Project Food Blog Round 2: Vote for me!

A big thanks to all who have supported me through the nonsense of this blog challenge.  Between writing the posts, reminding my friends and fans to vote, and then thinking of new things to cook next, it's been hectic.  I do so much appreciate all the love and support and I know I made it this far because my friends, family, and fans have helped me!  (the three F's - do you need more?)

It's that time again - voting is once again open, and once again I have to ask you to log in (if you already created a username) and vote again.  You can only vote for ME once (unless you use multiple log in names).  This round has almost 400 posts and it will be cut down to 200.

Thanks for all of your continued support!  I'll see you, hopefully for round 3!

Voting is open until Thursday, September 30th, 6 PM PST.  

Cream Cheese Turkey Lavash Sandwich: I hate packing lunches

Let me be blunt.  I hate packing school lunches.  I have to pack one daily for Daughter #1, and the thing is, she is the EASY child for whom to pack.  Daughter #2 HATES sandwiches, and Son's allergies make packing for him incredibly difficult.  I should enjoy it more, I should want to do it more, but truthfully, Daughter eats some sort of sandwich most days (unless I'm motivated to make a warm container with homemade mac and cheese), fruit, pretzels and cheese.

Which is just so BORING.  I couldn't imagine eating that day after day and so I feel incredibly guilty.  I, of course, change up the sandwich (sometimes peanut butter and jelly, sometimes turkey, sometimes cheese and avocado) but it's almost always the sandwich.  But the thing is that Daughter usually eats it all and if she doesn't eat it all, she generally eats such a good dinner anyways so I try not to stress about it.

Until she came home last week and said, "Mom, I'm tired of the same kind of sandwich."

I nodded placidly while internally my motors started going full speed as I tried to figure out WHAT I could make for her.

She was home from school today so I thought I'd test out a lavosh sandwich.  Daughter #1 loves cream cheese, but alone I find it doesn't have enough protein to satisfy me in terms of her nutritional requirement.   I did a cream cheese sandwich with turkey, and she LOVED it.  I have visions of adding some chopped carrots on the inside, or sprinkling the entire thing with some spinach, but today it was very simple and straightforward. I'll add to this idea later, but for now, I'm satisfied I have one more sandwich in my aresenal.

In case you're wondering what lavash is, it's a flat rectangular bread that rolls up rather nicely - much better than a tortilla. (this one from Trader Joe's)

Cream Cheese Turkey Lavash Sandwich

Take your lavosh and lay it down.  Spread  a layer of cream cheese on top.

Cover about half of the lavash/cream cheese with turkey slices.

Roll it up starting with the turkey side first.

Cut and pack in a container.

Portabello Crusted Ribeye: Now that I am practical

To Husband, whose love for me has changed me.

Pre-husband days, I dreamed about a man who would romance me, whisk me off my feet, give me flowers just because,  wine and dine me, buy me unexpected gifts, and just WOO me every single day of my life.

Yeah, not so much.

Not that Husband isn't wonderful.  He is an amazing provider while being incredibly funny and warm. He knows how to make me laugh and is my true love.  But his other side is that he is EXTREMELY practical.  From the early days of our dating, he never tried once to buy me a birthday present.  His logic was that if I didn't like it, returning it was a bigger pain in the butt.  He'd rather that we just go together and shop for it.  I've received flowers from him once, but he'd much rather buy me a potted plant since flowers die.  Nowadays, he doesn't even think about birthday presents, but just assumes that I have something in mind that I want, and he'll tell ME to go get it.  Sometimes I might even have to wrap it myself (like I did this past Christmas.)  After sixteen years of a relationship, his practicality has rubbed off and changed me.

I've become practical.  I don't mind the gift giving thing nor do I mind the lack of cards or lack of flowers, and I don't even mind choosing a present for myself (for I do know what I like BEST - this year CAMERA gear and a DRUM SET)  I think it's pretty appropriate for a mother of three kids to be somewhat practical and that's what I am.

Which is why I am doing this recipe.  I posted a Porcini Crusted Beef recipe, which used Kobe beef and dried porcini mushrooms.  Not exactly all that practical, nor is it readily available for the average home cook.  I decided to use the same technique but go for it again with more readily available ingredients.  It's more practical.  The recipe is still FANTASTIC (better than practical!) and this evening, Son and Daughters fought over the beef to the point where I didn't get any, save for the few bites I took when tasting the dish.  Good thing I took those two bites when I did.

