Shish Taouk (Lebanese Chicken)

This is one of my favorite Lebanese dishes to make.  I got the recipe from Nita Mehta's Lebanese Cooking for the Indian Kitchen.

This will require some planning ahead because you will have to assemble your Lebanese spice mix and also marinate your chicken for at least 4 hours (I usually marinate overnight), but the results are well worth the extra planning. I usually double this for my family.





Serves 3-4
250 gms boneless chicken - cut into 3/4" pieces
1 medium sized onion- cut into 8 pieces

Marinade
1 egg
1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (I usually just use fresh grated ginger and minced garlic)
4 Tbsp. thick curd (yogurt)
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. salt
1 onion, grated
1 tsp dried thyme or oregano
1 tsp Lebanese spice mix
1 tsp roasted cumin (bhuna jeera) powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder or paprika (degi mirch) powder (I always use paprika b/c of the little people)
2 tsp tomato ketchup
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp oil

1. Mix all ingredients of the marinade in a bowl.
2. Add chicken pieces and onion.  Keep in fridge covered for at least 4 hours.
3. Preheat oven at 180 C for 10 minutes.
4. Grease the wire rack with oil.  Place the chicken pieces on it. (I always use the skewers that came with my oven.)
5. Bake at 180 C in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is well cooked.

This goes great with some hummus, and carrots, cucumbers, and Megan's pita bread for dipping.

Lebanese Spice Mix

This is a great Lebanese spice mix that I use with several recipes. You can find all of these easily in an Indian grocery store. I have re-purposed my husband's old coffee grinder to grind my spices. I quadruple this recipe to make the grinding easier, then I store the extra for later use. The ground spices will keep for 6 months.

Makes 2 tsp.
1/2 tsp. black pepper corns (saboot kali mirch)
4-5 cloves (laung)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (jaiphal) - grated
1/4 tsp.  fenugreek seeds (methi daana)
1/4 tsp. ginger (sonth) powder
1/2 tsp. green cardamom seeds (chhoti illaichi)
1 star anise (phool chakri)
1" stick cinnamon (dalchini)

 Grind all ingredients in a small mixer (or coffee grinder) or crush with a pestle and mortar to a powder. Store in a jar with a tight fitting lid and use as required.

Bierocks!

I grew up eating these.  My family has a German background, and I guess that's where it came from.  : )   

Since I have a spouse who doesn't appreciate the simplicity of the bierock itself, I've had to tweak it a little to make it an enjoyable meal for everyone in my house. : ) You can also make it a good vegetarian option by substituting channa deal(yellow lentils) for the chicken.  One of my favorite things about this recipe is it makes 12 bierocks, which means two meals for us!  I always freeze 6 of them (wrapped in saran wrap and foil) and pull them out later for a quick meal.  

Here's what I do!  It's a nice little comfort food meal, especially if you serve it with onion rings. : ) 

Bierocks


Dough:
2 ¼ t. Dry Yeast1 c. Warm Milk¼ c. Sugar¼ c. Vegetable Oil1 t. Salt 2 Eggs, Beaten4 c. Bread Flour, More As Needed

Filling:
½ c. Onion, Chopped1/2 kg chicken keema2 T. Vegetable Oil.
4 c. Cabbage, Cut Fine
3-4 T. Amul creamy cheese
1 t. Worcestershire sauce

Salt, Pepper And Cayenne Pepper To Taste


Directions:
Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm milk. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine oil, salt and eggs; add yeast mixture. Add 1 cup of flour and beat for 1 minute. Beat in ½ cup of flour at a time, until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.
Knead in remaining flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
Place dough in a well-oiled large bowl and loosely cover. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. 

To make filling, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add meat and onion and cook until meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Add cabbage and cook until wilted. Add cheese and worcestershire.  Season with salt and pepper. Let cool. 

Punch dough down and let rest 5 minutes. Divide dough in half. 

Roll each half into a letter-sized rectangle (roughly 8 by 11) and cut each rectangle into 6 squares. 

Spoon ¼ or ⅓ cup filling into center of each square. 

Bring opposite corners together at the center, pinching corners and seams to seal.

 Place seam side down on a large baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake until lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

PW's Strawberry Sparkle Cake: SA Style

I love the Pioneer Woman.  I look at her blog weekly. I think almost every week, I'm trying a new recipe from her, and loving every single one.  On the fourth of July, I saw her post of the Strawberry Sparkle Cake... I didn't even read the post, because I saw the strawberry filling and knew there was no way I could pull it off... strawberries have been gone here for months.

But a few days later, on a whim, I went back and read the recipe.  And I had a stroke of genius. Strawberry crush.  Have you ever bought a crush?  I bought a bottle just out of curiosity a few weeks ago, and turns out, the strawberry crush has real whole strawberries and is really sweet and yummy.  It made the perfect filling for this cake!  It turned out great, except for the whipped cream frosting, which I didn't expect to work anyway.  The regular Amul cream is only 25% fat, and to properly whip cream, it needs to have at least 40% fat... anyone had success getting a heavy high fat cream for whipping? What's it called?!?

Head on over to Pioneer Woman for this recipe, grab a bottle of Strawberry crush, and make this yummy cake this week!

Apricot Ginger Chicken with Make-Your-Own Rice A Roni

I've had this recipe in my stash for a long time, and never tried it until this week.  The Rice A Roni kept putting me off, because I just didn't really know how to do that... until I found a blog post with a make your own Rice A Roni!  I immediately thought of this recipe and decided to try it this week, and it was a huge hit with dad and the kids.  Quick and easy too... I was able to make it with no husband home while being responsible for four children, so that tells you how quick and easy it is. : )

Apricot Ginger Chicken with Rice A Roni
2 T. butter
4 Boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 c. apricot jam (I used Druk brand)
2 t. Dijon mustard
2 t. American mustard
1/2 t. ground ginger

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 1 T. butter.  Add chicken.  Cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned.  Remove from skillet, set aside.  In the same skillet over medium heat, sauté rice-pasta mix with remaining 1 T. butter until vermicelli is golden brown.  Slowly stir in 2 cups water and Special Seasonings; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover; simmer 10 minutes.   Stir in broccoli.  Place chicken over rice, return to a simmer.  Cover; simmer 5-10 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is no longer pink inside.  In a small bowl, blend jam, mustard, and ginger.  Spoon 1 T. glaze over each chicken breast and drizzle remaining glaze over rice.  Cover; let stand 3 minutes before serving. 


For the Rice-A-Roni:

½ c. Vermicelli
¾ c. Uncooked Long Grain Rice
3 c. Water, Plus More As Needed
2 T. Butter Or Oil
⅛ t. Salt 
⅛ t Paprika
⅛ t Pepper
⅛ t Onion Powder
⅛ t Garlic Powder
2 cubes Chicken Bouillon 
1 Medium Onion, Diced

Directions:
In medium skillet sauté onion.  When translucent, add broken pasta pieces and rice in butter, stirring constantly, until the pasta is golden brown. Carefully pour in water, spices and bouillon. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Greek Pizza

Normally when I make leftover pita pizzas, I do a simple tomato sauce with some mozzarella and toppings.  This weekend, however, I had so much feta cheese left, I thought I'd try something different.

Here's what I came up with that we will definitely be adding to the regular rotation.  My husband loved it!

Greek Pizza
3/4 of a green zucchini, halved and sliced
3/4 of a yellow squash, halved and sliced (feel free to change up these vegetables to things you can find!)
1 onion, halved and sliced,
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 slices cooked bacon, chopped (this was leftover too, so we thought why not? Easy to omit for a veg meal)
Seasoning of your choice (I used a seasoning jar called "Montreal Chicken", no idea what's in it!)
1 T. olive oil
1-2 tomatoes, sliced
Feta Cheese
Leftover pita bread

Heat olive oil in a skillet.  Add onions and garlic and sauté 3-4 minutes until tender.  Add zucchini and squash and bacon, and seasoning. Sauté until vegetables are cooked.

Divide cooked vegetables between two pita bread rounds.  Top with sliced tomatoes and crumbled feta.  Bake in 180 oven for 5-10 minutes.

Really, could it be any simpler?  But oh my, was it amazing! 

Grandma's Yeast Rolls

I always love it when I'm able to get a recipe out of my grandma.  She's one of those grandma's who seems to cook by instinct.  Nothing is ever measured, and it's all in her head.  I did manage to get her to write this down as a birthday gift for me.  Her rolls are always the star of the meal at Thanksgiving. You can use this recipe for more than just rolls, it works for sandwich bread and for burger or hot dog buns. 






Grandma's Yeast Rolls

¼ c, Warm Water
1 T. Sugar
2 ½ t. Yeast
1 c, Scalded Milk
1 c, Water
¼ c, Crisco Or Oil
1 t. Salt 
¼ c, Sugar

Directions:
Combine ¼ c. warm water, T. sugar and yeast.

