een heerlijke frisse caloriearme IJsthee met citroensmaak, thee-extract en een vleugje koolzuur.
Deze heerlijke frisse IJsthee is tijdens de warme zomerdagen de perfecte give-a-way.
Jumat, 11 April 2008
ijsthee
Senin, 07 April 2008
Harissa, pumpkin stew
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
Ilsa didn't go to Rick's Café Americain for the food. In fact, nobody went to Rick's for the food. Drinking, yes. Smoking, of course. Gambling and trading? You betcha. A rousing chorus of La Marseillaise? Absolutely!
But food? Not a bite, and what a shame, because Rick's, the place to see and be seen in the classic film, Casablanca, surely might have had wonderful food, including couscous and tagines with spicy homemade harissa.
Harissa (also spelled harisa, which is more true to its pronounciation: hah REE sah) is the most important condiment used in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian cooking, yet it is made from chile peppers -- often guajillo, New Mexico, ancho, cayenne or chile de arbol -- which were introduced to the region by explorers returning from the Americas.
From the Arabic word for "to break into pieces," harissa is made by pounding hot chiles in a mortar and then adding salt and sometimes garlic, plus spices such as coriander, cumin, caraway, or fennel; our modern-day mortar, the food processor, makes quick work of what is traditionally a lengthy preparation done by the women of a family.
Harissa is sold in tubes, cans or jars. Tunisian brands are considered the best, but it's easy to make your own using this recipe. You can make it hot or mild, depending on the chile pepper you choose. In the tube, or covered with olive oil in an airtight container, harissa will keep in the refrigerator for a month or more.
In Morocco, harissa often is served apart from the main dish, for diners to add to their own taste. In Tunisia and Algeria, it's an ingredient in the cooking.
In my cooking, harissa stands in for cayenne pepper, to spice up salad or soup, or a marinade or stew.
Rick and Ilsa, and even Captain Renault, would have loved it.
MARAK DAR MARHZIN (PUMPKIN STEW)
A marak is a vegetable version of a tagine. Adapt this recipe to whatever root vegetables you prefer. Serves 6.
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 cups water
1 lb butternut squash or sugar pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 lb sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 14-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp harissa, or more to taste
3/4 cup raisins or dried cherries
3 tsp honey
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Parsley leaves, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for serving
In a small frying pan, heat the oil and add onions. Cook gently for 5 minutes, then add garlic, turmeric, ginger and cinnamon. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until the paste becomes slightly aromatic. Transfer mixture to the base of a large tagine.
Add carrots and water, stir, and cover the tagine. Cook for 10 minutes. Add squash, sweet potato, chickpeas, harissa, raisins and honey, plus salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender. Garnish with parsley leaves, and serve with couscous and lemon wedges to squeeze over the vegetables.
Canned chile peppers, beef stew
It's possible, just possible, that I have more than my share of kitchen toys.
By toys, I don't mean butter wizards and doughnut makers and zero-gravity magnetic spice racks.
I mean serious tools and cookware, in multiples, like tagines and woks, Microplane graters, half a dozen really good santoku knives and nearly two hundred wooden spoons and utensils.
The current love of my life, however, is a single: it's my new slow cooker.
Like me, the slow cooker loves all kinds of stew, so I've had fun introducing it to my collection of canned chile peppers. Chipotles in adobo and green New Mexico chiles are mainstays in my pantry, along with canned poblanos, plus fire-roasted Anaheim and other green chiles from mild to hot.
Chiles do more than add some kick to your cooking; they also contribute a significant dose of Vitamins A and C, iron and lutein, which has proven benefits for eyesight.
With canned chile peppers in the pantry, you can always fire up your stove or slow cooker for a batch of chile con queso soup, five-pepper chili, quesadillas, hummus, salsa, and many variations of green chile stew.
And in case the whole chile-chili-chilli thing is still a bit of a muddle, chile with an "e" is the pepper, chili with an "i" is the stew, and chilli with the double-L is the spelling used in other parts of the world (including Britain, Australia and many Asian countries) for what we here in the United States call chile peppers.
