Chori Ane Sengdana nu Dal (Cowpea-Peanut Dal)

I was in the mood for beans tonight. I felt like some sort of small whole legume would go well: mung beans, mapte beans, cowpeas, moth beans, etc. In the end I settled on this cowpea dal. It takes a while to cook but is quite straightforward to make. And I enjoyed the sweet, sour, and spicy aspects of it. It doesn't need much to round it out to a full meal. I served it with a simple carrot curry and some rice and paratha. If you wanted to dress it up a bit, I think sonth (tamarind-date chutney) would complement and accentuate the flavours. But I really liked it just as it was honestly.

Chori Ane Sengdana nu Dal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. red cowpeas (chori/sabud chowli/adzuki beans)
• 4 c. water
• 6 pieces dried black kokum
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 Tbsp. jaggery
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/4 tsp. ground asafetia
• 2-3 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 12-15 fresh or frozen curry leaves
• 2-4 fresh green Thai chilies, halved lengthwise

Directions

1. Rinse the beans thoroughly, then add hot water to cover and set aside for 1-2 hours.
2. Drain the beans, return to pot, add water, and bring to a boil.
3. Skim off any foam, add kokum, reduce heat to medium, partially cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~20 minutes.
4. Add peanuts, jaggery, salt, turmeric, and asafetida, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, for another 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, melt 2 Tbsp. of ghee over medium-high heat.
6. Add cumin seeds and sizzle for ~10 seconds.
7. Stir in ginger paste and cook for ~1 minute.
8. Toss in curry leaves and chilies, stir once or twice, remove from heat, and set aside.
9. Once beans have finished their second 20-minute cooking period, stir in the ghee and spices.
10. Cover and simmer for another 20-25 minutes.
11. If desired, stir in 1 additional Tbsp. of ghee.
12. Serve with rice.

I needed something to use up sourdough starter that wasn't bread or cake and didn't have a long fermentation period. Oh, and it also had to be something that I had all the ingredients on hand for already. And, since we're running very low on eggs right now, that ruled a bunch of stuff out.

In the end I settled on these "everything cookies". They're basically an oatmeal cookie that uses sourdough starter for the flour and liquid components of the recipe. They're sweetened with a mix of brown sugar and mashed bananas. And they don't need eggs because the recipe basically starts by getting you to make a flax egg out of starter and ground flax seeds.

Everything Cookies

From Cultures for Health

Ingredients

• 1-2 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 Tbsp. ground flax seeds
• 225g (100% hydration) sourdough starter
• 1/3 c. canola oil or melted coconut oil
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. quick or rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 c. chopped nuts¹
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips (or chopped up chocolate)
• 1/2 c. dried fruit²
• 1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Mix the mashed banana(s), ground flax, and starter and let stand for 3 minutes.
3. Stir in oil, brown sugar, and vanilla.
4. Dump in oats, but don't stir them in yet!
5. Add baking soda, salt, and cinnamon on top of oats and stir to combine.
6. Mix in nuts, chocolate, dried fruit, and coconut (if using).
7. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10-15 minutes (mine took 13).
8. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ We used slivered almonds this time, but there are lots of other options: walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans... Maybe even pine nuts, cashews, or pistachios. ^Back
2 We used dried cherries for this batch. Some other things to consider: rasisins/sultanas, apricots, currants, cranberries, dates, mango, papaya... I might also consider trying dried pineapple, blueberries, or strawberries. ^Back

Cheesy Breadsticks (Sourdough)

I have not been having good bread days lately. I just haven't had the spoons to do it properly. I thought I'd get a good batch made this weekend, but I was very tired this morning and forgot to zero the scale which resulted in some very stiff dough. I tried to amend it a bit, but I was worried about overshooting and didn't add enough water. So my bread is not shaping up great so far. I'll bake it off tomorrow morning, but I don't have high hopes for this one. Maybe I can take another crack at it next weekend.

In the meantime, I decided to use some of the excess starter to make breadsticks. These also could've used a little more care and attention, but they still came out pretty good.

Cheesy Breadsticks

Slightly adapted from Sourdough Companion

Ingredients

• 340g soft flour¹
• 9g coarse sea salt
• 25g unsalted butter
• 125g cream cheese
• 200g ripe/active starter (100%) hydration
• 180mL water
• extra cheese, cubed (optional)

Directions

1. Mix flour and salt.
2. Cut in butter and cream cheese.
3. Mix in starter and water to form a soft dough.
4. Knead for a minute or two, then cover and leave to rest for about an hour.
5. Stretch and fold, flip over, cover, and rest for another hour.
6. Give it one or two more stretches at one-hour intervals (depending on how lively the dough seems). If desired, work in some extra cheese on the last stretch.
7. Shape dough into a ball and leave to rest for 20-30 minutes.
8. Press flat and cut into thirds.
9. Cut each third into long, skinny rectangles.
10. Stretch each rectangle to desired length and place on a greased baking sheet.
11. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes. (You may need more or less time depending on the thickness of your breadsticks.)

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¹ I used a mix of white and whole wheat. ^Back

TF hasn't been feeling well lately and I wanted to make her a nice breakfast both as a treat and to give her one less thing to think about in the morning. I've made a few differet varieties of baked eggs before, but this recipe was particularly appealing today because it allowed me to use up one of the leeks that's been sadly waiting in the back of the fridge for a bit over a week now. (I had plans for it but kind of lost the plot and now it's gone begging.)

I really liked this as something to kind of mix up our breakfast routine. It was very tasty and pretty easy to make. I do think I'd use a bit less cream next time though. I feel like 2 Tbsp. per egg is a bit much. I might try cutting it back to 1 Tbsp. and see how that goes.

