silk road spices, cozy dinner

Hello friends! A post tonight in the photo-documentary style of Arudhi of the amazing A Box of Kitchen blog, to share an intuitive approach to a satisfying autumn meal. This is my (mutable and adaptable) version of a simple ground meat and black bean dish, given a Silk Road twist with the addition of fresh ginger and rich spices like turmeric, Aleppo pepper, coriander and cinnamon-laced Vietnamese curry powder.

Jamison prepped the onion and garlic (one large white onion, about five plump garlic cloves):

With the addition of a half inch of fresh sliced ginger, I sauteed the onion and garlic in olive oil with a couple of thin slices of butter (which keeps everything mellow and friendly in the pan...)

As the onions turned tender and golden, in went salt, turmeric, a pinch of Vietnamese curry powder, grindings of black pepper (big fan of Trader Joe's mixed peppercorn blend), fragrant cardamom, sweet coriander (a magic scent!) and a few pinches of Aleppo pepper. How much, you ask? Hard to say, I used intuition, a felt sense of what worked with this proportion and combination of ingredients. Your senses will know.

Sliced yellow peppers and autumn-gold baby tomatoes added for sweet flavor, juiciness and because yellow is such a favorite color! Once they were lightly caramelized, I added organic ground beef (about a pound) and several sliced scallions and adjusted the seasonings and spices with good deal more black pepper, additional coriander and turmeric...

Finally, shiny dark black beans joined the pan... did you know that they are amazingly nutritious?

A bit more cooking to blend the flavors and dinner was ready to serve with the addition of scallion accented Greek yogurt (and beautiful brown rice pilaf with butter and mushroom bouillon--thanks, Jamison!)

What was for dinner at your house, friends? Wishing you all a relaxing and peaceful weekend...