renaissance poisson

curried chickpeas with ginger
adapted from "the gourmet vegetarian slow cooker" by lynn alley for my instant pot

2 T sesame oil
2 T mexican chile powder
1/2 tsp black pepper corns
8 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
8 green cardamom pods
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 cm fresh ginger root
1 medium red onion
4 cups water
2 cups dried chickpeas
juice of 1 lemon
yogurt

chop the onion and ginger.
grind the pepper, cloves, cumin, cardamom (or use already-ground spices).
add them and the chile, curry, turmeric, and cayenne to the hot oil to release the flavour.
add the onion and ginger and sauté for ~ 2 min to soften.
add the water and chickpeas.
cook @ 11.6 pressure for 40 min; let pressure release naturally.
take a cup of beans with some liquid, purée it, and add back to the pot to thicken.
stir in the lemon juice.
serve with yogurt over your grain of choice, or pasta.

this is medium-hot for me; just at the limit of what makes my sinuses act up; i might use a bit less cayenne next time. the sauce is a little thin, so i'll need to add less water. the chickpeas are just over the edge of being done; a few are a tad too tough, so maybe another minute of cooking would be a good idea -- or a quick pre-soaking. i was too lazy for that today. it'd be nice with some carrots added too, i think.

i changed all the spice amounts considerably from the original, because pressure cookers affect different spices in different way (increase potency of peppers, decrease that of dried leaves), and because i don't like cumin when it predominates, but love cardamom.

curried garbanzo beans with corn and basil
adapted from "the easy pressure cooker cookbook" by diane phillips for my instant pot

2 T canola oil
2 tsp madras curry powder
1 medium onion
2 medium carrots
1 small can (384 ml) vegetable broth
1 cup garbanzo beans, dried
1 can corn, kernels
2 tsp basil, dried
salt to taste

wash beans.
quick pre-soak: in small pot cover beans with sufficient water, bring to a boil, cover pot, turn off heat, and let soak for 30 min.
chop onions and carrots
sauté curry powder in oil to release flavour.
add onions and carrots and sauté to soften (~2 min).
add broth and drained beans.
cook @ 11.6 pressure for 35 min.
quick release.
add corn and basil; mix.
cover and let stand for a few minutes to heat the corn.

this turned out very good -- i halved the original recipe, but added a bit more liquid (enough to cover the beans), and adjusted the spicing upward as well. very tasty, but not overpowered by curry. i've never cooked garbanzo beans myself before, though i've had them canned -- they're much better cooked from dried.

split pea soup

(recipe by the "instant pot" manufacturer)

1 cup of split peas (i used half green, half yellow)
1 medium onion
1 medium carrot
2 stalks celery
2 bay leaves
1 lb ham hock (i used ~200g low-fat, low-salt ham from schneider's)
4 cups of water

chop the hell out of the onion, carrot, and celery. dump everything in the cooker. cook on "soup" for 30 min. let depressurize naturally, which means +10 min. season to taste (i used about 1/2 tsp of freshly ground black pepper and 1/2 tsp of sea salt).

this is the second incarnation of this soup, and it still needs work. yesterday's used 5 cups of water, and it was way too thin. today's is still on the thin side, so next time i'll use even less water. salting wasn't necessary yesterday; the ham had enough, but today needed some help. yesterday i threw in way too much ham (it had escaped my notice that 1 lb ham hock does not actually translate to 1 lb ham). this ham isn't good for letting cook the entire time; it becomes very mushy (and cooking it twice does not improve it; it didn't fall apart like i was hoping). if i make this again with ham, i'll cook it without and then put it in just to warm it.

the consistency, apart from being too thin, is good though -- normally i end up pureeing the soup if i cook it on the stove top; here that's not necessary.

this recipe contains measurements i usually don't like -- i prefer to weigh ingredients. what fits in a cup differs too much, and sizes like "medium" are even more meaningless. but since it's for soup, eh, i don't care; winging it varies the taste a little so it doesn't become completely boring after the 10th time i have it.

this isn't too different from my standard split pea soup recipe, so i think i can now adapt that one.

i really like how the pressure cooker concentrates flavour. apparently a lot more of it cooks away into the air during normal cooking than i expected.

click image for the recipe.

via telophase.

so, i am not a cook. i mean, i can cook foods that i find tasty, but while i am an enthusiast when it comes to eating, i am not one when it comes to cooking. so i mostly stay away from foodie newsgroups and communities because food porn just makes me hungry. :) when somebody on my flist posts a recipe, i might memorify it if it's for baked goods, and i'll ooh and aah over any pretty pictures, but that's pretty much it.

last week somebody (i think pat? or kathy -- had to be one of the two, since they're the most into non-veggie food.) posted a recipe for brining pork. i had vaguely heard of brining, enough to know what distinguishes it from marinating, but i didn't really know much about it; it wasn't taught in my home ec class nor did my family know of it, and that's pretty much whence my knowledge of cooking hails; very provincial. usually i skip right past food posts, but since i had some cheap pork chops in the fridge which are kinda tough when simply pan-fried, this post caught my attention and i went a-hunting for more information on brining.

am i ever glad i did. we just had the best pork chops ever.

of course i didn't follow any recipe i found -- it's not because i feel myself above it (as i said, i am no cook), but because my forays into experimental cooking usually happen outside of normal shopping hours, and i have to make do with what i have in the house.

this is what i cobbled together:

4 cups water
1/8 cup table salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
5 fat cloves garlic, crushed [*]
2 T peppercorns, freshly cracked
3 T fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp onion powder (approx -- i just emptied the old stuff left in the container)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (same as the onion powder -- must remember to buy new)
1 tsp ginger, ground

[*] edited to add that i like unusually large amounts of garlic. this did not turn out super-garlicky for me, but somebody who's not as much of a fan might want to use less.

i heated it all up to draw the good stuff out of the spices and herbs and into solution, then let it cool down while we went to get the door.

when i got back, i poured the mix into a bowl and layered the chops i had (6 big ones) into it. covered, and let sit in the fridge overnight. this morning i took them out of the brine, tossed the brine, and put the chops back in the fridge. tonight i pan-fried two of them, without any further spicing.

OMG. divine. savoury-sweet flavour through and through and ever so juicy.

we shall be doing this sort of thing a lot. and, being as the paramour isn't too fond of chicken breasts, complaining that it's their dryness that deters zir, i shall do it to them as well.