Lamb Korma

12/9/12 11:32 pm
kate: Tea makes everything better (Food: tea)
From Curries of the World by Mridula Baljekar.

Although south Indian food is generally free of foreign influences, the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh has a rich heritage of Mogul cuisine. It was here that the last of the Mogul emperors retired before finally handing over power to the Nizam dynasty.

SERVES 4-6

15ml/1 tbsp white sesame seeds
15ml/1 tbsp white poppy seeds
50g/2oz/½ cup blanched almonds
2 fresh green chillies, seeded
6 garlic cloves, sliced
5cm/2in piece fresh root ginger, sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
45ml/3 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
6 green cardamom pods
5cm/2in piece cinnamon stick
4 cloves
900g/2lb lean lamb, boned and cubed
5ml/1 tsp ground cumin
5ml/1 tsp ground coriander
300ml/1½ pint/1¼ cups double (heavy) cream mixed with 2.5ml/½ tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
salt
roasted sesame seeds, to garnish

1 Preheat a wok, karahi or large pan over a medium heat without any fat, and add the first seven ingredients. Stir until they begin to change colour. They should go just a shade darker.
2 Allow the mixture to cool, then grind to a fine paste using a pestle and mortar or in a food processor. Heat the ghee or oil in the pan over a low heat.
3 Fry the cardamoms, cinnamon and cloves until the cloves swell. Add the lamb, ground cumin and coriander and the prepared paste, and season with salt, to taste. Increase the heat to medium and stir well. Reduce the heat to low, then cover the pan and cook until the lamb is almost done.
4 Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little and gradually fold in the cream, reserving 5ml/1 tsp to garnish. To serve, gently reheat the lamb, uncovered. Garnish with the sesame seeds and the reserved cream.
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Default)
Don't know that it's a recipe, exactly, but here's what I did:

I got a delicious-looking piece of sea bass at the store (I hate fish - but sea bass I will eat up like you wouldn't believe - it is light and buttery, nom!) and a lemon. I put down three slices of lemon on a piece of parchment paper, put the sea bass on top of it, and put two more slices on top. Then I wrapped it up, cooked it in the oven at 400° for 22 minutes, and ate it right out of the parchment paper with the tiniest bit of salt on top.

NOM NOM NOM.
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Default)
This is for [personal profile] meansgirl, but I thought y'all might like it too. From Colorado Collage.

Fireside Garlic with Rosemary )

In other news, [personal profile] meansgirl and I are going to run a multifandom rom com fic fest. More on that soon! :D
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Default)
I don't exactly celebrate, except in the way that I do. I love the food and the family, and the gifts (giving, mostly, but I got a couple things I'm going to rec below), but it's not my religious holiday, not by a long shot. Maybe I don't have a religious holiday anymore. I have a sort of... taking stock of my life holiday (winter solstice) which resulted in me attempting to drive my altar back to Baltimore from Wisconsin (packing it in my wee car tomorrow), and setting things up again. I miss having an altar, it's been too long.

HI WELCOME TO MY WEIRD CHRISTMAS SELF-EXAMINATION.

But, presents! I wrote a pinch hit for Yuletide, and they let me put up prompts, and I got two lovely stories! :D :D :D

Scrapyard Parkour, The Losers, gen Cougar and Jensen interaction, lovely, lovely, lovely. Obstacle course plus wrenched ankle = WIN! I love it, and it's MINE. <333

romance in five acts, So You Think You Can Dance, Billy Bell/Robert Roldan, I don't even know what else to tell you, here, it's Billy Bell, ILHIM, and I love the observations about Kent and the rest of the dancers. :D :D :D

Our contribution to the family lunch (it's a picnic theme, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, potato salad) is Honey Cakes with Rum Baked Apples (the original recipe is for pears, but I like apples, they're even sweeter).

Honey Cakes )
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Default)
1. I’m in a comm called [community profile] do_it and the most recent post includes a perfect description of that queasy feeling I get when things start to lapse out of control from what was originally just simple procrastination, and the cycle and spiral that causes this (i.e. what my life has been for the last, say, four months). It doesn’t happen to me much at work (I’m just getting over a bunch of junk and cleaning out my inbox), but there’s plenty of other stuff (HELLO FINANCES I’M LOOKING AT YOU) where this describes perfectly my situation. If it helps you to have support in this sort of thing, take a look at the comm. I don't participate much, but I often find the posts interesting and/or enlightening and/or commiserating.

