I’ve never had this dish before so I don’t know how authentic it is. But it WAS tasty. I used a recipe I found on Youtube here. I’d definitely make it again.
Tag Archives: potatoes
Aloo Keema Curry (Potato and Ground Beef)
I haven’t made this dish in ages so I’m doing a quick repost to LJ, sharing here, with a composite picture I shared on FB … cause I’m a lazy person.
The recipe can be found in the original post I did, eight years ago, with credit to the blog that I found it on. I made it with regular potatoes this time, as that’s all that I had, and it’s what her recipe called for.
REVIEW: Fast and delicious with simple ingredients likely available in most people’s kitchens. The recipe calls for Madras curry but you can use whatever Indian curry you have.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
As close as I can get to an Irish meal to celebrate the occasion.
Corned beef brisket, colcannon and carrots.
I forgot to buy any beer but a nice pint glass of an Irish beer (is Harp beer good?) would be a nice accompaniment, I think. Dessert will be a slice of cran-apple pie though a piece of Irish “Brick” cake with some custard sauce might be more appropriate.
PS: I have some creamy potato-leek soup in the fridge but just wasn’t hungry enough to serve it.
Potato Langos (Krumplis Lángos)
I think most cultures that use wheat flour have some sort of fried bread. The Hungarian version, lángos, is what I’m featuring below. It is also popular in Romania (especially in Transylvania) as langosi.
I’ve watched several versions of this bread being made on Youtube and chose to do a drier one, similar to native American fry bread, rather than the wetter dough which is pinched off by hand and stretched, before being dropped into the hot oil and fried. Mashed or riced cooked potato is added to the dough mixture. A simple version of the recipe rolls out the dough, cuts it into a circle or rectangle and places a filling, which may be seasoned potato and onion, crumbled cheese or cooked ground meat, in the middle. The dough is folded over around the filling, well sealed, and fried. One day, I’ll have to give it a try.
Potato Langos
Hungarian Potato Lángos (Lángos or Krumplis Lángos ) – makes 8-10 depending on size.
3-4 medium unpeeled potatoes*
1/2 envelope/ 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1/2 tsp sugar
2 – 2 1/4 cups/240-270 gm all purpose flour**
1/2 tsp salt
lard or vegetable oil for frying***
* You should have about 1 1/2 cups mashed potatoes.
** I used 260 gms of AP flour
*** I used half lard and half vegetable oil
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until a knife inserted into the middle of the potato goes in easily. Peel and mash or rice to get a smooth texture. Cool to barely warm.
Mix the warm milk with the yeast and sugar. Let the yeast mixture sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy.
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour and the salt. Stir together. Add the mashed potatoes and the yeast mixture. Gradually add in the flour, 1/4 cup or so at time until you get a kneadable dough. Knead the dough well. Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about 1 hr.
On a well floured surface, roll out the dough to ~1/2 inch thick.
Cut into rectangles, squares or circles. Let rest, covered so the dough doesn’t dry out, for about 30 minutes. Stretch the dough out a bit so the center is thinner than the edges. (Or, you may prick the dough with the tip of a knife to keep big bubbles from forming and so that it will fry more evenly.)
Melt lard in a cast iron frying pan so it is at least 1/2 inch deep. Fry langos over medium heat. Drain over a paper towel lined wire rack.
NOTE: I decided to use a 2.5 quart sauce pan to deep fry the langos as my frying pan is too shallow to actually shallow fry in, and filled it about 1/3 of the way up with a half lard/half vegetable oil mixture.
To reheat, place langos on baking sheets and heat, uncovered, in a 350 deg Fahrenheit oven until warm, about 8-10 minutes.
Toppings: garlic (oil or butter or just finely minced), sour cream, grated cheese (cheddar, edam, gouda, liptauer), jam
Sauerbraten, Potato and Red Cabbage Knish
You may recall that in my second knish trial I ran out of filling, so I wrapped up and froze the extra dough.
Before going to bed on Christmas day, I placed the dough into the fridge to defrost and, on Boxing Day, I attempted a filling that was inspired by the brisket and sauerkraut knish fillings that I had seen while surfing the net. The proportions of the three ingredients; shredded sauerbraten, red cabbage and riced (or leftover mashed) potatoes, may be adjusted according to your preference, or the amounts of each that you have leftover from the day before.
Knish … delicious with a spicy Dijon mustard
Sauerbraten, Potato Knish and Red Cabbage – makes 9 knish
Half batch of potato knish dough, (see Potato-Leek Knish post link above)
Filling
1/2 cup shredded sauerbraten
1/2 cup riced potatoes
1/4 cup braised red cabbage
salt and pepper to taste
Egg wash
1 large egg
1 tsp cold water
pinch of salt
In a small bowl, add the egg and beat well with a fork. Ad the water and salt and beat again to mix.
