Category Archives: cumin

Jack is Cooking Persian Rice

Posted on by under cardamom, coriander, cumin, eggs, garlic, ghee., honey, kale, onions, prunes, rice, saffron, sausage, yogurt
Well Hello Internet!
I recently discovered the deliciousness of persian cuisine.  One of the things i liked the best was the way this particular method of cooking rice creates a delicious crust of rice on the top.  Hidden inside can be all sports of delicious meats, fruits, and vegetables.  I investigated some recipes, and before long i had figured out my own delicious version of it.  There are quite a few steps to it, but each of the steps is relatively straight forward.  The rice is cooked very differently from my Perfect Rice recipe, which was an interesting thing to discover.  All together this takes about 3 hours.

Heres what you will need:
For the Filling:
1 lb Merguez Sausage with no casing (look for Jack’s Merguez Sausage at Herondale farm)
1.5 Onions (sliced)
1 cup prunes (chopped up0
1 small bunch of kale (finely chopped)
3 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
salt
pepper
a few strands of saffron
1 teaspoon turmeric

For the Marinade/Crust
2 cups Yogurt (Especially good with Greek yogurt, but any yogurt will do fine.)
9 or 10 strands of saffron – soaked in 1/4 cup boiling water
zest of half an orange
salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
2-3 cardamom pods (cracked open and ground)
1 tablespoon honey

For the Rice
3 cups basmati rice (cleaned and rinsed until the water is clear)
2-3 tablespoons ghee
1/2 onion
3 egg yolks
salt and pepper.

To Prepare the Filling

1.  Mix all the ingredients from the marinade together

2.  Take the sausage and place in a pan with 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, saffron and turmeric,  cook over medium heat until the sausage is cooked, and the onions are tender.  Leaving the juice in the pan, mix the cooked sausage and onions into the marinade.

3. Heat back up the juice in the pan, and add the other half an onion plus 1 clove of garlic.  Cook until its starting to get soft, then add the kale.  Toss for a few seconds, then add the salt and pepper, plus the prunes.  cover and cook for about 5 minutes.   Set aside.

To Make the Rice
1.  Preheat oven to 375°

2.  Fill a large pot of water and bring to a boil.  Add 3 cups of rice stir making sure all the grains are separate from each other (kind of like cooking pasta).  Cook for maybe 4 minutes, then strain the rice out through a sieve.  You want the rice to be soft on the outside, but still crunchy on the inside.  Its going to be cooked some more in a little bit.  Run it under cold water to stop the rice from cooking.

3.  Remove the meat from the marinade, and set aside.  Add 3 egg yolks into the marinade and whisk together.  Mix in about 1/3 of the rice.

4.  Take a Pyrex dish (it could be round or square), and add 2 tablespoons of ghee.  place in the oven for to heat up the pan and melt the ghee.   ( about 5 minutes)  Remove from the oven

5.  Spread the rice mixture into the bottom of the hot pan.  Try to make a nice even layer that goes a little up the sides.  Keeping mostly to the middle of the pan, spread out a layer of about half of the spinach and prune mixture.  Then a layer of all the meat followed by another layer of spinach.  Finally cover everything with the rest of the rice, fully encasing all the meat and spinach.  sprinkle with any leftover marinade and juice, salt and pepper.

6. Cover with a layer of greased wax paper, followed by 2 or 3 tight layers of tinfoil.  Press down on the rice mixture to make sure everything is good and compacted.  Place in the oven for about 1.5 hours.

7. After about an hour and a half, take a look at the underside of the rice, through the pyrex.  it should be turning a nice brown color.  At this point i like to turn the oven up to about 450° for the last 20 minutes or so.  This will make the crust nice and dark golden brown – and nice and crispy..

8. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 15-20 minutes still covered.  Remove the wax paper, and tinfoil.  carefully run a knife around the edges to separate the rice on the sides.  Place a serving plate over it, and flip the rice out onto the plate so the brown side is up.  Garnish with some fresh parsley, and serve.

