Indian Tacos

I first tasted Indian tacos at a pow wow in Oroville, where some of my high school students, members of the Concow Maidu tribe, were dancers and singers.

More recently, we got Indian tacos from a roadside stand outside of Gerlach, Nevada, on our way home from Burning Man.

This is what a "typical" Indian Taco looks like:

Move over Pavarotti: Food Porn Roundup

A friend of Pavarotti's wrote, "Luciano thinks about food all the time. It's not just that he likes to eat: he loves to smell food, to touch food, to prepare food, to think about food, to talk about food."

So we have that in common with the bloggers of this week's food porn roundup. Top of this list, Dressed-up White Bread, made with semolina and oatmeal, snipped with kitchen shears into a veritable peony-- check out Donna Currie's site to see how easy this is to do.

Cookistry

Dressed-up White Bread

Living in the Kitchen with Puppies

Soft Beer Pretzels

ecurry

Chard & Garlic Whole Wheat Flat Breads

Joy the Baker

Shrimp and Grits

Steamy Kitchen

10-Minute Shrimp and Mushroom Thai Curry

Kaylyn’s Kitchen

Twenty Zucchini Recipes

Almost Bourdain

Turkish Pizza with Grilled Eggplant

Sauce and Sensibility

Chicken Salad with Pecans & Artichoke Hearts

For the Love of Cooking

Moo Shu Pork

Ravenous Couple

Bo Bia Chinese Sausage Spring Rolls and Peanut Sauce Recipe

Vietnam World Kitchen

Curried Fried Rice

Wives with Knives

Potato, Onion and Gruyere Galette

My Recession Kitchen

Tamale Pie

The Knead for Speed

Crepe Lasagna Tower

Lost Past Remembered

Lamb Aloes with Spiced Port Sauce & Pomegrates

Moroccan Lamb Sausages & Mezze Friends

Hubby loves lamb, me not so much. But I found this recipe in Saveur that enticed me, so I bought a small lamb roast and thought I'd use the food processor to rough grind the meat. The recipe calls for toasting and grinding spices and includes harissa, which I'd made the previous week. Besides, look at the photo they included. A tasty mezze spread indeed.

Unfortunately, my first batch was a FAIL, tasteless and dry. So I tweaked the traditional recipe, because that's what cooks do. I added ground pork and chuck for fat and flavor, used smoked paprika, and amped up the spices. We also grilled the sausage, which made a world of difference. Oh.my.goodness.

We served the sausages as appetizers -- or mezze -- with whole wheat pita, yogurt with herbs, tapenade, carrot salad, more harissa, (seriously sinful triple cream) goat cheese brie, cucumbers, and heirloom tomatoes. We had leftovers -- only because our friends made the most incredible chicken tagine for the main course -- but this could easily suffice as a summer meal. What was for dessert you ask? Cardamom-infused yogurt with white nectarines and ginger syrup (directions below).

 Moroccan Lamb Sausage

Ingredients
1 lb. ground lamb
1 lb. ground pork
1/3 lb. ground chuck
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 T. minced flat-leaf parsley
1 t. sweet paprika
2 t. smoked paprika
1 t. coriander seeds
1 t. cumin seeds
1 t. fennel seeds
3 T. harissa

Directions

1. Toast the coriander, fennel and cumin seeds lightly, and grind them into a powder. I used our retired coffee grinder. If you don't have a grinder or mortar and pestle, go ahead and buy powdered spices, but do toast them anyway.
2. Mix the spices, garlic, harissa and parsley into the meat.
3. Divide into 12 patties. Grill on a medium heat, so they are fairly well cooked through, turning to brown on both sides.
4. Serve with suggested mezze fixin's.