Shirred Eggs with Leeks

Slightly adapted from The Modern Proper

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 leek, thinly sliced (white and light green parts only)
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 4-6 green onions, sliced
• 6 large eggs
• 6 Tbsp. heavy or table cream (35 or 18%)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 3-4 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and grease 6 ramekins or custard cups.
2. Melt butter over medium heat.
3. Add leek, bell pepper, and green onions and cook until softened.
4. Divide leek mixture between ramekins/custard cups.
5. Break an egg into each up.
6. Pour 1 Tbsp. of cream over each egg.
7. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, Parmesan, chives, and parsley.
8. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for ~15 minutes.
9. Serve with buttered toast.

Masala Pudhina Paneer (Spiced Minty Paneer)

I would've sworn we'd already written this recipe up, but I can't find it anywhere, so I guess it got missed. It's been ages since we last made it, so the details are a little fuzzy, but I do remember this being the recipe that introduced me to the idea of mixing seasonings into the curds before pressing homemade paneer.

Masala Pudhina Paneer

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 4L whole (3.25%) or 2L half-and-half (10% cream)
• 1/4 c. vinegar
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 2 tsp. Balti Masala
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 6 Tbsp. canola oil, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 1/4 c. mint leaves, chopped
• 1-2 fresh green Thai chilies, thinly sliced
• 1 c. water
• 1 c. half-and-half (10% cream)

Directions

1. Bring milk to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.
2. Stir in vinegar and remove from heat.
3. If the whey still looks milky (rather than watery) after 30-60 seconds, stir in another Tbsp. or two of vinegar.
4. Line a colander with a double layer of cheesecloth and pour the curds and whey into it to separate them and allow to drain for 5-10 minutes. The whey can be saved for baking or making soup stocks or discarded.
5. Add cilantro, balti masala, and 1 tsp. of salt to the curds and mix well.
6. Fold over the edges of the cheesecloth to cover the cheese.
7. Place a water-filled pot or other heavy object on top and press the cheese for 3-5 hours.
8. Remove the weight and the cheesecloth and cut the paneer into cubes.
9. Heat 1/4 c. of oil over medium heat.
10. Fry the paneer for 7-10 minutes, doing your best to get the cubes brown and crispy on all sides. Transfer to paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
11. Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat.
12. Add the onion and cook for 5-8 minutes.
13. Stir in tomato paste, remaining 1/4 c. cilantro, remaining 1/2 tsp. salt, mint, and chilies.
14. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for ~5 minutes.
15. Stir in water.
16. Add the paneer, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally for ~10 minutes.
17. Stir in the half-and-half and increase heat to medium.
18. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes.
19. Serve with rice and your favourite flatbread.

Simla Mirch Paneer (Bell Pepper and Paneer Curry)

I don't remember when we made this one. I don't really remember what it was like. But it's checked off in the book, so we definitely made it at some point. Sorry I don't have a more detailed and interesting post for it.

This is a very easy (and relatively quick) curry to prepare if you can buy a bag of frozen fried paneer cubes from your local Indian grocery store. It's a bit more time-consuming if you have the fry the paneer yourself. And moreso if, like us, you tend to make your paneer from scratch so that it can be made lactose-free. I highly recommend making use of the pre-fried paneer if you can tolerate the lactose.

Simla Mirch Paneer

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 c. water
• 1/4 c. raw cashews
• 2 large red bell peppers (~450g), cut into 2cm pieces
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 1-4 fresh green Thai chilies, chopped
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2-1 tsp. cayenne powder
• 250g fried paneer cubes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine water, cashews, bell peppers, cardamom pods, and chilies and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally for 20-25 minutes.
3. Puree the mixture (either in batches in a jar blender or directly in the pot with an immersion blender).
4. Return the pureed mixture to the pot (if it was removed).
5. Stir in salt, cayenne, and paneer.
6. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally for ~5 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

I'm still waiting for this "bread" to finish baking. Normally I'd wait 'til I'd tasted it to do the write-up, but I'm at loose ends right now and I know I'll probably forget if I leave it 'til later, so I'm putting this down now. I can always come back later and add notes and alterations.

This recipe seems to be very much in the family of quick breads that are actually cakes baked in a loaf pan. It has a shocking amount of sugar and butter. I think I'll probably want to try to reduce both the next time I make this, but I just followed the recipe for today. We'll see how it tastes once it comes out of the oven...

Sourdough Maple-Walnut Quick Bread

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

• 170g whole wheat flour
• 120g all-purpose flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 170g sourdough discard (unfed starter)
• 1/2 c. milk¹
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp. maple flavouring (optional)
• 1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23cm by 13cm (9"x5") loaf pan.
2. Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
3. In a large measuring cup, whisk together starter, milk, maple syrup, eggs, melted butter, and maple flavouring (if using).
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined.
5. Stir in walnuts.
6. Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 60-70 minutes.

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Variations

Healthier Maple-Walnut Quick Bread

Ingredients

• 290g whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 170g sourdough discard (unfed starter)
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 2 large eggs
• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 tsp. maple flavouring (optional)
• 1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23cm by 13cm (9"x5") loaf pan.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
3. In a large measuring cup, whisk together starter, milk, maple syrup, eggs, banana melted butter, applesauce, and maple flavouring (if using).
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined.
5. Stir in walnuts.
6. Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 60-70 minutes.

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 290g whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 170g sourdough discard (unfed starter)
• 1/2 c. oat milk
• 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 2 flax eggs
• 1 very ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 tsp. maple flavouring (optional)
• 1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a 23cm by 13cm (9"x5") loaf pan.
2. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
3. In a large measuring cup, whisk together starter, milk, maple syrup, eggs, banana melted butter, applesauce, and maple flavouring (if using).
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry and stir until just combined.
5. Stir in walnuts.
6. Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth the top.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 60-70 minutes.

