Spice Monkey

Cabbage with turmeric

2012-01-19T23:13:00.000-08:00

Holy cabbage, batman!!! It's 2012. This blog has been revived again! whoohoo!!

I decided to try out the local CSA box and just my luck, they give me a giant head of lettuce. It's HUGE! There's no way I would ever buy this much cabbage. It's enough to feed a small country.

Coincidentally I had a potluck to get to the following day and decided to make this classic indian style cabbage. It is generally paired with rice and something like this or this to make a complete classic Konkani/Indian meal. Pair with some yoghurt and you are set. Another selling point? Brassica/Cruciferous veggie paired with turmeric = anti-cancer all the waaaaaay!!

Serves 2

Ingredients

Cabbage - chopped or sliced - 2 liberal hand-full [2 cups, maybe?]
Onion- yellow (or other)- chopped fine - 2 tbspn
Black mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Asafoetida - 1 pinch [1/4 tspn]
Green Chillies [serrano or thai]- 1/2 [remove seeds depending on spice tolerance]
Canola or other vegetable oil - 1/2 tbspn
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
Split chick pea / bengal gram [ can find in indian store] (optional) - about 15
Salt to taste
water -1-2 Tbspn

Method

1. Heat up oil in a wok [medium-high]. Add the bengal gram. Saute until it seems a little bit swollen and brown. Add mustard seeds and asafoetida. This will pop all over the place. use a lid to contain them.
2. Once the popping subsides, add in the onion. Saute until translucent.
3. Add chillies and cabbage. On top of cabbage add the turmeric and salt. Toss in the wok.
4. Sprinkle the water on this and then lower the heat to medium low and cover. Let cook for about 5 or so minutes. Uncover and let the water cook out.
5. Cook until completely cooked. I like it to have a little bit of a bite to it but also completely cooked. So keep an eye on it.

Enjoy.

A Most Rightious Rotini n' Cheese

2010-09-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

This is the best Mac (well, Rotini) n’ Cheese recipe I’ve ever had in my life, and I have made numerous variations of Mac n’ Cheese in the past, and tasted recipes everywhere I can find them – this tops them ALL.

Seriously, I should be inducted into the Mac n’ Cheese Hall of Fame for this one. And if there isn’t a Hall of Fame for Mac, they should start one just for me. -- AnglophileLV
Recipe:

1 1/2 C dry rotini – boil according to package directions
1 batch Bechemel sauce
Directions: 2 Tb butter melted, stir with 2 Tb flour until golden, add a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir continuously until mix has thickened.

1 C. extra sharp cheddar, shredded
1 C. Mozerella
A pinch cayenne pepper
2 dashes Worcestershire
Pepper to taste.
½ onion, chopped fairly fine
2 slices bacon

1/2 Tsp Vadouvan (recipe to follow)*
Directions:

1. Cook the bacon and chopped onions in a pan together (there’s nothing better in the world than bacon and onions in my opinion). Chop up the bacon when it’s crispy, and set the bacon and onions aside.

2. Add to the béchamel sauce the 1 Cup of cheddar and 1 Cup mozzarella, stir until melted and thick. Then add a pinch of cayenne pepper and 2 dashes Worcestershire (or to taste, I like a little more for intense flavor). Add pepper to taste also, but not salt yet because the Vadouvan is quite salty.

3. Add the bacon and onion, stir in. Then add the rotini.

4. Add the Vadouvan carefully – it’s quite strong, so you really have to do it to taste. For me, ½ tsp was about right, otherwise your Mac n’ Cheese may start tasting like Mac n’ Curry (also good, just not what we’re going for).

5. For a topping, I took a handful of unseasoned bread crumbs and ground it together with a little more vadouvan with my mortar and pestle. Then I put it under the broiler (watching it very carefully!) until it was browned.

*Make the Vadouvan well in advance, since it takes over an hour. It lasts a couple months in the fridge, a couple years if frozen, and you can add it to soups and all kinds of things. You’ll also have the satisfaction of knowing you’re probably the only kid on the street that has this unique spice mix (a blend of French and Indian culinary influences). I got the recipe from the now defunct Gourmet and altered it slightly:

Vadouvan

• ½ sweet onion, cut into 1-inch pieces

• 9 garlic cloves, peeled

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

• 1 tablespoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds

• 3/4 teaspoon turmeric

• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

• EQUIPMENT:

an electric coffee/spice grinder or a mortar and pestle, food processor (or you can just chop it)

• Preheat oven to 350ºF with rack in middle.

• Pulse onions and garlic in a food processor until very coarsely chopped (there may be a few large pieces remaining), transferring to a bowl.

• Heat oil in a deep 12-inch heavy nonstick skillet over high heat until it shimmers, then sauté onions and garlic (stir often) until golden and browned in spots, 25 to 30 minutes.

• Grind fenugreek seeds in grinder or with mortar and pestle. Add to onion mixture along with remaining ingredients, 1 Tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper and stir until combined.

• Transfer to a parchment-paper-lined large 4-sided sheet pan and spread as thinly and evenly as possible. Bake, stirring occasionally with a skewer to separate onions, until well browned and barely moist, check every 20-30 minutes.

Stuffed Zucchini

2010-07-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

My lovely friend Justina gave me a Zucchini the length and width of my forearm (and I have a rather large forearm). I usually just roast any and all veggies since it's quick and involves just the roasting pan and an oven. After 2 months of this though, no matter how much you love vegetables (like me), it can get boring. It's summer and school is out, so I decided to do something different with this Godzilla of a zucchini. And it's so good to be back blogging and trying out some new things. hurray for summer!!!

Ingredients
Serves 2-4
1 Large Zucchini - Cut lengthwise; scrape out the soft-seeds portion so you have a hollow area in the center
1/2 Yellow onion finely chopped
1 Roma Tomato finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
4 Cremini Mushrooms (or button would work as well)
.5lb Minced Meat, I used chicken.
Pinch of Paprika, Cayenne, Turmeric, Coriander powder, Cumin Powder
Salt to taste
1 Tbspn of tomato paste
1.5 slices of untoasted bread- make crumbs as best possible.
Olive oil and some butter

Method
1. In a pan heat up some olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and saute for about 3 mins.
2. Next add tomato and spice powders and salt and saute for another 2 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms, chicken, and tomato paste and saute for about 3 mins.
4. Meanwhile line up the Zucchini (I had to cut mine into half so I had 4 "shells") shells in a baking pan. coat with olive oil. Also melt the butter and pour over the bread crumbs. Use oil if you dont want to use butter or do half and half so you don't lose the buttery flavor.
5. Spoon the filling into the zucchini shells and top it off with bread crumbs.
6. Cook in a preheated oven at 350F for 35-45 mins.

Taste Review:
I totally would make this again. But I would skip the bread topping mostly since I used whole wheat bread...if you have white bread, do try it out because it gives you a nice crunchy top. The wheat bread gave it a "sweet" taste which can be a hit or a miss. I also would top it off with some parmesean cheese next time. But the filling is to die for. I would add some Tabasco sauce next time.

Pongal

2010-05-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

Another quintessential breakfast item of Tamil Nadu. Go to any restaurant for breakfast, and you find this. I am ecstatic that I was able to make this. Delicioso.

Ingredients

Mung/Moong dal - 1 cup
Rice (You can do this with basmasti. I used a variety called "sona masuri') - 1 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Cumin seeds - 1 tspn
Curry leaves - 8
Asafoetida (optional)- a pinch
Dried Red Chilli - 1-2
Fresh Green Chilli (Thai) -1-2 slit lengthwise
Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
Ginger : Sliced about 2-3 thin slices
Water - 2.5-3 cups (to cook the rice and moong dal)
Oil - 1tbspn
Butter - 1/2 tbspn (optional)

Method:

1. Wash the moong dal and rice with water. then drain all of the water and let it dry as much as possible (15-20 min air dry).
2. In a saucepan, put the oil. Let it heat up. To this add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, dried red chilli, and pepper corns. Let this pop and crackle and then add the curry leaves, ginger, green chilli, and cashews.
3. After about 1 min, add the dried rice and moong dal. Fry it for about 3-4 minutes (you basically want the raw taste to be roasted out).
4. Add water to cover this and to cook it. Add a dash of butter and salt and let it cook (I use my nifty rice cooker at this step).
5. Eat hot with butter melting at the top. Can pair plantains boiled in salt water alongside this or just regular ripe bananas.

Asian Crunchy Salad

2010-05-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Dressing:
Hot and Sweet chilli garlic sauce (1 tbspn )
Sriracha sauce (just a smidgen)
Vinegar (3 tspns or more)
Sugar (2-4 tspns or more!)

* those are vague measurements, so adjust according to taste. the key are white vinegar and sugar.

Salad:
Carrots (grated or julienne)
Lettuce (I used red romaine from my CSA box)
Sugar Snap peas (I substituted snow peas)
Red Cabbage if you have some (i didn't)
Spring onions
tomatoes
Red Onion
Crunchy Noodles (you can get these now at Panda Express)
Grilled Chicken (optional), could also substitute fried/grilled tofu.

Method
In a salad bowl prepare salad dressing according to taste (this will be bright red in color). Layer the veggies on top of this and finish off with the crunchy egg/chinese noodles. Toss just before serving.

SO SO good.

Ingredients to Avoid

2010-04-18T00:49:00.000-07:00

I just read through this article. But I wanted to copy paste it here before it gets lost in the black hole i.e. the interwebs.
******

If you know me at all, you know that I’m an advocate for whole, unprocessed foods. However, many of us inevitably turn to packaged or processed foods when we are short on time. Maybe we grab a frozen dinner or pizza for a quick dinner for our family. Maybe we grab a quick nutrition bar to satiate our hunger until we can sit down for a real meal. Or maybe, we just don’t like to cook. Whether we like it or not, packaged and processed food has become a huge part of our food industry and, as a result, a part of many of our diets.

Although there are some brands that I hugely advocate for, there are many more that border on outright unhealthy and “scary.” Many packaged foods that seem healthy often contain fillers, preservatives and other ingredients you don’t want in your diet. It is always preferable to choose products that have only a handful of ingredients, all of which should be recognizable. One test to know whether an ingredient is healthy is to ask yourself whether your grandmother would recognize it. If not, there is a good chance the ingredient is less natural food and more man-made chemical. Another good test is whether or not you can easily pronounce the ingredient. If you feel like you need a science degree to pronounce it properly, chances are the ingredient is worth avoiding.

If you do have to resort to a processed food for a snack or dinner (anything canned, packaged, etc.), try to avoid those that contain the ingredients listed in the following chart. Although this isn’t an exhaustive list, these ingredients are some of the most highly processed and least healthy of all:

Ingredient	Why it is Used	Why it is Bad
Artificial Colors	Chemical compounds made from coal-tar derivatives to enhance color.	Linked to allergic reactions, fatigue, asthma, skin rashes, hyperactivity and headaches.
Artificial Flavorings	Cheap chemical mixtures that mimic natural flavors.	Linked to allergic reactions, dermatitis, eczema, hyperactivity and asthma Can affect enzymes, RNA and thyroid.
Artificial Sweeteners (Acesulfame-K, Aspartame, Equal®, NutraSweet®, Saccharin, Sweet’n Low®, Sucralose, Splenda® & Sorbitol)	Highly-processed, chemically-derived, zero-calorie sweeteners found in diet foods and diet products to reduce calories per serving.	Can negatively impact metabolism Some have been linked to cancer, dizziness hallucinations and headaches.
Benzoate Preservatives (BHT, BHA, TBHQ)	Compounds that preserve fats and prevent them from becoming rancid.	May result in hyperactivity, angiodema, asthma, rhinitis, dermatitis, tumors and urticaria Can affect estrogen balance and levels.
Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO)	Chemical that boosts flavor in many citric-based fruit and soft drinks.	Increases triglycerides and cholesterol Can damage liver, testicles, thyroid, heart and kidneys.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)	Cheap alternative to cane and beet sugar Sustains freshness in baked goods Blends easily in beverages to maintain sweetness.	May predispose the body to turn fructose into fat Increases risk for Type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer Isn’t easily metabolized by the liver.
MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)	Flavor enhancer in restaurant food, salad dressing, chips, frozen entrees, soups and other foods.	May stimulate appetite and cause headaches, nausea, weakness, wheezing, edema, change in heart rate, burning sensations and difficulty in breathing.
Olestra	An indigestible fat substitute used primarily in foods that are fried and baked.	Inhibits absorption of some nutrients Linked to gastrointestinal disease, diarrhea, gas, cramps, bleeding and incontinence.
Shortening, Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated Oils (Palm, Soybean and others)	Industrially created fats used in more than 40,000 food products in the U.S. Cheaper than most other oils.	Contain high levels of trans fats, which raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol, contributing to risk of heart disease.

Potato Masala for Masala Dosa

2010-04-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

Masala dosas are ridiculously amazing. Dosa is the indian equivalent of crepes (made out of rice). This very delicious and spicy potato and onion mixture is the filling. It is served hot with chutney and sambar. Each place has its take on the masala and this is my mom's. This is the only version *I* love, so that should be good enough for you all.

You can also serve this with Rotis/naans, or basmati rice or even make indian style paninis with it.

Ingredients:

1-2 Boiled potatoes (I used baby small yellow potatoes, red potatoes are too sweet for this dish); chop into cubes
1 small red onion or 1/2 large onion thinly sliced
1.5 tspn black mustard seeds
10 curry leaves (can omit)
1/2 tspn red chilli powder
1/4 tspn turmeric powder
2 pinches of asafoetida (can omit)
1 tspn of Channa dhal (can totally omit) [basically dried and split chickpeas without the seedcoat. TOTALLY not required)
1 tbspn of vegetable oil
1 serrano chilli sliced lengthwise or a couple of jalapenos would work too (can omit entirely)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. In a pan, add the oil and let it heat up. Add mustard seeds, Channa dal, and asafoetida. After about 30 seconds toss in the curry leaves. You should hear a lot of popping and hissing now.

2.Once the popping subsides (don't wait for everything to burn) add in the sliced onions and green chillies. Saute until translucent and cooked. After about 2 minutes of sauteing add the turmeric, red chilli powder, and salt.

3. Once the onion has cooked, add in the rough chopped boiled potatoes and mix and let it cook/heat up. after about 2 minutes your dish should be ready!

optional: garnish with fresh chopped cilantro.

Green Chilli and Coconut Chutney

2010-03-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Tamil Nadu, India. I love my dosas, chutneys, and sambars. I've been trying to get this chutney just right and it's really hard to get the right consistency with a blender or cusinart chopper. Even now it's not perfect, but it's close enough for me to post it here! i've been experimenting and there's one ingredient in the list that will not make it 100% Indian and I will let you guess what it is in the comments section. Winner can get lunch/dinner cooked by me someday (feat. this chutney and dosas).

I did not measure since I was experimenting but here is the gist.

Ingredients
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut (can get this frozen in Asian and Indian stores)
1/4-1/3 rd cup ice berg lettuce
1/4 cup-1/2 cup coconut milk
Tamarind Paste - 2 teaspoons
6 jalapeno peppers (maybe 2-3 Serranos...adjust spice accordingly. I ran out of peppers :( )

Directions

In your blender, add the coconut, green chillies, ice berg lettuce, tamarind paste and some coconut milk. Hit the liquefy button and it will take about 15-20 mins of blending to get it to a nice chutney consistency. You basically want the liquid part and coconut and ice berg all blended together so that it doesnt separate out easily.

To get this consistency, you might have to add more ice berg lettuce. trial and error, my friends!

Dhal Fry (Pigeon Pea and Tomato Curry)

2010-03-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ah, it is good to be back with my yummy dhal recipe and signature crappy picture.

Still stuck with some of those pigeon peas? Here is recipe #5! A staple in any North Indian meal (I think, I really wouldn't know. :-D). It is very mildly spiced and delicious. Try it out!

Ingredients
1/2 cup pigeon pea (toor dhal) - soaked overnight in water (12-14 hours, the longer the better)
3 Tomatoes
3/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 of an onion, finely chopped (about 2 heaping table spoons worth)
8 cloves of garlic (you could use a few lesser, but I'm obsessed with garlic)
2 tbspn of oil
Salt to taste.
A dollop of butter or ghee (which I did not add, but now that I'm typing this, it definitely would have enhanced the dish)

Directions
1. I use a pressure cooker to cook the dhal, so I'm done cooking it in 15 minutes. Should you not have this wonderful device, you could cook it stove top until really well done. It may take you over an hour.
2. Boil the tomatoes (i just cook these along with the dhal in the same pressure cooker)
3. In a saucepan, heat up some oil on medium high and add the onions. Saute for 2 mins.
4. Add the garlic, and spice powders. Saute until oil separates (or if garlic begins to brown)
5. Add the cooked dhal and tomatoes (semi mashed in) mix well. Add just enough water to make it semi-liquidy.
6. Add salt according to your taste and let it come to a boil. Add the ghee/butter at this point as well.

Serve with naan or roti, basmati rice, and raitha.

Lime Pie

2010-03-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Happy Pie Day! It's 3/14, at 3:14pm, and here is your pie. That's 360 degrees of dessert with a diameter of 9 inches, for those of you mathematically-minded. Me, I just like an excuse to eat PIE.
-AnglophileinLA

Lime Pie for Pie Day!

Ingredients
• 1 Keblar Graham cracker pie crust
• 2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk
• 1 cup regular lime juice
• 2 whole eggs
• Zest of 1 lime

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Combine the condensed milk, lime juice, zest and eggs. Whisk until well blended and place the filling in the pie shell. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes and allow to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

How to bring Lime Pie to the KICKASS PIE level

There was a New Orleans style restaurant in Santa Barbara years ago, since gone out of business, that had the best keylime pie. And they served it with a sauce on the side that was so cool and creamy next to the tart lime pie that it just brought the pie-eating experience to a whole new level. After much experimentation, I found out that it was cream cheese blended with milk and sugar. So simple, so delicious.

1 small container light cream cheese

1/4th cup milk (to start)

Sugar

I do this by taste every time – but basically, you’ll blend the cream cheese with the milk until it is of a pourable consistency. Then add sugar until you like the taste. I’m also thinking of adding a bit of lime juice to it the next time I make it, just to give it a little kick. Now, pour it over a piece of lime pie or serve it on the side with a spoon.

The Best Potato Leek Soup

2010-03-08T18:19:00.000-08:00

With St. Patty’s day coming up, I’ve been in an Irish kind of mood. To completely stereotype, that means potatoes. So I got a bag of red, white and purple potatoes at Trader Joe’s, figuring I’d find a use for them, and the leeks at Ralphs completed the vision. But which recipe? Emeril and I have had our differences in the past – I think his recipes, if followed to the letter, tend to be too heavy on butter and cream, and a bit bland (sorry Emeril!). But then I saw his recipe for Potato Leek Soup, and I found a lot of things I like: white wine, bacon, fresh thyme. And found things I didn’t like: a lot of butter and cream. Which I removed. And here is the result.

