Showing posts with label main course. Show all posts
Showing posts with label main course. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Perfect Lentil Burgers

The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat. 

Food Lust People Love: The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.
Nobody likes a dry burger is one of my mottos. This goes for chicken and beef but it goes double for vegetarian patties. A little fat that won’t evaporate off when cooking is key. I first made these lentil burgers using bread I had baked with thick mozzarella slices in the dough.

The whole family declared them the perfect lentil burgers. The problem was, how to recreate them without having to bake that bread again each time, lovely though it was.


I took apart the bread recipe, figured out about how much mozzarella must have been in the number of slices I used for the first perfect lentil burgers and then added that into the new patty mix with plain whole grain sandwich bread. Much to our delight, it worked. I’ve made these lentil burgers many times since and they are always one of the first things my younger daughter asks for when she comes home. Hope you enjoy them!

Perfect Lentil Burgers

One note about the main ingredient, Puy lentils: You don't have to use green lentils actually grown in the Puy region of France because those can be pricey. I do recommend that you source the (almost) identical French lentils grown in other regions of France. They hold their shape much better than any other lentil I've tried, most of which go from not quite cooked to too mushy in a heartbeat. The French lentils will make a much better burger.

Ingredients – for four patties (about 7oz or 200g each – a substantial patty!)
4 slices whole grain sandwich bread
1/4 medium purple onion
2 eggs
3 1/2 oz or 100g mozzarella, grated
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne (I also use more. We like things spicy.)
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fine sea salt
1 cup or 210g uncooked (or about 2 1/2 cups or 485g cooked/rinsed) Puy lentils
(If you are cooking them, boil with 1/2 teaspoon baking soda till tender. Drain and rinse.)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and more for pan

To serve:
4 buns
Sliced tomatoes
Lettuce
Sliced onions
Your favorite condiments – mayo, mustard, ketchup, etc. We like mayo with a little garlic and lemon juice added too.

Method
Toast the slices of bread and cut them into cubes. Chop the onion up.

Process the toast cubes and the onion until the bread is in crumbs. Add the eggs and process until well combined.


Tip the mixture out into a bowl. Add the grated mozzarella and mix well.  Add the smoked paprika, cayenne, a generous sprinkle sea salt and a few good grinds of black pepper. Mix well.



Add the rinsed, drained lentils and the extra virgin olive oil. Mix well.



Form into four patties.

Food Lust People Love: The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.


Pan fry in non-stick pan or griddle with an extra drizzle of olive oil until golden on both sides, about 6-7 minutes a side should do it.

Food Lust People Love: The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.


Serve with sliced tomatoes, onions and lettuce on a hamburger bun. You wanna put more cheese, you surely can but it's not necessary. We never do.

Food Lust People Love: The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.


Enjoy!

This week Sunday Supper is sharing a plethora of creative hamburger and hot dog recipes that you are going to love! Many thanks to our host Christie of  A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures and our event manager Shelby of Grumpy's Honeybunch for all of their hard work.

All American Burgers & Dogs
Cluck Burgers
Worldly Burgers & Dogs
Where's the Beef Burgers
Where's the Bun Burger
Dessert Burger
How to

Pin the Perfect Lentil Burgers!


Food Lust People Love: The perfect lentil burgers have two secret ingredients, mozzarella cheese for fat and moisture and smoked paprika to mimic a little charbroiled flavor. Truly, you will not miss the meat.

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Friday, June 17, 2016

Tali Machchi - Goan Spicy Fried Fish #FishFridayFoodies

Tali Machchi is a spicy fried fish dish from Goa, India made with firm white fish, coated in spiced flour and shallow fried. 

Often when I’m sitting on an airplane, I think of that Louis C.K. standup bit where he talks about the miracle of flight and how we still complain. (Here’s the audio link. I find it hysterical, because it’s true, but I must warn you the language is rough, to say the least.) Not that I don’t do my share of moaning about jet lag and the like, but I am awed by the age in which we live.

The host of my Fish Friday Foodies group can say, for instance, make a southern fried fish dish this month. And I can put those search words into my amazingly small computer (relatively speaking) and it gives me a long list of recipes to choose from, many of which I have never heard before. I mean, at all. Not even in passing. From a part of the world where I have yet to travel. Waaaaay south of here. (Although Goa’s on my list. Almost everywhere is on my list.) I am able to compare and contrast any number of recipes and merge them into one that I feel will work best. If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is!

