Haleem (Minty Beef with Cracked Wheat and Lentils)

This was a while ago. Do I remember any details of the meal? I do not, except that it was tasty.

The recipe as written calls for cracked wheat and a lengthy pre-soak period. We made it with extra coarse bulgur and skipped the pre-soak, with good results. Note that even if you're making it with bulgur, there's still a long marination phase for the meat -- start early!

Haleem

660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer (p. 175)

Ingredients

• 450g stewing beef
• 30mL ginger paste
• 1mL garlic paste
• 120mL moong dal (skinned split green lentils)
• 120mL masoor dal (skinned split brown lentils)
• 120mL extra coarse bulgur
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 60mL canola oil
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 8-10 fresh green Thai chilis, stems removed, bisected lengthwise
• 1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 1½ tsp Kashmiri garam masala
• 120mL finely chopped fresh mint
• 120mL finely chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine beef, ginger paste, and garlic paste in a bowl. Toss until coated, then refrigerate, covered, for 6-8 hours.
2. Rinse the lentils, if needed.
3. In a large saucepan, combine the lentils (drained), bulgur, and 1L water.
4. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat. Skim off foam.
5. Stir in turmeric, then reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils and bulgur are tender, 20-25 minutes. Set aside.
6. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat.
7. Add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, and cardamom pods. Cook until they crackle and the cinnamon swells, ~30 seconds.
8. Add chilis and onion. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until the onion has released its liquid and begins to brown, 15-20 minutes.
9. Uncover and stir-fry until the onion is reddish-brown with purple highlights, 5-10 minutes.
10. Add the beef cubes and marinade. Raise heat to medium-high and cook, stirring, until the meat browns, 12-15 minutes.
11. Add 240mL water and the garam masala and bring to a boil.
12. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until fork-tender, 15-20 minutes.
13. Add the lentil-bulgur mix and their liquid. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the flavours mingle, 10-15 minutes.
14. Remove from heat, stir in the mint and cilantro, and serve.

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This bread ended up going really off-piste. It was meant to be a simple white sourdough bread with a tiny hit of ginger in the sponge. But I ended up with some excess soaked bulgur, so I just dumped it into the dough. And I ended up using less flour than called for since the dough seemed way too dry, even with the extra water contributed by the soaked bulgur. I think I also ended up leaving out the cream of tartar and mixing in some sourdough discard as a way to simultaneously incorporate more acidity and moisture. But I don't quite remember all the details since I failed to do this write-up immediately after making it and didn't even have all the measurements to begin with!

Possibly, given how many blanks and question marks are going to end up in this recipe, I should forgo the write-up altogether. But it ended up being one of TF's favourite breads, so I feel like I should at least make an attempt at organizing some notes for future reference.

Starter White Bread with Bulgur

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

Sponge

• 125g active (fed) starter @ 100% hydration
• 90g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 c. water, divided
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Dough

• 1/2 c. skim milk powder
• 250g sourdough discard
• 1 c. bulgur, soaked overnight¹
• ~240g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. lard²

Directions

1. Make sure to feed your starter and get it nice and active before mixing the sponge.
2. Combine the starter, flour, and 1/4 c. of the water and let stand, uncovered, for two hours.
3. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the sugar, ginger, and water.
4. Once the starter mixture has sat for two hours, pour the liquid over, cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight.
5. The next day, uncover the sponge and mix well.
6. Add the skim milk powder, sourdough discard, bulgur, ~60g of flour, baking soda, and salt and beat for ~1 minute on medium speed (or ~50 strokes by hand).
7. Add the lard and ~100g of flour and beat into a smooth batter.
8. Switch to dough hook and gradually work in flour until the dough comes together and cleans the sides of the bowl.
9. Continue kneading with dough hook for a few minutes or turn out onto work surface and knead until supple and elastic (10-20 minutes by hand; maybe only 2-4 by machine).
10. Cover and let rest for ~20 minutes.
11. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one.
12. Cover and let rest for another 10-20 minutes.
13. Meanwhile, grease two 20x10cm (8x4") loaf pans.
14. Shape each round into a loaf and place, seam-side-down, into the prepared loaf pans.
15. Brush the top of each loaf with a little melted butter if desired.
16. Cover and let rise at room temperature until fully risen (2-4 hours³).
17. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
18. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30-45 minutes.
19. If crust is insufficiently brown, remove loaves from pans and return to oven for 5-10 minutes.
20. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ Since I was initially planning on using the bulgur for a completely different recipe where the volume of water used to soak it didn't matter, I didn't measure it. I have no idea how much water I used. It was enough that the bulgur was fairly wet without being soupy. The water had been almost entirely absorbed with only a very small amount pooling at the bottom of the bowl, but it was definitely saturated and the grains were clearly holding a lot of moisture. ^Back
2 Rather than using store-bought lard, I actually tossed in ~1/4 c. of the fat that rendered out of the pork shoulder I'd cooked the day before for the pulled pork with peach-mustard sauce. I'm not sure if this had any impact on the flavour or not. The fat looked very smooth and white, but it may have added some subtle flavours to the bread that would not have been present if I'd used commercial lard. I'm not sure, but I figured it was worth noting. ^Back
3 I don't remember how long I let this bread rise for, but I remember it being significantly longer than the 2 hours specified in the recipe. I think 4 hours is probably about right. Of course, this will vary a fair bit depending on your room temperature and how active your starter is and your flour and all sorts of other things. ^Back

This was originally written as a Brussels sprouts recipe. But I didn't have any Brussels sprouts and I did have a lot of cabbage...

