Sunday with Marlena Spieler

I am sure you know that I have just begun to eat fish for the last few months. I have come to realize that I love fish if it is fresh. But try fish that has been frozen before one me and I run miles away. This Jewish Italian dish is made especially during spring when fresh peas are available. Marlena’s recipe calls for Tuna steak and we could not find any, so we used cod and that did not seem like a good idea. Any fish steak will work.

Olive oil – 4 T

Onion – 1 cup, chopped

Garlic – 1 T, minced

Flat leaf parsley – 4 T, finely chopped

Fennel Seeds – ¼ tsp

Fish steak – 12 oz

Chopped tomatoes – 14 oz can

White wine – ½ cup

Green peas – 2 cups

Salt & pepper to taste

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• Heat an oven proof skillet with olive oil, and when the oil is hot, sauté onions, garlic, parsley and fennel seeds. Sauté the onions until they are softened.
• Season the steak with salt and pepper. Add to the pan and cook on each side until lightly browned.
• Transfer the steak to a plate.
• Add the canned tomatoes and wine to the onions and cook for at least  5-8 minutes or until the sauce thickens a little bit.
• Add fresh or frozen peas and give it a quick stir.
• Place the steak in a single layer and pour some of the mixture over the steak.
• Cook in the oven for 10 minutes or until tender.

Mel has baked a poppy seed cake for us and Eileen has some piroshky.

The idea of buying a whole chicken and splitting them into 8 pieces is a challenge for me. Being born in a vegetarian family, that walked a little longer to bypass the fish and meat markets, I have no clue how to cut a whole chicken. Last year,  I practiced cutting a whole chicken before I entered the state fair competition. While I can cut the chicken up now, I am not very good at it. I tried again this time and succeeded in getting my two leg pieces that I wanted and left R to deal with the rest.

I made this  after we had had our dinner on Thursday night, so that we can have this chicken dish for lunch the next day with pita bread. Boy, I made a mistake. We wanted to eat all over again when the house smelled so good with the aromas wafting in the air. We had to taste it. With just a few ingredients, this is one dish your guests will love!

The Israeli version of the barbecued chicken calls for cinnamon and cumin, while the Yemenite recipe calls for cardamom and cumin. I opted for the latter. We are supposed to grill the chicken, but being cold outside that was not an option. I browned the chicken on the stove top and did the rest of the cooking in the oven.

Garlic – 5 cloves

Cumin seeds – 1 T

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Whole Cardamom – 1

Paprika – 2 tsp

Lemon Juice – 1 T

Salt to taste

Chicken legs – 2 pieces with the skin on

Oil – 1 tsp

• In a blender, blend all the ingredients listed above except the chicken.
• Rub the marinade over the chicken and let the chicken sit in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Heat oil in the pan (ovenproof) and when the oil is hot, place both the chicken pieces on the pan and brown it one side, gently turn it over and brown the other side. Takes roughly 6-8 minutes.
• Transfer the pan to the oven and let it cook for another 15 minutes or until it is fork tender.
• We set the oven to broil for the last two minutes.
• Serve hot with pita bread and a light salad.

Sunday with Marlena Spieler

You want a dish that has veggies, lentils and chicken? This is just the dish for you. You can make it completely vegetarian too. Marlena calls this is the Californian version of the Persian Koresh. In Persia Lamb is the meat of choice, but we use chicken in this dish.  This is a hearty dish, very filling and is served over rice.

Green split Peas – ¼ Cup

Olive oil – 3 to 4 T

Onion  - 2 cups, finely chopped

Boneless Chicken thighs – 1 lb

Chicken Stock – 2 cups

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Ground Cinnamon – 1/8^th tsp

Nutmeg – less than 1/8^th tsp

Cayenne – 1 tsp (optional)

Italian Eggplant – use half, diced

Diced Tomatoes – 14 oz

Garlic – 2 cloves, minced

Dried mint – 2 T

Salt & pepper – to season

Fresh mint for garnish

• Soak the split in water for a couple of hours
• Heat half of the oil in a pan and add one cup of the onions and sauté until they turn translucent
• Stir in the chicken and cook until they turn golden brown on all sides.
• Add the soaked split peas to the chicken, chicken stock, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne
• Cover and cook on medium low heat until the chicken and split peas are cooked through.
• In another sauté pan, add the rest of the oil and sauté the onions and egg plants for about 5 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, garlic, seasoning and dried mint
• Cook until the eggplant has completely cooked.
• Pour this mixture over the chicken and cook for 2-3 minutes
• Garnish with mint and serve over rice.

