Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

Tag: Cooking — Main Courses

Spur-of-the-Moment Pizza Dough Recipe from Giada

For years, I have consistently used the same pizza dough recipe, which requires at least an overnight (18 – 24 hour) rise in the fridge. Unfortunately, this means I must plan at least a day in advance if I want to make a homemade pizza. Although the flavor of this standard pizza dough recipe is excellent (one of the best I've ever had), I have really wanted the flexibility to make a customized, hot pizza the day I want to eat it.

So to the Internet I went — unfortunately I bypassed my cookbooks this time. I found an Epicurious.com recipe by Giada DeLaurentiis, which only requires a one hour rise. It calls for a full quarter-ounce packet of active dry yeast for one pizza dough ball instead of the one teaspoon for the two full pizza dough balls made with the original, overnight rise recipe I use. I tried this new recipe during a recent weekday evening, and was surprised at how easy and fast it was to make. I let the dough rise in a warm area for one hour, as called for by the recipe, and it seemed like it almost tripled in size instead of doubled. This didn't seem to have an effect on the result though.

I baked the crust at 550 degrees for approximately 4 – 5 minutes, before adding the sauce and toppings and baking for another 3 minutes until the cheese was melted and bubbly. The crust itself was relatively flavorful and had an almost cracker-like consistency. I may substitute bread flour and whole wheat flour for the all-purpose to experiment with flavor and texture of the crust, but look forward to using it further when I feel an immediate craving for pizza!

July 24, 2010
Potato Vindaloo…A First (Maybe Last?) Try
I bought some pre-combined vindaloo spice powder at Kalustyan's in New York a few months back, but have been a little stumped about how best to use it in my vegetarian cooking. I finally decided that I can't make the perfect the enemy of the good, and endeavored to use the spices with some russet potatoes. The end result was just ok — it was a little bland for my tastes (others who are new to Indian cooking will probably find it to have a good level of flavor) and I don't think the potatoes really absorbed the full flavor of the spices. I think maybe I need to use a porous vegetable that will break down during cooking and better absorb the flavor of the powder, and to make it more of a curry than a dry dish like the potato vindaloo had turned out. But for those who like potatoes and want a new variation on a potato dish, the recipe I put together is below the picture:

Recipe
- 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1/2 inch segments
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 3 dried red chili peppers (available at Indian grocery stores)
- 4 tbsps chopped onion
- 1 heaping tbsp vindaloo powder
- 1 – 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup water
Directions
- Heat vegetable oil on medium to high heat, and when heated, add garlic, dried red chili peppers and vindaloo powder
- After one minute, or after garlic becomes fragrant, add the onion and stir, cooking for another 3 minutes
- Add the potato, and stir to coat the potatoes with the spice mixture
- After coated, add 1/4 cup of water and cover the pan to cook the potatoes.
- Stir periodically and cook until potatoes are tender and cooked throughout
July 2, 2010
A Slightly Failed Attempt at Hot and Sour Cabbage

I continue to make good progress using my cooking magazines, with one of the latest adventures focusing on the Vegetarian Times March 2010 Hot and Sour Cabbage recipe. Unfortunately though, my attempted experimentation with a new type of cabbage didn't quite work out as I didn't quite know the difference between napa cabbage — which was called for in the recipe — and savoy cabbage. When I went to the local grocery store, I picked up the cabbage that was labeled "napa", even though Andy pointed out that it seemed like it was plain, green cabbage (read: savoy cabbage) which I have used a few times before. But because it was labeled "napa", I thought I should just go with it. Well, that turned out to be incorrect, and as such, the dish didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped.

The main issue seemed to be that savoy cabbage leaves were seemingly thicker and take longer to cook than what I imagine napa leaves take, so that the balsamic vinegar didn't quite coat all of the leaves so some leaves had a really strong balsamic taste while others lacked the flavor. In addition to making an uneven flavor, the vinegar also didn't quite mix with the sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce and other flavor additions, so I didn't really experience the "hot and sour" nature of the dish (which was quite nice) except in a few random bites. Hopefully I'll be able to find some real napa cabbage next time so I can really make this recipe the proper way!

