We Provice Recipes

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Bunch of Asparagus Recipes

An abundance of fresh asparagus is one of spring’s great gifts to the kitchen, and theres no shortage of tasty ways to prepare this versatile vegetable. Just be sure to not let your fear of overcooking get in the way of the sweet, tender spears you deserve.

Nobody wants grey and mushy, but undercooked asparagus is tough and bitter, so be sure to check as you go. Here are a few of my favorite ways to enjoy fresh asparagus. Simply click on the link in the caption to see the video, read the original post, and get the ingredients. Enjoy!

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Asparagus Pie

Roasted Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus with Fried Prosciutto and Poached Egg

Asparagus Souffle

Asparagus, Ham, and Ricotta Pizza

Shami Kebab

Shami Kebab

Ingredients

Mince ½ kg
Gram lentil 100 grams
Onion 1 large (slice)
Ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp (heaped)
Whole red chili 15
White cumin 1 tsp
All spice powder 1 tsp
Water 2 ½ cups
Onion 1 small
Coriander 3 tbsp (chopped)
Green chilies 4 (finely chopped)
Mint leaves few (finely chopped)
Ginger 1 inch piece (finely chopped)
Egg 1

Method

Boil together mince, gram lentil, onion, ginger garlic,salt, whole red chili, white cumin and water. Cook till tender and dry.Add in all spice powder and grind finely in chopper with 2 tbsp Brown onions.
Remove and add all the finely chopped vegetables and 1 beaten egg to it.Mix very well, make into flat kebab and shallow fry .

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Crock Pot Baby Back Ribs with Simple Chili Bourbon Honey Sauce

I have tried baby back ribs almost every way possible including cooking them entirely in the crock pot, wrapped in a foil packet in the oven, low and slow on the grill and every combination of the preparations possible. I have yet to decide which way is the best. I think it just depends on the type of ribs you are trying to achieve on that particular day. The crock pot is obviously the easiest method - you just put them in the crock pot, turn it on and let them cook for 6-8 hours in sauce. Tasty, but a little mit mushy if they cook too long and but they certainly are fall right off the bone tender. Completely wrapping the ribs in foil packet and slowly roasting them in the oven works well too. The result is a very tender rib with a little more bite to it than the crock pot version and you can caramelize the sauce on the rib by giving a zap under the broiler right at the end. The grill works great, but if you are using a gas grill, this method uses quite a bit of propane. You also can not wander too far as one grease flair up could turn your potentially juicy succulent ribs into a pile of ash. If it all works perfectly, the results are by far the best. Since no one, at least in this part of the country, is grilling their ribs outside Ill save the details for entry on grilling ribs during the warmer months so stay tuned.

The ribs from last night were partially cooked in the crock pot and partially in the oven. This, however, was purely accidental. I set the crockpot around 1:30 in the afternoon and left to run some errands. While I was out, the electricity apparently went out around 3:30 and the crock pot did not turn itself back on while the electricity was restored. Not to worry. When I arrive back home around 5:00, I immediately placed the ribs on a baking sheet and put them in a 325 degree oven for the next 2 hours. I turned the oven temperature up to 425 degrees sauced the ribs and allowed them to cook for another 15 minutes. They were fantastic! Not nearly as "fall off the boneish" as they would have been had they cooked entirely in the crock pot, but still very tender and with just a bit of bite. I actually prefer a little bit of resistance when biting into a rib. There is something a litte off putting when the meat just falls away from the bone with no effort. Maybe thats just me.

I did not make a homemade BBQ sauce this time. I formulated a concoction of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce with a spoonful or two of Asian Garlic Chili sauce, a splash of Bourbon and a squeeze of honey. The perfect amount of sweet sticky heat to accompany these easy and delicious BBQ ribs.

Baked Okra Fırında Bamya

Among the numerous delicious vegetables that I hated as a kid, okra is the only one that I still dont like. After college, I started to eat, cook, and deeply love leek, fava beans, artichokes, etc., yet even the idea of tasting okra gave me shivers. Okra is fuzzy. Okra is slimy, very slimy. Based on observation I can say people either love it or hate it. Also, okra lovers seriously believe that others would like okra if they eat a well cooked okra dish and that sliminess is due to bad cooking. Whats a good way of cooking okra I dont know. The only okra dish I knew is some sort of stew. In Turkey in my house and in every other house I know okra is cooked with tomatoes, onion, and lemon juice in olive oil: nothing exciting and still slimy.
Thats why I was really excited to find a new (to me) okra recipe in Sarah Woodwards book, The Ottoman Kitchen. I cannot say I liked the book. But in the end it won my favor with one recipe; for the first time in my life I ate 7 okras and really enjoyed it.

1 lb fresh okra (not the huge woody ones)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 red bell pepper, cut in thin strips
1 green bell pepper, cut in thin strips
2 onions, chopped finely
3 tomatoes, sliced in rounds
1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
ground black pepper1/2 cup water
crushed red pepper flakes
-Wash okra and dry well. Trim off the end of the stems, but be careful not to cut into the pod.
-Put okra in a large flat dish and sprinkle vinegar with generous amount of salt. Make sure both sides are coated well. Let it marinate for at least half an hour.
-Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and cook onions until golden brown.
-Rinse okra well. Place them in rows in an oven dish; sprinkle onions.
-First put tomato slices on okras, and then crisscross pepper strips on tomatoes.
-Scatter the parsley over.