Think of a great baked potato – what do you put on there? Sour cream, bacon bits, chives? A bit of salt and pepper? Now take that baked potato stacked with everything good on it, and blend the hell out of it. That’s kind of what this soup is, and it is just ridiculously good. Like, 4-Star restaurant quality good. My boyfriend went back for seconds (this never happens), and he doesn’t even like creamy soups. Granted, I didn’t tell him that his hated sour cream was in there…

Ingredients

• 1 large leek

• 2 bay leaves

• Twists of black and white pepper to taste (the combo really adds to the flavor, so I used a lot)

• 8 sprigs fresh thyme, de-leafed or chopped fine

• 2 strips bacon, chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1/2 cup dry white wine or vermouth

• 3 cups chicken stock

• 1 pound potatoes, chopped into quarters (if small potatoes like red or white, don’t bother peeling)

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 Tb light sour cream (or one very heaping spoonful)

Directions

Chop the potatoes into quarters and microwave for 6 minutes until you can easily punch them through with a fork. Set aside.

Chop the 2 pieces of bacon into small pieces and start cooking them in an ungreased non-stick pot. The bacon has its own grease, it doesn’t need any more.

Chop the leek, or leeks if small, finely in quarters, going all the way from the white tip to where they just start to turn green. Discard the long green leafy parts. NOW, rinse the chopped leeks in a colander. Dirt gets trapped in between the leafs and will not wash out if you rinse the leek before you chop.

Add the leaks to the pot when the bacon has already browned. Add the bay leaves, thyme, white and black pepper, and garlic. Cook around 5 minutes.

Now add the wine, stir a bit, and add the potatoes and 3 cups chicken stock. Let simmer for anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes – if you need more time to set the table or get sides ready, go ahead and let it simmer away.

Use a potato masher to mush the potatoes. Add the 2 Tb, or giant heaping spoonful (to taste, can you tell?) of the light sour cream. Mix.

Now, TASTE. Too salty? Not salty enough? Does it need more white pepper? (yes, imo) When I was tasting, it needed more salt – after I added salt, it was too salty, so I added water. The point is, keep tasting until you get it right. The rest of cooking is just a shopping list.

If you have an immersion blender, it’s time to whip it out and whip it good. You can just blend everything in the pot (be sure all the action is below the surface of the liquid). If you have a regular blender – I wish you luck. The last time I tried to blend soup in a blender, I ended up wearing scalding hot crème of watercress. User error yes, but I still have never forgiven that soup.

To be fancy, you can put a little dollop of sour cream on top of the finished bowl of soup. But, it smelled so good that I didn’t want to spend the time trying to be fancy myself. Hence the hastily taken picture.

Orange Chicken

2010-03-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

I am still on a mission to use all of the oranges I brought home in a big Hefty trash bag last week. So last night, it was Orange Chicken, a dish I have only ever tried at Chinese restaurants. I don’t own a deep-fryer, so I just rolled the chicken in flour and put it in the oven. Yes, crispy chicken would be better, but this recipe is still unbelievably delicious and lower fat (I lost a ½ pound on it!).
-AnglophileinLA
Orange Chicken

For Sauce, combine the following:
Juice of 2 oranges, then fill the measuring cup to 1 ½ C with water
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp Soy sauce
Zest of 1 orange
¾ C brown sugar (add to taste, could be up to 1 C brown sugar)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 inch chopped ginger root (extra root freezes well)
½ a small onion chopped fine, or green onions
½ tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tb Flour mixture from chicken (to follow)
For the chicken, you will need:
A casserole dish large enough for the chicken
6 drumsticks (or bite sized pieces of chicken breast, whatever you have)
½ C Flour
1 tsp salt
A few twists of pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning
½ tsp garlic powder
Sesame oil

Directions for Chicken:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix the flour, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and garlic powder in a small bowl.
3. Oil the bottom of the casserole dish with sesame oil (olive oil will also work, but sesame oil adds a nutty undertone to the dish).
4. Take a piece of chicken and dip both sides in the sesame oil in the casserole dish, then roll it in the flour mixture until completely coated. Return to the casserole dish and repeat with the rest of the chicken. You should have some flour left over which will be used to thicken the sauce.
5. Put chicken in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, then flip the chicken pieces and cook for another 30 minutes or until browned.

Directions for Sauce:
1. Cook the garlic, onion and ginger first, keep in pan.
2. Combine all the other ingredients and whisk in 2 Tb of the chicken flour mixture into the liquid before adding it into the pan.
3. Cook down until the chicken is done.
Meanwhile – make your rice (10 min rice is good), and stirfry some chopped carrots and Asian-style peas in soy sauce if you want. They’re great for presentation, and vegetables are always good.

Spread the rice out in a large serving dish, cover with the stir-fried veggies, and place the chicken pieces on top. Pour most of the orange sauce over everything, saving some to be served on the side (believe me, you will want every drop).

Orange Curd Tartlets

2010-03-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

One more recipe that uses Oranges - and I still have more oranges on my counter to go through. Oh boy. And, I'm out of eggs. Anyways, this is an elegant dessert worthy of fancy dinner parties and afternoon tea. Make it one day ahead, or at least a few hours ahead of time, since it needs time to cool and set.
-AnglophileinLA

Ingredients for the curd:
½ cup fresh squeezed and strained orange juice
Zest from 1 orange
½ cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cube (¼ pound) unsalted butter, cut into 6 chunks

The process:
Start water boiling in a small pot - you'll be cooking the curd in a metal bowl resting on top of it.
Combine juice, zest and sugar in the lightweight metal bowl. Whisk in the eggs and stir constantly over medium heat. Keep the whisk moving slowly so the eggs have no chance to scramble.

Add one chunk of butter and keep whisking. When the chunk starts to look a little raggedy, add another chunk. Keep adding another chunk as each previous one starts to move through the raggedy stage to the melting stage. Keep the whisk moving slowly all the while. When all chunks of butter have melted, whisk for about 5 minutes more, until the curd thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Do not overcook.

Remove from the heat and immediately strain the curd into the tartlet shells. STRAINING IS IMPORTANT. Then, immediately cover with plastic wrap so a skin doesn't develop on the surface of the curd. Let chill overnight if possible.

Chocolate Coated Tartlet Shells

I used the roll-out Pillsbury pie crusts that come 2-in a box. 1 pie crust made 3 tartlets by just laying them over the creme-brulee ramekins and cutting around the edges. Then I just pressed the crusts into the ramekins, poked fork holes in, and pre-baked according to the directions on the box.

Meanwhile, using the same doulbe-boiler technique as the curd, heat a half cup of chocolate morsels with a spoonful of butter in a metal bowl resting on top of a pot of boiling water. Stir constantly, and when it's gooey, take a culinary brush (mine is silicone, works really well), and paint the insides of the baked tart shells with chocolate. Let harden and cool before you pour in the curd.

Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies

2010-03-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

Another use for a mountain of oranges is dessert. And Cranberry Orange Shortbread cookies are one of my favorites, especially for tea time.
-AnglophileLV

Ingredients
•1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped fine
•1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
•10 tablespoons softened butter
•1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
•finely grated zest of 1 orange
Optional: finely chopped almond slivers (for a Morroccan touch), or Chai Masala (for an indian touch)

Preheat oven to 325.
Mix everything together and roll the thick dough out until it is 1/4th of an inch thick. These cookies do not rise, so you have to flatten it out to cookie-thickness. Then cut out your cookies with a cookie cutter, or the lid of a jar of yeast (that's what I did), and lay them on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottoms.

Makes a little under 2-dozen.

Now - for extra flair - I spread melted Ghiradelli chocolate on half of each cookie. You can't go wrong with dark chocolate and orange. Yum.

No Knead Orange Bread

2010-03-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

After the initial success of my No Knead Wine Flour Bread, I made it again. And again. Then I got a trashbag full of oranges from my grandfather's yard and had to get creative before they rotted. Thus was born: No Knead Orange Bread. To my knowledge, I am the only person to apply orange flavor to yeasted bread (quickbreads have been done).

-AnglophileinLA

Ingredients for 1 loaf:

3 3/4 cup bread flour (King Arthur is the best!)

2 Tb wheat gluten

1 packet yeast (2 1/2 tsp)

1/2 Tb sea salt

1 1/4 C. Orange juice

1/4 C honey

1/2 cup eggs, well blended

1/3 cup butter, melted

zest of 1 orange

slivered almonds and sugar to top bread

Now for the fun part: throw all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them. Then throw all the wet ingredients into the bowl and mix them. It's going to be really really goopy. No Knead bread making is a messy process, the dough is wet but yields such a delicious moist and spongy bread. Let rise in the bowl for 2 hours, and then I like to keep it in the fridge overnight so the flavors can develop.

After the dough has risen, pick up the goopy mass and stretch it into an oblong ball, so it fits in the breadpan. This will take some of the air out, but don't worry. Sprinkle the top with sugar and slivered almonds, and then let it rest another 90 minutes. It will rise again.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and when it's hot, put the bread in with an oven-proof dish of water to keep the oven environment humid. The bread should be close to done in 60 minutes, though I like to use a meat thermometer to check. The internal tempreture should be between 190 and 200 degrees when the bread is done.

Remove the bread from the breadpan 15 minutes after it comes out of the oven to a cooling rack. I've found that the bread is so moist that it will develop a soggy bottom if its allowed to sit in its pan too long.

Also, here is the recipe for 1 loaf of the Wine Bread, if 3 loaves is an intimidating prospect - follow the same directions as above.

Ingredients for 1 loaf of Wine Bread

3 1/2 C flour

1/4th C wine flour

2 Tb wheat gluten

1/2 Tb sea salt

1 1/4 C warm water
1 packet yeast (2 1/2 tsp)

1/4 C honey

1/2 cup large eggs, mixed (5 eggs = roughly 1 cup)

1/3 C butter, melted

I used sunflower seeds to top my last loaf, but any crunchy nut would be good.

No Knead Wine Flour Bread

2010-02-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

The new Blogger format is a nightmare - can you tell? I couldn't move these pictures into any kind of logical formation. So there they are, in a jumble.

My friend at A Girl, A Market, A Meal put a No Knead bread recipe up on Facebook the other day, and I just had to try it. Although I enjoy kneading bread - it's great exercise - I haven't been able to produce the kind of loaf you would make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with. Her recipe seemed like it would produce a loaf more like store-bought bread. I've also been dying to try out my new Cabernet Wine Flour from Blackmarket Bakery. It's flour made from red grape skins leftover from the wine making process and is very rich in resveratrol. It's also purple, which is awsome. So, I put the recipe together with the wine flour and came up with this vaguely purple and absolutely delicious bread.

Important note on the wine flour - I was advised that when using the wine flour, only use it to replace 10-15% of the flour in the recipe, so a little goes a long way. I can't do math worth a damn, so all I can report is that my guess of 1/2 cup for this recipe worked.

No Knead Bread, slightly altered from the fantastic recipe on A Girl, A Market, A Meal.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 55-60 minutes, plus rising time
Yield: 3 loaves
Ingredients:
7 cups King Arthur Bread Flour
1/2 cups wine flour
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast, or 2 packets
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (available at health food stores and online)
2 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup honey
5 large eggs
2/3 cup melted butter

Preparation:

1. In a large bowl of a stand mixer or food processor (14-cup capacity), or your 1 gallon storage container, mix together the flours, yeast, salt and wheat gluten. In another smaller bowl, whisk together the water, honey, eggs and preferred fat. Using the dough attachment, or your hands, mix the wet ingredients with the dry until thoroughly combined. It will be very sticky. Do not knead.

2. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 2 hours. After this, the dough is ready to be formed and placed in a loaf pan, but it is easier to do this if you refrigerate it first for a couple of hours. The flavor improves after 24 hours, so make it the evening before, if you have time.

3. On baking day, lightly grease a standard loaf pan (8 1/2 x 4 1/2). Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and grab a large hunk in your hand, cutting it off at the bottom. It should be about the size of a cantaloupe. Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Cover the rest of the dough loosely and return to the refrigerator.

4. Form the ball into a thick log shape and place it in the prepared loaf pan. It should be just over half full. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for 90 minutes in a warm place (40 minutes if the dough you are using is already room temperature).

5. Thirty minutes before you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the loaf in the center of the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown. Remove the bread from the pan and allow it to cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Dark Chocolate Cabernet Cupcakes

2010-02-19T14:31:00.000-08:00

This recipe required a lot of experimentation and tasting at every stage. It was too sweet at first, so I added more wine flour, more cabernet and regular cocoa powder until the batter was rich and dark. Then I added a handful of mini-morsels just to be sure. The Cabernet wine flour and cocoa powder are the coolest things ever – they are non-alcoholic, but pack all the health benefits of red wine into whatever you’re baking. They also make great gifts and can be found here: http://www.marchenoirfoods.com/
--AnglophileinLa

Dark Chocolate Cabernet Cupcakes
Makes 2 dozen

* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I mixed in a few Tb of the Cabernet cocoa powder)
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I mixed in 1/2 cup wine flour with the regular flour)
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 cup warm water
* 3/4 cup buttermilk
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* ½ cup semi-sweet mini morsels

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, then the semi-sweet mini morsels; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
2. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Chocoholic Frosting

1/3 cup butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate, mini-morsels (Nestles)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
2 Tsp Cabernet Cocoa Powder
4 Tb brandy
5 tablespoons milk (or 3 Tb buttermilk, and 2 Tb regular)

Directions
In small saucepan, melt butter. Stir in mini-morsels until melted.
Add salt and vanilla.
Gradually beat in confectioner's sugar and milk until creamy and fluffy. The longer you beat it, the creamier it gets. Then put in the Cabernet cocoa powder and brandy to taste.
Makes enough to fill and frost 2 layers of cake (about 2 1/4 cups of frosting).

Blueberry Blitz Cake

2010-02-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

Blueberry Blitz Cake

Serves 6

I found a raspberry buttermilk cake recipe in an old Bon Appetit, but as usual, I didn't have the ingredients to make anything out of that silly magazine. So, I went with what I had: Buttermilk, a lemon, and a cup of blueberries. It turned out terrific. Perfect for coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, and dessert in the evening. --AnglophileinLA

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ stick unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar, plus 1 Tb sugar divided

¾ tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

Zest from 1 lemon

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 cup frozen blueberries (or any berry, raspberry works well too)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in the middle.

2. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla and lemon zest, then add the egg and beat well.

5. Mix in flour, alternating with buttermilk, mixing until just combined.

6. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing the top.

7. Scatter the cup of blueberries evenly over the top, then sprinkle with the 1 Tb sugar.

8. Bake until cake is golden and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

I would be tempted to do a Moroccan spin on this with cinnamon, cardamom, orange rind and orange flower water instead of the lemon zest and blueberries. The buttermilk cake base is so versatile.

Chicken Provencal

2010-02-18T21:07:00.000-08:00

Chicken Provencal

Serves 2
According to Julia Child, the combo of thyme, basil, fennel and garlic makes this “de Provence.” I wouldn’t know. But, I do know that this is one of the best chicken recipes I have ever made. The funny thing is, I’m really bad at following directions for French recipes – they’re too complex. So I just take the general flavor combinations and go with my gut. So here is my easy version with a lemon-basil cream sauce.
--AnglophileinLA
Chicken
6-8 chicken tenders
1/4th stick butter
1 tsp dried thyme, or a small handful fresh (I used fresh)
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp dried basil
½ tsp fennel seeds
Salt and pepper to taste
a dash of dry white wine

Sauce
1 egg yolk
½ cup buttermilk
Juice from ½ lemon
1 Tb dry white wine
5 leaves fresh basil, chopped coarse
For the chicken:
1. Put the garlic and butter in at the same time, so the butter melts as the garlic cooks, infusing everything with garlicky goodness.
2. Add the thyme, dried basil and fennel seeds.
3. Add the chicken, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Brown the chicken in the butter, then flip.
4. Add the wine, and cover the pot, let cook for another 5 minutes.

For the sauce

Take all the ingredients and put them in a pot, stirring constantly. Let it simmer for a couple minutes. I don’t think the darkened basil looks that good, so I poured the sauce through a strainer over the chicken.

I served the chicken over quinoa, which was perfect to soak up the sauce, and had a side of simple green beans.

Southwestern Lentil Soup

2010-02-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

There was one perfect soup throughout my childhood. When I was sick, this is the soup I craved – forget that old Campbell’s Chicken Noodle. This soup was the vegetable, black bean salsa combination found at AJ Spurs in Buellton, and until today, I thought I’d never taste it anywhere else.

But, I cracked the code.

Thanks to Giada’s bland lentil soup recipe and Trader Joe’s Garlic Salsa, I just made myself a pot of soup that is the perfect replica of the taste I remember from AJ Spurs. I guess I might call it Spaghetti Western Soup, since there are strong Italian influences – but then people would expect spaghetti noodles and be disappointed. --AnglophileinLA

Southwestern Lentil Soup

2 Tb olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
½ Italian sausage (optional)
1 bay leaf
Parmesan rind (optional)
1 can chopped tomatoes, no salt added
1 ¼ C. Lentils – either out of a can or soaked overnight
Salt and a lot of pepper (to taste)
5 cups low sodium chicken broth
2 small potatoes, chopped into small ½ inch pieces
6 fresh thyme sprigs
1 can black beans
½ jar Trader Joe’s Garlic Salsa (or your favorite mild or medium salsa)
A few dashes Worcestershire and Tobasco sauces
1 Tb tomato paste
Freshly grated parmesan (optional)

1. Heat the oil, then add the chopped onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Let sauté until softened, about 8 minutes.
2. Add the ½ Italian sausage, chopped into small pieces.
3. Thrown in the parmesan rind, 1 can chopped tomatoes, lentils, salt and a lot of pepper (I love pepper).
4. Pour in 5 cups of low sodium chicken broth and start peeling off the leaves from the thyme sprigs and add them. Add the chopped potatoes and let simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes and lentils are soft.
5. Spoon between 1/4th to ½ of the jar of Garlic Salsa into the soup, followed by a spoonful of tomato paste and a few dashes of Worcestershire and Tobasco sauces to taste.

Note: With any recipe, tasting it a few times throughout the cooking process is vital to a great end result. So pick up a spoon and taste!

2nd Note: If you have some leftover wine in the fridge, add a dash of that too. A little wine never hurts.

Sourdough Pretzels

2009-12-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

I baked bread for the first time last week, and it miraculously turned out very well. So, I decided to take my daring a step further and attempt sourdough pretzels. BOY did these turn out well. I especially like my onion-topped pretzels, with just a dash of garlic salt. They're exactly how pretzels should be, though a bit smaller than I'm used to seeing. The original recipe makes 20 pretzels, so I cut all amounts in half since that seemed a bit much for two people. My boyfriend has requested I make these the next time he throws a football party, and that is testament to how good they are. --AnglophileLV

Sourdough pretzels

makes 10 pretzels, about 4 to 5 inches across, hard crust, soft center.

