Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Liver Pate
Serves 6

1 small onions, finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed (optional)
7 ounces chicken livers, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp brandy
1/2 dried mixed herbs
Scant 1 cup medium-fat soft cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon wedges and parsley sprigs, to garnish
6 slices of toasted wholemeal bread, to serve

Put the onion and garlic in a saucepan with the chicken livers, water, brandy and herbs. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the chicken livers are just cooked and the onion is softened. Cool slightly, then puree in a blender or food processor. Add the cheese and run the machine again until well blended. Season with salt and pepper. Turn into a small container, cover and chill. When ready to serve, divide the pate between six serving plates, garnish with lemon wedges and parsley sprigs and serve with triangles of hot toast.

Chicken with Mustard and Rosemary Rub

Chicken with Mustard and Rosemary Rub
Serves 4

2 large rosemary sprigs
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp celery salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbsp sunflower oil

Strip the leaves off the rosemary sprigs. With the machine running, tip into a blender or food processor with garlic, mustard seeds, parsley, cayenne and celery salt. Add a little pepper. Make several slashes on each side of the chicken. Rub this mixture well into the chicken on both sides and leave to marinate for about 2 hours. Brush with the oil and place on foil on a grill (broiler) rack. Grill (broil) for about 8 minutes on each side until cooked through and golden.

Curried Coconut Pork Stew with Rice

After searching for kind of Indian stew, I could not find one that I want to use the pork for something curry stew. Many vegetarian, many chicken and many weird ingredients like pan patties in stew. So, I get many ideas from all reading the recipes and formed my recipe for Curried Coconut Pork Stew with Rice based on concepts of Indian Cuisine.

Changed few ingredients so I have something on hand at home. I don't use the cornstarch after seeing so many recipes, I decided not to use it--I don't have best opinion for starch to thicken, but worse, it will "blandize" everything in stew, it is best for good teriyaki sauce. I use the flour for browning and good thickening agent in stew.

As the result come in, my family gobbled them up and I managed to get some for my dinner. They asked me if I am going to make it again in short future. It is so damn easy to make but it will take much patience and time.


Curried Coconut Pork Stew with Rice
Recipe by Chef Red Hawk

1 can coconut milk
3 tablespoonfuls Red Curry Paste
1 onions, diced
3 good green apples, peeled, cored and diced
3 or more pounds Carnita pork, cut into bite-size cubes or strips
Flour
Clarified Butter or Olive oil
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
Lime Juice
1/2 cup frozen green peas--just add nice color to stew.

Add about four tablespoonful of clarified butter to heated dutch oven and heat until point of smoking. Coat the pork with flour and shake the excessive flour off. Brown pork thoroughly, and transfer to warm dish. Add the onions and apples to dutch oven and stir. Until onions and apples are slightly caramelized, add little water to deglaze and slightly thickened. Add curry paste and Coconut milk. Bring it to boil and reduce to simmer. Add the browned pork to the milk. Add soy sauce and fish sauce. Cover and put the dutch oven in oven. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until pork are fully tenderized and the sauce are thickened. Add the green peas to stew and let them thawed in hot sauce.

Adjust with salt and pepper, and lime juice to taste.

Serve over the bed of your favorite rice.

Little Review of a Cookbook and a recipe.

I read wonderful cookbook, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman and found many very readable recipes I like and would love to try one for my family. There are several instructions that I learned alot about the way to cook the food from this book--there are very simple recipes that I can whip it up at short notice moment and create good meal with what I have on hand.

There are no mystery ingredients that will make you run to some kind of stores--there are an alternative way to get a plain source to jazz your meal up without any special ingredient. No weird stuffs in this book, I am relieved for some reasons that I don't want to buy something very expensive source that I will use it once and let it sit in pantry closet for long time until it disappeared. Sometime, I think it is pretty stupid to find a special ingredient and it tasted awful by ruining my meal.

I enjoyed this book, with recipe software on back of book inside, most because it is very readable. I like a simple way to cook or storm a meal up for lunch or dinner with what ingredients I use so often.


