Niter Kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced butter)

I used to cook a lot of Ethiopian food. I've done less of it in the past year or so, and I missed the flavors.

So, in an effort to get back into that, I'm making a pound of spiced butter (niter kibbeh).

Butter! With spices! 

This stuff is basically what you use to cook everything in, from lentils, to split peas, to lamb, to greens. It's probably (in my experience) the most prevalent item in Ethiopian food outside of berber spice.

My version is not authentic. Mostly because I am a very white girl, but also because I don't always have whole spices, so I generally use ground ones.

I also use salted butter. I've found I prefer this, even though it's considered a sin by most actual cooks.

But whatever. This works for me.

This recipe is put together from sources all over, so no real inspiration.

Also, you're supposed to skim off the butter solids, and really turn this into clarified butter. I don't, because I'm lazy. But I'll point out where you should.

Other recipes for this will have other spices. There are 2 (koseret and besobela) that I've never been able to find, so I've never used. Some people add oregano, cumin, or coriander, but I also never have used those either.

Niter Kibbeh

Ingredients
1 lb salted butter
1 tbsp turmeric
1/8 tsp ground cloves (or 8 whole cloves)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tsp cardamom (or 10 whole cardamom pods, lightly crushed)
1 tbsp ground fenugreek
1 tbsp ground ginger (or about 3 inches fresh ginger, chopped into 1/2 inch rounds. Fresh ginger is way better. Use fresh. I didn't have any today.)
1 cinnamon stick (3 inches at least)
1 medium white onion, very coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp allspice berries

How to:
- In a large, heavy-bottomed sauce pan, toast all the spices till fragrant (be careful to keep the temp low. I almost burned mine.) About 3 minutes?
- Put spices into a bowl and set aside.
- Melt butter in the same pan.
- Add onions and spices.
- Cook on very low for at least 2 hours. Keep the butter just melted, not much warmer. More than 2 hours is good. Don't go more than about 4 though.
- (If you want to, as it's cooking, skim butter solids off the top with a slotted spoon, and discard. I don't do this.)
- At the end of 2+ hours, strain out onions, and spice solids. Discard.
- Refrigerate. Or freeze. It will not go off before you use it up. I promise.

Potato, Bacon, & Corn Chowder

I make a lot of soup.

It's winter and all that, but even when it's not, I make a lot of soup. I like soup. It's easy, filling, and when I'm having a day where eating just sounds awful, it tends to be really simple to get down.

But that means I need to come up with new soup recipes quite a lot, because I also crave variety.

This is probably not the healthiest recipe ever, but it's good. You could add something green to it if you wanted, I suppose. (Actually, I bet that throwing raw asparagus in for just a few minutes cook at the end would be really good. I may try that when I re-heat this)

The canned soup is totally optional. It's the food of my people, but I still try to limit how much I use, because it can be a huge crutch. If you do skip it though, I'd increase the milk and cream by a little, maybe 1 1/3 c of each instead, just to make up for it.

Also, with this recipe, go with low sodium broth if you can, because there's a lot of very salty things in the soup itself, and and it can end up pretty overkill.

(I wrote this a week ago, but never posted it. Turned out it was really good!)

Very loosely inspired by this recipe.

Potato, Bacon, & Corn Chowder

Ingredients
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
2-3 ribs celery, finely chopped
4-5 med/large red potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch cubes
1 block cream cheese
1 can sweet corn (fresh corn would be better for this, but it's very out of season)
1 lb bacon, finely diced
~5 c. chicken broth (low sodium is smart here because of all the salt in the bacon)
1 c. whole milk
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 - 1 c. dry white wine
(optional) 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 tsp white pepper
black pepper to taste
green onions or chives for serving

How to:
- In a large soup pot, sauté your bacon. You want it pretty crispy, right at the edge of too done.
- Add onions, carrots, celery. Cook till very soft and translucent. As always, longer is better. Like 20 minutes?
- Add white wine to de-glaze pan, add white pepper, then turn up heat and cook till alcohol smell cooks off (~5 min)
- Add cream cheese. Cook till melted and incorporated.
- Reduce heat to low/medium, add potatoes, broth, and canned soup (if you're using it). I like fairly thin soup, so I tend to go with larger amounts of broth than most people prefer. Remember you're adding 2 more cups liquid, and adjust based on your preference
- Cook on medium(ish) till potatoes are very tender, but not falling apart.
- Reduce heat to low, add corn, milk, and cream.
- Add salt and black pepper to taste.
- Cook 10 minutes, but be careful not to let it boil. Keep it really low, just to incorporate everything
- top with thinly sliced green onion, or diced chives

Peking-ish Duck Noodle Soup

I like duck. I like duck a whole lot. When I discovered our local international market (aka heaven on earth) carried whole duck (frozen and unfrozen!) it gave me a chance to try recipes I'd had at restaurants, but thought I'd never get to learn myself.

