Food Lust People Love

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Za’atar Chickpea Crackers

These crunchy za’atar chickpea crackers are the perfect little scoops for hummus and dip. They are naturally gluten free too!

Living in the Middle East, first in Abu Dhabi then, almost 25 years later, in Dubai, I fell in love with za’atar. The word means thyme in Arabic and refers both to the plant native to the region and the spice mixture that is made with it.

Any Middle Eastern cook will tell you that their family makes the best za’atar, as they all have their own recipe. Along with thyme, most contain toasted sesame seeds, sumac and sometimes coriander and cumin.

I do have one caveat. Make sure your za’atar is fresh. As with most dried herbs, the spice mix loses its flavor when it gets old and sometimes the sesame seeds will turn rancid. It's best to buy it in small batches and replace at least every three months.

Zaatar Chickpea Crackers

Watch these guys like a hawk when they are in the oven. My parchment paper flipped up in the front so I didn’t notice that the ones closest to me were burning! Ugh.

Ingredients

1 cup or 95g chickpea/besan/garbanzo flour, plus a little extra for kneading

1 tablespoon za’atar

1 teaspoon black sesame seeds

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon ghee, melted and cooled

3-4 tablespoons water

Method

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Add in the melted ghee and then slowly add the water a tablespoon at a time until you can form a soft dough. I used my Danish whisk.

Turn the dough out onto a clean surface lightly sprinkled with chickpea flour.

Sprinkle on a little more flour and knead briefly. Roll the dough into a ball.

Put the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and press down. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is very thin.

Leave the dough to rest while you heat the oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Carefully peel back the top parchment paper. If the dough sticks a little, press the paper back down, rub it gently then try again. Mine really stuck at first, but as I eased it off, rubbing again occasionally, it finally came off fairly clean.

Cut it into squares with a pizza cutter.

Carefully pull the parchment paper with the crackers onto a baking sheet.

Bake them in the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until they are golden and crispy. As I mentioned above, keep a close eye on them! Remove from the oven and use the pressure of the pizza cutter to separate them into crackers. Ugh, burned ones in the back!

Serve with hummus or your favorite dip!

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes for crackers or recipes that use crackers. Many thanks to our host Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories. Check out the links below.

Sourdough Discard Crackers from Karen's Kitchen Stories
Keto Cheese and Chive Crackers from Cook with Renu
Easy Inside Out Chicken Cordon Bleu from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Homemade Everything Seasoned Crackers from Amy's Cooking Adventures
Homemade Goldfish Crackers from Culinary Cam
Parle Cheesling Bhel from Mayuri's Jikoni
Whole Wheat Crackers from Sneha's Recipe
Za'atar Chickpea Crackers from Food Lust People Love

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Sunday, October 13, 2024

Pollo en Jocón - Tomatillo Chicken Stew

Pollo en Jocón is a traditional chicken dish from Guatemala, with a flavorful bright green sauce made from tomatillos, cilantro, green pepper and jalapeños. It is properly served over white rice topped with fresh avocado slices.

Food Lust People Love: Pollo en Jocón is a traditional chicken dish from Guatemala, with a flavorful bright green sauce made from tomatillos, cilantro, bell pepper and jalapeños. It is properly served over white rice topped with fresh avocado slices.

I know what you are thinking, or at least I know what I was thinking when I first saw the name of this delicious stew from the Mayan culture. Pollo means chicken so jocón must be their word for tomatillo. Nope.

According to New York Times Cooking, the name jocón comes from jok’, meaning to grind or mash in Mayan K’iche’. Although the dish’s origins are indeed Mayan, some of its ingredients today, like sesame seeds and chicken, were likely introduced by Spanish colonizers.

Pollo en Jocón - Tomatillo Chicken Stew

Depending on how spicy you like your food, the jalapeños can be eliminated altogether or you can remove the seeds and membranes before mincing. If you can't find fresh tomatillos, canned are fine.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs or 672g boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 lb or 450g fresh tomatillos, husked

5 cups or 1.2L chicken stock

1⁄4 cup or 35g pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

2 tablespoons or 14g white sesame seeds

2 corn tortillas

1/2 bunch cilantro, washed and roughly chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large garlic cloves

1 large green pepper

1 medium white onion

1-2 fresh jalapeños

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

Place the chicken and tomatillos in a large pot with the chicken stock.

Bring to a gentle boil then cover the pot and simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through.

In a dry non-stick pan over medium toast the pumpkin seeds, moving them constantly for three to five minutes. Add the sesame seeds and continue tossing for 2 more minutes until they are very lightly browned.

Remove from heat immediately so they don’t continue browning.

Put the toasted pumpkin seeds and toasted sesame seeds into a blender (or clean coffee grinder) and pulse for 5 or 10 seconds, until they are ground. (You may need to stir a bit between pulses) Scrape into a small bowl or cup, and set aside.

Peel and chop your garlic and onion. Remove the seeds and ribs from the green pepper and chop it roughly. Chop the jalapeños, if using. (See note above the ingredient list.)

Add the olive oil to a large pan. Sauté the garlic, green pepper, onion and jalapeños, stirring frequently, until the onion and peppers are soft. Remove from heat.