Pasta with Provencal Seafood Sauce
Recipe Source: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Makes at least 4 servings

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Diced Onion
1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic
1/2 Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
1/2 Cup Dry White Wine
2 Cups Canned Crushed Tomatoes, not drained
1 Pound Linguine, or other pasta
1/4 Cup Minced Fresh Flat-leaf Parsley
1/2 Cup Fresh Basil Leaves, shredded
1 Teaspoon Fennel Seeds
1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest, see directions
Salt and Pepper, to taste
1/2 Pound Shrimps, peeled and cut up if large
1/2 Pound Sea Scallops, cut in half if very large

1. You can use orange zest in place of lemon.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

3. Put the oil in another large, deep pot over medium heat. One minute later, add the onion and cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes, wine, and tomatoes, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let cook for about 15 minutes. (This sauce may be covered and refrigerated for a day or two, or put in a closed container and frozen for several weeks. Reheat before adding the seafood.)

4. Salt the boiling water and cook the pasta until it is tender but firm. When the pasta is almost done, add the parsley, half the basil, and all remaining ingredients to the sauce; simmer until the seafood is cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes.

5. Drain the pasta and serve with the sauce, garnished with the remaining basil.

What to do with Curry Powder?

There are so many good recipes using curry powder but I don't know which is one good... I can give you few good links to recipes. You can Google it up online and find something interesting recipe. Beside Google, I will go to bookstore and steal few recipes from Indian cookbooks when I got an inspiration to find something to cook for dinner. Or, go to library and start recipe-hunting through many cookbooks.

Sometime I used powder to "color" white rice for kind of curried Indian dinner with my family. Other than just rice, I will add curry powder to chicken soup, zap the flavor to coconut shrimp "soup", or jazz beef stew up with it. Even, use powder for pickling vegetable--just color the cauliflowers or onions (very nice flavor in pickled vegetables).

Beef Curry with Toasted Spices
Fragrant Beef Curry with Rice
Gosht Madras (Madras Beef Curry)
Salor cari swai sach ko (Beef curry with mango.)

Mulligatawny
Recipe source: The essential Asian cookbook
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Total cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Serves 6

2 lbs chicken pieces
2 Tbsp plain flour
2 tsp Madras curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 oz butter
6 whole cloves
12 black peppercorns
1 large apple, peeled and chopped
6 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup cream

1. Trim the chicken of excess fat and sinew. Combine the flour, curry powder, turmeric and ginger, and tub the mixture into the chicken.
2. Heat the butter in a large pan; add the chicken and cook it on all sides over medium heat until lightly browned. Tie the cloves and peppercorns in a small piece of muslin or cheesecloth, and add to the pan with the apple and stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat slightly and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
3. Remove the chicken from the pan and discard the muslin bag. Remove the meat from the bones and finely chop. Discard the skin and bones. Skim the fat from the soup.
4. Return the chicken meat to the pan. Stir in the lemon juice and cream, and heat gently. (Do not allow the soup to boil or it will curdle.)

Curry Powder Recipes

One of days, I found myself so boring around home after finishing my sort of usual chores while my wife is at work. Was trying to keep my home cooling and prepared for other "HOT" day, according to weather news, the expected temp is going up to 100 F today.

So, I thought you might like to see what I wrote about curry powder recipes. I did little research on curry powder but it is not so simple than I thought about making powder. I hope everything are simple for you as long as I have ingredients in my pantry or spice cabinet. Considering the recipes but it is not kind of authentic recipes as some websites claimed their recipe are.

I don't care as long as I can curry the meat or whatever, and enjoy the taste of curried flavors in my food. Sometime, I have to be careful with curry due to how much spicy it is. I need to taste it before add to food or I will have long lecture from my wife about how to season the food right way (blah, blah, blah). Occasionally I used one of recipes to cook with lamb or beef depending on how is my mood for food.

