Armenian Lamb with Sauteed Peppers and Onions on Walnut Couscous

A couple of weekends ago, I was out camping at a large historical re-creation event. I camp with a group that of people that are mostly enthusiastic cooks. At this event, however, we are all busy with the myriad activities available, and so meals tend toward simple and quick to prepare. Another reason to keep it simple is that sometime this site has an abundance of wasps. The less time raw meat is sitting around, the easier it is to avoid attracting their attention.

This is not to suggest, however, that the food is less than tasty. We are all kinda picky that way. Simple and fast can still be good.

One of our go to meals is something we dubbed Armenian burritos. Basically, it is an Armenian style sautéed ground lamb, served with spiced, sautéed onions and peppers, wrapped in pita bread or lavash (a soft flat bread). It is served with various condiments and add-ons, including diced green chilies, sliced black olives, minced cilantro, parsley, and/or mint, sliced pepperoncini, feta cheese, and home made yogurt cheeses (this year I made roasted garlic, and cucumber). Both the lamb and peppers are seasoned with garlic, parsley, allspice, paprika, and black pepper.

Well, the spouse did not get to camp this year, so I claimed some of the left over lamb (which is awesome in an omelet, but that's another post) for her. We had a giant bell pepper that needed used, so I sliced it up and sautéed it with onion, and spiced it up with cumin, fresh thyme, and cayenne. The couscous is a simplified version of the walnut butter couscous I've made before. I served it with some of the cucumber lebni.

Recipes

Armenian Lamb

2 lbs. ground lamb
1/2 cup fresh parsley

2 cloves minced garlic

2 tsp. paprika

2 tsp.  allspice

2 tsp. black pepper
salt to taste

3 Tbsp. olive oil

Mix all ingredients except olive oil. Add oil to a hot wok, then cook lamb quickly, stirring constantly.

Spiced Bell Peppers and Onions

1 large ripe bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/2 medium yellow onion, cut into thin strips
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves, minced
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne powder
salt to taste

In a large skillet over medium to medium high heat, sauté onions in olive oil for two minutes. Add peppers, spices, and salt. Cook until vegetables are tender.

Walnut Couscous

1 cup dried couscous
1/2 cup ground walnuts
pinch salt
hot water as needed

Place couscous in a bowl. Stir in walnuts and salt. Pour over couscous enough water to cover. Mix well, let stand five minutes.

Cucumber Cheese

1 lb. lebni
3 small Persian cucumbers
1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Peel and shred cucumbers. Place in a colander over a bowl, sprinkle with salt. Let stand 30 minutes to allow cucumbers to release most of their moisture.

Stir cucumbers into lebni. Best if refrigerated for at least a day before use.

Happy Eating!

Pan Asian Dinner

I have a couple of dear friends that have been very enthusiastically supporting my decision to go pro as a cook. Back in September I had the opportunity to cook for them, and they wanted to have me cook for them again this spring.

Since I did Middle Eastern last time, I wanted to go in a different direction. I decided to go Asian. There is so much variety to Asian cuisines. I ended up going Pan-Asian, with a Vietnamese style appetizer, Chinese inspired main dish, and a combination Thai/Chinese dessert.

For the appetizer, I made Vietnamese style spring rolls. These are great, as they are not fried, and are all about fresh greens. There were two dipping sauces to go with the rolls. One was hoisin with peanuts, and the other was a complex combination of fish sauce, lime, garlic, and sweet chili sauce. I think these were a great appetizer. The wrappers were rice paper, and in them I put shrimp, rice vermicelli, butter lettuce, mint, and basil. I worked from this recipe at allrecipes.com.

For the main dish, I made a beef stir fry with carrots, crimini mushrooms, and red, yellow, and orange peppers. My stir fry sauce is not traditional, as far as I know. I make a sauce of date vinegar and sweet soy sauce, with a little ginger and black pepper. I use a little corn starch to help the sauce thicken.

Somehow rice got left off my packing list, and my friends didn't have rice, either. I ended up using some Israeli couscous. It worked just fine. Not surprising, as it was created as a rice substitute.

For dessert, I really wanted to make something special. I wanted to have lots of contrasts; taste, texture, and temperature. I made a cold Thai jelly, with layers of coconut and coffee flavors. The jelly is based on this recipe. The jellies use agar agar as the jelling agent. Agar agar is a derivative of red seaweed.