Now, what kind of chili do you make with your chiles?
SLOW-COOKED BEEF AND GREEN CHILE STEW
If you don't have a slow cooker, make this in a Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. "Stew beef" is a common cut, available in the meat department of your supermarket. The recipe makes a lot, so stash some in the freezer for a cold winter day. Serves 10-12.
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 lbs stew beef (boneless beef chuck), cut into two-inch chunks
3 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
1 27-oz can mild green Hatch chiles, whole or cut into large chunks
1 cup chopped canned tomato (I use this brand)
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped, plus 2 tsp adobo sauce
1/2 cup barbecue sauce, homemade or store-bought
12 oz homemade beef stock, or 1 14-oz can low-sodium beef broth
1 Tbsp cumin
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
2 tsp arrowroot or cornstarch
Coconut milk, egg curry
Brother bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime
His sister had another one, she paid it for the lime
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up
Put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up, and said
Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take, I said
Doctor, to relieve this bellyache, I said...
Oops, don't know the tune? Here goes...
Where I live, neither coconuts nor limes grow on trees (we specialize in pine cones!), but there's always a can of coconut milk in my pantry.
In order to understand where coconut milk comes from, think about the life cycle of a coconut. On the tree, young coconuts are green, often the size and shape of bowling balls. At this stage, the flesh is somewhat soft, and the liquid inside is sweet. When you find ice cold coconuts for sale at street markets in Trinidad or Singapore, you'll be getting one of these green coconuts, with the top sliced off and a straw stuck in to get at the coconut water inside. The flesh (meat) is gelatinous, the consistency of pudding.
When the coconut matures to the "hairy brown rock-hard stage," the meat inside also solidifies, and the coconut water turns bitter.
So, what we know as coconut milk actually is not the liquid found inside the coconut. Coconut milk is made by grating the solidified coconut meat, squeezing it to extract the liquid, and thinning the liquid with water -- which is then called coconut milk. Confusing, I know.
While canned coconut milk is a wonderful ingredient in dishes from India, The Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, it does present nutritional challenges. Relatively low in carbs, it is unfortunately quite high in saturated fat and calories (450 per cup).
Enjoy coconut milk in moderation. Enjoy Harry Nilsson's coconut song over and over again. And have a happy and fun Thanksgiving.
EGG CURRY
How could I resist sharing a recipe that includes both coconut milk and lime?! Slightly adapted from The Great Curries of India, by Camellia Panjabi, this curry comes from the Chettinad region and serves 2-3.
6 large eggs, hardboiled
3 tsp ground coriander
1-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or paprika
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 x 1/4 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
2 large cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seed
2-inch cinnamon stick
8 oz onions, finely chopped
8 oz tomatoes (fresh or canned), finely chopped
Kosher salt
7 oz canned coconut milk
Juice of 1/2 lime
Peel the eggs and halve them lengthwise. Set aside.
In a blender, put the coriander, cayenne or paprika, 1 tsp fennel seed, cumin seed, turmeric, ginger and garlic. Add 2 Tbsp water and blend to a thick paste.
Heat the oil in a deep sauté pan or small Dutch oven. Fry the fenugreek seeds, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds and cinnamon stick for 10 seconds. Add the onion, and sauté until lightly colored. Add the spice paste and continue cooking for 7 minutes; it will darken in color from the coriander, but do not overcook. Add a few drops of water if the onions stick to the pan. Then, add the tomatoes, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add 3 cups of water with salt to taste, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, to make a smooth gravy. Just before serving, add the coconut milk and bring to the boil. Add the lime juice, taste, and add more salt if necessary. Gently place the hardboiled eggs, yolks facing up, into the sauce. Place in a serving dish, and serve with brown or white basmati or jasmine rice.Dried kidney beans, pueblo vegetable stew
Beans, beans, good for your heart.
The more you eat, the more you... Oops.
Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
Beans, beans, they'll give you gas.
The more you eat, the more you pass.
Beans, beans. Poor things. Beans have been the subject of some of the world's silliest rhymes.
