Mushroom pea potato curry

Great flavor!  Somewhat involved.

Followed this recipe. except I added 1 cubed potato that I pre-boiled.

In the future, could make the sauce one day, then do the rest another day.  Might be nice with some toasted almonds on top.

Best new recipe for tandoori chicken

 Used this recipe:  https://thegingeredwhisk.com/grilled-tandoori-chicken/

Really good!

Next time a little more salt and some chili powder for a bit of heat.

Ven Pongal

 I used this recipe.

Err on the side of less water; maybe even closer to 3 cups.  I did 5 min in the pressure cooker but then probably 3-4 more minutes letting the pressure lower, and that was more than enough.

I added a bit more salt than the initial 1/2 tsp at the end.

A little underwhelmed, but not sure what to fix.

David's standard black beans

 Just thought I'd record my standard black bean recipe.

Finely mince 1/4 to 1/2 red onion (depending on how many beans)

Saute in ~1 Tbsp olive oil for 5 or 7 minutes until starting to turn color.

Add 1-2 clove minced garlic + 1 minced chili from a can of chili in adobo sauce + 1 tsp adobo sauce and cook another minute or so.

Add black beans and a splash of chicken broth.

Simmer for a few minutes.  Add 1/8 - 1/4 tsp cumin and 1/8 - 1/4 tsp salt.  Simmer a bit more.

Mash 1/4 to 1/2 of the beans and stir to incorporate.  Turn off heat and cover to let all the flavors meld.

Indian mushroom & bell pepper fry

 This was surprising and good!

I used ~1.5 - 2 cups red and green bell pep in bigish pieces + 1 package mushrooms (sliced fatly).

Fried about 1/2 yellow onion, added 1 Tbsp garlic, + 1 tsp cumin seeds and curry leaves

Stir-fried bell pep on high, added mushroom a bit later, then added a chopped nice fresh tomato.  

Finished with salt, turmric and the black pepper/fennel mix (1 tsp black pepper, 1/4 - 1/2 tsp fennel, all ground together).

Delicious!

original recipe:  https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/mushroom-pepper-fry-easy-mushroom-recipes/

Chicken Tikka Masala

 Really really great.  Followed this recipe.

We used 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless thighs.  I slashed them (but kept them whole) for the marinating.  We only marinated for 1 hour (would have preferred longer, but this worked), and then grilled on super high, two sides, leaving them slightly underdone to finish in the sauce.

For the sauce, I didn't add a full 1 tsp salt; be careful not to over-salt.  I only used a scant 1/4 cup cream and that was fine.

It also would have been great with just the grilled chicken and no sauce.

Chipotle honey chicken tacos (NYT)

 Made this today.  Very good!  would make again.  We used 3 chili's in adobo sauce.  Maria thought it was good, a  little spicy.  David thought not quite spicy enough.

Really nice with the fresh corn tortillas, though!

Garlic shrimp and espinacas con garbanzos

Two nicely paried dishes for a great dinner!  

The shrimp recipe is page 169 of Smitten Keepers.  [recipe to follow].

Espinacas con garbanzos recipe is here (we made a few changes, so the as-cooked version is below).

shrimp recipe (as we cooked it)

14 large shrimp with shell on (7 each).  I thawed and soaked them in milk for 30 min, then rinsed.

Toss thawed shrimp in 3 Tbsp white wine (we used Josh pinot grigio) and season with salt and pepper.

Heat on med-high (7 out of 10 on our burner), 3-4 Tbsp butter (cut into 1 Tbsp pats) in large skillet.

Add 4-6 cloves chopped garlic

Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Pour in shrimp + wine mixture.

Cook 5 minutes, flipping at 2.5 min

Turn off the heat, pour over juice from 1/2 lemon.  Finish with chopped flat leaf parsley.

Serve immediately with crusty bread.

So good!

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Espinacas con Garbanzo

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil over low heat (2 out of 10 for us).  Add 1/4 - 1/2 onion finely chopped.  Cook 4-5 min until a few are starting to gold around the edges.  Add 4 chopped garlic cloves and cook 3-4 min longer.  We want almost everything to be lightly (not darkly) golden.  

Optionally, add 1 heaping tsp tomato paste in the last 2 min.

