Tag: side dish

Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Stuffed Vine Leaves – Authentic Turkish Dolma

(Mine didn’t look exactly like this but pretty close 🙂 – And it wasn’t a lack of effort

 

TOTAL TIME
2hrs 30mins
PREP 1 HR 30 MINS
COOK 1 HR

“Dolma” in Turkish translates to any vegetable stuffed with a rice-based mixture. Lots of spices are used for the stuffing. For me, the most important one is the lemon salt. It gives a nice aromatic taste, which can not be replaced by the combination of lemon juice and table salt. If you can not locate any lemon salt, don’t forget to replace it with only half the amount of kosher salt (two tbsp will be too much) and juice of half a lemon. The process may be a little confusing, you can check out step-by-step pictures at my blog here: http://cafefernando.com/?p=42

INGREDIENTSNutrition

1040 dolmas

DIRECTIONS

  1. Dice the onions and sauté with 1/4 cup of olive oil.
  2. When they turn translucent, add the pine nuts and sauté for 5 more minutes.
  3. Add rice and stir constantly for 5-10 minutes until the rice is translucent.
  4. Add the spices (dried mint, cinnamon, lemon salt, black pepper, dried currants, sugar and allspice) and chopped parsley.
  5. After another quick stir, add 1/2 cup of boiling water and simmer on low medium heat for 15-20 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed by the rice mixture.
  6. Take off heat and let cool.
  7. And now, here comes the fun part. Traditionally, you would put a spoonful of the cooled mixture in the center of the top part of the leaf, fold the sides inwards and then roll the leaf like a cylinder. But since I have “The Ultimate Dolma Machine” (follow the link mentioned in the description section), I just placed a leaf on the rubber compartment of the machine, put a tbps of mixture in the middle and with a single slide, there comes my dolma from the other side of the machine. The process was a breeze. It took me only 10 minutes to roll nearly 40 perfectly shaped dolmas. Below is the process fully photographed.
  8. As the final step, spread a layer of vine leaves on the bottom of a large and heavy pot (to prevent the stuffed leaves from burning).
  9. Lay all your dolmas side by side and tuck very tightly.
  10. Transfer the remaining 1/4 cups of olive oil, juice of half a lemon and 2 cups of boiling water, cover with a plate upside down (so that the dolmas don’t move around in boiling water) and bring to a boil.
  11. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until all the water is absorbed (roughly 45-60 minutes).
  12. Transfer to your serving dish and let cool.
Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Crisp Quinoa Cakes With Cilantro, Scallions and Sriracha

quina

INGREDIENTS

Red = my own modifications

  • 1 cup quinoa
  • Salt
  • ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro (I probably added 1 1/4 cup)
  • ¼ cup chopped scallions (I probably added closer to 1/2 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon sriracha (I added a little extra)
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Lime wedges for serving
  • I added 1/2 onion and a green pepper

PREPARATION

  1.  Chopped onion and pepper finely chopped then fried in a little oil then set aside
  2. Put the quinoa, a large pinch of salt and 2 1/4 cups water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, and then adjust the heat so that the mixture bubbles gently. Cover, and cook, stirring once, until the grains are very tender and begin to burst, 25 to 30 minutes. When they are starchy and thick, transfer them to a large bowl to cool for a few minutes.
  3. Heat the oven to 200. Fold the cilantro, scallions, and sriracha (also pepper and onion if you added them) into the quinoa, and add a (very) generous sprinkle of salt and pepper. With your hands, form the mixture into 8 patties.
  4. Put 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is warm, cook 4 cakes at a time until the bottoms are nicely browned and crisp, about 4 minutes. Flip, and brown on the other side, another 4 minutes. Transfer the cakes to the oven to keep warm while you cook the second batch with another tablespoon of oil. Serve with lime wedges.
Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

HUNGARIAN RATATOUILLE – LECSÓ

This one turned out to be almost as good as Nagymama’s.

You need medium sized sweet yellow Hungarian wax peppers and fully ripe, sweet tomatoes to make authentic Hungarian lecsó. The Jim grows these with varied success, giving me a few weeks of lecsó making opportunity. Keep in mind that no Hungarian pepper grown in our Kamloops garden can come close to the peppers grown on Hungarian soil. Of course most North Americans don’t even know what Hungarian peppers look like, except for the tiny hot things they sell in the supermarket. But those aren’t Hungarian peppers. Moving onto the tomatoes, the sweetest of tomatoes, are the round vine ripened varieties. They cost a bit more, but their flavour is superior even when the rest of the tomatoes are in season. I have been trying to break through the availability barrier and to come up with a year around version of Hungarian lecsó, but that will be a different topic.

In terms of volume I tended to use 1/4 tomato to 3/4 pepper to balance out the acidity and to reduce the liquid in my lecsó. Onions give body to stews, so I thought I would increase the onions, because lecsó should not have soup like consistency. The recipe I used over the years called for half an onion. But since the onion is the one that binds the peppers and tomatoes together, I figured there should be more of it. An additional benefit is that onions bring natural sweetness to lecsó. So gradually I increased the onions I used. Now for every 6 medium Hungarian wax peppers and 6 medium tomatoes I use 2 fairly large onions. That’s a lot of onions, but you need it. I also add Hungarian paprika to my lecsó, but only a couple of teaspoons. Lecsó is not about the paprika.

  • 6 Hungarian wax peppers*
  • 2 large onions,
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 5 medium ripe tomatoes sliced
  • 2 tsp Hungarian paprika
  1. • Chop the peppers into strips.
  2. • Chop the tomatoes, removing the green centers.
  3. • Dice the onions into large bits, but don’t cut them too fine.
  4. • Place 3 Tbsp olive oil in the pot on medium heat.
  5. • Add the onions and garlic and sauté until onions are soft, but not brown.
  6. • Reduce the heat and add the peppers.
  7. • Add the salt and the pepper now.
  8. • Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for a 3-5 minutes.
  9. • Add the tomato and the Hungarian paprika.
  10. • Simmer uncovered for 1-2 minutes.
  11. • Serve with rustic white bread.
    Yields: 2 servings

*In terms of flavour, the yellow bells are the closest to the Hungarian wax. The smallest they are the better, the big ones release too much liquid and they tend to finish up soggy.