I had this really delicious Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich at the Scottsdale Beer Company in Scottsdale AZ so I was inspired to create similar flavors in a meatloaf. The sandwich was made with cilantro lime marinated chicken and was topped with jalapeño jam and avocado aioli. It was just forking scrumptious. I made a jalapeño-apple preserve and a basic guacamole to go with this meatloaf.

Ingredients makes 12 servings

1/2 cup lime juice

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 Tablespoon chili powder

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup cilantro chopped

1/2 medium/large onion chopped

7 garlic cloves sliced thin

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 lbs plus 10oz boneless chicken thighs hand chopped

3 XL eggs beaten

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 cups whole wheat panko

non-stick cooking spray

Directions

Set Oven to 350 degrees F. Blend your first eleven ingredients. (lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, cumin, chili powder, sugar, red pepper flakes, cilantro, onion, garlic black pepper, and salt.) Set to the side. In a large bowl add your chicken, eggs, remaining salt and pepper, panko and blended mixture. Pour into your non-stick sprayed loaf pan and cover with foil. In my oven the meatloaf took one hour to be done.

This came out FORKING AWSOME.

Ingredients for about 10 servings

2 1/2 lbs cucumbers with the ends trimmed or just use yellow squash (I used a mixture of both and I actually like the yellow squash better for this recipe)

1/2 sweet onion thinly sliced

3 lemongrass stalks (peel off hard outer leaves and cut in 1/3rds and crush stem to release flavors)

2 Thai Chili’s cut in half long ways

thumb size of fresh ginger cut in slices (I removed skin)

5 garlic cloves slightly crushed

10 kaffir lime leaves

1 lime juice and zest

1 Tablespoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 dried Asian red chili pods lightly crushed

1/2 teaspoon cumin

fresh nutmeg a few scrapes 4-6

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons Tuong gia vi (Golden Valley Soy Sauce) on Food Network a local Thai Restaurant Owner said that this sauce is essential to Thai Cookery so here it is.

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon natural coconut extract

2 1/2 cups rice wine vinegar

3 cups water

teaspoon black peppercorns

Directions

Place cucumbers in a sterilized jar or container. Everything else goes in a pot that you bring to boil and reduce to timer for around ten minutes. Pour over cucumbers and set in refrigerator for at least 5 days and enjoy.

After about a week they look like this

They are tasty. The yellow squash that I pickled with the cucumbers is actually better than the cucumbers. They absorbed more flavors.

 

 

This mustard recipe is spicy but not too spicy and has some texture. You do need a spice grinder for this recipe.

Makes about a cup of mustard. Makes about 16 servings

4 Tablespoons of dark mustard seeds

2 Tablespoons of yellow mustard seeds (save one tablespoon to add at the end)

1 allspice berry

6 juniper berries

1/4 cup sherry

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons pulverized garlic

1/2 teaspoon espelette pepper

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

2 Tablespoons water

fresh ground sea salt about 10 turns

fresh ground black pepper about 15 turns

Directions

To your spice grinder add dark brown mustard seeds and one Tablespoon of the yellow mustard seeds, the allspice berry and the juniper berries and grind.

Get a small mixing bowl and add your ground spices, sherry, vinegar, garlic, espelette pepper, turmeric, remaining yellow mustard seeds, water, salt/pepper and mix well. Let sit for two days and enjoy.

Even if you never had a potato knish before……..you will forking love them….. if you enjoy potatoes. My husband had his first potato knish at a restaurant we went to a little over a year ago and enjoyed it. With both of us growing up on the East Coast it’s hard to believe he lived his whole life never trying a knish. All the grocery stores I shopped at when I lived on the east coast all sold the knish in the deli department.

The knish is an eastern european savory hand pie. The most common filling is mashed potato. Other popular varieties include kasha (buck wheat groats), liver, and rice.

That restaurant where we tried the potato knish closed and most of the few places we tried knishes afterwards  weren’t as tasty or even good. I had some extra potatoes and some chicken fat in my freezer so I thought I’d make potato knishes. I accidentally created another masterpiece! This recipe is FORKING GOOD! Far better than any knish I ever had before….

I note in none of the grocery stores I shopped at in Phoenix carry  knishes in the deli department. I wrote before about many of the different foods sold in east coast supermarkets compared to Phoenix area supermarkets. The deli department in Phoenix grocery stores also do not carry Italian nougat, store made fruit leather, health salad, real pastrami and also aren’t equipped with bread slicers for slicing bakery quality breads. I could forking go on and on…..

Now back to the knish.

My twist is a very tasty tender but firm crust and I season the potatoes when I cook them.

This recipe makes about 20 mini potato knishes about 10 servings.

