Beef Saag ("Saag Gosht")

or Beef in a Fragrant Spinach Sauce

It's a Saturday, and I felt like making Indian food, so I decided to try a "saag"; meat in a flavorful green spinach sauce. After perusing the cookbook collection, I settled on the "Saag Gosht" recipe (Beef in Fragrant Spinach Sauce) on page 179 of Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking (William Morrow and Company, 1980). I originally intended to make this with lamb, but I couldn't find a satisfactory piece of lamb shoulder, so I went with beef instead.

The recipe is fairly simple, but as with many Indian recipes, it takes a bunch of spices and cooks for a long time (2.5 hours in the oven, after prep). Not a weekday meal, in other words.

Step 1 is to brown lots of large beef cubes in batches.

Browned beef cubes

While the beef is browning in batches, lots of onions are slowly caramelized. After 25 minutes or so, garlic and fresh grated ginger are added to the browned onions in the pan, followed by cumin, coriander and turmeric. Then comes some diced tomato and 3 chopped jalapeno chilis.

Caramelized onions w/spices, tomatoes and chilis

After the onion mixture has cooked a few minutes more, some yogurt is added for creaminess.

Onion mixture with yogurt added

The onion mixture can be a little chunky, because after it is cooked, it is pureed in a blender. Then it is added into the dutch oven with the beef and more spices. Sahni's recipe called for a tied-up spice packet of cinnamon stick, whole cloves, cardamom  pods and bay leaves. I took the short cut and used ground versions of all but the bay leaves to save time (and I had ground cardamom but not whole...).

Beef with pureed onion mixture and more spices

Lastly, 4 cups of water are added and everything is stirred together before putting a lid on the pot and sticking it in the oven for 2.5 hours.

...add water, then braise for 2.5 hours

To give the saag its trademark green color (and spinach of course), a large amount of spinach is blanched in salted water before being pureed. This spinach paste is added to the pot at the end of the long cooking time, and is put back in the oven for a short time (10 minutes) just to meld the flavors a little.

After adding pureed cooked spinach

The result is a vibrant green richly-flavored dish where the beef just melts in your mouth. The last picture doesn't do the plate justice; the color was much more green, as it should be.

On the plate (color was green, not black...)

We served this with simple steamed white rice and raita (cucumber in yogurt with cilantro). And a nice Chardonnay (just doing our part to aid California wine country in its post-earthquake time of troubles...).

The kids loved it, as can be attested to by their final words at the end of the meal: "can you make Indian food again tomorrow?" I bet I can.

Halibut with Pumpkin Seed Mole

Fish Forever by Paul Johnson

We have been eating more than our fair share of meat recently and have burgers on the grill planned for a family get together-tomorrow, so we were looking for a nice light seafood dish today. It was agreed that I should make something with halibut, a wonderful white fish that everyone in the family seems to enjoy. In the past, I have done Giada's "Halibut with White Beans and Radicchio" a few times, but I had the time today to try something new. I pulled Paul Johnson's terrific Fish Forever off the shelf, looked up halibut, and found a fantastic looking recipe. Fish Forever (Wiley & Sons, 2007) is an IACP Cookbook of the Year award winner, and I have used it a few times in the past with good results. I always love trying out new recipes when I have time, and I was looking forward to making this.

The recipe I would be making was "Halibut Baked in a Pumpkin Seed Mole Sauce" (page 152). Moles are Mexican sauces, and can cover a very wide range of flavors. This particular mole was comprised of toasted pumpkin seeds, blanched tomatillos, onion, serrano chiles, cilantro, coriander, cumin and a few other things. Basically, the ingredients were prepped, put into a blender and then pureed into the consistency of a thin salsa.

Mole ingredients

At this point, the recipe said to spread some of the mole on the bottom of a baking dish, put the fish on top, layer the rest of the sauce over the fish, and then bake for 20 minutes or so. After I made the mole, I tasted it and was afraid that it would be too spicy for the kids (specifically the little one). So I changed direction at that point and decided to simmer the mole sauce by itself in a sauce pan while poaching the halibut separately, adding the two together at the end for those who wished.

