Kathy Gori rocks! and so does her Kheema

My blogging pal Kathy Gori posted this recipe. She is the queen of Indian food and man did she come through on this one! Of course anything with lamb is a good thing (especially because I have a boatload of lamb in the freezer) and this one did not disappoint. It is easy and now one of my new favorites.

So simple to make.



Since it was raining AGAIN we cooked these up on our griddle.




Would have love to do them on the grill but next time. I can't imagine them tasting any better than the did anyhow.



I made a simple raita to go with it.



and we were ready to eat!



I will post the recipe here but go check out Kathy's blog for amazing Indian food recipes!


Kheema (Lamb patties)
Ingredients

1/2 cup fine chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint.

1 lb of ground lamb

Directions:

1. Mix Together
1/2 cup fine chopped onion

2. mix in 1 teaspoon minced ginger

3, Add 1 teaspoon ground coriander

4. Add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

5. Add 1 teaspoon salt

6. Add 1/4 cup plain yogurt

7 Add 1 teaspoon rice vinegar

8. Finally toss in 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro and 1/4 finely chopped fresh mint.

9. Add 1 lb of ground lamb

10. Mix all of this together ..almost like you're making meatloaf, mix till it's smooth.

11. Place in in a covered bowl in the fridge to set a bit. Make sure you take it out 1/2 hour before you're going to cook it.

12. make patties of the meat and grill it...either in a pan or on the barbecue.

Kheema are good stuffed in pita bread or on a bun, molded like meatballs on skewers or as I mentioned before in chapatis or naan bread now that I think of it.

Shanghai Stuffed Soup Buns

A while back we went for Dim Sum and tried to order these Shanghai Soup Buns. Either our English wasn't translated well or it is just a hazard in making these, but they had no soup inside when we took a bite.

There I was sitting in the Doctors office thumbing through an ancient Bon Appetite when I saw the recipe for these tasty morsels so I had to give it a try.

First off the day before we made these we made a rich broth for the aspic.



That was the secret of getting the soup into these little devils. You make an aspic first to mix with the meat.



Next day we made the buns themselves. We streamed them in a tamale steamer because we didn't have a bamboo steamer. Ok, multicultural here but you work with what you have.




and there you have it....although, our wrapping technique must have been off because there was no soup inside ours either. We will certainly give it another try but next time I might just use store bought won ton wrappers that I flatten out a bit more than how they come.





So, then there was the steamed fish that we made to go with it. The flavor was great but I have to say that now I know that I don't like Pompano. Next time I would use a different kind of fish. I couldn't even eat it.



It makes me kinda sick even looking at this picture so maybe we won't make this again. Hey, but you are welcome to give it a try. Just ask me for the recipe if you really want it.



Last but not least, Dr Food made fried rice. Actually, it was the only thing that I really loved. He faked it with some pork belly, scallions, a scrambled egg, ginger, soy sauce and rice. Don't tell him this was the best thing because it might go to his head and we wouldn't want to have THAT happen.


Shanghai Stuffed Soup Buns
Bon Appéti May 2007

For steaming:
7 to 8 large cabbage leaves (Napa or green cabbage)

For aspic:
1 1/4 pounds shoulder pork chops, cut (through the bone if necessary) into 2-inch pieces with a cleaver or large knife
1 1/4 pounds chicken wings, cut through the bone into 2-inch pieces with a cleaver or large knife
4 cups water
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or sake
1/2 star anise, lightly smashed with flat part of a heavy knife (about 1/2 teaspoon)

For filling:
6 ounces ground pork shoulder (not lean)
2 tablespoons minced scallion
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

For Wrappers
2 to 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water

For dipping sauce:
1/4 cup Chinese black vinegar (preferably Chinkiang)
1/2 tablespoon very thin matchsticks peeled fresh ginger

Special equipment: a 12-inch bamboo steamer; a 6-inch (3/4-inch-diameter) rolling pin or dowel; a well-seasoned 14-inch wok with a lid

1. Blanch cabbage leaves in a large pot of boiling water until softened, about 1 minute, then drain well in a colander.

2. Make aspic:
Bring all aspic ingredients to a boil, uncovered, in a 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then simmer, uncovered, until liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup, about 2 hours. Pour liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding solids. Pour liquid into a measuring cup and let stand until fat separates from broth, about 1 minute. (If you have less than 1/2 cup broth, add water. If you have more, boil broth to reduce it to 1/2 cup.) Chill broth, covered, until it jells into a solid aspic, about 6 hours.

3. Make filling:
Lightly scrape off any fat from aspic with a spoon and discard, then coarsely chop aspic. Chop ground pork with a cleaver or a large heavy knife until very finely minced and fluffy.

Beat together aspic, pork, and remaining filling ingredients with an electric mixer at medium speed until combined well, about 30 seconds. Form filling into 24 mounds (2 teaspoons each) on a plastic-wrap-lined baking sheet and cover with another sheet of plastic wrap. Chill while making bun wrappers.

4. Make wrapper dough:
Put 2 cups flour in a medium bowl, then add boiling water and stir with a fork until a shaggy dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes (dough will have the texture of a slightly sticky marshmallow). If dough is too sticky, knead in more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature at least 10 minutes and up to 30 minutes.

5. Make dipping sauce while dough is standing:
Stir together vinegar and ginger.

6. Assemble and steam buns:


Line steamer rack with cabbage leaves.

Form dough into a snakelike roll about 12 inches long on a lightly floured surface, then cut crosswise into 24 equal pieces with a floured knife and cover with plastic wrap.

Have a small bowl of water ready. Keeping remaining dough covered, place 1 piece of dough cut side down on a lightly floured surface and flatten slightly to form a round. Pick up flattened round and move hands around edges of dough (like turning a steering wheel), allowing dough to stretch slightly, until about 3 inches in diameter. Using small rolling pin with one hand and rotating dough round with other hand, gently even out dough round until it is 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter. (Do not roll out center 1 inch of dough; center of round should be slightly thicker than edge.)

Lightly moisten outer 1/4 inch of dough round with a finger dipped in water, then put 1 mound of meat filling in center of round. Pleat edge all around, then pinch and twist pleats together. Place bun on cabbage in steamer and cover with steamer lid to keep bun from drying out. Make more buns with remaining dough and filling in same manner and arrange in steamer, spacing evenly in 1 layer and covering with lid.

Fill wok with enough water so that bottom rim of steamer (not rack) will rest in water. Bring water to a rolling boil over high heat (without steamer in wok), then place steamer in wok and steam buns, covered with steamer lid, over boiling water until buns are firm (not gummy) to the touch and skins are slightly translucent, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve immediately, with dipping sauce.

Simple Gascon sausages and beans

We felt like cooking this weekend but since I have a killer cold I didn't want anything too complicated. I found this recipe in Diana Henry's "Pure Simple Cooking" and it was easy. As luck would have it we had the Toulouse sausage that we made in the feezer. The same ones we used in our Cassoulet. We also just happened to have some pork belly.

First off was browning everything.



Really as simple as that because after you brown you just throw the rest of the stuff together and bake for 2 hours.

Simple Gascon sausages and Beans

1/4 C olive oil
8 oz bacon lardons or fatback
12 good quality sausage, preferably Toulouse
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stock, chopped
2 carrots, cut into small cubes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes in puree
1 (14 oz) cans cannellini beans, one drained, the other not
1 1/8 C wine, chicken stock, or water (I used wine of course)
1 bay leaf, a small handful of parsley leaves, and the chopped leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme
2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
1 1/4 C fresh white bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350. Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the lardons and sausage all over. Put them into a shallow broad casserole dish. Add everything else, except the bread crumbs, and season really well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle a third of the bread crumbs on top. Bake for 2 hours. Sprinkle on the rest of the bread crumbs in two separate batches during cooking time. Stir in the previous sprinkling of crumbs before adding the next batch.

2. Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning toward the end of the cooking time.




The other thing we made was Smashed Roasted Marble Potatoes from Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller. We checked the book out of the library to see if we wanted to invest in buying this 50.00 puppy. I think that would be a YES.

Although the stuff in this cookbook looks great, the one that I tried was less than exciting so I am not going to bother posting the recipe. You would be better off just roasting some potatoes after tossing them in some olive oil and sprinkling with your favorite herbs.

Last but not least Dr Food requested to be featured on my blog. So he made me lunch. I don't take this for granted by any means. Anytime someone will cook for ME is MY lucky day (well almost always because it depends on who is cooking). Dr food made me some tasty quesadillas!



Actually, they were damn good. Not only does Dr Food make quesadillas, but most everything I post on here is made by him as well as me. We are a cooking duo. Lucy and Ricky, Julia and Jacques...well you get what I mean.



He even did the dishes.

Set it and Forget it!

Why is the chicken dayglo orange? Because I really still don't feel like cooking all that much but we still need to eat and I won't settle for "ordinary". So, I wanted something easy and yet creative. Sooooooo...

I dumped this on the chicken as a dry rub



I did get a sick kick out of the color that the chicken turned out to be from the annatto. So being the cooking slug that I have been I simply "Set it and Forgot it". Not to mention that I turned the rotation on and not the heat and Mr. Food walked by it about 30 minutes later and said "Hey, what time do you want to eat dinner because you don't have the heat on"

I guess they didn't mean to FORGET to turn it ON.

Cooking mojo

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. I have been away from the computer and to tell you the truth not in the mood to cook. I am back in the game now and will be better.

So Mr Food is off on business and I am back to old tricks. There really isn't much food in the house and since I am too lazy to go grocery shopping just for me I am making a game out of it. What to eat when there is nothing. I once again turn to:

Wheat pasta
A pork product (in this case bacon)
Garlic
Parmesan cheese

and of course AN EGG!

PROMISE that by this weekend I will be a cooking fool again.