recipe roundup

here are some recipes that i've tried and really liked over the past six months or so. i can't take any credit for them, but they're great recipes, really delicious, and i thought i should share...

• channa (from Orangette): best when served with lots of fresh lemon juice and cilantro on top, and yogurt *on the side*
• cardamom lassi (from Saveur): i make this with non-fat yogurt, a little water (to thin it out), a nice amount of ground cardamom, and simple syrup. you don't even need to dirty a blender—just put it all in a glass, insert a whisk, and vigorously twirl the whisk by rubbing your hands together. i'm sure this would also be swell with kefir (i've just discovered kefir, and am absolutely mad about it). it's very refreshing on hot summer days, which, it seems, are over for this year...
  
• slow-roasted tiny tomatoes (from Smitten Kitchen): food bloggers have a tendency to rave about their creations, but really, this is fantastic, every bit as good as it's said to be. it turned boring grape tomatoes into flavorful, succulent little blobs. i suggest tossing the tomatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and an herb in a bowl prior to putting them on the cookie sheet (so that they get evenly coated with the oil). they're best right out of the oven, although they will keep in the fridge under oil. i'd eat them plain, or toss them on pasta, or spear them with a little piece of cheese, or put them on pizza.
• roasted butternut squash strudel (from Epicurious): this is time-consuming, but a very yummy, impressive-looking wintery main dish. i rolled it in filo dough into a big log, but in the future, to save time and avoid a big mess, i will probably roll it in frozen puff pastry from TJ's. (and yes, i am "A Cook from Massachusetts"...)
• pumpkin muffins (from Gourmet): this recipe makes perfect muffins. what more can i say? (be sure to use just 1 c. of pumpkin purée, not the whole can, and be sure to sprinkle the tops with sugar before baking—it results in a better texture on top.)
  
• chewy ginger cookies (from Martha Stewart): follow the recipe exactly—it's a little fussy, with all the chilling, but just do it—and you'll get the perfect ginger cookie. i love these, and eat way, way too many when they're around. i happen to prefer them without the chocolate chips, but i realize there's room for rational disagreement here.

there—i've shared some secrets with you! and by secrets i mean a few recipes that have produced glowing oohs and ahs and mmms (especially, i must say, the ginger cookies). but see? it's not me at all, it's just having the right recipe.

i encourage others to post favorite recipes as well...

Frozen Papaya/Lemon Parfait

I know this is out of season, but I've just discovered a great way of using the papayas that grow in my backyard. I'm posting it here before I forget it. Who knows; it could be useful to the MIT community in the future.

Ingredients
1 Ripe Papaya
Milk
Honey
Cinnamon
250 ml Heavy Cream
1 Lemon
1 pint Fresh Berries

Procedure
Peel the papaya and puree it in the blender. Add milk until you've got something with the consistency of a thick smoothie, and add honey and cinnamon until you like the taste. Put the whole thing in the freezer until it's mostly frozen (I find this takes an hour and a half to two hours), then run it through the blender again and stick it back in the freezer.

Zest the lemon and squeeze out a tablespoon of its juice. Whip the cream together with the juice and the zest until it's good and whipped. Layer with berries and frozen papaya mixture in a clear glass. Serve immediately, or stick in the freezer for later use.

Delicious on a hot spring day (she says, as all her MIT friends don their sweaters and trot briskly through the autumn leaves).

Braised potatoes

Sometime ago I discovered Molly Stevens' All about braising, a lovely companion to our then new dutch oven. And while I went through it quite thoroughly, looking for more and more ways of having things cook in a pot for over two hours at low heat, I somehow missed what could be the One Way of making potatoes.

The idea is so simple. Just find some thin-skinned new potatoes. Wash thoroughly, place in dutch oven and add water (or broth, though do that at your own risk) and some wine to cover half of the potatoes. Add salt and pepper, some herbs, some fat, and some bruised garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a gentle simmer, and cook, covered, for about 40 minutes (Molly Stevens says says 20, but that has never worked for me), turning once with a spoon midway through. Remove lid, bring heat to medium-high, and let the liquid evaporate, shaking the pot a few times to let the braised garlic coat the potatoes.

The original recipe has bay leaves for the herbs and olive oil for the fat. I like combining thyme and rosemary, and combining butter and olive oil. But that's me. Sage and duck-fat might work wonderfully for all I know.

