I've been making this rather unusual hash for years. Any time we have leftover steak or roast beef, my family loves this dish. Simple to put together, comforting and you can use that tender beef in a casserole instead of sandwiches, or when everyone gets tired of sandwiches. We love the red wine in it and while it bakes, it gets a little crunchy on top. Give it a good stir and all that lovely gravy in the bottom will coat everything.

Haven't a clue where this recipe came from....could have been a friend or even in a magazine back in the 70's. If anyone knows, let me know. I wish I had been more thorough when I entered this kind of recipe in my MasterCook program years ago.

Roast Beef Hash



Ingredients:
4 cups diced roast beef
1/2 cup red wine
4 cups diced, cooked potatoes
4 tablespoons butter
4 Tablespoons chopped onions
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon savory
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
Paprika

Method:
Mix onion and garlic with herbs and saute in butter.  Add potatoes and brown slighty. Add all other ingredients and pour into casserole. Bake 350 for 30 minutes.
 






And lastly, earlier this week I came across a Christmas meme that Maggie at Normandy Life had joined.  I thought it would be fun to join in. My answers are in red.
1. Hot Chocolate or apple cider?
Apple cider
2. Turkey or Ham?
Turkey
3. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree?
Real
4. Decorations on the outside of your house?
Yes
5. Snowball fights or sleddin’?
No snow in Florida, but in  the old Michigan days, sledding
6. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping?
Not much
7. Favorite Christmas song?
Baby It's Cold Outside; the Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart version
8. How do you feel about Christmas movies?
Love the old classics
9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music?
Before December 1st
10. Stockings before or after presents?
Before
11. Go to someone else’s house or they come to you?
They come here
12. Do you read the Christmas Story? If so when?
Christmas Eve
13. What do you do after presents and dinner?
We have presents, brunch and then eat dinner at 6 PM
14. What is your favorite holiday smell?
Pine from fresh trees and wreaths
15. Ice skating or walking around the mall?
Ice skating (if we had ice)
16. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas day?
Christmas morning
17. Favorite Christmas memory?
I remember that my parents put the tree up, decorated it AND put the presents out all AFTER we went to bed Christmas Eve. Just think about all that work! They probably never went to bed.
18. Favorite Part about winter?
Sitting around a fire in the fireplace....while the snow is blowing outside.
19. Ever been kissed under mistletoe?
Absolutely!
 
 
 
 
Want to play along? Simply cut and paste the questions below.


1. Hot Chocolate or apple cider?
2. Turkey or Ham?
3. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree?
4. Decorations on the outside of your house?
5. Snowball fights or sleddin’?
6. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping?
7. Favorite Christmas song?
8. How do you feel about Christmas movies?
9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music?
10. Stockings before or after presents?
11. Go to someone else’s house or they come to you?
12. Do you read the Christmas Story? If so when?
13. What do you do after presents and dinner?
14. What is your favorite holiday smell?
15. Ice skating or walking around the mall?
16. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas day?
17. Favorite Christmas memory?
18. Favorite Part about winter?
19. Ever been kissed under mistletoe?

My FIL loved roast beef. (When the kids were little, they used to tease him: "What are we having for dinner, Buck?" And he'd say: "Roast Barf." *screams and laughter all around* )

My father was no slouch in the roast beef department either. Mother served it every Christmas Eve and one of his favorite restaurants, Dante's in Ft. Lauderdale (now defunct), served it as a special every Saturday night. You can imagine where the two of them (and sometimes the rest of us) had dinner every single Saturday, can't you?

Now it's never been something I made regularly. But when I made it for Dad, I made that old never-fail recipe from the Make It Now, Bake It Later cookbooks, where it sat in an oven for hours after a bit of high heat. And now that both those lovely men are gone, I haven't made it once. I'm going to rectify that right now. Vegetarians, you may want to shut your eyes, say hello and pass on by my blog today. Because there's a big slab of rare BEEF coming up.

This is yet another recipe I found in Fine Cooking magazine. A salt/herb encrusted roast. I'd never done it before. Sound complicated? It wasn't and the results were as tender as can be. My only suggestion: I wish I had browned it a little more before I put the salted dough on. So if you decide to try this, sear your roast nicely on all three sides. And once you take the crust off (yes, it actually comes off in one piece) wipe some of the salt off the roast.

As for this divine sauce, I know morels are really expensive, so use any wild mushrooms you have available; it's a lovely accompaniment for the beef. I happened to have some dried morels in the pantry so I used them. I used to make a horseradish sauce with roast beef, but this mushroom sauce beats it hands down. And if you have any leftover, make an omelet with it. Oh My. So good. 

