Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Doro Wett (Ethiopian chicken stew)

Recipe Source: Samuelsson, Marcus.  The Soul of a New Cuisine.  John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2006 p. 245

I can still remember my first taste of Ethiopian food.  It was at Addis Red Sea in Boston's South End, and what a delight it was.  I don't remember the names of all the dishes I had and I probably couldn't pronounce some of them anyway.  I remember kitfo.  I remember some greens that were amazingly tasty.  I even remember a cabbage dish I liked.  I remember the injera bread, a wonderful, spongy flatbread that can double as eating utensils.  Eating utensils that taste good! 

Anyway, a few weeks ago, my local Whole Foods actually had some teff flour.  I haven't seen it there before and I haven't noticed it since, but teff is the grain used to make the injera bread.  I picked it up and was very excited to make it.  I selected this traditional recipe to go with it.  Unfortunately, the injera bread just didn't work out, probably for procedural reasons (ie, I screwed up.)  But the stew itself came out just fine. 

I made a few changes.  I increased the garlic, naturally, and the ginger.  I didn't have spiced butter and we don't use enough butter to make it worthwhile to make up a batch, but the option to use plain old unsalted butter was given so I took it.  I used duck stock made from the carcass of a duck we haven't posted yet in place of chicken stock, because it was available and free.  I added a tablespoon of Aleppo pepper, to give a little extra heat and to make up for not using spiced butter.  If you can't find Aleppo pepper, use cayenne.  Finally, I omitted the hard-boiled eggs at the end.  I know they're traditional but I'm not sure what they add to the recipe and my husband doesn't care for hard boiled eggs.  The result was a remarkably mild, flavorful stew with just enough heat to be comforting.  The liquid is not supposed to bind together like a European sauce - it is supposed to be soupy! 

Doro Wett (serves 6; approx. $2.29/serving)

2 red onions, diced

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3 whole cloves

4 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

2 tablespoons minced ginger

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 1/2 cups duck stock, divided

One chicken, about 4 pounds, cut up into 10 pieces, wings discarded or reserved for another  use

1/4 cup dry red wine

3 tablespoons lime juice (juice of one lime)

Equipment:

• Dutch oven

1. Combine the onions, a pinch of salt and half the butter in the Dutch oven over low heat. 
2. Cook until the onions are golden, about 15 minutes.
3. Add the remaining butter, cardamom, pepper, cloves garlic ginger, chili powder and Aleppo pepper.  Cook until the onions are soft and begin to take on the color of the spices, about 10 minutes.
4. Add 2 cups duck stock and the chicken legs and thighs.  Bring to a simmer and simmer 15 minutes.
5. Add the remaining stock and the wine.  Return to a simmer and simmer 10 - 20 minutes.
6. Add the chicken breasts.  Simmer another 20 minutes.
7. Add the lime juice.  Simmer another 5 minutes.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Tangerine and Olive Salad

Recipe Source: Patterson, Jean.  "Tangerine Dreams."  Bon Appetitvolume 46 number 12 page 107, December 2001.  The original recipe is available online here.

I love tangerines, and they're only available for a small part of the year.  Part of me feels that if we can have apples in May we can have tangerines in July, but the rest of me is a little more sensible.  After all, the apples I can find in may may exist and they may look like apples, but they taste vaguely like cardboard.  I came across this recipe while digitizing my cooking magazine collection and decided to make it. 

There weren't a whole lot of changes to make.  Despite having a few ingredients, it's an amazingly simple salad to throw together.  It looks nice and fancy, though, so your guests will all be suitably impressed :)  I did make a few procedural changes and I reduced the amount of oil. 

Tangerine and Olive Salad (serves 4; approx. $2.06/serving)

4 tangerines, peeled and sectioned

1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon Chardonnay vinegar

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 butter lettuce leaves torn into bite-sized pieces

1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Equipment:

• Small bowl
• Whisk

1. Put the tangerines, lettuce, olives and parsley in the serving vessel.  Toss well.
2. Combine the vinegar, oil and spices in the small bowl.  Whisk well.
3. Add the dressing to the serving bowl and mix well. 
4. Serve. 

