Author Archives: delhigrl

Genoise cake

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Genoise cake

After a particularly unsuccessful effort at “Corning” tofu to make a vegetarian reuben this morning, my daughter and I continued our saga of baking the Great British Bake off, here is Paul Hollywood’s Genoise cake recipe

This was my first attempt at a Genoise sponge and I liked it a lot. It’s drier and lighter than a pound cake and definitely technically more challenging. I baked it in one. 9×9 inch square tin and didn’t halve it because I don’t have 2 round 20 cm tins (Amazon is rectifying that as we speak). I put strawberry purée (frozen strawberries, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp sugar and zest of one orange heated in the microwave for 5 minutes and mushed) on top of the cake and topped it with some whipped cream. Tasted of summer while fall became winter with the first snow of the season outside.

http://paulhollywood.com/recipes/summerfruit-genoise/

Grits and butternut squash

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Grits with butternut squash

Grits and butternut squash with sausage and onions

It’s fall and butternut squash time. I saw this recipe by Melissa Clark and “vegetarianized” it. Substitute the butter and it’s vegan. Also grating butternut squash seems to be an awful lot of effort – I roasted it separately and added it to the grits.

Garlic Grits: I modified Alton Brown’s recipe. I love grits and make them often. Boil 2 cups water and 2 cups milk in a heavy pan with 1 tsp salt and 2 crushed garlic cloves. Add 1 cup stone ground grits while whisking continuously. Simmer on very low heat for 20 minutes while stirring every 4-5 minutes so the grits don’t stick to the bottom. Add 4 tbsp of butter

Butternut squash-peel, chop into 1 inch squares, toss with some oil and salt and roast (or air fry) at 450 F for 15-20 min till soft and brown

Add butternut squash to grits and mix well.

Heat 1 tsp of oil and 1 tbsp of butter. Add 2 tbsp chopped rosemary and 1 tbsp fennel seeds. Add chopped vegan hot dogs and one red onion. Cook till caramelized

The rosemary and fennel were delicious with echoes of Italian sausage flavor. The grits and butternut squash also go beautifully together! This one is a keeper

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016103-butternut-squash-polenta-with-sausage-and-onion

Makai paka

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Makai Paka

Makai Paka

I first heard about Makai Paka from a Tasty recipe a few weeks ago. A coconut milk curry with whole corn cobs sounded fabulous. As a Nebraskan, I’m always looking for corn recipes, what a pity I found this just after corn season ended

Since this dish is obviously Indian inspired, I started the dish as I would a regular Indian curry

1 tbsp butter, sputter 1 tsp cumin seeds, add 1 pinch asafetida, 1 tsp turmeric and 1 dried chili. To the hot oil, add 1 can crushed tomatoes with 3 chopped garlic cloves, 1tbsp of cumin and 1 tbsp of coriander powder .Cook till the water evaporates (7-10 min). Add 1 can coconut milk and 1 cup water. Add 3 corn cobs cut into halves (I used frozen) and 1 cup frozen corn kernels. Boil for 10 min, squeeze half a lemon and add some chopped cilantro.

Serve with rice or roti. Total cook time: 30 min, actual effort: chopping garlic cloves and cilantro and opening cans (less than 5 min)

https://tasty.co/recipe/makai-paka-east-africa

Roast potatoes

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Roast potatoes

Roast potatoes

I’ve written previously about my love for Serious Eats and all things Kenji. His systematic scientific approach to cooking works every time.

His recipe for roast potatoes has a couple of steps:

1. Parboil potatoes in boiling water for 7-8 minutes

2. Toss with warm flavored oil or butter (1 tbsp of fat per russet potato- strain the aromatics out first, I used rosemary and garlic so they don’t burn)

3. Importantly – toss the potatoes around so the edges are craggy and get crunchy

4. Now roast at 450 for 15-20 min

5. Add aromatics back

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/12/the-best-roast-potatoes-ever-recipe.html

Viennese whirls

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Viennese whirls

I’m a huge Great British Bake off fans . My daughter and I just started season 4. These are the Viennese whirls from the technical challenge (episode 2). They were delicious – short and crisp and melt in the mouth. But Paul and Mary would have noticed that I piped them as rosettes rather than whirls and my piping tip must have been too big because I got 9 rather than 12 biscuits. I think I would have ranked about 5th or 6th 🙂

https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/marys-viennese-whirls/

stuffed pizza dough with shira

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Stuffed pizza dough with shira

Fresh off my successful Modak making experience, I hunted around for more kinds of stuffed dough – sweet filling foods. I had left over shira (Suji ka halwa in Hindi) from Thursday and some pizza dough from Whole Foods in the refrigerator.I sectioned my pizza dough into 8 parts, lugged out my little used panini press and stuffed the shira and cooked them with some olive oil brushed on both sides. They turned out remarkably well – a bit like stuffed pita – the pizza dough puffed out gratifyingly and ended up chewy inside and crispy outside. Perfect!

ukdiche modak

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Ukdiche Modak

Ukdiche Modak (translated to sweet rice flour coconut and jaggery dumplings) are Lord Ganesha’s favorite food. Naturally, when he visits our homes during the 10 days of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, we make some for him. This is my version (there are as many versions as there are Maharashtrian households)

Recipe makes 12 Modak- if you double them, make the dough in batches. This dough is unworkable once it’s cold.

