Japanese Curry

Loving it, Loving it, Loving It! I cannot explain the taste of it - you just have to try! Authentic recipe calls to use ground beef in this recipe, but why not to experiment and tailor it to your liking? I do it vegetarian, with chicken pieces or over Katsu (breaded beef or chicken). This one is with some dried mushrooms bought from Japanese grocery!

Ingredients:
1 medium carrot
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
1/2 cup of dried mushrooms
1 cm fresh ginger
1 clove of garlic
1/2 block of "Golden Curry" Roux Medium Hot
Salt, pepper to taste
Dashi Stock or Chicken/vegetable stock
1 cup Japanese steamed rice
Pickled ginger or Kimchee for serving (not pictured)

Method:
1. Cover mushrooms with boiling water and let it stand for 30 minutes.
2. Cut onions: first cut each half of the onion into 3 wedges and dice in three parts. So the onion pieces should be pretty chunky.
3. Grind ginger and garlic.
4. Cut carrot and potatoes in medium size cubes or using Japanese technique for cutting into angles.
5. Add some canola oil into sauce pan and fry ginger and garlic for 1/2 minute.
6. Add onions, potato and carrot and stir fry for 1 minute.
7. Add mushrooms along with a water, add more water or dashi stock (you can use chicken stock from the cube).
8. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and cover with lid. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.
9. Add "Golden Curry" Roux and let it dissolve in simmering liquid of the stock. Keep on the law heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The dish is ready when all vegetables are cooked through. Be careful and do not over boil so the potato will not lose its form.
10. Remove from the heat - let it stand for 10 minutes, during this time the sauce will settle and become thicker.
11. Serve over steamed Japanese rice and eat with pickled ginger and Kimchee.

So good!!!!!!!!!!!!

Green Wheat with Chcken ("Freekeh Ma Dajaj")

One of my favorite Middle Eastern Dishes. Freekeh (or Farik) - is the type of cerela made from green weat which goes through a roasting process in its production. The wheat is harvested while the grains are yellow and the seeds are still soft; it is then piled and sun-dried. The piles are then carefully set on fire so only the straw and chaff burn and not the seeds. It is the high moisture content of the seeds that prevents them from burning. The now roasted wheat undergoes further thrashing and sun-drying to make the flavor, texture, and color uniform. It is this thrashing or rubbing process of the grains that gives this food its name, farīk or “rubbed.” The seeds are now cracked into smaller pieces so they look like a green bulgur. It typically served with chicken, but variation with Lamb is aslo possible.

Ingredients:
1/2 Chicken cut in pieces with bones and skin on
1 cup Freekeh
1/2 large onion
Olive oil
Toasted Pine Nuts
Water enough to cover chicken

Spices:
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom (or pods)
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Baharat (Arabic Spice mix)
Black pepper corns
Salt to taste

1. Prepare the chicken and boil it with spices until cooked.
2. Wash freekeh in large amount of water discarding dirt and stones. Drain in colander for 30 minutes.
3. Remove cooked chicken from stock, sprinkle with spices, brush with a bit of olive oil and cook in hot oven for 15 minutes just to give it some crispiness.
4. Drain stock.
5. Cook some diced onions in the skillet with 1 Tbsp. of olive oil until translucent. Add freekeh and cover with chicken stock - 3 cm. above surface. Bring to boil, cover with a lid and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Give it a stir once in a while or add more water or stock if needed.
6. Serve in one plate, garnish with toasted pine nuts or browned onions.

Buffalo Chicken Wings

American Classic for beer night at home!

Ingredients for crispy wings:

5 pounds whole chicken wings

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. black ground pepper

2 Tbsp. hot sauce

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Non-stick oil spray

1 cup of Buffalo Sauce (recipe below)

Method:

1. Cut wings into three sections: "tip", "flat" and "drum". We will use two bigger ones only for this recipe - but the smallest section "tip" can be reserved to make chicken stock.

2. To the bowl of chicken wings, add salt, pepper, hot sauce and oil. Toss to coat evenly.

3. Add flout to large plastic bag and pour in chicken wings. Shake to coat the wings in flour.

4. Cover two baking sheets in foil, spray them with non-stick spray. Place the floured wings evenly on the pans in one layer, spray the tops of the wings lightly with oil.

