BROKEN FLOUR
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Local
  • Recipe Index
  • Chicken and Garden
  • Goats
  • Health

Cauliflower Stew

1/10/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I started off the new year fully prepared to swear off cooking forever. I don't have the time or the energy,and no one here wants to eat what I want to cook. But then after a trip to Costco where I invested in a ridiculously generous supply of every staple I could think of, I realized I had everything I needed to try nearly every single recipe in my collection of Afghani recipes. Surely the stars don't align this way more than once in a lifetime! It was a sign. At first I thought I'd just try a few simple selections, but with each sip of coffee my dreams and delusions grew. 

This is how I ended up slaving over a meticulous, labor-intensive dish of stuffed chicken cooked in rice the very first week of the year. It was dry and disappointing. A "bitter" meal for me. I had been sure something that complicated had to result in greatness. It was SO bloody dry, and all the fried almonds and raisins and orange peel in the world couldn't fix that. 

However, there was a cauliflower stew I made as well which was quick, simple, and though never destined for greatness, I intend to make it all winter long. I tried it with beef stew meat and ground lamb. Both times it was really good. I served it with basmati rice because we eat everything with rice, but I suppose it could go with anything you like. There is nothing in the stew which screams "Afghani!", so it would be equally at home with naan or mashed potatoes. 

Happy New Year!
Ingredients:
1-2 chopped onions
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound of stew meat, either lamb or beef
2 teaspoons ground coriander OR 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 cloves chopped garlic
1-1/2 teaspoons split peas
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt and pepper
1 large head of cauliflower cut into florets
Directions:
In a large pot heat the oil and sauté the onions until they are golden brown. Add the meat, a little bit of salt, and allow the meat to brown a little. Stir in the coriander or tomato paste, the garlic, the split peas, the turmeric, and some salt and pepper. Add just enough water to barely cover the meat. Bring it up to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer until the meat is tender. Add the cauliflower, and when that is tender too season to taste with salt and pepper. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Puchero: the Colombian Everything Soup

4/3/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
Luca's plate. He was our seven year old guest who told me this soup needed raw tomatoes. I think he was right.
I made a horrible, lean, watery cabbage soup that I had to feed to the chickens because it was so bad. I had trusted the cookbook author and followed the recipe exactly. Big mistake, but here is the antidote. Chicken, beef, AND pork! It's rich and satisfying. It won't leave you wondering if times are really so desperate after all, and it serves 12. So make it for a big group, or make it once and freeze the rest for future dinners when you need something instant. You need an ENORMOUS pot. 

This recipe calls for yuca, or cassava. You can usually find it in a Latin grocery store, and sometimes already peeled in the frozen section. It has a nice gummy texture; I believe tapioca is made from yuca. The preparation is simple. Peel it, cut it into manageable 2" sections, and remove the tough cord that grows down the center since it's impossible to chew. It wasn't until later that I read somewhere that it's poisonous before you cook it. It would have been nice to know earlier, but I was never tempted to pop the woody tuber in my mouth anyway. Here is a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to prepare yuca for cooking if you feel like you need it. 

The tomato sauce that seasons the whole dish is so good I will at least double it next time. It would be so good over eggs or spooned onto just about anything. This recipe is from Saveur, and they based it on a recipe from Secrets of Colombian Cooking by Patricia McCausland-Gallo. 
Picture
Yuca. It's probably imported from Costa Rica, so you can hardly call it local. Try it once anyway.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large tomato
3/4 cup chopped scallions
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons minced cilantro

1 whole chicken
1-1/2 pounds pork spareribs, separated
1 pound beef brisket or stew meat
3 scallions
a few springs of cilantro
1 tablespoon salt
4 cloves garlic

2 pounds cassava, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
2 pounds of potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

