Egg Puffs or Pattys

These are sooo very much a throw back to my childhood that the second I saw this recipe I had to try it. As far as I can tell, its mostly indians who have eaten these. I am going to look out for other recipes besides just egg and damn my stupid chicken allergy because chicken pattys were the shit.

The recipe is from this amazing blog again. I mostly followed the recipe w.r.t. the proportions, but unfortunately I got distracted chatting with mom and ended up overcooking the onions a tiny bit. Overall they were a bit spicy, but I thought they were delicious!!

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced 
• 1 tsp ground coriander 
• 1 tsp garam masala 
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin 
• 1/4 tsp hot chilli powder 
• 1/4 tsp pepper 
• 3 flakes garlic, grated (I just used ginger paste and garlic paste)
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated 
• 1 green chilly 
• 2 tomato, diced 
• 3/4 - 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tbsp light olive oil 
• Small handful fresh coriander (didn't have any)
• 4 medium sheets store bought puff pastry 
• 2 eggs, hard boiled

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F. 
2. Thaw out frozen pastry sheets.
3.  Hardboil, cool, peel and halve two eggs.
4.  In a pan, heat the oil, and add the diced onion. Fry on a medium to high heat for about 7 - 10 minutes, until a light gold colour and very soft. 
5. Add the ground coriander, garam masala, ground cumin, chilli powder and pepper and saute for about 2 minutes. 
6. Add the diced tomato and salt, and cook, stirring often for about 5 minutes, until the tomato is very squishy and the masala comes together in a gooey mass. 
7. Take off the heat. Leave to cool completely.  
8. The frozen puff pastry sheets work out well for one puff each. Place some masala, just off centre, then place an egg half on top of it. Add some more masala on top of the egg. Moisten all the edges using water, then fold over. Seal and place on a greased baking sheet, as above. Bake in the preheated oven for around 20 - 25 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden. Serve warm with a hot cup of chai. This recipe makes 4 puffs.

South Indian Style Biryani with tamarind and curry leaves

I'm not sure who originally wrote this recipe. A quick search of the interwebz suggests it was first posted in 2010 to about.com by Petrina Verma Sarkar. I found the recipe on facebook when a friend liked it on Ambika Pillai's facebook page. I was intrigued because it has tamarind and curry patta, which is weird in a biryani. I didn't use lamb because IMHO the biryani gets really heavy and since I am now allergic to chicken we ended up using pork. It was quite delicious!

I also deviated from the original recipe by using the pressure cooker to make the curry because the original version takes more than an hour and ain't nobody got time for that.

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork meat (We used a picnic ham chopped into 2" by 2" pieces)
• 2 tbsps garlic paste 
• 2 tbsps ginger paste 
• 3 tbsps sunflower/ canola/ vegetable cooking oil 
• 2 large red onions, chopped fine and I onion sliced finely
• 30-40 curry leaves 
• 2 green chillies (optional) 
• 2 tbsps coriander powder 
• 1 tbsp cumin powder 
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 
• 1 tbsp garam masala 
• 1 tsp salt (this is how much I use, you can add salt to suit your taste) 
• 1 cup hot water 
• 50 g ball of tamarind 
• 700 gms Basmati rice 
• 1 tsp salt

