image: indianfoodforever.com

Lentils are one of the dishes that are hardest for me to cook. Well, beans in general, even though they’re so cheap and sooo good for you. I always hear that I should make from my vegetarian relatives who can cook and who have lots of time on their hands… basically, the opposite of me.

I’ll tell you a little disaster story that I had with beans a few years ago, which mas made me think twice about cooking any sort of legume. I got some random beans from the shop because I was going to make … something… and I boiled them for a while, till they seemed done. Then, I drained them, added some spices and ate them. They were OK I guess.

Then, my sister came into the room and said: “Oh, you made beans! Funny I didn’t see you soak them overnight!” I stopped in mid-bite and looked at her dumbfounded. I said, “Well, I didn’t.” She laughed at me and said, “Naimah! You aren’t going to feel very well tomorrow!” And boy, was she right…

I’m interested in cooking lentils because I want to eat less meat, and I keep hearing from vegetarians far and wide how great they are. So here goes, I’m going to learn to cook them. Dal Shorva is the easiest lentil dish I could find. It sounds tasty (I like cilantro, tumeric and ginger), and you don’t have to soak anything. Hopefully it will work, so… here goes… something.

Dal Shorva

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups red lentils
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 (1-inch) piece ginger root, peeled and chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 yellow onion, finely shredded
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• Fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, optional

Preparation:

1. Rinse lentils thoroughly and place in a deep pot.
2. Add the chicken broth or water, turmeric, ginger, and tomatoes bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes until the lentils are soft.
4. Remove from the heat and, working in batches, puree in a food processor fitted with the metal blade or blender until smooth.
5. Return the soup to the pot, stir in the milk and salt, and heat until piping hot.
6. Simmer gently over low heat while you finish the recipe.
7. In a skillet over high heat, melt the butter.
8. Add the onions and cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes until the onions are brown.
9. To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls and sprinkle generously with black pepper.
10. Divide the onion mixture among the bowls, sprinkle with cilantro, and serve at once.

[recipe via about.com]

image: flikr.com

I think it’s important to remember and celebrate Haitian culture at this tragic time in the country’s history. I wanted to write a post with a whole Haitian meal. The dishes included are: Squash Soup, Fried Cubed Beef,  Picklese Vegegtables, Sweet Potato Bread, and Sweetened Fried Plaintains for dessert.  To drink, we will make some Mango Juice… Let’s get started!!

Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb. cubed beef stew meat
• 1 lb. chicken
• 1 frozen squash
• 1 boniata
• 1 spinach
• 1 malanga
• 2 onions-sliced
• 3 large carrots
• 6 medium potatoes
• 1/4 lb spaghetti or noodles
• 3 tbsp seasoned salt
• 2 limes cut in half
• 2 tsp. thyme
• 2 tsp parsley
• 1/2 cup scallions
• salt, black pepper, and hot pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Clean the meat with hot water and lemon ans set aside in a bowl.
2. Add seasoning salt and set aside for 2 hrs. Boil meat in stockpotwith 3 quarts of water until tender (about 1 1/2 – 2 hrs).
3. Add more additional water if necessary and remaining ingredients except noodles. Cook for 20 minutes and add noodles.

Fried Cubed Beef

Ingredients

• 2 lb steak or goat cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup of chopped shallots
• 1/2 cup of orange juice
• 1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of parsley

Preparation

1. Put all ingredients except the oil in a large pot and marinate at least 4 hours.
2. Transfer meat mixture to medium saucepan or pressure cooker and add water to cover.
3. Heat to boiling and reduce heat . Simmer covered until meat is very tender.
4. Fry meat in a large pan until crisp and golden brown.

Picklese Vegetables

Ingredients

• 6 Scotch bonnet peppers
• 2 cups thinly sliced or shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced or shredded carrots
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced or shredded onions
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 to 10 peppercorns (optional)
• 3 cups vinegar

Preparation

1. Snip off the stem of the peppers, cut each into 4 pieces, and keep the seeds. Place hot peppers, cabbage, carrots, onion, cloves, salt, and peppercorn in a quart size jar. Then add vinegar.
2. Close jar tightly and let sit at least 24-48 hours before serving.
3. Serve with meat or fish.

Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. white sweet potatoes, peeled and cut
• 1 large banana, peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup seedless raisins
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/4 tspn salt
• 12 oz evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Rind of 1 lemon, grated
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• 3 tsp butter

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grate sweet potatoes into mixing bowl and mash the banana into sweet potatoes.
3. Add all ingredients (except 1 tbsp brown sugar) mixing each ingredient at a time until each ingredient is fully blended into the mix.
4. Spread evenly into 9×13 inch baking pan and sprinkle remaining 1tbspn brown sugar over the top of the pudding.
5. Bake for 1 1/2 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Sweetened Fried Plaintains

Ingredients

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 medium-sized green plantains, peeled and sliced

Preparation

1. In a heavy 12-inch skillet, heat the oil over moderate heat.
2. Add as many plantain slices as you can without crowding the pan and brown for about 2 minutes on each side.
3. As they brown, transfer them to paper towels to drain.
4. On a board, using a spatula, press each slice flat and round, about ¼-inch thick and 2 inches in diameter.
5. Heat the oil and fry the rounds again for about 1 minute on each side.
6. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.
7. Serves 4.

Mango Juice

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 3 cups orange juice
• 2 mangoes
• 1 cup sugar

Preparation

1. Boil the sugar and water together until sugar is dissolved; let mixture cool.
2. Scoop out the mango flesh and combine with orange juice in a blender.
3. Add the sugar water with puree and continue to blend.
4. Pour into a pitcher filled with ice cubes and serve.

As a Carribbean woman myself, my heart goes out to my fellow islanders. I hope we all do everything we can to help these people because the truth is, this could have happened to any one of us or our loved ones.

Mesi (“Thank You” in Creole),
Naimah

image: cookiesbycartier.com

OK, so I do consider myself as a ‘Happy Go Healthy’ type… but once and a while I do have my cake, and I do in fact eat it (all!). Whenever I go out for dinner, I’m usually the one who would love to “skip straight to dessert,” and I mean that in the literal, non-sexual sense! That being said, I do believe I may be more healthy than I actually give myself credit for… I love chocolate covered cherries, pumpkin pie and apple atrudel, all of which contain one of my 5-a-day!

This evening, I intend on pushing the boat out and attempting to bake a cake. After extensive research, I believe I’ve found the recipe which best suits me; it’s a decadent chocolate carrot cake, which will give me some veggies, as well as what we all really want… CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!! erm, excuse me… here’s the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

For Cake Layers:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 4 medium carrots, shredded coarse (about 2 cups)

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ or powdered sugar

For Chocolate Glaze:

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 ounces fine-quality BITTERSWEET chocolate (not unsweetened)
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup confectioners’ or powdered sugar

PREPARATION

For Cake Layers:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. and grease and flour two 9 by 2-inch round cake pans, knocking of excess flour.
2. Into a bowl sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together eggs and oil on low speed until combined well.
4. Add flour mixture and beat until just combined.
5. Stir in carrots and divide batter between pans.
6. Bake cake layers in middle of oven 45 to 50 minutes.
7. Cool cake in pans on a rack 10 minutes and invert onto rack to cool completely.

For Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. In a bowl with an electric mixer beat together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. Add vanilla and confectioners’ sugar and beat untl creamy.
3. Spread frosting on top of 1 cake layer and top with 2nd layer.

For Chocolate Glaze:

1. In a small saucepan combine glaze ingredients and cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted and glaze is smooth.
2. Remove from heat and cool glaze slightly.
3. Spread glaze over top and sides of cake and chill 1 hour, or until set.

Thanks Blisstree.com! As you can see, this is much more complicated than those I usually go for, but I am a believer that yummy chocolately goodness requires a bit of effort.

Love to all,
Naimah