5. Bake in preheated 200 C oven for 30 minutes, then turn over each wing and bake for another 30 minutes, or until wings are golden brown and coating is getting crispy.

6. Transfer wings to a large mixing bowl. Pour the sauce (recipe below) over the hot wings and toss with spoon or spatula to completely coat.

7. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving, so the sauce will soak into the skin.

Buffalo Sauce:

8 Tbsp. Louisiana hot sauce (best, but i used Tabasco, hence did not find the one)

8 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. white vinegar

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in saucepan, bring to a simmer over law heat, stirring occasionally, an then turn off the heat.

Fish with Sesame Paste Sauce ("Samak Bil Tahina")

One of the best arabic dishes! Tahina sauce goes perfectly well with fish.

Ingredients:

500 g. fillet of white fish (hammour)

Salt, pepper, olive oil

1/2 tahina (sesame seed paste)

1 cup water

juice from one lemon

1/2 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic

Pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, green onions

Method:

1. Prepare fish: wash, discard any left over bones, pat dry, season from both sides and drizzle with olive oil.

2. Bake in preheated to 180 C oven for 10-15 minutes. Time depends on if you cook one big peace or two smaller ones. Do not over bake.

3. Prepare sauce: mix tahina, lemon juice and water and bring to a light boil, just to dissolve the paste. In another skillet fry some onions with garlic in 1 Tbsp. of olive oil, add to tahina mixture and mix well.

4. Remove fish from the oven and spread tahina sauce over it. Place back to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

5. Garnish with fried pine nuts and green onions on top.

Sahten! :-)

PS: for side dish i made some basmati rice with turmeric and raisins:

1. Wash 2 cups of basmati rice until water will become clear. Let it drain in a sieve for 30 minutes.

2. Heat some olive oil in heavy pan and fry rice for 2 minutes until coated well in oil and extra liquid evaporated.

3. Add 3 cups of boiling salted water and close the lead, leave on law heat for 10 minutes.

4. Open the lead and quickly drizzle 1 tsp. of turmeric over rice, close the lead again and cook for another 5 minutes or until rice cooked through and fluffy.

5. In small skillet heat 1 Tbs. of olive oil, add washed and dried raisins and fry for a minute.

6. Add to rice and mix all together before serving. Or just drizzle over rice on serving plate.

Korvapuustit - Finnish Cinnamon Rolls

I love cinnamon! It is so delicious with yeasted dough. I did not want to make those thick and sticky "Cinabon" rolls. Quite opposite, i love baked goods to be not as fattening as they might be. Those rolls you can by in europe in supermarkets, did not try them freshly baked though, but they sell them just in plastic bags which can be stored over time. This is how i made them.

Ingredients:

1 packet of active dry yeast (10-11 g.)

250 ml. milk

100 ml. sugar (I put 75 ml.)

450-500 g. flour

1 tsp. cardamom powder

75 g. buter at room temperature

1/2 tsp. salt

Filling:

2 tbsp. butter at room temperature

2 tbsp. cinnamon powder

3 tbsp. sugar

Egg for brushing

Sugar for sprinkle

Method:

1. Mix cardamom, sugar and and salt dissolve in slightly warm milk.

2. Sift most of the flour and mix with yeasts. Pour into milk mixture and mix until smooth.

3. Add butter and remaining flour, keep mixing until dough will not be sticking to the mixing bawl.

4. Cover with plastic film and let it rise in some warm place, until double in size. 40 minutes to 1 hour.

5. In meanwhile mix together cinnamon and sugar. Prepare butter, softened at room temperature and brush.

6. Kneed dough after rising for few minutes, then roll into rectangular 40 by 50 cm.

7. Spread the butter over it, keeping 1 cm from one side. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon filling. Roll into roulade.

8. Cut it diagonally, so one side of it will be about 5 cm, and another 3 cm.

9. Place rolls on the baking sheet, lined with baking paper leaving 5 cm. space between.

10. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it double in size (40 minutes or so).

11. Preheat oven to 225C.

12. Beat egg yolk with a little bit of water and brush the rolls.

13. Press with a spoon in the middle down. Sprinkle with some sugar or cinnamon on top.

14. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Lovely for breakfast! My BF loved them! I wish you too.