Methi Easter Lamb

I posted holiday recipes for Purim and Holi , now Easter. Yesterday was Easter Sunday and lamb is the traditional meal to eat on Easter. Being of Caribbean, Indian and et al decent, the way my family eats lamb is not the traditional American way of English/Irish tradition with mint jelly.

The roast lamb and tamarind coconut sauce I made used Indian seasonings. First the roast lamb. I created a paste in the food processor using methi (aka fenugreek) leaves, mint leaves, minced garlic, ginger paste. Methi is a common herb used in Indian cuisine. Lamb Methiwala is a fabulous yogurt curry with lamb, methi, tomatoes and potatoes. It is an herb with an earthy quality so use in moderation. If you use too much, your food will taste like dirt, but the combination of methi and mint is complementary and creates a great depth of flavor. Methi can be found at Indian supermarkets.

I sprinkled all sides of my boneless leg of lamb liberally with Global Tastes & Travels Indian spice blend (an Indian spice blend including everything from curry leaves to dried mango and coriander) and then I spread the taste on the inside of the leg of lamb. In a baking dish, I poured a few tablespoons of mustard oil.
I then rolled the lag of lamb and placed in seam side down in the baking dish and spread the remainder of the paste (reserving two tablespoons for the sauce) on the outside of the lamb and let it marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours.
I roasted it in a 350 degree oven for an hour and a half. It came out perfect, well done (the way we Caribbeans like ALL meat) but still juicy.

To make the sauce, take the reserved paste and place in a saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of tamarind concentrate, 6 tablespoons of sugar, 2 cups of coconut milk and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes until sauce is thickened and serve over lamb with rice. DELICIOUS!!

For info on purchasing the spice blend, send me an email!!!!

Thanks and have a good night!



Chef Mireille
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The Festival of Colors

This weekend every one is celebrating religious/cultural holidays. The Jews had Purim yesterday. Today is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter for Christians and the Hindus have Holi.

Holi is a very festive holiday celebrated by Hindus in India and the world over. Of course, it is celebrated widely in India, Trinidad and Guyana. Even in NY, our local mostly Caribbean Indian community has a Holi Parade tomorrow at noon at 133rd Street & Liberty Avenue if anyone in the NY area is interested. Holi is celebrated by throwing colored powders on people, so wear your old clothes. For more about the origins of the holiday, please see here.

Just like yesterday, since this is a food blog, here are a few traditional Holi recipes:

Gujia

Ingredients:
500 gms maida (flour)
1kg khoya
3 tbsps kismis (raisins)
200 gms almonds (cut into thin strips)
6 tbsps cooking oil. ( keep some more aside for deep frying)
200 ml water
500 gms sugar.

Method:

• Mix the six tablespoons of oil with the maida.
• Now add some water as required and knead into soft dough.
• Set aside and cover with a damp cloth.
• Fry khoya in a deep-frying pan to a light brown color.
• Add sugar, almonds and kismis into the khoya and mix well.
• Remove from the fire and let it cool.
• Roll out the kneaded dough into a small and thick chapatti.
• Fill half the chapati with the khoya mixture and seal the round, twisting the edges inwards.
• Deep-fry these gujhias to a deep golden brown color on slow flame.
• Take them out with a sieve type ladle and drain the oil completely.

Note - Makes about 40 gujhias.

Dahi Bhalle

Ingredients:

For Bhallas:
1 Cup Urad daal
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

For Dahi:
1 kg Dhabi(yogurt)
1/2 tsp. grated Ginger
Finely chopped coriander leaves
1-2 green chilies chopped
Salt to taste
2tsp Roasted cumin (jeera) powder
Red chili powder to taste

Method:

For Bhallas:

• Clean, wash and soak the daal overnight.
• Grind it into smooth paste.
• Add salt to taste.
• Heat oil in a pan and drop a spoonfuls of batter and fry till golden brown.
• Take the hot Bhallas and put in cold water for 2-3 minutes.
• Now Take them out of water and squeeze the water and keep aside.

For Dahi:

• Blend the curd (yogurt) and little water until it is smooth.
• Keep in refrigerator for an hour to get chilled.
• Add salt, red chili powder and cumin powder.

