Channa Masala (Indian Chickpea Curry)

Masala = Spice Mix = The heart and soul of any Indian Food

Garam Masala = My new favorite spice = smells like Chai tea

I've been on a bit of a vegetarian Indian food kick lately and have stocked my spice drawer accordingly. Channa masala is a classic Northern Indian dish that I came across on seriouseats.com and decided to give it a whirl after sampling something similar at Trader Joe's (they had a vegetarian Indian food sample night recently). It is a curry made of chickpeas that is beautiful in color, fragrant and rather healthy.

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 T olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
1/2 T ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
1/4 t ground cayenne pepper
1/2 t ground turmeric
6 T chopped tomatoes (or half a can)
1/2 cup water
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 t paprika
1/2 t garam masala
1/2 t salt
Juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
1 t fresh ginger, grated

Directions

Pour olive oil in a skillet set over medium heat. When warm, add the onion and cook until soft and beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric. Stir until combined and cook for 30 seconds or so, or until it is very fragrant.

Stir in the tomatoes. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Dump in the chickpeas and the pour in the water. Stir until combined, and then bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add the paprika, garam masala, salt, and lemon juice. Cover and cook at a simmer for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle in the ginger and jalapeno. Cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt if needed.

Notes

• I served this over Trader Joe's garlic naan. It comes in the frozen section of their store and it is delicious!
  
• I hear it is also served with rice.
• I found all of the spices that you can't find at a regular grocery store at Cost Plus World Market. They have a nice selection of unusual and exotic spices.
• This was pretty mellow in terms of heat. If you want to kick it up a notch add more jalapeno or forget to deseed it!

Organic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I made this for Wendy's Birthday last weekend. Recipe is from Bon Appetit online. The recipe called for using everything organic. I used organic carrots, flour, and sugar but didn't go to the extreme to find things like organic cream cheese. I think I would recommend adding a little more coconut if you like it to give it more texture as well as some golden raisens if you are in to those. I added toasted walnuts, but probably would have added more than the 3/4 cup the recipe calls for if I did it again. This is also one of those recipes you could use applesauce instead of some of the oil to make it healthier due to the density of the cake.

Ingredients:
1/3 c shredded unsweetened coconut
1 lb organic carrots
1 c chopped pineapple
1 1/2 c organic all purpose flour
1/2 c organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 c organic cane sugar
2 t baking soda
2 1/4 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1/2 c dark brown sugar
3/4 c canola oil
1 T vanilla extract
3 eggs
frosting recipe (below)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 eight inch round cake pans with nonstick spray and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Place the coconut in a cup of warm water to soften it for 15 minutes.

Put carrots in the food processor and process for 1 minute. Add the pineapple and puree, 1-2 minutes until smooth.

In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add brown sugar and whisk to break up pieces.

Drain the coconut and place it in a medium bowl. Add the oil, vanilla, eggs, and carrot-pineapple puree, whisk to combine.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing with a spatula to incorporate, but not overmix. When the batter is almost mixed, add chopped walnuts if desired. Pour batter into prepared pans.

The recipe called to bake for 55 minutes, however, I checked mine after 30 minutes and it was done. Let the cakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes, invert onto a rack and cool completely before frosting.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
3 8 oz packages reduced fat or nonfat cream cheese (I used 2 nonfat and 1 light)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 t grated lemon zest
1 1/2 T lemon juice
1 T vanilla extract
2 3/4 c powdered sugar

Directions:
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream cheese and butter on med high speed until combined and airy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the lemon juice, zest, and vanilla.

Sift the powdered sugar. Turn mixer to low speed and slowly pour into frosting mixture.

Fill the inside of cake and frost the outter layer. I 'decorated' the cake by mixing the remaining frosting with yellow food coloring (and then later with green) and putting into frosting bags. I recommend putting the frosting in the fridge for a bit if you want to use it to decorate the cake in order to make it a little stiffer. As a side note, I think the recipe made a little too much frosting unless you wanted to really mound it up on the cake. I also used this frosting on red velvet cupcakes this week and it is a nice airy and not too sweet frosting to compliment many types of dessert.

Baked Ziti

I apologize for the super ugly picture. It was a last minute Marshall family decision that this must be posted so it was taken with my camera phone that I am still not very capable with. This recipe uses very few ingredients and comes together quickly and pretty delish so I thought I'd share.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz bag penette pasta (mini penne)
1 16 oz container part skim ricotta cheese
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional for topping
1 large egg
4 cups shredded part skim mozzarella cheese
2 8 oz jars organic marinara sauce (I used Trader Joe's)
1 T dried Italian seasoning
1 handful fresh basil, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Boil pasta per package directions. Drain in cold water and set aside. Whisk ricotta, Parmesan, egg, Italian seasoning, basil, and salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl until combined. Add pasta and mix until pasta is thoroughly coated in cheese mixture.