Ingredients:

3/4 cups proofed starter

1/2 cup hot water

1 tablespoons butter

1.5 tablespoons sugar (1/2 Tb = 1 and ½ tsp)

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 packet yeast

2 3/4ths cups all purpose flour

Toppings could include:

Kosher or sea salt

garlic salt

chopped onions

Directions:

1. Let all ingredients and utensils come to room temperature

2. Add the 1 tablespoon butter, the 1.5 tablespoons sugar, and the 1 tsp salt to the cup of hot water. Cool to lukewarm.

3. Put the proofed starter and 1/2 packet yeast into a bowl. Add the warm water mixture. Make sure the water is not hot because that will kill the yeast.

4. Add 2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring after each addition.

5. Turn out onto a floured board and knead in approximately 3/4 cups more of the flour.

The dough will be very stiff.

6. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn over, and cover with a damp paper towel and a dish towel - you don't want the dough to dry out. Let rise for 2 hours. It helps if you put the dough in a warm place. I preheat the oven and place the bowl on top of the stove which seems to work well.

7. Break off pieces of the dough about the size of a large egg. Roll each piece out with the palm of your hands until it is about 18 inches long and about 1/2 inch in diameter. Twist into the shape of a pretzel.

8. Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil. Drop as many pretzels as will fit without touching into the water and cook about 30 seconds after they have risen to the top. (Or longer, if you like a chewier pretzel.)

9. Remove to a baking sheet and sprinkle with coarse salt.

10. Bake in a preheated 425*F oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and cool on wire racks.

Butternut Squash and Sage pasta for two

2009-12-08T11:38:00.001-08:00

This dish smelled so good that I kinda did a rush job with the photography. I threw this together last night out of odds and ends in the fridge and a ClosetCooking recipe search. This is one of his recipes, much modified by me, and it turned out incredibly good. He went through a sage, onion, squash phase recently, and I'm going through the same phase now. The Hotlinks are actually a very complimentary flavor, so don’t be afraid of them. --AnglophileLV

Butternut squash and sage pasta for two

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
1/3rd onion (chopped)
2 cloves garlic chopped)
2 tablespoons fresh sage (chopped)
1/2 tsp allspice (nutmeg will also work)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Hotlink sausage (chopped) links
1 generous splash white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups butternut squash cubed
enough pasta for two – rottini or penne work well
¼ cup heavy cream
½ Tb flour
parmigiano reggiano to taste

For crispy fried sage leaves:
1 handful whole sage leaves
1 Tb butter

Instructions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the onion and garlic. Saute until onions are partially carmelized and garlic is crispy.
3. Add sage and allspice, sauté until fragrant.
4. Add the chopped sausage.
5. Pour in the wine to deglaze the pan.
6. Add the chicken stock and squash. Simmer until the squash is tender, about 15 minutes.
7. Cook your pasta.
8. When the squash is cooked, remove the vegetables from the pan leaving the juice. Put the vegetables aside for now.
9. Brown 1 Tb butter in a pan, then add the whole sage leaves and fry until crispy.
10. Blend the cream and flour together and mix with the juice, then add the parmesan to taste. Pour in the browned butter from the sage pan, reserving the crispy sage for a garnish. Stir in well.
11. Plate the cooked pasta, pour the sauce over, then top with the squash/onion/sage mix. Garnish generously with the crispy fried sage leaves.

Polka Dot Cookies

2009-12-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

My boyfriend went on a Cookie spree today. I woke to the the smell of baking cookies and the sound of him singing Christmas carols along with Dean Martin and Bing Crosby. Between us, we filled three tins and two plastic baggies with peanut butter cookies, sourdough chocolate chip cookies, and these delicious Polka Dot Cookies. Santa is going to gain ten pounds at our apartment alone with all these goodies. --AnglophileLV

Polka Dot Cookies
Ingredients (Original Recipe Yields around 50 cookies)

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are set.

Leftover Turkey Risotto

2009-12-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

Every time I make risotto, it gets easier. The first time, I was all intimidated, envisioning centuries of Italian grandmothers ready to whack me with wooden spoons if I didn’t keep stirring in a clockwise (or was it counter-clockwise?) direction. Well, after making risotto for a while, the niceties get thrown out the window.

Here is the easy risotto recipe I made with the leftovers of the leftovers from Thanksgiving. All I had on hand was turkey, thyme, an onion and mushrooms. And a bit of Parmesan. That is vital. -- AnglophileLV

Leftover Turkey Risotto: serves 4

Ingredients:
1 can chicken stock
½ C white wine (or a generous dash, enough to reach all the risotto grains in the pan)
1 cup Arborio rice
Butter or olive oil
½ onion, chopped into small pieces
5-10 mushrooms
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 handful turkey bite-sized turkey chunks
½ cup parmesan
Turmeric (optional)

You’ll need 2 skillets for this operation, or one pot for the mushrooms and one skillet for the risotto.

1. Melt 1 Tb butter in the skillet. Add the onions and let them cook down. Add the Arborio rice and stir until it is more golden than white on LOW heat. This can take a while, but you don’t want the rice to burn. If you’re new to risotto, stir constantly. Otherwise, you can let it rest a bit while you’re doing other stuff and let instinct guide you.

2. Heat the chicken stock in the microwave for 2 minutes. Most recipes say to keep it boiling on the stove, but that uses another pot.

3. Add a generous dash of wine (about ½ cup) to the risotto. The wine releases the starches in the rice that will make it creamy later on. When the wine has soaked in, start adding the chicken stock little by little. Add some, wait until it soaks in, then add some more. Stir constantly, make sure the heat is low.

4. Melt butter in a small pot and add thickly chopped mushrooms. Let them sauté down a little, then add 1 tsp of the fresh thyme. Let sauté a little longer, and then add a dash of white wine. Toss in the turkey with the rest of the thyme and stir around.

5. Add the juice that’s accumulating in the mushroom pot to the risotto. 1 can of chicken broth isn’t quite enough, but this little bit of extra liquid seems to do the trick and marry the flavors rather well.

6. When the rice is creamy and not crunchy, add the parmesan, stir, and toss in the mushroom turkey mixture. Salt and pepper to taste (though I found that the chicken stock and parmesan were plenty salty enough).

This is a Wanderfood Wednesday post.

Butternut squash with caramelized onions and crispy fried sage

2009-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year to give thanks, and I'd like to give an extra big helping of Thanks to Closet Cooking. I got the two recipes I made for Thanksgiving this year from Closet Cooking, and they both turned out amazingly well. I hate to go around nailing the leftovers of another food blog (pun intended), but this is what I've been cooking lately, so that's what I'm blogging about.

Incidentally, I will be creating my own leftover turkey risotto recipe tonight, so I haven't thrown originality out the window quite yet.

--AnglophileLV

But for now, bask in the glory that is butternut squash with caramelized onions, crispy fried sage and gorgonzola.

Ingredients:
2 cups butternut squash (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion (sliced)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 tablespoon butter
1 handful sage leaves
1/4 cup gorgonzola dolce (crumbled)

Directions:
1. Toss the butternut squash with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
2. Roast the squash in a preheated 350F oven until tender, about 30-40 minutes and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil and melt the butter in a pan.
4. Add the onion and cook on low until caramelized, about 40-60 minutes.
5. Add the garlic and saute for a few minutes and set aside.
6. Melt the butter in a pan and let it brown.
7. Add the sage leaves and saute until crispy, about 2-3 minutes.
8. Add everything to the pan and toss in the browned butter to coat and remove from heat when the gorgonzola starts to melt.

Steak Voranski

2009-11-25T00:36:00.000-08:00

Who likes to set fire to things? Who likes alcohol in their food?

If you answered “ME! ME!” then this recipe is indeed for YOU! Warning: this recipe is highly flammable so make sure your head is well away from the action when you flambé. But, it looks really cool, so perform it in front of an audience.

This recipe comes from my very own Van Mullem Family Cookbook, courtesy of my aunt Vicky who took a few French cooking classes. --AnglophileinLA

Ingredients & Directions

Brown Sauce:
2/3 cup water
1 Tb cornstarch (or flour)
1 Knorr beef bouillon cube

In a small saucepan, add cornstarch to cold water and mix. Add bouillon and bring to bubbling. Stir until thickened.

Add:
1 ½ Tb Dijon Mustard
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
5 drops of Tabasco

Steak for four – filet mignon if you have the money
Butter or olive oil (I used garlic olive oil from World Market)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
¼ cup cognac
2/3 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Chopped parsley to garnish

Melt butter (or heat oil) in frying pan. When melted and hot, add the rosemary and let “sweat” for one minute. When bubbly and hot, put in steaks.

For “rare” (about 1 ½ inch thick filets) sauté 4 minutes on each side. Now add the cognac, let it heat up a little, and light it with a very LONG lighter. When I did this, flames shot up about a foot and a half. But, I promise, the flames do die out eventually – no need to grab the extinguisher and ruin your hard work. When the flames die out, remove meat to platter and season with salt and pepper.

Pour brown sauce mixture into the pan, stirring until all the cooking juices are well blended. Pour in cream and let this boil until sauce is thickened and smooth. Pour sauce over meat and mashed potatoes, garnish with parsley and serve.

Bon Appetite!

A Wanderfood Wednesday post.

Pumpkin-Ginger Scones

2009-11-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

I didn't do much to alter this recipe - just added a bit of allspice, some pecans, and went liberal with the cinnamon. This is a KILLER AWESOME recipe. These scones could be dessert. The pumpkin flavor is so intense, and then a little hint of candied ginger - I've never had a scone like it. --AnglophileinLA

Pumpkin Ginger Scones

Recipe from The Great Country Inns of America Cookbook

From the Sea Witch Manor Inn in Delaware

½ cup sugar, divided

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

5 tablespoons butter

1 egg

½ cup packed pumpkin

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

Chopped pecans to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425

2. Set aside 1 Tb of sugar.

3. Combine remaining sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

4. Cut in 4 tablespoons of the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

5. Beat egg in small bowl; add pumpkin, sour cream and ginger. Beat until well blended.

6. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and stir until soft dough forms.

7. Turn out dough onto well-floured surface and knead 10 times (my dough was really sticky, just warning you).

8. Roll out dough into 9X6 inch rectangle with a lightly floured rolling pin (or just approximate and mush with your hands like I did).

9. Cut dough into 6 3inch squares with a knife. Cut each square diagonally in half, making 12 triangles. Place triangles 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.

10. Melt the remaining 1 Tb butter. Brush triangles with butter, sprinkle with reserved sugar (mix a little cinnamon in with the sugar too), and bake 10-12 minutes – until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

A Wanderfood Wednesday post.

Brandy, Chocolate Chip and Walnut Chocolate Cake/Bread

2009-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Happy 100th Recipe and belated birthday (oct 9th) to Spice Monkey!!!
I've tried baking a chocolate cake 3x now and FINALLY it turned out moist and delicious. The secret ingredient? Alcohol. Since we've been falling sick (sore throat) lately, we picked up a bottle of brandy and I decided to pour some into the cake batter and voila, so delicious. I've also used dark rum before and it was a success as well. This can either be a cake or bread depending on how much condensed milk or sugar you like in yours. Mine always coasts the bread line since I don't like things too sweet.

Ingredients (makes about 1 loaf--that's right, I don't have a legit cake pan)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tspn baking soda
1/2 cup condensed milk
1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 cup milk (maybe less that 1/4 cup, but this was to bring the mix to batter consistency)
1 tspn salt
1/4 cup (or less/more) sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
3/4 cup walnuts
1/4-1/2 cup ghiradelli semi-sweet choc chips
2 tbspn vegetable oil
2 tbspn brandy (can substitute dark rum for this)

Method

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together (flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt)
2. Add the vanilla extract, condensed milk, and hot water and mix. Add milk, if necessary, to bring the batter to pancake-batter (little bit more liquidy) like consistency.
3. Taste and add sugar accordingly.
4. Add the dashes of brandy, walnuts, and choc chips. Mix well.
5. Add the oil and mix well.
6. pour into loaf pan (grease the bottom with some oil before putting in the batter) and cook at 300-350F for about 25 or so minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Let cool and then enjoy it warm! Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you want to be really indulgent!

Wisconsin Cheddar and Chives Biscuits

2009-10-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today's recipe comes from my very good friend, SunFire. LV is currently in India with no access to internet (or a kitchen for that matter) and I am swamped at work so I'm cooking comfort foods all the recipes of which have already made the blog, so patience, my friends, patience. New dishes and recipes will be attempted soon...hopefully!

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, chopped
1/2 cup grated aged cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3/4 cup buttermilk

Makes 20

Method
1. preheat the oven to 400F, grease a baking sheet.

2. sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper into a large bowl. rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. add the cheese and chives and stir to mix.

3. make a well in the center of the mixture. add the buttermilk and stir vigorously until the batter comes away from the sides of the bowl.

4. place as 2 tablespoon mounds spaced 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

variation: for cheddar and bacon biscuits, substitute 3 tablespoons crumbled cooked bacon for the chives.
This recipe is from The Cook's Encyclopedia of Cookies by Hilaire Walden.

SunFire says: This was my first try. All went well, except that I made them a bit too big, so it took about 25 mins to get to golden brown.

Stir fried tofu and vegetables with Rice Noodles

2009-10-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

This recipe was concocted at random by yours truly. I'm totally in love with the flavor but it has to be said that I was still under the weather and could barely smell or taste anything..

Serves 2
Ingredients

Broccoli - 6 florets
Green beans - 5-7, roughly chopped
Red Mushrooms/creminis -7
Yellow onion - 1/2 either sliced or chopped to match the size of tofu/broccoli
1-2 thai dried red chilli peppers
soy sauce to taste
hoisin sauce to taste - i used about 1 tbspn
sugar - to taste- i used about 1-2 tspn
chicken stock - 3/4 cup
corn starch - 2 tspns mixed in aout 2tbspn water or stock.
rice noodles or any noodles or rice whatever you have at hand
vegetable or sesame oil.
tofu - extra firm or grilled tofu works too.

i would add: bok choy, snow peas, shitake mushrooms, carrots etc., but that's for next time.

Method

1. First I fried up the tofu...you can either deep-fry it or shallow pan fry it until golden on both/all sides. Keep aside; drain on towels. Or If you have Yaki-dofu/grilled tofu, skip this step.

2. In a pan add oil and heat it up on high. next add the thai chillies for about 30sec-1 minute.

3. Add the onions, broccoli, and beans and add about 1 tbspn of stock and saute for about 3 minutes. Lastly add the mushrooms and saute for 1 minute. Keep this mixture aside.

4. In same (or different) pan, on medium low, add some chicken stock (2 tbspn), add hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sugar and keep mixing. Adjust amounts until your palate is satisfied. Add remaining Stock and corn starch liquid and let it thicken up (but not too much). At this point add the veggies and tofu and mix.

5. Pour over rice noodles or rice and serve immediately.

Chicken Soup

2009-10-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

With the crazy abrupt weather change here in Southern California, my body has succumbed to illness. I hate sore throats. Ugh. Anyhow, I had some bouillon cubes at hand and some random veggies. I haven't had the opportunity to go stock up yet, so whatever was in my fridge went into this soup. LV, has a more delectable version here.

Serves 1-2 (if you're all giant sick pigs like me)
Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped/shredded leftover rotisserie chicken
1/2 tspn dried oregano
1 big clove of garlic, minced
1/2 a carrot, sliced
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
a palmful of peas
5 florets of broccoli
some cauliflower (optional)
5 mushrooms (i used creminis-- more flavor that butto/white mushrooms)
whatever else veggie you have on hand...(squash, celery, scallions, bean sprouts, napa cabbage, spinach, snowpeas, etc.)
3 cups chicken stock ( i just used 1.5 cubes of chicken cubes in hot water)
salt to taste
and lots of black pepper to taste.
pasta of choice (i only had some multicolored corkscrew pasta)
some vegetable oil

Method

1. In a pan add the oil and heat it up on medium-high. To this add the garlic and oregano and saute for about 1 minute. Next add the onions and saute for 1 minute.

2. Add the hearty veggies (carrots, broccoli, beans) and saute for about 3 minutes.

3. Lastly add the chicken and mushrooms and mix for about 2 minutes.

4. In a separate pot bring the chicken stock to a simmer and add the cooked veggies and chicken to this. I cooked my pasta in the simmering stock before adding my veggies...you could do that or cook it separately. Lastly add a palmful of peas and bring to a boil. Taste and add lots of black pepper/salt.

Serve hot.

Chicken Tostadas

2009-10-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

I really like the store-bought Rotisserie chicken and we always have leftovers. Usually, we end up making chicken alfredo with fettucine or some sort of chicken paninis. This time we had a craving for mexican and I decided, instead of tacos, to make tostadas. the tostadas bases are store-bought but you can use this filling to make mexican paninis or even soft tacos or quesadillas!

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked chicken breast (rotisserie, works)
2 tspn cumin
1/2 tspn Red chilli powder/Cayenne
1 tspn paprika
1/4 chicken bouillion cube - immersed in about 1.5 tbspn water (=stock)
1 yellow onion sliced like french fries
1 roma tomato, sliced like french fries
1 serrano (substitute green bell peppers. feel free to add red and yellow bell peppers as well)
Splashes of Hot sauce (Tobasco or Cholula works...again, this isn't required)

1 tbspn oil.

Method:

1. In a pan heat up the oil and add the onions and peppers. Saute for about 2 minutes.

2. To this add the dry seasoning (cumin, paprika, cayenne) and saute for 1-2 mins.

3. Next, add the tomatoes and saute for about 30 seconds.

4. Add the chicken and stock and saute uncovered. Lastly add dashes of hot sauce (if you desire).

5. let it heat up and the liquisd should evaporate; should take another 2-4 minutes tops.

you're done! Slap this onto a tortilla or tostada and top off with some raw chopped tomato, onions, scallions, avocado, iceberg lettuce, and mexican/cheddar cheese and you are DONE.
Yum Yum!

Navy Bean and Tomato Soup

2009-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been craving tomato based stews for a while now. I've made navy bean soup before, but this time, I had some gorgeous tomatoes on hand so I threw those in as well and OH-MAH-LAWD, I love me some tomatoes in this "soup."

Ingredients

1 cup Northern white beans cooked until mash-able consistency or 1 can of same beans
1/2 tbspn of canola/vegetable oil
5 garlic cloves - roughly minced
1-2 Dried Red chilli peppers (thai)
2 tomatoes (I used fresh roma's) boiled until mash-able consistency! remove peel.
Water
salt to taste

Method

1. Semi-mash the tomatoes and add them to the cooked beans. Add water just enough to cover the beans.

2. Add salt and let this come to a boil.

3. On the side heat up and oil and to it add the red pepper and garlic. As soon as the garlic begins to brown add this mixture to the soup.

