Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.

Heat up a saute pan on medium low heat with 1 tblsp oil. Once the oil is hot, add the chopped onions, pepper and garlic, and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat with the oil and let soften for 2 minutes or so.

Set the sauted vegetables on a plate spread out to cool. in a separate bowl add the crab meat, mustard, breadcrumbs, egg, cheese, melted butter and lemon juice. Mix together all the ingredients until they are mixed well. Don't forget to add in the cooled down onions, garlic and peppers.

Grease a baking sheet or a baking dish with butter or olive oil. Give the fish a little salt and pepper or some cajun spice. Now depending on how you want to "stuff the sole" there are a few ways to do it.
The first way is mound an egg shape size of stuffing on the dish or sheet and place the sole on top of it, smoothing down the sides of the fish over the edges of your stuffing mound.
The second way lay the sole with the flat side up, place a handful of the stuffing in the center and wrap the fish around the stuffing, then place the either on their side with a toothpick holding the edge together or on the seam side down.
The third way is the opposite of the first way, place the fish flat side down, mound an egg shaped handful of the stuffing on the center of the fish and spread out along the whole fish length.

Bake center of the oven for 25-30 minutes. Serve with rice pilaf or some mashed potatoes.

For the akhni stock: add all akhni stock ingredients to a saucepan. Bring to a boil for ten minutes then strain the mixture discarding the solids and reserve the akhni stock.

For the base gravy: pour the oil into a large heavy bottomed saucepan and heat over medium high heat until simmering.
Add the diced onions and fry, stir often for about 20 minutes until the onions are soft, lightly browned and translucent.
Add the bell peppers, celery, cilantro, carrot and cabbage and mix.
Fry for another five minutes and then add the ginger, garlic and all of the spices except for the turmeric.
Now add the tomatoes, chicken stock and just enough Akhni stock to cover the vegetables and simmer for about half an hour. Add more stock as needed.

After 30 minutes, remove the mixture from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Using a handheld immersion blender blend until silky smooth, if you have one, otherwise, scoop the mixture in batches into a blender and blend until silky smooth, about three minutes per batch if using the blender. Add more Akhni stock if needed to achieve the proper consistency, it should roughly be the consistency of thin cream.
Once your sauce is smooth, melt the ghee in a frying pan and add the turmeric powder to the ghee. It will darken as it cooks. You want to brown it for about 30 seconds being careful not to burn the turmeric. Now add the turmeric/ghee mixture to the sauce and bring to a simmer again.
Once it is simmering, turn down the heat and simmer for another 20 - 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
This can be stored in the fridge for up to three days or freeze in 3 cup portions for up to three months.

Dice onions, celery, and bell pepper into small pieces. Set aside.
Cut andouille into thin rounds. Set aside.
Coat shrimp in Tony Chacheres Creole Seasoning. Set aside.

Heat oil in large pot or dutch oven.
Add andouille sausage to pot and brown for approximately 5 minutes. Set aside.
Brown the shrimp on both sides, no longer then 5 minutes. Set aside.
Add onions, celery, and bell pepper to pot. Reduce heat to medium and cook for approximately 7 minutes, stirring and scraping bottom of pan to release bits of sausage from bottom of pot.

Add the chopped garlic and tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the sausage, chicken stock, Kitchen Bouquet, seasoning salt, thyme, oregano, and Old Bay to the pot and bring to a boil.
Add the rice and return to a boil.
Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook 5 minutes. Add your shrimp in, finish cooking another 5-10 minutes or when the liquid disapears or rice is cooked.
Sprinkle the green onions and parsley over each serving for garnish. Enjoy!

Prepare the fried onions and set aside.

Mix the yogurt, chili powder, turmeric, garam masala, ginger/garlic paste, sliced green chili, cumin seeds, salt, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick, ½ cup mint and ½ cup cilantro, lemon juice and ⅓ the fried onions together, now add the chicken mix well and let marinate 4 hours.

Rinse/wash the rice twice with cold water to remove some of the starches. Then cover with cold water and let the rice soak for 30 minutes.

Warm up the milk and mix in the saffron threads and let sit, set aside.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, we're going to par cook our rice, first add the following seasoning to the salted water, 4 cardamom pods, a split green chili, a cinnamon stick, 2 cloves, 1 tsp cumin seeds. Drain the water from the rice and put the rice in the boiling seasoned water. Turn the burner to high if not already and add the rice and give it a stir. Once the rice comes back to a boil, it is almost done. Taste a grain after 1 minute, it should be par cooked to al dente, but no more then that, as it will finish on the stove. Drain the water retaining the rice and spices.