In a large casserole dish coated in cooking spray, add half the pasta cheese mixture, top with 1 jar of marinara sauce and 1/2 the mozzarella cheese. Add another layer of pasta, sauce and cheese. Top with additional Parmesan cheese as desired and sprinkle with a little Italian seasoning blend. Bake uncovered at 375 until bubbly, about 30 minutes.

Notes:
*This can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated.
*This recipe yields enough to feed 8 (or more if you have a salad) people. You could easily half it and use a smaller dish.
*I was in a hurry and put this recipe together in about 15 minutes. It makes a great weeknight meal. If you had more time, you could always use home made marinara.

Dijon Pizza with Pear, Arugula, Goat Cheese

First off— if you like spicy, go to Trader Joe's and get yourself some of their Dijon mustard! It is unique blend they import from France and it is delicious and unusual compared to the average jar of Grey Poupon. I have always trusted TJs to sell great products at a good price and at $1.60 something for 13 ounces I guess you can't beat it.

Moving forward from my tangent, I am skipping my backlog of recipes to present you with this new pizza recipe. It is loosely inspired from this month's Bon Appetite and the flavor combination is pretty divine. I created it as an "experimental" pizza when we had pizza night last week and paired it with a more traditional "super veggie" sort of pizza. It was so delicous, we actually finished this one first! This pizza took about 10 minutes to prepare which is always a plus for a busy weeknight.

Ingredients
one package prepared pizza dough
corn meal
2 bosch pears, skin on, sliced into thin slivers
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
2 T dijon mustard
handful of arugula
6 red onion "rings"
1/3 cup parmesan blend

Directions
Let pizza dough set out of fridge for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Flatten out pizza dough in a 12 - 15 inch round. Lay on a baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal or in a pizza pan. Prick the dough with a fork and par bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Spread a thin layer of Dijon onto the dough. Top with arugula and then sprinkle goat cheese and onion rings throughout.Arrange pears in a circular pattern. Sprinkle entire pizza with parmesan cheese.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden. Let cool for 5 minutes out of oven and serve.

Sour Cream-Hazelnut Waffles with Warm Berry Coulis

I saw these in this month's Bon Appetit and just had to find an occasion to make them. I am not much of a pancake person, but when it comes to waffles, I love their crunchy outer layer, delicate fluffy inside AND the infinite flavor/topping possibilities!

The random twin ESP hit again as Melanie and I happened to make the same recipe on the same day. She will probably add her notes to this post later as we both used different modifications.

Waffle Ingredients (adapted from Bon Appetit, AUG 2009) -makes about 20
1 stick butter, unsalted
1/4 cup honey
3 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sour cream (I actually used nonfat organic Greek yogurt)
2/3 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts (reserve some for topping)

Pure organic maple syrup
warm berry coulis (see recipe below)

Directions
Melt the butter with honey in a small saucepan over low heat. In a large bowl, whisk together flour through baking soda. In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs through sour cream. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well blended. Add the honey butter mixture and sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Heat oven to 250 degrees. This is to keep the waffles warm while you take the time to make them all one-by-one in your waffle iron. Heat your waffle iron and spray lightly with nonstick spray. Depending on the size of your iron, add about a ladle full of waffle batter to the iron and cook for 5 minutes or until the steaming stops and the outside of the waffle is crispy. Place in oven until remaining waffles are finished.

Serve waffles warm and drizzle with maple syrup, a spoonful of berry coulis and sprinkled hazelnuts.

Warm Berry Coulis Ingredients- makes 3.5 cups
2 cups fresh strawberries, divided
2 cups fresh raspberries, divided
1 cup fresh blueberries, divided
1 cup fresh blackberries, divided
1/2 cup sugar
1 T fresh lemon juice

Directions
Place half of every berry in a medium saucepan. Add sugar and lemon juice to the berries and let stand for 30 minutes or until the natural juices are released. Bring the berry mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until berries are soft- about 10 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer into a medium bowl, pressing on solids to release as much juice as possible. Discard the solids in the strainer.

Return the berry puree to the saucepan. Add remaining reserved berries to the saucepan over medium heat and stir until warm- about five minutes. Spoon over waffles.

Notes

• The actual recipe calls for full-fat versions of everything. I did not do this and I don't think the recipe was missing anything.
• This recipe was originated at Balthazar restaurant in New York
• I love fresh berries and I didn't see the need to spoil beautiful, expensive, edible berries in a sauce. I used this handy frozen mix from Trader Joe's that has all these berries in it already and probably saved myself ten bucks.
  

