Cardamom Stew

This is one of my favorite meat recipes - it's from a cookbook not belonging to me. The cookbook was photocopied to begin with, and I have a photo of the recipe, so I cannot cite the cook or source. I'm not even quite sure which country this originated - India I think. I remember the author saying that this is a common recipe made for new mothers (sans cayenne). It is delicious with rice, or roasted cauliflower, or sauteed cabbage or greens. The original recipe calls for lamb, which I have used before and like. More often I use beef chuck roast, which is what I used this time. (I didn't get to take a photo. Will do another time and post later!!)

Cardamom Stew
2 1/4 pounds lamb or beef (I prefer off the bone, but you could do either)
1/2 c plain yogurt (I always use coconut milk)
1 T ground cardamom
1/2 c oil (I use less than that of butter, between 1/4 and 1/3 cups)
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cayenne
2 tsp coriander
3 small tomatoes, finely chopped
salt

1) Mix the cardamom powder with a little water to make a paste.
2) Heat butter in cooking pot; add cardamom paste and pepper. Fry over a low heat 2-3 minutes
3) Add the meat, turmeric, cayenne and coriander and saute for 10 minutes, all the while stirring so that the spices do not burn. *This is important. The recipe author says that this 10 minutes makes the stew, so don't skimp! (I've never tested this, so strong was her admonishment!) It is essential that the heat not be too high and you use enough oil/butter to ensure no burning.
4) Add tomatoes and yogurt/coconut milk and salt. Once it is simmering, lower the heat a bit, cover the pot, and leave to simmer until the meat is tender. I usually go for an hour or two. *The original recipe said to add several cups of water prior to simmering. I have never needed to do this as there is plenty enough liquid from the meat and butter and tomatoes. It would be like soup with all that water, and I always wonder if it was a mistake, or if this is just something I am culturally not understanding about the dish?!

Blueberry Keto/Paleo Pancakes (best ones!)

This recipe is better than the last one, and is now my favorite paleo pancake recipe. Why do so many recipes include coconut flour? You don't need it, and it tastes and cooks strangely. This recipe is totally just a fluffy, good pancake recipe. Yum. Diner breakfast at it's finest! (With grass fed butter, pastured bacon, eggs, and a little maple syrup.)

Paleo blueberry pancakes (makes 6)
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup blueberries

1) Whisk all ingredients except blueberries; let sit 5 minutes to thicken.
2) Preheat a skillet and add fat of choice. (For really perfect pancakes, heat a couple of skillets and cook the pancake only on the centered part!) Pour 1/4c batter for each pancake and cook 2-3 minutes/side. Add blueberries before you flip!
3) Serve with toppings of choice.

Niter Kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced butter)

My first encounter with Niter Kibbeh was through making kitfo in 2013. I'd never had kitfo in the world, so I had no idea what this recipe was supposed to be like. When I later ate it in various Ethiopian restaurants, I laughed at my attempt: there was a likeness, but it also was a bit unrecognizable. The main difference is that I made spiced butter but I didn't strain it, or actually complete the process, and instead just mixed in the whole thing with meat. It was still good, but not nearly as smooth or subtle. As I've gotten more familiar with Ethiopian dishes, I see that my kitfo was more like kitfo dulet, which has peppers and onions added in. So, fast forward to more recently: I had not made Niter Kibbeh until now because I kept being gifted it. Now I am out, and it is time to make my own in order to cook Christmas dinner tomorrow!

This butter is necessary for many Ethiopian recipes - without it you miss some key flavor. I use Niter Kibbeh most often now with tibs (recipe forthcoming) and greens, but also with cabbage or eggs. It is needed for shiro (chickepea dish), which is creamy and delicious and I will post sometime. Generally this butter makes any dish better.

There are different recipes for making Niter Kibbeh, but some months ago I bought a butter spice packet from Shega Foods in Minneapolis, which is also where I buy all-teff injera. (Shega Foods is in the old Seward Co-op space, and they also sell Niter Kibbeh if you want to buy some ready made.) I have no idea what is in this spice mix, and I decided to consider that it was all of the dry spices, and to still add onion, garlic and ginger. I also threw in a cinnamon stick, just because. I think I was right, because the final product turned out really well: right coloring, and very nice flavor. Link here for a recipe without the spice mix.