Serve hot atop white rice. So DELISH.

Note: The pic above was my meal for the day and so pardon the "presentation." I was starving after no breakfast and 1 hour of badminton. I also cooked up some beets and added a nice spoonful of plain persian yoghurt to go with my bowl.

Tamarindo

2009-09-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

I love this drink. I first enjoyed it at my favorite pupuseria (Pupuseria la Chicana) in Woodland, CA. It is generally made with dried or fresh tamarind but since I have a big ol' jar of Tamarind extract (picked up from the local indian store), I went with that. It is a deliciously refreshing drink. It (tamarind) is also thought to have medicinal properties in ayurvedic medicine.

Serves 6 (with possible seconds)

Ingredients

2 tbspn of tamarind extract
6 tbspn of sugar (maybe more or less, depends how sweet you like your drink)
1/2 ga of water (or more)

and lastly, but most importantly, LOTS of ice.

Method

1. Mix all ingredients except ice in utensil of choice. Taste, add ice and serve.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-09-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Imagine Toll House, but lighter and fluffier - that's what these turned out to be. I don't know whether it was the shortening or the sourdough starter, but one or both of them made these into a melt-in-your-mouth consistancy. I highly recommend this recipe. My mom swears she can taste a slight sour kick to the cookie, but I sure can't. --AnglophileLV
***On consideration, these cookies could have used more chocolate chips. So throw in 1 and 1/2 bags if you are making a half-batch like I did.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe makes 70 cookies, cut in half for smaller batches)

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour -- unsifted
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter -- softened
1 cup shortening -- softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar -- packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sourdough starter
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups walnuts -- chopped
2 12 oz pkgs chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine butter, shortening, sugars and mix well. Add eggs and beat until all are blended. Add vanilla and sourdough starter. Beat in flour, soda, salt and mix well. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Pigeon Pea Soup version 3

2009-09-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, you have that bag of pigeon pea that you bought and you don't know what to do with it.

Here is version 3 (vers 1 and vers 2)

Ingredients

1/2 cup of pigeon pea, soaked overnight and cooked to a mashable consistency with 1/2 a serrano (can omit the serrano)
2-3 cloves of garlic, roughly minced
1 dried red chilli pepper
1 tbspn veg. oil
salt to taste
a pinch of turmeric

Method

1. Mash the pigeon peas, add salt and turmeric powder and mix.

2. On the side in a pan heat up some oil and add the dried red pepper and garlic and let it cook on high until the garlic browns. Add this hot oil, infused with the essence and spice from garlic and chilli pepper, into the pigeon pea mixture. Mix and let it come to a boil and you're done.

Goes well with basmati rice and yoghurt and bajjes.

Sourdough Pancakes

2009-09-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

I found another use for my sourdough starter: supermodel! And it makes a darn good pancake too. It's very important to serve these rugged Alaskan pancakes with really good jam, fresh fruit, and real maple syrup. And a little whipped cream. --AnglophileLV

Sourdough Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 large egg, well beaten
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

1. The night before: Mix 1 cup starter with the flour and milk in a large bowl (not metal). Place the bowl in a warm place, cover and let it stand until morning.

2. The next day: add beaten egg, oil, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar to sour dough mixture; mix well.

3. Heat a lightly greased skillet over medium heat. The pan is ready when a few drops of water bubble and skitter rapidly around.

4. Cook pancakes until surface is covered with bubbles. Turn and cook other side until golden brown.
Makes about 7 to 14 pancakes.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

2009-09-24T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have a pot of sourdough starter sitting in my kitchen. His name is Beauregard, and that reminds me, I need to feed him. He had his first outing last night when I made sourdough pizza dough. The thing to remember about sourdough is that it’s not actually that sour. Commercial sourdough has god-knows-what added to make it overly sour, but if you’re making bread from a starter, you can sweeten it easily (using salt!), but making it more sour is actually a little tricky. So banish from your minds the sourdough from the stores; this is completely different. --AnglophileLV

For the sauce, I used around ½ cup of my homemade tomato sauce, 1 can tomato paste, a few dashes of dried oregano, a little garlic powder, and 3 teaspoons sugar (tomato tends to be acidic and tart so always taste your sauce to see if it needs sugar).

Note: If you pre-bake the shells, they will tend to stay fluffier. If you just top them and bake them, they will tend to be flatter.

Ingredients: (recipe source: Sourdough Home)

1 1/2 c mature Sourdough starter

1 T olive oil

1 t Salt

1 1/2 c Flour

Place your pizza stone in the oven if you have one and preheat oven to 450F. (Try 550F if your oven will take you there.)

Mix ingredients, working in the flour until you have a soft dough. If the dough gets too dry, add some more starter. If you've used all the starter, add a bit of water.

Once you've kneaded the dough, cover it with a damp paper towel and let rest for 1/2 hour. This lets the dough relax, so forming the pizza is easier. This recipe does not require the rising capabilities of sourdough, it just uses the taste of the starter.

Once the dough has rested, roll out into a flat round pie-like shape. I rolled my dough out on some kind of silicone parchment paper type thing, but non-stick aluminum foil would be my next best bet. Don’t use parchment if you plan to broil – I did that once, it burned to a crisp. Flames leapt. It was not good.

Once you have a nice round pie shell, you may pre-bake it or top it and bake it. To pre-bake it, bake about 5 minutes. It doesn't take long, so watch carefully.

After I prebaked the shell, I noticed that it wasn’t browning very nicely, so I brushed egg around the outer edge to make a pretty golden crust. Unfortunately, this made the crust a little crunchier, but it was still good. Then I dusted the egg covered portion with garlic salt.

When you're ready to top the pizza, rub a bit of olive oil on the surface, as this helps keep the crust from getting soggy. Then top with your ingredients. I went with mozzarella, parmesan (to help the cheese brown better), pepperoni, onions and green bell pepper. Then bake for 5 minutes and check – continue checking until the cheese is browned and bubbly on the edges. To get the veggies fully cooked, I had to put the broiler on for 40 seconds in addition to the baking time.

Masala Chai

2009-09-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

My Gourmet magazine came in the mail yesterday, and may I say, if there is a magazine that deserves to go under in this blighted economy – it’s that one. To read a complete recipe, you have to flip through more pages than a choose-your-own-adventure novel. Then, when you’ve flipped back and forth ten times, you find an ingredient or two (or all) that you have never seen or heard of in your life and that is impossible to get, thus causing you to ditch the entire recipe. Dried rose hips? Really? Annatto seeds? And then they have articles like “if you had $1000 to spend on a meal in your city, where would you splurge $700 on dinner?” Correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t bank executives been skewered by the media for less? Is that really appropriate for this economy – or any economy? And every recipe requires every pot and pan in the cupboard, along with one or two specialty items that NO ONE HAS…

Ok, enough of my diatribe against Gourmet. I could go on (I really could), but I’d rather tell you about the one appealing recipe I found before I chucked the rest of that pretentious rot in the bin: Masala Chai. And I still had to tweak the recipe to be more user-friendly, and spicier (they forgot to add the cayenne chili powder, which makes Chai so much better).

Masala Chai for Two

½ tsp ground cardamom (or 5 pods, seeded and ground)
1/4th tsp ground cinnamon
2 white peppercorns
1/8th tsp fennel seeds
1 cups milk
1 tsp dark brown sugar (or to taste)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8th ground red pepper (cayenne)
1 cups water
2 teabags strong black tea

Need a mortar and pestle

Grind together cardamom, cinnamon stick, peppercorns and fennel seeds.
Bring milk to a simmer (careful not to boil over!) in a heavy saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, spice mix, ginger and 1/8th tsp salt. Reduce heat to low and simmer gently, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.
Brew tea using the 1 cup water and 2 teabags. (really easy to do in a microwave)
Add the tea to the milk mixture and cook over low heat for a minute.
Pour chai through a tea strainer into your cup or teapot.

This post is part of the Wanderfood Wednesday food blog party.

Sourdough Scones

2009-09-22T00:20:00.000-07:00

Meet Beauregard. Originally from San Francisco, Beauregard ventured to Alaska in 1905 with the J.P. Morgan Company when the company cook (also named Beauregard – confusing in a British novel sort of way, I know) brought it with him to help feed the men building the railroad into the Kennicott copper mine.

Beauregard is a 104 year old sour dough starter.

It has been passed down through miners and restaurant owners to the owners of Sourdough Sunrise Bed & Breakfast in Seward, Alaska. And now, thanks to my boyfriend’s mother who stayed at the B&B and brought some of old Beau back with her, Beauregard has reached the sunny shores of Southern California.

I'll go into the Care and Feeding of sourdough starters later, but for now, check out this scone recipe for the best scones any of us have ever tasted - as stated this morning by everyone at the breakfast table. --AnglophileLV

Sourdough Scones (from Simply Sourdough - The Alaska Way - by Kathy Doogan)

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
2 Tb sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4th tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup currants or dried cranberries
1 egg
3/4 cup sourdough starter
1 Tb milk
2 Tb raw sugar (for topping)

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Cut in the butter with 2 knives (or a pastry blender- so much easier) until the mix looks like coarse meal. Stir in currants (or cranberries).

Break egg into a 1-cup measure, beat lightly with a fork, then fill the cup with sourdough starter until all of it measures 1 cup. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix lightly until just combined (do NOT overmix). Turn out onto lightly floured board and gently knead 8-10 times. Dough should be very soft. You can use more flour - but use as little as possible since it's better for the dough to be too wet than too dry (too much flour creates a brick).

Gently pat dough into an 8" diameter circle and cut into 8 wedges. Brush the tops wtih milk and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Transfer wedges to a lightly greased baking sheet - seperating them from eachother by at least 2 inches.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-18 minutes until golden.

Fry Bake

2009-09-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

This is essentially fried pizza dough - and if that isn't a good idea, I don't know what is. The fry bake is so puffy that you can split it open like a pita and fill it with things like my Carribean Pigeon Pea Curry, which is what I did. --AnglophileLV

Caribbean Fry Bake – makes 4

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4ths cups water* (Knead dough for a few minutes)
Vegetable oil for frying (enough to just cover the fry bake dough)
flour for dusting

Directions:
1. Divide dough into tennis ball size dough balls. Dust your counter, hands and rolling pin with flour and roll them out into 6 inch diameter circles.
2. Heat the oil in a deep pan and place the dough circle so it flops away from you (otherwise you could get spattered with hot oil).
3. When the upturned side gets puffy and the bottom side is slightly gold, use a fork try to flip it to the other side in a quick motion. Continue flipping until both sides are a nice golden brown color.
4. Take it from the oil at this point and place on paper towels to get rid of some of the excess oil.
5. Sprinkle with garlic salt.

Repeat these steps for the remaining dough you have.

Caribbean Pigeon Pea Curry

2009-09-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Pocketmouse, I have a bag of pigeon peas. And it occurred to me too late that I don’t like pea soup in any incarnation. So I’ve been looking for alternate recipes for pigeon peas, and it turns out that they are used a lot in the Caribbean. After hunting around for recipes, I compiled this one. Don’t let the name “Pigeon Pea” freak you out – they’re lentils.
--AnglophileLV

Caribbean Pigeon Pea Curry – serve with long grain rice

Pigeon Pea – 3/4 cup (soaked overnight in water- VERY important)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ onion chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed
1/2 sliced jalapeno
1 1/2 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
¼ tsp garlic powderdash black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (check near complete to add more if required)
½ Cup chicken broth

1. Boil pigeon peas in water until soft, about 1-2 hours
A disgusting thick head will develop and will boil over unless you skim it off of the top. This will only happen once, so after you skim you can let the peas simmer and not worry about them rearing their ugly head again.

2. Cook the onions, garlic and jalapeno in the oil in a medium sized skillet.

3. Add the curry powder, cumin, garlic powder and pepper. Stir until everything is coated in the curry mixture.

4. Add the already cooked and drained pigeon peas and stir to coat.

5. Pour in the chicken broth and cook down until the curry is less watery and more curry-like. Taste to see if it needs salt or more curry powder and cumin. If you make too many pigeon peas, they will soak up the seasoning and the curry will be bland (this happened to me – I put in 1 cup peas instead of the 3/4ths cup, so I had to add more seasoning and chicken broth).

*Serve with long grain rice and Fry Bake

Roasted Vegetable Rice Salad

2009-09-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

You might think you recognize this recipe from Closet Cooking, because he provided the inspiration for it. But this is Soooo much simpler. See, I aspired to his recipe, but I didn't have some of the ingredients, and others were just too darn difficult to get. This is his Zucchini and Corn salad made easy, for those of us who are not stocked with quinoa. --AnglophileLV

*Also, I used some of the leftover taco seasoning to flavor the pulled pork in my Enchiladas.

Roasted Vegetable Rice Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked rice (I used Trader Joe’s wild rice)
1 batch taco seasoning (see below)
1 ear grilled corn cut from cob
1 zucchini chopped into sticks, grilled, and chopped into small pieces
1 roasted red bell pepper chopped into pieces
1 cup black beans
1 jalapeno choppped fine
1 green onion chopped
1 tablespoon oil
2 lime’s juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the rice. Add the taco seasoning.
2. Mix the rice, corn, zucchini, black beans, jalapeno pepper, red pepper, and green onion and in a large bowl.
3. Mix in the oil, lime juice, salt and pepper.

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Directions:1. Mix everything.

Fresh Strawberry Daquiri

2009-09-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

With all of the fresh strawberries at the Farmers Market, a daquiri was the perfect drink to go with my enchiladas. --AnglophileLV

Strawberry Daiquiri Ingredients:

2 oz light rum

1 oz lime juice

1/2 oz triple sec

1/2 tsp superfine sugar

1 cup ice

5 strawberries (at least)

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and garnish with strawberry.

Pulled Pork Enchiladas

2009-09-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

Some meals are so good that it's a bad thing. Like these pork enchiladas that tasted SO GOOD that I was forced to go back for seconds. Seriously, this may be the best tasting thing I have ever made, and I didn't even like enchiladas that much before. Even my boyfriend liked them, and he doesn't like Mexican food! I attribute the success of this recipe to the fact that pulled pork is good in anything, and my homemade tomato sauce was an ingredient in the enchilada sauce. So please, I beg you, try this recipe. You'll only regret it if you're on a diet. --AnglophileLV

Pork Enchiladas

1 lb pulled pork (Costco has pulled pork with no bbq sauce)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
A dash of garlic powder
3 slices munster cheese, cut in half
6 tortillas
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (or Colby jack, or a mix of cheeses) for the top
1 packet of enchilada sauce (Kroger Enchilada Sauce Mix, original)
8 oz Tomato Sauce (I left out the bacon when I made my tomato sauce for this)
1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350'.
Place ½ slice of Munster cheese on the first tortilla, followed by a few fork-fulls of the pulled pork – don’t overpack. Wrap it like a burrito and place it in a baking dish, seam side down. Repeat for the rest of the 6 tortillas.

To make the enchilada sauce, follow the directions on the back of the packet. I actually highly recommend the Ralph’s brand enchilada sauce – Kroger. The sauce turned out incredibly well, and I wouldn’t change a thing. So, mix the packet’s contents with 8 oz tomato sauce (Roast your own!) and the water, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Then pour it all over the tortillas you just wrapped.

Top with cheese.

Bake until the cheese is melted, around 15 minutes.

Parmesan Crusted Zucchini Dippers

2009-09-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Closet Cooking yet again makes an appearance on my dinner table. I love that guy, I really do. He’s into everything I am: eating seasonally with global recipes. Here is one of his latest, faithfully reproduced by yours truly: Parmesan Crusted Baked Zucchini Sticks with Marinara Sauce. For the sauce, I did my new favorite recipe of throwing a bunch of chopped tomatoes, ½ onion, a handful of baby carrots chopped, fresh basil, oregano and parsley, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and wine into a casserole dish. Put that in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, then blend in a food processor (or immersion blender – my new best friend) and you have delicious sauce. OH, don’t forget to add 1 can tomato paste, parmesan and ½ tsp of sugar. Those are important.

Incidentally, I didn’t put all of the parmesan bread crumb mix into the bowl. I put in a little, used it up, and put in a little more when I needed it. Now I have a reserve of uncontaminated parmesan breadcrumbs in a ziplock baggie that I can dredge fish in, or chicken, or pork, or anything else that would taste good baked in breadcrumbs (and really, what doesn’t taste good baked in bread crumbs?).
But onto the recipe, which makes use of late summer’s finest. --AnglophileLV

Parmesan Crusted Baked Zucchini Sticks with Marinara Sauce
(makes 4 appetizer sized servings)

Ingredients:1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian style)
1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano (grated)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 pound zucchini/courgettes (sliced into sticks and pat dry)
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 eggs (lightly beaten)

Directions:
1. Mix the bread crumbs, parmigiano reggiano and oregano in a bowl.
2. Season the zucchini with salt and pepper.
3. Dip the zucchini in the egg and then dredge in the bread crumb mixture.
4. Place the zucchini on a baking sheet in a single layer with the skin side down.
5. Bake in a preheated 425F oven until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Old Fashioned Apple Pie

2009-09-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

Apple season has arrived, and the fruit stands in Santa Ynez are toppling with fresh picked apples of all kinds. There is nothing better than apple-stand apples--they taste completely different than grocery store apples. Sweeter, crisper, so good. This is the first of what I hope will be a series of apple pies, since I found a goldmine of recipes from a real pro pie-maker. This is the basic Old Fashioned Apple Pie, and it's very simple. It should be noted that I always put more cinnamon in than the recipe suggests. In my opinion, there can never be too much cinnamon. --AnglophileLV

Old Fashioned Apple Pie

Pillsbury pie crusts - in the box, not the pie tin
5 medium-large apples peeled and sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¾ cup sugar
¼ tsp salt (a little less than)
2Tb flour

melted butter, sugar, cinnamon (to brush over the top crust)

In a large bowl, mix all of the above and pour apples into prepared crust. Pat them down with your hands.
Cover with second pie crust (or cut that crust into strips and make a lattice).
Brush the top crust with butter, sugar and cinnamon.
Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees – then take out and cover the edges of the crust with foil so they don’t burn.
Bake for another 20 minutes, but check towards the end to make sure the top isn’t burning (mine got a little singed).
Let sit for 2 hours before serving.