If you are looking for a simple seafood dish with loads of flavor, you’ll love tali machchi. It got two thumbs up at our house and even a “would order again” from my husband. Bonus: It's also quick.

Ingredients
1 pound or 450g firm white fish (I used local grouper, called hammour here.)
2 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons plain flour
3 tablespoons besan (also called gram or chickpea flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
2 cups or 480ml canola or other light oil for frying
1 large egg

Serve with lemon or lime slices, garnished with cilantro

Method
Wash and dry fish fillets. Cut into bite-sized pieces.

Toss gently in the fresh lime juice and sprinkle on one 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix well.



Mix flour, chickpea flour, the remaining 1 teaspoon salt, garam masala, turmeric and cayenne together in a shallow plate.



Heat oil in deep frying pan until smoking hot. Dip fish chunks in the beaten egg.



Then roll them in the spiced flour.

Fry the pieces in at least two batches to make sure you don't crowd the frying pan. Cook on one side for 2-3 minutes.

Turn and cook another couple of minutes on the other side, until the pieces are brown all over.

Drain on paper towels or on a wire rack resting on paper to catch the drips.



Serve immediately, garnished with cilantro and extra wedges of lime or lemon.



Enjoy!

Many thanks to our host, April of Angels Home Sweet Homestead. Check out the other recipes this miracle we call the internet has brought right to this spot for you from my fellow Fish Friday Foodies.



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Sunday, May 1, 2016

Jean's Best Vegetable Soup

A rich beef broth is flavored with crushed tomatoes and a selection of vegetables. Jean’s Best Vegetable Soup will sustain you through good times and bad. It’s nutritious and filling in the best possible way. 

At the first sign of a cold front in the fall, my mom would say, “Ooooh, vegetable soup weather!” and the big soup pot would be extracted from its home right at the back of the cupboard. Some beefy bones would be put in, well covered with water, to simmer for several hours. Vegetables were chopped and diced, ready for adding in later. The steamy kitchen was a warm place to gather, waiting for that first bowl of savory, strengthening soup. I would have to put it up near the top of the list of my mom’s favorite things to eat, along with potatoes (which are in the soup too) and smothered pork chops.

While I looked forward to the vegetable soup too, I had reservations. If you’ve read my recipe post for browned butter braised baby turnips, you’ll understand. In a nutshell, it was hard to get too enthusiastic about soup that also had bitter turnips, which I detested, masquerading as innocent potatoes.

Since our Sunday Supper family is sharing Mom’s Favorite Recipes today, and I’m over my turnip phobia, I thought it was time to make the soup and make it right, turnips and all.

A while back, my mom sent me her recipe. Here is the ingredient list, in her own words. I’ve added the weights and measures as a guide. That said, know that you can vary the vegetables and amounts to your taste so don’t get too hung up on what each ingredient weighs.

Mom starts by saying, throw in some beef bones if you can find some and let them boil away before you add your ribs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my hands on any beef bones so my method starts with browning the short ribs for more flavor.

Ingredients

  • Olive oil – my addition, for browning the short ribs
  • beef short ribs - 2 lbs 5 1/2 oz or 1.065kg
  • a little tomato sauce for color (not too much)
    (this is a vegetable soup, not an Italian soup, ha!) - 2 tablespoons
  • small can of crushed tomatoes - 14oz or 400g 
  • small onion – 3 oz or 85g
  • small bell pepper  - 4 oz or 115g
  • small stem of celery - 1 3/4 oz or 50g
  • potatoes – 5 medium or about 1+lbs or 500g
  • turnips (just enough to frighten the poor soul who doesn't like turnips) – 3 medium - I totally forgot to weigh these.
  • carrots  - 2 large - 9 1/2 oz or 270g
  • mixed frozen veggies - 1 3/4 cups or 225g
  • small amount of cabbage – 5 1/3 oz or 150g
  • SOMETIMES I will put in zucchini  -  6 small - 9 1/2 oz or 270g
  • SOMETIMES I will put in cauliflower if I have some on hand.        
  • SOMETIMES I will put in yellow squash - I didn't have either

Note: Fresh or frozen veggies are better than canned.



Method
Brown short ribs on all sides in a little olive oil over a high heat in your largest soup pot.



Remove the browned meat from the pot and set aside.



Finely chop your onion, bell pepper and celery.  Sauté them in the oil left behind from the fatty short ribs, till softened. Scrape up all the sticky goodness from the meat into the vegetables.



