Chai Tea (Indian Spiced Tea) Recipe

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from Cook Wild by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi.....

I got to know and love chai during my time in India. Despite the hot weather there, the spiced tea had a stimulating and strengthening effect. Later, when I was trekking in Nepal, I appreciated this delicious drink again: it warmed not only my cold fingers but also my entire body, and gave me strength for the mountain trek. The milk for the drink had been taken from a water buffalo shortly before and gave the chai a particularly creamy flavor. Instead of water buffalo milk I like to add a dash of cream to my chai. As soon as winter starts, I drink my chai with galangal root to prevent colds.

Recommended Equipment:
a pot with a lid or a hobo oven
a sieve

Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups water
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods, squashed
1 slice fresh ginger, about 1/2 cm thick
2 cloves
1 generous tbsp black tea leaves (Darjeeling or English tea)
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup milk or milk-cream mixture

Preparation:

1. Put the cold water and spices in a pot with a lid. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. Add the tea leaves and sugar and simmer without the lid for a further 2 - 3 minutes; if necessary, stir until the sugar has dissolved.
   
3. Finally, add the milk and bring to a boil. Strain and drink hot.

Tip:
Instead of ginger you could use galangal root (also called laos and available in Asian food shops). Both ginger and galangal root stimulate the body's defense mechanisms, protecting it from colds and flu.

Fire:
Fire with low flames or a Swedish log fire.

Recipe courtesy of Cook Wild by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi

India [ print this recipe for Chai Tea ]

Juan-Carlos Paella Recipe

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from Cook Wild by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi.....

A good friend of mine lived in Spain for a long time and found the love of his life there. He also learned how to cook the most delicious paella from Juan Carlos of Valencia, who told him that paella used to be cooked on the rice fields surrounding Valencia, on open fires fueled with rice straw. At that time, the paella consisted of rice, very few vegetables and rat meat - a rather unsavory story which our children relish. - Sabine Mader

Recommended Equipment:

• a paella pan or other large pan (inner diameter, about 12 1/2 inches) or a muurikka
• a small mortar and pestle for the saffron
• a stable stand for the pan

Ingredients:
3 chicken legs cut into pieces
olive oil
1 small can pizza tomatoes
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, plus some for garnishing
1 - 3 garlic cloves
1 generous pinch sweet paprika
1 pinch freshly ground pepper
1/4 tspn cayenne pepper
1 handful green beans, stringed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 handful thick white beans. soaked the day before
about 6 1/2 cups of vegetable stock
salt
2 1/2 cups short-grain paella rice
4 pinches saffron (saffron threads pestled and dissolved in warm water)

Preparation:

1. Brown the chicken pieces in oil in a large pan or a paella pan.
2. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, garlic, paprika, pepper, cayenne pepper, as well as the green and white beans, and let it all simmer for about 10 minutes.
3. Now add half of the vegetable stock and season with salt (it should taste a bit too salty, as the saltiness will be reduced when the rice is added).
4. Add the rice to the pan in a strip down the middle so that the chicken mixture is divided in two and some rice is on the surface. Then spread the rice over the paella.
5. Dissolve the saffron in the remaining vegetable stock, gradually add it to the pan and let everything simmer until the rice is done. For an especially delicious flavor leave the paella over the heat so that it is lightly fried.

Fire:
Small cooking fire with constant flames. Continuously add small branches or logs.

Recipe courtesy of Cook Wild by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi

Spain [ print this recipe for Juan-Carlos Paella ]

St. Patrick's Day - Corned Beef, Cabbage, and Green Beer Recipe

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This meal of corned beef, cabbage, and garlic mashed potatoes is a classic Irish St. Patrick's Day feast. I also included a pint of green beer just for the occasion. Sláinte!!

The preparation of the potatoes and the cabbage is pretty strait forward. However, the corned beef takes some planning ahead of time. You will need a brining bag or a few heavy-duty zip-lock plastic freezer bags that you will use to soak the beef in a brine (salt) solution. This process takes about 7 days (believe it or not). The recipe for corned beef that you will need is listed below. But if St.Patrick's Day is just around the corner and you want to make corned beef in a pinch, you can get a kit at most grocery stores that include a pre-seasoned brisket and spices. Either way, you will be able to make a great, traditional St. Patrick's Day feast featuring corned beef and cabbage!! Erin go Bragh!!!

If a home stand in the kitchen is not what you had in mind, there are a few cities here in the States that have sizable Irish immigrant populations and also have respectable St. Patrick's Day celebrations. These include Boston, Chicago, New York and Savannah, Georgia. Out of these four cities, Chicago would be my first choice. Here is a guide to additional events happening in the Windy City this weekend...