Boeuf Bourguignon

2009-09-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

I am definitely not going all “Julie and Julia” on you. Mrs. Child would never use a packet to make her Boeuf Bourguignon. But, a packet is what I have, in addition to frozen Costco steak, carrots, fresh herbs and bacon. So in the dish they go! I’m serving this British-style with peas and potatoes and a hunk of French bread. As my Grandfather sings whenever he’s making something remotely French: Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

Without further ado – marinate the chef, and begin. --AnglophileinLA

Boeuf Bourguignon

Ingredients:
1 Packet Colman’s Beef Bourguignon mix
A little under 2 cups – half water, half red wine
1-2 Chopped carrots
½ Onion chopped
Chopped fresh parsley
Chopped fresh thyme
3 cloves chopped garlic
1 lb Stew beef, cubed
3 slices smoked bacon, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the beef, onions, carrots, garlic, bacon and herbs into a casserole dish.
Mix the contents of the Colman’s packet with the water/wine mixture and pour over the beef and vegetables.
Cover and cook for 1-2 hours, until the beef is tender.

Desi Pan-Fried Shrimp/ Shrimp Rava fry

2009-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

Fresh Shrimp - 10
Red Chilli powder 1/2-1tspn
Salt - 1/2-1tspn
Rice Flour - 2 tbspn
Bombay Rava - 2tbspn
Asafoetida - a pinch
Veg. Oil - to pan-fry (not deep fry)

Method:

1. Mix all dry ingredients together.
2. Assuming shrimps are a little damp, roll them around in the dry mix and fry them up in the pan. This shouldn't take long, maybe a couple of minutes on each side.

Serve with a wedge of lemon alongside rice and this and this.

Cabbage-Coconut Salad / Koshimbiri

2009-09-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Whenever I visit my mother's family (they are big on seafood) this salad is always a side dish. I recently picked up a gigantic cabbage in the market and just had to try this out. It turned out really delicious. I enjoy the crunch and the mild sweetness of raw cabbage and how it works with the red onions and coconut.

Ingredients:

Cabbage, chopped up - 1-1.5 cups
Red Onions, chopped up - 1/2-1 cup.
Grated fresh coconut - 2 tbspns
Fresh thai Green Chillis chopped up finely - 1 (use 1/4-1/2 serrano or jalapeno)
Fresh Cilantro, finely chopped - 1 tbspn or so.
Freshly squeezed lime juice - 1-2 tspn
Salt to taste.

Method:

1. In a bowl mix everything with your hands, really get into it as if you are trying to make some dough. This is to ensure that that the flavors of the cabbage, onions, coconut, cilantro, and chillies intermingle. Tossing a salad works only if the star is your dressing...not in this case.

2. Add the salt and lime juice and lightly toss. I don't like my salad too tangy. I enjoy the taste of the veggies with the coconut quite a lot. Give it a try!

It is generally served as an accompaniment to meals...very delicious with seafood based dishes and rice.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

2009-09-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

I’m still using the leftovers from my Luau last week, and I’ve been staring at this pineapple trying to figure out what to do with it. We don’t drink that many Mai-Tais, and I already made pineapple fried rice. But then I found a recipe for Pineapple Upside-down cake that used fresh pineapple (instead of canned), and decided to try it out with a couple of my own additions: rum and orgeat syrup. I’ve seen a number of pineapple cake recipes that use almonds and almond extract, but I didn’t have those—I did have the orgeat syrup though. --AnglophileLV

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 cups fresh pineapple - peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch chunks
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Adding up to 3/4 cups liquid, combine 1 Tb dark rum and 1 Tb Orgeat Syrup with milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a small bowl stir together the melted butter and the brown sugar; spread the mixture evenly in a well buttered 9 inch round cake pan. Pat the pineapple very dry between several sheets of paper towel, and arrange it evenly on top of the sugar mixture.

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture in three parts alternately with the milk mix, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat well after each addition. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

Place the cake in the middle of the oven. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge, and invert the cake onto a plate. Serve the cake warm or at room temperature.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

2009-09-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

This tomato sauce recipe is a little different - you chop all the vegetables and roast them in the oven. The bacon and balsamic vinegar give it a more round and complex flavor, which is why I left out the tomato paste when I made it. I think next time I'll try adding a half can of tomato paste for texture and color. But, as is, this is really good and very easy. There's nothing like home-made tomato sauce in summer. The basic recipe is from Closet Cooking, my second favorite food blog, but I added a lot more tomatoes, parmesan and used more fresh herbs. --AnglophileLV

Roasted Tomato Sauce - adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients:
8 medium tomatoes quartered
1/2 small onion chopped
3 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
A dash of whatever red wine you’re drinking with the meal
5 sprigs fresh oregano (a small handful)
a small handful of fresh basil
3 pieces bacon chopped (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
fresh parsley (chopped)
1/2 C fresh grated parmesan

Directions:
1. Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, oil, balsamic vinegar, oregano, basil, bacon, salt and pepper in a bowl and toss to coat.
2. Place the mixture in a baking dish and bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 45 minutes.
3. Place the mixture in a food processor.
4. Use the food processor or immersion blender to chop the sauce to the consistency that you desire.
5. Toss with the fresh parsley, parmesan and pasta to serve.

Garlic and Scallions Mashed Potatoes

2009-09-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ingredients
2 White or Russet potatoes, cooked to mashable consistency.
3 scallion stalks, chopped up.
1 large garlic clove
Pepper and Salt to taste
Milk
1/4-1/2 tbspn butter (I generally don't have butter at home except ones that some restaurants give with take-outs. I use 1/2 of that amount).

Method:

1. Mash potato, garlic, salt, pepper, butter.
2. After it is more or less uniform, add the milk to make it smooth. Also then add the scallions and mix thoroughly.
3. Serve warm!

Mango Avocado Salsa

2009-09-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

My recipes are becoming more and more "fusion" - and my Luau reflected that bigtime. Think Indian-Mexican-Hawaiian fusion, like Kalua pork tacos with Indian beans and fried rice, and this mango and avocado salsa. Incidentally, the leftovers made for fantastic Kalua Pork nachos. But this salsa didn't last long enough to become leftovers. --AnglophileLV

Mango Avocado Salsa

INGREDIENTS
1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced
1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced
4 medium/small tomatoes, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/8 cup chopped red onion (a small handful)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, combine the mango, avocado, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, and garlic. Stir in the salt, lime juice, red onion, and olive oil. To blend the flavors, refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

Pele Fried Rice

2009-09-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

For my Birthday Luau last Saturday, I wanted to create something authentically Hawaiian - that was before I realized that Poi and Spam are disgusting and I would have to branch out. So, I took inspiration from the tropics and grabbed a pineapple, some soy sauce and a jalapeno to create what I call: Pele Fried Rice. Pele is the goddess of fire, and this is pretty spicy by my standards. --AnglophileLV

Pele Fried Rice
(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:1 tablespoon oil
2 shallots (sliced)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 jalapeno chopped fine
1 red pepper (diced)
3 tablespoons chicken stock (or vegetable broth)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup cashews (roasted)
3 cups cooked rice (preferably a day old)
1 cup pineapple (cut into bite sized pieces)
1 cup cooked shrimp (optional)
1/4 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup currants
2 green onions (sliced)
1/4 cup cilantro (chopped)

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan.
2. Add the shallots, garlic, jalapeno and red bell pepper and stir-fry until fragrant, about a minute.
3. Add the chicken stock, soy sauce, curry powder and sugar and stir-fry.
4. Add the cashews and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
5. Add the rice, break up any clumps and stir-fry for a few minutes.
6. Add the pineapple, shrimp, peas and currants and stir-fry to mix them in.

At this point it is vitally important to TASTE the mixture to see if it needs more soy sauce or more curry powder. I know I added more of both than the recipe says.

7. Remove from heat and serve garnished with chopped green onions and cilantro.

Pizza Sandwich a la LV

2009-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Bon Appetit gets credit for giving me the idea, but their recipe didn't go nearly far enough. They left out key ingredients, and that I cannot forgive. And they make their recipes unnecessarily difficult just to be 'more gourmet than thou,' which I find annoying. A few shortcuts never hurt anyone. So, here is my recipe for their idea (which was a good one): The Pizza Sandwich. Make it the night before and take it to work the next day - oh so deliciously practical. --AnglophileLV

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 Tb extra-virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, pressed
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
2 tsps sugar
1 tsp dried oregano (or 2 fresh sprigs chopped)
1 tsp coarse kosher salt
4 ciabatta rolls split (Costco makes great ciabatta bread!)

LV's Twist:
4 Slices mozzerella (BA hasn't heard about pre-sliced cheese yet, so this one's mine)
2 cups mixed greens

shredded chicken
Fresh basil to taste
Thin sliced salami (or pastrami) to taste
Sundried tomatoes to taste
Pine nuts to taste

Directions:
Heat 4 Tb of the olive oil and the garlic in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat for about a minute, until the garlic is golden. Stir in tomato paste, sugar, oregano and salt. Cook until tomato spread starts bubbling. Remove from heat and let cool.

Spread 1 tsp tomato spread on top and bottom halves of rolls. Layer the rest of the ingredients (mozzerella, mixed greens, fresh basil, sundried tomatoes, salami, pine nuts). Cut in half, put it in the fridge, and your lunch is MADE for tomorrow.

Be the envy of all the other kids at the lunchtable.

Easy Saffron Shrimp Risotto

2009-09-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

Normally, I wouldn’t use cooked shrimp in this recipe. The purist in me wants everything done from scratch, and raw shrimp should be thrown in at the last minute to contribute their flavor to the risotto. But, what I have is frozen pre-cooked shrimp. And since I’m poor, that’s what I’m bloody well using, and it still tastes very good. --AnglophileLV

Ingredients
28 ounces chicken stock
1 tablespoon grapeseed or vegetable oil
1/2 a small white onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup arborio rice
1 cup white wine
Large pinch of saffron, small pinch powdered ginger
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Squeeze of lemon
20 cooked shrimp (5 per person)

Bring stock to a low simmer in a medium pot. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Cook garlic and onion until the onion is translucent.. Add rice and a pinch of salt. Sauté until rice is slightly tanned. Add wine; bring to a simmer, stirring, until rice has absorbed most of wine. Add 2 ladles of stock to rice; simmer, stirring, until rice has absorbed most of stock. At this point, add the pinch of Saffron. Continue adding stock, allowing rice to absorb it before adding the next ladleful until the stock is gone. Stir in butter. Turn off heat. Stir in grated cheese, then add shrimp until they are hot. Cover and let sit 2 minutes. Divide among 4 bowls and squeeze fresh lemon over each. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

*I added some finely chopped green onions for some color, since I had some on hand that needed to be used.

The Perfect Mai Tai

2009-09-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

The Perfect Mai Tai

If you've ordered a Mai Tai in a regular restaurant, you haven't had the real thing. Even if you go to Hawaii and order one, chances are, you haven't had the real thing. This is because most places use mixes and completely ignore the classic recipe. I first learned what a Mai Tai could be on Kauai at Tahiti Nui - a genuine, hole-in-the-wall, Tiki Bar on the North Shore that serves the best Mai Tai on the island. In fact, that's pretty much all they serve. The waitresses look confused if you order anything else. So I didn't. After my boyfriend and I got back from Kauai, I was left with a bad craving for Mai Tais. We looked all over the web and finally found a recipe from a former bartender of Trader Vic's - where the Mai Tai was created. Here is the real deal, with some pineapple juice thrown in. --AnglophileLV

1 Part Lime Juice
2.5 Parts Dark Rum (Appleton Estate 12 year Jamaica Rum)
1 Part Orgeat syrup (Torani makes one)
1 Part Orange Curacao
1.5 Parts Simple Syrup
A Dash of Pineapple Juice (mango juice is also tasty)

Garnish glass with a wedge of Pineapple and a marachino cherry - and an umbrella just for fun.

WanderFood Wednesday

Garlic Coconut Chutney

2009-08-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

I love chutneys. Hopefully, with the success of this one, I will be making more.

Ingredients

1 large clove of garlic
3/4 cup shredded fresh coconut (if you have frozen fresh grated coconut, thaw it out)
1 Tbspn tamarind paste
Salt to taste
1 tspn red chilli powder
Some water or coconut milk

Method

1. In a food processor or blender, blend all of the above. The amount of water or coconut milk (for a smoother taste) you add depends, and generally you will need to add it so the ingredients can blend. I added about 1/2 cup. You might need more. The chutney shouldn't be liquidy or too dry, so add water/coconut milk with caution.

Serve with warm pita bread.

The chutney lasts well for about 10 days and makes a delicious quick breakfast along with pitas, if you don't mind the garlic breath, i.e.

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread

2009-08-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

I got a loaf pan finally and decided to try baking some banana nut bread. Someone told me baking is about precision and accuracy (this reminded me of biochemistry lab) but, screw that, I'm a rebel. Since I wasn't following a recipe, I did not measure things accurately but here is an estimation.

Ingredients

whole wheat flour - 1-1.5 cups
evaporated unsweetened milk (normally i would use regular 2% milk, but i didn't have that) - I used enough to get to a pancake batter consistency maybe about 1 cup
sweetened condensed milk - 1 can (but i had some leftover since I don't like it too sweet)
Cardamom (green) powder (optional) - I had these whole (I used 1), so i got the seeds out and TRIED to powder them and failed..so I just threw the seeds in; just use vanilla extract if you have that.
Ripe bananas - 2
chopped walnuts - 3/4-1 cup
Baking powder - 1 tspn
Vegetable Cooking oil - 1 tbspn and some to coat the loaf pan.

Method

1. I found a sieve so I sifted the wheat flour. (yay, I've never done this before, it was exciting. not.)

2. To this add the baking powder and mix.

3. Add the condensed milk and regular milk and mix. Don't add everything at once, since you might add too much. I used my hands and it was gooey until you get it to the pancake batter consistency. I recommend starting out with some regular milk and then working with the condensed milk until you get the desired sweetness. Then you can add more regular milk until desired consistency.

4. Mix, mix, mix. Taste to check sweetness. Add the vegetable oil, roughly chopped up banana bits and walnuts and mix some more!

5. Pour into coated loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 30 or so minutes or until done.

Tastes best when it is warm.

Tangy Gourmet Potatoes

2009-08-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

My brother came up with this recipe. We tried it out on beans and broccoli but both of those veggies couldn't hold the marinade too well. We had a bag of potatoes (fingerlings + baby reds + purple potatoes) lying around and well, best thing to do: grill 'em up in the oven.

I didn't measure ANYTHING, here's an estimate

Ingredients

Potatoes
Fresh lime juice - 1 tbspn
extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbspn
italian seasoning (spices like oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc.) - 1 tspn
garlic powder with herbs - 1 tspn
Salt - 1/2 tspn (to taste)
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tspn

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Mix everything but the potatoes.
3. Coat the potatoes with marinade and bake in oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy with other grilled veggies or as is.

Pigeon Pea Soup Version 2 aka Varn

2009-08-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

I like this version more than the previous one. I could eat this everyday. This is extremely simple to make and has very subtle flavoring. Pair it up with white rice and a spicy side dish, and you're set.

Serves 2 - 3
Ingredients

Pigeon Pea - 3/4 cup (soaked overnight in water)
salt to taste
cumin powder - 2
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn-1/2 tspn
ghee (optional; oil or butter is not a substitute in this case) - 1/2 tbspn
water

Method

1. Boil pigeon peas in water until mashable consistency.

2. Mash and add water until desired consistency is reached. I like mine semi-liquidy so I can enjoy it on rice.

3. To this add the turmeric, cumin powder, salt, and ghee. Mix well and bring to a boil on the stove.

4. Serve over hot white rice and that's it!

Seasoned Beans / Beans Upkari

2009-08-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite upkaris....nothing against this and this, but beans..mmmm i love me some crunchy beans. I picked up some crunchy tender young beans from Costco the other day and decided to do this.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

green french beans (that's right, i didnt measure) -2-3 fistfuls (chop to desire length or leave whole)
salt to taste
mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn - 1 tspn
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn
Vegetable oil - 2 tspn

Method

1. In a wok/pan, heat up the oil (on medium-high) and add the mustard seeds. Wait for this pop around. At that point add the chilli and turmeric powder.

2. Add the beans to this (enjoy nice sizzling sound) and saute until the powders and mustard seeds are coated around the beans. Add salt and saute some more (about 1 minute)

3. Add some water, cover and let it cook for about 5-8 minutes. Cook until desired 'crunch.'

4. Done! Eat as an accompaniment or as is with some pita!

Yellow Pohvu / Seasoned Flattened Rice Flakes

2009-08-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I went to little India in Artesia for (what felt like) the first time with my friend, LV. I picked up two versions of flattened rice : a "thin" one and a "thick" one. I enjoyed the WTH-is-that-look on LV's face and I hope this recipe will clear up some of that look.

Serves 2-3
Ingredients:
thick poha - 2 cups
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn
salt to taste
mustard seeds - 1tspn
thai green chilli - 1 sliced roughly
Curry leaves - about 7
Vegetable oil - 1 tbspn or tspn
Dried Red chilli - 1
Shredded Coconut - 1 tbspn

Method

1. Wash the rice flakes with water and squeeze out the excess water and let it dry a bit in a bowl. To this add the coconut, turmeric, and salt. Mix.

2. On the stove in a wok, heat up the oil. Time to temper it!Add the mustard seeds and red chilli and wait for the popping to begin, once this happens, add the curry leaves and green chillies (enjoy the hissing sound). Saute for about 30 or so seconds and then add the poha.

3. stir until the turmeric is evenly distributed and the mustard seeds are spread out evenly. Takes about 3 minutes.

4. Serve Hot!

there are various versions of this: some people add some sugar and finely chopped potatoes. some add onions. some add carrots and peas...I like it simple.

Blueberry and Strawberry Lassi

2009-08-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I really love yoghurt based anything. This time I used honey as a sweetener instead of sugar. I think, possibly, it's a healthier option (If you use your local honey then chances of spring time allergies are reduced! yay!) than sugar and it's brings an interesting richness to the drink.

Ingredients:

Serves 3
Fresh blueberries 1 cup
strawberries - chopped 1/2-1 cup
Honey to taste (can use sugar instead)
Milk and/or Yoghurt - 1/2-1 cup (add water if you like it to be more liquidy)
Ice cubes

Method:

1. In your blender, blend everything except the ice at first. Taste and add honey to counter balance the tartness. The honey may be a bit weird with the overpowering taste of the berries, but I really liked the combination of the tartness of the yoghurt and rich and aromatic sweetness of the honey. Add the ice and drink!!!

Note: I think honey and yoghurt combo without the berries will be amazing. I will try it out and report shortly.

Sweet Pepper Pakoras/ Bajjaes/Fritters

2009-08-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hmmm hot masala chai and bajjaes at my kuladev temple in Aversa. Hmmm, hot bajjaes alongwith hot rice served with dalithoy....*drool face* Well nothing to it, its a vegetable of your choice (sweet peppers in the picture above) dipped in a savory batter and deep-fried. Often served as an accompaniment or appetizer with or without chutney.