* * *
To make the filling, combine the potatoes, cabbage and shredded sauerbraten. Taste and season as needed. Set aside
Preheat the oven to 400 deg Fahrenheit.
Line a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough about 1/8th inch thick. Cut into 3-4 inch squares. (NOTE: I rolled my dough out into a 10-12 inch square and cut it into nice equal sized squares.)
Spoon about 2 tbsp of the filling into the palm of your hand and squeeze gently to form a firm ball, about 1-1 1/2 inch in diameter. Place each ball of filling in the middle of one of the squares. Be careful not to overfill so that you can seal up the knish. Pull up the dough into the middle, around the filling, and pinch the four seams well to seal.
Brush some egg wash on top of each knish. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Rotate the tray half way through so that the knish will bake evenly.
Let cool briefly before serving. The knish are also tasty at room temperature.
You may refrigerate the knish for up to 3 days or freeze for up to a month.
Cream of Leek Soup
I haven’t made this soup in ages. I had a recipe for a kale, leek and potato soup but since I didn’t have any kale I net surfed for one that featured just the leeks. I decided on this recipe from the “Cooking with Campbell’s” website, though I left out the cream, after tasting the pureed soup. It just didn’t need it.
For a very elegant presentation, serve your soup in a delicate bone china cup.
Or, for a hearty home style presentation, use a sourdough bread bowl. Since I didn’t have any fresh herbs for garnish, I used a pinch of cayenne pepper for colour and to give a bit of zing to the very subtly flavoured leek and potatoes.
Sauteed leeks and potatoes in a purchased low salt chicken stock cooked until the potatoes were just tender … before and after being pureed.
Indian Menu for 4 … At Home
I came home last week with a tray of four skinless, bone-in chicken breasts and decided to include them in an Indian menu that I had planned for the weekend.
I was originally going to make a chicken curry/biryani but switched over to chicken tikka instead. Two chunks of spicy and tender chicken are often part of an appetizer combo, along with a couple of samosas and a couple of pakoras, but I threaded five onto soaked bamboo skewers and turned them into a main dish. The spiciness of the tikkas are toned down by serving them with a minty yogurt dip (raita).
Since this is a ‘dry’ dish, I made a couple of ‘wet’ dishes … matar paneer (pea and paneer cheese curry) …
… and a vegetarian chana masala (chickpea curry) … to go with it.
For a bread, I made aloo paratha, spiced mashed potato mixture stuffed into a whole wheat flatbread. Because I’m not fond of all whole wheat breads, I used (a bit more than) half all purpose flour and half whole wheat. And, I halved the recipe I found on line to only make four parathas. Because I didn’t have any fresh coriander leaves called for in the recipe, I defrosted some thinly sliced green onion tops and added them in their place.
And, of course, I made some basmati rice to sop up all that tasty sauce. Plain because I was tired and couldn’t be bothered coming up with anything more elaborate.
BONUS
To use up the rest of the chicken, rather than freezing it away, I took the largest of the chicken breasts, took it off the bone and spread the top with about a teaspoon of Hellman’s mayonnaise. Then, the mayonnaise coated breast was dipped into a few tablespoons of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs. I roasted the breast along with all four of the ribs. Since I left quite a bit of meat on the ribs, I let them cool and then put them in a freezer bag. Later in the week or the week after that, I’ll make a small (four cup) batch of chicken stock with the ribs and use them in a pot of chicken noodle soup. I even have egg noodles in the pantry to add to the soup.
Since the boneless breast was so large (~350 gm) I cut it in half and will have two meals.
The smaller breast and other trimmings were ground up (I had about 400 gms of meat) and turned into three chicken patties/burgers.
Pretty economical for an investment of $6.35 and some time.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving (2018)
Happy Thanksgiving
I went a little overboard this year and bought a pre-cooked 5 kg honey-glazed spiral cut ham for my Thanksgiving meal. It cost me $22 CDN and I figure I’ll get at least ten meals out of it so it was definitely a good purchase, price wise.
I had a wonderful lie in this morning, and hadn’t done the math needed to figure out how long it would take to re-heat this monster, ahead of time. It turned out to be almost THREE HOURS, with the enclosed glaze being brushed on for the last half hour. Next time I’d up the temperature to AT LEAST 300 deg or even 325 deg, from the 275 deg F written on the wrappings, because, even after the maximum roasting time recommended, it was still only lukewarm inside. So I sliced off and reheated the portion I ate in the microwave. By this point, it was 6 pm. And I was VERY hungry.
The ham was tasty and moist, but the potato and onion gratin was the star of the show, in my opinion. I started out with this recipe, and then made some changes. Because I was starved, I served myself about one quarter of the dish and by the time I was finished, I was so full, that I almost didn’t have room for dessert.