We needed some more heat to the dish and so the addition of cayenne, but remember this is completely optional

Be sure to check what Mel & Eileen are cooking up

Marlena calls this Fish balls, but I call it cutlets. By whatever name you call it, this is a must try dish. While Rajesh loves fish, I did not eat fish until two years  ago. When we were in Goa, India, Rajesh ordered fish for himself. Being a coastal town, the fish was fresh and did not stink. I tasted it and was surprised how much I liked it. We later found out that the Sacramento Co-op sells some of the best fish in the country. We have very slowly started cooking with fish and for now eat fish only if we buy @ the Co-op.

This recipe is a popular among Moroccon Jews. We tweeked the recipe a bit. The books says to cook in in the tomato sauce, but we shallow fried the fish first and served it on a bed of tomato sauce. We liked it so much that we just started eating them as is without the sauce. The crunchiness on the outside with a burst of flavors on the inside, you will ask for more. The recipe is a keeper, thanks Marlena!

Bread slice – 1

Cod Fish – 1/2 lb

Shallots /onions – 1 cup, finely chopped

Garlic – 4, minced

Turmeric – 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala – 1/2 tsp

Ginger – 1/2 tsp, minced

Cilantro – 1/2 cup, chopped

Cayenne – a small pinch

Egg – 1, well beaten

Panko bread crumbs – 1/2 cup

Oil – 6 -8 T

Tomato – 4 ripe

Preserved or fresh lemon – 1

Paprika – 1/4 tsp

Salt & pepper – to taste

Lemon wedges – for garnish

• Sprinkle some water over the bread, just to moist the bread a little and crumble it in a bowl
• Mince the fish and it to the bowl with  half of the onions, ginger, half of the garlic, half of garam masala, turmeric , cayenne and salt
• Mix well or you can pulse in a food processor until they are well combined.
• In separate plates  place the well beaten egg and bread crumbs
• While the fish is resting, make the tomato sauce
• Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and add the rest of the onions.
• When the onions turn translucent, add rest of the garam masala, garlic, some salt and preserved or fresh lemon finely chopped
• Add the tomatoes and let it simmer on low heat for 15 minutes
• In another saute pan, heat the rest of the oil.
• Take a tablespoon of the fish mixture and make small balls and then flatten it gently.
• Dip it in egg and then the bread crumbs and cook until they turn golden brown on each side.
• Serve  hot with the tomato sauce.

Variation: You can completely skip the bread crumbs part and add egg to the fish mixture, make them into balls and add to the tomato sauce to cook.

Eileen also has a fish dish to make that is super easy. Take a peek into Mel’s kitchen and see what she cooked today!

Shrimp – 1 lb de-veined and tail off

Garlic – 1 whole

Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

Chilly powder – 1 tsp

Ginger & Garlic paste – 1 tbsp

Red onion – 2

Oil – 2 tbsp

Curry leaves – 12 to 15

Salt – to taste

• Clean the shrimp, de-vein and take the tail off.
• Take the skin off the garlic and keep it aside.
• Slice the onions thin
• In a warm pan, heat the oil. When the oil is smoking hot, add the garlic and cook till tender.
• Add the onions and cook till they are caramelized and they almost look like it is sauce.
• Add the ginger garlic paste along with the onions
• After the onions have caramelized, add the salt, curry leaves, turmeric powder and chilly powder.
• Cook for 5 minutes.
• Toss the shrimp in the curry and let it cook for 10-15 minutes.

I just love most foods that originates from Malaysia, Thailand and the likes. My neighbor “K” is a malaysian and our conversations have been around food since Diwali (with me it is all the time). She had mentioned that it is their family tradition to make rendang chicken for Diwali and I could not taste as hers as I was not in town that day

• In a thick bottomed vessel with oil, add the star anise and cinnamon.
• Add the ground paste ( the paste should be ground with little water as possible)
• Saute this for about 5 to 7 minutes until the raw smell goes away (now you kitchen will smell fragrant with the lemon grass)
• In the meanwhile have the chicken diced into cubes.
• Add the chicken and saute until it looks a little cooked.
• Top the chicken with coriander powder and the tamarind paste ( I dilued the tamarind paste in a little water.
• Add the coconut milk ( I reserved about 1/3 of a cup)

Let this simmer on medium low. K told me let it cook on medium low for an hour atleast until the coconut milk reduces and you get a thick gravy. When she called me while I was cooking, she asked me to add a handful of ground peanuts for the texture and was kind of enough to drop some off to me as I did not have any. So I pounded a fistful and added it to the curry.

I kept stirring the curry as I browsed through blogs. Since I had some more groundnuts left I sauted them with salt and chilli powder and a little bit of oil.

I cooked the rice along with the some coconut milk, a small piece of lemon grass. The smell of rice was fragrant.