Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Lamb Kebabs with Kuwaiti Spices

I had originally intended for this to be a main course for just me and my husband one recent Saturday night.  We decided, however, to go to the Cape with some friends that day, and we ate dinner while we were out.  (This would be where they announced their engagement, which was quite the pleasant surprise.)  Anyway, I decided to serve the meat in kebab form as an hors d'oeuvre for the next day's Sunday open house.  The extra day in the marinade did not hurt the meat in the slightest, and the result was delicious. 

Lamb Kebabs with Kuwaiti Spices (serves 6 as an hors d'oeuvre; approx. $2.44/serving)

3 lamb shoulder blade chops (a little over 1 1/2 pounds)

2 tablespoons Kuwaiti Spice Mix

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup Greek non-fat yogurt

Equipment:

• Big Green Egg or other grill (you can make these indoors as well if you really must)
• Skewers - metal or bamboo, doesn't matter
• Zip-top plastic bag
• Bowl

1. Combine the garlic, lemon juice, yogurt and spice mix in the bowl.  Mix well.
2. Cut the lamb into cubes, carefully removing as much as possible from the bones.  Put them in the plastic bag.
3. Pour the yogurt mixture over the lamb, trying to get some of the mix on all the lamb pieces. 
4. Seal the bag and stow in the refrigerator at least 24 and up to 48 hours. 
5. When you are ready to cook, thread the meat onto skewers.
6. Prepare your grill for direct heat cooking over medium-high heat. 
7. Cook the meat until it is as done as you would like it to be. 
8. Serve. 

Recipe: Beef with Mushrooms

Recipe Source: Metzger, Christine (ed.).  Culinaria Germany.  H. F. Ullmann, 2007 p. 20

I made this dish for a friend whose husband had gone away on a business trip.  He cannot eat mushroom and his wife loves them, so she wanted to indulge in this ingredient while he was away.  I probably made it a little spicier than was originally intended (the original called for a chili powder of medium heat, which of course I don't have), but that was okay.  The husband has a hard time tolerating spicy foods as well, so the wife got to enjoy that too.  Other changes that I made include using olive oil instead of clarified butter (personal preference) and omitting both the sugar and creme fraiche (also personal preference). 

Beef with Mushrooms (serves 4; approx. $5.13/serving)

1 1/2 pounds stewing beef, cut into thin slices

2 tablespoons olive oil

14 ounces onions, diced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beer - the original called for lager, but we used a brown ale because that's what we had

1 tablespoon chili powder (I used Chili Powder Extra Hot)

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1 teaspoon thyme

1/2 pound mixed mushrooms (I used one of those Chef's Sampler Packs, which had some really interesting looking mushrooms in it), chopped

A handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Equipment:

• Large, deep saute or saucepan

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the beef and quickly brown.
3. Add the onions.  Saute until translucent.
4. Add the tomato paste and cook quickly.
5. Deglaze with the beer.  Drink the remaining beer.
6. Add the chili powder, kosher salt, black pepper and thyme. 
7. Cover and simmer over low heat for about an hour. 
8. Add the mushrooms.  Cover and simmer another 10 minutes.
9. Sprinkle the parsley over the stew and serve. 

Recipe: Simply Smoked Rabbit (Guest Post from Fearless Grill)

Recipe Source: Original

As mentioned in previous posts, we were asked to teach a class on using a ceramic cooker as part of a historical reenactment event focused on daily life tasks in the middle ages. We had found some recipes from period cookbooks and were set up cooking them on our Big Green Egg in preparation for our class, when the person teaching a class on butchering came up and asked us if we wanted to cook a rabbit she had just used for her demonstration. I had never cooked a rabbit before and wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but the chance to try some extremely fresh meat and something different at that was too good to pass up.

Since we weren't at home, I didn't have a lot of ingredients or spices with me, and I had to come up with something on the fly. Since rabbit is lean, I understand that the conventional wisdom is to add some fat to it, but we didn't have any oil, butter, or other appropriate fat with us. I did have a jar of my greek-style rub that I normally use for chicken, and decided to rub the rabbit with that, and cook it alongside a chicken I was also preparing. I wasn't sure what temperature to cook it at or how thoroughly to cook it. I ended up roasting it at 375 degrees Fahrenheit to an internal temperature of 160.

