Inauthentic Recipes – Page 7 – The Hungry Philosopher

Testing Light Mac and Cheese (Martha Stewart)

May 4, 2015October 21, 2015Leave a comment

Had broccoli and not much else at home this evening. Found this recipe online searching “broccoli recipes” on the Martha Stewart site. Aside from a few substitutions: cream cheese, skim milk, red onion and a few additions of extra broccoli, hot sauce and nutmeg, I did follow the recipe (surprisingly!).

This recipe, a combination of broccoli cheese soup and pasta with alfredo sauce, is a good base for many experiments to come. Too luxurious to be called “light.” Well… its “lighter” than an original version with whole milk and heavy cheese but not as light as having a bowl of broccoli with whole wheat pasta dressed in olive oil and garlic. Nevertheless, testing and tasting this bubbly mac and cheese recipe was well worth it on this rainy spring evening. That’s my story for tonight. Dinner saved!

But I really need to stop by the grocery store tomorrow………….

Wishing you happy dinner wherever you are,

Hungryphil

http://www.marthastewart.com/964975/lighter-three-cheese-mac#Broccoli%20Recipes|/1011281/Bbroccoli-recipes/@center/276955/seasonal-produce-recipe-guide|964975

Baked Tandoori Catfish, Brown Basmati Rice and Steamed Cauliflower

April 27, 2015Leave a comment

I was looking for a quick, uncomplicated, spicy and yummy lunch at home. Most importantly, a lunch that did not involve me wearing the spices for the rest of day. Hmmmmm………

I found my answer in a packet of tandoori spice and the oven.

Catfish fillets (any neutral white fish ready to soak up flavorings will do) coated with
A mixture of (depending on your heat preference) 1 or 2 table spoons Tandoori spice (any brand will do or you could make it but I was looking for the “fast food” way out) + 2 table spoons plain yoghurt + 2 table spoons vegetable oil. Optional: sprinkle with chopped onions, green chilies and cilantro.
Bake in oven 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cook brown rice and steam cauliflower or broccoli as sides. No spice or involved cooking needed. The spicy fish can carry the flavor. Cook the rice first. I hate having to wait for the sides to be done.

Oh the joy of lazy cooking with packaged spices without following package directions.

Eggcellent Easter Recipes (Sorry couldn’t let the pun go…..)

April 6, 2015April 6, 2015Leave a comment

It has come very recently to my attention (yesterday) that there are many delicious egg centric recipes related to the Easter table. Sure, I was aware of ham, lamb and happy baby spring vegetables, delicious chocolate bunnies and neon yellow peeps…….but I missed out on the associated celebration of the egg, aside from the chocolate eggs. I, a big fan of eggs, feel cheated. In case you are new to this blog, my access to all celebrations whether pertaining to my childhood or not is centered on food. I quite literally consume the Super Bowl (Jim is still trying to teach me the rules of the game), Easter, Eid, Diwali, Thanksgiving , July 4th….you name it. I’m an equal opportunity eater. I know this is a bit reductive and possibly sacrilegious but my intentions are simply to share the joy and means no disrespect. So back to my Easter recipe search. I tried two of the many I found online.

Lemon Buttermilk Saffron Pie

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/lemon-buttermilk-pie-with-saffron-51223970

This is an wonderful combination of lemony tartness and flowery sweetness. The saffron makes it both exotic and familiar depending on which part of the globe your taste buds woke up. It really tastes like spring in all its bright, sweet, floral glory. I’m guessing not very traditional but voting that it should be.

Leek and Feta Tart

Leek and feta tart

This was a savory taste of spring with sauteed leeks in a velvety egg blanket studded with feta. I can imagine endless variations of this tart…… asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes, mushroom, squash…just to name a few.

This recipe was measured in grams and I was too lazy to officially convert, so I just used 3 eggs and about a cup of heavy cream. It worked great. Looked and tasted delicate and refined.

