Shakshouka

In preparation for my upcoming trip to Egypt I decided to look up some info on Egyptian cuisine. The dish that immediately caught my eye was shakshouka. Shakshouka seems to have originated in Tunisia but is popular throughout the Middle East, including Morocco, Egypt, and Israel. But the real reason I decided to make it was that it called for 6 eggs, allowing me to use up my egg farm share. Shakshouka = "a mixture" in Tamazight (a local language of North Africa according to Wikipedia) and is basically eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce.

Here I followed a recipe I found on the blog smitten kitchen, which has some great pictures.

Ingredients
1 onion
several cloves of garlic
2 poblano peppers
3 jalapeño peppers
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
28 oz can of whole pealed tomatoes
6 eggs
flat parsley
feta

1) Sauté the chopped onion, garlic, and peppers in olive oil until nice and soft.

2) Add the paprika and cumin and fry for about a minute longer.

3) While all this going on, put the tomatoes along with their liquid into a large bowl and squeeze until they are broken up as well as you can. This is the fun part.

4) Add the tomatoes and about half a cup of water. Simmer for about 10 until some of the liquid has reduced and everything
looks nice and ready. Salt to taste.

5) Poach the eggs in the tomato sauce. Do this by cracking the eggs and gently dropping into the tomato mixture, placing them uniformly around the pot like so:



6) Allow to simmer for a few minutes until it looks like the yolks are firming up a bit.

7) Carefully baste the egg whites with the liquid from the sauce until everything looks good.

8) Top with feta and the chopped parsley. I used quite a bit of both, and it was delicious!



9) Serve with toast or warm pita bread.

Chole Palak

Yesterday was my second shipment from the CSA (woo hoo another dozen eggs!!).

This time it included a whole bunch of spinach so I thought it'd be good to do something with it right away. Chole = chic peas, palak = spinach (not that I speak Hindi though...). I feel like at this point if you've read any of the past posts here, that is about all I need to say to explain the recipe. But just in case there are any late night bacon fans out there, I will go into the details.

One thing to note is that there can be quite a bit of variety on which aromatics and which spices you use. This time I only had some garlic and hot pepper (no onions or ginger) so I did without. I also skipped the usual curry leaves, and opted for some cumin seeds and the usual powdered spices. Here is more or less how it happened:

I also decided to experiment with the beets I got. I tried treating them like potatoes. Peeled, cubed, cumin seed fried with ghee, then some garlic and hot pepper. My roommate said the sweetness of the beets was rather in conflict with the heat and saltiness that I introduced, but I enjoyed it. Don't typecast the beets.

And now for listener mailbag!! Some good friends in Chicago made their own rendition of aloo saag (using spinach here rather than swiss chard which is a bit more proper), and it looked pretty delicious! Thanks guys!

Too Many Eggs Curry

So part of signing up for a CSA is that you have to cook with whatever you get. Mine currently includes a dozen eggs every two weeks, which is almost a dozen more eggs than I usually cook with. So how about egg curry?! I've seen this before, but never tried it. Not sure I got it quite right, but it wasn't bad.

This follows more or less the standard procedure:

0) Hard boil a few eggs (I had 3 of them left), cool, peel, and cut in half.

1) Fry 1 tsp black mustard seeds, 2 tsp cumin seeds, several curry leaves in 1 tbsp of ghee.

2) When the seeds start to pop, add in your minced garlic, ginger, and hot pepper, frying for a couple of minutes.

3) Toss in 3 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped, and some salt. Cover for a few minutes, letting the tomatoes cook down.

4) Mix in powdered spices and fry for another minute: 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp chile powder, 1 tbsp cumin powder.

5) Pour in about 1/2 a cup of coconut milk (I actually put in about twice this much which was probably a bit too much) and simmer for about a minute.

6) Throw in the sliced eggs and simmer for another, then serve on rice! I think the next time I make this I'll add in some potatoes to make it a bit more hearty.

Paneer Biryani + Spicy Martha

Paneer Biryani

I had a bunch of leftover rice from the other day and thought it would be a good time to make some biryani. I had only ever made shrimp biryani, but thought I would keep up with the vegetarian theme, and do some paneer biryani.

