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Postby saman » 11/28/2010, 1:49 pm

so i've been writing recently about what i've been making and eating, but i haven't been sharing recipes, so i figured i'd share what i'm having right now

macaroni and cheese

serves 3 to 4

about 1 cup macaroni
1 tbsp of canola oil
1/2 tsp of salt
2 or 3 cups of water

1 1/2 tsp margarine
1 tsp flour
1/2 tsp grainy dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup milk

~1/4 cup low fat shredded cheese - doesn't matter what kind. recipe calls for cheddar but i use whatever i have, usually a mix of low fat cheddar and mozza

another 1/2 cup of the same cheese

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp margarine
---
bring water, oil and salt to a boil. add macaroni and boil until macaroni is tender. drain.

in a skillet on medium heat, melt 1 1/2 tsp margarine. add flour, salt, mustard, and worcestershire sauce and cook for 5-10 minutes. gradually add milk while stirring. cook sauce until thickened. add 1/4 cup cheese and stir until melted.

put cooked macaroni in a baking dish. you can also put anything else in there at this point; cooked chicken, veggies, whatever you like. pour sauce on top and stir gently until macaroni is coated in the sauce. sprinkle 1/2 cup shredded cheese on top.

in a skillet, 1 tsp melt margarine and mix in bread crumbs. sprinkle on top of macaroni and cheese. cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. sprinkle any seasonings you like on top. i use smoked paprika and a lemon and herb seasoning. enjoy!
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Postby half jill » 12/2/2010, 3:00 pm

this sounds sooooo good! i want to try making this :) but shouldn't there be more than 1 cup of macaroni for 3-4 servings?
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Postby faninor » 12/2/2010, 4:13 pm

We had macaroni and cheese this week -- different recipe ours called for some wine in the sauce. Really good.

Then we made it classy with cut up hotdogs (found a lot of hotdogs in the freezer).
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Postby saman » 12/2/2010, 4:19 pm

i find that about 1 cup macaroni lasts me for about 3 meals, but you can eyeball it to see how much is good for you. it's surprisingly filling, actually, since there's a lot of cheese, and i add a fair bit of veggies too. i also usually have another dish with this, to get a balance on my plate (lol dietitian in training), so if you're only having this as your meal, then you'd probably get two servings or so out of it
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Postby half jill » 12/2/2010, 6:02 pm

true.
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Postby kyks17 » 12/8/2010, 8:47 pm

I'm confused at the 1/4 cup cheese?! We used 2.25 cups cheese (to 2 cups milk + 1/4 cup wine, and 11 oz of macaroni [not sure how many cups that is, i weighed it]) and I felt it could be cheesier. We got 6 servings out of that (as the main entree). Needless to say, the goal of that meal was not health!

Saman, and other Indian-recipe-knowing people! Will you help me increase my at home Indian recipe repertoire? I made chana masala last week - I've never had it at a restaurant or as takeout, so I have no idea how "correct" it was, but it tasted good to me. In the past I've made a Rachael Ray chicken curry....and it's really not even close, at all, to being correct.

Here is my problem. When I get Indian food, there is always an item marked simply as "chicken curry". As long as the establishment is Indian, these all seem to taste the same no matter which place I'm at. (I have ordered this at Thai and Chinese restaurants and learned that it means something else to them!) Unfortunately, it would seem that this isn't actually a particular item, since curry just means sauce...so it's really a very generic name. Kind of like if you just order chicken - well did you order fried, breaded, grilled, blackened, etc. Unless you know the specific name....good luck recreating it.

So I guess my first question is - what is the true name for this "chicken curry" that one finds at Indian food spots? Since it is consistent across establishments I would think someone, somewhere, knows the answer! Unfortunately that person has not yet told Google, so I'm hoping some nice Indian CMer might know :)

My 2nd question is (and it's not much of a question): my other favorite Indian items are chicken tikka masala (I know, I know, not truly Indian but Indian butchered in Britain....but to me it's Indian) and saag. What I've learned about saag is that most people, including Indian people, don't know WTF dish I'm talking about?! I kid you not, it is simply called "saag" at every buffet and on every menu I've ever been to/seen. So when people don't know that, I call it palak paneer, which everyone seems to know - even though there are definitely no chunks of cheese in the ones I've had. And the problem with saag or palak paneer is that every Indian person at work that I've asked about it, has told me it's an awful dish that anyone can whip up by just combining spinach with spices. I mean, I figured as much....unfortunately....not quite enough to go on. And why don't they like it?! It's so good! Especially with that green sauce thing. Speaking of that green sauce thing. Mint chutney? Mint coriander chutney? Hari chutni? Mirchi chutney? The internet has yielded all of these as "the one that you get at the restaurants which is green and spicy", but presumably not ALL of these are it (again...it's very consistent across establishments).

