Tag Archives: cooking

3 ingredient recipe – simply at its best

Simple Chinese broccoli (gai-lan)

You will need:
– a handful or two of Chinese broccoli, nicely washed
– good quality sesame oil (for the love of what’s good and holy, stay away from those cheap adulterated oil blend junk)
– tamari

1. Bring a pot of water to a roaring boil.
2. Take the broccoli and cut into bite sized pieces.
3. Submerge the broccoli for a minute or two, then drain well.
4. Drizzle lightly with sesame oil and tamari to taste. Toss and serve with rice and other sides.
5. Eat and enjoy.

[orginally published on LiveJournal]

Baked Irish Oats

1 cup steel cut Irish oatmeal
3 cups skim milk (or soy/nut based milk if you want to veganize)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 ounces of any dried fruit of your choice (I like cherries and raisins.)
2-3 fresh apples, peeled and diced or sliced
spices to taste:
they can either be the prepackaged apple spice blend,
or a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamon,
or even your favorite chai blend.

Mix oatmeal, milk, and oil in a casserole dish and set aside while you cut up the apples. Then stir in the dried fruit, spices, and apples. You can arrange the half the apple slices on top all fancy like and dust with spices, but it’s not necessary. They’ll taste just as good.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour.

White Trash Cooking

Two recipes. Yay.

Starburst Pie
Take a package of orange flavored Jello. Prepare jello according to directions. Blend in 8 oz. of sour cream. Pour into prepared graham cracker pie crust and chill until set. Decorate with sliced strawberries, kiwis, and bananas.

Pasta salad
8 ounces pasta (bowtie, spirals, orecchiette, wagon wheels, or cavatelli)
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
Italian-style salad dressing to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking, put frozen vegetables in a colander. When the pasta is done, pour over vegetables in colander and rinse with cool water. Drain well. Put pasta and vegetables in a big bowl, toss in salad dressing to taste.

If you’re feeling fancy and extravagant, you can also throw in some olives and/or tuna.

How to make a quick “Grilled” Cheese Sandwich.

You’ll need:

2 slices of bread
2 slices of cheese
A toaster
A microwave

First toast the bread in the toaster. Take them out when done.
Then lay the toasts on a plate.
Take the cheese and lay each slice on top of the toasts.
Place the plate in the microwave and nuke on high for 15-20 seconds until the cheese is melted.
Put the two pieces together.
Eat.

Haleem

Haleem is a porridge type dish originating from South Asia and Middle East. It is traditionally made with meat, wheat, lentils, and spices and slowed cooked for several hours.

Here is my vegetarian version I developed the other day.

Pumpkin Haleem (Vegetarian)

2 pounds pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 cup dried wheat
1/2 cup yellow split peas
1/2 cup lentils
3 tablespoons garlic & ginger paste
1-2 tablespoon(s) garam masala
1-2 teaspoon(s) chilli powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 heaping teaspoon turmeric
1 heaping teaspoon cumin powder
1 heaping teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon cloves powder
2 tablespoons olive oil or any other oil of your choice
2 quarts water

1. Soak the wheat, peas and lentils in cold water overnight and drain.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook onions until soft. (About 5 minutes)

3. Add the garlic & ginger paste and the spices.

4. Add pumpkin, wheat, peas, lentils, and water. Bring to boil, then simmer on low flame, stirring occasionally for about 2-3 hours.

5. Mash the haleem to a near smooth consistency with a potato masher.

6. Serve with any toppings or condiments of your choice: sliced green jalapeño, chopped fresh cilantro, ginger matchsticks, fried onions, mango chutney, lime chutney, raita.

Austrian potato dumplings

I made some knödel (potato dumplings) using this recipe. In my version (which is the sweet kind), I used sweet potatoes in place of the plain potatoes and blackberries for the filling. The sweet knödel are usually rolled in hot sweetened bread crumbs, but I’m too lazy to prepare it. So I took the punk way out by topping them in spices and honey.

14dec2010

Knödel (sweet)

1 lb sweet potatoes, washed, peeled and cubed.
2 eggs
10 oz (2 cups) all-purpose flour
couple pinches salt
soft fruit of your choice (berries, stone fruits with pits removed, etc.)
ground cinnamon

1. Boil potatoes until fork tender, about 10-15 minutes. Drain and let stand for 5 minutes, so moisture can evaporate. Ensure there is no liquid left. Then mash potatoes and leave to cool completely.

2. Add salt, flour and eggs and mix in. Don’t overwork it. Dough should be on the crumbly side.

3. Stuff the dumplings: take a handful of the potato dough. Form a small bowl. Place some fruit in it, and seal it up with the dough. Leave no openings and squeeze out all air out of the dumpling. Air pockets will break open the dumpling during the cooking process; that will be no good.

4. In a pot of boiling water, add dumplings, cover the pot and bring to boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and leave dumplings in water for another 15 minutes.

5. Remove dumplings from water. Dust with cinnamon, drizzle on some honey and serve.

Easy way to cook broccoli

How to cook broccoli the way my father taught me many years ago.

Bring water to boil. Dump in cut up broccoli and bring back to boil. Once the water starts to bubble, drain. That’s it! It may be some 45 seconds or a minute and change. You won’t want to boil the greenness out of the vegetable. Yellowed out broccoli does not make good eats. Done.

However you want to season it is up to you. I like to toss in tamari and sesame oil with some flax seeds and serve it as a Korean-style banchan along with kimchi.