Time to layer it for the final cook. In a large heavy duty pot, start by cooking the chicken and yogurt spiced marinade for 4 minutes. Now remove ½ the chicken and a little of the yogurt and set aside. Add ½ the rice and spices on top of the portion of chicken, keeping the layers fairly even, then add the rest of the chicken on top of the first rice layer, sprinkle some of the browned onions on top, add ⅓ cup chopped cilantro and mint and then the rest of the rice, the rest of the browned onions, another ¼ cup of cilantro and mint and finish it off with placing spoonful's of the saffron milk across the top. Put a tight fitting lid on and cook at medium/high for 5 minutes and lower to low for another 30 minutes. Let sit for an additional 15 minutes with the lid on.

Serve with a side of Greek plain yogurt and lemon wedge. Enjoy!

After toasting the Biryani Masala spices, allow them to cool down and then grind them into a coarse or fine powder depending on your preference. This makes enough biryani masala for deveral batches of biryani, store in a jar or sealed baggie, out of the sunlight, for up to 3 months.

In the thick parts of the chicken make deep slashes into the thicker parts of the chicken to allow the masala spices to better penetrate the chicken. (If your using boneless thighs you can make slashes at a medium depth)
If you are smoking the chicken, you can do that now.
In a large bowl, add salt to the chicken, lemon juice, then all the rest of the chicken spices, mix well, cover and let marinate 24 hours.

The next day, rinse your Basmati rice three times (removing excess starch from the rice) and then cover with water and let soak for 1½ hours. After the rice has soaked long enough, put on a large pot of boiling water, once boiling, add the spice sachet with all the rice spices and the Basmati rice (or add the spices without the sachet, you may want to pick these out before adding to the main pot, or go Indian style as I am sure in Indian households they don't mind eating around the whole spices.

Par cook the rice for about 4 minutes, we want the rice 90% cooked, don't stir the rice too often as we don't want to break the individual rice grains. After the 4 minutes, strain the water from the rice (and if you want the whole spices if you didn't use a sachet), remove the sachet and discard if you used it. Set the rice aside

In the bowl with the chicken that was marinating over night, add the 1 cup of yogurt and add 80% (about 5 oz) of the fried onions and ⅓ of the chopped cilantro bunch and ⅓ the chopped mint leaves and if your using the optional ingredients, add in the prunes, potato, carrot and peas. Mix well.

In a heavy bottomed pot, add 2 tblsp of ghee over high heat, when melted, keep the heat up high until it is roaring hot and now add your chicken pieces with its marinade and the potato cubes. Stir often cook on high heat for 5-6 minutes, cooking the chicken 85-90%, taste the masala for salt content and adjust as needed.

Now turn the heat to low, make sure the chicken pieces are spread out in one layer and add ⅓ of the chopped cilantro bunch and ⅓ the chopped mint leaves add 15% of the fried onions (about 1½ oz)
Add all the rice on top of the chicken layer, smooth the rice into an even layer. Drizzle 3-4 tblsp of the ghee over the rice and then sprinkle/drizzle the saffron liquid over the rice.
Now add the remaining 5% fried onions (about ½ oz) add the remaining ⅓ bunch of chopped mint and cilantro (coriander leaves). Seal the lid with a rolled out piece of bread dough, or tinfoil (or cheesecloth). If you can weight the lid down with something heavy, that helps too!

Cook for 10-15 minutes on low heat. Then turn off heat and let rest for 10 minutes.

I believe traditionally the whole pot is turned upside down a into a platter and served, or just scoop it out with a serving spoon. You can sprinkle some garam masala over the top and serve with a side of Indian yogurt to cool down the spices.

Wash the chicken livers in cold water. Cover the chicken livers in milk (to leach out the liver toxins) for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile chop the 2 onions into medium sized slivers by cutting the skinned onion in half lengthwise and then cutting it into 8 slices then cut those slice in half in one cut, then repeat on the other onion haf and then the other onion repeat, then set onion shards aside. And cut up the 6 shallots into halves then add to a processor and finely mince them and set aside. Now add all the garlic and process it until it's finely minced and set aside.

Add just enough milk to the bread to soak them for 5 minutes.

Now that the chicken liver has soaked in the milk for 15 minutes, drain the milk away and rinse the livers two more times in cold water again and then drain away the water. Now remove the sinew and fat from the livers, saving the livers aside.

