Curious Chili

This takes a basic chili recipe and replaces the Tex-Mex spicing with curry paste. It made for a nice novelty chili. The curry paste recipe which I borrowed is below and made a cup or two. You could try the store stuff, if you want to cut out a little bit of time.

Heat oil in Dutch oven. Cook a large chopped up onion in oil until starting to get soft. Add curry paste and a small amount of molasses and cook until fragrant. Pour in a can of chicken broth. Add in a chuck-eye roast, trimmed and cut into 3/4 inch cubes. Add a bottle of IPA beer. Bring to a simmer. Cover and transfer to the oven (300) and cook for 1.5 - 2 hours. I had extra cilantro from the paste and sprinkled that on top just before serving.

Notes:
I probably should have browned the beef first, but I was in a bit of a hurry. If you do, deglaze the skillet with a bit of the broth or lager and add with the beef.

I wanted to use peanuts as a bean substitute, but this was for a potluck and I was worried about allergies, so I just served some on the side. Feel free to add some with the beef.

Revisit:
 I made this again a year later, but went with the store bought curry, which was fine.  I also decided to go ahead with the peanuts and just put a sign up that it contained nuts.  The peanuts were alright, but I think I put them in too late and they were not soft.  Try again another year.
 
Red Curry Paste
Grind together in a food processor the following:
12 small red chilies, chopped (I actually used 6 of the red ball chilies)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 stem lemongrass, chopped
1 small onion or a shallot, chopped
1 t ginger, chopped
1 T cilantro
large pinch of cumin
1 t shrimp paste (which I didn't have and skipped with no qualms)
2 T oil

Apple Oatmeal

We have a jug of apple cider left over from a recipe that required a cup. Since we never get around to drinking it, I have been trying to incorporate it in other recipes. This took about 10 minutes to make, so nice for a quick breakfast. Very sweet. Although, if you really want to go over the top, some ice cream on the top would be really good!

Put two cups of cider in a measuring cup and put in the microwave until steaming, around 6 minutes. Meanwhile put a pot on the stove over medium heat with a bit of butter. While melting, peel and cut up an apple. Cook in butter with some brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour in hot cider and bring to a boil. Add a cup of oatmeal and cook for five minutes. Serves two.

Pancake Cake

I've been a bit slow putting this up, so I might not have this exactly right. I was curious about how pancake batter would work out for a cake. I also wanted to incorporate a side meat like you might have with pancakes and the syrup taste.

Since I don't usually do the baking, I did a couple of tests first. My original thought was to mix the meat with the batter. So I added cooked sausage to the batter next time I made pancakes. That came out fine, though I would need to chop my sausage into smaller bits. Next I tried baking a trial cake layer using a single batch of batter. This cooked up and tasted fine, but had a large hump. Since I would need more layers anyway, I ended up using two batches split among three pans. With the smaller amount, it still had a bit of a hump, but it was easy to slice off and would be covered before completing.Oh , and I also added an extra egg per batch. Not sure if it added much.

For the syrup, I had thought of just spreading honey between the layers. It was pointed out that this would probably just soak in and not spread. I probably could have worked with this. In fact, it might be worth trying a single layer cake with the soaked in honey sometime. But I was also thinking some butter taste would be nice. Which putting me on the path to butter cream frosting, which I replaced the sugar water with maple syrup.

The only other change was that I moved the sausage to between the layers. What follows are the basic steps I used.

Cook up one tube of breakfast sausage, working to get the bits as small as possible. I probably only used about half of this.

Mix up two batches of batter (that's around 4 cups of Bisquick, in my case). Grease and flour three pans and spread the batter evenly between them. Bake as per a yellow cake. Once cool, slice off the hump to make them level. Better bakers might have a better idea for the batter! :-)

Get a hold of some maple butter cream. Ok, that's not what I did. But making the butter cream took me forever. The recipe I used is below.

Frost the top of one layer. Sprinkle with the sausage. Top with the next layer. Repeat. Frost the top layer and then the sides. Sprinkle top with sausage. It would probably be worthwhile to chill the finished cake for a while. Slice and serve.


Maple Butter Cream Frosting
I went back and forth between a online recipe from Martha and the regular butter cream in Joy. I think I mostly used the formers ingredients and the less time consuming directions in the latter. I also doubled the recipe. Which made a ton. Which I used anyway. Made the cake really rich. A single batch would probably work. Or make both and save some. It is really good! The parts in orange below are, I believe, for food safety. Skip them if you aren't worried. Anyway, here is roughly what I used:

4 cups pure maple syrup, preferably dark amber
A dozen egg yolks
2 lbs of butter

All ingredients need to be at room temperature. Cook the syrup until soft ball stage. Heat a skillet with an inch of water to simmering. In a metal bowl, beat the eggs on high until thick and pale yellow. While beating on medium, slowly pour the syrup down the side of the bowl, not directly into the eggs. Set the bowl into the skillet and bring the temperature up to 160 degrees. (I'm not sure this step is needed, since I was already at that temperature). Remove from heat and wash beaters. Beat until cool (or stick in the fridge and come back later). At medium speed, beat in the butter, one tablespoon at a time.

Ingredients and Technique

When someone talks about regional cooking, there are two main aspects: the ingredients and the techniques that are used to cook them. As an example, look at risotto. A purist would make this with a specific type of rice and cook it in a particular manner. But you can separate these. You can take risotto rice and cook it in the same way that most people cook regular white rice and end up with a slightly different tasting dish. Or you can take regular white rice and cook it in the manner that you cook risotto and have a dish that is creamier than if you had boiled or steamed the rice.