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¹ The original recipe called for buttermilk, but a) I didn't have any and b) my starter was already quite acidic, so I just swapped in some milk for the buttermilk. If your starter is less acidic, you may want to use buttermilk or stir a little vinegar into your wet ingredients. ^Back

I've been bad at doing writeups lately, especially for Hello Fresh meals, but the kidlet absolutely loved this one and had it both for dinner and for school lunches, declaring it a "Super Favourite".

Beyond Meat Taco Bowls

Hello Fresh

Ingredients

• zest and juice of one lime
  
• 1 tsp sugar
• 340g shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix
• 2 tomatoes, diced
  
• 6 tbsp sour cream
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 1½ C basmati rice
• ½+¼ tsp garlic salt, divided
  
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  
• 4 patties Beyond Meat
• 2 tbsp Mexican seasoning
• ½ tsp chipotle powder
• ½ C cheddar or feta cheese, grated/crumbled (or both!)
• oil
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Whisk together lime juice, 1 tsp sugar, and 2 tbsp oil in a large bowl.
2. Add slaw mix and tomatoes and toss to combine.
3. Whisk together sour cream and lime zest.
   
4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pot over medium heat.
5. Add rice and tomato paste and cook, stirring often, until fragrant.
6. Add 2½ C water and ½ tsp garlic salt, cover, and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, until water is absorbed.
8. Remove from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes, then fluff and mix in green onions.
   
9. Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
10. Add Beyond Meat and break into small pieces.
11. Stir in mexican seasoning, chipotle powder, remaining garlic salt, and black pepper to taste. Cook until slightly crispy, 5-6 minutes.
12. Fill bowls with rice, then top with Beyond Meat, cheese, slaw, and sour cream.

Gajar, Palak, Ane Sengdane chi Bhajee (Carrot, Spinach, and Peanut Curry)

I needed a vegetable dish to round out tonight's dinner. I was initially planning on doing something with peas and spinach... until I remembered we were all out of cream. A bunch of the other curries I was looking at relied on cabbage or cauliflower -- neither of which we have right now. And the bell pepper curry that I'd finally settled on making turned out not to be a viable option either. Of course, I didn't realize this until I'd already started the mise en place for it. Luckily I hadn't done much yet, just mixed a bit of turmeric with some chickpea flour. And, since this recipe took the exact same amount of turmeric, I just decided to toss my extra-yellow flour in so as not to waste the ingredients.

Given that the original recipe doesn't call for any chickpea flour, it did come out a bit different than if I'd made it as written, but I was happy with the result. And it saved me having to either throw out or store the turmeric'd chickpea flour. I just added a bit extra water (~125mL) to compensate for the chickpea flour's thickening effect.

Gajar, Palak, Ane Sengdane chi Bhajee

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. raw peanuts
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2-3 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 2 Tbsp. chickpea flour (optional)
• 450g carrots, peeled and sliced crosswise
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1-1 1/2 c. water
• 100g fresh kale or spinach, chopped

Directions

1. Combine peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut, chilies, and garlic in a food processor (or blender with a "chop" setting) and process until the texture of breadcrumbs.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add peanut mixture and cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add turmeric and chickpea flour (if using) and cook for another minute or so.
5. Add carrots, salt, sugar, and water. Use more water if using chickpea flour, less if making without flour.
6. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-7 minutes.
7. Add greens and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
8. Serve with rice and/or flatbreads.

Probably not super authentic, but it is tasty.

The dough can be kept in the fridge. Just pinch off a chunk whenever you want some naan and leave the rest in the fridge to ferment a little more. I suspect you could keep doing this for at least three or four days. Eventually the dough will overferment and the gluten will start to break down, but it should keep reasonably well for at least a few days. Maybe longer. I don't think this batch is going to last long enough for me to test its limits!

Sourdough Naan

From Sourdough Companion

Ingredients

• 332g (166% hydration) starter/preferment
• 416g flour¹
• 8g salt
• 5g sugar
• 37g oil²
• 148g plain yogurt
• 1 large egg

Directions

1. First, get your starter ready. I did this by taking out 25g of 100% hydration starter in the morning and feeding it with 30g of flour and 30mL of water. In the evening I fed it again with 85g of flour and 164mL of water. Let that ripen overnight and it should be ready to go in the morning.
2. Now mix your flour(s), salt, and sugar.
3. Make a well in the centre and pour in the starter and oil.
4. Beat the egg with the yogurt and pour that in as well.
5. Mix, working from the centre outward until all the flour has been incorporated.
6. At this point you can either cover the dough and let it ferment at room temperature for a few hours or transfer it directly to the fridge.
7. Once the dough has had a chance to do a bit of rising, you can start using it to make naan: Get a large skillet very hot, tear off a lump of dough and round it into a ball, stretch it fairly thin and drop it onto the hot skillet. Once it's cooked and has some dark spots on one side, flip it over to cook the other side. While the second side is cooking, brush the first side with a bit of ghee. (Feel free to add some garlic, cilantro, and/or chilies as well!)

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¹ The original recipe calls for all-purpose flour. I opted to use a mix of all-purpose and hard whole wheat flour. I think I used ~100g whole wheat flour. The rest was AP. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for olive oil. I used corn oil. Next time I'd be tempted to try melted ghee. ^Back

Dal Korma (Lentil Korma)

I've had chicken korma and vegetable korma, but I'd never tried a legume-based korma before. This curry smelled divine. And it tasted pretty good. But it wasn't one of my favourites. That said, I would like to revisit it at some point. I think it could be improved. I think cutting back on the amount of water used to cook the lentils would definitely help. I found it way too soupy and would've preferred a thicker curry. I also wonder if upping the nuts and cream would improve matters. And, of course, using the full amount of chilies would've been nice too, but I scaled them back in an attempt to please the Kidlet's palate.