Filling

Heat 2 tbsp ghee, add 1 6 oz packet of grated frozen coconut (Birds eye is the only one I use- it tastes just like fresh coconut)

Roast coconut till it turns slightly dry

Add 1/8 cup of jaggery (unprocessed sugar-available in the Indian store or online), ½ tsp of ground cardamom and 1/8 cup chopped cashews.

(You can add poppy seeds, raisins, saffron and use 1/8 cup of sugar in place of the jaggery if needed)

Cook for 5 minutes on low heat and cool completely

Ukad or dumpling dough:

Boil 1 cup water with 1tsp salt and 1 tsp ghee.

Add 1 cup rice flour, mix

Remove from heat and cover for 2 min

Knead on medium in your stand mixer for 3 minutes

Divide into 12 pieces. Make dumplings in Modak shape with 2 tsp of filling in each Modak

Steam for 10 min.

Delicious with more ghee or coconut chutney

meatless meatballs

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Trader Joe meatless meatballs

Vegan Trader Joe Meatballs

When your neighbor accidentally picks up some meatless meatballs and treats them like something poisonous and offloads them as quickly as possible onto their vegetarian neighbor 🙂

Unfreeze some Marcella Hazan sauce (http://delhigirlmeetsfood.tumblr.com/post/106860953050/butter-tomato-sauce-hazan-recipe) , roast the meatballs with some capers and garlic in a pan, add the sauce, toss with pasta, top with Parmesan!

These meatballs will be good as koftas too in curries, I’m definitely going to buy them again

grain bowl with dragon dressing

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Grain bowl with peanut dragon dressing

Grain bowl with Isa’s peanut dragon dressing

I’ve been on a Isa Moscowitz recipe streak lately. I love sauces that don’t need to be cooked and store well in the refrigerator. This one is a keeper. It’s modified from her recipe linked below This was dinner (and lunch next day) sometime last week. Total prep time : 20 min

Peanut Dragon Dressing: couldn’t be simpler. Blend ½ cup smooth natural peanut butter, 3 cloves garlic, peeled, 1/3 cup water, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon siracha, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Make a grain bowl with your favorite grain and veggies. I did Farro with roasted small tomatoes (their juices are so good with the grains), roasted peppers and scallions and a vegan bean and grain sausage, some wilted spinach with lots of fried garlic and a boiled egg

Top with dressing

http://www.foodthinkers.com/dragon-noodle-salad/

vegan mac and cheez

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Almost vegan Mac and Cheeze

Mac and Cheez (vegan except for a tbsp of butter)

My favorite restaurant in Omaha is Modern Love run by Isa Chandra Moscowitz who is apparently a vegan goddess. Mac and shews – her vegan Mac and cheese is always on the menu and last week I had an absolutely sublime rueben Mac and cheese. I am not vegan, I adore cheese but this vegan “cheeze” sauce wasn’t just fake-cheese good, it was a very well composed and delicious-in-its-own-right sauce. This is a recipe inspired by her. I’ve linked her recipe below

Start by soaking ¾ cup of cashews in boiling hot water for 30 min. I used a tbsp of butter (use oil if you must) to lightly brown a small chopped onion (10 min). I added 4 cloves of garlic to the pan (2 min)

Scrape the onion mixture into a large blender. Add 2 cups of broth (I used mushroom broth because I planned to top my pasta with mushroom bacon). Add the drained cashews, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1 tbsp tomato paste, ½ tsp turmeric, ½ tsp ground mustard and 1 tsp pizza seasoning (I used a mixture of ¼ tsp fennel, ¼ tsp oregano, ½ tsp thyme and ½ tsp granulated garlic since I didn’t have any pizza seasoning but apparently had all the constituent ingredients in my pantry). Add 1.5 tbsp corn starch. Give it a whir till the mixture has no grit in it at all (took my vitamix about 4 min on high)

Cook the sauce for around 10-15 min on low-moderate heat. Add the pasta , thin the sauce if needed with some pasta water.

Top with mushroom bacon or Brussels sprouts or grilled tempeh or anything crunchy or not. This is a delicious extremely creamy and deeply satisfying pasta dish – I did not miss the cheese one bit.

http://www.foodthinkers.com/roasted-red-pepper-mac-cheese/