This is only a test (kitchen)

Confession:  I don’t measure ingredients very often.  This makes my recipes a little difficult to recreate.  I test most dishes on my husband first before showing up at a potluck with one of my…creations.  I am a fan of using as few pots as possible, and easy is good (I have a baby, after all).  I make a lot of Indian-inspired cuisine.  I use a lot of garlic. I don’t spend a lot of time on presentation. This is not intended as a food blogging paradise, so much as a mobile recipe box.  Please comment if you used any of these recipies, and let me know how your creation turned out!

Broccoli peanut curry

My husband said this was the best thing i have ever cooked. I am not sure i agree, but it was pretty tasty and super easy. So easy.

1 small onion, chopped

Handful salted peanuts (i like the Aldi brand)

Sufficient oil to saute

1 can tom kha soup*

1 c natural peanut butter (no sugar – just smooshed peanuts)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 lb broccoli, cut in bitesize chunks

Water or coconut milk as needed to thin the sauce

*Check the ingredients – some contain fish sauce, which is tasty, just not veg friendly.

Saute onion and peanuts in oil until onion is floppy. Reduce heat and stir in peanut butter. When peanut butter is melty, add the tom kha soup. If there are large hot peppers in the soup, you may consider removing them depending on your spice preference.  Stir until the sauce is smooth, and add sugar. Add broccoli, stir to coat with peanut awesomesauce, cover your pot, and cook to desired doneness over medium low heat. ~10 minutes is my preference, but check frequently. Add water or coconut milk as needed to thin sauce.

Serve with rice

 

 

Fail-ai Kofta

I wanted to make Malai Kofta. All the recipes I looked at called for silly things like “two potatoes”, but I had three pounds to use. I tried to scale up, but I didn’t have enough paneer. I substituted mozzerella and brie. The taste and texture were good, but the disintegrated when I tried to fry them. So…I tried baking them instead.

My approximate recipe was to take 3 lbs of potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed, 4 oz frozen paneer, 4 oz shredded mozzerella, 4 oz brie chopped in little bits (recipes called for equal volume paneer and potatoes, but I didn’t have that much cheese, and this was plenty), a splash of milk, a cup of cashews, a cup of corn meal, salt, garlic powder, garam masala, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper all to taste.

Blend everything except cashews until smooth, then mix in the nuts.

Preheat oven to 450.

Wet hands, form potatoes into balls and then flatten slightly, dredge in additional corn meal, and place on parchment papered cookie sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes until brown on top.

This makes a whole lotta kofta. I will be freezing some.

(And then I cheat)

Take the number of kofta you intend to eat for the meal, cover them with Aldi’s Tikka masala simmer sauce, when the sauce starts bubbling, eat with rice or naan 🙂

Cantaloupe Chutney

We devoured this with slices of brie onblack bean burgers. It was amazing.

1/2 cantaloupe, peeled, seeded, and chopped smallish

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp crushed red pepper

6 cardamom pods, peeled and crushed

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ginger paste

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup cashews

1/2 c lemon juice

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup yellow raisins

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped rough

Crush the cardamom and cloves in a mortar and pestle and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan on medium heat. Add red pepper flakes, cardamom, cloves and ginger. Fry for 30 seconds. Add sugar and cashews, stir to coat with spices.  Throw in cantaloupe and the rest of ingredients. Mix well and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Add more red pepper flakes if you want. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour until chutney is syrupy and fruit is carmelized.

Allow to cool a bit, then puree coarsely in food processor. Store in refrigerator.

Adapted from http://abcdsofcooking.com/2010/08/cantaloupe-chutney/

Can’t elope salad

My husband and I had three weddings. No eloping here! He did, however, show up with a random canteloupe yesterday.  I am reasonably sure I have never eaten anything but plain canteloupe, possibly mixed with other melons in a fruit salad type dish.  I decided to try something new, as should you.

 

Can’t Elope Salad

1/2 canteloupe, seeds removed and diced

1 small cucumber, sliced

1/2 c cashews

1/2 c feta cheese

6-8 fresh mint leaves, chopped

Spinach (as salad base)

For the dressing:

2 tbsp ginger paste

3 tbsp lemon juice

Healthy splort of Sriracha (spice to taste)

Three pinches of salt

3/4 c plain yogurt

 

Mix the dressing ingredients, then mix with the rest of the ingredients. Let it sit for 10- 15 minutes to let the cantaloupe juice mix with the dressing.

Serve over a heaping pile of fresh spinach

 

Watermelon Curry

This is a really simple recipe if you start with a seedless watermelon. Using a regular watermelon is a bit more labor intensive… but that’s what I bought before I decided to make a curry.  I was inspired by a variety of Rajasthani recipies.