I served this with garlic broccoli and brown rice that I mixed with a drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce.  (Kids' favorite.)

**Preparation notes

Dried portabello mushrooms

 

The ribeye steak sliced.  I trimmed off major chunks of fat, but still left some in order to help flavor the meat.

Portobello Crusted Ribeye
Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs of rib eye, NY strip or other steak type cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 ounce dried portabello mushrooms (Whole Foods - on sale!)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons olive oil, more if needed
salt (sea salt if you have)
4 scallions, chopped (cut on the diagonal if you want an extra pretty effect)

In the bowl of a mini prep, add all the dried mushrooms. Grind until mushrooms are a fairly fine powder.

 
Carefully pour mushroom powder into a shallow bowl and add 1 teaspoon garlic powder. Carefully mix.

Heat fry pan over medium high heat. Add oil.

Take strip of beef and press only ONE side into the mushroom mix.

Carefully place NON MUSHROOM side down first, so as to sear the one side first. Cook for about 1-2 minutes and then flip over and cook on the mushroom side for about 1 minute.

Remove and place on plate. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of sea salt and green onions. Repeat with meat until it is all cooked. Enjoy!

Printable recipe

A very very delicious bite (one of two that I was able to eat).

Porcini Crusted Beef: Keeping it nice and simple

I need less in my life than more.  With thinking about the Project Food Blog competition, running the book fair at Daughter #1's school, teaching Sunday school, hosting cell group, and whatever else I have on my plate this week - I need less.  Case in point - today I woke up early, made muffins, packed Daughter#1's lunch, corralled the kids so we could take Daughter #1 to school on foot.  As we walked onto the school campus, something looked eerily different - there were no kids on the playground.  I was confused and bemused; Daughter #1 happily skipped to her classroom as I went through my head all the different permutations of what could be wrong.  I checked my watch and the time (we were a bit early, but not crazily so), went through the day of the week (Monday), thought about vacations that were coming (her school's intercession second week of October.)  A quick phone call to friend SH confirmed that I had, indeed brought Daughter school when there was NO school.  My mind has been going so many different directions that I could not get fact in my head.  Clearly I need less going on in my head.

I've been posting more involved recipes, partly due to the blog competition, and the other day decided that I wanted something super simple.  I received a beautiful sampler of dried mushrooms from Marx Foods with the challenge that I try and create a dish and be entered in their blog competition.  (I can win some free mushrooms.)  I thought of the simplest and most delicious way I could use the mushrooms - and I came up with this - porcini crusted beef.

Friend JEL and I sat and tasted several different permutations of the dish, with different dipping sauces, even testing to see how the beef would be WITHOUT the porcini crust - by far, the meat was so enhanced by this tiny little layer of porcini mushroom powder.  It's a simple dish - with 6 ingredients.  It comes together quickly and gets eaten up more quickly.

I did have at my disposal, this very luxurious and posh package of meat. ($25 per pound!)  However, the meat was so enhanced by the porcini powder, for sure a lesser cut of meat will also be incredibly enhanced.

Porcini Crusted Beef
Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs of rib eye, NY strip or other steak type cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt (sea salt if you have)
4 scallions, chopped (cut on the diagonal if you want an extra pretty effect)

In the bowl of a mini prep, add all the dried mushrooms. Grind until mushrooms are a fairly fine powder. Carefully pour mushroom powder into a shallow bowl and add 1 teaspoon garlic powder. Carefully mix.

Heat non-stick fry pan over medium high heat. Add oil.

Take strip of beef and press only ONE side into the mushroom mix. (Two sides is too strong of a mushroom flavor).

  

Carefully place NON MUSHROOM side down first in fry pan., so as to sear the one side first. Cook for about 1-2 minutes and then flip over and cook on the mushroom side for about 1 minute.  (Make sure you have enough oil, otherwise delicious mushroom mixture gets stuck to the frypan and not meat.)   

Remove and place on plate. Sprinkle with a tiny bit of sea salt and green onion. Repeat with meat until it is all cooked. Enjoy!

Printable recipe 

Much more than the sum of its parts.

Week of Menus in Haiti: Food for Education Is Food for Thought

Photo:  destroyed school in Cite Soleil.

