Sometimes simple is the way to go

There are times for fancy complicated meals and times for easy, quick to whip up meals. Tonight, it was time for the latter. I threw together a quick meal of quesadillas and a pomegranate soda.

Quesadillas are one of my favorite easy things. I recently found 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat tortillas at the grocery store and heartily recommend them. They aren't as heavy as straight whole wheat, which I've tried but can't get excited about. And they have more healthy things than the straight white ones (which I need!). I always cook my quesadillas in the cast iron skillet, and I don't use any oil or butter. I'm sure I don't have to give anyone directions for making them, so I'll just record what I filled them with this time.

We had 1/2 an avocado left over from lunch, some preshredded cheese blend, and part of a tomato that all needed to be eaten. I added to this some baby shrimp (the bay or salad shrimp size) and finely minced serrano peppers. I had to go easy on the cheese, since there was little left (maybe 1/3 cup max). I spread part of it on the tortilla, topped with the rest of the toppings, flipped it when the bottom was nice and toasted and ate.

Oh and that pomegranate soda? 2/3 pomegranate juice, 1/3 soda water or tonic water. Yum yum.

Quick, easy, tasty...


Notes and Next Time

• yum
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• tortillas
• cheese
• fillings (peppers, shrimp, chicken, tomato, avocado, etc etc)
  

Chicken Tikka Masala

I love chicken tikka masala. LOVE IT. When I lived in Cambridge MA, there was this small Indian place right around the corner, and I would always order their tikka masala (and pakoras and samosas and nann and saag). We found a recipe in an old Cook's Illustrated, so we decided to go for it. And let me tell you, not only is it super wonderful tasting, it is surprisingly easy to make. So go make some. And then send me some.

I have to say, at first, I was a little skeptical of making this. I've seen other people make Indian food, and the time and process can be a little daunting. Well, it did take us about 2 hours to make this whole meal (including cooking naan and saag), but now that we've done it once, I think we could make the tikka masala in about an hour from start to finish (and we have some naan in the freezer, so we can just reheat that). However, we did use pretty much dish we owned. It would have been nice to have a dishwasher.

First the chicken. We rubbed the chicken breasts with cumin, coriander, and cayenne. Then we mixed up some yogurt with fresh ginger and garlic, dipped the chicken in , and cooked under the broiler until done. The yogurt mix gave great flavor and seemed to keep a lot of the moisture in, while allowing the chicken to char nicely on the outside, just like it was out of a tandoori oven (which, unfortunately, we don't own one of).

As for the sauce, it couldn't have been easier. Just make tomato pasta sauce, but instead of using garlic, basil, oregano, and thyme, use onions, garlic, fresh ginger, and garam masala. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, then add heavy cream. A handful of chopped cilantro provided the finishing touch. Done and done.

Once the chicken was allowed to sit for a couple minutes, we cut into chunks, dropped into the sauce for a quick minute, and proceeded to devour. It was so good. The chicken had the tandoori oven texture - charred in places, kind of dry, kind of hard, but still moist - and the sauce had the perfect creamy-tomato taste.


Notes and Next Time

• I will make this again. Maybe tonight. It was good.
• We used 2# of chicken, which was a ridiculous amount. But with the amount of sauce from one big can of crushed tomatoes and 2/3 c of heavy cream, it was the right amount. We have enough leftovers for today and tomorrow. I guess I don't have to make more tonight after all.
• When we cut the chicken, we make the chunks too big. Next time, slightly smaller.
• It would be interesting to use just the yogurt mix with some bone-in chicken, to see if you could replicate the tandoori oven without the sauce. Might be a fun adventure.
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• 2 # chicken, boneless, skinless
• 1 c yogurt
• dry spices: coriander, cumin, cayenne, garam masala
  
• fresh spices/herbs: ginger, garlic, cilantro
• 1medium onion, chopped
• 1 large can crushed tomatoes
• 1 T tomato paste
• a chili pepper (for heat, but can be left out)
  
• 2/3 c heavy cream
• salt
• sugar
• vegetable oil
  

Naan

With the lack of Indian restaurants in town (there is one Indian restaurant, which is decent, but we're trying to be frugal), we decided to try our hand at making some Indian food (we were also partially inspired by our newest copy of Cook's Illustrated, which we were given as a Christmas gift). Since we were going to try our hand at making some of our favorite entrees, we decided to also try our hand at making naan, a south-Asian flat bread.

Kimberly had a recipe in one of her old cookbooks, so we went with it. It was actually a pretty simple recipe - since it's a flat bread, it has no yeast and, therefore, doesn't need to rise. First, I combined the flour, salt, and baking powder, then added in the yogurt. Once it started thickening, I turned the mixture onto the board and kneaded until smooth and elastic. The recipe called for the dough to sit for an hour or more, but I'm not sure it needed that long.

I then cut the dough into small portions, which were flattened into about 6-8" roundish shapes. They were pretty thin, sometimes ripping and being see through. The dough was pretty sticky, so it wasn't easy to make perfect rounds, but rather, they came out slightly oval shaped, which was a fortunate mistake. Each was cooked on a pre-heated, dry cast iron skillet over medium heat. After a few minutes, the expected black/burn spots would start appearing, and the dough would start bubbling.

I took the naan off the heat before they finished cooking and set aside. After finishing the rest of the meal, I put them into a 500 oven and heated through, then slathered with butter - unfortunately, I took the first few out too early and they were still a little uncooked in the middle.

Overall, they came out pretty well. Crispy and black in some parts, chewy in the middle, nice tangy-ness from the yogurt, a good buttery creaminess. The recipe made 10 breads And we have half the recipe left to put in the freezer for future reheating.

Notes and Next Time

• Finishing the naan in the oven immediately after taking them off the skillet may have worked better. Then a quick reheat in the oven right before serving would have been perfect.
• I need to keep them in the oven longer to ensure that they cook through. I suppose I could have kept them in the skillet longer, which would have given them more color in addition to cooking through.
• In the skillet, the center of the naan was cooking/browning faster than the edges. Since we have a gas stove and the heat was set on medium, the flame was basically in the middle. It might be nice to have a flame diffuser (which would also help with the simmering of sauces and chili and the like).
  

Ingredients/Recipe

From The New Vegetarian Epicure:

• 4 cups AP Flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 t Baking Powder
• 2 c yogurt
  

Risotto

While in Italy, we had risotto a few times and raved about it each time. The first time was during our stay in the agriturismo in Assisi.. Later, in Milan, our cousin Guido made risotto for us. This morning, over breakfast, Peter came up with the brilliant idea to make risotto for dinner tonight.
The grocery store had nice looking asparagus and shrimp, so we decided to add those to the risotto. We started with arborio rice. We sauted shallot in some butter. Then we added in the rice and stirred it until the rice became translucent. Once the rice had turned, we added about a cup of white wine (we used a chardonnay from Australia) and let it cook until the pan dried out. Then we added about 1.5 cups of homemade chicken stock. We let it simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the stock had completely absorbed. After the initial stock, we added the rest in ladleful amounts, letting it absorb between each addition. Once the rice was almost done, we stirred in blanched asparagus and cooked shrimp. Then, after the rice had finished cooking and the asparagus/shrimp had heated through, we added parmesean.

Notes and Next Time

• Guido used red wine too
• peas might be nice
• saffron would be pretty
• cooked pancetta could add a nice flavor
• as could mushrooms
  

Ingredients/Recipe

• arborio rice
• broth
• shallot/garlic/onion
• butter
• asparagus
• shrimp (small bay or salad shrimp)
• white wine