To contrast, I made a Chinese eight treasures rice pudding, served warm. It consists of glutinous rice, coated with a mix of chestnuts, almonds walnuts, dried pineapple, dried papaya, and dried mango There is a thin layer of sweet red bean paste in the middle. I adapted this recipe for my pudding. The original called for lard. I substituted vegetable shortening, which worked just fine.

To tie everything together, I made a mango - lime sauce.As it turned out, the dessert is vegan.

I don't think the photo does it justice. I think it came out really pretty. I was really proud of the whole thing.

Recipes

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Rolls
6 6.25 inch rice wrappers
6 large cooked shrimp, halved lengthwise
2 oz. rice vermicelli
2 Tbsp. chiffonade of basil
2 Tbsp. chiffonade of mint
1/2 cup chopped butter lettuce

Dipping Sauces
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp. finely chopped peanuts

1 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce
2 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. minced garlic

Whisk together hoisin sauce and peanuts. Set aside. Whisk together fish sauce, lime juice, chili sauce, sugar, water, and garlic. Set aside.

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil, add rice noodles, turn down to a simmer. Cook until al dente, then drain and rinse.

To construct a roll, dip a wrapper in a bowl of warm water for about 1 second. Place a small bundle of vermicelli in the center of the wrapper. Place two halves of shrimp on top of noodles. Sprinkle liberally with mint and basil. Add shredded lettuce. Fold ends of wrapper in. Fold one side of wrapper over top of shrimp, then roll tightly over other side.

Serve with dipping sauces.

Beef, Mushroom, and Peppers Stir Fry

1 lb. London broil, sliced thin
1 1/2 cups diagonally sliced carrots
1 1/2 cups mixed pepper strips
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced crimini mushrooms
1/4 cup date vinegar
1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2Tbsp. sesame oil

In a bowl, whisk together vinegar, soy, ginger, pepper, and cornstarch. Set aside.

Heat a wok over high heat. Add oil, swirl to coat. Add beef strips, stirring constantly. Cook until about 3/4 the way to medium rare. Remove beef. Add carrots. Cook, stirring rapidly, for about two minutes. Add peppers. Cook, stirring constantly, for another two minutes. Add mushrooms and return beef to pan. Cook until mushrooms are done. Add sauce, stirring to coat all other ingredients. Once sauce starts to thicken, remove from heat. Serve over rice or noodles.

Layered Coconut and Coffee Jellies

Coffee Jelly
1 Tbsp. instant espresso
2 Tbsp. warm water
2 Tbsp. agar agar powder
3 cups water
7 oz by wt.  sugar

Coconut Jelly
1 Tbsp. agar agar powder
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups coconut cream
2 oz by wt. sugar
1 tsp. salt

To make coffee jelly
In a small bowl, dissolve espresso powder in warm water. Set aside.

Place water and agar agar powder in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Heat until agar agar completely dissolves. Add sugar, cook until dissolved. Remove from heat, stir in coffee. Transfer to a metal bowl in a hot water bath to keep liquid while working.

To make coconut jelly
In a small saucepan over medium low heat, dissolve agar agar powder in water. Add coconut cream, sugar, and salt, cook until sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a metal bowl in a hot water bath to keep liquid while working.



To make jellies
Into silicon cupcake molds, place 2 tablespoons of coconut liquid in eight molds, and 2 tablespoons of coffee liquid into eight molds. Let cool and harden, about 5 minutes.

Alternate coffee and coconut layers, allowing to firm up after each new layer. Molds should hold about 6 tablespoons (3 layers).

Refrigerate until needed, unmold to serve.

Eight Treasures Pudding

8 oz by wt. glutinous rice
1 oz by wt. vegetable shortening
1 oz by wt. sugar
2 Tbsp. finely diced chestnuts
2 Tbsp. finely diced blanched almonds
2 Tbsp. finely diced walnuts
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried papaya
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried mango
2 Tbsp. finely diced dried pineapple
1/3 cup sweet red bean paste

In a small bowl, mix together fruits and nuts. Set aside.

Under running water, rinse rice. Place in a small saucepan, and add twice the volume of water. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook for twelve minutes. Rice will absorb the water, and become thick and sticky. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 oz. shortening and sugar.

Take six ramekins. Using remaining shortening, apply a thick layer of shortening to the insides of the ramekins. Press fruit and nut mixture into the shortening, making sure inner surface is covered. Shake out any excess fruit and nut mixture.

Fill each ramekin half full with rice. Spread a thin layer of bean paste on top. If bean paste is too thick to spread easily, heat in microwave ten to twenty seconds.

