Asian marinated baked chicken

This was super simple and absolutely delicious. It is probably getting added to our regular rotation. I used boneless skinless chicken thighs but the recipe says that bone in, skin on chicken would work better. We only marinated it for an hour (maybe) but the recipe calls for 12-24. If it was this good after an hour of marination, I can only imagine how good it would taste after 12! I found this recipe on Yummly after googling around looking for a good chicken recipe that would use up my scallions as well. I think the original recipe is from Chow.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used half dark soy, and half malaysian sweet soy)
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 tbsps fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped, from 1, 3- to 4-inch piece)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic (finely, from about 5 medium cloves)
• 2 tsps toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp ground black pepper (freshly)
• 3 lbs bone in skin on chicken thigh (drumsticks, or breasts, or a combination of all three, I used boneless skinless chicken thighs)
• Scallions (bunch, I had 6) chopped 

Instructions

1. Place everything except the chicken in a 13-by-9-inch broiler-proof baking dish and whisk to combine. If I was actually going to marinate this recipe overnight I would probably do this entire marination in a big ziplock. I also added a drizzle of some hot and sour dipping sauce I had because some of the original comments suggested it needed some chili flakes.
2. Lay the chicken in a single layer in the marinade and turn to coat. Add half the scallions as well. Cover, refrigerate, and marinate at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours, turning the chicken at least once during the marinating time. (The one hour, room temp marination also yielded mind-blowingly yummy chicken. I suspect longer marination would be better for bone-in, skin-on chicken.)
3. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. (This step is not necessary if using a ziplock bag for the marination.)Meanwhile, heat the oven to 475°F (250C) and arrange a rack in the middle.
4. Turn all the chicken pieces skin-side up in the dish (if you’re using drumsticks, just turn to recoat them in the marinade). Bake until the chicken is starting to turn a dark brown color, about 40 minutes. (We started with the dish covered and then removed the foil 20 minutes in and also turned the pieces over once while baking since mine were skinless.)
5. Set the oven to broil and broil until the chicken skin is crisped, about 3 to 5 minutes more. Skipped this step. Added remaining scallions over the top and ate with boiled white rice with the sauce drizzled over the top.

Delish.

Calories: As written, this marinade contains 577 calories (excluding the ginger, garlic and scallions as minimal.) As written, the entire dish contains 1617 calories (0.9 kg boneless skinless chicken thighs at 1000 calories) and probably yields about 4-5 servings (big eater servings :blush:) at 400 calories each. Add rice calories separately. Keep in  mind that you probably won't eat the entire marinade. We had most of it left over after drizzling some onto the rice. So I think a more accurate per serving calories count would be somewhere in the 300-350 range. 

Kerala Egg Roast / Egg curry / Mutta Curry

This stuff is awesome and super easy. It pairs beautifully with neer dosa, paratha, porotta, appam as well as plain white rice. The basic recipe is from here. I don't make the neer dosa in the same way (I use rice flour) so I usually only follow the recipe for the mutta curry. The ginger in this is amazing and I usually add more than the original recipe recommends.

Ingredients

• 5 boiled eggs
• 4 Onion (sliced)
• 2-3 Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 largish piece of Ginger (1-2"), finely chopped
• 2-3 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• 0.5 tsp Garam masala
• Handful of Curry leaves
• 0.5 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1tsp Kashmiri chilli powder or paprika, basically red colour but no spice
• 0.5 tsp Chilli Powder
• 2 small Green chillis
• Water
• Salt
• 2 green cardamoms
• 1" piece of cinnamon
• 2 cloves

Method

1. Hard boil the eggs, cool and shell. Make 3 gashes in each egg and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in deep bottomed pan and add the cinnamon,cardamom and cloves and saute for one minute. Turn off or turn down the heat and add the ginger and saute for a minute and then the garlic for another minute. The garlic should not brown at all. 
3. Add the curry leaves and the green chillis. Then add the onions and salt and cook on medium heat till the onions are translucent and beginning to brown. 
4. Now add all the powers and saute for a couple of minutes until they smell less raw. 
5. Then add sliced tomato pieces and mix well. Cover the pan for a couple of minutes and cook on high. Then uncover and cook on medium. Do this until oil separates from the masala, stirring occasionally. 
6. Now add the eggs and mix well, then add 1.5 cups of hot water and cook the curry for about 15 minutes on medium heat.