3 avocados sliced for serving
white rice to serve along with the soup
Picture
Directions:
1. Begin with the tomato sauce. Heat up olive oil in a skillet, and sauté the tomato, scallions, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and saffron until it's soft. Add the cilantro, turn the heat down, and cook until it's all very soft. Put it in a small bowl and set it aside. 
Picture
2. Put the spareribs, chicken, beef, salt, garlic, whole scallions, and cilantro springs into a huge pot and cover it all with water by 1". Bring it to a boil, skim the scum, and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer it until the chicken is cooked through, a little over an hour. 
Picture
3. Remove the chicken from the pot. When it is cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the skin and bones. Set the chicken meat aside. Add the yuca and potatoes to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes. Add in the cabbage, cover the pot loosely, and simmer it until the vegetables are tender, another 20-30 minutes. When the potatoes and yuca feel tender, add the chicken meat back to the pot and stir in the reserved tomato sauce. Season it with salt and pepper and allow it to simmer for a few more minutes to blend the flavors. Serve the soup in large bowls with avocado and rice on the side. 
Picture
So yes, the avocado and rice are supposed to be on the side, but it was good in the soup too.
Picture
The pot on the left is the one I use to make this. The one on the right is my normal stock pot.
1 Comment

Korean Meat Marinade

2/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Oh yum. I used this on short ribs and then again with pork tenderloin. Delicious both times. The beef short ribs had the best flavor, but they were tough in spite of my best efforts to tenderize them. You can grill the meat or cook it under the broiler, but it tastes better grilled. We usually serve it with vinegared cucumbers, kim chi, and a fried vegetable. The traditional way with all the little sides would take an army. Suit yourself.  
Picture
Ingredients:
2-3 pounds meat
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 bulb garlic, peeled and minced
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
black pepper

Directions:
Mix all the other ingredients together for the marinade except for the meat. Put the meat in a bowl, stir in the marinade, and leave it covered in the refrigerator overnight. 

Grill the meat. 
Picture
Short ribs. Amazing flavor but a little tough.
Picture
Kim chi made with purple daikon.
Picture
My son's first attempt at food styling.
Picture
My friend, enjoying real Korean BBQ the best way- at a restaurant.
0 Comments

Slow Cooker Nihari

1/19/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
I said that if all the recipes I tried from Anupy Singla's The Indian Slow Cooker were good I would become a slow cooker devotee. It's official now. Go buy the book and dust off your slow cooker. The Nihari was great, the split peas with spinach were great, the garlic ginger eggplant was fantastic, and I'm trying the carrot halwa tonight. I might be tempted to cook through the book from cover to cover this month, but then all I could post would be adaptations of recipes from Mrs. Singla's cookbook, and while I'm not a copyright expert, I'm pretty sure that would be violating the spirit of the law if not the letter. 

Nihari is a meat stew traditionally made in India and Pakistan. I've never made Nihari the traditional way, so I can't compare the two versions, but this was good and so easy I felt guilty serving it. (I've got to work on that!) The list of spices is long, but you don't have to actually do anything with them other than dump them in. 
Picture
The only spice I was unfamiliar with was black salt powder. It isn't black at all, but a light pink color, and it smells lightly of sulfur. It tasted like salty egg yolk. Not bad, but a little odd. I felt sure that something this stinky must have amazing health benefits, and sure enough, the supposed health benefits range from aiding indigestion to hysteria. However, the world won't end if you use regular salt instead. 
All this contains is the meat, onions, garlic, ginger, and lots and lots of spices. If you're missing one or two of them I would just make this anyway. Also, I prefer not to cook with vegetable oil, so while I guess I could have used olive oil, I used coconut oil. This calls for a really big slow cooker to fit your beef, but if you only have one of the smaller ones you could halve the recipe. This would be great with naan, but I served it with basmati rice. A salad would be good with this too. 
Ingredients:
(1) 2-3 pound chuck roast or beef brisket
2 onions, chopped
1- 2 inch piece of ginger
10 cloves of garlic
1 generous teaspoon ground ginger
4 cardamom pods
3 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 tablespoons ground fennel
1/2-1 tablespoon red chili powder (I used 1/2 tablespoon but the original recipe called for 1)
2 pinches ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon white salt
1 teaspoon black salt
1/2 cup oil
Directions:
1. Blend the ginger and garlic together in a food processor or chop it by hand. 
2. Into the slow cooker put the onions, then the beef, and then the ginger and garlic. Layer in the spices and drizzle the oil over the whole thing if the oil you're using is liquid, cover, and cook on low for 9 hours. 
3. Stir it up to break apart the meat and remove the bones, bay leaves, and cinnamon stick. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Chuletas and Salsa Fria with Refried Beans

11/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
According to James Beard, this menu is a fusion of Mexican and Spanish influences, but this tasted to me like a cross between a burger and felafel, and maybe better than either one. I can’t wait to eat the leftovers. 