Herb and Salt-crusted Standing Rib Roast with Morel Sauce
From Fine Cooking Magazine,  Make-ahead Holidays

 

Ingredients:
2 cups kosher or sea salt
1 large egg white
3 T. freshly ground black pepper
3 T. chopped fresh thyme, stems included
2 T. chopped juniper berries
2 T. chopped garlic
1 T. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
2 to 3 cups flour plus more for rolling
1 standing beef rib roast, about 7 lbs., or 3 ribs, cut from loin end, chine bone and fat cap removed
1 T. vegetable oil
Morel sauce, go HERE 

Method:
In stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix 1 cup water with the salt, egg white, pepper, thyme, juniper, garlic and parsley. Mix on medium speed until blended. On medium low speed, mix in 2 cups of the flour, adding more as needed, until dough is firm and feels slightly dry and stiff, like Play Doh. Continue to mix for 2 minutes. The dough should be smooth and firm but not sticky. Add more flour if needed. Flatten dough into a rectangle, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours.

An hour before you’re ready to roast, put beef on counter and let sit at room temperature.

Position rack in center of oven and heat oven to 350.

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Pour in oil and put the roast, meat side down, in skillet; sear until deeply browned, about 5 minutes. Remove roast from pan and set it, bone side down on rack in roasting pan.

On lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Drape the dough over meat, tucking in on all sides.

Roast until an instant read thermometer in middle of roast registers 125 for rare or 135 for medium rare, 1 and 3/4 to 2 and 1/4 hours. Let rest for 20 minutes, then remove and discard crust. 

After removing crust, roast can rest for up to another 30 minutes. Carve and serve with Morel Sauce.

I've had this recipe for decades! It's so old probably many of you haven't even heard of it. (But I DO hope everyone knows about designer extraordinaire Bill Blass.) And yes, it really is Bill Blass's recipe! Everywhere we went for dinner in the 70's people were serving it. After all, if Bill Blass served it at HIS dinner parties, why not us?

It was even on the menu at Mortimer's in NYC, owner Glenn Bernbaum's public outpost for the rich and famous that closed in 1998.

"Virtually from the day Mortimer's opened its doors in 1976, the restaurant has been ubiquitous in the social columns, attracting an eclectic crowd ranging from Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger to Mick Jagger and Boy George to Jackie O., Fergie, and Brooke Astor, and even Cal Ripken Jr. Oh, and the parties -- using set designers, Bernbaum could transform his humble saloon, re-creating the Paris Opéra, the Plaza's Palm Court in 1907, or an overgrown wild jungle in the fairly mundane shell of the restaurant."

And when Mortimer's segued into Swifty's, the meatloaf went along; they still serve it, surrounded by mashed potatoes and gravy. Here's their menu:


Have you ever been to Swifty's in NYC? I LOVE going there for lunch. Very European in ambiance. It's small (only 60 covers) and so very intimate and cozy on a cold winter's day. Oh...and the food is dee-vine.


Do you know where the name came from? Swifty was the name of Mortimer owner Bernbaum's dog...and the dog was named after Irving "Swifty" Lazar, the Hollywood deal maker.

Sorry, I DO tend to get sidetracked.
Bill Blass's meatloaf is the subject of this post!
Do you think meatloaf is not grand enough to serve to company? Blass disagreed. He served it often to his guests.

"The man who once wrote that blue jeans were 'the most significant contribution America has made to fashion' had no such pretensions about serving meatloaf. Although the provenance of his recipe is unclear, friends suspect he brought it from hometown Fort Wayne, Ind. He felt that simplicity was real elegance."

In Bare Blass, which was finished just weeks before his death in 2002 and published soon after, he said that, after all, this recipe may be the way people most remember him.

And this recipe is the real McCoy, my dears. I always made it free form in a baking dish...which is what the original recipe suggested, although you certainly could make it in a loaf pan if you are a perfectionist.

BTW: Rumor had it that his banana cream pie was divine, but I've never seen a recipe for it.

Bill Blass's Meatloaf

In a small bowl, beat egg, stir in Worcestershire sauce and reserve.
In a large pan over low heat, melt butter and sauté celery and onions, stirring occasionally, until onions become translucent.
In a large bowl, combine onion-celery mixture with sirloin, pork, veal, parsley, bread crumbs, beaten egg mixture, salt and pepper, thyme, and marjoram.
On a baking sheet, form mixture into an oval loaf shape. Top with chili sauce and bacon strips.
 
