I love the rice we get when we go out for Indian so I have tried to make my own version at home.
Lightly Spiced Indian Rice
2 cups Basmati Rice
3 1/2 – 4 cups Water
1 teaspoon Turmeric
1 teaspoon Cumin, ground
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper
1 cup Frozen Peas
In medium size saucepan with tight fitting lid combine rice, water, turmeric, cumin, butter, salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil; reduce heat, place lid on saucepan and cook for 15 minutes.
Briefly remove lid, add frozen peas, replace lid and continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
Remove from heat, fluff rice with fork.
These are relatively easy to make. A special treat for Sunday morn, with leftovers to see you through the week…but wait, if word gets out you are making these, you just might have a few visitors drop by for coffee!
Cinnamon Rolls
Sweet Roll Dough:
2 cups Flour 1/2 cup Sugar 2 Tablespoons Rapid Rise Yeast 1 cup Milk, scalded and cooled 1 1/2 cups warm Water 1/3 cup Butter 2 Eggs, lightly beaten 4 cups Flour (+/-) 1 1/4 teaspoon Salt
Filling: 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon 1 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
Cream Cheese Frosting: 4 oz Philly Cream Cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups Icing Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Milk, to right consistency
In large mixing bowl, combine first amount of flour, sugar and rapid rise yeast; set aside.
Scald milk in small saucepan; remove from heat and add butter, stirring until the butter is melted.
Stir in warm water.
In small bowl beat eggs; *temper with slightly cooled, scalded milk mixture.
Gradually add tempered eggs to the remaining scalded milk mixture.
Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour, yeast and sugar.
Stir vigorously for 2 minutes.
Add a cup of flour and the salt; stir.
Add flour, a cup at a time until a soft dough is formed; you may have to “stir” last stages of flour in with your hands.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
Cover with a clean tea towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
Spray two 9×13 pans with Vegetable Oil spray; set aside.
While dough is resting, prepare the
Filling: In small mixing bowl rub together butter, cinnamon and brown sugar; set aside.
Prepare the Rolls:
On lightly floured surface, knead dough a few times then divide into two equal portions.
Cover portion you are not working with.
With other portion, roll out into a 15″x8″ rectangle.
Sprinkle half of the filling mixture to within 1/4″ of the edges of the rectangle.
Roll up tightly, beginning at 15″ side.
Pinch to seal edge.
Getting set to cut the roll into individual rolls
Cut into 12 slices with a sharp knife.
Place cut side down in prepared pan.
Repeat with second portion of dough.
Cover and let rise for at least an hour and a half.
Set to rise!
Preheat oven to 350F (175C)
Bake in preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden.
Remove from oven and cool, in pan, on wire racks.
Baked to perfection!
While still warm, but not hot, cover with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting: In medium mixing bowl cream together the softened cream cheese and butter.
Stir in a cup of icing sugar and vanilla until well incorporated.
Add remaining icing sugar a little at a time and stirring well after each addition.
If the icing is too thick, thin with a little milk.
Let’s dress these babies up…or not; your call.
*Add about a tablespoon of hot mixture to eggs and stir vigorously; add another tablespoon of scaled milk mixture to eggs, stir vigorously… what you are doing is bringing the eggs up to the temperature of the liquid in the pot. Once egg mixture is warmed you can slowly stir it into the remaining scalded milk mixture in the pot. If you were to just chuck the eggs into the scalded milk mixture you could very possibly end up with something resembling gross scrambled eggs O.o
** The Cream Cheese Frosting recipe I have posted is one I have used for yonks! I don’t know where it came from and I don’t actually measure the ingredients. I think the measures I have listed are pretty accurate for a lovely, creamy, delectable cream cheese frosting.
These are aptly named…Crisps. They are delightful lil bites of chocolately crispness with just a hint of ginger. This recipe for Cocoa Ginger Crisps from Chocolate Chocolate and More caught my eye when it came through my FB feed because they contained Ginger and since I like just about anything with ginger I thought I would give these a try. I will probably add a lil more ginger the next time I make them, because there WILL be a next time, as I couldn’t really taste the ginger at all. They were super easy to make and I found that I did not have to let the dough rest in the fridge before scooping out with my lil Pampered Chef scoop. However, I already had bread dough on the go, so once I had rolled each individual cookie in the cocoa/sugar mixture I did place them in a sealed container in the fridge to bake after the bread came out of the oven.
I am experimenting with Egg-less baking because I often bring tasty lil treats to a school that I work at and one of the students has an egg allergy. I found this recipe worked very well with Egg Replacer. I didn’t want to use Chia Seeds as an Egg Replacement because I find the Chia Seeds don’t break down very well; though now that I think about it, the extra texture would not have hurt these cookies. I will have to give that a go next time. I should also note that I did not have light corn syrup in the pantry but DID have dark corn syrup…easily subbed in the dark for the light…and as I am typing this it just occurred to me that I will also replace 2 Tablespoons of the corn syrup with Molasses next time to try to achieve that Ginger Cookie taste the name of this recipe conjures up in my mind.
Just a hint of Ginger in these Cocoa Ginger Crisps
1 cup Butter, softened
1 + 1/3 cup Sugar, divided
1 Egg (2 Tablespoons Water whisked together with 1 Tablespoon Egg Replacer)
1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup ( 2 Tablespoons Molasses, add enough Light Corn Syrup to measure …… 1/4cup)
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups Flour
6 Tablespoons (3 oz) + 1 1/4 teaspoons Cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
3/4 teaspoons ground Ginger
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line baking trays with Parchment Paper.
In a small mixing bowl combine flour, 6 Tablespoons (3 oz) cocoa, baking soda, ginger and salt; set aside.
In a small flat bowl combine 1/3 cup sugar and 1 1/4 teaspoons cocoa; set aside.
In large mixing bowl beat butter, sugar and egg (Egg Repalcer) until light and fluffy.
Add corn syrup (corn syrup/molasses mixture, if using) and vanilla; beat until well blended.
Gradually add dry ingredients to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
Using a #2 Pampered Chef scoop, portion dough, rolling each one in the sugar/cocoa mixture.
Place about 2″ apart on prepared baking trays.
Bake in 350F oven for about 10 – 12 minutes or until cookies flatten.
Cool for a minute on baking trays before transferring to cool completely on a wire rack.
I make pretty good Dal, a good Red Curry that I sometimes do Vegetarian, sometimes with Chicken or Shrimp, killer Naan, decent Gobi Aluu but was lacking in the Curried Veg department; even my husband’s Granny made better curried veg than me…well, no more! I found this super Quick Curried Vegetables recipe at Vegetarian Times. Of course I tweaked it according to what I had on hand and I am sure I will tweak it every time I make it…
Curried Vegetables
2 teaspoons Olive Oil
1 large Onion, chopped
1 (400ml) can Coconut Milk
1 cup Water
1 McCormick Vegetable Stock Cube, crushed
3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
3 Tablespoons Curry Powder
1 lb Red Skinned Potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1″ cubes <- I used mini white/red potatoes I had on hand
1 small Cauliflower, cut into small flowerets
2 heads Broccoli, cut into small flowerets
1/2 cup frozen Peas
1/4 cup fresh Cilantro, chopped
1 – 2 Tablespoons Lime Juice
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat.
Add onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add coconut milk, water and vegetable stock cube; whisk in tomato paste and curry powder.
Bring to a boil; add potatoes, reduce heat to medium, cover and cook for 15 minutes until potatoes are stiff firm but almost done.
Stir in cauliflower, broccoli; cover and cook another 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
Remove from heat; stir in frozen peas, cilantro and lime juice.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Serve with Basmati Brown Rice.
Earlier this year I made Salmon Burgers using raw salmon which went over very well with the meat eaters in our house but my Aunty Ginny recently gave me some canned salmon so thought I would try a Salmon Burger using that…As the Cook, I preferred using the canned salmon over the raw! Those that consumed the Burgers liked both versions, helpful Souls that they are when it comes to critiquing my fare!
Rather than googling a recipe I resorted to my tried and true source and found, “Savoury Fish Patties” Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook, Everything you Need to Know to Cook, 8th Edition, A Simon and Schuster Macmillan Company, New York, NY, Macmillan, 1996, 188. Print
I made a few slight changes: I always have bread crumbs in the pantry/freezer so used the measured amount over the two torn slices of bread, substituted dill for the marjoram and forgot the dry mustard altogether.
Salmon Burger
3 cups canned Salmon
1/2 cup chopped Onion
1 1/3 cup Bread Crumbs
2 large Eggs, beaten
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon dried Dill
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Pepper, to taste
Olive Oil, for frying
Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Shape into 6 large patties.
Heat oil in a 10″ Skillet over medium heat.
Cook patties in oil for about 5 minutes, carefully turn over and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Remove to serving platter.
Serve with Boathouse Lemon Dill Dipping Sauce.
Serves 6
Welcome to my Kitchen where the most important ingredient is Love.