Add meat back in, along with the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add water to cover more than twice the depth of the beef.



Bring to the boil then put a tight fitting lid on the pot and simmer for three or four hours.

Peel and chop the carrots and potatoes. Peel turnips but leave them whole so you can find them again. It’s all very well to eat them, but I still don’t like to be surprised. If you love turnips, you can cut them, of course.

Add in the potatoes, carrots and turnips, along with the frozen vegetables.

Oddly, the turnips are the only things that float initially. They probably aren't witches though. Probably.


Bring to a slow boil, cover and simmer again for an hour or so.

If a lot of fat from the short ribs has risen to the top, you might want to skim some off with a spoon.

About half an hour before you are serving, thinly slice cabbage and cut zucchini into chunks. Add them to the soup.



When the zucchini is cooked to your liking, Jean's best vegetable soup is done. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.


Enjoy! In our family, we'd also add a shake or two of some Louisiana hot sauce to each bowl at the table.



Has your mother passed down a special recipe to you or is there something special you always make for her? These are Mom's Favorite Recipes from my Sunday Supper family.

Many thanks to Christie of A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures and Wendy of Wholistic Woman for hosting!

Starters (Appetizers, Beverages, Breakfast)
Salads, Side Dishes, and Sauces
Main Dishes
Desserts


And it wasn't half bad. 


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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Grilled Lamb Skewers with Roasted Carrots

These grilled lamb skewers are made with tender marinated leg of lamb chunks, cooked over high heat in a grill pan, then left to rest on sweet roasted young spring carrots. A sprinkle of feta and mint lend even more flavor and just the right touch of saltiness to this flavorful dish.
 


A number of years ago, when we were living in Kuala Lumpur, I had a friend who would buy the organic new baby carrots, greens still attached, that would turn up on occasion in one of our grocery stores. They weren’t cheap but she said that they were worth the splurge. As much as I like carrots, I didn’t imagine that she could be correct. Who would pay that much – don’t remember the exact amount except that it seemed like a lot – for carrots? Not me. After all, how special could they be?

Last week I decided that a simple spring vegetable minestrone would be the perfect recipe to share on the Sunday Supper Movement website for today’s Welcome Spring event, and since it was for the website and not just this little blog, I did splurge. I bought freshly hulled peas, fine French beans, baby zucchini, baby leeks and tiny corn on the cob along with a large bunch of spring carrots, greens still attached. Such a pot of sweet wonderfulness.



I used just a couple of the carrots in the soup so I started looking for another recipe to show off the rest. My original plan for this post was simply spring lamb but when I came across a recipe on Bon Appétit for lamb skewers with carrots, it seemed like kismet. (Which comes from the Arabic word for fate, by the way.)

Of course, Bon Appétit being Bon Appétit, the dish was complicated with two marinades and then a dressing, so I simplified it down to one marinade for the lamb and a mere sprinkling of feta and mint for the finished dish. Ain’t nobody got time for all that. I can’t imagine how this could be improved upon. It was perfect in every way and the carrots were fabulous. Sweet, tender and with such wonderful flavor. Now I know what my friend was talking about! Next time I make this, I will double the carrots so I suggest you do too. I’ve already been back to the store and bought another bunch.

Ingredients to serve 2-3
For the spring lamb skewers:
1 lb 3oz or 540g leg lamb chunks

For the lamb marinade:
2 large garlic cloves
1 small red chili pepper
2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/4 cup or 60ml dry white wine
1 teaspoon large grain sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil

For the oven roasted spring carrots:
9 1/3 oz or 265g spring carrots
1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (a good drizzle to coat)
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
8-10 fresh mint leaves
2 oz or 57g crumbled feta
Freshly ground black pepper

Method
Cut the lamb into bite-sized pieces and put them in a Ziploc bag.


Mince your garlic and red chili pepper. Strip the rosemary leaves off of the stems and chop them finely.

Add all the marinade ingredients into a mixing bowl up to and including the black pepper, then whisk in the olive oil until well blended.



Pour the marinade into the bag with the lamb. Mix it around until the lamb is well coated, then press all of the air out and seal. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes but you can also make this early in the day and leave it marinating till you are ready to cook dinner. Mine marinated about three hours.

To roast the carrots, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Scrub the carrots well and cut the long tops of the greens off. You can leave on a little bit for color, if desired. If some of the carrots are thicker than the others, cut them in half lengthwise.