2. I was thinking about the guilt I have about having so many writing projects. Let's just go through what I have on my hard drive.
My writing folders )

Hokay, so. Of that, I'm actively working on my SGA santa and How It Ends (You Already Know). There are probably three stories that are completely and utterly dead, and another eight that I'm unlikely to finish because of time constraints/lack of interest/whatever. Thanks to a delightful email from [personal profile] meghanc, I realized that once upon a time, I promised myself I'd finish everything I ever started because I used to have a lack of things to write. I used to finish everything I was writing because I didn't have anything else in my head, ideas didn't come flooding in all the time, and I often had time between finishing one fic and getting the idea for the next. No longer. Now I have so many ideas I don't know what to do with them. I think I may put up a few of the fic snippets on [community profile] prospectus. Clearing out my WIP folders would make me feel less stressed out. I think it's time for a fall cleaning project over there.

3. Status updates: I slipped and fell on the way to the hospital (during my lunch hour - I work next to a hospital!) earlier. I'm unhurt (except my pride) but sore (ouch, my back). Finances crappy as ever but I feel better about it, anyway, because I know some of the most amazing people, seriously. Almost all the way caught up on work; if I get 100% caught up, I may have time to write at work! OTW stuff done except meeting minutes (there's always one more thing), hope to have some grants going in for fellowships in the next few weeks. Last thing I need to get off my plate: get [community profile] crossovers and [community profile] queerlygen under control. When that's done I'll feel a lot better about everything, I think.

4. Movies I have seen relatively recently and enjoyed immensely: Secretariat and RED. Both just wonderful.

5. Have a delicious, delicious recipe. (This is what I do when I have no money, I bake with whatever is on hand. Wait until I'm down to honey and ramen noodles.)
Peanut butter chocolate chip cupcakes )
kate: Tea makes everything better (Food: tea)
So here are four recipes that we Mollens do (well, other Mollen folk do) in the fall. I grew up on this stuff! We canned... I think in September/October and then we had soup and pickles until the next May. These are family recipes, so they're... um. Not particularly precise or well-documented. But they are tasty! And if you've canned before, making these recipes work shouldn't be too tough.

Gramma Maertz's Tomato Soup Base

We pull out a jar or two of this at least once a week in the winter, throw it in a big pot, add some frozen veggies or pasta or meatballs or whatever else is handy (Mom throws in leftovers... not always a good idea (the chicken Alfredo was a disaster)) and voila! A hearty soup for dinner that night and lunches the rest of the week. Gramma was hard put to write this down; her recipe was basically to grind and boil whatever leftover vegetables she had at the end of the fall, add some barley, butter, red pepper and salt, boil it some more, and can it. This recipe is about 20 years of refinement by Mom and my sisters. The vegetables are still completely up for grabs (except the tomatoes), so use whatever you have handy.

1/2 bushel tomatoes, peeled
2 bunches celery
24 small onions
10 carrots

Grind these ingredients coarsely and boil 1 hour.

Add:
3 c. pearl barley
3 T. salt
1/2 t. red pepper
3 T. butter

Boil 2 hours.
Pack jars and hot water bath 30 minutes.


Mary's Salsa

I lived with my sister when I did my student teaching ages ago. We did the usual canning of Gramma's tomato soup base that fall, and then did several batches of salsa too. It's darn tasty and pretty mild - for her crazy hot batches she'd add habanero pepper.

10 c. tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 large onions, chopped 1/4 c. tomato paste
1/4 c. vinegar
2 t. crushed red pepper
1 t. salt
1/2 t. garlic powder
1 t. sugar

Combine and cook 1-2 hours until thick. (There are no more instructions on the recipe card, but I just asked, and Mary said she gives them a hot water bath, so... um. Good luck with that.)


Bread and Butter Pickles

This is a little vague - you may have to google canning techniques to actually manage it - but it's so worth it. These are my favorite pickles - I can still sit down and eat a jar in one sitting. My mom pickled dill spears too, but those were always kind of soft, and not too good, and one year she forgot the dill, and we threw the whole batch.

4 quarts sliced cucumbers
onion
peppers
celery
1/3 c. pickling salt
ice cube
5 c. sugar
3 c. cider vinegar
2 T. mustard seed
1 1/2 t. tumeric
1 1/2 t. celery seed

Combine vegetables and salt and ice - mix and let stand 3 hours. Drain. Add the rest of the ingredients and boil. pack - heat pack 5 minutes.


Cherry Bounce

Door County is a big cherry area (not as big as Michigan, but big for Wisconsin), and you can go and pick your own. We always spent a day each summer and came back with buckets and buckets of cherries. And then we would spend hours pitting them (no fun at all!) so Mom could make these. The longer you let them sit, the more alcoholic they get; Mom said she and a friend found a jar a couple of years after canning and got totally wasted. Oh, Mom. <3

8 c. fresh unpitted cherries
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. whole allspice
1 1/2 t. whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
4 c bourbon

Wash and stem cherries, place half of cherries in 2 1-qt. jars, mixing and put in jars. 2 c. bourbon in each jar, stir daily until sugar is dissolved and seal. Store in dark place for 2 months.

Cookies!