If you do decide to go to Chicago, I recommend going to McGees and Kelly's. These two pubs are conveniently located across the street from one another in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Chicago's north side. As stated in an earlier post, if you visit McGee's be sure to try the Irish Nachos!! Anyway, back to the recipes....

Recommended Equipment:
Dutch oven
brining bags (you can get them at Sur La Table) or heavy-duty plastic Ziploc Freezer bags

Corned Beef
Ingredients:
2 1/2 pound beef brisket
5 cloves garlic, cut in half
8 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
4 tbsp sugar
1 cup kosher salt
3 bay leaves
1 tspn dry mustard
2 tspn peppercorns
1 pinch of ground cloves
1/4 tspn whole cloves
1/2 tspn allspice
4 garlic cloves, diced

Preparation:

1. In a large pot, mix together the water, sugar, kosher salt, white vinegar, bay leaves, 1 tspn of the peppercorns, 1/2 tspn of the dry mustard, and a pinch of ground cloves.
2. Bring the mixture to a boil and then let it cool. This mixture is called the brine.
3. Put the beef brisket in a brining bag. Then pour in the brine mixture and the 5 garlic cloves. The brine should cover the beef at all times so try to seal the bag with as little air remaining as possible. Then, place the bag in a larger bowl (in case the bag leaks). You may have to place a can of soup on top of the bag to keep the beef below the surface of the brine.
   
4. Place the bag in the refrigerator for 7 days.
5. After 7 days, remove the beef brisket from the brining bag and discard the brine.
6. Rinse the brisket with water and then place the meat in an oiled Dutch Oven or large pot.
7. Add enough water to cover the lower 2/3 of the beef brisket.
8. Add the remaining 1 tspn of peppercorns, the allspice, the remaining 1/2 tspn of dry mustard, 4 diced garlic cloves, and 1/4 tspn of whole cloves.
9. Heat the pot over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Skim off any foam that forms.
10. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer for 4 hours.
11. Remove from pot and cut the brisket across the grain of the meat.
    

Cabbage
Ingredients:
3 cups of the mixture in which the brisket was simmering.
1 head of cabbage, sliced into thin ribbons.
salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Preparation:

1. Add the 3 cups of the brisket mixture and the cabbage to a large skillet.
2. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper.
   
3. Heat the skillet over medium heat.
4. Heat the cabbage until it has softened but still has a slight crunch.
5. Remove from heat and drain off any excess water.
6. Add butter to the cabbage and stir.
   
7. Serve hot.
   

Ireland [ print this recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage ]

Chocolate Guinness Pancake Recipe

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This recipe for Chocolate Guinness Pancakes is a great choice for a post-St. Patrick's Day breakfast. All you need is a left-over bottle of Guinness Stout and a few basic ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn kosher salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup Guinness Stout
dark chocolate chips
butter
maple syrup

Preparation:

1. Heat a greased skillet over medium heat.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
3. In a separate large bowl, mix together the egg, milk, and Guinness.
4. Gradually mix in the dry flour mixture with the wet Guinness mixture.
5. When the skillet is hot, pour in about 1/8 cup of the batter and top it with a few pieces of the chocolate chips.
6. When the pancake starts to bubble on top, flip it over and cook it until golden brown.
7. Place the pancake in a warm oven until they are ready to serve.
8. Repeat steps 5 through 7 until you have used all of the batter.
9. Serve pancakes topped with butter and maple syrup.
   

Ireland [ print this recipe for Chocolate Guinness Pancakes ]

Book Review: Vegan Junk Food

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Ever thought about becoming a vegan but your love for junk food got in the way? Well, now you have no excuse. Vegan Junk Food by Lane Gold features 225 animal friendly, good to the planet recipes that will satisfy vegans and non-vegans alike. Gold has been a vegan for 10 years and has also been a personal chef in Los Angeles for 5 years. She runs a catering coop that features seasonal, organic, and local specialties. She is a food justice advocate and she is also a volunteer at local farms.

Vegan Junk Food showcases Lane Gold’s talent for recreating classic recipes into vegan friendly dishes using creative substitutions. She manages to do this without compromising any of the dish’s original flavors. She is also adept at creating new favorites like Eggplant Bacon, Portobello Cheese Steak, and Sausage Puffs to name a few. This book is an valuable resource for anyone that is interested in incorporating more vegan dishes into their diet. It not only provides substitutes that you can use in your cooking, it also recommends specific brands. Some of these include the substitutions below:

Meat – textured vegetable protein (TVP), seitan or wheat meat, frozen meat patties (Gardein or Boca), Hot Dogs (Yves Veggie or Tofurky), soy chorizo, or Bacon Bits (Frontier’s Bac’uns).

