North African Lamb Stew with Kale

I have such fond memories of my mothers home made stews. She doesn't make stews anymore so memories are all I have unfortunately. I'm not really a person who makes  a lot of stews at home. Let's face it stews, good ones anyway, take time, usually hours, 2-3 hours, for them to develop a decent amount of flavor. This particular stew came out of an uncontrollable desire of mine to have lamb meat that was tender, moist, and with a gravy that was lick the pot worthy. I think I met that desire and some with this lamb stew. All of the components of this stew go together so perfectly that I'm surprised that I never though to put them together before this.  I used a pressure cooker to make this stew. Let me just say that by using a pressure cooker not only was I able to develop the flavors that make up a good stew, but I was able to do it in an hour. The beauty of pressure cookers is that they allow you to maximize the flavor of all of the ingredients you use without loosing vital nutrients. If you don't own a pressure cooker, go buy one. They're awesome!

Here's what you need:
2 lamb shanks (2lbs)
5 teaspoons of Cumin
4 teaspoons of Paprika
1 teaspoon of Coriander powder
4 cloves of garlic sliced
2 medium onions chopped
Juice of half a lemon or more if you like
5 tablespoons of olive oil
1 bushel of Dino kale julienned
1 10 oz can of garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
A handful of cilantro
1 28 oz can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes
3-4 cups of water
Sea salt to taste

Equipment:
Pressure cooker

Note: If you want to make this on the stove without a pressure cooker it can be done.  Just add all of your ingredients to the pot exactly as below.  Bring the pot to a full boil, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is tender and you can remove it from the bone.

Directions:
 Over medium heat add oil, onions, sea salt, lamb and garlic the pressure cooker.  Add in the coriander, cumin, and paprika, mix well, and let cook for 3 minutes

Add tomato sauce, and enough water to cover the lamb shanks, bring to a boil then close and seal your pressure cooker.

Cook for 45 minutes without disturbing, turn off the heat and follow the directions to depressurize your pressure cooker. Once your pressure cooker is safe to open, remove the cover and discard the fat lining and the bone on the lamb shanks. At this point that should be fairly easy to do, the meat literally falls off of the bone after being in the pressure cooker for 45 minutes.

 Add in the kale and the garbanzo beans, cover and seal the pressure cooker again, and cook for another 15 minutes on medium heat.

After 15 minutes turn off the fire, depressurize your pressure cooker, and remove the cover, add in a handful of fresh cilantro, the lemon juice and serve as is, or over a bed of brown rice...yum!

What is your favorite stew?

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The 9 things no kitchen should be without!

If you are anything like I am, then you probably don't have the time, nor the inclination/energy to spend one hour, let alone two, in the kitchen making dinner every night. I have a 18 month old , so I'm lucky most days if I'm allowed 10 minutes in the kitchen without her screaming bloody murder. I've learned to make shortcuts work for many of our meals.  The best way to do that in my experience is to start  with time saving kitchen gadgets and excellent pantry staples. Below is a list of things that I am grateful that I don't have to cook without. They all save me what I adore most...time, which also amounts to less time spent in the kitchen.

My pantry must haves:

On any given day my pantry is always stocked with legumes of several varieties! Lentils, kidney beans, butter beans, garbanzo beans, black beans, and pinto beans. The are all absolute staples in my house. I use them for a variety of purposes. One day I may put the black beans in the food processor,  and  make black bean tostadas. Another day I may use the garbanzo beans to make fresh hummus to go with lamb kabob's and veggie sticks. Yet another day I make take three kinds of beans and make a quick, yet delicious Chili. Canned Beans lend way to endless dinner possibilities, that don't involve meat thawing, or endless hours in the kitchen.  I used to cook beans from scratch, soaking them over night, then rinsing them in the morning, and then cooking them for hours...not any more canned beans are the way to go people...free yourselves from slaving over a pot of beans!

