Satiated...

I love good gyros, schwarma and doner kebab, but reproducing them at home...well, that's another story. Gina was wanting some meat today, and when I dropped by the grocery store, there were a couple packages of very thinly sliced beef top round on sale (30% off). I snatched them up. I coated the meat with my Turkish-style baharat, and marinated it in a simple mix of vegetable oil, onion, garlic and a little salt, that I put through the food processor 'til it was almost liquified. Sadly, it was too late in the day to cook the meat on the grill (I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for grilling in the dark), but it cooked quickly and well in the electric skillet, with just a little bit of oil. We ate the meat in pita bread, with shredded cabbage, and a sauce I made from labnah (a tasty, sour Arab cream cheese, made from yogurt), tahini, garlic, cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, and some spices. The sauce was tasty to begin with, but really made the sandwiches pop. We are very pleasantly full...dinner was sooo good!...and we have enough left over for another meal.

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year...

I shot my wife several options for tonight's dinner. She picked out the one that sounded best: tangerine beef. We used to get tangerine beef at a restaurant in Agua Fria, back when we lived in the San Bernardino Mountains. Orange chicken has always paled in comparison. Very thinly sliced, tender beef stir-fried (no crunchy batter here) in a not-too sweet sauce redolent of tangerines and a bit spicy with chilies. I found a recipe we thought looks good. I'll also fix some green beans stir-fried in a soy sauce-, garlic- and sesame-based sauce, and some sticky rice. Should be good.

Beef Rendang...

When it comes to their cooking, the Minangkabau of Sumatra are known for a dish called Rendang. I cooked up a batch tonight. Chunks of beef cooked for hours with coconut milk, a spice paste (made from shallots, garlic, fresh galangal, ginger and turmeric, dried Ancho and New Mexico chilies, toasted coconut and spices - nutmeg, coriander, cumin, black pepper and allspice), lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, daun salam leaves, and cinnamon sticks, until the sauce has almost completely evaporated, leaving a thick and luscious coating on the tender cubes of meat.

To accompany it, I cooked up some rice and made a batch of salad, acar. Shredded cabbage, carrots, cucumber, and onions tossed with a simple dressing of vinegar, water, sugar, salt and fresh ginger. Very tasty stuff.

Necessity is the Mother...

...of invention. Its one of those weeks where we are poverty-stricken a couple or three days before payday and we are having to work with what we've got in the cupboards and fridge. So...

I made a lovely red salsa this afternoon...tomatoes, onions, garlic, some of the juice from a partial can of chiles chipotle en adobo and some additional smoked paprika, red wine vinegar, and some of my homemade chile powder. We were out of hot sauce, which is a veritable crisis in our household.

I've got enough dough proofing to make (according to the recipe) about thirty homemade flour tortillas. Running out of tortillas is BAD around here...and homemade really are so much better than storebought. And we have a big batch of my homemade beans. With the tortillas, life will be good.

Some oven-baked steak fries tossed in olive oil and a simple rub of mine are finishing in the oven right now. We're going to top 'em with some cheddar cheese.

We often do some of our best cooking just before payday. Lol...

A Need to Simplify...

I started out with good intentions opening multiple blogs: My Den (for personal stuff, humor, etc), Kitchen (cooking, obviously), Garden (plants, obvious again), Training Hall (for my martial arts practice), and one for my interest in political, social, economic and environmental issues.

The first one to fold was the last one I listed. I absorbed it several months ago into The Sun Bear's Den. Since then, I opened another blog with Jonty Kershaw entitled Footsteps Along the Jade Road. In concert with my increased martial activity and the waning of the growing season, my blog, The Sun Bear's Garden, has been sitting idle. Its just too many blogs, so I am going to absorb it into my Kitchen and Den blogs: issues of growing food going to the Kitchen, other gardening issues moving into the Den.

Kebabs and Brats...

We just finished a really tasty Turkish dinner of adana kebabi and cacik on pide, with a side dish of patates bastisi. The kebabs are simple - ground beef flavored with a kofte spice mix (paprika and cayenne, black pepper, cumin, oregano and mint) and more mild-to-medium ground chile pepper, held together with egg whites. The cacik is that familiar Middle Eastern salad of yogurt, grated cucumber, mint and garlic. In this instance, I made it with labneh, the rather sour, creamy Middle Eastern cheese, which really took it up to another level. A whole-wheat pide bread was a great foil for the two. Patates bastisi is a baked dish of potatoes, onions, garlic, olives, parsley and tomatoes flavored with olive oil, vinegar, oregano, and cumin. We are nice and sated.

