Taking a break from my medical reminiscences, more recipes. Last Saturday, I made a gumbo with chicken, sausage and shrimp in my crockpot, which cooked while I skied. That’s one of the advantages of a crockpot for the way I live. I can spend some time on the food processing early in the day, turn on the pot, and have dinner ready after several hours away skiing or cycling.
Category: Food
Sambal Beans
This is another dish I made for my family’s pot-luck Christmas dinner. I had also made it for company in October. It’s basically green beans, but with a nice spicy bite. The spice may not please some guests. This recipe made enough to serve a good helping to most of about 25 guests.
I used frozen French cut beans, about two-thirds of a one kilogram bag. If you are cooking for a smaller party, or for family, there will left overs. If you make a half recipe, you may want to find another use for part of a can of diced tomatoes and half an onion.
Erik Dalmijn, my cousin from Holland and his wife Rite had given us a couple recipes which called for some herb and spice packets that I couldn’t find at the Dutch specialty store in East Kildonan. I searched the Web for options. There is a recipe on the Web – actually three or four versions of the same basic recipe under the name of Sambal Boontjes or Sambal Goreng Boontjes or Sambal Goreng Buncis. (Boontjes would a correct Dutch usage – a diminutive of beans). They all call for a one liter can of French cut beans. That’s not a common item in a Canadian grocery store; frozen beans worked fine. There are other some other versions, but this one is simple and fast, and it does not call for more than a couple of specialty ingredients.
A few ingredients may be obscure, but I think they are available in larger supermarkets. Some of the Westfair Superstores in Winnipeg are pretty good with ingredients for Oriental, Indonesian and Philippine cooking. You can use Laos powder, also called Galangal powder. That’s basically an aromatic ginger; regular powdered ginger will do. You need Sambal Oelek which is a wet paste made of crushed chili peppers. It’s essentially an Indonesian version, and there there are equivalents in Chinese and Indochinese cuisine. It’s wet and it’s crushed rather than pureed or ground. The recipe also calls for Kecap Manis (also sold as Kecap Sambal Manis) which is a sweet soy sauce. Regular soy will do.
Start with onion and garlic. One medium onion for the full recipe, diced. Two or three cloves of garlic, crushed. Fry the onion and garlic in cooking oil of choice in a skillet or wok. Use about 2 tablespoons of oil. I would turn the heat down after the oil is hot and sauté slowly. Turn the heat down before the next step.
Add 1 teaspoon of Laos or ginger, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and one tablespoon of Sambal Oelek to the onions and garlic in the skillet. The sugar will carmelize and things will burn if you aren’t careful. This only needs to be fried for about a minute. Then add a can (14 oz) of diced tomatoes, stir to blend and bring mixture to a boil. If you are not keen on hot spice, cut down on the Sambal.
After the sauce is boiling, add 3 tablespoons of Kecap Manis, and add beans. The sauce will flavour anywhere from half a kilogram to three quarters of kilogram of beans. Heat the beans thoroughly, and it’s ready to serve.
Buttered Leeks
This is tasty. I made it for my family’s pot luck Christmas dinner. Leeks are a popular ingredient in many Dutch and Dutch-Indonesian dishes and apparently in some Scots dishes, but they don’t seem to be called for in too many recipes. The name also provides endless amusement for plumbers and beer drinkers.
Cooking leeks means a trip to a store with a big produce section, because the local Safeway may not have them. I have also noticed that the size of leeks varies. I found some monsters when I was cooking for company in October. I think the typical recipe assumes a more modest leek.
Camel Stew
This is a crockpot recipe, adapted from a recipe for Mongolian mixed meat stew. I made it a few weeks ago. It’s tasty, meaty, but not greasy. Once again, Claire suggested the title. She asked me if Mongolian stew had camel. I’m not sure what makes this recipe Mongolian.
Cajun Recipes
In the course of making a crockpot jambalaya, I wondered if I should add file powder. I searched gumbo file and jambalaya and found the basic definitions and several recipe sites. Both dishes are classified as cajun or creole recipes within Southern US and Caribbean recipe classifications.
Dalmation Chili, v. 1.0, Crockpot
No dogs are harmed in making this chili. It uses pork, and it’s based on a recipe in one of Mable Hoffman’s books, called Black and White chili because it uses black and white beans. The basic recipe is kind of bland and I have adapted it. Claire asked about Dalmations when I mentioned it. It has a bit of heat, but is basically mild. Very tasty though.
It’s a crockpot recipe and would have to be adapted for stovetop cooking. It uses canned beans, which is simpler than soaking and cooking dried beans. There is some processing at the beginning, and then it cooks at the low heat setting for 6 hours.
Meadowlark Chili v 1.0
There is a meadowlark on the Beaudry Park sign. I made this chili after deciding not to paddle in the early winter ice floes on the Assiniboine River on sunny, windy day in November. I started with someone else’s recipe, but I changed so much that I can report this as my own experiment that turned out well. I would change a few things so don’t follow each step unless you have read through to the end. On the question of spices, you may want it hotter or less spicy.
I made it in a 5 quart dutch oven. It is heavy on the tomatoes, light on the beans, spiced for flavour rather than for raw burning power. The quantities filled the pot. I was cooking with a view to freezing some for quick meals later. I served Claire (not yet a vegan) and myself and had enough leftovers to fill 4 25 oz (750 ml) plastic containers. I would say this should be enough, with chips and bread on the side, to make 8-10 hearty servings or perhaps a dozen smaller servings.
I used:
- 2 large onions,
- 1 large red bell pepper,
- 1 large green bell pepper,
- 2 jalapeno peppers,
- 6 medium-large cloves of garlic.
I chopped the onion and the bell peppers into smallish pieces – under an inch. I think I could have cut the onions and bell peppers smaller, down to chunks the size of kidney beans, but the idea is to make the pieces small, not necessarily to dice it fine. I minced the garlic and chopped the jalapeno peppers finely.
I heated some canola oil in the dutch oven and began to sauté the fresh vegetables. I gave it a couple of minutes before adding the meat. I used:
1 pound (400 grams) of ground pork, and 1 pound (400 grams) of lean ground beef. I had to stir this a lot to get all the meat down on the bottom, and to keep breaking up the meat into smaller chunks. After the meat was browned and broken up, and onions were soft. I deglazed with most of a can of beer, and added two 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes. I added spices and flavour ingredients:
- 4 teaspoons store-bought chili powder
- a shot of tequila;
- 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper;
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce;
I simmered for about 45 minutes – before adding beans. I added a 28 oz can of black beans, rinsed and drained, and kept simmering until I had reduced the liquid down to a thick soup. I added a cup or a cup and half of fresh mushrooms washed and sliced.
I served it with grated cheese, tortilla chips and some bread to sop up the juices.
I found this to be juicy , and it needed a long time simmering to reduce the liquid. I would probably do a couple things differently. I think a can of beer – about a cup and a half was too much, and I would use a little less than a cup. The diced tomatoes have a lot of juice. Two cans made about 7 cups. I might use one large can, or one large and one smaller (the 12 or 14 oz size. I might use two cans whole tomatoes and chop them by hand, or fresh tomatoes – maybe 4 cups. I think I could use a medium can of tomato sauce instead of one of the cans of diced tomatoes. I think it needs to be juicy at the beginning.
I would use more beans. I would probably add a 24 or 28 oz can of red kidney beans, rinsed and drained, at the same stage I added the black beans. I think the mushrooms were optional. I could use less, especially if there were more beans. They don’t need to cook that long so they can go in much later than the rest of the ingrediants.