Posts Tagged With: cumin

Chicken Pulique

Posted on August 2, 2013 by pauldelancey

Guatemalan Entree

CHICKEN PULIQUE

INGREDIENTS

3 chicken breasts
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
2 brown potatoes
4 fresh tomatillos
2 dried guajillo peppers
1 medium onion
4 Roma tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth

2 cloves
3 peppercorns
2 teaspoons annatto seed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cumin
3 tablespoons epazote

SPECIAL UTENSIL

spice grinder
Dutch oven

PREPARATION

Cut chicken into 1/2″ cubes. Coat chicken with olive oil. Add to Dutch oven and sauté on medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink inside. Stir. occasionally.

While chicken sautés, cut potatoes into 1/2″ cubes. Add chicken stock and potato to soup pot. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes or until potato is tender.

While chicken bakes and potato cooks, remove husks from tomatillos, and seed guajillo peppers. Mince tomatillo, garlic, guajillo peppers, onion, and tomatoes. Grind cloves and peppercorns. (Whew, work fast! Have a Roy Rogers drink to give you the necessary caffeine. ☺)

Pour potato/chicken broth over chicken cubes in Dutch oven. Add tomatillo, garlic, guajillo peppers, onion, tomatoes, cloves, peppercorn, annatto, cinnamon, cumin, and epazote to Dutch oven. Cook at medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

TIDBITS

1) Oh crudness, my internet connection is out. I can’t look up fun facts about pulique. I’m jump starting my brain. Okay, here goes.

2) Pulique is quite popular in Guatemala.

3) It is not as popular where there is zero gravity such as the International Space Station.

4) Cooking involves much mincing of garlic. On Earth, garlic mincing means little garlic bits scatter millimeters into the air and fall all over the cutting board.

5) Only in zero gravity, those garlic bits keep rising in the air and fly all over the place until they hit the ceiling and the walls where they bounce and bounce up and down the corridors.

6) If the chef on the Space Station is mincing up a heap of garlic, pretty soon a cloud of garlic bits fills every corridor, floating and bouncing away for a long time.

7) Everything on the station soon reeks of garlic, even the billion-dollar experiments.

8) On the other hand, vampires hate garlic. The Space Station would be guaranteed to be vampire free.

9) Even if the vampires somehow built a rocket to propel them into outer space..

10) And as of going to press, vampires have shown no such technological skill.

11) Nor do they enough money to pursue such a monumental undertaking.

12) Nor do vampires have any real access to the global capital market.

13) Bankers everywhere no longer loan to vampires. Not for any project.

14) These financiers once lent to vampires, but the loans came back to bite them in the ass.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: annatto, bankers, broth, chicken, chicken pulique, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, Dutch, entree, epazote, guajillo, Guatemala, Guatemalan, international, International Space Station, olive oil, oven, peppers, potatoes, pulique, Roma, space, station, tomatillos, tomatoes, vampires | Leave a comment

Cajun Goober Peas

Posted on July 31, 2013 by pauldelancey

Cajun Entree

CAJUN GOOBER PEAS

INGREDIENTS

1 pound raw, unsalted peanuts in shells (or roasted, unsalted)
1 1/2 quarts water (and more later)
1/4 cup Cajun seasoning
2 teaspoons cayenne
2 teaspoons coriander
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons thyme
4 teaspoons paprika

PREPARATION

Wash peanuts until water runs clear. Put peanuts (do not shell them) in large pot. Add water and salt. (Peanuts should be completely cover with water.) Add Cajun seasoning, cayenne, coriander, cumin, thyme and paprika. Soak for 30 minutes

Boil pot to boil. Reduce heat to low-medium. Simmer for 3-to-8 hours (Yes, that is a wide time range. New peanuts will cook in a much shorter time than peanuts that have been on the shelf for a long time.)

Check water level after 30 minutes. Add water if needed. Water should always cover peanuts. Start tasting peanuts after 3 hours. Add water if needed. Peanuts are done when they are firm yet tender or reach your desired texture.

TIDBITS

1) It takes about 54 peanuts to make a 1.2-ounce jar of peanut butter.

2) The protein and B vitamins in peanuts help you think.

3 Oh dear, I need a peanut to jump start my brain. *Munch, munch, munch.*

4) You could place 18-ounce peanut-butter jars, if you could find that many, around the Earth’s Equator and still be able to go around 1/3 more time.