Method

1. Put the meat, garlic and ginger pastes in a large bowl and mix well to coat the meat with the pastes. Keep aside for 20 minutes. 
2. While the meat is marinating, heat (on medium temperature) the cooking oil (3 tbsps) in a large, deep pot/ pan. 
3. Add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent. Add the curry leaves and green chillies fry for 1 minute. 
4. Now add the powdered spices - coriander, cumin, turmeric, and garam masala powders. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning. 
5. Add the marinated meat now. Stir well and often and cook till the meat is browned. Add 1 1/2 cups of hot water, stir, cover, simmer heat and cook till meat is tender. Keep checking for this stage as you do not want the meat overcooked and soft. Instead, at this stage, I added in the tamarind, below and then added 2 cups of water and pressure cooked the meat for 25-30 minutes. I saved some of the tamarind and added it after the meat was cooked. I just wasn't sure the tamarind flavor would withstand the pressure cooking.
6. While the meat is cooking, make the tamarind puree: Put the tamarind in a plastic or glass bowl and pour 1/2 cup of hot water over it. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes. Now strain the tamarind and water mixture through a sieve (do not use a very fine sieve) into a bowl to get tamarind puree. Add this to the curry when you feel the meat is almost done. Stir well. 
7. Once the meat is cooked, keep it aside and prepare the rice. Put the rice in a sieve and wash under running water till the water runs clear. 
8. Now put it into a large deep cooking pot (preferably one with handles). Add enough water to fully cover the rice - at least 4" over the surface of the rice. Add 1 tsp of salt to taste. Set the rice up to boil. Cook till almost done. To determine when it has reached that stage, remove a few grains from the pot and press between your thumb and forefinger. The rice should mostly mash but will have a firm whitish core. Turn off the fire.
9.  Strain through a colander and keep aside. 
10. Heat 3 tbsps of oil in a pan and fry 2 of the onions till caramalized - golden brown. Drain and keep aside on paper towels for later use. Grease a deep dish or pot (which has a nicely fitting cover). We used a dutch oven. 
11. Now evenly layer the cooked rice, meat (and its gravy) in the dish/ pot, to form at least 2 sets of layers (rice-meat-rice-meat-rice). 
12. Garnish with the previously caramalized onions. Cover the dish tightly. If your dish does not have a cover use 2 layers of aluminium foil (shiny side of both layers pointing down towards the rice) and secure on to dish with baking string. We just popped on the dutch oven lid. Since I use a Handi (a deep pot with a nicely fitting lid) which has a flat rim, I seal it by making a firm dough with flour and water and pressing this over the joint of the Handi's rim and cover. 
13. Now put the dish/ pot in a pre-heated oven set at 350 F/ 180 C/ Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes. We did 30-35 minutes since our curry was more liquid than hers probably was. Only open when you are ready to eat. The way to serve Biryani is to gently dig in with a spoon so you get through the layers.
14.  I serve my Biryani with Raita and Kachumbar salad.

Chinese dumplings, Jiaozi, 饺子

We used to eat these all the time when we had dim sum and these were also available frozen pretty much everywhere in the states, so we didn't miss them until we moved here to the land of cold, ice and NO DUMPLINGS!!!

Apparently the chinese Jiaozi, japanese gyoza and nepalese momos are all cousins in one big, delicious, east asian, meat wrapped yumminess family (sez wikipedia)...with, of course, regional flavour variations. This makes me want to try making momos next. And tho traditionally momos are made with water buffalo meat, something tells me its the spices that really make the momo. 

We tried two different variations of the Jiaozi. The first was the very traditional recipe which uses ground pork and lots of shredded napa cabbage (and ginger and garlic and so on). These were D-licious and probably a lot lighter than the version we finally settled on (all meat, no cabbage), but the napa cabbage released so much water that we had to keep stopping to drain water from the stuffing mixture and I suspect we lost a lot of the soy and other flavor in the water we poured out. These cabbage and pork dumplings were fantastic, but objectively slightly less tasty than the final, all pork version and also more difficult to make (because of the water release). We did find a really good youtube video (thanks runnyrunny999!) in which the cook actually squeezes the napa before using it, and seems to have much fewer problems. We just drained the water by pouring if off, I guess we need to be quite aggressive if we try these again.

We also used the youtube video to learn how to properly fold the dumplings and cook the dumplings, it really is an excellent video. 

The version we finally settled on is apparently more Hong Kong style (Video here recipe here from all recipes). The recipe text and video seem to diverge pretty far from one another in terms of the truth though. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of chopped garlic chives when the lady clearly adds what looks closer to a cup. So we kind of made up our own recipe based on the video. Below.

Uncooked dumplings to show the shape and pleating

Ingredients

• 500g ground pork
• 1.5- 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2.5- 3 tbsp minced ginger
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2.5- 3 tbsp sesame oil
• one egg
• 10-12 stalks of garlic chives
• ~50 or 60 dumpling wrappers
• oil for cooking
• chilli flakes in chilli oil or your favourite dipping sauce

Preparation

1. Make sure the dumpling wrappers are thawed. Room temp is probably better but we've frequently microwaved the frozen stack of wrapper in cases of dumpling panic. Repeated nuking at a low to medium power for 45 seconds each usually work out ok. Watch out for the edges of the wrappers drying out. Wet your finger with water and run around the edges of the stack to keep the wrappers from cracking on the edges. Thawing at RT does not have this problem. 
2. Chop the garlic chives finely and add into a large bowl with the minced ginger, garlic, pork, soy, sesame oil and egg. Use your hands to mash all of this together till well mixed. 
3. Take a dumpling wrapper and wet the outer rim with water and add about a teaspoon of mixture to the middle.
4. Fold the two halves of the wrapper together, making pleats on one side and pinching the wet wrapper into the other side firmly so the two sides seal together. runnyrunny999's video demonstrates this really well. This leads to dumplings with one flat-ish side and one curved side. This shape makes it easier to cook (IMHO)
5. Work through till you either run out of dumplings or mixture. 
6. In a preferably non-stick pan, heat up oil and add the dumplings. Cook for a minute or two on medium-high heat and then add in a cup of hot water. Cover the pan and wait for 7-10 minutes or till the water has evaporated.
7. Remove the cover and after about 30sec to 1 minute, shake the pan, the dumplings should move free of the pan. This usually means they are done. If using a non non-stick pan, wait till the water has all evaporated and then give it a minute or two for the skins to crisp up again and then use a spatula to gently coax the dumplings off the pan. 
8. We usually eat them with just the chilli in chilli oil paste, but honestly, any good dipping sauce will do. 
9. These also freeze really well. We just pop a bunch of them into ziploc bags and try not to put them one on top of the other and freeze them. 

Red Velvet Cake

I got this from here, and it turned out quite delicious. Since I only had one pie foil I only made half the recipe (single layer), but it was delish nonetheless.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 330 g oil
• 240 g buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 50 g red food coloring
• 300 g all purpose flour
• 400 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
3. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
4. Place all the dry ingredients in your food processor and stir together.
5. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
6. Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
9. Then make the frosting.
10. Frost!

Wallenbergerare

This recipe for Wallenbergers we got from a Swedish recipe blog, here. It's probably the pinnacle of husman cooking, and even though it's maybe not the leanest of meals it's oh-so-tasty!

Ingredienser

• 500 gram  kalvfärs
• 4 st  äggula(or)
• 4 dl  vispgrädde
• salt
• vitpeppar
• 1 dl  ströbröd
• smör

Tillagning

1. Alla ingredienser till biffarna bör vara väl kylda. Lägg färsen i en matberedare (med kniven monterad). Lägg i äggulor och kryddor. Sätt på locket och mixa färsen en stund. Tillsätt grädden försiktigt, i en fin stråle medan mixern fortfarande går. Se till att all grädde blandas in, men var försiktig så att inte färsen får gå för länge i mixern. Risken är att temperaturen höjs och att färsen spricker, dvs delar sig.
2. Lägg hälften av ströbrödet på en tallrik. Doppa händerna i kallt vatten och forma biffar av den lösa färsen. Lägg biffarna på fatet med ströbröd, strö resterande bröd över biffarna. Ströbrödet ska helst vara gjort på färskt inkråm av vitt matbröd.
3. Stek biffarna i smör på låg värme. Eventuellt kan de behövas efterstekas i ugn en stund tills de är genomstekta, fluffiga och fina.
4. Servera med potatispuré, sockerärtor och rårörda lingon, samt ev en skvätt smör från stekpannan.

Moussaka

This recipe is a variation of Felicity Cloake's recipe in the Guardian. Its a fantastic write up with descriptions of variations to the dish and why she chose the variation she did. We followed a lot of the original recipe, but since I luh-ve an abundance of veggies in my food, I used zucchini instead of potatoes for the second layer. This dish was not a spectacular success, technically speaking, but was absolutely delicious. The caveat is that the zucchini should probably have been processed differently because it is a fairly watery veggie and I suspect it released water when we cooked it with the rest of the components.
I was also not a huge fan of the eggs in the bechamel. Again, this may be because our dish is more watery than the original, but thats probably not a variation we will use again. It was sort of spongy and wet.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 medium or 2 large aubergines, sliced
• 2 large zucchinis
• 1 large onion, finely chopped (I used 2)
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (We used minced garlic)
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 500g minced lamb (We used bländfars, mix of beef and pork)
• 2 tbsp tomato purée, mixed with 150ml water ( we added more puree, I like my meat sauce fairly red)
• 150ml red wine
• Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

For the bechamel:

• 500ml milk
• 60g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 50g kefalotyri or pecorino cheese, grated (We used gratang grated cheese, DON'T JUDGE!!!)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• Nutmeg, to grate (We used pre-powdered, but added almost a teaspoon)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Cut the aubergines lengthways into 0.5cm slices, and put them on to oiled baking sheets. Brush with olive oil and season. Bake for about 25 minutes until soft, golden and floppy.  Two things, 1) I was on the phone with my mum and totally let the eggplant bake for about an hour, whoops! Was still pretty delish. 2) I treated the zucchini the exact same way. Sliced and then baked, will probably alter this as and when I come across a good treatment for zucchini in moussaka.
2. Meanwhile, put 2 tbsp olive oil into a large frying pan over a medium high heat and cook the onion until soft. Add the garlic, cinnamon and oregano and cook for a further couple of minutes, then stir in the lamb. Turn up the heat slightly, and brown the lamb well, cooking until the mixture is quite dry. Stir in the tomato and wine, bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down low and cook for 30–40 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season and stir in the parsley.
3. Meanwhile, make the bechamel. Bring the milk to just below boiling point, and melt the butter in another saucepan. Stir the flour into the butter and cook for a couple of minutes, then gradually whisk in the hot milk. Cook until you have a thick sauce, then stir in the cheese until melted. Take off the heat and allow to cool slightly, then beat in the eggs, salt to taste and slightly more nutmeg than you might think wise (it's a strong flavour, but you need a heft of it in this dish I think - half a teaspoon at least).  We found the bechamel much too thick after this and added more milk and more cheese till it was still quite thick but more "flowy"
4. Arrange a third of the aubergines in the base of an oven dish, and top with half the meat. Repeat these layers, then finish off with a layer of aubergine, and top with the sauce. Bake for about 45 minutes until well browned, and then leave to cool for half an hour before serving. We put in all the zucchini, then all the meat sauce and then all the aubergine topped with the bechamel sauce and then a little of the gratang cheese. We made sure we covered the entire base when we added the next layer. We were used a pretty massive baking pan and thats probably why we could only manage one layer of each thing. We could not wait 30 minutes before eating (pffftt, because normal people cook when they are hungry and are fucking starving by the time stuff comes out of the oven). That said, the moussaka was 25% more delicious after spending the night in the fridge, so there maybe something to this "wait time". 

Mangalorean Fish Curry

aka Masli Kadi

This recipe is from a gorgeous cooking blog "Tiffin Box" written by (after making and eating this fish curry) what I imagine is a godess in the kitchen. Holy shit, this was good. 

I, as usual, made some changes and these are the only changes to the original recipe. The original recipe mentions a lot of different fish, we used fresh herring, this is quite close in flavor to the other fish originally used in this recipe, sardines and mackrel.

Ingredients 

For the curry paste:

• 2 tbsp coriander seeds (I used 2.5)
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds (I used 1.5)
• 1/2 tsp whole peppercorns (I used 3/4 ish)
• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (I used 1/2 ish)
• 4 long red mild dried chillies (I used 6)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 roughly chopped onion
• 2 flakes peeled garlic (I used 4)
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• About 50g coconut cream (use the hard packed version, if possible) otherwise, 75 ml liquid coconut cream (We did not have coconut cream, just coconut milk, and I used about a third of the can (400ml can) to grind everything up using the coffee grinder on our food processor.)

For the curry:

• Er...original recipe skipped the fish, we used herring, about half a kilo
• 1/2 onion diced (I used 1.5)
• 1/2 inch piece of ginger, chopped finely (I used 1")
• 2 flakes of garlic, chopped finely (I used garlic paste, 1.5tsp)
• 1 green chilly, slit lengthwise
• Salt to taste (or 1 and 1/2 tsp)

To season:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used 4 tbsp)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 sprigs curry leaves (about 10 in total)

Recipe

1. For the curry paste, toast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, fenugreek seeds and red chillies for about a minute and a half on a hot pan. Put into a blender with the turmeric, onion, garlic, tamarind and coconut milk and blend to a paste.
2. In a pan, add some oil and add the ginger, chilli, garlic paste and onion (about 1 minute between each addition). Pour the ground curry paste into the pan, stir and add more water if required to get a smooth curry. I added the rest of the can of coconut milk and about a cup and a half of water. Season. Let the curry simmer for about 25 minutes. The colour changed and the curry became a browner color than the original yellow. Taste and adjust the seasoning, by adding more salt and/or tamarind paste. I added, all told, about a teaspoon and a half of salt, a dash of red-wine vinegar and about a heaped teaspoon of tamarind paste. 
3. Put the fish into the curry and poach until just cooked (about 6 minutes on a low poach).
4. Temper the curry now. In a small pan, heat the oil, and pop in the mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, put in the curry leaves, stir for about 30 seconds and pour the whole lot into the curry and stir gently.

Bittman's Vichyssoise

We got this Vichyssoise recipe from the Times. It's super simple, and really tasty.

Ingredients

• 2 tbs butter
• 3 potatoes
• 3 leeks
• 4 cups of stock
• 1/2 cup of cream
• chives

Method

1. Peel and cube potatoes. Trim and chop leeks.
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot.
3. Add potatoes and leeks. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring, until softened.
4. Add 4 cups stock. Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
5. Purée, then let cool.
6. Stir in 1/2 cup or more cream before serving.
7. Garnish: Chopped chives.

Quick and simple buns

Ingredients

• 50 g yeast
• 5 dl warm water
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 9-12 dl flour - wheat/full wheat and a bit of rye (or some other kind, but not more than 3dl of the other flour)

Method

1. Mix all ingredients.
2. Let rise for an hour at room temp.
3. Fashion into buns and let rise for another 30 minutes.
4. Brush with egg yolk if you want nice color.
5. Bake for 10 minutes at 250 ºC.

