Fresh Herb Stew (Khoresh-e Qormeh Sabzi)

2 large onions, peels and thinly sliced
2 pounds lamb shanks or 1½ pounds deboned leg of lamb, cut in 2-inch pieces
½ cup vegetable oil
1½ teaspoons salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon turmeric
4 cups water or light stock (chicken or vegetable)
½ cup dried kidney beans or other red beans, soaked in water overnight
4 whole dried Persian limes, pierced with a knife. See photo below.
4 cups finely chopped parsley, about 4 bunches, thick stems removed
1 cup finely chopped chives or scallions, about 1 bunch scallions
1 cup finely chopped cilantro, about 1 bunch, thick stems removed
1 cup chopped fenugreek leaves or ¼ cup dried
Note: Available from purveyors of Indian foodstuffs under the name of Kasoori Methi. See photo below.
2 tablespoons dried Persian lime powder
OR
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice (my preference), 1-2 limes

1. Using a food processor, coarsely chop the parsley, scallions, and cilantro. Of course you can do it by hand if you prefer.
2. In a Dutch oven or a large pot, brown the onions with the lamb in 3 tablespoons oil. Add salt, pepper, and turmeric. Pour in the water or stock. Drain the soaked beans. Add them and the whole dried Persian limes. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes.

3. In a frying pan, sauté the mountain of chopped parsley, chives or scallions, cilantro, and fenugreek in the remaining oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until they grow limp and wilted.
4. Add the sautéed herbs and the lime powder or juice to the pot. Cover and simmer for another 30-45 minutes or until the meat is tender and the beans are nicely soft but not mushy.
5. Taste the stew for seasonings and adjust as needed. Place in a warm oven until you’re ready to serve.
6. Serve with plain rice or with Persian flat bread. It is nice have some Cucumbers with Yogurt and Mint with some added garlic.

Serves 6
Adapted from Najmieh Batmanglif’s New Food of Life

Persian dried limes

Fenugreek leaves

My Chap Chye (Nonya-style Mixed Vegetable Stew)

I love Peranakan food, it's that combination of fragrant spices influenced by a Malay background and the use of very Chinese ingredients and techniques that give rise to dishes that you really don't find anywhere except in Singapore and Malaysia. Not many people even know about this wonderful cuisine, so that makes it all the more unique. I need to do more recipes from home. My (chinese) new year's resolution maybe!

Anyway here goes for a Nonya Chap Chye (mixed vegetables stew), which is quite common for Chinese New Year, Most of the vegetables are actually dried, so I have them stored in my pantry, (brought over from home), and I can cook this anytime I want. There are so many variations of Nonya Chap Chyes out there, some with ginkgo nuts and black moss ('fat choy' which sounds like 'fa cai' which means to strike it rich, hence very popular for Chinese New Year). Some add oyster sauce/sugar but I don't see the need to. I like that natural sweetness of the cabbage, brought out by the extra sweetness and savouriness of the fermented beancurd and dried shrimps. This is my chap chye, the way I like it/do it ;)

My Nonya Chap Chye

serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 head round cabbage (not Napa), cut into large pieces

1 small handful of dried black fungus (aka wood ear mushrooms), soaked to rehydrate

1-2 long sticks of dried beancurd, soaked to rehydrate, then cut

4-6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked to rehydrate, then halved *save liquid

1 small handful of dried lily bulbs, cut off the hard tips, soaked to rehydrate *save liquid

2 tbsps dried shrimps, soaked to rehydrate *save liquid

1 bundle glass (mung bean) noodles, soaked till it becomes soft

1 tbsp fermented beancurd paste (aka taucheo)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, minced

1 tbsp olive oil

dash of white pepper

Method

1. Prep ingredients about half an hour before by by soaking the 2nd to 7th ingredient in warm water for about 20 min. Meanwhile, chop up the fresh vegetables.

2. Over medium high heat, fry the garlic and onions till fragrant, then add the taucheo, fry 1 more min, then add the cabbage and stirfry till it's softening.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, along with the *soaking water, plus enough water to cover. Cover, bring to a boil and then lower the heat and let it simmer for 15 min.