Fresh is always best, but not always practical!  Case in point canned tomato sauce. Not just any canned tomato sauce works though. Like anything in life, when cooking, you have to start with a good base! A good quality can of tomato sauce could mean the difference between a good dish and the best dish you've ever tasted in your life! Trust me on this people! My brand of choice is San Marzano. This particular brand is full of flavor, anything that I've ever cooked using this sauce turns out amazing! Pick a sauce that you love and stock your pantry full of it. Tomato sauce has so many uses, a simple tomato and basil soup, a pasta sauce for spaghetti or lasagna, a red curry base...the uses are endless.

Parboiled brown rice...need I say more? A bag of this stuff will save you 30 minutes in the kitchen. This quick-cook rice cooks up in 15 minutes! Anyone who has ever cooked brown rice on the stove or in a rice cooker knows that it takes at least 30 to 45 minutes. Save yourself some time and get the pre boiled bag of rice. This is also a great pantry staple... Rice goes great with almost everything.

Pasta is a great pantry staple. Boil it then toss with some spinach, garlic, fresh basil, some chopped tomatoes, and dinner is served in less time than it takes most people to boil rice on the stove.

My last pantry staple is vegetable, chicken, or beef stock. Any one of these stocks will add enough flavor to your dish to blur the line between someone thinking you spent an hour cook a meal and 20 minutes. 

Lastly my life has been made easy with the invention of the magic bullet, food processor, pressure cooker,  and the convection oven! Having cooking gadgets that work, and provide efficiency in the kitchen, saves you time! If you thought the magic bullet was only for making smoothies, think again. I used the magic bullet all the time as a private chef to make sauces, soups, garlic and onion pastes...you name it I did it! If you don't have one get one, they're easy to use and even easier to clean! Food processors are equally as efficient in the kitchen, they go a step further than the magic bullet, because you can make quick dough's in them.  The pressure cooker is an amazing invention. Talk about one pot perfection! You put every thing in one pot close the lid and leave it. What comes out at the end of your cook time is nothing short of AMAZING! Foods that would normally take hours on the stove, or in the oven, cook in less than one hour in the pressure cooker, but they taste like you spent all day cooking them. Not only that, but food cooked in a pressure cooker retains more nutrients. Finally my table top convection oven is my hero in the kitchen. I use it to make personal pizza's, whole roast chicken, and a slew of other delicious things. In the summer it is especially helpful, because I don't have to heat the entire house by turning on my stove.  It's small, it cooks evenly  and more efficiently because its a convection oven.  

What pantry staple or kitchen gadget could you not live without?

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The 12 menu items you might not want to eat at Chipotle

This past week Chipotle voluntarily listed on their website all the Genetically Modified Organisms that they serve at their restaurant. Of the 24 items on Chipotle's menu 12 of them are GMO. I am torn about how I feel about this voluntary admittance of the use of GMO's on Chipotles part. On the one hand, they are being honest and forthright. Chipotle, as far as I know, has been committed to providing customers with healthy, delicious food that is sourced locally, and that is organic and free range when possible. The admittance of the use of GMO ingredients by Chipotle is inline with the way the company has chosen to run its business, with a conscious effort to keep customers informed of how their meal got to the table. If only all fast food chains were as socially conscious! On the other hand, I am a bit put off that Chipotle is using GMO ingredients at all. Will this stop me from supporting Chipotle...probably not. My hope is that by releasing this list of GMO ingredients that Chipotle is on the road to eliminating GMO's from their menu altogether. The truth is that we need more companies like Chipotle to set this kind of standard for us. Chipotle is doing what our government, and The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has refused to do, which is to label these GMO ingredients. It's not Chipotle's fault that these GMO ingredients are in our food supply.  That fault lies with our elected officials and the FDA. Both have continually put Corporations like Monsanto before the health and safety of the American public. Currently 62 Countries have mandatory GMO labeling laws, however the United States and Canada do not. That means many of the foods you currently eat, (about 80% of the food supply in North America), are probably genetically engineered, and you probably have no idea which ones are. Well the good news is that if you eat at Chipotle you will. The below is a list of the 12 items on their menu that have been genetically engineered. You can choose to leave these items off of your plate the next time you eat at Chipotle, or better still ask Chipotle to stop serving these genetically modified menu items altogether.