Add 3⅔ tblsp butter to a hot wok or large frying pan on medium heat, add half the minced garlic and half the minced shallots and stir fry for 1-2 minutes. Now add the chicken livers and stir fry until they are medium well done (a small amount of pink left). Strain away the liquid and set the chicken livers aside. In the same pan devoid of liquid, add another 3⅔ tblsp butter over medium heat and add to it the other half of the minced shallots and garlic, stir fry for 1-2 minutes and add the ground pork and mix into the garlic and shallots, then add the onions and stir fry them all with pork, ginger and garlic until medium well (some pink in the pork).

In a large steel bowl or pot, combine the chicken liver mixture with the ground pork and onion mixture and add the ⅓ cup of sugar and the ⅓ cup of chicken bouillon, 3 tsp fresh cracked black pepper and the bread (drain the milk but don't squeeze out the bread), now add in the 10½ oz of butter and then the 6 eggs and then mix well.

In a blender we're going to grind this all, in batches, until it is of a smooth consistency. A nice milkshake! Not!

Prepare a few loaf pans with 3 slices of bacon across the length of the bottom of each loaf pan, using a ladle or pouring carefully fill the rest of the loaf pan up with the pate mixture, leaving about a half inch of room from the top. Cover tightly with foil. Put into a steamer for 2 hours. Remove and discard the bacon and then refrigerate the pate loaf for another hour, before serving.

Fry bacon till crisp. Drain of grease and set aside.
In same pan, on medium heat, cook onion, ground beef, salt and pepper and celery until meat is done and onions are tender, then add garlic, cook until beef has browned through.
Pour off most of the grease, then transfer the meat mixture to a larger stock pot.
Now mix beef bouillon in a tblsp hot water, then stir bouillon into the meat mixture. Add the beans, ketchup, mustard.
Cover and simmer (low heat with little bubbles), on top of stove for 1 hour.
Crumble/Cut bacon and stir into beans. Serve.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Cook the sausage until browned on both sides and remove.
Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the oil and then add in the flour and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until brown, about 10 minutes.
Do not go too brown and burn the roux if your using butter.

Lower the heat to low heat and melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter.
Add the onion, garlic, green pepper, and celery and cook for 10 minutes.

Add Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, to taste and the parsley (except the garnish parsley). Cook for 10 minutes, stir frequently.

Add the 4 cups chicken stock while whisking. Add the sausage. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and okra. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the shrimp and cook for 3-4 minutes. Just before serving, add the green onions and chopped parsley.

Mix the shrimp, salt, onion powder and mirin. Add the cornstarch and the egg white in the side of the bowl with the shrimp and mix the white and starch together so there are no lumps, then using the velveting technique, hand mix the shrimp until the egg whites and starch have evenly coated the shrimp and seem to take on a smoother "velvety" texture, let the shrimp rest for 30 minutes before frying.

Make your sauce by mixing all of the sauce ingredients together. Set Aside, in the fridge if your letting your protein sit for over an hour.

Shallow or deep fry your protein, a handful at a time, do not crowd the pan. Once you are finished with all of your protein.

Salt the eggplant and place in a colander to drain the juices we don't want.

In a large frying pan on high heat, add 2-3 tsp of vegetable oil. Carefully add the lamb and get a good sear on all sides. Do it in small batches if your using cubes of meat, do not add too many at once, otherwise you will be cooking the meat and not searing it. Set aside.

Add more vegetable oil to the pan and turn down the heat to medium. Fry the cauliflower florets until golden or softened through. Set aside.

Replenish the vegetable oil if needed. And fry the eggplant slices until golden and soft. *Make sure your heat gets back up to temperature if you are adding more oil, otherwise you will end up with oil soggy eggplant. Set Aside.

Mix the rice with the allspice, nutmeg, cumin, turmeric, salt, cinnamon sticks, cardamom seeds and peppercorns. Set aside.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large casserole pan, (one that makes it easy to turn upside down and retain the shape of the rounded pot and can also go in the oven!). So it should be just tall enough. Add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and layer the ingredients as follows:
onion slices on bottom and around the sides, one onion high
cauliflower
eggplant
lamb
rice mix
I added potato slices that were also fried first after layering the cauliflower.

Add the stock until it just covers the rice. If you have leftover stock use it in another recipe. If you need more stock and don't have any more you can either mix warm water with a bullion cube or just use plain water until the liquid level is just over the rice.

Start the casserole on top of the stove on medium/high heat until boiling, then cover the pot and place in the oven for 1 hour.