May 10, 2010
Vegetarian Times’ Grown Up Mac and Cheese — My First Bechamel Sauce!

The Vegetarian Times featured a "roux how-to" in their March 2010 issue that included a recipe for making a basic bechamel sauce — the class French white sauce used as a base in many common dishes. I decided to try one of the recipes that featured the roux/bechamel base, the Mac and Cheese for Grown-Ups.

(Unbaked Mac and Cheese)

The recipe included lots of fresh spinach leaves, penne and a bit of parmesan cheese to provide additional flavor to the bechamel. I made a few minor substitutions — substituting regular penne for the whole wheat penne called for in the recipe and skipping the optional nutmeg — and the result was really spectacular. It created about 5 – 6 servings, as promised, and was a good main course for the occasion of inviting a friend over for dinner.

I look forward to trying the dark chocolate souffle recipe next in the "roux how-to" section!

May 1, 2010
Wonderfully Fresh and Flavorful Vegan Meal — Indian-Style Roasted Cauliflower, Chinese-Inspired Sauteed Spinach and Red Quinoa
I have been trying to create new versions of some traditional Indian dishes that I like — so adapting the usual spice blends I use for the vegetables I ate growing up to new ingredients, and trying to cook things differently by using new techniques. Through these adventures, I recently made what in my mind was a pretty successful dinner — it was flavorful, quick, and used good, fresh ingredients. Details about the meal — an Indian-style roasted cauliflower, a super-simple Chinese-inspired sauteed spinach and cooked red quinoa — follow the picture.

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients
- 1 medium head cauliflower, cleaned and coarsely chopped into 1/2 – 3/4 inch segments
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin (whole not ground)
- 3 dried red chili peppers
- olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions

1. Pre-heat over to 450 degrees, and cover a large baking sheet with foil

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and add mustard seeds.

3. When the mustard seeds start popping, add cumin and break the red chili peppers in half, adding them to the saucepan as well. Mix together.

4. When spice mixture is fragrant, add sliced garlic and saute until garlic also becomes fragrant but before it burns.

5. Immediately add cauliflower, and toss for 1 – 2 minutes to ensure the cauliflower is completely covered by the olive oil and spice mixture.

6. Remove pan from heat, and place the cauliflower on the prepared baking sheet in one layer. Add additional olive oil and toss, if the cauliflower pieces aren't covered by a very light layer of oil.

7. Place baking sheet in oven on the highest rack, and roast for 15 – 20 minutes or until the cauliflower has browned to your liking, and is tender. Liberally season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Chinese-Inspired Sauteed Spinach

Ingredients
- 1 bunch spinach, thoroughly cleaned, patted dry (this is important) and with only the ends trimmed
- 5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce, additional to taste
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 dried chili peppers (optional)
- Vegetable oil
Directions

1. Heat 2 – 3 tsp. of vegetable oil on medium-high heat in a large saucepan. Add garlic and red chili peppers, and cook until mixture is fragrant (approx. 1 – 2 minutes).

2. Add spinach, tossing with tongs to ensure all spinach wilts evenly. After the spinach is lightly wilted, add the soy sauce, tossing to coat.

3. Once the spinach is cooked to your liking, stir in the sesame oil and remove from heat. Serve immediately.
April 11, 2010
Flavorful, and Quick, Tomato Bisque
Last weekend, I decided to make a very simple lunch — a grilled cheese sandwich. I realized though that because I had just finished a long run, it probably wouldn't be enough to satisfy my hunger. I started looking in the cabinet for accompaniments and saw a can of fire-roasted, diced tomatoes and I realized I could probably make a soup to accompany the sandwiches. At first, I thought about making the Rachel Ray corn and salsa soup, but I thought it wouldn't be that flavorful because I didn't have any poblanos or avocado. And so, I did what I do too often when confronted with a cooking question — I turned to the internet!

