Beer-Batter Shrimp

There are some dishes that I used to believe could only be eaten in a restaurant, as I had no hope of ever having the ability to prepare them myself. Beer-battered shrimp was one of those things. Until this weekend. 

I found a skinny little cookbook amongst my collection called Cooking with Beer. It is of the flimsy little type that one finds at the grocery store checkout. The copyright date on this one is 2012, but I do not believe we have ever used it before. There were two recipes for shrimp. I chose the Coconut (fried) Shrimp rather than the Baked Beer-Battered Onions and Shrimp, although I did take the idea of using panko crumbs from the latter and substituting them for the crushed ramen noodles (ick) in the former.

This was relatively easy, and they fried up pretty quick. The dipping sauce was tasty too.

Pilaf for MENA Awareness

This week is MENA Awareness Week at our university. That is to say, our Middle East and North Africa program sponsored a series of special events to bring awareness not only to the region but to our center that studies the region and our U.S. Department of Education grant that is enhancing those studies.

I was gratified to be invited to give a talk about coffee in MENA as part of the virtual festivities. (See Qahua to Coffee on my Coffee Maven blog for a recording of my presentation.) As we started planning the week's dinners, I therefore decided to check Yashim Cooks Istanbul for ideas.

The book fell open to page 78: Hazelnut and Lemon Pilaf (findikli ve limonlu pilav). I have never been quite sure what "pilaf" means, but I knew this meant rice-plus-something and decided to have a look. The combination of savory flavors and simple preparation were appealing, so I added it to the menu, and we added a few items to the grocery list.

Some of the key ingredients, plus a side of apricots.
On our cow cutting board from a favorite Wisconsin cousin.
As regular readers of this blog know, food does not
always photograph well, so I often snap shots
of ingredients, especially if they are colorful.

I do not always put the full ingredient list on a blog post, but it seems worthwhile this time. The list as published:

basmati rice, 250g/8oz, well rinsed 
salt, 1 teaspoon
olive oil, 1 tablespoon
butter or ghee, 1 tablespoon
corriander seeds, 1 teaspoon
cumin seeds, 1/2 teaspoon
lemon peel, sliced into 3 "julienne" strips
fresh red chile, sliced into thin strips, 1 teaspoon (I used one jalapeño)
blanched hazelnuts, 4 tablespoons
parsley, bunch, chopped

I did not attempt to measure any of these, except the rice and water. I used 1 cup of the rice since we don't have a food scale, and used 1-1/4 cups of water (following package directions) even though it called for an "equal amount" of water. 

The instructions on lemon peel were especially confusing for me -- all of the peel or three little strips? I used about half the peel, making a couple dozen little strips. I do not regret my choice. 

I made a few minor substitutions as well, and completely overlooked the parsley. I will include it next time. Of the spices, we had one in seed form and the other already ground; this was fine. When I could not find hazelnuts in the store, I did that thing we now do instead of asking a grocer: I used my phone to Google substitutions and found that walnuts would work. When I got home and mentioned this to Pam, she reminded me that we had not only walnuts but also pine nuts. I was sure that this was getting farther from the author's intention, but it sure sounded good to me. (Note: after I wrote this, I read the page after the recipe, assuming that it was something about the cultural context of the recipe. It was ore about possible substitutions, and these included both orange for lemon and pine nuts for hazelnuts.) 

I am glad I followed the somewhat unusual preparation steps. I measured the water and brought it to a boil in a kettle while rinsing the rise in a sieve. I placed the rice in a small saucepan and poured the water over it. I added salted, put the lid on and was able to bring it back to a boil immediately. I lowered the heat and set the timer for 10 minutes. (I had gotten white basmati; the brown "Tex-Mati" we usually use has a much longer cooking time.)

While the rice cooked, I melted butter and oil over medium-low heat in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. I then added the spices, followed in a couple minutes by the lemon peel, pepper, and nuts. I continued to sautée these gently while the rice cooked, stirring frequently. I then "tipped" the rice into the pan, stirred while scraping the bottom, and then returned it all to a bowl (should have been the pan, but I had managed to scorch some of the rice). I gently fluffed the entire mixture and covered it with a dish towel, followed by the pan lid. I let this sit for 10 more minutes so that the flavors would meld.

The result: savory rice with perfect texture. We topped with delicious plain yogurt (Stonyfield Greek), the lemon wedges as called for, some apricots, fresh mozzarella, and some delicious basil muffins Pam had made a few days earlier, and which I grilled for this meal. Later, I learned from the page-after material that the author recommends apricots, currants, or other fruits as possible amendments.

We found that a chilled Chardonnay in place of our usual Malbec was a perfect pairing for this meal.  

Skillet Chicken with Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions

I found this simple dish on the New York Times Cooking Page. I had all the ingredients on hand (except I used chicken breasts instead of thighs, and I used whatever kind of mushrooms were in my 'fridge).

The recipe doesn't say to put olive oil in the skillet before the onions, but I did anyway. It just didn't seem right otherwise. 

This recipe has a lot of "waiting" time that was a bit unnerving. For instance, once I put the onions in the skillet it says to let them cook "mostly undisturbed", same with once the mushrooms were added, and the chicken.

Those who don't like to read the descriptions of the dishes on recipe sites, miss out on suggestions such as the one I took to add a some spinach near the end of the cooking. It made the dinner a bit prettier, and healthier, but only those who don't skip right to the recipe will get this reward.

Mint Muffins

I was browsing through the Granny's Muffin House cookbook for something special to bake for Easter and was surprised to find a recipe for Mint Muffins. It had never occurred to me to bake mint into muffins. We had some fresh mint leftover from a meal we made the week before so I decided to use some to make this treat. As with most muffin recipes this was was pretty simple.

First I sifted together:

 2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c sugar

Next, I stirred in one egg, 1/3 c. melted butter, and 3/4 c. milk

In a separate bowl I mixed 1/4 c. vinegar with 1 c. chopped mint leaves and then added the mixture to the rest of the ingredients.

After the muffin tin was filled I baked at 400 for 20 minutes.

These are reminiscent of the butter mints that you sometimes find on your way out of restaurants.