If I was looking to make even more changes, I think the next step would be adjusting the spices. I think some cloves would probably go nicely. And maybe either a piece of star anise or a black cardamom pod. I might also be tempted to toss in a dried Kashmiri chili and stir in a bit of ghee along with the cilantro right at the end of cooking.

Dal Korma

Adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. whole brown lentils (sabud masoor)
• 1/2 c. whole mung beans (green lentils/sabud moong)
• 4 c. water, divided
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 2 (7cm/3") cinnamon sticks
• 4 whole cloves (optional)
• 1-2 black cardamom pods (optional)
• 1/4-1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4-1/2 c. raw cashews
• 1/4-1/2 c. slivered almonds
• 1-2 fresh green Thai chilies
• 2-3 Tbsp. ghee, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Rinse the legumes and pick them over for stones.
2. Add them to the pressure cooker along with 3 c. of the water, ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves and black cardamom (if using).
3. Pressure cook (on high setting for InstantPots) for 25 minutes, then allow for a 15 minute natural release.
4. Meanwhile, pour the cream into a blender. Add the cashews, almonds, and chilies and puree.
5. Melt 2 Tbsp. of the ghee over medium heat.
6. Add the onion, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 10-15 minutes.
7. Add 1/2 c. of the water and deglaze the pan. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. When legumes are done and pressure has been released, stir in the contents of both the blender and the pan.
9. Pour the remaining 1/2 c. of water into the blender and swish it around to rinse it out. Pour this mixture into the pressure cooker with the beans as well.
10. Cook (use low sauté setting on InstantPot) for 5-10 minutes.
11. Stir in cilantro and remaining 1 Tbsp. of ghee and serve.

Simla Mirch ki Bhajee (Bell Pepper Vegetable Curry)

We still had a couple potato koftas left and a some dal and a bit each of the mushroom curry and corn curry. So for dinner tonight we just cooked up some fresh rice and added this bell pepper and potato curry to the mix. It's quick and easy to make and full of delicious flavour from the sambhar masala (one of my favourite spice blends). Now the kofta and dal are all gone so there's plenty of room for me to make a new curry for tomorrow night!

I really enjoy this sort of rolling curry buffet. Where each night's dinner is leftovers from the previous night + one new curry. It's fun! And it allows for us to have lots of different curries in a single meal without having to cook them all in one evening. It works quite well!

Simla Mirch ki Bhajee

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp. skinned split black lentils (urad dal)
• 1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 potato, cubed (~1cm pieces)
• 2 tsp. sambhar masala
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 c. water
• 1 medium tomato, diced (or ~200mL tinned diced tomato)
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 15 fresh (or frozen) curry leaves

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add mustard seeds, cover, and cook until they've stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
3. Add lentils and cook for ~30 seconds.
4. Add bell pepper, onion, potato, sambhar masala, salt, and turmeric and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add water, tomato, cilantro, and curry leaves.
6. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes.
7. Serve with rice and/or your favourite flatbread(s).

Moppalah Gosht Kootan (Moppalah Beef Curry)

Full disclosure: I do not remember this curry at all. It's checked off in the book, so we apparently made it at some point, but I have no recollection of how it came out. Maybe we'll make it again one day. For now I'm going to write it down for the sake of feeling like I'm at least making a dent in the recipe backlog.

Moppalah Gosht Kootan

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 450g stewing beef
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 c. thinly sliced shallots
• 2-4 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies, stems removed
• 2 Tbsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 c. coconut milk
• 1 tsp. tamarind concentrate
• 1 large unripe mango, peeled and cubed
• 15 fresh (or frozen) curry leaves
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine ginger paste, garlic paste, and turmeric and mix well.
2. Add beef and toss to coat.
3. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes (up to 24 hours).
4. Melt oil over medium-high heat.
5. Add mustard seeds, cover, and cook until they've stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
6. Add shallots and chilies and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes.
7. Add the beef, coriander, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-12 minutes.
8. Whisk tamarind concentrate into coconut milk.
9. Pour coconut milk mixture into pan and deglaze the pan.
10. Add mango and curry leaves.
11. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 12-15 minutes.
12. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Angrezi Bhutta (English Corn)

I wasn't feeling up for doing much cooking tonight, so I just made this very simple corn curry to go with the leftovers from a couple nights ago. There's not much to it, but it made a nice accompaniment to the other curries. Oh, and the name? "English Corn"? That's down to the "Madras curry powder" used to season it. Curry powder was created by the British in an attempt to recreate Indian flavours. So I guess that makes this a sort of Indo-Anglo-Indian dish.

Angrezi Bhutta

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tsp. Madras curry powder
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 2 1/2-3 c. frozen corn
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add curry powder and cook for another 30-60 seconds.
4. Add tomato and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Stir in corn, water, and salt and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

I... mostly followed the recipe for this one. Kind of. Pretty much.

We didn't have any pancetta, so I tossed in an old Parmesan rind instead to help infuse it with some tasty, salty, umami. Instead of chives, I topped it with toasted pumpkin seeds and fried capers. And, now that I'm looking at the recipe again, I'm realizing that I think I forgot to add the vinegar too. That wasn't an intentional change. I just forgot. Oh, and I ended up bumping up the garlic a bit and using mirepoix instead of just onion and celery as suggested. And I guess my bell pepper to squash ratio was probably a bit different too. But really it's still pretty much almost the same recipe at heart. Nearly.

Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Soup

Adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2019

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 good-sized (~4cm x 8cm) Parmesan rind
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• ~450g roasted butternut squash flesh
• 2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 Tbsp. sherry or white wine vinegar
• 3-4 Tbsp. pumpkin seeds, toasted
• 1-2 Tbsp. capers, fried
• 2-3 Tbsp. grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Add bell pepper, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and Parmesan rind and cook for ~5 minutes.
3. Add thyme, pepper, and cayenne and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add squash and stir in stock.
5. Bring to a boil and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes.
6. Puree soup. (A conventional or an immersion blender works well for this.)
7. Stir in vinegar.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. Sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds, fried capers, and grated Parmesan as desired.

Toovar nu Dal (Pigeon Pea Dal)

Tonight's dinner involed a lot of failing over to plan B (or C or D). I was trying to pick recipes that would use up leftover ingredients that had been sitting in the fridge for a while. Unfortunately they'd been there a bit too long. The excess khoya and leftover mango salsa weren't looking (or smelling) super happy anymore. So instead of peas with khoya and yogurt, I ended up going with a creamy mushroom and pea curry. And instead of mangoes in pigeon pea broth, I gave this pigeon pea dal a try. Or, a variation on it, I guess. It turns out that I was also running low on pigeon peas, so I had to use a mix of pigeon peas and yellow split peas. It worked out okay in the end though.

Toovar nu Dal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split pigeon peas¹
• 2 pieces dried kokum
• 3 c. water, divided
• 1 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 1/4 tsp. ground asafetida
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 15 fresh or frozen curry leaves
• 2-4 fresh green Thai chilies, halved lengthwise
• 1 tomato², chopped
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. jaggery
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric

Directions

1. Swish the peas around in some water, drain them, and rinse them again.
2. Place rinsed peas in a pot with the kokum and 2 1/2 c. of the water.
3. Bring to a boil, skim and foam that forms, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20-25 minutes (or longer if using split peas instead of pigeon peas).
4. Meanwhile, melt ghee over medium-high heat.
5. Add mustard seeds, cover, and cook until seeds have stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
6. Add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafetida, and ginger paste and cook for another minute or so.
7. Stir in the remaining 1/2 c. water, remove from heat, and set aside.
8. Once peas are done, remove the kokum and puree the peas with their cooking water. And immersion blender works well for this. Otherwise you may have to do them in multiple batches in a blender jar.
9. Stir the spice mixture and its water into the pureed peas.
10. Add the curry leaves, chilies, tomato, cilantro, jaggery, salt, and turmeric and cook over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes.
11. Serve with rice and/or papads.

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¹ Other legumes will also work here, but you'll have to adjust the cooking time accordingly. Skinned split pigeon peas only take ~20 minutes to cook, but yellow split peas take a bit longer. I had to cook mine for ~35 minutes. ^Back
2 I didn't have any fresh tomatoes on hand, so I used ~200mL of canned diced tomatoes. ^Back

Malai Waale Dhingri Mutter (Creamy Mushrooms and Peas)

This was one of two emergency back-up curries we ended up making for dinner tonight. My original plan had been a somewhat similar curry involving peas, yogurt, and khoya, but the khoya had gone off, so I fell back to this mushroom curry instead. We served it with a simple pulao, potato koftas, papads, and a dal and it made for a really satisfying dinner. Although I do feel like it would've been nice with even more mushrooms. Or possibly a wider variety of mushrooms. I think combination of oyster and cremini mushrooms would work very well.

Walai Waale Dhingri Mutter

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. raw cashew nuts
• 6-7 cloves garlic
• 2-6 fresh green Thai chilies
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 250g cremini mushrooms, halved or quartered if large
• 125g oyster mushrooms, coarsely chopped (optional)
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 c. chopped fresh or frozen fenugreek leaves
• 1 c. frozen green peas
• 1/2 c. half-and-half (10% cream)
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Combine cashews, garlic, and chilies and chop very fine. (A food processor or a blender with a "food chop" setting works well for this.)
2. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
3. Add the onion and the minced cashew blend and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and cook for another minute or two.
5. Add the water and stir to deglaze the pan.
6. Add the penugreek, peas, half-and-half, and salt and cook for another 8-10 minutes.
7. Serve with rice and additional curries.

Tari Daar Aloo Kofta (Potato Kofta in Raisin-Tomato Sauce)

Battering and deep frying the koftas makes this recipe a little more labour-intensive than I'd normally want for dinner, but the recipe sounded too good not to try! The chickpea flour batter fries up beautifully and makes for very professional looking dumplings. I feel like the sauce was a little lacking, but a bit on sonth drizzled on top of the dish perked it right up.

Tari Daar Aloo Kofta

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

Koftas

• 450g russet (or other floury) potatoes, diced
• 1/2 c. fresh cilantro¹, minced
• 2-5 fresh green Thai chilies, minced
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 c. chickpea flour, sifted
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 c. warm water
• oil for deep frying

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1/2 c. raw cashews
• 1/4 c. golden raisins
• 400mL tomato sauce²
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

Koftas

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the diced potato. Reduce heat to medium and cook, partially covered, for ~8 minutes.
2. Reserve 1 c. of the potato cooking water. Drain the potatoes and mash them.
3. Add the cilantro, chilies, garlic and 1 tsp. of the salt to the mashed potatoes and mix well.
4. Working with about 2 Tbsp. of the potato mixture at a time, form your dumplings. Shape them into eggs or cylinders as desired.
5. Combine the chickpea flour, turmeric, and remaining 1/2 tsp. of salt.
6. Whisk in the warm water to make a batter. (I ended up adding an extra Tbsp. or two of water because the batter seemed too thick to me.)
7. Pour ~5cm (2") of oil into a wok or similar vessel and heat it to ~180°C (350°F).
8. Coat four of the koftas in chickpea batter and carefully drop them into the hot oil. Cook, turning occasionally, until golden-brown all over.
9. Cook remaining koftas in the same manner.

