Double-Shot Mocha Chunks (Cookies) with some Chit Chat

Let me start with the Chit chat first: I went missing from this space for quite some time now. Lots of things are happening in life as a result of which not much activity going on in the kitchen. We just bought our first home and the whole process of finding a house, loan approval & closing was extremely stress-inducing (even though my husband being a worrier took care of everything, including the stress, I still had to deal with a little bit of it myself) and time consuming. We are really excited about moving into our OWN home and decorating it to our liking, but we are also a little bit nervous on how everything will turn out.

I have yet to start packing the kitchen (which I’m dreading already) and whole of S#%^@*$ that we accumulated through the years. I’m trying to go through things before packing, so I don’t end up with garbage in the new house; sort of starting our Spring cleaning a little early (FYI.. spring officially begins March 20^th.)

We had a small Gruha Pravesam (House blessing/ warming) ceremony with family and friends past weekend. We were lucky to find a Hindu priest who speaks telugu and the whole ceremony went extremely well. I was planning to cook the lunch, but ended up catering from a vegetarian restaurant called Sapthagiri in Jersey City. Everybody loved the food, I should have taken pictures but we were so busy with the guests that by the time I realized we had no pictures of food; most of the food was already gone.

Coming to the next topic of my post: Review of Jewelry & a Thank you.

Few weeks ago Sarah from Lushae Jewelry contacted me and asked me if I can try her jewelry and review it on my blog. I said YES and ordered this beautiful Floral Cocktail ring that matches with Amethyst studs & pendant that my mom bought me years ago. The ring looks absolutely amazing. The different size & slightly different color amethyst stones work extremely well together. I’ve got many complements on the ring already. Thanks Sarah for giving me the opportunity to try your gorgeous jewelry.

Few weeks back when Nupur (@ One hot stove) showed us her cute sleeve that she knitted to hold her plastic bags, I commented on her post that my drawer is also filled with plastic bags and I need to find a solution like her’s. I was so surprised when she offered to knit me a plastic bag holder and within a week I received this beautifully knitted plastic bag holder which is currently holding all my bags and has created ton of space in the drawer. Thank you so much Nupur.. You are the best.

That's my son's hand sneaking in fron the corner to pull out something from the drawer. :-)

Finally coming to the Mocha chocolate chip cookies, recipe courtesy King Arthur flour catalog. They didn’t spread as much as I expected them to (or as much as shown in the picture), but they tasted awesome-very chocolaty with a slight hint of coffee-not too sweet but just perfect. I used ghee for half the butter since I ran out of butter and the cookies had a slightly softer texture than crunchy.

Ingredients:
Unsalted Butter - 1/2 cup (I used 1/4cup butter + 1/4cup desi ghee)
Brown Sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 3/4tsp
Espresso powder - 1tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Eggs - 2
Vanilla extract - 2tsp
Dutch-process Cocoa powder - 2/3 cup
White Whole wheat flour or Unbleached All-purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup
Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1 cup
Chocolate chunks - 1 cup (I used a mix of white & dark chocolate)
Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F.Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter (&ghee), sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt.
• Add eggs and vanilla, beating until smooth.
• Stir in the cocoa powder, then the flour; the dough will be stiff. Mix in the chocolate chunks & chips.
• Drop the cookies by tablespoonfuls (about 1.5" balls) onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1.5" between them.
• Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow them to cool on the pan.

Baked Veggie Pasta

This is my quick & easy version of vegetable lasagna. I was craving for lasagna this past weekend, but realized I didn’t have any lasagna noodles on hand. So I followed Rachael Ray’s route of making regular pasta but lasagnafy it with all the lasagna fixings (except for the lasagna and layering of course).

Great for weeknight meals (it doesn’t make for a quick meal, but at least it is not as involved as making real lasagna). Recipe is a combination of recipes I found online.

