Indian Dosa!
So this month was my first time participating in the Daring Cooks Challenge! This month’s challenge was hosted by Debyi from http://www.healthyvegan.com, and she picked a recipe for a vegan dosa, with a coconut curry sauce. I was super excited, since I (shamefully) haven’t cooked much Indian food and have never even attempted these little Indian savory crepes.
I started out by chopping up all of the ingredients and putting them in cute little bowls:
Then I sauteed them. While I was doing that, John was hustling on the crepe batter and the coconut curry sauce. Because, well, I haven’t had a day off in weeks and I just don’t have the energy to spend hours on dinner! OK, and I was making 2 batches of jam at the same time, but still.
Then tossed in the spices to get nice and toasty.
Then I pureed some cooked chick peas and mixed them in with some tomato paste. Now at this point my confidence was at an all time low. As you can see, it wasn’t the most appetizing mixture. And well, I’m just not a huge fan of tomato paste. I decided to throw a little water and stock in and let it stew a bit, to let the flavors meld.
But I chugged along, because I was hungry and we had guests arriving to eat with us. I fried up a stack of crepes.
I stuffed the crepes with the filling and poured coconut sauce all over. And it was so good! I’ll never doubt the ability of Indian food to taste delicious even when it looks…well you know…
RECIPE:
Serves 4
Dosa Pancakes:
1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp curry powder
½ cup almond milk
¾ cup water
oil for cooking (I cheated and used clarified butter)
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.
Curried Garbanzo Filling:
5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 bell pepper, finely diced
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP ground cumin
1 TBSP dried oregano
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP turmeric
4 cups (30 oz) cooked or canned chick peas
½ cup (4 oz) tomato paste
1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.
Coconut Curry Sauce:
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp ground cumin
¾ tsp salt
3 TBSP curry powder
3 TBSP flour
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced
1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Bust out those heirlooms with a Tomato Galette!
This post is a shout out to my fabulous pastry instructor and mentor: Jennifer Altman, pastry chef of Baywolf Restaurant in Oakland. One day in class she shared her recipe for a tomato galette with me, and it remains my favorite way to celebrate gorgeous summer tomatoes. Oh yeah, and it’s quite simple. Well, if you know how to make galettes…
Let’s start with the dough. You need a pastry board or a counter top that you can spread out and get messy on. Spread out your flour.
Take half of the butter (which is very cold) and use a bench scraper to cut it into the flour, tossing constantly to coat.
Once the chunks are the size of lima beans, start cutting in the other half. Keep cutting until the last batch of butter is the size of quarters. This ensures that some butter gets broken down to coat the flour, while the rest remains in large chunks that will turn into flakes. It should look like this:
Then take your ice cold water and basically “flick” it onto the flour, tossing constantly. Keep going until the flour is shaggy. It’s ok if there are still some dry bits, just make sure that it will smash into a dough when you press it with your fingers.
Then comes the fun part: you smear it. Literally. You use the heel of your hand to smear it into strips on your board. This is like pie crust magic in the making. All those large chunks of butter are now in the form of long sheets.
As you smear the butter, use your bench scraper to scrape it off the board and throw it in a pile somewhere to rest while you work on the rest.
Once finished, smash it into a plastic wrapped disk and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour. The dough should look like marble, with the butter swirled in. Spend this time slicing your tomatoes and shredding some gruyere cheese.
Once it has chillaxed, roll it into a circle that is about 1/8 – 3/16″ thick. You’ve got a lot to do to this future galette, so moving quickly is important. The longer the dough is at room temperature, the warmer the butter gets. And warm butter is a no-no in flaky pie crust land. It also makes it nearly impossible to work with.
Then spread on some good dijon mustard. Not too much, just enough to give the galette a little kick.
Then spread on a thin layer of gruyere cheese. Obviously the better the cheese, the better the galette.
Now place the tomato slices on top. Make sure you trim the edges of your dough. I usually do this before I start piling on the filling, but I forgot this time.
Now fold the edges onto the filling. Some people are into pleats, but Jennifer taught me that any time you have dough folded onto itself, it’s nearly impossible to cook it all the way through. And thanks to her I too am a fanatic about not eating raw dough. Once your galette is finished being assembled, slide it on a parchment lined sheet pan and pop it in the freezer. This will help keep it from immediately melting into a shapeless blob when it goes into the oven.
