Nirmala's Sindhi Chicken Curry - Sunday Dinner

So I approached this meal with alacrity. After looking through the Indian cookbook I came across this dish that had a bucolic quality. It ended up being simple and delicious. Next time Steve has insisted that to ameliorate the dish we make it spicier.

This recipe is from 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra.


Nirmala's Sindhi Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 tbsp coriander
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper ( I didn't use cause I was out)
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-5 green cardamom pods, crushed lightly to break the skin
• 2 tbsp peeled minced fresh ginger
• 1 cup finely cute cilantro (also out of this)
  
• 2 lg onions
• 4 tomatoes
• 12 scallions (white and light green parts only)
• 1-3 chili peppers ( I used one, Steve would have liked more...too bad for him I say)
• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt - whisked until smooth.

In bowl one amalgamate coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt and cardamom pods.


















In second bowl ( I needed two to hold it all) mix ginger, garlic, scallions, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and green chili peppers.



































Add oil to pan. Throw chicken in pan and cook for about five minutes.


















Dump in first bowl (spices). Stir, coating the chicken.


















Dump in second bowl and cook for a bit ( recipe says five minutes, I think I did it a little longer so it could cook down somewhat cause it was exploding out of my pan).


















Add the yogurt a little at a time. I couldn't get a good picture of this cause you have to constantly stir so the yogurt does not curdle.

Let cook for another minute or two, lower heat to low and let simmer for about 30 minutes until it becomes viscous.


















While that's happening lets work on our bread.

Chapati Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup water
• 3-4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 Chabie cat
  

Okay, I tried to make this but it didn't turn out very good. It tasted good, but it didn't look right.

In a bowl put 2 cups flour and stir in with fingers about 1/2 cup water. Stir til dough forms, add more water if needed. Knead dough a few times. Let sit at room temperature for about an hour.


















Separate into 12 pieces.


















In a small bowl put 1 cup flour. Take little dough ball place in bowl of flour and flatten into a circle. The on a floured surface roll it out.



































Heat up griddle or pan. Put dough on pan for about 30 seconds then flip. Once it starts to puff you are supposed to guide the air into the center so it forms into a ball. This is the part I failed at. Once you do this coat with butter and then crumple it all up so the butter gets all in it and gets yummy. Serve these hot.


















Enjoy!


















I'll put the calories in later.


p.s I'm studying for the GREs, hence all the weird words.

:)

Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata

So the other day at the farmers market I picked up a huge bag of spinach. The spinach ended up sitting in the fridge all week until yesterday when I decided we probably should use it. I also had left over goat cheese from a recipe I had been planning to make but didn't have the time to get to. So I decided to make up a Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata. Easy and tasty.

Spinach and Goat Cheese Frittata

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 1 tbsp milk
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion
• spinach (a lot)
  
• goat cheese (about 8 oz)

In an oven safe pan heat up some olive oil. Add your onions and saute for a minute or two then add your garlic. Then add your spinach. Cook this for a few minutes til it looks all wilted.

While that's going on put your eggs and milk in a bowl and beat them.

Pour on top of spinach.

Let cook til the edges start to set.

Add half the cheese and then throw in the oven which is pre-heated to 375. Let cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the cheese then let cook for about another five minutes. Pull it out and let set for a minute or two, then ENJOY!



















Nutrition 1/4 of Frittata:
Calories: 270.4
Carbs: 4.1g
Protein: 18.4g
Fat: 20g

Omelets!

The other night for dinner we decided to make omelets, but we didn't want a plain ole cheese omelet. Sooo, we made this fancy little guy up. Recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated.

Asparagus and Roasted Red Pepper Omelet Ingredients

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 lb asparagus
• table salt and black pepper
• 1 medium shallot
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 garlic clove
• pinch of chili powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 5 large eggs
• 1/3 cup roasted red peppers
• 1/2 cup fontina cheese

First I had to roast the red pepper. I chopped it open, stuck it on a baking sheet and put it in the oven at 500 degrees for about 10 minutes. Part way through I flipped them over.








































While the pepper was roasting I cut up the other veggies.



















I made Steve grate the cheese :).


















Put you're 5 eggs in a bowl or this weird little dish that came with my blender and blend those guys up.














































Heat up your pan and add 1 tbsp of butter.



















Once it's browned up a bit add in the asparagus.



















Saute those for a minute or two then toss in the shallot.



















Finally throw in your garlic, lemon juice, and spices. Let this cook for 3-4 minutes til asparagus starts to brown. Remove from pan and put in a bowl with your roasted red peppers that you have now taken out of the oven and cut up.

In the same pan, or a new one, heat up remaining 1tbsp butter (i actually used non-stick spray for this, 0 calories). Pour eggs into the pan once it's heated up. Let them cook for a few seconds.


















With your rubber spatula, lift up the edges of the egg and tip the pan so the runny stuff goes under the cooked eggs and cooks. Do this all the way around the pan until very little runny egg is left on top. With your spatula push whatever runny egg remains to the edge.


















Toss your bowl of toppings on top of the eggs and your cheese and cover with a tight lid and turn off the stove. Let sit for a couple minutes until remaining egg cooks.


















Meanwhile I had Steve cooking up some home fries.


















Once your omelet is all cooked remove the lid and turn the heat back on just for a few seconds to help lift the omelet from the pan. This is the tricky part, somehow get the omelet out of the pan and onto your plate and make it look kinda of pretty. I have no suggestions for this, i ended up ripping the omelet :( . I think part of it is because this a big full omelet and is hard to flip.

nonetheless it tasted delicious and it switched up our meals a lil!

Enjoy!


















(sorry for the poor photography, one day we will get a camera that is good )

Nutrition (1/2 omelet):
Calories: 441.5
Fat: 33.1g
Protein: 11.1g
Carbs: 26.0g

Party Time!

So it's been a bit since we updated. But that doesn't mean we haven't been eating some yummy things. Most of the posts have been about what we ate for dinner, but today I'm gonna post about a yummy salad that makes an excellent lunch. If you're like me, the last thing I want to do when I have to get up early for work is run around the kitchen to try and find something healthy and tasty to bring for lunch. I made this up Sunday night stuck it into tupperwares and I had lunch for half the week. woot! This recipe is courtesy of Lizz.

Fiesta Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 can corn, rinsed and drained
• 1 red pepper
• 2-3 scallions
• 1 cup dried cranberries ( i accidentally bought craisens :) )
• 1 carrot
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 3 tbsp cilantro
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 tbsp soy sauce (consider low-sodium, but not necessary)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup olive oil****
• slivered almonds

**** When I made it I used 1/2 cup olive oil and personally it was wayyy to oily. Still delicious, but it raised the calories way up and didn't seem necessary. Next time when I make it I will try 2tbsp and see how that works out.

Cook up your brown rice (in a rice cooker! get one!) . When that's done cooking put it in a bowl with the corn, chopped red pepper, shredded or chopped carrot, cranberries, chopped scallions, black beans and cilantro.

In a small bowl mix up garlic, soy saucse, lemon juice, and oil. Throw that on bowl one and top with slivered almonds. It seems best to add the almonds right before you are about to eat it so that they retain their nice crunchyness.

Yum!


















Enjoy!

Nutrition 1 serving of salad (6.8 oz) w/ .3 oz of almonds:
Calories: 381 - (if you used 2tbsp of olive oil it would be 291 calories)
Fat: 19g
Protein: 9g
Carbs: 47g

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has/had a nice Easter! We had our big Easter dinner on saturday and we ate lots of tasty food! Here is the dish that I contributed.

Also note my nicer photography. Hooray for using mom and dads camera.


This recipe mostly comes from Steve's sister, Jill, but I lost her recipe so I had to improvise a little. :)


Sweet Potato Marshmallow Balls
Ingredients ( I made a ton, so feel free to cut this recipe in half):

• 8 Sweet Potatoes
• 6tbsp Maple Syrup
• 4tbsp Butter
• Pinch of Cinnamon
• Pinch of Nutmeg
• Dash of Salt
• 2tbsp Orange Juice
• Cornflakes
• Marshmallows

Bake your sweet potatoes at 350 for about an hour until they are very nice and tender.


















Peel the skin off and smush up your taters.



















At this point my mom and I were having a tater throwdown. Me with my sweet potatoes and her with her regular ones. Here's a pic of what she made!



















YUM!

Add syrup, butter, orange juice, and spices. Mix it all up.



















In a bowl crush up a bunch of cornflakes.



















Grab a handful of potato mix and smush it into a ball. Roll in the cornflakes til coated and then place on a greased baking sheet.



















Look how many I made (34)!!!!
























Bake in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes. Pull them out and smush a marshmallow onto each one. Place back in the oven and cook for another 20ish minutes or until marshmallows are browned to your liking.



















Have a Happy Easter and Enjoy!


Nutrition (1 sweet potato ball):
Calories: 82.4
Fat: .1g
Carbs: 19.9
Protien: 1.2

Ratatouille!

So, our ratatouille does not look as pretty as in the movie when prepared by a lil rat...BUT it sure was tasty! ANNNND Lizz and Eric can attest to this cause they chomped it down with us.

The recipe comes from Cooks Illustrated


Ratatouille

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggplants (about 2 - 2 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch cubes
• table salt
• 2 large zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds), scrubbed and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup olive oil- I accidentally used about 2 tablespoons more than this because I lack reading skills
• 1 large onion , chopped large
• 2 medium cloves garlic , minced
• 2 medium tomatoes (ripe), about 1 pound, peeled and cut into 2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
• ground black pepper

Now the thing with Ratatouille is it's basically a big ole' vegetable stew so you can add whatever you think would be tasty. We happened to have extra portabello mushrooms on hand and having no idea what to do with them i chopped them up and threw them in too. It was a very good decision.


If anyone has ever cooked with eggplant you know that it is very tasty, but a pain to cook because it loves to soak up things like oil and become a soggy blob. The thing I liked about this recipe was it dealt with some ways to deal with this. Now you can make a ratatouille by just throwing all this stuff in a pot and going, but i would recommend following this recipe cause it rocks.


First cut up the eggplant, put it in a colander over a bowl and sprinkle with 2tsp of salt. Make sure it's all coated and let sit for about an hour. This drains out all the water and lets it cook better. yay.


















When done, rinse the salt off and put on a bunch of paper towels and squish them nice and dry.


















Next cut up the zuccini.


















Throw it in a bowl with the eggplant. Toss with 2tbsp of olive oil (this is where i accidently used 4...oops...tasted fine, just added a few calories.)

Put the eggplant and zuccini on 2 foil lined pans and bake at 500 for 30 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes and rotate pans on the rack about halfway through.























When done you will have some good roasted veggies


















While that's happening cut everything else up.


















Let's get the other stuff going!

In a dutch oven heat up the remaining 2tbsp oil and throw in the onions. Cook onions on medium low for about 15 minutes until nice and brown. Add in the garlic and stir.

Throw in the tomoatoes and let cook about 5 minutes until the tomato breaks down and it gets all juicy and saucy. I added the mushrooms in at this point so i let it cook for about 10 minutes instead of 5.


















Add the nice roasted zuccini and eggplant in and stir gently so as not to mush it all up and let it cook for about another 5 minutes.


















Add the parsley, thyme, and basil and voila. Serve on some bulgur wheat!


















Enjoy!!!


















Nutrition for 1 serving of ratatouille (above recipe makes 4):
Calories: 322
Protien: 6g
Fat: 21g
Carbs: 33g

Nutrition for 1/2 cup bulgur wheat:
Calories: 76
Protien: 3g
Fat: 0g
Carbs: 17g

Moroccan Lamb Stew and Rice Pilaf/Biryani

What's up folks. Here's some food I made. I made it on Sunday. The lamb stew recipe is from a set of recipe cards Calypso and I bought at Ollie's for $2.99, and the rice recipe is from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

Moroccan Lamb
Ingredients:
4 tbsp blanched almonds, halved (but I didn't blanch them and I had a HECK of a time halving them)
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound, 5 ounces boneless leg of lamb, cubed (you can only get "semi-boneless" leg of lamb at Wegmans and it is semi-boneless in the sense of having a big leg bone in the middle of it)
1 medium onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups canned plum tomatoes
4 tablespoons golden raisins, soaked in warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch powdered cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cloves (or if you don't have ground cloves like me you could take whole cloves and smush them with a hard thing)
2 cups Portobello mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
salt and pepper

Perhaps you would like to see some photographs of its preparation? Join me on this flavorful journey.

Here's some lamb. It had to be put on the counter because a Charlie Cat would try to eat it otherwise. That cat!!!!

Now it's cooking. Be careful if your apartment turns on its side.






And now it's done.











Rice Pilaf/Biryani
Ingredients:
1 tsp ground turmeric
2.5 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
6 cardamom pods
Pinch ground cloves (see above)
.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 cups basmati rice
Salt and pepper

And what does it look like when it's done? It looks like this:


















PERHAPS......... the stew... could be put... on the rice? IT CAN!



















And I made custard, from Betty Crocker's Cookbook. Thanks, Betty.
Ingredients:
3 eggs, slightly beaten
.333 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash salt
2.5 cups v. warm milk
However, it was not as firm as I would have liked, which is likely because I split the custard mix among 4 custard cups instead of 6, as suggested. Since I only own 4, I'd probably either cut down on the milk or used heavy cream if I made it again.