Ingredients:
Short Pasta – 1lb. (I used tri color rotini-spirals)
Asparagus – 1 bunch, chopped into 1” pieces
Carrots – 2 medium, chopped
Broccoli florets – 2 cups
Onion – 1 small, chopped
Tomato Puree – 1cup
Basil – 2-3tbsp, finely chopped (I used dried Herbes de Provence)
Veggie Broth – 2 cups, divided
Milk – 1 cup (I used whole milk, but low-fat will work fine)
All purpose Flour – 2tbsp
Nutmeg – ½ tsp, grated
Red chili flakes – ½ tsp
Garlic – 3 cloves, divided
Parmesan cheese – ¼ cup
Fontina Cheese – 1 cup, grated
Salt & pepper – to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450ºF.
  
• Cook pasta according to package directions to al-dente and keep aside until ready to use.
  
• While pasta cooks make the veggie sauce – Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a large sauté pan; add chili flakes and toast for 30 seconds. Add 2 cloves finely chopped garlic and onion and sauté till lightly browned.
  
• Next add all the chopped veggies; cook till the veggies are ¾th cooked. Add tomato puree, herbs, salt and 1 cup veggie broth. Cover and cook till the veggies are completely cooked through.
  
• In the meantime make the cheese sauce: Take the remaining 1 cup broth and milk along with the remaining garlic (crushed) in a microwaveable container. Microwave for 2 – 3 minutes or until the mixture is hot. Discard the garlic clove.
  
• In a small sauce pan, melt 2tbsp butter & 1 tbsp olive oil, add the flour and toast until the flour loses its raw smell, about 2-3 minutes. Carefully pour the milk mixture in the saucepan and whisk thoroughly to remove any lumps. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer until it thickens a little bit. Season with salt and pepper and grated nutmeg. Finally add grated cheese, mix well and keep aside.
  
• To bake: Mix pasta with the veggie sauce and pour that mixture into a baking dish. Top it with the cheese sauce and grated fontina cheese. Bake until the cheese is browned and bubbly, about 10-15 minutes. Let it rest for 5 minutes, before digging in..

Tuscan Almond Cookies: Ricciarelli

This post has been in my drafts for a while now. I think my next few posts will also be from drafts until (a) I start making some post worthy dishes and (b) run-out of posts in my drafts. Ok then, moving on..

I buy lot of stuff on impulse, not really thinking or planning on what I’m going to use it for. This happens mostly with the items for kitchen; ingredients, appliances etc. Same used to be the case with clothes & shoes, but with age, I’ve slowed down a lot and only buy things that I really really want & need. But I guess it’ll take me a little while to get that kind of restraint in buying kitchen supplies. So one such impulse buys was Almond meal from Trader Joe's a while back. I had it out in the pantry for a long time, and then I stashed it in the freezer along with my other nuts & grains.

When I saw this cookie post by the Jugalbandits, I wanted to try the almond cookie because they looked so cute in their pic. Since the almond meal was made from unpeeled almonds, it has brown flecks unlike the creamy white Jugalbandit’s cookies. That did not affect the taste of these yummy cookies. They are extremely easy to put together, though I was skeptical about whipping egg whites. That’s one of my fears along with making sugar syrups and whipping cream. I don’t even attempt any of the above listed due to the fear of failure. What if I do too much, eggs are going to deflate and sugar is going to too hard. Well I tried this time and I’m glad that everything turned out well and the cookies were just delicious. I followed the recipe from Divina Cucina closely, my only addition is grated orange zest, taken from Jugalbandit’s recipe.

Ingredients:
Almond meal* – 2 cups (I sifted it remove some of the peel)
Confectioners Sugar – 2 cups + Extra for rolling the cookies
Egg whites – 2**
AP flour – 2tbsp
Baking powder – ½tsp
Almond extract – 1 tsp

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  
• Mix almond meal & confectioners sugar. Add flour & baking powder and mix well.
  
• Whip egg whites until they hold peaks. Fold egg whites into almond meal mixture; add almond extract & orange zest and mix until incorporated. Resultant mixture is sticky but you should able to easily roll into round cookies, if it is too sticky add some flour.
  
• Roll a small lemon size dough into a round and roll them in confectioner’s sugar; flatten lightly and put them on parchment lined baking sheet.
  
• Make sure that the cookies are at least an inch thick. Place them well apart as they spread considerably.
  
• Bake for 13-14 minutes, but check at 12 to make sure they done.
  
• These measurements made me about 2 dozen cookies. They keep good in an air tight container for about a week. Great with a cup of coffee or even tea.

