Category Archives: Recipes

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Vegetable Pakouris (Madhur Jaffrey)

1 small head cauliflower, or 4 medium sized onions or 1/2 to 3/4 pound peppers or 3 medium sized potatos or spinach or some combination thereof…

Batter:
1 c chickpea flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cumin (best fresh ground)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp black pepper (also best fresh ground)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 1/2 to 3 inches oil in the bottom of your chosen pan.

Put chickpea flour in a bowl.  Gradually mix in about 3/4 c water, until you have a thickish batter.  Add other ingredients and mix well.
Florette cauliflower, 1/16 in ring the onions, spear the peppers, or 1/16 in round the potatoes and put in a bowl of cold water.
Heat oil over low flame until hot but not smoking.  Take a few vegets bits at a time, wipe dry, and dip in batter.  Drop in oil.  Fry slowly, 7 to 10 minutes a side.  (Until cooked through and golden brown.)  Remove with slotted object and drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

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Country Pot Roast with Noodles (McCall’s)

5 – 6 lb beef bladebone chuck roast
Flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T salad oil
1/2 c chopped celery
1 c chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 c tomato juice
2 T Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano leaves
Rosemary
Basil
About a lb pared and chopped carrots, maybe 1/2 in long
Egg noodles

Coat roast in the following mixture:  1 /4 c flour, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper.  (We used a bit less salt for our test of this, and a bit more pepper.)  Brown the roast in a large skillet or wok, over medium heat.  Add onion, celery, and garlic, saute until golden.  Add tomato juice, 1/4 c water, Worcestershire, and other spices.  Bring to boiling, reduce heat, and simmer, covered and turning meat once, for 2 hours.  Add carrots, simmer 30 minutes longer, or until meat and carrots are tender.  While that last simmer is happening, cook your noodles as per their instructions.  Transfer roast and carrots to heated serving plate, Surround with noodles.  Keep warm.  Pour pan drippings into 2 c measure.  Skim off fat and discard.  Add enough water to make sure you have 1 1/2 cups.  Return to pan.  In small bowl or shakeable container, combine 2 T flour with 2 T water, mix until smooth.  Stir into pan juice.  Bring to boiling, stirring frequently, lower heat, and simmer until thickened.  Reseason, if desired.  Serve over roast.

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Cheese and Rice Casserole (McCall’s)

Should state that while we enjoyed this greatly, we also changed it A LOT.  My household doesn’t like green chili – so I took that out, added half an orange pepper, a couple of garlic cloves, 3 healthy pinches of cayenne, a few blops of paprika, and a sprinkling of turmeric.  Still had the spicy, didn’t have the green chili.

1/4 c butter
1 c chopped onion
(1/2 green or red or orange pepper)
(2 cloves garlic, diced)
4 c freshly cooked white rice
2 c sour cream
1 c cream-style cottage cheese
1 large bay leaf, crumbled
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
3 cans (4 oz) green chiles, drained and halved lengthwise, leaving seeds
2 c grated, sharp, Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375.  Lightly grease 2 quart baking dish.  Melt butter in a large skillet, saute the onion (and the garlic and the pepper, if doing our variant).  Remove from heat.  Stir in hot rice, sour cream, cottage cheese, bay leaf, salt, pepper, (and turmeric and cayenne and paprika, if using our variant.)  Mix well.  Layer half the rice mixture in the bottom of the baking dish, sprinkle with half the cheese.  Repeat.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until bubbly and hot.

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Moong Dal (Madhur Jaffrey)

This was really amazing.  Especially the garlic cloves that had cooked in it.

1 1/2 c moong (or other) dal (hulled and split)

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 slices fresh peeled ginger (1″ square, 1/8″ thick)

1 T coriander greens or parsley, chopped

1 T turmeric

1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 T lemon juice

3 T veget oil or usli ghee

A pinch ground or tiny lump asafetida

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

lemon or lime wedges

Clean and wash dal.  Put in 3-4 qt pot.  Add 5 c water and bring to a boil.  Skim froth and scum from top.  Add garlic, ginger, turmeric, and cayenne.  Cover, lower heat, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.  Stir occasionally.  Once cooked, add salt and lemon juice.  (Should be thicker than pea soup, thinner than cooked cereal.)  In a small skillet or pot, heat the oil or ghee over medium high heat.  When hot, add asafetida and cumin seeds.  Once the asafetida sizzles and expands, and the seeds darken (few seconds), pour the oil over the dal and serve.  (Over rice, wedges on the side, can garnish with onions.)

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Flavored Vinegar

Put washed and dried whole herbs or vegetables in a bottle or other container, preferably glass, and pour in vinegar until filled.  Steep for 4 to 6 weeks for full flavour before removing.

Combination Suggestions:

Red Wine Vinegar:  Shallots, garlic cloves, tarragon
White or Cider Vinegar:  Dill, Mint, Lemon Peel, Thyme, mustard seed, Lemon Grass (I’ve had luck with sage and basil as well.)
Rice Wine Vinegar:  Peeled ginger, green onions

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Split Pea Soup (Betsy Codier)

2 lb split peas
3-4 qt water
1 ham bone or smoked ham hock
1-2 c chopped celery
1 c chopped onion
3 large diced carrots
1-2 bay leaves
1/4 – 1/2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper (and turmeric) to taste

Wash and sort peas, add enough water to cover them + s inches.  Boil for 2 minutes, cover and let stand for one hour.  Add everything else, heat to boiling, and simmer for three hours.  Remove bone, add diced ham if desired.  Fix seasoning.

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Saturday Night Casserole (McCalls)

This one went over quite well.

12 bread slices (it specifies white, I used a whole wheat white)
2 T soft butter
4 slices swiss cheese (for both the swiss and the bread, it is going to depend on the size of your casserole)
1 large tomato, cut into slices
4 eggs
2 c milk
1 tsp salt (it calls for seasoned salt, but I used salt and then added some more seasoning to the end result)
1/8 tsp pepper (or to taste)
1 tsp dry mustard (or to taste)
1/4 tsp paprika (or to taste)
1 tsp dried minced onion
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
(I’d suggest a little garlic as well)
2 c grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Lightly grease a 2 qt casserole, shallow is better for this recipe.  Lightly spread one side of each slice of bread with butter.  Take 4 (or however many it takes) slices of bread and put them butter side down in a single layer in the casserole.  Make Swiss sandwiches out of the rest of your bread, again placing the buttered sides out.  Cut them in half, diagonally.  Place the sandwiches in the dish center edge down, and sort of layer and pinwheel them.  Place slices of tomato between the sandwiches throughout.  If you end up with extra tomato, just tuck it in where it looks right.
Mix together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, mustard, onion, paprika, and Worcestershire.  Stir in cheese.
Pour mixture over the bread, and stick in the fridge for an hour.  Preheat your oven to 325 while waiting.  Then bake the casserole for about an hour, or until it seems firm and cooked through when checked.

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