New Horizons: venturing into curries

I've spent the vast majority of my life in either California or Texas, and while there's not a whole lot those two states have in common, you're rarely far from a Mexican restaurant in either of them. So when I studied abroad in England, where Mexican food is all but nonexistent, there were moments where I might have given my left arm for a decent taco. Even salsa was nowhere to be found in Grantham.

Instead, Britain's favorite borrowed cuisine is Indian food. Variants on South Asian dishes are so prevalent in England that Subway there sells a westernized, fast food version of chicken tikka (a dish that's somewhat similar to Tandoori chicken). The way Texans eat salsa, Brits eat chutney. And, of course, curries are everywhere. Once I had tried a few, I started to understand: good curries are packed with flavor and are incredibly rich without being overindulgent. Plus, with a huge variety of dishes, many of which are vegan and gluten free, Indian food is easily adaptable to any diet.

Unfortunately, because many Indian dishes can be intricate or require ingredients that aren't easily found in the states, I had yet to attempt making one. So when I found the Minimalist Baker's 30 minute coconut curry, which didn't call for anything that I couldn't pick up at HEB, I knew I had to try it. It also gave me the perfect opportunity to reference the New Horizons Pluto mission, and I never pass up chances to casually mention space. Space is super cool, y'all.

Anyways. Since the recipe was billed as being easy and adaptable, I decided to try adjusting it. I love broccoli and green peppers, so I used 2/3 cup of each, instead of 1/2 cup of one or the other. This nearly doubled the amount of veggies.  I also took the recipe's suggestion to sub out one of the lite cans of coconut milk for the creamier full-fat version- which still puts a serving at less than 400 calories.

To add protein, the original post recommends serving with quinoa, but depending on your diet, tofu and chicken can easily be added as well. In fact, the recipe from which this one was adapted is a chicken curry.

The preparation was, as advertised, very simple: chop veggies. Saute all but the tomatoes and snow peas with salt, pepper, garlic, and ginger.

Once soft, add coconut milk, veggie stock, curry powder and cayenne. Throw in peas and tomatoes towards the end, and reseason to taste. I'd suggest making sure to not totally overwhelm the wonderful coconut flavor when seasoning.

The final product had tons of sauce, a little bit of heat from the cayenne, and a slight sweetness from the veggies and ginger, giving it a great, well-balanced flavor. The spices really stand out here, and mixed with the veggies and creamy coconut milk, this dish is a winner. I picked some of our basil for a garnish, and highly recommend it. The recipe suggests that cilantro, mint, and/or red pepper flakes are great, too. 

As you can tell, it is nearly soupy, so if you prefer a thicker sauce, you might try either way more veggies or only using one can of coconut milk and half a cup of veggie stock, making sure to compensate by cutting down on the spices. This dish really is forgiving enough to allow for much more experimentation than I did here--it's easy to add more spices or liquids if it's not turning out as desired.

And one more bonus: it's just as great reheated a few days later.

Southern Peach Dumplings

     My mom has been making peach dumplings for the past five years or so and I've never seen her look at a recipe. Turns out she got the recipe by word of mouth at a family cook out and she's been improvising since. This sweet, delectable dish is highly coveted and dangerously high in calories (I'm positive). Yet, after just one bite, it all seems worth it. Being inexpensive, easy, and fun to make I decided to give it a shot. I found a recipe here and incorporated my mom's special touches.

You'll need:

1 29 oz. can sliced peaches (drained) OR 2 whole large peaches
2 8 oz. cans of Crescent Rolls
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1-1/2 cup pure cane sugar (Brown sugar optional)
Cinnamon, to taste
1 tsp pure vanilla (extract)
1 12 oz. can mountain dew or 1 cup Crown Royal Regal Apple Whisky

 

I used a can of peaches. These are not preferred according to suggestions I've seen because of the extra moisture from the syrup, but mom drains the peaches and uses the extra syrup in the butter mix for extra flavor. I drained the peaches and poured the extra syrup in another bowl. Pop open those croissants and unroll them. Tear along the perforated lines to separate each slice. Place a peach slice on the wide end and roll towards the point. Place each rolled croissant in a lightly buttered 9 x 13 pan. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 


Place two sticks of butter (1 cup) in a pot and melt it on the stove. Add 1 cup of sugar in increments stirring slightly. My mom advised that I add 1/2 cup of brown sugar for a moist caramel flavor to complement the peaches. Now add in that extra syrup set aside earlier. Stir in 1 tsp of vanilla. The sweet, buttery caramel scent is mouth-watering.