The list of GMO foods on Chipotle's Menu
Barbacoa 
Chicken
Steak
Chipotle Honey Vinaigrette 
Fajita vegetables ( bell peppers, onion)
Brown Rice
White Rice
Tortilla flour for Burritos
Tortilla's for corn chips
Tortilla's soft corn tacos
Tortilla taco size flour
Tortilla's tacos


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Grilled flank steak with Chimichurri sauce

Summer is here which means a lot of grilling at our house. Steaks tend to get boring and I'm alway looking for ways to jazz them up a bit. Enter Chimichurri sauce. It's a Brazilian condiment, and when it's made properly it can turn the most mundane dish into something truly spectacular! I love chimichurri on a nice peice of toasted crusty french bread. Chimichurri is also fabulous on grilled chicken, or baked fish. I'm also told that chimichurri is great on eggs, I don't like eggs, but I bet I would with chimichurri on them. Chimichurri is so versatile I can't imagine that there is a meat that it doesn't go well with.

Here's what you need:
1 lb of skirt steak
3 cloves of garlic pasted
Sea salt

Here's what you need for the Chimichurri sauce:
2 cups of fresh parsley
1 cup of fresh cilantro
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 teaspoon of red chili pepper flakes
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
1//2 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Sea salt to taste

Directions: rub the pasted garlic on both sides of the skirt steak, season with sea salt, black pepper and grill for 3-5 minutes on each side.

Place all of the ingredients for the Chimichurri in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve on top of grilled steak.

Now how easy was that? Chimichurri is so delicious and it makes everything taste better. What are you going to have with this sauce?

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Pure Maple Cream

Maple Cream / Maple Butter

It's nearing Father's Day and one of my gifts for my husband is to finally fulfill his desire to have maple cream, also known as maple butter, on his toast. He loves maple cream, and always speaks of the time he spent in Vermont very fondly. Whenever he speaks of Vermont, there always comes a point in the conversation in which he talks about maple cream, and every single time that he speaks of maple cream, his eyes gleam. It's almost like witnessing him sitting in a cafe tasting the maple cream for the very first time. Before today, I  have never had maple cream. So up to this point I didn't really get this infatuation he had with maple cream. On an ingredient scale, maple cream is easy to make, it only requires one ingredient, maple syrup. However, making maple cream requires some effort, it is definitely not a lazy girl activity. This however is a special occasion, and my husband deserves all the effort, and some, that I put into making this maple cream for him. He is an amazing father, extremely hands on, and he ADORES our daughter. I wish that every child could be loved by their dad as much as my husband loves our daughter. She is definitely lucky to have him as her dad. Making this maple cream is the least I could do for him. To be fair, I actually thought that it would be much harder to make this maple cream than it actually was. Just stir at a steady pace and you should be fine. This requires about 30-40 minutes of constant stirring, so just prepare yourself.

Here's what you need:
3 cups of Grade A Maple Syrup

Equipment
A wet/dry thermometer or candy thermometer

Directions:
Prepare an ice bath by placing a medium size sauce pan into a large bowl of ice:

In another sauce pan add 3 Cups of maple syrup:

 

Over medium heat allow the syrup to boil undisturbed until the temperature reaches 235 degrees Fahrenheit, I went over a degree because I was trying to take a picture for the blog;-)

Boil for 1 more minute just to make sure that the liquid has indeed reached that temperature, then turn off the heat, and pour the hot syrup into the clean sauce pan in the ice bath. Allow it to cool until the temperature reaches 100 degrees.

