What's Cooking: Cauliflower Dal

I am starting  a new theme. I cook SO MUCH these days, but I can never remember which recipes I used, what I did, etc.  So I am attempting to capture it here for my own reference purposes and of course for your entertainment.  First up is dal with cauliflower.  This is what Nat has been eating for lunch for the last 2 days (and he has a few more days to go).

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 chana dal (yellow lentils)
• Veg. oil for sauteing
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• ~2 Tbsp ginger, minced
• 2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• dash of tumeric
• 1/4 tsp coriander

1. Wash out the dal, and soak for 15-20 minutes

2. Cover dal with new cold water, bring to boil and simmer for 20 + minutes, until done

3. In a large pot, saute onion, garlic and ginger

4. Add cauliflower, tomatoes and spices, and cook for a couple of minutes

5. Add ~1/2 cup of water, cover and simmer

6. When the dal is almost done, add it to the cauliflower mixture, and continue cooking until the cauliflower is soft

Recipes I referenced:

• Cauliflower Dal with Panch Phoran
• Dal with cauliflower and carrots
• Lentil Cauliflower Dal
• Spicy Urad Dal with Cauliflower and Peas

My Go-To Pumpkin Dessert

It is no secret that I like to consume a dessert before I go to bed (even if it is past midnight sadly).  This requirement of course means that I bake regularly so that dessert is available.  Since I never have enough time for anything these days, I opt for desserts that are take as little time to make as possible and do not require the electric mixer (the noise might wake up the child).  This chocolate pumpkin bake thing fulfills both requirements.  (If you can think of a better name for it, please let me know!)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup wheat flour (or any combination of wheat and all purpose flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cooked pumpkin (1/2 of a ~15oz can)
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Get out an 8x8 inch square dish (Pyrex works well).  There is no need to butter the dish.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnomon and salt
3. In a large bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin, sugar, vanilla and vegetable oil and mix well.  (No need for an electric mixer or anything even remotely that vigorous.)
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix just until combined. 
5. Add the chocolate chips and mix just enough to distribute the chips.
6. Spread the mixture in the oven proof dish and bake for 30+ minutes or until the toothpick comes clean (unless it hit a chocolate chip). 

Notes:

• This recipe can easily be doubled--use a 13x9 inch baking dish and a whole ~15oz can of pumpkin.
• The baked result freezes really well
• If cooking the recipe as written, you can use half of a 15oz can of pumpkin and freeze the rest. Using the previously frozen (and now defrosted) pumpkin pure will most likely increase your baking time because it will make the batter more liquid.  The result will taste just as yummy.

Inspired by:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars from Cook Woman
Pumpkin Muffins from Smitten Kitchen

Grandma Jo's Chocolate Quick Cake

Grandma Jo, Nick's great grandmother
whose full name was Anna Josephine

Even though this cake seems to have been popular in Nick’s family while he was growing up, I only made it once before, a few years back—too long ago to remember exactly what I did.

Inconveniently, the recipe omits two small but important details: the size of a baking dish to use, and how intensely to beat the eggs.

I compared the amounts of the ingredients to other recipes of known volumes and gave the recipe a couple test runs. Now I can attest that the batter fits nicely into two 9” round pans for a two layer cake.

In an effort to spread the pleasure of cake over a longer period of time (by freezing some of it), I have also baked the batter in two 6” round pans. The baking takes longer, and the cakes are higher. You can freeze one, and slice the other one for a small two layer cake.

• 1 1/2 cups flour (186 g)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder (39 g)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. 
2. Preheat the oven to 350F, and butter the baking dish. (I also lined the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.)
3. In a medium bowl, beat the egg. (I did use a hand held mixer).
4. Add buttermilk (I beat the mixture a little more).
5. Mix in oil and vanilla
6. Gently mix in the dry mixture above. (I did not use a mixer at this point. If you do opt for the mixer at this point, stay at the lowest speed possible.)
7. Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes for 9” pans, or at 325F for 40 to 45 minutes for 6” pans.