I came across these recipes in James Beard’s American Cookery. He recommends that you make the chuletas a meal by serving them with refried beans and the salsa fria. Both the salsa and the chuletas had so much flavor, it seemed like a waste to serve them together. So I would either serve the salsa with plain burgers, or serve the chuletas with beans. 

I googled “chuletas” and found only recipes for fried pork chops. Odd, but James Beard must have known what he was talking about. His recommendation was to serve these with the salsa fria and refried beans. I am not including a recipe for refried beans, so use your own. 

Chuletas

Picture
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
2 cups minced parsley
2 onions chopped fine
2 eggs
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
a squirt of sriracha
fresh ground pepper
1-2 cups breadcrumbs
olive oil for pan frying

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Directions:

1. Mix everything together in a bowl except for the breadcrumbs. Roll out about 30 meatballs, using roughly 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture for each one. Put the breadcrumbs in a shallow dish and smoosh each ball into it to form a patty, flipping afterward to coat the other side with breadcrumbs. Each patty will be about 3-4 inches in diameter. Chill them- probably to help the patties hold their shape. 

2. When you are ready to eat them, sauté them in a frying pan with olive oil, flipping once to brown each side. 

Salsa Fria

Picture
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
a generous pinch of dried oregano
1 pound can of tomatillos drained and chopped
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix and refrigerate. 
0 Comments

North African Meat Stew (Dafina)

10/17/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Sure there are slow cookers, but what about a slow cooker meal that serves up three courses and doesn't even require a crockpot? Way more impressive. This meat stew is the work of brilliant Jewish women who needed to serve a hot meal on the Sabbath without lighting a fire. It is from Gloria Kaufer Green's The Jewish Holiday Cookbook. 

There are probably many more ways to serve this, but the traditional way is to eat the eggs and potatoes together, possibly for breakfast, the rice and meat together as a second course, and then the beans and broth as a soup. I served it once after church on a Sunday with a green salad, and I was impressed even if no one else was. Next time I make this I think I will use it for three full meals: toast with eggs and potatoes for breakfast (if I include the rice next time, otherwise I'll save the potatoes for the meat), tacos with the meat and rice (and avocado, lime, etc.) for lunch, and finally I'll serve the bean soup with a salad for dinner. 

You can make this either in the oven or in a slow cooker. I left out the rice this time because I couldn't find my cheesecloth stash, so I'm sorry it's missing in all the pictures. Use your imagination. Because the chickpeas have to soak, you need to start this recipe early- so for a Sunday afternoon meal, soak the chickpeas from Saturday morning or even Friday night. I let mine soak for 24 hours sometimes out of sheer laziness.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups dry chick peas
water
2-1/2 pounds chuck roast cut into 4-6 large pieces
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1 cup rice
6-8 small new potatoes
6-8 eggs 
about 7 cups water
Directions:
1. Soak the chickpeas in a bowl with water to cover by at least 2 inches. Leave it for 8-24 hours. Drain before using. 
2. In the bottom of a large slow cooker or a big Dutch oven, spread the soaked and drained chickpeas. Layer the meat on top of the chickpeas. Scatter the onions, garlic, dates, and spices (cinnamon through pepper) around the meat. Cut a big square of cheesecloth from a double thickness and tie the corners together to form a bag around the rice. Make sure there is plenty of room in the bag since the rice will swell to 2 or 3 times the original size. Put the bag in the center on top of the meat, and surround it with alternating eggs and potatoes. Add enough water so that everything is almost covered, but be sure there is at least 1 inch of headroom at the top of the pot. 
3. If you're doing this in a Dutch oven, bring the dafina to a boil over medium heat, cover it tightly, and put it in a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake it for one hour, then lower the temperature to 225-250 degrees and bake it for another 12-20 hours. Don't stir the dafina while it's cooking. If you are cooking this in a slow cooker, put it on hight heat for 1 hour, and then turn the heat to low and cook it overnight. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Goulash

10/14/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
It's simmering on the stove and it smells amazing. Must be the lard. 