Cardamom Yogurt with White Nectarines & Ginger Syrup
Ingredients
32 oz. tub of plain yogurt (organic/non-fat is our preference)
5 pods of cardamom (I used green cardamom)
4 white nectarines (peaches or other stone fruit will do)
3 inch nub of ginger root
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. water

Directions

1. Prepare yogurt:


1. Drain the yogurt in cheesecloth to remove excess liquid, for 2-4 hours.
2. Crush the cardamom in a mortar and pestle or with the back of a spoon, and stir it in the yogurt. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Strain the seeds/pods from the yogurt before servinng.


2. Prepare the ginger syrup:


1. Peel and slice the ginger.
2. Boil ginger with water and sugar for a couple of minutes.
3. Turn heat on low and let simmer until liquid is thick. This won't take long.
4. Remove the ginger and let the liquid cool
5. Store the syrup in a sterilized jar in the cupboard, not the fridge.


3. Prepare dessert:


1. Dollop yogurt in bowl. Mebbe about 1/3 - 1/2 c. person.
2. Top with sliced nectarines.
3. Drizzle ginger syrup on the entirety. To taste. It's powerful, so less is more.
4. You'll want to spread this all over your body and lick it off. Seriously.

Rock'n'Roll Hoochie Coo: Food Porn Roundup

It's that time again. I should be folding laundry but instead, here I am, catching up on food porn. I'm sharing this list with you, but I made it for myself.  There are so many talented cooks, and so many yummy recipes to try, but alas, only so many hours in the day. So here's what I hope to experiment with this month - listed again in no particular order.

Amateur Perceptions
Stuffed Buns

Audex Artifex
Banquet Foccacia

101 Cookbooks
Spiced Tomato Gratin

bakies

Calzone

Cate's World Kitchen
Black Bean and Quinoa Salad

Chocolate & Zucchini
Olive Oil and Seed Crackers

Patent and the Pantry

Shaved Asparagus Pizza

Closet Cooking

Zucchini and Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Parmesan Tart

Inspired Taste

Vietnamese Noodle Soup: Pho

Urban Recipe
Thai Shrimp and Corn Cakes

My Diverse Kitchen

Paneer Pound Cake

Homesick Texan
Fried Pickles

Cookin' Canuck
Grilled Zucchini Roll-ups

elly says opa!

Chipotle Beef Tacos

Almond Corner

Garam Masala

What's Cookin, Chicago?

Beef and Cheese Empanada

Hungry Desi

Couscous with Preserved Lemons and Haloumi Cheese

In the kitchen of my family

Rosemary Olive Oil cake

Harissa on breakfast sandwiches?

I'm learning about Moroccan cuisine. One ingredient that's unique to North African cooking, particularly Moroccan and Tunisian, is harissa -- not something we typically find at the local grocers -- so I googled, went shopping for chilis and spices, and voila! Homemade harissa. The first batch was not as spicy as I expected, but we've nearly depleted the batch I made, so that'll be remedied next go-round.

The condiment makes an appearance at the mezze, and is included in tagines and merguez. We happen to like breakfast sandwiches -- toasted whole grain bread with something crispy green (this week, it's been cuke slices), turkey or chicken, cheese and a good mustard (sorry, no French's in the house). I've been slathering harissa over the poupon. Don't knock it till you try it.

Harissa

Ingredients
15 dried chilis: guajillo, New Mexico, arbol
3-5 garlic cloves
1/2 t. salt
2 T. sweet paprika
2 T. coriander seed
1 t. caraway seed
1 t. cumin seed
1 T. lemon juice
3 T. olive oil
1 red bell pepper, roasted and peeled.

Directions

1. Oven-roast a red pepper or use prepared pepper. Set aside.
2. Remove the stems and seeds before soaking the chilis.
3. Pour boiling water on the dried chilis and soak them for about an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When it's ready, toast the spices on a cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes.
5. Grind the spices -- I used our retired coffee grinder.
6. Drain the chilis. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor (or use a hand blender) and let it rip until you have a relatively smooth paste.
7. Store the harissa in a clean jar in the fridge. I don't know how long it will keep....it never lasts long around here.