For both recipes I used store bought pie crust. I had both done in a little over an hour (including baking time). The store bought crust meant I only had to mix the filling. This fact makes me think of the book I just finished reading “The American Way of Eating” by Tracie McMillan. Learned a lot. Fascinating and scary read. She mentions how even when we cook at home we use a lot of processed and packaged food. Makes me rethink the concept of home cooking and my use of Pillsbury pie dough. The book deserves a detailed discussion, maybe on a different post. We should start a foodie/eater book club….does anyone know of one out there already?

https://americanwayofeating.wordpress.com/

The best part about making/ assembling/ baking these two pies was cooking with my 13 year old. She first reluctantly sauteed the leeks and later eagerly measured the buttermilk, the sugar (commented on the amount…good for her), separated eggs, whisked and mixed. There are many social, anthropological and philosophical studies about our unique human practice of cooking. Frankly, I don’t know if the pies actually tastes as magical as I remember or if I’m tasting a rare-unhurried-salty-sweet-spring Sunday afternoon with my growing-into-a-cook, baby.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

Wishing you many happy celebrations to eat through together,

The Hungry Philosopher

Deshi in the Dorm Kitchen – Chicken Kofta Curry

April 2, 2015April 2, 20155 Comments

Dear Amani,

I’m sure this recipe exists in some form somewhere. Here is what I did with a pound of ground chicken. Its a yummy take on the everyday chicken and potato curry.

You’ll need:

1 lb of ground chicken

1 medium onion

2 medium potatoes (I had yellow potatoes)

1 teaspoon curry powder (grocery store brand is fine, I had hot curry powder from our Indian grocery store)

1 teaspoon of garlic paste (crushed, powder, doesn’t matter)

1 teaspoon of ginger paste (powder is fine)

Oil about a 1/4 cup

Here’s what you do:

1. Mix ground chicken with shredded potato (don’t shred your fingers, be careful with the metal grating box….use the large eyes), shred onion on the same contraption about 2 tablespoons worth, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, garlic and curry powder each. And salt.

2. Form loose meatballs with the mixture. It’ll be messy. If you oil your hands, it’ll be easier to form.

3. Fry lightly in the oil. Turning so all sides get browned.

4. You can stop here or reserve some meatballs separately for room mates who don’t like much spice and for sandwiches or quick bites. Be sure to check done-ness. If not, place in warm oven for 10 minutes. The meatballs need to cook a bit for the potatoes to get soft.

5. If you want to make a curry sauce……..chop the rest of the onion, fry it in the oil (depending on how much oil is left in the pan you might want to drain some of it…until you have about 2-3 tablespoons left in the pan), add the rest the ginger, garlic and curry powder (and salt). Fry until you can smell the spices. Add 1/2 cup of water. A sauce will form very quickly. Put the meatballs back in the pan, coat gently with the sauce and let sit on low for about 15 minutes.

You can add chopped tomatoes, cilantro, cream or coconut milk if you have it. Otherwise, this is an easy 6 ingredient recipe. You can also use any spice instead of the curry powder for example tandoori spice or any barbeque spice rub.

Serve with hot rice or bread. Let me know if you try it.

Love,

Your hungry mom

Deshi in the Dorm Kitchen- Moli’s Moghlai Porota

March 23, 2015March 24, 20152 Comments

This recipe is an expanded version of my sister Moli’s recipe. When I asked her she said….oh its so easy… you just stuff the packaged porota with keema and bake it in the middle of oven. This is what happens when you ask an experienced cook for a recipe. So, this is my attempt to explain the process for Amani, my baby deshi in the dorm.

Here’s what you need:

2 packages of frozen Paratha (I ran out and tried it with frozen chapati…not as yummy)

You’ll get five stuffed porathas out of this recipe.

Keema

2 Eggs (beaten)

Here’s a quick recipe for keema (the beef stuffing)

1 lb of ground beef

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup cilantro, 1/2 large onion, 2 chilli peppers…chopped fine.

Brown beef with a 1/2 cup of water, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper.

Optional: Sprinkle a teaspoon of garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 1/4 of a lime juice.

Turn off stove. Top browned beef with onion mixture, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

Now your keema is done. You can use it for this, for samosas, aloo chops, patties….for any deshi filling.

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Defrost porota enough to be pliable

3. Spray two oven trays with oil.

4. Place five porotas on the trays.

5. Brush each with egg.

6. Top each with keema (about 3 tbs/each). Reserve extra for later.

7. Add more egg on each if desired (warning, the egg might leak out if you put too much)

8. Cover each with another porota.

9. Bake for 30 minutes. Center of oven. May need flipping in order to brown all over.

It tastes like a spicy, flaky and delicious meat pie. Great as a snack with sweet chai.

Enjoy! Thank you, Bhabi!

BakingPhil Project: Gluten-Free Foccacia Detour

March 9, 20152 Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve run into the challenges of industrial, professional level baking instructions in the text On Baking. Mainly, the issue of scale. Even if I could eat two sheets of brownies, should I? So instead of relying on the single book for this baking project, I’ve decided to try different books and methods.

This week I tried a recipe from a gluten free baking cookbook. Really, how different can GF baking be? Silly me. The answer is…..very different. First of all, the ratio of liquid to dry ingredients is almost the inverse, with about a 110% liquid. This makes the “bread dough” batter-like and very unwieldy. Relatedly the process of mixing is different. A food processor is used instead of a standing mixer. The liquid, a mixture of oil and milk, is usually heated, cooled and mixed along with eggs before being added to the “flour” tapioca, buckwheat, almond or coconut. This will take me a while to get used to. Despite the effort and strangeness, the end product yields an airy flavorful bread. Given my recent lesson in focaccia, I decided to try the gf focaccia recipe to have with a bowl of warm lentil soup, dal.

I’ve made at least two mistakes so far:

The recipe called for light buckwheat. I got regular buckwheat. So, although the focaccia is tasty, it doesn’t have the look of a Roman focaccia. Instead, it looks like brownies. What a cruel joke for someone imagining the taste of a decadent chocolate confection! When making healthier options, looks are very important. Next time definitely, LIGHT buckwheat.
The recipe warned to mix thoroughly. I didn’t. The two lumps I found were horrible and grainy to taste, like having sand in my mouth. Yuck. I’m suffering from the gentle mixing dictates of regular baking and am having a difficult time adjusting to batter than needs a heavy hand. Oh well…..its a learning process. Baking is fascinating. Gluten-free and regular baking, are like two different languages with similar end products but very different methods and ingredients.

The other gluten-free recipe I tried this week, unrelated to baking, was Cauliflower Fried Rice. Amazing how the finished dish looks like regular fried rice. As I said, when offering healthy alternatives, aesthetics is SUPER important. It was easy to make and delicious to eat. Will make this again and again regardless of my flexible status as a gluten free eater.

I appreciate and enjoy the creativity involved in these gluten-free dishes. Makes me rethink ingredients, textures, ingredients, aesthetics and taste. While GF cooking is not without its own challenges, GF Baking feels paradoxical and ironic.

As you know, I savor irony.

Wishing you Happy Guilt-Free, Gluten-Free eating,

Hungryphil

Baking Philosopher Project

January 30, 2015January 30, 2015Leave a comment

As long as I can remember, I loved to cook. Baking, however, intimidated me with its strange bipolar rhythm between energetic beating, whisking, rolling, folding and patient waiting to heat, cook and cool. But mostly, what scared me is its insistence on measurement. Recently, I’ve come to rethink baking as architecture. Baking is a measured combination of flour and air, just like architecture is a measured experience between structure and space. The quality our experiences related to both is enhanced by color/flavorings, comfort/fat and texture/grains. The comparison is not mine alone. In reading the textbook Onbaking: a textbook of baking and pastry fundamentals (Sarah R. Labensky, Eddy van Damme, Priscilla Martel and Klaus Tenbergen), I found this quote by Marie-Antoine Careme (1783-1833)

THE FINE ARTS ARE FIVE IN NUMBER, NAMELY: PAINTING, SCULPTURE, POETRY, MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE, THE PRINCIPAL BRANCH OF THE LATTER BEING PASTRY.

Maybe I can learn to love baking too. So the next few months, I’ll be working on philosophically developing practical appreciation. As you can tell, I got the book. Not much research in that, just ordered a used textbook (new textbooks are very expensive!). I’ll be following onbaking for this project. The first five chapters cover history, equipment, principles, ingredients and such. I’ll start posting at chapter 6 Quick Breads. Here’s my five reasons for doing this:

Given all the information and support available online I should be able to teach “myself” to bake. It’s a DIY exercise of teaching and learning. There is nothing like having an experienced baker’s tastebuds and skills…which brings me to my second reason.
I don’t have money to spend on baking school. If I win the lottery, it’ll be top on my list.
I want to treat this as a radical philosophy project. In What It’s Like to Be a Thing, philosopher Ian Bogost calls us all to be hybrid philosophers. This is my attempt to be a philosopher-baker, by which I bring thoughtful attention to the practice and all its magic. What would it mean to live philosophically, to bake and cook philosophically?
On a mommy level, I want to be able to send my baby in college yummy treats. Baked goods are tasty pieces of love that travel well, unlike my cooking.
Now that I’ve publicly announced this project, I’ll have to be accountable for myself. Nothing like, guilt and shame to sustain a project. Okay…fine….for you positive people out there…yes, I’m talking to you Jim…..Support. Hopefully, I’ll have your support to continue on this tasty adventure. If you want to join me online in this baking project, please do. Go through any baking book you have on hand. If you live near me, you know who you are…come over.

Let the BAKINGPHIL PROJECT, Begin! First, the three mixing methods: biscuit, muffin and creaming. Next time: The muffin method of mixing used in cream scones. I start here because my sister teases me mercilessly about the “hockey-puck” scones I made loooooong ago (literally 25 years ago). She hasn’t forgotten. I shall have my vindication! Didn’t I say, baked goods ship well. Hmmmm.

Chicken Salsa Verde Enchiladas for Amani

January 6, 2015January 19, 20152 Comments

Dear Amani,

Here is what you need. Next time you’re home we can make it together.

1. Shredded Chicken: Do the Ina Garten method of roasting 2 or 3 chicken breasts (bone in, skin on) sprinkled with salt, pepper and oil at 350 for 35 minutes or until the skin gets crispy and juices run clear. Make more. You can always use the extra shredded chicken in curries, soup or sandwiches.OR….just buy a roasted chicken from the grocery store.

2. For the Sauce: Tomatillos (7-8), half onion, one bunch of cilantro, 2 garlic cloves, cumin, coriander. Or just buy a canned version.

3. Two avocados and two tomatoes, other half of onion, cilantro, one lime.

4. Tortillas: I prefer corn but some (most) people in our house like flour.

5. Cheese: Queso fresco is best, but any cheese would do. For a low cal version, leave cheese and cream out. And, instead of frying the tortillas in oil to make them soft, dip in the warm sauce and then roll. The fast flauta trick doesn’t work with the low cal version.

Once you have all the ingredients, here is what you do:

1. Peel and wash tomatillos.

2. Simmer (with water that comes half way up the tomatillos) with two garlic cloves and half onion about 20 minutes until soft.

3. While tomatillos are simmering, chop the pico de gallo.

4. Shallow fry tortillas in vegetable oil making them soft, pliable and yummy.

5. Stir fry chicken with cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Add left over salsa if you have any. Add a can of black beans if you’d like. Add half of the chopped pico (before the addition of avocados) to the mix.

6. Blend the tomatillos, water and all. Add a fresh jalepeno or green chilies, cilantro, salt, pepper.

7. Roll each tortilla with the shredded chicken mixture and cheese.

8. Fill up your pan. Bake just like this as flautas for those who prefer no heat and no sauce. This is the batch I make for Lucy and Ava.

9. Pour salsa over the rolls and bake until bubbly at 350 for about 30 minutes. I add a hint of cream or mexican crema for Jim.

10. Serve with avocado salad or guacamole and sour cream on the side.

Enjoy! Hope this works for you!

Tandoori Fried Chicken with Spiced Waffles and Honeyed Ghee

October 21, 2014October 21, 2015Leave a comment

This recipe is an adaptation from Nigella Lawson’s Southern Fried Chicken

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/southern-style-deep-fried-chicken-recipe.html

1. The twist is to add a half a packet (or whole depending on your desired heat level) of Tandoori Chicken Spice (Shan or any brand) to the milk in which the chicken is cooked. A quicker version of this is, frying or baking chicken tenders marinated in yogurt, tandoori spice and coated in flour.

2. Add a half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a half a teaspoon of cardamom powder to your waffle batter that serves four.

3. Mix half a cup of honey with half a cup of ghee (clarified butter) and drizzle over both waffles and chicken for a Deshi twist. Hmmm….a hint of lemon might be good too. Next time, I might add a squeeze of lemon to the honey ghee.

It was sweet, spicy and decadent with the ghee. Next time I would add more tandoori spice (the whole packet instead of just the half). Otherwise, very yummy.

Deshi in the Dorm Kitchen (Chicken Rezala)

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014Leave a comment

Dear Amani,

Here is the chicken rezala recipe. When cooked the yoghurt will look a little curdled. Don’t be alarmed. After it cooks down and you add the fried onions (and the oil you fried it in)…chili pepper, sprinkle sugar and squeeze lemon, it all looks good. Very yummy with porata but rice always works. You can add sauteéd mushrooms to stretch the dish and make it more non-deshi friendly.

The mixed vegetable dish is one that your Dadi makes really well. My shortcut and take on her recipe is simply to boil a bunch of vegetable together (be sure to cube the same size). In this case eggplant and squash (lao?). Boil with spices, half a teaspoon of each until the vegetables are tender. Add water almost covering the vegetables.

Cumin, Coriander, Chili powder, Tumeric, Ginger and Garlic (paste)

Salt about 1 teaspoon.

Fry half an onion sliced and one clove of garlic with ghee, butter or oil. If you have “panchforan” and cilantro, add it. If not, no problem. Finish with a sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

Eat well.

Love,

Mom