Use: 14 oz package of store-bought paneer
Do: Sauté the paneer cubes in 1 tbsp of ghee (or butter or canola oil). Once they start to brown, remove with a fork or slotted spoon, leave as much of the ghee or oil behind in the pan.

Use: 2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp coriander seeds, several curry leaves

Do: Fry in the remaining ghee, adding more if needed.

Use: 1 medium onion, several cloves of garlic, several hot peppers, a hunk of ginger, all finely chopped.

Do: Add the aromatics once the seeds start of pop. Toss in a bit of salt, cover, and fry until the onions are soft.

Use: 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp chile powder, 1 tbsp cumin powder, 0.5 tbsp coriander powder

Do: Mix in the powdered spices and fry for another minute.

Use: 3 medium-sized tomatoes

Do: Toss in the chopped tomatoes, a bit of salt, and cover, allowing the tomatoes to cook down.

Use: 2 handfuls raw cashews, 1 handful raisins, about 0.5 cups of plain yogurt.

Do: Incorporate the cashews, raisins, and yogurt, and cook for a minute or two.

Use: 2 cups of cooked rice

Do: Incorporate the cooked rice into the mixture. Once it is fully mixed, and the paneer, stirring gently to avoid breaking up the paneer. Enjoy!

Spicy Martha

I decided to make a slight modification to the super chocolate cookies I made the other week by adding a bit of pasilla chile pepper and topping with a bit of cayenne.

The pasilla comes dried, so the first step is to reconstitute by soaking in water. Once they seem nice and soft, dry them off a bit and then chop.

I basically just incorporated the chopped pasilla into the melting butter and chocolate stage of the original recipe. Here is a visual version:

St. Patty's Day Aloo Saag

I didn't wear anything green today, and biking home in Boston, it seems that I may have been the only one. I decided to remedy this oversight, not by drinking green beer, but by eating something green and spicy. No hangovers here. Food coma? A little bit.

Aloo = potato, saag = greens. Another name for greens is palak, so sometimes this dish might be called aloo palak. Maybe one of the two more specifically implies spinach, which is what I would normally use to make this dish. When I got to the grocery store however, the swiss chard was difficult to pass by, so I decided to make a substitution.

I was also thinking that it would be nice to cook something a bit faster, so I kept track of the time as I went along. Here is the play by play:

7:18 pm
The ingredients have been assembled and I begin to chop the first set of items. I believe we can call these aromatics: a hunk of ginger, a few cloves of garlic, 1 onion, several green chile peppers.



7:23 pm
Heating a wide, deep pan, I drop in 2 tbsp of ghee, 2 tsp coriander seeds, and several curry leaves, frying until I hear a nice pop from the seeds.



7:24 pm
I let the aromatics sweat - meaning, I threw in the chopped onion, ginger, garlic, hot pepper, a little bit of salt, and covered to help things along. While things were sweating, I peeled 2 medium potatoes, and cut them into french fry-shaped chunks.

7:29 pm
I added the powdered spices (1 tsp turmeric, 2 tsp chile powder, 1 Tbsp cumin powder) and fried for another minute.

7:30 pm
Now I added the potatoes and a bit of salt. I fried the potatoes until they are just tender, adding a little bit of water as needed (I used some of the liquid whey left over from making the paneer the other day). While the potatoes were moving along, I washed and chopped the swiss chard.

7:40 pm
The potatoes are ready, adding the swiss chard. Covered, for a few minutes, stirring and adding a bit more salt.

7:45 pm
Heated up the leftover rice and the leftover paneer mushroom makhani.

7:50 pm
Eat!

Paneer Mushroom Mahkani

Tomorrow there is a lunch pot luck at work, so I thought I'd make something interesting to bring in. A while back I made some Murgh Makhani, but I thought I would do a vegetarian version, especially for those worried about eating foods that could empathize with you.

This dish takes quite a while, so makes sure you've got time. I made the paneer the night before since they were out of already-made paneer at the store. Here is what I used:

Paneer made from 1 gallon of milk
10-12 crimini mushrooms, quartered.