For those who want to learn in Cite Soleil

I still think about Haiti, and the work WOM did there, as a collective unit, and it still stuns me at times.  I still get moved, almost to tears, thinking of the children there and I know that still must do something.  God has it weighing heavily on my heart to try and do something.

Friend CY, the person who went to Haiti with WOM money in August, is going again in October, with the express purpose of finding schools in Cite Soleil, one of the worst slum in Haiti and the world, to build schools.  Her plan is to raise up and train an army of local teachers to teach and to create schools specifically in Cite Soleil to transform that slum into something completely different.  Her plans truly excite me and she goes this October, truly with an open heart, ready to see what God can do.

She shared with me that she had a place for my blog and me in Haiti once again.  Friend CY knows full well how much I care about education and how much I care about good nutrition and food for children.  One might say they are my biggest two priorities for the world and she gave me an idea - could I raise money to feed children in her schools?  Of course the financial burden of feeding the children three square meals is too great, but she thought that perhaps I would be able to raise money for a snack, one per child in every school that she has.  I thought it a great idea and immediately committed myself to finding a way to try and pay for snacks in her schools.

I mentioned in my blog post about the blog competition, that I fully intend, if I win, to give half of my winnings to Haiti food relief.  However, as the end of the blog competition is still a bit away, and the chances of my making it very far become more difficult, I know that I need to come up with other ways to support this project.  This round, while friend CY goes to scout out school sites and plot out the physical plan, I'd like to give her a chance to feed some children in schools.  I decided that if possible, I'd like the children to all get some bread, a cup of milk, and perhaps a bit of peanut butter for additional protein.  When she visits schools and promises to come back with teachers and food in the near and immediate future, I feel that this gesture, of handing out bread and milk will only strengthen her position and move her forward.

I'm committing $100 of my money to this project to feed some kids bread, milk and peanut butter.  Won't you join me in feeding school children during their day? It will go to the poorest of the poor in Haiti, and I know that the food will be such a lovely blessing for them.  This money will be simply so that we can feed hungry children for a day.  December I will be raising money again, this time with the purpose of trying to a year's supply of snack foods for as many schools as I am able.

I'd like to raise $1000 this time for this short term project.  If everyone of my Facebook Fans donates $1, we'll have it!  Please join me!

Project Food Blog Challenge #2, Chicken Biryani: Hospitality and Friendship

For GWK and VK, who showed me wonderful hospitality and fed me most generously.

Project Food Blog Challenge #2: Ready to tackle a classic dish from another culture? Pick an ethnic classic that is outside your comfort zone or are not as familiar with. You should include how you arrived at this decision in your post. Do your research then try to pull off successfully creating this challenge. Try to keep the dish as authentic as the real deal, and document your experience through a compelling post. 

I really love Indian food.  I think I've loved it since elementary school, when I went over to friend AK's house for a birthday party and her mom served us tandoori chicken with naan bread.  That was probably my first exposure to Indian food and I loved it that first time.  In high school and college, friend PJ's mom would make tons of delicious Indian food and I would get to partake, by virtue of being PJ's friend and roommate.

After college, I no longer had opportunity to eat homemade Indian food and it wasn't until moving to Hong Kong that I started my love affair with it again.  However, I had severe and dangerous allergic reactions while eating it and couldn't figure out why, until I made the discovery that I was highly allergic to cashew nuts.  A lot of Indian dishes use ground up cashew nuts as a thickener and a rich base and the nuts continually caused me problems when eating Indian food out.  Even when carefully asking the restaurant which dishes had cashews, I repeatedly had problems.  Husband then made the decision for me; there was NO MORE Indian food, as each incident meant that I was rushed to the emergency room, windpipe closing up, face swelling up and a variety of rather unpleasant reactions.

Around the same time of discovering this cashew allergy, I started becoming friends with GWK.  She was Indian, born and raised, living in Hong Kong, an expat much like I was.  We quickly became fast friends as we realized that we had much in common, our love for hikes up the mountain, our appreciation for nature within the hustle and bustle of the city, and our enjoyment of good food.  Our husbands were already friends so our friendship was the icing on the cake for them.

GWK would often ask me to eat at her house after our hikes through the hills of Hong Kong (yes there are beautiful verdant hills in Hong Kong) and I would politely refuse.  I didn't want to tell her why, so I would make excuses, such as I had eaten too much before, or I was dieting, or I just wasn't hungry.  Each time she would look a little bit sad, as I was refusing her food, so I finally had to tell her my allergy to cashews.  She nodded solemnly when I explained and then she said, "I will cook you Indian food WITHOUT cashews."

