Curry Curry Curry! Curry everywhere! Spilled on countertop, in the food, under the cutting board.. :-)
One of the recipes I tried was for
Chicken Tikka Masala. The difficult part of this recipe was that it required grilling of the yogurt-marinated chicken. 1) I do not have a grill, and 2) the rack on my broiler pan is spaced too far apart for bite-sized chunks. Earlier this month, I bought a random cheap grill pan for kicks in case I wanted to try grilling (I've never grilled before), so I brought that out. I bought metal skewers too (too big for the pan, so I bent them) - FAIL! Ended up taking all the chicken off the skewers and just cooking them as is on the grill pan and made sure they had black stripes :) Anyways, the food turned out really well. The fresh cilantro makes a difference in the taste.
As for the basmati rice - since it was Indian week, I bought a huge 11# bag of basmati rice. Looked over the net for some recipes and called a friend, since i didn't feel like boiling it, put it into my electric rice cooker.. My friend uses more water than usual (she likes it more moist?) but I think using the same amount of water as Jasmine rice works well - because I like to soak up the curry with the rice and also have my rice in separate grains. Anyway I cooked the rice like normal, and after it was done, added some frozen carrots/peas and about 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, mixed it up, covered and let it sit for a while.
I don't have a picture of a vegetable, but I found the BEST okra recipe EVER on allrecipes.com:
Indian Style Okra. So easy, and SO GOOD!
Tried a coconut curry chicken recipe a couple days ago too, as well as a Honey-Dijon Mustard-Curry chicken, but they were so-so.
Finished Indian week this morning with some Bollyrobics! :-D
Of course, had to try Wisconsin style Bratwurst! Simmered the sausages in butter, onions and a whole lot of Heineken, then grilled them. Then put them on a bun! I think I prefer this style to the pan-fried one. I used to hate sauerkraut, but it goes really well with the Bratwurst on a bun!
dressing base on the right hand side. THAT is BACON FAT! all bacon fat. On the far right is the transformation to the dressing by adding white wine vinegar, flour, and sugar. Mmmm so healthy.
Tada! German potato salad. Were I to make this again, I would definitely have cut the potato into smaller pieces. And cooked the potato for longer. The recipe I used is here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/German-Potato-Salad/Detail.aspx
This really took forever. The instructions I followed called for simmering the sausages in water COVERED until the water evaporated... Well, I eventually uncovered it and poured some water out. Then I browned it, added some onions, browned those and put in a whole cup of Heineken beer to simmer. Got some jarred Sauerkraut from the store, and this is my German meal:
Guten Appetit!
In a conversation with a friend, I decided not to use them, especially because they were made in the P.R.O.C. Made in China AND not properly sealed? No way. The recipe I was trying to use was for Korean Spicy Chicken and Potato - So for chile paste, I substituted 1.5 tbp hot pepper powder and 1 tsp of minced fresh ginger. I tell you what - I'm going to get a stomach ulcer if I keep eating this - but i LOVED it!
Yummy! Here is where I got the recipe. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly as written. However.. I would not recommend using Pork Belly. Bought it for the first time today - pig skin kind of grosses me out, and it has a very porky taste too which I am not a fan of. Plus, I couldn't even cut it with my knives - had to use sewing scissors :-X. I'm going to use normal pork loin next time. Also I pickled some daikon radish (the Vietnamese way) which goes well with the dish. My previous roommate had used stew beef chunks, potato, and carrots, black bean sauce, onion, and soy sauce, I think. I like this daikon-japanese sweet potato combo. Yum!
