So maybe that’s a bit drastic, but this all started last week when dinner was in the oven, an hour or so away from being served, and Jan was rummaging around the kitchen for an appetizer for us.  I asked if we had any crab cakes, because on occasion, we’ll buy frozen crab cakes as an appetizer to serve with a Sriracha-spiced mayo/yogurt sauce and lemon wedges.  After a quick look in the freezer, Jan told me that we did not have any crab cakes, to which I said “OK.”  It was just a suggestion, after all, and we had plenty of cheeses to make a mini plate, or some other “fast” foods to rustle up.

“What about a shrimp cake?” Jan asked a few minutes later, pulling out a few bags of shrimp from the freezer.  I hadn’t thought about that, I said.  “Is it hard to make?”

“I don’t think so,” Jan said, already pulling up his laptop to search for recipes.

In general, I prefer eating shrimp to crab, so it sounded good to me.  We thawed some raw shrimp and got together the rest of the ingredients, which included panko bread crumbs, egg, garlic, scallions, and spices.  We peeled the shrimp and cut them into small pieces, then added them to the mixture, scooped out ¼ cup “cakes,” and coated them in the panko breadcrumbs.  After refrigerating for about half an hour, we pan fried them in corn oil.

Shrimp cakes get a corn oil bath

The shrimp cakes were so good, I forgot all about the dinner and had to limit myself to two so that I would still be hungry for the main course.  The panko breadcrumbs, which for many foods might be too big and “rough,” were perfect for making crispy, light shrimp cakes that had plenty of shrimp.  Also important was cutting the right-size pieces of shrimp—big enough to get the good shrimp flavor, but not so big that it made the cakes difficult to form.  We found that raisin-sized pieces of shrimp worked perfectly.

I felt that we’d discovered an amazing dish that was surprisingly easy to make.  I made a mental note to request shrimp cakes at any possible appetizer opportunity.  But Jan was not content to leave it at that.  He wanted to know if he could make crab cakes with the same effect.

“Nooo,” I said.  “The shrimp cakes are perfect!  Let’s just stick with the shrimp cakes.”

Always the mad scientist, Jan wanted to do some experimentation.  So last night he made some shrimp cakes AND crab cakes, pretty much using the same recipe as the shrimp cakes but replacing the shrimp with crab.  Any opportunity for a taste test, right?  The verdict: both were delicious, though the crab cakes do have a stronger “fish” flavor than the more subtle shrimp cakes.

Shrimp on the left, crab on the right

Breading the shrimp and crab cakes

I have no problem admitting that the homemade crab cakes Jan made were excellent.  The best crab cakes I’ve ever had, actually.  But I’m still sticking with my new favorite cake—shrimp.

Shrimp Cakes

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INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (reserve ¾ cups of it in a separate container)
• ½ pound peeled frozen shrimp, uncooked
• ¼ cup light mayonnaise
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 chopped scallions
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ teaspoon Dijon or spicy brown mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

METHOD

1. Set ¾ cups of the breadcrumbs aside on a plate.
2. Cut shrimp into small pieces and place in a medium sized bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients, including the remaining ¼ cup breadcrumbs and combine.
3. Use a ¼ cup measure to scoop out mixture onto the plate of breadcrumbs.  Coat completely and transfer to another plate.  Repeat for the remaining cakes.
4. Refrigerate for approximately ½ hour.
5. Pan fry the shrimp cakes in corn oil until darkened and shrimp is thoroughly cooked.
6. Serve with sauce (1 part light mayonnaise, 1 part plain yogurt, and Sriracha sauce to taste) and lemon wedges.

With a love of all things sandwich, I have been curious to try the Vietnamese-style sandwiches called Banh Mi that I’ve been hearing more and more about, thanks to all the food-related television we watch.  On our trip to Idaho last December, I finally got to sample my first Banh Mi in Boise, and of course it was delicious. How could it not be with marinated meat served with pickled, vinegary vegetables, and cilantro on a fresh French baguette?

However, duplicating this flavor at home has proved difficult, though I have no complaints about all the trials.  The challenge has been getting that “authentic,” layered, multidimensional flavor – a challenge that a local restaurant I recently tried also seems to have (it was a good sandwich, but just “missing something”).

Our first Banh Mi made at home

And while each Bahn Mi we make at home gets closer to that flavor we’ve been trying to duplicate, through this process, we’ve stumbled upon something that I love even more, fresh spring rolls that we’ve made to go on the side!

