November: Ethnic food

Thank you to Cris for hosting a delightful evening!!! Below is the deliciousness that she made. 

Recipe 1: Homemade Hummus

from www.smittenkitchen.com

I love homemade hummus! It tends to be cheaper than the store bought stuff. 

Makes 1 3/4 cups hummus

Ingredients:1 3/4 cups cooked, drained chickpeas (from a 15-ounce can)
1/2 cup tahini paste
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste
2 small cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 teaspoon table salt, or more to taste
Approximately 1/4 cup water or reserved chickpea cooking water
Olive oil 

paprika 

Peel your chickpeas. I find this is easiest when you take a chickpea between your thumb and next two fingers, arranging the pointy end in towards your palm, and “pop!” the naked chickpea out. Discard the skin. 

In a food processor or using an immersion blender, blend the chickpeas until powdery clumps form, a full minute, scraping down the sides. Add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt and blend until pureed. With the machine running, drizzle in water or reserved chickpea cooking water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get very smooth, light and creamy mixture. 

Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt or lemon if needed.
Transfer the hummus to a bowl and rest it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, longer if you can. To serve, drizzle it with a little olive oil, and sprinkle it with paprika. Serve it with pita wedges or carrot sticks.

Recipe 2: Enfrijoladas (or enchiladas with a black bean sauce...)

I grew up eating this dish as my mom's go to easy, cheap, comfort food. It's filling, healthy, cheap and easy to make!

Corn tortillas

4 13oz cans of black beans

1 tsp of cumin

1/2 tsp of garlic salt

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of chili powder

For the filling:

It is up to you! I used zuchinni, corn, shredded chicken and some shredded mexican blend cheese but you can really make whatever "taco" filling you want that will bake well.

Make the filling: For this I sautéed the zuchinni chopped up into small pieces with a bit of chopped onion, a can of drained corn, some shredded chicken and cheese. Sorry I didn't do the measurements here but you can honestly make it however you want. Just plain shredded boiled chicken works great!

Make the sauce: heat 4 cans of black beans (with the liquid) in a small pot, add 1 tsp of cumin, 1/2 tsp of chili powder, 1/4 tsp of garlic salt and 1/2 tsp of salt (i am guessing here I just sort of spice it to taste). Blend the black beans into a creamy sauce. 

Assemble: Pour a layer of the black bean sauce in the bottom of a 9X12 in casserole dish. Heat corn tortillas and fill them with the filling into little rolled up tacos. Place them rolled side down into the pyrex dish. Once your pyrex dish is filled with the tacos (squeeze them in), pour the remainder of the black bean sauce over the top. Sprinkle shredded cheese (mozzarella or mexican blend or monterrey jack) over top.

Optional garnishes: avocado, lime wedges, cilantro, salsa, crema

You can also make them without the casserole dish if you are just making it for two - just heat the tortillas and add filling folding them like a quesadilla and pour the black bean sauce over top. Still super yummy and easy! 

Recipe 3: "Japanese" Pancakes also from smittenkitchen.com

Yield: 4 large pancakes or I am really sorry, but I forgot to count, but I’d say at least 12 smaller ones

Pancakes
1/2 small head cabbage, very thinly sliced (1 pound or 5 to 6 cups shreds) which will be easiest on a mandoline if you have one
4 medium carrots, peeled into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
5 lacinato kale leaves, ribs removed, leaves cut into thin ribbons
4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
Canola, safflower or peanut oil for frying

Tangy Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (note: this is not vegetarian)
1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine or sake
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey (use 2 if you like a sweeter sauce)
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

(YOU CAN ALSO USE HOISIN SAUCE OR SRIRACHA if you don't want to make the sauce)

Make the pancakes: Toss cabbage, carrot, kale, scallions and salt together in a large bowl. Toss mixture with flour so it coats all of the vegetables. Stir in the eggs. Heat a large heavy skillet on medium-high heat. Coat the bottom with oil and heat that too.

To make a large pancake, add 1/4 of the vegetable mixture to the skillet, pressing it out into a 1/2- to 3/4-inch pancake. Gently press the pancake down flat. Cook until the edges beging to brown, about 3 minutes. 30 seconds to 1 minute later, flip the pancake with a large spatula. (If this is terrifying, you can first slide the pancake onto a plate, and, using potholders, reverse it back into the hot skillet.) Cook on the other side until the edges brown, and then again up to a minute more (you can peek to make sure the color is right underneath).

To make small pancakes, you can use tongs but I seriously find using my fingers and grabbing little piles, letting a little batter drip back into the bowl, and depositing them in piles on the skillet easier, to form 3 to 4 pancakes. Press down gently with a spatula to they flatten slightly, but no need to spread them much. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the edges brown. Flip the pancakes and cook them again until brown underneath.

Regardless of pancake size, you can keep them warm on a tray in the oven at 200 to 250 degrees until needed.

If desired, make okonomiyaki sauce: Combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and let simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, until smooth and thick.

Serve pancakes with sauce and any of the other fixings listed above, from Japanese mayo to scallions and toasted sesame seeds.

Do ahead: Extra pancakes will keep in the fridge for a couple days, or can be spread on a tray in the freezer until frozen, then combined in a freezer bag to be stored until needed. Reheat on a baking sheet in a hot oven until crisp again.

Recipe 4: Slow Cooker Curry

Slow cooker red thai curry recipe

2 13.5 oz cans of coconut milk

4 tbs red curry paste (more if you like it spicy!)

3 big yukon potatoes peeled and chopped into bite size chunks

4 big carrots peeled and sliced into .5 inch rounds

2 bell peppers chopped

2 onions chopped

3 tbs peanut butter

2 tbs fish sauce (optional) 

2 tbs minced ginger

1 tbs chopped fresh basil

4 cloves garlic minced

1 c chicken broth (optional, depending on preferred consistency)

1.5 - 2 lb of chicken thighs roughly chopped

1. Saute chopped onions until translucent, add garlic, curry paste and ginger and saute until curry coats all onions and it all looks cooked

2. Add 2 cans of coconut milk to crockpot 

3. Stir in onion mixture, add peanut butter and stir until thoroughly combined.

4. Add veggies

5. Add chicken

6. Add chicken broth (optional)

7. Add fish sauce (optional)

8. Cook on low for 3-4 hours

9. Once cooked add juice of half a lime and a cup of frozen peas (optional) 

10. Serve over rice

From Emilie Maierhofer 

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/06/taste-test-japanese-curry-roux-mixes-golden-torukero-vermont-java-kokumaro.html

This link explains Japanese Curry that you can buy at Wal Mart. It is the real deal! I ate this all the time while teaching English in Japan. It is like mac&cheese, comfort food, and sometimes cafeteria food. Yum!! Just follow the instructions on the box.