Cilantro Lime Chicken Burgers

As many of you around the DC metro area know, we just had an amazingly warm weekend. It was a sneak in to summer, which I hope is just around the corner :) With summer weather comes more outdoor activity and one great outdoor activity is of course BBQ'ing. Last night I made a spur of the moment plan to BBQ and had a couple friends over to enjoy the very pleasant evening with us. With no advance preparation and limited groceries, we did a pretty decent job. On the menu, among many things, was Cilantro Lime Chicken Burgers.

If any of you shop at Trader Joe's, you may have come across their frozen Cilantro lime chicken patty's. That is where I got the inspiration for my version of chicken burgers. Here is the recipe and below I will list out some great toppings you can add!

1lb ground chicken
2 to 3tbsp lime juice
1tsp crushed garlic or 1tbsp garlic powder
1tsp salt (or to taste)
soy sauce (you can add this instead of salt)
~ 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1tbsp parsley flakes (optional)
1tsp cumin powder (optional)

Mix all of the ingredients and keep covered in a bowl until ready to use. If longer than 30 min till cooking time, meat can be kept in the fridge until ready to use. Form in to patty's and cook on either indoor or outdoor grill about 7 to 10min on each side. Ground chicken cooks faster than beef and will dry out so be careful not to over cook.

You can add cheese to this if you like and it tastes great with a little garlic mayo or regular mayo on the bun. You can also add sliced avocado, lettuce or tomato. The topping possibilities are endless, so be creative and happy eating!

Easy Haleem

Not too long ago in one of my blogs, I mentioned making Haleem over inauguration weekend. A friend later asked me for my recipe/method and since I was writing it out for her, I figured I'd share with all of you as well! To make life simpler (and not have to buy 10 different types of grains) I buy the Shan Haleem mix, available at most Indian/Pakistani grocers. Make sure you buy the regular or Shahi Haleem Mix and not the Easy Haleem Mix (unless you prefer to have very slimy consistency). Also, the National Brand isn't so tasty... they don't have the right spices nor the right grains. In addition to the pulses in the box, I add a few grains which we usually have at home. It is up to you if you want to add all or some of these to your Haleem.

1 box Shan Haleem mix (packet of grains etc soaked for 1 hour)
1/2 cup channa daal (soaked for at least 2 hours)
1/2 cup brown basmati or long grain rice (soaked for 30 min to 1 hour)
1/4 cup oats (normal - not quick cook) or barley
1/4 Bulgar or cracked wheat (optional)
1lb beef (shank, without bone)
1lb beef with bone
ginger paste (about 1tbsp)
garlic paste (about 1.5 tbsp)
salt

Make sure you soak everything that needs to be soaked well in advance so when it comes time to make your Haleem, all you do is add everything step by step. Heat some oil in a large stock pot or big dutch oven and add the washed meat, ginger and garlic paste. Saute until the meat is no longer bright red, then add 1/2 to 3/4 packet of the spice mix (depending on how spicy you want it)... I never add the whole packet because it's just too much. If you want, you can also add even less of the spice packet but put some fresh garam masala and cayenne pepper (laal mirch) on your own to add spice/flavor. Mix and saute for a few minutes on medium heat.

Now add all of your grains/pulses, 1tbsp salt and about 8 to 10 cups of water (do not use the water in which your grains were soaking). Stir, cover and turn heat up to high. Check occasionally and when the water/haleem starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium or medium high...depending on electric or gas respectively. Let the mix cook for a few hours, stirring on and off (maybe every 30 to 40 min). As the haleem is cooking, you will see the meat starting to fall off the bone (maybe after 2.5 to 3 hours). At that point turn your heat down to medium low or low. After another hour or so, you can turn off the heat and remove (pull out) all the pieces that have/had bone (making sure to remove all bone from the pot). You want to pull the meat off the bone and keep aside. You can also take out some more of the bone-less meat if you want your haleem more chunky (that's how I like it).

Then take a hand blender or a large masher and grind/mash the haleem. You want it to be a thick soupy consistency but not too watery. If it is too thick, you can add more water or if it is too watery, put it back on the heat to thicken. Add the rest of the meat back to your haleem and mix well. Break down any large pieces of meat with your spoon, turn the heat back on to medium and cook while on the side you brown some onion (one small to medium onion sliced fine) in about 3/4 cup of oil. You will want to add the browned onion with oil to the haleem as bhagaar/thurka. Before adding the onion, taste to make sure you have enough salt.

When browning the onion, you can cut and brown some extra to keep on the side as one of the garnishes. Additional garnishes, which are kept to the side, are chopped cilantro; finely chopped green chillies; fine sliced (julienned) ginger; lemon or lime and chaat masala.

Easy Guacamole

Sitting around this evening, waiting for the chicken to thaw out, I started to feel really hungry. It snowed here for the first time this winter, hence I felt like having something warm and yummy... Nachos, cream cheese puffs, crab rangoon, hot and sour soup...you get the idea! Anyway, long story short there was nothing in the fridge or pantry to fill any of the above cravings. What I did have was a bag of corn chips, avocados and tomatoes. Perfect!

Depending on who you talk to, people have a variety of beliefs what guacamole should and shouldn't have, develop your own recipe. You're going to eat it so enjoy it how you like it... just follow these basics.

Avocado mashed or crushed
Tomato, diced small (optional)
Onion, diced small (optional)
Lime juice (fresh or bottle)
Garlic Salt (you can also use garlic powder + salt separately)
Sour Cream (if your avocado isn't completely ripe)

Simply crush or mash the avocado, add the garlic, lime juice, and sour cream if needed. Mix well then gently fold in the onions and tomato. Serve immediately with chips or bread, otherwise refrigerate until ready to eat. I used sour cream to help with the consistency since the avocado I had wasn't quite ripe. Also, I don't like onion so I don't add it. Some people feel that guacamole should be only the avocado itself, nothing else. In that case just add the lime juice and salt... you can also use garlic but thats up to you.

