Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Cauliflower Kuku

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh. From Persia to Napa. Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2006 p. 122

I made this dish for a Sunday open house that now appears to have been in the distant past. By that I mean that I served this dish in June. In my defense, I served it at the end of June. I wanted something a little bit different that I could make in advance, and this certainly fit the bill. Much to my surprise, it went over pretty well. People really seemed to like it. Since it can be served warm or cold it makes a great dish for picnics or for parties.

I made a few small changes to the recipe. I doubled it for one thing, since I never know how many people to expect. I increased the garlic, because that's what I do, and I increased the cumin because I simply love cumin. When given the choice between parsley and cilantro I chose cilantro. This is because I really like cilantro and don't much care for parsley. I used soy milk when given the option because that's what we usually keep on hand. I used goat cheese, which was given as an option, but I did not reduce the amount of salt. Most of the diners would have been exercising heavily in extreme heat and would welcome the extra salt.

Cauliflower Kuku (serves 12; approx. $1.47/serving)

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 red onions, thinly sliced

8 garlic cloves, crushed

2 small cauliflower heads, cut into florets

3 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon turmeric

2 Serrano chilies, finely chopped

½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

12 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup soy milk

1 cup goat cheese, crumbled

Equipment:

• Large skillet or sauté pan
• Large bowl
• Two 9" springform pans, well lubricated

1. Preheat your oven to 400 ̊.
2. Heat the oil in the skillet over low heat.
3. Add the onion. Sauté 5 minutes or until translucent.
4. Add the garlic, cauliflower, salt, spices, serranos and cilantro. Sauté until the cauliflower is softened, 5 – 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
5. Combine the eggs in the bowl with baking powder, flour, soy milk and goat cheese. Whisk to combine well.
6. Add the vegetables. Mix.
7. Pour into the prepared pans.
8. Bake 20 – 25 minutes, until firm. Allow to cool.
9. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe: Pasta with Buffalo Sauce

When I made the buffalo empanaditas for our Fourth of July celebration I found myself with quite a bit of excess filling. I could have made more dough and made more empanaditas, but that would have been a pain. I also didn't have time to do that. I decided to do something a little different with it: turn it into a pasta sauce and eat it later in the week. As sauces go, this one was okay. It could have been a little spicier, but of course I'd been making this for a large crowd of people who may or may not tolerate heat well. Still, it used up the leftovers and avoided food waste, so in that respect I'd call it a success. My husband was also very fond of this dish, so I guess it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Pasta with Buffalo Sauce (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 cups leftover filling from Buffalo Empanaditas

2 cups tomato juice

12 ounces whole-wheat pasta, cooked according to package instructions.

Equipment:

• Medium saucepan

1. Combine the empanadita filling and the tomato juice in the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Reduce the juice until the color and consistency are just right – I didn't want mine to be too liquid.
3. Top the pasta with the sauce and serve.

Recipe: Pomegranate Lamb Kebabs

Recipe Source: Cramer, Marc. Imperial Mongolian Cooking. Hippocrene Books, New York, 2003 p. 115

Anyone who knows me knows that pomegranate is probably my favorite fruit. I love pomegranate and everything flavored with it. I was trying to think of a recipe for one Sunday open house and came across this one. It included pomegranate flavor, which was key. It also involved lamb, my favorite meat. It could be started ahead of time (in fact, it had to be started ahead of time) and finished quickly just at serving time. Finally, I was able to re-use a plum sauce I made last year that was really, really tasty.

This recipe made a lot more meat than I had skewers. This was not a major problem. A friend of ours was having a barbeque a couple of nights later – more of an "eat-the-leftovers" kind of deal than anything formal. The lamb was still good, so we brought it. Nothing was harmed by spending an extra couple of nights in the marinade.

I did make a few changes to the recipe. The most significant change I made was adding a half cup of pomegranate molasses to the marinade. I did this because I felt that the pomegranate juice I could get my hands on was too sweet and didn't give enough sourness to the dish. I also increased the amount of garlic and doubled the recipe.