5 Or you could place 13.5 ounce jars around the Equator and just make one circuit.

6 But why would you want to do this?

7 Do you have the money to buy that much peanut butter?

8 Can you arrange for the necessary transport?

9) Much of the Equator is on the ocean. Would the jars of peanut butter just float away? Wouldn’t they be a hazard to navigation?

10) Wouldn’t hurricanes or tornadoes be able to fling peanut butters jars vast distances? I mean if a powerful windstorm can pick up a cow… and what happens when the jars come down. “Tonight, we have a peanut-butter storm watch over Dane County. Residents are advised to stay inside. No word yet if we can expect chunky or cream precipitation.”

11) And what of the jars along the Equator that lie peacefully along the ground. How long do you think it will be before people take the jars and eat the peanut butter?

12) Ooh, ooh! Nobel Peace Prize idea here. Countries that fight each other a lot should build a wall made of jars of peanut butter. After a while hungry people from both nations will start taking jars down and eating the tasty peanut butter. Peanut-butter pleased people perform plenty pleasant acts of kindness happiness. Kindness engenders happiness. People want more happiness. They take down more jar of peanut butter. They get happier. The wall diving the two countries eventually disappears. Everybody sees nothing but kind and happy people in the other country. Peace breaks out.

13) Peace breaks out even faster with peanut and jelly on toast.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: B vitamins, Cajun, cayenne, coriander, cumin, Earth, Equator, goober peas, Nobel Peace Prize, paprika, peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly, Peanuts, thyme | Leave a comment

Koshary From Egypt

Posted on July 24, 2013 by pauldelancey

Egyptian Entree

KOSHARY

INGREDIENTS

1 cup lentils
3 cloves garlic
2 onions
4 tomatoes
1 1/2 cups white rice
1 pound elbow macaroni

1/2 tablespoon olive oil (1-1/2 tablespoons more later)
1 15 ounce can chickpeas
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt

Makes 8 bowls. Takes 1 hour 30 minutes.

PREPARATION

Soak lentils in bowl for 1 hour. While lentils are soaking, mince garlic and onions. Dice tomatoes. Cook rice according to instructions on package. Cook elbow macaroni according to instructions on package. Cook lentils according to instructions on package. (Thank goodness for package instructions.)

Put olive oil and onion in skillet. Sauté on medium-high heat for 10 minutes or until onion begins to brown. Stir frequently. Remove onion and place on towel-covered plate. Add garlic to skillet. Sauté on medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Stir frequently. Remove garlic and place on towel-covered plate.

Add olive oil, chickpeas, tomato, cayenne pepper, cumin, black pepper, and salt to skillet. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Put chickpea mixture into serving bowl.

Combine garlic, white vinegar, and red wine vinegar in mixing bowl.

Serve on plate with a spoonful each of: rice, macaroni, lentils, chickpea mixture, vinegar/garlic mixture, and top with a spoonful of sautéed onion.

TIDBITS

1) Chickpeas preserved the United States of America during its unpleasant Civil War of 1861-1865.
2) Rebel forces during this war often ran short of fun food to eat. Sausage pizzas were unheard of on the front lines as early as August, 1861. Quiche Lorraine disappeared by February, 1862. Caviar in April. Chicken parmigiana in August. And so it went. The Confederate forces had to subsist on chickpeas.

3) By September, 1862, the Confederacy was on the culinary ropes. General Robert E. Lee, command of the Army of Northern Virginia devised a daring invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania to secure vast supplies of ham so necessary to delicious recipes such as juice and sugar-glazed ham.

4) But it didn’t happen. Sometime in September, Union soldiers looking for fine Southern tobacco hit the Mother Lode, found three fine cigars wrapped in sheets of paper. These papers detailed General Lee’s invasion plans.

5) The Union scouts turned the plans over to General McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac. The Northern forces scurried, between epic banquets, to intercept the rebel foes. The worthy foes collided at Antietam, Maryland on September 17, 1862.

6) Fighting at Antietam’s cornfield was so hot that the kernels popped off the corn cobs. And so popcorn was invented while the South’s hopes for military victory melted as fast as ice cream on a charcoal grill.

7) But it needn’t have happened that way. If only Lee’s orders had been wrapped in a can of chickpeas. Those Northern scouts fresh off a meal of bacon cheeseburgers would surely have ignored orders surrounding a can of chickpeas.

