Dumpling Night

If anyone's interested in learning to make dumplings from scratch, join us on Saturday! Albert will be teaching us how to make dumplings, from the dumping wrapper to the actual dumpling filling. We'll start prepping at 5pm, and we plan to eat by 7pm. E-mail me if you're interested! This Dinner Meet will be held in South San Jose.

Garlic Noodles with Roasted Crab

Never again! Never again will I pay an exorbitant amount of money at a restaurant to have delicious garlic noodles and roasted crab. What inspired me to find this recipe in the first place is because of all the rave reviews I'd read of the infamous garlic noodles and roasted crab from Thanh Long in SF. I googled that and stumbled upon this recipe. What was difficult about the recipe the first time I attempted it wasn't the recipe itself - it was the crab killing part. Dear lord, what a traumatic experience! I reviewed this tutorial on YouTube and thought I had it covered, but... yeah. Traumatic. This time around, I got smart and visited my local 99 Ranch supermarket and asked them to chop up the crabs for me. That seafood butcher was cool and efficient. Thus, the dish was made, and it was easy and delicious. Give it a try! By the way, I got the recipe from this site . I followed the recipe almost to the letter; I've added my comments in brackets below.

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh noodles
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic (pounded)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 1/2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
2 1/2 teaspoons oyster sauce
5 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese

Method:
1. Rince the noodles with cold water and set aside. Heat up a pot of water and let it boil. Boil the noodles in the hot water until they are done, drain the water, and set aside to cool down the noodles. [Just for a little though! I like having the noodles warm.]
2. In a pan, sauté the garlic with the olive oil in medium heat. The purpose is to infuse the olive oil with garlicky flavor. Discard the garlic and then add in 4 tablespoons of butter and turn the heat to low. [I actually prefer to keep the garlic in; the taste of the garlic after it's been cooked in the butter is super delicious. You could also choose to mince the garlic and leave it in instead.]
3. Add in the chicken bouillon powder, garlic powder, oyster sauce and blend well. Set aside to let it cool. [I don't actually let it cool that much because I like the noodles warm.]
4. Once the garlic mixture is cool and the noodles are cool at room temperature, pour the garlic mixture over the noodles and toss them together to blend well. Add in the grated parmesan cheese, toss well, and serve immediately. [Again, ignore the first part if you prefer warm noodles.]

Note: Sometimes, I need to reheat the noodles a bit because the crab's not ready yet. In that case, I put the noodles in an oven-safe dish and put it in the oven at about 150-200 degrees F.

Crustacean-inspired Roasted Crab Recipe
Ingredients:
1 Dungeness Crab (about 2 lbs) [I bought 2 crabs totaling a bit over 3 lbs. The rest of the ingredients is enough to cook this much crab.]
1 stick unsalted butter/8 tablespoons
3-4 cloves garlic (chopped coarsely)
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
2 teaspoons black pepper (cracked using a mortar and pestle)
1/4 teaspoon sugar

Method:
1. Clean and chop the crab into small pieces.
2. Heat up the butter in a wok (between medium to low heat) and saute the garlic until aromatic, but not brown.
3. Add in the black peppers, chicken bouillon powder, and then add in the crab and stir well.
4. Add in the sugar and cook the crab until half done.
5. Dish out and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot with garlic noodles.

Curried Pork Noodles

One of the main reasons I use Google Reader is because I get to consolidate a whole bunch of food blogs to read at my leisure. I happened across this recipe as I was browsing from one linked blog to another. You should check out this blog sometime; I like the blogger's writing style, and the recipes are tasty. I've adapted the recipe to what you see below. This serves 4.

Ingredients:

1 package of dried rice noodles (I used thin rice sticks, but you should try using pad thai noodles if you find them.)

Vegetable/olive oil

1 pound ground pork

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 small fresh green chilis, deseeded and minced

1 small onion, chopped in long slices

1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

2 tablespoons curry powder

3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

¾ cup coarsely chopped cilantro

¾ cup coarsely chopped basil (optional)

Instructions:

1. Cover the rice noodles in boiling water and soak until soft but not mushy for 7-10 minutes. Reserve ¼ cup of the soaking water. Drain the noodles, flush with cold water, and transfer to a bowl.

2. In the meantime, cook the pork, garlic, and chili in 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat in a wok or large skillet, breaking up any chunks, until just cooked through (a little pink is okay as it will cook through later). Remove with a slotted spoon to a small bowl.