Add 1/2 cup tomato puree (we use canned TJ), 1/4 tsp smoked paprika, 1/8 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp cumin, and salt to taste (at least 1/2 tsp).  Stir everything together and add 1 cans worth rinsed and drained chickpeas.  If there's not enough liquid, add a splash of pinot grigio or broth or water until it's the right consistency for you.  We really liked it with the wine this time around.  Simmer a few minutes.

Add a few big handfuls of fresh spinach (~2 cups) and stir until they shrink.  Serve right away.  Feel free to keep adding small amounts of liquid to get the consistency right.

Pasta with mushroom and sausage (morels this time)

 Maria brought almost 1/2 lbs of morels from the famrer's market.  I followed this recipe but stopped before the baking part.  Very delicious!

Prep the morels

Cut in half, agitated in cold water, removed to a baking sheet and salted heavily.  After 1-2 hours, rinsed in cold water, and then let dry for another 1-2 hours.

Pasta sauce

Browned bulk chicken sausage in oil, removed.

In dry pan over medium high heat, cooked mushrooms (morels + some button mushrooms cut into largish pieces).  After water released, add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil.  Cooked on low for 10 minutes to brown.

Added 1/4 cup minced shallot + 2 minced garlic cloves + 2 Tbsp butter.  Cooked for 2-3 min.

Added 1 Tbsp lemon juice + 1 Tbsp soy sauce.

Added ~2 Tbsp flour, sprinkled around and stirred.

Whisked in ~2 C chicken stock (homemade) and 1C heavy cream.

Simmered on low ~2 min until thickened.

Added ??? some amount of grated parmesan.

Put frozen green peas and chopped sausage back in.  Added about 1/4 chopped flat leaf parsley.

Delicous!

Picnic pesto sandwich

 This is an assembly sandwich that can be made in larger quantities (or smaller ones!)

Veg version, all from TJ's:

• jar roasted red pepper
• herb slab foccacia x 2
• genova pesto (from the refrigerated section)
• fresh pre-sliced mozzerella
• [optional] pre-marinated pesto chicken, sliced on the bias [air-fry for 6 min per side @ 400 F ]

Spread pesto on bread.  Layer roasted red pepper, fresh mozz, and optionally chicken.

Homemade roti instructions

 2 C whole wheat flower + pinch of salt (1/8 tsp)

with dough hook, start stirring

add 1/2 C water

add more water until it all incorporates at speed setting 4

Keep it kneading until it's soft to push a finger into.

Let rest 30 min covered with a (very lightly damped) towel.

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roll into a long snake shape, maybe 2" across?

pinch off successive portions, roll between your hands until they're fat coins.  about 2" across, maybe 1/2" thick.

Leave these in a baking tray covered with the dampish towel.

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Roll them out on a wooden board:

hand flatten each coin to start.

use long strokes (rather than lots of small short ones).

if it stick, flour one side, but rub it around on the wooden board and flip over.  Not too much flour or the final roti will be too hard.

roll until it's about 3/4 the size of our tawa.

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cooking:

heat tawa on medium (#5) for awhile.

slap a roti on, no oil.

flip after ~5-10 seconds.

let sit 30-60 seconds until edges start to turn up a bit, looks more cooked.

flip it ... it should start to make big bubbles.  Press down on the top with a towel to encourage the puffing.  Take off almost immediately.

brush one side with olive oil and leave the cooked ones in a stack.

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Simple dal to go with it.

1 C moong dal, pre-soaked.

in olive oil, saute a bit of onion (or none), 1 tsp garlic paste, 1/2 tsp ginger paste.

Add 1/4 tsp chili powder, 1/4 tsp turmric, salt to taste.

After letting flavors bloom, add the soaked (drained) dal.  Add 1/2 C or 3/5 C water.  not quite enough to cover (???).  Bring to boil, then simmer covered.

The goal is to have a fairly thick paste consistency at the end.

Most of the flavor comes from adding fresh mint leaves and fried union and a sprinkle of garam on top at the end.  

Hyderabadi ground-nut chicken curry

 Really great!

In our toaster oven we sequentially roasted 1/3 C peanuts, 1/4 C unsweetened shredded coconut, 1 T sesame seeds, and transfered to a blender.  