4. When the vegetables are all cooked, add the glass noodles, and let everything cook for 5 min more, uncovered, so the liquid reduces and concentrates in flavour. Not more than that,because these noodles will greedily absorb everything up then you'll be left with no sauce/stew.

5. Check seasoning, adding the white pepper to taste. Yum yum served now, or as leftovers the next day.

The dish looks like a grandma's patchwork quilt, but of vegetables! And indeed, it's those kind of traditional homecooking that brings warmth and a smile to your face (:

This is part of Muhibbah Monday.

Gamjatang (Korean Pork Bone Soup)

I thought it was almost spring season (well, at least according to the high street shops), but no, winter refuses to budge and it got really cold in London last weekend. What better than a warming bowl of slow-cooked broth, with that bit of spice and asian flavour to remind me of home? Gamjatang is a Korean spicy (adjustable) pork bone soup with fermented soybean paste, hot pepper flakes and lots of vegetables-- a one-pot meal, though Koreans will still have it with rice.

I adapted the recipe from Maangchi (the cutest cook on Youtube), because I'm guilty of seeking shortcuts (like not removing the chilli pepper and soaking the bones), and because I didn't have some of the ingredients. If you have, please use! Everyone on Maangchi's forums seem to love the flavour that perilla leaves added (like Japanese shiso but "better"), and perilla seeds (I used some sesame seeds because I just thought it would be nice, but it's not a replacement). I don't know if I'm missing out a lot, but even without those ingredients, the soup was sooo good and it made me feel warm and happy and Korean.

Gamjatang (Korean Pork Bone Soup)

serves 2-3

Ingredients

For soup base

1kg of pork (spine) bones

1 large onion, sliced

1" ginger, sliced into pieces

2 tbs soybean paste doenjang (like miso, but a stronger flavour, kind of like Chinese taucheo)

1 dried red chilli, seeds removed

3 dried shitake mushrooms

10 cups water

a bit more than 2l of water

For sauce

6 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp of hot pepper flakes

1 tbsp Korean red chilli pepper powder (to replace the hot pepper paste)

3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing/huadiao)

3 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp of white sesame paste (to "replace" the 3tbsp of perilla seeds powder)

Vegtables

3 stalks of spring onions

1/4 Napa cabbage, chopped into bite-sized pieces.

1 big handful of beansprouts

3 small potatoes, peeled and halved

To serve

chopped spring onions

white pepper

(pretty black earthenware bowl if you have, which I don't)

Method

1. Blanch the pork bones in boiling water for 10 min, with half the ginger added. Drain and rinse the scum off.

2. Bring the pork bones and all the ingredients for the soup base to the boil in a large pot filled with about 2l water, then let it continue to simmer for 1.5h over medium high heat.

3. Add the sauce and vegetables to the pot and continue to cook for half an hour more.

4. Serve piping hot (á la all the Korean dramas hehe) with chopped spring onions and a dash of white pepper.

I love soups, and this one's just rich with flavour (and nutrients). As with all good bone broths, it gels the next day when cooled:

This is fun, I think I should start doing this "gelatin" test for all the bone broths I cook.

This is part of Pennywise Platter Thursday at the Nourishing Gourmet.

This is part of Fightback Fridays by Food Renegade.

Tuscan Butter Bean Soup

One of the many things I love about going to the Farmers' Market, is finding unusual vegetables you can't find in the supermarkets. I got this Cavolo Nero, a.k.a Tuscan Kale, a.k.a. Dinosaur Kale, a.k.a. Black Cabbage (I love the first name most; makes a vegetable sound posh.) With that, I decided to make a hearty bean soup for the winter nights. You can use any type of bean, or even a mix, it originally calls for canellini beans, which are the normal shaped/sized white beans you see, but I had butter beans. They're giant!