For having completely made it up on the fly, the rabbit was surprisingly good. The meat was really lean and clean tasting, with a nice smoke flavor from having been cooked on the Egg. Luckily, the meat didn't dry out, despite not having had any fat to add to it. The spice mixture turned out to be a good choice, as it added some flavor and spice to the meat without overpowering the taste. We ended up cutting it into small pieces so everyone attending could try a little, and everyone seemed to like it.

Simply Smoked Rabbit (serves 2)

Equipment Required

• Big Green Egg or other smoker

1 rabbit

Several chunks of apple or other fruit wood for smoking

Chopped fresh herbs, as garnish

Greek Style Rub

3 tablespoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons black pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1. Mix the spice rub ingredients together, and coat the meat to taste. There will probably be some leftover rub. Save it to use on a chicken or lamb dish.
2. Prepare your smoker for indirect cooking at 375 degrees. On my large Big Green Egg, I set up with my plate setter legs up and a drip pan in the plate setter. I added several chunks of apple wood to the fire.
3. Once the temperature stabilizes, put the rabbit in the smoker, and cook until the internal temperature of the meat hits 160 degrees. This took about 45 minutes on our cook, but the rabbit was cut into parts. If you have a whole rabbit, it might take a bit longer.
4. Remove the meat from the smoker, allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, carve, sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs of your choice and serve.

Recipe: Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup

Recipe Source: Mallos, Tess.  Middle Eastern Home Cooking.  Periplus Editions, Boston, 2002 p. 38

So, I've been trying to do two things lately: make as many meals as I can ahead of time and cook healthier dishes.  The problem with this plan is that I frequently find myself craving something other than what I've already cooked.  Just the other day I absolutely had to have shrimp, and the kidney bean dish I made had to go into the freezer.  Still, it's an attempt, and the more I try to pull this off the more likely I am to be successful. 

This dish was one of the ones I made and then froze.  I made a few changes.  I used red lentils instead of brown.  Red lentils disintegrate faster than brown lentils, creating a creamy, smooth soup.  That's not why I used red lentils instead of brown, though.  I did it because I had lots and lots of red lentils on hand.  I reduced the amount of olive oil pretty drastically, increased the garlic, increased the cilantro and omitted the garnishes.  The result was certainly a tasty soup.  It was also a very filling soup, since we didn't even miss the bread we'd forgotten to make to go with it!  I will warn you though: this soup may burn if you try to reheat it, so watch the heat carefully. 

Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup (serves 4; approx. $1.43/serving)

1 1/2 cups red lentils, picked over and rinsed

6 cups water

1 bunch Swiss chard, stalks removed and reserved for another use

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 bunch chopped fresh cilantro

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1/4 cup lemon juice

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Large saute pan

1. Put the lentils and the water in the saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer a good 25 minutes.
2. Shred the chard leaves and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in the saute pan over medium to low heat. 
4. Add the onion and gently cook until translucent.
5. Add the garlic and cook until barely fragrant.
6. Add the chard and saute until the leaves begin to wilt. 
7. Add the pan mixture to the lentils along with the cilantro, seasonings and lemon juice.  Cover and simmer another 10 minutes. 
8. Serve or freeze. 

Recipe: Grilled Spring Onions

I love spring onions.  They're incredibly versatile.  You can use them in any recipe calling for regular onions, but you can also use them in any recipe calling for leeks.  Yes, the flavor is slightly different, but that's okay.  In my humble opinion, it's better.  You can also use the tops of the spring onions as you would scallions, meaning that you get two ingredients from one purchase.  I came up with this very simple, very basic recipe as a side dish to accompany grilled fish.  It matched quite well and would probably go over very well with grilled chicken or turkey as well.

Grilled Spring Onions (serves 2; approx. $2.00/serving)

6 spring onions, bulbs only (reserve the tops for another use)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• We made this on the Big Green Egg, and I do feel that a certain amount of flavor was added by the hardwood charcoal that the Egg uses.  However, you can easily do this on any other kind of grill, or even under your broiler if you must. 