This was a very simple recipe. It simmers for nearly three hours, so it's better made ahead of time, but it doesn't take much effort once the vegetables are all cut up. You don't even have to brown the meat. I know next to nothing about sausage, so I bought Andouille, the only sausage that was smoked at Trader Joe's. It was pretty fiery but it tasted great- though I wish I could have tried the recipe with a more authentic sausage, whatever that would have been. I used the meat that I had, which was just over 2 pounds of a cut I think was called rib steak. It was tough with lots of connective tissue, but after the long simmer it was completely tender.

Another winner from the Countess. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Ingredients:
2 pounds of beef cut into 1 inch cubes
1 or 2 smoked sausages, sliced 
3 medium onions sliced thinly
2 diced tomatoes
2 red or green bell peppers, peeled if you like and thinly sliced
2 or 3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons paprika
6 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons lard, olive oil, or butter
salt
Directions:
Heat up the lard, olive oil, or butter in a large pan. Fry the onion in it until it is light golden. Add the cubed beef, the tomatoes, the chopped bell peppers, the paprika, and some salt. Simmer it very gently for 45 minutes. The salt will draw out moisture from the vegetables and it will create enough juice to simmer in. Slowly add the 6 cups of hot water, cover the pan, and let it continue to simmer for another 2 hours. Half an hour before serving add the potatoes, and 10 minutes before serving add the sausage. 
Picture
The finished product with a dollop of carrot-top pesto because I had it on hand.
Picture
Thank you, Countess Morphy!
0 Comments

    Author

    I love trying new foods, cooking, and gardening. I hope to share these experiences on this site. Thanks for taking a look! 
            -Megan

    Categories

    All
    Afghani
    Apple
    Applesauce
    Artichoke
    Backyard
    Bacon
    Banana
    Beans
    Bean Sprouts
    Beef
    Beets
    Bell Peppers
    Big Batch
    Borage
    Bread
    Breakfast
    Burger
    Butternut Squash
    Cake
    California
    Cat
    Cauliflower
    Cherries
    Cherry
    Chicken
    Chinese
    Chocolate
    Chowder
    Clams
    Cod
    Coffee
    Colombian
    Cookie
    Cream
    Curry
    Custard
    Dessert
    Dinner
    Drink
    Early Summer
    Eggplant
    Eggs
    Fall
    Fennel
    Fenugreek
    Fruit
    Garden
    Goat
    Greek
    Green Beans
    Green Onion
    Greens
    Horror
    Hungarian
    Ice Cream
    Indian
    Iraqi
    Italian
    June
    Kids
    Korean
    Lamb
    Lebanese
    Liver
    Local
    Long Beans
    Lunch
    Mango
    Marinade
    May
    Meal Plan
    Menu Plan
    Milk
    Molokhia
    Muffins
    Mushroom
    Mushrooms
    Nagaimo
    Noodles
    North African
    Nose To Tail
    Okra
    Onigiri
    Orange
    Palestinian
    Pancake
    Pasta
    Peach
    Pea Shoots
    Pepperoncini
    Persian
    Pesto/sauce
    Pickles
    Pig
    Pizza
    Pomegranate
    Popsicles
    Pork
    Portuguese
    Potatoes
    Potluck
    Pumpkin
    Purslane
    Quick Lunch Ideas
    Radish
    Rice
    Salad
    Salmon
    Sandwich
    Sardines
    Sausage
    Shrimp
    Simmer Sauce
    Sindhi
    Slow Cooker
    Smoothie
    Snack
    Snap Peas
    Soup
    Spice Blend
    Spinach
    Spring
    Steak
    Stew
    Strawberries
    Strawberry
    Summer
    Tangerine
    Tea
    Thoughts
    Tomato
    Tortillas
    Tuna
    Vegetable Side
    Vegetarian
    Vinaigrette
    Walking Onion
    Walnuts
    Weekend Meal
    Weeknight Meal
    Whining
    Winter
    With Rice
    Wonton
    Yugoslavian
    Zombie Apocalypse
    Zucchini

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    May 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Mechanoid Dolly, Mechanoid Dolly, fidber, Ken_Mayer, eflon, Dendroica cerulea, Urban_Integration
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Local
  • Recipe Index
  • Chicken and Garden
  • Goats
  • Health