Recipe: Chestnut Pound Cake

Recipe Source: Medrich, Alice.  Pure Dessert.  Workman Publishing Company, New York, 2007 p. 71

An alternate title to this post could be, "The Wait Was Worth It."  I found this recipe a few months ago when my copy of Pure Dessertarrived, and I immediately became very excited to make it.  How simple yet delicious it looked!  And how hard could it be to find chestnut flour, especially when 30% of the last names in Braintree end in a vowel?  This was my first mistake.  It took me MONTHS to find chestnut flour (and I bought what was left in the store.  It wasn't much.)  I could probably have found it had I ventured into the North End, the Boston neighborhood with all the traditional Italian shops, but you certainly can't drive there and at this time of year public transportation takes dedication and effort (not to mention risk.) 

Like I said, the wait was worth it, but I can illustrate it better by describing the reaction of some of the people I fed it to.  The recipe makes sixteen pieces.  There are two people living in this house.  I had the opportunity to watch the World's Most Wonderful Children on Tuesday, Wesley and Penny.  I had dinner with the family before the parents left for the evening, and I contributed half of the cake.  Penny is almost 15 months old and very tiny.  (This is genetic.  Her mom is also tiny.  As is her grandmother.)  Anyway, the doctor would like Penny to put on a little weight, so they're trying to find more foods she likes.  That night she was being a little fussy in the food department.  Her mother offered her a small piece of the cake.  She stepped away and ate it.  The next thing we knew, she was back for more, trying to scale her mother in an attempt to reach the cake. 

So yeah, this recipe has passed the Kid Test as well. 

Chestnut Pound Cake (serves 16; approx. $0.41/serving)

9 ounces all-purpose flour

4.5 ounces chestnut flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, room temperature

1/2 pound unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup buttermilk at room temperature

1/3 cup dark rum

Equipment:

• 12 cup tube pan
• Wire rack
• Large bowl
• Sifter
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment

1. Preheat your oven to 325 with a rack in the bottom third of the oven.
2. Lubricate the tube pan with your lubricant of choice.  I used cooking spray.
3. Sift the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into the large bowl.  Repeat twice. 
4. Combine the rum and buttermilk.
5. In the bowl of the stand mixer, beat the butter a few seconds until creamy.
6. Add the sugar in a steady stream on medium speed  until light and fluffy. 
7. Beating constantly, dribble the eggs into the butter mixture.  It should take 2 - 3 minutes to add them all.
8. Stop the mixer and add 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Beat until incorporated.
9. Stop the mixer.  Add 1/2 the rum-buttermilk mixture.  Beat until incorporated. 
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9. 
11. Repeat step 8 again.
12. Pour into the tube pan and bake 40 - 45 minutes, or until the cake tester comes out clean. 
13. Cool the cake in the pan on the wire rack 10 minutes.
14. Slide a thin knife or wooden skewer around the tube and around the outside of the cake.  Invert the pan onto the rack.  Remove the pan, turn the cake right-side up, and cool completely. 
15. Enjoy!  According to Medrich, the cake will keep a few days at room temperature if tightly wrapped.  It will also freeze for three months. 

Recipe: Tuna and Scallion Salad

Recipe Source: Callahan, Maureen.  "Build a Smarter Salad."  Cooking Lightvolume 22 number 4 p. 99, May 2008, available online here

I was looking forward to making this salad for a while.  I'd initially intended it to be a main-course salad.  In my head it was going to be full of bold, bright and vibrant flavors, and healthy, and delicious, and wonderful, and it was going to bring about Peace in the Middle East, and solve the climate crisis, and reunite families, and blah blah blah.  In short, I built it up in my head WAY too much. It did none of those things.  To compound my lack of enthusiasm, I served it as a side dish (long story) with a very strongly flavored stew, which made the flavors seem all the more insipid.  In all honesty, this salad was actually pretty good, and would make an excellent main course for a warm spring or summer evening.

I did make a few changes, of course.  I used half the amount of tuna, both because there were half the number of people in the house and because part of the whole reason I wanted to make this salad was the fact that I had 12 ounces of frozen tuna steaks in the freezer.  I just skipped the carrots entirely; I dislike carrots intensely.  I used mango juice instead of orange juice in hopes of getting it out of my fridge that much sooner and increased all spices and seasonings.  I also used a head of butter lettuce in place of romaine because my husband doesn't care for romaine lettuce.  I omitted the sesame seed garnish. 