One of the current fashions of cooking is called fusion. Take Asian ingredients and prepare them using Continental cooking techniques. Or vice versa. Or combine two different cultural styles. This is nothing new. Whenever an ethnic group moves to a new area, they are forced to change their traditional recipes because their regional ingredients are not available. The further they move, the more extreme the changes. But they retain the techniques with which they grew up. Fusion.

As an example, take a recent immigrant from China to your typical American Chinese restaurant. Your friend will probably wonder how this can be called Chinese food. Over many generations, we have had Chinese immigrants. They arrived and adapted their cooking to reflect the new environment. They also opened restaurants, so they adapted further to meet their new clients' tastes. There is nothing wrong with Americanized Chinese cooking, but your friend is right in that it is not what they are cooking back home.

Fruit Sauces

I forgot to mention when I posted about the Valentine Pancakes that I completed them with a strawberry sauce. Usually when I make a fruit sauce, it is a replacement for syrup on pancakes or waffles. Since Valentine's was more about presentation, I put the sauce directly on the plate with the pancakes on top rather than vice versa. I also reserved a half a dozen cross-section slices of the strawberries (which are roughly heart-shaped), warmed them slightly in the microwave, and put a few on each plate in the sauce between the pancakes.

These sauces are super easy and, as mentioned, good on pancakes and waffles. Should work well for an Eis und Heiß ice cream sauce.

Berry Sauce: I use blue berries or chopped up strawberries. Cook over low heat in a skillet with a small amount of water. Once warmed through and a bit soft, sprinkle a bit of cornstarch over them and stir to thicken. I told you it was easy!

Banana Sauce: This is similar. Slice up the bananas and cook over low heat in a skillet with a bit of melted butter. I do not add the water until the bananas are pretty well cooked through. This does not need to be thickened. Sprinkling some raw or brown sugar on at the end is good.

Valentine Pancakes

I wanted to make my lady some heart pancakes for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, I do not have a heart-shaped mold and doing it without one would be more challenging that Mickey Mouse pancakes. So the alternative I came up with was to draw a heart within each pancake. You could, of course, do most any shape with this technique.

Mix of a batch of your favorite pancake batter. Preheat your skillet and add the oil or butter you usually use. Fill a turkey baster with batter. Use the baster to draw a few hearts in the oil. Let them cook until firm and slightly brown on the underside. Pour batter into each heart until it overflows a little. Complete cooking as normal. This should leave you with pancakes with a nice heart design on one side.

Notes:

• A turkey baster is what I first came up with and had on hand. Any icing technique should also work.

• You could also use your shape after it firms up as the mold and get actual heart-shaped pancakes, but that is a bit more tricky to pour in just the right amount. This is easier and looks at least as good in my opinion.

Bacon and Brussels Sprouts Rotini

OK, not everyone appreciates Brussels sprouts, but my lady likes them and they are interesting to use. This is a nice pasta dish that cooks up pretty easily.

1/2 lb of bacon
Brussels sprouts (enough to fill skillet once cut)
box of rotini
almonds
hard cheese, like Romano, grated
olive oil

In a good skillet, start frying the bacon. While this is going on, start the water for the pasta. Also rinse the sprouts, trim, cut in half. I didn't toast the almonds, but that would be good. Chop the almonds roughly.

Once the bacon is fried, put it aside to cool. Add the sprouts, cut-side down, to the skillet. Cover and cook on low heat for around 15 minutes until done. Drop the pasta and cook as directed. Read a book for 10 minutes. Set the table. Crumble the bacon.

Once the pasta is done, drain it and return it to the pot. Dump the sprouts over top and drizzle with oil. Mix. Add bacon and cheese. Mix a little more, but keep it mostly on top. Serve.

Thanksgiving Lasagna Rollups

Came up with this to use up leftover turkey. Worked from basic lasagna recipes, but added in celery, onion, and sage to reflect stuffing. Added some cranberries. If you really wanted to push the idea, you could replace the bechamel sauce with turkey gravy. My lady really liked these!

butter
flour
milk
salt, pepper, nutmeg, sage
lasagna noodles
onion, chopped
celery, chopped
turkey, chopped
ricotta cheese
Parmesan cheese
egg
cranberry relish

Prep:
This has several parts, all of which needs to be done, but they all could use some cooling, so the order and timing is not important.

Create a bechamel sauce. I used a couple of tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup of flour, and about two cups of milk. For the final spices, I used a bit of the usual salt, pepper, and nutmeg, but added sage.

Cook lasagna noodles. Drain and place noodles spread out on wax paper.

Cook some onion and celery in butter and oil. Once cooked, add in turkey and sprinkle with a bit of salt, pepper, and sage.

Mix together ricotta, cranberry relish, an egg, and some Parmesan cheese. I went kind of easy with the relish, but more would have been fine.

Finish:
Once all of the above is ready and cooled enough to work with, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter or spray a baking dish. Put a small amount of the bechamel sauce in the bottom to coat. Put a thin layer of the ricotta mixture and the turkey mixture along each noodle. Roll up each noodle and place seam side down in the dish. Divide the rest of the sauce over the rolls. Sprinkle with some more Parmesan. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 more.

Notes:

• I ended up using 11 noodles in a 13x9 dish. Probably could have got a twelfth one in, but I ran out of filling.
• The cranberry relish was another leftover that my lady made for the holidays. Basically just whole cranberries and a bit of sugar, maybe some orange. Put all in a food processor.
• I didn't mix the turkey and ricotta before putting them on the noodles, since they were not quite cool and I wasn't sure of my proportions, but that would make the task a little easier.