Kitchen3N

Recipes and food fun from Apt 3N

Citrus Quinoa Salad With Dates, Almonds, and Mint

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Ramadan is coming up! I figured I should add a few more Ramadan friendly recipes to the blog, for those of us who are looking to depart a bit from the usual fried foods iftars. During these long summer days when we’re denying ourselves food and liquid for 15 hours straight, we need to treat our bodies well! This is a dish you can feel good about eating, that’s not going to make you crash before the long night of ibadah (prayers) you have lined up.

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This recipe is based on one from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. I know a quinoa salad is not the first thing you think of when you consider French cuisine, but she’s filled her cookbook with things she makes for her family, without strictly adhering to a particular cuisine. In our hyperconnected world, it’s kind of impossible to resist influences from other regions. She’s got a Moroccan Tagine and carrot salad, small plates from her American upbringing, French pastries and traditional stews from her current residence. And she’s kind of an authority when it comes to food so I trust her with my quinoa!

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I’ve taken a lot of liberties with her recipe though. First was to change the prep method for the quinoa. For some reason the package directions always tell you to cook it covered over low heat for about 15 minutes. That always gave me soggy quinoa. My way gives perfectly cooked and fluffy quinoa every time. Second, I nixed the ginger powder for cinnamon since I hate ginger and thought cinnamon would compliment the citrus. Third, I increased the fruit to nut ratio for my sugar loving palette. She suggests using any kind of dried fruits, nuts and herbs. I combined the dried fruits, nuts and herbs I thought would work best (dates, almonds and mint). You could also do raisins, pine nut and parsley. Or apricot, walnut and cilantro. It’s a vibrant, tasty way to prepare your quinoa that uses up the plethora of dates we often have lying around during Ramadan.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups quinoa
  • 1 cup medjool dates, pitted and diced small (about 7 dates)
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
  • salt and pepper
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • juice of 1 orange
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (recommended: Trader Joe’s California Estate EVOO)

Directions

  1. In a small saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to boil. Add quinoa and lower the heat to medium low. Cook for 12 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally. After the 12 min are up, turn off the heat and put the lid on. Let steam for 3 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Set aside.
  2. Toast the almonds on a dry skillet over medium heat. Stir occasionally. When the nuts are light brown and fragrant, take off the heat and let cool.
  3. Chop the mint and combine with the dates and nuts in a large bowl.
  4. Make the vinaigrette: combine the orange juice, lemon juice, cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and olive oil in a jar. Put the lid on and shake vigorously.
  5. Add the quinoa and vinaigrette to the large bowl. Combine everything and taste for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper as needed.

Potato Hash

IMG_3167 I’m sorry I haven’t been posting any holiday related recipes. Do you guys want more of that stuff? Gingerbread, snickerdoodle and the like? For this post, I thought of one of my readers, Raseefa, who mentioned she loves the basic, every day South Asian (or not) recipes that she can make for her small family. Potato hash is definitely one of those recipes you should have your arsenal. It’s not complicated, but there is a small trick to getting it right…IMG_3152 Add potatoes first, remaining vegetables after. I can’t tell you how many times in the early days of my marriage, did my husband put up with potatoes with slightly burned, shriveled pieces of onion and pepper running through it. Because potatoes take longer to cook, I save time by getting them going in the oil first, while chopping the rest of my veggies. IMG_3154 This way of making potato hash won’t give you crispy potatoes. They’ll be tender and flavorful, but cooking them together with the peppers and onions will keep them from crisping up. If you’d rather fry them until crisp and take them off the heat, and combine them with the vegetables later, you’re more than welcome to. This version is easy, and gets eaten by the pickiest eaters in my household for breakfast, lunch or dinner. IMG_3155 I didn’t add any heat this time, mainly to cater to the young’ns. But diced jalapeno, chilli powder or even chipotle peppers would be so good with this. I just doused mine in hot sauce.

I recall my mom’s version of breakfast potatoes: aloo bhaji. She dices potatoes into matchsticks and fries them up generously in oil, seasoned with salt, turmeric and green chilis running through. Her version is delicious, but in order to satisfy my conscience a bit, I add veggies and use a lot less oil.

IMG_3158 Traditionally, potato hash gets topped with some eggs during the final stages of cooking. Since I like my fried eggs over easy, that doesn’t work for me. It easily goes from being breakfast side, to lunch or dinner by adding some diced leftover protein: chicken, beef, tofu, shrimp.