Pumpkin Seed Mole

The fish was cut into servings and then poached for twelve minutes in a combination of water, a nice Chardonnay, a couple of bay leaves, 12-15 whole peppercorns and a heavy pinch of salt.

I served it with plain white rice (as suggested) and grilled zucchini. The mole sauce seemed to have mellowed quite a bit during the 25 minutes or so that it simmered, and my worry about it being too spicy seems to have been unfounded in the end. The kids loved it. The adults loved it. Even Grace thought it wasn't too spicy. Live and learn, I suppose...

Halibut with Pumpkin Seed Mole

This was a winner of a recipe. It was easy to make, didn't dirty too many pots and pans with regards to clean up, and was absolutely fantastic. Poaching the fish kept it extremely moist and tender, and I really couldn't have asked for a better result. This recipe goes on the short list of fish recipes I would make any time. The only potential downside is that halibut is pricey, but a pound and a half fed all four of us, so it wasn't too bad. And compared to the cost of eating even a mediocre meal out....

(Faux) Red Beans and Rice

Faux Red Beans and Rice

This is one of our most frequently made recipes, dating back to something that I threw together 12 or 15 years ago and have been making ever since. We called it "red beans and rice" although that is somewhat of a misnomer. It has red beans in it, we eat it with rice, and it is Cajun influenced, but anyone familiar with Cajun food will know that there is a specific dish called Red Beans and Rice, and this isn't it. That being said, it is generally evocative of something along those lines, and we have been calling it this for so long that we can't change now. Us, in-laws, family and neighbors all refer to this by that name, so that is what it has become.

The genesis of this recipe was to throw something together quickly that used easy ingredients, didn't take a lot of time, and was cajun-ish in nature. It proved to be easy, remarkably good, adaptable to variations, and cheap. So we've been making it ever since.

The basic recipe goes something like this (sized for either a lot of people or a smaller family meal with leftovers). We make it in big batches because it is one of those dishes that gets even better as it sits.

Ingredients:

• 2.5-3 pounds pre-cooked smoked sausages, cut into bite sized pieces. In our area, Hillshire Farms smoked sausages, kielbasa, etc, are readily available and are good for what they are. We also often use Aidell's andouille sausage. Anything by Aidell's is great. [Three packages in the 12-16 oz range]
• 1 large onion, medium-large dice.
• 2 bell peppers, medium dice. 1 red and 1 green is nice for color.
• 1 or 2 jalapenos, fine dice.
• 1or 2 14oz cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed. Depends how much you like beans.
• 14oz can diced tomatoes, with juice.
• 14oz can tomato sauce, or a similar amount of crushed tomatoes.
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced.
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4-1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper

Add the sausage to a very hot dutch oven or other large pot and cook 5-7 minutes over high heat, stirring frequently. The sausages are already cooked, so you are just trying to sear the edges for a little crispiness and color. Don't overdo and burn them.

Add the onions and garlic and cook 5 more minutes to soften and get a little color.

Smoked sausage and onions

Add peppers and spices, stirring to mix well, and cook for 2-3 minutes to open up the spices before adding the liquid.

Add bell peppers and hot peppers

Add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce/crushed tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then immediately reduce heat to medium (or whatever it takes to get a nice simmer going). Add the beans. Partially cover and simmer for 20 minutes (or more).

Add crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes

Serve with rice and/or crusty bread. Amp thinks everything goes with rice. I believe the same about a good crusty bread.

This can be made further ahead and simmered longer, but if you do a longer cooking time be careful to keep it mostly covered or you will evaporate too much liquid and dry it out. If it does start to dry out, I would add a little water or chicken broth to thin it out. If you add more crushed tomato or tomato sauce it becomes more strongly tomato flavored (although you might like that).

The heat can be adjusted by deleting or reducing the cayenne for a milder version, or adding more hot peppers (of whatever variety) or cayenne, or even a hot chili powder, for a spicier version.

Turkey Chili

Turkey Chili

I'll start out by saying that a turkey chili recipe is not something that I would have chosen to make on my own. However, a request came home from Grace's school for people to sign up for various food items to bring to school for a teacher appreciation week lunch. One of the main course items on the list was turkey chili. We'd never made one before, but had time on Sunday to do this, so that's what we did.

