Lebanese-Inspired Brown Rice Pilaf with Lamb, Vermicelli, and Green Beans

This is a really colorful, fragrant, and delicious rice dish. In the recipe I used lamb, but it could just as well be made with beef or chicken (or vegetarian). The only difference(s) from the recipe pictured and the one listed below is that I also added a pinch of turmeric to the rice with the other spices, and a handful of green beans a few minutes before it was finished cooking. I hope you try this; it is really easy to make and super-delicious. For additional Lebanese/Middle Eastern inspired recipes, click here.

 

Lebanese Lamb-and-Rice

Makes 4-6 servings

3 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound lamb, diced

4 ounces diced onion

2 ounces vermicelli, broken into pieces

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 cups long grain brown rice

3-4 cups hot chicken broth

2 tablespoons minced parsley


Heat the olive oil over high heat in a heavy-bottomed pan. Sauté the lamb then remove it from the pan and set aside. Add the onion and vermicelli to the pan and cook until golden, then add the garlic and cook another minute or two. Add the cinnamon, cumin, allspice, and salt; sauté two minutes while stirring. Add the onions and pasta back to the pan along with the rice, stirring to fully coat it with with the oil and spices. Then add the lamb back to the pan along with the broth. Cover the pot with a lid. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 35 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Remove the pot from the stove and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with minced parsley.


Urban Simplicity.

Five Quotes from Rosa Parks

Photo found here.
(February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) 

Click here for the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. 
“I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.”

 “I had given up my seat before, but this day, I was especially tired. Tired from my work as a seamstress, and tired from the ache in my heart.”

“All I was doing was trying to get home from work.”

“Each person must live their life as a model for others.”

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”

 More Five Quotes.

Urban Simplicity.

Things That Can be Carried on a Bike (#447)…and a quick note.

On the bike…10 pounds of dog food, a camera bag with an extra camera and charger, 3 pounds of diced lamb meat, a bottle of fish oil (pills), and a canvas book bag containing a book, a pocket-sized Bible, and a journal.

I also wanted to mention that I will be away from my computer for a few days and likely will not have the chance to post until this coming Monday or Tuesday. Thanks, as always, for visiting and commenting. Until then, peace.

Urban Simplicity.

Parmesan and Black Pepper Grissini


Pencil-thin breadsticks…grissini. Beautiful, aren’t they? Easy to make, too. These are coated with Parmesan and black pepper making them even more tasty. But you may be wondering why I am making bread with refined flour (opposed to whole wheat). Well, I do now and again. But the real reason is that I just received this book to review for ChefTalk and this is the first recipe I’ve tried. It is a really good book; I recommend it at this point…I’ll post a link to the review when finished. Anyhow, this recipe is about as easy as they come. Simply place most of the ingredients together in a bowl, knead it, allow it to ferment, cut it into strips, roll it in cheese, and bake them. Now all the recipes in the book are not this easy (in fact most are not), but this is an adaptation of the one in the book (of course I’ll eventually make these with 100% whole wheat). I do hope you try these; they are simple to make and additively delicious.

Parmesan and Black Pepper Grissini

Makes about 5-6 dozen

4 1/3 cups bread flour

1 1/3 cups water

5 tablespoons olive oil

3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast

1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus extra for dusting

black pepper for dusting


Combine the flour, water, olive oil, butter, salt, yeast, and 1/3 cup of Parmesan in the bowl of an upright mixer fitted with a dough hook. Knead the dough on medium for about 8 minutes, then cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to rise for about an hour. Preheat an oven to 375F. Roll the dough into a thin oblong shape and cut it into thin strips. Dust the work surface with a small amount of Parmesan and black pepper; roll the strips of raw dough the cheese and pepper. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled baking sheet; place them close but not touching. Bake the grissini for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Urban Simplicity.

Death By Advertising

This interesting but short video was made in collaboration with junkthought.org and Micah M. White (from Adbusters). I find it interesting and it does make sense to me, but at the same time I find it somewhat ironic that it seems to be a sort of anti-advertisement (or a hidden advertisement) for their websites. But anyhow, I do agree with what it says. And yes, I feel that I do pollute myself (or allow myself to be polluted) by overt and subversive advertisement and also just everyday “mind junk” (which, I think, is the equivalent of junk food we eat). I also believe that there is great power in what we think and we, in fact, become what we think. And if this is true, then mind junk cannot be good. To read the book they cite by Émile Zola, click here. I hope you watch this short film.

Urban Simplicity.

Five Quotes from Mahatma Gandhi

 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.“

“Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.“

“A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes.“

“Poverty is the worst form of violence.“

Okay…five more…

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.“

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.“

“There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.“

“To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.”

“We must become the change we want to see in the world.”

More Five Quotes. 

Urban Simplicity. 

No Tricks or Fancy Riding Without Permission…

 Image found at The Buffalo History Gazette.

