My mom and I were driving home from somewhere and realized that we were both really hungry. Mama started telling me about this spicy, saucy, ranch shrimp wrap she had in Mexico. So, of course, we had to recreate it when we got home!

We made a chipotle ranch sauce for the crispy shrimp and made a sweet relish to balance the smoky-spiciness. I really recommend the arugula instead of normal lettuce because the pepperiness goes well with the spice!

Frozen popcorn shrimp
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Ranch dressing
One bell pepper, red or yellow
One mango
Fresh cilantro
Tortilla wraps

1. Bake the shrimp according to package directions.
2. Puree the chipotle and adobo till smooth. Mix with any amount of ranch dressing until it is as spicy as you want. We mixed about 2 1/2 tablespoons with half a bottle of ranch dressing.
3. Dice the bellpepper finely, and do the same with the mango. Really, you could use any sweet fruit here – pineapple, peach, even jicama. Add some finely chopped cilantro, and add cracked black pepper and a hint of salt.
4. Toss the shrimp with the sauce and mix to coat.
5. Put down some arugula on a warm tortilla. Top with the creamy, spicy shrimp, and then with the yellow pepper and mango relish. Wrap up and eat!

I finally got around to baking a cake in the pan that my Mom-in-law and Maryam got for me. It is a heritage bundt cake pan from Williams-Sonoma. Without exaggeration, it may turn out to be my favorite default cake pan. The cake…was….gorgeous. I did a lemon cake mix with strawberries in it. They all sunk to the bottom, which turned out to be the top, so there was this beautiful tie-die layer of strawberries as a top crust! I was afraid that it would stick because of all the curves, but it did not stick at all.

Thanks, Mom and Maryam!

(Everyone knows what a Bundt cake is, right?)

My first experience with the famous Chicken 65 was when a bunch of my Hyderabadi friends mentioned it as their favorite dish. I, a strict Punjabi, had never heard of the thing. They raved about how good it was, but I never bothered to investigate further.

Then, last week, I went to visit some family in New Jersey. My aunt served this delicious looking red chicken, sprinkled with curry leaves. I thought it was normal tandoori chicken (which I love), so I was excited. But when I took a bite…..the love affair began.

This stuff is awesome. It’s an amazing balance of sour, sweet, savory, and downright spicy. My mom and I challenged ourselves to recreate it at home, and she found this recipe by the Vah Chef (this guy is pretty fun to watch; i’ll have to investigate further). Why’s it called Chicken 65? Vah Chef tells you.

I’ve just written out his recipe, plus a few changes that we made. I’m giving the recipe as we made it, but I think next time we’ll make it a bit saucier (i.e. double all the sauce ingredients except maybe the curry leaves). I suggest you watch his video for the technique alongside this recipe (not that it’s that complicated, but he’s really excited about it).

Recipe after the jump.
(more…)

I got a slow cooker when I got married, but in one year’s time, I only used it once – disastrously. I tried it once when I was home all day to see how it cooked. I attempted to make rice pudding, but I had put in too much rice and too much milk and it overflowed. I had to dump it out into a big pot halfway through.

But somehow, I gathered up the courage to try it again – and in the past month, I’ve used it six times. Hence, I make this proclamation in front of the whole world – I love my slow cooker (and no, Ameir doesn’t consider it cheating, because he gets food out of the deal). I love the taste and texture of the food it produces. I love not having to cook when I get home after long days. I love the smell of deliciousness that greets me when I get home. *dreamy sigh*

I’m highly inspired by Stephanie of A Year of Crockpotting, who used her slow cooker every day for a year. As I make stuff, I’ll link to things that are inspired by her recipes.

This meatball stew was inspired by Stephanie’s adaptation of Simply Recipes‘ Albondigas recipe (meatball soup).

I made some meatballs, seared, and froze them for future use. I used the same basic recipe as I use for spaghetti and meatballs, but I added pureed chipotle-in-adobo to the mix. Just because I had some. I wanted to do frozen meatballs because I thought they’d cook much quicker than root vegetables, so I thought adding them to the slow cooker still frozen would give me more time. It came out to 12 meatballs, so I put half of them in here and saved half for something else later.

