Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Braised Tofu

Recipe Source: Song, Young Jin.  The Korean Kitchen.  Anness Publishing, London, 2010 p. 138

Here's another recipe for which pictures are completely lacking.  Again, I remember taking them.  I think they must be on someone's phone.  I guess that's okay.  The important thing is that I still have the notes from this recipe.  I write my notes down on these little pieces of paper which works fine when I'm in the kitchen - as long as I can transcribe them or write up the recipe very quickly.  If I cannot write up the recipe for, say, a month, the piece of paper either gets lost or gets eaten by the dog (no joke) or ceases to make sense.  After all, what does "1 bx ps" really mean?

Anyway.  Vegetarian dining doesn't have to be a penance and tofu doesn't have to taste like whale snot.  Done correctly, and by "correctly" I mean "in a way where it is not pretending to be some sort of animal product" tofu can be an excellent source of protein.  Unfortunately almost all tasty vegetarian and vegan food seems to come from points east of Italy, starting with Greece and really picking up momentum in India.  Tofu, of course, comes to us from East Asia where they have many dishes that in no way, shape or form involve "chicken" or "beef" or "cheese" or any other "food."  It's tofu, it is what it is and it's good.

I made a few changes to the original recipe.  I used light tofu here because I am very anxious to lose weight and I will take whatever help I can get at this point.  I used vegetable broth in place of seafood stock to keep the dish vegan.  I also omitted the honey.  I added a habanero because I intended to serve this just to my husband, although that's not what actually happened.  Finally, I added peas.  An entire 1 pound bag of peas had been thawed for my daughter, but no 2-year-old needs to just eat a 1-pound bag of peas for dinner.  I took the leftovers and added them to the pot so they wouldn't go to waste, and I think that while that's not necessarily the most authentic way to present the dish it was still delicious.  I'd like to point out that our dried kelp actually came from Maine, which makes it much more local than some of the imported dried kelp I've seen on the market.

Braised Tofu (serves 4; approx. $1.16/serving)

1 block firm light tofu, diced

1 cup vegetable stock

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 sheet dried kelp, chopped

8 garlic cloves, crushed

1 onion, finely chopped

1 serrano chili, sliced

1 red chili, sliced

1 habanero, sliced

1 tablespoon chili powder

8 ounces frozen peas, thawed (approx.)

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Combine the tofu with the stock, 1 cup water, the soy sauce and the kep.
2. Add the garlic and bring to a boil.  Cover and boil 5 minutes.
3. Add the onion, chiles and chili powder.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes further.
4. Serve.

 

Recipe: Stuffed Cabbage

Recipe Source: Holmin, Dalal A. & Maher A. Abas, M. D.  From the Tables of Lebanon.  Book Publishing Company, Summertown, 1997 pp. 86 - 7

Growing up I worshipped my grandmother - my mother's mother.  She was the best cook in the whole world, and the best human being at least as far as I was concerned.  (I've never met anyone who had anything to say to the contrary either, so as far as I'm concerned I was right.)  She was not a fancy cook - far from it, she prided herself on the simplicity and "ordinariness" of her cooking.  Of course nothing ordinary ever came out of her kitchen, but she wasn't the kind of cook to experiment with the exotic or unusual.  She knew what she wanted to make and she knew exactly how to make it happen.  Her house always smelled divine and I used to spend hours upon hours in her kitchen, wrapping myself up in the smells of Paradise.

There was one dish she never liked to make, and it was stuffed cabbage.  She never liked to make it and I was never even really encouraged to eat it.  Not that I can remember anyway.  My mother liked it, though, and every once in a while she would make it to gratify her daughter.  What I remember most about those times was the smell.  The perfumes of Paradise were exchanged for the stink of Hell, and if I go to Hell when I die I am certain that it will smell like cooking cabbage.  That smell turned me off cabbage for decades and until I started this website I would not permit cabbage in my home.  I've been working my way toward the stuff slowly but surely.  When I was entertaining relatives for my daughter's birthday party I decided that maybe I would try to serve them stuffed cabbage.  My mother, at least, would probably like it.

