Eggplant & Sweet Potato Green Curry

I found this in one of those bookstore bargain table over-sized cookbooks--"The Complete Stir-Fry Cookbook." It is a wonderful recipe that features a couple ingredients I have been wanting to work into our diet more often: eggplant and sweet potato. I will have to add a picture next time we make this, as it is all gone now. The lime juice and zest make for a zippy, fresh flavor. The purple eggplant, orange sweet potato, and green cilantro are quite colorful together, too.

Prep time: 25 minutes
Total cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 4-6

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1-2 tbsp green curry paste
1 1/2 c coconut milk
1 med-lrg sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 med eggplant, quartered and sliced
2 tbsp fish sauce (we like the 3 crabs brand)
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp lime zest
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1/2 c loosely packed cilantro leaves

DIRECTIONS

Heat the oil in a large wok and stir-fry the onion and curry paste for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the coconut milk and 1 cup of water to the wok. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the sweet potato and cook for 6 minutes. Add the eggplant to the wok and cook for 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender, stirring often. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, zest, and sugar. Gently toss contents of wok. Sprinkle with the cilantro leaves and serve.

Note: The recipe originally called for 6 kaffir lime leaves to be added with the eggplant. They are not available very often at my local international grocery store, so I omitted them and though the finished product was still wonderful.

NUTRITION PER SERVING (6)

Protien 3 g; Fat 16 g; Carbs 14 g; Fiber 3 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; 205 calories

Hummus Kalaya

Julie has already posted one hummus recipe from the Cheese Factory that uses canned garbonzos. You can see that recipe here. The recipe here uses dry beans and is from the Chicago Diner.

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1/2 pound dried garbanzo beans (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 quarts water
1/2 coarsely chopped green onion
1/2 cup parsley
3 Tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1-2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

Bring the beans and water to boil, and simmer 1 1/2 hours until they are very tender. The softer they are the creamier the hummus will be. Drain the beans, reserving about 1 cup of the liquid. Place the beans in a food processor with the reserved liquid and remaining ingredients, and process until smooth.

Note: There are a few ways to speed up the cooking time on the garbanzo beans. A quick search online found suggestions to: add 1/2-1 tsp of baking soda to the cooking water; soak the beans for 12 hours before simmering in the soaking water; and use a pressure cooker. I also found suggestions to add a postage stamp sized piece of kombu (dried kelp used heavily in Japanese cooking, particularly in making dashi stock) to the pot while cooking. It will speed up cooking too, as well as helping to eliminate gas from the beans and making them easier to digest.

To make the veggies:

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot
1 small zucchini
1 red or yellow bell pepper
1 medium red onion
1/4 small head of red cabbage
2 handfuls of fresh spinach
1 rounded Tbsp dried oregano
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cut all veggies to similarly sized matchsticks. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large cast iron skillet. Add all ingredients except the spinach and red cabbage. Cook until the veggies have started to soften and have a little color. You need to make sure not to stir them too frequently if you want color to develops. Now add the spinach and cabbage and cook just a couple minutes  until the spinach has wilted.

Arranging everything for serving
Pita bread can be heated in the oven or on the stove top in a cast iron skillet. Cut them in 6 pieces and arrange in a ring on your serving piece with the points facing out. Arrange the veggies to form a sort of next in the middle of the pita and then spoon hummus into the center. If desired, you can further dress the plate with a quick drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of paprika and/or chopped parsley.

Hot and Steamy Salmon

 


So I was looking for super food recipes today and found several for salmon. Most of them were grilled though, and I was not quite committed enough to this endeavor to fire up the grill for the season just yet. I always feel like I over cook fish on the grill or in the broiler anyway. Something made me think, "poached," and then I remembered we have a bamboo steamer. It gets a fair amount of use, but mostly for steaming dumplings. So I consulted Google and found several tips for cooking fish in a bamboo steamer. This is the recipe I went with:


Cook time: 10 Minutes
Prep time: 10 Minutes

Ingredients

* 2 4-6oz Salmon Fillets
* 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 2 scallions
* 4 slices ginger
* 1 lemon
* 2 tsp sesame oil
* Pepper to taste

Directions

* Rinse and pat dry the salmon fillets.  Drizzle soy sauce,  salt, and pepper over the fish.  Sprinkle with sliced scallions and ginger.

