The Rookie Cook

I got this recipe from Epicurious.com and didn’t change a thing. Excellent. I make these carrots twice a week and have them in the fridge to much on when I need a snack. (Lots of good, easy-to-digest fiber.)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound baby carrots
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp country-style Dijon mustard

Instructions

1. Cook the carrots in a pot of salted, boiling water until just tender, about 8 minutes. Drain
2. Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Stir in sugar. Add mustard and carrots and stir to coat.
3. Season with salt and pepper.

I love, love, love snow peas. This is the best and easiest way I’ve found to prepare them.

Cooking time: 5 minutes. Prep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ pound snow peas (destringed)
• 1-2 scallions, finely chopped
• 1½ tsp minced garlic
• Toasted sesame seeds
• 1½ Tbsp toasted sesame oil
• A little vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp. pepper

Instructions

1. Blanch snow peas in salted, boiling water for @1 minute. Plunge into icy water immediately to stop cooking and to make the peas a nice, vivid green. Can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge until right before ready to eat.
2. Heat oils over med high heat. Add garlic for about 1 minute.
3. Add the scallions and the peas. Saute until heated through.
4. Add a little salt and course pepper and a good shake of red pepper flakes.

Put in serving bowl and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. 

These muffins are awesome! These were a huge hit when I made them for Jake’s classroom snack. Use either foil muffin liners or grease the muffin tins. Don’t use paper liners (learned this the hard way!). Though these don’t keep long, they do freeze well.

Yield: 12–16 muffins

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose white flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 large mashed ripe bananas
• 1 large egg
• 7 Tbsp butter, melted
• ¼ cup milk
• ¾ cup semisweet mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat overn to 350°. Grease or line twelve 1/3-cup muffin cups with foil liners.
2. Mix flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter, and milk in a medium bowl.
4. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients until just blended (don’t overmix). Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Divide batter among muffin cups (may make more than 12), filling each about ¾ full.
6. Bake about 32 minutes, until tops are pale golden and inserted toothpick comes out with some melted chocolate but no crumbs.

Though far from gourmet, this is an easy favorite, especially for my 4-year-old who loves mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 8 oz. Fresh Mushrooms
• 1 lb. Ground Beef (I use Ground Chuck)
• 1 Onion, diced
• Heaping tsp. minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/4 tsp. garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp.+ paprika
• Some red pepper flakes
• @1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup

Instructions

1. Brown beef with onions.
2. Add mushrooms and garlic. Cook on med heat @3 min.
3. Add pepper, red pepper flakes, paprika, garlic salt and mushroom soup. Simmer for about 15 min.ight before serving, add sour cream and mix.

Quick Notes

Serve on a bed of extra large egg noodles.

Another www.spicehouse.com recipe that looks amazing!

Ingredients

• 2 cups Basmati rice
• 5 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons Urad daal
• 2 teaspoons Chana daal
• 2 – 3 whole dried red chiles
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• pinch asafoetida
• 1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
• 10 – 12 curry leaves
• 1 Tablespoon grated unsweetened coconut
• salt, to taste
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

Preparation Instructions

Wash rice well before cooking. Then take rice with 3 3/4 cups water and add a little salt to it. Cook it in pressure cooker (wait for 1-2 whistles and then switch off the gas). You can also cook it in a pan or do microwave cooking just the same way as you cook ordinary rice. Once the rice is cooked, keep it aside.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan or a kadai.

Add asafoetida, dried red chillies cut into two, urad dal and chana dal. Cook until dals change colour to light brown. Add peanuts and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to crackle, then add curry leaves. Fry for 10 seconds more

Next add turmeric powder and stir well. Add cooked rice, salt and lemon juice. Mix well very gently so that the rice grains do not break.

Garnish with grated coconut and serve hot.

Between 2000 and 2001, I spent about five months in Nepal. For four weeks I trekked the Anapurna circuit and then turned inward to basecamp. I also did a 10-day trek in northern Nepal. When I was in Tibet, I visited basecamp on the North Face of the Mt. Everest. Everywhere in Nepal (outside of the Western eateries in Kathmandu Valley), the main food is dhal bhat (yellow lentils) accompanied by rice, spicy pickles, and some sort of spicy greens (if in season). After trekking all day, it was about the best food I”ve ever eaten. I’m hoping this recipe will help bring back some of those memories.

Ingredients ■3 tablespoons peanut or mustard oil (olive oil has too low a smoking point for this recipe) ■1 pound mustard greens, cleaned and coarsely chopped ■1 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste ■1 tablespoon ground cumin ■1 teaspoon ground turmeric 

 Preparation Instructions:

 Heat the oil until almost smoking. Add the greens and stir to prevent burning. Once wilted, add the spices. Stir thoroughly, turn the heat to low, cover, and cook for about 5-15 minutes. Add a little hot water if the greens start to burn. Make sure all water has evaporated before serving.

