AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I promised a post today, didn't I? Was I specific? I hope I wasn't specific. I intended to post my new favorite summer food (from Poor Girl Gourmet), but...well, last week, I went to water my tomatoes around 2 in the morning and the faucet for the hose broke and I couldn't turn it off, so we ended up having to turn the water in my side of the house off completely in order to avoid having a constantly-running hose until the plumber came. This happened...Friday or Saturday night (well, Saturday or Sunday morning). I ran away to Mike's house because not being able to use the bathroom near my room is kind of disconcerting when I wake up in the middle of the night and, well, forget that I can't use that bathroom. I returned to my house yesterday to sit around and wait for the plumber to come (he was supposed to come yesterday). He never showed up. I called and left a message asking if he could come today and for some reason I thought he was going to, but he didn't. So I wasted two days sitting around waiting for a plumber (and canceled plans with a friend I haven't seen in ages) and promptly ran away to Mike's house again, where I don't have to worry about whether or not there is water, because there is water.

However. I left my cookbook at home. Which means I can't share the recipe I planned to share, so you're getting pancakes that I forgot I had pictures of.

See? Pancakes!

These are Strawberry-Almond-Chocolate Chip pancakes. I adapted them from my Banana pancakes that I posted a long time ago. Strawberries mix in differently (and they're much more liquid), so you get a much denser pancake here--you could probably add a little bit more flour if you want them fluffy, but despite my usual dislike for dense pancakes, these were quite delicious. The recipe is just going to be for strawberry pancakes, though, because I honestly have no idea how many chocolate chips were added. Lots, I'm guessing--I always just pour them in until it looks like a good amount. Mike sprinkled slivered almonds on top of the pancakes after I poured them into the pan--they got slightly toasted and added a great texture to our breakfast!

RECIPE: Strawberry Pancakes

Ingredients:

-1 cup flour

-4 tsp sugar

-2 tsp baking powder

-dash of salt

-1 large egg

-1/2-1 cup milk (less for fluffier pancakes, more for denser)

-2 tsp almond extract

-2 tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter)

-1 pint strawberries

-Chocolate chips (optional)

-Slivered almonds (optional)

-Butter (for the pan)

-Maple syrup

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and salt) in a small bowl.

2. Mash the strawberries in a large bowl until they are liquidy, but with plenty of strawberry pieces remaining.

3. Add the egg. Mash it in with the strawberries.

4. Add 1/2 cup milk, almond extract and vegetable oil/melted butter to the strawberry and egg mixture. Stir.

5. Add the flour mixture to the strawberry mixture. If you want to add chocolate chips, this would be the time to do it. Stir until combined. Don't over-stir, a few clumps of flour are okay.

6. Add more milk, stirring, until the batter reaches your preferred consistency. The more liquid your batter is, the denser your pancakes will be.

7. Cook pancakes in a well-buttered frying pan over medium heat. (I use a 1/4 cup measure to pour the right amount of batter into the pan.) If you want to add slivered almonds, sprinkle them on top of the pancake as soon as you pour it into the pan. Flip when the sides look solid and the bubbles on the top are beginning to pop.

8. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and cover with a clean dishtowel to retain heat. Continue repeating steps 7 and 8 until all the batter has turned into pancakes.

9. Top with real maple syrup and enjoy!

If you have an absurdly good memory and have been reading my blog since February, you may notice I basically copied and pasted and changed a few things. But, I mean, it's basically the same recipe--just a different way to enjoy it! (And it's 11:30 and I'm lazy.) But really, I do love versatile recipes, and I feel like you could adapt this to fit a lot of different fruits (right now I would really love some nectarine pancakes!)

I don't know when I'll be back home with my cookbook (my staying there hinges on the water getting fixed) but I'll be back here, at least, on Tuesday. And I'm warning you in advance--you should all get REALLY EXCITED for next Friday's post. It's gonna be exciting. I can't wait :D

Best Basic Cupcake Recipe

There is a gorgeous food (mostly baking) related-blog out there on the internets called Technicolor Kitchen. I think, aside from the beautiful food she makes, the most amazing part is that she posts every single thing in both English and Portuguese on two different blogs (click on the language to go to the blog in that language). Anyway. The Wednesday before Easter, she posted a recipe for some delightful-looking cupcakes that she called "Almond cakes with sugared apple icing." The recipe is apparently from Donna Hay but I can't find it anywhere on that site. Regardless, these were delicious and simple, so I'm posting the recipe for your enjoyment. (We doubled it--I'm going to post the original measurements, because you probably don't want 32 cupcakes. But if you do, double what I'm posting here.)