Combine scalded milk, 1 c. water, oil, salt and sugar.  Allow to cool.  Add milk mixture to yeast mixture after cooled.

Add 2 c. flour and beat until very smooth.  Add 1 more cup, beat,  Continue adding ½ c. at a time until dough is very stiff.  Then knead on a lightly floured counter top.  Place in a greased bowl and allow to rise until doubled.  Punch down, and let rest 15 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 even pieces.  Take each piece and divide in two, rolling each piece into a ball. Place two balls in one muffin cup.  Once pan is full and all rolls are made, allow to rise another 30-45 minutes.

Bake at 375 for approximately 12 minutes, until golden brown.  Brush with butter last minute of cooking, if desired. 

Pasta in Creamy Garlic Sauce (Chicken and Broccoli version)

Although this meal is REALLY easy to put together, it does require a little bit of planning ahead. That's because the sauce (which you can make in about 5 minutes) needs to sit for several hours for the garlic to really get nicely infused. Otherwise, your sauce is just going to taste like milk:( But this is a great meal for making all the things ahead of time, and then throwing it all together in a snap later in the day (or even the next day). This is really, really easy to make!

Creamy Garlic Sauce Ingredients:

1/2 c. water, divided

2 Tbsp. chopped garlic

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 c. heavy cream (in India, use 1 c. Amul cream and 1 c. milk. This is not good with 2 c. Amul cream...trust me)

1 Tbsp. fresh parsley (or 1 tsp. dried parsley if you have it...I've made it without this before)

salt and pepper to taste (I also use Tony's creole seasoning)

2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Directions

1. Pour half of the water into a saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the garlic and garlic powder, and boil until the water has almost evaporated, about 5 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream, parsley, salt, and pepper. At this point (before I add the cornstarch) I take it off the burner and allow it to cool, then put it in the fridge. I usually do this in the morning if I’m going to make this for dinner, or you could do this before you go to bed and let it sit overnight in order to make it for lunch.

2. When you are ready to make your meal, see the rest of the directions below.

Ingredients to add to the sauce:

2 baked chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (I season mine with Tony's before baking)

1 small head of broccoli, cut into small pieces and steamed

3 cups of cooked pasta (macaroni, elbow, etc.)

When you're ready to assemble your meal, remove the garlic sauce from the fridge.

3. Add the cornstarch to the sauce and slowly heat it. Add all your other ingredients (I add the chicken and brocolli first, and then add the pasta so that I don't get too much in there. You want the sauce to nicely coat everything). Heat everything through til you get the sauce to the thickness that you want.

To turn this into a veg meal, leave out the chicken and add a variety of steamed vegetables (carrots, summer squash, etc.).

This goes nicely with French bread and Carrots with Rosemary Butter.

Enjoy!

Carrots with Rosemary Butter

This is a great savory side dish. I serve it alongside chicken 'n' dumplings, pasta, baked chicken...it goes great with just about anything and it's so easy and fast.

Ingredients:

3 c. carrots cut into sticks

1 1/2 Tbsp. butter, softened

1/2 tsp. rosemary, crushed

1/2 tsp. parsley

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Steam carrot sticks to desired tenderness. Combine spices with butter. Add carrots and toss to coat. So easy, and so delicious:)

Make your own Sausage (Minced Mutton)

This is my first attempt at a blog post...ever. I hope I do not mess up Megan's wonderful blog! I really appreciate all her hard work in keeping this thing going. I use lots of her recipes (the one I keep making over and over right now is Chicken Soup with Lentils ...with brown rice instead of barley. All of my family, even the picky eater, loves it.)

I'm not a big fan of mutton except in its minced form. If you have a pretty good selection of spices, mostly ones you use for Thanksgiving-type foods, you can easily make your own sausage using mutton keema. This is adapted from a Jimmy Dean sausage copy cat recipe.

1 kg mutton keema
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
3-4 tsp. rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3-4 tsp. dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. coriander (dhaniya powder)

Combine all the spices with the keema. Mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate several hours (I usually let it set overnight). If your sausage mixture smells really fragrant, then your spices are probably fine. I usually cook just a tiny portion in a skillet to see if I want to add anything else before cooking all of it.

Cook it, then use it to top homemade pizza, make breakfast casserole, put in sausage potato soup, etc. This makes quite a bit of sausage, so after I cook it I freeze it in several smaller batches. Later I will post a recipe for sausage stromboli that my family loves. Enjoy!
Rachel R.