I've tried Peking duck before, using this recipe from Serious Eats, but it was only just ok, probably because I took too many shortcuts.

I've also tried making stock from scratch, Thai-inspired, Chinese-inspired, & midwest inspired all. It always comes out badly. It really should be a no-brainer, but it never is.

Today I decided to try making my "stock" more like making a soup, using an already made stock base, and infusing it with herbs, spices, bones, & aromatics. And if that came out ok, use it as a base for roast duck soup.

If you don't want to make a duck just for this, it would work really well for leftover bird, too. That's honestly probably a better way to make it.

It's fairly time intensive, but not labor intensive. Most of the time is the broth cooking.

Don't let the ingredients list intimidate you. It's all super cheap stuff, and the spices will last you forever.

(The soup itself is inspired by this and this, with a few notes taken from here.)

Peking-ish Duck Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Broth
10 c chicken broth (low sodium might be a good idea, but I didn't use it)
1 4 inch piece fresh ginger, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
2 stalks lemon grass, chopped into 2 inch pieces
2 star anise heads
2-4 green Thai chilies, sliced lengthwise
8 stalks Chinese celery, chopped into 4 inch pieces
2 long sprigs Thai basil (you could sub standard basil, but I don't think it'd be as good)
1 bunch Korean chives (about 1.5 inch circumference. Don't use standard chives, but garlic or onion chives could be used)
1 yellow onion, quartered
1 white onion, quartered
5 caps dried shiitake mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp rainbow peppercorns (Schezwan pepper corns would be better, but I didn't have any)
1/2 tsp dried lime (or 1 tbsp lime juice)
1 tbsp Chinese 5 spice
1/4-1/2 c soy sauce
1.5 c dry sake
a few dashes toasted sesame oil
4 tbsp palm sugar (if you don't have palm sugar, use 2 tbsps brown sugar)
~2 tsp salt (to taste)


Duck (if you're cooking the duck just for this)
1 whole duck
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
~4 tbsp honey
2 tsp salt

Other Stuff
2 c shredded duck meat (if you are using leftovers)
Bean thread vermicelli noodles
Green onions (sliced very thin)
Fresh limes
Cilantro
Thai basil


How to:
Duck:
- Remove wings and neck, set aside for broth
- Using a sharp knife or kitchen sheers, cut duck apart up the back, and flatten (kind of a low-key spatchcock)
- Heat honey till thin and liquid (~20 sec in microwave)
- Mix honey, baking powder, soy sauce, 5 spice & salt (it's gonna get foamy)
- Brush lightly on the inside of the duck, then flip, and brush more heavily all over the outside, make sure to cover all exposed skin well.
- Put in a bowl or on a plate with a lip, and stick in fridge.
- Keep in the fridge till the broth is ready to be strained.
- When broth is ready to be strained, pre-heat oven to 350
- Heat a cast iron skillet or heavy bottomed pan, with a little bit of oil
- Seer duck skin all over, pressing it into the pan to get color all over it. You're not trying to render the skin completely, just put some color on it.
- Put a cooling rack on top of the pan, put the duck on that, skin side up, and roast for 30 minutes in oven, occasionally tipping to drain off any excessive fat
- Turn heat up to 500. Set rack at an angle, so fat will drain off into pan. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the skin crisps up.
- Take it out, let it rest


Broth:
- Put everything together in a pot
- Add the duck wings, neck, and any innards you have (I didn't have any, so just used wings, neck, and trimmings)
- Bring to boil, boil for ~10 minutes
- Taste. Adjust salt
- Reduce heat medium low, cook uncovered for 2 hours
- Cover, reduce heat to low, cook for 2+ hours
- After at least 4 hours, or when you're bored, taste again, adjust seasoning. Using a large collander, drain out all solids, and discard
- Put the broth back in a big soup pot, cover, and leave on low heat
Putting it all together:
- Pull the duck off the bone and shred. I recommend including the skin, cut into small pieces, but if you don't like that much fat, you can skip it.
- Put the duck meat into the broth, and turn the temp up to medium
- Prep the bean thread noodles (make a pot of boiling water, pour it over them, cover, sit for 15 minutes to desired doneness, drain, rinse in cold water)
 - To serve, put bean threads in the bowl, add a few dashes of lime juice, add broth and duck.
- Top with chopped chives, cilantro, basil, and more lime.

No Bell Pepper Jambalaya

So many pans!

I hate bell peppers. I don't want to! I used to love them. When I was a kid, I'd eat raw bell peppers by the bag. But now? Cooked, uncooked, any color, I just detest them.