My Chocolate Quick Cake recipe card comes complete with a recipe for the cake frosting on the back.

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 square chocolate (probably 1 ounce)
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp hot water
• vanilla (optional)

1. Melt butter with chocolate 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, and beat all until smooth

In the name of full disclosure, I have never made the frosting above. My note that a square is an ounce of chocolate is just a guess.

So far I have been using a simple ganache frosting instead.

• 1/2 cup heavy cream 
• 1/3 lb bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1. Heat the cream in a small pot until just boiling 
2. Take the pot off the heat, and mix in the chocolate until smooth
3. Cool until the mixture thickens, but is still easy to spread.

The above amount is just enough for a 6” inch cake, but should be doubled for a 9” inch cake.

Nick and I also enjoyed the cake frosted with the ganache, but filled with rapberry preserves.

Joanne's Parker House Rolls

I tried my very first Parker House roll in Walla Walla while spending my first Christmas with Nick’s family. The rolls Nick’s grandmother, Joanne, made were simply delicious. Legend has it when Nick was eleven, he ate as many as 14 in one sitting, accompanied by a complete Christmas Eve dinner—you know, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, Christmas Jello... So of course I asked Joanne for the recipe, and she kindly wrote it out on a card for me.

After making several rather tasteless batches of rolls, I asked Nick’s Aunt Lisa, well known for her humor and excellent cooking, for help.

If one can laugh loudly in an email, Lisa certainly did. The subject line of the first email back to me read: “TEASPOON????”  She suggested that I attempt the recipe using 1/4 cup instead of 1 teaspoon of sugar. I followed Lisa’s advice, and for the first time ever my rolls had a taste and were actually pleasant to eat.

Unbeknownst to me, the sugar measurement saga continued—Lisa and Joanne were vigorously exchanging emails on the subject:

Joanne:  I've never in my life put 1/4 cup of sugar in Parker House rolls! I put in 1 heaping T and that's it.

Lisa:  The recipe that I am using is the one you pointed out in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook [which calls for 1/4 cup of sugar]. … Your T tells me that you use a tablespoon, heaping, correct? Is that a measuring tablespoon or a serving spoon from your silverware? Either a heaping measuring tablespoon or a heaping "tablespoon" from my silverware is about 1/8 cup, so it isn't really that far off.

Joanne:  All this funny stuff about the sugar in the rolls. Actually in both rolls and spaghetti sauce I use one of my big cooking spoons that hang above stove and put in a heaping one of those for the sugar!

Sometime later someone in the family measured the volume of one of those “big cooking spoons that hang above the stove” heaping with sugar, and it came out to be almost exactly 1/4 cup.

A few years have gone by since then, and I have gotten better at making rolls. Besides changing the sugar amount, I made two other minor adjustments to Joanne’s original recipe:

• I use butter instead of Crisco.
• I make the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge. Putting the dough into the cold might sound like blasphemy to Joanne, but a slow rise gives bread more flavor. Plus, doing so allows me to do half the work the night before.

Joanne no longer cooks, and other people in the family take on the responsibility of preparing the Christmas Eve dinner. Everyone tries to help, and I have been making a triple batch of Parker House rolls for the last two years. Hopefully the family will not bar me from doing so again, now that I am publicly revealing my changes to Joanne’s original recipe.