Serving:

• In a deep dish arrange bhallas and pour dahi over them.
• Now add imli (tamarind) chutney and green chutney.
• Garnish with coriander.
• Serve chilled.

Enjoy!!
For more Holi recipes, please see here



Chef Mireille
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Happy Purim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Purim is a very festive holiday celebrated by Jewish people the world over - complete with noisemakers, heroes and villains. In short, it is a story of deliverance of the Persian Jews. For the full story, please see here
But over to food, which is what I blog about. One of the greatest things about Purim is Hamentaschen. Fruit filled butter cookies that melt in your mouth. I am not Jewish, but I think this is one of the best reasons to celebrate Purim with your Jewish friends (not diminishing the importance of the holiday for them).
Here is a recipe for Hamentaschen (I will not take credit for the recipe - I simply pasted it from a Jewish website) - You don't have to be Jewish to make these!!


Recipe for Hamentaschen
2/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup orange juice (the smooth kind, not the pulpy)
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour (DO NOT substitute white flour! The wheat flour is necessary to achieve the right texture!)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
Various preserves, fruit butters and/or pie fillings.
Blend butter and sugar thoroughly. Add the egg and blend thoroughly. Add OJ and blend thoroughly. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, alternating white and wheat, blending thoroughly between each. Add the baking powder and cinnamon with the last half cup of flour. Refrigerate batter overnight or at least a few hours. Roll as thin as you can without getting holes in the batter (roll it between two sheets of wax paper lightly dusted with flour for best results). Cut out 3 or 4 inch circles.
Put a dollop of filling in the middle of each circle. Fold up the sides to make a triangle, folding the last corner under the starting point, so that each side has corner that folds over and a corner that folds under (see picture at right). Folding in this "pinwheel" style will reduce the likelihood that the last side will fall open while cooking, spilling out the filling. It also tends to make a better triangle shape.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown but before the filling boils over!
Traditional fillings are poppy seed and prune, but apricot is my favorite. Apple butter, pineapple preserves, and cherry pie filling all work quite well. I usually use Pathmark grocery store brand fruit preserves, and of course the traditional Simon Fischer brand prune lekvar. I have also made some with Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread); I find it a bit dry that way, but some people like it.
The number of cookies this recipe makes depends on the size of your cutting tool and the thickness you roll. I use a 4-1/4 inch cutting tool and roll to a medium thickness, and I get 20-24 cookies out of this recipe.



Chef Mireille
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What's Your Herb?

Good Evening or should I say morning at 12:30am??

One key ingredient I forgot to include in the recipe last night - fresh parsley - Hope no one tried to make it tonight without this important ingredient. Adding 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, finely chopped to the marinade adds a freshness to the chicken. Otherwise the chicken will seem a bit heavy with the double whammy of two smoky spices - the cumin and the coriander.

Please try the recipe with the 1/4 cup of parsley and I always appreciate your feedback.

Since we are talking about parsley, the herb of choice for most European and American based cuisines, as well as Middle Eastern. This is the all purpose herb included in most savoury dishes, however, Asia, African and many other countries have other herbs as their staple and if you can find them, I think they have way more flavor than boring parsley especially when making simple foods like an omelette - just adding a little bit of cilantro or Chandon Beni will make a world of difference.

Now the difference between these herbs for those who are unfamiliar with them:
Parsley, cilantro and chandon beni (pronounced shadow beny) are all relatives. Most people are familiar with both parsley and cilantro. They look very familiar. For years, the only way I could tell them apart was by smell. Cilantro has a very strong smell.

Parsley is an herb with a mild grassy taste. It is a holistic herb. Many people in the Caribbean drink parsley tea to aid in the control of high blood pressure and the Cherokees use it in a tonic to strengthen the bladder.

On to cilantro. Cilantro or coriander as it is called everywhere else in the world except the United States and South America - we always have to be different, don't we? Just like the Metric System - we can't be like the rest of the world!! Anyway, cilantro has a much stronger taste and aroma than parsley and has a citrus like taste. The coriander plant also bears fruit. These dried fruits aka coriander seed are one of the primary ingredients in all curries. Coriander leaf is the herb of choice for most of Asia, parts of Africa and in Scandinavian countries. It is one of those things - you either HATE it or you LOVE it - no middle ground, so you just have to try it (if you have not already done so) and decide for yourself!

