cooking and such
Oct. 15th, 2014 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI cleaned my oven today. Also scrubbed the kitchen floor on my damn hands and knees. (There's an apartment inspection tomorrow. They'll only be going into random apartments, and I know that it's to make sure you're not living in filthy squalor, not to see if you qualify for the Clean Freak of the Year award, but I get paranoid. And on a practical level I try to use these things as motivation to do the cleaning I needed to do anyway. Yesterday I washed the windows!)
I also did a bit of cooking. I have some Khorasan wheat aka kamut that I picked up a while back because it was on clearance very cheap. There aren't a lot of recipes around for it, so I improvised what was meant to be a sort of jambalaya-ish thing only with Middle Eastern flavors. I added a little too much water so it was more like a stew, but it was still quite tasty.
1.5 cups Khorasan wheat
Water
7 oz (about 200 grams) smoked beef sausage
Olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 rib celery, finely diced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
Cumin seed
Ajowan seed
Deggi mirch chile blend (or hot paprika or a mix of mild paprika and cayenne)
Bay leaf
A few sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips
1 14 oz can tomatoes
1 large can ful mudammes (fava beans)
Wash the wheat and soak overnight in the refrigerator.
Fry the sliced sausage in oil in a large pan until browned; remove from pan and refrigerate. Fry the onion, celery, and carrot until the onion is translucent and no longer harsh-tasting, then add a couple of teaspoons of cumin, a good pinch of ajowan seeds, and some deggi mirch or other chiles to taste. Cook for a minute, then add the drained wheat and water to cover generously. Add the bay leaf. Bring it to a boil and let simmer for half an hour or so, then add the sun-dried tomatoes, the canned tomatoes (crushed or chopped), and the drained, rinsed ful mudammes. Simmer for an hour or so, until the wheat is completely cooked. It will be chewy but not hard. Add the sausage slices and cook for a couple of minutes until the sausage is heated through. Salt to taste and serve with hot sauce if you like.
I also roasted some pears and made a caramel sauce. This is based on a recipe from one of James Peterson's books, but I don't have the book anymore and reconstructed from memory.
3 bosc pears
Butter
Honey
Brown sugar
Heavy cream
Butter an 8-inch glass baking dish. Peel the pears, cut them in half and remove the seeds and tough bits in the middle. Place them in the baking dish and dot the tops with some butter. Drizzle plentifully with honey, and bake in a moderate oven (mine was at 375 Fahrenheit) until the pears are tender but not falling apart.
Remove the pears from the baking dish and drain all the juices and butter into a small saucepan. Heat over a moderate burner, adding a tablespoon or two of brown sugar and a bit of heavy cream. Bring to a boil and let boil for a couple of minutes until it thickens a bit. Pour the hot sauce over the pears.
Two pear halves make a nice serving. My leftovers are in the fridge. The sauce isn't quite as nice cold so I'll probably reheat the leftovers before eating them.
Both dishes felt very autumnal and wholesome. I've been eating a lot of junk food lately because I've been working more hours than usual and I feel awfully tired when I get home, so it was nice to have something home-cooked and full of grains and beans and veggies and fruit.
I also did a bit of cooking. I have some Khorasan wheat aka kamut that I picked up a while back because it was on clearance very cheap. There aren't a lot of recipes around for it, so I improvised what was meant to be a sort of jambalaya-ish thing only with Middle Eastern flavors. I added a little too much water so it was more like a stew, but it was still quite tasty.
1.5 cups Khorasan wheat
Water
7 oz (about 200 grams) smoked beef sausage
Olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 rib celery, finely diced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
Cumin seed
Ajowan seed
Deggi mirch chile blend (or hot paprika or a mix of mild paprika and cayenne)
Bay leaf
A few sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips
1 14 oz can tomatoes
1 large can ful mudammes (fava beans)
Wash the wheat and soak overnight in the refrigerator.
Fry the sliced sausage in oil in a large pan until browned; remove from pan and refrigerate. Fry the onion, celery, and carrot until the onion is translucent and no longer harsh-tasting, then add a couple of teaspoons of cumin, a good pinch of ajowan seeds, and some deggi mirch or other chiles to taste. Cook for a minute, then add the drained wheat and water to cover generously. Add the bay leaf. Bring it to a boil and let simmer for half an hour or so, then add the sun-dried tomatoes, the canned tomatoes (crushed or chopped), and the drained, rinsed ful mudammes. Simmer for an hour or so, until the wheat is completely cooked. It will be chewy but not hard. Add the sausage slices and cook for a couple of minutes until the sausage is heated through. Salt to taste and serve with hot sauce if you like.
I also roasted some pears and made a caramel sauce. This is based on a recipe from one of James Peterson's books, but I don't have the book anymore and reconstructed from memory.
3 bosc pears
Butter
Honey
Brown sugar
Heavy cream
Butter an 8-inch glass baking dish. Peel the pears, cut them in half and remove the seeds and tough bits in the middle. Place them in the baking dish and dot the tops with some butter. Drizzle plentifully with honey, and bake in a moderate oven (mine was at 375 Fahrenheit) until the pears are tender but not falling apart.
Remove the pears from the baking dish and drain all the juices and butter into a small saucepan. Heat over a moderate burner, adding a tablespoon or two of brown sugar and a bit of heavy cream. Bring to a boil and let boil for a couple of minutes until it thickens a bit. Pour the hot sauce over the pears.
Two pear halves make a nice serving. My leftovers are in the fridge. The sauce isn't quite as nice cold so I'll probably reheat the leftovers before eating them.
Both dishes felt very autumnal and wholesome. I've been eating a lot of junk food lately because I've been working more hours than usual and I feel awfully tired when I get home, so it was nice to have something home-cooked and full of grains and beans and veggies and fruit.