3. Add the remaining oil in the skillet or wok over medium-high heat and add the pepper strips. Cook for 1 minute, then add the onion. Continue cooking until the pepper is almost tender but with a little crunch and the onion is golden, an additional 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Add the reserved pork along with the curry powder. Cook, stirring often, for 1 minute then stir in the reserve noodle-soaking water. Add the drained noodles along with the fish sauce and herbs. Toss well to combine and serve with more fish sauce, if desired.

Beef Chow Fun with Bean Sprouts or Chinese Broccoli

This is a really easy dish to make at home, especially using the recipe I'm going to share with you below. As a working parent supporting two kids on her own, my mom did not have time for fancy recipes. If it weren't a dish she could cook in less than an hour, it wasn't going on the dinner table. This was one of those dishes that showed up regularly for dinner since it was a favorite of me and my brother, and it was super quick to make. Here's the recipe below for four.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. wide, flat rice noodles

1 lb. beef flank steak, sliced (or more, if you want more meat in the dish)

1 yellow onion, sliced

1 lb. bean sprouts

Canola oil (for stir fry)

Oyster sauce

Soy sauce

Sugar

Black pepper (optional)

2 green onions, sliced into 1-inch segments (optional)

Instructions:

1. Marinade the sliced beef in some oyster sauce, about 2 tbsp. If you like it a bit peppery, add some ground black pepper to the marinade as well. Make sure to mix the sauce with the meat. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.

2. Loosen the noodles. If they aren’t fresh, they’ll be a bit tough to unravel. Take care not to break the noodle; eating small pieces of broken noodle is not as yummy as long strands! Once the noodle has been loosened from its packaged state, mix in about 4 tbsp. of oyster sauce by hand until the noodles are coated and have a light brown color to them. Heat in microwave for 1 minute if the noodles are too hard, but if they're fresh, you can by-pass the microwaving.

3. Add some oil to the wok. Stir-fry long slices of one yellow onion until it starts to become translucent. Add the beef slices, and stir around until the meat is cooked through. Slight pinkness is acceptable, since you'll be cooking the meat for a bit more before serving. Remove the meat from the wok and set aside.

4. Add a bit more oil to the wok and stir fry the bean sprouts (and the green onion if you have some) until the bean sprouts turn yellow. Alternatively, if you're making beef chow fun with Chinese broccoli instead, this is the point that you would add the Chinese broccoli and stir it around til the leaves are wilted.

5. Add the noodles to the wok and mix well with the bean sprouts. If needed, add a bit more oil to the sides to keep the noodles from burning. Add some soy sauce and sugar to taste. (Approximately 2 tsp. of soy sauce and ½ tsp. of sugar.) Once the taste of the noodles and bean sprouts has been adjusted, add the beef and onion back in. Mix all the ingredients and serve hot.

Oodles of Noodles

Indeed, we feasted on noodles, noodles, and more noodles at Dinner Meet this week, and boy, were they tasty! These are all noodle dishes that are easy to prepare for dinner on a weeknight, so I hope you try them out. Since I've prepared these dishes before, I felt more confident about how they would turn out. (Though trying out completely new recipes with a group of people for the first time can be amusing as well, I'm sure. I guess that's how quite a few of these Dinner Meets have been in the past few weeks, and the dishes turned out great!) Anyway, check out the recipes, and let me know how they turn out.

Oodles of Noodles this week

I'm delinquent - I posted about signups everywhere but the blog, fancy that. Anyway, on the menu this week are Asian-style noodle dishes:

Garlic Noodles with Roasted Crab

Beef Chow Fun

Curried Pork Noodles

It's this Wednesday, starting at 7pm. Do let me know if you'd like to join as I've space for 1-2 more people!

Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti

I have never made biscotti before, but then again I don't bake much. I've also been of the mind that biscotti is hard to make, but I think I might have just been intimidated by the exotic sounding name. Either way, the boys proved to me that baking is perhaps not as much a science as everyone else makes it out to be. (Don't hold me to this statement for baked goods that are not biscotti!) They totally forgot to cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl prior to adding the dry ingredients. They somehow also managed to add eggs before the recipe called for them to add eggs. I was worried, but the biscotti turned out just fine in the end. It smells wonderful as it's baking - like churros!

