World

Carrot Kanji – Traditional Punjabi Fermented Drink

carrot-kanji-recipe

Source: www.vegrecipesofindia.com Visit that website to see beautiful step-by-step photos of how to make this recipe.

Gajar kanji or carrot kanji is a traditional Punjabi fermented drink made in winter. Black (purple) carrots appear in the winters in Northern India and give the kanji its characteristic purple color. If you don’t have black carrots, adding beetroot gives this rich dark purple color. You can also add some turnips to the kanji if you like.

Kanji is made with simple ingredients – carrots, mustard powder, red chilli powder and black salt along with water. The mustard added to the kanji helps keep the body warm in the chilly winters of the north.

Green Sauce

P1430873

Green sauce is the name of several different sauces containing mainly herbs: in Italy salsa verde, in France sauce verte, in Spain salsa verde and in Germany Grüne Soße. The traditional European green sauce is generally made as an emulsion, similar to a mayonnaise. It is different than a pesto in that it doesn’t include nuts.

Lychee and Coconut Water Sorbet

lychee and coconut water sorbet

Very simple, refreshing and delightfully delicious. So wonderful when lychees are in season and the weather is hot!

  • 1 c fresh frozen lychees
  • 1 can (330mL) coconut water
  • sprig mint

Method:
Peel and seed 1 bunch of lychees and freeze overnight. The next morning simply blend the lychees with 1 can of coconut water. Top with a sprig of mint and enjoy.

Grain-Free Yule Kaka

Grain-Free Yule Kaka

Yule Kaka (Christmas Cake) is a tradition in our house. Yule kaka is a sweet, buttery, cardamom-flavoured fruit bread that is eaten with jam and cream. I was delighted to find that cashew butter and flour have just the right sort of fat and flavor to be a perfect substitute for wheat flour in this recipe. Personally I find it especially delicious with raspberry or rose-hip jam. The slight tartness that they add to this treat is just the thing. This year I tried it with goji berries, dried cherries and pistachio nuts. But I think it would be much better without the pistachios and with raisins as well.

Kitfo – Ethiopian Beef Tartare

Ever since my menarche I regularly get a powerful craving for raw beef about once a month. When I was younger I didn’t waste time thinking about it and would just head to the fridge, chow down on whatever raw meat I could find in there and end up feeling rather crazy, but satiatied. I kept this to myself for many years, but after coming across Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell everything made more sense, I was simply following a nutritional imperitive dictated by my body.

These days I am careful to be sure to use grass-fed meat for my raw meat dining experiences. When I stumbled upon Ethiopian kitfo I was infatuated. Raw grass-fed beef served with spiced butter from grass-fed cows, mild cottage cheese and collard greens is something I love to crave. The cardamom is one of my favorite spices and adds a very special flavor.

Niter Kibbeh – Ethiopian Spiced Butter

This delicious spiced clarified butter is amazing with eggs, popcorn, sauted vegetables of all sorts, lentils, kitfo, on toast, mashed potatoes, hash browns — pretty much anything. All the spices make it a powerful antioxidant as an added bonus. There are many ways to spell niter kibbeh — I have seen it as nitr kibe, nit’ir qibe — there are also many ways to make niter kibe — everyone has their own favorite combination of spices.

Butter is traditionally made in Ethiopia from soured milk, not cream. The sour milk is placed in a clay churn or a bottle gourd (calabash). The churn may have previously been smoked with Olea africana. Besides imparting a distinct flavour to the butter, smoking the churn has a bacteriostatic effect. After filling, the churn is stoppered with a plug — a false banana leaf, or a piece of skin or leather stretched over the mouth and securely tied. The churn is then agitated — often by simply rolling it around on the lap until the butter forms. (Source)

Sate Chili Sauce

As I wandered my way through fermented hot sauce links and recipes online, I found a recipe for sate chili sauce. This is one of my favorite sauces in the world, but I’ve never known how to make it. Now that I know what is in it (garlic, lemongrass, chili, fish sauce, need I say more???  delicious!) and the general process, my head is spinning – the possibilities are endless. Here is my first attempt sticking fairly close to the original recipe:

Fermented Hot Sauce: Part 1

I never used to like hot sauce.

That changed during my first camping trip. I was 19-years-old.

Traveling to the site with a fellow newbie girlfriend, en route we picked up a lot of beer, a 12-pack of hot dogs and a sack of buns. That was it.  We had no tent, no sleeping bags, no nothing. Just beer and hot dogs. We joined a big group of experienced campers. They had barbecues, food tents, frying pans, cooking sauces, venison, and…

Sriacha sauce. That lovely fermented garlic hot sauce, you all know it, the squirt bottle with the green lid. The symbol that you’re in a good restaurant. I mean, come on, Morimoto uses it.

Shan Tofu Made From Channa Dhal

I have been meaning to post this recipe for years now I feel terrible for not having posted it before–it is such a simple dish. Shan State in Myanmar (Burma) has a very unique tofu recipe which is made from channa dhal not soybeans. Channa dhal is a bean that is similar to chickpeas but smaller, more yellow and easier to digest, especially if it is properly soaked. This recipe is a delicious traditional recipe that can be made into a variety of items. From tofu nwe (a sort of warm tofu porridge with peanuts and cilantro–also used to make the delicious Shan Noodle dish), to tofu thoke (tofu salad) to tofu hnat pyan kyaw (twice fried tofu) to a sauce for the fried tofu. For a beautiful but heart wrenching true Channa Dhal Romeo and Juliet true story click here.

Sour Radish Soup

I’ve finally put some time into sorting out most of my recipes on flickr, for any of you who haven’t been to my flickr page please check it out. It is quite a project, but will help me get organized for the recipe book.

As a result, I just realized I haven’t posted this favorite, incredibly delicious Burmese soup…. I used to crave it often years ago, so I was lucky Bo, my x-husband, really knew how to cook the best Burmese food. His mother trained him when she became paralyzed from an unknown cause and couldn’t move from her bed. Bo became her hands and legs as a young boy and would run around cooking up her favorite dishes.