Niter Kibbeh (makes just under a pint)
1 pound butter (no salt)
small onion, chopped
2 T minced garlic cloves
3 T minced ginger
cinnamon stick (opt)
2 T Qibe Materia (Spiced Butter Mix from Shega Foods)

1) Chop butter in pieces and melt on low heat in a heavy saucepan. Add all ingredients.

2) Simmer on low for 60-90 minutes. This process is just the same as making ghee - you are separating out the milk solids, which sink to the bottom or stick to the sides of the pot. You want to be careful to not burn the spices or the bits. They can brown, but not burn - so keep the heat very low!!

3) After the allotted time, turn off heat an let sit for some minutes. Pour through cheese cloth or a fine sieve to remove spices and milk fat bits.

4) Let sit out to cool, and then store in the fridge or freezer. It will last a long time!

Keto/Paleo pumpkin pancakes

I was having early fireside musings with my friend this morning, and we started dreaming up ideas of blueberry pancakes, fried eggs and bacon. Realizing I had bacon in the freezer and some maple syrup in the fridge, and that she had blueberries and a little left over whipped cream, this breakfast idea seemed like a good start to the solstice. I went to the interwebs to seek out a recipe. Because there was some leftover pumpkin puree needing to be used up, pumpkin pancakes seemed the way to go.

A bite of this modified pumpkin pancake with bacon, syrup, a blueberry, butter and whipped cream was decadent. Totally decadent. I changed the recipe some, eliminating the nut butter, reducing the coconut flour (next time I will try it with no coconut flour at all, which I suspect would be just fine), using coconut milk, and eliminating the sweetener. The trick to these is cooking them on even heat quite slowly. Like, just hunker down to do some slow pancake cooking. I found it was better to center pancakes on 2 skillets than to cook 4 in a larger cast iron one. *I did try some with blueberries inside the pancake and it worked!

Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes (makes 10-12 pancakes)
3 large eggs 
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup super fine almond flour
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
(coconut oil/bacon fat/ghee for griddle)
*opt: blueberries 

1) In a large bowl, beat the eggs then whisk in the pumpkin. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix. Batter will be quite thick. 
2) Heat a skillet or two to medium-low heat and melt cooking fat of choice. Spoon scant 1/4 cup batter to center of skillet/s and cook slowly: 3-5 minutes for each side. *If adding blueberries, add just before you flip. Be gentle with the flipping, and wait a little longer than you think. 
3) Keep warm in the oven, and serve with whatever toppings you like.  
*These apparently also freeze well. I'll try that with the leftovers to toast another morning.

Winter Kohlrabi Salad

I bought a kohlrabi at the grocery store last week because I hadn't had any in awhile, and because it is one of the still local veggies available at the co-op. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, until I found this Food 52 recipe for this lovely salad. I didn't have any cilantro, and I still thought it was great. In lieu of cilantro, spinach or arugula would also be good. This salad will become a winter staple.
*I also used this dressing on a green cabbage/carrot/apple salad with good results!

Winter Kohlrabi Salad 
1 head kohlrabi
1 apple (I used pink lady) 
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
¹/₂ tsp chili flakes
1 pinch cumin
¹/₂ teaspoon fish sauce
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

1) Peel the kohlrabi. Cut it and the apple into matchsticks, or julienne with a mandolin.
2) Mix all dressing ingredients and pour over veggies. Stir to combine.

Beef Chili with Sweet Potatoes

This is my mom's sweet potato chili recipe - it's super easy. She usually makes it with ground turkey, but I most often use beef. I had it this time with cornbread because I still had some kefir from making the skillet cornbread for my cornbread stuffing at Thanksgiving. So why not make it again to enjoy on its own?! (Also leftover labneh which I ate like sour cream on top!)

I'll be out of town for most of the week, and am prepping some meals that I can take with me to reheat. Chili, stew, and salad stuff. Seems easy.

