September Daring Cooks' Challenge - Dairy-Free Bechamel

This month, the Daring Cooks got a little saucy! Jenni from the Gingered Whisk taught us the basics of how to make the five mother-sauces and encouraged us to get creative with them, creating a wide variety of delicious, fresh sauces in our very own kitchens.

There are several "basics" which every cook hoping to increase their skills really should learn.

One of those skills is how to make a correct, good sauce.

Well, this month's Daring Cooks' Challenge helped us learn exactly that.

There are five basic "mother" sauces from which you can create hundreds upon hundreds of amazing, delicious and impressive variations to use in almost any dish you can think of. Knowing the differences between these sauces and the basic tricks for perfecting them can increase your kitchen prowess (and confidence!) greatly.

The question for me this month was which sauce to try! Granted, I want to try them all over time. The trick, though, was finding one that we could fit into our schedule this month, and that had the greatest likelihood of most of the family eating. And enjoying.

Most of the sauces involve dairy of some sort - butter, milk or cream, specifically, all of which little man can't have.  So I decided to be creative.

I chose to make a simple, basic bechamel - a white sauce made from a roux (generally butter and flour) and milk, then seasoned.  But I challenged myself to make a dairy free bechamel.  Using little-man friendly ingredients.

Coconut oil in place of butter, coconut milk in place of milk. And flour. Because it's nice to not have to substitute all three major ingredients...

The basic process is simple.  Melt the butter (coconut oil for me), then whisk in the flour.

The recipe called for two tablespoons of flour. I could tell right from the first tablespoon, though, that the oil wasn't behaving the same as butter does, and that this sauce would need a little bit more flour in order to thicken up properly. So I went with three tablespoons.

Once the flour is fully incorporated and cooked, slowly add the milk (coconut milk).

And then you whisk.

And whisk.

And whisk some more. Eventually, the mixture comes to a simmer and thickens up beautifully. The whole process is supposed to take about half an hour.  I don't know whether it was the coconut oil, the coconut milk or the combination, but mine took a lot longer to simmer and thicken, but finally (after about 45 minutes) it did, as you can tell by how it coated the back of my spoon.

(I ran my finger through it to see if it would hold the line - it did!).

When it came time to add the seasonings, I had to think about what I actually wanted to do with this dairy free bechamel.  And then I remembered a chicken tikka masala spice mix given to me by a friend recently.

Coconut sauce... tasty spice mix... Aha! I added half of a can of diced tomatoes, a nice scoop of the spice mix and some diced leftover roasted chicken to my bechamel, let it simmer, and voila!

Served with cauliflower and a pan-toasted tortilla (I didn't have time to make naan - next time!) and there we had it! A dairy free, simple chicken tikka masala curry!

So maybe it's funny that a French sauce led to an Indian dinner, but either way, I'm super glad to have made this. Jenni, I never would have tried it without this challenge, so I thank you. And I look forward to trying other delicious sauces, too!!


Dairy Free Bechamel
(my own variation, based on the Daring Cooks' Challenge)

1 tablespoon coconut oil
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 coconut milk (I used Silk coconut milk beverage)

In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the coconut oil.
When the coconut oil is fully melted and heated through, stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until a paste forms. It might not form a real paste, but stir until it is well incorporated and feels a bit thick. Continue stirring and heating this mixture for about four or five minutes.
Whisk in the milk about ½ cup at a time, making sure that the addition is fully incorporated before adding the next addition of milk. Continue to whisk the mixture over the heat until it simmers and thickens slightly.  This took me about 30 minutes once all of the milk was added, so be patient. I promise - it will work!
At this point, add in your seasonings. Salt, pepper and nutmeg are the standard for a basic bechamel, but let your creativity guide you as to how you'd like to use your sauce!
Enjoy!

Tweet

Chicken Tikka Masala

I've been on something of and Indian food kick recently.

Okay, I can't, in all fairness, call it a kick... but it might be turning into one! We've had a few Indian Daring Cooks' and Bakers' challenges, which all sparked my interest. But, particularly since the biryani challenge, I've really wanted to try more Indian cooking.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, daddy and I wound up at a new Indian restaurant on date night.  And it was delicious.

So when I came across a (very simplified) recipe for chicken tikka masala, one of the dishes that daddy and I had enjoyed on our date, I knew I wanted to try it.

As I said, it was super simple. The main ingredients were coconut milk and tomato sauce. And spices. Actually, just a few. Curry powder, a touch of salt and then some heat. Cayenne, to be precise.

Not sure if you can tell from the photo above, but the cayenne came out a little faster than I wanted it to.  Oops.

The whole thing cooks down and comes together nicely.

And that was the sauce! So all that was left was the meat. As it so happens, I threw some boneless, skinless chicken breast in the crock pot that morning.  All I had to do was cut it up...

...and add it to the prepared sauce!

I let the whole thing simmer lightly for half an hour, and then we were ready for dinner.

Authentic? Not so much. But I have to say - it was delicious. And flavorful. And, yes, a bit hotter than I usually go for (though, to be honest, I'm a bit of a heat wimp, so it's good to spice things up once in a while... literally...), but the flavor was good. And daddy and I both enjoyed it very much. It was actually even tastier the next day, too.  We offered the kids a taste, but were prepared (rightly so...) when they declined. Their loss. Hopefully when they get a little older they'll give it a shot.

So hopefully this is just the start to a new culinary adventure! Can't wait to try more!


Chicken Tikka Masala
(slighlty modified from A Happy Lass)

1 onion, sliced
1 can coconut milk
1 cup tomato sauce (I used canned crushed tomatoes)
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
a dash of cayenne pepper or 2-4 green chiles, cut into strips
approximately 2 pounds cooked chicken, cut into about 1 inch pieces

In a medium saucepan, lightly sautee the onions in extra virgin olive oil until softened and translucent.
Add coconut milk, tomato and spices. Stir to combine.
Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil.
Add cooked chicken, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve over cooked rice.

Enjoy!

Tweet

April Daring Cooks' Challenge - Pathiri

I am so sorry I haven't posted in a while! But look at this - two posts in one day? What??

Yup - that's what happens every few months when the posting dates for the Secret Recipe Club and Daring Kitchen collide. I mean coincide.

The April Daring Cooks Challenge was brought to us by Joanna from What’s On The List. She taught us all about Pathiri and challenged us to create our own version of this inspirational Indian dish!

Pathiri was something completely new to me. Pathiri are a type of crepe-like pancake, usually rice based, which can then be used to create all kinds of savory dishes. Our challenge this month was to use these crepes to create a sort of savory crepe cake. Fun!

The given recipe was for a traditional Indian style dish.  Which looked outstanding.

But I only followed the recipe for the crepes.

For my filling, I went with what I had on hand - which happened to be Mexican inspired.  I had some leftover cooked Mexican-style chicken. I chopped the chicken, along with the tomatoes and onions that had cooked with it, and mixed everything together.

To construct my "cake," I spread each crepe with a thin layer of refried beans, then spread on some of the chicken filling.

I repeated these layers until I ran out of filling.

I then smothered the whole thing with a Mexican-spiced tomato sauce, then smothered the whole thing in cheese.

Which baked up...

...perfectly.

The results were super fun to cut into...

...and absolutely delicious to eat.

Well, for me. The kids didn't like it because of the tomato sauce (I made a cheese-free mini-version for little man). But I thought it was really fun and delicious.

Now, I have been wanting to make a (sweet) crepe cake for quite some time, so this challenge  has re-inspired me to try my hand at it, and I definitely want to try another version of the savory version, too, to see if I can find one that is a winner for everyone in the family!

Joanne, thank you so much for introducing me to this fun, delicious dish!

To see the challenge as Joanne presented it, check it out here.

To see the delicious varieties of pathiri cooked up in the kitchen this month, check them out here.


I know I usually put the recipe that I used here at the bottom, but I really just winged my final recipe (and used leftover chicken from a chicken dish that I'd... yeah... totally winged...), so I'll put here the crepe recipe, from the challenge, that I used, and give you a basic overview of the finishing steps.

Pathiri-inspired crepes
(from April Daring Cooks' Challenge)

2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon grape-seed oil or neutral-tasting oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt
oil for crepe pan (I used non-stick cooking spray)

In a jug or mixing bowl add vinegar to milk; allow to sit for 5 minutes.
In a bowl (or larger jug), combine milk mixture with remaining ingredients; refrigerate for at least one hour.
Heat pan coating pan lightly with oil; remove excess oil with paper towel.
Pour batter to desired size; flip when edges start to lift.
Cook second side until just cooked.

For the final dish, prepare a cooked filling of our choice and allow it to cool. Also prepare a coordinating sauce of your choice.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spoon a bit of sauce onto a baking dish (so the final product won't stick), and alternate layers of crepes and filling. There is no rule for how many layers you need to use, so go with what works for you. Cover all of the layers with sauce.
Bake in preheated oven until heated through.

Enjoy!

Tweet

Chai Tea

I can't believe that 2013 is almost over. Overall, this has been a pretty good year.  But right now, during these last couple of weeks of the year, it's the perfect time to settle in, enjoy some time with family, and snuggle up with a nice, hot drink.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted these chai spiced scones? I ground up way more cardamom than I needed. On purpose. because I knew that once I tasted those scones, I'd want more chai.

So the first thing I did was make a chai spice mix, called chai masala, using a delicious, spicy and tangy combination of spices.

The best part about the chai masala is that, even though that doesn't look like a lot in that jar, that is enough to last quite a while, because a little goes quite a long way.

Oh, and I'll take this oppotunity to say that both the chai masala recipe and the tea recipe using it come from the amazing Manu's Menu. If you haven't checked it out yet, do yourself a favor and head over there now. I mean... after reading this... or open it in another tab... but it's well worth reading. And adding to your blogroll. And reading again. Aside from being an amazingly talented and inspired cook and baker, Manu happens to also be a super sweet, very nice and beautiful person, inside and out.

So back to the chai...

Once I saw the chai recipe, I knew I had to try it.  Chai actually has a special place in my heart. When I was young and unsure about the direction of my life, I worked for one of those big bookstores. You know, the kind with a coffee shop right inside.  My favorite treat while I was there was the chai latte. The people who ran the cafe knew this. And when training new cafe employees, the always called me up to "test" how well the newbies made their chai. Ah, the perks of being the manager overseeing the training in a big bookstore...

Back to the point. Again.  Once I saw this recipe, I was very excited. Because it would be very nice to be able to make chai with ingredients I always have on hand, rather than needing to buy the pre-made powder or liquid concentrate.

And this was actually really easy to make!  Simply bring milk, water, sugar and a bit of the chai masala to a boil...

...then add a couple of tea bags (loose-leaf tea highly encouraged here... I just don't have any...) and let it boil for a few minutes more.

And, seriously, that's it.  Strain (if using loose tea) and serve and you have a delicious, sweet, spicy mug of warm goodness.

No joke, this puts the powder and concentrates to shame.  I will not be going back to those.  This drink definitely has a kick to it, but in a good way.  And the best part is that I have comoplete control over the ingredients and thus the flavor. So if you like yours a little sweeter or with a  bit more spice, you can totally make it work for you.

This is a fantastic treat to warm you on a cool winter night, and is the perfect beverage to keep you toasty while thinking back on a fun, delicious year.



Chai Tea
(from Manu's Menu)

Chai Masala:
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Place all ingredients into a small bowl or jar. Mix until well combined.
Store in an airtight container or glass jar.

Chai Tea:
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups milk (I used coconut milk)
4 to 5 teaspoons sugar (I like mine sweeter, so I use 5 teaspoons)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chai masala
2 teaspoons tea leaves (I used two tea bags)

Put the water, milk, chai masala and sugar into a medium saucepan. Stir together and bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the tea leaves (or tea bags) and stir again. Let it simmer over low heat for a couple of minutes.
Turn the burner off, cover and let it steep for a couple of minutes.
Strain the mixture (especially if you used tea leaves) and serve hot.
(note: no specific times for how long to boil, simmer and steep this tea - you will find what works best for how strong you like your flavors)

Enjoy!

Tweet

August Daring Bakers' Challenge - Mawa Cake and Masala Biscuits

Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen was our August 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she challenged us to make some amazing regional Indian desserts. The Mawa Cake, the Bolinhas de Coco cookies and the Masala cookies – beautifully spiced and delicious!

If you've been reading this blog for a long time, or if you've been tracking the Daring Bakers for a while,  you may remember Aparna from the awesome tiramisu challenge.  So when I saw that she was the host, I was super excited.

But when I read the challenge, I will admit that I became a little bit... concerned.  The challenge consists of three recipes - a cake and two different styles of cookies. The requirement for successful completion of the challenge was to make the cake and at least one of the cookies.

So why was this concerning? Mawa, as it turns out, is milk that has been reduced by simmering it until all that remains are the solids.  Which means that the main component of this cake is something that little man can't eat. And I really don't like to make things, especially treats, that he can't enjoy with us.

I seriously considered sitting this one out. Seriously.

But I have never done that before, and I am not about to start now.

My sister happened across a blog post for a vegan variation of mawa cake and Aparna gave us the green light to go for it, so I did. Yesterday. Oh yeah, nothing like waiting until the last minute.

Instead of mawa, the vegan (allergen free, for me...) version uses vegan cream cheese.

But, just like the "real" version, the flavoring for this cake comes from cardamom.  Now, I am not all that familiar with cardamom. I bought it and used it for the biryani challenge, that was easy - just take a couple of pods and toss them in the pan. For this cake, you need only the seeds from inside the pods.

And those seeds then need to be crushed (I used a spice grinder), then added to the dry ingredients of the cake.

But other than those two "special" ingredients, this cake is actually very easy and straightforward to prepare. The thick batter is spread into a pan (I used a cake pan instead of a springform pan - it's what I have)...

...then baked for an hour until dark golden and super fragrant.

My cake was extremely flavorful with the cardamom, which was a big hit with me and little man, less so with daddy and little miss.

Hey, a 50% approval rating for a brand new recipe isn't bad, right?

The texture was really nice, though, so I am considering playing with the recipe a bit to flavor it in a way that will be more appealing to the entire family.

But the mawa cake was only half of the challenge. Remember, Aparna said that we had to make one of the given recipes for cookies, as well. My first choice was to make the coconut cookies - they sound flavorful and delicious. But I was running low on coconut, and they take a couple of days to make. And with the procrastination I had going on this month, a couple of days was... yeah, I waited too long.

The other cookie recipe was for savory spice cookies. As written, these biscuits, more like crackers, really, are full of spice and Indian flavors.

The base recipe is relatively similar to other crackers I've made. Dry ingredients are whisked together, then butter is cut in.

This is the point where the spices are added.  And this is where I adjusted the recipe to suit my family's tastes.  I omitted the green chilies, and used spices that my family likes - garlic powder, thyme, parsley and oregano (okay, so... these are... Italian inspired Indian crackers...).  Little man helped me scoop the spices.

He had fun with it, because I let him scoop a lot, so that these would be chock full of flavor.

The dough is then worked together, using yogurt (I used coconut milk plain Greek style yogurt) as the wet ingredient binder.  Once the dough can hold together, mold it into a disc and pop it into the fridge.

If you want the real chronology of events, I actually made the dough in the morning, then prepared the mawa cake while the dough rested in the fridge. Yeah, I had a busy baking day yesterday.

Anyway...

Once the dough has thoroughly chilled, roll it out, sprinkle it with sesame seeds (I used my seven seed mix), use the rolling pin to press the seeds in a bit, and cut out your crackers.

Now, I have to apologize - I don't have many pictures of the completed crackers.

I was too busy eating them.  These are addictive. Perfectly crisp and deliciously flavorful, I just kept eating them.  And considering that you can choose any spices you want, you can really use the base recipe to make any kind of treat you are in the mood for. Pretty cool!

Aparna, thank you for this challenge - I am so glad that I wised up and participated!

To see the full recipes as provided in the challenge, you can check them out here.

And to see the delicious cakes and biscuits baked up in the kitchen this month, take a look here.


Vegan Mawa Cake
(from Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes)

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon powdered cardamom (the seeds from green cardamom pods, crushed with a mortar and pestle or ground in a spice grinder)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup soy milk (I used coconut milk) plus 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar. Mix and set aside to curdle for a few minutes. I promise, it will curdle.
1/4 (4 tablespoons) cup vegan cream cheese, like Tofutti, at room temperature.
1/2 cup or 8 tbsp vegan butter like Earth Balance, also at room temperature (I used coconut oil).
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8 inch cake pan (or springform pan, if you have the right size) with non-stick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and whisk it all togehter. Add the cardamom powder and whisk again. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the vegan butter (coconut oil) and the sugar until light and fluffy, for no more than 2 minutes (at medium speed). Add the vegan cream cheese and beat until just mixed. Do not overbeat.
Mix in the vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the curdled soy (coconut) milk, beating in well after each addition so there are no lumps. Scrape down the bowl after each addition.
Spread batter into prepared cake pan, smoothing the top carefully.
Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven about an hour until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool on a rack. Mawa cakes are never frosted, so all you have to do now is eat it.

Enjoy!



Spiced Crackers
(based on the Masala Biscuits from the challenge)

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons fine rice flour (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried parsley
3 to 4 tablespoons cold yogurt (I used coconut milk yogurt, plain)
1-1/2 tablespoons black sesame seeds (or white sesame seeds) (I used a prepared seed mix)
A little oil to brush the tops of the biscuits/ cookies

Whisk together both flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl and add the pieces of chilled butter. Cut or rub the butter into the dried ingredients until the mixture resembles the texture of breadcrumbs.
Add in all of your spices and mix to incorporate.
Add 2 tablespoons of the yogurt mix to combine. Continue adding the yogurt, one tablespoon at a time, mixing as you go, until the dough just comes togehter. Kneat the dough until it is just moist enough to hold together and shape into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disc and cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least hour. You can also leave it overnight (up to about 24 hours) and work on it the next day.
When you are ready to prepare the biscuits, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking trays with parchment, a silicone baking mat, or grease them with oil.
Lightly dust your working surface with flour and roll out the dough to 1/8” thickness, not more or your biscuits/ cookies will not be crisp. Sprinkle the seeds uniformly over the dough and use your rolling pin to very lightly, to press them in.
Using cutters of your choice, cut out biscuits/crackers and place them on the prepared baking trays. Brush a very thin coat of oil over them (I actually sprayed them with non-stick cooking spray). This will help them brown while baking.
Bake the crackers in the preheatd oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or till they’re done and golden brown on the top. Remember the baking time will depend on the thickness and shape of your biscuits/ cookies. Let them cool on the trays for about 5 minutes and then cool them on racks. Once they’re completely cool, they should be a bit crunchy and not chewy.

Enjoy!

Tweet

August Daring Cooks' Challenge - Biryani

I am definitely willing to admit when I don't know something, and this month's Daring Cooks' Challenge had me admitting it right away.

Grace, one of our talented non-blogging Daring Kitchen members, was our Daring Cooks’ August hostess who shared with us some of her family’s tried and true Bengali Biryani recipes – all of them delicious and all of them prepared fresh from our own kitchens!

Biryani? Never heard of it. Turns out, it's a mixed-rice dish popular in South Asia, and there are variations of it all over the region. After reading the recipe, the way I explained it to my husband was that it sounded to me like South Asian arroz con pollo.

The first thing I did was call upon my neighbor, who married into a traditional Indian family.  My first question was "Have you ever made biryani before?"

The response was very enthusiastic - it is her husband's favorite dish, and her mother in law made it for him quite a bit! In fact, she said that they is the "self proclaimed biryani king!"

The bad  news? She'd never made it. And the king modified his proclamation - he's the king of eating it - he'd never made it either.

But she was willing to share her experience with other Indian cooking, and even to join me on a journey to one of our local Indian markets.

Now, I've been to that market before - it's always so amazing to me. But this was the first time I had someone with me who could actually explain what I was looking at.  Together, though, we found everything we needed and I was ready to go.

Now, the list of ingredients looked a bit long, but it wasn't at all overwhelming once I really looked at it.  The longest part of the process was preparing everything.