Bake 75 minutes.

Remove from oven and let rest 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6-8.

I served it with roasted sweet potatoes the first night (because I had some left over):

and then, last night, the way meatloaf should be served...with mashed potatoes, peas and yes, gravy on the side.

There's an old joke: 
A guy went into a restaurant and asked 'What's the special of the day?'
'Beef tongue,' the waiter replied.
'Ugh!', the guy said, 'That's disgusting!  I won't eat anything that comes out of a cow's mouth.  Fry me up a couple of eggs!'

Believe me, I understand it's rather daunting if you've never cooked beef tongue or seen one being made. It's certainly not the most enticing thing before cooking. Or even after cooking. But when it's done, sliced and served? Fantastic. So tender you don't need a knife. 
Keep this in mind: it's only another cut of beef like beef ribs, shank, loin or brisket. My mother made it for us all the time.....we were served a lot of unusual things. She and her mother really knew what they were doing in the kitchen! They were wonderful, innovative, fearless cooks. I made it for my children as well; they loved beef tongue. But I'm willing to bet not one of them has made it since they left home. They have the recipe too. This post will tweak their memories and they'll remember how good it was, how frugal this cut of meat is and what fabulous sandwiches it makes for leftovers.

The tongue muscle is quite lean and tough and requires a long braising or boiling. Then, things change. The tip of the tongue is made up of long muscle strand like brisket, only it's softer and more tender than any brisket ever could be.  The back of the tongue is denser and more solid, but still has a melt-in-your-mouth texture that is difficult to describe.

And there are so many ways to serve it. I am showcasing how my mother made it; sliced and served with a sauce...in her case, usually some homemade chili sauce, but in my case, a lovely mustard horseradish sauce I found online. Just about every cuisine in the world serves tongue, but I have tasted only a few: the British love it sliced thinly in a tea sandwich (I saw The Two Fat Ladies-do you remember that show?-- layer it with chicken salad in one episode!); in France they serve it with mushrooms and a Madeira sauce; in Mexico, they call it lengua and shred it for tacos and burritos (However, you have to cook it longer than my recipe, but it's so much better than ground beef.); I've had it fried and I've even had it pickled.

So brace yourselves everyone. I'm going to show you the entire process from beginning to glorious end.  I don't have any problems finding beef tongue in South Florida, but you may have to ask your butcher to order one for you. The tongue will probably be bigger than you expect, it's likely to weigh more than 2 pounds and mine came rolled up. It's a rather fatty piece of meat and is covered in a thin layer of skin; the fat cooks off and the skin easily slides off with the help of a knife after the meat has cooked.

Do you trust me? Then give this a chance....Mother knew best.

Beef Tongue




Ingredients:
1 whole beef tongue
1 lg. onion, quartered
2 carrots cut in half
2 stalks celery halved
1 bay leaf
6 whole allspice
10 whole black peppercorn
1 teaspoon salt
a few fresh herbs you might have handy

Method:
Scrub tongue well.



Put in large pot and cover with water. Add all other ingredients and cover and bring to a boil. Boil on lowered heat for 2- 2 1/2 hours. Remove from pot.....



and peel the outer layer of skin away.  It comes off easily. I also trim any unwanted fat at this point as well.




Slice and serve hot with chili sauce, a homemade tomato sauce or my horseradish sauce. You can find the recipe HERE.  

My daughter went back to New York City yesterday. It will be lonely around here without her as she is my best friend but she has her own life to lead…. including the fall re-opening of her gallery next week. This first show brings with it hopes for a better year in the contemporary art world. I’m crossing my fingers.

Well scars aside, my daughter and I made lots of new recipes during her visit; she’s an excellent cook considering she has so little time to spend in the kitchen. Because she is not much of a dessert-eater her choices tend to be veggies, fish or chicken. She came to me one day with a Gourmet magazine open to a page featuring a Cornish game hen dish with figs and bacon. As far as I was concerned, those ingredients sounded delish…and luckily I had the figs, some bacon was in the freezer so we were left to purchase game hens and some fresh thyme.

I didn’t see how we could go wrong and I was right. It was fabulous. Although next time I would add more figs as I could have eaten many more- can anything be quite as good as a roasted, caramelized fig? And it was just as good the next night. By the way, don’t you love Gourmet’s name for the recipe?