Recipe courtesy of www.thespicehouse.com. The best spice shop I’ve ever been to!

Just saw this on the Food Network. Looks SOOOOO yummy. My mouth is watering.

(It’s a Giada recipe)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/parmesan-broccoli-and-cauliflower-salad-recipe/index.html

I saw this on the Today Show this morning and it looked just sooooo yummy. Haven’t tried it out yet. Maybe for the next bookclub?

By chef and restaurateur Michael Psilakis
Makes 1 quart
This traditional roasted pepper and feta spread resembles a Greek romesco. It goes well with just about anything and is wonderful on its own as a dipping agent for crudites or potato chips.

INGREDIENTS
• 1/2 Spanish or sweet onion, thickly sliced
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and cracked black pepper
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 2 fire-roasted red bell peppers, home roasted or store-bought, cut into strips
• 1 to 2 pepperoncini (pickled yellow peppers) to taste, sliced
• 0.5 teaspoon dry Greek oregano
• 2 pinch ground coriander
• 2 pinch ground cumin
• 4 small, picked sprigs parsley
• 4 small, picked sprigs dill
• 1 tablespoon snipped chives or scallion greens, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried lemon zest or 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
DIRECTIONS
Brush the onion slices with a little olive oil and season with kosher salt and pepper. On a hot grill pan or in a cast-iron skillet, grill the onion until tender and slightly char-marked. Separate into rings.

In a food processor, combine all the remaining ingredients and process until very smooth. Taste for seasoning but be careful not to add too much salt, as the feta is very salty.

If you can’t tell, I’m on a kick with the whole Indian thing. I made this the other night accompanied by the spinach/paneer dish. Very impressed. Excellent. And the colors in this are amazing.
This recipe comes from p. 357 of “1,000 Indian Recipes” by Neelam Batra. I used a combination of 2 cups of vegetable broth and water to cook the dal. Urad beans are available at the DeKalb Farmers Market.

1 1/4 c white urad beans (dhulli urad dal), washed 3 times
1/4 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (I used a little extra)
1/2 c fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp vege oil
1 tsp ghee
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp peeled, minced ginger
1 serrano pepper, minced
1 tbsp minced red bell pepper
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground paprika

1. Soak dal in water for @2 hours. Put in sauce pan with 3.5 cups of water (I used 2 cup vegetable broth, 1.5 cups water), tumeric, and salt. Bring to boil, reduce to med heat and let it boil for 10 min. Turn down heat and let simmer for 15 min, until water is almost all absorbed (this never happened for me. I let it go 30 min, then drained it a little). Add lemon juice and cilantro. BE CAREFUL: overstirring will make this starchy and overcooking will make mush. Watch carefully and taste every few minutes.

2. Heat the oil and ghee in a saucepan over med-high heat. Add cumin seeds (they should sizzle). Quickly add onion and reduce to med heat for @5 min (until golden brown).

3. Add the ginger, serrano, bell pepper and stir @1 min. Add the coriander, cumin and paprika. Stir. Add to dal. Swirl lightly to mix. Serve.

I spent a year in India and loved every minute of the food there. (I will admit that the minute I left India, I didn’t eat or go near Indian food for at least 6 months afterward!) Saag Paneer (spinach with paneer cheese) was one of my favorite dishes.

Last night I made this recipe, which is a very quick version of traditional saag paneer. It is not creamy like the long version, but still very tasty. This recipe comes from page 327 of the cookbook “1,000 Indian Recipes” by Neelam Batra. Note, next time I make this I’ll either go heavier on the spinach or lighter on the paneer. I didn’t like the ratio on this.

8 oz. Paneer cheese (or tofu, the recipe says, but you’d have to have extremely firm tofu to pull this recipe off)

2 Tbspn olive or vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds (I actually used brown and it was fine)

1/4 tspn coarsely ground fenugreek seeds

1 large tomato, coarsely chopped

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 serrano pepper, minced (with seeds)

@1 lb. fresh spinach, coarsely chopped

2 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp garam masala

3/4 tsp salt

fresh ground pepper, to taste

1. Crumble the paneer cheese coarsely. Heat oil in large nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat and add the cumin, mustard seeds, and fenugreek; they shoudl sizzle upon contact with the hot oil. Quickly add the tomato, garlic, and chile pepper and cook, stirring, @1 minute.

2. Add the spinach. Cover the pan and cook, stirring once or twice until wilted, @3 min. Add the paneer, coriander, garam masala, and salt and cook over medium heat, uncovered, stirring as needed, until all the juices evaporate and dish is quite dry.  (Recipe says this takes @5 min, but I found it took more like 12. Possibly the spinach was still a bit wet from washing.) Transfer to serving dish, add black pepper to taste. Serve.