Tuna and Scallion Salad (serves 4; approx. 4.25/serving)

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon mango juice

1 tablespoon chili-garlic sauce

1 tablespoon horseradish mustard

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil, divided

12 ounces tuna steaks

3 bunches scallions, cleaned and trimmed

1 head butter lettuce, leaves torn

1/2 bunch bok choy

2 tomatoes, sliced

Equipment:

• 2 saute pans
• Small bowl

1. Combine the vinegar, juice, chili sauce and mustard in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Pile the greens (lettuce and bok choy) onto the serving platter.
3. Heat the oil in the two saute pans. 
4. Add the tuna steaks to one pan, the scallions to the other. 
5. Cook the scallions until the stalks are softened. 
6. Cook the tuna steaks until done to your taste, depending on freshness. 
7. Pour the dressing over the greens. 
8. Top with the tuna and the scallions.
9. Serve. 

Recipe: Lamb with Lemon and Paprika

Recipe Source: Goldstein, Joyce.  Savoring Spain & Portugal.  Oxmoor House, Menlo Park, 2000 p. 142

Boston is going through another unpleasant cold snap, which means that soups and stews are at the top of my list of things to make.  I made this one this past Sunday.  It fit the requirements I had: it contained lamb, it contained lemon (one of my husband's favorite flavors), it would cook for a while but was still able to be finished before we needed to be out of the house.  It looked like it would be a wonderful dish.

The dish was good, but it wasn't as good as it could have been.  The original recipe called for the meat to be seared in one pan and then cooked in another.  I decided that I would sear and cook in the same pan, both because I needed the fry pans for the side dishes I planned to make and because I was excited to try my new Dutch oven.  Unfortunately, the oven was a little too efficient, as was my stovetop.  Despite cooking on the lowest possible setting on that burner, the onions overcaramelized and turned into a thick black gloop on the bottom of the pan.  The meat itself was very tasty, though, and the dish was definitely a success.  If you make this dish, follow the original instructions even though it means washing more pots and pans. 

Lamb with Lemon and Paprika (serves 6; approx. $2.59/serving)

2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 1" pieces

Kosher salt and freshly ground grains of paradise, to taste

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

8 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon paprika

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 lemon, cut into eighths

Equipment:

• Wide saute pan
• Dutch oven or heavy pot

1. Liberally season the lamb with salt and grains of paradise to taste.
2. Heat the oil in the saute pan over high heat.
3. Add the lamb and brown on both sides.  Evacuate the lamb to the deep pot as it browns.  Work in batches if you need to; overcrowding won't help.
4. Add the onions and garlic to the saute pan and cook until the onions are softened. 
5. Add the paprika.  Cook another minute.
6. Transfer the contents of the saute pan to the deep pot.  Add the lemon juice and 1/2 the parsley.
7. Bring to a boil over high heat.
8. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook about 1 hour. 
9. Transfer to the serving vessel and serve, garnished by the reserved parsley and with the lemon wedges served alongside. 

Recipe: Beef and Noodle Soup

  Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc.  Imperial Mongolian Cooking.  Hippocrene Books, New York, 2001 p. 34. 

Winter is a time for soup, but soup doesn't have to be heavy.  This soup, which serves ten if served as the Soup Course, is actually amazingly light.  It is also very yellow - so yellow that I should have submitted it to the Food in Colors event!  Apparently it is often served as a breakfast in Mongolia, at least according to Mr. Cramer.  In Mongolia (again, according to the author) this would be made with lamb, which I would have preferred.  In Tibet, it would be made with yak meat, which I have yet to find for sale in the metropolitan Boston area. 

I made a few changes to the recipe.  I used olive oil instead of "vegetable oil."  I increased the amount of garlic.  I added some minced ginger to the powdered ginger called for in the recipe.  I increased both the cumin and turmeric.  I didn't have egg noodles on hand, so I substituted rice noodles, which I sauteed in hot pepper sesame oil.  Finally, rather than thinly slicing the tomatoes, I used small tomatoes that I chopped into halves or quarters. 

