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Lamb Tagine

 

 

Ingredients

• 1.5 lb shoulder lamb
• 1 cup of lentils
• 1 1 15.5 can of pinto beans (although any other kin
• 5 small new potatoes
• 10 plum tomatoes
• 1 small diced shallot
• 5 cloves of garlic chopped
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 5 small carrots small sticks
• 1 small diced delicata squash
• 1 thyme sprig
• 2 tablespoons of Parsley chopped
• 1 teaspoon of curry power
• 1 teaspoon of tarragon
• 1 teaspoon Spanish Paprika
• 2 teaspoons of powder allspice
• 2 teaspoons of fresh pepper
• 1 cup of beef stock
• 1 large stick of Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon of coriander
• 2 tablespoons of fresh chopped chives
• 3 tablespoons of agave (feel free to add more)
• 1 Salt; to taste
• 1 cup of pecans

Preparation

Add the peanut oil to a cast iron pan, wait until the pan is quite hot. Add the lamb and brown for 5 minutes, then add all the other ingredients and cook for 2 hours in a cast iron pan at 350 degrees in the oven.
Cover with aluminum oil for the first hour. Serve this dish with flat bread.
I was able to find a Tagine the other day, so now I will have to play with the temperate and cooking time.

Tasty Quinoa

I just made this for dinner and it is fantastic. I cannot wait for lunch tomorrow. Enjoy. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup White Organic Quinoa
• 2 cups of water
• 1 Salt; to taste
• 2 teaspoons of corn oil
• 1 teaspoon of Thyme
• 1 pepper; to taste
• 1/2 lemon

Preparation

Add the corn oil and salt to the pan. Let it heat up for about 1/2 a minute, then add the water and bring to a boil. Add the Quinoa and lower fire to medium. after 15-17 minutes after the water has evaporated add the finely chopped thyme. Turn Quinoa off and add the lemon juice. Add pepper and salt as needed.

Pepper Crusted Rib eye Steak and Hasselback Potatoes

In our last lesson I worked on my butchering skills, I bought a nice piece of rib eye steak. It was heavenly. We cook one steak in class, and the rest I brought home. Needless to say I have been enjoying great meals this week.

We also worked on a great Pinot Noir Sauce with Portabella Mushrooms, and a tomato sauce for the chef’s class the next day. Both sauces were delicious and not too difficult to make, although they took a long time to reduce. We then worked on the Hasselback potatoes, those were my favorite, I bought red bliss potatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. They are amazingly easy to make but very tasty.

I can proudly report that I ate broccoli rabe, (me, hater of all things green) it was surprisingly moist and delicious. We cooked them in the oven, with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper. Overall the meal was fantastic and I got to practice my knife, butchering, and sauces skills. I have no class this Saturday but will be helping my sister with an event she is putting together for her church (I will be slaving away all day, more on that after the event).

See a picture below of the whole meal. 

Fancy Pants Chef Skills

Can you blame me for wanting to chop and dice at two hundred miles an hour? Yeah, I move fast in the kitchen, in fact I look like a Tasmania Devil on steroids. But I want to chop like the big boys and girls do on the food network. I want to make chopping look pretty. Is that too much to ask? Therefore, I have enlisted the help of a trained chef. He is showing me how is done.

We started yesterday as a matter of fact. He asked me to chop some thyme, and after my very sad and pathetic attempt, he took over and pulverized the poor herb. It was a thing of beauty. I just need to practice some more and lose the irrational fear or inadvertently chopping a finger two.

We also made some delicious Gnocchi, from scratch, it was my first time eating it; it is easy to make and cook. He also showed me how to make a very delicious and pretty salad that he dubbed “too pretty”. It was in fact very pretty, but his wife did not think it was “too pretty”, neither did I.

I had a great time and allowed myself to eat things I have never tried before, and guess what? I liked all, stinky cheese and all. There was no meat in sight and still I found it all delicious. We will of course remedy that next week, I figured one meatless meal would not kill me, but is about enough for me. I am going to BJs and getting myself a big hunk of ribeye steaks large enough to feed a small army for next week’s adventure.

I tried to duplicate the Gnocchi at home earlier today and the result I am pleased to say, was very satisfying.

I am learning fine cooking skills and at the same time I am letting myself experience new things; a few months before my thirty-fourth birthday and I am still growing and discovering new things about myself. What more can a girl ask for?

Random Pictures of the Kid and I

Some of you have asked to see pictures of the kid and I, so here are some of my favorite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some of my favorite pictures,  I hope you like them.

Dominican Paella

Dominican Paella

I helped my mother cook on Christmas Eve, it was a lot of fun and also eye opening. Although she taught me how to cook, we are very different cooks. We made a few dishes together but decided to make our own rice dishes. She made rice with black beans and I made Seafood rice, now dubbed Dominican Paella. The blend of the traditional Spanish recipe and my Dominican Cooking played together quite nicely. My mom and I can be described as a blend of cooking styles as well, and as I discovered with my dish, the combination is quite nice. 

Please see recipe below:

½ lb lobster meat

10-13 large shrimp

2 cups of white rice

¼ cup coconut milk

Paprika

Oregano

½ chicken bouillon

2 tbs of tomato sauce

Vegetable oil

Salt

Soy sauce

Worcestershire sauce

2 cups of water

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 can of peas

1 large Cuban pepper, seeded and cut lengthwise

Mom had a large lobster and she was kind of enough to crack the lobster and get all the meat out. While she did that I cut the shrimp, first lengthwise and then widthwise. Mom was concerned I was cutting all the meat too small, but could not do anything about it, as we had agreed to stay out of each other’s dishes.

I added a few tablespoons of oil to a hot sauté pan, added the meat, chicken bouillon, coconut meat, soy sauce, tomato sauce, paprika, carrots, peas, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and cooked for about 15 minutes. After the lobster and shrimp had absorbed all the flavors, I added all the rice and 3 cups of water. I added 2 cups of the water first, and added the last one as needed.

 I waited for the water to dry and then cover the pan for about 15 minutes. I then turned the rice to make all sure all the rice cooked properly.

 I liked that the lobster meat and shrimp could not be easily recognized; it was my little surprise for our dinners. I wanted the flavors to explode in their mouths.

I was happy to see that there were no leftovers of my dish, while mom’s….well she had enough rice for the next few days. I tried not to brag…..too much.