Compare: Red adzuki bean v.s. Black bean v.s. Butter bean

Tuscan bean soup is traditional Italian peasant fare, so even though I've seen many recipes adding a bit of bacon or pancetta here and there for more flavour, I've decided to keep this really cheap and simple and rustic.

Tuscan Butter Bean Soup

serves 3-4

2 large onions, chopped

2 sticks of celery, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped (original recipes call for canned but I didn't have any)

1 cup butter beans, soaked overnight and rinsed

1 large head of tuscan kale, chopped into bite-sized pieces

4 cups chicken stock

2 bay leaves

1 tsp of dried thyme (or 3 sprigs thyme)

1 tsp of dried oregano (or 1 sprig oregano)

2-3 tbspsextra virgin olive oil

salt, black pepper

parmesan (optional)

1. Place the beans in a pot, bring to a boil, and let it simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours till just soft, but not mushy.

2. In a large pot, over medium heat, saute the onions, carrot and celery until onions just turn translucent.

3. Add the garlic and the tomatoes, cook until tomatoes cook down.

4. Add the herbs, then the stock, then the beans and the bean cooking liquid if necessary.

5. Cook for another half an hour, before adding the kale, and cooking another 20 min or so until the beans and kale are both tender.

6. Serve with shavings of parmesan (opt) on top.

This soup keeps really well, in fact it gets better the day after. The peasants used to make enough to last 3 days, they reboil on day 2 with a bit of bread, and then on day 3, they reboil again with the stale bread which thickens the soup and gives a thick thick hearty stew called ribollita. I wish I left enough to try how that will work out.

Pork Trotters with Vinegar Stew (猪脚醋)

I was just speaking of TCM in my previous post, and pork trotters in the post before that, so, voila! I thought of this Chinese pork trotter stew. It's favoured by all Chinese mothers during the confinement period because it's incredibly nourishing, and soooo yummy. I love this so much I once famously said "I don't mind being pregnant just to eat all these (confinement) food." Hey, but, it's really a great stew for the winter, not just post-pregnancy. And there are hardly any ingredients, and even fewer steps.

Pork Trotters with Vinegar (猪脚醋)

Ingredients

2 pork trotters (ask the butcher to chop them up)

1 large (about 500g) ginger (old ginger preferably), smashed

5 tbsp sesame oil

1 bottle black vinegar (Koon Chun is a good brand. yes the entire bottle, or at least 3/4 the whole bottle)

3/4 cup brown sugar (I use unrefined Rapadura, use less if you choose to use a sweetened black vinegar)

some water

a few hard boiled eggs

Method

1. Boil the pork trotters vigorously for 15 min, and discard the water with all the scum. Rinse.

2. Fry the pork trotters with the ginger and sesame oil till fragrant.

3. Add the black vinegar, brown sugar, and enough water to cover the pork trotters.

4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 2 hours. (Or you can transfer to a slow cooker like I do, and then simmer on low for 4 hours. The best pot to use is the type that my mum uses-- big black clay pots, over a charcoal fire.)

5. Add the hard boiled eggs to the stew after the trotters are done.

You can eat immediately if you can't wait. But the stew is actually much better the next day. And much much better the day after. And the day after. The most amazing thing about this stew is that you don't have to refrigerate it, the ingredients used act as a form of preservative, I guess it works somewhat like a pickle? (and we know how healthy preserved/fermented foods are for our gut) Just bring it to the boil before eating. In fact, Chinese families will make a huge pot and eat throughout the week.

Here are the healing properties of the components according to TCM:

Black vinegar purifies blood and cleanses the arteries.

Old ginger gets rid of wind in the body, which invades the body especially after pregnancy.

Brown sugar gets rid of dampness in the body.

Sesame oil promotes blood circulation.

Pork trotters have plenty of collagen to strengthen the joints and ligaments, and the bones in them also provide calcium.

Eggs are seen as a complete source of nourishment.

The trotters are so melting soft, and the gravy/broth is sweet sour and savoury all at once, and thick and gelatinous. It makes you lick your sticky lips with satisfaction after that, and your tummy will feel nice and warm and happy. Proof of a powerful broth: look at how it gels after it has cooled!

