Lentils and Potatoes with Curry

We're raiding our pantries this week over at I Heart Cooking Clubs. The idea is to pick one or more items from our pantry and whip up a fabulous Mark Bittman recipe. My pantry usually has all the typical staples, but then there are those specialty items that I pick up here or there and never use because I am "saving them for a special recipe". I tend to hang onto these specialty items because I don't live in a big city and it is hard to come by some of these things in my small town grocer. Let's face it, as much as I would like it to be, small town Kentucky is not a food mecca!


In the spirit of cleaning out my pantry, I took out the coconut milk I had been saving, that half bag of lentils, and two russet potatoes. I had the perfect recipe in mind.


Lentils and Potatoes with Curry
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman
Time: About 1 Hour
Serves: 4 - 6
1 cup dried brown lentils, washed and picked over (I used green)
3-1/2 cups water, coconut milk (one can + water), or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 medium russet potatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Yogurt for garnish
Minced fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
Combine the lentils, liquid, and curry powder in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn the heat down to medium-low so that the mixture bubbles gently, cover partially, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils start to absorb the water a bit, about 15 minutes.
Add the potatoes and cover the pan completely. Cook, undisturbed, for 10 minutes or so, then stir gently and check to make sure the lentils aren't too dry. If so, add a little more liquid. Add salt as the lentils become tender.
Cover and continue cooking until the lentils are soft and beginning to turn to mush and the potatoes are tender at the center, another 5 to 10 minutes; add liquid if necessary. The mixture should be moist but not soupy. Add lots of black pepper, stir, then taste and adjust the seasoning and serve, garnished with yogurt and cilantro.

Notes/Results: I loved it! The lentils get really soft, making this really smooth and creamy. With the soft lentils and chunks of potatoes, this was both comforting and satisfying. An absolutely delicious vegetarian meal! Packed with flavor, it is a recipe that I will definitely be making again. Also, this was my first time using coconut milk and while I loved it, I will be sure to buy the light coconut milk next time. I didn't realize how high in calories the regular coconut milk was until I got out the can and looked at the label. Yikes!

We had a fabulous turn out for our first week with Mark Bittman. Click HERE for links to the 17 recipes that we cooked up last week! Thanks to everyone who participated!

Wanna see who else is raiding their pantry? Head on over to I Heart Cooking Clubs this week to see what everyone else cooks up!

Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartar - Recipe #43 Stirring the Pot

There are 88 recipes in Stirring the Pot and I am almost halfway through! Next week will mark the halfway point for me and I will be sharing my top ten Stirring the Pot favorites. Will Tyler's Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartar make this list? Not this time around, but maybe with some tweaking.

Fish and Chips with Homemade Tartar - adapted from Stirring the Pot by Tyler Florence
4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed
Vegetable oil, for deep- frying
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus about 1 cup for dredging
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 egg yolks
1-1/2 cups club soda
1 pound halibut fillets, cut into strips or pieces
Fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
2 lemons, halved for serving
1 recipe Homemade Tartar Sauce (listed below)

Preheat oven to 350F. Prick potatoes all over with a fork. Place potatoes on a baking tray and bake for 30-45 minutes, until knife-tender. If you like, this can be done the night before and potatoes can be refrigerated until ready to fry. Cut each potato into 6 or 8 wedges, depending on the size. Pour about 4 inches oil into a large heavy pot and heat to 375F. Fry half of the potato wedges at a time for 4-5 minutes, until crispy and brown. Drain on paper towels and season with salt. Set aside and keep warm.

In a large bowl, combine the 2 cups flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and 1-1/2 teaspoons salt. Make a well in the center and add egg yolk. Gradually whisk in club soda, working your way from the center to form a smooth batter.

Season about 1 cup floru with salt and pepper. Dredge the fish fillets in seasoned flour, coating both sides, then dip in batter. Fry a few pieces at a time in 375F oil for 4-5 minutes, until crispy and golden brown. Drain on paper towels and season with salt.

When fish is done, place parsley leaves in hot oil. Fry leaves for 15 seconds, until just crispy and slightly translucent. Remove from oil with slotted spoon, drain on paper towels. Serve fish with lemon halves, crispy fried parsley leaves, and Homemade Tartar Sauce.