I genuinely liked this soup.  I didn't like the texture of the meat.  I think that the meat would be better sliced as thinly as possible and added later in the recipe.  I suppose that would make it more like a pho, but I like pho.  I think it would also be just fine without the meat, and in fact froze the leftovers in just such a fashion. 

Beef and Noodle Soup (serves 10; approx. $1.35/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

6 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 pound lean beef stewing meat

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

7 cups water

1 small package rice noodles

1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/3 package of Campari tomatoes, quartered.

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Bowl
• Strainer
• Wok

1. Heat the olive oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the fenugreek seeds.  Stir until they turn brown.
3. Add the garlic and ginger.  Saute until just fragrant.
4. Add the meat, cumin and turmeric.  Saute until the meat is browned.
5. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
6. Add the water, cover and cook another 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, reconstitute the noodles in the bowl with hot water.
8. Drain the noodles. 
9. Heat the sesame oil in the wok. 
10. Add the noodles and saute 2 - 3 minutes.
11. Add the onions, scallions and tomatoes to the serving vessel.
12. Add the noodles.
13. Add the broth with meat to the serving vessel and serve. 

Recipe: Trout with Lemon and Mushrooms

I love fish in any form, but my favorite fish has to be trout.  My dad has been a trout fisherman for as long as I can remember.  When I was very small he used to take me fishing with him.  We'd go wandering through the woods of Upstate New York, ranging from nearby Chittenango all the way up into the North Country, and spend hours together looking for trout.  Sometimes we even caught a few.  Eating trout reminds me of those wonderful afternoons.  Of course, it's nigh impossible to find wild-caught trout here in Boston, but even the farmed stuff can make me feel like a little kid again.  

This recipe is wicked easy (yes, I've lived here too long.)  It's based on sole meuniere, but I've added a few things to it just to give it more body and interest.  Farmed trout is a lot bigger than the trout I remember when I was a kid; two fillets should be plenty for four servings.  I'd intended to use breadcrumbs, but they'd disappeared and so I was stuck with regular old flour.  Personally, I thought that the lemon flavor was a little strong for the rest of the dish, but my husband absolutely loved it.  

Trout with Lemon and Mushrooms (serves 4; approx. $3.50/serving)

2 trout fillets (about 1 lb; if you're using wild-caught fish you may need more than two fillets)

2 tablespoons butter, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Pinch kosher salt

Pinch grains of paradise

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

10 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms, quartered (halved if very small)

1/4 cup white wine

Equipment:

• Spatula
• Wide-mouthed bowl or plate
• Wide-bottomed saute pan

1.  Combine the flour, salt and grains of paradise in the wide-mouthed bowl.
2. Grate the rind of the lemon directly into the flour mixture and mix well.
3. Dredge the fish fillets in the flour. 
4. Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1 1'/2 tablespoons olive oil in the saute pan.  Swirl the resulting fat around to ensure that it coats the whole bottom of the pan.
5. Add the fish and cook 2 - 3 minutes. 
6. Flip the fish over carefully and cook another 3 - 4 minutes or until done to your liking.  Try not to overcook.  Trout is pretty delicate and can dry out quickly, resulting in a texture not unlike the paste you ate in kindergarten. 
7. Remove the fish to the serving platter and keep warm.  I did this in the oven set on the lowest possible setting.
8. Add the remaining butter and olive oil and reduce heat slightly. 
9. When the butter is melted, add the mushrooms and saute. 
10. Cook the mushrooms until tender and browned slightly.  Add the wine.
11. Cook until the mushrooms start yielding up their tasty liquid.  The pan may appear kind of dry before that.  Just keep an eye on the stuff and don't let it burn.  If you need to, add a little more wine. 
12. When the mushrooms have yielded up some of their liquid, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice.  Mix well.
13. Pour over the fish and serve. 

Recipe: Chickpea and Cilantro Salad

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2004 p. 68

Chickpeas are kind of like the little black dress of the culinary world.  I can't think of a flavor they don't match well with, although I've never tried them with chocolate.  They manage to match all sorts of flavors without being bland themselves.  The beans themselves are so versatile that they can be used in dishes from appetizer to dessert.  They pack a protein wallop, making them particularly convenient for vegetarians, but they also provide carbohydrates for energy. 

