Paneer

Made homemade paneer recently, from the recipe here.
Happy to say it turned out great.

Here's how I did it:



I used a large pot, 1 gal of cold, whole milk. Simmered (being careful not to boil) stirring very often until the temperature reached 200F. (this isn't the picture of that, I forgot to take one).

Then I added 1/2 cup of vinegar (you can use lemon juice), stirred a bit and let it sit for a few minutes.

After a few minutes had passed, I stirred the pot gently, then slowly scooped out some of the curd, then drained the rest of the contents into a cheesecloth lined sieve.

Let it drain a bit, then added a sprinkle of salt, and stirred, gently.

After the curd drained a minute or so I put on silicone gloves, the disposable kind. This mixture was still pretty hot, the gloves diffused some of that heat. Then tightly wrapped the mixture in the cheesecloth to strain, shaping it into a flat-ish, round-ish shape.

Then I put it in the sink on a cutting board, with a heavy weight on top (my boiling pot and milk jug, both filled with water).








Let it strain a while. Maybe 20 minutes or so, then put it in the fridge (minus the weight), wrapped in plastic wrap so it could get cold. 

 Left it there about a half an hour.



 
After a half hour in the fridge, I had homemade cheese! This was the first time attempting such a thing so I was happy it came out right! 

(the little "bits" are some of the milk rind from the bottom of the pot, I didn't strain it and I didn't think to stop it from getting in with the curds. It only changes the aesthetics, not the taste)






 



I made this!:)

First try, but definitely not my last. This homemade paneer (aka farmers cheese) tasted so fresh and delicious. Went very well with the rajma masala I made this night.



















We had some with dinner, and I froze the rest. Delicious!

 

Baked Salmon

It's among the easiest of my recipes, but I never think to post it. Since this blog's in danger of becoming a "dessert blog" I thought I should post something healthy too :)

I can remember years ago not liking salmon at all but one day I decided to try it again and I guess tastes do change because I like this a lot these days.

Among the fillet-type fish I used to favor mild white fish, but given a choice (unless one is stuffed, I love stuffed foods) between baked (no-filling) cod (or similar) and baked salmon, I think I'd choose the salmon. It's meaty, but soft and mild. Unlike tilapia, which to me is the 'meatiest' fish I've ever had and I don't like it very much for some reason. Maybe that will change too, someday. For now, bring on the salmon!


Simple Salmon

1 salmon fillet (one side has skin, a lengthwise cut; same method for a steak)
dill (fresh or dried), to taste
lemon and pepper, to taste
non-fat cooking spray (or a little olive oil, or non-stick aluminum foil)

Line your cooking vessel of choice with foil (regular or non-stick).

Spray on some non-stick spray. Lay your fillet skin-side-down (if it's a steak, either side down is fine).

Sprinkle with dill, and drizzle with a little lemon.

Bake at 350ºF, uncovered, until firm and pink throughout. Depending on the size of your fish steak/fillet, about 30-45 min.

Add more lemon to taste. And pepper if you like. Pairs well with rice and veggies or flaked over pasta.

Delicious!

Instructables

I love the Instructables website. Lot's of how-to's on just about everything and lots of fun stuff in general. Plenty of things I wouldn't dare try but some, like the recipes I do. Here's a few shots of a few I tried, with the links to the relating Instructable. I don't want to detail these because the instructions are pretty good as is.

First thing was the Microwave-in-a-mug popcorn, for when you want just a little bit.

This worked great except I won't use a glass mug anymore because it gets screaming hot and stays that way for a long time. The photos are from the first try, as you can see I used too much popcorn so next time I know to use a little less.


Using the same mug (on a different day), I tried the Brownie for one, a "from scratch," single-serve brownie dessert that you can make as gooey as you like.

It wasn't pretty but it was very good. Definitely a quick fix for a chocolate urge.


I wanted to make thumbprint cookies for Christmas and searched for recipes. The one that looked the best to me were the Miniature Danish Cookies.


These were fun to make. I think I made them smaller than I should have but that just made more cookies, which isn't a bad thing at all. I also made chocolate thumbprints but that was another recipe (found here, minus the mint).


The latest Instructable I tried were the homemade Cadbury-like Creme Eggs.


Wow, these were awesome! Not an exact match to a Cadbury Creme Egg, but as close as you can get. I made a half batch of the linked recipe and that was about 12 mini eggs. I don't have egg molds so I made them into pops. I don't think it would be difficult at all to work our way through a whole batch, so next time I plan to make the full recipe. I froze a couple of them too, so I can see if they're good once defrosted. I stored the rest in the fridge. They didn't last long!

