Syrian Lamb with Green Beans

So today's post was supposed to be about the little fish-packets I made last night, but they turned out very meh. And I refuse to post anything less that wonderful on this blog.
So I thought I'd introduce you to a dish I discovered during my semester in Wales a few years ago. You can make it with minimal equipment, and it's absolutely marvelous. Keep a lookout for lamb on sale, and remember that this takes a relatively small amount of meat for a really big flavor. If you live where lamb is cheap, I am wildly jealous. :)

The original recipe was found on Food Network, apparently the work of a lady called Katherine Dickenson

Syrian Lamb with Green Beans

4 to 6 shoulder lamb chops, fat removed and bones in for flavor
OR
2 or 3 lamb shank pieces
3 tablespoons butter
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 bay leaf
1 sweet red pepper--the 'Italian' kind if possible (long and skinny and fabulously sweet)
1 1/2 teaspoon dried whole oregano, crushed between your hands (please, please don't use ancient flavorless oregano that has lived in your cupboard for decades, because you will make me cry)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, ends snapped off and cut into bite size pieces
2 cans diced tomatoes or a big can of fire roasted whole ones, cut into pieces
Salt and pepper, to taste

Saute your meat in butter until brown on all sides. Saute the onion until translucent. Add garlic, bay leaf, red pepper and seasoning and cook for 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the green beans and tomatoes. Cover and cook for 1 hour on medium to medium low heat. Check it every now and then to make sure you're not boiling the water away. Unlid and serve!

You could serve this over riced cauliflower or something if you really wanted to, but I prefer eating it as a soup/stew, and don't think it needs a thing. We have used it as both a side and a main dish, and it serves both purposes admirably. You can add more green beans for further tasty servings, but I just don't have a pot that will hold that much comfortably.

You might be able to use lamb ribs and such for this as well, but you'd likely have to cool the finished product and scrape off the fat. It's pretty oily using the original cuts, albeit a delicious lamb fat kind of oily. If you have a problem with that, then cool and skim away!

And come to think of it, I bet that you could dump it in a slow cooker after the initial saute, and waltz away for a few hours. The flavors would have intermingled further, and long low heat makes for more tender lamb.

Wild Mushroom Ragout

So, I'll admit it, I'm something of a geek. A D&D, Warcraft, DragonCon kind of geek. But that can come in handy every now and then, as well as being darn fun. For example, in the nifty book More Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, which is a collection of short stories, essays, and fun tidbits from the Dragonlance books, there is a fabulous recipe for Kender Wild Mushroom Ragout. And it has minimally-carby ingredients. I am too lazy at the moment to plug in the numbers, especially since the ingredients can vary so much, but I'm pretty sure it's a normal recipe that's perfect for low carb without any weird substitutions. And I love that!

Kender Wild Mushroom Ragout
1 cup thinly sliced white onions
2 pounds fresh, wild mushrooms
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
1+1/2 tsp fresh minced rosemary
1/4 cup stock (chicken, mushroom or vegetable)
3 tbsp dry sherry
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp brandy (optional)
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute onions, mushromms and garlic in butter until tender. Add herbs, stock and sherry. Simmer until liquid is reduced by half.
Add cream and simmer until slightly thickened. Add brandy and lemon juice. Simmer 2 more minutes. Add salt, pepper, parsley and serve over Dreamfield noodles, riced cauliflower, or sop up the juices later with an Oopsie (full recipe here, can't find the measurements and stuff on Cleochatra's site!).

Now you can substitute a lot of things in this recipe. We most often use a lot of soaked dried mushrooms, because there just aren't a great deal of fresh wild mushrooms around. However, I'd recommend getting a few cartons of regular white mushrooms, and at least some baby bellas/cremini and shiitake if you can get them. The dried mushrooms have great flavor, but they're pretty tough, so cut them up small if you do use them. And if you can get some other varieties, get them! Even the expensive ones make your dish better in small, affordable portions. I will admit that the best version of this we made was with at least six kinds of fresh mushrooms.

You can also substitute port or sack for the sherry, or dry white wine in a pinch. And although the brandy claims it's optional, don't believe it. It pairs gorgeously with the mushrooms, and it would be a crime to leave it out.

By the way, for any other nerds, geeks, or fans out there, the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books will cease being published at the end of the year, according to my sources. Buy what you can. Hopefully, more worlds with such wide appeal will spring up in their place.