Braised Aubergine with pork, 鱼香茄子

This recipe fits with the current zeitgeist, since burned cars kinda reminds us of braised aubergines. 

The view from our window last night. mmm burned rubber? Smells like eggplant grilling!

This recipe is from Yan-Kit So's "Chinese" book(let). 

Ingredients

675g or 1.5lb; we usually use 2 medium sized eggplants

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped roughly

4 spring onions cut into 2" sections, white and green parts separated

250g minced pork

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine or medium-dry sherry

1/2 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup chicken stock

Steps

1. Cut the aubergines into 2" long and 1" wide sections and put into a colander. Sprinkle salt liberally over the pieces and let them rest for an hour. Then wash the pieces and dry.
2. In a saucepan, heat a couple of table spoons of oil and, on medium heat, fry the eggplant pieces in batches, adding more oil as needed.
3. Add some more oil to the pan and add the chopped garlic and the white scallion portion. Fry for about 10 seconds.
4. Add the pork. Working quickly with your cooking spoon, separate the mince evenly so that it doesn't cook in large chunks. Stir around quickly. When the pork is cooked it will be opaque (around 4-5 minutes)
5. Splash in the rice wine and add the cornflour and stir to coat the meat.
6. Reduce the heat slightly and then add in the soy sauce, sugar and the stock. We usually add more stock, almost double. 
7. Add the eggplant back into the pan. Lower the heat and cover the pan and cook for 10-15 minutes or until, as Yan Kit-So puts it, the eggplant is "meltingly tender".
8. Garnish with the scallion green portions.

Anda ki sabzi

Ingredients

• 10 eggs
• cumin seeds
• cream
• 1 bell pepper
• 3 onions
• 2-3 tomatoes
• turmeric
• coriander powder
• corn starch
• garam masala powder

Method

1. Boil and peel the eggs.
2. Slice the onions and the capsica in slices of about equal length.
3. Add oil and cumin seeds to the pan and heat until the cumin smells good.
4. Add onions and fry on medium heat until they start looking soft (but not brown). Then add the capsicum. Continue frying until the capsicum starts looking a bit soft.
5. Add tomatoes, a little turmeric and coriander powder. Fry for a bit.
6. Add the eggs, cut in wedges.
7. Just before serving, add cream and corn starch. Bring it to bubbling so the sauce thickens.
8. Sprinkle with garam masala. Serve with rice.

Mapo doufu

I long ago lost track of how many times we've cooked this. It's one of our absolute favourites, for sure. A classic Chinese dish, that's just so so good.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs soft of firm doufu, drained
• 1/2 lb ground pork or beef
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs Shaoxing rice wine
• 1/2 ts roasted sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons Sichuan pepper corns
• 1 tbs oil
• 2 scallions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 ts ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbs chile bean paste (we actually use sambal oelek instead)
• 1 cup stock
• 1.5 ts corn starch
• 1 scallion, shredded on top

Method

Cut bean curd in cubes. Marinade the meat in 2 ts soy sauce, 2 ts rice wine and the sesame oil.

Toast the Sichuan peppers lightly in a dry pan.

Heat oil in pan until very hot. Stir-fry the meat until browned. Remove with wire strainer, and let the water sputter off. Add scallions, garlic, ginger, stir-fry a little. Then add chile paste, stir-fry for 5 seconds.

Add the stock and the remaining soy and rice wine to the pot, and bring it to a boil. Then add back the meat and the bean curd. Reduce the heat to medium and cook it for 5 minutes. Then add in the corn starch, and let the sauce thicken.

Sprinkle Sichuan peppers and the shredded scallions on top.

Mangal Kolgrill, Kista Galleria

We seem to have finally identified our favourite place to eat at Kista Galleria. It is called Mangal Kolgrill and the first dish we ate there inspired us to make a tabbouleh at home. We have gone back a couple of times and their pide (turkish pizza) is fantastic. We can speak knowledgeably having had eaten genuine pide in istanbul (one whole time, at the airport while on a layover, so we're real connoisseurs, see).

This time we tried their Mangal sampler with the bulgur salad.

They had a piece of chicken breast (very moist), two pieces of chop (probably lamb), two koftas and two other pieces that we think were beef, but honestly, everything was so delicious and well cooked that happy oblivion is fine with us. The bulgur salad was amazing, light and fresh as before. The side of bernaise sauce went unexpectedly well with all the meat. The dips in the bowl at the top were tzatziki, baba ganoush, hummus and some kind of red pepper yummy-ness. The grilled green pepper on the plate was absolutely delicious and frankly neither of us paid much attention to the bread because everything else was so good. And, of course, we finished with Ayran, which is refreshing and delicious.
Sorry, we actually forgot to take a picture before we dug in, so the plate looks a little chewed on already.

