Salsa Verde

The first time I had this sauce was as a dip in a Mexican restaurant almost two decades ago. When we sat at the table they brought the usual bowl of chips with pico de gallo and a couple of bowls of salsa. The red one I recognized but the green one was a mystery. It tasted great and I was hooked. Since then I never have enchiladas or tamales without it. It is made with tomatillos and poblano pepper.

I have heard that a salsa by this name is available in little packets at one fast food chain. That is a prepackaged unrelated cousin. This is the real deal and it is really easy to make. Once you make it you will want to do it again.

You will need
1 poblano pepper
6-7 tomatillos
1 clove garlic
1 serrano pepper

In a pan roast the poblano pepper until the skin is charred. You could also do it directly on the gas stove or you could you your grill. The desired result is a charred skin. When done wrap the pepper in aluminium foil and let it sit for a few minutes.

Cook the tomatillos, clove of garlic and the serrano pepper in 2 cups of water. If you like a little heat in the sauce use two serrano peppers.

When the tomatillos are completely cooked turn off the heat.

Take the poblano pepper out of the foil and scrape the charred skin off. Cut it open and remove all the seeds.

Chop it up and put it in a blender along with the cooked tomatillos, garlic and serrano pepper. You may want to remove the seeds of the serrano pepper to cut down the heat. Blend with a little of the water that was used to cook the tomatillos. Season with salt and paprika as needed.

Salsa verde is ready. Eat it with chips or pour it over your enchiladas and tamales.

Tomato Salsa

This is a very quick and easy spicy tomato salsa that can be used as a dip or as part of a meal to add zing to a bite if needed.

Boil 2 tomato and a Serrano pepper together. Mash or puree with a one clove garlic and 2 tbsp. onion. Add salt to taste.

Frijoles Refritos (Refried Beans)

Refried beans are a simple side dish that complete a meal. They are made with either pinto beans or black beans. We don't like pinto beans so I never buy them. On the other hand black beans are so flavorful.

This dish can be made very rich with a lot of fat or oil. I like to keep it dry with only a little oil. You can choose to double the oil if you like.

You will need
1 cup dry black beans or 1 can of black beans
3 tbsp. onion, chopped
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
salt to taste

Soak the black beans overnight in water and pressure cook the next day for 10 minutes. When the cooker depressurizes remove the beans and let them cool. Skip this step if using canned beans. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Saute until they are tender and turn color. Add the black beans with the cooking liquid and let it cook for a few minutes.

Mash it down to a near pulp. Cook until thick enough to flip.

Turn off heat.

Serve with a side of Mexican rice.

Mexican Fudge

Fudge is usually a favorite of chocolate lovers. That is true in my house too. What I really like about fudge is that one piece is usually enough to satisfy that chocolate craving. So a small batch lasts for days of gooey goodness.

Mexican fudge has a little secret ingredient - red chili pepper. The pepper gives the fudge a little kick and really brings out the flavor of chocolate. I wanted to make the fudge using the 70% cacao bar we get at Whole Foods but in the end I used Nestle Toll House semi sweet mini chocolate chips.

My Dad was visiting when I made this fudge and as someone who has always enjoyed good chocolate he enjoyed it a lot too.

You will need
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle brand)
3 cups chocolate chips (I used Nestle Tool house semi sweet mini chips)
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp Mexican red chili pepper powder

Prepare a pan by covering it with parchment paper. I used a loaf pan as I wanted square thick pieces.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate chips on medium heat. Add the condensed milk, cinnamon powder and red chili pepper and mix well. If you like a bigger kick add more pepper. Continue to stir for about a minute and you will feel the mixture thickening.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Ensure the fudge is spread out evenly and smooth out the top. Let it cool down. Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Take out the fudge from the pan using the parchment paper as a handle.

Cut it into 1 inch squares. Let them dry out on the parchment paper.

The fudge is done.

Enjoy!

What do you do if it does not set? Don't panic. Put the mixture back on the double boiler and melt it. Add a handful of chocolate chips and another tablespoon of sugar. Mix it well and transfer to the prepared pan to set.

Mexican Tomato Rice

Mexican tomato rice is fluffy long grain rice flavored with spices and tomato. This is a simple version where tomatoes are pureed and added to the rice water along with garlic and some spices. The resultant rice is colorful and full of flavor. Usually rice and beans are part of a Mexican meal.

You will need
1 cup long grain rice (I used brown basmati rice)
1 medium tomato
2 tbsp. onion
1 jalapeno
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
a few springs cilantro
salt to taste

Wash and rinse the rice and keep aside. Since I used brown rice I first soaked the rice for half an hour. Puree the tomato and onion. Mince the jalapeno and garlic. Heat oil in a pan. Add the jalapeno and garlic. When fragrant add the rice. Roast the rice until it turns color.