Back to that chicken tikka masala. Again, Indian coworkers tell me to throw chicken with spices and some cream and I'm done. Well, I think they just described a million recipes. I need a bit more specific info to be able to make it come out even close to restaurant quality...

But my favorite really is chicken curry. And saag. And naan. Which I now have several recipes for, so far I tried 1 and it was ok but not right, so I'll keep trying other recipes until I find a match. If I had a plate of chicken curry, saag, basmati rice, and naan, I would be pretty satisfied with my Indian cooking repertoire. Plus there's the chana masala.

That was a really long rant! Please my Indian and Indian-recipe-knowing CMers, help me shed some light on what is apparently one of the most misunderstood ethnic cuisines present in the US!
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Postby saman » 12/9/2010, 7:52 pm

it's actually 3/4 cups cheese. 1/4 cups mixed in with the macaroni as a sauce, and then 1/2 cup sprinkled on top.

i've eaten lots of south-east asian food in my lifetime, but never really cooked a whole lot of it. i'll try to answer some of your questions though. the thing you have to understand about indian food is that for most dishes, there isn't really a formal, finalized cooking process. the south-east region is huge with a large mix of different people and cultures. the reason you keep getting different recipes from people is because there are different ways of cooking the dishes. people cooking in their home kinda just do whatever, usually just doing what their parents did or how their families like it.

1. there really isn't a "correct name" for chicken curry. it's just chicken and curry sauce. i suppose the closest you would get to it would be "chicken karhai", which is kind of a mix between chicken curry and chicken tikka masala, and is made in a wok. we call the dish "chicken saalan" at home sometimes, but mostly we just call it chicken. it's the most common way of cooking chicken out there so i guess no one bothered to give it a proper name.

2. i'm one of the few people in my family who genuinely enjoys saag. most people are repulsed by it, and i don't really get why. maybe the smell of it while it cooks turns them off, or maybe just the way it looks. i don't really know the recipe or anything for you, but i think my mom usually boils it and then fries it with butter and spices.

3. about the chutney, again it's one of those things where traditionally, people just do whatever. throw a bit of water or lemon juice, some coriander, spices, and mint if you want, into a food processor and blend away until it looks and tastes the way you want. the basics of green chutney are the coriander and the spices, so as long as those are in there, you can add whatever else you want. "hari" means green, so that's your green chutney. "mirchi" means spicy, so that's your spicy chutney. they basically just put whatever they want in there and then call it what they want lol. sorry it's not more specific than that.

4. i've never made chicken tikka masala, and it's not really a common dish in our house, so i don't have any recipes for you for that either. sorry! my mom usually gets really good recipe videos online, but i don't think they're in english
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Postby Kicker774 » 12/10/2010, 11:44 pm

Baursaki is a treat served with many meals in Kazakhstan and many other Central Asian countries.

It is a lot like a doughnut just way less sugar.

Ingredients

* 4 cups flour
* 2 Tablespoons yeast
* ½ cup water
* ½ cup milk
* 2 eggs
* 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
* 1½ Tablespoons sugar
* 2 cups vegetable oil
* ½ teaspoon salt

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl to form dough.
2. Knead the dough on a floured surface, then return to mixing bowl.
3. Cover with a towel and let sit for 30 minutes. Heat oil in deep skillet over high heat.
4. Pull off Tablespoon-size pieces of the dough and roll into a ball.
5. Press down slightly, then drop carefully into oil and fry until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels.

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Postby Kicker774 » 12/10/2010, 11:54 pm

Manta Recipe

Ingredients
3 cups all- purpose gluten free flour
1 cup water
1 large egg
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

For the Filling
250g (one-half pound) ground beef or lamb
1 large onion (chopped in very small pieces)
Salt and black pepper

Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour, water, egg, olive oil and salt. Kneading well to form a smooth, but not sticky, ball of dough. If it is too sticky, add more flour until the dough is smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand, at room temperature, for one hour.