* Make your own almond meal; see how to here.

** Separate eggs while still cold. Leave the whites at room temperature for at least 20 minutes to bring them to room temperature and then whip, room temp whites whip faster then cold whites.

Pyaz Ki Kachori for ICC

January & half of February was fairly uneventful (or rather post-less) blog-wise, though life in general was pretty eventful with 2 sicknesses and 1 car wreck incident. I have been cooking but nothing that is post worthy and was even thinking of emailing Valli on not being able to participate in this month's Indian Cooking Challenge. But things started to get better health-wise and on a much needed mid-week day off due to snow, I made these yummy fried goodies and I'm so glad I did because they turned out super delicious.

To be honest, I don't remember eating kachoris in a long long time and totally forgot how they looked. But after watching Manjulaji making them on You Tube, I tried my hands on making these and even though my kachoris are no where near her perfectly round ones, they tasted awesome.
I chose to make onion filling as I'm not a big fan of moong dal filling and caramelized onion filling sounded just scrumptious and they tasted great too.

Here's the recipe for Pyaz ki Kachori from Medhaa's Mom. Thanks Valli & Medhaa for this yummy recipe.

First make the dough:
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour/Maida - 2cups
Oil/ Ghee - 1/4cup
Salt - 1/2tsp
Water for kneading

Method:

• Mix the flour and salt, Add the oil/ghee and mix till you get a bread crumbs texture.
• Slowly add water and make a soft dough. Knead well for about 8 minutes.
• Cover and keep aside to rest for atleast half hour.

Special Tips / Notes for the dough:

• Keep the dough covered at all times, if not it will dry up and not puff up when frying. If the dough is made right wet cloth can be used if not just a towel.
• The dough could spring back for many reasons:
• Dough is too cold (If wet cloth is used)
• Dough is not soft enough.
• Not kneaded for enough time.
• Oil is less.
• Not rested enough.
  

For the onion filling:
Onions - 2 cups
Nigella Seeds (Kalongi) - 2tsp
Fennel seeds (saunf) - 2tsp
Bay leaves - 2
Green chillies - 1 1/2tsp finely chopped
Bengal gram flour (besan) - 2tbsp
Coriander (dhania) powder - 2tsp
Chili powder - 2tsp
Garam masala - 1tsp
Coriander leaves - 3tbsp, finely chopped
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Heat the oil in a pan. Add the nigella seeds, fennel seeds, bay leaves, green chillies and onions and sauté till the onions turn light brown in color.
• Add the gram flour, coriander powder, chilli powder, garam masala and salt and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add the chopped coriander and mix well. Remove the bay leaves and discard. Allow the mixture to cool completely.
• Divide into 12 equal portions and keep aside.

Assembling the Kachoris:

• Make a small ball from the dough. Roll out into a 2 inch diameter circle. Or flatten the ball using your fingers having the center thick and sides little thin.
• Place about 1.5 tsp of the filling in the center of the rolled dough.
• Cover the filling with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling. Seal the ends and remove excess dough. Repeat with all the balls and keep aside for 5 -7 mins.
  
• Then using your palm, flatten the balls by lightly pressing it, as using the rolling pin will make the filling come out. (See notes below). Keep aside covered. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Meanwhile heat some oil for deep frying. The oil should not become smoking hot. Test to see if the temperature is right by dropping a tiny ball of dough and see if it is rising slowly to the top.
  
• Drop the kachoris in batches of 3-4 gently into the oil. It should rise up slowly. If you don't want to use lot of oil, use just enough for two or three at a time and fry them.
  
• After it rises up (about 2 minutes), turn it over.
• Cook for about 6 to 10 minutes till the side down gets a golden brown color.
• Turn and cook the other side for another 6 minutes or till its golden brown in color.
• Remove when done, cool and store in airtight container.
• Serve with coriander chutney and tamarind chutney

Special Tips / Notes for making the Kachoris:

• You can fry 3 kachori's at a time.
• The oil should be at a heat when you drop some dough it should come up slowly, if the dough comes up too fast the oil is too hot, if it does not come up then the oil is cold.
• It will not be crisp if the oil is too hot.