She fed me and our friendship blossomed.  I'd like to say that it was our strong relationship that allowed us to become fast close friends, but I have to admit that the way to my heart is through my stomach.  The food, the excellent food, definitely did not hurt the friendship.  GWK's incredible generous heart did not hurt the friendship.  Her ability to make me food often and her desire to feed me often did not hurt the friendship.  Lest you think I just took from this relationship, I also cooked for her in return plenty.  (She was, in particular, partial to my brownies.)

This dish is my favorite of the dishes that she cooked.  Often her husband VK and she would invite Husband and me over, and we'd eat plates of this dish, one after the other.  VK would often tease me that the amount of food I put away would feed an elephant, and warn me not to sit on the more "fragile" pieces of furniture in his house, but I didn't care.  The biriyani, with all of its spices, richness and fantastic colors was simply too good to pass up.  At VK and VWK's biriyani parties, I would be the first one at the dish, scooping out the amazingly fragrant rice and the last person still eating.

But since leaving Hong Kong, and parting from my dear friend, I've not had it, as Indian food is once again off limits.  Without someone purposefully caring about me and my allergy when cooking Indian dishes, I cannot eat it.  I have lived without for seven years, dying for a fix of Indian food.  However, when the Project Food Blog challenge came up, asking for a classic dish from another culture, I decided that I would take my blog to India. I emailed GWK, asked for the recipe, and she so generously obliged, making notes for me from her head as she makes the biriyani mostly without measuring.    To answer my questions about certain techniques, she called me all the way from Bombay to help me out.  This is her dish, from her kitchen to mine.  In it, I taste our laughter, our pleasure in each other's company, and our years of friendship.  GWK, I miss you so much and you know it's not just because of the food, because I can now make Chicken Biriyani on my own. 

Before making this dish, I had always assumed that making Indian food was super complicated.  However, beyond the gathering of a long list of spices and having them ready, there is nothing in here that difficult.  This dish about making a flavorful chicken, and layering it with rice and saffron milk.  It's similar to the idea of a lasagne, different components layered together to make one uniform dish.  If you're not sure about making the layered rice biriyani, definitely make the chicken and serve it with naan or rice as it is excellent just on its own.  It is a fun dish to take you out of your comfort zone, and I assure you is worth experimenting and trying once.

**Preparation note: I bought most of my spices at a local Indian store in my neighborhood.  The spices are available at a good supermarket, although the prices at the Indian store are far cheaper.

**Preparation note: Use time wisely.  As the list of ingredients is very long, before cooking, take time setting up and gathering up all your ingredients. 

Chicken Biriyani
Serves 6-8

2 1/4 lbs of skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 cup of yogurt
1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of milk
3 saffron threads

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced

3 cups of basmati rice

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 whole black peppercorns
4 cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
3 onions, chopped finely
1 green chili, chopped finely (I used a serrano chili)
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of finely chopped garlic
28 oz can of pureed tomatoes
4 teaspoons coriander powder
2 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of yogurt, mixed with a spoon
1 1/2 cups finely chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped mint leaves


Directions

Preparation of components

Cut chicken thighs into nice big chunks (Each thigh became about 6 pieces.) . Mix yogurt and salt together. Add chicken to yogurt. Refrigerate and set aside for a few hours.

Mix milk and saffron together. Set aside, allowing the saffron to turn the milk a lovely yellow color.

In a non stick pan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over high heat. Fry onions until crispy and golden. Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. Set aside until needed.

Cook rice according to package directions. (I cooked mine in my rice cooker, 3 cups of rinsed rice to 5 1/4 water)

Preparation of chicken
Heat oil over high heat in a non stick pan. Add the peppercorns, cardamon pods, cloves, cinnamon sticks, bay leaf, and star anise. Let them crackle and change color, about 1 minute.

Add onions and brown them, about 6 minutes.

Add ginger, garlic, green chili and chicken. Stir then shut the lid so that the chicken absorbs the flavors. Reduce heat to low and cook until the chicken lets out its juices, about 10 minutes.

Open the lid, increase heat to medium and reduce the liquid by half, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. The chicken will become a darker richer brown.

