Ongoing projects: Another idea

While I was wasting some of my day on Youtube today I was inspired by yet another potential ongoing project. I watched a lady make some fresh mozzarella and thought "I can totally do that". So this weekend I will be on the hunt for some cheese curds and will see what I can do. I will keep you posted.

Ongoing projects: Update

The other day I went shopping with the L-Train and as we were going through Famous Foods I took a look in their spice aisle and surprisingly found the crazy roots and barks needed to make root beer! So I bought them and have added root beer to my ongoing projects. I still have a few things to get sorted but hopefully in a week or so I will have an update about my root beer. I am hoping its "got bite";-)

Week 11: Coffee cake and yummy curry

Jamie thought the title was a little strange because these are two items you would not generally eat together. She makes a good point, especially since we did not eat them together but I did make both of them so I wanted to include them both. For your reference both of these can be found on Epicurious.com

First, the coffee cake. I made this because I was getting together with my "moms group" which includes two dads and wanted to make a yummy dessert. I chose a toffee bar coffee cake. Here is what you need


2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (I used a bag of Skor bits)
1 cup chopped pecans (I used slivered almonds)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the first 5 ingredients until it resembles a coarse meal. 
Transfer 1/2 a cup of this to a bowl and mix the nuts and toffee bits. I would cut this back a bit next time maybe 1/3 or 1/4 cup.
Stir in the baking soda.
Add buttermilk, egg and vanilla until just combined.
Transfer to greased 13x9 pan.
Sprinkle the toffee/nut mixture over the top.
Bake at 350'F for 30 mins or so. Check with a toothpick.

Mark's thoughts: Super easy and very yummy. Would make again right now if I had more Skor bits.


Jamie's thoughts: Yummy.

Toffee bar coffee cake, enough said.

Now the curry, I made a a very nice Lentil with butternut squash and almond curry. The recipe called for walnuts which I had originally planned to replace with pecans but we had run out so, in a pinch, I used almonds and it was still yummy.

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound)

1 large shallot
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder (or curry paste)
1/2 cup walnuts (see above for details)
1/3 cup lentils
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro sprigs
fresh lime juice to taste (optional)

This recipe is pretty easy and does not take that long to prepare it just takes a while to roast the squash and cook the lentils. 

Cut the squash into little cubes (about 1/2 inch).
Finely chop the shallots. 
Place shallots, squash, oil and curry powder in a baking dish. A couple of notes here, I used curry paste so I took about 2 Tbsp of curry paste and cut it with 2 Tbsp of water. This is where you will have to eyeball things. The recipe also called with salt and pepper to taste which seemed strange to me since you would taste it after it was cooked. I added some fresh cracked pepper and that was it. 
Bake all this at 425'F for 15 mins then add the nuts and stir and continue cooking until the squash is nice and tender, another 10-15 mins depending on how big you cut it. 

While this is going on cook the lentils. I used French green lentils but use what ever you have a around. You could also use canned lentils I would just heat them up first. I cooked them in a little veggie broth but that was probably not necessary.


Then add the squash, lentils, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper to a bowl and mix. Serve over whatever, salad, rice, I had some left over quinoa and it worked too.


Mark's thought: Great meal that was pretty easy and very adaptable. I could see myself adding some halibut or prawns or just leaving it as is. I will make this again very soon.


Jamie's thoughts: Excellent, just as good for leftovers two days later.

Yummy curry with qunioa.

Ongoing projects: Ginger Ale

So this past week I found a nice 2 litre plastic bottle and made some ginger ale. I found the recipe on wikihow (I am starting to love this website it has all the answers and from some real fun click the random article it is worth a laugh or two). 

The ingredients are very straight forward

sugar (1 cup)
freshly grated ginger root (1 1/2-2 tablespoons). Use only fresh ginger root.
juice of one lemon
fresh granular baker's yeast (1/4 teaspoon)
cold fresh pure water 


Add the sugar and the yeast to the bottle. Shake to mix thoroughly. 

Add the grated ginger and lemon juice to a measure cup. I cut the ginger and I think that was the wrong thing to do. Stir until mixed well. 


Add this to the bottle with the sugar and the yeast. Clean out the measure cup with some water to get all of the gingery goodness out. Add this to the bottle as well, cap and shake. Reopen bottle and fill until there is about 1 inch of head space. Seal the cap tightly shale some more to make sure all the sugar is dissolved. Place bottle in a warm location until the carbonation is complete. The bottle should be firm to a tight squeeze. It should take 24-48 hours. Once the bottle has firmed up place in the fridge for 24 hours to cool and enjoy.




Mark's thoughts: I was pretty happy with my first batch. Next time I will reduce the amount of sugar and lemon and I will grate the ginger. I found it too sweet and lemony and thought it could be more gingery.



Jamie's thoughts: She liked the lemony flavour but also thought it was too sweet and could use more ginger. 

The ginger ale just after mixing (left) and just before drinking (right).

Week 10: Paneer fish cakes with apple and fig chutney

This weeks entry seemed like it had everything but in the end was a bit of a let down. I would encourage one of my few followers to try this recipe to see if it was just me. 

I found this recipe on my handy Food Network app. When I was at the store looking for the ingredients I could not find any paneer. So I called my friend Alison to ask her where she got her paneer and she told me she made it. I smelled a challenge. I got the recipe from Ali and went to work. It was actually very easy and a bit of fun.

Paneer
2 litres of 2% milk
1/4 cup of vinegar 


Put the milk into a big pot and heat just to a boil.
Add vinegar, slowly as it creates some foam.
This will separate the curds from the whey (watch out for the spider;-)
Spoon the curds into a cheese cloth in a strainer and place a pot on top to squeeze out the excess water. Do this for as long as you want to get the consistency you like. 20 minutes is a good starting point. That is it. 

If you want a step-by-step with pictures check out wikihow
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paneer-%28Indian-Cheese%29

Making the paneer.

So once the paneer was ready it was time to make some fish cakes. The ingredients are


6 oz filet of cooked salmon (a can would work just as well)
1/2 cup fresh panner
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbsp minced red onion (I used yellow onion)
1/2 cup chick pea flour
1 Tbsp coriander powder
pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp grape seed oil (I used olive oil)


Mash the salmon and the paneer in a bowl. Add yogurt, onion, flour and spices. Mix and then form into patties about 2 inches in diameter. Fry in the oil over medium to high heat for 2-3 minutes. 


The ingredients for the chutney are


1 cup chopped gala apples
1/4 cup dried figs, roughly chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground fennel seed (I used cinnamon)
2 cups water

Mix everything into a pot and bring to a bowl. Turn down and simmer for 30 minutes. Let this cool and then puree. 


Mark's thoughts: This sounded like it would be so yummy but in the end is was not. The chutney was fine but the fish cakes were not good. I am not sure why maybe it was the yellow onion or the chick pea flour. 

Jamie's thoughts: Bland oddly gritty not that good although they looked good.

Paneer fish cakes with apple and fig chutney and some quinoa.