Sizzling Rice Soup at Home

I first had sizzling rice soup when I followed my heart out to the Bay Area, CA the summer after my freshman year of college in the early 90's. On a sunny summer afternoon I was treated to a wonderful lunch at a great Chinese restaurant, and was served my first bowl of steaming sizzling rice soup. The strong memory of the rice crackling & sizzling when it hit the hot soup, and the texture of the chewy rice with the flavorful broth, lingers still. I'd eaten quite a bit of Chinese food in my life, but this soup didn't seem to have made it to the east coast in the early 90's, at least not anywhere I had been. I loved it, and 20 years later (wow!!) that is just about all I remember of the whole meal.

I have seen sizzling rice soup on a few east coast menus, but it's still not common east coast restaurant fare. A year or so ago, while in one of the many good asian markets, I am very thankful exist in New Haven, I saw this package of "instant sizzling rice", I snatched it up, brought it home, and it sat in my cabinet for over a year. Since funds have been low recently, I have needed to cook my way through every random ingredient and dry bean in my cabinet, so eventually I got to these.

It had not occurred to me until I googled sizzling rice soup just before starting dinner, that the rice needs to be deep fried before being added to the soup. I may not have bought it if I had known, but I had it, and a bit of oil too, so why not. They cook up in about 15 seconds, and the oil needs to be seriously hot, about 450 degrees, so the rice doesn't absorb much oil.

Sizzling rice cakes originated as the dry crispy rice stuck on the bottom of a cooking pot. Many rice-loving cultures have a name or dish for this crispy delicious rice. In Dominican communities it is called Concón, another fabulous culinary creation. 

For this soup I just made a simple clear broth soup with some turkey stock that was in the freezer from Thanksgiving. I added some slices of ginger, a little soy sauce, kale, tofu and some sweet potato. I sprinkled some delicious sambar curry powder on the crispy rice before adding it to the soup. Totally not traditional sizzling rice soup, but it was good and fun. 

Do you have any good winter soups that you love? Or Chinese New Year treats you want to share?

Favorite Food Spots 2011 - instalment #1 - Saray Turkish Restaurant

Ok, I know I'm a little late for the look back on food in 2011, but as I scanned through my food photos from this year, there were a few great food spots I visited but never got the chance to share, so better late than never!

Saray - Turkish restaurant, West Haven, CT

The menu at Saray is large. There is a great selection of cold appetizers (see photo above) which are on dsplay in the front case, such as baby eggplants stuffed with onion and garlic, red pepper and eggplant salad, hummus, and much more. The cold appetizer plate is great accompaniment to any meal (or a main course for vegetarians), although sadly, they no longer make one of my favorite spreads: muhamarah, a mix of walnuts, red pepper, pomegranate molasses and olive oil. The grill and bread oven at this large family friendly spot are always busy. Every meal is accompanied by their delicious hot, freshly made bread. Saray has a number of vegetarian dishes, and a few grilled fish items, but the most of the menu is packed with beef and lamb dishes: kebabs, ground meat, and shwarma style marinated/roasted and then sliced meat. I have found the ground meat and doner(shwarma) to be more flavorful than the cubed kebabs. While I don't generally eat meat that is not sustainably raised, I sometimes make exception for lamb, which I imagine (but do not know) is not as likely to be raised on feedlots as beef.

My favorite, and probably the most unhealthy dish on the menu is the Yogurtlu Doner Kebab - sauteed slices of marinated lamb and beef over hot buttered pieces of fresh bread topped with thick cool yogurt. 

Most of the main courses are served with the same simple side dishes of seasoned rice, grilled tomato and pepper, but the various spreads from the appetizer selection add more flavor, and as a whole it's a nice meal.

The tea and spiced Turkish coffee are always nice, and there is a large selection of Turkish desserts with many baklavah style sweets, and a wonderful light custard with burnt sugar resembling flan called Kazandibi. Saray is a fun restaurant suitable for small or large groups, a romantic meal, or a dinner with kids. The menu is large, the food is good, and I think they have live music on weekends. The restaurant is located at 770 Campbell Ave in West Haven, just off I-95, so any of you passing through the area, shouldn't hesitate to make a quick detour. 

Go to: Saray Menu

Coming up:
Bharat Bazar - Indian Market - Orange, CT
Smorgasburg - Food "flea market" adventures - Brooklyn, NY

Latkes and Doughnuts

The festival of lights and oil is nearly upon us; that once a year time for frying. While I eat a pretty healthy diet and don't generally promote fried foods, I do on occasion fry some platanos, or make some homemade eggrolls. I've tried pan frying these and find that deep frying in oil that is the right temperature actually produces a less greasy food, (I know it is hard to believe). While these days we generally need to minimize our fat consumption, Hanukkah is the one time of year when myself and many other Jewish people break out the oil and get frying.

