• ¼ tsp ground allspice 
• 1 (28 oz) can chopped tomatoes 
• Pinch of sugar 
• 1 ¼ lb large peeled and deveined shrimp 
• ¼ lb feta, crumbled (approx. 1/3 cup) 
• 2 Tbsp chopped dill  

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375, with rack in the middle 
• Cook onion and garlic in oil in 4-qt heavy saucepan over medium heat, until softened – about 5 minutes
• Stir in spices and cook, stirring, 30 seconds.
• Add chopped tomatoes with juice and sugar – simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened – about 20 minutes. 
• Remove from heat 
• Add shrimp to sauce and stir well 
• Transfer to oven proof dishes and top with feta 
• Bake until just cooked through – about 18-20 minutes. 
• Sprinkled with dill 
• Serve – Have plenty of bread or naan on hand for sopping up the juice.

Source: Albin, Andrea – “Quick Kitchen.” Gourmet Magazine November 2008; 103.

Who knew that gluten free stuffing could taste good?  Even though the loaf of "bread" we used had the consistency of Styrofoam when we cubbed it, by the time Hilary added in all the other great flavours and it cooked inside the turkey for several hours, it was delicious!

The only down side - it leaves some mysterious residue on the plates that does not come off in the dishwasher! In fact, all the dishwasher does is spread it to all the other dishes, so that you have to re-wash the whole load by hand.