chana masala and garlic naan

The cold weather the past few weeks has had me craving Indian food. I’ve bookmarked quite a few recipes to try, but the long list of ingredients for Indian cuisine has always intimidated me a bit. This weekend I finally bit the bullet, and gathered the necessary spices from Spice Bazaar, a tiny Indian grocery (in the mini shopping center in front of Target on 15-501, for any locals). And ohmygoodness, what was I waiting for?? This recipe for chana masala is really easy, and oh so good. And the naan… nom, nom, nom. We will definitely be making this again!
Chana Masala
adapted from Molly Wizenberg
1/4 c olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1/4 t ground ginger
1 t ground turmeric
1 t garam masala
1/2 t ground cayenne pepper
1 t salt
water
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
1 T chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish (I used curry leaves)
3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 2 15-oz cans, drained and rinsed)
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until caramelized, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to low. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric, garam masala, cayenne, and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant and toasty, about 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup water, stir, and cook until water has completely evaporated.
Add tomatoes and their juice, raise heat to medium, and bring to a gentle boil. Adjust heat to maintain a simmer, and add cilanto (or curry) leaves. Stirring occasionally, cook until mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.
Add chickpeas, stir, and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Add 2T water, cook 5 minutes. Add another 2T water and cook until absorbed. (This process of adding and cooking off water helps concentrate the sauce’s flavor and makes the chickpeas more tender.) Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Garnish with cilantro/curry leaves. Serve with rice and naan.
serves 4
Garlic Naan
adapted from Mic at All Recipes
2 1/4 t active dry yeast
1 c warm water
1/4 c sugar
3 T milk
1 egg, beaten
2 t salt
4 1/2 c flour
2 t minced garlic
In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise for 1 hour, until doubled in volume.
Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball, roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
Preheat grill or grill pan to high heat. Roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle, place on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until puffy and lightly browned. Flip and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.
makes 14 pieces of naan

carrot cake pancakes from trever and lindy

If you like carrot cake, you will love these pancakes! I have been trying to add new recipes into the rotation, so last Saturday I made carrot cake pancakes. I found the recipe in the Jan/Feb edition of Cooking Light and thought I would give it a try. The recipe is adapted from a recipe that is used at Snooze in Denver. Side note: I ate at Snooze with Molly when I visited last summer and LOVED their food. The grating of the carrots was time consuming and a little dangerous but the recipe was pretty easy. Give em' a try!
Carrot Cake Pancakes

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 pancakes and about 2 teaspoons honey butter)

Ingredients

• 5.6 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/4 cups)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (I used pecans because we didn't have walnuts. I toasted them in the oven on 400 for 5 minutes)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• Dash of ground cloves
• Dash of ground ginger
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk (We didn't have buttermilk, so I created my own. You need 1 cup of lowfat milk and one Tbsp. of vinegar. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes and voila, you have your buttermilk. I then measured 3/4 cup from this mixture for my recipe.)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups finely grated carrot (about 1 pound)
• Cooking spray
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons honey

Preparation

1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour and next 7 ingredients (through ginger) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar and next 4 ingredients (through eggs); add sugar mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in 2 cups carrot.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Spoon 4 (1/4 cup) batter mounds onto pan, spreading with a spatula. Cook for 2 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Carefully turn pancakes over; cook 1 minute or until bottoms are lightly browned. Repeat procedure twice with remaining batter. Combine butter and honey in a small bowl; serve with pancakes.

pb choc chip cupcakes

celebratewithcake:
Ingrdients: Makes 24
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
- Sift 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix ingredients together on low speed.
- In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Add boiling water and stir to combine (with a spoon, not a mixer! it will splash around your kitchen). Add the chocolate chunks; set cake batter aside.
- Fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with cake batter.
- Return to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
- Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.
Milk Chocolate Frosting recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 1 ½ ounces milk chocolate
- 3 tablespoons milk
Instructions:
- In a large bowl, sift together the confectioners’ sugar and cocoa; set aside.
- In a heatproof bowl above simmering water, melt the chocolate (or in a microwave). Add to confectioners’ sugar mixture and add the remaining ingredients. Mix with an electric mixer for 1 minute, until a smooth frosting appears.

peanut butter sandwich cookies

Recipe from OurBestBites

1 C butter flavored Crisco
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
3 eggs
3 C flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

filling:
1 C creamy peanut butter
1/2 c real butter, softened
4 C powdered sugar
2 t vanilla
5-6 T milk

For the cookies:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars together until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
Add in vanilla, and eggs one at a time.
In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt and add to dough. Mix to combine. The dough will be very soft- that's normal!

Roll into balls, roll in sugar, place on cookie sheet (no need to grease it) and do the little forky criss-cross thing.

Now, not only are these cookies doubly sweet because they're sandwiched, but the dough spreads, so make your balls small. I use a regular size 40 cookie scoop and I separate each scoop of dough in half to form 2 cookies, and they're still pretty good sized. A mini scoop is perfect.

Okay, so pop the cookies into the oven and bake for 6-7 minutes. You want them to say super soft, so don't let them get brown. In my oven, and for the size of cookies I do, 6 minutes exactly is perfect. Remove them from pan and cool on a cooling rack.

To make the filling:
Whip the peanut butter and butter together until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Then add milk one T at a time. You may not need it all. You want the filling to be on the thick side, it should just have enough milk in it to make it easily spreadable. If you add too much milk (like a normal frosting consistency) it might squish out of the cookies when you take a bite.

I put the filling in a piping bag, or a hefty zip-lock with the edge cut off to make filling easy. Place filling on one cookie and sandwich another on top. I designed the recipe to have enough filling to be generous :)

With the size I do, I get about 8 dozen cookies, which makes about 4 dozen sandwiches.

Just a note: I think these are actually even better the 2nd day. The flavors mellow together and you get a cool sweet n' saltly thing going on. Plus, after they sit with the filling in them, the cookies get really soft. Mmmm...


from leah and yancy's blog

nutella hot chocolate

Nutella hot chocolate.

• 1 cup whole milk (feel free to substitute skim, rice, almond, etc)
• 3 tb Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut spread
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp high-quality cocoa powder
• 1 or more marshmallows
• pinch of espresso powder (optional)

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over a low flame, whisk together the milk, Nutella, cocoa powder, and espresso (if using). Add cinnamon stick. Simmer for about 5 minutes, to allow flavors to meld.

all kinds of pancake recipes

here

spicy ginger cookies

here