8) And so, the South would eventually lose the Civil War. The Union would be preserved. Slavery would be abolished and bacon cheeseburgers would forever after dominate the nation’s culinary scene.

9) And so it goes.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: Antietam, Army of Northern Virginia, Army of the Potomac, bacon cheeseburgers, cayenne, chickpeas, Civil War, Confederacy, cumin, Egypt, Egyptian, entree, garlic, General McClellan, koshary, lentils, macaroni, Maryland, popcorn, quiche Lorraine, rice, Robert E. Lee, sausage pizza, United States of America, vinegar | Leave a comment

Hawaij, Spice Mix from Yemen

Posted on June 17, 2013 by pauldelancey

Yemeni Appetizer

HAWAIJ
(spice mix)

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons black peppercorns
3/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon cardamom
2 teaspoons coriander
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon turmeric

SPECIAL UTENSIL

spice grinder

PREPARATION

Grind peppercorns, cloves, and caraway seeds in spice grinder. Use fork to mix peppercorn, cloves, caraway, cardamom, coriander, cumin, and turmeric in small mixing bowl. Store mixture in airtight jar.

TIDBITS

1) According to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, cardamom is “the spice of Paradise.” It’s not clear how he knew that. Perhaps he had an Ouija board.

2) Since Ouija boards weren’t invented until the twentieth century, it’s clear Chaucer had a time machine. I would have read Canterbury Tales in High School with much more interest if I had known that.

3) According to some vague, unspecified, nebulous people, cardamom was the most popular spice in ancient Rome. Rome conquered Gaul. Gauls did not spice with cardamom. The frightening implication is clear.

4) Cardamom coffee is popular in the Arab world. The Arabs overran North Africa, the Fertile Crescent, the Spanish peninsula, Sicily, and Southern France in only 100 years. The conquering qualities of cardamom explains why it costs more than oil per ounce. Oil fuels countries’ economies, but cardamom is necessary for sheer national survival.

5) Cardamom is more popular in Sweden than any other spice. Sweden has never been conquered by a non-Nordic nation. Even nations with powerful armies respect countries with large cardamom stockpiles.

6) Cardamom is the world’s second most expensive spice. Only saffron cost more. I don’t even want to think what a global conflict over saffron would be like.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, history, humor, international, recipes | Tags: appetizer, Arabs, Canterbury Tales, caraway, cardamom, Chaucer, cloves, cookbook, coriander, cumin, De Lancey, Fertile Crescent, France, Gaul, hawaij, high school, nordic, North Africa, oil, Ouija, paradise, peppercorns, Rome, saffron, Sicily, Souther France, Spanish, spice, spice mix, Sweden, turmeric, Yemen, Yemeni | Leave a comment

Tunisian Meshwiya (relish) on Baguettes

Posted on June 12, 2013 by pauldelancey

Tunisian Appetizer

MESHWIYA ON BAGUETTES
(relish)

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
5 Roma tomatoes
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons parsley

1 baguette

PREPARATION

Boil eggs in water. (6 minutes for soft-boiled or 12 minutes for hard-boiled.) While eggs are boiling, also boil tomato, green bell pepper, and red bell pepper on high heat for 1 minute. Remove tomato, green bell pepper, and red-bell pepper and put in cold water. Their skins should peel off easily. (The skin of the tomato is the easiest to peel, then the red bell pepper, while the hardest to peel is the green bell pepper.

Dice boiled eggs. Cut tomatoes, green bell pepper, and red bell pepper into small bits. Mince garlic. Combine all ingredients except baguette in large mixing bowl with fork or whisk. Cut baguette into 1″ wide slices.

Top baguette slices with tomatp/bell pepper/spice mixture from mixing bowl. Also spoon liquid from mixing bowl onto baguette slices. Enjoy while you can. They go fast.

TIDBITS

1) About 1920 the French banned bakers from working before 4am. This didn’t give the bakers enough time to make loaves for the breakfast crowd. So they made the thinner baguettes which baked quicker.

2) In 2009, a bird dropped a piece of baguette into the Large Hadron Collider at Cern in Switzerland, causing a shut-down of the system. The NASDAQ stock exchange was twice shut down by squirrels chewing through cable insulation.

3) “Baguette” is derived from the Latin word “baculum,” meaning wand or staff. Baculum is also the name for a mammal’s penis bone.

4) Baguettes are sometimes used as swords in slapstick scenes in American movies. The French don’t appreciate this. But come on, I bet they have baguette sword fights on the sly.