Remove the pot  from the ice bath and begin stirring:

As you stir the color will begin to change and the liquid will begin to thicken it turned this color after about 15 minutes of stirring:

Once the maple syrup looses its glossy sheen and it starts to look like tahini, or has the texture of peanut butter stop stirring. It took about 40 minutes. Pour into a clean storage container:

Spread this mixture on biscuits, toast, pancakes, waffles, or whatever your heart desires, and enjoy!

What are your fondest memories of your dad?
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Tofu fried chicken--It tastes just like Chicken!!!

I am a southern girl through and through. My family is from Louisiana, and a Sunday dinner that did not involve fried chicken was not a Sunday dinner at our house. When I decided several years ago that I would switch to a more healthy diet, I eliminated fried chicken from my diet all together. The problem with that was that I really missed it! Enter this recipe for Tofu fried chicken. The saying, "it tastes just like chicken," is spot on here! Not only does this tofu fried chicken taste just like chicken, but it smells just like fried chicken when you are cooking it too! Vegetarians, Vegan's, and carnivores alike will love this! Your kiddies will love this tofu fried chicken too! Use cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes, and these become the perfect healthy alternative to fried chicken nuggets. I say fried chicken, but the truth is that this is a very shallow fry. You really only need enough oil to coat the bottom of your pan. After a lot of trial and error with this recipe, I learned that the best results come by freezing the tofu. The texture of the tofu becomes more meat like, and it is a lot easier to expel all of the excess water in the tofu after it has been frozen and defrosted. The more water the tofu has in it, the harder it is to get a crispy crust on the "fried chicken." It is possible, but it takes much longer than I want to be in the kitchen. Freezing the tofu and defrosting it on the day you want to cook it saves you about 20 minutes of cooking time with this dish.  I slice the tofu before i freeze it, which makes it easier to press out the excess water. I also use nutritional yeast, which you can find at Whole Foods, a health food store, at this Link on Amazon, or at your local vitamin shop since it is a nutritional supplement. I also use Garlic Gomasio, which is simply sesame seeds, garlic powder, and sea salt in one bottle. If you have these ingredients separately then just use 2 teaspoons of sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, and you'll have a home made Gomasio.

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Ingredients:

1/4 cup of Garlic  Gomasio and 2 additional teaspoons set aside
1/4 cup of nutritional yeast add more if you need to
3-4 Tablespoons of a low sodium soy sauce
1 lbs of extra firm tofu (sliced, frozen in a ziplock bag and then defrosted)
4-5 Tablespoons of grape seed oil or another high temperature oil (canola, safflower) for frying.

Directions for expelling excess water from the tofu:
After the tofu is defrosted, drain the liquid from the bag. Then place each slice of tofu between paper towels and press out all of the remaining water. Be careful not to press too hard, the tofu breaks easily.

Directions:
Set up a work station, with a plate for each of the ingredients(except the oil). After you have removed the excess water from the tofu. Dredge the tofu slices through each plate, beginning with the soy sauce, then the nutritional yeast, and finally the Gomasio.

Be careful not to let the tofu soak in the soy sauce. You just want to coat both sides of the tofu with the soy sauce, don't leave it to soak otherwise you'll have one salty piece of fake chicken. Repeat this process until you've coated all the tofu.

In a skillet heat your oil. Add in the 2 teaspoons of Gomasio. once the seeds begin to pop add in your tofu. IMPORTANT: make sure that your oil is hot before you put your tofu in, otherwise you'll have a grease laden piece of fake chicken.

Cook until both sides are brown and crispy, should only take 3-4 minutes. Place onto paper towels to remove excess oil, serve and enjoy!

Do you have any Tofu recipes? What's your favorite tofu recipe?

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Lamb Patties with a Garlic and Mint Yogurt Sauce

Ground lamb patties are what I call quick fixings in my house. They take 20 minutes from start to finish. I love the fresh herbs in this recipe, particularly the fresh mint. It goes so well with the lamb. Nutritionist Justice De La Torre gave me the recipe for these lamb patties, and they have become a staple in our house.  I hope these lamb patties will become a staple in your house as well. The best part about these lamb patties is that people who try them just assume they're beef. These lamb patties are a great way to introduce lamb to your little ones.