ALMOND APPLE CUPCAKES--Recipe
Ingredients (for the cakes):
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp unsalted butter (at room temperature)
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (note: if you want really almond-y flavor, substitute almond extract)
1 cup plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/3 cup ground almonds
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup whole milk

for the icing:
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup clear apple juice

Directions:
1. Okay, so the recipe technically calls for caster sugar (in both instances) which is really hard to find in the US (at least in my part of it) so put the sugar in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds to make it a little bit finer.
2. And I'm assuming that you didn't find ground almonds (or almond meal) at the store, so put some almonds in a food processor until they're finely ground. My advice (for both the almonds and the sugar) is to do small amounts at a time and fill measuring cups to make sure you have the right amount once it's ground.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Put the butter, sugar and vanilla (or almond) extract into the bowl of an electric mixer, or into a normal bowl and use a handmixer. Beat until fluffy.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding the next one.
6. Add the flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Mix thoroughly, then fold in the milk.
7. Pour into cupcake pans (that are either buttered or lined with cupcake liners). Fill each about 2/3 full. I sprinkled a couple almond slivers onto the top of each of mine so they'd look prettier. I think one almond slice would work well, too, or just one almond. Or whatever you think would be appropriate.
8. Bake for 15-17 minutes. They are done when a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
9. Make the icing: put the sugar (that you've put through the food processor) in a bowl. Add small amounts of apple juice, stirring, until it becomes something that you can ice a cupcake with. Spoon it over the cupcakes, spreading if it's thick enough to spread.

The batter before folding the milk it. It made a heart!

In the oven. (Do I recommend opening your oven to take a picture? No, not really, but I forgot to take pictures before putting them in the oven.)

Fresh out of the oven! They look so pretty here, I almost didn't want to ice them.

This didn't come out well at all, but that's basically what happens when they're iced. Except this was a leftover cupcake and I'd forgotten to take the picture until just a little while ago and it's a week old. So really, it looked prettier than this. (Also? Still delicious.)

My thoughts on this recipe:
-It was good. Really good. But, like I mentioned in the ingredients list, you'd probably need to substitute almond extract for the vanilla if you wanted a lot of flavor. As it was, they were a pretty basic cupcake and I think I'll use them whenever I need a basic cupcake recipe for a fun frosting.
-The recipe that I got said to ice the cupcakes as close to serving time as possible. It wasn't really possible for me to ice them right before serving them as we were traveling with them. The apple juice in the icing sort of sunk into the cupcakes and they ended up with a hardened layer of sugar on them. Was it delicious? Yes. But I couldn't taste the apple at all.
-Also, I think I should have put more apple juice in the icing. Mine was at a point where I could spread it, and I think if I could have drizzled it, there would have been more apple flavor.
-I used slivered almonds and I think this was a bad idea. Almonds are one of my favorite foods, and I ate some of the slivered almonds afterwards and they didn't have nearly as much flavor as normal almonds. Perhaps using normal, whole (or at least sliced) almonds would give better flavor to the recipe. And a tiny bit of color.
-They probably would have come out fluffier if I'd remembered to take the butter out of the refrigerator and let it warm up and soften a bit. Instead Mike stuck it in the microwave and it ended up melted. I read something recently on how important it is that your butter is softened as instructed and how melted butter is useless--I disagree, but whatever you're making usually comes out much fluffier if you actually follow the instructions.
-I'm definitely using this recipe again. And I highly recommend you check out Technicolor Kitchen for more wonderful sweets.

Mike decorated one of the cupcakes. With a chocolate frosted mini wheat. A special cupcake for a special boy.

Chicken Korma In a...storm-a?

Sorry about the title. But everyone's heard of Chicken Curry In a Hurry, right? So, when I made Chicken Korma and there was a blizzard, since it, like curry, is Indian food, my brain started rhyming things until I came up with...well, that. (The blizzard was last week. The town next to me was reported to have 15 inches of snow. I think we only got a foot, but still, a foot of snow at the end of February is quite a lot.)

I love Indian food. It's delicious. At some point, I realized I could make Indian food all by myself and not have to go out for dinner. When I first went to do so and walked into an Indian grocery store and discovered how cheap everything was, all I could think was, Why do I not do this ALL THE TIME?! Seriously--you're probably used to buying spices in a normal grocery store. Don't. Usually, an average-sized bottle of average-quality spices (and I'm thinking powder spices here, not dried herbs) is around 2 ounces and 6 dollars. At the Indian grocery, the containers are 7 ounces and under 3 dollars and they're much better quality. And it's not like they only have really weird things like asafetida. They carry pretty much anything. So, next time you need spices, check an Indian grocery store first. (I understand that most 'ethnic' grocers are like this, but I don't have experience with the other ones, especially the ones that sell spices. It's probably worth checking out anyway.)