Indian Spiced Bison Meatballs

It's been a while since I posted, mostly because a fair amount of the recipes I've tried have been less than stellar. However, over the weekend my brother brought over a couple of pounds of ground buffalo (on sale, yay!) and I searched for a long time for what to do with it. Buffalo or bison tends to be drier than beef, apparently. I think that this recipe, tweaked from the original at Bison Basics, turned out really well, and those who are fonder of cilantro (e.g. my brother and my husband) raved about it. For cilantro haters, you could likely use parsley or mint.

Indian Spiced Bison Meatballs (feeds 3 hungry people)
1 cup shallots, finely chopped
2 lbs ground bison or 'buffalo'
1/2 cup cilantro
4 cloves minced or smashed garlic
Several shakes cinnamon
One shake cloves
Several shakes ground ginger
Several shakes cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 cup crushed pork rinds (or substitute breadcrumbs, etc.)
1 teaspoon salt
Olive oil for frying

Sauce
2/3 cup almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 small can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can whole peeled tomatoes (I used Muir Glen)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (or make your own by draining yogurt in cheesecloth for an hour or so, or use cream)

Drizzle olive oil into a large skillet. Saute shallots over medium heat in olive oil until they have softened. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Grab a plate to put the raw meatballs on. Add the other non-sauce ingredients; blend well with your hands until everything is evenly distributed throughout the meat. Form into balls and pile on the plate. Pour more oil into the pan, and brown your meatballs over medium heat, turning occasionally. Keep them there until cooked through, 10-15 minutes. Remove them to a clean plate and drain your pan.

Dump all sauce ingredients except for the yogurt into the pan. Simmer for a few minutes, breaking up the whole tomatoes with your spoon or spatula. Heat the meatballs in the sauce until they're warm again, then add yogurt and simmer for another two minutes. Serve your delicious meatballs! They don't need a thing to go with them, but you could serve them with cooked riced cauliflower if you like.

Hazelnut Almond Flapjacks

I apologize for the lack of recipes lately; I've been off in the mountains of North Carolina, and while I could have gotten internet at the chocolate shop in town, I was busy being sociable with my in-laws. I had a lovely time whitewater rafting, playing Tripoley and Rummikub, and checking out the Heinzelmannchen brewery.
Now I am back to where I can cook. I just had these splendid flapjacks for breakfast. Huge kudos to Elana for the initial concept. I think that the hazelnut syrup, which substitutes for agave nectar here, adds a lot. However, they'd be good with any flavor, I'd betcha, or with a simple syrup. The best thing about these flapjacks (or pancakes, if you will) is that they have the same texture as actual pancakes. In fact, if you make smallish pancakes, a bit larger than silver dollars, they turn into lacy golden coins that delicately melt in your mouth.

Hazelnut Almond Flapjacks

2 eggs
¼ cup sugar-free hazelnut syrup (I use DaVinci)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (use the real stuff, please!)
½ cup water
1 ½ cups almond flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
Butter or the oil of your choice to grease the pan (pancakes pick up the flavor of the oil, so choose wisely)

In a blender, combine eggs, syrup, vanilla and water and blend on high until smooth.
Add almond flour, salt and baking soda and blend again to incorporate dry ingredients into batter. Warm the oil in a large skillet or griddle (I used a cast iron skillet) over medium heat. Give it a few minutes to get nice and hot! Pour pancake batter onto skillet--your blender is very handy this way--into the pancake size of your choice. Pancakes will form bubbles, first around the edges and then in the middle. When the bubbles are open, give them a minute more to solidify, then flip pancakes over and cook other side for a minute or two. You'll know they're done when you can easily get a spatula/flipper under them. Remove from heat to a plate.
Repeat process with remaining batter, adding more oil to skillet as needed--and you will need more oil!
Makes sufficient breakfast for two people.

I do stress that you need to have your pan hot, and you need to give your flapjacks time beyond the opening of the bubbles to make sure that they don't come apart when you flip them. I killed three pancakes this way, and mutilated others before I finally got things working well. Thankfully, the shredded pancakes are quite tasty too.

Best Bacon Ever

I just cooked up a batch of the best bacon ever. Sadly, it is not universally available. If you happen to be in the Atlanta area for any reason, however, I recommend you stop by Patak Bohemia in Austell, GA and pick up some of the least expensive, best-tasting bacon known to man--or at least to Atlantans.
This bacon is thick-cut, rich, and flavorful, with a fantastic mouthfeel. And the best part about it is the price--$2.69 a pound! I can't envision buying more expensive, less tasty products from my local supermarket any more. I'm going to stock up so that the long trek to Austell only happens once a month. In fact, that's what I did yesterday. My five pounds of bacon should last my husband and I for a good while.
I also got fresh Polish sausage, proclaimed by my Polish-community father to be as good or better than the stuff from home, fantastic Hunter's Salami (it's square!), garlic bacon, Scottish bangers, and smoked trout. I know the Polish sausage and Hunter's Salami are delectible, but I've yet to try the others. I'll let you know!

