September 05, 2005
Be merry
I am sure everyone is a little worn out from bad news. So, no posts about the administration that couldn't organize an orgy at an Ibiza rave. I don't really have anything to say to those people for whom ideology trumps evidence.
Instead, food! When I am stressed out, I cook. Yesterday I made cornbread pancakes, chicken and sausage jambalaya, and Key lime pie. (And now you see why I work out like a sonofabitch.) The pancakes used a Jiffy cornbread mix, so no recipe.
The jambalaya was sort of like Belle Waring's Red Rice recipe, except I only had one strip of bacon, so I fried that and put in two tablespoons of butter in the grease. Then I sauteed about 400 grams of chicken thigh meat before putting the vegetables in. I chopped four stalks of celery instead of just one, and instead of a carrot, a seeded and diced green bell pepper. I also threw in a few cloves of chopped garlic and some chopped parsley. Some olive oil too.
I sauteed until the onions were clear, and added about 400 grams of sliced kielbasa and about one and a half cups of long-grain rice, and stirred it until all the grains of rice were coated with oil and were looking clearish. Some salt. Screw hypertension!
I poured the mixture into a pot and added maybe 3 cups of tomato juice. Some squirts of Lea & Perrin's (Worchestershire sauce). Stirred it up -- you want a larger pot for this, I'd underestimated the size, and it was nearly to the brim -- brought it to a boil, covered it and let it simmer. I haven't tried Belle's magic Carolina Rice Cooker, but I stirred this every few minutes to prevent it from sticking and burning; and I added some extra tomato juice and hot water twice when it was getting dry.
It's done when the rice is cooked and the fluid absorbed. If you want it spicy hot, Tabasco sauce &/or a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. Feeds one hungry bachelor trencherman two meals; makes great leftovers.
And the pie! This is so easy. The juice of three limes, three eggs, and a can (400 g) of condensed milk. Mix well. If you're squeamish about curdling, add the eggs to the lime juice first. Pour that into a pie crust -- and now that I have the space, I can make them from scratch, yeah! although I didn't here -- and bake at 350 F / 175 C for about 20 minutes, until the custard sets and the crust turns brown. Let it cool. Put on the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and give some more cash to the American Red Cross. Live.
Posted by coyu at September 5, 2005 05:03 PMYum.
Making a zveschenkuchen now - three pounds of damsons are pitted and recumbent in sugar-grit, and two pounds of sußehefeteig is conditioning in the frigid-air. When it is risen, I shall roll it out, annoint with aprikosenkonserves, and plant the pitted damson plums (aka fresh prunes) in serried rows, split in quarters. Bake at 375F (240-250C) until golden-brown and bubbly.
Okay, now I am angry. MOst of the recipes I find by googling "pflaumenkuchen" mention baking powder in the dough. WTF? Baking powder is okay - don't get me wrong - but you want the yeasty heartiness in the bread to play nicely with the plums. searching on "Zwetschenkuchen" and "hefe" gives me around 370 references, of which some yield fatless! dough, some deigning to use oleomargarine in the same recipe in which butter is used in ?!the streusel topping?! (NB - no streusel on a zwetschenkuchen, no way). Milk in the dough? ?!??Tofu in the dough?!??!
Ah, this seems like the appropriate way.
To recapitulate - it is a sweet yeast dough, like a brioche dough, except it is wetter and can incorporate butter or flavorless oils (NOT MARGARINE OR SHORTENING!). Annoint the risen rolled dough with dollops of apricot jam, and then arrange the prunes. Bake until melty. You may drizzle with powdered sugar.
(next, anise-bread)
Whoops. Recipe links restored. Sorry about that, NYCMT.
Posted by: Carlos at September 6, 2005 02:38 PMHaleem.
It's a sort of Pakistani chili.
First soak your wheat, barley and four different kinds of lentils - about two tablespoons of each. Allow at least four hours.
You'll need about a kilo of stewing steak or chicken thigh fillets - the beef probably gives the best consistency but I favour chicken. Make 2-3 cm cubes as you would for chili.
Three medium onions (chopped), three cloves of garlic (fine chop), a tablespoon of chopped or processed ginger, two tablespoons red chilli powder (half-and-half red chilli powder and sweet paprika for wimps), two teaspoons of garam masala and two teaspoons of coriander powder. (I think this is the one Americans call cilantro. Googles. Yes.) And two tablespoons of lemon juice.
That's your essentials. If you have them: four cinammon sticks or else two teaspoons of cinammon. And eight cardamom pods. Try to use as little ghee as possible - recipes will tell you to use as much as a cup, I'd draw the line at two tablespoons. I've also used olive oil when out of ghee; I'm not a snob.
You'll also need salt to season, again try to get by with as little as possible.
Have four large green chillis, sliced as a garnish or use your favourite green chilli chutney.
Fry the onions in the ghee on a medium heat until translucent. Add ginger, garlic and red chilli powder and fry for two more minutes before adding diced meat. Fry with remaining spices until meat is brown.
Then add lemon juice and enough water. 3-4 cups is probably right. Simmer on low heat and stir - gradually at first and then consistently towards the end. What you are trying to do is cook the lentils and grains through and get the meat to disintegrate into strands (as in a chili) so that the end result is a dry stew that almost fries in its own oil. When you get to that stage serve garnished with green chillis. [Remove the cardamom pods and cinammon quills if you think there is a chance your guests will try to eat them.]
Side dishes should include rice, naan bread, pickles or chutneys and yoghurt or raita.
Best dam' haleem outside a madrassa.
Posted by: Syd Webb at September 6, 2005 02:51 PMMath Teacher - try googling "Zwetschgenkuchen" or even "Zwetschgenploatz". I can also send you my Mom's recipe which is the best. I agree that anything but a good yeast dough is plainly unacceptable.
Did you know that in Franconia not only do we make the best Zwetschgenploatz in the world, but we also eat it with potatoe soup for a hearty lunch. Strange but true.
Doug, btw, said to me "I never hear of this cake before" and I said "love, that's what we had last week."
'tis the season.
:-)
Posted by: claudia at September 7, 2005 07:29 PMhi
also you can find a nice recipe for zwetschgenkuchen here recipe zwetschgenkuchen
greets
susan
Posted by: susan at February 16, 2006 04:23 AMwow that sounds really great, i think i try this next week. if you like recipies, you should visit my site too: Rezepte Gratis
Posted by: eva at July 1, 2006 09:14 PMDie selbstgemachten Kochrezepte kann man gut auf
Bunzlauer Keramik essen.
greets
Posted by: Bunzlauer Keramik at December 14, 2006 12:01 AM