ALMOST
Cause this was a great looking dessert.
I wanted to make some sort of seasonal fruit dessert for Thanksgiving, but all I had in the house were three apples (Red Delicious) in the crisper drawer, and some blueberries in the freezer. I decided on an apple crumble (with sliced almonds in the crust because I didn’t have any rolled oats in the pantry) with a couple of tablespoons of the blueberries added for a bit of colour. I’ll post my recipe for an individual apple crumble in a future post. As well as for an individual blueberry pudding cake I made.
Potato and Onion Gratin
Potato and Onion Gratin – serves 6-8
1 medium (~300 gm) sweet potato, peeled, halved and sliced about 1/4 inch thick *
1 medium white/yellow (~100 gm) Russet potato, peeled, halved and sliced about 1/4 inch thick*
1 medium onion, cut in half and thinly sliced (1/8-1/4 inch thick)
~4 oz (125 gm) cream cheese, cubed
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp dried thyme
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
4 strips of cooked bacon, thinly sliced (about 1/4 inch thick)
* Use all sweet potatoes or white potatoes, if preferred, or if that’s all that you have available.
Topping
1/2 cup grated old cheddar cheese
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup fried onions
Combine topping ingredients in a shallow dish.
Pre-heat the oven to 400 deg Fahrenheit.
Lightly oil a medium sized baking dish with a neutral oil like canola. (Spray with a cooking spray if you prefer.)
Cover the base of the baking dish evenly with about 1/3 of your sliced potatoes. Scatter about half of the sliced onions over the potatoes. Make another layer of potatoes, and then scatter the remaining onions over the top. Finish with the last of the potatoes.
Place the cubed cream cheese in a medium sized, microwave safe bowl, and warm just long enough to soften the cheese. Whisk/stir in the flour and the dried thyme. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth, a bit at a time, until it’s smoothly combined with the cheese and flour mixture. Whisk in the milk.
Pour the cream cheese/broth/milk mixture over the layered potatoes and onions. Scatter the bacon over the top. Put the lid on the casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes.
Take the lid off the casserole dish, scatter the topping evenly over the casserole and return to the oven. Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the bread crumbs are golden brown.
Let rest for 10-15 minutes, then serve.
Convenience Foods: Buffalo Chicken Wings
Convenience foods are … convenient.
However, you have to factor in the price you’re paying for that convenience and decide if it’s worth the trade-off.
In this case, I picked up a package of prepared Buffalo chicken wings (hot sauce and Parmesan garlic sauce included) on sale and said ‘the heck with it’. Especially as raw chicken wings are rarely ‘on sale’ and even if they ARE, you still have to coat/bread, bake, make the sauces etc. At 4-6 whole wings (8-12 pieces) per serving size, the package barely serves two people as a meal, if that’s all you’re having, but I stretched things with a lot of raw veggies like carrot sticks and broccoli florettes. I used Ranch dressing as a dip for the veggies and saved the garlic sauce for another purpose. Instead of french fries as a starch side dish, I made crispy skin-on smashed potatoes.
And I feasted.
A more modest dessert of one of my Jammie Dodgers and my Sunday meal was a success.
Other convenience foods I buy and use are onion rings, tater tots and canned inari sushi. And if that last one seems a bit out of left field … well there’s a reason.
Later
Pork Tenderloin Four Ways
If you have a chance to buy pork tenderloin fresh, it’s quite a versatile protein for a singleton, and you can take your time making various dishes.
Unfortunately, I bought mine frozen, so when I thawed it, I had to prepare (trim off fat and remove the silver skin) and use it in as soon as possible.
Pork tenderloin souvlaki – marinated (Kraft Zesty Italian dressing), threaded onto skewers with chunks of onion and sweet pepper (red, yellow and orange), and then broiled on the bbq or in the oven under the grill. Serve with starch of your choice. In this case, I had leftover Mexican rice in the freezer so that’s what I used.
Korean pork tenderloin roast – marinated in a Korean paste and served over plain rice. I boiled and served the marinade over the slightly charred pork.
Korean (Gochujang) Pork Tenderloin Marinade – serves 3-4
1 large piece of pork tenderloin (1 1/4 – 1 1/2 lbs)
1/2 cup gochujang
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey or brown sugar*
1-6 cloves of garlic, minced*
2 tbsp fish sauce (optional)
pinch of salt
* I used honey and only 1 clove of garlic
Pesto pork tenderloin roast – marinated in home made pesto and served with pesto fettuccine
Honey mustard pork tenderloin – Pan fried pork cutlet served with honey mustard dressing … it turned out I hadn’t taken a picture of the honey mustard over the pork itself, just over the raw broccoli so you’ll have to imagine. The protein was served with skin on, smashed potatoes.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 