Mexican-spiced pork tenderloin with corn salsa

The spice rub:

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ancho/guajillo (the labeling wasn't clear) chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano

Procedure:

1. rub meet with spice rub and tie the small end to give the meat a more regular shape
2. Preheat the grill to high
3. Brush the meat lightly with oil
4. Sear for 4 minutes with the lid closed (Next time, leave lid open because was charred)
5. Flip, turn heat to medium, Insert thermometer, and sear for another 4 minutes
6. Turn heat to medium low and cook until temperature reads 160 (next time, try 155°F)

Corn salsa:

• One fresh tomato, diced, some seeds removed
• One half small onion, chopped and rinsed under cold water
• Cilantro, small bunch chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno, de-ribbed And minced
• Corn, one ear grilled and kernels sliced off
• Pinch of salt

Review and notes:
The pork was very good. The salsa was a little bit "dry". Perhaps partially purée it next time and/or char/grill tomatoes or diced more finally.

Chicken Tikka (grilled)

After going to an Indian buffet last week, I wanted to try my own hand at chicken Tikka (not masala). The recipe I used was an amalgamation of several ones I found online:

• 3/4 cups of regular fat yogurt
• 2 tablespoons red masala (homemade paste)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• pinch of salt (red masala already has a fair bit)
• 1 lb chicken drumsticks

1. Mix Marinated and put in a zip lock bag with chickenr
2. refrigerate for... 8-24 hours? ( I can't remember how long I went for.)
3. Grill over high heat until browned and for about 15 (?) minutes total.

Review: super tasty; a few too many charred spots, though. Maybe let more of the marinade drip off and baste with it during the cooking process?

Palak Paneer

Recipe (from Shveta at Trovix):

Ingredients:

• Spinach : Half a bag of costco (I used roughly 8-10 ounces)
• Red Onions: 1 big onion sliced thin. Regular onions would do too.
• Tomatoes, 2 fresh (I used a 14oz can of diced tomatoes, which was too much):  see "spinach prep" below
• Grated Fresh Ginger : 2 Tablespoons
• Grated Fresh Garlic : 3 big cloves should be good.
• Green Chillies: 2-3 (Note: instead of the raw ginger-garlic-chili combo, I used a heaping teaspoon of my red masala, which contains all 3)
• Fresh Coriander/Cilantro:4-5 strands
• Fresh Mint leaves: 8-9 leaves (I used closer to 20-25 leaves and it worked well)
• Dried crushed Fenugreek (also called Kasuri Methi):1 teaspoon (optional)
• Paneer ( I tried using Mexican queso fresco that I had on hand, but it proved overly crumbly)

Prepwork for Spinach:

1. .Put the spinach in water. Let it boil(You would know as the leaves become soft) in an open pan for 10-15 minutes. (Meanwhile You can do the prep work for tomatoes and ginger-garlic-chilli paste.)
2. Once the spinach looks suitably boiled, take the pan,drain the hot water thru the strainer and pour cold tap water.(To make it cooler faster,you can let the spinach remain in cold water filled pan for sometime).
3. Once done, strain it using the strainer and put it in the mixer-grinder
4. Add the Mint leaves, Fresh cilantro and the Dried fenugreek
5. Make a coarse paste out of it (I simply chopped it finely with knife on cutting board; would have been better if it was even finer)

Spices:

• Cumin seeds:1 teaspoon
• Salt: According to your taste
• Red chilli powder:1 tbsp (I left this out because I used my red masala paste)
• coriander powder: 2 Tbsp
• Turmeric: 1/3 tbsp.
• Chaat masala: 1 tbsp/Tbsp (gives a lil sour taste) (I haven't got my hands on this spice yet)
• Garam Masala: 1 tbsp

How to:

1.  Take a pan, preferably non stick.
2.  Add 4 tablespoons cooking oil(Corn/sunflower/olive)    whatever you have at home. Keep it on Medium
3. Add some Cumin seeds when you think oil has slightly    heated up.
4. Add the grated ginger-garlic-Green chilli paste( You can grate them all together) to the pan.
5.  Saute till the paste becomes light pink.
6. Add the onions (sliced up and long).let them go a lil brown. Keep stirring so they won't stick to the pan.
7. Add the spices (Redchilli-coriander-turmeric) to the pan.
8. You can sprinkle lil water(2-3 tablespoons) to make sure the spices don't burn too much.
9. Let them cook for 2 minutes. Add the Boiled tomatoes puree. cover it with a lid and let it cook for 5-7 minutes. Keep Stirring.
10. Once you think the gravy looks suitably cooked( you will know if the color changes or let it cook as in Step 9.), Add the spinach mix paste.
11. Mix it all well. Now let it cook for 10-15 minutes. keep the gas on Medium.
12. Add grated cottage cheese(2x1x1 slab) or more if you like.
13. 13.Add the chaat masala and Garam Masala. Check for salt now.
14. Cover it with a lid for few minutes.

Review:

• Very tasty overall.
• Queso fresco does not work as a substitute for paneer. :)
• Maybe a little too much tomato? Might be better if the tomato was more finely chopped or puréed.

Indian-spiced roast cauliflower

From Jamie Oliver's: "Cook with Jamie".

This is a really unique way to serve cauliflower, at least in the US. I think I may have slightly overcooked the spices in the oil in the first up, but it still turned out really tasty. Here's the ingredient list:

• one head of cauliflower florets
• Sea salt
• olive oil
• butter
• cumin seed, whole
• coriander seed, whole
• dried chili
• almonds blanched, smashed (I believe I used roasted almonds, instead; how does blanching taste different?)
• lemon zest and juice

d

Chickpea salad (Turkish-inspired)

This was sort of a blend of several salad recipes I had done during Turkish month.
Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried garbanzo beans, cooked
• one tomato
• 3/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped mint
• pinch of ground coriander
• 3 tablespoons dressing:  50/50 lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper to taste

Preparing the chickpeas:

• soaked for 24 hours
• simmer for one hour

By the end of cooking, many of the garbanzo bean skins were coming off and some of the beans/peas were splitting in half.  Undesirable in my opinion.

In the end, I thought this salad turned out really well: meaty from the beans, fresh with the parsley and interesting flavor with the mint and coriander.

Kurdish Eggplant and lamb casserole served with toasted noodle and bulgar pilaf

From Wolfert's "The cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean".

This meal served as the finale to my Turkish cuisine cooking segment. Thankfully, the dishes turned out well so we ended on a good note. Unlike other pilafs I've made recently, the texture of this one was spot on: not too dry, not too mushy or wet. Also, I used homemade lamb stock (from the casserole lamb), which obviously gives an extra special flavor.

The casserole was definitely unique and, as Nick pointed out, certainly not your stereotypical Turkish dish. The lamb flavor was very strong and the eggplant was nice and creamy in texture. I was concerned that the layers would not bind together well, given the relative lack of sauce or liquid applied before baking; however, I think the eggplant absorbed much of the juice from the tomato and the meat and ended up pulling it all together.

Collard green salad with yogurt dressing

From "Mediterranean fresh: a compendium of one plate salad meals and mix-and-match dressings" by Goldstein.

Turkish comfort food? I enjoyed it. Even after braising for a good 20 minutes, the collard greens still had a really robust texture -- not necessarily a bad thing.

The recipe called for 2 pounds of collard greens. I only used one bunch, which I estimated at closer to 1 pound. It seemed like there were plenty of greens in the final product, though.