Old World, New Kitchen

Vegetarian Sushi Rolls

For rolling the sushi rolls
One package high quality Japanese Nori Sheets
27 oz (3 3/8 Cups) white rice
6 oz. (3/4 cup) sweet rice
Bamboo sushi roller

Sushi ingredients
One Package kampyo
6 shitake mushrooms
2 carrots sliced into thin strips
Handful green beans
One avocado, sliced
1 lb butter-fried shrimp, skewered singly (optional)
One Package Fried Tofu squares cut in half to form triangles

Soy sauce
sugar
To add to the rice
1 1/2 Cup white vinegar
2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
dash MSG (optional)

Place rice in rice cooker or cook according to directions. Add small amount of extra water to ensure sticker rice.
Boil each sushi ingredient separately in shallow water until soft (the shitake mushrooms can be cooked ahead of time as they can take up to two hours to soften) and most of the water is evaporated. Add soy sauce to barely cover ingredients and sprinkle with sugar to thinly coat ingredients. Continue to boil lightly, until ingredient is fully cooked and the liquids are almost all evaporated. Set aside to cool.
After rice has cooked, let cool at room temperature (or for faster cooling, place in refrigerator). Mix vinegar, salt, MSG and sugar in separate bowl and add to rice when almost completely cooled.
Lay nori paper on bamboo roller. Keeping a bowl of water handy, coat hands with water and place cooled rice on paper. Press down to cover 3/4 of the paper with rice, leaving the top and bottom edges clear of rice. Place any four or five ingredients (EXCEPT fried tofu) across the middle of the paper. Wet top of paper, and using bamboo roller, roll the paper filled with ingredients into a long roll. Slice with very sharp, wet knife into round slices.

Chicken Relleno
Serves 10-12

1 large chicken (1 1/2 – 2 kilos)
3 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons lemon (1/2 lemon)
1/2 kilo ground pork or ground chicken
1/4 kilo cooked ham, chopped fine
4 pieces Vienna sausage
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
3 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
10 green olives, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1 – 2 tablespoons catsup
salt and pepper
2 eggs – hard boiled and peeled

Debone whole chicken, except for leg and wing bones (you can choose to debone the legs and wings as well, but the chicken is harder to work with and may require more stuffing to fill legs and wings as well). Be careful not to rip the skin. Marinate deboned whole chicken in soy sauce and lemon for at least one hour and up to overnight.

Combine next ten ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Stuff stuffing into chicken and arrange the two hard boiled eggs length wise in the middle of the stuffed chicken cavity. Sew the ends of the chicken and the places where the skin has ripped with floss, keeping both ends of the floss long (this makes removing the floss easy as you can pull it from either end). Place on roasting pan with bottom portion of the pan filled with water. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

When the Relleno is almost done, remove the foil and baste with butter. Continue baking until skin is brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and let cool about 10-15 minutes. Slice lengthwise and arrange on plate in slices. Serve with gravy (made from roasting pan drippings)

Tamales de Arroz

For the rice base:
5 cups white rice – not washed
2 - 5.6 oz cans coconut milk
8 Cups of water

For the sofrito:
1 bunch green onions
2 medium white onions
oil
2 14.5 oz cans of tomato – diced
one with chile
1/4 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste

For the components:
1 lb pork – sliced into thick pieces
1 lb chicken – sliced into thick pieces
oil
10-12 eggs – hard boiled
10-12 red potatoes – boiled
1 package banana leaves

Cook rice in coconut milk and water until you see the rice float to the top of the water. Then cover and cook until soft al dente - a total of about 20 minutes. Don’t worry about getting the rice “perfectly” cooked – there is room for error because you can adjust the cooking time of the tamales when you steam them later.

Sauté the two kinds of onions in a small amount of oil until transparent. Add both cans of tomatoes, the cumin, salt and pepper. Saute for five more minutes. Remove from heat and set aside 1 1/2 cups of the sufrito.

Cook meat in oil until browned. Boil and peel eggs. Boil potatoes and dice into large pieces. Wash banana leaves and cut into about 1 foot square pieces.

In a food processor, combine small amounts of rice and the remaining sufrito (aside from the 1 1/2 cups). Place about 1/2-3/4 cup of the rice mixture in the middle of a banana leaf and press it out to form a 3-4 inch wide, 1/2 inch thick square. Lightly press the other “components” in the rice mixture (pork, chicken, egg and potato). Spoon a little of the 1-1/2 cup of sofrito on top and fold banana leaf over, creating a small package.

Carefully place tamales in a large stock pot with a steamer at the bottom. Fill about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way full with water and steam tamales for 1 to 1-1/2 hours (depending on the number of tamales).

Serve hot with salsa (see recipe below)

Salsa
Make salsa no more than 3 hours before serving. Use as little metal as possible while putting together the salsa – ie. tear the cilantro leaves instead of using a knife.

1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 to 1-1/2 (depending on how hot you would like the salsa) jalapenos – diced as small as possible
1/2 large red onion – diced small
juice of two limes or 1-1/2 lemons
1 can diced tomato (canned works better than fresh!)

Pour a little tomato juice from the canned tomatoes into a bowl. Place all other ingredients in, mix. Pour in the rest of the tomatoes and juice from the can. Serve with tamales

Tahmina’s Beef Curry

Ghee (clarified butter) and oil for frying
1 onion – pureed

1 bay leaf (large)
1 large cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon freshly crushed nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly crushed Alachi cardamom (shelled)
1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon turmeric

2 tablespoon red pepper mix – preferred heat level
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoon pureed fresh garlic and fresh ginger mix (equal parts)
3/4 tablespoon Rogan Josh spice (hot spice mix – use less or none if desire mild curry)
1 tablespoon fried garlic (found at Asian stores)
1/8 c water

2 pounds cross-cut beef ribs (short-ribs), bones-in
1-2 large potatoes, diced in large squares
1/4 cup water

Lightly sauté pureed onion in ghee (or a mixture of oil and ghee). Add next six ingredients and sauté until turmeric turns a slightly darker color. Add the following seven ingredients and sauté until you can smell the garlic. Add the beef and cook on medium low heat about 30 minutes or until the liquid from the beef makes the sauce quite thin. Cook 15-20 minutes longer, until the sauce begins to again thicken. Add last 1/4 cup of water and potatoes and simmer until sauce becomes thick and the potatoes are cooked. Serve over rice.

Pondu
3 lbs cassava leaves – can buy frozen at Asian markets in 1/2 lb bags
1/2 large eggplant – diced
1 large onion – diced
4 cups water

2 medium sized talapia

1 cup red palm oil

Cooked rice for 6

Boil cassava, eggplant and onion in water for about an hour. In a separate pot, boil talapia in shallow water. Remove when cooked (about 15 minutes) and cool. De-bone and de-skin fish. After cassava mixture has cooked a 1/2 hour, carefully stir in fish pieces, taking care not to break up all fish (try to keep pieces together). Cook another 1/2 hour and add 1 cup red palm oil. Keep boiling about 15-20 minutes more, or until stew has thickened.