As it turns out, everyone liked it.  Everyone but me, that is.  I've figured out what it is besides the hideous smell that I don't like about cabbage.  It is sweet.  I do not do sweet.  At least now I know, right?  I made a few changes tot he recipe as you might well expect.  I used brown rice instead of white because that's what I keep around.  My husband is allergic to mint so of course that was right out; instead I used dill.  I couldn't get my hands on white onions so yellow were used and I increased the garlic on general principles.  My mother cannot eat cinnamon so that was left out too, and I reduced the amount of olive oil on general principles.  I didn't have tomato puree.  What I did have was my own home-canned tomatoes, which I pureed myself.  If I used a little more than originally called for, well, lycopene is good for you.

Like I said, everyone liked it but me, but it didn't turn out the way I envisioned.  The cabbage rolls did not stay rolled.  They mostly fell apart.  That's why I'm listing this as a "fail" even though it was well received.  I guess appearance counts for less than some writers would have us think!

Stuffed Cabbage (serves 6; approx. $1.99/serving)

1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice

1 large bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 bunch fresh dill, finely chopped

1 bunch scallions, finely chopped

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground allspice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cabbage, leaves separated and deveined

8 more cloves garlic, chopped

1 1/2 cups canned whole tomatoes with their juices

Water

Equipment:

• Large deep pot
• Large bowls
• Immersion blender
• Heat resistant plate

1. Rinse the rice and drain.
2. Combine the rice with the herbs, onion, first 8 cloves garlic, spices, lemon juice and olive oil.  Mix well and set aside.
3. The original recipe called for the cabbage leaves to be briefly blanched.  I tried that.  It made me curse and didn't work for the purpose intended.  So I stopped.  It's your call.
4. Spread the cabbage leaves out on a work surface of some sort.  Fill with some of the filling toward the middle-bottom of the leaf.  Fold in the sides and roll up.  Put it in the pot.  Stack in layers.
5. Combine the remaining garlic with the tomatoes in the other large bowl.  Use the immersion blender to puree.
6. Cover the layers of cabbage with the pureed tomatoes.
7. Add water to the pot.  The water should come up 1/2 inch taller than the tallest layer of cabbage.
8. Weight the leaves down with the heat-resistant plate.
9. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat.
10. Reduce heat to low and simmer 20 minutes.
11. Serve.

Recipe: Duck with Olives

Recipe Source: Clements, Carole & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen.  French.  Anness Publishing, 2006 p. 141

So I've been trying for some time to lose weight and that has meant restricting certain parts of my diet.  I've been trying to reduce the amount of meat in my life, for one thing.  When I do eat meat I try to make sure that it's a lean protein - fish or turkey or something along those lines.  Even red meat, such as beef or lamb, can be lean if you play your cards right.  Of course, I've had absolutely no success whatsoever, and this is frustrating to me.  Every once in a while, I admit it, I lose patience, let my frustration boil over and eat something that is firmly on the no list.  I don't do this very often because frankly my system can't handle it all that often, but sometimes you just have to let go and indulge a little.  It makes it easier to be good the rest of the time.  One food that is very firmly on the "no" list is duck.

Duck just isn't healthy.  I've never found a duck that hasn't been just full of fat.  In fact, that's been an ongoing problem in our attempts to cook duck.  Still, if I'm going to indulge I might as well go all the way, right?  I decided a few weeks ago that we were going to enjoy some duck and that was all there was to it.  I found a recipe that worked for me and I went with it.  This one looked simple enough, but it needed a few additions.  I added two small zucchini because I had them left over from some other adventure and I didn't want them to go to waste.  Besides, adding vegetables to a dish is always good, right?  I added some garlic.  Rather, I added quite a lot of garlic.  My bouquet garni was sage, rosemary and thyme.  I'm very much aware that that is not a traditional bouquet garni but that's what I had on hand.  I had it on hand because that's what I like.  I also used vegetable broth because that's what I had on hand.  Finally, I only used one duck.  There are only three of us, and duck is plenty rich without overindulging.

The end result was a pretty tasty dish if I do say so myself.  I certainly enjoyed it.  My husband ate quite a bit of it and the daughter declined to share it with the dog, which is about as much as you can ask of a kid that age.

