Kir (Rice pudding)

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There are so many different ways of making Kir.  It can be very soupy, or quite thick.  It can be plain, or garnished with almonds, pistachios and raisins. I learned this recipe form my mother-in-law Shamim in Karachi, and it’s a great dish for large groups, because it makes a lot.  It is also called Phirni.

We took it most recently to an international dinner at my daughter Maya’s high school.  That was an amazing dinner –  her school is really diverse and the food was so good.   I also took some to a Unitarian Eid lunch one year. One of my friends who is Indian said it tasted just like her Grandmother’s recipe.

1 1/3 cup basmati rice, rinsed, dried and ground
8 green cardamoms, ground
2 Tbsp ground pistachios
Rose Essence (optional, but it gives a lovely floral scent) (1/2 tsp or to taste)
7 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar

Grind dry rice and cardamoms in a food processor or mortar and pestle. I use a coffee grinder we keep for spices that gets it really finely ground.

Add ground rice and cardamoms to a large pot and add 6 3/4 cup of the milk. Stir well, and cook over a medium/low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the rest of the milk, pistachios, sugar and rosewater and cook 2 more minutes.

The kir should thicken up as it chills, but will still be quite soupy when warm. Pour into small bowls, (little unglazed clay bowls are traditional) and chill well. Before serving, garnish with more chopped pistachios, and if you want to give it the full monty; rose petals.

Note: Watch the heat carefully when you are cooking the milk. Don’t let it scorch!

Sausage and Potato Stew

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1 Tbsp olive oil
2 carrots, cut in chunks
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced

Heat oil in a dutch oven. Add veggies and saute for five minutes.

2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 lbs. polish or smoked sausage, cut into 1/2″ slices
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Add to pot, and cook for 2 minutes.

6 yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
3 cups chicken broth

Add to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Julia Child’s Pot Roast

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What all pot roast wishes it could be.  Kumy loves this.

5 lbs. chuck or round roast or whatever you use for pot roast
2-3 Tbsp olive oil

Heat oil in a dutch oven. Add meat and brown it all over. Remove from pan.

2 carrots, halved and chopped into 2-3″ sections
1 large yellow onion, chopped

Heat a little more oil in the pan. Add carrots and onions and cook for 2-3 minutes.

3 cups dry red wine
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
beef stock
one large tomato, diced or 1 can chopped tomatoes with juice
1 Tbsp parsley
6 peppercorns
3 cloves
4 allspice berries
1 tsp thyme
3 cloves garlic

Add all else to pot and cover with foil and a lid. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 and cook for 2 – 3 hours.

Remove meat, cover with foil and let rest.

2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water

Strain the veggies out of the pot, and stir in a cornstarch slurry of cornstarch and cold water.  Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly until gravy thickens. Check seasonings and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve roast beef with gravy, strained veggies and roasted potatoes. So delish!

My Mom always added quartered potatoes to her pot roast, and you can do that, too.

Ali’s Amazing Pizza

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Ali's pizza

Ali started making pizza from scratch and has now perfected his pizza dough and sauce recipes. Today he is making pizza at our house. Thanks, Ali for sharing this recipe and for making supper tonight!

Dough:

2 tsp yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 heaping tsp flour

Mix in a glass container, cover with a towel and let sit someplace warm. After 20 minutes or so, check to make sure it’s all bubbly. If it isn’t the yeast may be dead.

Pour mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Add 1/4 more warm water to the container and swish it around to get all the yeast starter out.

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 more cup warm water

Add the flour, salt and warm water and start the mixer. Ali says to watch the dough, and if it’s really sticky, to add up to 1/4 cup more flour. He lets the mixer knead it for a few minutes, until the dough is all gathered up on the dough hook and just a little is still stuck to the sides of the bowl. You want the dough to be nice and soft.  Ali doesn’t have a stand mixer but  said it’s pretty easy to mix it with a spoon.

Oil or butter a glass bowl or baking dish, dust it with flour and put the dough in. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place until it rises and expands.  This may take a few hours, depending on the temperature.

Meanwhile, start the sauce.

1 large onion, diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp crushed garlic

Heat oil in a medium size stock pot, and add onions. Cook until onions are very soft – about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook a couple of minutes more.

3 14-oz cans diced or crushed tomatoes, or about 5 cups diced fresh tomatoes
12 peppercorns, ground in a mortar (about 1/2 tsp.)
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar  (Can add another Tbsp or so to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.)
1/8 cup fish sauce (available at Asian store)
1/4 tsp each parsley, sage, rosemary
1/2 tsp each oregano and basil
1 tsp salt (to taste)
2 dry red peppers
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
sugar to taste (about 1 tsp)

Add all but the sugar to the onions and stir well. Simmer on low heat with the lid cracked for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally. The house will smell amazing.  Add sugar at the very end to taste, and check seasonings.