My favorite Indian food is Palak Paneer. I get it every time I go out to eat. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a little, sometimes I go to a restaurant that is not Indian food.) I promise next time I make that I'll post it, because it's really cool. But one day I was out with someone and they didn't know what to get and I saw 'almonds' in one of the descriptions and told them to get that because it was delicious. I hadn't ever eaten it before, but if it involves almonds it's bound to be tasty. I was right, of course, and once I realized that I could cook Indian food I started prowling the internet for a good recipe. Most of them didn't use almonds; they used walnuts or something and that just felt wrong to me. Finally Mike said, "Why don't you google 'chicken korma almond recipe?'" and there were a lot of them, so I picked one and made it and it was amazing. So I made it again later and took pictures so I could post it here.

CHICKEN KORMA RECIPE

Adapted from Indobase

Ingredients:

-4 boneless chicken breasts (you could probably use dark meat if you want, but get 4 breasts worth of meat)

-1 large onion (I used yellow)

-4 cardamom pods (you could probably get away with using up to 6, but I wouldn't go higher than that)

-4 whole cloves

-3 cloves of garlic (this is one situation where I didn't vastly increase the amount--just used large cloves. There's plenty of flavor without extra garlic.)

-a piece of fresh ginger about 1 inch long

-a handful of flaked almonds

-1/2 tsp turmeric powder

-1 tsp ground coriander

-1 tbsp ground cumin

-1 tsp garam masala

-1 tsp mild chili powder

-1/4 tsp ground allspice

-1-2 tbsp tomato paste

-1 cup chicken broth

-1 cup coconut milk

-vegetable oil for the pan (if you want to be really authentic, use ghee)

Instructions:

1. Prepare everything--it'll be way easier later if you do all this now. Cube the chicken (you want cubes around 1 inch, but they don't have to be perfect.) Dice the onion (here I try for squares a little under an inch, it doesn't need to be finely diced.) Dice or crush the garlic. Peel and grate the ginger. Mix together the turmeric, coriander, cumin, garam masala, chili powder, and allspice in a small bowl (you add them all at once; I find it's much easier to just pour one bowl of spices in than to frantically measure each one. Also, please note that spice amounts are approximate. Play with them as you like). Lastly, grind the almonds. It's easiest to do this in a small food processor (I have a mini one that is perfect for this sort of thing, a larger one might not work as well.) A mortar and pestle works too but takes FOREVER. You might not want all of them ground--some people prefer some flakes remaining. The coarseness and amount of flakes is up to you. Keep the ground almonds (and flaked almonds) in a bowl for later.

2. Crush the cardamom pods. Throw them, the onion and the cloves into a large frying pan (or wok) with some oil. Cook until the onion softens a little.

3. Add the chicken, garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for a few minutes, then dump your bowl of spices in (see? wasn't that handy?). Stir together and allow to cook for a little while so the flavor of the spices can permeate the chicken.

4. Add the almonds, tomato paste, chicken broth and coconut milk. (The original recipe calls for tomato puree, and a smaller amount, but I found that this came out better. Unfortunately, it's a bit harder to mix in because it's so thick.) Stir everything together and simmer for a while, until it's reduced to a thickness you like. It should be thick and creamy.

5. Serve over rice (again, if you're going for authentic, use basmati, but white will do) with some naan if you have it. Enjoy!

Ground Almonds

This smells so good. All the spice smells fill your kitchen. The dish is worth it just for this.

Reducing--almost done! Yay!

On a plate, mixed with rice, ready to be devoured. So glad there are always leftovers :)

I love this recipe as it is (well, as I've adapted it). My mom thinks it should have more vegetables in it. I think peas would be a good addition--they're pretty common in indian food, and you could toss a small bag of frozen peas in when you add the liquids. The original recipe at Indobase calls for whipping cream instead of coconut milk, but I think this is much more flavorful and possibly healthier (I don't really know the caloric content of coconut milk). But if you want to use cream instead, I'm sure it would be delicious.

Naan is really easy to make but takes forever, so I recommend buying some frozen at the Indian grocery while you're there. It usually only needs to be tossed into the oven for a minute or two to heat up. Other grocery stores sometimes have it, but you have to know where to look and I don't. Except at Trader Joe's, where it's in the bread section. (Hmmm, I have a jar of Trader Joe's Korma sauce. I should see how that is sometime when I don't have time to actually cook.)

This is a recipe you should definitely try out. The ingredients list is sorta long, but you pretty much just toss everything into a pan and cook it. It's low-maintenance. And amazing. I'm gonna go study for my midterm now and wish I had Indian food for dinner.