Here's another recipe from allrecipes.com; check it out.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Ingredients:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the 2/3 cup sugar and butter. Beat in 1 egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients.
3. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into two pieces. Roll each piece into a log about 9 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place logs on the prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly. Brush with the beaten egg.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden and firm to the touch. Cool for 15 minutes.
5. On a cutting board, slice each log crosswise at a diagonal into 1/2 inch slices, using a serrated knife. Place back on the baking sheet, cut side down, and sprinkle with a mixture of the remaining cinnamon and sugar. Return to the oven for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until toasted. Cool on wire racks, and store in an airtight container.

Chicken Cacciatore

Looking for a simple one-dish meal? This is it. I would say that this is probably the simplest of the recipes from yesterday's Dinner Meet. Toss everything in, cook, and serve over rice. Voilà! Dinner is served. Recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com again; clearly, this is where Mike likes to go for recipes! Below serves six.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 medium onion, sliced and separated into rings
• 1 medium green pepper, julienned
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• Hot cooked rice

Instructions:

1. In a skillet, cook the chicken, onion and green pepper in oil until chicken is lightly browned and vegetables are tender. Add tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes and seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until heated through. Serve over rice.

Gnocchi with Cherry Tomato Sauce

This cherry tomato sauce was my favorite out of all the recipes from last night. It was super flavorful, and the combination of the naturally sweet tomatoes with the distinctive saltiness of the olives was pure perfection. Again, the recipe comes from allrecipes.com; the one change we made was substituting half of the cherry tomatoes required with chopped Roma tomatoes since Mike's cherry tomato plants couldn't give us more. :-) I always thought gnocchi would be hard to make, but what do you know - they sell them premade at the supermarket. We just cooked them like regular pasta. This sauce will go well with other pasta, too, so you should give it a try even if you can't find gnocchi. The below recipe serves four.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 minced red chile pepper
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2/3 cup kalamata olives, sliced
• 1 (16 ounce) package fresh gnocchi
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion, garlic, and chile pepper; cook until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high, and stir in the cherry tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes have lost their form and are beginning to make a sauce, about 5 minutes. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 10 minutes.
2. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the fresh gnocchi, and cook until the gnocchi float to the surface, 2 to 3 minutes. Gently strain out the gnocchi and place into a serving dish.
3. Stir the basil and olives into the simmering sauce, and cook for one minute. Pour the sauce over the drained gnocchi and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve.

Pasta Fagioli

Here's a tasty, yet simple recipe for a delicious soup! It has a zesty, fresh taste to it that really opens up your palate. It's hearty enough to serve as a meal on its own. Mike got the original recipe from allrecipes.com, and I think the only change we made to it was to use rotini pasta instead of the spinach pasta mentioned in the recipe. The below serves four.

Ingredients:

2 stalks celery, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• salt to taste
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup uncooked spinach pasta (we used rotini)
• 1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, with liquid

Instructions:

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook celery, onion, garlic, parsley, Italian seasoning, red pepper and salt until onion is translucent. Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes and tomato sauce, and simmer on low for 15 to 20 minutes. (Simmering a bit more is okay; that way all the veggies get nice and soft, especially the celery.)
2. Add pasta and cook 10 minutes, until pasta is tender.
3. Add undrained beans and mix well. Heat through. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Italian Night = Tomato Night

Last night's Dinner Meet was tasty, but I think we may have gone overboard with the tomato usage. We managed to use tomato in every single course except for the biscotti. Don't get me wrong, I love tomatoes, but this might be the most tomato I've had in the last month! The recipes were fairly easy to prepare, though some of the boys encountered issues following the directions for biscotti. (The biscotti still turned out well, so maybe there is a method to their madness!)

Thanks, Mike, for hosting, and for letting us use up all of the tomatoes you grew in your garden. I swear, the dishes tasted so much better with the fresh tomatoes!

Viva Italia!

Mike A. will be leading Dinner Meeters to prepare three simple Italian dishes. First a hearty soup of Pasta Fagioli, followed by a refreshing Gnocchi with Cherry Tomato sauce and a tasty Chicken Cacciatore. Who's in? Signups are now open! This Dinner Meet will take place next Wednesday, 9/16, starting at 7pm.

Email me if you're interested.

Note: His place is in South San Jose, so be forewarned. :-)

Link to general area here.

I'll confirm attendees before the weekend's out.