Pile the carrots on a baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then spread them out so they aren't touching each other.



Roast in the preheated oven until lovely and golden and caramelized, turning once in the middle of roasting time of about 20-25 minutes.



Thread your lamb onto wooden skewers cut to fit snugly in your grill pan. Discard the bag with the marinade.


Heat the pan over high heat. You’ll need to turn your extractor fan on or perhaps even open a window because this is going to smoke. But it’s going to be fast and worth it, I promise.

Once your pan is scorching hot, lay four of the lamb skewers in it, quickly searing one side. You don’t want to crowd the grill pan so don’t try to cook them all at once.

Cook for 2-3 minutes on that side, then turn and cook the other side for another 2-3 minutes.

This will leave your small bites of lamb still pink inside. If you want them done more, cook for another minute or two on each side. I encourage you to leave them pink inside though, because they will be more tender.

As you remove the cooked lamb from the grill pan, rest the skewers on the roasted carrots.

Continue until all of your lamb skewers are done and are resting on the carrots. Give the whole pan another few grinds of fresh black pepper.

Crumble the feta and rip the mint leaves onto the lamb and carrots.



Enjoy!



Who is ready to welcome spring with me? My Sunday Supper family sure is. Check out all the lovely spring recipes they are sharing today!

Breakfast:
Appetizers:
Beverages:
Main Dishes:
Side Dishes:
Desserts:




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Friday, April 15, 2016

Pan-fried Sardines #FishFridayFoodies

Pan-fried sardines cooked quickly and simply in a drizzle of almost smoking hot olive oil, with a good sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, are a delight to eat. You can taste the sea. 

Sardines, if you can find them fresh, are usually one of the least expensive of fish at the fish market. In fact, when we lived in Singapore, where local fish was abundant and mostly inexpensive, the markets never seemed to sell sardines. I finally started asking around to find out why because when we lived across the causeway in Malaysia, they were always available. These were the same fishing waters, right? Why would Singapore not have sardines?

What I found out is that it wasn’t worth the small price the fishermen would get for them in Singapore, so they didn’t bother bringing the sardines to market. Apparently the Malaysian fishermen, with lower living expenses, could make enough for their needs. As much as we enjoyed our year and a half in Singapore, I was thrilled when we were transferred back to Kuala Lumpur. Ah, fresh sardines again!

If you'd like to read about the first time I ever ate whole fresh sardines - not from a can - it was on a holiday in Portugal. I talk about recreating the piri piri chicken, but we've been eating the sardines ever since too. Sometimes grilled but most often pan-fried.

This month my Fish Friday Foodies group is being hosted by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla. She set us the task of cooking whole fish or seafood, head to tail or head to tentacle, whichever the case may be. It was a toss up for me between imported whole pink trout, which we have every time I see it in my local market, (Perhaps once a month. It’s not cheap so it’s a treat.) or sardines, which are always available and inexpensive. All of the sardines I cooked for this post cost me Dhs. 7.50 or only two dollars total.

Count on at least three or four pan-fried sardines per person, depending on size for a main course. Two per person as an appetizer.

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs or 675g small sardines (sometimes I get six or eight, depending on size, for the two of us)
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

To serve:
Lemon or lime wedges
Chopped cilantro

Optional to serve: fresh French radishes

Method
Use a sharp knife with a pointy tip to cut open the belly of the fish.



Gently scrape out all the stuff inside the cavity and discard.

Rinse the sardine under cool tap water to clean it out completely. Repeat until all the sardines are clean inside.



Smaller sardines won’t have any hard scales but sometimes ones that are a little larger do. Run your knife blade sideways up from the tail to the head to check. If there are a few scales, put the sardine in your sink with some cool water and scrape upwards to remove them.

Lay the cleaned sardines on some dry paper towels and allow them to drain.

Salt liberally inside and out with some sea salt and a few good grinds of black pepper.



Drizzle olive oil in your non-stick pan and heat over a medium high heat.

When the oil is quite hot, but not quite smoking, put the sardines in, alternating head to tail so they fit in the pan. If you are cooking more than will fit comfortably, fry them in batches rather than crowding the pan.



Cook for 3-4 minutes on the first side, then gently turn the sardines over to the other.



Cook for another 3-4 minutes on the other side.

Turn again for perhaps one more brief minute on the first side. For fish as small as these sardines, that’s usually long enough, with a few minutes resting time after, to be fully cooked. If you have any doubts, poke a pointy knife in just behind the head to check. The flesh should be white and no longer translucent.