Finish filling each ramekin. Cover ramekins with aluminum foil. Refrigerate until ready to steam.

To steam, place a couple of inches of water in the bottom of a steamer. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. place rack containing ramekins into steamer, cover. Let steam for thirty minutes.

Remove from steamer. Remove foil. Loosen puddings by running a butter knife or small spatula around inside of ramekin. Turn upside down onto plate to unmold.

Mango - Lime Sauce

1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded, and diced
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. sugar
pinch kosher salt

In a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer diced mango and water until mango is tender. Using an immersion blender, puree mango. Stir in spices, sugar, and salt.  Cook until sugar is dissolved.

Happy Eating!

Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

In practicing knife cuts for my culinary class, I destroyed most of a bag of carrots. A lot of it went into carrot sticks for snacking, but there were a lot of roundels and diagonal cut pieces that needed used up as well. I thought an appetizer soup would be a good use. I also had part of a squash that needed used, as well. I wanted to bring a little more flavor to the table, so added some canned roasted red pepper.

The soup is flavored with some ginger and cumin, and garnished with sour cream and finely diced carrot and fresh onion sprouts. I found that just a touch of honey really brought out the flavor of the carrots.

Carrot, Butternut Squash, and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup

4 cups chicken stock
2 cups sliced carrots
1 cup diced butternut squash
2/3 cup diced roasted red peppers
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey

finely diced carrots, onion sprouts, and sour cream to garnish

In a saucepan over medium heat, simmer carrots, squash, and peppers in stock until tender. With an immersion blender, puree soup. Add spices, salt, and honey, and simmer for a few minutes.

Ladle into bowls. Place a tablespoon of sour cream in the middle, and sprinkle diced carrots and a pinch of onion sprouts on top.

Happy Eating!

Chicken Party Recipes Part 2

So this is the second set of recipes for the Chicken Party. The first four recipes are already up.

Ravioli with Hazelnut-Sage Chicken

1 9 oz. package fresh mini ravioli
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 + 3 tbsp. butter
12 fresh sage leaves
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
salt and pepper to taste

Cook ravioli according to package directions. Drain when done, set aside.

While ravioli is cooking:

In a saute pan, heat olive oil and 1 tbsp. butter over medium heat. Saute chicken, seasoning with salt and pepper. When browned, remove from pan. Add 3 tbsp. butter, sage, and lemon zest. Cook until sage is tender. Return chicken to pan, add ravioli. Toss, cook until everything is hot. Garnish with hazelnuts.

Maple-Pomegranate Glazed Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Skewers

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 lb. bacon, cut into 4 inch pieces
6 green onions cut into 4 inch pieces
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp. ginger

Soak bamboo or wooden skewers in water. Wrap chicken pieces in bacon, place on skewers with scallion pieces. Mix pomegranate molasses, maple syrup, and ginger. Grill skewers, brushing with glaze. Cook, turning frequently, until both chicken and bacon are done.

Sweet Pepper-Zucchini Slaw

3 medium zucchini, shredded
4 small sweet peppers, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 + 1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. pomegranate molasses
1/3 cup pomegranate flavored dried cranberries

Place shredded zucchini in a colander with 1 tsp. kosher salt. Let sit 10 minutes, then squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Mix  with peppers. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, salt, and pomegranate molasses. Toss with peppers and zucchini. Chill. When served, garnish with dried cranberries.

Green Chili Chicken Stew

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
14 oz. chicken stock
1/4 cup corn meal
2 medium carrots, minced
2 ribs celery, minced
1 tbsp. ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
6 4 inch diameter corn tortillas
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
canola oil to fry

Cut tortillas into thin strips. Place 1/2 inch oil in a frying pan. Heat to 370 degrees. Fry until crispy. Drain on paper towels, and set aside.

Place chicken, stock, and corn meal in a crock pot. Cook on high until chicken is done. Remove chicken, shred, and return to pot. Add cumin and carrots. Cook about an hour and a half. Add celery, cook until tender. Garnish with cheddar cheese and tortilla chips.

Chicken Party

The spouse is mildly addicted to the House Party website. It's kind of a weird site, where commercial companies offer stuff if you host a party to promote their products. There are a limited number of each party, so you apply, and you might get chosen, or you might not. The spouse has won a few, including one from Werther's, where they sent us bags and bags of candy, and now one from Foster Farms.

Luckily, they didn't mail us chicken. Instead, they gave us two $25 coupons, fourteen reusable shopping bags, a cookbook, and a chef's jacket. Amazingly, the jacket fit me almost perfectly. So, I added a picture of me in it to the blog. To pay for all the swag, however, you have to hold, and document, an actual get together.