Basic slow cooker safety and operation:
– Do not put cold food in a hot cooker.
– Do not put hot food in a cold cooker (put it on warm while you’re preparing).
– High cooking is usually 3 -4 hours. Low cooking is usually 6-9 hours.
– Put vegetables in the first layer, meat on the second (veggies take longer to cook).
– The slow cooker doesn’t lose moisture, so when it’s done cooking, you’ll have either the same amount of liquid you put in, or even more b/c of condensation.

Click for the recipe! (more…)

At the end of the year International Law Journal banquet, the Editorial Staff treated us all to a dinner at Southern Rail Restaurant in Carboro. It was, to say the least, pretty phenomenal. There was a simple salad with a roasted garlic vinaigrette. Dessert was a coffee pot-au-creme with vanilla bean and nutmeg whipped cream. But dinner…oh…dinner was amazing. It was a linguini in a spicy tomato cream sauce with artichoke hearts and tomatoes, topped with a perfectly cooked salmon that had some kind of sweet crust to it. I don’t now how they did it, but it was just perfect.

To mirror that, I revamped my usual shrimp, spinach, tomato sauce pasta to try to capture the spicy-sweet aspect of Southern Rail’s salmon pasta. I didn’t know how to sweeten the shrimp, so I just caramelized the onions and garlic. Delicious!

Recipe after the link (more…)

Slow Cooker Chili with Sweet Corn Rice and Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread

I’ve got papers to write, exams to study for. On hiatus.

Koshari is Egyptian street food – and, really, isn’t street food always the best part of any cuisine? It’s based on kitchery – a very simple rice and lentil mixture served in Pakistan and India. When Desi workers came to Egypt, they brought kitchery with them, and I really have to say that the Egyptians perfected it.

It’s really very simple. Lentils are cooked in a savory tomato sauce, and then the dish is served in layers: rice, tomato-y lentils, then caramelized or fried onions on top. It’s eaten spicy, so hot sauce is served alongside. Fancier versions have chickpeas and other legumes too. I added extra veggies by putting eggplant in the rice.

I made this over at Amy Aziza’s house at a mini housewarming party to break in her new kitchen. Angela made empanadas, because she’s Puerto Rican and awesome like that. Natasha brought Charlie Chaplain. Emilie was beautiful and smiling. It was great!

Koshari

2 cups lentils (I like brown lentils Koshari, the same as for this Eggplant and Lentil Stew)
1 large can tomato sauce (28 oz I think?)
2 cups rice + 4 cups broth or water to cook it in
1 eggplant
A lot of garlic (a lot)
A lot of onions (a lot)
Salt, pepper, hot sauce
Paprika or cayenne, depending on your heat tolerance
Cinnamon
Olive oil
Hot sauce to serve

1. (before you do anything else, start this, because onion caramelization is best if it is done over a long period of time. If you forget, cheat and add sugar). Dice or slice a lot of onions and put it on a medium low heat with a bit of olive oil. Let it go. Keep coming back and stirring it. Add some sugar if you want to help the onions along. At the end, before you serve, turn up the heat so the onions get crispy on the edges.

2. Chop one or two onions and a bunch of garlic and saute in some olive oil until soft-ish. Add the lentils and an equal part of water and boil until the lentils are almost soft. Drain any excess water, and then add more garlic and the tomato sauce. Simmer until lentils are soft. Salt and pepper it.

2. Cut the eggplant into chunks and put it in a colander. Salt it and let it drain for 15 min at least (this gets the bitterness out). Pat dry, sprinkle with cayenne, black pepper, and cinnamon, and fry in batches.

3. Sautee an onion and garlic until soft. Add the eggplant, stir. Add the rice and stir. Add some cinnamon (this is a Magrebi – Moroccan – touch that I really like, but the cinnamon is entirely optional) and black pepper. Add the liquid (water or broth) and cook the rice normally.

To serve: Put down a layer of rice, then a layer of tomato lentils, then top with caramelized onions. Add hot sauce to taste!

Let it be known – pineapple upside down cake does not have a monopoly on overturned baked goods. You can do it with any fruit! I had some fresh pears and strawberries and blueberries, so I used the Pear-Cranberry upside down cake recipe from my Martha Stewart cookbook (don’t worry, I only have one). The berries got really soft and turned gooey at the edges, but it still tasted great and looked beautiful.

