New Recipes!

We're going to the grocery store! I'm going to make peda and creamed spinach (instead of palak paneer bc my food processor is 800 miles away).

Recipes

Peda
Creamed Spinach
Leek & Cheese Couscous Cake

Shopping List

Milk
Milk powder
Unsalted butter
Cardamom
Minced garlic, if sale price
Leeks (2)
Fruit for the week

In a pinch, we find a way: Tomato-Lentil Cous Cous

I never did get around to choosing recipes this week (might try paneer and palak paneer tomorrow), but it didn't matter bc we were too lazy / used the cold as an excuse to not step foot outside the apartment today. The menu? Pancakes, scrambled eggs for breakfast; last night's leftovers and cookies for lunch; and here it is: the lazy girl's version of stew over couscous.

Tomato-Lentil Cous Cous
Total cook time: about 5-10 minutes
~2 servings

Ingredients

1 can Wegman's low-sodium Minestrone (any tomato-based vegetable soup w/ beans will do, especially if it has garbanzo beans or a variety of lentils)
1 box Near East tomato-lentil cous cous
~3/4 cup tomato sauce (I used Tutturosso marinara)
1 tsp liquid from a can of olives

Directions

1. Prepare cous cous according to stove top directions on the back of the box.
2. Heat the soup, adding the tomato sauce and olive liquid (or salt to taste if you don't have any).
3. Serve cous cous in individual serving bowls when ready, spooning the liquid over the center of each bowl.

Enjoy!

Khao Soi Ready-Made Mix

Turns out I could've used this ready-made mix instead of running around for red curry paste and turmeric. But that one recipe has lasted us a whole week, on egg noodles first, then on rice (with extra chicken, coconut milk, and sugar to round out the heat/salt). I also verified that coconut milk doesn't curdle when reheated to boiling like cow's milk does. So nothing really to complain about!

Peanut butter frosting?

I just had the most amazing chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. Normally I'm not a fan of alternative cupcakes (chocolate w/ vanilla frosting I love, but not yellow w/ chocolate), but this was amazing!

Of course, the whole point of this cooking blog is to choose healthy recipes and entrees to improve our day-to-day diet. So I'll just put this peanut butter frosting recipe here, for someday in the future...

Peanut Butter Frosting
(for chocolate cupcakes)

Apparently mochi, but not har gow, makes the dumpling shortlist.

Flipping through The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide by Wai Hon Chu & Connie Lovatt, I saw all sorts of dumpling-related wonder...brilliantly colored photos, intricate diagrams explaining the various folds, recipes that altogether made the book at least an inch thick. Strangely, strawberry-anko mochi found its way amongst its more homely cousins, and somehow, the frustrating har gow "pau" fold failed to make an appearance.

Nevertheless, I had fun on my weekend adventures in har gow and mochi-making.

The "skin" of the har gow is made from tapioca and wheat starch.

I was afraid the dough would be sticky or difficult to work with, but the texture was actually quite springy and didn't stick at all.

I had neither a rolling pin or a heavy pot, though, and getting the "skin" to the right thin-ness is the most important part about good har gow. Thinness and shape...with practice!

Mochi is made with yet another type of flour -- glutinous rice flour ("mochiko"). This is sweet, or sticky, rice ground up into a white powdery substance not unlike tapioca or wheat starch. It is mixed with sugar and water. The resulting textures are very interesting: before cooking, the above is actually pretty watery. As for after cooking...

...it's fairly difficult to work with! (ever seen videos of Japanese men taking huge mallets to mochi?). I would definitely work with smaller quantities if I attempt mochi again in the future.

Above: my first, much misshapen but much-loved mochi containing a white chocolate-covered raspberry. I also left some mochi plain, to eat with ice cream at a later date. Stressful cookery, but yum!

Khao Soi Curry Noodles

Khao Soi is a dish popular in the northern regions of Thailand, though nowadays you can find specialty dishes from all over the country in and around bustling Bangkok as well. People lament that as these specialty dishes have become more and more "mainstream", the excellent traditional preparations are passing out of memory -- so much so that even if you travel north to Chiang Mai, you won't find the dish nearly as good as it was before. But on your next visit to Thailand, try it out for yourself -- and be sure to snag the recipe!

Khao Soi Curry Noodles
Recipe modified from Recipezaar
Note: This recipe isn't the most fragrant or flavorful... to us it seemed more like a salty heat. I'll be trying something else next time.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pre-minced garlic
2 tablespoons red curry paste
3/4 lb boneless chicken, cut in big bite-sized chunks
2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons ground turmeric or curry powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt (I thought this was too much, so you might start w/ 1/2 tsp and add to taste later)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lb Chinese egg noodles

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and then add the garlic. Toss well and add the red curry paste, mashing and stirring to soften it in the oil, about 1 minute. Add the chicken and cook 1 to 2 minutes, tossing now and then to brown it evenly and mix it with the curry paste.

2. Add the coconut milk, chicken broth, turmeric, soy sauce, sugar and salt and stir well. Bring to a gentle boil and adjust heat to maintain a lively simmer. Cook about 10 minutes until meat is cooked through.

3. Stir in lemon juice, remove from heat and cover to keep curry warm while you prepare the noodles.

4. Cook the noodles in a large pot of rapidly boiling water until tender but still firm. Drain and divide the noodles among individual serving bowls. Ladle on hot curry, and sprinkle each serving with the shallots, cilantro, green onions, and crunchy noodle nests (optional). Serve hot.

(You'll note the egg noodles above are nicely pre-apportioned in the package. If I had to choose a culinary pet peeve, bits of dried noodle flung all over the kitchen is definitely one of them!)

Note: I've never cooked with coconut milk before today. If you don't use the whole can, put it in an airtight container. It keeps for 1 week in the refrigerator and much longer in the freezer. As for where to get it, coconut milk from American grocery chains appear to cost nearly twice as much as in Asian food market. Brand-wise, I've been told Chef's Choice is the best, and "the usual suspects" (Chaokoh, Aroy-D, etc) are all pretty on par. I used Chaokoh for this recipe.

Review: America's Choice Cinnamon Rolls

Who can say no to near-instant dessert or breakfast? These cinnamon rolls were pretty good, though a little salty for our taste. M blew through 5 of these this morning, no problem.