Figgy, Piggy Cornish Hens
(Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, September 2009)

Ingredients:

½ pound bacon, halved
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced lengthwise
4 Cornish hens, about 1 ½ pounds, halved lengthwise (ours were a little bigger)
12 fresh sprigs of thyme
12 fresh black figs, halved or quartered if large
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 500°. Place rack in upper third of your oven.
Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp and then drain on paper towels. Add garlic to the pan and cook until golden. Transfer garlic to the paper towels.
Dry the hens and season with salt and pepper. Reheat the fat in the skillet until it starts to smoke and then add the hens, skin side down. Cook about 6 minutes. Transfer hens to a 4-sided baking sheet, skin side up. Reserve the skillet.
Scatter the thyme and figs all over and around the hens. Bake until done, about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, deglaze the pan with the lemon juice, scraping up the brown bits, for about 30 seconds.
Remove the hens to a serving platter, pour the lemon juice gravy over the hens and then scatter the bacon and garlic on top.

     How are you doing this morning.  It's finally the weekend and I am sure you are feeling as good as me.  I am dying to get out and walk in the woods somewhere.  Yes, as soon as we have had this visit I will scour the internet to find somewhere nice to take off on a day excursion tomorrow.  Guess what I have to make a neat sandwich?  Culmination of English and Indian you could say.  Kabab like patties.  I say that because I sneaked some 'Shan Kabab masala into the ground beef I had together with some more ingredients and popped in the oven.  Oh, boy! never did a spur of the moment idea turn out so well.  Tasted like kababs though the texture was not as good because I refused to grind the meat fine in my mixer.  However, if you do have a way of grinding fresh meat at home do that with the recipe that follows and you will be making some delicious kababs at home.

   It's tart and hot and will go into a wrap or sandwich bread and make a pretty good lunch.



Ingredients:

Ground Meat - 1/2 lb
Onions      - 1 small finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbspn
Salt        - 1/2 tspn
Lemon juice - a squeeze ( I am thinking about 1 tspn)  Please be careful how much you add because the quantity of meat is very little.  Also, if you are using ginger garlic paste its already salted and had a sour taste.
Mint Leaves - 3 sprigs (take out only the leaves and chop fine)
Green chilies - 3 finely chopped or 2 well ground
Shan kabab masala - 1 tspn 
paparika -  a dash
pepper   -  a dash



Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients together.  (Use a glove if you do not like to work with fresh meat)
2. Make small patties, as thin as you can with the palm of your hand and place it on an oven proof tray
4. Bake at 400 D for 20 minutes.  Turn the patties with a spatula after 10 minutes and brush the juices the meat express back on.

Enjoy it as is or sandwiched between bread or crumbled into a wrap with your favorite salad dressing.

Contributor: Sunitha

    How are you ladies?  I am settling in well with the help of a lot of hookie activity (crochet).  It's been quite therapeutic, crocheting.  All the counting helps to take my mind off of everything else.  It is a much calmer me sitting and talking to you now about all the foodie indulgences of the past weekend. I made some pork ularthiyathu with a lot of other favorites of mine.

  We had a guest over.  He was craving Indian home style food and ever ready for some myself I went all the way and fixed a fare of rice and moru kachiyathu, thoran, meen curry and ularthirachi.  This is a typical lunch at my home in Kerala.  Oh.. it was all very good.  Eating and reminiscing about holidays in Kerala.  We puttered around home eating, chatting,  watching mal flick etc recreating a true holiday.  It felt close to being home on a summer vacation.  Blissful.

  So, about this pork I made.  It came out well.  Not very dry, coated in a generous gravy which was not dripping leaving the meat succulent I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.  We talked away into the night forking up pieces clean off the bowl without dripping or dirtying the carpet.  It's ideal to have with rice and a wet gravy or just as a snack.  It's pungent so adjust the chili powder if you are going to eat it as a snack.    You can do the same with any meat of your preference.  The shallots and curry leaves gives the dish the perk it needs to stand out as a Mal dish.  



Ingredients:

Pork Ularthiyathu

Pork - 2 lbs
Shallots - 2 - 3 cups sliced (I added 3 cups sliced)
Ginger - 3 tbspn coarsely chopped
Garlic - 3 tbspn coarsely chopped
Garam Masala - 2 tspn
Chili Powder - 2 Tbspn (bring it to 1 tbspn if you don't want it it hot; you adjust at the end if you prefer by sprinkling ground pepper)
Coriander - 1 Tbspn
Turmeric - 1/2 to 1 tspn
Curry Leaves - 3 - 4 sprigs
Vinegar - 1 tspn
Oil - 2-3 Tbspn
Salt - to taste



You could pressure cook all of this with 1/2 cup of water until two whistles and then simmer and slow cook till dry. Or you can saute shallots, ginger and garlic followed with the powder masala. Once done add pork stir till the flesh turns white and then add 1 cup of water and slow cook for an hour. Once it has cooked for an hour stir fry until water dries and oil expresses.



