Keema over here...

So, this is my second attempt at posting this recipe. First time, blogger deleted it and I fumed and nearly gave up on the whole Desperately Seeking Sustenance thing. Today I have some patience and some time, so here we go.

Keema is essentially Indian comfort food. My boyfriend's family has it almost every Saturday night - Mrs. S. works during the day most Saturdays, and so Mr. S. makes keema. According to my boyfriend, keema sustained Mr. S. all through university in Newfoundland - it was quick and tasted like home and could be served with rice. Mr. S's keema is usually made with ground beef.

This recipe is not the one that Mr. S. uses to such great effect, mostly because he was away when I made it and couldn't ask him about it. I used ground pork; I tried to remember the basics of Indian cooking (fry the whole spices! let the tomato mixture bubble until the oil has separated!) and the spices that should be used, and I think it came out quite well.

Pork (or whatever) Keema

1 lb ground meat (pork, chicken, beef...)

1 small onion, chopped
2 tbs ginger-garlic paste (buy it - it's easier and tastes exactly the same)
(you're going to have to add the onion to the ginger-garlic paste, run it through a food processor, and essentially make it into an onion-ginger-garlic paste. might as well do that now. we'll wait.)

2 tbs vegetable oil
2 whole black cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbs cumin seed
1 bay leaf
3 cloves

1 tsp dried chili flakes
1 tsp powdered coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
ground black pepper
salt

2 1/2 cups of tomato puree - not paste, puree.

1 cup frozen peas

So, let's get started. Heat your chosen large pan. Add oil. Then add all the whole spices - cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf, cumin seed. Cook this until the cumin starts to hiss. Really - you'll know it when you hear it.

Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste and combine with the spices. Cook until it turns a kind of light brown colour.

Add the other spices - turmeric, coriander, dried chili flakes, black pepper, and some salt. You're going to be adjusting the salt later so don't get too hung up on quantities right now. Just throw a shake of it in and you'll be fine. Cook this only for about half a minute.

Add the tomatoes and stir everything into a tomatoey goo. Add a bit of water if you like - maybe half a cup. Cook this for about 3 or 4 minutes until the yellowy oil starts to separate from the tomato.

Add the ground meat. Cook it with the tomatoey goo for about 10 minutes, adding water as necessary. Lots of people enjoy a tonne of sauce, so you may want to go for more water. Add the peas toward the end of the process, stirring through. Peas need about 4-5 minutes to cook with the meat and sauce.

As mentioned previously, this can be served with rice for a very very easy supper, or with roti or naan if you feel like putting more effort in.

Super Simple Salsa

My significant other's sister is graduating from teacher's college today... congratulations to her!

She is having a post-graduation ceremony party today, and asked if I would mind bringing a couple of appetizers. So I decided to bring guacamole (recipe from a previous post) and warm goat cheese coated in crushed almonds and peppercorns, and some extraordinarily simple homemade salsa that tastes like a lot more effort than it actually is.

Salsa (kind of more like pureed pico de gallo, really)
8 to 10 tomatoes, seeded and torn apart
2 tablespoons roughly chopped onion
1 jalapeno pepper, roughly chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, also roughly chopped (notice a trend here?)
few stalks of cilantro - take leaves off and use those. you can add a bit of the actual stalk if you want a stronger flavour.
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients, then, using an immersion blender, puree everything until it has the consistency you desire. It will not be thick - it isn't meant to be. Taste - add more salt if necessary, and/or just add more of whatever you like the most.

Cover and let sit for at least a few hours - better if you let it sit for a day or so to let everything mingle and establish relationships.

It's good - fresh-tasting and simple for a barbecue. Yea for summertime simplicity!

Lobster and bacon, together at last

Man, a month can go by so quickly! May has just flown by.

Last night I made a pleasant supper for two - my best friend came downtown to spend the evening with me. Lobsters are abundant and (relatively) inexpensive right now, so I seized the moment and made...