While I love a good, homemade egg roll and am never one to shy away from anything deep fried, there is something about the fresh spring rolls that is amazing. You can taste each ingredient, but then together in one bite, dipped in peanut sauce, it is even better!  We’ll keep working on our Vietnamese sandwich making skills, and in the meantime, eat more and more of the spring rolls, which I think anyone can master!

Piling all the ingredients in the rice paper wrapper

Rolling

Before slicing

Can they make it to the plate before I take a bite?

Spring Rolls

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Ingredients

• Shrimp, cooked and peeled
  
• Cilantro leaves
• Mint leaves, chopped*
  
• Carrot, julienne cut
• Avocado*, sliced
• Cucumber*, julienne cut
• Daikon radish*, julienne cut or shaved with a crank apple peeler, can be marinated in seasoned rice vinegar
• Rice vermicelli*
• Bean sprouts*

*these ingredients can be mixed and matched, depending on your taste and what you have available

Method

1. Slice cooked shrimp in half lengthwise and prepare the rest of the ingredients. Boil the rice noodles for 3-5 minutes until soft.
   
2. Dip the rice paper wrappers in warm water for a few seconds to soften.
3. Place 3 shrimp with the outside (pink side) down and top with whole cilantro leaves (so the color contrast of pink to dark green shows through the clear wrapper when rolled).
4. Add the rest of the fillings and roll the top, sides, and bottom.
5. Slice in half and serve with peanut sauce and/or fish sauce.
   

It was thanks to our friends Amy and Russell that we first experienced how amazing homemade pizza could be (link: Pizza Perfected). So of course it was only fitting that they once again led us to a pizza revelation. One night, when we all went out together for pizza and beers, we decided to order a couple of pizzas. The special that night was on any combination of four toppings, and Jan ordered a combination of meat and veggies (very standard supreme). For her order, Amy told the waiter: pesto sauce (doesn’t count as a topping), tomatoes, spinach, grilled chicken, feta cheese, and artichoke hearts (added that as an extra topping).

Never being a fan of “new age” pizzas (sorry, CPK and any fans of barbecue chicken, mushroom alfredo, and/or brussell sprouts and lemon pizza), I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as always, kept an open mind.

Well, we all kept coming back for more pieces of the pesto pizza, and poor Jan’s pizza was keeping all its slices! It was a superb combination of toppings—familiar enough to still feel like “pizza,” but fresh, different, and delicious!

Since we usually make pizza at home about every other week, the first chance we got, we tried making the pizza ourselves. Jan kept me in mind when making the pesto sauce, mixing about half basil leaves with half spinach leaves because I often find pesto sauce to be too strong and “basily.”

Greens for the sauce

We also added slices of tomato, fresh mozzarella and grilled chicken. We then added artichoke hearts and feta cheese. We’ve alternated between making the final topping crumbled bacon or prosciutto, depending on what we have in the refrigerator, and I still can’t decide which pork product is better. In either case, it’s my new favorite pizza.

We buy the refrigerated pizza dough (Vons has the best dough we’ve tried out of Vons, Trader Joe’s, and Fresh and Easy), add the sauce, and then the toppings. The sauce recipe follows.

Recipe: Spinach-Basil Pesto Sauce

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Ingredients

• 3 ounces (approximately 2 cups) fresh spinach leaves
• 1.5 ounces (approximately 1 cup) fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 ½ tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• 1 fluid ounce extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. In a food processor, pulse to combine the first six ingredients.
2. Add in olive oil and pulse until combined.
3. Spread over rolled-out pizza dough and cover with toppings before baking.

Makes enough to cover one approximately 18” diameter thin crust pizza.

It had been a strange weather year with our nearby Sierras still lacking snow, so a good ski vacation seemed perfect for us to finally realize that the season was, in fact, winter.

In typical fashion for us, we embarked without much of a plan.

“Who’s your friend we’re visiting?” I asked Jan, curious for some more details.

“Desiree. You’ve met her before,” he replied, sure that would stop my questions.

“Hmm,” I said. “Maybe.”  I knew he was probably right, but I’d met so many different people from Jan’s work that I couldn’t put a face to her name, but realized it didn’t really matter.  “Where does she live?”

“I don’t know,” Jan said. “She texted me her address. Her and her husband Brandon have a place there.”

OK. Jan was getting annoyed. I wasn’t going to ask any more questions. I was going to take care of my one and only job in getting ready for any road trip: packing the snacks.

What pieces I did get of the plan, was that we were leaving in the evening, since Jan had to work the day of our departure, and we would spend the night with some of his old friends near Sacramento. The next day, we would drive the rest of the way to Idaho.