The food takes a little longer to come out than it does at other places in the food court, but from our vantage point it looked like each dish was being cooked to order and I guess this explains why their food is head and shoulders above the rest!

Banana Bread

We had four horribly over ripe bananas that we were loathe to throw away. So we made banana bread.

We mostly followed the recipe outlined here, but we initially started on another recipe and so the order of addition of ingredients is slightly different from the recipe in the link.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (110 g) butter

1 cup (210 g) white sugar

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas (original recipe called for 3)

2 cups (220 g) All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda (We didn't have any, so skipped)

1 teaspoon baking powder (used double to accomodate missing soda)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dribble (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) vanilla essence

We didn't have any walnuts so we skipped that too.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. (What we did) Melt the butter in the microwave and mash in the bananas. Add the eggs, one at a time and stir. Then mix in the sugar. The original recipe: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, stir in the mashed bananas.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
4. Mix together the banana mixture and the flour mixture till just combined. 
5. Butter the inside of the baking dish and add the batter to the dish. The batter seemed much too runny but given the end result I'm going to assume this is a good thing.
6. Bake for 60 minutes. Test with knife before taking out of oven. You might want to bake it slightly shorter if you use coarser flour, like whole wheat or something. Check at 50 minutes.

Runny cake batter

Zocalo, Stockholm Sweden

I was pretty excited to see this sign at Kungsträdgården a couple of days ago.  The tacos in the ad looked delicious and we have really been missing good tex-mex here in Stockholm. Our one attempt to make carnitas here was a complete disaster and when we eventually get the recipe right we will definitely immortalize it on the blog.

We were wandering through the food court in the Kista gallerian this evening and noticed that a Zocalo had opened up there. The menu looked good, promising carnitas, barbacoa and even agua fresca. We ordered the barbacoa and carnitas tacos and asked if they had horchata. Unfortunately, they were out of carnitas and didn't have the agua frescas in yet. So we went with the barbacoa tacos and the street tacos with barbacoa (can you tell we missed barbacoa?).

So, it was pretty obvious this place was spanking new. The lady at the counter was looking at each recipe for how to assemble the dishes and she had to cut our tacos out of bigger tortillas with a small cookie-cutter.

Now on to details of the food.

The high-points:

1) The lady at the counter was absolutely lovely for it being (what seemed like) her first day. When she noticed that the cilantro was sort of tired looking, she replaced it with fresh cilantro from the back of the store. She really took a lot of time and effort with assembling every taco, she didn't throw food on the plate. This may sound silly, but each of the tacos had each ingredient equally. (Yeah, maybe this means a lot more to me than it does to other people. I also like my bread evenly buttered to the very edges otherwise I get a nervous tic.)

2) The menu looked good. This is an excellent indication of what Zocalo wants to be. Lots of stuff that screams tex-mex to us. And we don't mean to brag, but we're pretty discerning about our tex-mex. They had shiny-sexy-buzzwords like jarritos and agua fresca and barbacoa and carnitas and habanero and so on. Mental food porn.

3) The texture of the barbacoa was fantastic. Speaking as a couple that routinely subjects large cuts of meat to slow, low temperature cooking for many hours,  for fun, this is half the battle won. If the texture isn't right, it will never taste good. This is particularly astonishing because the nice lady pulled it out of a freezer and nuked it in a microwave before arranging it on our tacos.

4) The food looked really good. See these pictures! Quite a lot of food for the price (especially by Stockholm standards!)

The street barbacoa tacos

The Barbacoa tacos

The low points:

1) Nothing had any taste. Well, the red onions (vinegar onions, seen on top of the street tacos) and the fresh cilantro in the street tacos were the only things that had any flavor. This is a tragic counter-point to pt 4 of the high points. Even the barbacoa, which had amazeballs texture, had absolutely no flavor. Hell, even the damned sauces were tasteless! *cue heartbreak*

Here is a word of advice to anyone who wants to open a tex-mex place...or even a Pho place...just squeeze lemon on it. It doesn't matter what it is, it will taste better. 

2) The tacos had wa-ay too much stuffed in them. Tons of lettuce and coleslaw. This may have diluted the subtle (read: weak) flavor that might have been present. It certainly made them hella difficult to pick up and eat... which is how god intended us to eat tacos!

3) It was clear from watching the lady assemble the tacos and when we ate them that she probably had never eaten a taco. The proportions were all wrong. Perhaps Zocalo needs to have a party for their staff where all the staff does is eat tex-mex and get familiar with how stuff is supposed to taste, how much of what goes in a dish and so on. 