Here's what you need:
1 lbs of ground lamb
1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves, chopped
1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of finely chopped onion
Sea salt to taste
Mint and garlic yogurt sauce:
1 cup of plain Greek yogurt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 fresh mint chopped
2 cloves do fresh garlic pasted

Directions for yogurt sauce:
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Refrigerate until you're ready to use it.

Directions for lamb patties:
Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well.

  Form patties, and place in skillet on medium heat.

Cook for 4 minutes on each side, remove, serve with yogurt sauce and enjoy!
 What's your favorite lamb dish?
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Crab fried rice

When I was pregnant I had one major craving which I just could not satiate. That was a craving for crab fried rice! If you've never tried crab fried rice, then you've been missing out my friend. I should say that it's not the easiest menu item to find. In fact, when I was pregnant is was impossible for me to find. Every day for six months I woke up and told my husband that I wanted crab fried rice. I literally was obsessed with having it. It was like my brain was stuck on having crab fried rice. I never did have the chance to indulge in my craving for crab fried rice, because the one restaurant that I knew of that had it went out of business.  I wanted to indulge that craving today by making my own crab fried rice.  My grocer was all out of lump crab meat, but he did have crab legs, so I purchased those to make this recipe.  I'm not an expert on making crab legs, but I have a good friend who gave me her technique, you can find that here.  I must say that after making it Gina's way, I will never go back to buying lump crab meat again.  Fried rice is so easy to make, I normally make it with left over rice.  Today, I made a quick cook brown rice in my rice maker. From start to finish, this takes 20 minutes!

Here's what you need
2 cups of rice
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 cup of green onion or chives
3 Tablespoons of oil
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1Teaspoon of Fish sauce
Soy sauce to taste
2 eggs scrambled and set aside

Directions:
Heat the oil in a pan--wok preferably--add in the garlic, and let brown, add egg, immediately toss in the rice.

 Add the Fish sauce. Add in the crab meat, cilantro, green onion, mix well.

Drizzle lightly with soy sauce, (not to much), and enjoy!
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Steamed crab legs

I am ashamed to admit it, but, I have never cooked, or steamed, crab in my entire life. What's worse is that my family is from Louisiana, so cooking crab, is, and has been a major event in my life...or it should have been.  Every year, on New Year's Day my mom pulls out her biggest pot and makes a seafood gumbo, crab legs and all. My grandmother did the same, and her mother and grandmother did too. My point is that cooking crab legs is a tradition in my family, and everyone in my family knows how to do it, except me. In my defense, I'm not a fan of gumbo, and never have been. I would venture to say, that I hate it really. My mom will probably kill me for saying that out loud--it is akin to blasphemy in her house.  Today I was forced to buy crab legs for a fried rice that I'm making. My grocer was all out of lump crab meat, so I was stuck. I could either try my hand at making crab meat from scratch, or not have any fried rice. Needless to say the desire to have crab fried rice won out...stay tuned for that Blog.  After leaving the grocer, I called one of my best friends, Gina Hayakawa, she is an expert at making and steaming crab. She gave me her recipe, and I'm going to share it with you.  Let me just say, now that I've made crab this way, there is no way, I'm going back to buying lump crab meat at the market! This crab is so good that I almost didn't have enough left over to put in my fried rice.

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Regina Hayakawa's Steamed Crab Leg Recipe:
Here's what you need:
1-2lbs of crab legs
1/4 cup of rice vinegar
2 cloves of garlic whole
3 cups of water

Equipment:
Steamer

Directions:
Place the water, garlic, and rice vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil

Place your crab in the steamer, and place on top of the pan with the boiling water, and cover.

 

Let steam for 7-10 minutes and it's done. What is one thing that you have shied away from cooking and why?

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