Non-Dairy Milk – almond milk, hemp milk, rice milk, coconut milk, or soy milk.

Egg – use ground flax seeds and water, blended tofu, or applesauce as binders.

Margarine – use a brand that is not hydrogenated and is trans-fat free – Earth Balance

Table Sugar – vegan cane sugar, beet sugar, granulated and dehydrated cane juice – Florida Crystals

Brown Sugar – sucanat or whole cane sugar.

Powdered Sugar – powdered sugar made from organic sugar cane – Wholesome Sweeteners

Chocolate – avoid brands that use lecithin. Chocolate chips – Sunspire; Chocolate bars – Sjaaks or Nicobella.

Marshmallows – avoid brands that include gelatin. - Sweet and Sara, Dandies; You can also use marshmallow Fluff – Susanne’s Rice Mellow Crème.

Cheese – Daiya or nutritional yeast (www.bobsredmill.com)

In our review, we chose three recipes that were all part of the same meal. We decided to make the Tandoori Tempeh Pizza which used Onion Garlic Naan bread as the crust and Cucumber Soygurt Sauce as a garnish. Each of these recipes was easy to make and turned out perfect on the first attempt. Each of the recipes that we tried seamed to be very well tested as they did not require any adjustments to the original recipe. We're not vegans so some of the ingredients like Soygurt and Tampeh were somewhat foreign to us. However, they were easy to find at a regular grocery store. Each of the three recipes that we tried were exceptional and I’m sure we will be making each of them again soon. The naan bread was especially good and my mother-in-law (who is from India) could not believe that naan that was not cooked in a clay oven could taste this way!! We give Vegan Junk Food five stars out of five.

Apple Pizza Recipe

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Whenever it is pizza night at our house we either have Apple Pizza or Chocolate Pizza for dessert. Both of these use the Neapolitan Pizza Dough recipe so either could be served with Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Fresh Basil Pizza, or São Paulo Style Portuguese Pizza which also use the Neapolitan style dough as a base.

Recommended Equipment:
Pizza stone

Ingredients:
Neapolitan Pizza Dough
mozzarella cheese, sliced
apple, thinly sliced
honey
cinnamon, ground

Preparation:

1. Place pizza stone in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
   
2. Next, use one of your Neapolitan pizza doughs and form a thin oval crust.
3. Cover it with a thin layer of mozzarella cheese.
4. Place apple slices on top of the mozzarella.
5. Drizzle honey over the apples.
6. Sprinkle cinnamon over the apples and honey.
7. Slide pizza onto the pizza stone in the oven and bake for 6 minutes.
8. Let cool for 3 to 4 minutes then serve.
   

Italy [ print this recipe for Apple Pizza ]

Bannocks Recipe

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from Cook Wild by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi.....

This recipe comes from my Native American friend Shirley. She lives in the Yukon Territory in north-western Canada. Bannocks are part of every social gathering there; that is why the recipe is for fifteen people. If your ‘tribe’ is smaller, you can halve the quantities.

Recommended Equipment:
Cast iron pan or flat lid of a Dutch oven. You can also make bannocks on a hot stone, a roof tile or a muurikka.

Ingredients:
1 kg (2 1/4 lb) 7 1/2 cups flour
1 tspn baking powder
2 level tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar (brown)
About 3/4 liter (1 1/2 pints) 3 cups cold water
About 500 ml (1 pint) 2 cups vegetable oil (e.g. sunflower oil, rapeseed oil) for deep frying.

Preparation:

1. Mix all of the ingredients into a dough and use immediately.
2. Heat some oil in a pan.
3. With a large spoon, take some dough, put it in the pan and press it flat to a diameter of about 5cm/2 inches. When the bottom of the bread has browned a little, turn it with a fork and brown the other side. The bannocks will be done when you flick them with your finger and they sound hollow. Serve hot.

Variations:
There are countless variations.

• In Canada they put cranberries in the dough. You could also use other wild berries such as blueberries, barberries or lingonberries.
• Some recipes use milk or powdered milk in the dough.
• Other possible ingredients include: raisins, grated coconut, pieces of dried apple, beechnuts, pine seeds, small pieces of cheese and bacon.
• You can also add wild herbs to the dough.

Bannocks make great breakfast food at campfires, and they also taste good as a side dish with stews and meat.

Fire: A mature fire with low flames for constant heat.

Makes about 30 Bannocks

Recipe courtesy of Cook Wild by Susanne Fischer-Rizzi

Canada [ print this recipe for Bannocks ]