With a slotted spoon remove the chicken from the pot and set aside. Once cool enough to handle, use forks to shred the chicken.

Remove tomatillos from the broth and put them in the blender.

Rip the tortillas into pieces and put them in a small heatproof bowl. Pour about 1 cup or 240ml of the chicken broth from the pot over the tortillas and set them aside to soak till softened.

Pinch any hard stems off of the cilantro and discard them along with any brown leaves.

Add the cilantro, 1 1/2 cups or 360ml of the chicken broth, all of the bell pepper and onion mixture and the soaked tortillas (with their broth) to the tomatillos in the blender.

Purée until smooth. Pour that gorgeous green sauce back into a pan. Use a little more of the stock to rinse the blender to make sure you get all of the sauce into the pan. (You can use the remaining broth to make the rice or save it for another recipe.)

Add the ground toasted seeds to the pan.

Bring the contents of the pan to a boil. Lower to a gentle simmer and cook, uncovered for 10 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Add the shredded chicken to the thickened sauce.

Simmer gently for an additional 10 minutes or until the chicken is warmed through again. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Serve the tomatillo chicken stew over white rice with some cilantro for garnish and a few slices of avocado. This dish is so flavorful and the avocado is the perfect topping to complement its spicy freshness. No wonder it's traditional.

Enjoy!

If you are a fan of tomatillos, you might also enjoy my Chicken Chili Verde made in an Instant Pot with white beans and the special little tomatillos from Melissa’s Produce called tomatillos milperos

It's Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes with avocados. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha's Recipe.

Avocado Chicken by A Day in the Life on the Farm
Green Salad With Avocado Dressing by Mayuri's Jikoni
Keto Bacon Wrapped Avocado Fries by Sneha's Recipe
Papas con Salsa de Aguacate by Culinary Cam
Smooth Guacamole by Amy's Cooking Adventures
Spicy Avocado Coriander Chutney by Cook with Renu
Pollo en Jocón - Tomatillo Chicken Stew by Food Lust People Love

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Tomatillo Chicken Stew!

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Spicy Urad Dal

This spicy urad dal is made with split and skinned black lentils, seasoned with many spices including cumin, ginger, coriander, onion and dried chili peppers.

I was racking my brain to come up with a recipe ingredient that starts with the letter U for this edition of the Alphabet Challenge when all that thinking sparked a memory. Once upon a time I had eaten at an Indian restaurant in Dubai and was served dal makhani. It was a beautiful dark color, rich and flavorful and unlike any dal I had enjoyed before.

My only experience prior had been with dals that were yellow! I offer this recipe as evidence: My Tarka Dal or Curried Lentils.

Of course, when I got home, I did a little google search to discover that dal makhani is made with whole black lentils or urad dal. Further investigation revealed that urad dal can be purchased whole - with the black skins still intact, split – with skins intact but with the inside exposed, and "white" – with skins removed.

Now I had my ingredient name for U, but where to buy some? Had I been back in Houston where Indian supermarkets abound, no problem. But in Jersey, we aren’t so fortunate. Amazon to the rescue again.

I ordered white urad dal as well as some asafoetida which is recommended when cooking legumes of any sort, including lentils, as it is meant to meant to help with digestion and, ahem, gas.

Spicy Urad Dal

Despite the urad dal I bought being skinned and split, every recipe I found assured me that I could not skip the soaking step. So I did not and you shouldn’t either! Soaking the dal not only reduces the cooking time but also makes the dal more easily digestible. Even with soaking, this did not break down to a mush like other lentils. We really liked the texture.

Ingredients

To cook the dal:

1 cup or 220g white urad dal (split and skinned black lentils)

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

Small knob ginger, peeled and grated

For the tempering aka tarka:

3 tablespoons ghee

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

¼ teaspoon asafoetida (also known as hing)

¼ teaspoon kalongi

2-3 dry red chili peppers

½ medium onion, chopped

5-6 curry leaves

1 teaspoon cayenne

To serve:

1 tablespoon lime juice

chopped cilantro

Method

Rinse the dal well with water until it runs almost clear. This takes a few times.

Soak it in 4 cups or 960ml water for 30 minutes.

Drain the water and add the dal to a large pot. Pour in 26 oz or 750ml water. Bring to the boil, and use a slotted spoon to remove the scum that rises to the surface.

Add in the turmeric powder, coriander powder, salt and grated ginger.

Stir to combine and turn the stove to simmer.

Put on the lid, but leave it partially ajar, to prevent the pot from boiling over. Simmer for about 30 minutes, checking it every so often to give it a stir. Add a little more water if necessary so the lentils don’t dry out.

When the lentils are cooked, we make the tarka. Heat the ghee in a small pan over medium-high heat. Once the ghee is hot, add the asafoetida, cumin seeds and kalongi and let them crackle for 4-5 seconds.

Add the dry red chili peppers and chopped onions and cook until the onions turn golden brown, stirring frequently.

Quickly stir in the curry leaves and cayenne.

Immediately add the tarka to the cooked dal.

Stir then add the lime juice.

Garnish the dal with chopped cilantro and serve hot with rice, naan or chapati.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 21th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter U. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the U recipes below: