Week 11

First off, I'd like to ask everyone to please say a prayer for the country of Japan and for all the people and families affected by the disaster there. It hits close to home because my brother is living abroad there and even though he flew back to the States yesterday, he still has many friends there.

The first recipe of this week is actually a dish we made to go with our Indian food last week: Curried Beef. I adapted it from The Indian Slow Cooker recipe for Pakistani "Old Clothes" Beef Curry. It came out really well, although next time I might add more spice than I did (the recipe calls for 1 Tbs and I used about a teaspoon).

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day this week, I'm making corned beef and cabbage and possibly Irish soda bread. Finally, the last recipe of the week is a skillet sausage, pepper and cornbread "pie". That's all for this week because we do have a lot of leftovers in the house.

Indian Beef Curry
2 onions, peeled and sliced
2 lbs beef, cut into cubes (I actually used a bison tip roast)
1 2" piece ginger, peeled and cut into chunks
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 heaping tsp ground ginger
4 green cardamom pods
3 bay leaves
1 4" cinnamon stick
1 Tbs garam masala
2 Tbs ground fennel
1 tsp to 1 Tbs ground red chili powder
2 pinches ground nutmeg
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
grapeseed or olive oil for sauteeing (several tablespoons)

Heat oil in large dutch oven. Add onions and beef and cook until beef is browned all over. In food processor, grind ginger and garlic to a paste and add it to the dutch oven. Add all the spices and saute another minute to release the fragrances. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer about 3 hours or until meat is very tender, stirring occasionally.

Corned Beef and Cabbage
3lb corned beef brisket (with spice packet)
1 12-oz bottle pale beer
1 med onion, halved
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, halved
several carrots, scrubbed and cut into big chunks
1 head green cabbage, cut into about 8 wedges

Mix together for mustard sauce:
3/4 cup whole grain mustard
1/4 cup sucanat (or brown sugar or coconut sugar)
2 Tbs cider vinegar

You can do this in a slow cooker, on the stove top, or in a pressure cooker. I am not sure which I will do at this point. If you opt for the slow cooker, put all the veggies (except cabbage), garlic and bay leaves on the bottom and put the brisket on top. Pour over juices from brisket packaging and the beer. Mix up the mustard sauce and brush about 3 Tbs on top of brisket. Cover and cook on low all day, 8-10 hours, until very tender and meat is falling apart.

If you opt for the stove top, put meat, beer, onion, garlic, bay leaves, 1 1/2 cups water, the juices from package and the spice packet into a large stock pot. Bring to boiling, reduce heat and simmer covered until tender, about 3 hours (or pressure cook about 20 mins per lb ). Heat oven to 375 F, transfer meat to roasting pan, brush with 3 Tbs of mustard sauce, and roast about 15 mins. Meanwhile, place potatoes, carrots and cabbage in stock pot that meat was in, and simmer covered until tender, about 15 mins.

Sausage, Pepper and Cornbread Skillet Pie
2 tsp EVOO
1 lb Italian sausage links
2 red bell peppers, sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch swiss chard or other greens, stems discarded and leaves coarsely chopped (about 8 cups)
1/2 tsp kosher salt and pepper

Cornbread topping ingredients:
2/3 cups flour (all purpose or whole wheat)
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbs sugar
2 oz (1/2 cup) grated parmesan
1 Tbs baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs butter or grapeseed oil or olive oil
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 400°F. Heat EVOO in large cast iron skillet. Add sausange and cook until browned on all sides, 3-4 minutes. Transfer to cutting board and cut into 1" pieces. Add peppers and onions to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned. Stir in garlic. Add chard, salt and several turns of the pepper mill. Cook just a couple minutes until chard is just beginning to wilt. Remove from heat and stir in sausage. Meanwhile, in bowl, whisk together the cornbread topping ingredients. Spread batter over skillet, leaving a 1/2 inch border. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15-20 mins.

Week 8 - Indian Slow Cooking

I am very excited to announce that I got The Indian Slow Cooker last week! I love Indian food and am anxious to try the recipes in my slow cooker. I even bought a second one so I can make 2 dishes at once and have more of a complete meal. The bummer is that several of the recipes don't require all day to cook, so they won't necessarily work on days I am working. But I can certainly make them other days :) On to the recipes!

Slow Cooker Curried Chickpeas yields 13 cups
3 cups dried chickpeas, cleaned and washed thoroughly (I'm planning to soak mine the night before)
1 med yellow or red onion, finely diced
1 med tomato, diced
1 2-in piece of ginger, peeled and grated
4 cloves garlic, minced or grated
4-6 green Thai or serrano chilies, chopped
1 Tbs cumin seeds (I don't have the whole seeds so I'm using 1 tsp ground)
1 Tbs ground coriander
1 Tbs garam masala
1 Tbs chana masala
1 Tbs red chili powder
2 Tbs salt
1 tsp turmeric powder
12 cups water
2 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
thinly sliced red onion and lime wedges for garnish

The instructions call to put everything from the chickpeas through water in the slow cooker and cook on high for 14 hours. I am not going to get up at 4 am to put this in the slow cooker, so I'm going to soak the chickpeas the night before, drain and rinse, and then combine with everything except salt in the slow cooker in the morning and cook on high until 6 pm and pray it comes out! The salt can slow the softening of beans that is why I'm leaving it out and will add it in towards the end of cooking. I may reduce the water by a cup since the chickpeas will have been soaked. Then you add the cilantro at the end and garnish w/the onions and lime. I'll come back and edit to include the results of my experimentation.

Slow Cooker Curried Spinach with Homemade Cheese (Palak Paneer) yields 10 cups with cheese from following recipe.
2 lbs fresh spinach, washed thoroughly
2 large red or yellow onions, roughly chopped
3 med tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 4-inch piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
20 cloves garlic, peeled
5-10 green Thai or serrano chilies, stems removed
4 Tbs ground cumin
1 heaping Tbs red chili powder
1 heaping Tbs garam masala
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbs salt
12 oz paneer (recipe follows)

Put spinach through tumeric in the slow cooker. Cook on high for 3 hours. Stir once or twice and push down any spinach leaves that stick to the sides so they don't dry out. Blend until smooth w/immersion blender or transfer to blender and blend. Return puree to slow cooker. Add the salt and cook on low for another 2 hours. After cooking, add the paneer.

Paneer (homemade Indian cheese)
4 cups milk (preferably whole, non-homogonized and not ultra-pasteurized)
3 Tbs fresh lemon juice

Bring the milk to a boil over low heat in a heavy saucepan. Remove from heat and immediately add lemon juice. Mix well and cover w/tight-fitting lid. Let sit for at least 10 mins. Pour into cheesecloth-lined colander. Pull cheesecloth together at the corners, tie ends together, and hang the sac somewhere and place a bowl underneath to catch the whey. Let hang for a few hours. Remove cheese from sac and cut into 1-inch cubes. Save the whey for another use (like adding it to smoothies!)

Rice Pudding (kheer) yields 9 cups
1 cup white basmati rice, washed well
1/4 - 1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tsp green cardamom seeds, crushed slightly
1/2 cup golden raisins
8 cups milk
2 Tbs chopped pistachios

Put rice, agave, cardamom, raisins and milk in saucepan. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed and rice is very tender. Spoon into dessert dishes and sprinkle w/pistachios.

This post is linked up to Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.