Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Spinach pancake with yogurt sauce


Yogurt
Lime juice
Chopped fresh mint leaves/Coriander Garlic, very finely minced
Chopped spinach
Chopped onion
Butter
All purpose flour
Eggs - 2
Milk - 1/3 cup 
Oil
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Salt
Ground black pepper
Recipe
In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, lime juice, lime zest, garlic, and mint leaves. Put in the refrigerator - allowing flavors to combine - until you're ready to serve the pancakes. You may need to give the sauce a little stir before serving, as the lime juice likes to separate out.


Wash the spinach and if necessary remove some of the stems. Then put the spinach in a large sautee pan with a sprinkling of water, cover, and cook over medium heat (stirring a few times) until the spinach is wilted. This will only take a couple of minutes. Plop the cooked spinach into a colander and let it cool down so you can handle it.


Once it is cool, use your hands and squeeze out as much of the liquid from the spinach as possible. Then chop the spinach up well and set aside.


Heat your tablespoon of butter in a sautee pan over medium-high until it is foaming. Stir in the chopped onion and cook until it has gotten nicely browned. Then turn the heat down very low and allow to cook for about 3-5 more minutes, stirring occasionally, to get them a bit caramelized.


In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, eggs, milk, 2 Tbs. olive oil, cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper. Stir in the spinach and onion until all combined. This should give you a rather thick and quite green batter. (For fluffier pancakes, you can separate the eggs, whisking in the yolks with the other ingredients, then beating the whites until stiff and folding them in as the last ingredient after everything else is combined. I like the pancakes both ways.)


Pour enough olive oil into a large sautee pan to coat the bottom. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil is shimmering. Drop heaping spoonfuls (about 2 Tbs.) of batter into the pan, then press each mound down with a spatula to make smallish, flat pancakes. Cook until the bottom sides have turned golden brown, then flip and cook another couple minutes. Transfer the pancakes to a serving platter (if needed, keep warm in a 200F oven) and continue frying - using more olive oil as needed- until all the batter is used up. 


Serve the pancakes accompanied with the mint-yogurt sauce for generously smearing them with.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Roasted radish and potato salad

Ingredients

Small red radishes - diced
Potato - diced
Onion - sliced
Carrots (optional) - diced
Bell peppers (optional) - diced
Lettuce - chopped
Olive oil
Salt
Sugar
Black pepper
Paprika
Yogurt
Lemon juice

Recipe

Mix all vegetables except lettuce with olive oil, salt and black pepper
Place potatoes and carrots in one layer on a baking dish
Bake for 10 minutes
Put radishes and onions in one layer and bake for 10-20 minutes
Mix yogurt, lemon juice, salt, sugar and paprika
Put oil in a small pan
Add cumin and fennel seeds
Wait till oil gets the flavor
Cool oil and seeds
Now mix everything and put it in fridge

Fish Pasilade

Fish fillet
Parsley leaves (dry or fresh) - enough to make a paste
Thyme
Garlic cloves
Lemon zest or lemon juice
Salt
Paprika
Vegetables

Recipe

Make a paste with parsley, thyme, lemon zest, garlic, salt and paprika
Put all vegetables on a baking plate
Mix paste and fish
Place fishes on vegetables
Bake for 30 minute at 450F followed by 30 min at 350F and 2 min in broiler

(lamb can be made with this paste but then it would be better to marinate lamb pieces with the paste overnight)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Chickpea pilaf

INGREDIENTS

Rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cup
Chicken broth - 2 cup
Raisin mix - 1 cup
Cooked chickpea - 1 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tb
Red chilli flakes - 1 tb
Oil
Salt
Pinch of sugar
Crushed black pepper

RECIPE

Put cumin seeds and chilli flakes in hot oil
Add cooked chickpea and raisins
Add rice, salt and pepper
Mix everything with spices
Add broth and water
Wait until rice is cooked and water is evaporated


P.S amount of water may vary depending on rice. It's better to add rice and water in 1:2 ratio and then you can add more water if needed

Lentil Chicken Soup

Red lentils - 1cup
Chopped onions - 1
Chopped garlic - 2 cloves
Diced tomato - 2
Diced potato - 1
Diced carrots - 1/2 cup
Corn - 2 fistful
Cream - 1/2 cup (butter and sour cream)
Cilantro - for garnishing
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Lime juice
Cubed Chicken
Italian seasoning

Fry onion, garlic and chicken in hot oil
Add tomato, carrot, potato, lentil and corn
Add water/broth, salt, Italian seasoning
Wait until veggies are tender and lentil is completely cooked (wait for 3 whistles and 10 minute in low flame if using pressure cooker)
Add cream, lime juice
Sprinkle chopped cilantro and a pinch of pepper

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Potage permentier (French onion potato soup)

Courtesy - Julia Child's mastering the art of French cooking

Ingredients

1cup diced potato
3/4 cup sliced onion
0.7 lit water
Salt to taste (1/4 tb)
1 tb softened butter
1 tb minced parsley or chives

Recipe

Simmer all vegetables and salt together partially covered for 40-50 minute until all of them are tender (or cook in pressure cooker for 5 minutes, release pressure and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes)


Mash the vegetables and check salt
Add butter and simmer before serving
Decorate with herbs