Chandon beni, aka culantro, recaito or saw leaf herb (depending what part of the world you are from) is the other relative of parsley and cilantro. It smells and tastes are similar to cilantro, but even stronger. A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY is the rule when you are using this herb. It is the most common herb used on the island of Trinidad. Very few savoury dishes will be cooked there without the addition of the ever present chandon beni. Since coriander is so prevalent in East Indian cuisine, the Indians who came probably found this as the best alternative since coriander is not indigenous to the Caribbean. Chandon beni has a similar taste, although it does look different - this became their replacement for coriander.

Please try chandon beni ( the one many of you have probably never heard of) and let me know what is your favorite all purpose herb!!!



Chef Mireille
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Creole Baked Chicken

Belated Happy St. Patricks Day!!! - Well yesterday was St. Patty's Day and I had to commute home among all the intoxicated Irish people , but all in good fun.
Since I am not Irish, I did not have Corned Beef & Cabbage or Colcannon

I cooked a dish from my roots with my Dominican grandmother (not Dominican Republic). Here is a great recipe for Creole Baked Chicken - Enjoy - If you don't like spicy food, replace the Scotch Bonnet pepper with bell pepper:


Ingredients:
lime juice
3 lbs. chicken
2 T white wine vinegar
2 T sunflower oil
1 T minced garlic
1 minced Scotch Bonnet Pepper
1 onion, chopped fine
2 t ground cumin
2 t ground coriander
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Wash chicken with juice of 1 lime. Rinse well.
Place all ingredients in a large bowl with chicken pieces. Mix thoroughly to combine. Leave to marinate at least 1/2 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place chicken pieces along with all marinade ingredients into large baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes, until cooked thoroughly.
Uncover. Raise oven to broil. Put baking dish in broiler part of oven. Bake for 5 minutes until golden brown. Rotate pieces and broil on other side.
Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Hope your dinner is as good as mine was!!!



Chef Mireille
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Trinidad

Hello Everyone:
Now that we have started Daylight Savings Time, I hope everyone is ready for Spring!

I have been a negligent blogger - I have been so busy since my return, now coordinating all of the logistics to make the tour a fabulous one for all of you attending, but here is my update on my visit to Trinidad. Trinidad was fabulous. Located in the southern Caribbean, it is not one of the most popular travel destinations when people are planning their Caribbean vacations. People do not know what they are missing.

Due to the oil refineries, Trinidad is one of the most industrialized Caribbean nations. Because of this, the capital city of Port of Spain is not a place you want to spend much time in. It is a not so clean city with shopping and the like. But once you leave Port of Spain, Trinidad is a beautiful island. The northern coast is dotted with beaches. Maracas Beach is one of the destination spots for foodies. Richard's Bake and Shark is famous island wide - Shark perfectly battered and fried in between fried bread and you can condiment to the max with everything from ketchup to shado-beni sauce to kuchela (green mango pickle) and hot sauce. It was delicious. After Bake & Shark, catch the waves on the wonderful coastal beach, located just across the road.

Pitch Lake was another spot I did not know existed before traveling to the island. One of the natural wonders of the world, Trinidad's pitch lake is one of only three in the world and the only country allowed to export the pitch (asphalt) which is used to make everything from batteries and radios to roads and cars. It is amazing! - You are walking on this tar, which is interspersed with mineral sulphur pools and clearwater pools with fish swimming in them.

The South is dominated by the Indian population and this is apparent by the 85-foot Hanuman built by the ashram in Waterloo and the Temple in the Sea, which is exactly as the name states. Here is where you will find the best curry and dalpourie, along with palourie and aloo pies.

Char Sui Pork, which I had, demonstrated the Chinese influence on the island. Soong's Great Wall located on San Fernando Hill is the oldest Chinese restaurant on the island is the best Chinese food you will ever have!

Here is just a little introduction to Trinidad and once I get my tour logistics set - you will be hearing more!

So come join me in Trinidad in May, 2009!!!