Duck with Olives (serves 6; approx. $6.02/serving)

1 very large duck, cut into pieces

1/2 pound pearl onions

14 garlic cloves, whole

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups red wine, plus extra for the cook if so desired

2 cups vegetable broth

2 small zucchini, sliced

about a handful of a combination of sage, rosemary and thyme, tied together with kitchen twine

1 cup green olives with pits

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large Dutch oven

1. Put the duck pieces, skin side down, in the saute pan.  Cook over medium heat until well browned, turning frequently.  Work in batches if you need to - I did.
2. Pour the fat off the pan and reserve.
3. Return 1 tablespoon of the duck fat to the pan and reserve the rest for another use.  (You'll see what I did with it tomorrow.)
4. Add the onions and garlic.  Cook over medium-low heat until browned.  You should cook this in a covered pan but still stir frequently to prevent burning.  I know it sounds fussy and it probably is but it is definitely worth it in the end.
5. Sprinkle with the flour and cook uncovered another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Add the wine.  Bring to a boil.  (Be careful here!)
7. Add the duck pieces, broth and your little bundle of herbs to the pot.  Return to a boil.
8. Reduce heat, cover and simmer VERY gently about 40 minutes.  Stir from time to time.
9. Add the olives and zucchini to the pot.  Continue cooking another 20 minutes.  The duck should be very tender.
10. Transfer the duck pieces, olives, garlic, onions and zucchini to a plate.
11. Discard the bouquet garni, strain the cooking liquid and skim off as much fat as possible.
12. Return the liquid to the pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce by 1/3.
13. Return the duck and accompaniments to the pot and heat through.
14. Serve.

Recipe: Baghdadi Yogurt Dip

Recipe Source: al-Baghdadi, Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Muhammad b. al-Karim.  A Baghdad Cookery Book.  Charles Parry, trans.  Prospect Books, Totnes 2005 p. 88.

I have two copies of A Baghdad Cookery Book.  One is translated by A. J. Arberry.  It came out, I believe, sometime in the 1930s and was later included in a much larger volume entitled Medieval Arab Cookery.  The other was published as its own volume and was cited above.  This was the first book of medieval recipes I ever owned.  It has, unfortunately, been lost somewhere in the recesses of my house for quite some time.  Recently the house decided to cough up the book.  I don't know why.  It was just suddenly on the shelf again.  This happens sometimes, I don't know why.  Anyway, I prefer to work with this translation rather than the other.  I don't feel that I'm qualified to comment on the quality or accuracy of the translations themselves, but the style of English in the Perry translation is much easier to work with.

Anyway, the book made its re-appearance in time for me to start work on our New Year's Eve celebration.  I wasn't necessarily setting out to make a medieval dish for the party, but I happened to be flipping through the book and saw the recipe and decided that it looked good. I like that about a lot of the recipes from the medieval Middle East.  I mean, medieval people had taste buds too, and food for the classes that left recipes didn't need to taste like dust.  But a lot of the medieval Middle Eastern recipes fit right in with modern tastes and preferences.  You can mix them right into a modern dinner or party and no one would ever know the difference.  Try this one at your Super Bowl party.

As is usually the case when I'm trying to re-create a medieval recipe I didn't make a lot of changes.  The original wanted mint.  My husband is allergic to mint so I left it out.  I substituted tarragon.  The two are nothing alike of course, but I really like tarragon and it at least has a similar strength to mint.

Baghdadi Yogurt Dip (serves 16; approx. $0.51/serving)

1 large leek, finely chopped

4 celery stalks, finely chopped, leaves separated

1 small bunch tarragon, finely chopped

1 large tub Greek yogurt

1 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Kosher salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground mustard

Equipment:

• Large bowl

1. Combine the leek, celery stalks, celery leaves, tarragon and yogurt in the large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle the salt, mustard and walnuts over the top.
4. Transfer to a serving vessel and serve.

Recipe: Medieval Quince "Pie"

Recipe Source: Welserin, Sabina.  Das Kuchbuch der Sabina Welserin.  Germany, 16th Century.  Find the original here.