The other night, we had beer-soaked bratwursts on whole wheat buns, with quick-pickled onions flavored with dill, and some lovely boxty cakes, or patties, made with mashed potatoes, cabbage, scallions and bacon and pan-fried 'til nice and brown. Good comfort food. Gina and our son have both decided brats are a new favorite.

Good For What Ails You!...

The cure of mothers all over the world...chicken soup. Gina has been sick today, so I decided to make her some. I decided on Soto Ayam, the chicken soup of Indonesia. When it really comes down to it, many of the most common seasonings in SE Asian cooking are powerful phytomedicinals, and this soup is full of them.

For my version, I browned chicken thighs in vegetable oil, then added water, coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, half of an onion, half a fresh lime, some thick slices of ginger and galangal, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and let it all simmer for a while. In the meantime, I prepared a rempah, or spice paste, from shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and fresh turmeric, almonds, coriander, cumin, and caraway seeds, and white peppercorns. This got put through the processor and fried in oil for a few minutes, then dumped into the stock. I shredded the chicken thighs, and put them back in the broth with a bunch of fresh, very thin egg noodles. To serve it, each diner places a selection of accompaniments in their bowl then pours some broth, chicken and noodles on top. I had a selection of fresh bean sprouts, shredded napa cabbage, chopped celery and scallions, fried onions, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), and Sriracha hot sauce, for us.

The broth was rich and savory, and everything worked very well together. Yummy! And its already breaking up Gina's congestion a bit, has her breathing more freely, and just generally feeling a bit better. I suspect we'll be having this soup again. It'd be great for entertaining, too.

Xmas Dinner...

Dinner was good. The company has gone. We are sated and tired. Everything was tasty. I basically used the sauce from my macaroni & cheese recipe for the Au Gratin Potatoes, and the cheesy topping browned beautifully. Gina decided this batch of BBQ Beans was her favorite of the ones I have made. I thought beans with a bit of a peach overtone would go well with the peach-glazed ham. They were really simple...

Easy Peachy BBQ Beans

3 36-ounce cans pork & beans, drained

1-1/2 to 2 cups BBQ sauce of choice

3/4 to 1 cup peach preserves

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

A handful of bacon odds & ends, or scraps

Combine everything well in a crockpot, turn on high heat, and cover. When the beans reach a boil, crack the lid so that moisture can gradually escape. Cook for several hours, or all day, until the beans have thickened. Serve.

Christmas Eve Dinner...

I am feelin' fat and happy right about now. We just finished eating homemade beef taquitos (with enchilada sauce for dipping), Mexican-style red rice and our favorite holiday salad - a Moroccan mix of romaine, oranges, dates and toasted almonds, with a dressing of orange and lemon juice, orange blossom water, honey and cinnamon (from one of Paula Wolfert's cookbooks). I can't eat another bite.

Gina's made a bunch of truffles - a batch of maple and one of chocolate - and a couple batches of rice crispy treat balls - one with peanut butter and chocolate, the other chocolate. She's still got pies (pumpkin, buttermilk and chocolate mousse) and fudge planned.

Tomorrow will be a peach-glazed ham, bbq beans, au gratin potatoes, green beans, rolls...a big Xmas spread. We're having company tomorrow. There'll be nine of us, total.

Food for a Dark and Stormy Night...

We find ourselves a bit tight financially this weekend, what with various expenses we've had recently and the holidays, so its been a time for ingenuity. We're also getting ready for some major changes in the way we eat...we'd like to be healthier. Knowing what stores we have in the house...a definite surplus of beans, peas and lentils, flour and pasta, rice and couscous, potatoes from our garden, lots of onions, boxes of frozen spinach, dried fruit, nuts, canned tomatoes and corn...guided my choices. My instinct was Middle-Eastern. I looked at three or four books and ended up with Ghillie Başan's The Middle Eastern Kitchen and a warming Iranian bean soup, along with a loaf of my wife and son's delightful homemade bread. I made a few adjustments for what we had in the house...no lamb, as in the original recipe, chicken stock instead of water, and dried figs standing in for dried prunes...