All done!

Baked Salmon with Dijon and Garlic

This delicious recipe is from Natasha's Kitchen which I stumbled across when I googled baked salmon.

Ingredients

600 gm salmon 

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 large OR 3 small cloves of garlic, chopped finely

1.5 tsp Dijon mustard 

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 cup mild olive oil

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 

Oven at 200° C

Steps

1. Mix the above ingredients together in a bowl. Make sure the garlic is pretty finely chopped. It gets kind of thick and paste-y.
2. Put the salmon skin-side down (if it has skin) into a baking dish that has been lined with foil.
3. Brush the paste onto the top and sides of the salmon. It stays on pretty well because of how thick it is and we skipped the lemon slice on top part from the original recipe because it looked really pretty without it as well.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. (The original recipe uses the oven at 230° C and bakes it for 12 to 15 minutes but we always make this with the brassica extravaganza and that cooks at 200, so its just easier to cook the fish a wee bit longer.)
5. Man, its delicious.  

Aloo Gobi Ka Pulao

This is from Tarla Dalal's blog originally.

 Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups long grained rice (basmati) 
• 1 cup potato cubes
• 1 cup cauliflower florets
• 2 bayleaves (tejpatta)
• 5 to 6 cloves (laung / lavang)
• 25 mm (1") piece cinnamon (dalchini)
• 2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 1/4 tsp dried ginger powder (soonth)
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Method

1. Clean, wash and soak the rice for approx. 15 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
2. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add the bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon.
3. When they crackle, add the turmeric powder, dry ginger powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder, potatoes and cauliflower.
4. Sauté for 2 minutes and then add the rice.
5. Sauté for 2 more minutes, add 3 cups of hot water and salt and pressure cook for 1 whistle.
6. Allow the steam to escape before opening. Separate each grain of rice very lightly with a fork.
7. Garnish with the mint springs and serve hot.

Egg Puffs or Pattys

These are sooo very much a throw back to my childhood that the second I saw this recipe I had to try it. As far as I can tell, its mostly indians who have eaten these. I am going to look out for other recipes besides just egg and damn my stupid chicken allergy because chicken pattys were the shit.

The recipe is from this amazing blog again. I mostly followed the recipe w.r.t. the proportions, but unfortunately I got distracted chatting with mom and ended up overcooking the onions a tiny bit. Overall they were a bit spicy, but I thought they were delicious!!

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, diced 
• 1 tsp ground coriander 
• 1 tsp garam masala 
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin 
• 1/4 tsp hot chilli powder 
• 1/4 tsp pepper 
• 3 flakes garlic, grated (I just used ginger paste and garlic paste)
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated 
• 1 green chilly 
• 2 tomato, diced 
• 3/4 - 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tbsp light olive oil 
• Small handful fresh coriander (didn't have any)
• 4 medium sheets store bought puff pastry 
• 2 eggs, hard boiled

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F. 
2. Thaw out frozen pastry sheets.
3.  Hardboil, cool, peel and halve two eggs.
4.  In a pan, heat the oil, and add the diced onion. Fry on a medium to high heat for about 7 - 10 minutes, until a light gold colour and very soft. 
5. Add the ground coriander, garam masala, ground cumin, chilli powder and pepper and saute for about 2 minutes. 
6. Add the diced tomato and salt, and cook, stirring often for about 5 minutes, until the tomato is very squishy and the masala comes together in a gooey mass. 
7. Take off the heat. Leave to cool completely.  
8. The frozen puff pastry sheets work out well for one puff each. Place some masala, just off centre, then place an egg half on top of it. Add some more masala on top of the egg. Moisten all the edges using water, then fold over. Seal and place on a greased baking sheet, as above. Bake in the preheated oven for around 20 - 25 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden. Serve warm with a hot cup of chai. This recipe makes 4 puffs.