Contributor: Sunitha

  I have been so out of the blog world.  My husband and I relocated to Ohio and for the last month or so decisions, waiting, biting nails and more waiting took up all the time.  Yes, I was cooking and eating and could have probably taken some pictures and blogged.  However, I was feeling frozen in place with inactivity for some absurd, inexcusable reasons.  Believing you will forgive my lack of visits to your blogs and enthusiasm in blogging generally, I have a recipe for this very tasty pork curry.

 I cannot boast of any new techniques of cooking here.  The taste is familiar and yet slight variations I made while cooking gives it a refreshing newness.  It all started when I visited a friend recently and he served an  awesome chicken curry.  I asked him how he makes it and the way he rambled along with the recipe it was all the same thing that I do. Yet, it tasted different and very good.  Some variations I gleaned from his rambings were that he had added a lot of coriander leaves and his ratio of chili to coriander powder was different from mine.  Having been reminded again how much fresh coriander leaves can break or make a dish I gave this one an abundant dose.  I am not disappointed!

Ingredients:
Pork - 2 lbs
Onion - 1 large
Ginger - 1 Tbspn
Garlic - 1 Tbspn
Potato - 1
Tomato - 1
Curd     - 2 Tbspn
Green chili - 4
Chili Powder - 1 Tbspn
Coriander Powder - 2 Tbspn
Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
Garam Masala - 1 tspn
Bay Leaf - 1
Coriander Leaves - 1 bunch
Salt - to taste




Method:
1. Marinate pork in curd and salt for an hour
2.. Saute onions till translucent and add green chilies, ginger and garlic and saute
3. Add chili powder, coriander powder, garam masala and turmeric
4. Add tomatoes
5. Add the marinated pork and a cup of water and pressure cook till done. (I kept it for one whistle and then lowered the fire and cooked for a while about 10 minutes
Garnish with plenty of coriander leaves and serve with rice or roti

Contributor: Sunitha

Dinner in under 30 minutes? Check. Inexpensive? Check. Delicious? Check. A healthy grain? Check. Family friendly? Absolutely. All you need is a green vegetable and dinner is on the table. You know that show called "5 Ingredient Fix?" This dish beats it. Four basic ingredients: chicken, lemons, crème fraiche and millet. 

This recipe for Lemon Chicken has already made the blog rounds,  so please be patient with me. It's the idea of serving it over millet that intrigued me; I've heard of millet, but never tried it. I'm sold. It's brilliant. And here you thought it was bird seed. Well, actually it IS bird seed...but you're going to love it anyway. Better than couscous, I promise. You may know all about it, but if you don't or want to learn more, check here.

As far as this recipe is concerned, Lemon Chicken served on TOP of millet is on my favorite dinner hit list right now. Thank you Amanda Hesser for the fabulously simple and elegant Lemon Chicken recipe. Thank you Luisa for suggesting millet, albeit for an entirely different chicken recipe, but still.... I just combined Amanda Hesser's Lemon Chicken with Luisa's millet idea and came up with this. There's a lovely gravy and I should have put more on the chicken before I took the photo. Oh well. If you're one of the four people who hasn't made this chicken yet :)...you should, or make it again and serve it over millet, my dears.

Bench notes: When cooking millet, keep a couple things in mind: The flavor of millet is enhanced by lightly roasting the grains in a dry pan before cooking; stir constantly for approximately three minutes or until a mild, nutty aroma is detected and then add your cooking liquid. I used chicken stock. The grain has a fluffier texture when less water is used and is very moist and dense when cooked with extra water. I liked the fluffy version.


Amanda Hesser's Lemon Chicken 



Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole chicken legs (thighs attached)
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup crème fraiche

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. After 3 minutes, add the butter and oil. Season the chicken generously with salt and very generously with pepper. Place the chicken, skin side down, in the skillet and brown well on both sides, turning once. 

Transfer the skillet to the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the juices run clear when the chicken is pierced with a knife. (Yes, I know 15 minutes doesn't sound like enough time, but if you browned it well, it's perfect. At least mine was. Use your instant-read thermometer. It should read 165. Check for clear juices just in case though.)