Pomegranate Lamb Kebabs with Tkmeli (serves 8 with some leftovers; approx. $3.42/serving)

4 cups pomegranate juice

½ cup pomegranate molasses

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 bay leaf, crumpled

4 garlic cloves, crushed

4 pounds leg of lamb, cut into cubes

2 large eggplant, cubed

1 recipe Georgian Plum Sauce

Equipment:

• Skewers
• Big Green Egg or other grill. You could probably cook these under the broiler in your kitchen if you had to, or in a grill pan.
• Colander
• Zip-top plastic bags
• Bowl

1. Combine the pomegranate juice, pomegranate molasses, olive oil, kosher salt, bay leaf and garlic cloves in the bowl and mix well.
2. Put the lamb cubes in a zip-top plastic bag and pour the marinade over them. Refrigerate overnight, turning when you think about it.
3. About half an hour before you cook, salt the eggplant and put it in a colander. After half an hour, rinse off the brown juices.
4. Thread the meat and eggplant alternating on skewers.
5. Grill over medium-high direct heat.
6. Serve with the plum sauce.

Recipe: Beef Bārida (“Meat Crackers”)

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 pp 215-6

I was really kind of leery of this recipe at first. I made it mostly because I wanted to serve a beef bārida for my July class and I figured I should probably test it. This one required ingredients I already had on hand and looked relatively uncomplicated. I was kind of leery of the instruction to "cook the meat in water," which suggested boiling to me. It yielded a piece of meat that was a frankly unappetizing color and had a kind of solid texture. I thought, "Ick." Still, I had to test it out before I could talk about it in class and so out it went.

I'd expected the reaction from my test diners to be lukewarm at best. On the contrary, it was so well received that I had to sneak a piece for myself. The result was the same when I served it during the class in July. People loved this! It was easily the most popular of the four dishes I brought for people to try. Again, this dish is meant to be served cold or at room temperature, so it makes a great picnic or buffet dish.

Meat Crackers (serves about 12 as an appetizer or hors d'oeuvre; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 pounds beef brisket

20 walnuts

2 sprigs rosemary

Pinch of salt

½ cup soy sauce

¼ cup olive oil

4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered

Various herbs, to taste

Equipment:

• Mini-prep food processor

1. Put the beef in a large saucepan and boil until the internal temperature reaches 180. Remove it from the heat, let it cool and slice it into small rectangles.
2. Meanwhile, grind the walnuts, rosemary and salt together with about a tablespoon of vinegar in a mini-prep food processor. Transfer to a bowl and add the soy sauce and olive oil.
3. Transfer to a platter. Sauce with the sauce, garnish with the egg quarters and sprinkle with the herbs.

Recipe: Enjitomatadas

Recipe Source: Bayless, Rick. Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen. Scribner, New York, 1996 pp. 176-7

We entertain a lot here in Fearless-land, especially during the summer. When we entertain we never know how many people are going to join us or who they'll be. I try to always have a vegetarian entrée on hand just in case we have vegetarians. (Er… that's an entrée for the vegetarians to eat, not an entrée made from vegetarians. That would be a completely different website.) This was the vegetarian entrée for one Sunday open house. We didn't get any vegetarians, but these little enchilada-like parcels were extremely popular nonetheless.

I made a few changes. I had to use a combination of fresh tomatoes and canned for the sauce, for which I also used serranos instead of jalapenos (preference), olive oil instead of lard (food allergy), yellow onion instead of white onion (no white onions were available that week), and Lemony Vegetable Broth instead of chicken broth. I used whole wheat sandwich wraps for the tortillas because I have yet to find store-bought tortillas that work for me and a combination of feta cheese and Parnassos cheese for the filling. I used more cheese than called for in the original because the wraps were larger than the tortillas and I wanted to fill them.