Ingredients

1 cup besan/chick-pea flour
1/2-3/4 cup water (give or take, the batter needs to coat veggies)
1-2 tspn red chilli powder
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
a couple of pinches of asafoetida
salt to taste
1 tbspn corn flour (optional)
Vegetable of your choice: Sweet peppers (onions, cauliflower, eggplant, carrots, squash, sweet potato...anything works, really)
Vegetable oil to deep fry

Method

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients and then slowly add the water in. Too much water, and the coating will fall apart in the hot oil. Mix thoroughly and test out one pepper to see if the batter is seasoned right and if it stays on! If it doesn't add some more besan.

2. Heat oil on medium heat and deep fry coated peppers. Let it brown on both sides and strain on paper towels and serve hot!

Enjoy with a nice cup of masala tea or as is.

7 Layer Bean Dip

2009-08-12T18:43:00.000-07:00

Shout-out to Closet Cooking for this addictive and delicious recipe. LV made it for our latest BBQ/Picnic and not one of us (including LV) could stop shoveling it into our mouths. I decided to make it 2 days later for my brother. Naturally, I ate 1/2 of it. SO SO GOOD. I actually did mine based on LV's description and added a couple more ingredients, and her's was a carbon copy of the one at Closet Cooking.

This should serve 4, but it ended up serving 2 adults one of whom had no self-control.

Ingredients

Refried beans (I used the "vegetarian" "no lard" version) - 1 can
Green chillies- 2-4 or 1/2 Serrano finely chopped or jalapenos.
Black olives - sliced, about 15
Avocados - 1, coarsely chopped
Roma tomatoes (since it's summer, use cherry or grape tomatoes instead, so much better)- 2 finely chopped
Cheddar Cheese - to cover the top, about 1/2 cup-1 cup
Fresh Cilantro - finely chopped for garnish
Scallions - finely chopped 1 bunch
Cumin Powder - 1 tspn
Cayenne/Chilli powder - 1 tspn
Pickled Jalapenos (optional)
salt to taste

Method

1. Heat up the refried beans and add water until dippable consistency is reached. To this add the cumin and cayenne powder. Also add the green chillies to the hot beans and mix everything.

2. Pour the beany mix into serving dish. Top it off with cheddar cheese. Microwave this for about 30seconds for cheese to melt.

3. Next up are the avocados, follow this up with the tomatoes, jalapenos, black olives, cilantro and scallions.

4. Serve warm. Add sour cream to make this a 9 layered bean dip. ;)

Serve with tortilla chips.

Lasagna

2009-08-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

I really love lasagna. What there not to love? Gorgeous layers of cheese, meat, pasta...sorry, I think I zoned out for a bit there. I was gifted a cookbook with simple American recipes by my friend Bryan a few years ago when I had just started to cook. I was really wary of cooking Italian or anything "American" back then, but this book changed that. So, thanks Bryan.

Lasagna is generally made with some sort of ground meat. Of course, one could avoid the meat altogether and make it with veggies and cheese. I have yet to try that version out. Maybe when I finally take the plunge and turn vegetarian...

I'm using ground chicken in this recipe. I've used ground turkey before so anything works, really.

Ingredients (Serves 8, very easily)
1lb Ground chicken/meat
6 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Onion -finely chopped
1 Tspn Italian Seasoning
Salt to taste
Ricotta Cheese - about 1/2 of a 150z container (I didn't really measure. this depends on how much you put in. )- 1.5 cup
Mozarella - 4-6oz (Again, didn't measure but had an 8oz packet on hand)- Maybe 1.5 cups
Parmesean Cheese - 1/2 cup
Lasagna pasta - about 12 (cook according to directions on box)
Olive Oil - 1tbspn
Marinara (or any Pizza/Tomato) Sauce - 12 oz (give or take; I used store-bought)

Optional : Button Mushrooms (I had to finish a carton before it rotted)

Method:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a pan. To it add the onions and saute for about 3 mins. Add the garlic and italian seasoning. Saute until onions are translucent. Ensure you don't let the garlic burn. If adding mushrooms, add at this point. Also add salt.

2. To the above, add the minced meat. Saute until cooked and begins to brown.

3. Add tomato sauce (marinara) to the pan and bring to a boil. You sauce is now done.

To assemble lasagna, use an appropriate baking utensil and
(i) thin layer of the sauce.
(ii) layer of pasta noodles
(iii) ricotta and mozarella on top of noodles.
(iv) sauce on top of the cheeses
(v) back to (ii) and repeat.

(vi) the last layer should be a layer of pasta noodles. top this off with a generous layer of pamesean cheese.

Baking instructions:
Set oven to 425 and pre-heat for about 5 minutes. Cover your work of layered art and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove the covering and bake for another 10 mins or until the top is a nice golden brown.

That's it! Serve with salad and garlic bread!

excuse the crappy picture again. I really need to get used to my camera.

Maida-Peetaché Bakri / All-purpose Flour Pancake

2009-08-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

My go-to breakfast. Actually a lot of the Konkani breakfast recipes that I will be posting shortly are going to be my go-to recipes soon. I love breakfast. I don't usually eat breakfast except when my mom makes it and that's only if I visit India or if she visits here. Time has come to rectify that, so here is my konkani breakfast recipe #1 : maida (all purpose)peet (flour) bakris (dosa/bread/pancake/whatever; everyone should pick up konkani words anyway).

Makes about 4 bakris
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water (give or take, the batter should be fluid but not liquidy)
10 torn up Curry leaves
1 Serrano or about 3 thai chillies (fresh green chillies) roughly chopped
1/2 cup of fresh shredded coconut (can find this frozen in Indian stores)
1/2 tspn salt
1 tspn sugar (give or take)
Vegetable oil to cook the batter in a pan.

Method

1. Mix the flour and water until there are absolutely no lumps. To this add the salt, sugar, curry leaves, shredded coconut, and green chillies.

2. The batter should be relatively thick but not too thick that it doesn't fall off a spoon.

3. In a non-stick pan, add some oil and let it heat up at medium-low heat. then using your hand or a ladle, ladle out some of the batter and slowly spread it around until its about the same thickness all over.. a little thinner than a pancake. I just used my hands to spread out the batter.

4. Cover it and let it cook for about 5-8 minutes. then uncover, the top should be as in the picture. Turn the heat up just a little and let it brown up on the other side. Flip and let the cooked side brown up.

5. Serve with some butter! that's how I like it, but you could use any leftover curry or eat as it!

Chicken/Paneer Tikka Pizza

2009-08-08T11:06:00.001-07:00

Who doesn't enjoy a good pizza? I know; everyone's version of "good" differs. A brief history about my tastes perhaps will help. I used to love pizza hut, little caesars, etc. But around 2005, the visuals of thick layers of cheese and greasy dough just turned me off. But they taste sooo good, you say, and I agree!
Anyway around that time, i cut down my intake. From 2006-2008 I was in grad school and every Friday we had to have lunch with a visiting scholar and guess what was the lunch? that's right, more greasy pizza. Suffice to say, that's when I started cooking for myself and just the aroma of a pizza began turning me off. *sad-face*

So here we are now. I like pizzas again, but not the cheap greasy fast-food kind. I enjoy the weird thin crust versions with eclectic toppings (Welcome to California). But I don't like paying an arm and a leg for these. So I make them myself!

Since apart from putting it together and toasting it in the oven everything else is store bought, my pizzas are a super-quick dinner or snack.

Serves 1

Ingredients

Chicken/Paneer Tikka Masala (I had some leftover from dinner outside) 1-2 tbspn
Marinara Sauce (optional) - 1 tbspn
1 Whole Wheat Pita (can use whatever pita you prefer)
Cheese (I used Gouda and Havarti, because again, those were leftover and tasted much better than normal mozarella. Could mix all three!)
Some italian seasoning - a pinch or so to sprinkle on top of the pizza
Thai chillies (can substitute green pepper): thinly sliced (1 per pita)
Red onion : thinly sliced, less than a 1/4; depends on how much you like on your pizza

Method
1. Set oven to 400 degrees and let bread heat up for about 3 minutes.

2. Spread the marinara and tikka masala (chop up the chicken or paneer) onto the bread. You can go for 50-50 or put more of the tikka than the marinara.

3. top this off of the red onions, green chillies, sprinkle of italian seasoning, and cheeses.

4. put it back in the oven and at 425 degrees let this toast up until the cheese has melted and crust is crispy.

Cut into 4's and enjoy with a salad! Dinner done!

Strawberry and Banana Lassi

2009-08-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

It finally feels like summer here in Southern California. I live in Los Angeles on the top most floor facing the North-west (I'm guessing. I'm horrible with directions). But what I do know is that the apartment gets REALLY hot in the late afternoon-evening. And when it's hot, you drink tender coconut water to keep cool and when you don't have access to fresh coconut water, you get tanked on lassis! This is a sweet drink as opposed to the spicy version I posted earlier.

Makes about 3 glasses
Ingredients
1 cup of yoghurt (I always use plain, but I suppose you could use flavored ones)
1/2 Lb of strawberries (give or take) (remove the green bits)
1-1.5 bananas
1/2 cup water
about 8 ice cubes
2-4 tbspn of sugar depending on how sweet or tangy you like your drink.

Method

1. In your blender (ESSENTIAL GADGET FOR THE SUMMER), add the roughly chopped bananas, strawberries, yoghurt, water and blend (chop, puree, liquefy, mix, whatever as long as the fruits disperse into the yoghurt). Then do a taste test. Add sugar accordingly and also put in ice cubes and blend.

Pour into glass and ENJOY!

Desi Fried Egg

2009-07-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

I really hate cooking eggs...I don't mind eating them if they are cooked right. I don't like brioche or anything (I don't mind if my bread or whatever doesn't have a shiny glaze, thankyouverymuch) that's too egg-ish. This includes all the horrible ice cream here in America that smell like the yolk of an egg (haagendaaz is the prime example of this ridiculousness). Just wanted to get all of that off my chest. Vegetarian ice cream FTW. I don't eat a lot of sweet stuff though, so I survive without ranting too much.

I took a chance last week when I bought 6 brown eggs from vegetarian hens who were free range. I have to say, the odour (for the clean up anyway) wasn't as strong as after cooking generic white eggs. That's fabulous! After making our tradition egg-white-only-kitchen-sink (garlic, spinach, mushroom, onion, tomato, basil, olives, cheese, whatever else is on hand) omlette, we were down to 2 eggs.

I decided to pan fry 'em up for a late sunday brunch. the recipe that follows was concocted at random by SOMEONE (no one is taking credit for it. I know it's not me or my dad, so it's down to mom or brother) in my family. This is definitely an interesting way to eat an egg. Hope you enjoy!

OH AND IT'S SPICY!

Serves 1
Ingredients:
1 egg
Pinches of: salt, black pepper, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli (indian) powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala.
1 tspn vegetable oil

To make a sandwich:
regular bread, some iceberg lettuce, and personally? i slather mine with the green tobasco sauce. Minutes after this meal MY mouth remains lit with a satisfactory fire.

Method:

1. Heat up oil in a nonstick pan (use as little oil as possible, it's only to prevent egg from sticking to the pan) on low heat/medium low.

2. Crack open egg onto the pan and break the yolk to spread it around. (optional. you can leave it as is, if you want. I hate yolks so I either chuck them or spread them out)

3. sprinkle all of the powders onto the surface of the egg.

4. After it seems like it has cooked on the other side and the yolk/yellow part is no longer runny, flip and let it cook some more. Again, I like my eggs severely cooked + it might be required for this recipe so the spice powders infuse into the egg.

5. Serve as a sandwich! I cut mine in Half in the picture above.

Tomato Sauce with Atomic Italian Meatballs

2009-07-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

I don't eat beef anymore and I avoid Lasagnas, meat sauce, and meatballs in Italian restaurants. But I used to eat beef a long, long time ago and am familiar with the tastes of the above dishes. oh my, so good. Using ground turkey or chicken makes a great substitute in my opinion and I use it to recreate these yummy dishes. I recently bought ground chicken and after making my nuclear sheek kababs, I still had some meat left over. I decided to try out Italian meatballs!
Most meatball recipes I looked up used eggs to bind the meat or perhaps to keep 'em moist. Either way, I'm not a fan of cooking with eggs so my recipe is a little different. I have paired this post with a tomato sauce recipe from LV.

sidenote: If you haven't caught on by now: Atomic implies insane amounts of garlic and nuclear implies insane amounts of garlic AND other spices. I should patent this usage.

Atomic Italian Meatballs: Makes about 10 medium sized meatballs (Approximated the amounts here. since it was my first time making it, I wasn't paying attention to the amounts)

1/2 lb of Ground chicken
1/4-1/2 cup of bread crumbs ( I make my own bread crumbs: normal wheat toasted, ground with italian spices and you got it, garlic powder)
italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, whatever you have on hand) - 1tspn or so
fresh garlic - minced about 5-10 cloves (yea, i was serious about the "atomic" bit)
Garlic + Herb powder - 1/2 tspn (definitely optional at this point ;) )
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil to pan fry the meat balls and about 1-2 tspn to mix in with the meat
Parmesean cheese - 1/4-3/4 cup.

1. Basically, you mix everything thoroughly including the 1-2tspn of olive oil. I let this sit for about 10-15 minutes. Roll into balls of desired size; i kept them medium because I wasn't sure how long they take to cook and i wanted them thoroughly cooked before I added them to my sauce.

2. In a non-stick shallow pan add olive oil to coat bottom and let it heat up on medium heat. Add the meatballs and slow cook them on medium-low. Cover them to ensure they remain moist.

3. After about 10 minutes (give or take) they should be done. I would recommend doing just one test meatball first to taste and make sure that the seasoning is fine.

4. drop into tomato sauce (I used store bought in the above picture) and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Serve over a bed of cooked pasta.

Here is a recipe for homemade tomato sauce from LV:

8 tomatoes (I leave the skin on, but you can remove it too)
1/4C olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chopped carrot
A handful each: fresh parsley, fresh basil, and fresh oregano--chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4th tsp ground red chilli peppers
1/2 tsp cumin
1 Bay leaf
3 Tb Red wine
1/2 Tb corn starch
1 can tomato paste (I've tried leaving this out, but trust me, put it in)
***Optional: lemon zest, extra carrots, zuchinni, parmesan
****Tip: if you have parmesan rinds, add them in while the sauce is
cooking and scoop them out at the end for extra flavor.

Directions:
1. Marinate the Chef
2. Saute garlic, onion, carrot, bellpepper and bay leaf in the olive
oil in a very large pot.
3. Add all the other ingredients except for the corn starch and tomato paste.
4. Simmer for 2 hours.
5. Mix wine with corn starch and stir into simmering sauce. Add tomato
paste until the sauce looks and tastes right to you.

Beer Batter Fish n’ Chips

2009-07-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

Is there anything more British than Beer, fish, and potatoes? Well, if there is, I can’t think of it. Another easy recipe. --AnglophileLV

1 bottle or can of medium to light beer
Bisquick
Cod or Snapper filets (any white fish) cut into large strips
Frozen French fries (I have not mastered making fries from scratch, so these are the best option)
Vegetable oil
A deep skillet
Malt vinegar and lemon wedges

Bake fries according to package directions – yes, I suck. I’m English and cannot make my own fries, so sue me.

1. Start with 1 Cup Bisquick in a bowl, and add beer until it reaches the consistency of pancake batter.
2. Pour enough oil into the pan to cover ½ of your fish strips and heat until sprinkling a few water drops make it spatter.
3. Dredge the fish strips in the Bisquick until thoroughly coated. Fry them in the oil until the first side turns golden brown and crispy, then flip and do the same on the other side. The fish should be a deep golden brown color before you transfer them to a paper towel-lined plate (to soak up the excess oil). Repeat until all the fish is cooked to crispy goodness.
4. Serve with fries, a lot of beer, malt vinegar and lemon wedges.

Hot Crab Dip - It's Party Time!

2009-07-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

My Aunt Jeannie brought this to a family dinner, and 20 minutes after she put it out, it was gone. It took me months to get the recipe out of her, so enjoy the fruits of my persistent wheedling. --AnglophileLV

Hot Crab Dip
2 Tb lemon juice
8 ounce 1/3rd less fat cream cheese
½ cup light mayonnaise
1/4th tsp tobacco sauce
3 green onions chopped
2 cups crabmeat (Costco has it)
2-3 Tb. Parmesan
½ tsp each salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix cream cheese and mayonnaise until fluffy. Stir in lemon juice, tobacco, green onions, crab meat, salt and pepper.
Spread in a 3 cup baking dish and sprinkle with parmesan.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Serve hot with wheat thins (my favorite—you could conceivably use other chips, but why mess with perfection?)

Tuscany Lamb Chop Skillet (from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)

2009-07-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

Summer makes me crave Italian food. Warm breezes, tan skin, blue skies and clay pots bursting with basil—it’s not hard to imagine that I’m in Tuscany right now. This recipe has incredible flavor, even though it uses canned beans and canned tomatoes that any genuine Italian woman would shun. Oh well, I’m English and we can’t cook worth beans. Cannellini beans, that is… --AnglophileLV

Ingredients:
Lamb Chops
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped or torn into small pieces
Olive oil
1 can Italian Stewed Tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans

1. Coat lamb chops with the chopped rosemary and cook in a skillet with the olive oil and garlic until done. When done, put on a plate and cover to keep warm.
2. Drain the cannellini and add to the skillet with the whole undrained can of Italian stewed tomatoes. Add a little more rosemary and heat thoroughly.
3. Plate the tomato and bean mix and top with lamb chops. Garnish with fresh rosemary.

Moroccan Lamb Tagine

2009-07-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

I found the recipe for the spice mix on AllRecipes.com - and since that *makes* this tagine, credit must go there. However, I have experimented with the other vegetables and found what works best: mini-zuchini! Tagine is supposed to be made in a Tagine (food and pot are named the same thing), but I find that a large sauce pot works very well. You can make extra spice mix and store it for next time since that is the part that takes the longest. --AnglophileLV

Moroccan Lamb Tagine
Serves 4

The spice mix:
2 teaspoons paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pinch saffron
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander

Other ingredients:
2 pounds lamb meat, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, cut into fourths
10 Baby squash or zucchini thrown in whole or large squash cubed
10 Fingerling potatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 lemon, zested
1 (14.5 ounce) can low-sodium canned broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste (or 1-2 fresh tomatoes)
1 tablespoon honey
10 Dried apricots or prunes
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
1 tablespoon water (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Place diced lamb in a large pot with olive oil, toss with half of the spice mix. Brown well.
2. Add onions, garlic, and ginger. Let cook for 3 minutes. Add carrots, potatoes and squash/zucchini.
3. Stir in the lemon zest, chicken broth, tomato paste or tomatoes, and honey. Add in the other half of the spice mix.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender.
5. Add the dried apricots or prunes a few minutes before serving.

***Taste test and add more spice mix if the tagine is too bland. If it is bland, it’s not this recipe’s fault—YOU just added too many vegetables. Hey, I’ve done it myself. Just add more spice mix and you’ll be fine.

