Exploring a New Cuisine

Today we were so pleased to have three beautiful, young women (grad students) from India visit with us, and help to prepare a really delicious meal. CA and I have enjoyed various curries over the years and memorable meals in an Indian restaurant or two in London, but when we ate a wonderful meal at Paddy Rawal's Raaga in Santa Fe in September we decided we were going to learn more about the cuisines of India.

I bought The Raaga Cookbook-Modern Indian Cuisine, and then ordered Aarti Paarti, an American Kitchen with an Indian Soul by Aarti Squeira. And, I asked Eeshita, a recent acquaintance (hopefully friend), if she would cook with us. We settled on November 5th.

Eeshita and two roommates met me today, and we shopped at India Rice and Spice for ingredients to make Spinach Chaat (a Northern India specialty--street food), Saffron and Coconut Milk Risotto (via the Pioneer Woman blog), and Saffron Rasmalai for dessert (Bengali).

By 12:30 or so we were dividing up the responsibilities--Me-risotto; Eeshita-Rasmalai; KG and SD-the Chaat and a green and spicy Chutney (mint, cilantro, olive oil, onion, jalapeño, lime juices...).
What a fun and delicious afternoon that we plan to repeat very soon.

Summer at Our House

Too much entertaining lately, but the off-shoot is that I'm deep into cooking again. 

There were leftovers to work through after our big vegan meal. With oven-roasted sweet potatoes on-hand, I was inspired to make a big late-morning breakfast for CA and me. 

Also, utilized the leftover steak from a very recent dinner at Outback. With a correctly-prepared "medium" steak, you can briefly reheat in the microwave without over-cooking. 

We still had great amounts of leftover vegetables and the clock was ticking toward our trip to Colorado. CA and I worked together and prepped the peppers and Vidalias for fajitas (JE's family were due to arrive soon.)

After the peppers and onions cooled a bit, we divided them into Ziplock bags and put them in the freezer. We had pork tenderloin fajitas on Saturday night, and having the veggies pre-made was huge. 

One of our favorite "pantry" meals is a marinara with tarragon, garlic, and finely-diced red onion. We enjoyed this batch with some Dececco linguine, crunchy bacon pieces, and great dollops of creamy goat cheese. 

On Sunday, 7/10, it was our turn to host Small Group, and I'd decided on a peanut butter-chocolate cheesecake with hot fudge and whipped cream. But, I wasn't sure that everyone coming liked peanut butter, so I also made a simple lemon tart. Used a prepared (Pillsbury) pie crust for convenience and 2 jars of Dickenson's Lemon Curd, because it's very tart and very good. 

The first photo is just after I removed the pie weights. The tart crust still needed a few more minutes in the oven to be fully browned. 

I wanted a deep cheesecake, so I used 4 packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese and a cup of peanut butter for a 9"x3" outcome. Actually, I used 5 packages of cream cheese and 1-1/4 cups of PB as I planned to additionally make 4 small 4" cheesecakes to deliver to our elderly parents. 

The crusts were NutterButter cookies and a bit of melted butter. I learned the hard way that pre-baking the crust, as you sometimes do with a graham cracker crust, is not a good idea. Must be the high sugar-fat content of those NutterButters. 

I also added about 1 cup of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips to the filling mix. 

At serving, I warmed some Mrs. Richardson's Hot Fudge Sauce to drizzle over. And then, topped both the cheesecake slices and the lemon tart slices with freshly-whipped cream. 

On Tuesday we drove to Central Illinois for a quick visit with our parents. Not sure my almost 95-year old dad realized I'd made him cheesecakes as both his sight and hearing have deteriorated greatly this year. But, CA's 88-year old mom was very pleased and happy to share with some of her caregivers. 

By Friday, 7/15 our daughter's family had arrived. LC was turning 5-years on 7/20 so we had fun celebrating his birthday a bit early on Saturday. 

Who doesn't love a donut cake?!

I'm now ready to buckle-down and begin eating "right" again. Love the My Fitness Pal app for calorie counting, excersize recording, and nutrition monitoring. 

Breakfast at Silver Grill in Fort Collins, CO. 

A simple lunch. 

Last night we adapted a favorite salad. The beauty of using the My Fitness Pal app is that I can plan my daily food intake to accommodate a more caloric dinner, or a restaurant meal. 

For example, CA and I had a late breakfast today at The Farmhouse at Jessup Farms. I didn't even miss the potatoes or bacon, as green chiles and fresh fruit were available substitutes. 

My leftover green chiles prompted us to make chicken quesadillas and guacamole for dinner. Turns out carrots taste wonderful with guac--The Two Hot Tamales recipe. 

I warmed the green chiles and, just at serving time, stirred-in some sour cream. 

So... While we are in Colorado, our daughter and family are staying at our very unofficial Airbnb with friends from Cincinnati. Only right, as CA and I stayed at JE's home on our way to CO.

Unfortunately for them, an Opposum somehow made it into one of our covered window wells, then died. Thanks MA for doing the clean-up.

Donna Hay's Red Velvet Cheesecake

Since I took liberties with Donna Hay's recipe, I want to capture those changes here.

My version.

Red Velvet Cheesecake
Line your springform pan with a parchment circle. I sprayed the springform bottom with Pam to help the parchment adhere.

I took a shortcut with the crust and bought an Oreo crust from the baking aisle, but poured the crumbs into an 8" springform pan and pressed it into the bottom and sides.