They'll have the last laugh, though, because beans, one of the world's healthiest foods, pack a nutritional punch that's no joke. Most dried beans are loaded with soluble fiber, which helps maintain good digestive and heart health, balanced blood sugar, and sufficient levels of iron (especially important for women). Kidney beans provide almost double the daily requirement of molybdenum, a trace mineral that actually helps counteract (detoxify) the effect of the sulfites found in food preservatives and red wine. If you've ever experienced a "sulfite headache," it could be from a shortage of molybdenum in your system.
If beans didn't taste great, though, they'd be in the medicine cabinet instead of the pantry.
Native to Peru, beans migrated to South and Central America through Indian trade routes. Spanish explorers like Columbus returned to Europe with kidney beans; then, Portuguese and Spanish traders carried the beans to Asia and Africa. To this day some of the most exciting culinary uses of beans derive from those cultures, dishes like Belizean stewed beans, Nigerian red bean stew, Mexican pork and bean chili and green tomato curry. Some fundamentally American dishes depend on kidney beans, too, including a newfangled three-bean salad and good old franks and beans.
Dried kidney beans, an economical source of protein, will keep up to a year in an airtight container. I always remove them from the plastic bags and store them in a clean jar, sometimes mixed in with other like-minded beans. Be sure to rinse before cooking, and pick out any stones or damaged beans. If you presoak, which tenderizes and helps the beans cook faster, place them in a bowl with water to cover by two inches, in the refrigerator overnight. (The cold prevents fermentation.) Cook on the stovetop, in the oven, or in a slow cooker, and when the beans are mostly cooked through, add seasonings, salt and pepper, and other ingredients.
And to prove that for every bad rhyme there's a wonderful poem, here's a favorite by Gwendolyn Brooks, from her 1960 book with the same title:
The Bean Eaters
They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.
Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.
And remembering . . .
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that
is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.
PUEBLO VEGETABLE STEW
As a rule, most dried beans benefit from a soak before you cook them. However, my new slow cooker makes it easy to prepare bean dishes on days when I've forgotten, or just don't have time for, the soaking step. This recipe, adapted from James McNair’s Favorites, serves 6-8.
2 cups dry kidney beans, rinsed
1-1/2 tsp cumin seed
1-2 whole ancho, guajillo, pasilla or other large dried mild to medium-hot chiles, stems and seeds discarded, torn into small pieces
2 Tbsp minced fresh oregano, or 2 tsp crumbled dried oregano
1/4 cup canola oil
1-1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
1 Tbsp minced fresh jalapeño or serrano chile
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups peeled, seeded, drained and chopped ripe or canned tomato
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1-3/4 lbs butternut or other winter squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 cups thawed frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup fresh cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup pine nuts
Fresh cilantro or parsley sprigs for garnish
Drain beans, and place in a slow cooker. Cover with water by one inch. Cook on low for 6 hours.
In a small skillet, combine cumin seed, torn dried chiles and oregano. Place over medium heat and toast, shaking the pan or stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Do not allow to burn. Pour onto a plate to cool, then transfer to a spice grinder or heavy mortar with pestle and grind to a fine powder. Set aside.
In a sauté pan or heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until soft but not browned, 5 minutes. Add jalapeño, garlic, cinnamon, and the ground spice mixture, and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomato and 1/2 cup of stock or broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add to the slow cooker with the beans. Add 1 cup of remaining broth, squash, and corn. Cook on low for 4 hours. Stir once each hour, and if the stew needs more liquid, add some of the remaining broth. A few minutes before serving, stir in the chopped cilantro or parsley.
Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet until slightly brown and fragrant. To serve, ladle the stew into warmed shallow bowls, sprinkle with pine nuts, and garnish with herb sprigs.
Saffron, lamb tagine with prunes and apricots
In numerology, three can be lucky or unlucky.
Bad luck comes in threes, they say, but the third time's a charm.
For saffron, three is an auspicious number -- the number of stigmas, what we recognize as saffron threads, in each crocus flower.
Only three. Which is why it takes more than 70,000 flowers to yield one pound of saffron. Which is why saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.
