Okay so I will be sharing the family favorite recipe for a Bengali chicken curry (Kosha Murgi). Every family has their own version, and ours is pretty loved by guests, so it is a winner :) Get a skinned chicken jointed into medium sized pieces (not too big). Since Indian chickens are quite scraggy, often cutting one into 12 pieces is enough, but for American chickens you need to make more pieces. Quarter medium sized potatoes. Okay, now on to the curry paste. Blitz together (onions, ginger, garlic) and mix with natural yogurt, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chilly powder (or paprika if you don't like it hot) and slather the chicken in it. Coat the potatoes in salt, red chilly powder and turmeric powder and just a tiny pinch of sugar (to help with caramelization). We usually cook with mustard oil, but vegetable oil would be fine too. If using olive oil, don't use extra virgin. :) Fry the potatoes until golden on the outside but still not cooked through. Time for the action. make sure you have enough oil (like 3 tbsps if using 1 kg of chicken), and add in 2 dried bay leaves to splutter. When it has done its job, tip in the chicken in its marinade, season with salt and turn the heat right up. Don't add water now. The chicken should reach a boiling point and cook for a sufficient amount of time, until the curry paste is looking lovely and brown, and has released oil. At this point, add in some storebought spice-mix you want to add (eg: garam masala; you could also used powdered clove-cassia-cardamom instead). Add the potatoes, and hot water to just cover everything. Check seasoning, cover and cook until everything is tender. Lastly, sprinkle chopped cilantro and serve over rice. The gravy could be made more oozy or dry, it is your wish :)
Americans are well-acquainted with something called a biscuit, which is completely unlike what UK-based countries call a biscuit (i.e. a cookie).
People in these UK-based countries have something similar to an American biscuit (but somewhat different), called a scone.
My spouse has made these a few times, and they are delicious. By the way, "tasty" cheese is a simple white cheddar.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/cuisine/69193940/Recipe-Ministry-of-Food-cheese-scones
[edit] This link has a few more tips on technique - it's important to pre-heat the baking tray! http://lifeandcheese.com/2012/06/17/scones-ministry-of-food-style/
I know you have been gone for sometime now, but we are well acquainted with scones in this country. At least, our version of it, which comes at us via Starbucks and other coffee shops. It's typically of a biscuit consistency but rather than savory it's more often than not sweet, and sometimes even glazed
BTW, American-style (southern) biscuits cannot be found here, anywhere. Not even the crappy canned ones.
I've had things called "scones" in America but they weren't quite the same.
[edit] To clarify - proper scones are nearly always savory. The only exception I've seen is when dates are used, adding some sweetness; but they are still primarily savory. A glazed scone is just wrong IMO, it's not a doughnut!
I wouldn't say plain (english) scones are savory. They're neutral like bread. A plain scone that you top with jam and cream isn't really savory. But you can just as easily use them the way Americans use biscuits because they aren't typically sweet either. Damn you, now I want scones.
Carbonara. Amazingly tasty, very quick and easy to make. 1. Render some bacon or other fatty, salty cut of meat 2. Fry onions and garlic in bacon fat, add plenty of freshly ground pepper 3. Cook spaghetti or linguine, reserve a little pasta water 4. As quickly as you can, toss the still steaming hot pasta in the bacon mixture (with all of the bacon fat), crack one egg per serving into the pasta, stir vigorously 5. Add grated parmesan and chopped parsley 6. If too thick add some pasta water, if not just salt to taste and serve Easily under 30 minutes to prepare. I also like to make chicken salad with leftover chicken. I toss the chicken in food processor with mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, whatever herbs I have and some lemon juice. Then I add chopped apples and grapes along with some feta or blue cheese, maybe some crushed nuts if I have them. Probably a total of 10 minutes to prepare some tasty chicken salad sandwiches assuming the chicken is leftover from something else.
Kentucky Hot Brown Bake 1 roll of crescent rolls
1/4 lb. bacon - cooked
1/4 lb. canned chicken - drained
1/4 lb. oven roasted turkey deli slices
3 eggs
3 plum tomatoes - sliced thin
8 slices provolone cheese
1 tsp Italian Seasoning Basically it's a sandwich that someone made into a casserole. It's awesome. Unroll the crescent roll doll and put half on the bottom of an 8 inch pan. Press it down to fill the bottom of the pan. Layer half of the turkey, bacon, chicken, tomato, and cheese on top of the crescent roll bottom. Beat the eggs together with the Italian seasoning. Pour 1/2 of that on top of the layers. Re-layer using the rest of the turkey, bacon, chicken, tomato, and cheese. Use almost all the rest of the egg mix on top but leave enough to brush the crescent roll top. Put the remaining crescent roll dough on top. Brush with egg mixture. Foil on top. Oven at 350 for 25. Remove foil. Oven for 20. Let sit for 10 minutes. Slice and eat.