Hope you enjoy this healthy snack as much as I did!

Cooking - Is there a hype?

This past weekend was a little crazy, for DC as well as our home. It was Inauguration 2009 and we had a number of guests in town, some staying with us and some with other friends. We decided to have a dinner on Sunday at our house, to get everyone in the same place with out dealing with the madness of downtown DC. I decided to make a traditional Pakistani winter favorite called Haleem. It is like a heavy soup made from a variety of lentils and grains, plus beef and spices. Traditionally this dish was considered very special, kind of like turkey or ham on Christmas day, due to the fact that it takes a long time to make. Aside from the cleaning and soaking of the pulses, you cook the ingredients for a number of hours until the meat is so tender, it melts just by touch.

When our guests were eating dinner, most commented on how great it was for me to get everyone together and how I really went out of my way to make this meal. They were impressed that I would take on such a task and made additional dishes as well. Yes, it was a lot of people and I made more than just Haleem; but to be honest, it wasn't as complicated as everyone made it seem. Granted most of the people over that day don't usually cook and I'm positive few had ever made Haleem. Had they ever attempted, they would've learned that things are very different today than they were a generation ago. Cooking today is by no means as complicated and time consuming as yesteryear.

More often than not we find that our produce and meat is already clean, cut, trimmed, cubed, diced, de-stemmed, peeled, packaged, etc. before we bring it home. You also find a number of instruments or gadgets in a modern kitchen which make dicing, mashing, pureeing and grating a breeze. I think back to not long ago when I first moved to Pakistan, how the produce had to be cleaned before refrigerating. The stems, leaves, roots with dirt would still be intact for most vegetables. I also remember my aunt using a stone slab to grind spices and grains for a variety of dishes. There was no such thing as ginger paste or garlic paste in a bottle, you made it all yourself from fresh garlic and ginger root...on a stone slab (no blenders or grinders). In short, things that seemed to be a delicacy or special treat are not so much a feat anymore. With Haleem for example, one no longer needs to clean or peel husk off the pulses (lentils and grains), you don't need to cut the fat off the meat since your butcher will do that for you, packages with all the pulses pre-measured for you can be found in most Asian/Indian stores, either a spice mix or your own ingredients can be used to make Haleem without having to grind or crush the seeds or spices. With modern day technology cooking time for this dish go from 8 hours to about 4 or 5 hours. The prep time which would've taken my grandmother half a day, took me only about an hour...and this was the time in which I soaked the grains and lentils so they would cook softer.

With modern conveniences, anyone can cook almost anything. So why then is there such a hype around cooking? Granted there is always the art and science behind cooking. There are those naturally gifted individuals who, as they would say in Urdu, have "flavor in their hands" (haanth mein maaza hai). And those gourmands who have a knack of picking up on ingredients or flavors from a single bite of food. But beyond those people, today it is possible for anyone to follow instructions on a box and make a great meal. There are a million books, blogs, guides, schools and self proclaimed teachers to tell you how to make almost anything. Be it from a box or from scratch, anyone can do it...at least once! Why make it more difficult than it has to be when all the prep work is already being done for you. I challenge you to try something difficult, something that your mother or grandmother may have spent a whole day making. Look for short cuts and alternatives to their recipe and then share with us how it turned out.

Tis the Season

It’s been a while since I last posted and I apologize. With the holidays in full swing, I was a little distracted with family, friends and concocting up some fun recipes. I have a few notes jotted here and there, so I’ll probably be posting a couple things in the next day or two. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, kept warm in places where the temperatures dropped (like Cleveland) and had a hearty meal that will tide you over till next year! Now, I say this partly because I’m about to tickle your taste buds and share with you what we had this Thanksgiving. With a family as large as mine, you have all kinds of tastes and likes/dislikes; a number of food allergies and a variety of age groups present at all times. How do you please everyone and keep every person safe and happy?

First of all, my mother decided it was time the kids took over so she left her kitchen AND the arrangements all to us. The tasks were split between my one sister, my sister-in-law, myself (which included my husband) and my father- who decided he really wanted to have fried turkey but had to make it himself! Pause- as a side note I should mention before continuing, that my father is actually a great chef and has his own catering business in Cleveland, OH.

Moving on…

Each person decided what they were going to make and slotted a time for kitchen/oven use the day or two prior to Turkey day, since that would be my day (making the 2nd turkey and all). We had to compose this menu keeping in mind that my brother is allergic to nuts and shellfish; my cousin had a 10 month old that wanted to eat everything mommy touched; my mother and I are not fond of very sweet things and hate mixing sweet and savory together; there were a number of youth who choose meat over veggies ALWAYS, my father who can not eat much spice as opposed to my sister-in-law who must douse her meals in vats of tobassco and then of course the certain few with their cholesterol and blood pressure restrictions. All of this somehow led us to the following spread:

Butternut Squash Soup
Corn Soufflé
Cornbread
Green Bean casserole
Yam casserole (candied) one version with pecans and one without
Cranberry-Apple Sauce
Mixed Vegetable Stuffing
Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Fried Turkey
Baked (Roast) Turkey
Plain Turkey gravy
Turkey/Mushroom gravy
Pumpkin cookies/muffins
Snicker Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pineapple/Cherry Tart

So with all these choices, we managed to please everyone and raised the bar for all the new additions to the family in the past year (my husband, my sisters’ husband and all the babies!).