Orange-Cardamom-Vanilla Rice Pudding

I didn't get many pictures of this--and the ones I did take were pretty iffy. But: I wanted to include this recipe because a. It turned out great, and I was proud of a rare dessert-making success b. I realized rice pudding is an endlessly re-imaginable dish. You can start with a basic rice pudding (I used smittenkitchen's excellent and simple recipe) and add whatever flavors you like. I am already thinking of new ideas: Ginger and lime? Toasted walnut and caramel? Sour cherry?
It can also be made ahead and quickly bruleed at dessert time--so it's a great party dessert. And it's also gluten free.
This was delightful--creamy and sweet, but with the spices adding interest and depth. Absolutely lovely.
I made this for an Indian food dinner party--so I just added Indian-ish spices. It was big hit--even though people were too full to eat very much of it.

Ingredients

1 cup rice
4.5 cups milk (anything but nonfat)
1/2 cup sugar plus 2 TB
2 tsp vanilla extract
zest and juice of 2 fresh oranges
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp salt

What to do
Place all of the ingredients except 2 TB sugar into a saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce to the barest simmer. Leave uncovered. Stir occasionally for 30 minutes--plump rice should be suspended in a thick, creamy sauce.
Pour into a casserole dish and leave until ready to serve.
Before serving, dusk the top with the remaining 2 TB of sugar. Turn the oven on to High broil. Place the casserole dish until the broiler for a couple minutes--until the sugar becomes brown and caramelized.

Serve!

My sister say NUMSSSSS! 

Lamb Korma

YUM.

To be fair, I've never made a lamb dish that wasn't fabulous. I've made leg of lamb, lamb ragu, lamb chops, and 6-hour lamb shoulder: all of these were to die.
And so was this fantastic lamb korma! The spice combination tasted warm and complex, while not overwhelming the rich gaminess of the lamb. It was simply delicious--better than any version I've ordered in a restaurant.
I made this dish for an Indian dinner party, along with chicken tikka masala and fiery veggie masala with cucumber-mint raita. I also made a cardamon-orange-vanilla rice pudding for dessert.
People came over and we ate in the backyard--it was a really fun night, and the Food. Was. Amazing. It was exactly my idea of a great Saturday night.

Not a photogenic dish--but the taste makes up for it. 

I invited my English department to the party--and several of them can't eat gluten, which is how I struck upon the idea of having an Indian food party--it's all naturally gluten-free.
I bought my lamb at Oliver's, which is the only place I ever buy lamb and my favorite butcher's shop of all time.
Finding a Lamb Korma recipe online isn't easy--and each one I found had a slightly different combination of spices--some included chile powder, others bay leaves; some included poppy seeds or raisins, one had almond powder. But all of them started with sauteed onions, tons of spices, ginger and garlic, tomatoes, and yogurt--the lamb is then braised slowly in this sauce. Most call for whole spices to be ground in a mortar--I skipped this and just used regular ground spices for the sake of simplicity. My recipe is an amalgam of several I read.

Ingredients
2 red onions, chopped
4 TB salted butter
1 TB ground cloves
1 TB ground cinnamon
1 TB ground cardamon
1 TB ground coriander
1 TB ground tumeric
1 TB smoked paprika
1 TB cumin
5 garlic cloves, minced
4 TB minced fresh ginger
5 big, rip tomatoes, blended up
2 TB sugar
3 lbs boneless lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 1 inch chunks
2 cups plain, full-fat Greek yogurt
water
salt

What to do: 

Melt the butter in the pan you'll be cooking in. You should use a deep pan with a well-fitting lid that can go in the oven. Add the onions and saute for about five minutes. Add all of the spices--cloves, pepper, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, tumeric, paprika. Basically throw in anything powdered. 

Stir the spiced around, allowing the to fry just a bit in the butter for about a minute. Then add the ginger and garlic and stir that around, too. 

Add the blended tomatoes and allow everything to come to a boil. Scrap the bottom of the pot, getting up any spices which may have stuck. Add the sugar and a dash of salt and stir in. 

Add the lamb and yogurt. It's fine to put the lam in raw (I was worried about not searing before braising, but it turned out totally fine). Stir around until the yogurt is well mixed in. Add about a cup of water if it looks too dry for a good braise.

Cover the pot and place into the oven at 280 degree for 3 hours or more. 

Before serving, skim as much of the fat off of the top as you can. 

Taste for salt and serve with rice! 

The recipe had the most individual spices of anything I've cooked. 

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Onions and spices.

Adding lamb to the bubbling, tomato-ey mix. 

Someone's delicious plate.

Glover's Atoll Fish Curry

My favorite vacation destination is anywhere with palm trees and baby-blue water. So when we were planning our honeymoon, as soon as I saw pictures of Glover's Atoll in the guidebook, I knew we HAD to go. 

Our hut.

Glover's Atoll has everything I want in a summer getaway: clear Caribbean water, very few other people, hammocks. 
There is no electricity on the island, no running water. You have to bring all the food you want to eat while you're there, and can supplement it with all the coconuts you can crack and all the fish you can catch. Or, for the inept / inexperienced fisherman, you can buy fish from some of the workers on the island. That's what we did. 
I brought curry powder, lime juice, chili paste and soy sauce from the US, and one night cooked a big pot of fish curry with the freshest possible fish. The process had many steps. 
First, we bought a pound of fresh fish fillets. 

Barracuda and snapper.

Blegh!

 The island's workers would chop up and clean the fish on the docks every evening. They threw the unneeded guts, skin, tails, etc back into the ocean, and this created a FRENZY of sharks and stingrays beneath the dock. I called it the Shark Show. We drank sunset rum cocktails and looked down at the sharks (nurse, lemon, black-tip, and reef) churning up the water underneath the dock. 

Shark show!

So once we had the fish (placed into my bare hand), we needed coconut for the curry. This involved physical strength, so I let Adam do it. First, you had to find a coconut and husk out the nut with a pointy sticking-up crowbar.

Then, you crack the nut open and grind out the coconut meat, using a grinding thing.

So now, with both grated coconut and fish, I was ready to make some curry! 

Fish Curry Recipe 

Ingredients

1 lb fish fillet (ours was snapper) 

A small amount of cooking oil

2 onions, diced

2 tablespoons of curry powder

grated meat of 2 coconuts (to make at locations besides islands, use a can of coconut milk) 

2 tablespoons lime juice

dash salt or soy sauce 

1 tablespoon chili paste (or any spicy element: sriracha, cayenne, etc) 

What to do

Put the onion into a pan with the oil and heat it up. Saute the onion for five-ish minutes. Then, add the curry powder and cook a minute longer to fry the spices. 

Add the coconut gratings or milk and bring to a bubble. Allow to boil for 2-3 minutes. 

Add the fish and turn the heat down. Softly cook the fish in the liquid for about 6 minutes. Then, beak the fish into large chunks with a spoon. 

Add the lime juice, soy or salt, and chili paste. Taste and re-season as needed. 

Serve over rice. 

Finished curry. The coconut shavings made it a bit chunky.

This came out delicious. Plus, it took forever to make, so we were starving. 

We ate this curry sitting on the walkway of our hut in the dark. There were phosphorescent fish lighting up the water.

And to drink with it, we made coco-locos. You slice the top off a coconut, add rum to the water inside, and drink. 

This was a gorgeous, memorable night. 

Enjoy! 

Fiery Veggie Masala and Cucumber-Mint Raita

This masala is SPICY. 

This is another thing I made for Bachelor-watching Indian Feast night. I wanted to make something seriously spicy to go with raita. Raita is a refreshing yogurt sauce designed to relieve the burn of a tinglingly-hot dish. If I was making the raita, I wanted to really NEED the raita. So I made a basic chana (chickpea) masala with cauliflower, and just loaded it up with jalapenos, fresh red chiles, and cayenne.
If you want a delicious, hearty vegetarian meal without the burn, just halve or eliminate the spicy things in the recipe.
Lastly--raita is a wonderful sauce. So easy to make, and pairs great with any number of things. It takes about three minutes to make.

Veggie Masala of FIRE

Ingredients

• 2 TB butter or oil 
• 2 yellow onions, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced or grated (I blitzed mine in the food processor) 
• a 4 inch, chubby piece of garlic, minced or grated (I blitzed this up with the garlic) 
• 3 TB garam masala spice power
• 1 tsp cinnamon 
• 1 tsp cumin 
• 2 TB sugar 
• Salt to taste
• 1 large 32oz can of diced tomatoes (or use crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce)
• 2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 head of cauliflower, chopped up or pulled into florets 
• 3 jalapenos, diced, with seeds
• 2 red hot chiles, minced (note: I bought a bag at the Asian grocery and keep it in the freezer--they freeze great) 
• 1 TB cayenne pepper 
• 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped 

What to do:

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onions and saute until barely browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garam masala powder, cinnamon,, and cumin, and fry the spices with the onions and butter for about a minutes (this brings out more fragrance and flavor). Add the ginger and garlic and continue cooking for a few more minutes. All the ingredients should be cooking through and your kitchen should smell great. It's ok if the mixture begins to look at bit dry.
Add the canned tomatoes to the pot--don't drain. Mix, scraping up all the spice which may have started burning on the bottom of the pot. Get the tomatoes simmering, then add the sugar, chick peas, cauliflower, jalapenos, chiles, cayenne, and a dash of salt. The sugar helps the tomatoes "meld" and gets rid of the metallic "canned" taste.
Cover the pot and let everything simmer on low for about ten minutes.
Taste--does it need salt? Do you want it even spicier? More sugar? Season to taste.
Allow to cool slightly. Mix in the chopped cilantro.
 Serve with raita!