Add the tomato puree and stock. Add salt to taste.

Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook covered until done. Turn off the heat. Let it sit in its steam for a couple of minutes.

The rice is done.

Lebanese Meal

Today I am presenting a very simple Lebanese Meal. I debated on the country to pick for this letter. Initially I had picked Liberia over Libya and Lebanon because the food was so out of my comfort zone. Unfortunately so was the taste. When I floated the idea of a do-over with a different country my daughter was all for it. So I went with Lebanon.

The snake like baked dessert Mouwarka was the first recipe I finalized for this meal. It has such an interesting preparation. The endless ring is formed by rolling the dough from the center out to the edges. This is one of those recipes that allow you to play in the kitchen.

As a side I added the potato salad and cucumber tomato salad to the menu and used mint from the garden to flavor it. I really wanted to try out one of the thin Lebanese breads that are cooked on a convex griddle pan. I inverted an old cast aluminum 1/2 inch thick griddle to cook the Khobz marquq. I needed a stew to go with the bread. I used paneer to convert a stew recipe to make the paneer potato stew.

No new ingredients for this menu. But the spice mixture used for the stew is really one of a kind. Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, coriander and ginger all together! Smelt wonderful, and a little went a long way. My daughter told me this stew was one of the best she has ever had.

As they say in Lebanese, Sab’aa sahaat!

Here are the recipes for the dishes on the menu

• Khobz Marquq (Lebanese flat bread)
• Lebanese Paneer and Potato Stew 
• Potato Salad
• Cucumber Tomato Salad (No recipe - cucumber, tomato, mint, salt and pepper)

And for dessert

• Mouwarka (Walnut Almond Serpent Dessert)

Lebanese Paneer Potato Stew

"This is the best stew you have ever made" was the comment I got from my daughter when I made this dish. Lebanese stews are not vegetarian but as with a lot of non-vegetarian dishes with gravies it is fairly easy to replace the non-vegetarian ingredients with vegetarian ones and get a flavorful dish. I did just that with this stew. I used paneer and made it vegetarian. I also adjusted the cooking times for the paneer that cooks a lot faster than any non-vegetarian ingredient.

The spice blend makes this dish. I made a scant tablespoon of the spice mixture called Lebanese 7-spice. A little goes a long way. I had some of the spices in powder form and the other whole. I put them all together and pounded them to a powder with my mortal/pestle. I got the ingredients for this spice blend here. The aroma of these spices together was amazing. I used equal quantities of black pepper, coriander seeds, allspice, dried ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Try it, you will have your family gliding into the kitchen following the aroma. 

You will need
1 tbsp. oil
7 oz. paneer, cut into cubes
1/4 cup onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
a handful cilantro, diced
1 1/2 tsp. Lebanese 7-spice (recipe in text above)
1 tsp. paprika or cayenne powder (optional)
1 large potato, boiled and cubed
1/2 to 1 cup warm water
2 tsp. tomato paste
salt to taste

Heat oil in a pan and brown paneer cubes in it. Flip the cubes over when brown until well done. The oil will get sticky with residue that will be collected later. Add the onion and the cilantro.

Saute until the onion is translucent. Add the spice and paprika if you are using it. Mix well until the aroma of the spices fills the kitchen, about a minute.

Add the potatoes and the warm water. Bring it to a boil and then lower the heat and allow it to simmer and thicken.

Add the tomato paste and salt to taste. Let it cook until you are happy with the gravy consistency.

Turn off the heat.

Enjoy!

This is my entry for week 39 of the 2014 52 week challenge for the theme stew.

Lebanese Potato Salad

This Lebanese potato salad was the mildest of the potato salads I have tried so far. It works well when you have it with a very strong flavored stew. As with most potato salads it is simple and easy to put together.

Recipe adapted from here

You will need
1 large russet potato
1/2 lime, juice
1 tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste
1 sprig scallion
5-10 leave mint leaves

Boil the potato with a little salt. Ensure the water in the pan covers the potato completely. Test with the tines of a fork to check if done. If the fork cut the potato easily it is done. Drain and let it cool enough to handle. Peel the potato and cut into bite size cubes. Add the lime juice, olive oil and salt. Cover and keep aside until completely cooled. Meanwhile place the mint leaves one over another and roll them up. Cut as fine as you can to create ribbons. Dice the scallion both green and white. Add the mint leaves and scallion to the cooled potato salad.