So you already know that I've been playing with quinces a lot lately.  I truly love them, and I get a bushel of them in the fall and just go to town.  I try to find new and different uses for them, although my quince and rosemary jelly is a perennial favorite with my friends.  I love quinces in savory recipes.  In my head they're mostly a Greek or Middle Eastern fruit, although I'm not sure why I should think that.  They certainly grow in cooler climates such as New England.  I decided to force myself to move outside my usual sources and find a non-Middle Eastern recipe calling for quince.  I also wanted to make a medieval recipe for one of our Sunday dinners, so this one seemed to make sense.  After all, I thought, I've made other recipes from this cookbook and I've been delighted with the results.

I was differently enthusiastic about this one, and by "differently enthusiastic" I mean "frustrated and angered by."  I used my traditional family crust but in a whole-wheat version - I'd made several ahead of time for some other reason, so I had them just sitting in the fridge waiting to be used up.  Otherwise I just kind of went to town.  Unfortunately the crust failed miserably.  I did wind up serving it, but scooped onto plates and treated like poached fruit.  I think that the liquid in the filling was just too much for the poor little crust to handle.

My guests loved this.  If I stopped trying to think of it as a pie I loved it too.

Medieval Quince "Pie" (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 single-crust pie crust - store bought is fine

4 nice quinces, peeled, halved and cored

1/2 cup currants

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Beef fat - however much you can get, rendered from a package of beef bacon should be sufficient

1/2 cup dessert wine

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Equipment:

• Pie plate
• Bowl
• Large deep skillet

1. Preheat your oven to 425°.
2. Render out your beef fat to the best of your ability.
3. Fry the quince halves in the fat until they are fragrant.
4. Line your pie plate with your pie crust.
5. Arrange your quince halves in the pie plate.
6. Combine the currants, first 1/4 cup raw sugar, first 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.  Stuff the quince cavities with this mixture.
7. In the skillet, combine the remaining ingredients.  Cook until the sugar is dissolved, then add to the pie plate.
8. Bake until the quinces are tender, about 40 minutes.
9. Serve.

Recipe: Parsi-Style Fish Curry

Recipe Source: Panjabi, Camellia.  50 Great Curries of India.  Kyle Cathie Limited, 2007 p. 132

Everyone makes New Year resolutions, right?  No matter who we are or what we do, as the year changes there is a real urge to try to Do Better as we change to a new year.  Whether it is the calendar year, the agricultural year, the school year, the religious calendar - however well we did the previous year we want to improve going forward.  I'm not much different.  Every year it seems like I make the same resolutions.  I'm going to lose weight.  (This may or may not even be possible in my case, but I resolve to do it every year.  It's almost like a reflex.)  I'm going to save money.  I'm going to feed my family healthier meals.  All three of these mean eating less frequently in restaurants.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  Sometimes we get busy and really have little choice but to grab something while we're on the run.  Sometimes I'm just too exhausted, mentally or physically, to even look at the kitchen.  Sometimes when I'm entertaining I just don't want to eat at home the night before, to avoid dirtying the kitchen.  One way to avoid those pitfalls is to have meals ready to eat during the week, so that all I have to do is heat and eat.  Curries are a great style of recipe for that plan.  They tend to reheat very well, and it's easy to make curries in a healthy manner.

This curry is one such dish.  I made it before the New Year, actually, during the hectic holiday season.  It cooks up very quickly, it's very flavorful, it's not terribly fatty and it reheats very nicely.  I made some changes as well you may expect.  The fish I used was tilapia.  You can get tilapia loins very cheaply at Costco, individually flash-frozen and wrapped.  I increased the green chiles since it was just going to be the two of us and we prefer very spicy food.  I used garlic paste, increased the net amount of garlic and added some ginger to boot.  I omitted the mint to accommodate my husband's food allergy and I omitted the cashews in case my daughter wanted to try some - she is not yet allowed to eat tree nuts lest she break out in allergies.  I reduced the oil and omitted the sugar because they weren't necessary, and since I was out of cumin seeds I used ground cumin.  The end result was a very tasty weeknight meal that satisfied both of us.