Pumpkin Chili

I made this chili a few nights ago, and it was out of this world. I did change the recipe around a bit, but I got the idea from BellaOnline. I was a bit annoyed at the recipe because it didn't specify the form of pumpkin. Yes, most of us will get the canned puree, but there's always the chance you want whole pumpkin cubes, as you would for a delicious-sounding Thai soup with coconut milk and pumpkin.

But I figured I would try the recipe anyway, as I was yearning for something hearty and filling, and a good way to use my oh-so-healthy pumpkin.

Do you remember the meatloaf recipe I posted before? I made most of it in my muffin tin. However, I only have one muffin tin, and there was more meatloaf mixture then there was room in the tin. So I wrapped the biiig clump I had left in six slices of bacon, and popped it in a large ramekin to bake. This large meat cake was still sitting in my refrigerator at the time of making chili, and I decided to use it to speed the recipe up. So I chopped my meat cake and used it in this recipe. You, however, don't have to make meatloaf to have chili!

Pumpkin Chili

1 lbs ground beef, or ground beef and ground pork
6 strips chopped bacon, cooked through but not crispy (optional)
1 large onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1/2 can pumpkin
1 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, de-seeded, and chopped
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
dash salt
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup sour cream

In a frying pan, saute the ground meat, onion, red pepper and garlic until meat is brown. Pour off grease if needed and add in tomatoes, pumpkin, poblano, cumin, pepper and salt. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with cheese and sour cream as desired.

Alternately, plug in your slow cooker and set it to high. Pour in the tomatoes, pumpkin, poblano, and seasonings, as well as the bacon, if you're using it. Brown the meat and scoop it into the slow cooker with a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the pan. Saute the red pepper until it brightens up and is slightly soft, and pour into the slow cooker. Saute the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent and just beginning to brown. Add the onion-garlic mixture to the slow cooker. Cover and let cook for an hour and a half. Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Low Carb Tonkatsu

I am indescribably happy. Last night, I made tonkatsu. They were the most amazing, crisp-on-the-outside, moist-on-the-inside, delectible pork cutlets I have ever made. And they were low carb. The only cheatery thing was the Bulldog sauce I put on them (because tonkatsu needs Bulldog sauce), which is a mere 6 carbs per tablespoon. I don't think I used a tablespoon, but I am sad that it has nasty corn syrup in it. And I may make my own tonkatsu or ponzu sauce once I run out.

Anyway, the recipe:

Pork loin chops (you can buy your own pork loin and slice, buy and have the butcher slice, or buy pre-sliced. I found a pound of pork loin chops on sale.) You will want about two half-inch slices per person, unless someone has an unusually big or unusually small appetite.
Almond meal, about 1/3 cup per 4 slices
1 egg, beaten with a splash of water
1/2 6oz bag pork rinds, smashed into tiny pieces
Lawry's seasoned salt, or your favorite seasoning mix
Canola, coconut, or peanut oil (or a combination) for frying

If you're feeling ambitious, put the chops between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound relatively flat. Do not let it get too thin, or it will fall apart or get holes in it. If you are lazy, you will just take your pork chops and begin breading them.
Set up a plate with almond meal, a bowl with the egg, a plate with the pork rinds, and an extra plate to hold your breaded pork. Dredge the pork in almond flour, dip it in the egg, and bread with the pork rinds.
Heat your oil in a large skillet, preferably cast iron. A candy thermometer or the like really helps here. I put my tonkatsu in at about 350F. Once they were in, the temperature didn't get higher then 325-ish. Cook them for 5-10 minutes with four to a pan (don't overcrowd), until the color of the coating darkens, flipping every now and then.
Remove your tonkatsu to a rack. Make sure you have paper towels below the rack to catch the dripping oil. Leave them there until they stop making sizzling sounds.
Serve with cauli-rice (I like Cleochatra's recipe, but I do mine from raw cauliflower and just cook it longer), shredded cabbage, and tonkatsu or ponzu sauce! Some people also like lemon and Japanese mustard with their tonkatsu--I haven't tried it yet.
Enjoy!