Madras Curry Powder Recipe
20 min | 10 min prep

8 tablespoons coriander seeds
6 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seed
4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
8 tablespoons peppercorns
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon whole cloves
2 tablespoons ground cardamom
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon cayenne (or less if less heat is desired)

1. In a dry skillet over very low heat, place the coriander, cumin, mustard and fennel seeds. Roast the seeds gently, shaking the pan occasionally, until they begin to pop. When about half the seeds have popped, add the cinnamon, peppercorns, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, turmeric, ginger and cayenne.
2. Continue to heat and stir gently until the mixture is quite hot but not burnt. Pour into a dry blender or food processor, or use a mortar and pestle. Grind into a fine powder. Pour into a clean, dry jar, seal, and let it cool before using. © 2008 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com



Baharat--Arabic curry powder

1/2 Cup Black Peppercorns
1/4 Cup Coriander Seeds
1/4 Cup Cinnamon Sticks, crushed
1/3 Cup Cumin Seeds
2 Teaspoons Cardamom Seeds, shelled
1/4 Cup Nutmeg, ground
1/2 Cup Paprika

Place coriander and cumin seeds in skillet and dry fry for a minute or two until fragrance--do not burn. Place dry-roasted ingredients in spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Mix together remaining ingredients with the freshly ground spices. Store in air-tight container in cool dark place.

Ceylon Curry Powder

6 Tbsp coriander seeds
3 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
3 small dried chillies
3 cloves
1/4 tsp cardamom seeds
1 crushed cinnamon stick
2 dried curry leaves (optional)
(Chef's note: the leaves can be found in Indian grocery store)

In a small pan, dry-fry first four ingredients for 8-10 minutes, or until the spices are dark brown, stirring occasionally to prevent the spices from burning. Place the roasted spices with all ingredients in a food processor and grind to a fine powder. Cool and transfer to an airtight jar.

Cumin-flavored Carrot Salad

Sometime, I am cheap with all food, I will find something in my refrigerator to use up for the family gathering. One of recipes that I became a genius for a night, getting carrots and other ingredients, mix all together and amazed my relatives. It is really simple.

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and grated
Juice of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp ground cumin, or more to taste

Use the julienne cutter of a food processor to cut the carrot into fine shreds, or cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices.
Blend the remaining ingredients and pour the dressing over the carrots. Toss and serve.
Makes about 4 servings.

Beer-Brined Smoked Swordfish

I found this cookbook that was collected the dust in a corner of bookcase. I don't remember when I bought it or where.... I started to read this book and found a recipe that I would love to try. Anything cooked with beer are my favorite stuff to do.

This recipe is not same as you usually read some recipes. It is about cooking food in smoker or grill.

Beer-Brined Smoked Swordfish
Recipe adapted from Fish & Shellfish Grilled & Smoked by Karen Adler and Judith M. Fertig

2 to 2 1/2 pounds Swordfish steaks 1 inch thick, with skin on

Beer Brine:
4 cups Brown Ale
1/2 cup Coarse Sea Salt
1/2 Cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Pickling Spice
3 wood chunks, 1 cup wood chips, or 1/3 cup wood pellets

1. Rinse the fish, pat dry with paper towels, and place in a deep glass or ceramic bowl or plastic container.
2. In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the brine ingredients to a boil over high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. Strain the brine over the fish, weighting the fish down with a saucer so that it is completely submerged in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours.
4. Place the wood chunks or chips in water to soak or wood pellets in a heavy-duty aluminum foil packet with holes poked into it.
5. Prepare an indirect fire.
6. When ready to smoke, place the drained wood chunks or chips or foil packet on the fire if using a kettle grill or charcoal smoker; in an electric smoker, place the wood chunks or chips or packet around the heating element. Fill the water pan and place in the smoker.
7. While the onions are smoking, rinse the brine from the fish under cold running water. Remove most of the brine, but not all of it. Place the fish in a disposable aluminum pan, place the pan on the grill or smoker rack, cover, and smoke until the fish is opaque and begins to flake when tested with a fork but is still moist, 45 to 60 minutes.

Good with Sea bass, bonito, marlin, or tuna
Suggested wood smoke: hickory or pecan