This is an entry for Muhibbah Monday, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate hosted by more than burnt toast, because it simply is!

Menu 11: New Mexican Stew and Cornbread

I need to visit New Mexico once a year. Primarily I need to see my dear friends Anne Sigler and George Muedeking who left the Bay area a couple of years ago and now live in the East Mountains outside of Albuquerque. But there are a couple of other reasons as well. I have to see the sky. Living as I do in urban areas, I don’t see enough of the sky from one horizon to another and I need it; my spirit needs it. And then there is the food. I love New Mexican Green Chile stews. This year I had an excellent one at the café at Acoma Pueblo some ways south of Albuquerque. The café’s stew replaced the tomatoes in the recipe below with chicken stock and added a little more heat, but in all other ways was like this one. Just lovely. The café served it with plain white bread. I think flour tortillas and especially the Lemon Cornbread are great along side the stew. A friend of mine fancies the cornbread crumbled into the stew.

Pueblo Green Chile Stew

2 pounds boneless pork butt or shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon olive oil, butter, lard, or bacon fat
1 cup chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 fresh tomatoes, cored and chopped, or 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt plus more to taste
1½ teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground chipotle chile powder or to taste—this provides the heat
¼ cup chicken stock, if necessary
10 poblano (sometimes called pasilla) chiles or Anaheim chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped—these are fresh, green and mild
Note: You can do these ahead. In a pinch you could use canned chiles.
1 yellow summer squash or yellow zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into ½-inch slices
1 green zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into ½-inch slices
1 ear fresh corn, kernels removed
1 bunch cilantro, leaves removed and chopped
Sour cream

1. Place part of the pork cubes in a plastic bag with the flour. Shake around and remove to a plate. Continue with the remaining cubes until all are lightly dusted with flour. Add more flour if necessary. Place on a plate.
2. Melt the fat, whichever you choose, in a large, heavy skillet or sauté pan. Add as many pork cubes as will easily cover the bottom of the pan with some space around each cube. Don’t crowd. Turn until all sides are golden. Remove the browned pork from the pan and place on a plate. Repeat with remaining pork, adding more fat if necessary.
3. In the same pan, add the onions and garlic; cook until soft and all the golden crust (flour which stuck to the pan) from the bottom has been dislodged and mixed in with the onion.
4. Place the meat, onions and garlic in a large stew pot. Add the tomatoes, salt, oregano, cumin, coriander, and chipotle chile powder. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the tomatoes have softened and cooked. Add stock if the mixture is too thick.
5. Add the green chiles, the yellow squash and zucchini and simmer for 30 minutes or until the squash is nicely tender but not falling apart, adding a little more stock if necessary.
6. Five minutes before serving, mix in the corn kernels and half of the chopped cilantro. Simmer until the corn is cooked. Taste for seasoning.
7. Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle each bowl with a bit of the remaining chopped cilantro and a dollop of sour cream. You can put bowls of sour cream and cilantro on the table and help yourselves.
Serve with flour tortillas (which would be traditional) or Lemon Cornbread which is not traditional but complements the stew nicely. With the stew, I would omit the blueberries in the Cornbread.

4-6 servings
I started with the recipe in The Museum of New Mexico Foundation’s Santa Fe Kitchens: Delicious Recipes from the Southwest, but made a significant number of changes.

Lemon Cornbread

1 egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon soda
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries, optional

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Butter an 8 x 8 pan and set aside.
2. Whisk together the egg, zest, lemon juice, butter, and oil in a pitcher or small bowl. Stir in the buttermilk.
3. Mix together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
4. Make a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet mixture into the hole. Stir gently but thoroughly to combine. Fold in the blueberries if you wish. Do not over mix. Scrape batter into the prepared pan.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Or eat right away.

If you have any leftover cornbread, you can slice a piece in half, lightly butter each half, toast and smear with honey.

Makes one 8 x 8 pan or about 9 servings
Adapted from The Junior League of Honolulu’s Aloha Days Hula Nights