Chickpeas with Lime Juice

This is an adaptation of a chickpea curry from 660 Curries. This is, once again, my go-to for Indian food. Not one recipe has failed me and they are very adaptable to what you have in the kitchen at the time. I might add that there are 660 of them. This one originally called for mango powder. I was out of mango powder and substituted lime juice.

Ingredients (as cooked by me):

2 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 1 t. ground & 1 t. whole
2 cardamom pods (mine were green)
2 small cinnamon sticks
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ground
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 cans chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

Assembly

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the whole cumin seeds, cardamom and cinnamon sticks and cook until aromatic. The book says 15 seconds but it took mine a little longer.

Add tomatoes, lime juice, coriander, salt, cayenne, turmeric and the ground cumin seeds. Reduce heat to medium, partially cover and simmer until oil starts to collect at the edges. Add the chickpeas and cilantro. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until flavors come together.

I serve this with steamed rice. It makes a great no-meat meal on its own or a side dish for an Indian style feast. Enjoy!

Shrimp

Cheater Cuban Sandwich

Should Have Snapped a Pic Before Digging in

I have been using Alton Brown's Recipe for Cuban sandwiches substituting his grilled cheese method of using 2 screaming hot cast iron pans instead of the 500° fireplace bricks. Although this works great, last night I had neither the stuff nor the time for this method. I did have (this would really work with any combination of 1 each thinly sliced pork product, poultry product and cheese product):

Ingredients

Hamburger Buns
Thinly sliced (homemade!) Canadian bacon
Thinly sliced roast chicken breast
Havarti cheese slices
Common yellow prepared mustard
Butter

And an aluminum, non-stick stove-top griddle.

Assembly

I applied the mustard to the inside of the top half of each bun, layered the meats and cheese and added the bottom half of the bun. I buttered the top and bottom of the assembled sandwich with a silicone BBQ brush and toasted them, top and bottom, over medium-high heat on the griddle. This was surprisingly convincing and totally delicious!

Shrimp

Chili Chocolate Cheesecake

Work Potluck Photo of Last Slice

This recipe is based on Oreo cheese cake and chocolate cake cookies. It won first place in my work potluck creative chocolate dish competition (this is not an officially sanctioned competition).

1 box chocolate cake mix

1/4c oil
3 eggs
1t hot pepper flakes
1/2 package Oreo Cookies
1/2 stick butter melted
2 8oz packages cream cheese
1/2c sugar
1/2t vanilla
Cayenne pepper
Confectioner’s sugar
Cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cake mix, oil, pepper flakes and 1 egg. Drop heaping tablespoons of mix on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for 9-12 minutes. Allow to cool and break up to use as mix-ins. Crush Oreo cookies, combine with butter and press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool. Lower oven to 325°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Mix in chocolate cookie mix-ins. (you won't need all of the cookies, 4 or 5 should do) Pour into crust. Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Before serving, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder.

Enjoy!

Shrimp

Ratatouille

This is an allrecipes.com recipe that calls for a ton of Parmesan cheese. Being that I'm always trying to cook veggies in such a way that I don't have to count their points in Weight Watchers, I omitted the cheese except for a final sprinkling on the tomato layer. The result is a yummy Mediterranean style side dish appropriate with simply grilled chicken, chops or fish and maybe a nice cannellini bean salad. 

Ratatouille

1 eggplant diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt
herbes de provence
2 zucchini, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss the eggplant with salt, olive oil and herbes to taste. Heat skillet over medium high heat. Ad one tablespoon (3 counts) of olive oil. Sautee until soft and beginning to brown.

Place eggplant in the bottom of an oiled baking dish.

Add the zucchini in an even layer and salt to taste.

Repeat with remaining veggies; onion, salt, mushrooms, salt, bell pepper, salt, tomatoes, salt. Finally sprinkle on a bit of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until the zucchini is cooked to your liking.

Shrimp13

Orange Roasted Carrots

I found this recipe on Facebook here. This is a first for me, second in the organic Google results for the query "blood orange roasted carrots". Also odd is that there is not one Facebook ad on that page. Anyway, this one is really good. The orange peels add a tangy bitter note too the sweet caramelized carrots. I recommend it!

Orange Roasted Carrots

Carrots
Orange
Olive Oil 
Salt

Preheat Oven to 375°F. Peel and cut carrots into 1 inch chunks. Place chunks in a baking pan.

Halve the orange and squeeze the juice over the carrots. Slice the orange peel into thin strips and sprinkle over the carrots. Drizzle with oil and salt to taste.

Roast for 30 to 40 minutes until the carrots are done and the carrots and orange peels are caramelized.


Edit: After doing this recipe a few times I have come to the conclusion that covering the baking pan with foil for the first 1/2 hour, removing the foil and baking until GDB results in a more tender, less chewy carrot.

Yum!


Shrimp13

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

2 lbs asparagus, tough part trimmed
olive oil
black pepper
8 rashers bacon

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss asparagus in a bit of olive oil to coat and season to taste with pepper. Wrap about 1/8 of the asparagus in a rasher of bacon. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Place asparagus roll-ups on a rack over a sheet pan (you could use a grill pan). Place on middle rack in oven and cook until bacon is crispy and asparagus is cooked to your liking. Mine took 22 minutes.

Enjoy!
Shrimp13

Vetting the Brinkmann Smoke'N Grill

My friend Brooke recently lent me a Brinkmann Smoke'N Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill. I am not a pit master. I enjoy grilling but I have never taken the time to begin learning the nuances of smoking...until now.

Here's where I am so far. Temperature is illusory. If you slowly bring a chicken thigh up to an internal temperature of 175°F with the smoker at between 250° and 300° (higher than the recommended 200° - 250° range but it's very hard to keep a lower fire going in this unit - also well within the Brinkmann's fascist thermometer's "ideal" range - I installed one with numbers on it) the meat and especially the skin have a rubbery appeal. The second time I did thighs I skipped the thermometer and gave them an additional hour (total of 4 hours). Perfect. Very smoky like smoked fish.

In order to keep the lowest possible temp and still keep the coals glowing I start with a smallish pile of coals (about all that will fit in the charcoal container). 8 or so coals get added every hour and soaked wood chips every fifteen minutes. It's a little fiddly being that involved in the process is part of the fun.

Some folks say that the food is done when the fat has melted away. I'm thinking this could be a good gauge for pork shoulder. On my recent attempt I went with an internal temperature of 150°. Again too high bit the fat didn't seem melted away at 145°. It also wasn't melted away at 150°. Next time I will go with the standard 1 hour and 15 minutes a pound and examine for fatmeltedawayedness.

The Brinkmann has a water container that sits over the fire and under the grills. I haven't done the research but I imagine this is to keep the temperature down and keep the dripping from landing on the coals and creating flare ups/off flavors?

The Brinkmann also serves admirably as an 18" kettle type grill as borne witness by the photo below in the grilling of a small rainbow of sweet potatoes;

If I have money to burn I imagine one of those big units with the fire chamber off to the side would be ideal (and less fiddly). But the Brinkmann is definitely a bargain and totally functional.

Shrimp13