In order to keep myself organized, I did all of my chopping, prepping and measuring ahead of time. Chopping included onions and tomatoes, not to mention the mincing of garlic and ginger.  Then I measured out the appropriate amounts of coriander, curry power, cumin and biryani powder (a spice mix acquired at the market. There were many to choose from, probably due to the regional varieties in recipes, but I just chose the one that had the most intriguing mix of spices). And that bottom cup? Cumin seeds, cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks (there were supposed to be bay leaves, too, which I was sure I already had at home... oops...).

All of this is added to the pan in specific order, starting with the whole seeds and cinnamon sticks as aromatics, moving on to the chopped and minced vegetables and herbs, and finishing with the powdered spices.

Once these come together, they make a very thick sauce kind of mixture.  At this point, I added bone-in chicken pieces to the pan to cook them right in that sauce.

All this while, I had a separate pot on the stove pre-cooking my rice. The standard rice in South Asian cuisine (according to my neighbor) is basmati rice, which I have never made before. The smallest bag that the Indian market carried was ten pounds! I was seriously hoping the family liked it!  The recipe called for the rice to be half-cooked while the meat/sauce is prepared, but I wound up (accidentally) cooking it mostly through. I also added a can of coconut milk to the cooking water of the rice to add a touch of flavor, and to balance the heat of the spices used in the sauce.

The final step was to layer the prepared rice and chicken sauce in a large pot to finish the cooking of the rice and the meat.

Another ten  minutes of simmering later, we were ready to serve!

I know the photo isn't the best, but this was delicious. Full of flavor but not too hot, I really enjoyed it. So did daddy. Little miss did great - she said she didn't love it, but she ate her entire serving without complaining. Little man? He ate a taste or two of the chicken, a bit of the rice, but I had thought ahead and reserved some of the rice and a couple of chicken thighs to prepare "plain" (without the spices), and he focused mostly on those. Hey, he tried it!

And best of all? The biryani king told me that he liked it! I set aside two servings for my neighbor and his wife and they said that the flavor was right on, and that they really enjoyed it. Sure, they added a bit more heat to their own servings, but I can handle that. I took it as a real complement that they enjoyed the flavors and that it reminded him of home.

Grace, thank you so much for sharing your family's recipes, and for introducing me to this delicious dish. I can't wait to try different varieties (hey - I have a lot of basmati rice to use up!), as well as lots of other South Asian cuisine!

To see the other delicious biryanis cooked up in the kitchen this month, check them out here.

To see the full set of recipes as presented to us in the challenge, you can see them here.


Chicken Biryani
(from the Daring Cooks' Challenge)

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
2 bay leaves (I didn't have these... I wish I had!)
2 small cinnamon sticks
2 cardamom pods (green, not black)
3 tablespoons ghee (I used vegetable oil)
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 tomato, skinned and chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 tablespoon biryani powder
1 chicken, cut into 8 parts (I used chicken thighs)
3 cups basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes and drained
1 tablespoon plain yogurt (I used coconut milk yogurt to keep this dairy free)

Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan (I used a large sautee pan). Fry the cumin seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon, and cardamom in it until fragrant.
Add the onions, garlic, ginger, tomato, and salt. Cook on medium high heat while stirring for 5 minutes or until the onions start to brown.
Add the cumin, coriander powder, curry powder, and biryani powder. Cook for another 2 minutes, then add the chicken pieces. Cover the pan, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add the yogurt to the pan. Cover and simmer for 2 more minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the rice in 6 cups of water (I used 4 cups of mater and one can of coconut milk) for 5 minutes or until half cooked. Drain any remaining water. In a large saucepan (I used my largest pot for this), alternate layers of rice and chicken starting and ending with a layer of rice. Cover the saucepan tightly and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes or until the rice is done.

Enjoy!

Tweet

August Daring Cooks Challenge - Appam and Curry

One of the best things about the Daring Kitchen is being introduced to new styles of food. One of the other best things is the amazing community of really great people, not to mention inspirational cooks. This month, the two come together, with the challenge being hosted by one of the members who is always super supportive, super creative, and whose dishes are always amazingly inspiring.