Using the ingredient search on Allrecipes.com, I found a relatively simple tomato bisque recipe that I thought would be a good base for a customized soup. I ended up making several alterations, which I'll detail after the picture.

Making the following alterations resulted in a creamy, rich soup that was also spicy. While I thought these adjustments produced a wonderful result, I may in the future make other changes simply because I think there is a lot you can do with this soup base.
- Only made 1/2 of recipe to accommodate 14.5 oz. can of fire-roasted, diced tomatoes
- No celery
- No nutmeg
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- A few hearty shakes of cayenne pepper
- Substituted 2 cups of water with one ground up cube of Telma vegetable seasoning cube for chicken broth
- Only one tablespoon of sugar
- I blended 7/8 of the soup in a magic bullet (very fast, and much easier clean up that using the large blender).
- Substituted 2 teaspoons of sour cream for the heavy cream
Happy Experimenting!
February 2, 2010
Mutter Tofu

In 2006, I learned how to make Mutter Paneer, a popular North Indian dish. Someone commented on a related post that they had successfully attempted the recipe, and had substituted tofu in place of paneer. That comment has stuck with me the past few years, and when I finally decided to try this recipe myself, I decided to use tofu as well instead of the traditional paneer. I also adapted the recipe to what I had in my kitchen — which slightly deviates from the original recipe. Below the picture, I detail what I did to make the dish, what I would change in the future, and how this more simple approach differs from the original recipe — which I still think is probably the gold standard for mutter paneer.

Ingredients (for approximately 4 servings)

1 teaspoon ground cardamom (I would reduce this to 1/2 tsp. moving forward, especially because I freshly ground cardamon seeds)

Vegetable cooking oil

2 teaspoons store-bought ginger garlic paste (in place of homemade paste)

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (in place of dry fenugreek)

1 medium onion chopped

1 ½ medium tomatoes, chopped and microwaved for 2-3 minutes

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon roasted ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon roasted ground coriander (in place of 1 tsp. in original recipe — I may decrease in the future)

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 green chile, sliced

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon store-bought masala (in place of homemade masala)

1 block extra firm tofu, squeezed dry and cut into 3/4 inch square pieces (I would recommend making them 1/2 inch square pieces instead)

3/4 cup frozen peas

Directions (I basically followed the original recipe, except for separate cooking of the tofu)

-Heat oil in saucepan (medium heat, depending on quality of pan)

-Add ground cardamom

-Add garlic/ginger paste, let simmer for a few minutes

-Add dried fenugreek and chopped onion

-Let simmer 5-10 minutes, or until the onions don’t smell raw

– At the same time, heat 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in another pan on medium-high heat. Add tofu, and saute, stirring occasionally, until the tofu is lightly browned on all sides or the desired consistency is reached.

-Cut the tomatoes, and then put in microwave for 2-3 minutes

-Add paprika, cayenne, cumin, and coriander

-Add water if the ingredients are sticking to the pan (I would add about 1/4 – 3/4 cup of water)

-Add cilantro

-Add chopped tomatoes, and lower the heat a bit

-Let simmer so flavors blend (few minutes)

-Then put i
n a food processor, until consistency is like gravy

-Put back in pan, and add salt to taste

-Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream. Turn up heat and stir vigorously until mixture bubbles

-Keep stirring after bubbling and add homemade masala

-Then add peas, stir and cover, lower heat to medium/low.

-Stir periodically and add water if looks dry (maybe another 1/4 cup). Let simmer for 10 minutes.

-Uncover and stir in tofu, and let simmer for 3-4 minutes for flavor to set in paneer.

