Madras Lentils

Costco sells these delightful little packets of Tasty Bites Madras Lentils.  They are delicious, but a bit pricey.  I decided that I'd learn to make them myself so I  can have larger quantities to share with others and do it more cost effectively (though it is hard to beat those little packets for a quick meal) 

Madras Lentils

Ingredients:

I Tablespoon coconut oil 

1 onion, finely diced

1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, finely minced

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small cinnamon stick 

2 Tablespoons curry powder 

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric 

1 teaspoon sea salt 

1/2 teaspoon black pepper 

1/4 teaspoon allspice 

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 Tablespoon Garam Masala 

1 6 ounce can tomato paste

3 cups water 

1 cup dry lentils
2 cups red (kidney) beans, cooked 
1 bay leaf 

1 1/2 cups (or one can) coconut milk* 

Directions

In a large stockpot heat the coconut oil, add onion and saute until it begins to turn dark and caramelize.  
Add  garlic and saute about five more minutes
Add ginger and saute about three more minutes
Add cinnamon stick and saute one more minute
Mix all other seasonings together in a small bowl, add all together to onion mixture
stirring to coat well.  
Saute about ten minutes stirring constantly 
Add tomato paste and stir to combine
Add water, lentils, beans and bay leaf 
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes until lentils are tender
You may need to add more water as it cooks and the lentils absorb water
Add coconut milk and simmer about 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally until heated through 
If it is too thin cook longer to reduce, stirring frequently
Remove bay leaf and cinnamon stick 
Serve alone, over rice and/or with naan

Tips and Hints

• *Cream or Half and Half may be substituted for the coconut milk, and is more traditional, but less healthy.  
• The recipe originally called for black lentils, I used red lentils and loved it.
• This will work well as a side dish, but paired with rice can be a main dish.
• The original Tasty Bites aren't spicy, but if you like spice in the food add cayenne pepper when you add the water and lentils. You can play with the cayenne to achieve the spicy level you like, I actually prefer this particular dish a bit milder. Use as much as your personal taste enjoys.  I'd suggest 1 Tablespoon for a good kick. 

Southwestern Quinoa Salad with Savory Lime Dressing

As part of my new quest to be more healthy lifestyle and maintain weight loss I am seeking a plant based diet more diligently.  I can see quinoa being a new staple of my cuisine.  I've gone a bit nuts with quinoa recipes on my Quinoa-derful pinterest board.   Many of them seem to be a bit southwestern in nature.  Quinoa seems well suited for these types of flavors, so it just makes sense to me.

I wanted to take something quinoa to a neighborhood potluck and picked one of the plethora of quinoa recipes to try.  No big surprise, I tweaked it, added some things, omitted some others and came up with something that got rave reviews from all who tried it, even those who claim they don't like "healthy" choices over foods like brisket and ribs.

This is definitely a "keeper"

Southwestern Quinoa Salad with Savory Lime Dressing

Ingredients:

Salad

1 cup quinoa 

2 cups vegetable broth

1 red bell pepper, chopped into small dice

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
I avocado, diced (optional) 

1 cup frozen corn

drizzle olive oil

sprinkle sea salt

sprinkle garlic powder

Dressing 

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
zest of one lime

2 Tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice

1 teaspoon Spike Seasoning

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground Ancho chili powder

fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 - 3 drops doTerra* Lime essential oil (optional)

Directions:

Combine the quinoa and broth in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer until the quinoa is tender and the liquid is absorbed.  20-25 minutes.

Drain the beans into a small colander.  Rinse until the water no longer foams.  Drain.

Meanwhile, dice the red bell pepper into pieces about the size of the beans. 

Slice green onion into thin slices.

Toss the corn with olive oil.  Lightly sprinkle with sea salt and garlic powder.

Place on baking sheet and broil, stirring frequently, until corn begins to brown.

Allow the quinoa and corn to cool.  

Stir all of the salad ingredients together.

Mix all of the dressing ingredients together until well blended.

Toss the dressing into the salad.

Tips and Hints:

• I use a blend of equal parts red and white quinoa
• You can use chicken or beef broth for a different flavor, but obviously it won't be vegetarian if you do.
• I like the flavors of this dish and don't find it needs heat, but if you want to add heat dice some jalapenos or other chili and add it with the bell pepper.
• This keeps well in the fridge for several days, not that it lasted that long, but may need a bit more dressing to moisten it up since the grain tends to absorb the moisture. 
• The avocado adds great flavor to this dish, however since avocado is a fat (albeit a good fat) you might not want to eat is in large quantities and this is fabulous with or without the avocado. 
• *doTerra essential oils are therapeutic grade and can be taken internally.  You can use another brand oil of similar quality. Please do NOT use an essential oil that has not been approved by the manufacturer for internal use. 
• Therapeutic grade essential oils are safe for internal use, but degrade impurities in our bodies.  They will degrade the unnatural substances in plastics, citrus oils especially so.  Be sure to ONLY use the lime oil if you've prepared and stored your salad in a glass or ceramic container. 

Quinoa with a Kick

Several years ago I attended a class at BYU's Education Week on Great Grains.   The presenter talked about a super grain called Quinoa and its amazing health properties.  Including his belief that Helaman's Stripling Warriors were able to march all day and all night powered by this awesome grain indigenous to Central America.    Since then I'd been wanting to try it.  

One day at work our school cafeteria (voted Best in State) served quinoa.  I was stoked and got school lunch for the only time that year.  I was hooked! and asked our cafeteria manager for the recipe.  The downside was that his recipe made 100 servings.  I had to do some dreaded math.  

Of course, as you would expect, I tweaked it, added a few things and kicked up the spice level.  The result was this amazing quinoa dish that I get rave reviews on and friends asking for the recipe.  Now I am sharing it with all.

Quinoa with a Kick

Ingredients 

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1-2 Chili Peppers, diced (variety depends on your preferred heat level)

1 cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups vegetable broth (including liquid reserved from the tomatoes) 

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more to taste if you like heat)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

pinch salt

1 cup frozen corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can diced tomatoes, drained with liquid reserved

Directions

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Stir in the onion and garlic, saute until lightly browned.

Add peppers and saute another few minutes.

Mix quinoa into the pan and heat slightly.

Pour in the vegetable broth, including tomato liquid.

Season with the cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt.

Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

Cover, reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes until the liquid is mostly absorbed and the "tails" of the quinoa pop out.  (You'll know it when you see it, it is a very distinctive feature of this amazing grain)

Stir the frozen corn into the saucepan and continue to simmer about 5 minutes until the corn is heated through.

Mix in the black beans and tomatoes and heat another 5 minutes, until heated through. 

Tips and Hints

• I use an equal mixture of red and white quinoa
• Quinoa is getting more popular as a gluten free wonder grain, if you don't see it in your local market check at a health food store.  Red quinoa is a bit more rare and this will be your best source for it.
• If you like somewhat mild make sure you remove the seeds from the chili peppers, for a more spicy kick leave the seeds in and increase the number of peppers used.
• This is great as a side dish, or pared with a cool salad a great meal. 
• Also great as left-overs the next day

Corn Fritters with Lime Aioli

Recently, seemingly out of the blue, my family has been asking for corn fritters.  I thought this was pretty random, but happy to oblige I found a couple of corn fritter recipes, saw the basics and invented my own version.  The Lime Aioli dipping sauce is from KSL's Studio 5 with a slight variation. 

Corn Fritters with Lime Aioli

Ingredients 

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup corn meal

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1-2 Tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup milk

1 Tablespoon melted butter

2-3 diced jalapeno 

2 cups frozen corn

oil for frying

Method 

Mix the flour, corn meal, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes together.

Separately, mix the eggs, milk and butter.

Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir until well combined.  

Stir in the jalapeno and corn.  

Mix well.

Heat your favorite frying oil to about 325.  Carefully drop the batter in with a small cookie scoop.  Fry for about 2 minutes or until golden brown.  

Lime Aioli 

Ingredients

1/4 cup mayo

1/4 cup sour cream

juice and zest of 1/2 lime

1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon dill weed

Method

Combine all ingredients together, blend until smooth.  The coolness of the aioli offsets the both the thermal and capsaicin  heat of the fritter.  

Hints and Tips

• If you like less heat in your food you can cut back or omit the jalapenos and red pepper flakes.
• Fritters can be placed in a warm oven to maintain heat if you want to wait  a bit to serve them.  (After all who really wants to be standing over a deep fryer while everyone else parties)
• Fresh corn can be used in place of the frozen, but I'd steer clear of canned, as the texture and flavor are not the same.

Fried Dill Pickles

The first time I ever heard about Deep Fried Dill Pickles was when I was in high school and living with my cousins, the South family. David had been building Monolithic Domes in Athens, Georgia and discovered this Southern specialty. He managed to get a hold of a recipe and we sold them at the big Menan, Idaho 4th of July celebration. They were a huge hit, but I pretty much forgot about them.

Several years later I was reading A Time to Kill by John Grisham. The main character Jake, takes his Yankee paralegal to a quaint little bar-b-que joint and orders a batch of these. She is dubious and makes some crack about Southerners frying everything. as I read I remembered how delicious they were.

A few months ago I walked into a local bar-b-que place, Lon's Cookin Shack, that claims to have the best pulled pork in the world. Lon's is also famous for their deep fried cauliflower. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the deep fried dill pickles had been added to the menu and ordered them, they were as great as I remembered them.

I found a recipe for deep fried broccoli, didn't care for it with broccoli or cauliflower but with dill pickles it is so yummy and my family chows down faster than I can cook them.

Fried Dill Pickles

Ingredients:
1 large egg
1 cup club soda
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper
dill pickle slices
Directions:
In a mixing bowl beat the egg well.
Whisk in the club soda
Stir in the flour, cornstarch and seasonings to taste.
Stir until smooth
Drain the pickles from the pickle brine and add to the batter.
Remove pickles, a few at a time from the batter and allow to drip off a bit.
Add to 350 degree oil and fry about 3 minutes.
Serve hot. Yum!

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Tips and Hints

• Try adding the pickles to the oil one or two at a time so they don't clump together.


• I recommend the crinkled hamburger dill chips because they seem to hold the batter better.


• Great served with bar-b-que such as Pepsi Chicken Sandwiches or pulled pork.


• Seltzer water can be used in place of the club soda.