-Season with plenty of black pepper and pepper flakes. (Be careful with salt; remember okras were soaked in salt and vinegar)
-Finally pour the rest of the olive oil evenly and water.
-Bake at 375F for almost an hour. Pick one to taste; it should be soft but not very soft.
-Let it cool in its own juice and serve barely warm.7 okras! Pretty amazing for someone who hasnt eaten even one until now. With every single bite, I wondered why I could eat okra now. The answer is the combination of vinegar and parsley. For the sake of parsley, this recipe is for Kalyns Weekend Herb Blogging which is hosted by Rachels Bite this week.

How to Make Parma Crisps in Anticipation of Future Scrumptiousness

I had originally planned to post the beans and greens recipe seen herein with a simple suggestion to serve it with some delicious, Parmesan crostini. Theyre such a basic garnish that I take for granted you all know how to whip up a quick batch, when in fact some of you may have never attempted something like this before.

So, I decided to do a quick little how-to for making what I call, Parma Crisps. These are a bit different in concept than your average tossed salad crouton. For those we probably spike the bread with tons of garlic, herbs, spices, and pepper, before making it all crispy and sufficiently decadent, to where it will distract us from even the most mundane of salads.

Here we have to remember these are simply to accessorize another dish of food – something rich, comforting, and with big, bold flavors. In that case I want something crispy, crunchy, with a nice nuttiness from the caramelized cheese, but thats about all. Any more than that, in this humble chefs opinion, would be superfluous.

Stay tuned for the beans and greens video recipe coming on Monday. Since youll want to serve that with these, you may even think about practicing a few times over the weekend, you know, just to be safe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
sliced baguette
olive oil (no need to use extra virgin)
freshly, finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

View the complete recipe

Friday, March 7, 2014

Indo Chinese Indian Chicken Fried Rice

Ingredients

Basmati rice- 1 1/2 cups

Boneless Chicken pieces- 250 gms

Egg( beaten)- 2 nos

Carrot( finely chopped)- 1/2 cup

Beans( finely chopped)- 1/2cup

Light Soy sauce- 1 tsp

Ajinomoto- 1/4tsp

White pepper powder and Salt to taste

Oil- 3 tbsp

Green onions/ scallions- to garnish

Oil to deep fry

Chicken marinade ingredients

Maida/ All purpose flour- 2 tbsp

Corn flour- 1 tbsp

Light Soy sauce- 1/2 tsp

Red chilli paste/ Red chilli powder- 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method

Cook the basmati rice until firm and tender( do not over cook the rice as they may turn mushy). Make scrambled eggs out of beaten egg and set aside. In a medium size bowl add chicken marinade ingredients and mix well to make smooth paste adding very little water. Add the chicken pieces to the prepared marinade and set aside for at least 30 mins. Heat oil in a pan to deep fry, when oil is smoking hot add the chicken pieces to the oil and fry until chicken pieces are golden brown. Drain the chicken pieces from oil, set aside and allow to cool. When the fried chicken pieces reaches room temperature shred them into bite size pieces.

Next heat 3 tbsp oil in a large wok/ pan, when oil is hot add add the carrot and beans and stir fry for few mins. Now add the cooked rice, fried chicken pieces and scrambled egg to the pan. Stir well and add the light soy sauce, ajinomoto, white pepper powder and required salt. Stir fry the rice mixture for few more secs and remove from heat. Garnish with green onions and serve hot Indian Chicken Fried Rice with Chicken Manchurian, Chilly Chicken or gravy of your Choice.

Pistachio Nut Pastry Recipe

Here is my pistachio nut pastry recipe.

This pastry recipe can be used in addition to any sweet recipe you desire.

My pistachio nut pastry recipe is lovely and soft textured with a crisp edge, the colour looks golden brown with a hint of the pistachio colour coming through.

With a smooth nutty taste and delicious biscuit flavour this pistachio nut pastry recipe is well worth being part of any pastry collection.

Ingredients for Pistachio Nut Pastry Recipe

1 + 1/2 Cup Plain Flour
1/2 Cup Unsalted Pistachio Nuts (chopped + ground to a powder)
3 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Margarine
Little Cold Water

Unslated Pistachio nuts with no shell.

Chopped pistachio nuts, this makes grinding easier.

Pistachio nuts ground to a powder.

Getting Started on Jeenas Pistachio Nut Pastry Recipe

In a mixing bowl place plain flour, sugar, salt and ground pistachio nuts.

Mix well.

Take the half cup of margarine and place into the mixing bowl with dry ingredients.

Rub the margarine into the dry pastry mixture using your fingers.

Rub the pistachio nut pastry mixture until it resembles bread crumbs.

Add small amounts of cold water a little at a time to bring the crumbs together to form a pastry dough.

Only add very small amounts of water between each time you stir it together.

Refrigerate before use or use straight away.

Use your pistachio nut pastry in your desired food recipe.

This Pistachio nut pastry recipe can be used for biscuits, flan and tart bases, pastries and much more.