We routinely make a Texas Red chili (no beans of course) and a White Chicken Chili, but didn't have a handy recipe for a turkey chili. A little quick Googling allowed us to synthesize the following recipe by blending a few different simple recipes together. We made it, tasted it (it was really good!) and sent it off to school. No leftovers came home, but the kids, having tasted it while I was making it, asked that we make it again for ourselves at home. So we did, and had it for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

• A few glugs of olive oil
• 2 pounds of ground turkey (I used 1 lb each of ground breast and ground thigh for a mix of light and dark meat)
• 2 medium onions, medium dice
• 2.5-3 cups chicken broth (or a 32 oz package if you've gone heavy-handed on the other ingredients)
• 1 large (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 regular (14 oz) cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed (white beans or kidneys would be fine)
• 1-2 Anaheim or other mild/medium heat green chili pepper, fine dice
• 3 cloves garlic, minced

Spice Mix:

• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1-2 TB chili powder (I used half chipotle and half store bought generic "chili powder"...in deference to the kids we do this on the lighter end and season again for ourselves at the end)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (the chipotle and the smoked paprika combine to give a very nice smoky flavor)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin, plus a little more
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• a dash of dried mustard
• a dash of ground coriander

Steps:

1. Heat some olive oil in a dutch oven or other heavy large pot over high heat. When shimmering, add the turkey, breaking it up, stirring and cooking it until it is mostly cooked (5 or 6 minutes).
2. Add the onion, minced garlic and green chili pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the spice mix and stir to distribute. Cook for a minute or two.
4. Add the remaining ingredients (broth, tomatoes and beans). Bring to a boil. Partly cover, reduce to a low simmer and cook for an hour.
5. Check periodically while the dish simmers and add a little more chicken broth if needed (I didn't). You want a good chili consistency, not too thick and not too soupy.

...and a beverage

Some recipes of this type call for the beans to be mashed before adding them, which will serve to thicken the sauce, but I have found that a longer cooking time combined with a routine stirring will cause the beans to begin to break down, giving much the same effect with a slight bit less trouble.

This ended up being a surprisingly good recipe. I would make it (significantly) hotter if it was just for me, but in deference to the kids the above is a manageable amount of heat. This could also prove to be a versatile recipe, as there are a number of other variations on this that come to mind (more fresh peppers, a few nuggets of a spicy sausage, etc).

I would give this high marks for combination of little effort (we made it again on a week night), minimal cleanup, low cost and good flavor. Making this amount for a family of four will also do 2-3 meals, so this is a good recipe to make on a weekend and then have for an easy dinner or two during the following week.

Homemade Pizzas

Prosciutto, Asparagus and Goat cheese

This isn't a recipe, just an excuse to post a few pictures of some yummy homemade pizzas we made back in January. Just about any food market worth its salt these days sells fresh or frozen pizza dough. Several times in the past few months we have had a lot of fun with the kids coming up with interesting combinations of things to put on pizzas.

While there is generally a plain or pepperoni called for by someone, the only limit to what else you can come up with is your imagination. We've done the ham and pineapple "Hawaiian" thing, barbecue chicken, buffalo chicken, all sorts of things with veggies, and lots of other delicious combinations. Prosciutto, asparagus and goat cheese was a winner (and conveniently enough I have a picture).

You can accomplish the same thing with a pre-made pizza shell (like Boboli brand), but buying the dough and making it with that is much better, and not too much more work.

Pepperoni of course

In the short time it has taken me to write this, I can already think of a half dozen more things to try. Mac and cheese with ham... Blue cheese and portabello mushroom...

Turkey Meatloaf with Feta and Sun-dried Tomatoes

We had a real weeknight treat for dinner tonight: Giada de Laurentiis' Turkey Meatloaf with Feta and Sun-dried Tomatoes (Giada at Home, 2010, page 120). As I have mentioned before, I got this book for Christmas this year, and between a lot of cooking time over the holidays as well as some additional recipes made since then, this is probably the second-most used cookbook we own (ever!).