Then you paint a little egg wash on the crust, and since it’s savory, sprinkle on a little chunky sea salt. Then bake it at 375 until it’s browned on top. Reduce the heat to 325 and continue to bake until the bottom is golden brown. It usually takes about an hour total. Let it cool for 10 minutes and top it with some creme fraiche (homemade if you got it) and some basil. I like to fry the basil leaves to give a nice crunchy contrast to the gooey yummy tomatoes and cheese. Now you dig in!
So I finally cracked.
I miss cooking. A lot. I’m on a little “holiday” from work, meaning I’ve got all the time in the world. But I’m not supposed to use my hands. It’s been 4 weeks or so since I started resting, and still no clarity as to what’s going on. I’m still in pain, and it seems to be spreading. Tomorrow I get to see a rheumatologist and start the lovely process of bloodwork. Good times…
In the meantime, I am bored. I’ve even resorted to arguing health care reform on my hometown’s local newspaper’s website. Sad. So tonight I cracked. I wanted food. Home cooked food. Despite my current useless culinary status, the CSA box just keeps on coming, and those veggies aren’t cooking themselves. So I went “comfort food”, to make me feel better about this annoying moment in my life. Creamed corn, caramelized carrots, lemony zucchini fritters, brown lima beans stewed in bacon. Easy stuff mostly. Stuff that doesn’t really need recipes or technique, just some attention. And some bacon of course.
And biscuits. Which was probably not the smartest move, but hey, at this point, what’s one more ibuprofen?
OK, I will officially stop feeling sorry for myself now.
Gnocchi!
FINALLY. John cooks for me. Granted there was a dinner party, and we were making an appetizer. But still. I love it when he cooks. And there’s no better way to make me happy than with homemade gnocchi.
He started by boiling potatoes and pushing them through a ricer.
Then he mixed in some flour, salt and egg.
And kneaded it into a dough.
Then he rolled out little rods and chopped them into little pillows.
Many many pillows!
And ok, so I had to do SOMETHING. So I made a sauce to toss those little gnocchi in. A cilantro jalepeno pesto, with a little cream. It was perfect, all I had to do was throw it all in the food processor. So no hurting of my delicate little hands…
And we served it with some sauteed sweet corn & zucchini, topped with a bit of pancetta and some parmesan.
And it was awesome.
CILANTRO JALEPENO PESTO:
2 bunches cilantro leaves
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup almonds
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
– Process everything in the food processor until smooth scraping down the sides.
– Through the feed tube as the machine is running, slowly add 1/2 cup olive oil and continue pureeing until smooth.
Dear Pork, I am in love with you.
Dear Pork,
You did it again. Just when I think I’m (almost) ready to be a vegetarian, you inspire me. It was a day not made for cooking. Sunny and hot (like actually hot!), I had to spend the day at the beach, burning to a crisp. I returned home red and tender, not far from resembling a piece of jerky, and didn’t really look forward to turning on the stove. But there you were, so pink and porky. I didn’t want to slice you up.
But I had guests arriving. And I wanted tacos. Carnitas tacos. So into a pot you went, with some orange juice, orange peels, mexican coke, water and garlic.
You boiled for a while as I thought up ways to serve you. First we needed tortillas. Props to Pantea for dominating the tortilla press. Tortillas for 11 is no small task. But for you, pork, anything.
She made a lovely stack.
And there was a watermelon chilling on the counter, so we made agua fresca.
And then we caramelized some onions.
And marinated some radishes in lime juice and pepper.
And you just kept boiling.
While we roasted some tomatillos for salsa roja. For YOU, pork. You.
And then you did the most amazing thing. All the water evaporated, and you were frying in your own fat. It was so beautiful. I almost wept with love.
But it was 10.30 and the guests were getting crazed. So I started frying up those fresh tortillas.
And when you were nice and caramelized, we all stared for a while, admiring your loveliness.
And then I ate you. I’ve never felt so close to a pig before.
Yours forever,
Brandi
CARNITAS RECIPE :
4 pounds pork shoulder, with fat intact
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup mexican coke (has real sugar not corn syrup)
5 garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
several orange peels
– Cut pork into 2-3 inch chunks. Combine everything in a large pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until pork is tender and fat is liquifying, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours, adding more water by 1/4 cupfuls if necessary to keep pork partially submerged.
– Uncover and boil pork mixture until the water evaporates and meat browns and begins to get crisp, stirring often.
– Cool meat slightly. Pull meat into bite sized chunks if necessary.
– Eat yourself silly.
Things I Like:
The moment of just beginning to make fresh pasta.
Beet tails.
Homemade cheese. With some homemade pesto mixed in.
Bubbling sauces.
Complaining about how long it takes to make fresh pasta.
Perfectly sliced vegetables.
Assembling a lasagne.
Cooling lasagne.
Roasted veggies.
Perfect little cherry almond cakes.
With ice cream on top.
My friends coming over to eat dinner with me. But I didn’t take a picture of that. Because that would be lame.
But you know who you are.
RECIPE:
Cherry Frangipane Cake
12 oz almond paste, room temperature
2 tbsp sugar
6 oz butter, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
6 tbsp flour
4 tsp baking powder
As many cherries as you like, pitted
– Heat oven to 350.
– Butter 10” tart tin.
– Mix together flour and baking powder.
– Place almond paste into mixer and beat until smooth, 1-2 minutes. It is really important that there not be any chunks, once you start adding other ingredients, it’s impossible to get the chunks out. On the flip side, don’t overmix or it will get oily.
– Add butter and continue mixing until well blended, about 1 minute.
– Add sugar and continue mixing for for 30 seconds.
– Slowly stream in eggs, continue mixing until smooth, about 1 minute.
– Turn mixer speed to low and mix in flour and baking powder.
– Spread into tart tin. You want to have batter about 3/4″ deep in pan, So you won’t use all of the batter. You can save the rest in the fridge for about 2 weeks, or in the freezer for 2 months.
– Top with cherries, pressing them down so that they’re halfway sunk into the batter.
– Bake until done, around 30 minutes.
– Cool in pan on rack for 30 minutes before unmolding. It’s a delicate cake, so be gentle…
– Sprinkle with some powdered sugar and serve with some whipped cream or ice cream.
It’s Gnocchi Time!
It’s that super fun time of the year when my CSA box starts making me giddy. There’s still some asparagus, but we’re getting our first zucchinis of summer. I wanted to make a spring/summer crossover meal, to celebrate the shift, and decided on a pesto. I love me some pesto – at the end of summer I start making large batches to keep in the freezer, to get me through winter, but I always run out by xmas. Now that the basil is showing up again, it’s definitely time to drag out the food processor and get pureeing.
Obviously pasta is a great base for pesto, but I wasn’t feeling it today. So I decided to try out a Zuni Cafe recipe for ricotta gnocchi. I’ve never made gnocchi before and have been meaning to give it a try. But first I needed some ricotta…
I drained the ricotta extra long (though not long enough I later learned), to dry it out. Then I blended the ricotta with eggs, parmesan, salt, nutmeg and melted butter. It looked WAY too soupy to ever be a dough, so I mixed in a little flour to give it some body.
Then I scooped out chunks and rolled them in flour.
I boiled them and tossed them with my pesto and the veggies that I had sauteed. This dish probably won’t be winning any beauty pageants, but it was so good!
An “I miss the south already” lunch
I’m back from 8 days of southern goodness: sleeping, swimming in the gulf, playing wii bowling, and most importantly eating. This time of year the peas are just showing up in the farmer’s markets, and I went on a mad spree snapping them up. I bought several different kinds, and brought back a bunch of these cream peas to keep in my freezer, to remind me of home. Though at the rate I’m going they won’t last long. I was home less than 24 hours before I was missing southern cooking and broke into them.
Peas are so perfect, that you hardly need to do anything to them. I started by cooking some chopped bacon and onion.
Then I added my peas, salt, lots of black pepper and enough water to cover them by about 1/2 of an inch.
I let those simmer for about 40 minutes, while I entertained myself ith some biscuits. Because one cannot have peas without either biscuits or cornbread. Rules are rules…
Everybody has their own biscuit technique. I like to rub in with my fingers a mixture of cold butter & lard. Then I stir in some buttermilk until it just holds together.
I stamp them out, the size always changes with my mood… today I was feeling medium biscuit sized.
Then I bake them until they have a nice crispy crust!
And by that time my peas are ready! There are few things better than a biscuit soggy with peas…yummmmm.
A Glorious San Francisco Spring
San Francisco just keeps finding ways to amaze me. For the first time since moving here 13 years ago, I have a yard. A beautiful, big (well, by our standards, anyways) backyard. When spring finally hit, it exploded. Cherry blossoms on the cherry tree. Arugula, chard, fennel and parsley everywhere. Little sprigs of future peas and radishes poking up from the ground. And my little kitten, Bean, terrorizing the bees. It’s just glorious.