Potential Further Alterations

The recipe turned out incredibly well, though I think that there are three key changes I would consider making. First, as I describe above in the ingredients section, I would reduce the cardamon to 1/2 teaspoon instead of 1 teaspoon. I think the end result had a little too much cardamon flavor — potentially because I freshly ground the cardamon — and that made the dish a bit sweet. Second, I would recommend cutting the tofu into smaller pieces. I usually cut my tofu to about 3/4 inch square pieces when I stir fry them with vegetables, but I would that size is too big to get the tofu properly flavored in this gravy dish. I think that a 1/2 inch square size would probably work better for this recipe. Finally, I would add more water to the recipe as I detail in the directions section. I added perhaps only 1/4 cup of water through the cooking process, and the leftovers were somewhat dry, so I would probably add approximately 1/2 – 3/4 cup through the cooking process. I don't think that extra water would undesirably dilute the flavor.

I'll report back if I try these alterations in the future!

January 28, 2010
Baby Corn Manchurian
Indian-Chinese food (or Indo-Chinese) is one of my favorite types of food. It's basically fast-food Chinese with Indian spices or influences, and has become increasingly popular with Indian communities in the U.S. the past several years. I experienced Indian Chinese food for the first time since my childhood about 6 years ago when I went to Tangra Masala in New York, which has since become one of my favorite restaurants in the country. I haven't really attempted Indian Chinese food at home though because the flavor mix in the dishes is so powerful that I always have trouble figuring out what spices to use.

I decided to take the plunge though recently because I had some leftover baby corn in my fridge, and Baby Corn Manchurian is one of my favorite Indian Chinese dishes. I did some googling, and settled on a few sites to help guide my first attempt: Cooking and Me (thanks to Nags to the permission to comment on the awesome blog) and Sulekha.com.

I mostly followed the recipe on Cooking and Me, though I did make a few alterations. My ingredient substitutions included:
- Using all-purpose flour in place of maida
- Grinding yellow corn meal to make the corn flour
- Adding 1/4 cup water to the flour mixture to allow it to more easily coat each piece of baby corn
- Adding one finely chopped serrano pepper and more soy sauce
- A few "turns" of fresh ground pepper in place of "pepper powder"
I also cooked the dish slightly differently because I was multi-tasking in the kitchen that day, and so I cooked the vegetable mixture on the stovetop for about 10 minutes longer than called for in the recipe on lower-heat. I also cut the baby corn into 1-inch segments instead of halving them, and fried them in my deep fryer for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown.

As you can see from the picture, I ended up making the "dry" version of the dish, and not the version that included the extra sauce — I generally prefer my Baby Corn Manchurian dry, and was also worried that the gravy would dilute the flavor of the dish.

Overall, I enjoyed the dish but I felt that something was still missing — and I think that ingredient was a little bit of tomato paste to give the dish a bit more tartness and therefore resemble most Baby Corn Manchurian dishes that I've had. I also think that instead of prepared ginger garlic paste, I may use fresh ginger and garlic instead to really pump up the flavors of the dish. An alternative way to prepare would also be to just deep fry the baby corn as directed with the flavorful coating because the crisp baby corn without the vegetable tasted quite good on its own with a little salt and pepper.

Any ideas on how to improve this first attempt at Baby Corn Manchurian are more than welcome! Thanks again to Cooking and Me, and Sulekha, for their recipe guidance!
January 20, 2010
Completely Authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

I've only made desserts from the Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country/America's Text Kitchen folks because most of their main course/side dish options incorporate meat or some sort of meat flavoring. This finally changed though a few weeks ago when I received the January/February 2010 issue of Cook's Illustrated. I knew after just quickly glancing at the cover that I would definitely be making a savory recipe from the issue — whether or not it included meat! (To clarify, this means, I would have taken the time to modify the recipe to be vegetarian, not actually prepare a meat meal :-))

That recipe is the Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza. I have spent most of my adult life in Chicago, and I've LOVED Chicago Deep Dish Pizza ever since my childhood visits to Illinois. My favorite Chicago pizza place is Gino's East (SO delicious), and I absolutely abhor the fake Chicago pizza that you can find outside of the Windy City including the horrible, horrible Uno's and D.C.'s Armand's "Chicago" Pizzeria. Although I've had so many bad Chicago pizza experiences outside of the city, I had faith — some might say a bit of desperation because I haven't been to Chicago in over a year (!) — that Cook's Illustrated would get it right. I am incredibly pleased to report that Cook's Illustrated didn't let me down.