Parsi-style Fish Curry (serves 2; approx. $4.44/serving)

2 tablespoons lime hiice

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

Kosher salt to taste

2 tilapia loins

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1/2 cup grated coconut

10 green chiles, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons garlic paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/4 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

2 bunches cilantro, leaves and stalks please, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Mini-prep miniature food processor
• Large wok or saute pan
• Non-reactive dish or shallow bowl

1. Mix half the lime juice with the turmeric, a pinch of kosher salt and maybe a little water if it needs it.  Spread over the fish in the non-reactive dish and set aside 20 minutes.
2. Combine the coconut, chiles, onion, garlic, ginger, poppy seeds, cardamom, mace and fennel in the mini-prep.  Grind to a paste, adding a little water if need be.
3. Use the full-size processor to puree the cilantro leaves.
4. Mix the coriander powder with a little bit of water to make a paste.
5. Heat the oil with the cumin in the wok.
6. Add the coriander powder paste.  Cook 10 seconds.
7. Add the coconut paste and saute 7 minutes.
8. Add the remaining lime juice, cilantro puree and 1 1/2 cups water.  Bring to a boil.
9. Add the fish and cook until the fish is cooked through, 7 - 10 minutes over low-medium heat.
10. Serve.

Recipe: Pickled Quinces

Recipe Source: Malouf, Greg and Lucy.  Artichoke to Za'atar.  University of California Press, Berkeley, 2008 p. 249

I love quinces.  I've had the good fortune for the past couple of years to get a full bushel at a very reasonable price, which has been a lot of fun for me.  The thing is, though, while I love quinces most quince recipes wind up being extremely sweet.  Even if I were not desperate to lose weight I'd have a hard time with that.  My system has never processed sugar well.  I've made a real effort to find savory recipes for quinces so that I can enjoy one of my favorite flavors without the side effects.  The problem is preservation.  It's easy to find recipes that will make sweet preserves, but those won't do in savory recipes.  When I found this recipe - essentially pickled quinces - I decided to give it a try.

I couldn't publish my results until recently for the simple reason that I didn't know how they'd turned out.  They needed to sit in a "dark place" for about four weeks before they were ready.  I'm reasonably certain that this means a pantry or cabinet, not a mental state of existential anguish.  I don't think quinces experience existential anguish.  I could be wrong.  Anyway, I've used these quinces in two other recipes now and if I want to write them up I need to write this one up, so here goes.  I will warn you that my notes from that day are long since lost, a sad consequence of constant entertaining between then and now, so you're dependent on my memory here.  That's okay.  You don't mind so much, do you?  I certainly increased the quantity.  I know I had to use powdered spices instead of whole spices for some of them, and I'm fairly certain that there was more cardamom and less allspice than originally called for.  Ultimately I'm pretty happy with this recipe, and I'm looking forward to enjoying savory quince dishes for the rest of the year.

Pickled Quinces (makes 6 pint-size jars; approx. $1.17/jar)

12 quinces, peeled, cored and cut into 8 pieces each

3 cups cider vinegar

6 cups water

18 tablespoons honey - a milder honey is better here

3 teaspoons black peppercorns

3 teaspoons ground coriander

2 tablespoons ground cardamom

1 teaspoon ground allspice

2 teaspoons whole cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

6 bay leaves

Equipment:

• Home canning equipment, sterilized
• Large bowl
• Large saucepan

1. Prepare your equipment for canning.  Get your jars and your water bath up to 180 degrees.
2. As you prepare your quinces drop them into a bowl of acidulated water so they do not discolor.
3. When you have finished prepping your quinces, put them into the large saucepan.  Cover with the liquids, honey and spices.
4. Bring to a boil.  Stir gently to dissolve the honey, but don't be to vigorous or the quinces will disintegrate.
5. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes or until the quinces are tender.  Don't overcook them or they will disintegrate.
6. Carefully put quince pieces into the sterilized jars.  Ladle the poaching liquor over them.
7. Process 25 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
8. Let them cool, then label and store them.
9. Store at least 4 weeks before using.