According to the informative site Vanilla Saffron, Crocus sativus flowers in the Fall in many different countries, including Greece, India, Iran and Spain. Each flower contains three stigmas (the female part of the flower), the only part of the crocus that when dried become commercial saffron. Each bright red stigma is like a little capsule that encloses the complex chemicals that make up saffron's aroma, flavor, and yellow dye. In order to release these chemicals, you must steep the threads.
The male part of the saffron flower, the deep yellow stamens, are half the size of the stigmas and have no culinary value. Unfortunately, they are sometimes added to the red stigmas to increase the weight of commercial saffron. When you purchase saffron, look for the deepest red and uniform color; you want all-girl saffron.
In the kitchen, a little saffron goes a long way. To be sure it's evenly distributed throughout a dish, steep the threads in hot water for a few minutes, then add both the threads and the liquid to your recipe. Saffron pairs well with many foods, including almond, yogurt , rice and grains, cinnamon, pistachio, potatoes and tomatoes.
Store saffron in an airtight container, away from heat or light, and it will last for more than a year in your pantry. After that, the flavor will diminish somewhat, so increase the amount called for in your recipe. If you have the option, do not buy powdered saffron; the quality is often inferior, and the pungency degrades quickly as soon as the threads are ground.
Twice in the past couple of months, I've received the gift of saffron, from my traveling sister-in-law Jill and my traveling friend Candy. So, I now have three different saffrons in the pantry, from three different parts of the world (left to right in the photo above): Vietnam, India and Spain.
Could a pantry be more lucky than that?
LAMB TAGINE WITH PRUNES AND APRICOTS
It was such fun to prepare and serve this in my ceramic tagine, but a heavy Dutch oven also works well for this low-and-slow cooking. If you're going to cook in the tagine, start the recipe in a frying pan and transfer contents to the tagine base, as indicated below. Recipe adapted from Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco, by Ghillie Basan. Serves 4, with couscous.
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp blanched almonds
1 large red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A thumb-size piece of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
A pinch of saffron threads
2 cinnamon sticks
1-2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 lb boneless leg of lamb, or boneless lamb shanks, cubed
12 pitted prunes, soaked in hot water for 1 hour, drained
6 dried apricots, soaked in hot water for 1 hour, drained
3-4 strips orange peel
1-2 Tbsp agave nectar or dark honey
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Handful of flat-leaf parsley or cilantro leaves, for garnish
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or Dutch oven, stir in the almonds, and cook until they turn golden. Add the onions and garlic, and sauté until they begin to color (do not burn the garlic). Stir in the ginger, saffron, cinnamon sticks and coriander seeds. Add the lamb, making sure it is coated in the onion and spices, and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
If you are using a frying pan, transfer everything to the base of a ceramic tagine.
Pour in enough water to just cover the meat, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to lowest simmer, cover the tagine or Dutch oven, and simmer for 1 hour or until the meat is tender. Add the prunes, apricots and orange peel, cover the tagine again, and simmer 15-20 minutes. Stir in the agave or honey, salt and pepper, cover, and continue to simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce turns syrupy and slightly caramelized, but not dry. Stir in the parsley or cilantro, and serve with couscous or bread.drink, drank, drunk
siu-min is a "beer girl", who wants to find a (sober) man and settle down. michael (daniel wu) is a well travelled chef, who cannot handle his booze and has a restaurant where no one eats. siu-min takes pity on him and, seeing the chance to hook up with a handsome chap and get her hands on a business, siu-min offers to bale him out of trouble, providing that she can run his restaurant as as cafe during the day. so, a deal is struck, but will they fall in love and will michael get itchy feet and want to set off on more travels etc etc etc...
what we have here is an uninspiring romantic comedy. the narrative is a bit of a mess, forcing its way from one tired cliche to another, creating a relationship which appears neither genuine or natural. there's little, to no, chemistry between wu and yeung and, to be honest, you just don't care about the characters or, even, really like them. surely a cardinal sin in the world of rom-comodia?
a bit of a let down...
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