Friday, October 12, 2012

Classic Chili con Carne

This Classic Chili con Carne is made with ground beef, smoked bacon and tomatoes, and flavored with onion, chili powder, cumin and chili peppers. It's a warming bowl of comfort. 

Food Lust People Love: This Classic Chili con Carne is made with ground beef, smoked bacon and tomatoes, and flavored with onion, chili powder, cumin and chili peppers. It's a warming bowl of comfort.

This is the chili con carne I cook to make Frito pies or to serve on chili dogs. It's easy but rich with the addition of the smoked bacon. 

Classic Chili con Carne

The dark chili powder I use is the McCormick brand and is a mix of spices, including salt. Read your label and adjust the salt if your brand doesn't include any.  

Ingredients
1lb or 450g ground beef
2-3 slices thick smoked bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, minced
4 tablespoon dark chili powder 
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 can (14 oz or 400g) finely chopped tomatoes plus half a can water
1 teaspoon sugar
1-3 red chili peppers
Salt to taste – depends on your chili powder (see note above)

Method
Brown your ground beef over a medium high heat. Add in the chopped bacon and fry until the bacon is a bit crispy.


Add in the minced onion and cook with the bacon and beef until it gets soft and translucent.


Spoon in the dark chili powder, along with the extra teaspoon of ground cumin.


Pour in the can of chopped tomatoes plus half a can of water and one teaspoon of sugar.


Add fresh red chili peppers to taste, removing the stems first.


Simmer the mixture, lid on, for at least half an hour or longer if you have the time. Salt to taste. Some chili powders are heavier on the salt content than others so, as mentioned previously, depending on your brand, you may not need much more. Or any!

This is great served over Fritos for a classic Frito pie or on top of Mexican Cornbread Waffles like these guys: 




Pin this Classic Chili con Carne! 

Food Lust People Love: This Classic Chili con Carne is made with ground beef, smoked bacon and tomatoes, and flavored with onion, chili powder, cumin and chili peppers. It's a warming bowl of comfort.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Pan-fried Asian Fish with Noodles

This pan-fried Asian fish is full of flavor from the soy sauce, Shaoxing and sesame oil marinade. Once you've marinated the fish filets, it takes very little time to cook for a quick, tasty meal!

Food Lust People Love; This pan-fried Asian fish is full of flavor from the soy sauce, Shaoxing and sesame oil marinade. Once you've marinated the fish filets, it takes very little time to cook for a quick, tasty meal!


I am going back through my files and realizing that there are many dishes that I have neglected to post.  Truth is, I cook almost every day and the photos get edited and filed and sometimes the post even gets written but then I’ve moved onto other things that somehow seem more urgent to share.  This post was written back in 2011 when I had just visited the newly renovated Isetan food market in Kuala Lumpur, and, boy, howdy, was it a beautiful shop!   

Isetan is a Japanese chain and if there is one thing food-wise we can all learn from the Japanese, it is fresh fish.  Isetan always has a great selection and you know it is the freshest available because their Japanese customers would not stand for anything less.   I miss Isetan and thought it was about time I shared this recipe.  Just reading this and looking at the photos, I am hungry for this dish again!  And homesick.

~

There is something about shopping in the Isetan food market, especially the newly renovated one in KLCC, that makes me want to put a Japanese or Asian twist on things.  Could it be the lovely samples of foreign foodstuffs with names I can’t pronounce that they are always giving out or the aroma of soy and frying and sesame seed oil from the cooking of said samples?  Regardless, I buy some fresh fish filets there and I can’t help but want to marinate them with soy and sesame oil.

This quick meal requires a little forward planning but, once you have marinated the fish filets, it requires very little time to cook – 15-20 minutes tops.

Ingredients
2 filets of threadfish or any white flakey fish
2 packages of ramen noodles – any type or flavor because you won’t use the seasoning packets
1 medium tomato
6-7 cloves of garlic
5 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese wine (Shaoxing)
1 tablespoon sesame oil plus extra for drizzling before serving
Olive oil

Method
Marinate the fish in a two tablespoons of of the soy sauce and one tablespoon of Chinese wine and one tablespoon of sesame oil - at least two or three hours, but they can be left overnight and cooked the next evening.  I find a Ziploc bag works best because you can squeeze the air out of it make sure the marinade is touching all parts of the fish.


Heat your non-stick pan quite hot and add a drizzle of olive oil.  Fry skin side up for 4-5 minutes.