Khobz Marquq

I love to try out bread recipes from different parts of the world whether the bread is leavened or unleavened. Khobz is bread in Arabic and there are a lot of varieties of bread in the Middle East. This Lebanese bread is called the khobz marquq and it is roasted on a convex pan. The texture I got is similar to what I have seen in pictures but I got a darker colored khobz due tot he darker whole wheat flour that I used. This is a leavened bread and we were happy for the change from our regular poli.

I did not have a convex pan so I inverted my old, now unused, chapati tawa. It is a half inch thick aluminium pan that I brought with me when I got married. My mother had bought me a cast iron pan but it was too heavy to carry. The tawa is concave when set upright. Inverted it made the perfect convex pan.

The bread is placed on the pan using a cushion but I used my hands. The khubz is patted flat with the hands and then thrown from palm to palm to thin it out. I used a rolling pin.

Recipe adapted from here

You will need for 6 khobz
180 g whole wheat flour.
75 g bread flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp. yeast
125 ml lukewarm water
a few drops orange blossom water

Mix all the dry ingredients and the extract together. Add the water. Depending upon your flour you may need additional water. Form a soft dough and knead it well. Place it in a covered bowl and let it rise for an hour or two.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into 6 portions. Let the portions rest for 20 minutes.

Heat a khobz convex pan or inverted tawa. Take one portion of dough and flatten it with your knuckles. Pick it up and throw it from palm to palm to make it bigger. When it reaches the desired size place it on the heated pan. Turn it over once when the first side browns a little, When cooked through take it off the heat. Repeat for the other portions.

Enjoy!

Mouwarka

Mouwarka is a yeast leavened sweet bread stuffed with almonds and walnuts. It is the shaping of this bread that caught my attention. The dough is rolled out really thin and the filling spread over it. Next a hole is made in the center and the dough rolled outward from the center to the edges. The result is a beautiful ring which is folded almost like a serpent and baked in a cast iron pan.

I accidentally bought red berry whole wheat flour instead of the white whole wheat flour so used that in this recipe. It added a brownish tinge to the dough.

Recipe adapted from here
You will need
40 gm strong flour (I used whole wheat)
1 gm instant yeast
1 gm salt
6 tbsp. water

For the filling
20 gm almonds
20 gm walnuts
20 gm sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. orange blossom water or rose water (I used mint extract)

1 tbsp oil, divided

Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the wet ingredients and form dough. Knead well and keep aside covered for a couple of hours. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Grind the walnuts and almonds to a coarse powder and mix in the powdered sugar. Keep aside until needed.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Take the risen dough on a work surface and with the help of some flour roll it out into a large disc.

Transfer to a tea towel and continue to thin it out. Spread half the oil over the top.

Now place the filling in the center of the rolled dough.

Spread the filling out evenly leaving 3/4 of an inch all around.

Make a hole in the center and pull the dough up over the filling.

Continue rolling the dough outwards on all sides making the center wider as you go.

Continue until you reach the end and form a ring.

Seal the edges by pinching them in. Then shape the rings as shown below and place it in a cast iron pan. Apply the remaining oil over the top.

Bake for 10 minutes until the top is brown and mouwarka is crispy.

Transfer to a cooling rack until cool.

The crispy and not overtly sweet dessert is ready.

Kenyan Meal

Kenyan food is influenced by immigrants who brought their native cuisine with them. It is also influenced by the cuisine brought by the invaders from the north. This Kenyan meal has dishes influenced by cuisine from India, Persia and the Ottoman Empire.

Githeri is a stew prepared with mixed vegetables. Fresh corn was flooding the grocery stores when I made this dish. Fresh corn with bean, carrots and tomatoes made for a very colorful dish that was really tasty. It took a while to cook but the it was worth the wait.

It made an excellent base around which I planned the rest of the meal. The preparation of the Kenyan chapati is very similar to the Indian kulcha. The difference being the chapati is unleavened whereas the kulcha is leavened with baking soda. The pulao is a simple rice dish made with basmati rice roasted in whole spices. It goes well with Tzatziki which is a cucumber salad popular in every country that the Ottoman Empire had an influence on. Kachumbari is a simple tomato onion salad flavored with a touch of lime juice and olive oil. For dessert I made Kashata Za Nazi, a delicious coconut barfi (cake).

I did not use any new ingredients in this meal. In fact, it was the familiarity of the dishes that was surprising to me.

As they say in Kenya in Swahili, Ufurahie chakula chako!

Here are the recipes for the dishes on the menu

• Githeri (Mixed Vegetable Stew)
• Kenyan Chapati 
• Pulao 
• Kachumbari 
• Tzatziki 

And for dessert

• Kashata Za Nazi (Coconut Barfi)