I too will follow ThatFanficGuys format. Generally recipes for 4. Cheap: Linguini alla Vongole Ingredients:
• 3 tablespoons kosher or coarse sea salt
• 1 pound linguine
• 12 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 pound littleneck clams
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 (14-ounce) can whole San Marzano tomatoes in juice
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
Preparation: In large pot over high-medium heat, boil 8 quarts of water and salt. Add linguine and cook to 1 minute short of al dente.
In large sauté pan on high-medium heat, heat 6 tablespoons extra- olive oil until hot. Add garlic and sauté until just golden, about 30 seconds.
Add clams and 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes and sauté 1 minute.
Add wine, tomatoes and juice, and 1/2 cup parsley and simmer, uncovered, just until clams open, 7 to 8 minutes. But there is a way to do this on the cheap and easy as well. You can substitute out the fresh clams with 2 cans of clams and the rest out with prepared 2 cans of "tomato with garlic and olive flavor". That is how to make this recipe really cheap and healthy and tasty. Pour it all in. And boil some pasta. That should cost about $8 for 4 and take 12 minutes. You can buy a $2 baguette and throw some butter and garlic on it and throw it under the broiler and make it in the same time frame which brings the cost up to less than $3 a person. Add some cheap wine and....
Middle SALAD WITH CHICKEN 1. Marinate 4 Chicken Breasts with 2 packs of Baja Citrus Knor.
2. BBQ Chicken, chop and let cool..
3. Lay on bed of Mesclun.
4. Add crumbled Goat Cheese, capers, sesame seeds.
5. Sprinkle with Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, salt and pepper. Top Steak Oscar Ingredients: • 1 cup bearnaise sauce (or two envelope whatever)
• Whole milk
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed
• 1/2 pound crabmeat
• 1/2 teaspoon minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 4 beef tenderloin steaks
Directions: Prepare bearnaise sauce.
Saute crab and garlic in butter for 3-4 minutes or until heated through. Stir in lemon juice. And set aside.
Grill steak in oil and butter.
Steam asparagus.
Plate steak, cover with asparagus and crab sauce and top with béarnaise sause.
Are we the same person? This is exactly what I eat when left to my own devices!
With the odd salade niçoise and gazpacho thrown into the rotation in summer months :) EDIT: Not entirely true that this is exactly what I cook - I just saw that you put crab in the béarnaise - I've got to try that! I'm not sure I've ever had beef and crab together.
There are two salad mixes that I love. One is quite expensive to make in Russia, another is quite cheap and can be done often. The Cheap One: A very simple mix. It has sour taste, and it's quite nutritious if all you have to do is to survive on something. You'll need around the same mass (I use 100g) of: - korean-style carrot (basically, kimchi made of carrot as its main ingredient) - cheese (don't have it too bright, or it will be the only thing you'll taste) - meat (anything will do, although expensive meats would be a waste in such a dish) - marinanted cucumbers - mayonnaise or sour cream (enough to cover the whole mess) - a deep, round bowl to mix in and serve/eat from The recipe: - cut them into long thin parts - mix them together with mayonaisse or sour cream Bon appetit! The Expensive One: The grapes give this mix an interesting sweet and sour hint, which contrasts curiously with the more serious, formal cheese and meat tones. You'd need: - chicken breasts - cheese (of your preference) - a full handful of big non-squishy grapes (the less they are, the more you'd need) - walnuts (about as many as grapes) - mayonnaise - a big, round bowl to mix in and serve/eat from The recipe: - cook chicken breasts - graze cheese - crush the edible part of walnuts into small pieces - cut each grape in half - cut chicken breasts into small pieces; favor natural rupture of meat during cutting: it will both help with layers and ease eating - put layer upon layer of either cheese or chicken meat (one after another), greasing each layer with mayonnaise and sprinkling them with walnut - as you put the last layer, finish with a layer of grapes, skin up It may be heavy on your stomach, so don't eat much in one sitting. Bon appetit!
Samosas are pretty easy... You can really choose whatever you want to put in them, but I usually go for: Then you just cut a cross in the middle of the pastry, spoon a bit of the curry into the middle and pinch all of the corners into the middle to make a little pyramid. I usually get about 16 with the quantities above. Then you chuck them on a tray in the oven for about 20 mins at 180 degrees Celsius (sorry guys I'm from Australia) and voilà! Delicious samosas! I'll try and post some pictures later... I'm sure I have some somewhere :D 1 onion
2 medium sized potatos
2 carrots (I usually grate them, but you could chop them to keep the crunch!)
as many peas as you want!
Meat is optional. I used to put minced beef in before my family all turned vegetarian!
Sauté the onions (with any meat you may want to add) in a bit of olive oil and add all the other veges. From there you just add curry powder and salt to taste with about 1/4 - 1/2 a cup of water (Maybe more depending on how many veges you go with). Then just let it simmer and stir it occasionally until the potatoes are a little soft. Squares of puff pastry
Curry powder
Salt
Water
Hardly my favorite recipe, but well worth a mention.