Grains and Rice

You are currently browsing the archive for the Grains and Rice category.

Being Inspired…

August 19, 2010 in Grains and Rice, Side Dish | 6 comments

I love my blog!  I love the fact that it pushes me to try new recipes in an effort to share them with you.    Lately I’ve been having alot of failures I must admit, but I keep trying.  I revisited old favorites, recipes I haven’t cooked in a long time and the results weren’t always great.

Today I revisit Dhal.   Originating in India, dhal is a soup made with the yellow dhal/yellow split peas and seasoned with warm spices such as curry, tumeric and cumin.  To finish it off  you “chunkay” garlic, which is a process where you brown the garlic  in oil to bring out a slightly burnt flavor and you add the hot oil and garlic to the dhal.

Soup? Sauce? Dip?  We Guyanese can admit that dhal fits into every category.  There is no right way to eat it.  I’ve had it in a mug by itself as a soup, used it as a dip for my roti or poured it over my rice to use as gravy.  You can’t go wrong, either way its very delicious.

A favorite dish of using  is Dhal and rice with sauteed saltfish and baigan choka or Aloo with coconut milk on the side….seriously authentic, seriously delicious!!  As I wrote that last line, I had a vision of myself and my siblings sitting Indian style on the floor and eating this with our hands to much disdain of our mother.  But we loved it, it allowed us to mimic a part of our culture that we didn’t practice.  How could a child not enjoy eating with their hands??  Especially when our mom forbade us?? Today I will use a spoon, but I will enjoy it just the same and I hope you do.

Dhal

1/2 cup Yellow split peas

5 cups water

1 cup chicken stock*

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 hot red pepper

1 tsp salt

3 cloves garlic

3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

Boil split peas with 4 cups water on a medium fire for 1 hour or until peas are tender.  Remove from heat and pulse in a blender until smooth.  Return to a medium fire and add chicken stock, 1 cup water, cumin, curry powder, pepper and salt.  Cook for 1o mins.  While dhal cooks, in a sautee pan, heat 3 tablespoon oil and add sliced garlic.  Fry until dark brown, do not burn or the garlic will add a bitter taste to the Dhal.  This process should take no more than 3 mins.    Add garlic and oil to the Dhal, stir ;cook for an additional 10 mins.

*To make this meal vegetarian, simply omit the chicken stock or replace it with vegetable stock.


Tags: , , ,

A quick snack and an update

May 22, 2010 in Grains and Rice, Side Dish | No comments


This is a quick and not so healthy snack that I grew up eating.  We would buy these crunchy treats from the roadside vendors,  it’s salty, crunchy and spicy and all around satisfying.  When I moved to Richmond Hill NY (better know as little Guyana), these were very easy to find;  in Atlanta…not so much.  So what does one do when one cannot get buy fried channa??  I make my own.

Fried Channa

1 lb dry chick peas

oil for frying

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp chili powder

Soak chick peas over night.  Drain and pat dry.  Add enough oil so that chickpeas can be deep fried.  Heat oil to 375 degrees and add peas.  This amount can be fried  in 5 batches.  Fry for 15 mins until golden brown, drain and sprinkle with salt and chili powder while chickpeas are still hot.


Update.

Remember my wee little herb garden?  This was 2 months ago 

And this is now*Tear*

Tags: , , ,

Crab Take 2

April 5, 2010 in Grains and Rice, Seafood | 2 comments

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and it was a very laid back day for me.  Instead of spending the day cooking a glorious spread, I bought a few pounds of snow crab clusters and a jug of cane juice and that pretty much summed up Easter Lunch/Dinner.   I started the day off with a trip to the miniature golf course where I played 27 holes.  I think I did well, I got a hole in one!  As for the overall score, lets just say we stopped counting since the second hole.   golf

After golf I stopped at  the DeKalb Farmers market, which was packed with people in the Sunday best, and I picked up a few items.   Initially I had planned to cook some kind of salmon with roasted asparagus, a spring salad and some sort of fruity dessert, but after spending half the day in the scorching sun I was too pooped to even attempt such a meal.  So I settled on snow crabs…can’t say I missed the salmon because the crab was phenomenal!   We ate a much as we could and put away the leftovers, which was 4 clusters.  This morning I decided to make Chicken Alfredo, but I soon remembered the crabs in the freezer and made a quick change, Crab Alfredo it was.  I must say I’m pretty darn proud of myself, I am a crab picking fool.  I cracked open those legs with such speed and precision I even shocked myself.  Of course you don’t have to do what I did, you can simply buy lump crab meat.   Crab Take 2 was a success…I enjoyed this dish!

P.S. If you look closely at the photos you will notice that one of my herbs from my one pot herb garden has made a cameo..its my chives!!

crab3

Crab Alfredo Pasta

1 lb pasta cooked according to directions on box. (I used angel hair, you can also use fettuccine)

3 tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup cream cheese

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp parsley, chopped

1/8 tsp nutmeg

3 cups lump crab meat

salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to directions on box and set aside.  Melt butter over a medium fire, the stir in flour to make a roux.   Whisk milk slowly into flour and butter mixture.  Don’t add the milk too fast or  you will end up with a lumpy sauce.  On a low fire, add parmesan cheese, nutmeg, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, cream cheese, salt and pepper.  Stir until well combined.  Add crab meat and cook until heated through.  Stir in the pasta making sure to coat it well,  garnish with additional chopped parsley or chives and grated parmesan cheese.

crab2

Tags: , , ,

« Older entries

Amy