It was dark by the time we were past Boise, and by dark, I mean DARK. After leaving the city limits, there was not one single street light or even a reflector to be found.  It was probably better we didn’t see what was around us, since our GPS said we were following along a river and there were absolutely no guardrails to what looked to be steep drop down. Without going off on too big of a tangent here, I just want to say how AMAZING our drive time is with the small investment of our GPS. It is a Garmin, it comes with lifetime map updates, and it has made road trips infinitely more peaceful for me and Jan. It is one of those devices where we wonder why we didn’t get it before, though we somehow survived our month-long road trip through the Southwest (link: Reminiscing on the Vantastic Voyage) without it, and managed to stay married.

But as much as I love the GPS, it isn’t foolproof, and unfortunately can’t account for house addresses that have not yet been updated to any type of map, which was the situation we found ourselves when looking for Desiree and Brandon’s house in Donnelly, Idaho.  In this case, when we were finally able to get into a place where our cell phone had one bar of service, it was that device that saved us, and we managed to finally find ourselves at the right place, exhausted, hungry, but ready for adventure.

Our hosts fed us a much welcome dinner, and yes, I did in fact remember who Desiree was, and Jan and I got along perfectly with her and her husband, Brandon. Instead of being weirded out by the fact that we actually took them up on their offer to visit, they were thrilled, and we had a great night of talking and laughing, and planning activities for the next few days before Jan and I would depart on our own for Sun Valley.

The next day, we headed to the nearby Tamarack Resort, which was just up the road in the Peyette River Mountains. A few years ago, there were big plans for development of the resort, but it went bankrupt midway through construction, leaving empty ski runs, lifts, and the shell of a beautifully modern/rustic ski lodge. The nearby residents who still wanted to ski joined together to keep the skiing open, but the planned lodge and village looked like a ghost town.

Also looking ominous that day was the weather, but we were so optimistic and enthusiastic about our new friends and skiing together, we headed up the lift. We skied through the rain for a while, and even made it through a treacherous run that the resort probably shouldn’t have opened up, but soon headed back to home base to warm up with a nice dinner.

Jan, Desiree, and Brandon on the lift

The next day involved some exploring in McCall, Idaho, where Jan found condiment heaven (read about him stocking more than half our refrigerator at home full of condiments here: An Abundance of Condiments) at Paradise Burgers, and I was thrilled to be able to swap my French fries for tater tots. It was a fun place to eat a burger (I had bacon/blue cheese and Jan had the gyro burger with beef patty topped with lamb gyro strips and tzatziki sauce) and sample the wide selection of sauces to sprinkle on our burgers and dip our fries (and tots!) into.

At Paradise Burger, it was difficult to decide what condiment to grab first!

The day also included grocery shopping at Ridley’s Family Markets, where I was WAY too amused by the fact that shoppers could purchase their groceries and guns in the same location.

I was amused by the fact that, had we wanted to, we could put our groceries and guns on the same tab

That night, we visited Brundage Mountain Resort where Desiree worked during the winter season, and enjoyed their pre-New Year’s bonfire (I was wondering why all the cars driving up the hill had Christmas trees strapped to their roofs!), concert, and fireworks.

We were in need of a somewhat lazy day the next day, so we all took a drive along the Salmon River. We visited the Rapid River Fish Hatchery, where seeing millions of tiny Chinook Salmon made me hungry for some salmon. We had the next best thing near Riggins Hot Springs, where we stopped to eat delicious fried egg sandwiches made by Brandon, and also where Jan immediately embarked on the manly endeavor of throwing big rocks into the frozen river in an attempt to crack the ice (see the photo sequence at the top of this post). On the way home, we picked up Japapeno cheddar elk sausage at Mountain View Specialty Meats, which we barbecued along with tri tip for dinner.

A very cold looking Salmon River

Sandwiches along the Salmon River

Tasty jalapeno-cheddar elk sausage

The next day, Jan and I left for Sun Valley, and stopped in Boise for lunch. Unable to decide on a single location to eat, we split a pesto pizza slice at the Pie Hole, then a Bahn Mi sandwich and spring rolls at Baguette Deli.