1. Prepare your grill for direct cooking over medium-high heat.
2. Meanwhile, prepare your onions.  Halve the bulbs .  Drizzle them in the olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. 
3. Grill over medium-high heat until tender, about five minutes if I remember correctly. 
4. Serve.

Recipe: Azerbaijani Tandir Bread (Guest Post from Fearless Grill)

Recipe Source: Inspired by the recipe found on AZ Cookbook, at http://www.azcookbook.com/tandir-bread-tendir-choreyi/

We were recently asked to teach a class on use of ceramic cookers in the middle ages after Jess found documentation for 'an Egg-shaped ceramic cooker' in a 10^th century Arabic cookbook. While we recreated some of the recipes from that cookbook, I knew that one of the primary uses for such cookers was to bake bread (think nann in a tandoor), and I started looking around for some traditional bread recipes that could showcase this aspect of the versatility of a ceramic cooker. I found this recipe on AZ Cookbook, a blog dedicated to food from Azerbaijan, and loved the look and color of the bread, which was designed to be cooked in a Tandir, the Azerbaijani version of a ceramic cooker. Although I didn't have documentation for this particular recipe dating back to the middle ages, I decided to use it for our class anyway, as all the ingredients would have been available (substituting whole wheat for white flour anyway), and the techniques used would have been as well.

I made some pretty significant changes to the recipe and technique, the biggest of which was actually cooking the bread in a ceramic cooker (my large Big Green Egg), rather than in the oven as suggested by the author. To accommodate the shape of my Big Green Egg and the stone that I use to bake breads on, I made the bread round rather than the rectangular shape described in the original recipe. I used a teaspoon of active dry yeast from a jar, rather than a package of dry yeast. After doing a test run before my class I found that the proportions called for in the recipe made the dough much too sticky, and I added an additional 1/2 cup of flour to correct this. We also felt that the test bread was lacking a bit in flavor, and so we decided to sprinkle the top with some coarse grained salt in addition to the poppy seeds. This really helped to draw out the flavors. I cheated and made the dough in my stand mixer rather than kneading by hand as the original described, both for convenience and because the kitchen was a mess and I couldn't find the counter to knead the bread on it. Finally, I made the dough the night before the class, refrigerated it immediately, and then let it finish rising the next day, once we got to the site where our class was being taught. It's not necessary to let it rest overnight, but I did detect a bit of fermentation flavor in the bread, which I liked.

This bread was a big hit with the people who took our class, and we had no trouble finding takers for the two loaves we made. One nice thing about the bread was that the cross-hatched cuts in the dough, in addition to looking great, made it really easy for people to break off a small chunk of bread. This would make it a great choice to serve at a party. I tried cooking this without any added smoke (the loaf on the left in the picture), and also with one small chunk of apple wood added to the fire (the loaf on the right in the picture). The one with the smoke picked up a great color and just a hint of additional smoke flavor. I'd certainly recommend that method, unless you have an aversion to smoky flavors. One other finding was that the bread, while still good cold, was much better warm. If you plan to serve this at a party, put it out as soon as you cook it.

Tandir Bread (makes one loaf)

Equipment Required

• Big Green Egg or wood fired bread oven (preferred). You can make this in your home oven too.
• Rolling pin
• Pizza peel or sideless cookie sheet
• Food-safe brush

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 teaspoon table salt

3 1/2 cups bread flour

1 egg yolk, for brushing

Poppy seeds and kosher salt, for topping

1. Add the yeast and water to the bowl of your stand mixer. Allow the yeast to proof for about 10 minutes
2. Add half the flour and the salt to the bowl, and using your dough hook at slow speed, mix in the remaining flour until a ball is formed on the hook. Add flour if too wet, or a little water if too dry
3. Turn up the speed to medium-low, and knead for 6 minutes, or until the dough forms a smooth ball on the hook
4. Leave the dough in the bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
5. Set up your ceramic cooker to cook indirect at 400 degrees. Put in a baking stone to heat up with the cooker. If desired, add a small chunk of smoking wood to the fire (I used apple) to add color and flavor to the bread.
6. Punch down the dough and form it into a ball. Use your hands to flatten it and stretch it. Place on a floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll it out, till you have a piece of dough about ½ inch thick that fits your baking stone.
7. Coat a pizza peel or sideless cookie sheet with coarse cornmeal. Transfer the dough to the sheet, and allow to rise for another 15 minutes.
8. Use a knife to make shallow crosshatches across the bread. Brush with the egg yolk and sprinkle with the seeds and kosher salt.
9. Slide the bread onto your baking stone, and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until golden on top, and it sounds hollow when tapped.