Enjitomatadas (makes 12; approx. $1.96/ea.)

2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes

6 plum tomatoes, chopped

4 Serrano chilies, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 ½ cups Lemony Vegetable Broth

12 whole wheat sandwich wraps

2/3 cup crumbled feta

Cilantro, for garnish

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Immersion blender
• Deep dish
• Baking sheet

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and fry, stirring often, until the onion is browned.
3. Add the tomatoes and serranos. Increase the heat to high and cook 5 minutes.
4. Decrease heat to medium-low, add the broth and cook 20 minutes. Let cool, then puree with the immersion blender.
5. Preheat your oven to about 300 ̊.
6. Ladle out about ½ cup of sauce into a bowl.
7. Dip the wrap into the bowl so that both sides have a bit of sauce on them. Lay the wrap on a plate.
8. Put a bit of both cheeses down the middle of the wrap, leaving about an inch of space at the top and bottom.
9. Fold the top and bottom down, then fold the sides over until the parcel looks kind of like an enchilada. Transfer to the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining wraps.
10. Bake about 5 minutes, then remove from heat and transfer to a serving platter.
11. Spoon some of the sauce on top of the parcels. Add a little cilantro and pass the remaining sauce on the side.
12. Serve.

Recipe: Scallops and Vegetables in a Thick Sauce

Recipe Source: Husain, Shehzad and Rafi Fernandez. Indian. Anness Publishing, London, 2003 p. 142

This make-ahead dish is relatively healthy, despite the little bit of cream. It certainly qualifies as a one-dish meal. The original recommended serving it with a fruity pullao, but I felt that the potatoes were quite starch enough. It reheats well and tasted great. It was very easy to make, made even more so by my poor planning. I needed tomato paste and discovered at the last minute that the empty case of tomato paste had been left in the pantry. I could find no normal substitute, but I did find a bottle of store-bought hot curry paste. The paste contained everything I needed from the tomato paste on down as well as some other ingredients. I will be quite honest. As a general rule I would prefer to make my own curry pastes. It gives me more control over the flavor and over what I'm putting into my body. On the other hand, there are worse fates than to open up a jar once in a while.

I made a few small changes in addition to the curry paste change. I used olive oil in place of corn oil, because that's what I keep on hand, and I used less of it. I omitted the onion seeds. I substituted more cauliflower in place of the carrots because I dislike carrots. If memory serves me correctly, I omitted the chili at the end and used scallops instead of shrimp.

Shrimp and Vegetables in a Thick Sauce (serves 4; approx. $4.55/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

2 curry leaves

1 cauliflower, cut into florets

6 new potatoes, thickly sliced

½ cup frozen peas

2 onions, sliced

2 tablespoons jarred Hot Indian Curry Paste

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 pound scallops

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

3 tablespoons heavy cream

Equipment:

• Large wok or sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the fenugreek, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Cook until the seeds are spluttering.
3. Add the cauliflower, potatoes and peas. Cook quickly until browned, then evacuate and drain on paper towels.
4. Add the onions to the remaining oil and cook gently until golden.
5. Add the curry paste and lemon juice. Stir until the paste dissolves.
6. Add the scallops. Cook until cooked through.
7. Return the vegetables to the pan and reheat thoroughly.
8. Deglaze the pan with the cream and mix well. Garnish with the cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Turkey Ragout with Red Peppers and Lemon

Recipe Source: Goldstein, Joyce. Taverna. Sunset Books, Menlo Park, 1996 p. 108

I made this for the Sunday dinner that we served the day after our Fourth of July party. It needed to be something that would keep well, because I was not going to have time on Saturday to cook for Sunday and Sunday was going to be spent excavating from Saturday. (Two parties in as many days is possibly a little much.) I chose this because it looked like it fit that bill, and it looked like a great summer dish in its own right.

