Chickpea Pulao

I originally made this Pakistani recipe as a main dish but it turned out a bit bland.  I think making this the side dish to a type of curry or meat dish would make it much more interesting.   It is a great way to use kitchen staples such as a can of chickpeas, a bag of rice, and a few onions.

Chickpea Pulao

Adapted from Curry Cuisine

3 cups of basmati rice
2 Tbs olive oil
1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbs of fresh ginger, cut into slivers
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 black cardamom pods
salt to taste
14 oz of canned chickpeas, drained
1 large onion, thinly sliced

Wash rice then let soak in bowl covered with cold water for 1 hr.  Drain.

Heat the 1 Tbs of oil in a pan, add the onion, and cook until brown.  Add ginger, spice, and salt and stir for 1 minute.  Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Add rice and chickpeas.  Cover the pan, reduce heat, and simmer for around 15 minutes until the rice is around 90% cooked.

Get a thick dishcloth wet with water.  Take off the lid of the pan.  Cover with the cloth, then put the lid back on tightly and set the pan over very low heat.  Cook for another 25 - 30 min.

Heat the other Tbs of oil in a large pan, add the onion, and cook until dark golden brown.  Put the onion on top of the rice and chickpea mixture.

Lettuce Wraps and Asian Cucumber Salad

Well, we made it through snowmageddon and for the first time in 13 years my work was closed. Woo hooo! Well, not really. I thought I would enjoy snow days more, but instead of relaxing I spent it shoveling for 5 hours so I could get my car out just in case I had work the next day. My brother and I (with my husband supervising since he cant move his back still) shoveled the sideway, our cars, and our part of the alley out. Then we realized no one else was shoveling so we shoveled 4 more houses to the left. On the right was a 10 ft hill that a bulldozer created early in the morning cutting off one side of the alley. Once we shoveled 4 houses down, we realized that there were around 4 more houses to go. By this time two other guys from other houses had come out and suggested we take on the hill instead. So we did the hill and every part of me still aches... plus I was really angry with our neighbors who live under us. When we first came out, they came by (from a friends house) and laughed. When we asked for help, they said they had a snow blower and we asked that they bring it. They left and didn't came back until we finished everything. We even texted them while shoveling and no help. The next snow day I spent the whole day working on an IEP and I would like to complain about that too, but you never know who reads things on the Internet, so all I have to say is that I find some people's work ethic disgusting.

The day before the snow I went shopping and wanted something that tasted fresh. I had looked at a lettuce wrap recipe from This Week For Dinner and kept it in mind when shopping. My husband hates tofu (I have no idea why, it is so bland and sucks up any sauce that it is) so I had to make a vegetarian and a meat option.

2 Types of Lettuce Wraps

Adapted from This Week For Dinner

Ingredients

1 pound of pork chops (sliced up into small bits) or ground chicken, pork, turkey, etc

1 container of tofu, cubed

1 onion, chopped into small cubes

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tbs of fresh ginger, minced

1 can of water chestnuts, chopped

1 container of fresh shiitake mushrooms, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped into small cubes

1 Tbs of soy sauce

1/4 cups of hoisin

1 Tbs of sherry

1 Tbs of Asian chili pepper sauce

1/2 cup toasted cashews, chopped

1 bunch of green onions

2 tsp of sesame oil

1 - 2 heads of butter or bibb lettuce

1 Tbs of hoisin sauce

3 Tbs of plum sauce

If Making Both Types

Add a Tbs of oil in a large skillet and saute garlic, onions and ginger over medium heat until soft. Add mushrooms and bell peppers and saute for a minute or two. Then add soy sauce, hoisin, sherry and chili pepper sauce and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in chopped water chestnuts and then remove from heat. Put into two bowls. Cook the pork by sprinkling with salt and pepper sauteing for a few minutes until no longer pink. Mix in with ingredients in one bowl. Put a Tbs of oil in pan for tofu and wait till hot. Put in tofu and cook until it is as browned as you like. Put tofu in other bowl and mix with other ingredients. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil, half of the cashews, and half of the green onions in each bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.

If Making Just Pork

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add pork (seasoned with salt and pepper to taste), onions and garlic and cook until pork is cooked through. Then add mushrooms and bell peppers and saute for a minute or two. Add soy sauce, hoisin, sherry and chili pepper sauce and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in chopped water chestnuts and then remove from heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil, cashews, and green onions and mix in a bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.

If Making Just Tofu

Add a Tbs of oil in a large skillet and saute garlic, onions and ginger over medium heat until soft. Add mushrooms and bell peppers and saute for a minute or two. Then add soy sauce, hoisin, sherry and chili pepper sauce and tofu and simmer for a few more minutes. Stir in chopped water chestnuts and then remove from heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil and green onions and mix in a bowl. Serve with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce.

