Keema-Pulao

My friend Camilla always talks about Keema, she says it’s one of her favorite dishes. I have this grass fed ground beef and I am in an Indian cooking mode, so why not make Keema? Camilla, I hope this is like the Keema you make. Of course Tanya (our common Indian friend) needs to give her blessing, but she is in India right now. 

I served it with a good shredded carrot and cabbage salad.

Keema-Pulao

(Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Kheema-Pulao/Detail.aspx)

8 servings

Ingredients

3 cups basmati rice

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 large onions, minced

1 tablespoon garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 pound ground beef

salt to taste

1/2 cup frozen green peas (optional)

4 green chile peppers, halved lengthwise

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)

1 cinnamon stick

1 black cardamom pod

2 bay leaves

4 whole cloves

5 cups boiling water

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Place the basmati rice in a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let stand 30 minutes. Drain.

Heat the oil in a large pan with a heavy bottom; fry the onion, garlic paste and, ginger paste in the hot oil until the onions are caramelized and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir the turmeric, garam masala, and cumin into the mixture; allow to cook together for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook until the oil separates, about 10 minutes. Crumble the ground beef into the tomato mixture; season with salt and cook until the beef is no longer pink, about 15 minutes. Mix the frozen peas and the green chile peppers into the beef.

Heat the ghee in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the cinnamon stick, cardamom pod, bay leaves, and cloves in the ghee until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the rice to the spice mixture; cook until the rice smells nutty, 1 to 2 minutes more. Spread the rice with the spices over the beef mixture, but do not stir. Gently pour the water over the rice and season with salt; bring the mixture to a boil for 2 minutes. Cover, reduce heat to low, and continue cooking until the rice is tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat completely and allow to sit covered another 20 minutes. Garnish with cilantro to serve.

Cabbage And Potato Curry (Aloo Vepudu)

Trend… shifting from Japanese to Indian cuisine… I was hoping to make Aloo Gobi (potato and cauliflower curry) tonight but I thought I should use the produce from my CSA box. I found a great recipe for Aloo Vepudu, which is potato and cabbage curry, in the Curry in Kadai blog. Check the recipe here.

The change I made to the recipe was that I used 1 tablespoon of ghee instead of 3-4 tbsp of oil, bay leaves instead of curry leaves and cayenne in place of green chilies.

Ox Tail

So my friend Debra gave us this ox tail. She bought a steer from her sister and nobody seemed to like ox tail, only me! The ox tail meat is delicious, but it needs to be prepared properly, otherwise it can get really heavy and greasy. Carrots are from my friend Patricia's garden; potatoes are from our garden; kale, cabbage, onions, chard are from the CSA box.

The overall process to make ox tail is something like this: remove the visible fat from the meat; marinate the ox tail with onion, garlic, bay leaves, white wine, peppercorns, salt for a couple of hours. Slow cook it for 6 hours in low. Put the meat in a container in the fridge, reserve. Put the remaining liquid in a glass container and leave it in the freezer overnight. The next day, remove the broth container form the freezer. Let it defrost in the fridge. Remove the fat from the top.

Heat the meat and the broth in a large pan. Add potatoes, carrots, collards, kale, cabbage, any other vegetables such as squash, broccoli etc. Let them cook in the meat broth.

Irish-Brazilian Lamb Stew

Stew is another wondeful fall/winter dish that uses up a lot of the CSA’s vegetables. This stew recipe blends Irish (husband) and Brazilian (me) stew recipes. Lamb and potatoes from the Irish side, collard greens and lots of other vegetables from the Brazilian side. In my parent’s house, they add collard greens to all stews. You can add several vegetables, such as broccoli, turnip, leeks, squash, collard greens, corn, cauliflower etc. Sometimes I use red wine instead of beer. Depends on the mood. Today I am using CSA’s cippolini onions, carrots, potatoes (from last week), celery, cabbage, zucchini, and kale (from last week). Fresh herbs from my garden.

If you are in Irish mode, serve it with Irish brown bread (I have a wonderful recipe that I will share in the future); if you are in Brazilian mode, serve it with long grain white rice (or brown rice). 
The vegetables got too mushy. Next time I'll cook the meat in the slow cooker with the basic vegetables (onions, carrots, celery) and herbs first, and then move the meat to a casserole and add the remaining vegetables (potatoes, cabbage, etc). 