I did make a few changes. The biggest change was turkey for pork. The original called for pork, but I can no longer eat pork. I don't try to stop other people from eating pork, but I refuse to serve anything I can't eat. How else do I know if it turned out right? Anyway, I used ground cumin for the cumin seeds, reduced the amount of oil called for, used olive oil instead of lard (!) and used Lemony Vegetable Broth for the broth. The dish went over very well. My friend tasted it the day I made it. She dislikes cooked red peppers and yet she really liked this dish.

Turkey Ragout with Red Peppers and Lemon (serves 6; approx. $3.19/serving)

3 tablespoons ground cumin

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

2 pounds turkey tenderloins, cut into 1" cubes

4 tablespoons olive oil

4 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into ½" strips

¾ cup dry white wine

¾ cup Lemony Vegetable Broth

1 lemon, sliced as thin as you can get it

Equipment:

• Large sauté pan
• Zip-top plastic bag
• Mini-prep food processor

1. Combine the cumin, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika in the mini-prep. Process to a paste.
2. Rub the turkey cubes with the paste, then place in the zip-top plastic bag and let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Bring the meat to room temperature.
4. Heat the oil over high heat.
5. Add the turkey and brown quickly on all sides. Use a slotted spoon to evacuate the turkey. Work in batches if you need to.
6. Add the pepper strips to the pan. Cook until softened.
7. Add the wine and broth. Deglaze the pan and return the meat and peppers to the pan.
8. Add the lemon slices and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 25 minutes.
10. Taste for seasoning and serve.

Recipe: Rabbit Barida

Recipe Source: al-Warrāq, Ibn Sayyār. Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens. Nawal Nasrallah, trans. Brill, Leiden, 2007 p. 214

This past July I had the opportunity to teach a class on cold dishes from the medieval Arab world at a gathering of medieval history enthusiasts up in Maine. The class went very smoothly, much better than I had imagined. (If you're reading this and you were in the class, thank you for making it such a pleasant experience.) I liked the idea of teaching this class because it gave me an opportunity to cook from my favorite cookbook in the whole wide world, medieval or modern. I served some samples in the class; this was one of them. I've also served it at one of our Sunday open houses, mostly to give me a chance to serve it.

Rabbit is kind of an unusual meat in the modern West. I think that might be changing, though. My local Greek market was selling them frozen – not unusual to find them frozen in an ethnic market. Recently I got a phone call from my husband from a large chain grocery store near our house that shall remain nameless. (They remain nameless because they once sold me a rotten duck.) This store was selling rabbit fresh, and lots of it. I'm pretty pleased by this, since rabbit meat is tasty and relatively lean. I will spare you the health benefits listed by al-Warrāq, as they might cause this website to be barred by safe search.

Anyway, I didn't make a lot of changes to this recipe. I try not to when I'm re-creating a medieval recipe. That said, there were some changes that I just had to make. I couldn't chop the rabbit easily and it would make the rabbit more difficult to serve during the class if I had, so I treated it more like a pulled rabbit. The rabbit was roasted on our Big Green Egg – there is no suggestion in the recipe that the rabbit should have been roasted in this manner in period, but we know that they were using a similar tool to roast meat in period and there is no indication that it should not have been used in this case. We rubbed the rabbit with our Greek-style rub, because it works well with rabbit. The vinegar I used was red wine vinegar. The soy sauce is a stand-in for murrī, which was made in almost the same way. Someone else has made murrī following a period recipe and it apparently tastes like soy sauce, and the recipe is similar to soy sauce, so it makes a good substitute. I couldn't get the two different types of asafetida so I used what I had. I couldn't get rue so I used rosemary – very different flavors, but much less likely to cause a harmful reaction. I ran out of caraway seeds and so left them out when I served this to my class. The "different spices" I used were based on personal preference.

