Famous Chicken Gumbo

This is some seriously tasty chicken gumbo, made in the instant pot.

First, make a roux by using the saute setting in the instant pot. About 1/4 cup oil and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. You'll have to cycle the saute setting from on to off so that you don't burn the roux while you're mixing. It's ready once it starts smelling like popcorn a little bit and gets dark brown.

Then add in a diced onion, diced green pepper, diced celery, and 4 diced garlic cloves.

Add in 4 chicken thighs, sliced into chunks. 

Now it's time to spice it!

Add a tablespoon of chicken bouillon, two tablespoons of tomato paste, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, paprika, celery seed, cayenne, white pepper, black pepper. 

Add sliced frozen okra.

Then add about 2 cups of chicken broth.

Sprinkle on a little rice for just a little more texture in the end product.

Stir this up and cook it on manual for 50 minutes - this will make everything gooey and delicious.

As it cooks, cut up 3 green onions and a handful of parsley for garnishing at the end. When it gets close to finishing, cook up some andouille chicken sausage on the stove. Mix it all together at the end and serve with bread!

Oooo, la la, ....ah, oui, oui!

Chickpea cookie dough

 In a large bowl, put in 2 cans of very well rinsed and drained chickpeas, a sprinkle of salt, 1/2 cup peanut butter, scant 1/2 cup soy milk, 3 tbsp coconut sugar. Use immersion blender to process until pretty smooth, no recognizable chickpea lumps remaining. Add 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and stir. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. Seriously, it's not nearly as good not cold. 

Chimichurri

Mince three fat cloves of garlic and one shallot. Marinate with 1 tbsp white wine vinegar and 1 tbsp lemon juice for ten minutes. To a food processor, add 1/2 cup packed parsley leaves, 1/2 cup packed basil leaves, 1/4 cup packed cilantro, all coarsely chopped so there's no long stems. Add 1/4 cup olive oil and a sprinkle of coriander powder, cumin, and 1/2 tsp salt. Add the marinated garlic mixture. Run the food processor until the mixture is emulsified and no large pieces remain. 

Adapted from:

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-chimichurri-sauce-242335#post-recipe-10945

Fruit custard

 The goal was to make fruit custard using ingredients I typically have in the house. Also, dairy milk makes me pimply so I wanted to make a non-dairy version. Great success! This recipe makes about 4-5 servings. 

Crack 2 eggs into a big bowl. Add 2 tbsp sugar (coconut sugar goes really well with fruit). Add 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour, a pinch of salt, and 2 cups of soy milk. Whiz that with an immersion blender until there are no lumps. Pour into pot on the stove and heat on medium/low for 5-10 minutes until it is thickened. Let it cool, then put in the fridge. 

Before serving, give it another whizz with the immersion blender so it's really smooth, pour over fruit mix. 

Kimchi noodles with crispy tempeh

 Preheat oven to 400F on convection mode. Cut tempeh block into 1/2 inch pieces. Toss with 1tbsp soy sauce and 1tbsp nutritional yeast. Bake for 25 minutes. 

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil for noodles. In a wok, sautee 1 cup of finely chopped kimchi, 2 tbsp and gochujang for 4 minutes until kimchi is a bit softened. Put in 1 cup of broth and cook until it's a bit thickened, about 4 more minutes. Cook noodles (whole wheat linguine is great, about half a packet) according to al dente directions, then drain and put into the sauce, toss. Put in the crispy tempeh at the last moment, top with sesame seeds, a little sesame oil, and chopped scallions. 

Note: Ben finds this a little salty. Replace some of the gochujang with tomato paste if you want it less salty. 

Crispy oven fries

 Preheat oven to 425F on convection more. Cut russet potatoes into medium strips. Mix with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper. Bake on a sheet of parchment paper for 15 minutes. Flip fries or give pan a shake, bake 15-20 min more (depending on how thick strips are). Let cool a little. 

Bhapaa Aloo

 Still missing Payel in her world travels, I made bhapaa aloo for Julie Lay's holiday potluck. It actually was a huge hit and was completely eaten. I had to take a lot of liberties because of ingredients, but I think I hit the spirit of the thing, and once again, stayed true at least to the name "bhapaa aloo," which just means preboiled potatoes. 

Skin 3 potatoes and cut them up into big chunks. 

Then put them in a pot of salted, boiling water. Boil for about 8 minutes, until a fork goes through the potatoes, but there is still some resistance. Then take out the potatoes and put them in a large bowl.

In a pan, briefly cook cumin, anise seed, some dried chilis, and stone ground mustard (or mustard seeds if you have them) in oil. Then scoop out the mixture into the potato bowl.

Next in another bowl, I combined some yogurt, coconut milk, turmeric, chilli powder, and salt. I think this was much thicker than most bhapaa aloo marinades, but it was quite good. After mixing it up, I poured it on the potatoes and mixed everything together gently.

Then cook the potatoes in a generous amount of oil to finish cooking an make them nice and crispy. I also added some truffle oil to the cooking, which tastes really nice, but probably isn't necessary. After they're ready, add salt and lime to taste (and more chilli powder for Payel).