South Indian Style Biryani with tamarind and curry leaves

I'm not sure who originally wrote this recipe. A quick search of the interwebz suggests it was first posted in 2010 to about.com by Petrina Verma Sarkar. I found the recipe on facebook when a friend liked it on Ambika Pillai's facebook page. I was intrigued because it has tamarind and curry patta, which is weird in a biryani. I didn't use lamb because IMHO the biryani gets really heavy and since I am now allergic to chicken we ended up using pork. It was quite delicious!

I also deviated from the original recipe by using the pressure cooker to make the curry because the original version takes more than an hour and ain't nobody got time for that.

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork meat (We used a picnic ham chopped into 2" by 2" pieces)
• 2 tbsps garlic paste 
• 2 tbsps ginger paste 
• 3 tbsps sunflower/ canola/ vegetable cooking oil 
• 2 large red onions, chopped fine and I onion sliced finely
• 30-40 curry leaves 
• 2 green chillies (optional) 
• 2 tbsps coriander powder 
• 1 tbsp cumin powder 
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 
• 1 tbsp garam masala 
• 1 tsp salt (this is how much I use, you can add salt to suit your taste) 
• 1 cup hot water 
• 50 g ball of tamarind 
• 700 gms Basmati rice 
• 1 tsp salt

Method

1. Put the meat, garlic and ginger pastes in a large bowl and mix well to coat the meat with the pastes. Keep aside for 20 minutes. 
2. While the meat is marinating, heat (on medium temperature) the cooking oil (3 tbsps) in a large, deep pot/ pan. 
3. Add the finely chopped onions and fry till translucent. Add the curry leaves and green chillies fry for 1 minute. 
4. Now add the powdered spices - coriander, cumin, turmeric, and garam masala powders. Mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning. 
5. Add the marinated meat now. Stir well and often and cook till the meat is browned. Add 1 1/2 cups of hot water, stir, cover, simmer heat and cook till meat is tender. Keep checking for this stage as you do not want the meat overcooked and soft. Instead, at this stage, I added in the tamarind, below and then added 2 cups of water and pressure cooked the meat for 25-30 minutes. I saved some of the tamarind and added it after the meat was cooked. I just wasn't sure the tamarind flavor would withstand the pressure cooking.
6. While the meat is cooking, make the tamarind puree: Put the tamarind in a plastic or glass bowl and pour 1/2 cup of hot water over it. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes. Now strain the tamarind and water mixture through a sieve (do not use a very fine sieve) into a bowl to get tamarind puree. Add this to the curry when you feel the meat is almost done. Stir well. 
7. Once the meat is cooked, keep it aside and prepare the rice. Put the rice in a sieve and wash under running water till the water runs clear. 
8. Now put it into a large deep cooking pot (preferably one with handles). Add enough water to fully cover the rice - at least 4" over the surface of the rice. Add 1 tsp of salt to taste. Set the rice up to boil. Cook till almost done. To determine when it has reached that stage, remove a few grains from the pot and press between your thumb and forefinger. The rice should mostly mash but will have a firm whitish core. Turn off the fire.
9.  Strain through a colander and keep aside. 
10. Heat 3 tbsps of oil in a pan and fry 2 of the onions till caramalized - golden brown. Drain and keep aside on paper towels for later use. Grease a deep dish or pot (which has a nicely fitting cover). We used a dutch oven. 
11. Now evenly layer the cooked rice, meat (and its gravy) in the dish/ pot, to form at least 2 sets of layers (rice-meat-rice-meat-rice). 
12. Garnish with the previously caramalized onions. Cover the dish tightly. If your dish does not have a cover use 2 layers of aluminium foil (shiny side of both layers pointing down towards the rice) and secure on to dish with baking string. We just popped on the dutch oven lid. Since I use a Handi (a deep pot with a nicely fitting lid) which has a flat rim, I seal it by making a firm dough with flour and water and pressing this over the joint of the Handi's rim and cover. 
13. Now put the dish/ pot in a pre-heated oven set at 350 F/ 180 C/ Gas mark 4 for 20 minutes. We did 30-35 minutes since our curry was more liquid than hers probably was. Only open when you are ready to eat. The way to serve Biryani is to gently dig in with a spoon so you get through the layers.
14.  I serve my Biryani with Raita and Kachumbar salad.