Recipes:
Here is my recipe for LATKES (potato pancakes).
Here is my recipe for JELLY DOUGHNUTS.

If you want to get creative with your fried foods, you can make eggrolls with wonton or eggroll wrapers often found in the produce section of grocery stores and at any Asian market. You can make any filling you like: meat, vegetables, tofu, shredded cabbage and carrots with ginger...let your mind go... or search for recipes on line.

Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!!

Cardamom Bread Time

As xmas draws near, the Jew in me has some sweet envy. While I start thinking about fried potato lakes and jelly doughnuts for the celebration of Hanukkah, the world around me is ablaze in candy canes and gingerbread houses. I am lucky that I get to enjoy some of the xmas festivities with extended family and in-laws, and share in some of their distinctive traditions. I posted about this cardamom bread last year. It is a fabulous Swedish bread, and as Cardamom is hands down my favorite spice, I just must repost this for your baking pleasure!

Read Cardamom Bread Post

Pie on the Brain

In preparation for Thanksgiving, this past weekend I taught a class called "How to be a Pie Ninja".  30 people showed up and we had a blast sharpening our pie making skills and demystifying the art of pie dough. The best part of the class was watching each group of people decide on the spices, fillings and decoration for their pies. It was wonderful to see people getting comfortable with the process of making a pie from scratch, a task that can seem intimidating to some. Really, when it comes down to it, if you can follow a recipe you can make pie, and if you do it a few times you start to see what works and what doesn't. The best part is, pie makes people happy, and it doesn't have to look pretty to taste good. We donated these 6 pies to Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen for their holiday meal.

Here are some links to some of my pie recipes, and our pie party from last winter. My favorite pie dough recipe is linked below as well.

Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Pie
Peach and Raspberry Pie
Pie Party 2011


Life has been so busy this year, that I haven't been able to post the dozens of ideas I wanted to share about food for the Thanksgiving meal. For some Thanksgiving inspiration, check out our table from 2009, or 2010.

Here are a few wonderful links to pie obsessed bloggers that I have enjoyed, not to mention some excellent recipes:
A cool blog, thepech.com, where a nyc family celebrated 'pie month':
A great article from Melissa Clark on pie doughs, and some great pie recipes as well.


The Best Pie Dough
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (1 cup white flour plus 1/4 cup or more whole wheat flour or wheat germ)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup ice water
1/2 teaspoon vinegar (white or cider)

   1. Make the pie dough: Cut butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer for 15 minutes. Measure and sift all of the dry ingredients. In a mixer, food processor or using two forks,  cut the butter into the dough until it is the size of larger peas. Some larger sized piece of butter are good, just pinch them flat. Add the ice water and vinegar and mix dough till combined, dough should be tacky, but not sticky. If the dough is crumbling apart, it is too dry, add a spoonful more water. Gently form the dough into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for one hour or longer until well chilled.

   2. Preheat the oven to 375°. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie dish and trim the overhang to 3/4 inch; fold the overhang under itself and crimp decoratively. Prick the bottom of the pie shell all over and refrigerate until firm.

   3. Line the shell with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edge. Remove the foil and the weights and bake for about 12 minutes longer, or until the pie shell is golden brown and cooked on the bottom. Cover the rim of the pie shell with foil when it starts to brown. Leave the oven on.

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Braised Kale with Tomato

A few years ago I was shopping at the US 1 Caribbean Market and saw this woman stuffing huge bunches of kale into bags, filling her cart. At the time I had just finished the arduous process of collecting recipes for the New Haven Cooks cookbook and had been asking people across the city for their favorite recipes featuring vegetables and fruits. It was shocking how many people sent me a chicken recipe, dip, or fried seafood recipe with not a thought to vegetables, no less one in the ingredient list. So the site of a woman joyfully filling her cart with the largest bunches of kale I had ever seen made my heart race a bit, and I just had to know what she was planning to do with them.

She may have thought I was a little crazy, nosing around in her shopping cart, but she smiled and told me that she cooks her kale with lots of onion, garlic, tomato and a little hot pepper. I didn't get much more detail than that. I'd bet if I'd gotten to stand next to her at the stove, there might have been some other key ingredient like allspice berries, smokey paprika, or vinegar....I guess I'll never know, but she inspired me to start cooking my greens with tomato, and the rest I leave up to my imagination...