While the dough is standing, prepare the filling: in a medium bowl, combine chopped onion, ground meat, salt and pepper until well mixed.

Lightly dust a board or countertop and rolling pin with flour. Divide the dough into four equal sections, rolling out each piece as thinly as possible without tearing.

Cut each sheet into equal squares (about 1.5" by 1.5") Put a teaspoon of filling at the center of each square until you run out of dough or filling.

To fold the dumplings: fold diagonally to form a triangle. Press edges firmly together to seal the dumplings (if necessary, use a little bit of water on the inside edge to help the pieces stick together.) Take the two corners (connected by the longest, folded side) and pull together until corners overlap - pinch together (it will look like a floppy brimmed hat -- see image here.)

In a large pot, boil the water and add a little bit salt, olive oil. Add the dumplings and stir, cooking for approximately 15 minutes, until the dumplings rise to the surface. Periodically test filling for doneness and be careful not to overcook

When the dumplings are done, drain with a slotted spoon.

OR ....

We traditionally serve Manti as a soup keeping the broth. You can add a dollop of sour cream to your bowl to sweeten up the broth a little bit.

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Postby GreatLakes24 » 4/29/2011, 10:19 am

Does anyone have a good recipe for fondant that actually tastes yummy? I want to expand my cake/cake pop/cupcake decorating abilities but want something that people won't just pull off and throw away.

Thanks!
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Postby ClumsyGirl618 » 4/29/2011, 12:30 pm

GreatLakes24 wrote:Does anyone have a good recipe for fondant that actually tastes yummy? I want to expand my cake/cake pop/cupcake decorating abilities but want something that people won't just pull off and throw away.

Thanks!


Carson79 would have one... she's our professional baker. If no one else can help, send her a PM. I'm with you. I want to be better at decorating my baked goods but I haven't had much luck. I did buy a cool cake decorating pen at Bed. Bath, & Beyond that you might like. It's helped me a little but I've only used it on cupcakes so far.
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Postby faninor » 4/29/2011, 3:06 pm

In my experience, the servers will probably pull it off and throw it away whether or not it tastes good.
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Postby GreatLakes24 » 4/29/2011, 9:08 pm

Thanks for the heads up about the recipe. I actually want to use it on cake pops.

Bree-Are the pens you use the watercolor ones? That is what I used on these lions. They are chocolate cake covered in peanut butter which was super difficult to smooth out.
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Postby ClumsyGirl618 » 4/29/2011, 9:14 pm

GreatLakes24 wrote:Thanks for the heads up about the recipe. I actually want to use it on cake pops.

Bree-Are the pens you use the watercolor ones? That is what I used on these lions. They are chocolate cake covered in peanut butter which was super difficult to smooth out.


no is the kind you use to make roses and stuff. It's battery operated. I should get the watercolor ones. Those lions look really good.... and now I'm hungry! :drool:
“Music doesn’t have the power to change the world. What music does is it changes people, & that changes the world, so to say that music doesn’t change people anymore is just ridiculous. It does everyday. It doesn’t have to be on a political or social level. You could be feeling shitty & it makes you happy & if that’s all it does, it’s changing the world. It’s making it a better place.” ~ Raine Maida

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Postby GreatLakes24 » 4/29/2011, 10:57 pm

The one you have sounds pretty awesome. The water based food coloring ones are great for drawing stuff and come in an assortment of colors. I find them easier to use but then again I have always had troubles with icing.
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Postby Carson79 » 4/30/2011, 12:48 am

Cake pops are usually covered with chocolate (milk, dark, white or colored candy melts), not fondant.

I do have a couple very simple and good tasting fondant recipes I could pass on to you if you like.
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Postby GreatLakes24 » 4/30/2011, 9:29 am

That would be great. I need the fondant for the decorations on them, not the actual covering. I will continue to use my candy melts for that.
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Postby ClumsyGirl618 » 4/30/2011, 11:10 am

Carson79 wrote:Cake pops are usually covered with chocolate (milk, dark, white or colored candy melts), not fondant.

I do have a couple very simple and good tasting fondant recipes I could pass on to you if you like.
:drool: :drool:

I want them too!
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