Mirchi Ka Salan, Spicy Green Chili Pepper Curry

I have been meaning to share this recipe with all of you, but afraid that you will be to overwhelm with the list of ingredients needed for this recipe. Also this is not your usual curry with vegetables, or meat, this is really spicy and no other vegetable in it, other then green chili pepper. If you really are going to make this, I suggest that you substitute the green chili pepper with Italian long green pepper, Italian sweet pepper, or Mexican sweet pepper. It will still taste delicious, only less spicy. But if you are courageous enough, and used to with spicy food, why not give it a try. You might enjoy this.



Above photo on right, is the photo of Nigela flower just in case if you never seen it before. I am not sure wether the seed is actually the same Nigela seed use in Indian cooking. I collect the seeds to scatter them around my garden, never used them in my cooking. To be save, I just bought the seed from Indian grocery store.

Ingredients:

¼ cup raw peanut

1 tsp sesame seeds

4 funegreek seeds

¼ cup dry coconut

10 dry red chilies

1 cinnamon stick

3 cardamoms

3 cloves

1 tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp nigella seeds

1 large onion, chopped

2 tbs canola oil

very small pinch of hing/asafoteida (optional)

1 tsp turmeric

1 tbs ginger paste

1 tbs garlic paste

15 curry leaves

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

2 cup water

¾ cup yogurt

1 tbs tamarin concentrate

jagery or sugar, just to taste (about 1 teaspoon)

15 sweet Mexican green pepper or sweet Italian pepper

Put peanut in a skillet and roast over medium heat for about 3 to 5 minutes, add sesame seeds, funegreek, and dry coconut, roast until coconut is browned. Take the skillet out of the heat. Place the content into a blender, add a little water, then blend until smooth. Set aside until needed.

Return the skillet to the stove, turn the stove on medium low, add oil, and when the oil is hot, add red chilies, cinnamon stick, cardamoms, cloves, mustard, and nigella seeds, stir, then add onion. Continue to fry and stir from time to time until onion is soft and a little brown. When onion is soft and a little brown, add a little bit of hing, turmeric, ginger paste, garlic paste, and curry leaves, stir to mix. Then add 1 cup of water, chili powder, ground coriander, ground cumin. Continue to cook until liquid is reduce in half, then add the rest of the water, stir to mix.

Add yogurt, the peanut-coconut mixture, tamarin and jageri or sugar, stir well. Cover the pan with lid, continue to cook until the sauce is thicken a little, about 5 minutes. Now add green chili pepper, stir to coat them well, cook another 10 minutes.

Transfer to a serving bowl, and serve with steam basmati rice.

Kubbeh Hamousta, Lamb Somolina Dumpling Soup With Swiss Chard

My husband and I really enjoy this Iraqis semolina dumpling soup, it has very distinctive Middle Eastern flavor that I like so much. The dumpling made from semolina flour, and fairly easy to make. I normally double or triple the recipe and freeze some of them, and make it whenever I don't feel like cooking that day. You can also make the soup with beet roots, which make the soup look very pretty and vibrant color. I also like to eat my soup with spicy zhoug.

The Stuffing:

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 tbs canola oil

500 g (1 lb) ground lamb

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp turmeric

a pinch ground allspice

salt and pepper to taste

• Fry onion with canola oil until soft, add ground lamb, and break them with fork. Add cumin, turmeric, and a pinch ground allspice. Cook thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.

The Dough:

500 g (2¾ cups) semolina

2 tbs canola oil

⅓ cup water (more or less)

salt, to taste

• Mix all ingredients together to make a smooth and pliable dough. Make a small balls, about the size of small plum, place them in a bowl, cover with damp towel. To stuff the ball, moisten your hand, make a dent in each ball, stuff with about 1 tablespoon of lamb, close the dough. Set aside.

The Soup:

1 large onion, chopped

1 garlic, minced

2 tbs canola oil

4 cups chicken stocks

6 cups water

2 large bunch of Swiss chards, chopped

2 zucchinis, sliced

2 carrots, peeled-sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper, to taste

chopped parsley, optional

• In a large soup pot, fry onion until soft, add garlic, and carrots, add the chicken stock and water, season with salt and pepper, let it boil. Turn the heat to low so that the soup is not simmer. Add dumplings to this simmering soup, gently loosen any dumpling that stuck in the bottom with wooden spatula. Cook about 45 minutes until dumpling is done. Add zucchinis, swiss chards, and lemon juice cook another 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve with chopped parsley.