Return the skillet to the stovetop. Transfer the chicken to a platter and keep warm. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the skillet. Place over medium heat, add the lemon juice, and stir to scrape up any pan drippings. Simmer for 1 minute, then add the crème fraiche and stir until melted and bubbling. If the sauce is too thick, add a few tablespoons of water. Pour the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with lemon zest and additional pepper. Serve hot. 
Serves 4.


Spiced and Herbed Millet
From The New York Times, March 1, 2006

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2½ cups millet
½ teaspoon ground cumin (omit for this particular recipe)
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
Juice of half a lemon
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. 

Method:
Place olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add millet and stir until glossy. Add cumin and broth and stir.
Raise heat and bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer gently just until millet has absorbed all the broth, about 25 minutes.
Remove from heat and add lemon juice, parsley and extra virgin olive oil. Work them into the millet using a fork, fluffing mixture. Transfer to a warmed bowl and serve.
6 servings.

    This is another variation of beef with pretty much the same ingredients you will find in most malayalee homes.  However, the variation here is only the amount of onions that is used and no coconut pieces.  This used to be my favorite I remember while I was growing up.  Couple of rotis with this dish was my favorite.  Along the way my mother started doing more authentic Kerala style beef with coconut pieces and slow cooking them in a uruli (a wide mouthed vessel made with copper and brass) etc and the way I am directing to cook beef today is no more common with her.  This morning with some stew beef in hand I decided to replicate an old forgotten taste.

   Happy weekend!

Ingredients:

To Pressure Cook:
Beef                       - 1.4 pounds
Ginger                    - 2 Tbspn chopped
Garlic                     - 2 Tbspn chopped
Turmeric                - 1/2 tspn
Coriander powder - 2 tspn
Chili powder         - 1 1/2 tspn
Salt                       - 1/2 tspn
Vinegar                 - 1 tspn

For Sauteering
Oil - 2 Tbspn (this is a very modest amount and if you don't mind the oil and want to make the dish rich add 2 more altogether 4 tbspn of oil)
Onions - 2 medium size julienne
Black Pepper - 1/2 tspn coarsely ground ( more if you like)
Curry Leaves - 2-3 sprigs (more the tastier)

Method:
1. Mix together everything under 'for pressure cooking' and pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles.  Each pressure cooker behaves differently so what I am trying to do here is get the meat to cook but stay together and not fal apart
2. Once the meat is cooked heat oil in a pan and saute the onions.  Check for salt in the meat and if you think it can take more add a dash to the onions while you stir fry
3. Once onions are just about translucent add in pepper and the cooked meat with its gravy
4. On a medium fire let the meat and onions incorporate and switch off while the dish is slightly wet
5. This dish is not meant to be dry fried


Serve with rotis or rice.

Note: For this dish if you want to add more spices or chilis you may do so while stir frying it with the onions.  I added a dash of vinegar to spike it up.  In the same way feel free to built up while frying but remember that as the water / soup start evaporating from the pan the taste of the spices starts getting pronounced.

My family loves lamb. Lamb chops, rack of lamb, lamb kabobs, leg of lamb, lamb shanks and even lamb kidneys. (I must post my recipe for the kidneys soon...my kids used to love them over toast for breakfast.) And my herbed leg of lamb made it into our Junior League Cookbook, Savor the Moment.

But our favorite winter lamb dish has always been Lamb Shanks in Red Wine. I found the recipe years ago in one of the 1959 Gourmet cookbooks...there are two volumes. My mother gave them to me as a gift and I use recipes from each frequently, still. Sadly, Volume II doesn't seem to be available on Amazon any longer. I remember one of the volumes had the first recipe for quiche Lorraine I ever saw....and made. And their photo of croquembouche was so gorgeous that I made it immediately and haven't made one since. Have you noticed how few of the really old cookbooks have photos? We are so into photos and presentation these days.

Anyway, we had some really cold weather in Florida over the holidays (well, cold for us) so one night my kids asked me to make the lamb shank dish. I'd forgotten the marvelous fragrance while cooking and my mouth was watering by the time it was done. I added some fennel to the dish and left the carrots and celery in bigger chunks so I didn't have to make a separate veggie. Then served some noodles with it. It's a lovely rich and filling dish and the meat just falls off the bone. And be sure to use a good red wine...one that you would be happy drinking with your dinner. 