What, you may wonder, do these two photos have in common? Well, they are both taken in the city in which I live and during the same time period (around 1890), when the main mode of transport was horse (and carriage), your own two feet, or a bicycle (which were somewhat new at the time). They were also being monitored by the “Blue Coats” (cops on horses) to make sure they weren’t going too fast or doing any “fancy tricks.” According to The Buffalo History Gazette, the cops held stop watches and made sure the cyclists didn’t go faster than 10mph/16kph. They were also not allowed to “coast” or ride without both hands on the handlebars. It’s interesting, as strict  as this is, I really wouldn’t mind it if there were more enforcement on cyclists these days…every time I see a bicyclist blow through a red light or ride on the wrong side of the street against traffic I wonder how we are supposed to be taken seriously if we don’t act the part. Many people don’t realize but the original traffic laws (rules of the road) that exist today were first intended for cyclists and predated the auto. I’m just sayin’…

Anyhow, to read this full story, visit The Buffalo History Gazette.

Things That Can be Carried on a Bike (#446)

A book bag stuffed full of books, a camera bag containing two cameras, a classical guitar (my son’s), a laptop computer, and a camera tripod.

Urban Simplicity.

Things I Saw While Riding My Bike Today…

One of my favorite things to do is ride around the city at night or during dusk and take photos; if I was an early bird–which I am not–I’m sure I would enjoy the dawn as well. Sometimes I really do question whether I am this guy reincarnated (but I’m getting off topic as I often do). Anyhow, tonight I did just that…rode around and took a few photos. I was inspired to do this because tonight is a full moon (wolf moon) but I couldn’t seem to get a good shot of it. Despite some of the warm colors in a few of these photos it was still cold tonight (20f/-7c), so besides my shivering hands and a shaking tripod I was unable to get a good shot at the moon. But I did get a bunch others, and here’s a few. The photo above I took earlier in the evening (around 6pm) with my trusty little point-and-shoot camera. It’s a view of Buffalo’s West Side looking west over Lake Erie at dusk. The images below I used another point-and-shoot camera–albeit a slightly better one–plus a DSLR. The first image below is our majestic City Hall. The next photo is of Prospect Park. And lastly, is a zoomed in view of Lady Liberty 23 stories up and on top of the Liberty Building. Click any image for a slightly larger view.

Urban Simplicity.

Two Plus Pi…

I bake bread about once a week, sometimes more frequently. And most often it is made with whole wheat flour. Sometimes the bread making coincides with dinner time, as it did tonight. So after the first rise I will sometimes pinch a piece of the dough off and make a small pizza for dinner as well…hence the two (loaves) plus pi (pizza pie). And often I will quite literally put whatever I happen to have in the fridge on the pizza. If you really think about it, what is pizza? It’s nothing more than flat-bread with stuff on it. Tonight, for example, I found small container of cooked spinach, and a half head of both broccoli and cauliflower. So I cooked everything aglio e olio (seasoned with plenty of aglio and hot peppers), topped topped it with cheese and baked it. I ate it with a small salad while I baked the two loaves of bread. It was one of the most flavorful pizzas I’ve had in quite a while. Sometimes it’s the simplest concoctions that turn out the best. To make this pizza crust use any of the whole wheat bread recipes found here. And to see how to cook virtually anything aglio e olio, see these links. And in the meantime…make some dough and put some stuff on it…

Urban Simplicity.

Winter Riding Tip…

Okay. So if you are an all-weather cyclist you likely already know this. I do have a tendency to state the obvious (or at least the known), and for that I apologize in advance. But I read somewhere years ago, and it’s something that I found out really works, is that if you lower the pressure on your tires (ever so slightly) you will get better traction in the snow. The theory behind this is that more tire will be touching the ground (or snow). You don’t want to deflate them so much that it is difficult to ride or dangerous…just a bit that it’s barely noticeable (air, I’ve also read, naturally compresses when it’s cold, thus the tires lose a little pressure on their own when the temps drop). Anyhow, I just thought I’d pass this on. I’d also be interested in hearing if other winter cyclists have tried this or have other tips.

Urban Simplicity.

Things That can be Carried on a Bike (#445), and the view from my handlebars…

On the bike…a gym bag full of wet clothes and a case of red wine (I get thirsty with all the exercise and biking).

Despite the warm colors in the photo below, like much of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada we are still in the grip of a cold-snap. It was/is cold today. As I type these words the Internet tells me it is still only 10f/-12c. As long as I stay warm I don’t mind it; it feels refreshing. I keep a scarf across my mouth, and layer clothing. But I do need a better pair of gloves. My fingers are okay until I remove the gloves to take a photo (doesn’t take long for an extremity to get cold in these temps) and then they don’t recover until I get inside.

But I also realize there are much worse problems to have in life…I have way more than I need (or deserve).

Urban Simplicity.

The View from My Really, Really Cold Handlebars…and a few words

It.
Was.
Cold.
Today….really cold.