Sauce

1. Melt the ghee over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion, ginger, cashews, and raisins and stir-fry for ~5 minutes.
3. Add the tomato sauce and stir to deglaze the pan.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Transfer sauce to blender jar and puree.
6. Return sauce to pan and pour the reserved potato cooking water into the blender jar. Swish it around and pour this into the pan with the sauce.
7. If using tomatoes rather than tomato sauce, stir in some salt.

Assembly

1. Warm sauce over medium-low heat.
2. Carefully add the koftas to the sauce and spoon the sauce over to completely cover them. DO NOT STIR!
3. Cover the pan and simmer for ~5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

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¹ I ran out of cilantro, so I ended up using a mix of cilantro and flat-leaf parsley. Parsley makes an okay substitute, but cilantro is better if you have it. ^Back
2 We ended up using diced tomatoes rather than tomato sauce. I suspect that commercial tomato sauce would have plenty of salt in it and thus wouldn't need any more added. If using fresh or canned diced tomatoes though, you may find that some additional salt is necessary. We added 1/4 tsp., but I think a 1/2 tsp. would've been better. ^Back

I was looking for something easy and tasty to make for dinner last night. I figured I'd end up making some sort of legume curry. I stumbled across this TexMex-looking recipe in the "contemporary curries" section though and figured I'd give it a go.

I had to make a few substitutions, but managed to stick mostly to the recipe. I used whole wheat flour torillas instead of corn ones. And I baked one large stack in a pie plate rather than doing several smaller ones on a baking dish. I also ended up using crumbled tofu in place of the ground turkey. I cooked it with a bit of stock, soy sauce, and ghee to give it a flavour boost. And I had to use a mix of guajillo and California chilies since I didn't have enough guajillos on hand. And, of course, I halved the salt as usual. Everything else stayed the same.

The recipe didn't call for garlic, but I would be inclined to add some next time. TF also felt like the sauce could've used a little boost. It had a nice gentle heat and beautiful colour with some good smoky flavour, but I don't think it was as well-rounded as she'd hoped. I'm wondering if adding just a touch of amchoor or apple cider vinegar would help with that.

Indian Spiced Taco Pie

Adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

Sauce

• 12 dried guajillo chilies, stems removed
• 3 c. boiling water
• 2 tsp. dabeli masala
• 3/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. amchoor or 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar (optional)

Filling

• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 450g thawed frozen tofu, pressed and crumbled
• 1/4 c. stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, or mushroom)
• 1/2 tsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. ghee
• 2 c. cooked black beans
• 2 tsp. dabeli masala
• salt, to taste¹
• 1-2 fresh or frozen green Thai chilies, chopped

Assembly

• 3 large (25-30cm/10-12") tortillas
• shredded cheese
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 scallion/green onion, chopped (optional)

Directions

Sauce

1. Place dried chilies in a bowl with the boiling water. Use a pot or similar to weigh the chilies down so they stay submerged. Set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Reserving the soaking liquid, remove the chilies from the water and place them in a blender.
3. Pour 1/2 c. of the soaking liquid into the blender and purée.
4. Place a fine mesh seive over a pot and pour the puréed mixture into the seive. Stir and mash it around to force as much through the seive as possible.
5. Swish out the blender with the remaining soaking liquid and pour this through the seive as well, ~1/2 c. at a time. Being sure to stir as mash to continue working material through the seive.
6. Once all the liquids have gone through the seive, discard the pulp and bring the sauce in the pot to a boil.
7. Stir in dabeli masala, salt, and amchoor/vinegar (if using).
8. Remove from heat and set aside.

Filling

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion, garlic, tofu, stock, and soy sauce and cook for ~10 minutes.
3. Add ghee to pan and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
4. Add the beans, dabeli masala, salt, and chilies and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Grease a 23cm (9") deep dish pie plate.
3. Place a tortilla in the bottom of the pie plate.
4. Scoop some of the filling onto the tortilla and spread it into an even layer.
5. Top with cilantro and cheese.
6. Place a second tortilla on top and repeat the layers of filling, cilantro, and cheese. (You will have some filling left over.)
7. Place a final tortilla on top of the pie. (Trim the edges to make it slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the pie plate if necessary.)
8. Ladel ~1 1/2 c. of sauce over the pie and top with a bit more cheese.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
10. Sprinkle with cilantro and green onion (if using).
11. Serve with rice and/or salad.
12. If desired, make a second pie with the leftover filling and some more tortillas and cheese.

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¹ Iyer's version of the recipe uses turkey rather than tofu and doesn't call for the stock or soy sauce. He calls for 1 tsp. of coarse sea salt. I swapped in tofu, but used homemade stock with very little salt, so I opted to add 1/2 tsp. of salt to my filling. If you're using commercial stock, you may wish to reduce the salt further. ^Back

Kakadi Raita (Cucumber Raita)

I'm partial to a good raita. The ones that I usually see served in restaurants around here generally seem to be cucumber-based like this one. I figured this would be a slam-dunk. To my surprise, it's actually my least favourite raita in the book! That's not to say it's not good. It's fine. But it's not nearly as good as the other two raitas in the chapter. The keerai pachadi is a religious experience. And the mooli raita, which I didn't expect to like, is also delicious. Whereas this one is just... alright. Your mileage may, of course, vary.

Kakadi Raita

From 660 Curries

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. plain yogurt
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded, and shredded
• 1/2 c. fresh mint leaves, minced
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and ground
• 1-3 fresh green Thai chilies, minced

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Serve as a condiment or accompaniment to your favourite chilies and pulaos.