If the consistency of the tagine is too thin, thicken it with a mixture of cornstarch and water during the last 5 minutes.

Serve with couscous and crusty bread. The Moroccans use the crusty bread to pick up the chunks of meat and vegetables with their fingers. I highly recommend doing the same.

Spicy Buttermilk/Lassi

2009-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

aka Thaak aka Morre. Here is yet another reason why I won't survive as a vegan. If you order a thali or any meal in south India, this is the drink (spicy, I'm sure there are subtle changes) you get with your meal. In the north, you get the sweetened version which is popular in U.S.A.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 cup plain yoghurt (i used fat-free)
4-6 curry leaves
1tbspn chopped fresh cilantro/coriander
1 dried red chilli
1/2 fresh green chilli - sliced (i used serrano, if you think this is insane heat, just you about 2-3 slices)
Ginger - finely chopped or grated 1/2"
Salt to taste
Black Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
1 tspn vegetable oil
Water 1 cup or more.
Asafoetida optional a pinch

Method:

1. In a blender add the yoghurt and water and blend. Depending on how thin or thick you want your buttermilk, add more water.

2. Add the grated ginger, coriander, green chillies, salt to taste, asafoetida.

3. on the stove in a tiny pan (really tiny; or be innovative and use a regular pan, doesn't matter) add the oil and let it heat up. to this add the mustard seeds and red chilli. When the seeds start popping, add the curry leaves and stand back. after about 10 seconds, add this tempered/flavoured hot oil directly to the blended mix and stir.

Strain and serve (or not). Garnish with coriander leaves.

ps: Sorry about the crap pictures.

English Trifle

2009-07-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

English Trifle

An old favorite of mine and a perfect cool dessert for hot summer weather – especially with all the fresh berries at the farmers markets. It's also quick to make if you use a few shortcuts like Cool Whip and instant pudding. --AnglophileLV

Ingredients:
Fresh raspberries
Cool whip (my Aunts would insist on whipping actual cream, but why put yourself through that?)
Sarah Lee pound cake
Raspberry jam or preserves (real sugar only – HFC is the DEVIL)
Vanilla Pudding
Slivered almonds
Sherry OR Amaretto
A deep bowl or trifle dish

Directions:
1. Make the vanilla pudding (can also use custard) according to package directions and refrigerate. I have also used instant pudding packs when in a hurry.
2. An English trifle is a layered dessert, so to begin, slice half of the pound cake into ¼ inch pieces. (you’ll need to slice more as necessary, but there is often leftover pound cake you can freeze for later).
3. Start making little jam sandwiches: spread the raspberry jam on a piece of pound cake and place another slice of pound cake on top. Repeat until you have enough jam sandwiches to cover the bottom of your trifle dish.
4. Drizzle Sherry over this layer so it soaks in (but doesn’t soak) the pound cake.
5. Spoon Vanilla pudding over the jam sandwich layer and smooth out.
6. Add another jam sandwich layer, drizzle sherry, spoon pudding over – and repeat until you reach the top of the trifle dish. The final top layer should be a thin one of the pudding.
7. Top with a layer of Cool whip and decorate with fresh raspberries and slivered almonds.
8. Serve with a really big spoon.

Mixed Vegetable Raitha / Yoghurt Salad

2009-07-17T23:04:00.000-07:00

I could potentially be vegetarian. But I could never be vegan. I love yoghurt way too much. I grew up on this elixir of MY life. Some white rice slapped with homemade yoghurt and a side of some sort of vegetable and I was set. To this day, it is my comfort food.

There are lots of variations of Raitha. If I'm having Biryani , I pair it with an onion raitha. When I went to India, I discovered a fruit raitha (mostly with pineapple). You could do any version with either one vegetable/fruit, or more than one. Today, I did a mixed vegetable raitha to go with some store bought (trader joes, for the win) garlic naan.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
Carrot- finely chopped 1
Roma Tomato - finely chopped 1 (I added the seeds as well)
Fresh Green Chilli- 1/2 (omit this if you can't take the heat. I've been using chillies that I pick up at the local Persian or Indian market. Looks like they aren't as spicy as Serranos or Jalapenos; though I've used serranos too for this recipe and I didn't feel the heat).
Red Onion - finely chopped 1/4-1/2
Cucumber- 3-5" long piece don't add the seeds finely chopped

Cumin - 1/4 tspn (optional)
salt to taste
some water
Plain yoghurt (1/2 cup)- i use non-fat or 98% fat free.

Cilantro/Coriander - finely chopped

Method:

1. Combine all the veggies (including cilantro) in a bowl with salt.

2. Add the yoghurt and some water to make it come to a dressing consistency. Yoghurt in india is very liquidy, so we dont normally add water. But the Yoghurt in America is SO thick!

3. Mix well, taste and add salt if required. Add the cumin powder and mix again. Some people like the flavor of cumin in their raitha and some don't. I would recommend testing it out before you add cumin to the main bowl.

4. Optional: garnish with some red chilli powder for color. Serve cool.

note: You can douse this over some crisp Iceberg and eat it with some naan or pita. so delish!

Pigeon Pea/Lentil Soup version 1 aka Dali Thoy

2009-07-07T22:15:00.000-07:00

Another konkani staple, in my opinion. There are different ways to make this soup so if you end up buying a pound of Pigeon peas to try this one out, don't worry!

note: Pigeon peas look like split yellow peas, but they are not the same. Make sure you buy the right lentil.

Serves: 1-2
Ingredients:

Pigeon Pea - 1/2 cup, soaked in water overnight
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Dried Red Chilli - 1
Vegetable Oil- 1 tspn
Curry leaves - about 5
Asafoetida - 1/4 tspn (literally a pinch) (optional)
Coriander (fresh) leaves- for garnish (optional; I didn't have any when I made it this time)
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Cook the lentils until well done. I use a pressure cooker, but you could just slow cook it for hours (I'm overestimating!). This is why soaking it overnight will help a ton.

2. If possible, mash the lentils when they are well done. Add water to desired consitency. I like mine liquidy. My brother prefers his thick. So add water accordingly. Add salt. Let it slowly simmer on low heat.

3. On the side in a small wok (teeny tiny wok, can also use a pan. you just want to really season the oil) heat up the oil. To this add the mustard seeds and dried red chilli (if u dare, cut this in half, I don't reccommend this) and wait for the seeds to pop all over the place. At this point add the asafoetida and curry leaves. I would recommend adding the leaves and getting your hand out of the way. Sometimes the hot oil that's splashing hits the open flame and little bursts of fire can happen. dont panic and don't worry, just stand back.

4. Before everything burns, add this very hot delicious spicy oil to the simmering lentil solution. Its going to sputter and crackle and hiss, but that's good.

5. DONE! Serve hot over freshly cooked basmati rice and some upkari or pathrodo, and yoghurt.

Note: You could use those yellow split peas or split green peas (dried) and try this out. My dad said it was a great substitute for lentils when he couldn't find lentils.

Spicy Spinach Cake / Pathrodo

2009-06-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Pathrodo. Say that again. brr. Fortunately, this dish is a complete opposite of how it sounds. This is a typical Mangalorean dish. The original dish is made with a specific leaf which is abundantly found in the Southern part of Karnataka. I used to eat this only when I visited with my grandparents and uncle in Mangalore. It was an absolute treat (and still is) whenever I get to eat this when I'm back in India. Anyway my mom, the genius that she is, concocted the same recipe for spinach. It is a little complicated but hey, if I can do it...well, you know how it goes. Oh and it's RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS, in a Konkani way.

Prep time: overnight

Serves 2 (minimum; depends how you eat it ;) )

Ingredients

1/2 cup toor dal/yellow pigeon pea (soaked overnight, uncooked)
1 cup rice (basmati works) (also soaked overnight, uncooked)
5 dried red chillies (i'd stick to 2-3 thai dried red chillies; soaked overnight with the above two)
3/4 tspn Asafoetida
1 tbspn tamarind paste
1/4 cup coconut milk (approx. )
1/2 tbspn vegetable oil
1 tspn black mustard seeds
1-1.5 cups of very roughly chopped spinach (i used baby spinach. just tearing a leaf in half is more than enough. Do not add the stems)
Salt to taste.

You need a food processor for this one..a blender might work as well. you need something with a blade. If you're really retro (try getting one of these...haha. that's what some of my family members used when electricity was shut for the entire day).

Method:

1. Soak dal, rice, and red chillies overnight (12 hours) in water in the same bowl.

2. Strain it and let it dry a little bit (I gave it about 20 minutes).

3. In your food processor add the coconut milk and red chillies. Grind.

4. It will be coarsely ground. To this add the dal and rice and grind. Also add the tamarind paste, asafoetida and salt.

5. It should be a semi-liquid with coarse granules of dal and rice. Grind it until you can no longer tell if it's dal or rice, but you can feel the coarseness with your fingers. taste this to see if it's sufficiently salty. it will be really pungent and strong.

6. Add the spinach to the mix. It's not going to coat very well as you can see in the picture, but that's fine.

7. In a pan, add oil and let it heat up. Add the mustard seeds to the hot oil. Let it pop, crackle and sizzle. at this point add the mixture. Stir it around a little bit on medium low heat (2 minutes), just enough to coat it all with the essence of the mustard seeds.

8. Next transfer it to your pressure cooker (without the weight) or steamer and steam it until it is cooked. If it is gooey and sticks to your toothpick when you poke it, let it cook. It took me about 20-30mins to cook it.

9. Let sit for about 10 mins and then serve!!!

10. If you are obsessed with mustard seeds like me, then do this: after you let it sit, cut it up into bite size pieces. In a pan, heat up some oil (1/2 tbspn oil) and add mustard seeds to it. You know the drill, once it starts jumping all over your pan, add the pieces and just pan fry them on both sides. Serve hot!

Note: It is generally eaten as an accompaniment. My brother enjoys them as is. I eat it rice+ yoghurt or rice+ dal soup (next recipe). SO GOOD.

Also this was my first time ever making it. Epic success.

Seasoned Cauliflower / Cauliflower Upkari

2009-06-28T21:54:00.000-07:00

Picture here

Ingredients: Serves 2-4

2 cups florets of cauliflower
1.5 tspn Black mustard seeds
1 tspn Vegetable oil
1-2 Dried Red Chilli (thai works, just use one)
Salt to taste 1/2 tsp-1tsp
Some water , say 1/4 cup
OPTIONAL asafoetida (hing) – pinch of a pinch of a pinch!
** refer to this recipe for a variation.

Procedure:
1. In a non-stick pan, add the oil and let it heat up on medium heat. Then add the mustard seeds and red chilli pepper and allow them to pop and crackle all over the place.

2. As the seeds are popping all over your stove, toss in the florets and saute so that it's covered with the mustard seeds. Add salt.

3. Add some water and cover to cook florets. Takes about 3-7 minutes on low medium heat. Once cooked turn off heat and this can be a side dish to a number of Indian dishes like this.

This upkari recipe is different from the earlier one because of the source of the heat; Here it is dried red chillies and there it was fresh green chillies.

Note: Instead of Cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, potato, zucchini, etc. can be substituted for variation.

Atomic Spinach Curry

2009-06-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

I know the picture is a bit crap, but this dish isn't. Yet another dish I grew up eating and taking to school for lunch. It's very simple but the flavors are fantastic (Garlic !!) It has some eclectic ingredients but I hope you try it out.

Ingredients: (approximated)

2.5 cups of chopped spinach (I used fresh baby spinach)
1/2 cup of toor dal (aka yellow pigeon pea. the dry and not the oily kind) cooked properly (semi or even completely mashed; soak overnight to speed up cooking process, EVEN if you use a pressure cooker like me)
10 cloves of garlic (I used an entire bulb of garlic ergo 'Atomic')
1/2-1 tbspn vegetable oil (actually, just enough to coat your pan)
1/4 tspn Turmeric
1 tspn Red chilli powder (Indian)
1.5 tspn Coriander powder
1 tspn tamarind paste
1/4 cup coconut milk (optional)
Salt to taste ( I almost screwed up this dish by throwing in too much salt...be careful the tamarind paste will provide a significant amount of tang).

Method:

1. To your pan add the vegetable oil and let it heat up.

2. Add the garlic cloves (I love the sizzling sound when it hits the hot oil) and saute until the garlic cloves take on a brownish hue. DO NOT LET THIS BURN.

3. Add the spinach and saute for about a minute (it will wilt a tad bit).

4. Add the cooked dal (this is going to be a semi-liquid form) and coconut milk. Also add the spices and tamarind paste at this point.

5. Let this simmer and jive for about 5-10mins. then it's DONE!

Serve over hot basmati rice with maybe some yoghurt or raitha.

Atomic Navy Bean Soup - Desi Style

2009-06-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

I had such a hard time coming up with a name for this dish in English. This is a Konkani staple. The beans change but the method of preparation is the same. I've tried googling the English names of the beans/lentils that I grew up eating but I wasn't very successful. But that's ok because I haven't seen them in any store here (yes, not even in Little India) except for Mung dal.

The Konkani name is: dhavé (white) Beea (bean/seed) saar upkari or thinglauro saar upkari.

Without further adieu...
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
1 cup of navy beans (I've never tried this out with canned beans...and I won't be trying it out either).
1/2 tbspn vegetable oil
1-2 dried red chillies (Thai chillies will work. break in Half if you dare)
Salt to taste
About 5 whole cloves of garlic, but smashed (Atomic!!)

Method

1. Soak beans overnight in water.

2. Slow cook the beans until done in water (1cup beans to 2 cups of water approx.). I own a pressure cooker and a rice cooker and either of them should work fine. You could also just cook them on the stove at low heat. Make sure there is enough water and add more if it evaporates. Cook it until you can squish it between your thumb and index finger...no al dente nonsense here.

3. Once they are cooked make sure there is enough water to cover it and then some.

4. On the side in a small wok add the oil and let it heat up. To the very hot oil add the red chilli and garlic. It's going to cackle and sizzle and sputter. this is good. Let all the flavors infuse in the oil until garlic turns brown.

5. Then immediately add the hot oil, chilli, and garlic to your beans mix. It's going to make the biggest hissing noise when the oil hits the water, but its sooo much fun! Also dont forget to take some liquid and rinse out the wok with the oil before you throw it into the sink.

6. Stir and add salt.

AND THAT IS IT!!!!

Typically eaten with white rice, some yoghurt, papad and some sort of upkari. This time I paired it with Cauliflower upkari. I'll upload a recipe for that one too. It's a little different from the beetroot recipe that I linked to.

Note: In the pic on the right, I made more than 1 cup worth and added 10 cloves of garlic and a total of 3 red chillies.

Kofta Curry

2009-06-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there are ways to improve this one. But the taste was so good the first time I tried it, that I had to post the recipe here. Kofta is aka meatball. So it's a meatball curry! This one is sort of a random recipe i.e. I came up with it myself. Hope you'll give it a try! I know I will...next week. :)

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

Minced Chicken - 1/2 lb
Serrano Chilli peppers - 1/2-1 finely chopped, seeds and all.
Garam Masala - 1 tspn
Salt to taste
Bread Crumbs - 1/2 cup [I toast up regular bread when I can't finish an entire loaf. So I used toasted wheat bread]
Vegetable oil - 2 tbspn
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Red chilli powder (Indian)- 1 tsp
Cumin powder - a little more than 1 tsp
Coriander powder - a little more than 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - literally a pinch.
Fresh coriander/cilantro for garnish and for koftas (optional)
Coconut milk - 1/2 can (about 6-7 fluid oz.)

Part 1: the koftas

In a mixing bowl add the garam masala, bread crumbs, serrano, cilantro, salt, and chicken. Mix throughly and add 1tbspn of oil to keep this moist. Make spheres or ovals and set aside. Let this sit for about 20 mins.

Part 2: the curry

1. In a pan add 1 tbspn oil and let it heat up. To this add the chopped onion and saute until it is translucent.

2. Now add the chopped tomatoes and saute for about 3-4 minutes.

3. In a separate bowl mix the spice powders (cumin, coriander, red chilli) in 1.5 cups of water. Add this to the pan and let it come to a boil.

4. As this is simmering, add the meatballs to it and let it cook for about 10 mins or so.

5. next add the coconut milk and let it simmer/boil for about 10-15mins. Taste this at some point to add salt as required.

6. It was very liquidy so I just let it boil for some 20 or so minutes and finally gave up since it tasted fantastic. Eventually as it cooled, it got a little thicker so that was good, but overall it's still a very liquidy curry. That's why I categorize this recipe as a work-in-progress.

7. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander.

Serve with hot basmati rice and raitha.

NOTE: You can always add more serrano or red chilli powder as it is simmering, so add a little at first and see if you can handle the heat. Serranos can vary in size and heat, so a little may just go a long way.

Stir-fried Vegetables with Tofu

2009-06-19T14:14:00.001-07:00

I'm in love with Tofu. Ever since I used it for my sukiyaki recipe, I've been a fan. I need to experiment with the different forms (soft, firm, extra firm, etc.) So far I've only cooked with broiled/grilled tofu.

This is a very simple recipe and no measurements required, imo. But I've guesstimated what I did.

Ingredients: Serves 1-2

Broiled Tofu - 1/2 a block. so about 10-12 cut pieces.
Carrots - 1/2 cup-1 cup
Broccoli - 1/2 cup-1 cup
Zucchini - 1
Cellery - same amount as carrots
Onions (I used yellow) - 1/2
Garlic - 1 clove
Dried red pepper/chilli - 2
Vegetable oil - 1-2tbspn
Soy Sauce - 1-2tbspn
Corn Starch - 1/2 tspn mixed in 2tbspn of water
All purpose flour - just enough to coat the tofu.

Method:

1. Coat the tofu pieces with flour and cook them up in an oiled pan until it's brownish on both sides.

2. In same pan, add 1/2 tbspn oil and let it heat up. to this add the garlic and the 2 dried red peppers. Let if crackle and pop to release all of their essence into the oil.

3. Add all the veggies and toss around for about 3-4 minutes on the medium to high heat. Your veggies might start getting brown which isn't good. Add a tbspn of water after about 2 minutes to keep this from happening.

4. Next, add about 1tbsp-2tbspn of soy sauce (first add 1 and then taste. you can always add more later). Toss around.

5. Add the corn starch water and mix thoroughly. The "sauce" will start to thicken. Add the cooked tofu and gently toss so everything is coated with sauce.

6. Serve with rice.

Suggestions: Add more vegetables that you like: asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, peas, scallions, spinach, mushrooms, snow peas, etc. You get the drift.
It probably will be just as tasty if you skip cooking the tofu before hand. I just like the taste better this way.
Lastly you also could avoid the corn starch step, if you're ok with a soy saucy dryish dish. You could just add water to have some sort of a sauce to go with the rice. I've done it both ways.

