What's cookin'....right NOW...

[Zehra Rizvi]

Thought it might be fun to take photos of what we might have on the stove just now.  Nothing formal like a blog post etc, but a quick in the moment, here is what is on my stove just now...

 

And here's mine (I take horrible photos with an iPhone compared to the gems I see on here):

 

Super simple lunch as it's a Saturday and I am still in my pajamas and wanted to sit on my computer all afternoon but realized if i didn't eat something, I would regret it in about 30 minutes...plus, I want to get a run in later and if I don't eat now, it's going to through the whole schedule off...(need to go to a wedding...yes, a local wedding). Took out the zucchini (courgettes), yellow bell pepper, mushrooms, a small red chilli, and something called tinda in Urdu (it's the round cut stuff in the photo...looks like courgettes), cut it up and bunged it all in a pot with some salt, pepper, mixed dried herbs, smashed garlic and a slab of butter (I eat butter...real butter...don't judge me--if you look closely at the bad photo you can see the slab of butter). Even though less is more, I have an issue following that so in the end, I put in small dabs of fish sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Gave it a good stir, let it simmer for about five and presto.
ALL DONE.

Tastes awesome. But now I have no excuse to not run. Booo.

[Margaret (Maggie) Janes-Lucas]

HI all, I forgot to take a pic of the yummy mushroom, corn, barley soup I made last night...but here's the recipe--it turned out nicely...enjoy! PS: no shame in REAL butter, so good and so much better than fake sh*t  :-) 

Ingredients

	1 cup(s) water
	1/4 cup(s) uncooked barley
	2 tsp olive oil
	1/2 cup(s) uncooked carrot(s), grated
	1/2 tsp minced garlic
	3 cup(s) fresh mushroom(s), sliced
	5 1/2 cup(s) vegetable broth   (I USED HOMEMADE TURKEY STOCK, WHICH INCLUDED BUTTER AND IT WAS REALLY GOOD AND ADDED A NICE RICHNESS TO THE SOUP)
	3/4 cup(s) instant long grain and wild rice mix   (I DIDN'T HAVE SO PUT EXTRA BARLEY...)
	1 cup(s) frozen corn kernels  (I USED CANNED...OR COULD USE FRESH TOO)
	1/8 oz fresh sage, chopped (use 1 tablespoon)  + ADDED EXTRAS LIKE A LITTLE DILL AND CHILLI MIX I HAVE

Instructions

            In a small saucepan, combine water and barley. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered, for time specified on barley package directions.


            Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat oil; add carrots and garlic and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in mushrooms and cook just until mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes more.


                        Add cooked barley, broth, rice, corn and sage to vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until rice is cooked and mixture is thoroughly heated, about 10 minutes. Yields about 1 cup per serving. I ALSO TOOK ABOUT 1/3rd OF THE SOUP OUT AND BLENDED IT AND MIXED IT BACK IN AND IT MADE IT A LITTLE CREAMY, NICE CONSISTENCY...

[Zehra Rizvi]

Maggie, that sounds DELISH!  I am allll about the soups just now as it's soo cold.

What kind of barley did you use?  I have just gotten into barley (Scottish boyfriend has introduced me to it and I was wanting to try out new grains)...

Thanks for posting.  Going to go check out your fave recipe now!

[Margaret (Maggie) Janes-Lucas]

From my experience here, Russians use barley a lot so the supermarkets here have it, but mostly only crushed barley so that's what i used, i think if I had a choice though i would have used whole barley. but it was still good with crushed! Will take more pics now!!!

[Alanna Shaikh]

What is the difference between crushed and regular? Is the "perlova" the crushed?

[Margaret (Maggie) Janes-Lucas]

regular are the bulbs, crushed looks like a finer meal almost, a little bigger than cream of wheat, in russian this is what is on the bag: ячневая just barley...but you can see it is crushed...hope that helps!

[Zehra Rizvi]

Oh and...you are in Osh...are all these things locally available?  Can you tell people where they can get them from?  Your fave places to shop for groceries etc?

[Margaret (Maggie) Janes-Lucas]

all goods found in Osh, Kyrgyzstan either at the market or supermarket, expect for sage, which I brought back from the US over the holidays...if you don't have sage, just substitute another one of your fave spices, i think rosemary and thyme might work nicely or italian spices with this recipe or the dill "osh spice mix" i found in the market. In Osh I can find everything I need for all of my recipes at the main bazaar or market, Osh Supermarket or City Market both in Aravanski or at Frunze Bazaar ... I mostly make food here from whatever I can find in Osh. I canned A LOT of tomatoes, apples and peaches in the fall, so I can use those throughout the winter when they are not available in the market. Sadly, we don't have nice tropical fruit in Osh :-( and I don't usually cook with a lot of meat, but we can get chicken, turkey, beef and lamb very easily here. We usually just eat meat when we go out to a resto or for street food. We can actually get some cheese as well given the Russian and Turkish influences here and their reliance on dairy products (milk, yogurt, Kefir...)

Things I use but brought from US: taco seasoning, sage, thyme, rosemary everything else I can pretty much find in Osh...

[Alanna Shaikh]

Danielle told me you can get sage at the apteka because they use it for tea.

[Margaret (Maggie) Janes-Lucas]

really?! sweet!!!! I'm going to check that out...

[Alanna Shaikh]

Right now I am baking, in preparation for a cookie-based open house we're having on the 5th. I just made these brownies: http://www.pennilessparenting.com/2010/08/perfect-brownies-recipe.html - I cook a lot of the recipes from this blog because they are truly from scratch, so it's all ingredients I can get locally. The brownie recipe is very good, and it uses cocoa, not baking chocolate. I scattered M&Ms on top to make it extra festive but they kind of sank.

[Zehra Rizvi]

awesome....photo forthcoming? :)  And thanks for introducing me to the site...I saw it from your alcohol post first...I am about to collect everyone's fave cooking blogs on a discussion list...(or you can start the list if you fancy it?) xx

[Margaret (Maggie) Janes-Lucas]

Here is what was cookin' yesterday with my neighbor--I made a huge Thanksgiving meal in honor of American Thanksgiving Day back in Nov and she's been asking me to teach her make the same ever since. So, we decided, why not Thanksgiving in Osh in Jan? We did Turkey (seasoned with sage, rosemary, thyme and of course with butter, onions, garlic and carrots), stuffing (turkey liver, white and black bread, same seasoning as turkey, walnuts and raisins, apples and of course, butter and turkey stock), mashed potatoes and turkey gravy (whole milk, flour, turkey drippings and dark skin, spices...).

Here are a few photos--sorry my camera isn't great, so I don't think it looks as good as it tasted!