Lamb Shanks in Red Wine
Adapted From The Gourmet Cookbook


Ingredients:

6 lamb shanks
flour
salt and pepper
3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, split
2 Tablespoons warm brandy
3 cups red wine
3 cups water
1/2 cup diced carrots ( I cut the carrots in 3 inch pieces)
1 fennel bulb, quartered
1/2 cup diced celery  (I cut the celery in 3 inch chunks)
1 cup chopped onion
1 bay leaf
pinch thyme

Method:

Roll the shanks in flour and sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano. Melt the butter in the olive oil and brown the garlic along with the shanks in a large oven proof casserole. Remove from stove and add the warm brandy. Ignite. Be careful! When flame is out add the other ingredients and bake in a 350 oven for 2 hours. Correct seasonings. You can make a little gravy if you like....just mix flour and butter together and add to the sauce to thicken, then top off with a squeeze of lemon juice.



P.S. I have a guest post up over at Lazaro Cooks! Be sure to check it out.

This was one of the jokes my brother and his friends would pull on me. I might not have said anything like this, but they would improvise a story around the above joke and tell anybody listening for a laugh. I wonder if he or any of his friends knew Easter was a ‘moveable feast' and that is why it always falls on Sunday


Resurrection of Jesus on the 3rd day from his crucifixion. This is the most significant festival for Christians, in fact, bigger than Christmas. Thankfully, it is not as commercialized as Christmas and the gravity and seriousness is honored.

  You must be familiar with Easter eggs as a common feature in the celebrations here in the U.S. But growing up, I do not remember it to be important. Over the summer holidays, which fall now in India, we would color egg shells and place it on plants but that was not to celebrate Easter.  We don't even consider cooking eggs on this day in a special way.  


  Then what do we do? The most important thing to do was to eat a lot of meat and fish.  It starts off with breakfast with appam and stew. Today, I will share veal stew with you which goes well with appam or white bread. Hope you enjoy it. 


   Stewing as a cooking term means to cook meat and vegetables by simmering and thickening by reducing the juices or thickening the gravy with flour or any other thickening agent.  In Kerala, most cooking is slow and on stove stop, and what we call stew is slow cooked, no doubt, but generally to mean a mildly spiced meat or vegetable in coconut milk.

   It has been a while since I made lamb at home.  You might know that lamb is not exactly the most famous meat in the US.  Apparently, in the early days the military used to serve mutton (considered meat of older sheep/goat) which is tough meat with a heavy flavor. So much so that, they banned it at home while on their holidays.  This is kind of a "did you know" fact I read on wikipedia.  Either ways, it helped me understand why I could never find this meat in Kroger (my staple stop).
    However, this does not mean there are no more enthusiasts.  I did find some in Sams and found out a couple more places where they are sold.  Hurray! I expressly cut them into bite size pieces and put together this dish..  Fried  onions to a golden brown.  The slightly sweet and caramalized onions paired with generous amount of cilantro takes this dish to the next level.  The flavor of lamb, onions and cilantro blends in to make this exotic treat. 
    Serve it up with some rotis, parathas or plain rice and succumb to the magic it weaves.
Ingredients:

Lamb -2 Lb
Onions - 2 nos
Tomato - 2 nos
Ginger - 2 Tbspn
Garlic - 1 whole (about 2-3 Tbspn chopped)
Coriander – 1 Tbspn
Chili Powder – 1 Tbspn
Garam Masala – 2 - 3 tspn
Cilantro (Coriander) – ½ bunch
Turmeric – 1 tspn
Oil – 2 Tbspn


 Method:

1.      Sauté onions in enough oil till golden brown
2.      Add ginger sauté followed with garlic
3.      Add chili, coriander, garam masala, turmeric and sauté
4.      Add cilantro leaves chopped and then the tomato
5.      Add the washed and drained lamb in and sauté
6.      Once oil clears the pan pressure cook on medium for 4 to 5 minutes
Contributor: Sunitha

Autumn is here and I love it! Finally we have some awaited cool weather. I hope you are enjoying good weather where ever you are as much I am. This morning, enjoying the cool breeze blowing in through my patio, bright sunlight finding its way through the lattice work and with some joyous music playing on my CD, I cooked. Have you tried cooking with music? It’s wonderful, rather therapeutic I should say.
So, what did I cook? I made naadan (Kerala style) chicken roast, chocolate chip muffins and healthy bran muffins. No, they are all not for today but it will take us through the rest of the week.
Now, having given you a glimpse of my day let me get down to business. The 'naadan' (country style) chicken roast recipe I am sharing comes from my mom which she got from her mother so we are talking some authentic Kerala cooking today. I spoke to both my mom and her sister so I guess I need to give them both the credit. They are like most of our parents; if you ask them how to make something they will rattle along, oh that, simple! Take a little of this and a little more of that put them all in together give it a good stir and voila! The dish is ready. It took me a couple of conversations with both my mom and aunt to get to the bottom of how much a little bit of this and a little bit more of that means. Either ways, I must tell you after a couple of experiments I have quite mastered the ROAST! Every time I make this dish we lap it up like we have been starving for days. So go ahead and try this and enjoy it with some rice or chapatti!