Lobster Linguine

cooked linguine (enough for 3 medium servings, or 2 large servings)
one 1lb cooked lobster, cracked with meat taken out and diced
two strips of bacon, diced
1/8-1/4 cup of brandy
3/4 cup frozen peas (fresh would probably be okay too, they're just not available here in May)
3/4 cup 35% whipping cream
1/2 cup half-and-half
ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
chopped fresh chives

Heat a frying pan. Add diced bacon and fry till crispy. Drain fat except for about 1 teaspoon - allow to remain in pan with bacon. Add brandy and allow to simmer for a minute or so. Add frozen peas to pan with brandy, bacon and fat, and saute for about a minute and a half, until tender. Add whipping cream and bring to a boil - allow to simmer for about 2-3 minutes. Then, add lobster and half-and-half. Bring it all up to a boil and allow to simmer for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Add sauce to cooked linguine and toss. Plate. Garnish with chopped chives and serve.

The pasta has a nice salty-sweet taste from the bacon, brandy, peas and lobster. The chives brighten things up a little bit. The cream isn't crazy heavy-tasting, so you wind up with a kind of business-casual supper that is quite pleasant for spring/early summer.

The Spanish Sandwich

Well, it's actually no such thing... but since two of the the 5 ingredients in this toasty, melty sandwich are of Spanish extraction, and the sound of "Spanish" and "sandwich" together made my ears happy, I decided to title this post as such.

Anyway, I made this in about 10 minutes over my lunch hour yesterday. I toasted everything in the oven because I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to things being thoroughly toasted.

2 slices bread - I used some called Country Harvest because that was what I had. It would undoubtedly be delicious with something from the bakery, like a grain bread or even just a plain white Italian loaf.
3/4 cup grated Manchego cheese
1 1/2 slices of thinly sliced Serrano ham
fig jam or tapenade (onion jam works too, and red pepper jelly might even be a nice taste)
butter

Turn broiler on in oven (500 degrees), and position rack to middle.

Butter one side of both pieces of bread. Put into oven until desired level of toastedness is reached. Remove.

Place Serrano ham on the toasted side of one piece of bread. Spread other toasted side piece with fig jam/tapenade/whatever, and then cover bread/spread with grated Manchego. Place back in oven until cheese has melted and ham has crisped slightly. Remove.

Place two sides of bread together - sandwich them, if you will, untoasted sides out. Place back under broiler to toast one side. Flip, then toast the other.

It's salty and sweet and pretty great for a fast meal. I ate it with some tomatoes dressed with a tiny bit of balsamic.

If you're not as interested in things being perfectly toasted on every side, then doing this like a traditional grilled cheese in a pan with butter is totally fine.

Sweetness/spiciness in the tummy...

I've been thinking for awhile of what to post next on here. Since we're in the middle of spring here in Toronto, and spring usually means rainstorms, I figured a nice warming soup with a brilliant orange hue might chase away any possible spring blues that may arise from seeing grey skies too often.

This isn't crazy spicy, but if you don't dig a little heat, just leave out the chilli. It should be okay.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

Mix 1/2 cup sour cream or creme fraiche with 1 1/2 tsp lime zest. Place in fridge to allow flavours time to mingle properly.

Then...
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloved garlic, chopped
tablespoon of butter
4 cups chicken stock
2 large sweet potatoes (yams), peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbs finely chopped ginger
1 red birdseye chilli (just cut into hunks)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tbs smooth peanut butter
1 lime, juiced
2 tbs fresh cilantro
salt to taste

Melt butter on medium heat in medium-large saucepan. Add onions, cook 2 minutes. Add garlic, cook another 2 mins. When all is soft, add stock and sweet potato. Add cumin, ginger, coconut milk, and birdseye chilli. Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes or until sweet potato is soft. Take pot off burner. Using hand blender (work in batches if you're using a regular mixer), puree soup until smooth. If too thick, add some more coconut milk.

Return to heat - add peanut butter, salt and lime juice. Heat through - stir all the while.

To serve, ladle into bowls. Get the sour cream/lime mixture out of the fridge and dollop onto the top of the soup. Sprinkle cilantro leaves on top of soup/sour cream. Can also add little bits of tomato, but to me it seems like overkill. Serve hot.