This is a great dish for fall and winter. You can use any type of kale, or even collard greens.

Braised Kale with Tomato

1 large bunch kale 

1 medium onion

3 cloves garlic

1 -15oz can diced tomatoes, or fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 small hot pepper, seeds removed or 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper - to taste

 

Optional ingredients: allspice berries, smokey paprika or ground chipotle, vinegar.

1. Wash Kale. Slice kale into 1/2inch strips. discard thick part of stem at the bottom of the bunch. Cut across the strips a few times to shorten the pieces. 

2. Cut the onion into a small dice or fine julienne, sauté in olive oil with salt and pepper over medium heat until translucent. Finely chop the garlic and add to the pan. Add hot pepper or spices if using, sauté until fragrant, do not allow garlic to brown. 

3. Add diced tomato to the pan, bring to a simmer. If using vinegar, add it now. Taste broth and adjust seasoning. Add kale and stir to coat. Cover pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Check kale for tenderness and adjust seasoning.

I generally cook my greens for a short time to retain as much of their nutrients as possible. Taste the greens after 5 minutes to determine if you like them this way or want to cook them a little longer.

How do you like to cook kale?

Please share below!

Apple and Cider Crisp

I created this delicious low sugar apple crisp recipe last fall, and now that the weather has turned cool, I've started to make it again. I can tell it is going to be a staple for the next few months, so I wanted to re-post the recipe. If you want to simplify it event further, just apples, cider and a bit of cinnamon for the filling works great, and a 1/4 recipe tossed in a small oven-safe skillet to cook during dinner makes an easy, healthy dessert.

To read the original post, click here.

Arepas

While I'd like to say that I discovered these wonderful corn "pancakes" while traveling in Colombia, or at my Venezuelan friend's house, I actually owe my love of them to the streets of New York. I first encountered arepas more than a decade ago in the generic street fairs that squeeze onto the streets of New York during the summer and fall. Under the arepa vendor's tent there was a large griddle perpetually covered with yellow sweet corn arepa pancakes, speckled with corn kernels and melted cheese in various stages of done-ness, (if that's even a word). The first time I ate these I went right home and tried to make them with some fine cornmeal I had in the kitchen; the result was a pasty inedible mess. It wasn't till years later that I found arepa flour, which is a precooked corn meal, and discovered the simplicity of making them at home. I think Goya makes a brand that is widely available, but I have not used it. The Doñarepa brand is delicious, as I'm sure many of them are. From what I can tell each country or region seems to have one favorite brand, some yellow, some white, so you'll have to try them out to see what you like.  I must say, generally I try to buy organic corn products because they are one of the most highly genetically engineered crops, but this is one of the few exceptions I make because those darn arepas are so addictive, and the memories of the sweet hot corn pancakes in NYC just never seem to be satiated no matter how many of these I make at home....

Sweet Corn Arepas

Follow the instructions on the package if different from these.

The fresh corn and cheese are optional as well, you can make arepas with just the arepa corn flour and water. 


1 cup yellow arepa flour
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon butter (optional)
1/2 salt (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1/2 cup fresh or thawed corn kernels
1/4 cup finely chopped mozzarella or fresh cheese
oil for cooking



 

1. Mix warm water and arepa flour, sugar, salt and butter until it forms a moist but not sticky dough. let sit for 10 minutes. If it gets dry add a bit more water. Mix in the corn kernels and cheese. 
2. Form the dough into balls and then flatten into pancakes between your hands. You can also roll the dough into a log and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour to 2 days until you are ready to cook them, then slice the dough into rounds. Cook arepas in a hot pan with a small amount of oil until browned on both sides.

Arepas are delicious with eggs, beans, meat, vegetables, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  For this meal I served them with black beans with small pieces of pan fried maduros(sweet plantain), sautéed Kale and peppers with caramelized onions and a bit of pan fried queso fresco, a mexican fresh cheese. 

My 3 year old was well occupied during all this cooking with a hand full of arepa dough. She rolled and patted her way right through until dinner was ready. It always amazes me how easy it is to engage kids in the cooking process when I have the energy to do it....

There is a very well known arepa restaurant in NYC which makes the white corn variety common in Venezuela. These are a bit puffier and are sliced open and stuffed with delicious fillings.

Check out the Caracas Arepa Bar for more info.

In New Haven, CT a popular spot for yellow corn arepas is Manjares cafe.

 

Do you LOVE arepas too?
How do you make them?
Please share by commenting below!