In a dutch oven, add 2 T oil and saute 1 chopped onion until golden 7-8 min.  Add 1 T garlic and 1 T ginger (we used pastes), cook until no raw smell.  Add 1 tsp each: turmeric, chili powder, garam, salt.  Immediately add 1 C water and scrape bottom.  Transfer mixture to blender.  Blend until super smooth.

In same dutch oven, heat 2 more Tbsp oil.  Add 1 tsp mustard seed, 1 tsp cumin seed and wait 1-2 min for them to sputter.  Add 10 curry leaves.  Then add the peanut mixture back along with 1 more cup water + 1/2 - 1 tsp salt.

Add 1 tsp tamarind paste (we have an actual processed paste) + 1.5 lbs chicken cut into 3/4"-1" pieces.

Vegetarian variation: instead of chicken, a cubed sweet potato and quartered mushrooms.

Simmer uncovered for 8-13 min, stirring occasionally.

We'd definitely make this again!

Crinkle cake -- Best desert of 2024

Recipe: https://ministryofcurry.com/crinkle-cake/#recipe

Maria's modification:

Half tsp saffron replaces rose water in the custard, no rose water in the syrup. This time I reduced sugar to half cup in the custard. 

Also, I preheat half the milk and steep the saffron and cardamom in it at the very start to make sure the flavor is throughout.

The cardamom settles when mixing the custard and doesn't all pour into to the cake.

Another great chole recipe!

 no photo.  This is similar to the last good one; dark rich flavor.  But this time it's a more precise recipe since it doesn't involve using the flavored cooking liquid for texture, thereby making flavor variable.

Here's the recipe: https://glebekitchen.com/chole-masala-punjabi-chickpea-curry/#recipe

Red lentil barley stew

Hearty and good!  We used farro instead of barley and only cooked the lentils for 20-30 min.  Worth making again.

 Recipe here:  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025128-red-lentil-barley-stew#notes_section

HOWEVER, next time maybe half the garam and omit the cinemon stick.

Different Ma Po Tofu Recipe

 On youtube here

Only modification:  I used 2 Tbsp of my own homemade chili oil & omitted green onion since I didn't have any.

Flavor is good; could be a little more mushroom imo.

Liked the can of chickpeas to simluate the ground meat.

Egg tofu with mushroom

 SO GOOD!

Followed this youtube recipe, but omitted the shallot, included a coin of ginger, and added some snow peas in the last 2 min of cooking.  Instead of weird chicken powder, we used 1 C homemade chicken broth and 1 c mushroom soaking liquid.

Excellent grown-up carrot pasta sauce

 This was one of my favorite things I've made in recent memory!  Such a wonderful, interesting taste!  It was a combination of these two recipes.

Sauce

1 Tbsp oil over med  or med/low heat.  Added 1 Tbsp brown sugar + 2 Tbsp white miso.  Stired vigorously to avoid burning.  Added 2 chopped shallots, turned heat lower, browned them for 5 min.  Added heaping 2 C carrots sliced thinly.  Cooked another 5 min (trying to brown them).

Added 2 C water, 2 bay leaf, 1/4 cup raw cashew nuts, juice from 1/2 lemon, 1/4 tsp salt, 10 or so grinds of black pepper.  Covered and simmered for 15 min for carrots to soften.  (remove bay leaf!!)  Blended until very smooth.

Added about 1/2 Tbsp dijon mustard and 3 Tbsp sour cream.  (the dijon and lemon are key flavors not to be left out).  blended again.

Pesto

Blended olive oil (2-4 Tbsp?) with 1-2 handfulls of flat leaf parsley, 1 fat garlic clove and 1/4 tsp salt in small "wet" food processor.

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Cooked the pasta for minimum time on package, reserved 1 C of the cooking water, and added pasta back together with sauce + 1/4 C of the water and stired around vigorously.  Let simmer for 1 more minute.

Served pasta with a dollop of pesto on top.  SO GOOD!

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For next time, I'll try the stick blender (so I don't have to use the blender).  I'll maybe go cashew nuts or sour cream but not both (not that it's bad but just to simplify).  The ratios of everything could be fiddled with. For example, I could imagine it sweeter, maybe 1.5 - 2 Tbsp brown sugar at the start ?