Filling:
1-1/2 8 oz. pkgs. Cream cheese
1-1/4 Cups Ricotta cheese
3/4 Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1-1/2 tsp Vanilla
150g Good quality dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
Red food coloring paste (You decide how red you want it.)
Dutch-process Cocoa for dusting (Trader Joe's)


1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. In large mixing bowl or food processor, beat together cream cheese, ricotta, and sugar for 2-3 minutes until smooth--often scraping sides of bowl.
3. Add eggs and vanilla; beat a further minute.
4. Add cooled, melted chocolate and food coloring until well-combined.
5. Pour over Oreo cookie crust.
6. Place a shallow pan of water on lower oven shelf (keeps cheesecake from cracking).
7. Bake in center of oven for about 1 hour, keeping watch. You want the cheesecake to look solid, with about a half-dollar center spot still appearing wet.
8. Cool completely, then refrigerate 4 hours or overnight until well-chilled.
9. Dust with Dutch-process Cocoa before serving.

Years ago, I first visited Santa Fe with my sister JA. Luckily we did two brilliant things--we took a walking tour of the historic area and we took a class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking. Then, I visited with my friend LL and took a Southwest breakfast class which included a recipe for fresh fruit with a Tequila syrup--a simple syrup with Tequila added. I've now simplified that and cut a few calories by using 3 parts Agave syrup to 1 part Tequila. Just a splash really perks up and glazes the fresh fruit.

Whipping Cream Pound Cake

 

 

Seems I've been holding out on my readers... The VERY BEST pound cake ever conceived has never appeared on this blog. I've been making it forever--a recipe discovered (somewhere) by my good friend BB. I get very self-conscious when asked for the recipe, because this, my readers, is a heart attack on a plate.

 

Whipping Cream Pound Cake

12 oz. Butter, the real stuff

6 Eggs

3 cups Sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla

3 cups Cake flour

Tiny pinch of salt (unless using salted butter)

1 cup Whipping cream, not beaten

 

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease tube or Bundt pan with butter; dust with sugar.

2. With mixer, beat together butter and sugar until very smooth.

3. Add vanilla and eggs; beat until smooth.

4. Gradually (1/2 cup at a time) add flour, alternately with whipping cream. Beat until smooth and light--scraping sides.

5. Place on shelf just lower than middle of oven.

6. Bake for 1 hour, or until you smell the lusciousness, and a bamboo tester comes out clean. Do not over-bake.

 

We're having strawberry shortcake tonight, using locally-grown berries. And, I'm (finally) making the first jam of the summer.

 

The rhubarb goes into the freezer for a future (soon) strawberry-rhubarb pie.

 

I know this is the proper presentation for a Bundt-style cake...

 

But, I can never resist presenting this side, in all its rustic beauty.

 

 

Lemon Tartlettes

 

 

I've treasured this cookbook for years. It was one of the first I purchased in the early years of our marriage. This has been not only my go-to pastry cookbook, but CA's also as he's the primary pie crust-maker, pie baker at our house. I may research Julia's The Way to Cook for almost all techniques, but Martha's Pies & Tarts is the word in our home for all things pie-related.

This has been in my to-do list for several days. I froze the leftover pâte brisée from CA's birthday peach pie, planning cinnamon rolls or lemon tartlettes.

CA's Birthday Peach Pie

 

I did some quick thinking as I reached for the pie weights--then I folded some parchment paper in thirds, drew two outlines of the tart pan drop bottom, and cut six circles about 1" outside the drawn outline. I folded each circle into 8ths, laid one over each pastry-lined pan, and then gently dropped a handful of ceramic beads into the center of each parchment circle. Voilà!

Maybe this photo clarifies that process...

How to line a tartlette crust.

 

Today, I'm using a prepared lemon curd, although I've been very happy using Martha's recipe in the past.

 

 

Voilà! x 6.

Not really this orange. Just lemony yellow.

 

ChocolateTrouble

CA and I were reminiscing last weekend about PayDay candy bars. Cannot remember the context, but I was motivated to buy two with plans to chocolate coat them. That's just how my brain works, sometimes.
When I reached into the pantry for the chocolate chips, we had only butterscotch--having tossed the remainders of three degrees of Ghiradelli chocolate chips (milk-semi-sweet-dark) into the recent batch of chocolate chip-pecan-dried cranberry cookies. Just the Tollhouse recipe, but increasing the brown sugar to 1 Cup, and decreasing the white sugar to 1/2 Cup.
I digress...
I proceded to attempt to melt the butterscotch chips. I should have known better. I do know better. By design, baking chips don't melt; they just soften. Not to fear, I had some semi-sweet Baker's chocolate on-hand.

I cut the PayDay into quarters, arranged on waxed paper (a cooling rack would have been better--drips), globbed some softened butterscotch chips on top of each piece, drizzled with microwave-melted Baker's chocolate. Voilà!

They went down easily... There were only 4. YUM. CA ate 2 1.

Oreo Surprise

( first 3 images from Bakerella)

During our recent trip to CA's hometown, his sister LFW made similar cookies for us using Pillsbury ready-to-bake cookie dough. She wrapped the dough around the Oreo, but left one flat side uncovered. That's the side she placed on the baking sheet. The resulting cookie was warm and chewey with a crunchy Orep surprise.

Great recipe to make with kids.

I'd already decided to try a homemade version, so I'm pleased to find this version ready to roll.