Chinese dumplings, Jiaozi, 饺子

We used to eat these all the time when we had dim sum and these were also available frozen pretty much everywhere in the states, so we didn't miss them until we moved here to the land of cold, ice and NO DUMPLINGS!!!

Apparently the chinese Jiaozi, japanese gyoza and nepalese momos are all cousins in one big, delicious, east asian, meat wrapped yumminess family (sez wikipedia)...with, of course, regional flavour variations. This makes me want to try making momos next. And tho traditionally momos are made with water buffalo meat, something tells me its the spices that really make the momo. 

We tried two different variations of the Jiaozi. The first was the very traditional recipe which uses ground pork and lots of shredded napa cabbage (and ginger and garlic and so on). These were D-licious and probably a lot lighter than the version we finally settled on (all meat, no cabbage), but the napa cabbage released so much water that we had to keep stopping to drain water from the stuffing mixture and I suspect we lost a lot of the soy and other flavor in the water we poured out. These cabbage and pork dumplings were fantastic, but objectively slightly less tasty than the final, all pork version and also more difficult to make (because of the water release). We did find a really good youtube video (thanks runnyrunny999!) in which the cook actually squeezes the napa before using it, and seems to have much fewer problems. We just drained the water by pouring if off, I guess we need to be quite aggressive if we try these again.

We also used the youtube video to learn how to properly fold the dumplings and cook the dumplings, it really is an excellent video. 

The version we finally settled on is apparently more Hong Kong style (Video here recipe here from all recipes). The recipe text and video seem to diverge pretty far from one another in terms of the truth though. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of chopped garlic chives when the lady clearly adds what looks closer to a cup. So we kind of made up our own recipe based on the video. Below.

Uncooked dumplings to show the shape and pleating

Ingredients

• 500g ground pork
• 1.5- 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2.5- 3 tbsp minced ginger
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2.5- 3 tbsp sesame oil
• one egg
• 10-12 stalks of garlic chives
• ~50 or 60 dumpling wrappers
• oil for cooking
• chilli flakes in chilli oil or your favourite dipping sauce

Preparation

1. Make sure the dumpling wrappers are thawed. Room temp is probably better but we've frequently microwaved the frozen stack of wrapper in cases of dumpling panic. Repeated nuking at a low to medium power for 45 seconds each usually work out ok. Watch out for the edges of the wrappers drying out. Wet your finger with water and run around the edges of the stack to keep the wrappers from cracking on the edges. Thawing at RT does not have this problem. 
2. Chop the garlic chives finely and add into a large bowl with the minced ginger, garlic, pork, soy, sesame oil and egg. Use your hands to mash all of this together till well mixed. 
3. Take a dumpling wrapper and wet the outer rim with water and add about a teaspoon of mixture to the middle.
4. Fold the two halves of the wrapper together, making pleats on one side and pinching the wet wrapper into the other side firmly so the two sides seal together. runnyrunny999's video demonstrates this really well. This leads to dumplings with one flat-ish side and one curved side. This shape makes it easier to cook (IMHO)
5. Work through till you either run out of dumplings or mixture. 
6. In a preferably non-stick pan, heat up oil and add the dumplings. Cook for a minute or two on medium-high heat and then add in a cup of hot water. Cover the pan and wait for 7-10 minutes or till the water has evaporated.
7. Remove the cover and after about 30sec to 1 minute, shake the pan, the dumplings should move free of the pan. This usually means they are done. If using a non non-stick pan, wait till the water has all evaporated and then give it a minute or two for the skins to crisp up again and then use a spatula to gently coax the dumplings off the pan. 
8. We usually eat them with just the chilli in chilli oil paste, but honestly, any good dipping sauce will do. 
9. These also freeze really well. We just pop a bunch of them into ziploc bags and try not to put them one on top of the other and freeze them.