Spicy Falafel With Homemade Pita Bread, Green Tahina Sauce, Red Onion Salad, and Zhoug

The best falafel I've ever had was in Jerusalem, my brother in law took us to mahane Yehuda (check out this beautiful photos) in Jerusalem. There was this falafel stand that my brother in law Ilan and his father have been going there for over 30 years? I can assure you, that my brother in law is super picky when it comes to food, so if he says it's good, then you better believe him. So, he took my husband and I to visit this place at night, I was speechless, it was so good, I almost cried. I can not even begin to describe how delicious it was. Thanks Ilan!!!!!

Here at home, I try to create this delightful vegetarian treat. Using lots spices, and herbs what make this falafel almost as delicious as the one I have tasted in Israel. It might not be the most authentic recipe, but I think you'll find that every house hold who make falafel has their own version. And, I have my own version as well. I hope you will have the time to try this recipe, because it is really delicious, and full of flavor. Also, it is good idea to make your own pita bread and all of this condiment and sauce that you need to serve it with. It just tastes so much better. So, if you have time to spare in the kitchen, let's make this, shall we?

The Falafel:

1 lb dried garbanzo

1 tbs coriander seeds

1 tbs cumin seeds

2 whole clove

1 star anise

1 whole cardamom

10 whole black peppercorns

1 large onion, peeled-roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, peeled-chopped

1 inch sliced ginger, peeled-chopped

3 scallions, chopped

1 cup or more roughly chopped cilantro

1 cup or more roughly chopped parsley

5 red chili, simply omit it if you don't like spicy

½ tbs baking powder

½ tbs baking soda

salt to taste

Canola or vegetable oil

• Place dried garbanzo in a large bowl, rinse couple of times with water. Fill the bowl with water, let soak overnight. The next day when you are ready to make falafel, drain it in a colander.

• Grind coriander, cumin, clove, star anise, cardamom, and whole black peppercorns in a coffee grinder. Transfer this spices to a food processor, add the garbanzo , add the rest of ingredients, except the baking power and the baking soda.

• Process until you have a coarse paste, transfer to a bowl, allow to rest for 2o minutes.

• Just before you are ready to cook the falafel, add baking powder and baking soda to the mixture, mix well.

• Preheat oil in a deep heavy frying pan. To test if the seasoning is enough to your liking, take small mixture (a pinch or two?), and fry quickly. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Then, continue to make small patties or balls (a little over an inch), and fry until the falafel is deep brown and cook all the way through. Drain on paper towel to get rid of the excess oil.

Green Tahina Sauce:

1 cup tahina paste

1 small garlic clove, minced

½ cup finely chopped parsley

lemon juice from 2 lemon

salt to taste

luke warm water

• Place everything, except the lukewarm water in a bowl. Mix with wooden spoon, add luke warm water a little at a time until you have the consistency of a thick cream. Taste, and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Red Onion Salad:

2 red onion, peeled- slice thinly

1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 cup chopped parsley

½ cup chopped mint

3 tbs olive oil

lemon juice from 1 lemon

sumac, optional

• Place everything in salad bowl, toss well. Sprinkle with sumac if desire.

Green Zhoug:

10 green Thai chilies

1 cup roughly chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)

3 cloves peeled garlic

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground clove

¼ ground cardamom

salt to taste

• Place everything in a mortar and pestle, pound to make a paste. Or, process everything in a food processor until form a thick paste. Transfer to a jar or a bowl.

Red Zhoug:

10 red Thai chilies

3 cloves peeled garlic

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp ground clove

¼ ground cardamom

salt to taste

• Place everything in a mortar and pestle, pound to make a paste. Or, process everything in a food processor until form a thick paste. Transfer to a jar or a bowl.

Pita Bread

5¾ cups flour

1 tbs highly active instant dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tbs salt

• Place all ingredients in a mixer bowl, mix with your hand just to mix all ingredient well before adding some water. Attach the hook on your mixer, add about 3 cup of water, knead the dough for 1 minutes on a lowest setting. Increase the speed to speed #2, continue to knead for 2 minutes. Turn off the machine. Gather the dough into a ball. Place it on a lightly grease bowl. Cover with plastic, let it rest in warm place for one hour, or until it is double in volume.