If you live here, you’re probably as enamored with the current weather as me. Yesterday the heat was so intense there was only one option: cook. and eat. in my warm and overflowing yard. I sent out a text, and before I could make up a grocery list I had 10 friends confirming attendance. With me and John that made dinner for 12, which meant a lot of cooking. Just the way I like it. John, not so much, he managed to sneak out early while I was still laying out brick pavers for the dinner table in my pajamas.
I wanted a meal that celebrated the season, made of all in-season veggies, with a few from our garden. It was my first time yanking a fennel out of the ground. I found it quite satisfying. Those suckers are big!
As I might have mentioned, it was HOT. So not a day for braising or stewing. My landlord recommended an orange fennel salad, tossed with some red onions and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, heavily sprinkled with black pepper.
I had another salad in mind to go alongside. The arugula in the yard is fabulously spicy, so I tossed some with baby spinach, some barely blanched asparagus and radishes. I dressed it with a lemony vinaigrette. A big bowl of parmesan shavings was passed around for sprinkling.
And soup. As is probably obvious in past posts, I have a thing for peas. But I had NEVER made a fresh pea soup before. Since the season is short, the time was now. Just a simple soup with onion, leek, carrots, stock, a bit of spinach and a whole lotta fresh English peas. I made some parmesan croutons, and finished the soup off with some creme fraiche.
And my favorite part. I do like to work pie dough into a meal whenever possible. I saw an artichoke ricotta galette posted on “The Wednesday Chef” and knew I had to give it a spin. As she promised, it was a tasty one.
It was a beautiful night. Nothing quite like a dinner under the stars (were there stars?) with close friends and simple, home grown and homemade food. And of course there were strawberry rhubarb crepes for dessert…
Cranky Day Leftovers (a.k.a Chicken and Dumplings)
I’m in a bit of a cranky mood. Long day with some…annoying news…all I wanted was a hot dinner, preferably one already cooked. And then I remembered the chicken and dumplings leftovers in the fridge. While last night’s pie wasn’t exactly a “success” (at least visually), my chicken and dumplings were deeeelish!
I started by pan frying some chicken thighs in olive oil until it was all brown and crispy.
Then I sauteed leeks, onions and carrots in the juices.
Then I added some flour. I toasted that for a bit and added some white wine. I let that cook down a bit and then added some chicken stock, my chicken thighs and some salt and pepper.
I threw on the lid and let it all cook down for about 45 minutes. Then I made some dumpling batter and dropped globs of it in to boil into perfect little dumplings. Some fresh tarragon and a bowl of fresh shelled English peas later and we were in business!
The great thing about chicken and dumplings (besides the obvious tasty fabulousness) is that you can make a giant pot and eat the leftovers for days. And today that’s about all I could ask for. Well, maybe a little leftover pie soup for dessert.
RECIPE (adapted from Cook’s Illustrated):
Note: Start the dumpling dough only when you’re ready to top the stew with the dumplings.
Stew
5 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium leek, cut into ½” pieces
1 medium onion, minced
6 TBSP AP flour
1/4 cup white wine
5 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 cup green peas
3 TBSP minced fresh tarragon leaves
Dumplings
2 cups AP flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
3 TBSP butter
– For the Stew: Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add half of the chicken and cook until golden on both sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and remove the browned skin. Return the pot to medium-high heat and repeat with the remaining 2 teaspoons oil and the remaining chicken.
– Add the leeks, onion, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the pot and cook until softened, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour. Whisk in the wine, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in the broth, milk, thyme, and bay leaves. Nestle the chicken into the pot. Cover and simmer until the chicken is fully cooked and tender, about 45 – 60 minutes.
– Transfer the chicken to a cutting board. Discard the bay leaves. Allow the sauce to settle for a few minutes, then skim the fat from the surface using a wide spoon. Shred the chicken, discarding the bones, then return it to the stew.
– For the Dumplings: Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Microwave the milk and fat in a microwave-safe bowl on high until just warm (do not over-heat), about 1 minute. Stir the warmed milk mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon until incorporated and smooth.
– Return the stew to a simmer, stir in the peas and tarragon, and season with salt and pepper.
– Drop golf-ball-sized dumplings over the top of the stew, about 1/4 inch apart.
– Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the dumplings have doubled in size, 15 to 18 minutes.
I made that! 
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