You will have about a cup of extra potato filling that you can use with the seasoned potato water for soup or just eat with dinner.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour plus another Tablespoon or two for rolling the dough

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup schmaltz

1 XL egg beaten

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons cold water

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups sweet onions chopped fine

3 Tablespoons schmaltz

2 lbs russet potatoes

1/2 onion skin removed

1 elephant garlic clove pealed

Tablespoon (heaping) kosher salt

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

a few pinches of ground white pepper to taste

nonstick spray for pan

1 XL beaten yolk with a shelfful of water as egg wash

Directions heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl add your flour, baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add beaten egg, schmaltz, vinegar, 2 Tablespoons water, mix well roll into a ball cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

In a small fry pan fry up your onions with three Tablespoons schmaltz on medium turning down to slow heat till tender. Season with salt, black pepper and a pinch of white pepper to taste.

Cook pealed potatoes and depending on size cut in half or thirds and boil with salt, banana pepper, garlic and onion till fork tender. (about 15 minutes)

When done THROW OUT the onion banana pepper and garlic because all their flavor went into the water and potato. (optional keep the flavored water because it’s great to make soup with or add to a bread recipe)

Hand mash the potatoes and add the onion mixture. Taste and add fresh ground sea salt, fresh ground black pepper and some ground white pepper to taste.

Get your dough and a rolling pin and a mat for rolling dough. Pinch off about a teaspoon of dough and roll it as flat as you can with a slight dap of flour. (p.s. I used only that much flour for the whole recipe) It doesn’t have to be perfect and none of the dough I rolled out was in a perfect shape. It just comes out great anyway.

Use a meatball scoop  to scoop out potato mixture

Pull up ends of dough over the potato and set them on baking pans sprayed with non-stick spray until done.

Now wash them with the egg wash.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Serve with home made spicy brown mustard. That recipe with be published shortly.

I think these are the best forking potato knishes I ever had. The crust is delicious and is so thin but sturdy and the potatoes are really awesome. This recipe is better than restaurant quality……not sure if I should have given it out……..

 

I cooked up some Jackfruit and thought it would make great salsa.  After I worked out the salsa recipe I gave some to my husband on tortilla chips with a scant amount of shredded cheese to taste. He said “WOW” I have no idea what this is but it’s delicious. He also said it’s slightly sweet with a nice heat. “What is this?” I have no idea what it’s made with.

I cooked up a chunk of Jackfruit from the Asian Market

and got 10 ounces of jackfruit bulbs and about 7 ounces of pulled jackfruit.

Jackfruit Salsa

Ingredients     makes about 8 servings

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

10 ounce cooked jackfruit bulbs cleaned and chopped

1 jalapeno -finely chopped (you might need more or LESS depending on your taste and the heat of the pepper. (I used one small red jalapeño that seemed mild/medium)

1 garlic clove very thinly sliced

2 ounces scallion white ends (about 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup grape tomatoes (that were already roasted and were leftovers)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 lime (just the fresh squeezed juice)

1 cup water

1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro

Directions

Get a medium sauce pan on medium high heat and add the oil, then the garlic, jalapeño, scallion whites, cumin, black pepper and salt. Cook till fragrant and soft. Turn heat to medium and add jackfruit, tomatoes, vinegar, water and lime juice. Cook a few minutes till it thickens slightly and add the cilantro at the end. Serve warm when ready.

The Jackfruit Salsa was really delicious. I think most people would enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

I had extra celery and blue cheese at home so I built on that and prepared a tasty salad. The ingredients are simple but when you peal the celery you elevate it. You also elevate the hazelnuts by boiling the bitterness out of them and then toasting to be fragrant with spices. A basic low oil dressing ties it all together.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

1/2 bunch celery with ribs pealed and chopped into around half inch chunks

1 lemon juiced and zest (in a small bowl)

1 apple cored and chopped (put apple in the small bowl into the lemon juice)

2 scallions chopped

4 oz. blue cheese crumbled

1 cup hazelnuts (put in a microwave safe bowl with about 1 1/2 cups of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for three minutes) Set to side

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 Tablespoon sugar

fresh ground sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

2 Tablespoons dijon mustard

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

splash Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

fresh ground sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

Directions set oven to 300 degrees F

Get your microwaved hazelnuts

and rub them well with paper towels

to take away any loose skin. 

Now put the hazelnuts on a sheet pan. Sprinkle the nuts with 1 tablespoon oil, sugar,fresh ground sea salt and cayenne. They need about 25 minutes in the oven and then remove and set to the side. You might have slightly more than you want for this recipe so just use them as a snack or to top a salad.

Remove the apple pieces from the lemon juice and add the apples in a large bowl with the celery, scallions and blue cheese.

Make the dressing in your lemon juice bowl. To the lemon juice add dijon mustard, oil, mix well and then add Worcestershire, vinegar, salt and pepper continuing to mix well.

