Molaghu Urulikazhangu Bhajee (Potato Mix with Peppercorns)

I needed to use up sweet potatoes and I wasn't really feeling any of my go-to sweet potato recipes, so I decided to give this one a try. It was pretty good. And the Kidlet liked it too!.

The original recipe calls for peeling the potatoes, but I didn't bother with the russets. I did peel the sweet potato though since they usually have somewhat thicker skins. Peel or don't according to your tastes (and the tubers you have available to you).

Molaghu Urulikazhangu Bhajee

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 3 russet (or other floury) potatoes, cut into 1cm cubes
• 1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1cm cubes
• 3 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt¹
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/4 tsp. whole cloves
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods)
• 1 (7-8cm long) cinnamon stick, broken
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies²
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tomato, diced³
• 15 fresh curry leaves
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Place potato, sweet potato, and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to medium and boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender (~10 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, combine salt, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon pieces in a mortar and pound until the mixture resembles coarse sawdust.
4. Add the ground chilies to the spice mix.
5. When the potatoes are done, reserve 1/2 c. of the cooking water and then drain them.
6. Dry the pot and return to medium-high heat.
7. Add the oil and allow it to heat up.
8. Add the mustard seeds, cover, and cook until the seeds stop popping (30-60 seconds).
9. Add the tomatoes, curry leaves, and spice mixture.
10. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have softened (~3 minutes).
11. Add the reserved cooking water and deglaze the pot with it.
12. Add the potatoes and stir to combine everything.
13. Simmer until heated through (~5 minutes).
14. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

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¹ Iyer calls for rock salt here. I didn't have any, so I just used coarse sea salt. ^Back
2 Or use 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne + 3/4 tsp. sweet paprika ^Back
3 Or 12 grape or cherry tomatoes, halved ^Back

Wolfert talks up purslane a lot. She describes it as a "great-tasting weed" and advises seeking it out if at all possible.

Well, I had access to it, so I decided to give this recipe a try. I was pretty good. But I doubt I'll make it again, even so. It's not that I was unhappy with the results. It's just too much effort for too little reward.

The purslane I got was mostly stem. And this recipe only uses the leaves. Combine that with how much volume you use after cooking and how long it takes to pick all the leaves from the stems and... I don't feel like it's a winning combination even for a fairly tasty dish. It wasn't bad. But it would've had to have been phenomenal to make it worthwhile for me.

I'm still glad I tried it though. It meant I got to try a new vegetable and see what it was like. And it lets me check off another recipe in the book.

Purslane Salad

Slighlty adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 4 c. stemmed purslane leaves, rinsed well
• 4 large cloves garlic
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• 3/4 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/8 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 preserved lemon
• 12 midway olives, rinsed and pitted

Directions

1. Set up a steamer and steam the purslane leaves, covered, for 12 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, uncover, and allow to cool.
3. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess moisture and set aside.
4. With a mortar and pestle, molcajete, or similar, pound the garlic and salt to a paste.
5. Add the chopped herbs to the garlic paste and pound them to a paste as well.
6. Heat 2 Tbsp. of the oil over medium-low heat.
7. Add the herb paste and cook for 1-2 minutes.
8. Add the purslane and sauté slowly until most of the moisture is gone (~5 minutes).
9. Empty the pan onto a chopping board and finely chop the salad.
10. Mix in the paprika, cumin, and cayenne.
11. Place in a serving dish and allow to cool.
12. Remove and discard the pulp from the preserved lemon.
13. Thoroughly rinse the rind and cut it into thin slivers.
14. Mix the lemon juice and the remaining 1 Tbsp. of olive oil into the salad just before serving.
15. Adjust salt and lemon juice to taste.
16. Garnish with olives and preserved lemon rind.

Gosht Hariyali (Beef with Greens)

I wasn't sure what I'd think of this curry. It's very unusual. It contains no spices. It has some aromatics like ginger and garlic in the marinade. And it has lots of herbs and greens, but none of the usual spices that I've come to associate with curries. There's not even any pepper! Just salt and a chili pepper.

I needn't have been worried though. This curry was amazing! Seriously. So delicious. The beef was succulent and flavourful and the minty greens complemented it beautifully. I think this is probably one of my favourite beef curries.

Gosht Hariyali

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 450g stewing beef
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1-2 fresh green Thai, finger, or serrano chilies, halved lengthwise
• 225g mustard greens¹, chopped
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh or frozen fenugreek leaves
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh mint
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine ginger paste, garlic paste, and salt.
2. Add beef and stir to coat.
3. Cover and chill overnight.
4. Preheat a wok over medium-high heat.
5. Drizzle the oil down the sides and swirl to coat.
6. Add the beef (along with any residual marinade) and chilies and cook, stirring, until the meat is seared all over (~10 minutes).
7. Add the mustard greens and fenugreek leaves into the wok and cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens have wilted and pan has been deglazed from the released moisture (~10 minutes).
8. Pour in the water and bring to a boil.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender (15-20 minutes).
10. Stir in the cilantro and mint and serve with rice and/or flatbreads.