Ingredients:

1/3 giant watermelon or one personal size

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper*

2 tsp oil

2 tsp fennel

1/2 tsp fenugreek

Healthy dash of chaat masala

Chop up watermelon into bitesize chunks, and de-seed if you went with a seedy melon.  Puree about 2/3 with the garlic, turmeric, paprika, and cayenne pepper.

Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add fennel and fenugreek seeds, and saute for about 30 seconds to brown.

Add watermelon puree to the pan, simmer on medium heat, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until sauce voolume has been reduced by about 50%.

Add the rest of the watermelon chunks, and stir frequently until warm.

Serve over rice. Garnish with fresh mint leaves and cucumber on the side.

*i skipped the cayenne when i was pregnant, because of heartburn.

Eggplanty Goodness

This is one of my rare non-vegetarian recipes, but easy enough to leave out the fish sauce to make it vegetarian/vegan!

1 small onion, diced

a quantity of oil sufficient to saute onion

2 green chilies (the short skinny ones that you would use in indian or thai cooking.  I have no idea what they are called in american supermarkets)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp turmeric

salt to taste

3 heaping tbsp garlic

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 eggplant, sliced thin

6 oz mushrooms, destemmed and cut in quarters

1 can diced tomatoes, no salt added

2 splashes rice vinegar

1 splash fish sauce (leave out for vegan recipe!)

1/2 cup or so water

hearty dash of sambar powder

dusting of chana masala mix

squirt of lemon juice

In a large skillet, saute onion and green chili with cumin, salt, and turmeric until onoins are floppy.  Add sliced green chilis, garlic, and ginger paste, continue to saute until chili starts to soften.  Add eggplant and mushrooms, stir to coat in spice and onions.  After about 10 minutes, add 1 can of tomatoes with juice, a couple splashes of rice vinegar, a dash of fish sauce, and 1/2 cup of water (or enough to cover the bottom of the pan).  Stir frequently to coat the eggplant with liquid. Add a hearty dash of sambar powder and dust the entire surface of the food with chana masala mix,  If you use the brand I got, it contains sodium bicarbonate, so it will fizz when it hits the acidic food.  Continue stirring occasionally until eggplant is well cooked.  Add a splash of lemon juice right before serving.  Eat with Naan or your choice of bread.

Minty Blueberry Lemonade Popsicles

You had me at blueberry.

1 pt fresh blueberries

Handful of fresh mint leaves

enough lemonade to fill your popsicle molds when mixed with the other ingredients

Add everything food processor, blend. Pour into your popsicle molds and freeze at least 4 hours.

I did not add enough lemonade the first time around, so I divided the mixture between the molds, froze it for an hour without inserting the sticks, then added more pure lemonade to the individual popsicles. They are very pretty, but it does add a step 🙂 If you do it this way, don’t forget to add the sticks!

Edited to add: these are even better than I expected. Make them.

Cheesy upma grits

Since I am living in the south, I decided to try making southern food. However, I was lacking several ingredients for normal run of the mill grits, so I made it up as I went.

4 c milk

1 tbsp jamaican jerk sauce

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp marjoram

2 c. Roasted rava

1 tsp salt (to taste)

Large dollop sour cream

1.5 c shredded cheddar cheese

cashews

In a large pot, bring the milk, jerk, garlic, and marjoram to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low. Slowly add rava, stirring to avoid lumps. Continue to cook on low heat, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking to the pan. As the rava starts to thicken, add sour cream and cheese. Stir until melted. Add salt to taste. Continue cooking over low heat until desired consistency is reached. Add more milk if needed. Serve with a handful of cashews on top. Have seconds. It’s that good.

Perfect blueberry pie filling

Take 1 lb fresh (preferred) or thawed frozen (acceptable substitute) blueberries.  Add 1/2 c lemon juice and 1/2 c brown sugar, mix and let sit for a moment.  In a separate bowl, mix 1/4 c corn starch and 1/4 c flour.  Sprinkle mixture over blueberries, one mixing one spoonful at a time, until they are lightly coated.  Use in blueberry pies, cobblers, on waffles, or wherever else you may need a blueberry filling (hint: everywhere).  Cook at least 20 minutes at 350 degrees for saucy goodness, though longer time or higher temperature is fine too, depending on your recipe.

So good.  seriously. so good.

this is only half a recipe. ignore it until I type the ingredients in. Pumpkin Orange cashew coconut curry

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil.  when the onion is translucent, add turmeric, cayenne pepper, mustard seeds, and salt, stir into oil until a paste forms. Add cashews and stir to coat.  cook for couple of minutes until cashews are less crunchy.  Add cooked pumpkin,and mix with onions etc.  Add stir in OJ, garam masala to taste, and chaat masala too!  All the masalas!  Stir in one can of coconut milk and bring to a boil.  serve over rice or with chapatis.