Recipe: Roasted Squash and Potatoes

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.   Oxmoor House, Menlo Park 2002 p. 189

Potatoes get a kind of a bad reputation, and I don't think that it's really deserved.  They're often seen, particularly by those who portray themselves as nutritional authorities, as nothing but empty carbohydrates looking for a place on the hips and bellies of the unwary.  It is true that potatoes are a very starch vegetable.  It is also true that potatoes can grow in environments considered otherwise pretty marginal without much tending.  This makes them a valuable source of nutrition in certain environments.  There is a very good reason that the population of early industrial Ireland, for example, became so very dependent on the potato (leading to the disastrous potato famine of the 1840s, the Irish Diaspora and ultimately to the growth of both the country and the urban area in which I currently reside.)  Furthermore, the skin of the potato contains a great deal of valuable nutrients and fiber.  So don't write the potato off as a source of future fat just yet.

I found this dish while considering food for a Sunday open house.  Being a huge fan of potatoes I decided to make it, but I wanted to make it a little healthier.  I left the skins on the potatoes to retain those nutrients I mentioned earlier.  I also added some Golden Nugget Squash.  I'd love to tell you that I bought the squash just for this recipe but I'd be lying.  I bought it because it was bright and shiny and I thought it looked good in the cart.  I knew I'd think of something to do with it.  I had some tarragon left over from another recipe so I added it here, and I increased the garlic because garlic is good.

This dish turned out pretty well.  My husband hogged all the roasted garlic, but everyone forgave him because they enjoyed the squash and potatoes.

Roasted Squash and Potatoes (serves 8; approx. $0.67/serving)

3/4 pound waxy small potatoes, sliced thin

1 nugget squash, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 bunch fresh rosemary, leaves only

1 bunch fresh tarragon, roughly chopped

16 garlic cloves, unpeeled

Equipment:

• Large roasting pan

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Arrange the potato slices and squash slices in alternating rows in your roasting pan.
3. Stick the garlic in between slices of potato and squash, scattered throughout the pan.  Repeat for the rosemary and tarragon.
4. Pour the oil over the ingredients.
5. Bake 35 - 40 minutes, until the potatoes are beginning to become crisp.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Quince Stew

Recipe Source: Saberi, Helen.  Afghan Food & Cookery.  Hippocrene Books, New York, 2000 p. 182

You already know that I'm obsessed with quinces.  I'm especially happy to find quince recipes that are savory.  I love quinces, but sugar does not love me.  I was exceptionally excited therefore to make this recipe.  I've loved just about everything I've made from this cookbook and this was QUINCE!  Unfortunately, this dish did not turn out to be the joyful wonder I wanted.  It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong.  It just wasn't very exciting at all.  I substituted rabbit for the lamb because the store I went to that week didn't have the right cuts of lamb.  I don't think that this was the problem.  I love rabbit, so it shouldn't have had a negative effect on the dish.  I used more quinces than called for in the recipe.  The quinces I got this year have been flavorful and delicious, so I don't think that was the problem.  I reduced the amount of sugar to accommodate my stunted sweet tooth, and while honey is strongly flavored it is not more strongly flavored than molasses, which the original required.  I used more ginger than the original required, and maybe a little more spice.  That wasn't the problem either.

The problem was that none of the flavors stood out.  I love the flavor of quince, but this could have been apple or even banana for all the quince flavor the final product had.  I love the flavor of rabbit, but this could have been chicken or tofu for all the rabbit flavor I got.  I couldn't tell that there was ginger in this at all, regardless of what the proportions were.  Even the honey flavor was muted and indistinguishable.  So sad!

I'm not sure why this dish turned out so bland, but it was certainly nourishing and filling.  Maybe I was coming down with a cold or something so my taste buds were asleep.  I don't know.  Try it for yourself and let me know how it comes out.

Quince Stew (serves 4; approx. $6.45/serving)

5 quinces, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 red onions, finely chopped

2 regular onions, finely chopped

1 rabbit on the bone, cut up

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/4 cup honey

Kosher salt to taste

Equipment:

• Large saucepan

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan.
2. Add the onion with kosher salt to taste.  Fry until golden brown.
3. Add the meat.  Fry until brown.
4. Add the quince.  Cook for about a minute.
5. Add the spices.  Cook for about a minute.
6. Add water to just cover the meat and quinces along with the honey.
7. Cook gently until the meat is tender and the quinces soft, about an hour.

