Chana Masala

• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
• 1 tbsp finley grate fresh ginger root
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2-3/4 tsp cayenne pepper, to taste
• 3 tbsp plain yogurt
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• 1-2 15oz can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 3-4 chopped Roma tomatoes
• Water

In a Medium skillet over medium heat, saute onions in oil until transparent, stirring frequently. Stir in cumin seeds and cook until they are lightly toasted. Stir in garlic and gingerroot and cook until fragrant about 2-3 min. Add coriander, tumeric and paprika. Cook, stirring, until toasted.

Stir in tomato paste, salt, and cayenne and cook 2-3 min more. Stir in yogurt and lemon juice, cook a few seconds, then add chickpeas and tomato. Stir well, adding water as needed to thin. Cover and cook 5-10 min. Serve with rice or bread.

So enough with the cook book formalities this dish was really tasty! It had just enough heat, lots of delicious flavors, and it’s pretty healthy for you. The recipe took 20min max to cook which is also what is really nice about this dish. I think we could have been done in 15min had it not been for waiting for the rice to cook. ^_^ We made some left overs considering the recipe actually makes for 4 people, so we added a lil’ caribbean food the next day. Weird combination, but it did the trick.

Gotta have tea at all times.

Choripán!!!

Wikipedia says:

Argentina

The Argentine choripán consists of a sausage made out of beef and pork, hot off the grill, split down the middle, and served on a roll.^[8] The chorizo may be used whole or cut in half lengthwise, in which case it is called a mariposa (butterfly). It is customary to add sauces on the bread, most likely chimichurri.

Choripanes are commonly served as an appetizer during the preparation of an asado, but they are also very commonly sold at sport venues (particularly football games) and on the sides of roads and streets in major cities in Argentina. Taxi cab drivers in Buenos Aires are avid consumers and some street sellers can gather a long line of cabs during lunch time and afternoons when drivers get their lunch break.

Mariana says:

In Caracas, Venezuela the street vendors are known for their “pepitos”, a steak or chorizo sandwich. It’s a 24/7 decadent treat. The ingredients varied according to the area of the city you’re in, but overall it’s made with a baguette sliced in half where they put a hunk of grilled steak or chorizo with caramelized onions, pico de gallo and avocados. As a caraquena I often crave these monumental sandwiches and remember them with an incredible nostalgia of the many nights in which they saved me from a miserable hangover. My beautiful aunt who is an incredible cook taught me how to make my own if ever in the need for them, as well as to how to add your own kick to it. That is also the amazing thing about the “pepito”, it’s really difficult to fuck it up even if you’re wasted, unless of course you chop your hand or fingers preparing the pico de gallo.

I try to get the freshest ingredients in advance that are the least processed. Instead of getting the pre-packaged “guacamole” seasoning, get the pepper, salt, chilis and lime juice separately and then mix them. If you have to get the pre-package stuff make sure the ingredients written in the back are what you would expect them to be, less is better. For the pico de gallo all you need is fresh tomatoes, onions, chilis if you like it spicy, lime juice and cilantro. You can mix it with an avocado to make a killer guacamole.

A small container of pico the gallo:

1 tomato diced.

1/2 big onion diced. If you love onions put as much as you like.

1/2 chili, serrano or jalapeno pepper finely chopped. Wear gloves chopping them or else they’ll burn your fingers for hours. Use the seeds if you want it real spicy or else discard seeds. Start with a tsp of fresh lime juice and add another tsp if needed, or according to how you want it to taste.

1/4 of a bunch of cilantro, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and that’s it. Add the avocado if you want guacamole. This you can eat with anything or eat it by itself. In Venezuela we eat it with anything and everything. In the United States I’ve seen it as dip for chips and other goodies. It really goes with everything.

This time we made the “pepito” with chorizo that we bought at our local grocery store, handmade on site. Heat it in a skillet and cut it in the middle without separating it into two pieces. Once it’s hot and it doesn’t look red on the inside it’s ready to be put in the baguette. Once you have it in there just add the pico de gallo on top of it, and brace yourself for what you’re about to put in your mouth because nothing will be the same. Let the juices run down your chin and let them drip onto the plate or floor, just forget about everything and focus on the sandwich dammit! Holla, I hope you enjoy it and become a freak like me.

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With love from Austria #2: Kartoffelgulasch

My mum used to cook this dish for us whenever she didn’t really have time to cook – it’s easy, fast, cheap and it tastes delicious! The original dish comes from Hungary and is done with beef only… this version is – as my grandma used to say – for the „poor“ people. They used to cook it for themselves during war because it was cheap and they could usually find potatoes somewhere (at least in the beginning of the war).

This is what you need (for 4 people):
1kg of potatoes, peeled and roughly cubed (2-3 potatoes per person depending on the size)
2 onions, finely chopped
3 paprika peppers (yellow, red, green), cubed/sliced
if you want to add meet to your dish: cubed Knackwurst or sliced Frankfurter
tomato conentrate (2-3 spoons)
2 cloves of garlic (pressed)
caraway seed
majoram
2-3 spoons of paprika powder
salt
oil
3 spoons of flour
water

Use a big pot. Fry the onions in oil until they are golden, then add the tomate concentrate and the garlic. Fry for another minute or two and then add the cubed potatoes. Mix them up with the onions and the tomato concentrate, then add the peppers and the sausages. Fry for another minute.
Add the 3 spoons of flour, mix everything up so that all the potatoes are covered in flour. In the end, add the paprika powder, salt, majoram and some caraway seed (not too much as this is a really strong tasting spice – you can add more of it later too). As a last step, pour in water until all the potatoes are covered by it, mix everything up again, close the lid and let it cook until the potatoes are done. Depending on how spicy you want it, you can always add more paprika powder.
I like it best when it is served with some fresh sour cream on top and a slice of white bread!