5) In Baguette sword fights, you win if you stab your opponent with your baguette or you break your opponent’s baguette. Baguettes costs money and a shattered one sprays small crumbs all over the floor, making this game somewhat unpopular with mothers everywhere.

6) You can use the baguette as an old-fashioned fountain pen. Simply dip one end of the baguette in chocolate syrup. Again, permission from mother is recommended.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: baguette, bakers, bell pepper, cayenne, Cern, chocolate syrup, cookbook, cumin, De Lancey, eggs, entree, French, garlic, Haldron collider, Latin, lemon juice, meshwiya, NASDAQ, Paul, recipes, relish, Roma tomatoes, Switzerland, swordfights, Tunisia, Tunisian | Leave a comment

Potato-Beef Flatcakes From Tanzania

Posted on June 8, 2013 by pauldelancey

Tanzanian Entree

POTATO BEEF FLATCAKES

INGREDIENTS

3 large brown potatoes
3 large carrots
1 green bell pepper
1/2 ground beef
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

2 or more tablespoons vegetable oil.

makes 12 flatcakes

SPECIALTY UTENSILS

food processor
electric skillet

PREPARATION

Peel and mince potatoes. (A food processor helps immensely. Remember this when your loved one gives you that appliance for your anniversary.) Peel and mince carrots. Remove seeds and mince bell pepper.

Combine all ingredients except vegetable oil in large mixing bowl. The best way to mix this is with your hands. Sorry. (But there is an upside to having messy hands. When your sweetheart asks you to answer the door or the telephone you can say, “Sorry, messy hands.”)

Make patties that are 1/2 cup big. Put 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in the electric skillet. Set the skillet to 350 degrees. Put as many patties as will fit into the skillet. Flatten them slightly with spatula. Cook with lid on for 5 minutes or until the patty browns. Remove lid. (Oil splatters, may I suggest wearing an apron?) Flip patties over and fry for another 5 minutes. Remove batch and start another. Add oil as needed.

And “tasty” in Swahili is “kitamu.”

TIDBITS

1) The carrot is one happening biennal plant of the umbel family.

2) Eating too many carrots will make your skin turn yellowish orange, especially on the palms or soles of the feet. This is called carotenemia. This goes away completely once you stop eating them.

3) Ancient Greeks and Romans ate carrots. No nation or tribe could stand up to Rome’s scary orange soldiers. That’s the Roman Empire grew so big and lasted so long.

4) Ancient Greeks believed eating carrots made men and women more amorous. “Hey, would like to have dinner at the Carrot Auctioneer?”

5) Seems silly, no? But rabbits love carrots and we all know how fast bunnies reproduce.

6) Hippocrates thought women could prevent pregnancy by eating carrot seeds.

7) Current scientific studies suggest this might be true after all.. Eating carrot seeds after intercourse might prevent the egg from implanting.

8) Whoa.

9) The orange carrot was invented by cross breeding yellow and red carrots. I wonder if you can turn yellow by eating too many yellow carrots. Don’t rob a bank after doing this. The police find with yellow palms easy to find.

10) Yay, carrots!

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: ancient, beef, bell pepper, bunnies, carrot, carrot seeds, carrots, cinnamon, cookbook, coriander, cumin, De Lancey, entree, flatcakes, Greeks, Hippocrates, kitamu, milk, police, potatoes, pregnancy, rabbits, Roman empire, Romans, soldiers, Swahili, Tanzania, Tanzanian | Leave a comment

Chilean Pastel De Papas (Potato meat pie)

Posted on May 26, 2013 by pauldelancey

Chilean Entree

PASTEL DE PAPAS
(Potato Meat Pie)

INGREDIENTS

3 medium brown potatoes
2 small red potatoes
1 chicken breast
3 garlic cloves
1 large onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tomato
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 pound ground beef
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon parsley
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shredded cheese (panquehue if you can find it. ☺)
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
no-stick spray

SPECIAL UTENSIL

9″ casserole dish

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Dream of a vacation in a Greek villa overlooking the crystal blue Aegean Sea while you peel potatoes. Put all potatoes in pot. Boil on high heat for 20 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking, cut chicken into 1/2″ cubes and mince garlic, onion, and tomato. Put garlic, onion, and olive oil in frying pan or skillet. Sauté for 5 minutes or until onions are tender. Stir frequently. Add tomato, tomato sauce, chicken, beef, cayenne, cumin, paprika, parsley, pepper, and salt. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat stirring occasionally.