Combine everything in the large bowl except for the hazelnuts. Add fresh ground salt and pepper to taste.

Top each serving with some hazelnuts.

 

 

I’ve been craving Sichuan since my favorite Sichuan Restaurant closed. The people there were nice and all the food tasted great. It was just like eating in a foreign land to me. The people eating there spoke a different language and all the food was nothing like I had anywhere else. The Sichuan dishes that they offered were made with Sichuan Peppercorns that do have an additive quality. Although those peppercorns are not hot they do numb the mouth so you can enjoy and tolerate more heat in your food. You enjoy spicy more and you crave spicy more.

I don’t know how to cook Sichuan so I look to others for their recipes.

The Hirshon Sichuan Mouthwatering Chicken by The Generalissimo I came across (www.TheFoodDictator.com) sounded like a really great one so I decided to try it. I had all the ingredients for it except the essential Sichuan Green Pepper Oil. I figured the dish has enough going on in it so for I felt I could leave the small amount of that one ingredient out. I also didn’t use the optional suggested garnish thousand year oil eggs after all it was OPTIONAL and I honestly don’t think I’d enjoy thousand year old duck eggs. I know what they are.

This recipe is special and uses many special ingredients and I thought was too much work for working with two pounds of chicken so I doubled the recipe and used four pounds. I didn’t want to serve it with non-crispy skin on the bone like it normally is served so I removed the meat from the bone and the skin. The chicken comes out with a unique silken texture and leaves a delicious chicken broth that you can use in many ways. This is a full flavored dish but I didn’t find it so fiery with heat as Sichuan Dishes normally are possibly due to leaving out the essential Sichuan Green Pepper Oil. (Sorry Food Dictator I know that was a slight fail on my part) Or possibly due to the dried peppers not being as fresh as I want them to be. I also note I never ordered Sichuan Mouth Watering Chicken before so this dish also may not be meant to be as spicy as other Sichuan Dishes I tried before. I advise to prepare the recipe as written and if you desire more heat keep a blend of red chili flakes mixed with crushed heated Sichuan Peppercorns on the side and sprinkle  on to your liking.

This recipe makes about seven servings.

First you need to make the Sichuan Chili Oil (You need all but 6 tablespoons for the sauce that you make latter)

1 cup oil

2 bay leaves

6 dried chili pods

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 star anise

2 slices ginger

Heat all this up in a sauce pan. I brought it to a boil and then reduced to simer and let it go about 10 minutes and let it sit till it cooled. Pick out the spices and add……

2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon 5 spice powder (that I made fresh 2 teaspoons heated Szechun peppercorns (you need to heat them till they smell fragrant or turn a slightly darker color), 8 star anise 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 1 Tablespoon cinnamon, 1 Tablespoon fennel seeds – this all gets ground up)

1 1/2 teaspoons ground Sichuan pepper

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

Mix well and put a side

Now for the Chicken

4 lbs chicken on the bone with skin either breast or whole legs

2 Tablespoons shaoxing wine or dry sherry

4 scallions cut up

4 Tablespoons grated ginger

2 teaspoons kosher salt

Directions

Place your chicken in a pot and add water till the chicken is covered. Add the seasonings. Heat up your pot to a medium boil and boil the chicken for eight minutes.

Then turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it sit twenty minutes. Start gathering lots of ice because you need to make a really big ice and water bath to chill the chicken and after about 15 minutes of chilling you will need to replace most of the melted ice with new ice. Picture below shows lots of ice that melted quickly. The Food Dictator states that the chicken must soak in the water and ice bath for at least an hour.

Now you prepare the sauce

10 Tablespoons Sichuan Chili Oil that you made

2 Tablespoons Sichuan pepper oil (green oil)

4 Tablespoons black zhenjiang vinegar

2 Tablespoons sesame oil (Kadoyo Brand is suggested)

4 Tablespoons shaoxing rice wine

1 teaspoon sugar

2 pinch salt

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

4 garlic cloves smashed

1 Tablespoon green onions minced

Finish with

3 thousand year old duck eggs chopped (optional)

Fresh Cilantro

toasted peanuts

toasted sesame seeds

The end result is very tasty. The next time I might prepare this kind of chicken in a Sous Vide to get the same result a little easier. It will be easier in a Sous Vide because it will be easier to pull the meat off a Sous Vide Chicken than from water bath chilled Chicken.

I also saved the broth from the chicken and used it to cook rice.  I also had enough left for soup.

 

This recipe is adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. Spiced Chickpea and Vegetable Salad ….well sort of.  I changed it so much I’m not sure……The short story is that I kept the seasons for the chickpeas from their recipe.

The long story is…….