I have a bunch more Instructables saved as favorites to try sometime so I may have more experiments to post at some point. These were fun and easy, always a plus.

Fudgesicles

Super easy.

Three ingredients:

Soy milk
Glug of half & half (maybe 2 TBL worth)
Healthy squeeze of dark chocolate syrup

(amounts vary depending on how many pops, I used an 8.25oz single serve container of vanilla soy milk)

Mix well or pour into a bottle and shake well until syrup is dissolved.

Pour into your pop molds, freeze several hours or overnight.


Un-mold, usually have to dip the bottom part in hot water. For the molds I used I had to also dip the top part a second.


Enjoy!


I worried about the texture of frozen soy milk because even the Silk website says frozen then defrosted soy milks texture isn't good but supposedly it's fine for desserts/frozen items. And I've used soy milk for ice cream so this was a good experiment. A bit of an icy/watery texture but sufficiently creamy enough for a quick pop fix. Especially for those times when I can't fit my ice cream maker freezer bowl in the freezer, which is pretty often.

Pancakes

When I want pancakes I usually just open a mix but making them from scratch is so worth the effort. There are plenty of recipes out there and plenty of variations. For my first try at this I wanted something easy that didn't require buttermilk because I never buy that. I used a recipe from here but tweaked it by using some of the suggestions in the comments. Also used soy milk instead of milk. Results? A really light and delicate, very delicious pancake breakfast that was totally worth the minimal effort of measuring and melting.

My adapted version:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar (can really be reduced to 1 TBS)
1 and a 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup soy milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 Tsp. vanilla extract

For the soy milk, I used a whole single serve container of Silk Very Vanilla which is 8.25oz and sweetened so technically I didn't need the sugar at all. If I hadn't used the whole container, these might have been fluffier but they were fine as is.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a smaller bowl mix the egg, vanilla, and soy milk together. Add the melted butter and mix well. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir until smooth.




Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the heated pan, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. When bubbles form it's time to flip, cooking until lightly browned on both sides.








Serve hot with butter, syrup, jam, whipped cream and fruit, or any other way you love to eat pancakes. Plenty of options.

Popovers

A picture sure can be suggestive. I saw a photo of some popovers on Flickr and suddenly wanted to try some. It occurred to me that I'd never made popovers before (or scones for that matter 'till recently) so I'd have to find a recipe (no recipe with the Flickr photo).

No problem there. Lots of recipes out there. I tried this one because it looked easy and you could change the serving size (and have the correct ingredient amounts) with their handy dandy converter.

And I learned a lesson or two as well -- don't use butter to butter the sides or popovers won't pop, they'll have a sunken in spot on the bottom, use non-stick spray...and don't forget to use the non-stick spray as I did once or the popovers will stick to the muffin tin (I don't have a popover pan).

Also, don't be afraid to mix them well. I always worry about over mixing but in this case a few more beats would've been ok.

Still... they came out very good. They were light, airy, and yummy with butter or jam or both. I'll definitely be making them again. A great weekend treat.

The recipe:

2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt


Preheat your oven to 450F. Grease and flour six custard cups or the cups of your muffin pan. Or, coat with non-stick cooking spray (as I did on the batch that came out the best for me).

In a medium bowl beat the eggs slightly, beat in the flour, milk, and salt, until just smooth. Try not to over beat. Fill your custard or muffin cups 1/2 full.

Bake at 450F for 20 minutes. Decrease the oven temperature to 350F and bake for 20 minutes more. Immediately remove from cups and serve hot.

The peanut butter ice (cream) experiment

I knew I had an ice cream maker somewhere in this house. Found it recently and after this little experiment, remembered why I stored it away... I can't make decent ice cream. But I'm going to keep trying (so long as the thing keeps working anyway) because one of these days I'll get right.





This? Was an adaption from a bunch of different recipes and another something I forgot... soy milk added to a cream mixture makes ice milk (or ice, period), not ice cream. Still, for a first try (in so many years), it was ok. I have something else in mind for any future attempts... like actually using cream (not half & half) and also trying this recipe with peanut butter (I'm allergic to hazelnuts) sometime soon.

I should've used all half & half for this recipe but I was trying to "healthy it up" a bit but by doing so it changed the texture. A lot!