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¹ I had a surplus of kale when I made this, so I just used that in place of the mustard greens. Definitely use mustard if you can get it though! ^Back

This recipe makes either two 9" (23cm) or three 8" (20cm) round cake layers. The same cake layers can be iced, filled, and decorated in a variety of different ways to produce very different finished cakes.

Chocolate Cake Layers

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 125g unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. hot water
• 1/4 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 c. sugar, divided
• 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 c. buttermilk¹
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5 large eggs²
• 12 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 1-Tbsp. pieces and softened

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour your cake tins (either three 8" or two 9").
2. Place chocolate, hot water, and cocoa in a heatproof bowl, set over a pot of boiling water, and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
3. Mix 1/2 c. of the sugar into the chocolate mixutre and stir until thick and glossy (~2 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
6. In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and vanilla.
7. In yet another bowl, beat eggs on medium-low speed for 10-20 seconds.
8. Add remaining 1 1/4 c. sugar to the eggs and beat on high speed until light and fluffy (~3 minutes).
9. If you have a stand mixer, switch from wisk to paddle at this point. Add the cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and mix on medium speed for ~1 minute.
10. Add the butter, one piece at a time, mixing for a few seconds after each one.
11. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat until all flour and buttermilk have been added, beating for 20-30 seconds between each addition.
12. Reduce speed to medium-low and beat for another 15-30 seconds.
13. Give a final stir by hand.
14. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins and smooth the top.
15. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-30 minutes.
16. Transfer to wire rack and let cool in tins for 10 minutes.
17. Remove from tins and allow to finish cooling on wire racks.
18. Stack and decorate as desired once completely cooled.

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¹ Or 1 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice + milk to make 1 c. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 4 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks. This would certainly make for a richer and more luxurious batter, but I didn't want to have to deal with separating eggs and trying to figure out what to do with the left over whites, so I just substituted an additional whole egg for the egg yolks. If you have surplus egg yolks to use, feel free to revert this recipe to its original form! ^Back

I posted a different recipe for congee a couple years back. However, as noted in the original recipe, there are a lot of different ways to make congee. I did up a slightly different take on congee recently. It's still the same basic concept, but I decided to write it up anyway. As before, this is a very flexible recipe, so do with it what you will.

For this particular congee incarnation, I started with a cooked chicken and made the stock from scratch, so I've included those instructions below. You can, of course, use store-bought stock or even water. Pork bones also work well. Follow your heart!

Chicken Congee

Ingredients

Broth

• 1 whole cooked chicken
• 2-4 c. vegetable peelings and scraps¹
• 3L water
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick
• 1 star anise
• small knob of fresh ginger

Congee

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/4 c. short-grain white rice²
• 2-3 Tbsp. dried goji berries
• Broth from above
• 1/4 of the meat from the chicken
• salt, to taste
• white pepper, to taste

Toppings

• sesame oil
• chopped fresh cilantro
• chopped dry-roasted peanuts
• toasted sesame seeds

Directions

Broth

1. Remove the chicken meat from the bones and reserve both the meat and carcass separately.
2. Combine the chicken carcass with all the other broth ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and slow cook on "high" for 2-3 hours.
3. Strain the broth and discard the solids.

Congee

1. While the broth is cooking, soak the rice. Place in a bowl with enough water to cover for 30 minutes, then drain and set aside.
2. Place all the congee ingredients in InstantPot (or in a pot on the stove) and simmer for 1-2 hours depending on what texture and consistency you prefer. You may want to cook it either partially or fully uncovered for some of the time (again, depending on your preferred consistency).
3. Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and white pepper.

Serving

1. To serve, top each portion with a drizzle of sesame oil, then place the peanuts, cilantro, and sesame seeds on top.
2. If desired, sriracha or Laoganma can be added to give a hit of spiciness.
3. Other toppings may be added or substituted. Popular choices include: fried wontons/noodles, chopped scallions/green onions, sprouts, microgreens, and/or sautéed mushrooms. Salted duck eggs and century eggs are also popular congee inclusions.