Pesto pizza at Boise's "Pie Hole"

After a few hours of driving, we arrived in Sun Valley, Idaho, where we faced a minor travel setback when the condo we had booked for the night through an online booking site already had guests staying there that night. It was one of those typical travel moments where, in it, you feel like the situation could easily get stressful and overly dramatic, but you remind yourself that things will work out. After calling around to a few hotels, we finally found a place at the base of Bald Mountain, just a few blocks away from the main downtown Ketchum area. The only thing that had me worried was the fact that the next night was New Year’s Eve, and the hotel didn’t have any rooms available for the next night. As we settled into our room and began to bundle up for a walk downtown, I got a call back from the condo owner, who explained that this was the first time she’d used the booking service, and was very apologetic for the misunderstanding. We agreed that we would stay in the condo the next night, and Jan and I realized that things had worked out in the best possible way—this way, we were in walking distance from downtown for the night, and the next day, would experience completely different surroundings.

We were told that THE place to eat was the Pioneer Saloon, and since it was still early, we stopped in to get our name on the list, and continue our walk.  We found one of the most unique Starbucks—I was amazed by the building’s unique architecture, Jan was amazed that the Starbucks was one of five (at the time, I heard they are now expanded this concept to more across the country) to serve wine. I even had Jan snap my picture with the life-size photos of Ernest Hemmingway that graced the “visitor info” section of the Starbucks, and bored poor Jan with more Hemingway facts than he cared about.

Getting on the list

Wine at Starbucks!

Trying out the handy crossing flags placed at each intersection in Ketchum

After a few hours of milling through the town and enjoying the lightly falling snow (so romantic!), we dined at Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum. There, we enjoyed delicious prime rib and buffalo burgers. Jan said it was the best prime rib he had ever eaten. And that the restaurant had the best service he had ever experienced. He was in love. (And you must understand that it is very rare for Jan to make this kind of proclamation, so you know it had to be good!) The baked potato (Idaho grown, of course) was pretty good, too.

High on an amazing dinner, we wandered down the street for some creatively named cocktails at the Sawtooth Club, where the people-watching was fascinating.

The next day was filled with skiing at Bald Mountain, where I finally learned the reason for the existence of enclosed gondola lifts.  At 18°F at the base of the mountain, I was thankful for any time I could spend sheltered from the weather.  I know, I’m a fair weather skier.

Skiing tip: if you're skiing in 18-degree weather, don't leave your gear in the car the night before! Your boots will be so frozen you can't get them on your feet!

We had an excellent day of skiing (thank you sunny skies for finally coming out!) and then shopped for groceries for our New Year’s Eve in. Spotting caviar, giant bottles of champagne, and lobster tails all in one location, I had to hold Jan back a bit, though if what we ended up with was the edited-down version, I’m curious what the unedited would have been!

Shopping Jan

The lock on the caviar only made Jan more hungry

Cozy in our condo, we got a fire going, hopped in the hot tub and sauna for a bit, and got together all the pieces for our dinner. Jan’s mission was to make a smörgåsbord for the ages, so that meant in addition to the caviar and lobster tails, there was liver pâté, Italian Capocollo, shrimp cocktail, French bread, grapes, and a diverse assortment of cheeses. Jan served the caviar on thin crackers with cream cheese since we were not able to find crème fraîche. The caviar was not as bad as I was expecting, and the cream cheese and cracker that I’d placed it on helped balance the flavor.

Just chillin'

Interesting appetizer/candy bar

Not much room on the table left for our plates!

Can't forget the lobster tails

Around 11 p.m., we realized that we probably wouldn’t make it until midnight. The champagne was ready and chilling in the refrigerator, but I blamed the full day of skiing and the lobster tail, instead of admitting that we were, perhaps, getting old.  Happy New Year, woohoo!

The next morning, we left somewhat early since we knew the drive home would be about 14 hours. Our last Idaho stop was over the Snake River near Twin Falls, Idaho, where we quickly snapped a few photos overlooking the wide river gorge, and picked up a pizza to take with us in the car. We were California-bound, and, like we get at the end of any vacation, no matter how much of a good time we had, were ready to be back home.

Armed with frozen Diet Coke, headed for home

We can all finish this line, but does anyone even really know what a chestnut is, let alone, taste like?  When Jan came home with a bag of chestnuts, he was going to help me and some of our friends find out.  He described the smell of roasting chestnuts as typical European street food in winter—recalling vendors roasting them on the sides of the street for people to enjoy from paper bags.

The raw chestnuts

Uncooked, the nuts are covered in a hard shell and are smaller than an apricot and larger than a cherry.  The other night, Jan had just made all of us a delicious dinner, and we had dessert waiting for us.  But this was pre-dessert, he said.  And despite our full bellies, we were going to try this.  So while he got to roasting, we cracked open Jan’s culinary bible (On Cooking) and got to educating ourselves about the chestnut.