Instead of using dried chickpeas like in the recipe I used low sodium Canned Chickpeas because in my area dried beans are often old and an old bean never gets tender (this happens about 50% of the time). I’ve found that the low sodium canned beans don’t have that strong canned taste like regular canned beans so they aren’t the best but they are ok I do note the farmers market dried beans are the best and come out creamy and very sweet but often I miss small rocks that are mixed in and I FORKING HATE small rocks in my beans and that is the reason I am partial to canned low sodium beans.

I had this very sweet tasting purple daikon radish that I thought would be great with the cucumbers I had. I didn’t have the red bell pepper or the tomatoes to make the original recipe so I left them out. I thought the salad needed another element so I added chopped apple for balance and texture.

Other changes I made were that I like to use less oil and increase the lemon juice. I made a home made cheese that came out similar to fresh feta cheese and I thought it embellished the salad well. You might like to garnish yours with a little feta cheese.

Ingredients for 8 servings

2 English cucumbers diced

1 1/2 cup radish diced (I used sweet giant purple daikon)

2 small apples pealed and diced

1/2 sweet onion diced

1/2 cup parsly chopped

15oz can reduced sodium chickpeas drained and rinsed well

1 teaspoon cardamon

1 1/2 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon cumin

2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1 lemon zest and juice

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove minced

1 1/2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions set your oven to 350 degrees F

Combine your cucumber, radish, onion, apple and parsley in a big bowl and set to the side.

In a medium sized bowl toss your chickpeas with 2 Tablespoons of oil, cardamon, allspice, cumin, and the 1/4 teaspoon salt. Get a sheet pan and place chickpea mixture on a baking sheet and toast the chickpeas for about 25 minutes till they get a slight crispness to them. Set to the side.

Either mix up the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and combine everything or keep the chickpeas on the side and garnish like croutons to keep the chickpeas crisper.

Serve with feta cheese if desired.  I thought the flavors were best after a couple days.

 

 

 

 

Everybody does make kofta’s different. Basically a kofta is a meatball or meatloaf. It’s usually but not always beef, pork or lamb or a combination. Kofta’s may also be vegetarian made. The basic seasonings for a Middle Eastern Style kofta are onion, parsley, allspice, black pepper and salt. Just about any cooking method can be used.

If you were eating a kofta right now somewhere in the Middle East most likely it might be made from ground lamb and cooked over live coals on a stick. Lamb and poultry are popular meats in the Middle East as they don’t have the room for raising cows and pork is forbidden to practicing Muslims and Jews so you won’t forking find pig there.

I decided I wanted to make a roasted style kofta because I don’t often cook on charcoal but I note charcoal would be tastier. I didn’t want to use lamb so I used beef because in America beef is popular.

I used kosher beef for a few reasons. #1 kosher beef taste much better and is cleaner.  Only non- diseased animals are used and all meat is inspected unlike randomly inspected regular meat.  #2  kosher beef might be fecal free. I’m not liking about what I read on consumer reports about grocery store purchased ground beef. I know kosher beef is only from the front quarter of the cow and I imagine it is most likely free of fecal mater.

I read contradicting information about Halal beef. According to Wikipedia all parts are used. But I also read on other websites such as www.TheKitchn.com that only the front quarter is used.

These koftas I made are very juicy and flavorful….For this recipe I also added my unique spin to insure a moist juicy kofta. I didn’t add bread or crumbs but did use egg to combine and my trick is adding some water to the mixture. It works every time. The formula is perfect for this recipe. If you change it it’s not my fault if it doesn’t come out. The koftas aren’t mushy and are  juicy, nicely browned and delicious.

I wanted to make a very juicy kofta so the mixture happens to comes  out real soft so I thought it would be best to use a pastry bag to shape them.

Most restaurants serve beef kofta with a simple garlic sauce made from olive oil, lemon, garlic and salt and other restaurants serve beef kofta with hummus. I didn’t bother with sauce because they are flavorful enough and juicy.

 

Ingredients for four servings set oven to 350 degrees F

1 lb. ground beef (85% kosherAngus)

1 cup sweet onion  grated

2 garlic cloves minced

3/4 cup fresh parsley chopped

1 hot pepper chopped fine or a fresno if you are a wimp

1/3 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 teaspoon allspice

1 XL egg beaten

2 teaspoons ground black pepper

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/4 cup water

Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

Mix all your ingredients till combined. Spray your baking sheet(s) with nonstick spray. I used a disposable pastry bag, cut the end and rolled back the end and filled about 3/4s with meat mixture.

On two small baking sheets I squirted out 8 1/2 squiggled keftas. In my oven they took only 15 minutes to cook.

I served them with a rice like nutty tasting grain called freekeh that also only takes 15 minutes to cook. The perfect amount of freekeh to use is 1 cup freekeh, 2 1/2 cups water 1 teaspoon salt. I also added one crushed clove of garlic, a shredded carrot, a small chopped tomato and about 1/4 cup of scallions. I also served the dinner with some vegetables.