I ended up using about half of a large cabbage in place of the Brussels sprouts. I also doubled the bulgur and added a drizzle of pomegranate molasses just before serving.

Surprisingly the Kidlet liked this one! I mean, she wasn't super enthusiastic about it, but she ate it all. Whereas she said the maple-roasted apples and onions were weird and not good. Go figure!

Pomegranate Cabbage

Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1kg cabbage, shredded
• 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. + 1 Tbsp. lemon zest, divided
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. bulgur, cooked
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. pomegranate arils
• 1 Tbsp. pomegranate molasses
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Toss cabbage with garlic, oil, 1 tsp. lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a roasting pan.
3. Roast at 220°C (425°F) for 20 minutes.
4. Stir/toss the mixture and continue roasting for another 10-20 minutes.
5. Mix in bulgur, lemon juice, and remaining 1 Tbsp. of lemon zest.
6. Sprinkle with pomegranate arils, drizzle with pomegranate molasses, garnish with parsley, and serve.

I'm really glad this came out as tasty as it did, 'cause it was a pain in the butt to make. I mean, it wasn't difficult, but it dirtied practically every bowl in the kitchen and the soaked bulgur was a awful to deal with. Next time I'll experiment with using cheesecloth instead of paper towels when draining the bulgur. That won't solve everything, but I think it'll be an improvement over the paper towels.

Baked Squash Kibbeh

Slightly adapted from The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 900g butternut squash, cubed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. coriander, ground
• 1/4 tsp. five spice powder
• 1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. mint, chopped
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 1/2 c. fine bulgur
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted and chopped
• 1 c. crumbled feta

Directions

1. Place squash in covered bowl and microwave for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile cook onion in 1 Tbsp. olive oil until softened and beginning to brown.
3. Add garlic, coriander, and five spice and cook for an additional 30 seconds.
4. Mash squash and add onion mix, cilantro, mint, salt, and pepper.
5. Place bulgur in a bowl and cover with at least an inch of cold water. Let stand for 10 minutes.
6. Drain bulgur through a fine mesh strainer. Wrap in paper towels and squeeze out as much water as possible.
7. Stir bulgur and flour into squash mixture.
8. Press mixture into a greased 9" springform pan and score into eighths.
9. Brush with 2 Tbsp. olive oil and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.
10. Sprinkle with pine nuts and feta and bake for another 10 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge and removing ring from pan.
12. Slice along score lines and serve.

Ultimate Chili?

America's Test Kitchen bills this as the "ultimate vegetarian chili". And the recipe is good, don't get me wrong. I'll definitely be keeping it around and making it (or some version of it) again. But I think I'd stop short of calling it the "ultimate" chili.

I made the recipe as directed and sampled it at the end of cooking. It was tasty. But it was definitely better after a few tweaks. And I think I'd make a few more if I made it again as well.

Ultimate Vegetarian Chili

Adapted from The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1kg assorted dried beans¹
• 3 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 dried ancho chiles
• 2 dried California or New Mexican chiles
• 1 arbol chile (optional)
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
• 14g dried porcini mushrooms²
• 4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds
• 1/4 c. canola oil (or other neutral oil)
• 1kg onions, chopped
• 1L water
• 500mL vegetable broth
• 2/3 c. bulgur³
• 4 c. chopped plum tomatoes⁴
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 1 jalapeño, minced⁵
• 6 garlic coves, minced
• 3 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp. roasted garlic paste (optional)
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 c. fresh cilantro, minced

Directions

1. Dissolve salt in 3L cold water. Add beans and soak (at room temperature) overnight.
2. Drain and rinse the beans. Set aside.
3. Place dried chiles on baking tray and roast at 300°F (150°C) for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, toast walnuts⁶.
5. Grind chiles, mushrooms, oregano, and cumin seeds and set aside.
6. Heat oil⁷ and add onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
7. Add ground chiles, mushrooms, oregano, and cumin and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
8. Add beans, water, and vegetable broth.
9. If using range/oven: Bring to a boil, cover, then transfer to 300°F (150°C) oven to cook for 45 minutes.
   If using InstantPot: Cook at high pressure for 20 minutes.
10. Add bulgur, walnuts, tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, dark soy, light soy, brown sugar, and roasted garlic. Stir to combine, cover, and continue to cook.
    If using oven: Place back in oven for ~2 hours.
    If using InstantPot: Slow cook on high for 1 hour.
11. Stir in vinegar, garnish with cilantro, and serve.

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¹ I used a 50-50 mix of kidney beans and black beans. ^Back
2 Use shiitake if you can find them. ^Back
3 The recipe calls for medium grind bulgur. I could only find coarse white bulgur or fine brown bulgur. I ended up going with the fine. I think any grind would probably be okay, it just depends what sort of mouthfeel you're going for. I think I would actually prefer the medium, but fine grind is still perfectly acceptable. ^Back
4 Feel free to use tinned diced tomatoes for this. I just had a tonne of fresh tomatoes on hand that needed to be eaten, so they went into the chili. ^Back
5 I'd be tempted to replace the fresh jalapeño with an equivalent quantity of pickled next time. ^Back
6 The original recipe called for walnuts to be toasted and then finely ground. I did this and found the results to be acceptable. That said, I think that just toasting chopped walnuts and not bothering to grind them down further would be even better. ^Back
7 I used medium heat on the InstantPot sauté setting. I'd recommend medium-high for electric ranges or medium for gas. ^Back