The sauce went over decently, but out of all of the meat dishes I served this one was the least popular. It was probably the least familiar to modern Western palates, and the sweet and sour flavor wasn't necessarily to everyone's taste. (It also had to compete with a beef bārida that was incredibly popular, so that probably has a lot to do with it.)

Rabbit Bārida (serves 2 – 3 as a main course; approx. cost per serving not available)

1 rabbit, roasted, carved and cooled. We roasted the rabbit on our Big Green Egg and we think this is the best way of doing it, but there is absolutely no reason you couldn't do this in your oven at home. Roast at 375 ̊until done; if you're using the Egg cook over indirect heat.)

¾ ounce ground cumin

½ ounce ground coriander

1 gram asafetida

3 grams caraway seeds

12 grams olive oil

15 grams sugar

2 whole onions, peeled

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Whisk

1. Carve the rabbit and arrange it on a platter.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and allow to sit. I probably let it sit about an hour before I served it the first time. For the class, I let it sit an hour and then removed the onions; the sauce continued to sit for a good 48 hours.
3. Just before serving, remove the onions from the sauce. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve.

Recipe: Leftover Party Hash

We entertain a lot during the summer. I enjoy it, I really do. I like the challenge. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, though, like when we had our town fireworks party one night and Sunday open house the next day. I originally hadn't really planned to serve much on Sunday, but we got a decent sized crowd so the menu expanded. Of course, I hadn't bought any extra food. Fortunately, I didn't really need it. We had leftover chicken from the party, and leftover barbeque sauce from the party. I don't remember why we had the corn, I think I'd intended for it to be just for my husband and me. Anyway, I combined them to form this tasty one-dish meal.

Leftover Party Hash (serves 8; approx. cost per serving not available)

3 ears of corn, kernels only

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch kosher salt

Leftover roasted chicken (about 3 cups worth, maybe), shredded

2 cups barbeque sauce

Equipment:

• Wok or sauté pan

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the onion and the salt. Cook until the onion is softened.
3. Add the corn. Sauté until the corn is just softened.
4. Add the chicken. Sauté until the chicken is heated through.
5. Add the barbeque sauce. Cook until heated through.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Sour Fish Curry

Recipe Source: Thompson, David. Curry Cuisine. Fall River Press, New York, 2006 pp. 217 and 222

This recipe looks like a pain, but it was actually pretty simple to make. It was also very easy to make ahead and then reheat later, which has gotten to be pretty important around here. I did make a few small changes. I only had one kind of red chili, so that's what I used. I used Lemony Vegetable Broth for the broth and mustard greens in place of "other Asian greens." I omitted the chili garnish and since I couldn't get birds-eye chilies I used a combination of habanero and Serrano chilies. I actually had the roots of my cilantro that week, so I was able to use that as directed. I also omitted the shrimp paste, as I couldn't get it.

Sour Fish Curry (serves 4; approx. $3.29/serving)

2 cups Lemony Vegetable Broth

1 pinch kosher salt

9 ounces fish, cut into small pieces

1 bunch mustard greens, chopped

2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate combined with 2 tablespoons water

2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

1 teaspoon chili powder

8 dried red chilies, soaked and chopped

1 habanero chili, chopped

2 Serrano chilies, chipped

1 more pinch kosher salt

¼ cup chopped shallots

2 teaspoons chopped cilantro root

Equipment:

• Mini-prep miniature food processor
• Large sauté pan or wok

1. Combine the dried chilies, fresh chilies, pinch kosher salt, chopped shallots and cilantro roots in the mini-prep and grind to a paste. If you need more liquid, add a little of the chili soaking liquid until your desired texture is achieved.
2. Bring the broth and second pinch of kosher salt to a boil in the sauté pan.
3. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
4. Add the curry paste to the mix. Return to a boil.
5. Add the mustard greens and simmer until the fish is tender.
6. Add the tamarind water and fish sauce. Let the flavors marry for a moment or two.
7. Return the fish to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the fish, simmering until cooked.
8. Serve.