Pour the butter mix over and around the croissants. The croissants should be almost fully submerged in the sauce. Take a 12 oz. can of Mountain Dew and pour it around the edges of the pan. It will fizzle, give your croissant a citric acid aftertaste and look pretty cool. My mom usually uses Crown Royal Apple Whiskey in place of the Mountain Dew so I'm interested to see how different it'll taste in the end.

Lastly, sprinkle as much cinnamon as you'd like on top. I'm pretty heavy handed myself. Place the dessert in the oven for 35 minutes.   

The smell alone attracted my family to the kitchen. The finished product should have a golden brown crisp finish and a very fine layer of juice at the bottom. My mom noted that there was a distinct citrus flavor from the Mountain Dew that made this dish unique from her usual hint-of-honey whisky peach dumplings.

Nonetheless, the flavor was amazing and the fluffy crust literally melts in your mouth. The peach and butter sauce flavors are robust while the cinnamon and citrus accents are subtle.




A nice dollop of vanilla-centered ice cream gives a fresh contrast between the warm crusted peaches and cool vanilla. I'd love to try this same recipe using granny Smith Apple's (with the Mountain Dew or Apple Whiskey). If you have a sweet tooth or need a post-entrée dish for a larger crowd, I recommend this peach of a dessert.

Lobster Bisque!

Upon my search for a new recipe to review, I wanted to find something that I knew for a fact I enjoy and could recreate for special occasions. I am a huge seafood fan and so nothing sounded better to me then to make homemade raviolis with a lobster bisque sauce. Though this sounded quite challenging at first, I decided I wanted to see what I am capable of while at the same time, break in my girlfriends new pasta machine and show her what I can do.

The first thing that I did was prepare the pasta dough for the raviolis and the mix that I will be putting inside. Luckily, I already knew how to make homemade pasta so searching a recipe for this process wasn't necessary. I made the ravioli dough with a simple egg and salt mixture added into a pile of flower until it becomes the ball of dough that I covered in a plastic bag and let sit for an hour and a half. While I waited on the dough to settle, I put together a stuffing in which I mixed together ricotta cheese with green onion, crab, sautéed shrimp, and a few seasonings then I put it into the fridge until the ravioli dough was ready. For the remainder of that hour, I marinated the lobster with olive oil, lemon, and thyme and placed that into the fridge as well and then started the soup.

I found a great recipe for lobster bisque at allrecipes.com in a post entitled Annie’s Lobster Bisque. After preparing all of the ingredients, (chopping, mincing, portioning) I put it all together using the order process that the recipe suggests. This process began with cooking the onions first, adding in the wine and cooking sherry, letting that simmer until it has reduced to about half of the amount started, adding in flour for thickness, and then the tomato paste and milk fallowed by the addition of various seasonings to taste. I didn't have all of the seasonings so I used what I did have, (salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce) and substituted cayenne pepper with chili powder. I also added a bit of ground white pepper and onion powder.

While the soup was cooking together all of the ingredients, at this point a tomato bisque, I started cooking the lobster. During this process, I pan seared the lobster tails for a few seconds on each side to start the lobster meat cooking. After, I made a sauce with white dry wine, butter, garlic, lemon juice, and Italian parsley and let the sauce do the remaining of the cooking by continuously pouring the hot mixture over the meat placed on the pan to finish the cooking process with a garlic, citrusy infusion. At this point I saw that I was limited with the amount of lobster meat and so at an attempt to keep all of the seafood I had in the sauce for the raviolis, I kept the soup as just a tomato bisque soup and used the tomato bisque soup as a base to create a creamy sauce. This was a simple process of adding the tomato sauce to a homemade rue to just make it more thick and I added the lobster and sauted shrimp to this.

