Lentil Fare for Kork

Okay, Kork, awhile ago you asked for recipes using beans or lentils. I use them all the time, but kept forgetting to post. So now I'm making time to post...a new recipe tried just tonight. So that means it still needs tweaking, yet it's good enough to enjoy as-is now. If you like Indian food, this is a wonderful, flavorful combination of Indian and Iranian food. I scoured the internet for chicken dhansak recipes (my favorite thing to get when we eat at Indian restaurants), finding variety after variety that differed greatly in both ingredients and method. This is the one I am going with until my dream cookbook arrives. It is actually a combination of three different recipes. I made it in the crock pot so that we'd have dinner ready when we got back from a medical appointment in Vancouver, mainly so my hungry self wouldn't beg my husband to take us out for dinner. End result? Who needs to go out when food at home can be this good?

My only warning...you must have a good variety of spices in your kitchen. If not, you'll need to build up slowly. I only had to buy a couple, since I've slowly been adding to my collection. I currently use mainly ground spices, but you can use whole ones if you have a mortar and pestle.

Here goes....

INGREDIENTS:
1 large yam or sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in small cubes
1 c. red split lentils
1 c. brown or green lentils
1/4 c. split peas
1 T. sunflower oil or any groundnut oil
1 red onion, chopped in small pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced fine
2 T. fresh ginger, minced fine (I buy fresh ginger on sale and store it in a freezer bag in our deep freeze so it's there whenever I need it without necessitating a trip to the grocery)
2 T. Tamarind paste (I had Tamarind preserves from Guadelupe and used that instead)
5-6 dried red chillies (DanPak has some basic red chillies you can easily find.)
1 tsp. Turmeric
2 tsp. Cumin
1 tsp. Coriander
1/4 tsp. Cloves (ground, or 2 whole cloves otherwise)
2 tsp. Garam Masala
1/2 tsp. Cardamom
1 Cinnamon stick, broken in 2 or 3 pieces
1 tsp. Demerara sugar (a dark brown sugar)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Black Pepper
2 T. Malt Vinegar (I confess that I used another type since I didn't have that one in my pantry.)
1 small can diced tomatoes in liquid (maybe 1.5 c. size)
3 c. boiling chicken stock
2 T. Cilantro, chopped fresh
Rice
Naan Bread

Instructions:
1. In chicken stock, boil green/brown lentils and split peas for a few minutes. (do NOT add the red lentils to this!) Drain the lentils, reserving the stock.

2. Put sweet potato, chicken pieces, split peas and both types of lentils in crock pot and stir well.

3. Heat oil in separate pan and saute onion, garlic, and ginger for a 3 minutes over medium heat. Stir in dried chillies and dried spices and cook another minute.

4. Add sugar, tomatoes with their juices, vinegar, and chicken stock and bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Then pour carefully over chicken mixture in crock pot.

5. Stir; cover; and cook on low 6-7 hours. At the 6 hour mark, check liquid level. You will most likely have a thick mixture and will want to add about 2 cups of water and cook a few minutes longer. You want to have a slightly soupy mixture for the Naan bread to having something to soak up. The reason you don't add the water at the beginning is because it is easier to achieve a desired consistency by adding more water than trying to deal with something that is too soupy from the beginning.

6. Ladle into a large serving bowl, taking care to scoop out cinnamon pieces (which will have uncurled into woody rectangles) and red chillies. Sprinkle freshly chopped cilantro on top. Serve over rice with Naan bread on the side. (We cheated and bought rice when we picked up hot Naan bread and Samosas at the local Indian cafe on the way home, but normally we'd use brown Basmati rice.)

*We found this not too spicy at all for our toddler. The flavors will intensify the following day and meld even more. This served two, plus leftovers for both of us to have lunch, and enough to freeze a dinner's worth when we have Indian night with friends in a couple of weeks. If you want to adjust the heat of the spice more, you could add green chillies, or 1/4-1/2 tsp. of hot chili powder.

Pear Sauce

Yup. You read that right. It's just like Apple sauce....only with pears. It's very good & very easy & needs very little (if any) sugar added.

Take 3-5 pounds of pears (I think I did about 15 pears yesterday), peel, core, and cut them into eighths. As I'm cutting the up, I soak the pear slices in cold water with about a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Put pear slices in your crock-pot with abut 2/3 cup water (I use the water they're soaking in, so there's a little lemon juice in it as well), cover and cook on high until pears are very soft. Depending on how ripe they are it can take from 3 to 6 hours.

Cool pears off then run them through a food mill or food processor until they're consistency you want. I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon to the entire batch and one or two tablespoons of sugar if it's needed. Then you can either divide it up & freeze it or can it.

I processed mine in a hot water canner for about 30 minutes.

If anyone's interested, let me know & I'll post the recipe for Pear Butter (think Apple butter) that you can make from this point. I've not made it yet, but I plan on trying it soon.