* Cut the lemon in half and then cut half a lemon into thin slices.

* Use about 1 section of your bamboo steamer (about 1 inch tall).  Place either some cabbage, butter lettuce, or banana leaf down on the steamer and lay the fish on top.  Place the sliced lemon on top of the fish.  Squeeze the remaining juice from 1/2 the lemon all over the top.

* Steam the fish for 8-10 minutes by placing the bamboo steamer over boiling water in a wok or similar dish.

* Remove from heat and drizzle the sesame oil over the fillets.  Serve hot over rice, bok choy, or thin noodles. (I skipped the sesame oil described here and opted for a teriyaki sauce instead--see below)


View this recipe at its original site here.

I put fresh broccoli in the second steamer basket and already had brown rice going in our rice cooker. To dress it up a little, I pressed the rice into a small bowl to use it as a mold and then flipped it over onto the plate. I then sprinkled some black sesame seeds on the rice for further decoration. On the side, I made a simple maple teriyaki sauce. It was delicious on everything; the rice, the broccoli, and the salmon.

Here's the recipe for the sauce:

2 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp minced fresh ginger

Combine all ingredients and stir well.

Christmas Cookies 2012!

Cookie Request List:

Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
The orange in these cookies and the chewiness makes these unbelievable! They spread lots on the pan!

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with lemon glaze
My mom said the cakiness of these reminded her of the black and white cookies from the bakery. This batter looks too thin when going on the pan but puffs up into these little sweet spots. I would make them smaller next time. Love the lemon in these!

Classic Spritz
The key to these is NOT to over cook them. They are so little the timing on these needs to be closely watched.

Almond Crescents

Rum Balls My personal favorite!

Pecan Tarts

Snickerdoodles Katie swears by this recipe!

Also making vanilla caramels with seasalt and molasses caramels thanks to Michelle!
We learned this year that the molasses caramels need to boil much more than a soft ball, almost to a hard crack stage. We doubled each recipe to fill 1 jelly roll pan!

Dangerous Almond Cream & Pear Puff

This recipe was adapted from Puff-Pastry-Tart-Filled-with-Almond-Cream-at Epicurious with a few important changes. Super easy. Super delicious. Dangerously good.

5oz (half a can) pure almond paste
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 (17 1/4-oz) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed about 40 min 

2 T egg white

3 ripe pears, sliced 1/4 in thick slices

Preheat oven to 450°F.
Purée almond paste, granulated sugar, butter, and a pinch of salt in a food processor until combined.
Add 1 egg, vanilla, and almond extract and purée until consistent.
Butter parchment paper and place on cookie sheet. Top with 1 puff pastry.
Use rolling pin to stretch out dough slightly to approximately 9x11in.
Roll out 2nd puff pastry piece to the same size.
Brush a border on the edges of both puff pieces with egg white to help them stick together.
Mound almond cream in center, spread evenly.
Place a layer of pear slices evenly spread across the puff.
Cover with 2nd puff piece and press the egged edges together lightly.
Make several small slits all the way through pastry, at about 3-inch intervals, to create steam vents. 


Bake in lower third of oven until puffed and golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Homemade apple pie perfection!

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/perfect-apple-pie-recipe-double-crusted-thanksgiving-dessert.html
Next time, I would add more cinnamon and ground cloves (something that I just remembered from baking my first apple pie with my mom in 2nd grade for a Girl Scout event!)
The apple texture and sweetness is just to my liking using Braeburn Apples.

Finnish Bread

This is not quite a full recipe for Grandma's whole wheat molasses bread since she cooks by feel not by measuring but this is close to the real thing! My brother Don said last time the recipe didn't turn out too well but he will try again!

4 c warm water
1/2 cake of yeast
     Dissolve.
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
2/3 c molasses
5 c all purpose flour
9 t shortening
     Add cup of flour or T shortening in one at a time working it in we'll as you go.
Then add 4c all purpose flour
    ( recipe weighed out to 950 grams of all purpose flour total )