Here’s what we found out: chestnuts are called “true nuts” because they must be cooked before using. They are available steamed, dried, boiled, roasted, or as sweetened or unsweetened canned puree. Chestnut trees are in the same family as oaks, which explains their similarity to acorns. Some cultures have used ground chestnuts as their main source of carbohydrates, and the flour can be used to make breads and cakes, though the flour does not rise. Other important info: before roasting chestnuts, an “x” must be cut into them so the steam can escape, otherwise they will explode.

Carefully cutting and "x" into each chestnut

A few minutes later, with the house smelling fragrantly rich and sweet, Jan presented us with a bowl of the oven roasted chestnuts, which we immediately got to work peeling.  Chestnuts are a bit like hard boiled eggs, the longer you wait to remove the shell, the harder the work will be.  So even though our fingers were burning from the heat, we quickly worked to remove the outer husk and after that, the second fuzzy shell.

Removing the first shell

Removing the second, fuzzy shell

Finally! Down to the edible part!

Inside, the texture of the chestnuts was firm, yet spongy and able to break apart if torn (think texture of a raw white mushroom). And you’d be surprised if you were expecting them to taste like other nuts such as almonds or pecans.  The taste was sweet and earthy, somewhat resembling a sweet potato.

Having tried the chestnuts, I can’t say I’d want to eat them again (or perhaps they are an acquired taste?)  Quite the opposite of blue cheese, chestnuts smell better than they taste.  But, there is something about the aroma of chestnuts roasting (not on an open fire, in our case—we used the oven), that embodies winter and all that goes along with it—cold weather outside, and the warmth and coziness of being with good friends inside.

Lisa tries to describe the chestnut-roasting aroma

Ah, who cares! Let's eat!

For me, it’s the most wonderful time of the year because it’s roast season. It’s cold outside and cozy inside when you’ve got beef slowly cooking in the oven. I once told Jan that my favorite meal growing up was the beef stew my mom made with carrots and potatoes. That the beef fell apart with a fork and it was amazing. And I didn’t have to describe any more before he got to planning his own roast beef dishes.

Since then, he’s made Julia Child’s recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon, which I like to call “Beef Boring-Jan” (only works when you pronounce his name correctly like yawn), and I request this meal anytime I know we have a bit more time to cook dinner (it’s amazing and worth the time). He’s made slow-roasted beef spare ribs that fall off the bone. And last week, he made the classic roast that we got to enjoy for days.

For this meal, perfect for warming even the biggest Christmas Grinch, Jan bought three pounds of New York Strip Loin Roast. Keeping the fat on the meat, he seasoned the entire roast with salt, ground peppercorns, onion powder, and garlic, and put it in pan over chopped carrots, onion, and a whole head of garlic. This was cooked in a 300°F oven, fat side up for approximately three hours until the internal temperature of the meat reached 135°F inside.

Roast before going into the oven

During the last hour of cooking, we added 1 cup of beef broth to the pan, to be used for making gravy for the mashed potatoes that would be served alongside the roast.

Once the meat reached the desired temperature, we took the roast out of the oven and let it rest for half an hour before serving. We had a delicious dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes with gravy (made from adding the broth to a little bit of butter and flour), and the onions and carrots. I got everything mashed together on my plate just how I liked it.

Taking the roast out of the oven and letting it rest before serving

Then, only to improve upon the meal, a few days later we had French dip sandwiches made from the roast beef. When the meat was chilled, we cut thin slices, then cooked them in beef broth to serve with a toasty hoagie roll and a side of au jus. And again, a few nights later, when I was having dinner for one, I sautéed onions and tomatoes with a small amount of olive oil. I added about ¼ cup of beef broth to the onions and tomatoes, then toward the end of cooking, added the thinly sliced roast beef. I served this over a roll toasted with shredded Italian cheese.

The roast leftovers into delicious French dip

Finally, there was just enough roast beef left over for me to stop making sandwiches, and instead feed the rest to Benny as dog treats. And everyone in the house was happy. What can I say? I can’t get into that running-around-like-crazy-because-it’s-the-holidays spirit. Call me cynical for shying away from what I see as all the overly commercialized aspects of Christmas. But the rest of the stuff that goes along with the holidays? I’ll take the family and the food any day. And roast beef.

And then, in typical fashion for us, suddenly it was all about Indian food. Though I’ve never been a fan of curry, dinners out and about (at North India Bar and Grill and Malabar Restaurant in Santa Cruz) convinced me that there was so much more than curry to get me excited about Indian. I learned early on that I love naan, and also all the different pickles and chutneys that go along with them.

