Sunday Morning Biscuits

There's something to be said for comfort food on a chilly January morning. My mom used to make this deliciously simple baking powder biscuit recipe, often accompanying home cooked soup or spicy chili. Often I will serve these for Sunday brunch with home made jam, fruit salad and coffee. You can make countless variations of this recipe, depending on your preference, simply by adding mixed dried herbs, caraway seeds or parmesan cheese for a savory palate; blueberries or currents for the sweeter tooth.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F

1 cup of all-purpose flour

1 cup of atta or whole wheat flour

2 tbsp of baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

5 tablespoons cold butter

3/4 cup milk

In a bowl sift together all the dry ingredients. Add embellishments such as parmesan cheese or dried herbs. Cut in cold butter with a knife and work into the dried ingredients until coarse. Do not overmix.

Add milk and stir with a fork until a ball forms. Turn the resulting dough onto a well floured surface and press flat with fingers or rolling pin. The dough should be approximately 3/4 to 1 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter or cut to desired shape and size with a butter knife. Lay onto parchment paper and sprinkle tops with a light grating of your favourite cheese. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until risen and lightly browned. 

Serve hot with butter or jam, your favourite blend of coffee and CBC radio 2.

Nina Paley's Effing Delicious Herb Bread

Nina Paley, American cartoonist and gifted, (should I add controversial?) animator; recently posted a recipe for a @*%&ing delicious herb bread. I tried it and being that this is a G rated blog, it WAS effing delicious! With Nina's permission I am posting her recipe exactly as she did.

2.5 cups warm water
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 package dry yeast
1/4 c olive oil
2 c bread flour
2 c whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup Trader Joe's "21 Seasonings Salute" herb mix 
(I used Victorian Epicure's Sundried Tomato and Herb Dip Mix)

 
dissolve sugar in water, add yeast and oil, let sit 5-10 minutes. Mix herbs, salt, and 1-2 c flour; add to yeast water. Stir, keep adding flour until you have to knead it. Knead, knead, add more flour, etc. Let rise in oiled bowl covered w/ damp cloth for 2 hours, while you buy some amazing Assyrian art books Strand Bookstore and pick up your Brompton from Bfold. Knead again, roll into oblong, place on parchment paper on baking pan, let rise 45 minutes to an hour. Brush top with water, slash some diagonals on top, shake on more herb mix and sesame seeds. Bake 30-40 minutes in upstairs neighbor's preheated 350-degree oven, which is much better than yours because he just remodeled his kitchen, whereas your oven is decades old and burns everything, until golden/done.

Awesome bread rising....(I added 1/2 cup of flax seed to the above recipe)

Braided loaf rising by the warmth of the oven light

For more awesomeness from Nina....visit her blog at http://blog.ninapaley.com/

Also be sure to catch her animated film Sita Sings the Blues, adapted from the Ramayana

http://sitasingstheblues.com/

Thanks Nina!!

Nuttin' Honey Granola

Want to add a wholesome twist to your morning routine? How about some sweet and crunchy granola complete with all your favourite trimmings? I have never enjoyed cereal and find commercial granola to be too sweet and expensive. Plus, this recipe can be easily customized depending upon preferences and ingredients on hand.  Today I made two batches; Apple Cinnamon and Almonds, and Maple Walnut and Blueberry.
 

Basic recipe:

1/2 cup of un-homogenized, local, organic honey

1/2 cup of grapeseed or walnut oil

1 1/2 cups of whole rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of kamut flakes

3 cups of chopped, mix of raw seeds, nuts, grains and/or dried fruits

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl.  Mix oil and honey and warm slightly.  Pour over dry ingredients, mix well then bake at 250  degrees for approximately 3/4 - 1 an hour – until your ingredients are starting to look toasted.  Stir about every15 minutes. Cook for less time for chunkier granola, and longer for a drier blend. Do not overcook. Be sure to add pre-dried fruits in the last 15 minutes so it doesn't become too dried.

Store in clean glass jars and use within a month to ensure freshness.

Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Stuffed Mushroom Caps and Braised Apple and Turkey Tarts.

I always remember those special occasions in the 1970's when my mother would make delicious finger foods fondly known as hors d'oeuvres. Even a cocktail weenie sounded sophisticated by this French moniker. By the time I was making my own creations in the 80's they were referred to as appies and in recent times by the Spanish tapas. Whatever the name, the taste of my mother's stuffed mushroom caps is always the same....... deeeeeeeelicious!!!

To prepare these tasty bites you will need the following:

24 large white mushrooms, washed and stems removed and set aside

1 yellow onion

3 medium stalks of celery

2 large free range eggs

3-4 tbsp of butter

dried sage, rosemary and/or savory

salt and pepper

parmesan optional

Wash and core all the mushrooms. Lay top side town on a pan lined with parchment paper. 

Finely chop all the stems, onion and celery. In a pan, melt butter and fry the onion until transparent.
Add celery and fry until slightly softened. Add chopped mushroom stems, salt, pepper and herbs. Combine and fry in pan until all flavours are blended.  Remove from heat. Once the mixture has cooled for about 5 minutes, add beaten eggs and a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese if you like. Fold egg into mixture and spoon into mushroom caps. Bake at 450 degrees F for about 15 minutes or until the filling is firm and slightly browned. 