酸菜炖粉条 (Braised Vermicelli with Pickled Cabbage)

I haven't been very good at keep up with the blog the last few months. I'm way behind on my recipe write-ups. It's going to take me a while to catch up, but here's what I've got for today: 酸菜炖粉条 (suāncài dùn fěntiáo), which is cabbage and vermicelli stew (or "braised vermicelli with pickled cabbage" if you're going for a more literal translation). It's a popular winter dish in northern China, often prepared with home-made pickled cabbage. My cabbage was not home-made. In fact, the whole soup base came from a kit that I found at the Asian grocery store. I'm sure it would've been even better had made it myself, but the kit was still really nice. We did it as a hotpot and tossed in various veggies and proteins to cook at the table.

Before making the soup kit, I looked around online for recipes to make the dish from scratch. And the Woks of Life came through for me with a great home-made recipe. I used their recipe to adjust how I prepared the kit a bit, including mixing up the delicious dipping sauce to serve along with it. And now I know what to do if I want to make it without the kit in the future. It's actually quite simple to put together.

The folks at the Woks of Life provide several different options for the sour cabbage component of this stew. The best option, if you can find it, is pickled nappa cabbage. If you can't find that, they recommend pickled mustard greens as the next best thing. They tend to be a bit easier to find, but their texture isn't ideal for this dish. And, as a last resort, if you can't find either of the others, you can use sauerkraut. It has a different flavour than the others, but it is sour and it's made of cabbage, so it'll do in a pinch.

We made our stew with mung bean glass noodles/vermicelli, but sweet potato glass noodles are actually recommended. Unfortunately I didn't have any of those and I did have a huge surpluss of bean noodles, so I used what I had. I really liked it with the bean noodles. Sure, they absorbed a lot of the broth and made it less soupy, but I was okay with that.

One final note: The authors of the Woks of Life blog note that this stew is almost always served with rice. I'm sure it would be tasty that way, but we chose to omit the rice and just have our brothy noodles and veggies. Follow your heart!

Cabbage and Vermicelli Stew

From The Woks of Life

Ingredients

Pork Preparation

• 1L water
• 450g pork belly or 900g meaty ribs
• 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine
• 4 slices fresh ginger (~2cm by 4cm)
• 2 scallions/green onions
• 1 tsp. Sichuan peppercorns¹
• 1 star anise
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Dipping Sauce

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sugar
• chili oil, to taste (optional)

Soup

• 450g pickled cabbage
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 3 slices ginger (~2cm by 4cm), julienned
• 2 sallions/green onions, white parts julienned, green parts chopped
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 c. chicken stock (optional)
• 90g glass noodles
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper, ground

Optional Extras

• carrot, chopped
• zucchini, chopped
• tofu puffs
• kale, chopped
• mushrooms, sliced
• rice, cooked

Directions

Pork Preparation

1. Combine water, pork, wine, ginger, scallions, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and salt in a pot, cover, and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
3. If using pork belly: Reserving the broth, remove the belly from the pot and set it aside to cool.
   If using ribs: Turn the heat off, but leave the ribs in the broth to cook some more while you prepare everything else.

Dipping Sauce

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and set aside.

Soup

1. Slice the pickled cabbage into 5 or 6mm pieces and place it in a metal bowl with fresh water.
2. Stir the cabbage around a bit, then drain it and squeeze well to remove as much residual liquid as possible. Set aside.
3. Once the pork is no longer hot, cut it into 5 or 6mm slices. Set aside.
4. In a heavy pot (something that retains heat well), heat the oil over medium heat.
5. Add the ginger, white parts of the scallions, and pickled cabbage and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes.
6. Strain the pork broth and add it to the pot.
7. Stir in the oyster sauce and chicken stock (if using).
8. Add the sliced pork and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
9. Add the glass noodles and cook according to package directions.
10. Add the white pepper and green parts of scallions.

Serving

1. This can be served as a hotpot. Make sure the broth is boiling and then toss in any veggies or proteins you'd like. Once everything is heated through/cooked to desired doneness, you can fish it out and eat it with the dipping sauce, rice, and noodles.
2. Or serve it without any extra inclusions. Make sure it's piping hot and give everyone dipping sauce for the pork and rice.

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¹ It would normally be important to make sure you picked all the seeds out of the Sichuan peppercorns and only used the husks. However, since the broth is strained before adding it to the final dish, any seeds (or husks) will get filtered out so there's no need to worry about it in this case. ^Back

Gud Bhaat (Good Rice)

Truth in advertising! This is, indeed, very good rice. So good, in fact, that I've doubled the quantity because we were sad to only have a single batch of it.

Compared to the original recipe, I've swapped out the white rice for brown, subbed in ghee for the oil and halved it as well as halving the salt. I've also adjusted it for InstantPot cooking. Otherwise, it's perfection just as it is.

Gud Bhaat

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 large or 2 small red onions, halved and sliced
• 6-12 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies, stems removed
• 2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 2 c. water (more if cooking on stovetop rather than pressure cooker)
• 1/4 c. crumbled jaggery or brown sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Heat ghee over medium-high heat (sauté high).
2. Add mustard seeds, cover, and cook until they've stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
3. Reduce heat to medium and add the onion and chilies. Cook for 8-10 minutes.
4. Add rice and stir to coat.
5. Stir in water, jaggery, and salt.
6. Cover and cook until rice is done and water is absorbed (20 minutes on high pressure for InstantPot).
7. Remove from heat (leave on "keep warm") for 10 minutes.
8. Remove lid (release remaining pressure) and fluff the rice.
9. Remove the chilies if desired or serve it with "prizes" included.

Just doing a super quick write-up to try to knock another recipe out of the backlog. This reminded me a lot of the Chinese sausage and rice one-pot dinner that we sometimes do. I put "casserole" in quotes because I opted to make this in the instant pot rather than baking it in a covered casserole dish as directed. I added some kale to make it more of a one-pot meal.