Nectarine Cake Squares

After such a rich meal, it was nice to turn our attention to a light, fruity dessert. The cake layer itself is pretty thin, perhaps about an inch and a half in height after it comes out of the oven. (I mention this because I thought it was going to rise more.) Alice had picked out some nice nectarines and peaches to put on top, though I suppose the sugar Trang and Raymond mixed into the slices helped, too. :-) Recipe below:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/4 tsp of salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup plus 3 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

2 medium firm, ripe nectarines (14 to 16 oz), quarted lengthwise and pitted

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsps confectioner's sugar for dusting

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 13- by 9- by 2-inch metal baking pan, knocking out excess flour.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl. Beat together butter and 1 cup granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla and almond extract. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing at low speed after each addition until just combined. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately in 3 batches, mixing after each addition until just combined. Spread batter in pan, smoothing top.

3. Cut nectarines lengthwise into 1/8-inch slices and toss with lemon juice and remaining 3 tablespoons granulated sugar in a bowl. Arrange slices, overlapping slightly, in 4 crosswise rows over batter. Cover surface of cake with a piece of buttered wax paper (paper helps fruit glaze itself) and bake in middle of oven 15 minutes. Remove paper and bake until a tester comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes more.

4. While cake is still warm, dust generously with confectioners sugar, then cool completely on a rack.

Collard Greens with Bacon

Collard greens with bacon - it's a standard side dish in Southern meals; I usually see it as an option with barbeque. I had never seen raw collard greens before, and I was startled by how big each leaf was. However, once the leaves got in the pot, they very quickly cooked down to almost nothing. This was a tasty side dish to complement the rest of Alice's Southern cuisine. Can't go wrong with bacon, right? :)

Ingredients:

4 strips thick-sliced bacon, snipped crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Several dashes of hot sauce

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 lbs. collard greens, stems removed, leaves sliced into 3-inch wide strips

1 cup chicken broth

Instructions:

1. Put bacon pieces into a large pot and cook on medium heat until they just start to brown around the edges. Stir occasionally. Mix in the onions and cook until they're soft and starting to brown.

2. Add the garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Cook until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 1 min.

3. Pour in the vinegar, bring to a simmer, and cook until the amount of liquid is reduced by half, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

4. Stir in the collard greens and the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the greens are completely wilted and have lost their brightness, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with additional vinegar and hot sauce and serve with a generous ladle of the pan juices from the pot.

Grits with Corn and Vidalia Onion

Comfort food at its best - who knew grits could be so good? I certainly didn't, but then again, I've never had grits before. (Unless you're one of those folks who call grits "polenta" and polenta "grits", in which case, I have had polenta before.) I think this is one of those dishes I'd be perfectly happy eating on its own, but with the andouille sausage and the shrimp, the grits were elevated to another level entirely. The recipe below serves six.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp canola oil

1 onion, preferably Vidalia, grated on a box grater

Scraped kernels from 2-3 ears of corn (about 1 cup)

2 cups milk

2 cups water

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup stone-ground or coarse-ground grits (a.k.a. polenta)

2 tbsp unsalted butter

¾ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (about 3 ounces)

1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tbsp chopped fresh chives

Instructions:

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring until transparent, about 2 min. Add the corn and continue to stir occasionally, until the kernels become soft, about 5 min.

2. Add the milk, water, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Whisk in the grits, decrease the heat to low, and simmer. Whisk occasionally until the grits are creamy and thick, 45 to 60 min. (Actually, when I was making this, it took about 25-30 min.) Stir in the butter, cheese, parsley, and chives. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce

This was wonderfully aromatic, and I'm always a huge fan of andouille sausage. This type of sausage is savory, spicy, and just thinking about it has me salivating. :-) The sausage and the shrimp cooked in the Creole mustard sauce absolutely hit the spot, especially served over the grits we had. The recipe below serves six.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 ½ tbsp Creole or Cajun seasoning

3 tbsp vegetable oil, divided

1 ½ lb andouille sausage, cut crosswise on the diagonal into 3/4 inch-thick pieces

1 ½ large onions, halved, thinly sliced

1 ½ red bell peppers, seeds and ribs discarded, cut into 1/3 inch-wide strips

1 ½ tsp dried thyme

1 ½ cups of low salt chicken broth

½ cup of Creole mustard (such as Zatarain's)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Instructions:

1. Toss shrimp with Creole seasoning in a bowl to coat.

2. Heat 1 ½ tablespoons of oil in a large heavy skillet over high heat. Add sausage pieces, cut side down. Cook until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer sausage to a bowl.