Recipe: Mushroom Stew

Recipe Source: This recipe came with my Living Cookbook software, available from Radium Technologies.  The Living Cookbook cited The Mushroom Council as the source for this recipe.

We have a friend whose husband has been traveling a lot for work lately.  This happens.  When she was still working, she actually traveled more than he did, but anyway, she found herself home alone.  We went out to dinner one night and got shabu-shabu, and she ordered extra mushrooms.  Her husband does not eat mushrooms - I forget if he's allergic, if it's a medication reaction, or if he just has a very strong dislike.  Anyway, while she misses her husband while he's gone, she wanted to take advantage of his absence to enjoy the foods that he won't or can't eat.  I said, "Well, he's traveling next week too, right?  Well, come on over one night and I'll make a whole mushroom-themed meal."  I prepared this recipe as part of that meal.

I made a few changes.  I increased the amount of rosemary (because I had it), increased the garlic, used red wine vinegar instead of sherry, omitted the butter, used Aleppo pepper for the red pepper flakes, and substituted one of those "Chef's Sampler Packs" of mushrooms for half of the white button mushrooms called for in the original.  I know that some of the mushrooms in that pack were enoki; the rest I'm not so sure about.  Anyway, the change you might have expected was a reduction in the amount of oil.  I did not make that change.  Given the way that the recipe was structured, that amount of oil was actually necessary.

Ordinarily I'd have streamlined this process a little.  However, I remembered this barbeque book that my husband loves, Serious Barbeque.  The recipes in that book seem incredibly complex, but each seemingly fussy step really adds a level of flavor to the finished product.  I decided to see if that was the case here.  I wouldn't say that the different additions of mushrooms so much added complexity to the dish, but I do feel that they allowed the individual mushrooms to stand out more than they would have had I cooked them all at the same time. 

Mushroom Stew (serves 4; approx. $4.89/serving)

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

8 ounces portobella mushrooms, sliced 1/2" thick

8 ounces Baby Bella or white button mushrooms, chopped

8 ounces mixed mushrooms, chopped

14 ounces canned diced tomatoes - I used fire roasted tomatoes

3 tablespoons tomato paste

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

Equipment:

• Dutch oven
• Large bowl
• Slotted spoon - this is important.

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the onion and rosemary.  Cook until lightly browned, then evacuate and set aside with the slotted spoon.
2. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.  Add the portobellos and saute until lightly browned.  Use the slotted spoon to evacuate the portobellos to the same bowl you've got the onions and rosemary in.
3. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan.  Add the Baby Bellas and saute until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.  Evacuate these to the bowl.
4. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan.  Add the mixed mushrooms and saute until softened. 
5. Return everything to the pan.
6. Add the remaining ingredients along with 1 1/2 cups water. 
7. Simmer gently 15 minutes, then serve. 

Recipe: Artichokes Napoletana

Recipe Source: The Silver Spoon.  Phaidon Press, New York, 2005 p. 418

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not exactly a big fan of artichokes.  I don't mind canned artichoke hearts in a salad or something like that, but even those I won't usually go out of my way for.  Unfortunately for me they're in season right now.  Even more unfortunately, my husband loves them.  I decided to make these for a Sunday open house.  I did not eat them so I can't tell you how they turned out, but I can tell you that there were some leftovers and that people seemed a lot more enthusiastic about other dishes on the table.

The usual changes applied.  There were some procedural changes as well, which I made both because of personal preference and for convenience.  I could only get these mammoth, almost prehistoric-looking artichokes, so I only used six of them and even that seemed like more than the recipe intended.  I reduced the amount of oil, increased the garlic, increased the amount of capers and completely forgot the garnish.  The green olives I could get were labeled as "Greek green olives with Sicilian herbs."  They were tasty. 

