Rajmah - Sara's Indian Chili

So I guess I'm on a bit of a bean kick here. We were over at our friends Sara and Kiran's house not too long ago celebrating Sara's (a different Sara) birthday. Kiran's family is Indian so we were pretty sure that we'd be treated to some Indian deliciousness. Ironically, the Saras made this, not Kiran. Paddy and I were blown away at the flavor...I was even more surprised when Sara sent me the recipe and I realized how EASY it is!!

1/4 cup chopped fresh ginger
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large green chili, chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (double if you don't use green chili)
8 oz can of tomato sauce

1 cup chicken broth
3 cups boiled red kidney beans or 30 oz can of red kidney beans, undrained
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a deep saucepan. Add ginger, garlic, onion, green chili and let sizzle for one minute. 

2. Add the tomato sauce, salt and remaining spices and cook for an additional five minutes, stirring frequently. 

3. Add the kidney beans with water or canned red kidney beans (undrained) plus 1 cup of water, and tomatoes. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and let cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Garnish with cilantro.

4. Serve over rice or with naan. A dollop of plain yogurt on top is heavenly.

Over the Top Potato (and Cauliflower) Soup

My husband is Irish. He loves potatoes. He likes them boiled whole, in their skins. He likes them served on a side plate and he carefully peels the skins and eats them like they're chocolate. I definitely don't love potatoes as much as he does. I do try to make an effort to make them, but it often means mashed, fried, hassleback, or, SOUP. And, par for the course, this potato soup has some extra ingredients that jazz up the potato quite a bit. So much so that this soup got Paddy's ultimate 5-star rating of "Spectacular Bacular!"

*This recipe calls for bacon. I'm very sorry for those of you who do/cannot eat bacon for this is the most important ingredient of this soup. Thick cut is best. Note the two options in #1. I always keep a ramekin of bacon fat in my fridge and use it instead of oil or butter when the occasion calls for it. Great for added flavor in this soup and makes for some really yummy eggs. Obviously, not the best option for daily cooking :)

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 russet potatoes, peeled, diced
32 oz chicken broth
A few sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup milk
2 tbsp flour
1/2 head of cauliflower florets
1/4 cup sour cream
3 slices of bacon
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Bunch of chives, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Line a cookie sheet with foil.

2. Cook the bacon a large dutch oven. Remove and leave at least 2 tbsp bacon fat in the pan. Alternatively, you can skip this step but use bacon fat instead of oil to fry the veggies. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and potatoes to the pot and let soften for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Mix the cauliflower florets with a bit of olive oil and salt. Place on the cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 30 mins or until lightly browned.

4. Add the chicken broth to the pot with the thyme and bay leaf. It should just cover the veggies, add more if needed. Bring to a boil and then turn it down to medium to simmer.

5. Mix the milk and the flour in a small bowl and add to the pot. Stir well.

6. When cauliflower is done, remove from oven and place in a blender with about 3/4 of the soup. Be careful not to fill your blender to high and use a towel instead of the cover. Blend until smooth.

7. Add the blended soup back into the pot with the chunky soup, add the sour cream and mix well.

8. Serve with a pile of bacon, shredded cheddar, and chives on top.

Smokey Homemade Baked Beans

Ok, I know what you're thinking...BAKED BEANS? Yup! Something rarely not eaten out of a can but I can assure you, a little extra effort is worth it. I saw this recipe on The Bitten Word, one of my favorite food blogs. They got it from Saveur. These beans are pretty awesome. As awesome as a bowl of beans could be. This is good for a long cold Sunday because while relatively hassle free, they do take a bit of time (6 hours). Your house will smell glorious...until about an hour after you eat them. So it's a good thing there's plenty of delicious aroma to mask the frightful tooting that will ensue.

We paired the beans with some grilled brats and it was glorious.

1 lb dried navy beans
1 medium yellow onion, ends trimmed, left whole
4 whole cloves
8 oz bacon, cut into 1/4" slices
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp dry mustard powder

1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp dark rum, if you have it
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring the beans and 10 cups of water to a boil in a large dutch oven over high heat and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover with a lid and let sit for 1 1/2 hrs. Drain the beans.

2. Heat oven to 250.

3. Place the beans back in the dutch oven.

4. Stud the onion with the cloves and place in with the beans along with the bacon, syrup, molasses, dry mustard, and 3 cups of boiling water. Stir to combine.

5. Cover pot and place in the oven. Cook for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

6. Stir in ketchup and vinegar. Cover again and return to oven for another 3 hours.

7. Stir in rum, season with salt and pepper.

Lemon Earl Grey Bars

I have to admit, I'm not usually a big fruity/citrusy dessert person. If I'm gonna indulge, I usually want chocolate. I tried these squares over the summer and was pleasantly surprised. I loved them and so did the gang at the office. This recipe is from Cooking Light and it's a twist on an old classic.

Crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tea bags of Earl Grey, divided
1/8 tsp salt
8 TB chilled butter cut into pieces

Filling:
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup granulated sugar
2 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp lemon zest
3 eggs
1 TB powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. To make crust, line an 8" baking dish with foil that extends 2" beyond the sides. Coat foil with cooking spray. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, 1 tsp tea, and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles a course meal. Press into bottom of dish and bake at 350 for 19 minutes or until lightly browned.

3. To prepare filling, microwave lemon juice on high for 30 seconds. Add remaining tea bag to juice and steep for 10 minutes. Squeeze tea bag dry and discard.

4. Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, zest and eggs and add to the sugar mixture. Whisk until well combined.

5. Remove crust from the oven, pour filling onto hot crust and bake for 23 minutes or until set.

6. Cool pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from dish by lifting the tin foil. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Kettle Corn - at home!

Cover your eyes!

I know, the idea of being able to make Kettle Corn at home is quite scary...for me it's disastrous. Craft fairs, football games, festivals - I wander them until I find the guy with the large homemade smoking steel vat. The glutton that I am, I always go for the biggest size. By the time I've OD'ed, I'm elbow deep in the long plastic bag and wishing I'd never see the stuff again. I'm now prohibited from buying it at Sox games - apparently Paddy can't handle my manic switch from utter glory to desperate sickness. Happens every time.

Ok, now peek through your fingers - here's how amazingly easy it is. I've long been a popcorn-on-the-stove maker - the microwave stuff is just too gross, sorry. This is a nice treat and a break from the usual.

1/2 cup popcorn
3 tbsp of canola oil or enough to lay a thick coating on the bottom of your medium sized pot
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp salt

1. Heat a medium sized pot and the oil over medium high heat.

2. Once hot, pour in the popcorn and the sugar. Put a lid on it. Give it a couple of good, hard shakes immediately.

3. Set back down on the stove and let it sizzle for 10-15 seconds with the top ajar. Close the lid and shake it again. Continue until the popcorn is popped.

*Once it stops popping - immediately pour it into a bowl and sprinkle the salt. If you leave it in the pot and/or on the stove, the sugar will caramelize and you'll have a big mess to clean up.

PS: I just at the whole bowl ;)

BBQ Chicken Tacos with Blue Cheese Slaw

You all know I abuse the taco. If it can be squeezed into a tortilla, I'll try it. Here's a perfect example and these are actually great as tacos or on buns - as sliders would be great! I came across this recipe over the summer when I was helping my dear friends Kel and Chad 'use up' some of their CSA veggies. Little Hazel had just entered the world and she required much more attention than the produce. Thing is, there was a lot of it...and lots of eggplant and cabbage - not my strong points. But I wanted to make them some stuff that could sit in the fridge for a few days and be easy and quick to assemble when they needed it. These are delicious and a jazzy twist on what's often the same ole coleslaw.

For the Chicken:
You can do just about anything here. Grilled and shredded chicken works great. Or taken off a roast (roasted at home or one of the lil roasts you can buy already cooked at the store), or even boiled and shredded chicken (if you have to).

The key is a good BBQ sauce. From the bottle (yes, I know, shocking - I do buy a packaged sauce once and a while and this is worth it) Sweet Baby Rays is my favorite. But, making your own is even better - so check out this great recipe for Texas BBQ Sauce from an earlier post (and make those coffee rubbed burgers - they've been buried in the blog and need to be resurrected.)

Either way, have enough on hand for the number of people you need to feed.

For the Slaw (good recipe to cut in half but then again, you'll have the rest of the cabbage, so...):
3 cups green cabbage
3 cups red cabbage
2 cups carrots
3/4 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
3 tbsp grainy mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 blue cheese crumbles
1 tbsp parsley
1/2 tbsp oregano
salt and pepper

1. Shred the cabbage and carrots using your food processor. Or, for a finer consistency (which I prefer), put the cabbage in the food processor and pulse a few times or do half and half.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and mix. Pour over the cabbage/carrot mixture and stir together.

3. Cover with plastic and let sit for at least 2 hours in the fridge so that the flavors blend together.

4. When ready to eat, heat a large pan to medium. Toss in the chicken to heat it up a bit and mix in the BBQ sauce so it all gets nice and hot and saucy.

5. Heat your tortillas or buns, load 'em up and top with a good bit of the slaw. You'll never make coleslaw any other way again.

Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage

I love fried rice. I don't know whether it's the MSG or some other kind of supernatural ingredient or drug that Chinese restaurants put in it but it's like crack. Right? Just when you think you can't have any more...you always go back. Even the next morning, when it's cold in the fridge - it's there and you have to have it. Problem is, it usually leaves me with a serious stomach ache and too much guilt to handle. So I've been searching for a recipe to recreate that crackness at home. It's hard to achieve. But - Chinese sausage really helps. I'd never bought it or cooked it until last week and it's actually pretty easy to find in most grocery stores. I'm 100% hooked. You gotta try this recipe.

Here's the kicker - I adapted this recipe is from Brian Boitano. Yes, you heard me. The skater. Go figure ;)

1/4 cup canola oil, divided
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 shallot, finely diced
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 cups bok chok, finely diced
1/3 cup peas, still frozen or just thawed
2 links Chinese sausage, sliced or diced
3 green onions, chopped 
2 cups cooked white rice
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar

*There are a couple ways to do this - use leftover rice, or cook the rice and sausage when you make this. A technique that I found popular is to cook the rice and when it's got about 5-10 minutes left to steam, put the sausage slices (uncooked) on top of the rice and let them steam together. This cooks the sausage and allows the flavors to infuse the rice. It's yummy.

1. Heat 2 tbsp of canola oil in a wok or large pan over high heat. Add the beaten eggs and fry until just cooked. Transfer them to a plate.

2. Add the remaining oil, shallot, ginger, garlic, and bok choy and stir fry for a couple minutes.

3. Add the sausage (if not cooking over rice), the peas and green onions. And cook until sausage is cooked through.

4.  Add the rice, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. Stir fry until rice is hot (if using leftover rice).

5. Stir in the egg and serve.