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

I have embarrassingly little experience with Indian food, and thus even less knowledge about it. The challenge looked fantastic, and I was excited to try something new, but I was also extremely nervous. While the appam themselves looked relatively straightforward, all of the curries and accompanying dishes that I was seeing had massively long lists of ingredients including things that I'd never heard of before, much less knew what they tasted like.

After a trip to a local Indian grocery for inspiration, though, I got up the nerve to dive in.

The appam require some prep work and fermentation time, so I started with that recipe. I set some plain (raw) rice to soak overnight, then gathered up the rest of the initial ingredients - yeast (bloomed in sugar water) and a small amount of cooked rice.


Straining the soaked rice was tougher than it should have been, since I don't actually have a big sieve. I thought about using one of my colanders, but I was worried that the holes were too big, and that the rice would drain out with the water. So I went at it with my little sieve.


The ingredients were to be blended together to make a (very) thick batter. Not having a full sized blender, I used my mini-blender, which actually worked much better than I could have hoped.



And then the batter was covered and set on top of the stove, covered in plastic wrap, for the whole day to ferment. Yup, all that done by 8 am.


With the appam batter doing its thing, I was able to spend the afternoon focusing on the curry. I scoured the internet looking for a recipe that I felt comfortable with. Meaning one that didn't require me to buy tons of specialty ingredients, as well as one that my five year old would eat. When I found this one, I knew it was the one to try. Chicken cauliflower curry sounded delicious, and the review were good (and offered some delicious sounding modifications), so I knew I had a my recipe.


In addition to all of the vegetables, the curry requires specific spices. Like curry powder. Which is not something I have ever cooked with before. My sister (and fellow Daring Cook) happened to stock up on a variety of Indian spices in preparation for this challenge, and graciously shared some with me.


The recipe that I chose didn't call for all of these spices, but I wanted to include them anyway, so in addition to the ready-to-use curry powder, I prepared the other spices to include in my dish. I dry-pan-roasted fenugreek seeds and ground them in my mini blender.


Then crushed green cardamom pods to release the seeds, to add into the curry as well.


Preparing the curry was surprisingly simple. I sautéed onion and garlic, then added chicken to the pan to cook through. Once the chicken was ready, I simply layered on the other components - first vegetables, then the spices, then finally added coconut milk and stock to create the sauce for the curry.


Once all of the ingredients were added to the pan, I put on the lid and let it simmer away, filling my house with delicious smells.

Curry doing its thing, it was finally time to do the final preparations on the appam. The fermented batter being too thick to use, coconut milk is added, plus a touch of water (if needed, and I did) to create a batter slightly thicker than milk.


In order to make the appam, a few tablespoons of the batter (three worked well for me) are swirled around a lightly greased pan.


The pan is then covered to allow the appam not only to fry, but to steam.


And after two minutes, voila!


Once the appam were done, it was time to take the lid off of the pan of curry, and I was so excited by what I saw.


I was a bit unsure as to how to plate everything - some people served their curry on their appam, some on the side... I went for the side, to allow each of us to choose how we wanted to eat it, but I wound up putting most of my curry right onto the appam anyway.


I was really pleased with this dinner! While it was probably significantly less spicy than most traditional Indian fare, I think it was a really great recipe, and made for a really nice change of pace dinner.

The only problem was that there was a LOT of appam batter. Luckily, Mary told us that it can sit in the fridge for a couple of days, and gave us an idea as to what to try with the leftovers. Apparently, if you crack an egg into the batter after it is swirled in the pan, then cook it like the appams, it becomes something called an egg hopper:


As you can see, I thought that sounded like a good breakfast. The only problem is that I like my eggs cooked a bit harder. So I tried to flip my egg hopper to further cook the egg. The result, when I tried to check on it, was that the yolk broke, making the breakfast less than photogenic.


It was, however, delicious, and a great use of some of the leftover batter!

Mary, I can't thank you enough for introducing me to the delicious world of Southern Indian cooking. You were a fantastic, enthusiastic and energetic hostess and provided us with a great, well researched, fun and delicious challenge!

If you'd like to see the other delicious dishes cooked up in the Kitchen this month, check them out here.

Tweet