Irish-Brazilian Lamb Stew

8 servings

Ingredients:

1 ½ pound lamb shoulder, visible fat removed

1 cup red wine

1 cup broth (beef or vegetable)

1 ½ cups ceppolini onions

3 garlic cloves, crushed

3 medium carrots, cut in 1” pieces


3 stalks celery, cut in 1” pieces

½ cabbage cut in wedges


6 small potatoes, cut in 1” pieces

2 small potatoes, cut in ¼” pieces

1 large summer squash, cut in 1” pieces

½ bunch kale, stems removed, leaves torn

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
 (use ¼ t if dry)

1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves (use ¼ t if dry)

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (use ¼ t if dry)

1 bay leaf

Kosher salt

black pepper


Directions:

In a 6-quart slow cooker, combine the vegetables except the kale. Top with the meat, spices, wine, broth, spices, salt and pepper. Cover the slow cooker, then cook on low until the lamb is fork-tender, about 5 to 6 hours. Half hour before serving, take the lamb shoulder pieces from the pan, remove the bones and cut in small pieces. Mash some potato to thicken the sauce and add the kale leaves. Skim off and discard fat.

Pasta alla Bolognese

The CSA box this week was huuuuuuge! Squash, zucchini, corn, tomato, baby lettuce, romaine, carrots, parsley, onions, cippolini onions, cabbage, beet, green beans, eggplant, celery, spinach. I don’t know where to start!

Today is really cold so some comfort food will be nice… Tradition says to use up the tomatoes first, so let’s make some pasta Bolognese… Uma-mi’s style… hummmm…

Pasta alla Bolognese

4 servings

Ingredients

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb ground beef

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon fines herbes

2 small bay leaves or 1 large

8 medium tomatoes or 2 cans diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt and coarsely ground fresh black pepper

1/4 cup basil torn

8 ounces whole wheat spaghetti or linguini, cooked al dente

Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions

If using canned tomatoes, skip this step. Place a saucepan 3/4 full of water over high heat and bring to a boil. Dip tomatoes that need to be peeled in the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove tomatoes and set aside to cool enough so that you can handle them. Gently pierce, just barely, the skin of the tomatoes with the tip of a sharp knife. Loosen the skin with the knife and peel away. Repeat with all the tomatoes. Cut peeled tomatoes in half lengthwise. Hold tomato half in your hand over a small bowl. Gently squeeze tomato half so that seeds drip into the bowl. Put the seeds and their juice through a strainer. Discard seeds, add the strained juice to the bowl of tomatoes. Crush the tomatoes with your hands leaving big pieces. Add the balsamic vinegar. Stir and set aside.

Place the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, cook until soft, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic, cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the meat, Worcestershire sauce, fines herbes, bay leaves. Cook stirring often until there is no more pink. Season with kosher salt and pepper. Add the tomato balsamic mix to the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add the basil and cook 1 minute more. Serve over pasta, sprinkled with parmesan and more basil if desired.

Spicy Black Bean Soup with Beet Greens, Balsamic Tomato and Basil

August 26th, 2009

After having the eggplant pasta last night, I asked my husband about tonight's dinner. He said, in a joke tone, "black bean soup". Well, that's what we are going to have then!  
My mom used to make this soup with watercress, and I sometimes like to use arugula. But today I have beet greens I need to use. They are delicious too!

Spicy Black Bean Soup with Beet Greens

4 Servings

Ingredients

1 large spring onion, chopped

1 spring onion stem, 3 – 4”, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 anaheim pepper, chopped

1 cherry pepper, chopped

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained but not rinsed or 15.5 oz of cooked beans

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Elbow macaroni, cooked, 2 cups

Beet greens, 4 cups (or arugula, or watercress)

Thinly sliced scallions, for garnish (optional)
Cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)


Directions
Put the olive oil into a large heavy pot and
place it over medium heat. Stir in the spring onions, chopped peppers, and cook, stirring, until they 
start to turn brown, about 10 minutes. 
Stir in the garlic and cook until you can smell it, 
about 1 minute.

Add the beans, bay leaves, broth, Worcestershire. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the soup is bubbling gently and cook 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove the bay leaves and blend the soup with a hand blender. Add the elbow macaroni and the beet greens. Cook until heated through and greens are wilted.Serve with the garnishes. I served it with the Balsamic Tomato Basil, see recipe below.

Balsamic Tomato and Basil

2 servings (as soup garnish)

1 serving (as salad)

Ingredients

2 medium red tomatoes, cut in 4 or 6 pieces

1 cup yellow pear tomatoes, cut in half

¼ cup julienne cut
fresh basil

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

Directions

Mix together the red and yellow tomatoes in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper, add the vinegar and olive oil and mix well. Add ½ the basil and mix. Top with the remaining basil. Serve as a salad or as a soup garnish.

We've got these beautiful peaches in the CSA box. Should I make some peach cobbler?