Beef Chili with Sweet Potatoes
2 T butter
1 pound ground beef
1 large or 2 small onions, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno
1 T chili powder
2 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 sweet potatoes (or one large one), diced
1 can kidney beans (or whatever beans)
3 14oz cans of tomatoes (or equivalent frozen garden tomatoes)
1 c frozen sweet corn (or more)

1) Saute onions and celery in butter until soft. Add garlic and jalapeno, and saute another few minutes.
2) Add meat and spices. Cook until meat is cooked through, breaking apart with your spoon.
3) Add tomatoes, kidney beans and sweet potatoes. Cover and cook until sweet potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
4) Add corn. Taste for salt, and probably add a little more. Serve!

Winter Stew

I was craving a good, hearty stew, and found a package of brisket in my freezer. It was quite a fatty piece of brisket (is that always the case? I'm not sure), which I opted to cook with all the fat intact and keep in the stew. It was my first time using my wood stove as a cook top (other than for heating water or to melt butter or toast seeds) - why have I not done this before?? It was so perfect! I set my dutch oven on top and it simmered away all day as if it were a crock pot.

I followed this recipe for root veggie stew, with barely a tweak. I added rosemary because I have an enormous pot of it next to the counter, which means I put rosemary in just about everything right now. I also served it with sauerkraut, adding it just when I am ready to eat to try and preserve some of the ferment benefits. This stew, particularly, is delicious with the kraut. Maybe it's all the root veggies, or the extra fat, I don't know. But the tangy kraut with the soft veggies and hunks of beef is perfect.

Winter Stew (makes 6-8 servings)
2+ lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1-2″ pieces
2 rutabagas, chopped
4 turnips, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
3 small potatoes, chopped
3 stalks celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 tomatoes, diced
Olive Oil or butter
1+ cup red wine
2 cups beef bone broth
sea salt
crushed pepper to taste
sprig of rosemary
*sauerkraut to serve (opt)

1. In a cast iron skillet or pan, heat 2-3 tbs olive oil or butter.  Add the onion, celery and carrots.  Saute until the onions are translucent and the celery has cooked through.  Set Aside.
2. In a heavy bottomed dutch oven, heat 2 tbls olive oil (unless your meat is extra fatty like mine, in which case just use the fat on the beef). Brown the stew meat.
3. Add the onion, celery, carrot mixture and tomatoes to the beef stew meat and saute for an additional 3-5 minutes.
4. Incorporate the beef stock, red wine, turnips and rutabagas.
5. Season with sea salt and crushed pepper. Throw in a rosemary twig or two.
6. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 2-3 hours. (I actually simmered mine for about 5 hours until the beef was really tender.)
7. 20 minutes before serving, add the potatoes and simmer until they are soft.
8. Serve with sauerkraut on top.

Resplendent Rosemary plant!

Samosa filling (Keema) and Tikel Gomen

This is the 2nd time I've made Nom Nom Paleo's beef samosa filling, Indian Spiced Keema, along with Ethiopian cabbage and carrots, or Tikel Gomen. They are delicious together.

If you want to get especially fancy, you could also make Besan Chilla, a north Indian flatbread made out of chickpea flour, that when eaten with the Keema is very samosa like. I did not make them this time around, but the combo of the three was a total trifecta. Yum.

Follow everything with a cup of turmeric-ginger tea with coconut milk, and really, it's a pretty perfect meal. (A meal in which I apparently care much more about eating than photographing. These photos are pretty atrocious!)

*My dinner companion was not eating dairy, so I used coconut oil in the keema. It was still good, just a bit less depth (in my opinion). I also didn't have cilantro. The cilantro kicks things up a notch, but perhaps like me, your cilantro is buried under some snow in the front garden!

Keema
2 tablespoons butter, ghee or coconut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced
2 pounds ground beef (or lamb/goat/combo)
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
2 ½ teaspoons salt
½ cup full-fat canned coconut milk
1 tablespoon garam masala
Juice from half a lemon
¼ cup minced cilantro

1) Melt butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute onions for about 10 minutes, until translucent and beginning to brown.
2) Add garlic, ginger, and jalapeno and saute until softened. Then add ground beef. Cook until cooked through, breaking up meat with your spoon.
3) Add turmeric, salt, and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer, and cover the pan and reduce to medium low heat. Simmer covered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4) After 20 minutes, remove lid and check that the liquid is gone. If not, continue cooking uncovered another few minutes until it evaporates. Add garam masala, lemon juice, and cilantro. Serve!