Toppings:

1 lb. hot Italian sausage, cooked and excess grease drained.
1 red bell pepper, diced (Ali roasted it on the grill.)
mozzarella cheese

Once dough is risen, divide it in two. Grease and lightly flour a baking sheet. Spread the dough on it and roll it out. Crimp the edges to form a nice crust. Brush dough lightly with olive oil. Take roughly half of the tomato sauce and spread it out. Sprinkle half meat and whatever toppings you want over it. Then sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake at 450 or 500 for 10 minutes, or until the cheese just starts to brown. You can make the other pizza at the same time with the remaining dough, sauce and toppings. (You may have a little sauce leftover which is great on pasta later.)

Let rest a few minutes before you cut into and start devouring.  This was so good.

Nebraska City Apple Butter (our version)

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Nebraska City is home to Arbor Day Farm and Morton Orchards, which is famous for their apples. We love their apple butter, which Lied Lodge uses with sauteed apples to make amazing oatmeal. This recipes comes as close to their delicious apple butter as we’ve been able to get. Tart apples are great for this, but we often use a blend of whatever is looking good. Maya and I first made this on 9-24-08.

enough apples to make 9 cups crushed apples or apple sauce

5 cups sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup apple cider

Peel and quarter apples. Cook with cider until soft. Add everything else, and cook for one hour on low heat. Pour into sterilized jars and process as usual. Sweet, spicy and a little tart – it is so good.

Good Chicken

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Barely any notes with this recipe – must have been improvising. Dated August, 2008

2 chicken breasts
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil

Sprinkle spices over chicken and saute in olive oil for 10 minutes.

1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 whole jalapeno pepper, sides slit, but not actually open
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 cup mushrooms, sliced

Add all to chicken in pan, and cook together until the chicken is done, I suppose.

Serve over white rice with peas. (Make rice with chicken stock instead of water, and add fresh or frozen peas.)

Cashew Rice

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I have no idea where this recipe came from – or what culture it represents or anything.  It may be that I just had a lot of cashews to use up.  Anyway, my note was “yum” so that’s a good sign.

2 cups rice, rinsed (we use Basmati)
2 tsp kosher salt
3 7/8 cup water

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3/4 cup chopped cashews
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp chopped jalapeno pepper, or 1 chipotle pepper, chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 1/2 cup yoghurt
1 tsp salt

Make rice with water and 2 tsp salt.

In a frying pan, saute onion and belle pepper. Add mustard seeds and ginger and cook for a couple of minutes. The add nuts and Jalapeno or chipotle pepper. Cook for a couple more minutes and remove from heat.

Gently blend in the rice, and the then the yoghurt.

Feijoada – a much simplified version of a classic Brazilian stew

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My extended family always gets together for a potluck on Christmas Eve. 20 years ago, we decided that it would be fun to choose a different country each time and have everyone try cooking recipes from that country. The year we chose Brazil was really outstanding and the first time I made Feijoada.  That was also the year of our fabled introduction to the national drink of Brazil, Caiparinha’s, which is another story altogether. This dish is a very simplified version, but we love it.

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried thyme

Saute together for 10 minutes.

4 cans black beans, rinsed and drained or 1 lb. black beans, soaked and cooked the night before
1 lb. kielbasa sausage, cut into small bite-sized pieces
2 cups of chicken broth
2 chipotle peppers, chopped fine
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves.

Add all to onions, and cook on low heat for 25 minutes.

Serve on white rice, garnished with diced fresh parsley

 

Hot Cocoa Mix

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We often try to do something fun for Christmas gifts for family members, so the kids can give gifts to their aunts, uncles, grandparents and special friends.  We’ve done soup mixes, muffin mixes and various other things, but this was one of our favorites – hot cocoa mix in mason jars, and it is a slight variation on Alton Brown’s recipe. We mixed up giant batches in a huge bowl and created a real assembly line and the kitchen was full of a kind of sweet,white haze. But it’s fun to keep on hand all winter long.

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 good cocoa
4 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cornstarch
1 pinch cayenne pepper

Mix all together and keep in an airtight container. To make cocoa, just add 3 Tbsp mix to a mug with hot water.

Pudding Cake

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This recipe uses cake mix, and instant pudding mix.  I am not a great baker, so I never shy away from cake mixes.  When this bakes, it forms a lovely moist cake just swimming in delicious pudding sauce.  A great treat for once in a while.

1 package cake mix, mixed according to the label directions.
(May require eggs, water and oil.)

2 cups milk
1 1/4 cups water
2 4 oz. packages of instant pudding mix
1/3 cup sugar
powdered sugar for sprinkling on just before serving.

Mix the cake mix and pour it into a large baking pan. Mix the water, milk, pudding mix and sugar and pour over the cake mix.

Put the baking dish on a cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for about an hour. Let cool slightly, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve warm and refrigerate leftovers.

The fun in this dessert is that you can do some interesting combinations. Try spice cake and pumpking pudding, or lemon cake and lemon pudding (one of our favorites.) Of course you can always do chocolate cake and chocolate pudding, or branch out into something adventurous and try white cake with pistachio pudding. It’s delish!