Put some water on to boil for your noodles and dice the tomatoes and slice the garlic into thin pieces.


Turn over and fry another 4-5 minutes on the other side.  If the filets are thick enough, you can fry them another minute on each lateral side.


Add the tomato and garlic to the fish pan and then add the leftover marinade and the balance of the soy sauce (about three tablespoons.)  Give it a good stir then put the lid on the pot and turn the fire down a little.



Pop your ramen noodles into the boiling water and cook according to package instructions, but discard the seasoning packets or save them for another dish.


Check on your fish.  The tomatoes should have softened into a mush.  Remove the fish from the pan to allow room for mixing in the noodles.  If you are ready to eat, the fish can be put on the plates.  If not, just put them aside to return to the pan to keep warm.


Drain the ramen noodles and add them to the tomato/garlic pan.



Toss until the noodles are well-coated.


If you are not ready to serve, return the fish to the pan to keep warm.  If you are ready to serve, add half of the ramen to each plate with a filet of fish.  Drizzle lightly with olive or sesame oil.

Food Lust People Love; This pan-fried Asian fish is full of flavor from the soy sauce, Shaoxing and sesame oil marinade. Once you've marinated the fish filets, it takes very little time to cook for a quick, tasty meal!

Enjoy!  

Monday, October 8, 2012

Banana Chocolate Bit Muffins #MuffinMonday


Some people have an old boy network or even an old girl network.  I have an expat network!  And there is nothing more knowledgeable, helpful or friendly than the expat network.  Our fingers spread wide in every pie, in every town, in all the world.  Are you moving to Houston, London, Paris, Perth, Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Quito, Austin, Athens, Mexico City, Nashville, Boston, Aberdeen, Lagos, San José, Taipei, Shanghai, Mumbai, Caracas, Copenhagen, Berlin or Stavanger, just to name a few cities?  I know someone there who will help.  Often more than one someone!  Ah, yes, good people.  I can find out where to get decent chocolate chips and Extra Chunky Jif peanut butter in most cities of this world at the drop of a quick email or new Facebook status.  The expat network is also invaluable when you are moving.  When we found out about the transfer to Dubai, the first thing I did was send out a query on housing.  In which areas should I look?  And why?  The responses were immediate and thoughtful, taking into account our empty nest status and Boxer dog who needs a yard.  So, far from being a strange city, Dubai was already well-mapped in our heads before the first appointment was made.  You can’t buy worldwide expertise like that!  The point of all this is that we found a home and from (probably) mid November you will be seeing photos from a whole new kitchen.

Meanwhile, we are still baking muffins in Cairo!  This week’s Muffin Monday choice is from Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen but you can also find it online, right here.  I decided to leave off the cocoa powder and add mini baking bits of semi-sweet chocolate.  If you are wondering why I have just brown, yellow, blue and orange, I’ll tell you.  Last December a dear friend generously stepped into the role of Christmas party planner for her son’s fourth grade of about 100 children.  She needed decorations for cupcakes or cookies or something so we sat and picked all the red and green ones out of my bag of baking bits for her project.  Because, when you love someone, you will even give her your imported red and green baking bits.  True story.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 1/3 cup or 225g flour (Life is so much easier with a scale!  You should get one.)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 very ripe bananas (10 oz or 285g by weight when peeled)
1/2 cup or 125 ml light vegetable oil
2 medium eggs
1/2 cup or 100g packed soft dark brown sugar
1/2 cup plus extra for sprinkling on top or about 100g semi sweet baking bits

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your muffin tin or line it with paper cups.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together.  Make sure to mash out any lumps of brown sugar.


Mash the bananas with a fork then add in the eggs and the oil.   Mix until thoroughly combined.




Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ones until they are just mixed.



Add in the half cup of chocolate baking bits and fold again gently.


(Small side note:  M&M have stopped making the semi-sweet baking bits so these were actually ordered from NutsOnline in a five-pound bag.  I have started a Facebook campaign to get M&M to reconsider this decision.  If you have a moment, go on over to the Facebook page and follow the link in About to send Mars North America a message on their website.  Thank you!)

Divide the batter between the muffin cups.  Decorate with the remaining baking bits.



Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.


Allow to cool slightly in the muffin tin before removing to a wire rack.



Enjoy!

And, for those of you who care:  Here is our new house.  Assuming the paperwork goes through without a hitch.