Tikel Goman

1/4 cup olive oil (or coconut oil)
4 carrots, sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 head cabbage, sliced

3 red potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces (opt)

1) Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot over medium high heat.
2) Toss in the carrots and onion and saute them in the oil for about 5 minutes.
3) Stir in the seasonings (salt, pepper, cumin, turmeric, ginger) and toast for a minute.
4) Add in the cabbage and potatoes. Stir to combine. Cover the pan. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook until the potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes.
*Mine got a little dry in cooking, so I added in a splash of coconut milk. 

Labneh, Beet Hummus, and Chrispy Chickpeas

Seasonal Middle Eastern Appetizers! That is what I decided to make when I hosted my aunties for a family sing. My talented friend teaches rounds and 3 and 4 part harmonies like nobody's business, and has a vast repertoire of traditional songs from all over the world. So. Many. Songs. It does my heart good to have a person like this in my life. Lately I want to host continual and non-stop sings. ha!

So. Singing to feed the heart and soul, and Labneh with cranberries, Beet Hummus, and Chrispy Chickpeas to feed the belly. I was in Iowa City two weeks ago and basically swooned from the Labneh at Oasis Falafel. OMG. I really had not thought much of labneh before. I'd had it, but it seemed nothing to fuss about. Now, there is life with labneh. And it is really easy. Like, so easy you are not doing anything but waiting.

Labneh
32 oz plain full fat yogurt

Labneh with Za'ater

3/4 tsp salt
cheesecloth

Mix salt into yogurt. Spread out cheesecloth over a plate or colander. Pour/spoon yogurt into center of cheesecloth. Tie ends onto your faucet over the sink (or hang somewhere else, or put cheesecloth in a colander over another bowl) and let drip for 24-36 hours. Eat! Keep in a covered container in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Top with cranberry sauce (follows) or dukkah, or olive oil and za'ater. Eat with veggies, crackers, pita, falafel, kubideh, salad, etc.
*Some people put lemon juice in with yogurt too, I will try that next time. I left mine for about 28 hours and had pretty thick yogurt to start out with. Your labneh texture can be softer or more firm depending on how long you let the whey drip off.

Cranberries to go atop Labneh (title links to original recipe)

Overly thick cranberries!

2 c fresh cranberries
1/2 c sugar
1 T lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 jalapeno, minced (opt)

Put all ingredients into heavy pot over medium-high heat. Once it is boiling, lower heat and cook until cranberries pop. (I left mine too long and it got pretty thick - but still tasty!)

Crispy Chickpeas (suggested amount - make however much you want)
1 1/2 c cooked or 1 can chickpeas
1 T olive oil
1 tsp salt
1-2 tsp herbs/spices

These do not keep long - they get chewy as they sit out, and are best right out of the oven. The main thing to know is to dry your chickpeas well, which I have done using a dish towel. This time I made my own chickpeas for the first time in a long while (think my vegetarian days in the early 2000s), cheaper and tasty. Heat oven to 400. Stir dry chickpeas on a sheet pan with the olive oil and salt so that all of them are coated. Bake for 20-25 minutes until crispy on the outside, shaking or stirring the pan once or twice as they cook. Sprinkle spices over the top (I made za'atar and it was delicious). 

Roasted Garlic Beet Hummus

1 large beet
head of garlic
2 c (or 1 can) chickpeas
2 T tahini
1-2 T olive oil
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1-2 tsp sea salt

1) Wrap beet in foil. Roast it and head of garlic (I removed the outer paper only) in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until beet is tender. Remove and let cool. Peel skin off of beet and unpeal garlic cloves. I used about 7 cloves in the hummus, and mixed the rest in eggs the next morning.
2) Mix ingredients in a food processor until smooth. *For a super smooth, creamy hummus you need to have one of those vita-mix type mixers. Maybe an immersion blender would do it too?