To serve, remove the pots cover and place a large serving plate or platter on top and turn the pot upside down. Tap lightly on the pot bottom to make sure any sticky onions come off attached to the round casserole. Serve with plain yogurt. Greek yogurt is great with this.

Mix thoroughly all the ingredients.

Roll large size meatballs, 2+½ inches in diameter, careful not to pack them too tight.

In large fry pan or skillet fry the meatballs so they browned on all sides, do not worry about cooking the center, about 15 minutes.

Add to a pot of red sauce (aka gravy for those Italians following along!) and simmer for at least one hour (up to 4 hours).

Serve with pasta with Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese) or on a roll with mozzerella cheese, or simply grab one with your fork and walk around eating it. Yum!

Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chili pods, then add them to a pot of boiling water along with the ½ onion. Let simmer on low for 20 minutes, then drain and reserve the chilis and onion.

In a blender add the chilis and onion, the juice of the lime and orange, the garlic cloves, the oregano, cumin, salt and the achiote liquid. Blend until smooth, 1 - 2 minutes.

At this point taste the marinade for salt content. It should be slightly saltier then you would think.

Let the marinade cool down before adding to the chicken thighs. Once cool, add enough of your marinade to the chicken thighs and make sure to mix the thighs and marinade well so all surfaces are coated, then cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, up to 24 hours. Save any left over marinade, that did not touch the chicken, for future use.

When you're ready to grill these pull them from the fridge 10-15 minutes before you grill them so they shake off their fridge chill. Grilling is best! 4-5 minutes each side depending on the size of the thigh. Slice for tacos or burritos or eat with a side of mashed potatoes, rice or corn. It's delicious any way you use it!

Pick through the beans to remove any foreign objects and rinse them. Soak the beans for in water for 8-12 hours, draining and rinsing them every three hours.

Bring the beans to a boil with the chicken stock, add the onion and garlic, reduce heat and simmer for 2½ hours.

Working in two batches, in a large frying pan heat 6 tblsp of the lard or bacon fat on medium-low heat, add ½ the beans and their liquid into the hot fat, yes this is going to spatter, be careful, also add half the chili powder in each batch, fry for 8-10 minutes until most of the liquid is gone. You can use a potato masher to mash them at this point, or if you have an immersion blender, you can wait until both batches are together and then us the blender on them. Then you can blend the onion remnants as well!
Taste, add the salt if needed.

Pick through the beans to remove any foreign objects and rinse them. Soak the beans for in water for 8-12 hours, draining and rinsing them every three hours.

Bring the beans to a boil with the chicken stock, add the onion and garlic, reduce heat and simmer for 2½ hours.

Working in two batches, in a large frying pan heat 6 tblsp of the lard or bacon fat on medium-low heat, add ½ the beans and their liquid into the hot fat, yes this is going to spatter, be careful, also add half the chili powder in each batch, fry for 8-10 minutes until most of the liquid is gone. You can use a potato masher to mash them at this point, or if you have an immersion blender, you can wait until both batches are together and then us the blender on them. Then you can blend the onion remnants as well!
Taste, add the salt if needed.

Toast the first 8 whole spices in a medium/low pan just until they are about to smoke or you can smell them.
Grind the spices, and when your done add to it the turmeric and paprika, mix together. Occasionally I will use a smoked paprika, especially when I crank the spice level up!

Mince the garlic and ginger, set aside.

Mix the tomato paste, chicken stock, white wine vinegar and sugar together and set aside.

Open the can of coconut milk and set aside.
In a large skillet (12-14"), at medium heat, add the olive oil and when warm, throw in the chopped onions and saute for 3 or 4 minutes.
Now add the minced garlic/ginger mix and saute for another 3 minutes.

Now stir in the spices, mix well and cook for about 1 minute
Now stir in the tomato paste, mix slightly, add the chicken stock, coconut milk, white wine vinegar and sugar and stir until mixed well.

If you wanted to add garbanzo beans, diced potatoes or meat, you can do so now.

Cook the sauce down on simmer, until it thickens, anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on what you added to the mix.

For instance if I use boneless lamb cubes, I sear them, set them aside, and then add olive oil, the onions, after adding the meat back in at this stage, I cover with tinfoil (due to tougher meat, the lamb, being added), bring down the heat to simmer, then 30 minutes later I taste test, usually nice and tender at this point, I'll start the rice and spoon out any lamb fat that has risen to the top.

Serve with Basmati Rice and a side of Naan bread.