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Kedgeree for Kids

Here's a dish that is well-known in the UK but maybe a new discovery for US readers. It's a classic Anglo-Indian recipe dating back either to 13th century India or to the days of the Raj - the British colonisation in the 19th century - depending who you talk to.

Traditonally a hearty breakfast dish, Kedgeree is great anytime. Despite the hint of curry powder my kids wolfed it down.

For four people you'll need:

• Three boneless Haddock fillets smoked but undyed
• One large Spanish onion
• 1 pint of milk
• 1.5 cups of basmati or long-grain rice
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1 tablespoon of mild curry powder
• 1/2 cup of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• large knob of butter
• vegetable oil

First, rinse the rice in bowls of cold water till the starch is removed. Then drain in a sieve and set aside.

Next place the haddock in a large skillet. Add the milk and enough water to cover all the fish on a medium high heat until it comes to the boil. Reduce the heat to low for four minutes then turn off the heat and cover for a further 10 minutes. Remove fish and transfer to a plate. Reserve the liquid. Peel off the skin and flake the fish, taking care to remove any bones.

Sautee the onion in In a large non-stick skillet after heating the oil and butter. When the onion is soft add the curry powder and mix together. Then add the rice and the peas and stir all the ingredients together. Then pour the reserved milk/water over the rice and spread evenly. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 mins over a low-medium heat.

While the rice is cooking, boil three eggs in water for five minutes - no longer. Remove the eggs and plunge in a bowl of cold water for two minutes. Then peel the shells and chop the eggs.

Add the eggs and fish to the cooked rice and mix well together. Garnish with roughly chopped parsley.

An Ethiopian Feast - Gastrokid Global Feature

When I lived in New York I loved eating at Ethiopian restaurants. That love of the spicy comfort food served ingeniously on an edible bread tablecloth only increased when I visited Ethiopia and ate great food in the ancient town of Lalibela.

So what could be difficult about trying to replicate an Ethiopian feast now I live in Wales, right?

Most of the food eaten in Ethiopia is very similar to what our family eats every day - beef, lamb, chicken, potatoes, carrots, lentils, e.t.c. but there are few differences. Firstly Ethiopian food features a super-spice mix called Berbere. And to make the spongy Injera bread that is the foundation of the meal, you need a special flour made from Teff, only found in, you guessed it, the highlands of Northern Ethiopia.

I'd already committed to cooking this feast for a group of friends - the kids would sit this one out - so I started sourcing my ingredients. Let's just say it was a challenge but, after a mercy mission from my friend in Rome who arrived for a visit with a package of Berbere, and an online delivery of Teff I was ready to start.

Here's the menu I put together for six people.

Doro Wat - the national dish
Shiro Wat - a spicy split pea stew
Yetakelt W'et ( spicy mixed vegetable stew)
Kitfo - Ethiopian steak tartare
IAB cheese
A simple tomato and onion salad
Injera - Ethiopian teff pancake bread

The preparation started 24 hours before with making the Injera batter.

I needed:

3 cups of Teff flour
3 cups of plain flour
1 tablespoon of brewers yeast
5 cups of warm water

I mixed the flour and yeast together in a large bowl then slowly stirred in the water. It should have a smooth but not too runny consistency. I covered it with a towel and stored in a warm room (70 degrees F) for 24 hours.

Fast forward to the next day...

It was an all-afternoon preparation that started with making one core ingredient - Niter Kebbeh, a spiced clarified butter that provides the base for most dishes.

You'll need:

• 2 lb. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 4 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 cinnamon stick (approximately 1" long)
• 1 whole clove
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Here's how I made it:

I melted the butter slowly over medium heat in a large saucepa, bringing it to a boil before adding the onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. I reduced the heat and simmered uncovered and undisturbed for 45 minutes. With the milk solids on the bottom of the pan I poured the clear liquid into a heatproof container.

This clarified butter would be the base for most of the other dishes.

Shiro Wat

I made this split pea stew at the same time as the Yetakelt W'et (below). Ingredients I needed for six people:

• 2 Onions, chopped
  3 Garlic cloves  crushed
• 1 inch of Ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup Niter kibbeh (see above)
• 1 teaspoon  Turmeric
• 2 tablespoons Paprika
• 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1 lb Split Peas
• 4 c Water or Stock 
Salt & Pepper to taste

First I pureed onion, garlic, and ginger in a food processor. Then I added the turmeric, paprika and cayenne pepper to the Niter Kibbeh over a medium heat and stirred rapidly to color oil and cook spices through. Then I added the onion puree and sautéd on medium heat untilonion loses its raw aroma, about 5-10 minutes. Next came the split peas and the water.  I brought it to a boil then simmered the stew over a low-medium heat for 1 hour, adding water periodically to keep it from drying out.

Yetakelt W'et ( spicy mixed vegetable stew)

Ingredients for 6

 

• 2 Onions, chopped
• 3 Garlic cloves  crushed
• 1/4 cup Niter kibbeh (see above)
• 2 teaspoons of Berbere
• 2 teaspoons of  paprika or pimenton
• 1 cup of Green beans; cut into thirds
• 8 Carrots; chopped 
6 Potatoes; cubed
• 4 turnips, cubed
• 1 can of Tomatoes; chopped
• 1/4 cup Tomato paste
• 2 cups of water
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup Parsley; fresh, chopped

I sautéd the onions, garlic, berbere, and paprika in the Niter Kebbeh for 2 minutes. Then I added the beans, carrots, potatoes and turnips and sautéd for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Next came the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, and the vegetable stock. I brought all to a boil then simmered for 15 minutes until all of the vegetables were tender.