Recipe: Pomegranate Rice

Recipe Source: Padmanabhan, Chandra.  Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India.  Periplus Editions, North Clarendon, 1994 p. 74

It's funny how our own mental impressions of ourselves frequently differ so strongly from those of the people around us.  I had a friend who has always come off as one of the most collected, poised, self-confident people I've ever known.  She would describe herself, and has described herself, as a complete basket case.  I know people who spend a fortune on hair dye, cosmetics and high-end fashions who only wind up looking like Bozo the Clown.  People often criticize my cooking as being too "fancy," too fiddly.  What they mean, or at least what they say they mean when I push further, is that because my recipes sometimes use a lot of ingredients - exotic ones, sometimes, if you don't know where to shop - my recipes seem overly complex.  I don't think most of them are at all complex, of course.  While I try to break out the processes into tiny chunks so that they can be easily followed, at the end of the day most of them only consist of putting a bunch of things in a pot, in one or two additions, and letting things go until they're done.

This is not one of those recipes.

This recipe was a pain.  It was long, it was complex, it was filled with weird ingredients, it required a lot of changes and it was frustrating.  There were several times while I was making this dish where I just put my tools down and said, "**** it, I'm just going to serve plain boiled rice."  I didn't though.  I kept going, and I came up with a nutritions and delicious side dish that could easily have been a vegan main dish of its own.  I think it probably would have been more worthwhile had I served it as a main dish, because a side dish really isn't worth this much fussing.  Don't get me wrong.  People loved it.  People who hate lentils loved it.  People who love lentils loved it.  It was just a fussy, PITA dish.

As I mentioned, I made a few changes.  I used brown rice because it has more nutritional value, and I had to increase the cooking liquid to accommodate that.  I used olive oil instead of ghee because that's my cooking fat of choice.  I used mild chiles because my guests were not folks who handle heat well.  I hadn't any yellow split peas so I substituted more lentils.  I felt that my curry leaves had finally outlived their useful lives so I omitted them.  The biggest change, and the reason this is now called Pomegranate Rice instead of Spicy Sambar Rice was the substitution of pomegranate juice for tamarind water.  I had been firmly convinced that I had tamarind concentrate in the refrigerator but as it turns out I was mistaken.  I cast about for something that would add the right amount of sourness to the dish and came up with a bottle of pomegranate juice.  In it went.

Pomegranate Rice (serves 8; approx. $2.14/serving)

8 ounces red split lentils, picked over and rinsed, divided

1 cup brown basmati rice

5 cups water

3 cups pomegranate juice

1/2 cup chopped shallots

1 bell pepper, diced

1 small eggplant, diced

1 potato, finely diced

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

9 tablespoons olive oil, divided

10 red chile peppers, chopped

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

3 teaspoons poppy seeds, divided

4 cloves

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

3/4 cup dried coconut (unsweetened, obviously) plus 4 tablespoons divided

1 teaspoon asafoetida

a little water

3 teaspoons uncooked rice

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon black gram dal

1 red chile pepper, halved lengthwise

Equipment:

• Medium saucepans
• Frying pan
• Wok
• Mini-prep miniature food processor

1. Combine the lentils, rice and water in the saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the water has been mostly absorbed by the rice, about 40 - 45 minutes.
3. In the meantime, combine 1 1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon oil, the chiles, the cloves, coriander seeds, cinnamon stick, fengreek, 3/4 cup coconut, asafoetida and 3 teaspoons uncooked lentils in the frying pan.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Transfer to the food processor with a very little bit of water and process to a paste.
5. Combine 3 tablespoons uncooked lentils, the remaining poppy seeds, the uncooked rice and remaining coconut in another saucepan.  Dry-roast them.
6. Transfer to the food processor and process to a fine powder.
7. Heat the remaining oil in the wok.
8. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, black gram dal and chile pepper.
9. When the mustard seeds splutter add the chopped shallots.  Saute 2 - 3 minutes.
10. Add the vegetables.  Saute until partially cooked.
11. Add the pomegranate juice, turmeric and salt to taste.  Cook until the vegetables are tender.
12. Add the paste.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes.
13. Add the undrained rice and lentil mixture.  Simmer over low heat.
14. Add the powder mixture.  Remove from heat.
15. Serve.