The recipe:

1 1/2 cups half & half
1 1/2 cup soy milk
(should have tried 2 1/2 cups 1/2 & 1/2 and 1/2 cup soy milk)
3/4 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup sugar


I heated all the ingredients in a saucepan until the sugar and powdered milk was dissolved and the peanut butter was melted. Stored the mixture in the fridge and added it to the ice cream maker per instructions the next day.


The result was a peanut butter ice milk concoction (that I took out of the freezer and stirred every hour for a few hours to help thicken it up) that wasn't bad at all but not what I was hoping for.

Better luck next time.

Chocolate cake, ganache, and marshmallow

This almost worked.

I found the marshmallow frosting and ganache* recipes here.

My version? It wasn't pretty but it tasted good. That's pretty much how most of what I make comes out. Tasty, not pretty. Just eat it! :)

My mistake(s) this time was making the frosting too soon and then (gasp!) refrigerating it. Let that be a lesson to all...do not refrigerate homemade marshmallow frosting until you've already frosted your cake! Silly me.

That said... this was still really good.

I used a boxed cake mix...hey, I considered trying one from scratch but I thought I was being adventurous enough trying the homemade frosting. I've made the confectioners sugar (with and without cream cheese) kind, but never a "cook on the stove" kind. Someday I'm going to brave a butter cream attempt (maybe this one). Not this day though.

I sliced the cake carefully (by hand, no dental floss* trick, though I considered it) into 4 layers. Used this* ganache recipe (fabulous!) on each layer, and the marshmallow frosting on top.

The result? Well, as I said, it's not pretty but it sure was good. The ganache keeps the cake moist and the marshmallow frosting is light (even my soupy version, it thickened up after re-refrigeration) and not too sweet and really brought out the chocolate flavor in the (yep, boxed) chocolate cake. Yummy!

A little picture story... click the images to see the larger versions:






I'd make this again. It was a big hit. I just won't refrigerate the frosting until it's on the cake!
(so it won't get oozy next time)

Apple cake

...Or overflowing apple cake. Either. My own fault. Always follow your instinct when cooking. I thought I should have split this batter into two pans but for some reason thought it would be fine, and left it as is. Good thing I went with the "cook it on a cookie sheet" option (and listened to that instinctual nudge)!

I've made this recipe twice so far. First time I had the overflow problem, second time I split what looked like too little batter into two separate pans. Good thing. That too-little-looking batter totally filled both pans. So definitely split this into two pans if it looks like a lot. The pan shouldn't be more than 1/4 full.

I got the recipe from here. You can frost this cake but I chose not to.

First time, instead of dicing, I shredded the apple and followed the rest of the recipe as-is. The second time I shredded half and diced half, to see if it made a difference in the texture, and used 1 & 1/2 cups of sugar instead of two. I wanted to see if cutting down changes anything. For some reason the two cups of sugar to only two cups of flour seemed like an awful lot. Using 1/2 cup less of sugar didn't seem to make any difference so I'll make this using 1 1/2 cups of sugar from now on.


The recipe:

4 cups peeled and diced apples (1st try, I shredded 8 small apples, which was about 3-3 1/2 cups or so; 2nd try, half diced and half shredded was about 4-4 1/2 cups)
2 cups sugar (second time, I used 1 1/2 cups sugar, and will from now on)
1/2 cup salad oil
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour (all purpose, not self rising)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Heat your oven to 350ºF degrees. In a large bowl, mix apples and sugar thoroughly.

(The original recipe adds the rest of the ingredients to the apple mixture but I kept the apples and sugar in one bowl and the rest in another and mixed them together after prepping each.)

Add the oil, nuts, eggs and vanilla. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the apple mixture.

Bake in a greased 13x9 inch pan for 1 hour. (I used one 13x9 pan the first time and had the overflow problem, second time I used a 13x9 pan and a 9x9 pan, worked perfectly) Slightly underdone is better (according to the recipe, see link above) than overdone. I'd agree with that because you have to factor in carryover*.

Start checking this at the half hour mark if you split the batter. My second (split) batch took 35 minutes to cook.


This will turn a very toasty shade of brown. That's ok, it's from all the sugar and the cinnamon.

Taste-wise...this was very moist, and tasty. And surprisingly, not overly sweet at all. Dicing the apples does make a difference in the texture. The apple pieces get all soft and pleasingly gooey. I think dicing half and shredding half is a good mix.

I wanted something different from the cobbler-type dessert I usually make when I have a surplus of apples and this worked great. Quick and easy and just the something different I was looking for.