 

As a side item, I made a light avocado shrimp salad with a sweet and tangy homemade red vinaigrette. I found this recipe at addapinch.com. The final process involved putting the raviolis together and boiling them. Altogether, the meal was excellent. The soup was creamy and flavorful with a small spicy kick. The sauce was filled with shrimp and lobster, which paired great with the shrimp and crab filled raviolis. And the side shrimp salad was basically the icing on the cake with such a heavy dish. I will use this recipe and make it my own for future dinner occasions and ultimately, I am very happy that everything came together without any problems.

 

Migas!!!!

I wanted to try something new for this specific assignment. My girlfriend and her family enjoy the traditional Mexican styled dishes, which is a benefit to me. They suggested I try “Migas” because they said it was a great dish for any meal. Migas is an old dish from a Spanish and Portuguese background that is served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It makes sense that Migas means crumbs in english because the main ingredient to this dish is the cut up tortilla or bread crumbs. I decided to give this recipe a try, but i wanted to add some Texas to it. There are many Tex-Mex recipes for Migas, but the only difference from the original would have to be the addition of the jalapeño. Other than that the dish remains the same.

Here are the ingrediants!

4 whole Corn Tortillas

1 whole Jalapeno, Seeds And Membranes Removed, Finely Diced

4 whole Plum Tomatoes, Roughly Chopped

1 whole Green Pepper, Roughly Chopped

1 whole Red Bell Pepper, Roughly Chopped

1 whole Medium Onion, Chopped

5 whole Large Eggs

1 cup Cheddar Cheese

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

1/4 cup Half-and-half

This was definitely not something I usually eat because I do not mix my entire breakfast all in one. This dish combined cut up corn tortillas, peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños, onions, and eggs. I make omletes with peppers and tomatoes, but I’ve never cooked my tortilla into my eggs. It seemed interesting enough to try it. It was a little odd to me because I didn’t know how long to cook the tortilla for in order to actually make this recipe good. Although, it is different from what I’m used to, it also looks really good. Im ready to take on this challenge of the Migas.

I gathered all my ingredients to my cooking station and started to cook my butt off. First, I had to dice the tomatoes and jalapeños because the peppers and onions were already diced when i bought them. DO NOT TOUCH your face after handling cut jalapeños. I, forgetting I was cutting them, touched my nose and immediately felt the heat. After I ran my nose under water i began to beat my eggs and add the half and half. For this step you don’t have to use half and half, you can use regular milk or none at all. I know some people
are lactose intolerant. Next, I prepared the stove to cook my tortillas. I pour a fair amount of oil into the pan to start getting hot. After it reaches a good enough temperature I begin to cook my tortillas, not too much and not too less. It has to be the perfect amount because you cook them again with the eggs. Now that they are lightly cooked its time to cut them into small pieces. I decided to cut them into some pizza slices because that seemed to be more convenient. At this point I’m feeling very confident with my dish. I have everything laid out ready to go. Now, its time to cook the chopped vegetables by starting with the peppers and onions first. After 5 minutes I added the jalapeños and following shortly, I added the tomatoes. Everything is cooking really well in the pan and its time for the tortillas and eggs. At first i didn’t think it was going to turn out good because my vegetables were starting to burn and my eggs were not cooking as fast as I thought. Make sure that this step is done at low heat so you don’t burn your veggies. My Migas was finally finished 25 minutes later. They actually look really good. I was really happy with the outcome.

My Migas looked pretty good and i was worried that I burnt it. It looks just like the pictures online too, which is a great thing, especially since this was my first time making this dish. I was nervous to try it even though it looked great so I made my roommates try it. They were actually impressed with my dish, and said it tasted really good. At this point I’m feeling like a master chef…. Not really. I served myself a plate of the Migas and dove right in. It was so good. It was really good. I think it had the perfect amount of everything mixed together and i would make this again. It is something that should be tried. i was extremely good.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/06/i-love-migas/

Apple. Fritter. Bread.