The Other White/Delicious Meat

People used to forget about pork a lot of the time. Now, it's the universe's Favourite Trendy Item, perhaps most notably in its belly form. Pork belly is now omnipresent - it's at every restaurant within a five-kilometre radius of downtown.

Now, I have to voice dissension here because I don't like pork belly very much at all. Oh dear - I think the world may have stopped turning. I have trouble getting past all the fat. "Fat makes it exceptionally delicious!" you say... I fear that I have to respond that I can't handle the mouthfeel of fat, and cutting it off a decent piece of pork belly just really defeats the whole purpose of eating that particular bit of pig.

What I do love, however, is pork roast or pork tenderloin. I like it best when it is done in the following way:

Apple Cider Pork

1 pork roast
4-5 Northern Spy or other baking apples, peeled and cored and cut into hunks
1-2 onions, peeled and quartered
8 sprigs of thyme
1 1/2 to 2 cups of cider - I usually go for the non-alcoholic kind as it is cheaper, but I've made it with the alcoholic sort and it turned out well.
1/2 cup white wine, if you're not using alcoholic cider
2-4 garlic cloves, peeled and quickly smashed with the back of a knife
sea salt and fresh black pepper
Optional - teaspoon or so of grainy Dijon mustard - I use the all-grain kind.

Take the apples and onions and garlic cloves and throw them into a roasting pan. Make sure there's a mixture of them - not apples on one side and onions/garlic on the other.
In the middle of the pan, place four sprigs of thyme. Place pork fatty-side-up on top of the thyme/apples/onions.
Grab your cider and splash it into the roasting pan. Do same with white wine, if you're using it. If you've decided to use the mustard, slather the top of the roast with it. Grind the sea salt/black pepper over the whole thing.
Put it into the oven at 350 degrees until it's done. My roasts usually take about an hour or so, but it depends on who I'm cooking for - my significant other likes pork slightly pink, while my parents won't even come near it if it isn't white all the way through.

When it is done, lift the pork out and let it sit on a cutting board somewhere nearby. In the meantime, ladle out the apples and onions, and discard the twigs of the thyme. Usually the leaves will have already come off and they're cool to leave in. You can puree the apple/onion mixture - leaving the garlic in is optional, and I guess it depends on how much you like garlic. I usually take the cloves out and just puree the apples and onions.

There will be a fair amount of exceptionally tasty liquid left. If your roasting pan is stovetop-safe, turn the heat on under it and bring it to a boil. Throw some salt into it, and your preferred thickening agent (flour & water, cornstarch, Veloutine, whatever), and stir until it has reached your desired thickness. Taste it in case it needs more salt or a little bit of wine. I find that gravy is all about personal tastes, and you know more about that than anyone else.

You can serve all this deliciousness up with some little peas or whatever vegetable suits your fancy. The gravy is wonderful with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes.

Roast Beast

Okay, so this is quick and crazy easy... but the results speak for themselves.

This weekend, I made a standing rib roast (of beef). I was at home at my folks' place without a single thing to do, and happened to look in the freezer and found a standing rib roast. How often would that happen? The opportunity was too good to pass up. I set about defrosting it... and 9 hours later, it was set to go.

While it was defrosting, I made a concoction that became a crust. Crust, this blog 'tis of thee, sweet crust of... yummery... of thee I write.

2-3 tablespoons of dijon mustard
2 minced garlic cloves
1-2 teaspoons of herbes de provence (I used dried because that's what my folks had. Would probably be delightful with fresh)
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
tablespoon or so of olive oil or grapeseed oil
spoonful of red wine if that makes you happy
two onions, cut into quarters
a couple sprigs of thyme, if you're nasty

Mix the dijon mustard, garlic, herbes, salt, pepper, wine, and oil together well. Spread the mixture over your roast (this would probably work just fine with a sirloin tip or whatever other hunk of beef you've got hanging around), working it into the flesh a little bit.

The thyme can go under the roast in the pan, and also crisscrossed on top to be fancy. The onions should go around the roast about halfway through the cooking process.

The pan drippings wind up absolutely delicious. Best Gravy Ever.