ÂB GHOOSHTE FASL

1/2 cup dried, skinned fava beans (the small Egyptian variety is ideal)
1/2 cup dried white beans (navy, great northern or limas)
1/2 cup dried black-eyed peas (or chickpeas)
1/2 cup yellow split peas
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
8 cups stock or water (I used chicken, but beef or lamb would work)
2/3 cup chopped, dried fruit (I used Mission figs, but prunes, apricots, dates, raisins, peaches or apples would work)
1 14.5-ounce can petite diced tomatoes
4 potatoes, peeled and cut in 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons dried parsley (or a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley)
1 teaspoon dried Saigon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
Sea salt, to taste

• Pour 6 cups boiling water over the fava beans and white beans. Soak for 2 hours.
• Add the black-eyed peas to the beans and continue to soak for 2 more hours.
• Place the soaked beans and peas, lentils, chopped onion, and stock in a large stockpot. Bring to the boil over high heat, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 hour.
• Add the dried fruit, tomatoes, potatoes, dried parsley (if using), cinnamon, black pepper, coriander and turmeric to the pot. Raise heat to medium-high and return to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 more hour.
• Taste for seasoning and add salt as required. If using fresh parsley, add at this time. Serve.

It would be traditional to add some cubed lamb or beef. One could add a box of frozen spinach. Rice, barley or pasta would work well. Traditional accompaniments are a salad plate of fresh herbs, chopped radishes, and pickles. If I'd had whole wheat flour (which I hadn't realized we were out of...lol), I would have prepared some hushva naan, the pebbled, yeasted flat bread of the Iranians, but the homemade bread worked quite well. Next time. The soup was delightfully warm and filling, and Gina loved it. She considers it one of her favorite soups, which warmed me a little more.

Last Night...

...it was a dark and stormy night. Freezing rain. Yuck. But we knew this was coming, so I planned for something warm and filling and comforting. In this instance...my beef stew. Inspired, originally, by the classic Flemish beef stew. I cook browned, cubed beef and almost an equal weight of sliced onions all day in a crockpot with a couple bottles of porter (instead of a Belgian-style beer), beef consomme, a little bit of cider vinegar and sugar, and seasonings (bay leaves, black pepper, thyme, parsley and juniper). After hours of simmering in the crockpot, the beef is falling apart tender, and the onions have nearly melted into the delightful stewing liquid, which turns a dark brown color and starts thickening. It is wonderful, rich and savor. We served it atop egg noodles, as I didn't feel like making mashed potatoes, the other carb of choice for this dish. I think spaetzle would work well, too.

I wanted to make Gina a dessert, too, but I wanted it to be easy. I did some looking around online, and decided to modify the Nestles(TM) golden brownies recipe. The first thing I did was drop the chocolate chips from the recipe. Chocolate is my craving, not hers. Then, I tripled the vanilla extract, because she loves vanilla. It is her preferred ice cream flavor to this day. I decided a little bit of ground mace would be a good thing, too. I went to the kitchen and started gathering ingredients. !!*#@&%@!! We didn't have nearly enough brown sugar for the brownies. Ahhh! Gina had gotten a Taste of Home magazine in the mail yesterday. In it, a reader had written in with a white sugar-molasses mix as a brown sugar substitute! Serendipity. I surged ahead and whipped up a batch. They finished baking a few minutes before dinner was ready...just in time for us to have a warm brownie before dinner, actually. Lol. Very tasty. The molasses-vanilla-mace trio end up creating a flavor somewhat reminiscent of butterscotch and toffee and molasses cookies all at the same time. They are even better today, a bit chewy and rich, but not super sweet. They cooked up a bit darker than golden brownies. I think the gal in the magazine went a little heavier handed with molasses than the sugar companies actually do, but it all worked out: Gina has a new all-time favorite brownie.

Tonight. Well, tonight is going to be my creamy macaroni and cheese, and a pile of fresh steamed broccoli...

Leftovers? Turkey Salad Sandwiches a la Grecque...

I took the last of the leftover turkey breast tonight and shredded/chopped it, along with celery, yellow onion, pickled peppers, feta cheese and garlic. For the dressing, I mixed mayo with some sour cream, tahini and a Greek vinaigrette. We had them on onion rolls, with french fries on the side. They were very tasty. We'll likely have them again. Chicken or tuna would work, too.