I’ve experimented with Indian food before, but when I found an Indian cookbook in the food section of my library, I decided to try again. How to Cook Indian: More Than 500 Classic Recipes for the Modern Kitchen by Sanjeev Kapoor is a great introduction to Indian cooking, and I even renewed it so I could experiment with some more difficult recipes, too. Sorry, neighbors, for smelling up the hallway!
The first and easiest thing I made was paneer, an Indian pressed cheese.
Happy birthday to our big sister, Rayna! This year, instead of a birthday cake, you get a birthday challah:
We already have a few of challah recipes on this blog, but I always like to try new ones. This recipe splits up the process into two days, but I’m pretty sure you can use the same process for most other challah recipes; just make the dough and let it rise overnight in the fridge rather than a couple of hours at room-temperature.
Here, I display my loaves, one 6-strand braid and one 4-strand circle, on my beautiful new challah board that my Aunt Joyce made.
Potato-wrapped fish is like fish ‘n’ chips, but combined instead of side-by-side!
I remember seeing a recipe for this in Bon Appetit a while back, complete with instructions on how to wrap the fish, and I put it in the back of my mind. One day, with not much in the kitchen except frozen fish, potatoes, lemons and some greens, I thought of this technique. It’s a great dish to have in store, too; simple ingredients with an easy execution that looks impressive and fancy.
Caramelized onions are one of my favorite things ever, so any recipe that I come across that involves caramelized onions (or shallots) instantly goes on my to-do list! This one has literally been on there for years, and I really suggest you don’t wait as long as I did to make this. I never wanted to make it for a holiday, since my mom doesn’t like cooked onions (she tolerates raw ones, though…), but ended up making this at her house, anyway, as part of a huge meal, so don’t worry, she had plenty of options (like homemade pasta) to choose from!
Shabbat shalom!
Here’s a great Shabbat main dish for you, complete with two bottles of wine, in case you’re entertaining a bunch of friends who can’t agree whether to drink red or white wine.
When I sent this dish over to Gary at Royal Wine Corparation, he told me that artichokes are hard to pair with wine, and sent me an unoaked Chardonnay (Binyamina Reserve) and a fruity and acidic red (Ramon Cardova Rioja).
We’re big fans of Brussels sprouts, and although we love our go-to recipes, when they’re in season and on sale, sometimes it’s good to switch things up a bit so we don’t get sick of them. Since Brussels sprouts are pretty much like mini cabbages, this is basically coleslaw.
You know how we feel over here about desserts that are pareve on purpose – that is, without fake dairy in them. This rice pudding is just that! Just mix some rice and coconut milk, a little bit of sugar and spices, and you have yourself a dessert in a couple of hours!
That’s right, it takes a while to cook, but it’s all unattended cooking time; all you have to do is stir once every 40 minutes or so. I’d imagine that this works well in the slow cooker, too. I’ll have to try that out!
Guacamole is one of those those ever-adaptable foods that everyone loves. Jessica and I aren’t big tomato fans, so we leave those out of our guac; sometimes we add red pepper instead, for the color. Sometimes I don’t have any jalapenos, so I put some cayenne pepper for spice. You get the idea.
After attempting to make French macarons, I had plenty of egg yolks left over (and no cookies!). Sure, I could make ice cream or pudding with them, but I didn’t feel like it. So even though I don’t have a pasta roller, I decided to make pasta dough and roll it out with my rolling pin. When the dough was finished, I was scared to ruin it, so I took my pasta over to my parents’ house, instructing my sister to bring her Kitchenaid pasta-rolling attachment there as well, and we teamed up to serve our family the best pasta dish ever! Continue reading
This post is in honor of the best news ever!
Whenever I buy bananas, some of them start to turn brown before I can eat them. Seriously, they’re green when I bring them home, and when I wake up the next morning they’re already overripe! I usually peel them, cut them into chunks and freeze them for smoothies, but there are other things you can do with frozen bananas; You can dip them in chocolate and coconut or pistachios and eat them for dessert!