3. Add shrimp to skillet. Cook until browned and just opaque in center, about 3 minutes. Transfer to bowl with sausage.

4. Add remaining 1 ½ tablespoons of oil, onion, red pepper, and thyme to skillet. Sauté until vegetables are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.

5. Add broth, mustard, and vinegar. Stir until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

6. Return sausage and shrimp to skillet. Simmer until heated through, stirring occasionally, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

Southern Comfort - yum yum good!

This was some seriously good grub. Or, as Alton Brown (one of my superheroes on the Food Network) would probably say, "That's some Good Eats!" The color contrasts, the bold flavors of the dishes, and the warmth that envelops you purely from the feast of good, ol' comfort food all contributed to my delight with last night's Dinner Meet. I highly recommend you try making these dishes together - Alice did a fantastic job of pairing these recipes to create a memorable meal. She got these recipes from Epicurious (I'm not sure if she tweaked any of it), but I've heard from reputable sources that the site is a treasure trove of yummy recipes. I'll have to check it out sometime.

Thanks again for the delicious meal, Alice!

Southern Comfort on the horizon - sign up!

Wow, Indian Cuisine night was fantastic! Keep your eyes posted on this blog as I update with recipes from this past Wednesday's dinner meet. As I find time to do that, it's time to sign up for next week's Dinner Meet - Alice will be guiding Dinner Meeters in a sampling of the American Southern cuisine. I'm calling it "Southern Comfort" - but let's not get too rowdy since it's a weeknight? Har har... Yeah, I groan at myself sometimes, too. :)

Anyway, here's the menu below. Email me if you're interested in coming! It's going to be on Wednesday, 9/9, starting at 7pm.

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce

Grits with Corn and Vidalia Onion

Collard Greens with Bacon

Nectarine Cake Squares

Saffron Pistachio Kulfi

Wow. This was AMAZINGLY good, and Bhumi guarantees that it's super simple to prepare as well. I wasn't sure what to expect with this dessert, but I think the closest I can come to describing it is "Indian ice cream". The saffron and pistachios really added a nice touch to the creaminess of the dessert, and on such a warm night, the dessert was an instant hit. Bhumi says that the kulfi is traditionally made with a popsicle stick stuck in it so that you can eat it like a popsicle, but since she didn't have any, we just used some spoons and had the kulfi directly out of the Dixie cups. Delish!

I suppose I should add that the below method is the "quick" way; there's apparently a longer, more traditional way to go about this, but of course we're all about the quick wins here!

Ingredients:

Sweetened condensed milk - 14 oz.

Evaporated milk - 12 oz.

Heavy whipping cream - 16 oz.

Cool Whip whipped topping - 16 oz.

Saffron - 1 big pinch

Sugar – 1 tsp

Cashews, Pistachios, Almonds - 1/2 cup, coarsely ground (I think she only used pistachios in ours)

Instructions:

1. With a mortar and pestle, grind together Sugar and Saffron.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine Sweetened Condensed Milk, Evaporated Milk, Heavy Whipping Cream and Cool Whip.
3. Using an electric hand blender, gently mix all ingredients together.
4. Add in Saffron and Sugar mixture and Nuts. Mix well.
5. Pour mixture into small dixie style plastic cups. Cover cups with foil and insert a wooden popsicle stick into the center (or use a popsicle maker).
6. Freeze Kulfi for at least 4 – 6 hours, preferably overnight. Serves 20-25.

Chaana Masala

This is one of my favorite dishes whenever I go out for an Indian lunch buffet. I love the way the tomatoes complement the chickpeas; it's a perfect dish to serve over basmati rice or with some warm naan to wrap around it. The list of ingredients is long, but as I was watching Bhumi prepare this dish, it looks like you don't really need to know any super fancy cooking technique to prepare it. Just keep an eye on it, stir things around, and add things as stated in the recipe. :) Bhumi's recipe below:

Ingredients:

Kabuli Channas/Garbanzo Beans – 2 cup
Water – 8 cups
Black Cardamom – 1
Bay Leaf – 1
Cinnamon Stick 1″ pc
Salt – to taste
Oil – 1.5 tbsp
Hing/Asafoetida – 1/8 tsp
Crushed Tomatoes – 14.5 oz can/400 gms
Channa/Chole Masala – 1 tbsp
Anardana – 1/2 tsp
Red Chili Powder – 1/2 tsp
Chaat Masala – 1/2 tsp
Amchur/Dry Mango Powder – 1/2 tsp
Onions & Lemon/Lime – for garnishing