Artichokes Napoletana (serves 8; approx. $2.72/serving)

4 tablespoons lemon juice

6 jumbo artichokes, trimmed and cut into wedges

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons capers

1 cup green olives, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large bowl of water
• Very large wok or saute dish, preferably a deep one

1. Combine the artichokes and the lemon juice in the bowl of water as you cut the artichokes.  This will limit discoloration.
2. Heat the oil in the pan. 
3. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic
4. Drain the artichokes and add them to the pan.  Cook 5 minutes over high heat.
5. Add the capers and olives, salt and pepper. 
6. Add about 2/3 cup water, cover and cook until tender.  The book said this should take about 30 minutes.
7. Remove the lid and boil off any excess liquid.  Serve. 

Recipe: Saag Paneer

Recipe Source: Lawson, Jane.  The Spice Bible.  Stewart, Taboori & Chang, New York, 2008 p. 98

As a general rule, I try to offer at least one vegetarian entree when we're hosting a Sunday dinner.  It doesn't always work out that way, but since I never know who we're going to get I'd like to be able to offer my guests something besides a bowl of quinoa.  It's not like I lose anything by serving an extra vegetable, you know?  Anyway, I picked this dish for a recent Sunday dinner because of the paneer.  I love paneer. 

I made a few small changes to the recipe.  I changed the proportions of the spices a little, and I changed the order in which I added them to the dish.  I increased the amounts of both garlic and tomatoes - the garlic out of general principles and the tomatoes because I didn't want extras cluttering up my fridge.  Instead of garam masala, because I don't have the storage space to make a bunch of pre-mixed spice mixes, I used a combination of other spices instead. 

The result was decent.  I felt that the flavor was a little mild for my tastes, but that was kind of the effect I was going for so I guess it was okay.  Two of our guests enjoyed it particularly well, to include one woman who doesn't care for overly strong flavors. 

Saag Paneer (serves 4; approx. $3.23/serving) 

1 pound frozen spinach, thawed

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red onion, thinly sliced

10 garlic cloves, crushed

14 ounces diced fire-roasted tomatoes

3 tablespoons minced ginger

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon cumin

8 ounces paneer, cut into cubes

Kosher salt to taste

Equipment:

• Large wok or saute pan

1. Heat the oil in the saute pan. 
2. Add the fenugreek seeds and cook until they begin to splutter, about 2 - 3 minutes.
3. Add the onion, garlic, 1 teaspoon ground cumin and coriander.  Cook until the onion is golden. 
4. Add the tomatoes, ginger and remaining spices.  Bring to a boil.
5. Add the spinach.  Cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. 
6. Fold in the paneer.  Cook gently, stirring, until heated through.  Season with kosher salt to taste.
7. Serve.

Recipe: Shrimp with Garlic and Cilantro

Recipe Source: Bsisu, May S.  The Arab Table.  HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2005 p. 255

This is the recipe for which I originally made the Kuwaiti Spice Mix I posted a little while ago.  It's a delicious recipe, I must say.  I made it well in advance and it held up well to storage.  I made a few changes: I increased the number of onions, decreased the amount of oil, increased the amount of garlic and cardamom, increased the dill just slightly, and halved the amount of shrimp (because there are only two of us eating it.)  We both really enjoyed the result and it had the added bonus of being relatively light.  The white pepper and cardamom give it a really different kind of flavor that really stands out. 

Shrimp with Garlic and Cilantro (serves 2; approx. $6.71/serving)

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

4 onions, finely chopped

20 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 1/2 teaspoons Kuwaiti Spice Mix

1 bunch chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 bunch chopped fresh dill

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

Equipment:

• Large skillet or wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok over relatively low heat.
2. Add the onions and salt.  Cook until they give up some of their juices and soften a bit. 
3. Add the garlic, cardamom, spice mix, herbs and pepper.  Stir to coat the onions. 
4. Raise the heat to high and add the shrimp.  Cook until the shrimp are fully cooked. 
5. Serve.