At home, we again made the onion fritters and lentils from our introductory lesson, and began to try some other recipes from the book (thanks again Laura!). An instant hit was the spicy grilled chicken or masalewala murgh, and we had fun sampling that with a few prepared chutneys.

One night, the combination of dishes was right on. With the chicken on the grill and the cabbage on the stovetop, we followed the recipe for Indian Mashed Potatoes or mash aloo.  We reserved a portion of the mashed potatoes that were prepared according to the recipe (delicious this way), and the other portion was an experiment sparked by something we’d heard about on a cooking show.  By searching for more Indian recipes online, we found what we were looking for: mashed potato balls, though the more appropriate name was batata vada, which translates to “potato fritters.”  To make them, we rolled ping-pong-ball-sized pieces of mashed potatoes into chickpea flour (besan) that had turmeric added to it. I deep fried the mashed potato balls until the outsides looked golden brown and crispy.

Mashed potato balls after a dusting of chickpea flour

Into the hot oil

Deep fried deliciousness

Since the mashed potato balls were so delicious, I decided we’d make them for an Indian food themed dinner party we were hosting.  And since I was so excited about my newly acquired tool for forming meatballs (looked like scissor handles with ice cream scoops on each end), I thought that would help me make perfectly shaped mashed potato balls.  That, however, proved to be a mistake.  Because I hadn’t formed the balls by hand, the potatoes were not firmly pushed into shape.  When they were deep fried, they quickly began to fall apart.  So after all that, what we ended up with was basically just mashed potatoes that had a lot more grease in them than if we’d just left them alone.

A few other lessons learned: the marinade for the spicy grilled chicken (following proper food safety and reserving some separately from what is used for marinating the chicken) makes an amazing sauce to dip naan, potatoes, cabbage, and anything else on the plate. Also, Trader Joe’s is a great place to buy naan—they offer several different varieties in their freezer section, and they heat quickly and perfectly in the oven at home.

Clockwise from top: Spicy Grilled Chicken, Stir-Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds, and Mashed Potato Balls

Now being perfected: Stir-fried Shrimp in an Aromatic Tomato-Cream Sauce (ghagari jhinga), and the cooling Yogurt with Tomato and Cucumber (timatar aur kheeray ka raita)

We still have many more lessons to learn in Indian cooking, but I’m enjoying all the taste-testing along the way. So far, the lentils have been the hardest to perfect, but I’ve been polling Indian friends for their tips (so far, the best seems to be soaking them overnight first, then using a slow-cooker or crock pot to prepare).

Here’s the recipe for spicy grilled chicken modified from the recipe in Quick & Easy Indian Cooking, and recipes for mashed potatoes and cabbage should follow in the weeks to come.

Spicy grilled chicken—masalewala murgh

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INGREDIENTS

• 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts

For the marinade and sauce

• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 2 teaspoons ground peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice and some zest
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt, plus an additional 1/2 cup to use later to make the dipping sauce
  
• ½ cup canola oil

METHOD

1. Combine marinade/sauce ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. Divide contents in half; use half to coat chicken and let marinate sit for 2 to 4 hours in refrigerator.
3. Barbecue or grill chicken until done, approximately 10 to 15 min.
4. With the reserved marinade (not what was used with the chicken), add additional ½ cup yogurt and mix thoroughly to serve as a dipping sauce.

Last year, Jan and I couldn’t get our act together in time for an Oktoberfest party in October, so we hosted one in November and called it “Noktoberfest” (see Lederhosen and Lebkuchen). Continuing the tardy tradition, we managed to host an Oktoberfest celebration this October, but it’s taken me until November to write about it.  Maybe next year I’ll get them both done in October!  And a few years down the line, I might actually be on schedule with Munich, which begins the 16-18 day beer festival in late September.

In any case, with a couple of other projects currently at the top of our priority list, this year’s Oktoberfest was a toned-down celebration, with Jan limiting the menu to (only!) four types of German sausages, plus meat-free sausages for our vegetarian guests. We brought back out our ridiculous costumes (lederhosen for the men, dirndls for the women), served sauerkraut, red potatoes, braised cabbage, and potato salad, and kept the drink menu simple with the obligatory Oktoberfest beverage: beer.  And while I enjoyed the silliness of decorating wearable lebkuchen cookies with my guests last year, this time opted for Black Forest cupcakes, and there was a lot less icing all over the house at the end of the evening.

Getting ready for the grill

Going overboard with the sausage selection?

The recipe for the chocolate cake came from AllRecipes.com (recipe here), and instead of using Kirsch (cherry liqueur) in the actual cake (again being lazy about a trip to BevMo), I soaked the cherries in brandy to give the cupcakes the slightly alcoholic flavor they needed.