Remove potatoes from pot after they have been boiled for 20 minutes. Put potatoes in large mixing bowl. Mash them, mash ‘em good. Add eggs, shredded cheese and Parmesan cheese. Mix with whisk or fork until well blended.

Spray casserole dish with no-stick spray. Put meat mixture in casserole dish. Put mashed potatoes on top of meat mixture. Put casserole dish in oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-to-35 minutes or until top starts to turn brown.

Put your feet up. Call in someone to do the dishes and have a nice, cooling drink until your wonderful culinary creation is ready. Esta bien.

TIDBITS

1) This recipe uses two kinds of cheese.

2) Supposedly in the late 1800s a tidal wave stranded the USS Arakwe on Chilean soil. Looters approached the heavily damaged gunboat. The sailors couldn’t reach their cannonballs, so they loaded the ship’s big guns with large cheese balls and drove off the ruffians. Unfortunately, this story seems to be a myth.

3) A similar story has Uruguay winning a naval battle with Brazil in the 1840s through the use of stale balls of cheese. The television show, Mythbusters, analyzed cheese cannonballs and concluded cheese-cannon balls could punch holes out of an 1840 sail.

4) In World War Two, a Japanese submarine surfaced adjacent to the USS O’Bannon. The American sailors riddled the submarine with their destroyer’s smaller guns. However, they couldn’t lower their ship’s heavy guns enough to sink the sub. The Japanese realized this and came out the top hatch to fire their rifles on the Americans.

Apparently, the American sailors didn’t carry enough small arms to silence the Japanese rifle and pistol fire, so they threw potatoes at their adversaries. The Japanese thinking the potatoes were actually grenades fled back into their submarine. The American destroyer rapidly sailed away to a distance where they could bring their ship’s heavy guns to bear upon the Japanese and sink their sub.

Some versions deny completely the involvement of food in this story. Oh heck.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, history, humor, international | Tags: Aegean Sea, Brazil, breast, cayenne, cheese, cheese balls, cheese cannonball, chicken, Chile, Chilean, cumin, destroyer, garlic, Greek, grenades, ground beef, gunboat, meat pie, Mythbusters, olive oil, panquehue, paprika, Parmesan, parsley, pastel de papas, pistol fire, potatoes, submarine, Uruguay, USS Arakwe, USS O[Bannon, villa, World War Two | Leave a comment

Pepper Jack Meatloaf Recipe

Posted on May 23, 2013 by pauldelancey

American Entree

PEPPER JACK MEATLOAF

INGREDIENTS

1/2 white onion
1/2 red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon parsley
1 green bell pepper
1 green chile
1 14.5 can diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
2 teaspoons fresh cilantro
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mince red onion, white onion, and garlic. Add this to olive oil and sauté on medium heat until soft or about 6 minutes.

Dice bell pepper and green chile. Combine red onion, white onion, garlic, ground beef, eggs, bell pepper, green chile, diced tomatoes, coriander, cumin, tarragon, cilantro, pepper jack cheese, and bread crumbs. You really need to use your hands to do a good job here.

(Better yet, get your nine-year old to mix this up. He’ll welcome the opportunity to be helpful while getting his hands messy. Take advantage of this willingness before he becomes a teenager.)

OR…dice and mince all the above ingredients and put them all into the oil to sauté at once. This will save six minutes.

(Saving six minutes is particularly useful if there is an accidental nuclear countdown near your home, you’re the only one with the key to abort the launch with the resulting global nuclear war, and you really don’t have the extra six minutes needed to perform this extra culinary step, eat this meal, and get to the missile silo in time.)

Spray 8″-by-8″ baking dish with no-stick cooking spray. Transfer the meat mix to this dish. Smooth the meat until it is a flat as the Kansan prairie. Bake for about 1 hour at 350 degrees. Let cool for 5 – 10 minutes.

TIDBITS

1) According to The Tales of the Arabian Nights, coriander is an aphrodisiac.

2) We should all absorb the lessons of great literature.

3) Coriander is also mentioned in the Bible. The Bible does not mention any non-culinary benefits from Tarragon.

4) Indeed, The Good Book commands, “Do not commit adultery.”

5) Sometime in the 1600s, two English publishers came out with a Bible with the exciting command, “Thou Shall Commit Adultery.”

6) The King of England fearing for the morals of his people, outlawed this version of the Bible, and heavily fined the publishers.