Seared Ahi

2009-06-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Foodland grocery store in Princeville has a fantastic seafood section. They have octopus poke, locally caught fish, and sushi grade Ahi. Since it is almost impossible to find sushi grade Ahi in Southern California, I jumped at the chance to make seared Ahi, served over salad greens bought at one of the many Kauai farmers markets. --Anglophile (in Kauai)

Seared Ahi
Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 extremely fresh Ahi steak
2 Tb dark sesame oil
2 Tb soy saunce
1 Tb grated fresh ginger (or 1/2 inch finely chopped)
1 clove garlic minced
2 handfuls green onion, chopped
Juice from 1/2 a lime

Directions:
1. Mix the lime, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and one handful of the green onions together as a marinade. Pour the marinade into a plastic bag with the Ahi steak and let sit in the refrigerator for an hour.

2. Pour sesame seeds onto a plate and roll the Ahi until it is completely coated with sesame seeds.

3. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, sear tuna steak for 1 ½ minutes on each side.

4. Remove Ahi from pan and slice into approximately 1/4th inch pieces.

5. Serve over greens that have been lightly sprinkled with soy sauce and sesame seeds. Garnish with the rest of the green onions.

Nuclear 'Sheek' Kababs

2009-06-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

I went to the store to get some Chicken breast meat but instead walked out with minced turkey meat. Since I was out of Lasagna ingredients (my go-to recipe for minced meat), I decided to try out an Indian buffet favourite: Sheek kabab.

Sheek or Shish? that is the question. According to wikitionary, sheek implies minced meat and shish implies cubed pieces of meat. I like Nuclear Kababs. My brother gave them this name because of their intense aroma.

I also want to pay homage to two of my companions in the kitchen that I lost over this recipe. Lousy companions, but companions none the less: My knives.

Ingredients:

1 Lb of minced meat (I use either turkey or chicken; lean meat works)
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped (use your grater)
6-8 garlic cloves finely chopped (you may want to lower the amount of garlic)
Lime/Lemon juice of 1
Vegetable Oil-1.5 tbspn
about 1.5 tbspn water with saffron (can omit)
Fresh green chillies (I used serrano) - 2-4 depending on how hot you like your food.
Salt
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- a pinch
Red chilli powder - 1/2tsp
Corriander powder - 3/4tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2tsp

Optional: Fresh Cilantro/Corriander leaves

Method:

1. In a utensil, add all of your ingredients except the meat, oil, and saffron water. mix and taste to check if you want more spices or salt.

2. Next add the rest of your ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Let it marinate in the fridge for anywhere from an hour to 6 hours.

4. Make them into shapes you are familiar with (sphere in my case) and fire up your grill and grill 'em! Or, since I'm lame I just pan-grilled them in a non-stick pan. Since I had already used oil in the mix, I didn't bother oiling the pan before cooking them. They will release liquid as they cook. Cook on one side for about 5-7 mins until it starts browning and then flip and let other side brown as well.

5. Serve with grilled onions, lemon wedges, warm pita, saffron flavored basmati rice, and a yoghurt sauce (Yoghurt + some fresh minced garlic + salt) .

Chardonnay Chicken with Pasta

2009-05-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is my new favorite pasta recipe. Well, second favorite; my heart will always be with the bourbon based sauce with Italian Sausage, chicken, and mushrooms served over penne or stuffed shells (Shout out to Cafe Italia up in Davis ).
Alright straight to my modified version of this recipe

Serves 1-2 (2 people, if you add sides like a salad and generous helpings of steamed veggies)

Ingredients (I didn't exactly measure...)

1 chicken breast, cubed into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup(or a tad bit more) all-purpose flour
1/2tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1-1.5 tbspn extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:
1tbspn e.v.o.o
2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced (yes, I know the original recipe added 4 cloves to 4-6 breasts and I'm adding it to 1 breast. Sue me. Garlic rules me)
1/2 tspn dried Italian spices (My bottle has thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, and basil)
1/2 cup Chardonnay
1/4-1/2 cup Chicken stock (I dropped a bouillion cube in boiling water and added that)

Also some cooked pasta (I used fettucine noodles)

Method:
Before I go further: I LOVE dishes that can be cooked in one pan.
1. Heat the 1.5 tbspn of olive oil in a frying/stir-fry pan (medium high heat)
2. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper to make a dry batter.
3. Coat the pieces of chicken with above batter and place in frying pan.
4. 2-3 minutes on each side and it should look like its just beginning to brown. Remove from the pan and place in a bowl and set aside.
5. In the same pan,add 1tbspn of olive oil (at this point you could also add a dash of butter as the original recipe calls for, but I left it out) and let it heat up.
6. Add minced garlic and saute for about a minute. To this add the spices as well. Saute for another minute. The aroma at this point should tingle your senses.
7. Add the chicken back and stir so it is covered with the garlic and spices [1minute].
8. Add 1/2 cup of Chardonnay (be careful, alcohol and fire..) and let the alcohol cook off. Iit will take about 5 minutes. The sauce will begin to thicken.
9. At this point, add the 1/4 cup of chicken stock and cook until sauce thickens to desired consistency.
10.Pour over pasta and ENJOY! maybe with some fresh toasted roasted garlic bread.

Sidenote: garnish with Parmesan+Romano or not! Really great either way.

Greek Shrimp

2009-05-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Gotta love them Greeks. They gave us philosophy, togas, parades with phalluses on sticks, and feta. What's not to like? They were also the inspiration for this recipe, which is just another reason to say a great big Opa! I gotta give a shout-out to the Closet Cooking blog for this, even though I didn't follow any of the directions for ingredient amounts.
--AnglophileLV

Ingredients
Shrimp
4 cloves garlic
2 medium tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 splash hot sauce
4 sprigs oregano
4 sprigs mint
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 c. feta
A few sprigs parsley for garnish
Toasted or very crusty bread

It should be noted that I didn't pay attention at all to the measurements of the herbs. I just threw in equal amounts of everything, since I have them all growing on my balcony. Feel free to do the same. It came out great!

1. Saute shrimp and garlic, remove shrimp when done.
2. Add chopped tomatoes and green onion. Simmer for 3-5 minutes.
3. Return shrimp to skillet and add the wine and herbs. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Remove from heat and gently mix in the feta.
5. Cover and let rest for 3 minutes. Garnish with parsley.

The best way to eat this is to scoop up the liquid, tomatoes and shrimp with crusty or toasted bread.

Pom Koek (Belgian Coffee Cake)

2009-05-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Belgian food has been described as having French finesse but served in German quantities. Being part Belgian, I can attest to this--my family puts on feasts. In fact, my Belgian great grandfather was one of the best French Chefs in depression-era Chicago. I have just a little bit of family pride where cookery is concerned. Unfortunately, the old goat didn't write his recipes down - so his descendents have relied on cookbooks and genetic "chefly intuition" to become excellent home cooks.

This is my first foray into trying Belgian recipes- a coffee cake made with real coffee. And a lot of spices. True to my Belgian roots, I put even more spices than the original recipe called for, and added a sweet streusel layer between the cake. We Belgians never cook simply. That's the French influence. --AnglophileLV

Pom Koek (Belgian Coffee Cake)

Ingredients for the Cake
3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
(can also add 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, ginger, and cardamom)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey
1 cup hot coffee
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Ingredients for the Yummy Layer
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
(optional) 1/2 cup chopped pecans or almonds
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare a 9" by 4" in loaf pan by lightly greasing the sides.
3. Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon & cloves).
4. In a separate bowl, quickly mix 1 egg. Spoon in and mix the honey, coffee, and oil.
5. Quickly fold in the dry ingredients - mixing just enough to combine without toughening the batter.
6. Pour half the mixture into the pan.
7. Mix the ingredients for the "yummy layer" and spoon quarter sized dollops over the batter in the pan. Then cover with remaining coffee cake batter.
8. Fold into pan and bake for 30 minutes. Use a tooth pick to see if center is done.
9. Serve warm plain or with butter.

Okonomi-yaki

2009-05-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

When I went to Tokyo two summers ago, my friend/host said I had to try Okonomi-yaki. It was my first introduction to Japanese food that wasn’t sushi or soba. We went to a restaurant that had flat stovetops in the middle of each table and we had to mix the batter and ingredients ourselves. Par for the course at an Okonomi-yaki restaurant, but I didn’t know that then. It was a lot of fun! I returned to California packing Okonomi-yaki flour and bonito flakes so I could give my boyfriend a taste of Tokyo. Despite being weirded out by the way the fish flakes come to life when sprinkled on top of hot food, he liked it—which means it’s probably safe for picky eaters everywhere.

Yesterday I had a craving. But my leftover flour was 2 years old, which meant a trip to the Japanese market for supplies. After a lot of hesitant searching, I found my flour (a mix of yams and fishy things that our American flour can’t quite replicate), bonito dashi (fish soup stock), and genuine Okonomi sauce—I had to make that from scratch last time. Here is my recipe with alternatives for the harder to find ingredients. But you have to try to find bonito flakes, because there’s no substitute and they’re way too entertaining to leave out. It’s common to put mayonnaise as a topping with the Okonomi sauce, but that sounds disgusting. Feel free to try it-let me know how it goes.

The beauty of Okonomi-yaki is that it literally means “what you like-cooked.” You can put almost anything in here, and there are a ton of regional variations. I like mine with seafood. Shrimp and squid go particularly well, but I could only find shrimp at the store.
Okonomiyaki
4 servings (or 2 large pancakes)

Ingredients:

1 cup okonomi-yaki flour (you can also use basic pancake batter or flour)

3/4 cup bonito dashi (or chicken or veggie soup broth)
1 egg
2 handfuls shredded cabbage (coleslaw mix has carrots already in it)

(optional) 1 carrot, grated

½ bunch green onions, chopped

1/2 cup crab meat
10 shrimp

Top with: okonomi sauce*
Dried bonito shavings, aka. fish flakes

Directions:
1. Mix the flour, dashi, egg, crab and cabbage in a large bowl.

2. Heat some oil in pan and cook 5 shrimp until both sides are pink but the interior is still translucent.

3. Pour in mixture and top with the bacon slices.

4. Cook on medium heat until golden brown on both sides, about 5-15 minutes per side.

5. Top with okonomi sauce and bonito flakes.

*If okonomiyaki sauce is hard to come by, here is an easy recipe. Mix:
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sake
1 teaspoon soy sauce

The other thing I came back with from Tokyo—besides good Sake from Nikko—is the love of my life: my Nikiri Bocho. A Japanese vegetable knife bought on Kappabashi Street. I love my blades, but I haven’t once glanced at my 10” Henckel chef’s knife since I started using my Japanese blade. If you make it to Tokyo, you have to get one of these. And some fish flakes.

--AnglophileLV

Sukiyaki

2009-05-19T17:42:00.000-07:00

Sukiyaki
I’m very picky when it comes to food; I’m extra sensitive to foul odors and staleness. That being said, this Japanese restaurant in Costa Mesa “I love Sushi” had a great thing going for it when it came to my patronage. That is, until the entire service staff got horrible. The food remained great but it was painful to go there and sadly I haven’t gone back since 2006. I crave the food there every now and then, but the horrifically pathetic service has successfully kept me away.

In my quest to find a good replacement for this restaurant, I went to several restaurants. I think I need to come clean right now before the comments are flooded with sushi suggestions: I don’t eat sushi at all. If my food smells like the ocean (seaweed), I’m outta there. On the contrary, I should try sashimi and I do enjoy the seaweed in Miso soup. Sue me. Now back to this elaborate rambling that I’ve somehow gotten myself into…yes. Anyway, I haven’t found a replacement restaurant in terms of taste and I’m sad about that but I finally took matters into my own hands and tried making dish #1 : Chicken Sukiyaki.

Here is the recipe (guesstimated), adjust condiments according to your taste.

Ingredients for the broth:
1.5 cups Chicken Stock ( I used a pinch of Bouillion cube which had salt in it).
6 Tablespoons Japanese Soy Sauce (I used Kikkoman)
5 Tablespoons Mirin (sweet rice wine type thing. Sugar is NOT a good enough substitute)
6 teaspoons sugar
5 Tablespoons Sake (mmm after eating a big bowl of this, I was passed out for a good 2 hours)

Other Ingredients all of which can be got at a Japanese Store :
Glass Noodles – made out of potato starch [Shirataki] 4-8 oz.
Napa cabbage
Snow Peas
Shitake Mushroom (I hate these Fungi but it’s always added)
White/button Mushroom
Spinach
Onions
Bean Sprouts
Scallions
Zucchini
Broccoli
Grilled Tofu [Yaki-Dofu]
Thin Slices of chicken (marinate thin slices of breast meat in mirin, soy sauce, sugar and ginger for about 1.5 hours)
Vegetable oil- about 2 tbspns

Method:
1. In a saucepan, add the broth ingredients sequentially in the order listed above. Let it heat up at each step and taste. Adjust quantity of sugar etc. according to taste.
2. In a separate pot, add some vegetable oil, just enough to coat the bottom. To this add the chicken and cook it until semi-done.
3. Toss in the Tofu, veggies, and noodles (can cook noodles before hand or it will cook in the broth) and let it gel for about a minute and then add the prepared sukiyaki broth.
4. Let all the ingredients simmer and veggies cook—takes about 10-15mins (also ensure chicken is now cooked).
5. Serve over sticky Japanese rice!
6. Also if you know how to make tempura, topping your bowl with sweet potato or pumpkin tempura = FOR THE WIN!

Sidenotes:
You can make a vegan/vegetarian version by omitting the chicken and chicken stock. I made a vegan version and it was freaking delicious.

Breakfast Martini

2009-04-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

This recipe was given to me by a Cocktail Classicist I was interviewing for an article. I gave it a try, and it is pretty tasty! My kind of breakfast. --AnglophileLV

1 1/2 oz Bombay Sapphire gin
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz Cointreau
1 tsp light marmalade

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a piece of a slice of mini-toast.

Broccoli Risotto

2009-04-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

Remember that awesome roasted broccoli recipe? If you don’t, take a look below. As much as I love that broccoli, it’s not exactly a complete meal. So I made some lemony risotto designed to go with it.
--AnglophileLV

Serves 2

½ C. Arborio rice
1 Tb. butter
1/4th onion
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
A dash of white wine
1 2/3 c chicken broth
1/4th cup parmesan
Zest of 1 lemon
A squeeze of lemon juice
Parsley for garnish

1. Brown the Arborio rice in the butter. When it has a nice tan, pour some wine over it. Add
the chopped onion and garlic and stir until liquid is absorbed.
2. Microwave the broth for 2 minutes. Pour a few tablespoons into the rice and stir until it is
absorbed. Repeat, adding splashes of broth, until all of the broth is completely absorbed and
the rice is cooked through.
3. Stir in the lemon zest and squeeze lemon juice over the rice. Sprinkle with parsley and
serve with the roasted broccoli.

Mexi-Greek Quiche

2009-04-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

This is my own recipe, thrown together when I needed to get rid of some eggs and set myself up with healthy lunches for the week. It’s Mexican because I put a jalapeno pepper in it, and it’s Greek because of the feta, garlic and spinach combination. I guess it’s also a little French. Maybe I should name it Euro-mutt quiche. –AnglophileLV

Mexi-Greek Quiche

3 Eggs
1 pie crust
4 pieces bacon
½ red onion
1 Jalapeno, chopped fine
2 Tb. Chopped sundried tomatoes
1 bag spinach
1 C. chopped Cauliflower
1 clove garlic
1 C. garlic and herb feta
A few sprigs fresh parsley
½ C. cottage cheese
½ tsp. mustard
½ tsp parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, cook the bacon until crispy and set aside.
3. Chop the ½ C. red onion and cook in the bacon grease. Add the Jalapeno.
4. Add the spinach and cook, stirring, until just wilted. Turn off the heat from the skillet.
5. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sundried tomato, feta, cottage cheese, mustard, cauliflower, garlic (chopped fine), and parsley. Mix well. Add the mixture in the skillet. Crumble the bacon and add to the bowl. Blend well.
6. Put everything into the pie crust and top with a light sprinkling of parmesan.
7. Cook for 45minutes until the top is lightly browned.

Fettuccini Carbonara

2009-04-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Fettuccini Carbonara is one of those dinners you can slap together with what you probably already have in the fridge and it still looks and tastes gourmet as hell. And men love it. I first learned the recipe from my old boyfriend, who knew how to cook precisely two things for the sole purpose of impressing women. It worked, but not for long. I ditched the boyfriend, but kept the recipe. It was a good trade in my opinion. --AnglophileLV
Fettuccini Carbonara for 2

2 slices bacon, fried and broken into pieces
2 eggs
¼ c. parmesan
½ c. milk
Pepper to taste (don’t need salt—the parmesan is salty enough)
Parsley for garnish

You will need a metal bowl and a big pot that the metal bowl can rest on.

Boil the fettuccini according to package directions, about 8 minutes. While this is boiling, beat the eggs, cheese, pepper and milk in the metal bowl until well blended. Place the bowl over the boiling pot and stir CONSTANTLY until it thickens. This is the tricky part, because you need to make sure that it does not turn into scrambled eggs. This means taking it off the heat if curds start to form. If you stir constantly, the consistency should start to get thick and creamy. At this point it’s cooked, and the pasta is probably done also. Drain the water from the pasta and put the pasta back into the big pot. Pour the sauce over the pasta and toss with the bacon bits and some chopped parsley. That’s it! You’re done. And making your own cream sauce is way impressive.

Roasted Broccoli

2009-03-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

The Best Roasted Broccoli Recipe of All Time
On the 7th day, He rested. But come on folks, God was an over-achiever if ever there was one, and do you really think they “rest” ever? Nah. On His day off I firmly believe He invented this broccoli recipe. And it was good. Well, He, or the Barefoot Contessa.

--AnglophileLV

Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 bag broccoli
3 Tb olive oil
1/4th tsp salt
Pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon, zested
1/4th cup parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 425.
2. In a bowl, mix the broccoli florets with the olive oil, salt,
pepper and chopped garlic. Spread in 1 layer on a lined cookie sheet
and pop in the oven for 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, zest the lemon and grate the parmesan.
4. When the broccoli is cooked and slightly brown (you can toss it around midway through roasting for more even browning), toss with the lemon zest and parmesan. Squeeze a lemon wedge over the broccoli and serve.

Lemon, Pear, and Rosemary Martini

2009-03-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

Making good use of life’s lemons

When life hands you lemons, forget the lemonade and make a lemon, pear, and rosemary martini. And invite a few friends over to help you drink it, because this serves six.

--AnglophileLV

Aunt Lynn’s Lemonade
Syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Discard rosemary and let cool.

Mix syrup with:
3 cups Vodka
15 Tb fresh squeezed lemon juice
4 Tb pear brandy (Poire William)

Garnish with sliced lemon or sprigs of rosemary. It’s handy to keep in the freezer for guests or an at-home happy hour.