I followed the magazine's recipe almost exactly, and I found that following the multi-step dough process is critical to achieving the wonderfully flaky and buttery crust (which is so spot on for real Chicago pizza). While I had a bit of doubt about whether the crust would turn out correctly given how thin it was after rolling, it really did rise perfectly. The pizza sauce was also very simple and delicious — much better than the standard sauce we use for our homemade pizzas (meaning I have a new favorite pizza sauce recipe!).

The only changes I ended up making were to add some chopped red bell pepper, jalapenos and onion on top of the cheese layer, and to use two springform pans to bake the pizzas — one was slightly smaller than recommended (8.5 inches) and the other was slightly larger (9.5 inches). The larger pizza I baked for maybe 4 minutes longer than the smaller pizza, but there was no difference in taste or consistency. The two pizzas ended up serving 4 hungry adults.

Of all of the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country recipes I have recommended, this is definitely my favorite. It's a fantastic meal to make when a few friends are coming over, and perfect for winter months. It's almost exactly the medicine I need given how much I miss Chicago and all of the wonderful food there! Definitely, definitely pick up this edition of Cook's Illustrated this month!

January 15, 2010
The Best Risotto I’ve Ever Consumed: Butternut Squash and Leek Risotto from Epicurious.com

Some of you may remember my ill-fated attempt to make up my own risotto recipe a few months back — and yes, unlike most cooks who probably design recipes after mastering the cooking technique, I had decided to create my own risotto recipe without ever having made risotto before. The result: a bland and overly onion-y risotto, the result of not knowing how to properly spice the dish and using water instead of a flavored broth while probably overcooking the dish.

Following that "learning" experience, I decided to step away from risotto for awhile, and instead try my luck at another rice-based dish, paella, which I thought would be far easier to master — but unfortunately despite the saffron and heavy amounts of other spices, also turned out to be fairly bland. I think the combination of these experiences finally taught me that maybe I should first actually learn how to make a specialized dish using a professional recipe, and then perhaps customize it to my tastes (an amazing revelation, I know — this reminds me of the America's Test Kitchen commercial in which Chris Kimball says something like "ever heard someone say that 'I don't need a recipe for that'" and then there are scenes of cooking gone wrong).

To that end, I recently used this Epicurious.com recipe for a butternut squash and leek risotto, and it was not only much, much better than the previous version I tried, it also ended up being the best risotto I've ever had. Even when I eat risotto at fine quality restaurants, I admit getting a bit tired of the consistency and flavors about halfway through the dish. This recipe addresses the consistency issue by mixing both intact butternut squash chunks and arborio rice, and keeps the flavors diverse with the inclusion of both fresh sage and sauteed leeks. I highly recommend this recipe, and look forward to making this dish again in a few weeks — it's simply too good to not make it into my regular cooking rotation!

I encourage everyone to try this — I think its an especially great dish to make for guests, as this recipe makes about 6 meal servings or 8 side servings, rather than the 4/6 the recipe states. And while I have gobbled up the leftovers, it does taste best right after its made, so would be great to make for a larger group. The only modifications I made to this recipe were: using a stockpot instead of a large skillet simply because this recipe required a much larger skillet than any that I have — and I didn't notice a difference at all in consistency or cooking time, using about 1.5 large leeks instead of 3 leeks because I found 1.5 leeks were enough to produce the recipe's 3 cups of finely sliced light green and white parts, substituting about 5.5 cups of vegetarian stock for the 6 cups of chicken stock, and buying what seemed to be a medium-size butternut squash instead of a large one — it may have actually been a two-pound squash but did seem like it was noticeably smaller than some of the really large sizes you see at the grocery store. And finally, the best part — while risotto can be a bit time-consuming to make, I did feel that the amount of stirring I had to do burned off the calories of what I ultimately consumed 🙂

November 15, 2009