Mix with some good friends, red wine and serve hot.

Rogan Josh

Camellia Panjabi, world renown chef and author of 50 Great Curries of India, states in her book that "rogan means meat fat and josh literally means heat" and although this traditional Kashmiri dish is made with lamb cooked in its own fats. I have also used moose or bison to make this dish. To source reputable organic meats check the links below.

I have made this dish for many appreciating friends, however I am dedicating this post to my good Mauritian-Canadian friend Kavish who has requested it and whose apparent appreciation for the spicy offerings of our kitchen far surpasses any other. This one's for you Bhai!

To make this deeply aromatic dish you will need the following:

1 - 1 1/2 lb of stewing bison, moose, mutton or lamb cubed

3-4 cloves of garlic

approx. 1 tsp salt

3 tbsp of oil or ghee

2 large yellow onions finely chopped

2 large lal mirch (red chilis)

4-5 whole cloves

2 large black cardamoms whole

5 green cardamoms crushed

1 large cinnamon stick or bark

2 Indian bay leaves

2-3 blades of jivitry (mace)

1 star anise

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp ginger powder

1/2 tsp haldi (tumeric powder)

AND/OR 1 heaping tbsp of garam masala

2 cups of dahi (full fat plain yogurt)

You can see this cut of moose meat in incredibly lean. That means that in order to achieve a very tender dish, a pressure cooker must be used. If using lamb or mutton, a simple sauce pan is suitable.

Be sure to cut the meat on the cross grain in order to maximize its texture. Cube meat and place in a small pressure cooker with about 4 cups of water, chopped garlic and salt. Bring to boil and cook at medium temperature for about 15-20 minutes. Let pressure cooker stand until all pressure has released.

Keep reserve liquid for cooking.

In a large pan, slowly brown onions in oil or ghee on low heat. The key to an excellent flavour is to brown the onions slowly without burning until they are nearly carmelized. 

To this add red chili, cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon bark, bay leaves and jivitry OR garam masala. Fry for about 3 minutes then add coriander, fennel, ginger, star anise and tumeric powder. Fry for another few minutes, then add a few tablespoons of the reserved liquid and stir until a paste forms. 

To this add the drained meat and fry, stirring until all the meat is coated with the paste. Add dahi or yogurt and blend well on medium heat. Once this is well blended, add a cup of the reserve liquid and let simmer on low to medium heat with the lid off. Once reduced, add more reserve liquid. Continue this until all the reserve liquid is used and dish has reserved to a succulent and aromatic stew. 

Serve with Jeera Rice or Spelt Chappatis 

For 100% grass-fed lamb check out Free Graze Lamb located in the sunny Okanagan

I get my Bison cuts from October Farms south of Prince George. 

*** 

Hyderabadi Buddy Dal

Somebody's buddy from Hyderabad taught me to make this spicy and hearty dal. I now refer to this dish as Hyderabadi Buddy Dal. 

You will need the following ingredients:

1 cup of mung dal (green)

3/4 cup masoor dal (red)

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp lal mirch (red chili powder)

1 black cardamom pod

1/2 tsp haldi (tumeric)

1 tsp jeera (cumin seed)

1 tsp black gram

5 curry leaves

1 large whole onion sliced julienne style

1 whole dried red chili quartered

In a saucepan, wash the dried pulses until water runs clear. Add 3-4 inches of water, 1/2 tsp of salt, ginger garlic paste, haldi, black cardamom, lal mirch and pulses to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer.

Meanwhile, in a hot pan fry mustard seed in oil until seeds begin to pop, then add dried chilies and black gram. Add onion, red chili, curry leaf and and fry on medium heat until onions are golden brown golden brown.

When pulses are 80% cooked, add onion and masala fry to the pot. Stir well and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot with Spelt Rotis or chapati.

Hummous with a Twist

This post is dedicated to my friend Bar, who taught me the secret to good hummous, and to Amy who kindly requested me to post it.

I first became acquainted with middle eastern dishes when I met my Israeli friend Bar, who among a rich plethora of vocational and travel pursuits, also trained at Cordon Bleu in London. When I asked what the secret to a good hummous was, he whispered, "Arab piss".  While I am sure he was joking, (at least I hope he was), what I have learned most from Bar over the years is how cooking can be a metaphor for life; and that you should do it with great passion and intuition.

Soak overnight one cup of dried chickpeas or employ the faster method which is to bring the chickpeas to a boil, then let soak for an hour.

In a pressure cooker, bring the chickpeas and 1/2 tsp of oil to a boil. Cook at high pressure for approximately 15 minutes. Let cool and rinse.

In deep vessel add the following:

cooked chickpeas

juice of 1 whole lemon

1 small garlic clove minced

3 tbsp tahini

3 tbsp water

3 tbsp virgin olive oil

salt to taste

Using a Braun hand mixing wand, puree the ingredients until it's semi-smooth. If the mixture is too stiff add small amounts of water. You may also use a standard blender, but I have found the hand tool much easier for cleanup.

Set in a serving bowl and for a spicy twist, add a tablespoon of Patak's Madras Masala Paste. Pour virgin olive oil over the top and serve with pita chips or cut vegetables.