Homemade Tartar Sauce
In a small-medium sized bowl combine 1/2 cup store-bought mayo; 1/2 cup sour cream; 2 tablespoons caper, chopped; 1/4 cup chopped cornichons; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley; 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon; and 1/2 lemon, juice only. Set in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes b efore serving to let the flavors come together.
Notes/Results: Tyler hits it out of the park with this recipe for batter. You will want to coat everything in this batter, I promise! In fact, you will probably start looking around for all kinds of things to fry so that you can use up this batter. It really is that good. The homemade tartar sauce is also delicious and worth making.

The problem was with the potatoes. Tyler's recipe says to scrub and rinse them, prick them with a fork, and then place them on a baking sheet and bake. Well, this resulted in a very hard shell on the outside of my potatoes. Normally, I would prick my potatoes, give them an olive oil or butter coating, sprinkle with some kosher salt, and wrap them in foil to be baked. This method always yields good results for me. In hindsight, I wished I would have went along with my method of baking these potatoes, but I figured that I would follow Tyler's directions. Mistake!! My chips, or fries, were hard no matter how thin I cut them or how long I fried them. With the potatoes being so hard, they didn't really have a chance. Next time, I will use my method for baking potatoes.

I also wanted to note that you will probably find yourself using more than 1 and 1/2 cups club soda to make a smooth batter. Club soda has so much carbonation in it, it is hard to get an exact measurement. Make sure you have extra if you want to try this recipe.

Also, when you add the parsley to the frying oil.....stand back!! In fact, stand way back. It will pop all over the place!

All in all, this is a great recipe and has great potential to be very delicious! I will make it again, using my method for baking potatoes!

I am submitting this recipe to Tyler Florence Fridays. Stop on by there this weekend to see what everyone else cooked up!!

Halloumi Bites

Thank you to Nigella Lawson for inspiring me to try these wonderful fried cheesy bites! They are my first submission to a fabulous new cooking club, I Heart Cooking Clubs! I am especially excited to participate in this new cooking club because we are currently celebrating Nigella Lawson. I adore her and think she is fun and unadulterated. This is a another great cooking club which allows you to chose your own recipe based on a theme each week. This week's theme is Party Treats! I poured and poured over my copy of Nigella Express. So many recipes to choose from and it really gave me something fun to think about. I decided on these Halloumi Bites. How can you ever go wrong with fried cheese?

Over the weekend I went to the Mousetrap, a fabulous cheese shop in Lexington. It's almost embarrassing to admit the sheer excitement I get when going to the Mousetrap. They have every cheese you can possibly imagine. They also carry all sorts of gourmet foods and cookware. I am truly inspired each time I go there. During this visit, I was able to buy four great imported cheeses: Halloumi, Camembert, Fontina, and Romano. So exciting!

Here is a picture of the Halloumi I bought. Halloumi is a cheese made in Cyprus and is used in Greek/Mediterranean cooking. It's very versatile and can be grilled, grated, fried or served in a salad or sandwich. It is a staple in Mediterranean cooking as it features the texture of mozzarella with the briney moisture of a feta. At my local store it was $8.99 for about half a pound (8.8oz). I urge you to try this cheese if you have not. It is worth the price, packs a punch, and can be used for many recipes.
This is what it looks like when you remove the packaging. I was expecting it to be fragile, like feta, but it was more smooth like a mozzarella. It was easy to slice for the Halloumi bites.

This is one of those recipes that you can throw together in five minutes. It was SO easy and very delicious. I ate some plain and then I put some inside a pita and it was awesome!

Halloumi Bites - Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson
1/4 cup garlic oil *(I used chili oil)
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons lime juice
good grind of pepper
3 (8 oz.) blocks halloumi cheese, drained *(I used about 1/3 a package for 2)

Combine oil, parsley, lime juice, and pepper in a large shallow dish. Slice the drained (I didn't have to drain mine) halloumi into 1/4 inch-wide pieces, and then cut each slice in half again. Don't worry if they splinter as you cut. Heat a dry skillet and dry-fry the slices of cheese until golden on both sides. This should take only a minute or so in a hot pan. Put the fried halloumi into the shallow dish of other ingredients as you go, and then turn the halloumi about to coat each piece before turning into a serving dish.

I am excited to say that I have leftover Halloumi cheese and will be trying some more recipes later this week. I like the idea of making a Mediterranean pizza, putting the Halloumi on a skewer, and also grating it into pasta or even an omelet!