I put this dish aside to heat up later just before serving when I would add salt and pepper to taste and mix in the parsley.

Now I was ready to make the signature dish, Doro Wat. For six people I needed:

 

• 8 Chicken legs and thighs, skinless -- 2 pounds
• 1 Lemon, juice only
• 2 Onions, chopped
• 3 Garlic cloves  crushed
• 1 inch of Ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1/4 cup Niter kibbeh (see above)
• 2 tablespoon - Paprika
• 3 tablespoon of Berberé (if this is too strong you can add more water and tomatoes to dilute)
• 1 cup of Water
• 1/4 cup of Red wine
• 1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper to to taste
• 6 Hard-boiled eggs

How to make it:

First I marinated the chicken in the lemon juice for 30 mins in the fridge. I thinly chopped the onion, ginger and garlic and sauteed the mixture in the Niter Kibbeh clarified butter. When the onions were soft and brown I added the spices and then the water and the wine. I brought the mixture to the boil before reducing the heat so the sauce could simmer. When the chicken had marinated for 30 mins I added it to the sauce and cooked over a medium heat for 40 mins or until the meat is close to falling off the bone. Then I added the hard boiled eggs and cooked for a few more minutes.

That was the end of the long-prep dishes. Next came the salad and the Iab cheese (a crucial accompaniment to help navigate the spice of the other dishes). The salad is simple, just chop tomatoes and onions (but rinse the onion in cold water after chopping to take some of the tang out of it).

For the IAB cheese, I had to approximate and followed a recipe I found at this site:

•     Cottage cheese, small curd -- 2 cups
•     Plain yogurt -- 1/2 cup
•     Lemon juice -- 2 tablespoons
•     Salt and pepper -- to taste

I mixed the  cottage cheese, yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper into a large bowl and used a wooden spoon to stir together and lightly mash the cheese curds. Then I refrigerated until I was ready to serve.

Kitfo

The Ethiopian steak tartare is simple but needs to be prepared just before serving.

You'll need:

• 3/4 pound of fillet tail (it's half the price of fillet mignon and just as good)
• A healthy dribble of Niter Kibbeh
• 1 tablespoon of Mitmita spice

Aha, I hear you say. What is this Mitmita? Essentially its ground hot red chile mixed with cloves, cardomon and salt.

I made it earlier in the day this way:

• 15 hot red chiles,
• 3 cloves
• 1 teaspoon of cardomon powder
• pinch of salt

The chiles need to be dried and ground into a powder (consider co-opting a coffee grinder for this arduous task) then combined with the other ingredients.

To prepare kitfo: chop or grind the steak into tiny pieces. Add the Mitmita and the Niter Kibbeh. Stir together and serve with the IAB as an accompaniment.

Finally it was time to make the injera.

I rescued my fermenting batter mixture and gave it a good stir. It should have the consistency of buttermilk pancake mix so if it is too thick add a little more water.

I heated a large non-stick skillet and added a drop of vegetable oil. Then, with the help of some of my more adventurous dinner guests, I added a thin layer of the pancake mixture to the pan. Disaster: the injera just stuck to the pan.

So we experimented and got the pan smoking hot before trying the next one. It was much better, getting the little air bubbles that make well-made injera so soft and spongey.

When I'd made 10 good injeras (having thrown out six disasters!) we were ready to eat.

I served all the dishes on top of four large injeras with the other six used as "cutlery" to eat the food, before we polished off the sauce-soaked injera on the serving plates.

I was exhausted but happy......

Gastrokid Global Glossary - The Potato

Here at Gastrokid we're always fascinated by the history and origin of our favorite foods so we've decided to embark on a global adventure (via the Internet at least) to build a glossary that will explain the history of food to kids and parents alike. Enjoy and let us know about any foods, cooking techniques you'd like us to explore and explain. First up...the humble spud.....

We know it by the low-rent nickname  spud, but six centuries ago the humble potato was considered an icon in the land of it birthplace - Peru.

Legend has it that when the founders of the great Incan Empire, Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, emerged from the waters of Lake Titicacca, the first thing the sun god Wiracocha taught them was to sow potatoes so they could survive. The Inca's relied on potatoes for sustenance (along with corn) and so it's not surprising to lean that Peru is home to over 200 varietals.

But while we tend to boil, saute, fry and bake our spuds, the Incans favored a very early version of mashed potatoes. And not just because they like the cream taste! The Incan nation built up huge reserves of food by freeze drying potatoes and then grinding them up into a fine flour that they would store for the long winter months. To do so they took advantage of the elements. Families would leave newly picked potatoes outside in the heat of the day and freezing cold of the night until they have shriveled and dried up. When they were ready to cook, the women would simply add water to the potato flour.

As with so many of the riches in South America, it was the Spanish that introduced the potato to the so-called Old World. Sailors immediately realized their worth because eating potatoes prevented scurvy but still the tuber was a tough sell to mainland folk who preferred to feed them to their livestock rather than have them for supper. 

Thankfully successive generations of Europeans woke up to potato power so that today potatoes and sweet potatoes are a staple throughout the world. Our favorite? This classic South American dish - Papas Relleno.

- Matthew