Yup. That’s a screen shot from my computer as I was getting ready for my (thankfully) very short commute to work this morning. 5f = -15c. How cold was it, you may wonder. Well, the only part of my body exposed was the area around my eyes (my pugs recently chewed my goggles, which I would wear in extreme conditions). Because of the cold my eyes were watering. And as I blinked my lashes were actually freezing together. I never had that happen before. The below image was taken this evening on my way back from the community center. The streets seemed empty even though the temps made it up to 12f/-11c.


Urban Simplicity.

Broccoli Falafel with Taratoor (Yum!)

Falafel is of course that awesome and healthy snack food that can become an entire meal when served over a salad or wrapped in flat-bread. And when paired with taratoor (tahini-garlic sauce) it is nothing short of culinary genius (in my humble opinion). This is a variation on the classic chickpea falafel in that it also has an equal quantity cooked broccoli. This really is delicious…and of course easy to prepare. Basically, you simply put everything together, grind it in a food processor, shape it into balls or patties, and pan-fry it. Anyhow, the recipes for both the falafel and taratoor are below.

Broccoli Falafel

Makes about two dozen falafel


2 cups cooked or canned chick peas, rinsed and drained

2 cups cooked broccoli, squeezed of excess moisture

1 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 jalapeno, minced

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

½ cup whole wheat flour (more as needed)

sesame seeds for garnish

oil for frying


Combine everything except the flour in a food processor and process until relatively smooth. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the flour by hand. Allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes; if it feels too moist add more flour. Shape into small balls, then flatten them slightly while pressing them into sesame seeds. Preheat a skillet with about ½ inch of vegetable oil and fry the falafel about two minutes on each side, or until crispy and golden on the outside and cooked throughout. Remove the falafel from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent paper.



Taratoor

(Tahini-Garlic Sauce)

Makes about 1 cup.


1 cup tahini

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

¾ cup cold water

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon sea


Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. If too thick or too thin, adjust the consistency with water or tahini.

Urban Simplicity.

Weird and Wonderful…For Real

Okay….by now–if you’ve visited this blog prior–you know that I type away at my keyboard in Buffalo, NY. And while I love to travel and post recipes and pictures from elsewhere, this is my home; and for most of my life it has been. But at the same time, while much of what I write here (and many of the photos) can be considered subversively “pro-Buffalo,” I don’t ever recall posting anything–such as this video–that is so overtly Buffalo-centric. I’m proud of my city; I always have been. And this video is a good short clip of what it’s all about. While Buffalo in the 70’s and 80’s went through some hard times (indeed, we are still considered part of the Rust Belt) there is so much culture and history here, and a new resurgence happening. Yes we are known for our sometimes harsh winters (especially the Blizzard of 77 and lake effect snow storms) but as I type these words there is a scant amount of snow on the ground. That said, it is also only 7F/-14C outside right now (and yes I rode my bike in it). We are also known for Buffalo Chicken Wings (I’ll give you a hint…in Buffalo they are referred to simply as wings), but there is so much more. I am a chef who has spent the better part of the last three decades working in white tablecloth restaurants in this city–it’s all I’ve ever done–and the new breed of local chefs rank among the best in the country. I could go on and on about the arts, architecture, and other culture (and I have, sort of ), but I’ll stop here. If you are an ex-pat from the Queen City (and you number many) this short video will likely make you homesick. If you’ve never been here and would like to see just a brief snippet of the city in which I live, this is a good representation. Buffalo, NY…the City of Good Neighbors.

Urban Simplicity.

Playing with Light…Two Views from My Handlebars

So first of all I have to say it was cold today…really cold. The high temp was 18F/-8C. Tonight it is supposed to dip into the single digits (F). Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the brisk riding conditions. Mind you, I wouldn’t want it like this all the time (though in the dog days of summer I’ll be pining for a day like this), but tonight it felt good…fresh. There wasn’t much snow and what is there was newly fallen so traction was pretty good. Anyhow, if you’ve been to this blog before you’ve likely seen one of the above images, or at least a variation of them…it’s the corner of Allen and Elmwood here in Buffalo. I pass this intersection multiple times a day. And the two photos are separated by 90 minutes. They were both taken while I straddled my bike in pretty much the same location, but the top one was shot at 5pm while the bottom one was taken at 6:30pm. Same camera; same settings; different times. Sort of interesting, I thought. Interesting enough to share. Click it for a larger view.

Urban Simplicity.

Two Short Videos Honoring Two Great Men…

I find both of these videos really moving. The one below shows Nina Simone singing a song (which she and the band had just learned) honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, jr just three days after his assassination.  

And the very short clip above shows the humility of our president…a man who holds one of the most powerful positions in the world yet is still moved by the people who elected him to be there. As he walked up the steps into the capitol building–just after his inaugural speech–he turned and paused…he wanted to see the people who were there to support him. As his vice president and other members of the congress walked past him he can be heard saying, “wait, I want to take a look…I’m not going to see this again.”

Why? (The King of Love is Dead) from Nina Simone on Vimeo.

Urban Simplicity.