Chicken Delicious

This is my mom's best "Care" recipe. She often makes it when she is taking meals to folks that are down with surgery etc, but it is so easy, we eat it about once a month around our house!

Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts rinsed and patted dry. (I use a mix of breasts, and leg/thigh for juicier results)
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Cream of Chicken or Celery soup
salt & pepper to taste
Paprika
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:
Put chicken in crock pot, and cover with other ingredients. Cook on low in your 6 - 8 hours. Serve with rice, noodles, biscuits, dumplings and a cooked veggie or salad.

This recipe can be made ahead, doubled, tripled etc.

Chili

This is for Zann - hoping this will help as the Little Person's imminent revival rapidly approaches...

Prep Time : 25 minutes
Cook Time: At least one hour

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground meat (I use beef, but you can use turkey if you'd like)
Large can of Kuner's Chili Beans In Sauce (your flavor/temp choice)
Large can of Tomato Sauce
4 ounce Tomato paste
Salt
Pepper
Chili Powder

Directions:
In large skillet, brown ground meat, season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain well. In large stockpot, combine Chili Beans, Tomato Paste and Sauce with one can of water for each can of tomato product. Add meat. Season with about 3 Tbsp of Chili Powder. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for at least one hour, stirring frequently to avoid sticking.

This recipe can be doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled, depending on the size of your stockpot. Simply ladle into your freezer container/bag, seal tightly and freeze. You can then defrost it just enough to dump the contents into your crock-pot, and heat through.

We eat this with tortillas, rice, tortilla chips, or corn bread/muffins. I often top it with shredded cheese, sour cream, and some times chopped onion. No ice cream here, sorry Farmie! hee hee...

Freddie Kruger Casserole Remix (and a bonus FarmFamily Chicken Quesadillas)

It's time for the first wha'cha got cookin' Recipe Remix. I've asked all our cooks to post the recipes they've redone to suit their families tastes. We'll start off with the original recipe & follow up with our new & improved version.

A few years back QM brought me this recipe. To save space, I'll just leave the link & you can check it out there. It sounded great, but I have a major aversion to beans, so I needed to change a few things.

It all started with our version of Chicken Quesadillas. I cook a chicken overnight in the croc-pot, then strip it off the bones, shred the meat, put it back in the croc-pot, add a jar of my favorite salsa & a packet of Taco seasoning, and cook it on low for 2 hours. Come lunch time I spread a large spoon full of the chicken & a small amount of shredded cheese on a flour tortilla, fold it in half, & grill it on our George Foreman grill for 3 minutes. Cut into wedges & serve with sour cream.

Without fail, I have chicken left over, so I modified the Freddie Kruger Casserole to use my leftovers (you can also freeze any leftover chicken).

Replace the hamburger meat with the chicken mix, the ranch style beans with Spanish rice cooked according to package directions, & the cream of mushroom soup with cream of chicken soup.

Everything else stays the same.

You can modify this further if you like using different "heats" of Rotel tomatoes & salsa (I use mild on both accounts), low fat cheese & low fat soup (in fact, I suggest using the low fat ingredients).

italian crock-pot pork chops

Ingredients:
about 2 lbs boneless pork chops
1 can italian diced tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1 can water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion
seasonings to taste (salt, pepper, garlic salt, italian seasonings, etc...)

Throw all ingredients into crock pot. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4. Serve over egg noodles or rice. Approx. 4 servings.

Spicy Veggie-Beef Soup

I found this recipe in a Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook. But my mom in law's crock pot was too small, so I simmered it in a regular pot all afternoon. It was a hit... it's almost like a bean-less chili, which is a good thing because my hubby doesn't like beans and refuses to eat them.
Ingredients:

1 pound ground chuck
1 onion, chopped (I used a red onion)
2 (28-ounce) jars tomatoes, peppers, and spices pasta sauce
1 10 1/2 oz. can condensed beef broth, undiluted
1 1/2 c water
1/2 c dry red wine (I used sutter home merlot)
1 14 1/2 oz. can garlic and olive oil petite diced tomatoes, undrained (I used italian seasoned, generic brand)
1 10 oz can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained (I used mild)
1 16 oz package frozen mixed veggies, thawed (I didn't thaw them first, they did just fine)
1/2 tsp pepper (really, does anyone measure out their pepper? I just ground a bunch into it.)
1 heaping tsp minced garlic (not in original recipe, I added it)
several dashes of italian seasoning to taste

• Cook beef and onion in a large skillet, stirring until beef crumbles and is no longer pink, drain well.
• Combine beef mixture, pasta sauce, and remaining ingredients in a 5 qt slow cooker
• Cover and cook on high 6 hrs or low 12 hours. Makes 4 quarts.

Goes great with grilled cheese sandwiches or garlic-cheese bread. And saltine crackers, for those who prefer to chew their soup and not sip it (like my hubby). My 2 year old loved it, too.