Category: Recipes (Page 2 of 2)

One of our favorite breakfast recipes is the dutch baby. It seems like every blog has a version, but the one I based my recipe on came out of a catalog. While it could have been Williams Sonoma, the true origin is lost to time. Have you ever seen a dutch baby? It’s the stuff of dreams. Warm and crispy, kind of fluffy, with a rise that you would see with a popover. They are gorgeous.

Over the years we made it so often I transferred it to the little handwritten cookbook that I made. I have played with the ratios and it’s always come out nice and fluffy and crispy. Except for this time. The time I decided to write about it. This time I chose to add some sourdough discard to the dough. I do it with a lot of recipes just to see what happens (when you make sourdough you end up with tons of discard). Oh boy was THAT a bad idea.

Except. It’s an almost dutch baby. Instead of it being fluffy and tall, like a popover, mine came out flat. Yes, it didn’t behave the way I expected. The insides were almost custardy. I had weighed the batter down with that discard, to the point where it couldn’t rise. But it tasted good. And the outside was crispy. It had turned into french toast. Baked french toast without the bread. Give it a try and let me know what you think. FYI, if you don’t have sourdough discard simply laying around, make it without. It will be delicious and as intended!

Note: You can make them in any oven-safe pan you have, but I tend to prefer cast-iron. And if it’s a weekend (or a really hard quarantine day) serve them with whiskey bacon maple syrup.

This recipe is heavily modified from a couple of different sources. I was looking for something that would be really versatile whether I was serving Indian or Mediterranean. I use the exact same recipe if it’s naan or a pita. The difference is for naan I brush it with ghee and sprinkle it with garlic powder. It sounds nuts, but don’t knock it until you try it!

Boiled egg bhaji is unapologetically and unironically one of the easiest meals I have ever made. It is great as a last-minute, I don’t know what to make for dinner-dinner. This dish always feels for me a little like having breakfast for dinner since it’s eggs, but my husband is happy to be getting a bhaji. There is not a ton of prep, and nothing to remember to soak. That makes it a win for me when I just don’t feel like cooking.

The eggs end up being hard-hard boiled, but I don’t know that you could soft boil them the first time. I feel like they would break when you tried to peel them. If you want to make your own roti or naan that would be great, but some days it’s just easier to get some premade. The raw onion slices give it a little kick, as does the mango pickle.

Growing up in New Mexico, the best part of the year was the fall. The heat finally broke a little bit, there were a ton of events, and the green chile was being harvested. Everywhere you go you can smell roasting green chile. Grocery stores sell huge bags of chiles and have roaster drums set up outside. The drums go round and round, blistering the chiles. This makes the skin easier to remove and adds a slightly sweet smoky flavor. It’s magical.

Living in New Jersey, it is impossible to get green chile. At least, in the same way you can if you live in the Southwest. Even in the off-season, you can buy both red and green chiles frozen, which are the best alternative to fresh roasted. Here we have access to some jarred brands that are pretty decent, and the canned green chiles work in a pinch. So far I’ve never been able to find a brand that is hot enough, but I make do with what I have. The brand I used for this recipe was 505, courtesy of my sweet grandma. She still lives in New Mexico and she sends me what she can when I need my fix!

While I love to bake and cook, I hardly ever fry anything. It smells up the whole house and I never know what to do with the leftover oil. How long does it keep? How many times can I reuse it? Questions that neither Google nor Reddit has the answers for. When I fry it better be worth it. And boy were these worth it! Sweet but not too sweet. I called them choux-rros because I started with a choux dough (get it? Churros? Choux-rros??) Light and fluffy, not heavy at all. They were the perfect end to dinner. I used a dough whisk to help get everything incorporated. You don’t need one, but it really makes stirring dough easier. I served these bad boys with the vanilla caramel, with the added orange extract. They would also be AMAZING with chocolate fudge.

Making caramel can be tricky. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a liar. If the sugar is undercooked the caramel will come out grainy. And the margin of error between perfect, gooey caramel sauce and an acrid tasting burnt mess is hair fine. If you’ve never made caramel before and it doesn’t turn out the first time, just be patient and try again. I have made this a couple of times both with and without the orange extract and it has always come out for me! Serve with caramel apple oatmeal or choux-rros.

It’s been so cold. Like, highs in the low 50’s and rainy. But not soothing, open the windows and curl up with a book rain. Nope. Cold, spitting mist. I cannot believe it’s almost May. When this first started, I assumed we would be back to work by mid-May, and now who knows. At least I can work from home, and I’m taking full advantage of not having a commute. I’ve been trying to get in some workouts. I’ve been playing A LOT of God of War and reading more. I hope that any of the positive habits I’ve instilled follow me past the isolation.