(Disclaimer: The potatoes in the picture were never braised. The dutch oven was busy with a lamb shoulder, so we baked them.)

An announcement, and a recipe

Exciting news: I've enjoyed posting recipes here so much that I decided to start my very own food blog: http://tastememories.typepad.com/ I'm still finding my feet (and my photographs are pretty awful), but I'm having a lot of fun doing so. I'd love it if you'd stop by. Oh, and guest posters would be wonderful - let me know if you're interested! I'm doing recipes of all kinds, provided they're original or at least significant adaptations of an existing recipe.

Of course, I'll still be contributing here, especially when I have a recipe for something vegetarian and lunchable. Here, as proof, is a recipe for an edamame, avocado, cilantro and lime soup that I made recently. (If you visit my blog and scroll down, you'll find an extremely unattractive picture of it. But I swear, it really is good).

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, roughly chopped (I used red onions)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
6 cups vegetable stock
1lb frozen, shucked edamame
1 punnet silken tofu
2 limes
1 avocado, de-stoned
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
½ cup sour cream

Method:

Add the olive oil to a large pan over medium-high heat.

Add the onions, the salt and the cumin, and sauté the mixture for a few minutes, until the onions are soft and beginning to caramelize.

Then, add the vegetable stock and bring it to a boil.

Add the edamame, and boil for about 10 minutes or until soft.

Next, puree the soup in a blender, together with the remaining ingredients (you may need to do this in batches).

Adjust the soup for seasoning and acidity. You can also add a little more liquid if you like.

This serves six, generously. By the way, I actually prefer to serve this soup cold, but it’s nice warm too. Either way, you might want to swirl a little more sour cream into it.

Seasoning oil in Indian cuisine

Inspired by Elisa's incredibly delicious last post, I thought I would share a trick I've picked up about cooking Indian food: seasoning the oil you fry with.

You let some oil get really hot (a high burning point is essential). Then you add some whole spice, like mustard seeds or cumin seeds. Then you cover the pot, and wait for the pops. The moment the popping stops, remove the lid, and then begin the dish you would cook with the oil.

This technique requires a bit of bravery, as it's easy to get scared that you'll be burning the spices, but the pops are your guide to success. It frees up a whole new range of flavours to cook with. A toastier, smokier cumin, for example. The taste you get from mustard seeds is wholly unique. A salad of grated carrot, dressed with oil seasoned with mustard seeds, and maybe a little salt and lemon juice, is a tremendous simple dish.

Here is a recipe for eggplant and tomatoes that makes use of this technique.

4 thin, purple Japanese eggplant (sold in Shalimar at Central Sq.)
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 cups chopped tomato fresh or canned
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
1/2 - 1 teaspoon of salt (to taste)
Spice mixture:
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
water as necessary

1. Chop the eggplant into 1/4 inch rounds and cook through. Frying, grilling or roasting would all be fine, depending on how you want to trade richness against health. If you fry, do so until lightly golden.

2. On a medium hot flame, get a tablespoon of oil real hot in a frying pan. Add the mustard seeds and fennel seeds, and cover the pan with a lid. Wait until the popping stops, and then remove the lid.

3. add the ginger and garlic, and stir fry until the garlic is golden brown.

4. add the spice mixture, fry for about ten seconds, and then add the tomatoes. Cook for five minutes until the tomatoes turn a little orange and start to fall apart.

5. Add the eggplant to the mixture to heat through. Add water at any time if the mixture is getting dry.

saag paneer

this is a very yummy version using fresh spinach. it's delicious. the cooking takes only about 15 minutes, but the prep takes about 45—you must get all the ingredients ready beforehand. i like to combine all the ingredients that will be added at the same step in one bowl, so when the moment comes i can dump them in and move on quickly. if you don't have all of these spices, i suggest you go to harvest, the co-op in central square. there you can buy spices in bulk, which is great: if you don't cook indian food very often, a quarter's worth of cumin seeds will probably do you just fine. (if you can't tell everything apart by sniffing, though, make sure to label the little bags.)

adapted from this excellent (though overly rich, i think) recipe. serves four.

heat 1-2 tbsp. of peanut oil over medium-high heat, and fry the cubed paneer until it is a light golden color on a couple of sides. drain on a paper towel. (this is optional—the paneer is also tasty unfried.)

in a big pan, heat 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. add 1 onion, chopped in a medium dice, and cook a few minutes until it is soft and golden. then add, all at once:

1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods
3 cloves
3 bay leaves
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
1 hot green pepper, de-seeded and minced
1 tomato, chopped

cook for 2-3 minutes. fish out all of the cloves, cardamom pods, and bay leaves (because it is no fun to find yourself chewing on a bitter clove down the line). then add 3 bunches of spinach, de-stemmed and washed thoroughly, turning frequently to let the spinach cook down. when all the spinach has wilted and turned a bright green, add these spices:

1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. garam masala
tiny pinch ground cardamon
tiny pinch ground clove
1 tsp. salt (or less or more, if you like)
a couple of grinds of black pepper

mix well and cook everything for another 3 minutes over medium heat. then add:

2 tsp. tomato paste
1/3 cup half-and-half (richer version) OR 1 cup whole-milk plain yogurt (lighter version)

mix well, turn heat down, and simmer gently for another 5 minutes or so. before serving, mix in the paneer and sprinkle a generous amount of freshly chopped cilantro on top.

Carrottes rappées

Fancy French name; simple yummy salad.

Serves 1; multiply accordingly.

2-3 medium carrots, grated with a medium-large grater*
several walnuts, chopped
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
good salt and coarse pepper

Combine the first two ingredients in a bowl. Mix together the last three ingredients in another bowl, pour on top of ingredients in first bowl, and mix together.

*If you grate them too finely, they become too juicy and lose their nice firm texture.

Voilà!

procrastinator cookies

a quick cookie which makes for excellent paper-writing breaks. it's glutenfree, too.

chocolate peanut butter cookies
(courtesy of Epicurious)

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar (or normal, or mixture of normal and brown...no need for fanciness: these are peanut butter cookies after all)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

mix the first five ingredients together in a bowl. add chocolate chips. form cookies using a tablespoon and your hands and drop them on a baking sheet.

bake at 350 F until puffed up and golden. about 10 minutes. don't overbake, an overbaked cookie is a sad cookie. enjoy!

Orange wacky cake,

or what to do when you have a bunch of citrus fruit and no more eggs.


1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g butter
2 Clementine oranges

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the dry ingredients in a loaf pan, add a teaspoon of Clementine zest, and mix thoroughly. Melt the butter and juice the Clementines into a liquid measuring cup. Add water to the clementines until you have 1 cup of liquid. (If you have more Clementines instead of a bunch of grapefruit, you can just make 1 cup of juice.) Dump the butter and the orange juice mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just enough to mix. Pop the whole thing into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until a fork comes out of the center with just a few crumbs on it.

If you have more Clementines, I bet you could top this with a delicious glaze made of Clementine juice plus confectioner's sugar, mixed in the right proportions to generate a thin paste. Unfortunately, I just have grapefruit. Anybody have grapefruit recipes?

Lemon sponge cake with lemon curd

My neighbor brought me a basket of citrus fruit from her garden, and this was what I did to use up some of the lemons, along with most of the eggs in my fridge.


lemon curd
5 eggs
juice of 3-5 lemons, plus a big helping of their zest
3/4 cup sugar
100 g butter, cut into cubes

You'll need to set up a steam double boiler for this recipe. Luckily, making a steam double boiler is nowhere near as complicated as it sounds. The end result you're shooting for is basically a saucepan with a mixing bowl inside it. The diameter of the mixing bowl should be greater than the diameter of the saucepan, so that the bowl sits on the saucepan's rim. Between the saucepan and the mixing bowl will be a layer of boiling water, not quite deep enough to touch the mixing bowl's bottom. Inside the mixing bowl will be lemon curd.

So, now that you've got this picture fixed in your mind, take the saucepan, and put some water in it (not quite enough water to touch the mixing bowl's bottom). Put the water on the stove to boil. While it boils, combine all the ingredients in the mixing bowl. When the water boils, put the bowl on top of the saucepan. Stir the lemon curd constantly until it thickens. (I find that after 15-20 minutes, it changes suddenly from a liquid to a sort of pudding thing). Take the lemon curd off the heat and let cool.


lemon sponge cake

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Sift together the flour and the baking soda. Combine the eggs, sugar, and lemon juice in a separate bowl, and beat until huge and fluffy (you're looking for this mixture to triple in size). Fold in flour, and bake at 425 degrees Farenheit for 15 minutes.


Serve with tea and cucumber sandwiches.