Reduced Recipes: 4-13

4: Meat (Lamb) with whole spices. Excellent flavor, but high on the fat content. Out of An Invitation to Indian Cooking.

5: Uncle Sherman's Homestyle Chicken and Vegtables. From The Breath of a Wok. Servicable stir-fry.

6: Shiro wot. One of the real finds of the year. An Ethiopian peanut stew. From A Taste of Africa. Note: we were not able to make the flatbread that went with this, but found that pita works just as well.

7: Crispy edged roasted brussel sprouts. These go great with salmon. From The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without.

8: Cold Gingered Asparagus Salad. We brought this to Preaster and it was a big hit. Also from The Vegtable Dishes I can't Live Without.

9. Pasta with Chickpeas. Really really really good. Tastes decadent but is actually good for you. From The Mooosewood Low Fat Cookbook.

10. Chicken and Chickpea Tajine with Vanilla. This is soooo good -- From Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World. This one really is.

11. Cassoulet. Kind of a bean casserole with fake meat in it. Pretty good. From the Moosewood Low Fat Cookbook.

12. Shrimp Waldorf Salad. This is so good -- tastes like an appetizer in a high end restaurant.

From Cooking Light magazine.

13. Bean and Chick Pea Stew. Pretty good. From Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa.

Recipe #2 Lamb with Whole Spices

Well, We've been falling behind on the recipe category so here's a great one we just tried from "An Invitation to Indian Cooking" by Madhur Jaffrey. For purists, this is called khare masale ka gosht, but lamb with whole spices works too.

8 TBSP vegetable oil (ok, that's alot but most of it stays in the pan and it's really worth it)
1 2" stick cinnamon
20 whole black peppercorns
15 whole cloves
10 whole cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 whole dry red pepper
2 lbs boneless shoulder of lamb cut into 1" pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garam masala (optional)
1 TBSP chopped cilantro (optional)

Pat the meat dry on paper towels. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. When it is very hot, put the spices in quickly in this order (the order seems to matter) cinnamon, black peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, bay leaves and hot pepper. When the hot pepper begins to darken, add the pieces of meat and the salt. Stir for 5 minutes or until the pot begins to make boiling noises (I did this in a wok and it began to make boiling noises right away so I went about 3 minutes and it turned out fine). Cover, lower heat and cook for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes or until meat is tender (I think I cooked mine 40 minutes, at which point it started to look a little charred around the edges. Use your best judgement.) Remove the cover and continue cooking on medium for a final 3 to 5 minutes, gently stirring the meat pieces. Take care not to break them. Remove from pot using a slotted spoon to drain off excess oil. You can serve with the whole spices for effect, but they shouldn't be eaten. Serve over rice and sprinkle with garam marsala and / or chopped cilantro.

This takes awhile but it tasted AMAZING. Give it a try!

Recipe #1 - Belle's Beans

Before we left town, my friend Belle was kind enough to spend some time teaching me her recipe for beans, Texas-style. I don't think it's a carefully -guarded family secret, so here it is -

1 lb black beans or pinto beans
1 healthy splash of olive oil (you can use butter, but who needs those extra saturated fats?)
1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
1/2 jar salsa (Belle uses a Frog Ranch variety, I tried the Whole Foods House Brand Medium)

First, think ahead that you want to make this recipe and soak the beans over night. This is a very important step - don't believe those people who say beans don't have to be soaked. It's a lie.

The next day, peel both the garlic and onion. The former needs to be minced, but the latter can just be cut into quarters (one of the things I love about this recipe because I hate to chop onions.) Splash olive oil into a big heavy pot and heat it up. Put in the garlic and onion, breaking apart the onion with your spatula as you brown them.

Drain the soaked beans and add to the pot with the onions and galic after they've cooked some. Cover with about one inch water (this is where I screwed up, putting in too much water. This required extensively boiling down to remedy but I won't hold you in suspense - everything came out okay in the end). Stir in the salsa. Turn up the heat, bring to a boil and immediately reduce the heat so the beans are simmering but not at a rolling boil (which makes them break apart). Simmer two hours (or in my case, about 5). Serve over rice.

Thanks Belle! Mine turned out very good but a little more tomato-flavored than yours (probably because I put in more salsa to compensate for the extra water! (-:).