One final note: this dish is so much prettier with red bell pepper if you have it in your fridge.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 to 4 large yukon gold or russet potatoes, diced to 1/2 inch cubes
  • 1 medium yellow onion, or half of a large one
  • 1 red/orange/yellow bell pepper
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp tomato paste
  • 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

  1. Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large wok or sauté pan. Add the potatoes in a single layer. Let cook while chopping up the remaining vegetables.
  2. Dice onion and peppers. Add to the pan and stir to combine. Mince garlic and add to pan. Add tomato paste, salt, pepper and paprika. Stir to combine.
  3. Cook, uncovered for about 15 minutes, stirring every once in a while to bring up the vegetables from the bottom to the top. If the vegetables at the bottom are scorching, turn heat down to medium and continue cooking.
  4. Top with cilantro and serve.

Tandoori Chicken

IMG_2526My mother, who is a great cook, simply gets green with envy at my oven utilization. She boasts to her friends how I simply toss a few ingredients together and put them all into the oven and set a timer on. No babysitting, freeing up your hands and mind to take care of the dishes, clean up a wee wee accident (what? that’s not a constant in your day to day?) or whatever else you might need to do. People in Bangladesh just don’t have ovens (or they didn’t at least when she was growing up), so the only method of food prep she’s ever known was stovetop. Luckily, I grew up in new york. I’ve used my oven to satisfy my sweet (and savory) tooth since I was a kid. So, given the craziness of everyday life here, it’s good to have a few of these marinades up your sleeves that you can prepare the morning of or night before, and toss in the oven half an hour before dinner time.  IMG_2506I made these homefries to go along with the chicken. The bag said they’re a good source of potassium. Yay for good carbs! Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and olive oil. 425 for 25 min. Wow!IMG_2518 The spice mix is a little tricky to put together but I highly recommend it! There is a small amount of nutmeg (compared to everything else in it) but the flavor really comes through! The flavor is more vibrant than any Shan mix you may buy (and minus the preservatives). Just spend a little bit of time one afternoon or evening to prepare the mix and you’ll have access to delicious tandoori chicken any time! I’ve actually had it sitting in my cupboard for a while (over a year) because I wasn’t crazy about the recipe that went with the mix, but I tried my hand at creating my own recipe more recently and I was blown away! I integrated a few tricks I picked up from Smitten Kitchen, namely her recipe for Buttermilk Roast Chicken. One: that 1 tbsp of salt in the marinade achieves the same effect of brining your chicken. Two: a little bit of sugar goes a long way when roasting chicken. I never was a fan of sweet/savory flavor combinations, but the amount of sugar in this recipe doesn’t make the chicken sweet, rather helps keep all the flavors balanced.  IMG_2521Another thing that’s helped my cooking recently is raw ginger. I’ve always had an aversion to it. The times I would bite down on a piece while eating haleem. The sharp, unpleasant flavor it adds to drinks. So I kind of carried that into my cooking, only using small pinches of the milder version, ginger powder. But when I started using the real deal, something amazing happened: the foods I cooked reached new heights. Like, can-compete-with-my-mom heights. I used to attribute the difference in our foods to the type of salt we use (she uses table salt, I use kosher or sea salt), thinking perhaps what she uses (or the volume of it) amplifies the flavor in a way that kosher salt doesn’t. But now I really believe ginger to hold the key. It adds a depth, a warmth, that is hard to achieve with black pepper or chili powder. All in all, ginger, nutmeg, tender fall-off-the-bone meat all knocks this recipe out of the park.

I kept the skin on the legs, because I love a good, crispy skin. But this recipe works just as well with skinless.

 Ingredients

  • 6 chicken legs (thigh + drumstick)
  • 1 cup of plain yogurt
  • juice of a 1 lemon
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp tandoori spice mix
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or made into a paste
  • 1 inch piece of ginger root, minced or made into a paste
  • a pinch of chili powder (optional)
  • an extra drizzle of olive oil

Directions

  1. Make two cuts into the chicken: one at the thigh, one at the drumstick. Place in a gallon zip lock bag.
  2. Combine yogurt, lemon juice, salt, sugar, spice mix, garlic, and ginger in a bowl or large glass measuring cup. Pour over the chicken in the bag and zip shut. Massage the marinade into the meat. Let sit in the fridge for about 8 hours (I did mine in a hurry, about 4 hours, and although it was delicious, it makes a difference in how deeply the flavor penetrates).
  3. Heat oven to 425 Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment or aluminum. Take the chicken out of the marinade, shaking off excess. Spread the chicken out (overcrowding will keep the skin from crisping) and lightly sprinkle some chili powder over the top. Drizzle with olive oil for a nice tan, and bake for 30-35 minutes, depending on the size of the individual legs. The meat should be cooked through, but if your meat isn’t nicely browned, turn the heat up to 450 and bake for an additional 5 minutes. I had some leftover (halal beef) bacon grease from the morning, so I used that instead =)
  4. Serve with naan, home fries, or just a nice salad. Extra points for homemade cilantro yogurt dipping sauce (recipe to come!).