Rice and Sausage Casserole

Adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2016

Ingredients

• 450g pork or vegetarian sausage, casings removed
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 tsp. dried sage
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 c. chopped fresh or frozen kale
• 2 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/2 c. dry white wine
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Cook sausage until no longer pink (~5 minutes on medium sauté for InstantPot).
2. Add onion, carrot, celery, salt, and pepper and cook for another 5-7 minutes.
3. Add sage and garlic and cook for another minute or so.
4. Add kale and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add rice and stir to combine.
6. Stir in stock, wine, and cream.
7. Pressure cook on high for 20 minutes, then allow for a 10 minute natural release.
8. Stir in parsley and serve.

Lagan nu Custard (Wedding Custard)

I had a bit of down time while making the curry for dinner tonight, so I decided to try to whip up a dessert as well. This custard looked reasonably straight-forward (if a bit slow), so I figured I'd give it a go.

Lagan nu Custard

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1L whole (3.25%) milk
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods), ground
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 c. slivered almonds
• 1/2-1 tsp. vanilla extract¹
• 3 large eggs
• saffron (optional)
• fresh or dried rose petals (optional)

Directions

1. Bring milk to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.
2. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling, stirring frequently, for 35 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, almonds, and vanilla (or other extracts).
4. Set aside to cool for 20-30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), grease a baking dish (or half a dozen custard cups), and boil some water.
6. If using saffron, sprinkle a few threads into the bottom of the baking dish/custard cups.
7. Once the milk mixture has cooled down, beat in the eggs and mix well.
8. Pour the custard into the prepared baking dish (or custard cups) and place the dish/cups in a pan. Pour boiling water into the pan so that it comes about halfway up the sides of the baking dish/cups.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-40 minutes (less for custard cups).
10. Remove from oven. Remove dish/cups from bain marie and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
11. Sprinkle a few rose petals on top before serving if desired.

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¹ The original recipe calls for a full teaspoon of vanilla. I scaled it back to only half a teaspoon because I didn't want to overshadow the saffron. Iyer also suggests that the vanilla could be swapped out for mango, pistachio, or guava essence for an even more exotic flavour. ^Back

The classic flavours of Korean tteokbokki, but with ramen taking the place of the rice cakes. The sauce has been simplified a bit, but the key elements of gochujang, sugar, and garlic are still there.

Tteokbokki Ramen

Slighlty adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. gochujang
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp. ramen powder
• 300mL water
• Korean fish cakes¹
• 1/2 small onion, sliced
• 1-2 baby bok choy, sliced (optional)
• 1-2 cabbage leaves, sliced thin and cross-cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 package Korean-style ramen (ramyun)
• 1 green onion, sliced

Directions

1. Mix gochujiang, sugar, garlic, and 1/2 of the ramen powder to make the sauce.
2. Bring the water to a boil and add the fish cakes, onion, bok choy (if using), cabbage, ramen noodles, and sauce. Also add the vegetable packet if your ramen comes with one.
3. Cook until noodles are done (~3 minutes).
4. Sprinkle with green onion and serve.

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¹ I couldn't find any Korean-style fish cakes, so I got a bag of fried tofu triangles instead. I sliced them thin and used them in place of the fish cakes. I'm sure it's quite different from actual fish cakes, but it was still good and it was what I had available. It's also an easy way to make the dish vegetarian. If you're going for a vegan meal, just make sure your sugar is vegan are you should be all set! ^Back

Feijoada (Goan-Style)

The main contenders for dinner tonight were either hotpot or curry. TF was more in the mood for curry, so that's what we opted for, and I'm really glad we did! This curry was so good! Everyone loved it. The sausage and beans work really well together and the vinegar, chilies, and garlic combine to give it wonderful, savoury-sour, mouthwatering flavour. I'm slightly regretting not making a double batch!

Photo goes here.

Feijoada

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. malt vinegar
• 4-5 cloves garlic¹ (or 1/4 c. garlic paste)
• 4 dried guajillo chilies²
• 2-4 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies³
• 2 slices fresh ginger (or 1 1/2 Tbsp. ginger paste)
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 large onion, halved and sliced
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 c. water
• 1-2 c. cooked black-eyed peas⁴
• 1-2 c. cooked kidney beans
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 450g pork⁵ sausage (chorizo is ideal), cut crosswise 1cm thick
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine vinegar, garlic, both kinds of chilies, and ginger in a blender and puree.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
4. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes.
5. Add the pureed mixture and simmer, uncovered, for another 5 minutes.
6. Add tomato and turmeric and cook, uncovered, for 5 more minutes.
7. Add water, both kinds of beans, salt, and sausage and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is cooked through (~15 minutes).
9. Sprinkle with cilantro.
10. Serve over rice.

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¹ Since I was working with a previously prepared guajillo chili sauce rather than whole chilies, I opted to swap in garlic paste and ginger paste for the fresh garlic and ginger in order to eliminate the necessity for the blender. I used ~1/4 c. of garlic paste and 1 1/2 Tbsp. of ginger paste. ^Back
2 I had some leftover guajillo chili sauce from an earlier recipe, so I just used that in place of the dried chilies. I used ~6 Tbsp. of sauce. ^Back
3 I left out the spicier arbol chilies entirely both because I didn't want to have to bust out the blender and because I figured using only the much milder guajillo chilies would be more to the Kidlet's taste anyway. This proved to be the right call; she loved it! ^Back
4 I didn't have any black-eyed peas so I swapped in a cup of cooked black turtle beans instead. ^Back
5 This recipe can easily be made vegetarian/vegan by swapping in plant-based sausages for the pork ones. ^Back