This recipe is a simple and standard meatloaf recipe (eggs, bread crumbs etc) that uses ground dark meat turkey, making it light and (somewhat) healthy. The big flavor ingredients are feta cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. My first thought on hearing "turkey meatloaf" was that it was going to be dry and bland, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The dark meat turkey keeps it moist, the feta adds saltiness and richness, while the sun-dried tomatoes add depth and complexity.

Giada's Turkey Meatloaf

We all loved it, and it was a simple dish to make: about 10 minutes to prep and combine the ingredients and 45 minutes to bake. Best of all, the kids left the dinner table asking that Mom make it again.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Last weekend we were looking for a new comfort food recipe to try out, and with all the snow and cold we have been having recently, a long slow-cooking braised dish of some sort would be perfect. The suggestion of short ribs came up, everybody liked the idea, and we went poking around for a recipe to try. The recipe we used was from one of the home websites that Amp frequents (www.chrislovesjulia.com), and the specific recipe is here. Since it is readily available for free, properly credited and linked I will repeat it here (ever so slightly tweaked of course...).

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta from the "Chris Loves Julia" website.

Ingredients:

• 8 beef short ribs, silver skin removed
• 2 TB canola or vegetable oil (for searing)
• 10-12 oz cremini or button mushrooms (we love mushrooms and probably went close to a pound)
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced (we used an entire medium onion)

For the braising liquid:

• 4 cups beef stock
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 tsp smoked Tabasco sauce (they make smoked Tabasco sauce?!? We used regular...)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 TB tomato paste
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice

The recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F).
2. Heat a large oven-safe pot over medium high heat.
3. Combine all braising liquid ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.
4. Add the canola oil to the pot and sear the ribs on all sides in batches. They need space or you will end up simmering them instead of searing them. You are just looking for a little crusty color on all sides.
5. Remove ribs from pot and saute onions in the pan juices for 2-3 minutes until becoming translucent (I let them go closer to 5 minutes).
6. Place the ribs back into the pot on top of the onions. Pour the braising liquid into the pot. The ribs should be almost covered, but not completely submerged.
7. Put the lid on the pot, put it in the oven (325 degrees F), and let it cook untouched for 2.5 hours.
8. After 2.5 hours, add the mushrooms to the pot, cover again, and cook for another hour.

When done, serve with polenta. We did a creamy polenta from Giada's Everyday Italian cookbook, which is our standard polenta recipe. We didn't do the fried polenta square that the recipe calls for. For a green side dish, a hearty leafy veg like garlic wilted kale or spinach (or green beans or asparagus) would be nice.

This is an incredibly easy and very tasty recipe that I would make again in a heartbeat.

Searing the ribs in batches

All you do is basically sear some meat, slice an onion, and stick a pot in the oven for a few hours. And it makes the house smell great...

Ribs with braising liquid

I found the list of ingredients for the braising liquid to contain some surprising ingredients (balsamic, cinnamon, allspice...), but the long cooking time took the edge off the balsamic, which was also diluted into a lot of beef stock. Everything came together to make a rich and complex sauce, which is exactly what you are going for in this kind of dish.

Everybody in the pool!

And mushrooms make everything better. So we added more than the recipe called for.

...adding mushrooms

The total oven time for this recipe is 3.5 hours, but honestly, we shorted that, and the result was none the worse for it. The initial cook was about 2 hours instead of 2.5, and after adding the mushrooms we cooked it another 45 minutes instead of an hour. So we braised it for a total of under three hours instead of 3.5, and the meat was still fall-off-the-bone-melt-in-your-mouth. We used very good quality grass-fed beef from Whole Foods, so that may have helped too.

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Mushrooms and Polenta

Taste - I'd give this an 8.5 out of 10. Very very good.
Work-to-Result rating - Another 8 or so out of 10. This is as "minimally fiddly" as a recipe can be (so 10 out of 10 in that regard), but it does take close to 4 hours of clock time to make (some searing and sauteing followed by a very long braise where you do nothing). So it's not a week night throw-together dinner.
Cost - Very good. Bone-in beef short ribs are not an expensive cut of meat, and the result is rich enough that you don't need a lot for a satisfying meal.
Overall - Fantastic...9 out of 10. Low-ish cost, very easy to make, we were planning on being home anyway, and the taste was absolutely terrific.