4) There were a couple of things we were completely mystified by. In what appeared to be a corn salsa in the barbacoa tacos, for some reason, there were copious amounts of ...edemame?!  WTF?

And the street tacos contained a LOT of coleslaw which for some reason had these huge chunks of cabbage stems in them. You know, the stuff you can't actually eat because its impossible to chew?

Here is one of the sauces. I suspect it was supposed to be a sour cream type sauce? The lady called it cilantro sauce. But it didn't taste like cilantro either. It tasted like bad mayo.

I also suspect (from looking at the pictures) that the sauces are supposed to be drizzled over the top instead of put into a bowl as a dipping sauce.

Conclusions:

Zocalo didn't seem overpriced (85sek and 95sek for the tacos and I recall the agua fresca being 15 sek. There was lots of stuff on the menu under 150sek). The food looked really good but had no flavor. Nada. Ingen smak. This experience made the Martian Blinghs redouble their efforts to make a killer carnitas in their own kitchen. 

Moroccan lambstew with tabbouleh

Apricot chickpea lamb stew

This is based on a recipe from Oprah, here. We modified it for the pressure cooker.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds cubed lamb stew meat
• 2 tsp. ground coriander
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 3 tsp. salt , plus more to taste
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper , plus more to taste
• 4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large thinly sliced yellow onion
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup canned chickpeas , rinsed and drained
• 1 cup dried, pitted prunes or apricots (or a mixture of both)
• 4 medium carrots , halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 package (12 ounces) couscous

Directions

Note: You can adjust the stew to your taste. Prunes make it sweet; apricots add tartness. If possible, toast and grind your own coriander and cumin seeds for the best flavor.
Preheat oven to 175 °C. Spread lamb on a large sheet tray and pat dry. In a small bowl, stir together coriander, cumin, ginger, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then sprinkle over lamb and toss well to coat.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large ovenproof Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Arrange 1/3 of lamb in pot in a single layer and cook, stirring occasionally, until deep golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer lamb to a large bowl; set aside. Repeat with rest of lamb, adding 1 tablespoon olive oil for each batch.
Add onions to pot, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, until softened and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Stir in broth, scraping up any browned bits. Transfer everything to the pressure cooker, add back lamb and juices. Add 2 cups water, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt; stir well. Let the pressure cooker reach full pressure (one whistle), reduce heat to stabilize pressure and cook until almost done, about 20 minutes.
Transfer back into dutch oven; stir in chickpeas, dried fruit, and carrots. Cover pot; continue to cook in the oven until lamb is very tender, about 45 minutes. If desired, uncover pot and cook until thickened, 20 to 25 minutes more. About 15 minutes before serving, prepare tabbouleh.

Tabbouleh

The tabbouleh recipe we got here. We used much more bulgur, which turned out very nice too.

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup bulgur
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 cups finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, (about 2 bunches)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced

Directions

Combine water and bulgur in a small saucepan. Bring to a full boil, remove from heat, cover and let stand until the water is absorbed and the bulgur is tender, 25 minutes or according to package directions. If any water remains, drain bulgur in a fine-mesh sieve. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool for 15 minutes.

Combine lemon juice, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber and scallions to the bulgur. Add the dressing and toss. Serve at room temperature or chill for at least 1 hour to serve cold.

Svensk fisksoppa

This one is from this link.

Ingredients

• 350 grams/13 ounces baby potatoes, chopped
• 200 grams/ 7 oz salmon, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 200 grams/7 oz  meaty white fish, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 leek, sliced thinly
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 250 ml fish stock (1 cup)
• 200 ml cream (1/2 plus 1/3 cup)
• 250 ml white wine (1 cup)
• 150 ml water (1/2 cup–adding more if necessary)
• 100 ml creme fraiche or sour cream (1/2 cup)
• 2 tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped (original recipe calls for thyme, but I never seem to have any stocked)
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 gram or 2 pinches of saffron
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In salted water, boil cubed potatoes until fork tender.  Drain and set aside.
2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat butter on medium-high.
3. Add sliced leeks, and chopped onions and garlic.  Cook until onions are translucent–approximately 5-6 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste and stir to incorporate evenly.
5. Add fresh herbs (tarragon or thyme and basil)
6. Add all your liquids (stock, wine, cream and creme fraiche) and saffron.  Bring to a simmer.
7. Remove from heat and blend in a mixer until smooth.
8. Return the mixture to your saucepan and medium-high heat.
9. At this point, taste your base and season with salt and pepper accordingly.
10. Add fish pieces  to the soup.
11. Your fish should only take about 5 minutes to cook throughly.
12. Add potatoes, mix thoroughly.
13. Season one last time to taste.
14. Serve with fresh herbs and a healthy dollop of aioli.