Joanne’s Parker House Rolls as written on my card

• In a large bowl:
• 1 Tbsp suga
• 1 tsp salt
• In a small pan:
• scald 1 cup milk with 2 or 3 Tbsp of Crisco
• Stir, don’t let boil
• Pour over sugar/salt in a bowl, stir to dissolve
• Let cool to just warm
• Add 1 beaten egg
• Add 2 ¼ tsp dry yeast dissolved in very warm water (not too hot)
• Stir in 1 cup of flour (will be lumpy)
• Stir in 1 more cup flour, beating well and scraping off sides of bowl
• Measure 1 more cup flour, add about ¾ cup. If dough is still sticky add rest of flour. If dough is stiff, don’t add flour.
• Beat dough vigorously with large spoon, scrape sides and bottom of bowl beating air into the dough
• Cover with dish cloth. Set in a warm spot. Let rise 2 hours.
• Roll out (to about 1/2”) on floured pastry cloth, rolling pin has cloth cover as well.
• Use 2 ½” cookie cutter, dab melted butter on each. Stretch circle, fold over and press top edge down on greased sheet. (Will keep rolls from popping open.)
• Bake @ 400F. Check at 8 min – 10 min max. Will be lightly brown.

Joanne’s Parker House Rolls with a few adjustments

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of milk
• 3 Tbsp of butter + more butter melted to brush the rolls
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 3 cups of flour (more for rolling out the dough)

1. Combine sugar, salt, milk and butter in a small pot, scold, but don’t let boil. (If it boils, it is ok). When the butter, sugar and salt dissolve, take off the heat and let cool. 
2. In a cup, dissolve yeast in warm water, and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. 
3. When the milk/butter mixture cools (I sometimes use ice baths to speed up the process), stir in the beaten egg, and the yeast/water mixture. (The milk/butter mixture should not feel hot—you don’t want to cook the egg or kill the yeast).
4. Stir in 2 cups of flour one at a time, beating well with a large spoon and scraping off the sides.
5. Measure 1 more cup of flour, but only add about 3/4 of the cup. Only add more flour if the dough still feels sticky. The dough should remain a little sticky. (Note: When doubling or tripling the recipe, sometimes more flour is needed.)
6. Beat dough vigorously with a large spoon (or knead with your hands) beating air into the dough.
1. To make a day ahead: cover the bowl tightly and place in the refrigerator. The next day, bring to room temperature before rolling the dough out.
2. To make the day of: cover with a dish cloth, set in a warm spot, and let rise for 2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.
8. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness on floured surface. (I do not use a pastry cloth or a cloth cover for the rolling pin.)
9. Use 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter to cut out circles in the dough.
10. Dab or brush melted butter on each circle.
11. Stretch each circle, fold it over (in half) and press the top edge down.
12. Cover with a dish cloth, set in a warm spot, and let rise for about an hour.
13. Bake in 400F oven for 8-10 minutes. The rolls should be just lightly brown.

Cooking Laurie's Blackberry Pie

Laurie makes amazing pies, including this blackberry pie.

Crust
2 cups flour
2/3 cups of shortening (Laurie uses Crisco)
7 table spoons of cold water

Filling
4 cups of berries washed
3/4 - 1 cup of sugar, depending on sweetness of the berries
3 tablespoons of flour
couple of table spoons of lemon juice
butter

I am not a big fan of Crisco (or margarine). So while I follow Laurie's instructions for the filling faithfully, I improvise on the crust. It usually comes out fine (Nick being the judge), though it tastes very differently (understandably so) from Laurie's. Instead of Crisco, I use butter and substitute some vodka straight out of the freezer for some of the cold water. (The vodka idea came from this "foolproof" pie crust recipe from Cooks Illustrated.)

The butter is great for taste, and shortening is great for flakiness. To make up for the flakiness that my crust will lose due to my resistance to shortening, I try to leave the butter in relative large chunks while mixing the dough.

The alcohol from the vodka will evaporate during baking, and no aftertaste will remain. Yet using vodka gives me a slightly larger margin of error for adding too much liquid. (If you add too much water, the crust will be tough and soggy.)

1. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch pieces and sprinkle them over the flour in a bowl. Work the butter into the flour until the butter pieces are about the size of beans. To accomplish this I use a pastry blender, but a fork and a knife will also work. You want to keep the butter as cold as possible. (Sometimes I even refrigerate the bowl before starting.) So resist the temptation to use your hands.
2. The amount of liquid for the recipe is approximate. Add one table spoon at a time, gently working it into the dough. Switch to vodka after about 4 spoons of water. Stop adding the liquid as soon as the dough starts coming together. (You will certainly need to use your hands for to do this.)
3. Form the dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you are making the filling.
4. In a bowl, gently toss berries with sugar (I have yet to add more than 3/4 cups), flour and lemon juice.
5. Grab your favorite pie plate--a 9 inch Pyrex one works great for me.
6. Remove one ball of dough from the refrigerator, and roll it out into a circle (12 inches in diameter according to most cook books) on a lightly floured surface. (Laurie uses a pastry cloth, while I roll it out directly on the kitchen counter.)
7. Place the dough into the pie plate. The dough edges should be hanging a bit over the plate. Refrigerate while you work on the second half of the dough.
8. Roll out the second ball of dough.
9. Remove pie plate with the bottom crust from the refrigerator and pile the berry mixture into it.
10. Dot a few pieces of butter here and there on top of the berry mixture. I generally use less than a table spoon total for this step. I do not know how much Laurie uses.
11. Place the remaining rolled out dough on top of the berries, and seal the edges. Cut slits into the top crust to allow steam to escape during baking.
12. Preheat the oven to 375F.
13. Edges of the pie need to be covered at first to prevent them from overcooking. I have tried doing this with strips of foil, and what a pain that was. Finally, I discovered a much easier way to do it in the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. The book suggests to "fold a 12-inch square of foil into quarters; cut a 7-inch hole out of the center; unfold and loosely mold the foil ring over the pie's edges." (You do not need to measure the foil--just approximate.)
14. If you pie is ready to go, but your oven is still heating up, put the pie into the refrigerator until the oven is ready.
15. Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes, until the top is golden and the filling is boiling. The times here are very approximate and really depend on the oven. The filling sometimes escapes from the pie and into the oven, so you may want to put the pie plate onto a small cookie sheet in the oven.

We love to eat it warm with vanilla ice cream.

Excellent information on making pie crust:

• Smitten Kitchen's Pie Crust 101
• Smitten Kitchen's Pie Crust 102
• Cooks Illustrated Foolproof Pie Dough

Christy Drumheller's Potato Salad

Being generally averse to buying pre-fabricated food, I insisted on making the potato salad from scratch for our 4th of July feast in Walla Walla. Thankfully Nick's aunt Christy, who unfortunately could not join us for the weekend, emailed us the recipe, and Nick's unckle Tom bought the ingredients. (Thanks, Tom!)

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp chopped Walla Walla Sweet Onions
• 1/3 cup chopped celery
• 4 hard boiled eggs chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash pepper
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup mayo
• 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
• 6 boiled, cooled & cubed potatoes
• 1 Tbsp mustard

Directions: mix well, sprinkle the top with paprika, and chill before serving.

I followed the directions faithfully (even measuring out chopped onion and celery--something I would never do at home), and the salad was a big hit. I did I completely forgot about paprika, but that did not seem to make all that much difference.

For me, the 3 table spoons of chopped onions worked out to be about a 1/4 of a Walla Walla sweet onion, and the 1/3 cup of chopped celery was one large celery stock.

When I came home, I decided to look up the recipe to the potato salad that was written down for me by Nick's grandmother. I remember having made it before, and good as it was, it has never come out this good. Interestingly enough, my recipe cards (for some reason I have two for the same recipe) omit mustard, and call for 6 cups of cubed potatos, as opposed to 6 potatos. I would guess that in most cases a cup of boiled cubed potatos is less then a single cubed potato, but I have not actually measured it out. My recipe cards also suggest using some parsley to sprinkle over or mix into the salad. I love parsley, so I might just add it in next time I make the salad.

Thanksgiving Recap--The Corn Bake Recipe Evolution

My family first tasted the corn bake dish while celebrating Thanksgiving with our family friends, the Polskys. The dish is simple to make, and the result is similar to super moist corn bread.