I love breakfast.  My favorite kind of day starts out with a nice, slow morning over a large cup of coffee.  I decided I wanted to make something sweet to go with my coffee in the morning, and I came across this recipe for an irresistible looking apple fritter bread.  It looked exactly how it sounds: like a warm, gooey apple fritter donut had been put into bread form.  This bread is a treasure trove of cinnamon swirls and chunks of fresh apples topped off by a light glaze, and is surprisingly quick and easy to make. For the full recipe click here.

The first thing I did was peel and cut the apples into small chunks. The recipe is unspecific about what kind of apple to use, so I chose to use one Granny Smith, a tart apple probably most popular for baking, and one Gala, for a balance of sweet.  


I then dusted the apples with two tablespoons of sugar and one teaspoon of cinnamon, and mixed that up in a small bowl.  (This is the part where you get to reward yourself with a taste test).

Next, my sister, Emma, helped me mix together the dry and wet ingredient in separate bowls, which we then combined in a stand up mixer.  As with most baking, the dry ingredients should be added in increments into the wet mixture.  This ensures that everything mixes together smoothly with the added bonus of no spray of flour in your face! 

The last step before you're ready to assemble your bread is too mix one third cup brown sugar with another teaspoon of cinnamon in a separate small bowl.

Now it's assembly time! Half of the batter goes in the dish first followed by half of the apple mixture.  Sprinkle half of the brown sugar, cinnamon mixture on top of the apples, and then repeat.

Voilá! Look at the pretty layers! Make sure to stand back and appreciate your creation for a moment because the next step is to mess up those nice layers (don't worry it's worth it). To get the cinnamon swirl into the bread, you take a butter knife and draw swirly patterns down into the batter.  Don't go too crazy mixing it up.  There should still be some layering, but the cinnamon and apples should be blended down into the batter.



When you're done, the only thing left to do is put the bread in the oven and wait.  The recipe says to bake it for 50 to 60 minutes.  Ours took about 70.  You want to make sure that the middle of the bread is cooked all the way through.  To do this, stick a toothpick inside. If it comes out with wet batter on it, cook for another few minutes before checking again. When you get a clean toothpick, you know its done!

Behold the deliciousness.  It made the whole house smell like warm apples and cinnamon.







The glaze is a quick mix of powdered sugar and milk.  This is the finishing touch on the bread that really helps sell the apple fritter idea.

The texture of the bread is fluffy and cake-y like a muffin, but the glaze, apples, and cinnamon are all reminiscent of an apple fritter donut.  It can be eaten warm or cold, and is not too sweet.  My dad, a lover of apple fritter donuts, said he felt like he had eaten one after eating a slice of our bread.  This bread is definitely going to have a number of reshowings in our kitchen from now on!

Coconut Lime Rice Pudding

Coconut Lime Rice Pudding

     When deciding what kind of recipe I wanted to try, I really wanted to find a good coconut recipe. I bought a fresh coconut and see if I could incorporate it into a dish. I found this coconut lime recipe that looked perfect to try from delish.com http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a15498/baked-coconut-lime-rice-pudding-recipe-opr0311/.

 

    When looking at the process I was worried about time. I decided to use packaged coconut and coconut milk to save time and effort of prepping a fresh coconut. My little girl and I began our trip to HEB to get the ingredients we needed. At HEB my little girl and I had a trouble find the coconut and coconut milk. We arrived at home just in time to start cooking.

 

    The first step I did was grease a 9 by 13 inch pan with butter and setting it aside. After that I whisked together all the ingredients which included the butter, Milk (I used almond milk because of lactose intolerance), heavy cream, freshly grated lime zest, ground ginger and egg.