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¹ I often save vegetable scraps and peels and toss them in a large Ziploc bag in the freezer. When the bag gets full, I toss them in the InstantPot with some water and seasonings (and possibly bones of some sort) and slow cook for a few hours until I have a delicious stock. This time I think my bag contained onion, garlic, bell pepper, ginger, carrot, pink oyster mushroom and lion's mane mushroom (courtesy of Noki Farms), and possibly a few other things as well. If you don't have any vegetable scraps handy, then feel free to just toss in some onions, carrots, mushrooms, and whatever else seems tasty. ^Back
2 I was originally planning to make this congee with only brown rice but, after cooking for a little over an hour, the consistency was still more like rice soup with a clear broth than what I expect for congee. I added the short-grain rice to see if the extra starch would help thicken it up. I also cooked it with the lid off for a little bit. I'm not sure if it was the extra rice or the extra cooking or the time with the lid off that did the trick but, at the end of another hour, it was looking much better! ^Back

No photo for this one because it ended up overproofed and horribly deformed. It was still very tasty though. And the whole orange worked out well, so I wanted to do a quick write-up for it.

Orange Spice Sourdough

Slightly adapted from Sourdough Companion

Ingredients

• 100g hard (strong/bread/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 400g all-purpose flour
• 50g sugar
• 125g sultanas
• 5g coarse sea salt
• 200mL milk
• 1 large orange (~175g)
• 150g ripe/active starter (100% hydration)
• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. mixed spice

Directions

1. Combine whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, sultanas, and salt.
2. Place whole orange in a blender with the milk and purée.
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the starter and the orange-milk mixture.
4. Working from the centre outward, gradually incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet.
5. Smear half the butter onto your work surface and dump the dough out on top of it. Knead on the buttered surface until all of the butter has been incorporated, then repeat with the remaining butter.¹
6. Cover and allow to ferment at room temperature, stretching and folding every hour or two.
7. Once the dough feels light and active, press it flat and sprinkle with half the mixed spice.
8. Fold the flattened dough into thirds like a letter and press it flat again. Then sprinkle on the remaining mixed spice and repeat the letter fold on the opposite axis.
9. Press flat again and divide into two roughly equal portions.²
10. Round each portion, cover, and rest for ~30 minutes.
11. Grease two 20cm by 10cm (8x4") loaf pans.
12. Press each portion flat, letter fold, and then roll up like a jelly roll and place seam-side-down in loaf pans. Cover and proof at room temperature until light and well-risen.
13. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
14. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for 10-15 minutes.
15. Reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
16. Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
17. If desired, brush with melted butter, diluted honey, or another glaze of your choice while still hot.

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¹ I didn't actually handle the butter this way this time. TF ended up mixing up this dough for me and just melted the butter and mixed it in along with the other wet ingredients. This worked fine, but I think working the butter in during kneading would be preferable. ^Back
2 I only made a single hearth loaf this time, but I think this bread would work well as pan loaves. I'm not sure whether it would be better to make one very large loaf or two small ones, but my instinct is to go for the small ones. Maybe in the future I can play around with scaling up the recipe slightly in order to get two decent-sized pan loaves. ^Back

There are a great many recipes for lobster mac & cheese, none of which are part of the mac & cheese tradition I grew up with. And of late, with the Kidlet being allergic, I haven't had cause to seek them out. But in a recent grocery run symbol came home with some pre-cooked lobster claws and suggested this as a good thing to do with them.

I based this on a recipe from Spend with Pennies (with significant modifications), and the results were delicious; symbol and I both liked it. I made a half batch; the writeup here is for a full one, with a pound of pasta, but it scales down well.

Lobster Mac & Cheese

Adapted from Spend with Pennies

Ingredients

• topping
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• ½ C breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp grated parmesan
• 2 tbsp parsely, chopped
• pasta
• 1 lb dried store-bought pasta
• ~2 C cooked lobster meat, shredded
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4+4 tbsp butter, divided
• 4 tbsp flour
• ½ tsp mustard powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp Old Bay seasoning
• ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 C milk
• ~1 C grated parmesan
• ~2 C grated cheddar

Directions

1. Grease a 9x13" baking pan and preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl; buffer.
3. Cook pasta al dente; drain, rinse with cold water, and buffer.
4. Melt 4 tbsp butter in a small pot over medium heat.
5. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
6. Add lobster, toss to coat, and cook until heated through. Remove lobster-garlic mix and buffer.
7. Melt the other 4 tbsp of butter in the same pot.
8. Add the flour and make a roux.
9. Add the mustard, salt, Old Bay, black pepper, and milk; stir until thickened.
10. Reduce heat to low and stir in the cheddar and parmesan until melted.
11. Stir in the lobster-garlic mix.
12. Put the pasta into the baking pan. Pour over the sauce and stir to mix.
13. Cover with the topping.
14. Bake at 400°F for 20 minutes, until topping is browned and edges are bubbling.