Enjoy!!

Bacon-Wrapped Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding and Gravy *Recipe #17 Page 54*

For the roast you begin by laying down a sheet of parchment paper and layering about 6-10 slices of bacon (depends on size of roast). Recipe calls for a 2lb. beef sirloin roast. I bought a 2.5 lb roast. Sprinkle bacon with: 2 cloves garlic, sliced, 2 sprigs rosemary-leaves only, 4 sprigs thyme-leaves only, and kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. After the bacon is seasoned, you place the roast on top of the bacon and use the parchment paper to wrap the bacon around the roast evenly. The bacon will stretch if you need it to. Use kitchen string the tie up the roast and drizzle with olive oil. Place in a roasting pan and roast at 375F for about 1.5 hours or until meat thermometer reads 135F (for medium-rare) in the thickest part of roast. NOTE: My roast was larger than the recipe stated and 1.5 hours was too long for medium rare. I would start checking around 1 hour. Once the roast has reached the desired temperature, place aside on a plate to rest for 25 minutes.

For the gravy, skim and discard the fat from the drippings in the pan, leaving 1/4 cup remaining. NOTE: I only had 1/4 cup total fat/juice/drippings total in the bottom of my pan. Place roasting pan on top of stove top and set at medium-heat. Sprinkle 1/4 cup flour into pan and stir with a whisk until thickened. Whisk in 1 cup beef broth (I thought I had some beef broth, but didn't. I ended up using spicy V-8). Simmer about 12 minutes until flour is cooked and gravy is slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper and serve with sliced beef roast and yorkshire pudding.

Yorkshire pudding: Preheat oven to 425F. Grease a round 9-inch baking pan (nonstick) and place in the oven while you make batter. In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour, pinch of kosher salt, 3 large eggs, 1-1/2 cups milk (room temp) and 2 Tbsps, melted unsalted butter. Whisk for 2-3 minutes until smooth and shiny. Pour batter into hot pan and bake about 30 minutes (mine had to bake about 40 minutes) until pudding is puffed and golden. Serve immediately.

The flavor profiles were all there, however my roast ended up being pretty tough. My roast was .5 lbs. larger than the recipe and I followed the time listed (1.5 hours at 375). While cooking from Stirring the Pot, I will start checking with a thermometer periodically. Maybe some of Tyler's suggested "cooking times" are off a bit. However, I do not think that cooking this roast to medium made it tough. It seems like I just got a bad cut of meat. This is rare for Whole Foods, but I guess it happens. Sirloin roast by nature is one of the leaner cuts and when I sliced mine there was a line of fat right down the middle of each slice. Not appealing!! I am pretty convinced it was a bad cut. I would love to hear what others think though. Please share your ideas on this one.

The gravy and yorkshire pudding were great and I will make the pudding again. It is a totally different texture and consistency than anything else. I would liken it to a pancake. This recipe is a keeper!

The pictures for the recipe are not that great. We had a crazy day today. I woke up at 4am with my 2 year old son who had a fever. He insisted on going downstairs to watch Mickey Mouse. Naturally his ears, head, toes and even his milk (yes, even the milk) was hurting and we never went back to sleep. At 8am the fun really starts....try to find a doctor who is open on Saturday, locate the latest and greatest Webkin for birthday party daughter is going to, run out to buy the Webkin and make it home in time for sick toddler to go to doctor's appointment, sick toddler throws up as he is going out the door to doctor's appointment, wash toddler's brand new coat and special blanket, doctor's appointment starts right when it is time to leave for birthday party, answer the question "when can I leave for the party" approximately 100 times, realize that you do not have beef broth as you pull your overcooked roast out of the oven. Use V-8 in place of beef broth, and unlock door for husband and screaming toddler who had no sleep.

Now I have to say that I was pretty lucky in all of this. Yes, I woke up at 4am but it was my husband who went to the store, took the little one to the doctor, and eventually took my daughter to her party. I mean I was at home inventing new gravy recipes after all. It's not everyday one makes gravy with V-8. Well, finally it was time to take a picture of the meal and eat, except for the flash on the camera wasn't working. I stared dazed and confused at the camera and then I got smart. I found the one person who can fix anything. The guy who had been "fixing things" all day long and you know what? I realized that today wasn't a bad day at all!