Ingredients:

Chicken - 4 lbs approximately 2 Kg
Whole red chili - 30 nos seeded
Shallots - 1 lb 450 gms
Ginger - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 1/4 cup
Vinegar - 2 tbspn
Salt - to taste
Garam Masala - 1 tbspn
Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
Coconut Oil or any oil of preference - 4 tbspn
Curry Leaves - 4 sprigs
Potato - 1 thinly sliced rounds
Friend onions for garnishing

Method:

1. Marinate chicken in 1 tbspn vinegar, 1/2 tspn turmeric and a little salt for 1 hour
2. Soak red chillies in 1 tbspn vinegar mixed with 1 tbspn of water after taking out the seed and leave it for a while to soak. (split chili in half and tap it to get the seeds off).  Add a little water to the vinegar
3. Crush the ginger, garlic, shallots and the soaked red chillies and add the mixture to the chicken and cook for 20 min on medium fire
5. Heat oil in a pan and on medium fire shallow fry the chicken and set aside
6. Once all the chicken pieces are fried (read golden brown on both sides) pour the gravy into the pan and cook till oil clears the pan
7. Pour the gravy on top of the fried chicken
8. Decorate with fried potatoes, onions and cashew nuts



Contributor: Sunitha

     Kottayam is a town in central Kerala where I come from.  Today I am sharing beef fry, a favorite among  people from my state, made in the Kottayam style.  Some of the best versions of this dish I hear is served in toddy shops. Toddy is the liquor from coconut tree/Palm Tree. There is an interesting read on toddy in Wikipedia. It's also interesting to note how these small shops considered taboo at one time is gaining popularity.

 Disclaimer: if you are travelling to our state make sure a local person helps you buy things from the toddy shop or only go in after checking its okay to do so.  I cannot gaurantee the safety of these places but only say that the food is excellent.  In some of the popular tourist locations these place are safe but always use your judgment before making the decision



Ingredients:

Beef- 1lbs
Shallots/ Onion- 1/2 cup+1/2 cup
Red Chilli powder-1tsp
Ginger-Garlic Paste-1 1/2 Tbsp
Curry leaves- 1- 2 Sprigs
Vinegar- 1tsp
Oil-3 Tbsp

For Garam Masala
Bay leaf- 1
Cinnamon -1 small piece
Cloves-2
Fennel seeds- 1 Tsp
Black Pepper corns- 5-6

For seasoning and frying:
Mustard seeds-1/4 tsp
Garlic sliced- 1/4 cup
Green chillies(slit)-2
Curry leaves-1 Sprig
Coconut Oil- 3 Tbsp


Method:

1.Grind everything listed under Garam masala, together.
2.Heat oil in a pressure cooker/ the pan you are planning to cook beef.Saute the 1/2 cup onion till it turns translucent.
3.Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw smell leaves.Add the chillipowder and masala and saute for 2-3 minutes.
4.Throw in the beef pieces along with a sprig of curry leaves and vinegar.Add a few tablespoon of water and cook well.(I do it till 2 whistles come )
5.Heat coconut oil in a frying pan,splutter the mustard and saute the remaining shallots, till it turns translucent.
6.Add the garlic slices and green chillies and saute for 3-4 minutes.
7.Add the curry leaves and cooked beef into this and fry till the beef turns dark brown in color.This will take 45 mins to 1 hour, on low heat.
8.Switch off the flame and wait for at least 1/2 an hour before you serve.

Whenever I make this, half the dish will be gone towards the end of the frying because some of the family will be snacking on it, and never wait for 30 minutes before serving :D)



Notes:
1.The recipe I have given is less spicy (for kids)
2.If you want to taste the authentic one, just add more peppercorns and chilli powder
3.Use coconut oil for the authentic taste :-)
4.You might be surprised to see that coriander powder is missing ;it's not a mistake :-)
5.You could add coconut pieces (thengakothu) while cooking the beef.
6. You could replace beef with lamb or mutton, if you do not take beef.

Contributor: Namitha