This salad is one that I've been wanting to make for a while.  I skipped the optional greens, mostly because I wanted to use the greens later in the week.  I had to use powdered spices, and instead of one large tomato I substituted a handful of smaller tomatoes that I halved.  I finally just went ahead and used a whole bunch of cilantro, because if I had bothered to chop it finely enough I'm sure I'd have gotten it down to half a cup eventually. 

Chickpea and Cilantro Salad (serves 4; approx. $1.70/serving)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon asafetida

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

2 tablespoons minced jarred ginger

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/3 package Campari tomatoes, halved

1 28-oz can good quality chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

Equipment:

• Large wok or saute pan with a lid

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the cumin and asafetida and cook 5 - 10 seconds, until fragrant.
3. Add the onion and garlic.  Saute until the onions are soft. 
4. Add the remaining ingredients through the chickpeas.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes.
5. Stir in cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Chocolate Almond Muffins

I recently took a road trip with a bunch of wonderful people.  These are friends that I care for very much, and in my family when you care for someone very much you feed them.  (This resulted in a 20 lb addition to my weight the first time I came home from college.)  I wanted to bring something for people to snack on in the car, so I came up with these muffins.  This would have been great, had I remembered to bring them.  You see, in order to meet up with these friends, I had to leave my house at something like 4:30 AM.  I couldn't leave the muffins out by the door because of the risk that the dog would eat them (chocolate being very bad for dogs, and Yogi being very fond of almonds.  In my early morning fog, I forgot them.  Sigh.  Oh well, I guess you can't win them all.  I'll try to bring them to something another time. 

Chocolate Almond Muffins (makes 12 muffins; approx. $0.71/serving)

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup soy milk

1/3 cup olive  oil

1 cup creamy almond butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• 12-cup muffin tin
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Sifter

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Lubricate the muffin tins with the lubricant of your choice - I use cooking spray.
2. In the large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil and sugar.
3. Add the almond butter, mixing with a spatula.
4. Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl.  Mix well with the spatula. 
5. Spoon into the muffin tin, filling the cups right up to the top. 
6. Bake 20 - 25 minutes. 
7. Let cool before eating - you wouldn't want to burn your mouth! 

Recipe: Chicken, Asparagus and Shiitake Mushroom Stir Fry

I had planned to make something completely different with some of these ingredients.  I had planned to make a slow-cooked lamb shank dish, which would have been perfect for a cold and unpleasant Sunday.  Unfortunately, Whole Foods wasn't selling lamb shanks, but I'd already put everything else in the cart and wasn't sure what was for which recipe.  I had to do something with those ingredients, and so this stir fry was born.  The cost per serving would be dramatically reduced if you bought local asparagus in season...

Chicken, Asparagus and Shiitake Mushroom Stir Fry (serves 4; approx. $4.36/serving)

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast

3 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 lemon grass stalk, chopped and lightly crushed

1 bunch asparagus, woody ends trimmed and discarded

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated at least 30 minutes in hot water, soaking liquid reserved

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour or cornstarch (cornstarch is preferred, but I was out.)

2 tablespoons Shao Xing wine

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon hot pepper sesame oil

Equipment:

• Wok
• Small bowl
• Small whisk

1. Chop the chicken into approx. 1" pieces.
2. Chop the asparagus into pieces approx. 1" long.
3. Heat the oil in the wok. 
4. Add the garlic and lemongrass and saute for a moment, until the aromatics become, well, aromatic.
5. Add the chicken.  Cook until the outside changes color.
6. Add the asparagus and saute several moments, until tender. 
7. Meanwhile, take 2 tablespoons of the mushroom soaking liquid and put it into the small bowl.  Add the 1 teaspoon flour and mix well, to form a paste. 
8. Add the mushrooms to the wok - reserve another 2 tablespoons of the mushroom soaking liquid.
9. Saute until the mushrooms are tender.  This shouldn't take long. 
10. Splash in the wine, the mushroom liquid and the soy sauce.  Bring to a boil.
11. Add the flour-and-mushroom-liquid mixture.  Mix well and allow the sauce to reduce for about 2 minutes. 
12. Splash 1 teaspoon of hot pepper sesame oil over the mixture and serve.