This makes it difficult to make Cajun food.

But I love jambalaya!

Yay Mailliard reaction!

So today I decided to cheat, and make it without the Cajun holy trinity. It's not authentic. And it's delicious!

Also, I'm normally all about my one-pot, few step meals. But today's a rainy Saturday, and I organized all my kitchen cupboards and drawers today, so I decided to indulge in a multi-step process, even though I didn't have to.

This is really ingredient heavy, but you could totally skip a bunch of these steps, and throw it all in one pot to cook. I'll indicate which steps you can just leave out, if you want.

(This recipe was inspired by this and this.)

No Bell Pepper Jambalaya

Ingredients

This is not the holy trinity, but it will taste good!

Meat:
- 1 lb large raw shrimp (shell on, de-veined, if you're doing all the steps. Shell off if you're not)
- ~ 1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs
- 1 pkg andouille sausage (I prefer the ones with pork, but use what you prefer)
- 1/2 package bacon 

Veggies:
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 white onion
- 1-2 jalapeno peppers (depending on your preferred spice level)
- 3 ribs celery

Spices:
- ~4 tsp smoked paprika
- ~3 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
- ~3 tbsp Cajun Seasoning blend of your choice (used Mrs. Dash blend)
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 tsp dry thyme
- 1 tbsp gumbo file
- 2 tsp celery seed
- 1-3 tsp cayenne (depending on your desired spice level)

Other stuff:
- 2-4 tbsp butter (for sauteing in)
- 2-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce 
- a few dashes red wine vinegar
- 64 oz chicken broth
- 1 6oz can tomato paste
- 2 c uncooked rice


How to:
- Mix all your spices (paprika, old bay, Cajun seasoning, bay, thyme, gumbo file, celery seed, cayenne) together in a prep bowl. Set aside
- Slice the andouille into thin rounds, dice the bacon, and cut the chicken into small cubes
- Finely dice the onions, celery, and jalapeno. Set aside
- In a large, heavy bottomed soup pot, cook the bacon till crispy
- Fish bacon out with a slotted spoon, set aside

( If you don't have time, skip from here to then next mark)

- In batches, quick sear the shrimp on high heat, till pink on the outside, but not cooked through. Take out, put in a separate bowl
- In batches, sear the andouille on high heat, getting it crispy and almost burned. Put in bacon bowl
- In batches, sear the chicken thighs till browned on the outside. Put in bacon/sausage bowl
- When cooled, take the shrimp out of the shells, discard shells, put shrimp in meat bowl
- Reduce heat. Add all the spices to the bacon grease. Add 1-2 tbsp butter as needed, till the spices turn into a paste
- Bloom spices for 2-5 minutes till fragrant

(If you don't wanna do all that stuff, add spices to veggies, skip the blooming. De-shell shrimp, and add it along with all the meat when indicated)

- Add vinegar
- Saute onions, jalapeno, and celery in bacon grease & vinegar till soft. Longer is better. About 20 minutes?
- When they're soft, add the tomato paste & Worcestershire sauce. Stir well, cook for ~5 minutes.
- Add all the meat
- Add the broth & rice
- Reduce heat, cover
- Cook till rice is soft, and most of the sauce is absorbed. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Zhoug Sauce

I am in love with Trader Joe's Zhoug sauce. I eat it on bread, on meat, on...basically everything.

Today, I was having a major craving, but since it's New Year's Day, TJs was closed.

Turns out, you can make this stuff, fairly easily. And it's damn delicious.

Be really careful with the salt. I put in about 1.5 tsp in mine, and it's right on the edge of too salty. Err on the side of less.

Also, it does mellow the longer it sits. You can eat it immediately, but a few hours, or even a day in the fridge in a sealed container will just make it taste better.




(My recipe is heavily cribbed from this one.)

Zhoug Sauce, TJ Style

Ingredients
- 6 garlic cloves
- 3 bunches cilantro (chop of the very ends of the stems, the rest goes in)
- 2 large jalapeños, seeded & de-veined
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cardamom
- 1/2 tsp ground corriander
- 3/4 tsp cumin
- a dash red pepper flakes
- ~3/4- ~1c olive oil

How To:
 - Put garlic, jalapeños, all spices, and a dash of the olive oil into a food processor. Pulse on high till it's chopped fine.
- Add 1 bunch of the cilantro, and a few more dashes of the oil. Pulse.
- Add the next bunch, more oil. Pulse.
- Add the final bunch & oil. Pulse.
- Take a look at consistency. It should be fairly liquid, but not runny. The oil and spices should be well mixed. If it looks too dry, add more oil. If it's too coarse, pulse more.