Microwave Mug Cake

This is a quick and easy way to make a single-serving chocolate cake with minimal ingredients. It won't win any awards, but it's tasty and a good way to make a quick dessert when you want cake but it's nearly midnight and you don't want to bake a whole one.

Ingredients

• 64mL flour
• 64mL sugar
• 32mL cocoa (or 16mL dutched cocoa)
• 1 large egg
• 48mL milk
• 48mL oil
• a splash of vanilla
• chocolate chips, dried fruit, or other inclusions to taste

Procedure

1. Mix together dry ingredients in a coffee mug.
2. Add the wet ingredients and mix well.
3. Add the inclusions, if any.
4. Microwave on high for three minutes.

Rice with Chinese Sausage and Greens

This dish has been our go to on many nights when we didn't have the energy to cook anything remotely complicated. It's a true one-pot dish, and takes barely more time to make than a pot of plain rice.

It is very easy to experiment with; the "basic" version just uses the rice, sausages, greens, and soy sauce, and you can add different greens or other seasonings or the like as you see fit. The version recorded here is the most recent one we made.

Ingredients

• 350mL long grain white or brown rice
• 1 package chinese sausages
• 1 package bok choi or head of broccolli (or other greens as you see fit; spinach, mustard greens, or black kale would probably work alright too)
• 1 large onion
• dark soy sauce
• roasted garlic paste
• black pepper

Procedure

1. Put the rice and an appropriate amount of water in your rice cooker or pressure cooker.
2. Slice the sausages into rounds and toss those in.
3. Add the greens.
4. Chop the onion and add that, too.
5. Add a generous splash of soy sauce, a tablespoon or so of roasted garlic paste and some black pepper.
6. Cook using the same settings you'd use to cook plain rice.

Nehari (Braised Lamb Shanks in a Fennel-Cumin Broth)

This curry involves a lot of strong flavours. I loved it though! The broth was delicious and rich. The meat was tender. And it went very well over a nice warm bowl of white basmati rice.

Nehari

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. plain yogurt
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 6 small lamb shanks (~1.4kg)
• 1/4 c. mustard oil
• 1 onion, sliced thin
• 2 tsp. fennel seeds
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. black cumin seeds
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 2 Tbsp. rice flour
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh mint
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine yogurt, ginger paste, garlic paste, cayenne, salt, and turmeric to make a marinade.
2. Coat lamb shanks generously with marinade, cover, and chill overnight.
3. Heat oil over medium heat.
4. Add lamb shanks to hot oil along with all of the marinade.
5. Cook, turning occasionally, until the marinade evaporates and the shanks start to brown (~10 minutes).
6. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to separate (~15 minutes).
7. Transfer lamb shanks to a plate.
8. Stir the onion into the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until it softens (~10 minutes).
9. Meanwhile, combine fennel seeds, cumin, black cumin, and star anise and grind fine.
10. Stir ginger into ground spices.
11. Once onion has softened, stir in the ground spice blend and let it cook for a minute or two.
12. Add 2 c. water and deglaze the pan.
13. Return the shanks to the broth and heat to a boil.
14. Spoon onion slices over meat and cover the pan.
15. Braise, basting occasionally, until lamb is falling off the bone (2-3 hours).
16. Transfer lamb to serving plate.
17. Sprinkle in the rice flour.1 Tbsp. at a time, whisking vigorously after each addition.
18. Bring sauce to a boil to thicken, then pour over the shanks.
19. Sprinkle with mint and cilantro and serve over rice.