Jack is Cooking Mattar Batata… Or something Similar

Posted on by under asafetida, carrots, coriander, cumin, cumin seeds, garlic, green beans, indian, mustard seeds, onion, potatoes, rice, Tomato, turmeric

Well Hello Internet!

as part of my continuing experimentation in learning to cook indian food, i made a tomato based curry with potatoes and green beans.  The Recipe i started with called it Mattar Batata, and was made with potatoes and green peas (Green Peas are called Mattar).  However i didn’t have any green peas, and instead i had beans.  So the name Mattar Batata is not really correct and this should really be called something else, probably with the name Aloo in it (Aloo is potatoes).

Anyhow its very easy to make.

Heres what i used in my made up curry based off of Mattar Batata.  As with my other recipes for indian food i will divide the spices into groups, for when they need to be added to the mix.

3 Tbspns Olive Oil

(GROUP A)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies (broken)
1/2 teaspoon asafetida

1 lb Potatoes (cut into one inch cubes)
2 Carrots (diced)
1/2 an onion (diced)
1 clove garlic (diced)

(GROUP B)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon sugar

A Handful of green beans (put your two hands together and however many beans fit in there.  thats how many you need!! )

1 tomato (finely diced)
1 80z can crushed tomatoes

So first!

Organize your Spices into two bowls, and have them ready.

Heat up the oil in a medium sized pot, and add in Spice Group A:

SPICE GROUP A

 Cook for about 10 seconds, and then add in the onions, garlic, and carrots.  stir and cook until the onions are a little wilted, and then add the potatoes.  fry the potatoes until they start going brown.  don’t worry if they are sticking, let them stick.  This will add to the flavor!

Once the Potatoes are browned add in Spice Group B:

SPICE GROUP B

Stir them together and then add half a cup of water (it won’t cover it completely).  Bring to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft).  The water will mostly boil off at this point, but some should remain.

At this point you can add in the beans, the tomato, and the crushed tomatoes, and simmer for a further 5-7 minutes – or until the beans are tender, but still a little crunchy (As good beans should be!)
Everything in the Pot

and that’s it!  Serve it with some Rice.

YUMM!

Jack is Cooking Huevos Rancheros Breakfast Tacos for Dinner

Posted on by under cheese, cumin, eggs, salsa, sweet corn, tacos, Tomato, tortillas
Well Hello Internet!
Here is a great easy recipe for some breakfast Taco’s that I made one day.  i made this out of leftovers in my fridge.
here’s what you will need:
corn tortillas (i got mine from Tortilleria Mexicano Tres Hermanos – they sell tortillas for $1 at their restaurant in Brooklyn.  also it is probably the best tacos and tortas i’ve ever had.  i am completely obsessed with this place and wish that it wasn’t so far away from where i live in the city.  you can stuff yourself with real authentic mexican food for under $10, and then buy some tortillas to make more of your own!!!)  
eggs
for the salsa:
1 or half an onion
1 or half a tomato
half a red pepper
clove of garlic
a small can of sweet corn
some cumin
salt and pepper
some paprika.
first, i made the salsa.  i cooked this salsa so that all the flavours were really nice and melty.  (that’s the best way i can describe it!)  
i sauteed the onions and garlic, until they were translucent.  mean while in the oven i turned on my broiler, and i roasted the tomato, the red pepper,  and the corn until they got a nice charring on the skin. then i chopped them all up finely and added them to the onions, and cooked for 5-10 minutes.  i added some salt and pepper, some cumin and some paprika for flavoring.  voila!  corn salsa!  
Next, i scrambled some eggs.  i hope that everybody knows at least how to scramble an egg.  its hard to screw that up.  but if you don’t here are the instructions:  
crack 2-3 eggs in a bowl.  and salt and pepper.  stir well with a fork.
heat pan on med – low heat.  melt butter in a pan.  pour eggs in.  stir them while they cook, until they are almost done.  turn off the stove.  they will keep cooking, so turn off the stove right before they look done.  serve immediately!  now you know!!  
so anyways, heat up the tortillas.  if you put them in a paper towel and microwave for 20 seconds they will be nice and warm.  or else you can warm them in a pan.  
put some eggs on each tortilla:

next!  put some of that delicious Salsa on top of the eggs, and top with your favorite cheese.  at the time the only cheese i had was feta.  not exactly mexican but it was still delicious!
Serve up these soft tacos with a napkin!  they are a little messy!!

mmm mmmm delicious!