 

    

     After that step I added the dried fruit mix which I substituted for raisins as suggested. Another suggestion was using any fresh fruit you like instead of banana, kiwi, or mango. I had some blueberries in the fridge and decided to throw those in the mix as well. Instead of almonds I used cashews. After combining the all the ingredients I poured it into my pan and baked it covered with foil for 45 minutes. After the first 45 minutes I uncovered it and baked it for another 30 minutes. After that I let it cool and served it a couple hours later.

 

    The appearance of the pudding was a little surprising to me. It didn't look anything like the picture from delish. The changes I made changed the appearance and added a lot of color. My pudding definitely lost some appeal. It looked like a mess.  

 

The rice pudding tasted really good and had a strong but not

overpowering lime taste. It was the perfect amount of sweetness. The pudding had a nice creamy and firm texture and the dried fruit added some chewiness. I thought that the cashews interrupted the dish because the crunchiness felt out of place.

For changes in the future I will use Mango next time as I think that will improve the appearance. Removing the nuts I think will be a good change and give the pudding a more uniform texture. The 9x13 pan was a little too small in my opinion as the pan became filled to the top. I will be sure to make this recipe again.

 

   



Kyle's Delicious Turkey Patties

Besides the occasional Christmas turkey, there are very little times that I have had an opportunity to explore cooking with turkey. I wanted to cook turkey patties because turkey seems to be a little better for you than hamburger meat and the kind that I used was processed with very little fat, if any. The dish that makes for a simple and quick dinner and they are supper easy to make! I decided that using fresh ground turkey would be great to use for this homemade recipe that my boyfriend (Kyle) created a couple of years ago. The process of making turkey patties is very similar to making a hamburger, but with a little twist! :)

Here is what you need:

1 lb. of 93/7 Fresh Ground Turkey
1 Egg
1 Sweet Bell Pepper
1/2 of an Onion
 Uncle Chris' Gourmet Steak Seasoning
1 Cup of HEB Panko Japanese Style Bread Crumbs
        (Roasted Garlic flavored are optional)



First, cut the sweet bell pepper in half so that you can remove the seeds from the inside.
Next, chop bell pepper into fine tiny pieces as shown below and place them in a bowl.

Then, realize that the color reminds you of the beach. Get mad that you aren't on the beach. Take your anger out by chopping the half an onion into small fine pieces the same size as the bell pepper and add them to the bowl.

Add the egg, whole package of turkey, and coat with the Uncle Chris' steak seasoning. (add steak seasoning to taste but no more than 4 tbsp)

Next measure out one cup of the HEB Panko Japanese Style bread crumbs and pour them in with the yellow bell pepper and the onion. (These will help keep the turkey moist.)

Then, mix all the ingredients together and it should look like this:

After having been reminded of playing with play-dough from mixing the ingredients and smiling, make patties out of the mixture. (It will make about 6 patties.)
Place the patties onto a plate or cutting board.

Next, heat a nonstick pan on medium heat with a tbsp of oil (olive, peanut, canola, your choice) until it has water like consistency and moves easily around the pan.

After the oil heats up then place the patties in the pan. Let the patties cook until they are dark brown in color on both sides (or about 5 minutes on each side), then turn down the stove to medium low heat and let the patties cook so that the inside gets completely done. The outside of the patties will be close to black in color but not burnt,

     



Once the patties have cooked for and are completely done (feel free to cut into the middle of one of the patties to make sure that they are done) take them out of the pan and place them on a plate, Smile because you have successfully made a turkey patty!

Note: The patties can be eaten with bread but they are also fantastic by themselves. It was served with a side of hash browns and steamed vegetables with cheese.

Making this recipe was a really hands on, fun, and quick. The Turkey patties were moist. The sweet peppers added just enough bell pepper flavor without overpowering the flavor of the turkey and the onion. The texture of the patties was similar to meatloaf or Salisbury Steak, When cooked with the onion and peppers the onion and peppers still had a lot of the crunch that you expect from a vegetable. The patties held together really well and the smaller that the onion and sweet pepper was cut into the better they attached to the meat and didn't fall off.  The turkey patties would also be great served with rice and gravy.