Dipping Sauce

Mix together hoisin and plum sauce and serve!

Asian Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

1 large seedless cucumber, peeled, sliced in half then cut in 1/2 inch slices

2 Tbs of chopped onion

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup rice vinegar (unseasoned)

Toasted sesame seeds

Put the cucumber in a bowl and mix with onion. Heat the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan on low heat until sugar is dissovled. Pour on top of cucumber mixture. Cool in refrigerator for an hour or more. Tastes great the next day. Sprinkle on toasted sesame seeds.

French Onion and Egg Drop Soups

So I am on my three week holiday break from work. I know it is only teachers who can complain about having three weeks off, everyone else would relish it, I am just having a hard time with our new school year schedule. I need this week off during the summer where it is warm out and I can actually do something rather than now where I am sitting next to my space heater, even with the heat in the house on, because it is 10 degrees outside. The next three weeks are to organize..my house, my National Board stuff, my computer, etc. While I'm blogging I am waiting for movies to load into imovie so I can put together our dvd for this year. We just got a video camera in June to tape our wedding, but already I have enough for 4 different DVDs and have to start putting them together... what else is 3 weeks for? Relaxing? I dont know how!

One of the things that I am organizing, is my recipes. Today I am going through two of my soup recipes from the three weeks where I could only drink liquids and eat soft foods. Both turned out really good for being soup (not one of my favorite things, even though I have 3 huge books of soup recipes). These may not be the most exciting pictures, but keeping track of the recipes on my website allows me to print out them out later (important for this organizing binge Im on!)

French Onion Soup

From The Kitchn

Ingredients

2.5 lbs of onions (sliced into 1/2 moons then sliced in half again)

1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)

4 cups of beef broth

Salt

Black Pepper

Parmesan or Asiago Cheese

Put the pot (or saucepan) on medium heat. Cut the butter into small chunks and place in the pot. After the butter has melted and begins to foam, put in the onions. Stir the onions so they are covered in butter and add a teaspoon of salt. Turn heat to medium low and let the onions cook, stirring every once and awhile. Caramelizing the onions typically takes 45 minutes or more at this heat. Let them turn a mahogany color, but dont let them burn. Pour in your broth and turn the heat to high so that it boils. Then turn the heat down and let simmer for 1/2 an hour or more--you want the soup to reduce and look shiny. Season with salt and pepper, pour into bowls and add cheese and any other toppings you like.

Egg Drop Soup

Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients

5 cups of chicken stock

1 tsp of soy sauce

2 Tbs cooking sherry

1 tsp of ginger powder or 1 two inch piece of fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves smashed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tsp sesame seed oil

Ground black pepper

Bring stock, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, garlic to boil in a pot. Simmer for 4 minutes, then remove garlic and fresh ginger (if added) with a slotted spoon. Stirring soup in a circle, add in eggs slowly. Simmer for around 1 minute until eggs are cooked. Take off of heat and add cut scallions and sesame seed oil along with salt and ground pepper to taste.

Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

This has to be one of my favorite dishes of all time. I think it is a perfect dish for Christmas to follow my sweet potato risotto for Thanksgiving. I thought it was soo good because of the butter which I rarely cook with but my dad said that it is the caramelized onions and my grandfather agreed saying that even putting them on top of ice cream would taste good (I don't know about that one).

I am making this dish again tomorrow for my husband's family's Christmas party. He doesn't think that they will like it, because they have very traditional tastes, but I think the situation is like the one that I had with my aunt and cousins. When I brought my sweet potato risotto and ginger cranberry sauce to Thanksgiving I really thought they wouldn't like it because they have traditional tastes and have eaten the same thing at Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. My aunt revealed that she didn't know what risotto was and my cousin said she hadn't eaten sweet potatoes before (they've had it for Thanksgiving before but it is usually covered in marshmallows). However, after getting past the initial reluctance, my risotto was the first dish finished and they ate all of the cranberry sauce too. I think that many people don't try new foods because they are not comfortable in making something new. I think once they try it, and the ingredients are not too far from their comfort zone, that they will find that they like it, and I hope that is what happens tomorrow.

Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

Adapted from Ocean Spray

Ingredients

2+ cups vegetable or chicken broth (depending on directions on bag/box)

1 cup of wild rice

3 Tbs of butter

3 medium onions sliced in thin wedges

1 cup of dried cranberries

Cook wild rice according to directions using chicken or vegetable broth. Melt butter in a medium skillet, add onions, and stir to coat onions with butter. Reduce heat to low and cook onions until caramelized (around 30 minutes). Stir in cranberries. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on low until cranberries start to swell then mix cranberry onion mixture into cooked wild rice.