Since it’s been so cold and moral has been kind of low, this weekend I decided to make caramel apple oatmeal. It was warm and sweet and spicy like good apple pie. I made the caramel from scratch, but if you are intimidated or have a jar of caramel topping in your fridge use that instead!

Ingredients for Oatmeal

1. Two TBSP of salted butter
2. Two medium apples, any kind, skin on or off, diced
3. Three TSP King Arthur yuletide cheer spice (this may be a seasonal offering from them; I can’t find it on their website currently). You can also use:
   1. 1/2 TSP of ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, and ground allspice
   2. 1/4 TSP of nutmeg and ground coriander
4. 1/2 a lemon worth of juice
5. Two cups of milk (I used dairy, but you can use any kind)
6. Two cups of old fashioned rolled oats
7. Kosher or pink salt
8. One TSP vanilla extract
9. Two TSP white sugar
10. Brown Sugar to Taste
11. Crushed Walnuts or Pecans (optional)

Instructions

1. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat, until it starts to turn brown and smell nutty.
2. Add half the apple and all the spices, cooking until the apple starts to soften.
3. Add the rest of the apple and cook until the first half is very soft and the second half are beginning to soften.
4. Finish with lemon juice
5. In a saucepan, bring milk to a gentle boil.
6. Stir in vanilla extract and salt.
7. Stir in oats and reduce heat to a bare simmer, cooking until oats are creamy.
8. Add brown sugar, then taste for sugar and salt, adjusting both to taste. Add more milk if the oats seem too stiff.
9. Transfer oats to a bowl, topping with apples, crushed walnuts or pecans, and caramel sauce.

 

One of my husband’s favorite meals is chole, AKA channa masala, AKA chickpeas that have been bhajied. While it is a pretty simple recipe, it took me a while to find something he liked and sufficiently reminded him of home. But let’s be real, who is going to turn down a home-cooked meal of any kind right? I have not tested this in an instant pot, because we don’t own one. What we have is an Indian style pressure cooker that does the “whistles”. They don’t whistle like a tea kettle, they make more of a loud, steam-filled pssssssshhhhhhhhh sound.

I asked a friend of mine recently how she cooks her chole, and she said she lets it cook for three whistles, or pssssssshhhhhhhhh’s. She said if you cook it for longer it makes the chickpeas mushy. I was surprised by that, because I always cook mine for eight whistles and I don’t feel the texture has ever been bad.

I am trying to find someone to test this recipe in an instant pot, so I will update if that happens!

Notes

When my husband makes this recipe he uses standard black tea. This can be purchased from an Indian grocery store. It can also be used to make chai, so it won’t go to waste. For this recipe, put the loose tea in reusable, fillable tea bags. These can also be found at the almost any grocery store if you know where to look.

I am lazy. I prefer to use a spiced tea like this. Any will brand will work if you find one with similar notes. 

Ingredients

Soak the chickpeas overnight, on the counter in a bowl of water. Make sure that the chickpeas are submerged. You can even let them soak all day, but if you soak them TOO long (like more than a couple of days) they will start to sprout. 

When the chickpeas are soft (can you cut them easily with a knife or your nail?) they are done soaking. Drain the water, put them in the pressure cooker with the black tea bags and cover with vegetable broth. DO NOT fill the pressure cooker with liquid, use just enough to cook the chickpeas. 

Put the pressure cooker on the stove, make sure the lid is locked, and turn the heat to medium high. After 6-8 whistles (this will be some trial and error, your pressure cooker is different than mine!) turn the heat off and let the steam release slowly. When the steam is done releasing, scoop out the chickpeas, leaving the vegetable broth in the cooker for later. 

While the chickpeas are cooking, prep the vegetables and make ginger garlic paste (chop the ginger and garlic into small pieces, add into a small food processor or mortar and pestle and grind to a paste).

In a sauce pot or dutch oven, heat the oil until it shimmers. Fry the onion until they start to brown. Add in the ginger garlic paste and fry until it smells cooked and not raw (about 5 minutes on a medium flame).  

Add in the green chiles and cook for about 30 seconds before adding in the tumeric, chili powder, coriander powder, and salt. Stir and cook for about 30 or 45 seconds making sure the spices won’t burn.

Put the tomatoes in the pot and about ½ cup of the vegetable broth you reserved earlier. Cover the pot and let the tomatoes cook down for about 8 minutes (until they are very mushy). 

Add in the chickpeas, cover with the broth, and let the chickpeas cook for 5 or 10 minutes to incorporate all the flavors. Taste for salt. Using a potato masher, squash the chickpeas a little to thicken the gravy. Finish with 2 teaspoons of garam masala, stirring to incorporate. Garnish with cilantro.

Serve with naan, plain paratha, mango pickle, and raw onion slices