7) Editing and correct spicing are musts.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: adultery, America, American, aphrodisiac, Arabia, Arabian, bell pepper, Bible, cilantro, cookbook, coriander, cumin, De Lancey, England, entree, garlic, King of England, meatloaf, olive oil, onion, parsley, pepper jack, recipe, recipes, red onion, Tales of the Arabian Nights, tarragon | Leave a comment

Libyan Imthawoma (potatoes in spicy sauce) Recipe

Posted on May 17, 2013 by pauldelancey

Libyan Entree

IMTHAWOMA
(Potatoes in spicy sauce)

INGREDIENTS

8 red potatoes
1 tomato
8 garlic cloves
1 stick butter
2 1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon turmeric

INITIAL PREPARATION

Start boiling water. Peel potatoes. Puree tomatoes.. Mince garlic. Add potatoes to boiling water. Boil for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

GHEE PREPARATION

While potatoes are boiling, put butter in small sauce pan. Melt butter using medium heat. Do not cover the pan. After butter has melted and starts to foam reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Do not stir. (This goes counter to many cooking instincts. Resist. You can do it.) It’s ready when:

1) Someone yells, “It’s ready.”

2) A light tan crust forms on the mostly still surface.

3) The butter stops bubbling.

4) Starts to smell like popcorn.

Pour the melted butter through a colander into bowl. Discard solids left in colander. The liquid in the bowl is your ghee. You are now a ghee whiz.

FINAL PREPARATION

Put ghee back in sauce pan. Add garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and turmeric. Sauté at medium high heat for 3 minutes. Stir frequently. Add tomato puree. Cook on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Put potatoes in sauce pan. Turn potatoes over until they are well coated with the spicy ghee. Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring the sauce and turning the potatoes. Serve and enjoy.

TIDBITS

1) I keep forgetting how to spell “colander.”

2) I have no problem is chrysanthemum, antediluvian, or even phthalein. I can’t remember the last word’s meaning, though.

3) When my older son was one-to-two years old, he convinced himself that I couldn’t drive without his help. He’d say, “Green means go” or “red means stop.”

4) I miss those days.

5) And doesn’t “Imthawoma” look a lot like “I’m the woman?”

6) With observations like that, it’s no wonder my son wanted to help me do things.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: butter, cookbook, cumin, De Lancey, Eat Me, garlic, ghee, imthawoma, Libya, Libyan, paprika, phthalein, potatoes, recipe, recipes, sauce, sea salt, spicy, tomato, turmeric | Leave a comment

Jamaican Curried Chicken

Posted on May 15, 2013 by pauldelancey

Jamaican Entree

CURRIED CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

2 chicken breasts
1 medium potato
1 red bell pepper
3 garlic cloves
2 stalks green onion
1 large onion
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 tablespoons Jamaican curry powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon turmeric

PREPARATION

Cut chicken and potato into 1/2″ cubes. Removes seeds from red bell pepper. Mince bell pepper, garlic, green onion, and onion. Add vegetable oil, bell pepper, garlic, green onion, and onion to frying pan. Sauté at medium-high heat or until onions are tender.

Add chicken cubes, potato cubes, broth, celery seed, curry powder, pepper, thyme, and turmeric. Cook with lid off on low-medium heat for about 20 minutes or until potato bits are tender. Stir occasionally. Serve to your new best friends.

TIDBITS

1) Curry, while a tasty spice blend, is not a particularly fun spice despite what the “Fun Facts About Curry” would have you believe.

2) Tim Curry, however, is much more interesting. He starred in the cult classic movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He auditioned for the role by singing, “Tutti Frutti.” He had a dog named Frank.

3) One of the biggest movie flops of all times was the movie Ishtar. Ishtar is an anagram for “Hi, rats.”

4) “O,” “A,” and “I” are the shortest palindromes in the English language.

5) “ ” is the shortest palindrome spoken by mimes.

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

Categories: cuisine, food, humor, international, recipes | Tags: bell pepper, breasts, broth, celery, chicken, cookbook, cumin, curried, curry, De Lancey, Eat Me, English, entree, garlic, green onion, Ishtar, Jamaica, Jamaican, mimes, oil, palindromes, pepper, recipes, Rocky Horror Picture Show, thyme, Tim Curry, turmeric, Tutti Frutti | Leave a comment

Posts Tagged With: cumin

Chicken Pulique

Cajun Goober Peas

Koshary From Egypt