The chocolate cupcakes before getting stuffed with brandy-soaked cherries

Black Forest Cupcakes

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INGREDIENTS

Cake

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup warm water
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

“Black Forest”

• 1 can tart cherries (in water, NOT syrup)
• 1 to 2 cups brandy or Kirsch
• 1/4 pint hipping cream
• 1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 dark chocolate bar
• 24 Maraschino cherries

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Drain cherries and place in a small bowl.  Pour the brandy over the cherries until they are completely covered with liquid, set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, and water. Stir in chocolate chips and pour batter into 24 paper cupcake cups.
4. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until tops are springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool cupcakes thoroughly.
5. Drain the cherries again and roughly chop into quarters.
6. Use a knife to cut partially through the top of the cupcakes, just above the paper cup.  Using your fingers or a spoon, stuff about 1 tablespoon of the cherries inside the cupcakes.
7. Use an electric mixer to whip the whipped cream, adding powdered sugar until you have the desired sweetness (I added about 1.5 tablespoons to a ¼ pint whipped cream).
8. Spread whipped cream over the stuffed cupcakes.
9. Use a potato peeler to shave thin pieces from the dark chocolate bar, sprinkle over tops of cupcakes and top each with a maraschino cherry.

When I told a few people my plans for Sunday, everyone seemed worried.  “Isn’t that really hard to make?” they’d ask, referring to the baklava I said I would spend the morning making. I’d been tasked with making baklava—the Mediterranean dessert made of layered phyllo dough and nuts—for my dad’s wedding reception, to go along with the Armenian food that would be catered for the event.  Though I’d warned that I’d only made baklava one time before with not-so-great results, I welcomed the challenge, and hoped I’d have better luck and be able to positively contribute to the celebratory meal.

I began by researching baklava recipes, and found that the dessert is prepared in many different ways, depending on the culture, and can have infinite fillings, though the most common include walnuts and pistachios.  Because eating walnuts causes me to feel like I’ve eaten a serving of chalk, I knew right off the bat that I’d have to get a little more creative with the baklava I made.  Remembering the delicious chocolate baklava I’d sampled from the Fresno Greek Fest the month before, I knew chocolate was at the top of my list.  I’d also been curious about Sun-Maid’s Raisin Baklava recipe ever since I’d seen it.  When I found a recipe for Chocolate Walnut-Raisin Baklava, I knew I’d found the recipe to make.  

But after reading through the recipe, and another baklava recipe, and yet another one, I wasn’t sure what to do next. They all directed a different way to layer, fill, and fold the dough; I wasn’t sure what I should be doing at all.  I was in the kitchen, with my recipe printed on two sheets of white paper, folding and placing the sheets on top of one another, when Jan walked in and, laughing at the perplexed look on my face, asked what I was doing.  When I told him I was practicing making baklava with paper sheets before I got to the real phyllo dough, he said I needed a different approach and suggested YouTube.

As usual, he was right.  After I watched both videos from Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen, I felt empowered.  I was making baklava and it was going to be easy and delicious. 

And, after seeing it done the right way, it was.  I made a few modifications to the original Chocolate Walnut-Raisin recipe, and it came out of the oven looking beautiful. I still had half the box of of phyllo dough sheets left, so I made a second batch, this time following Dede’s recipe for simple syrup, pecan filling, and ground pistachio topping. While I couldn’t have done it without Dede’s tips for technique, it was the raisin-chocolate-pecan baklava that got rave reviews.  Here’s my recipe, adapted from the recipe for Chocolate Walnut-Raisin Baklava.

Drizzling the syrup over the baklava after baking

Having fun with my CB2 appetizer plates (it's really a strawberry the hungry man is eating)

Raisin-Chocolate-Pecan Baklava

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INGREDIENTS

Simple Syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup water
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Filling

• 2 cups pecans
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 lightly beaten egg
• 16 sheets (13 x 9 inch) frozen phyllo dough
• ¼ cup sweet cream butter