Transfer the sardines to a warm platter and scatter with chopped cilantro. Arrange a few lemon or lime wedges around the platter so each person can add some juice, if he or she so chooses. The radishes are optional, but we love their spicy crunch with bites of sardine that taste freshly of the sea.


Enjoy!

Check out all of the lovely whole fish or seafood recipes we've cooked for you today. We hope they will inspired you in the kitchen!



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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Beef Wellington Bites

A traditional Beef Wellington is made with whole tenderloin wrapped in puff pastry along with mushrooms duxelles and foie gras. These beef Wellington bites are the finger food version made with choux pastry puffs.

Let me start by saying that this dish was the result of leftovers of the very best kind. I made duxelles for a different dish and ended up sharing it for a group post celebrating mushrooms. And I had frozen choux pastry from a croquembouche challenge. When a weekend barbecue left me with a couple of grilled filet mignon steaks, it suddenly came to me that I had the makings of beef Wellington of a sort and just needed some foie gras or liver paté. Oh, we dined richly that night! I'd been waiting for the ideal time to share them when Sunday Supper announced a Finger Food for Dinner theme. Perfect!

Make sure you scroll down to see all the wonderful fork-free dishes we are sharing today, from appetizers through desserts. Many thanks to our host Christie from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures and her guiding light, Marion from Life Tastes Good.

Ingredients
For the duxelles:
3 oz or 85g shallots
1/3 cup or 75g butter
12 oz or 340g mushrooms
1 cup or 240ml dry white wine
1 cup or 240ml whipping cream
Sea salt
Black pepper
- Instructions here  You may not use the whole recipe. Stir the rest through some pasta. Or eat it with a spoon.

For the choux pastry:
1 cup or 125g plain flour
1 pinch salt
7 tablespoons or 100g butter
1 cup or 240ml water
4 eggs, at room temperature
- The dough makes about 50 small choux buns. They freeze well before baking!

For assembly: Makes 18 Beef Wellington Bites
6 oz or 170g grilled tenderloin steak
6 oz or 170g smooth duck or pork paté, at room temperature

Method
Make your duxelles ahead of time and store the bowl in the refrigerator. Do not leave it out as you work, because its volume will greatly decrease, spoon by spoon, if it's handy. That stuff is GOOD.

Now we'll make the choux pastry. Preheat your oven to 445°F or 230°C and prepare your baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper stuck down with a little non-stick spray. If you are feeling particularly anal, as I usually am, you can draw some circles to guide you on the underside of the parchment paper.

Sift together your flour and a pinch of salt and put the bowl right next to the stove in readiness.

In a medium pot, combine the butter and water and bring to the boil.



Pour the flour/salt mixture into the boiling water/butter all at once. Stir vigorously until the mixture forms a ball and pulls right away from the sides. This takes just a minute or two.



Now take the pot off of the stove and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well with your wooden spoon in between. With each addition, it looks like the egg won’t mix in and the dough starts to fall apart but keep mixing and after a couple of minutes of hard labor, the dough comes together again in one big lump and it’s time to add the next egg.


After the fourth egg has been thoroughly incorporated, put the dough into a piping bag with a large tip, about 1/2 in or 1 cm wide.

Pipe the soft dough on the parchment paper in 1 inch or 2.5cm circles about an equal measure apart from each other.


Poke down any pointy tops with a damp finger.


Bake in your preheated oven for 10 minutes then turn the temperature down to 400°F or 200°C and bake for a further 25 minutes. (OR you can now pop them in the freezer if you want to keep some for later.  You only need 18 for the Beef Wellington Bites. Once frozen, slip them off the parchment and into a Ziploc bag for storage. They are perfect for sweet or savory fillings and can be taken out of the freezer and baked as you need them.)

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Once they are completely cooled, store them in an airtight container until you are ready to serve.

When you are ready to serve, warm your duxelles and your tenderloin steaks. Slice the steaks thinly.



Split the choux buns open horizontally. Add a good spoon of the duxelles to the bottom. Top with sliced steak and finally, add a small slice of paté.



Put the top of the choux bun back on and repeat the process until all the Beef Wellington Bites are assembled.

Enjoy!



Do you enjoy Finger Foods for Dinner? I think they are great for movie nights but in our house we also always do all appetizers for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve as well.

I want everything on this list!

Pinky Appetizers
Manual Mains
Digit Desserts


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