Instructions:

1. Soak the Chick Peas overnight (this could potentially be done away with canned garbanzo beans but I’ve never tried this).
2. Transfer the Chick Peas and the water it has been soaking in into a Pressure Cooker.
3. Add in Cinnamon Stick, Bay Leaf, Black Cardamom & Salt and cook Chick Peas in the Pressure Cooker.
4. Seperate the water and the Channas, do not discard the water.
5. In a pan, heat Oil on medium heat. Once hot, add in the Asafoetida and right after that add in the Crushed Tomatoes. Cook till the Tomatoes seperate from the Oil.
6. Add in the Channa Masala, Chaat Masala, Red Chilli Powder, Dry Mango Powder & Anardana Powder. Mix well.
7. Add in the Chick Peas and mix again.
8. Add in the Water that had been set aside, little at a time.
9. Mix occasionally and cover and allow the Chick Peas to cook.
10. Repeat the process till the water is all consumed and the consistency of the gravy looks good.
11. Garnish with Onions and Lemon/Lime.
12. Serve hot with Puris, Bhaturas, Bread, Chapati, Parathas or Naan.

Palak Paneer

To be honest, we cheated a little with this dish. Most of it was already prepared by Bhumi prior to our arrival at her place, and the only thing left to do was to dice up and sautee the paneer. I was surprised that the cheese could be sauteed like that without it melting, but it turned out great. Bhumi says that this dish usually requires the cheese to be deep fried, but sauteeing it works just fine without adding a heapload more grease to the dish. I approve! Anyway, try out Bhumi's recipe, and let me know how it goes. :)

Ingredients:

1 Onion (finely chopped)

1 Tomato (finely chopped)

1 Tsp Ginger Garlic Paste

½ Tsp Chilli Powder

½ Tsp Green Chili Paste or 1 fresh Green Chili

1 Tsp Cumin Powder

1 Tsp Coriander Powder

1 Tsp Fenugreek Powder

Turmeric a pinch

Salt to taste

Paneer as desired

Fresh Spinach – 1 bunch

Whipping Cream (optional) – I didn’t add this but most restaurants do

Whole Garam Masala (Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon) or Garam Masala Powder

1 or 2 Garlic cloves minced (optional)

Instructions:

1. Clean and wash spinach and immerse in boiling water for 2 min, puree it in a blender and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a deep pan, add garam masala. Now add onions and fry till golden brown, add turmeric and ginger garlic paste, cook for a minute. Add all spices and red chili powder, cook for a minute or two.
3. Now add the spinach (palak) and cook until the gravy oozes with little bubbles.
4. Cut Paneer into 2-3 cm cubes, sauté it in shallow oil (it can also be deep fried if desired but it’s not necessary). Add Paneer pieces to the gravy and simmer in for few minutes.
5. Add some heavy cream to the spinach gravy and mix well (optional).
6. Serve with Roti or Naan

Chaat

This was a suprisingly easy appetizer packed with a lot of flavor. Beware - those little balls are quite spicy, but paired with the cool yogurt on the side, the taste has your mouth coming back for more. Yummy yummy in my tummy. I think I might have filled up my tummy with a lot of this before I even got to the entrees!

Here's Bhumi's recipe below (with my own comments in parentheses):

Ingredients:

1 large Potato, boiled and diced

1 small red onion, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 cup yogurt

Chaat Masala to taste, optional (this comes in a package in powder form)

Chaat (the little ball things; I thought they looked like mini-Kix)

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together except yogurt and chaat masala.

2. Blend yogurt with ½ cup of water and add some chaat masala. Serve the chaat with yogurt sauce as a dressing on top.

Indian Deliciousness!

Thanks to Bhumi for hosting such a wonderful night of Indian cooking! I've always been intimidated by the list of ingredients needed for Indian dishes, so I have never mustered the courage to attempt an Indian dish on my own. Seeing Bhumi at work made me realize it's not so bad; you just need to have the right ingredients on hand, and then it's just a matter of adjusting the taste with a pinch of this and a dash of that. All of the recipes for this week include ingredients that can be picked up at your neighborhood Indian grocery store, and luckily, Sunnyvale does not lack in this area. :)

Hope you all have a chance to try out the recipes from our Indian Dinner Meet - they were truly delicious!