Lamb & Potato Kheema

As it happened, a colleague of mine started talking about making curries and dhal for dinner, and we go to talking about various kinds of curries. When the subject turned more specifically to kheema, I felt a sudden urge to make something along those lines.

I can't say this is a very authentic recipe - I came up with it by reading some 10 different recipes after googling 'kheema' and applying the bits of each recipe that appealed the most to me.

Ingredients
- oil
- 2 red onions, chopped
- 800 g (1 ³/₄ lbs) minced lamb
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 red jalapeños, chopped
- salt
- ground cumin, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and smoked paprika
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- 3 leaves bay laurel
- 5 potatoes, diced

In a large, deep pan, the onions were fried in hot oil until softened, then added the minced meat and the spices. After the meat was browned all over, tomatoes, potatoes and bay laurels were added. The pan was covered and allowed to simmer for 40 minutes.

The kheema was very good - this time I served it with sabanekh bel hummus, brown rice and a very nice chutney.

Sabanekh bel Hummus

I was wondering if it might be an idea make something with spinach and chickpeas - as it turns out it is a good idea, just not a new one. According to Claudia Roden variations on this theme are common through-out the middle east. I decided to base my first attempt off of her recipe (which is supposedly an Egyptian version) but with the addition of onions and chillies.

Ingredients:
- oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- generous amount of ground coriander
- salt
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 900 g (2 lbs) frozen spinach (whole-leaf, not chopped)
- 2 jalapeño peppers, chopped
- 3 cans chickpeas, 400 g (14 oz) each
- juice of ¹/₂ lemon

The oil was heated in a large pot, then added crushed garlic, ground coriander and salt - after stirring the spices in the hot oil for about half a minute the chopped onions were added. When the onions were soft, the spinach was added together with chopped jalapeños (seeds included). The pot was covered and left on medium heat until the spinach was thawed. The chickpeas (drained and rinsed) were added and the dish was heated through. Sprinkled with lemon juice just before serving.

I was quite happy with the result - which I served on this occasion with a lamb & potato kheema, brown rice, and an apple-walnut chutney, which I'm going to have to see if I can learn how to make myself..

Bean-stuffed Zucchini

I was thinking about beans and zucchini when it occurred to me that maybe I could stuff zucchini with beans - making a variation of this theme. I would have preferred to make this with some nice large home-grown zucchini, but I couldn't wait for some to magically appear so I went ahead and did it with the small ones I can get at the stores - picking the largest ones they had.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) dried pinto beans, soaked overnight
- water
- lard
- 1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 large clove of garlic, chopped
- 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
- 4 medium sized zucchini, halved lengthwise and hollowed
- grated cheddar cheese
to serve:
- pico de gallo

The pinto beans were soaked in an excess of cold water overnight.

The coarsely chopped onion was fried in lard until starting to brown. The soaked beans were added WITH the water they were soaking in. Added salt, chopped garlic, chopped jalapeño (including seeds). The pot was brought to a boil and kept boiling for 2 hours, adding more water as needed.


The zucchini were halved, hollowed with a tsp and arranged in a deep baking pan. The beans were distributed evenly between the zucchini halves and the whole thing was baked for 40 minutes at 200 C (400 F).^[1]


After removing from the oven, the bean-stuffed zucchini were sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese - served immediately with pico de gallo on the side.


^[1] If I had used large zucchini, I would probably have baked them a little longer to make sure they were done.

Bacon-Chanterelle-Blue Cheese Meatloaf

Fall is here, which means two things: (1) the shops have a wider selection of mushrooms than normally; (2) I tend the want heartier foods. This idea was built up in stages: first Bon Appétit planted the idea of a mushroom meatloaf in my mind. Then I thought of the bacon explosion, but didn't want to go all the way. Finally while shopping, trying to make up my mind about a few final ingredients, I remembered this stew and settled on blue cheese and fresh rosemary.