The Original Corn Bake Recipe
1 egg
½ cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup of sour cream
1 can of cream style corn
1 can of kernel corn drained
1 package of Jiffy corn muffin mix

Mix all the ingredients together (I find it easier to mix in the cans of corn and the muffin mix last). Pour into a greased 9 x 9 inch square dish, cover with foil, bake for about an hour at 325F. Then remove the foil, and bake for another 15-30 minutes till doneness at 375F.


The corn bake dish has been a part of every Thanksgiving dinner for almost two decades. However, this year I decided that it was time for a change--I no longer wanted to stock up on Jiffy muffin mix, and I was disappointed to learn that the corn is not vegetarian because Jiffy muffin mix contains lard.

I used this corn bread recipe—the quickest fastest simplest recipe ever for a decent corn bread—as a point of reference. I also studied the ingredients of the Jiff corn muffin mix, which essentially boiled down to flour, corn meal, baking soda, salt and sugar.

After the first attempt, I decreased the amount of corn meal, and switched to using maple syrup instead of sugar or honey. The second attempt was a success, and that is exactly what mom baked for our Thanksgiving dinner.

The New Corn Bake Recipe
1 cup wheat flour
¾ cups corn meal
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg beaten
¼ cup (½ stick) of butter, melted
1 cup plain yogurt (we used low-fat)
3 Tbsp maple syrup (honey can be substituted)
1 can of cream style corn
¼ cup corn (from a can or frozen and thawed; more can be added to taste)

Mix the wet ingredients. Then mix in the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 9 x 9 inch square dish, cover with foil, bake for about an hour at 325F. Then remove the foil, and bake for another 15-30 minutes till doneness at 375F.

Recipes: To Follow Or Not To Follow

I love trying out new recipes. Unfortunately, sometimes recipes call for ingredients not readily available in our little supermarket. To solve this problem I either substitute for or omit the problematic food, depending on the recipe. To Nick’s dismay, I often substitute ingredients even when I don’t have to. When something I made tastes funny to Nick, his first suspicion is always that I did not follow the recipe, and a lot of times he is correct.

I cannot blame him for being suspicious. Early on in our relationship, I baked him a birthday cake. It was a chocolate cake, and at some point I decided that it would taste a hundred times better if I added some cherries to the dough. While happily eating the cake, Nick did not mention the cherries. So I asked him if he noticed anything unusual about the cake. After some coercion, he admitted that he thought the cake had uncooked lumps of dough in it. These were the cherries. Nick also thought that the cake was not sweet. I had to admit that because cherries were sweet, I also decreased the amount of sugar I used for the cake.

After the cake and cherries incident, I still substitute ingredients all the time. As long as I avoid any drastic deviations, the results are usually quite palatable. A few months ago I found an interesting recipe for stuffed poblano peppers. I have never had poblano peppers before, so the prospect of cooking this exotic vegetable was exciting. Sadly the poblanos were just as much of a novelty item for me, as they were for our grocery store. So I made a substitution, and that evening Nick and I enjoyed a tasty meal of stuffed green peppers instead.

I did not give up, and a few days ago I decided to try another stuffed poblano peppers recipe. To my delight, this time the grocery store carried poblanos. Surprisingly the dinner turned out to be a complete disaster even though I did not make any substitutions. The recipe took a long time to prepare. When 2 hours later, the stuffed poblanos finally made it into the oven, I realized that the peppers were too spicy for Nick and me to enjoy them. More over, my hand felt as if it was on fire, because I seeded the poblano peppers with my bare hands greatly underestimating their potency.

The following day I vowed never to cook exotic food again. We comforted ourselves by eating pasta and meat sauce for a few days afterwards. Now I am back to searching for new recipes, and I have to admit that my decision to avoid the exotic will probably not last. Tonight we had broiled salmon with spinach risotto. Let’s see what next week brings.