Paneer Makhani

Ingredients

For the paneer

• 14 oz paneer, (homemade or store bought)- cubed
• 2 tablespoons thick drained plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder/paprika/cayenne
• salt
• 2 teaspoon kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon oil

For the sauce

• 2 cups Makhani Sauce (without the cream added to the sauce)
• 2.5 cups water
• 1.5 teaspoon oil
• 1 small onion, cut into chunks
• 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
• 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half
• 1 tablespoon almond or cashew paste (soak the nuts and grind them to a paste)
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves, crushed

For the Makhani sauce

• 1/4 cup ginger paste
• 3tablespoon garlic paste
• 2 inch stick of cinnamon
• 2 black cardamoms
• 2 small green cardamoms
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek/methi seeds (This is a MUST)
• 1 tablespoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves; Available in Indian Groceries)
• 5  cups pureed fresh tomato (or about 1/2 the amount of tomato paste) – it is okay to use more tomato
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• Salt to taste
• 3 hot green peppers slit (optional)
• 1/4 cup melted butter/ghee (I substitute it with cooking oil for obvious health reasons)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream/whipping cream
• 1/2 cup milk

Instructions

Makhani sauce

Heat butter/ghee/oil  & add cinnamon, cardamoms and fenugreek seeds.

Once the seeds start to sizzle, add ginger garlic paste, salt, chili powder and stir and fry till fat (butter) separates, and starts to form small bubbles.

Add tomato paste, green chili, cinnamon powder and kasuri methi (Mix the tomato paste with double the amount of water to make it like a puree of use Tomato Puree).

Cook/simmer and reduce the tomato sauce, till done. (you will know which the fat/ and the spice mix/masala leaves the sides of the pan and the oil separates and you will definitely smell it!). Make sure to cover the pan as the sauce will bubble and splatter.

(At this stage the sauce can be frozen for later use. If you are cooking anything with the sauce right away, go ahead and add the cream and milk.)

Add heavy cream and milk. Boil/simmer for about 10 minutes.

After the sauce is done, proceed to cook whatever dish you have decided.

The masala/sauce can be frozen in airtight containers for quite a few months. BUT if you want to freeze it, DO NOT add the cream and the milk. Add the cream and the milk when you want to use it to prepare the final dish.

Paneer Makhani

Whisk yogurt, salt chilli powder,  kasuri methi and oil in a large non reactive bowl. Add paneer cubes to the bowl and toss for the marinade to coat the paneer. Let is sit for about 15 minutes. On an oven proof tray, place aluminium foil. Place the paneer cubes with the marinade clinging to them in a single layer on the foil. Bake for 7 minutes in a pre heated oven at 350 degree. F. Then broil the paneer for 3 minutes; turn them over and broil for another couple of minutes. Set aside. Ambu says not to broil the paneer.

Heat 1.5 teaspoon oil in a pan. Saute the onion and pepper at high heat for about 2 minutes. The vegetables should be still crisp. Do not over cook. Set aside.

In deep pan, add the Makhani Sauce; add 1 cup of warm water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, add the sugar, kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves, chopped onion and bell pepper. Partially cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes at moderate heat.

Uncover, add the paneer cubes,  and the almond or cashew paste and stir gently for the spice mix to coat the paneer. Add 1.5 cups of warm water, cover partially and simmer for 15 more minutes over moderate over heat.

Reduce the heat and allow the temperature of the pan to come down. Add the cream and gently stir it in the pan. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

The Paneer Makhani is ready to serve.

Australian Meat Pie

We got this delicious pie recipe from here.

Ingredients

• 500 g minced beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup water, divided
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 2 puff pastry sheets

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven at 220 degrees Celsius.
2. Brown meat and onion.
3. Add 3/4 cup of the water, bouillon cubes, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, pepper, oregano, and nutmeg.
4. Boil and cover for 15 minutes.
5. Blend flour with the remaining 1/4 cup water until it becomes a smooth paste; add to the meat mix.
6. Let cool.
7. Grease a pie dish and line with puff pastry.
8. Add the cooled filling mixture; brush edges of pastry with milk or beaten egg; put the pastry top on; press edges down with a fork.
9. Trim edges and glaze top with milk or beaten egg.
10. Bake in a very hot oven, 220 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes.
11. Reduce heat to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for 25 more minutes, or until golden brown.
12. Serve with veggies, fries, or salad.

Read more at: http://australian.food.com/recipe/australian-meat-pie-21726?oc=linkback