• Place the baking stone (pizza stone) on a lowest rack, then preheat oven to 450⁰F.

• Transfer the dough into floured counter top. Divide into 12 portion. Form each of them into round shape. Bake it directly on top of the baking stone, you probably only able to bake about 4 pita at a time. Bake for about 8 minutes, until the pita is puff out. Process the same way with the rest of the pita.

To serve (just in case you don't know how to eat it):

Open one pita bread, spread a little of tahini sauce inside the cavity of this pita, add the onion salad, add 2 or 3 falafel, add more tahina sauce, top with zhoug. Hope you like it!

Photo below: green tahina sauce, pita bread, red or green zhoug, and red onion salad.

Fragrant Baked Cornish Hen With Orange flower Water, Saffron, Apricot and Olive

Inspired by Cathy's Spicy chicken Thighs with Apricots and Olives, I could not wait to make my own version of this sweet chicken, and serve this to a friend that is coming to visit for lunch. Yes for lunch, why not? after all, I used to have a big lunch when I was growing up, in fact in most country like Europe, and Asia, lunch is "The" big meal on the day, and dinner is just what ever we have left from lunch.

I make tagine on a regular basis because it is pretty easy to make and never failed to impress my family and guest how delicious it can be. Tagine is a North African dishes that cook gently on a unique round and shallow terracotta or clay (glazed or unglazed) pot with conical shape lid. The slow braising on tagine pot, plus the uses of exotic spices is what make the dish unique to me. Unfortunately, I broke many (total of 3 pots, crazy, I know) of my tagine pots due to my clumsiness (and that is, according to my husband). But, it really was not my fault, the tagine pots that I broke were made out of terracotta and were not really good quality. Sorry, I take that back, they were good, all of them, I am just plain clumsy, period! So, my husband bought me the fancier one, and more durable, and been using it since then, still doesn't break. I think it is really durable because I remember I accidently bang it once on my counter top (maybe it was just plain luck). Durable, yes, but it's lacking of those taste of earthiness that I got from the one made out of terracotta. I don't give up just yet, so I'll be ordering mine pretty soon, and will show it off to you too. Anyway, for a change, I thought I borrowed Cathy's idea of baking it, and glad I did it. It was absolutely delicious and I encourage you to try it yourself. Don't skip the orange flower water, it really make this dish so deliciously fragrant, and your kitchen will smell good too.

The recipe inspired by :

Saffron Chicken With Apricot, The Moroccan Collection Book written by Hilaire Walden.

And by Cathy's Spicy Chicken and Apricot.

2 (3 lbs) cornish hens

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 small garlic, minced

24 dried apricot

¼ cup dried sultanas

2 cinnamon sticks

1 whole star anise

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cumin

1-2 tbs orange flower water

¼-½ tsp saffron threads, soak with 2 tbs hot water

½ cup chicken stock or water

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbs chopped parsley

½ tbs chopped mints

a handful of almond and pine nuts, optional

• Saute onion over medium heat until translucent, add minced garlic, dried apricot, dried sultanas, cinnamon sticks, star anise, ground, ground cumin, orange flower water, saffron water, and the chicken stock or water. Stir to mix the ingredients, season with salt and pepper, don't forget to taste it to see if need an adjustment. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the stove off, add the parsley and mints, mix, and let this mixture cool completely.

• Preheat oven to 375⁰F. Position the rack in the middle.

• Clean, and cut the hens into quarter. Pat dry with paper towel. Arrange them neatly on a oven proof ceramic dish. Pour the apricot-spice mixture directly on the hens, turning to coat each of the pieces with this mixture, then arrange them back with the skin side up. Transfer to the oven, and bake for 1 hour, about 10 minutes before the cooking finish, scatter almond and pine nut on top, continue to cook until the hen is brown and cook thoroughly. Alternately, you can lightly toasted the nuts separately in a skillet, then scatter them when you are ready to serve.

• Serve hot with plain or spiced couscous and harisa. Delicious!

For more info about unglazed tagine pot, visit this discussion site, here (scroll all the way down until you see Wolfert's article). Where I got my teracota tagine pot?, visit this store here, the price is really reasonable.