Ingredients:
- 125 g (4.4 oz) thinly sliced bacon
- 2-3 dL (~ 1 cup) chanterelles, chopped
- 100 g (3.5 oz) blue cheese
- 1 kg (2 lbs 3 oz) mixed beef-pork minced meat
- 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
- 2 dL (almost 1 cup) milk
- 2 eggs
- fresh rosemary, chopped
- salt & pepper
side: leek quinoa pilaf
- 3 leeks, sliced
- 4 dL (1 ²/₃ cup) quinoa
- 8 dL (3 ¹/₃ cup) water
- salt
salad:
- mixed lettuce
- mushrooms
- grape tomatoes

The bacon was fried till crisp, then removed from the pan and chopped into smaller pieces. In a bowl the bacon pieces were mixed with chopped chanterelles and crumbled blue cheese.

In a second bowl, the minced meat was mixed with finely chopped onions, chopped fresh rosemary, milk, eggs, salt and pepper.

Half of the meat mixture was placed in an oven-proof tray. The bacon-mushroom-blue cheese mixture was spread out on the meat and the rest of the was put on top as a lid. More salt and pepper on top. Baked at 200 C (400 F) for 1 hour.

Brunost

Brunost (= brown cheese) also known as Myseost or Geitost (= goat cheese) is a Norwegian speciality, and one of those food items that I remember switching from hating to loving. Different varieties are made either from cow's milk, goat's milk or mixtures - but it is always made from whey.

As a child I remember being highly suspicious of this product: not only was it made of goat's milk - it was brown. But my mother loved it (still does) - back then I wasn't sure if this wasn't just part of her loving everything Norwegian. You could buy it in Denmark, but it was rather expensive, so whenever anyone we knew went to Norway my mother would ask them to bring her back a kg or two. Which would always be consumed surprisingly quickly upon delivery: thinly sliced on bread, possibly with slices of cucumber on top. My mother even had a special cheese cutter she only used for this cheese. The latter was due to its unusually soft texture.

Some years ago I saw it in a store in the US and was suddenly curious - would I still not like it, like I used to as a child, or had my tastes developed ? As you can probably guess, my tastes had indeed developed. Suddenly I found the sweet caramel with a hint of sharpness oddly pleasing. I still don't think I am as crazy about as my mother (quite frankly, I don't think I ever will be) - I certainly don't consume as much of it as she does, but from time to time I get some (here in Sweden it is of course readily available).

Russian Tea Cakes

This is how it happened: We were getting close to the day that it would yet again be my turn to provide some egg-free baked delicacies for a work gathering, when suddenly Mrs. Throat-Erator tugged my sleeve and said: "Please make these so I can bring some to work for my birthday". I checked the recipe .. no eggs required. Then I checked with my boss about the detail of the nut allergy: "I'll survive pecans". And so I decided to make a large batch of cookies.

Ingredients:
- 760 g (~24 oz) margarine
- 860 g (~30 oz) flour
- 140 g (~5 oz) powdered sugar + more for rolling
- 3 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 350 g (~12 oz) pecan nuts^[1]

The margarine was worked into the flour using the hands - the resulting mixture was quite sticky. The vanilla sugar, powered sugar, water and chopped pecans were worked into the dough - which was still rather sticky.

The dough was rolled into balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter - in the end the cookies were a bit on the large side of what I'd expected, so I guess I'll aim for smaller somewhat balls next time, say 1.5-2 cm (³/₅ - ⁴/₅ inch) instead. The balls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and flattened slightly - to about 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thickness with the bottom of a drinking glass (this required a little patience and practice since the dough tended to stick to the glass). I got some 80 cookies out of this batch.

The cakes were baked at 162.5 C (325 F) for 25 minutes, then moved to a rack to cool.

The cool cakes were rolled in powdered sugar - and mighty delicious.

Since these go both by the name of Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies, I don't really know if they are truly Russian (or Mexican) - both seems unrealistic. But I do know that they go very well with tea, and I find them most appropriate since I'm currently drinking mainly Russian tea.

^[1] You'll find these cookies made with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias... you name the nut, basically. I think I'd like to try some other nuts in this recipe one of these days.