So, the plan by the spouse was to have people over, and do lots of little dishes. We ended up settling on eight courses. Now, we both have been enamored of the concept of a tasting party for some time. The little dishes are really cute, and the spouse found some on sale cheap. Seemed like a good thing to try. We did a few old favorites, a few from the recipe book they sent, and few made up on the fly by me.

My goddaughter did yeoman duty as sou chef all day. She was a joy to work with, and I couldn't have pulled it off without her help. The spouse chipped in, as well as doing the bulk of scullery work keeping the pans clean throughout the day.



 For the first course, we went with a favorite cold dish; chicken, dried cranberry, and hazelnut salad. It has a great blend of tastes and textures, with chicken, dried cranberries, celery, nuts, yogurt, mayonnaise, honey, and herbs. I've done variations on this many times, and it works well with walnuts or almonds. You can also add a little diced granny smith apple, instead of the celery, for a little more tang.

I garnished it with a little micro basil from our CSA.

For the second course, we made a cold Asian chicken noodle salad. The chicken is marinated in the dressing, which has fresh ground peanut butter, fish sauce, soy sauce, chilies, garlic, and lime juice.  The chicken is then stir fried, and chilled. It's added to cold rice noodles along with fresh pea pods, and carrots. The noodles are dressed with the same sauce as the chicken was marinated in. It was garnished it with scallions, basil, and chopped peanuts.

For the third course, we made eggplant parmigiana with chicken Alfredo sauce. I had some beautiful white eggplant from my CSA. It was very firm, and quite mild. I breaded it with a mix of fine bread crumbs, shredded Parmesan, and Italian herbs. It was fried in very hot oil until brown and crisped, then placed in a 200 degree oven to keep warm. The goddaughter made the Alfredo sauce. It was a mix of butter, heavy cream, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, and garlic with shredded grilled chicken. It was garnished with micro basil.

For the fourth course, we made pulled chicken in hoisin barbeque sauce with pickled cucumbers.and red onion. The chicken was cooked in a crockpot, then shredded. The BBQ sauce has hoisin sauce, garlic, apple cider vinegar, and soy sauce, The cucumber and onion are pickled in lemon juice and cider vinegar, flavored with clove, allspice, black pepper, and chili powder. It's served on a toasted Hawaiian sweet roll.

For the fifth course, we served hazelnut-sage chicken with ravioli.We used a mini ravioli. The chicken was sauteed with sage and lemon zest, and then tossed with the ravioli. It was garnished with chopped hazelnuts. The consensus among the cooks was that we should have used more zest, as the lemon just didn't come through.

For the sixth course, we made bacon wrapped chicken skewers with maple-pomegranate glaze with a pepper-zucchini slaw. Hard to go wrong with bacon, and the pomegranate molasses and maple syrup, with a hint of ginger, had a great sweet/sour thing going. The slaw, is a red wine vinaigrette, was garnished with pomegranate flavored dried cranberries. The acid in the slaw helped cut the fat of the bacon and the sweet of the glaze. I'm most proud of this one. I feel it was my most original of the day.

The seventh course was a miniature version of the lime marinated grilled chicken soft tacos I made earlier. We used mini corn tortillas here, and diced things smaller in proportion.

The final course was an old favorite, green chili chicken stew. A friend developed this recipe, and it is classic. Chicken, celery, carrots, and green chilies, with cumin just works beautifully. usually served over corn chips, I instead garnished it with fried tortilla strips. It was additionally garnished with shredded cheddar cheese.




Since this post is getting soooooo looong, I will end here, and post the recipes in a separate post.

Happy Eating!


Hash and poached eggs

For breakfast I decided to make hash and eggs. Our CSA had provided us with quite a few peppers We had a lot of potatoes from Golden Share, with which we also participate.

I'm still working on poaching. I'll get it down, eventually. I was using too narrow a pan.  I'll try a larger pan next time.

For the hash, I diced three small red skinned potatoes, one half a small yellow onion, one small red bell pepper, one small green bell pepper, and one each of a cherry pepper, a banana pepper, and a Serrano chili. In a medium-hot pan, I started frying the potatoes. Once partially cooked, I added the peppers and onion.  Cooked everything for a bit then added about a tablespoon of minced garlic, one quarter teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder, and kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Cook, stirring frequently, until potatoes are tender.

Plate the hash, then gently place the poached eggs on top.

Happy eating!