This froze and defrosted well too. I cut up the cake from the second pan into single servings (zippy bagged them) and froze them to take to work. It was just as good as the day I baked it.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Something I threw together while making something else. I didn't have a recipe, just went with what seemed right. I was pretty happy (considering I had no recipe) that it came out good! :)

I used large white mushrooms (I had 8 at the time) with the stems removed, and reserved. Lightly salted the insides. Baked the caps empty-side-up, for about 20-25 minutes in a toaster oven on 325F, until they lost some of their moisture, but still held their shape.

For the filling, I finely chopped the following and put it in a small bowl:

1/2 celery rib
1/4 onion
1 plum tomato
8 stems with the (picked side) ends cut off

To this I added one shredded baby carrot, 2-3 tablespoons of flavored breadcrumbs, one tablespoon (store bought) shredded Parmesan cheese, and about a tablespoon of melted butter. Mixed it well, and filled each mushroom cap evenly, and overfilled them with what was left.

I baked this in a toaster oven at 350F for about 30 minutes.

The result? Oh, they were delicious! And I will definitely be making these again. I didn't realize how easy this kind of treat could be. And because the filling would change depending on what ingredients I have handy, it would end up a little different every time. That would add some variety to my usual veggies. Maybe next time I can skip the butter and use a spray on salad dressing instead, or some butter flavored (non-stick) spray.

Sweet Cheat Popcorn

I've been trying to make a kettle-corn style popcorn and an easy caramel type popcorn for ages. By "easy" I mean-- one pot, no separate caramel making, no additional baking, with butter and salt being optional. Easy, you know?

Every time I just tried adding a little (1/4 cup or less) brown sugar to the heating kernels (stove top popcorn prep), I'd end up with hard granules attached to the corn. Not quite what I was looking for. Not to mention a little hard on my teeth.

I think I finally did it though. It was a total fluke. While the kernels were heating up (again, stove top prep, kernels cooking in a little oil) I added some brown sugar, like usual. Only this time, instead of just stirring and hoping for the best, I also added a little water.

This made all the difference! The water dissolved the sugar (have to stir this mixture until the kernels start popping, then continue cooking with the cover on, keeping the pot moving), and the whole works boiled and became a syrupy consistency by the time the kernels started to pop. The syrupy mixture cooked onto the newly popped kernels and finally I had easy stove top sweet popcorn! Yum!

Of course, this probably isn't a secret, and many of you out there, likely already knew this. Silly me though for never thinking of it 'till recently. (I worried that adding water to popcorn makes mush; it probably does if the kernels have popped, but not while they're still kernels.)

So, this adds to the many ways you can make popcorn. To this sweet mixture I've drizzled butter on top and added salt. Very tasty! But probably best as an occasional treat.

The best thing is, made this way, it's tasty as-is, which is exactly what I wanted. A little sweet, without the added butter or extra steps trying to make caramel or having to bake it. Still have to be extra careful of the unpopped kernels. Now they'll likely stick to the popped ones. Eat carefully!

Cinnamon Gnocchi

I saw this recipe on Everyday Italian, only, the recipe that was in the episode doesn't quite match the recipe on the website. Strange.

In the episode, she used a half of a cup of sugar, and a tablespoon or so of cinnamon, which is different than the website version.

I made my own version so I guess it doesn't matter. I was kind of bummed that I couldn't get the sugar to dissolve in the butter. At least it looked that way but in the end, the sugar dissolved and this came out pretty good.

I've never had gnocchi before so this was a completely different dessert for me and definitely not the way I intended to have it initially. Nice change. (I intended to add the gnocchi to tomato sauce)

This is how I made this:

1 & 1/2 cups gnocchi, boiled in salted water until tender (per package instructions), and drained

Set this aside.

In the same saucepan that I cooked the gnocchi in (empty now but still hot) I added:

1/2 stick butter
1 cinnamon stick

Melt the butter, and then add:

1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

Cook this mixture until the sugar melts, or, 3-5 minutes on low to medium heat, stirring often.

Remove the cinnamon stick. Add the drained gnocchi.

In both the website and TV episode version of this recipe, that was it. Done. In my version, I cooked the gnocchi in the sauce another two minutes.

That's it. Plate it and enjoy.
Definitely have to serve this warm!


I felt better having used much less butter, but wondered if more butter made the sauce thicker. Possibly. But I'd rather have a slightly looser sauce and know I used a lot less butter.



Another good thing about this recipe is the wonderful way it makes your kitchen smell. Dessert and aromatherapy all in one. Nice!