1/17/09 02:30 am
kate: COOKIEEEES (Food: cookies)
Two cookie recipes! One from an out of print cookbook and one that's a delightful not-too-sweet sugar cookie that's a perfect match for all the icing and sugar the kids'll throw on it when they decorate.

Gunning Gingerbread Cookies from The Spice Cookbook (sadly out of print)

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup unsulphered molasses
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
3 tablespoons water
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Mix together the first 4 ingredients. Gradually add sugar and molasses. Combine vinegar and water and add to the mixture alternately with flour. Drop dough from a tablespoon, 2 inches apart, onto slightly greased cookie sheets. Bake in a preheated hot oven (400 F) 12 minutes or until browned lightly around the edges. Cool on wire racks. Store airtight. Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

Alton Brown's Sugar Cookie recipe... with a couple of modifications.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to ¼-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.
kate: COOKIEEEES (Food: cookies)
This is the recipe I use when I want to show people I can cook. I can cook. I just don't want to take the time unless I'm going to get at least as much time enjoying it as I am making it. This really only happens when I'm cooking for friends, so both the making and the eating are enjoyable. This is a delightful recipe from the terrific Colorado Collage cookbook I recced earlier.

5 tablespoons butter, divided
4 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 13-inch slices
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ½ pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
¼ cup Calvados or Applejack
1 cup whipping cream
¼ cup apple cider

In large skillet melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add apples and sugar and cook until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat. Cut pork into 1-inch thick slices and pound, between plastic wrap, to ¼-inch thickness.

In separate large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over high heat. Season pork with salt and pepper to taste and cook until just cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to plate and cover loosely with foil to keep warm.

In same skillet, melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add shallots and thyme and cook 2 minutes. Add Applejack and boil until reduced to a glaze, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in cream and cider and boil until mixture thickens, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reheat apples over low heat. Arrange pork slices on individual serving plates. Top with sauce and reserved cooked apple slices.
kate: Tea makes everything better (Food: tea)
I love stuffing, and I've never had stuffing that comes close to my mother's. This Thanksgiving I asked her for the recipe, and while it's a little vague (I think the water ratio may be too high, and she left out some instructions when she gave it to me), a couple of tries will have you making the most awesome dressing that smells a tiny bit like wine (it's the apple). YUM.

Mom's Stuffing Recipe

1 apple (any variety - sweeter apples will make the stuffing slightly sweeter, obvs)
1 onion
1 lb hamburger (I like higher fat content for taste, but lower is healthier)
8 oz seasoned croutons
2 cups water (I swear this is too much - I'd start with a cup and a half)
4 tablespoons butter (+some for sauteeing the apple and onion)

Chop apple and onions (smaller is better - food processed to mush is probably best). Saute with butter. Add hamburger and brown thoroughly. Reduce heat and let simmer while you prepare the rest of the dish.

In a large bowl, put the 2c water and heat it in the microwave. It should be really, really hot. Crush the croutons and dump into the water. Mix it up. Then pour the hamburger mix into the bowl and mix that up.

Pour the whole mix into a 2 quart baking dish (I used a 9x13 baking pan and it worked fine) and cook at 350° for forty minutes (to firm up).

Mom says you can replace the apple with a lemon, but I like it the way it is.
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Default)
Baked Pears with Rum and Cream

ETA: Per anon, in this comment, Bosc pears are best. I personally don't have a preference, except in that I prefer apples. :)

4 firm ripe pears, peeled, halved, and cored
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup dark rum
½ cup whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350°. Arrange pears cut side down, in a 10 inch baking dish. In a small saucepan, melt butter and stir in brown sugar and rum. Pour over pears, moving pears around to coat. Bake 40 minutes, basting frequently. Remove from oven and pour cream over pears. Continue baking 15-20 minutes. Place in individual serving bowls, and spoon hot sauce over pears. May be served over ice cream or frozen yogurt, if desired.

This recipe is from Colorado Collage a truly wonderful cookbook with lots of really excellent recipes. I highly recommend it (and have bought it six times over the last ten years, either to give to friends or to replace it when I've left it at friends' houses).

This particular recipe is also great with apples, though it's even sweeter. The fruit gets delightfully soft and melts in your mouth. Enjoy!

Recipes, yay!

10/5/08 09:02 pm
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Default)
I spent the late afternoon/early evening with a bunch of cool people, and we brought treats. For anyone interested, here are two awesome recipes:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread )
Lemon Ricotta Cookies )

And that last instruction - about waiting two hours? That would be why they stuck together. I didn't do that. Whoops. Now I'll know for next time!

Recipes, yum.

4/26/08 11:27 pm
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (writing)
Recipes for a fic to be posted soon )

Mmm, recipes!

3/22/07 08:24 am
kate: Kate Winslet is wryly amused (Psych: Lassiter)
Indian recipes, yum! )


All recipes from http://allrecipes.com, except chutney was from http://www.indianfoodsco.com.

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