For the marinade:
2 Tbsp plain yogurt
2 tsp chile powder
1 Tbsp garam masala
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp minced ginger
1 Tbsp melted butter
salt

For the gravy:
2 tsp cumin seed
several curry leaves

1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp minced ginger
2-3 chile peppers

1-2 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder

3 large tomatoes
2 handfuls of raw cashews (pre-soaked in water)


Fry the cubed paneer pieces in ghee or butter until lightly browned. Set aside and then do the same for the mushrooms. I am not sure how much the paneer and mushrooms needed to be marinated, but thought I'd do it anyway. I think next time I will skip this step and see how things change. Here, I combined all the marinade ingredients with the paneer and mushrooms and set aside for 20 minutes. Meanwhile I prepared the remaining ingredients. Before starting the gravy, I took the marinated paneer and mushrooms, and cooked them a bit more in the marinade to impart more flavor and cook down the liquid. Again, I think next time around I will just skip this part. I set aside the mushrooms and panner and then started the gravy.

Melt half a stick of butter in a wide, deep pan. Add the curry leaves and cumin seed and fry until the seeds start to pop. Toss in the onion, garlic, ginger, and chile pepper, and fry until the onions are nice and soft. Toss in the powdered spices, and fry for a bit longer. Next add the tomatoes and a bit of salt. While the tomatoes are getting started, grind the cashews along with some of their soaking water in a food processor or blender, to make a smooth paste. Add this to the pot with the stewing tomatoes. Add a few Tbsp of yogurt here to make things a bit more creamy. Once the tomatoes are cooked down a bit, remove from the heat, and carefully add to a food processor and blend until smooth.

Return the blended gravy to the pan, along with some water if the sauce is too thick at this point. Toss in the paneer and mushrooms, and simmer for a few minutes, adjusting salt and other spices as desired. Now you are ready! Serve topped with freshly chopped cilantro, and with rice or bread. Enjoy!

Banana is Anna for Banchan

It is finally time to write the story of banchan. I have two visitors coming, and one of them definitely likes banchan. They are almost here. The cooking is done. I better write fast!

Banchan is actually ma po tofu. This is a vegetarian version that actually has almost nothing to do with actual ma po tofu, which usually is with ground pork and has Szechuan pepper. This version was taken a very long time ago from a cookbook on Chinese cooking written in Japanese that el Ponja translated since he can read Japanese. One of the essential ingredients in ma po tofu is a black bean chile paste called tobanjan. El Ponja has several cats back in Japan, one of which is named Banchan (aka Antonio Banderas). Now for some reason, in my head ma po tofu, tobanjan, and banchan were all swimming about indistinguishably. So after we made the first, in what came to be several, batches of ma po tofu, I was reminiscing about how good it was, and said, "mmmm that banchan was good, we should make some more." And henceforth, ma po tofu is Banchan. Maybe this is only interesting because of how much banchan we ate back then.

Here is what is needed:
1 clove garlic, minced.
150g or 1/2 package of Quorn ground beef style meat substitute



1-3 Tbsp Tobanjan. The original recipe calls for Lan Chi brand, but this has been difficult to find at times. I just found it again at one of the Boston Whole Foods though!



1 cup boiling water (have ready to go in advance)
1 package of Extra Firm Silken Tofu, cubed
1 tsp sugar
1.5 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp cooking wine

1-2 scallions, finely chopped
1-2 Tbsp Potato starch, dissolved in half a cup of cold water


Heat a wok or broad, deep skillet until it starts to smoke. Add a few Tbsp of the cooking oil of your choice, then the minced garlic and the Quorn. Cook on high heat for several minutes, browning the Quorn. Add the tobanjan and stir.

Next add the 1 cup of boiling water, cubed tofu, soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar. While everyone is getting to know each other in the pot, you can mince the scallions. Add the scallions to the top of the pot, without stirring, letting them cook in the steam.



The last step is to take the the dissolved potato starch and slowly add to the mixture. Do this in three batches to prevent clumping. The potato starch serves to thicken the sauce, and you can add as much or as little as you like. Your banchan is now ready to serve! I prefer it over sushi rice. Not sure why, but I find it goes best with beer from a can.