Mahlzeit

Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Phew! What a long a** title. These little cookies pack quite a punch. I started this baking endeavor tonight out of sheer idle hands, and I will say it was a fine choice. I got this recipe from epicurious via Gourmet Magazine but I left out the chocolate chips because good lord, there is a TON of sugar in them. The cookies turned out really really nice, highly recommend, and I will definitely be baking them again. The other good thing is that this recipe yields about 20 massive cookies. YUM!

Gourmet http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Chunk-Oatmeal-Coconut-Cookies-105431

Korean BBQ Flank Steak

This was delicious! I need how to learn to shoot food pictures, but aside from the weird photos, the flank steak was awesome! You all know how much I love the Korean food, and Kalbi is one of my favorites. Over the summer we tried a couple different recipes for kalbi, but this time we had a flank steak in the fridge and decided to use this recipe on that. We marinated it for about 2 days (which made all the difference) then unfortunately had to pan fry it instead of grill it like we would normally do. However, it turned out juicy and flavorful. I would have much rather put some rice on the side, but I was impatient after work and just wanted to stuff myself instead of waiting for rice to cook *_* Sandwiches are nice too right? Anyways,  if you guys out there have better recipes PLEASE send them my way. I got this recipe from Bon Appetite and I would much rather have one directly from a friend or family member.

THE MARINADE

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cupmirin (sweet Japanese rice wine) or sweet Sherry

1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar

1/4 cup oriental sesame oil

1/4 cup minced garlic (about 15 cloves)

2 large green onions, chopped

5 pounds Korean-style short ribs (beef chuck flanken, cut 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick across bones; about 20 pieces)

Combine first 7 ingredients in medium bowl; whisk to blend well. Pour into heavy jumbo resealable plastic bag. Add ribs; seal bag. Turn bag over several times to coat ribs evenly. Refrigerate overnight, turning bag occasionally.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Drain ribs; discard marinade. Working in batches, grill ribs until browned and cooked to medium-rare, about 3 minutes per side. Mound ribs on platter; surround with chopped spinach and serve.

With love from Austria: Frittatensuppe

I am going to contribute some Austrian dishes to this blog… but beware – traditional Austrian food is generally really rich and you might not want to eat it everday A lot of the dishes have their roots in the Austro-Hungarian empire. The reason they are so rich is that they were mainly consumed by farmers (often mountain farmers) that spent their days outside doing hard physical labor. Most of those mountain farmers are gone but the food has stayed. And I would like to share some of my favorite dishes with you!

The first dish is a soup that I cooked for Amy and Pat when we were travelling in Argentina. I was sick and I really felt like I needed to eat some good old Frittatensuppe. A Frittatensuppe is a clear soup consommé with shredded crepes (pancakes). I know it sounds horrible but believe me, it tastes really really good!
I guess I will be having a hard time with some vocabulary as well as measurements (you know the liter, kilo, etc. problem)…. but I’ll try my best.

This is what you need for the soup:
1 liter (4-5 cups) of water
3 soup cubes (either vegetarian or beef based)
3 carrots
2 pieces of leek (finger sized)
fresh parsley
a piece of celery
If you want to add more meat flavor to your soup: a piece of marrowbone or beef

For the Frittaten:
3 eggs
250g flour (9oz.)
250ml of milk (1 cup)
salt
oil

The soup is really easy to make – just throw all the ingredients into one pot and let them boil. The vegetables give it a really nice taste. You might want to add some salt in the end.

Place the flour in a bowl and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. When it becomes smooth, mix in the 3 whole eggs and a little salt. Heat up a pan greased with oil. Make the crepes as thin as possible. Put them aside and let them cool off. In the end, cut them into very thin slices. Serve them immediately with the soup, otherwhise they soak up all the liquid. Add some freshly cut chives for decoration.

Guten Appetit!

Old-Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup

Wikipedia says:

United States and Canada

In the United States and Canada, chicken soup often has noodles in it, thus giving it its common name of “chicken noodle soup.” The term may have been coined in a commercial for Campbell’s soup in the 1930s. The original 21 varieties of Campbell’s condensed soup featured a “chicken soup with noodles”, but when it was advertised on the “Amos & Andy” radio show in the 1930s by a slip of the tongue the soup was referred to as “chicken noodle soup”; Campbell’s was preparing to discontinue the soup due to low sales. After the broadcast, letters began pouring in asking for Chicken Noodle Soup. Campbell’s then changed the name of its soup. Several variations on chicken noodle (usually with the pasta in various shapes such as “ABCs” or stars) have made it one of Campbell’s best-selling products.

This was delicious. So, it’s -5F with the windchill over here, and going out to get food is just painful to think about, so we scrounged up all our left over ingredients and decided to make a soup. This was Mariana’s first time making it in the U.S., but she used to make Sopa de Pollo with her aunt all the time back home. It’s awesome, because now we have leftovers for days! hollaaaa.