Garlicky Kidney Bean Curry

Apparently, a trip to True Thai earlier this week did not get the need for spice out of my system. Tonight, I was craving some curry, and that's what I got. This was a hearty dish, but less filling than meat curries.

There was no recipe to follow, but I just sort of went to town with my Indian spices. I'd seen a smitten kitchen post on kidney bean curry. Mine turned out quite different, as I used no tomatoes and added a whole orange bell pepper. It was delicious anyway.

Ingredients:
1 25-30 oz can of red kidney beans, rinsed well
1 medium red onion
5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped or crushed
3 green chillies
10 curry leaves
1 bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
3 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for saute

Saute your onions until almost translucent, and add curry leaves, chillies and garlic. Add the bell pepper and mustard seeds, and continue to saute for 1-2 minutes at a medium heat. Add your beans and some of the water. Cook this at a medium-high heat while adding the masala, chili powder and turmeric. Keep adding water to ensure that there is plenty of sauce for the curry. Add salt and pepper if desired. Cook until you reach a nice consistency (about 10 minutes). Serve with rice.

Rosemary Infused Oil

Rosemary is one of those ingredient that I love, but I still struggle with it sometimes. I love the earthy, fragrant note it adds to meats and soups. It's just that I'm deterred by herbs that have to be removed. I don't eat much meat, and rosemary is sort of pointy so I worry about the texture if its undercooked.

Solution? Infuse some oil and add it to sides and salads. Mark Bittman taught me how to do this last summer.

Basically, just heat some olive oil in a pot at a low-medium temperature. Add 4-6 sprigs of rosemary and simmer it for about 5 minutes, maybe more or less. Just be careful with the hot oil.

It's a good idea to use pretty nice olive oil. But not too nice, because you're adding another flavor and don't want to miss out on super nice olive oil's natural flavor.

Lunchbox #2: Cauliflower Tart with salad

Not wanting to post a recipe copied directly from a the smitten kitchen's latest post, I thought I'd share this cauliflower tarte in lunchbox form.

The smitten kitchen recipe sounds and tastes wonderful, but I was truly inspired to make it because I had a huge head of cauliflower sitting around in my fridge. Store-bought pie crust worked well for me, and I don't even know what mascaropone cheese is. So I used ricotta. Ricotta and Parmesan.

This tart was the first time I caramelized onions. I should really make it a habit....

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

There is certainly no shortage of Valentine's Day cupcakes. I mean, I guess I could have made some bitter Singles Awareness Day cupcakes, but hey, I'm a sucker for holiday-themed stuff when the timing is right. Today, my family got together for dinner, and the timing was definitely right.

This was also one of my most serious attempts at baking yet. I've made some cupcakes and other good desserts in the past, but this was taking it up a notch. Until now, I've been putting off the purchase of an electric mixer for fear of a hefty price tag. But today, I bought a mixer at Target for, get ready for it, $7! It works perfectly so far...

Anyway, seeing as I'm no expert, I relied on recipes from a cupcake blog that is nothing less than inspirational. Really, some of her recipes are amazing. I followed this recipe for the cake itself, and this one for the frosting. In other words, I mixed and matched another blogger's ideas to get my Chocolate Valentine's Day Cupcakes with Pink Coconut Buttercream Frosting.



In case your wondering, I had to half the frosting recipe for my 12 cupcakes, but I ended up with less frosting than I needed. Oops. Happy Valentine's Day!

Gang Som, Sour Curry

Recently, you may have noticed that I've been cooking with a lot of fresh vegetables like tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro and yes, bell peppers. If you're thinking, "Wow, Anna. Those are not seasonal ingredients," I just want use this post to tell you that I live in Minnesota. Here, eating only local, seasonal food can be hard in the winter if you enjoy foods other than deer meat and old potatoes.

That being said, I have also been cooking with a lot of potatoes.

This recipe is adapted from one of my new favorite blogs. Pim offers some great incite about Thai curries without coconut milk, but her recipe is too advanced for me. Here is mine:

Ingredients:
1/2 bag frozen green peas
1 1/2 bell peppers, sliced
1/2 medium onion, chopped
4-6 green chillies, diced
Tamarind paste (this is where the sour comes from)
Red curry paste
2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
A few handfuls of frozen shrimp
A few ounces of firm tofu, cubed
5-6 cups of water
2 tablespoons sugar
Salt to taste
Oil for saute

You know how this goes. Saute the onions until translucent. Add your chillies. Add your water and your pastes, but be careful with the tamarind, as it can be quite potent. I used 2 tablespoons. Put in the bell peppers and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Add your shrimp.