Two Tasty Blog Recipes I Tried This Weekend

We had guests for the weekend so I decided to whip up some recipes that I saw on the web this week.

The first was a recipe from 101 Cook Books which was a Red Pesto Ravioli made with goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, walnuts and spinach. I followed this recipe almost exactly except that I doubled the pesto recipe to ensure I'd have more for later. This was a hit with our guests and was also a healthy and balanced vegetarian meal. I paired it with a Greek Salad. Check out the recipe below.

Red Pesto Ravioli

For dessert, I made a peach and creme fraiche pie that I found on Smitten Kitchen. This recipe was originally from Martha Stewart. It was delicious and I thought that the creme fraiche really took the peaches to another level of flavor complexity. It was also the first time that I've been successful with making a perfect crumble topping! I learned that the trick is to keep everything really cold before putting it into the oven. I sliced almost frozen butter and mixed it in with the dry crumble ingredients and it turned out really crumbly and crispy. I'm not sure if it was chef error or just juicy California peaches, but I couldn't get the pie to set and be sliceable. It ended up pretty ugly on the plate and was in essence a pie crust with a peach/creme fraiche/crumble soup on top. I think if i were to create this again I would skip the pie crust and just make it in a 8x8 pan as a peach cobbler.

Peach and Creme Fraiche Pie

Both of the blogs have much better pictures than I take so check out their photos- they are beautiful.

Cupcakes!

I took a whirlwind trip to San Francisco this weekend and found that Kelsey has a fabulous little cupcake place in her neighborhood (Cow Hollow) called Kara's Cupcakes. They are made from locally sourced (organic when possible) ingredients and made from scratch daily. I couldn't decide on just one, so I took a little sampler pack back to SLO with me!

The flavors are Java, Smores, Fleur de sel (chocolate filled with salted caramel) and Kara's Karrot. See more at karascupcakes.com.

Summer Caprese Salad on Flatbread

I love juicy red tomatoes that just plain taste like summer. I picked up some fresh tomatoes and arugula from Farmer's Market and got to work on a new caprese dish. This makes for a nice light dinner on a hot day or could be made more miniature and served as appetizers.

Ingredients (serves 2 if made this way)
6 - 8 ounces fresh pizza dough
1 handful fresh basil leaves (or other similar greens)
1 T pine nuts or walnuts
1 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T Parmesan or other hard cheese
1 large hot house or heirloom tomato, cut into thick slices
4 thick slices fresh mozzarella cheese (the kind that is packed in water)
1 cup fresh arugula or other similar greens
1 T capers
a drizzle of good quality olive oil
fresh cracked salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Roll out the pizza dough into thin 6" circles. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, prick the surface a few times with a fork and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden and slightly crispy.

In the meantime, make the pesto sauce by placing basil through Parmesan in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and saucy. It should be a drizzling consistency, so you may need to add more liquid as necessary.

When flat breads are finished baking, top with arugula, cheese and tomato slices. Drizzle with pesto mixture and sprinkle with capers, salt and pepper.

Vegan Blueberry Banana Smoothie

This cold refreshing beverage makes a nice breakfast or post work out pick-me-up on hot summer days. I have been on quite the smoothie kick lately and this is one of my favorite combinations, which packs a lot of vitamins and nutrients. Most of this fruit is in season right now which is convenient for making your own frozen fruit. (Much more economical than buying it already frozen in many cases!) Simply wash, slice and set the fruit on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Let it freeze solid like this in the freezer and then transfer it to a plastic bag or freezer safe container. It should last a few weeks.



















Ingredients (serves 1)
1 ripe banana
1/8 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup frozen pineapple
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
3/4 cup soy, nut or rice based milk (I enjoy hazelnut milk)

Directions
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

Spicy Chickpea Green Salad

I got this recipe from my mom (Kristie!) and then added a little bit of extra goodies to it. She's been making it on hot Sacramento summer nights to pair with a crisp glass of white wine and grilled salmon. It can be made to be an entree or side salad depending on serving size. Not only is it vegan, but it is really delicious and healthy! It's also not as spicy as spicy as the title may lead you to think- so if you want it really spicy, you might skimp on deseeding the serrano chiles.

Ingredients (serves 6 as a side salad)
adapted from Food Network's Guy Fieri's recipe
1 clove garlic, minced
1 serrano pepper, seeded, ribs removed and finely diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 lemon, juiced
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 (15.5-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 English cucumber, sliced, skin on
1/2 bunch mint, leaves roughly chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, leaves roughly chopped
1 head red leaf lettuce, shredded
1 cup arugula
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Directions
Combine the garlic, pepper, red onion, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper, to taste, in a large bowl.

Add the chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, mint, and cilantro. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and toss in the lettuce and arugula. Plate and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.