Add the tomato puree, coriander powder, cumin, cayenne, turmeric and salt. Continue stirring on high heat so that the chicken gets cooked with the tomatoes and spices, about 5 minutes. Add yogurt and stir. The chicken gets a creamy sauce. Add the chopped coriander and mint leaves.

Assembly
Layer the chunks of chicken with a bit of the sauce and cooked rice alternatively. (You may have leftover sauce as I did. That's okay. It tastes fantastic with plain rice.)

Drizzle saffron milk over the rice to garnish and top with fried sliced onions.

Printable recipe

Chicken Afghan Pilau: A flavor memory

Some people have astounding memories.  They learn things, remember them, file them away.  I have a friend JYC, who remembers thousands of phone numbers, including the phone number of my parents' house, whom he really doesn't ever call.  Something about 10 digits in a row gets him, and he remembers them.

Others remember key details of events, sequences of events, and exact words spoken more than 15 years ago.  One of my friends, CJR is a person with an elephant's memory; she can remember the tiniest details from things said many many years ago.

Still others remember Bible verses, and can call them up when needed and give a verse to you when necessary.  I love my friends who do this, in times of joy and in times of pain. 

Memory comes in a lot of different forms.  I have what I consider to be a pretty amazing food memory.  I remember flavors and tastes from long ago, keep them in my head and every once in a while, it pops back into my head, and I say, "OH!  I want to eat that!"  Sometimes it means that I have to go to a certain restaurant and order a dish and other times I'll sit and try and recreate it at home.  From about a week ago, a memory of a certain dish, an unusual dish kept on popping up in my head, and I had no way of eating it at the restaurant, which meant I had to try and MAKE it.

I ate this Afghan Pilau (sometimes called Qabuli Pilau) over 15 years ago, during my heavily vegetarian years.  I ate it at my favorite hometown restaurant, Walters (those of you from Claremont, CA may know of it)  and I ate it only once, but loved it.  When this food memory popped in my head, my mouth watered, my nostrils flared, and my entire body started craving the flavors of that dish, but I didn't have the name of the dish, nor did I have any sort of recipe by which to go by.

Desperate, I looked up the restaurant menu online, discovered that the dish was no longer there, but had a sense of what it was called, and began a pretty exhaustive internet search for this dish.  After reading through numerous recipes, I thought I had an idea of how to make it and set out to make it on my own.  I changed things up and turned it into a chicken rice dish, since I'm no longer vegetarian, and went for it. I am so glad I did.  Daughters LOVED it, and I have to say that I kept on stuffing my face with so much of the aromatic rice that Daughter #2 looked at me at one point during dinner and said, "Hey mommy.  Save some for us." 

This probably not super authentic or original, but it did capture the flavors I had wanted -the cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, cloves, countered with sweet raisins and carrots.  It matched up fairly well with my food memory and I ate it all up.The technique is not hard, but it does take a bit more time than I'd like to admit. However, the end result is so different and yummy....I can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!  YUMMY!

Chicken Afghan Pilau (Qabuli Pilau)
Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons vegetable for sauteing (more as needed)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 lbs of chicken thighs, cut into cubes
2 cups of water
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of ground cardamom (available at a better price at your local Indian store, but you can find it at your local supermarket)
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
2 cups basmati rice, washed until water is clear, and drained

In a heavy pot over medium high heat, heat oil and saute onion with salt, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and cloves.

Cook for about 2 minutes, until onions begin to wilt and then add diced chicken. Cook until chicken is browned, and then add 2 cups of water. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is tender, about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the meat (sometimes you get onions too) from the cooking liquid, and set meat aside.

In reserved cooking liquid, add basmati rice, and enough water so that the liquid is about 1 inch above the rice. Bring cooking liquid to a boil, and then reduce heat and cover, and cook until water is absorbed, and rice is tender but not mushy, about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300. Place rice in a large casserole dish. Add cooked chicken on top in an even layer.

Cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 45 minutes. (this somehow dries out the rice a bit and makes it extra toasty and tasty.) While rice is baking, make carrot raisin topping. (recipe below)

Remove from oven, uncover dish and top with carrot raisin topping. Serve piping hot, with sprigs of cilantro and plain yogurt as garnish.

Carrot Raisin Topping
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 carrots, julienne
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup of raisins

In a fry pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add carrots, sugar and cook, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add raisins and cook until raisins are softened as well. about another 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside until needed.

Printable recipe

A dollop of plain yogurt just makes this dish complete.