Finished!

Cucumber-Mint Raita

Ingredients
1.5 cups of plain yogurt (don't use nonfat)
half of a cucumber, grated
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
3-4 TB (a small handful?) of mint leaves
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste

What to do

Put the yogurt in whatever container you plan to use.
Toast the cumin and fennel seeds in a dry pan. To do this, get the pan hot and add the seeds. Shake the pan a bit to prevent burning. They should be toasted in about a minute. Add to the yogurt.
Grate your half cucumber and add to the yogurt.
Chop the mint finely and add to the yogurt.
Juice the lemon and add to the yogurt.
Sprinkle in a pinch of salt.
Mix everything.
You have raita!

Finished raita!

Yum.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken tikka is warming, spicy, complex, and totally delicious.

I have always loved Indian food, and Chicken Tikka Masala was the first Indian dish I learned to cook at home. It is easy and fabulous. I originally got my recipe from the Pioneer Woman, but I've messed with it over time. This is a recipe I've made so many times I have it memorized. 

I made this for Bachelor Night--a tradition at my house. Turns out a lot of the teachers at my school have my same appalling taste in television--and also love drinking cheap wine and eating good food in the middle of the week. Our Tuesday night gatherings are a great excuse for me to cook for a crowd. 

Because I have so much free time--it being summer and all--I made an Indian feast! Chicken tikka, veggie masala, homemade garlic naan, and raita to cool the spice. Yum.

Here is the recipe. It's PW's, with my alterations: 

Ingredients

• 3 whole (to 4) Chicken Breasts or thigh (any boneless, skinless chicken is fine)
•  Kosher Salt
•  Ground Coriander
•  Cumin Powder
• 1 cup Plain Yogurt
• 6 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 large yellow onions
• 8 cloves Garlic
• 1 chubby 4-inch piece of ginger
•  Garam Masala spice powder (usually available at regular grocery stores)
• 1 large can (28 Ounce) Diced Tomatoes
• 1 jalapeno or other spicy element (like cayenne or red pepper flakes)

•  Sugar
• 1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• Cilantro
•  

What to Do:

Start by seasoning the chicken breasts with some kosher salt. Next sprinkle them on both sides with some coriander and cumin. Then coat the chicken breasts completely with the plain yogurt. Set the chicken on a metal cooling rack over a foil-lined baking sheet and place it about 10-12 inches below a broiler for 5-7 minutes per side. Watch carefully so as not to totally char the chicken. It should have slightly blackened edges. Remove from oven and set aside.

Next dice  the two  large onions. In a large skillet melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Toss in the onions and sauté until they are slightly browned, about 6 mines. As the onions cook, mince your garlic. Next, cut off the outer skin and mince or grate the big hunk of fresh ginger. Add the garlic and ginger to the onions. Also throw in about 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook for about 3 minutes.

Next you are going to add about 4 tablespoons Garam Masala spice. And if you like it hot, this is also when you will add your spicy element--jalapeno or chiles. If you don't want spice, just omit these. Let the spices cook in the butter for a few minutes, stirring constantly. 

Now add your can of diced tomatoes. Continue cooking and stirring, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze it. Add about 1 tablespoon sugar. Let this mixture simmer on medium for about 5 minutes.

After the Tikka Masala sauce has had a chance to simmer for a little bit, add in the 1 ½ cups of heavy cream. Now, chop up your chicken breasts into chunks and stir them into the Tikka Masala sauce. A handful of chopped fresh cilantro is a nice addition if you like cilantro. 

Serve with naan or rice!

Note: make "Indian" rice by adding a few dashes of tumeric and a cup of frozen peas, then cooking rice as normal. 

Ingredients for the yogurt-marinated roast chicken.

Chicken before roasting. 

Roasted chicken. The yogurt gives it fantastic flavor. 

Finished Tikka! 

The whole meal: homemade garlic naan, cucumber-mint raita, chicken tikka masala, and fiery vegetable masala. Doesn't this make you want to drink boxed wine and watch bad TV? 

My plate. And a jealous chihuahua photo bomb!