ASSAMESE BOROR TENGA / TANGY LENTIL FRITTER CURRY

This month our group, "Shhhhh Cooking Secretly" decided to go for the Assamese Cuisine.
The Assamese, have a palate for anything that is tangy. Especially during scorching summer afternoons. They love  their meals with something tangy, sour and refreshing.
 “Boror Tenga”, is one such traditional dish.  It is made with fritters of a seasoned paste of red lentils, chilies, asafoetida and salt.

Flaxseed Crackers - Meet the “Flackers”

I usually try new recipes, or techniques because they sound delicious, or unusual, but once in a while I’ll try something just because it sounds impossible, and that was the case with these flaxseed crackers. 

I heard that if you mix flaxseeds with an equal amount of water, let it hydrate, spread it thin, and bake it in a low oven, you’ll get light, crispy, and surprisingly tasty crackers. I heard right.

I generally like to leave eating seeds to the birds, but these have a very mild nutty/earthy flavor, and while quite light, they’re still study enough to use with your favorite dips and spreads. Above and beyond the taste, I find that these start to lose their crispiness after about a day, so if you make them ahead of time, I’d re-crisp them in the oven again for maybe 30 minutes to dry them back out.

Also, please feel free to season these more creatively than I did. Although a plain cracker is perfect for pairing with a slice of cheese, I can’t help but think there are so many other ways these could’ve been spiced-up. Regardless of what you add to yours, I really hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

PLEASE NOTE: I've been told that whole flax seeds are not fully digestible, and to get the health benefits you should use flaxseed meal, but other sources are telling me that the soaking, and chewing takes care of that, maybe. Probably not a big deal unless you're going to eat a whole batch, but consider yourself warned if you are sensitive to high-fiber foods!
 
Ingredients for 32 Flaxseed Crackers:

1 cup raw flax seeds

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

pinch of cayenne

1 cup cold water

- Soak overnight, then bake at 200 F. for 3 hours, or until crispy.

METHI ALOO WITH FENUGREEK SPROUTS

Aloo and methi (fenugreek Leaves) are a lovely combo and this sabzi is most popular one in the North Indian Cuisine. Methi has a lot of health benefits. I have added some methi sprouts to this sabzi. You can make the sprouts and add them to various dishes and make them a part of everyday diet.




Ingredients:
Potatoes .... 4 medium
Methi leaves .... 1 cup
Coriander leaves .. 1/4 cup
Onion ..

Sweet Potato Biscuits – Before or After

I originally planned for these sweet potato biscuits to be this year’s Thanksgiving leftover recipe, but they came out so well, I decided to upgrade them, and I’m now officially suggesting you make these as one of the centerpieces for your feast. The downside of that plan is that you’ll have to share them with your guests.

Adding things like mashed sweet potatoes can cause all sorts of issues in a biscuit recipe, since they need to take the place of some of your “wet” ingredients, and considering how much thicker they are than something like buttermilk, over-mixing the dough can occur. By the time the potato mixture is incorporated, you can develop too much gluten, which can make biscuits tough.  

So, to protect against that, we’ll do most of the mixing while we form and fold our dough on the work surface. Not only does this make for a tender biscuit, but as you saw, we also get lots of beautifully buttery layers.

These are amazing with just plain butter, but for a little seasonal twist, I made a pomegranate spread, and have explained how to do that below. No matter what you serve this with, I really do hope you give these amazing sweet potato biscuits a try soon Enjoy!

Ingredients for 8 large or 12 normally sized Sweet Potato Biscuits:

1 1/2 cup mashed orange sweet potatoes (cooked in well-salted water, drained thoroughly)

3 1/4 cups *self-rising flour 
(*if using all-purpose flour, add 4 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 1/2 tsp fine salt)

1 rounded tablespoon brown sugar

12 tablespoons ice cold butter, grated in

1/2 cup buttermilk

For the pomegranate spread:

4 tablespoons room temp butter

1 teaspoon pomegranate syrup, aka pomegranate molasses (you can make your own by reducing juice until it thickens)

1 teaspoon fresh pomegranate juice, for a better color

fresh pomegranate seeds to garnish

VEG NARGISI KABABS

This is an interesting recipe that I tried out recently for an event. The theme was potato. I chose small, oval egg shaped potatoes and used soya granule masala for the covering. Egg yolk was made with mashed paneer and potato to which I added organic yellow food colour. The snack really looked very nice. It is a lovely party snack for vegetarians.

Ingredients:
Potatoes ..... 3 (choose small

Peposo dell'Impruneta - Making Bad Beef Better Since Before Columbus

Some recipes have amusing, or romantic stories for how they came to be, but this peposo isn’t one of them, unless you consider making bad quality beef taste better by covering it in black pepper, amusing or romantic.

As the story goes, the workers who made terracotta tiles in the city of Impruneta, would place this stew into clay pots, and leave it their still-hot kilns overnight, where it would be ready the next morning. Since they were often stuck using less than fresh meat, copious amounts of black peppercorn was used to make the beef palatable.

Luckily, this recipe adapts quite nicely to fresh meat, and produces one of the more uniquely flavored braised beef dishes I’ve ever had. The amount of black pepper is up to you, but even the ridiculous amount I used wasn’t overpowering. The acidity and sweetness of the reduced wine balances everything beautifully.

I hear that beef shank is the traditional cut of meat to use, but short ribs worked really well. You could even use some beef chuck, cut into two-inch pieces, but you’d have to adjust the cooking time. Having said that, forget the time, and keep cooking until a fork goes in easily. Regardless of which cut you use, or how fresh it is, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 6 portions:

6 bone-in beef short ribs (about 8 to 10 ounces each)

1 tablespoon kosher salt to coat the beef

8 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons black peppercorns, freshly crushed

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

3-4 sage leaves

3-4 small sprigs rosemary

2 cups red wine, preferably Chianti

2 bay leaves

salt to taste, to adjust sauce

- Simmer on low, covered, about 3 1/2 hours, or until fork tender. Turn occasionally.

AUSH GOSHTI (Afghan Tomato Soup)

This delicious tangy tomato and meat stew is served as an appetizer. It is quite filling and one can have it as a light meal by itself as it has meat and fettuccini. I have added Tangier spice mix which makes it all the more flavourful. Traditionally it is made with minced beef but I used mutton mince.

Ingredients:
Mutton mince - 50 gms
Onion ............. 1/4 cup (finely minced)
Tomato