Pear berry upside down cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living 2002 Annual Recipes

12 tbs (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
3 firm but ripe pears
1 cup berries
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 2 lemons
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 cup milk, room temp.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare pan: I used a 10-inch springform pan, lined with wax paper. You want to do this for three reasons: (1) easy cleanup, (2) can flip without messing up the top of the cake, and (3) creates a seal so the melted brown sugar and butter doesn’t leak out the bottom of the springform pan.

It’s really easy to line the bottom of a springform. Step 1: Put down the removable bottom on the counter. Step 2: lay down a large sheet of wax paper on top of the bottom with some serious overlap. Step 3: put the sides/shell on top of the bottom and lock it – this will tear/shape the wax paper perfectly onto the bottom. Trim off any spare edges.

Spray the sides of the pan with cooking spray. Melt 6 tbs butter + 3/4 cup brown sugar over medium heat and cook for about 6 minutes until it all comes together. Pour it into the 10-inch springform pan.

2. Arrange the thinly sliced pears and 1/2 cup of berries on top of the brown sugar and butter mixture. Martha said to coat with lemon juice, but I think I just put the juice into the batter. I don’t remember – but I know I definitely did not coat.

3. Sift together all dry ingredients except sugar (flower, baking powder, salt, cinnamon) in a bowl.

4. Beat together the rest of the butter (6 tbs) and 1 cup brown sugar until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. It might look a little curdled. Don’t panic, just add some of the flour mixture.

5. Alternate adding milk and flour mixture. Stir in 1/2 cup berries and lemon zest into the batter. Gently pour the batter over the fruit.

6. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

7. To invert: let it sit for a few minutes, and then run a knife around the sides. Flip it over onto a plate, unclasp and remove the edges of the springform pan. Take off the metal bottom and gently peel away the wax paper. If anything stuck onto the pan, the sugar should still be hot enough that you can just spoon it back onto the surface of the cake.

This flatbread have become kind of a staple snack or party food for me. I was inspired by a cheese-and-olive pie that Neomonde bakery makes (and theirs is much better than mine will ever be).

The green olives really make the dish – they’re just salty enough. Black olives may be a little too bitter for a delicate flatbread like this. I usually use Roma tomatoes, but today I had one of the big fat ones – just take care to cut it thinly so you don’t have juice making it soggy. If you slice the onions very thinly, they caramelize a bit, which makes a nice sweet contrast to the salty olives.

Tomato Olive Flatbread

1 Pillsbury Thin Crust pizza dough
1 Tomato, sliced thinly
handful of green olives, pitted and chopped
1 small onion, sliced very thinly
Shredded mixed Italian cheese
Handful of parsley, chopped
Garlic powder

1. Spread the pizza crust on a baking sheet. Cut in half lengthwise and stretch a little. You don’t need to roll it out, just stretch it a tad bit evenly around the sides.

2. Sprinkle with garlic powder and bake in a 400F oven for about 5 minutes (following the directions on the package for a crisper crust).

3. After it is lightly cooked, spread on the cheese, then the onion slices, tomato, green olives. Sprinkle parsley on the top.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the crust is crispy and until cheese is melted (or browned, if you want).

Mustard Mayo potato salad – it’s…well….it’s kind of ickish. It’s only something you can have a little bit of at a time, or go through phases of it (you eat a big tub, then you’re off it for a year). Also, it kind of only edible at picnics, isn’t it?

I saw something like this on Barefoot Contessa. After boiling the potatoes, she puts in chicken broth and white wine. Well, I didn’t have any of the former, and I’ll never have any of the latter (the Muslim thing, and all). And I didn’t have mustard to make a vinaigrette, but the garlic and rosemary flavored olive oil in this was just perfect. This is a really light, fresh potato salad that I served with chicken sandwiches. Hot, warm, or room temp, I think, would be best.

Warm Garlic and Rosemary Potato Salad

10 small new red potatoes
1 – 2 tbs fresh rosemary sprigs
2 big cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
4 scallions, chopped
Handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and black pepper

1. Pour olive oil into a pan over low or medium low flame. Add the garlic and just let it simmer lightly until it gets golden brown. This will take only about three minutes – think of it as steeping. At the very last second, put in the fresh rosemary sprigs and let them sizzle for a few seconds.

2. Clean and quarter the potatoes, then put them into cold water. Add salt. Boil the water and potatoes until potatoes are soft. Drain.

3. Pour the hot olive oil onto the hot potatoes. Mix well.

4. Mix in the fresh chopped parsley and scallions. Salt, pepper, and eat!