Meanwhile,stir fry your tofu until it turns light brown. The oil should be pretty hot, but be careful because tofu is usually quite wet.

Add the peas and tofu. Cook until everything is sufficiently done and you have a good amount of broth left. Serve with rice.

Thai Style Baked Veggies

This looked surprisingly yummy raw but tasted great after 30 minutes in the oven. It could be a side dish, but I ate it as a main course. It's an adaption of this Mark Bittman recipe. I like to play fast and loose with the ingredients whenever I make this. Whatever vegetables you've got will work.

My dish included one large sweet potato, one baking potato, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1/2 green pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, about a cup of broccoli, and one large onion. This was also spicier than Bittman recommends. I added crushed red pepper and green chillies.

Check back later this week to see what I do with the other half of all those bell peppers!

Tomato Risotto with Italian Sausage

I suppose that every single Italian food I cook does not have to involve tomatoes, but that's just what ended up happening tonight. I had a ton of veggies in my fridge, and I couldn't decide which one to choose for this recipe. This broccoli risotto did not look very tasty. And I already cut into my red pepper, making it impossible for me to make roasted red pepper risotto. Therefore, that large out-of-season tomato in my fridge came in really handy. This was my first time making risotto, and it won't be my last.

Let me just say, I thought this would turn into sticky rice glop. I do enjoy a good rice glob now and again, but this arborio rice made a bid difference. The rice turned out tender and flavorful but certainly not sticky or mashed up.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup arborio rice
1 box of chicken stock, unsalted
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
1 large ripe tomato, coarsly chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
some herbs
1 medium sized yellow onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup grated cheese, Parmesan or anything Italian works
1 cup parsley, chopped as fine as possible
Salt and pepper to taste
3 large Italian sausages
chili powder to taste
olive oil

Saute your onions and garlic in some olive oil until they are translucent. Add your rice, coating in well in the olive oil. Wait for it to crackle a bit. Add your wine while the mixture is cooking at a low heat. When it is partially absorbed, add the tomato.

In a separate pot, mix 1/2 your chicken stock with the tomato sauce. I seasoned the broth with curry leaves, because that's the only herb I had sitting around. Simmer for about 10 minutes and remove the herbs. For the record, I used unsalted stock, but the tomato sauce was so salty that I did not add any more salt to the rest of the recipe.


Start by adding two cups of the broth to your rice mixture. Stir regularly so it doesn't burn. Simmer at a medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed (about five minutes). Add more broth and repeat. Keep doing this until your rice is done, "al dente" or whatever. Turn off the heat and add your grated cheese and parsley.

Broil your sausages with the rest of your broth mix and a little chili powder. I broiled them for about half an hour, turning occasionally. They were exactly what I wanted, a little tough. But you can cook them however you like.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

This one definitely warranted a fist pump. A PBJ themed muffin/cupcake seemed like a really cute idea, and this recipe (all my own) worked well. The muffins are delicious, though I should have used less or no nutmeg. I'm also giving myself bonus points for adding fiber and antioxidants...

I'm not a big fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but there is something nice about the flavor combo in muffin form, at least to me. It's also going to be a healthy and filling breakfast, thanks to the whole wheat flour, berries and small amount of peanut butter.

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
1/4 cup berry jam ( I used a very sweet Mixed Berry Jam, but you can pick your own damn berry)
1/4 cup brandy (optional)
1 cup frozen mixed berries (blue and black berries, strawberries and raspberries)
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup milk (I mixed skim milk and heavy cream, but whatever you've got is fine)
1/3 cup butter, softened
Peanut butter (for spreading when the muffins are done)

Defrost your frozen berries in the brandy. The brandy is by no means necessary for this recipe, but I like cooking with alcohol and I think it added something. Make sure they defrost all the way, because it helps if they are at room temperature when you mix them with the butter later.

Thoroughly mix all of your dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. In a large bowl, mix all of your wet ingredient, including the berries and jam but not the peanut butter, obviously. Because of the berries and jam, you don't really need food coloring for that nice berry-colored muffin. I added a little blue and red just in case.

Wet Ingredients

Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix well. Add this batter to a cupcake pan, into paper or metallic baking cups. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. To make sure they're done, use the trustworthy toothpick trick. Let them cool for about 15 minutes, and serve with peanut butter on top like frosing, or smeared on the side.