Cooking - sort of
The kids and I are very taken with Middle Eastern food, but we can't afford to go out for it very often. So, tonight I tried to recreate one of the dishes we had at a restaurant we like.
It's called mujadarah, and I'm thinking it's a dinner staple. It's a simple recipe with lentils, rice and cumin, but the one I tried from food.com needs some serious adjustments.
For a start, it called for 3 cups of water in which I was to cook a cup of lentils and 2 cups of rice. That right there seemed fishy to me, so I only used one cup of rice along with the lentils. I'm so glad I did. If I'd used an additional cup of rice the dish would have ended up very dry and partially uncooked. I used a medium-size saucepan, but next time I'm going to use one of my Dutch ovens so the water and ingredients have more room to spread themselves out. I'll probably use vegetable stock, too, if I can find some that's low salt. I could make my own, I suppose.
We had to substitute basmati rice for regular, but that turned out to be a good idea. Basmati doesn't stick like regular rice does.
The only real spice the recipe called for was 1 teaspoon of cumin which wasn't nearly enough to flavor this much food. We added another teaspoon, a dash of nutmeg and some cinnamon. Still, when we make it again, I'm going to add some curry or even substitute the cumin for curry. I just think the dish needed more kick. Also, we added a handful of raisins and some toasted almond slices for flavor and crunch, because that's what our favorite restaurant does.
We have enough left over to divide and do some flavor tests. If we do this, we'll know how to doctor up the next batch.
The kids and I went to B&N this afternoon so I could scope out a few Middle Eastern cookbooks before ordering one or two from my library. That turned out to be a wasted trip. The store didn't even have one. I found a couple on Amazon that looked all right, so I'm going to try to borrow those.
I start my new work schedule this week. I work Monday through Thursday, 5-12. The days and hours suit me, for the most part, but this also means I can't participate in the B&N writing group. Oh, well. That's what my flist is for, right?
We watched "The Blind Side" tonight. What a terrific movie! Sandra Bullock was marvelous, but really, the entire cast was terrific. I can see why she won the Oscar.
All in all, a busy Sunday.
It's called mujadarah, and I'm thinking it's a dinner staple. It's a simple recipe with lentils, rice and cumin, but the one I tried from food.com needs some serious adjustments.
For a start, it called for 3 cups of water in which I was to cook a cup of lentils and 2 cups of rice. That right there seemed fishy to me, so I only used one cup of rice along with the lentils. I'm so glad I did. If I'd used an additional cup of rice the dish would have ended up very dry and partially uncooked. I used a medium-size saucepan, but next time I'm going to use one of my Dutch ovens so the water and ingredients have more room to spread themselves out. I'll probably use vegetable stock, too, if I can find some that's low salt. I could make my own, I suppose.
We had to substitute basmati rice for regular, but that turned out to be a good idea. Basmati doesn't stick like regular rice does.
The only real spice the recipe called for was 1 teaspoon of cumin which wasn't nearly enough to flavor this much food. We added another teaspoon, a dash of nutmeg and some cinnamon. Still, when we make it again, I'm going to add some curry or even substitute the cumin for curry. I just think the dish needed more kick. Also, we added a handful of raisins and some toasted almond slices for flavor and crunch, because that's what our favorite restaurant does.
We have enough left over to divide and do some flavor tests. If we do this, we'll know how to doctor up the next batch.
The kids and I went to B&N this afternoon so I could scope out a few Middle Eastern cookbooks before ordering one or two from my library. That turned out to be a wasted trip. The store didn't even have one. I found a couple on Amazon that looked all right, so I'm going to try to borrow those.
I start my new work schedule this week. I work Monday through Thursday, 5-12. The days and hours suit me, for the most part, but this also means I can't participate in the B&N writing group. Oh, well. That's what my flist is for, right?
We watched "The Blind Side" tonight. What a terrific movie! Sandra Bullock was marvelous, but really, the entire cast was terrific. I can see why she won the Oscar.
All in all, a busy Sunday.