METHOD

1. Day One: The night before assembling the baklava, remove the package of phyllo dough from the freezer and thaw in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight.  Also prepare the syrup the night before, keeping in mind that the next day, the pastry should be allowed to soak up the syrup several hours before serving.
2. To prepare the syrup, combine all ingredients in a small, heavy saucepan.  For the spices, use a lemon zester for fresh ginger, and a small coffee or spice grinder to grind whole cloves.  Bring all the ingredients to a boil, and continue boiling for 1 minutes while stirring constantly so that the sugars do not crystalize.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and cool the syrup completely.  Cover and store at room temperature until ready to use.
4. Day Two: Allow the phyllo dough to sit at room temperature (in the box and in the plastic wrap) two hours before preparing the baklava. 
5. Preheat oven to 350°F and butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking dish.  To prepare the filling, place pecans, chocolate chips, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon in a food processor.  Pulse until combined.  Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in egg.  Set aside.
6. On the stove top, melt butter in a small saucepan.
7. Unwrap and place the stack of phyllo sheets on a smooth work surface.  Place filling, melted butter, and a pastry brush near the work area, as the baklava needs to be assembled relatively quickly otherwise the phyllo sheets will dry out.
8. Place baking dish on top of stacked phyllo sheets and trim stacked sheets so that they will fit perfectly into the pan, then set pan aside.  Use a pastry brush to brush the top phyllo sheet with butter.  Carefully place into pan. 
9. Brush the new top phyllo sheet with butter and place atop the first in the pan.  Repeat this step 8 more times until there are 10 buttered layers of phyllo dough in the pan. 
10. Spread half the filling over the 10 layers.  Top with buttered phyllo sheets one at a time just as with the base layer, except this time stack only 4 layers.  Atop the fourth sheet, spread the remaining filling. Top with two more buttered phyllo sheets. 
11. Cut through all the layers into squares (or triangles, or diamonds, or any other shape you like) and bake for approximately 35 minutes, until golden brown.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and then begin drizzling the simple syrup over the baklava.  Wait several minutes between each drizzling, allowing the syrup to soak in, and drizzling over the edges of each square, using the remainder of the syrup.
12. Use a dab of syrup to attach a pecan half on the top of each piece. Allow baklava to sit for several hours (or a day) at room temperature before serving.

It hasn’t been dinner as usual at the Our Life in Meals household recently. During the past few weeks, Jan sent me updates (and photos) of various barbecue eaten across the Southwestern United States as he fought forest fires in Texas and Arkansas (driving there and back and seeming to stop at every barbecue joint along the way). Needless to say, I’ve gone through a few rotisserie chickens and boxes of cereal (not for the same meal, of course) while he was gone.

And because I’d let several weeks go by without posting to Our Life in Meals, the harder it became to begin again. Even once Jan returned home, I felt that we had to prepare some amazing meal for me to break the ice.

But it turned out that a seemingly standard dinner might do the trick when Jan and I combined our heritage to prepare one of the best meals we’ve had in months. After many batches of experimentation, I finally perfected my recipe for making the Swedish meatball sauce. The sauce isn’t as thick as what you might call “gravy,” but it’s perfect for drizzling over mashed potatoes. And the dynamite cultural combination came from serving the Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes with Czech apple-braised cabbage—proof that the Czechs and Swedes are a perfect match!

To make the meatballs, Jan combines cuts of pork and beef, running them through the meat grinder before adding salt, pepper, fresh parsley, egg, and bread crumbs. He pan fries the meatballs to brown them on all sides, then finishes them in the oven. After that, it’s my job to make the sauce, while he checks on the mashed potatoes and cabbage. When everything is ready, serving with lingonberry sauce is a must.

We freeze half the meatballs for later, and enjoy the rest for dinner

After meatballs are cooked in the oven, use the pieces from the pan to make the sauce

Adding the meatballs back into the sauce

Ready to serve

Swedish Meatballs

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INGREDIENTS

Meatballs

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound ground pork
• ½ medium onion, small dice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 egg
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
• ¼ teaspoon each: salt, pepper, oregano, basil, parsley
• 1/8 teaspoon hot paprika

Sauce

• 2 cups water
• 2 teaspoons beef bouillon
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons sour cream

METHOD

1. Combine all meatball ingredients with hands in a large bowl.
2. Form into balls slightly smaller than the size of a ping-pong ball.
3. In an oven-safe pan (no plastic handles!), fry meatballs in olive oil over medium-high heat until browned.
4. Place pan in a 350ºF oven about 15-20 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through.
5. To make the sauce, remove pan from oven and use tongs to set aside the meatballs in a bowl or plate. Reserve fat and juices left in the pan.
6. To the pan, add 1 cup water with bouillon and flour, stirring immediately so that flour does not clump.
7. Stir mixture occasionally over medium heat until the sauce thickens, approximately 10 minutes.
8. Add sour cream and stir until combined.
9. Return the meatballs to the pan with the sauce, stirring gently to coat. Keep on medium heat until meatballs are entirely coated and sauce thickens greater.
10. Serve with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce.