I am so smart. S-M-R-T.

I Attempt Indian Food Again: Channa Marsala

Instead of trying my Tempeh Curry again (because I wasn’t sure if the crappy Jewel by my house even carries tempeh), I decided to go for channa marsala, knowing I had rice to accompany it already waiting at home.

Stolen from Serious Eats, who apapted a version from Recipezaar.

Channa Masala

- serves 2 (really hungry people)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
1/2 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, grated

Procedure

1. Toss the butter in a skillet set over medium heat. When melted, add the onion and cook until soft and beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

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

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

4. 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.

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

I added mushrooms and carrots, and thus bastardizing the recipe.  But it was good!  :o)  And I have enough to last me until Thursday night, when Eric gets home.

Unemployment Rates by County

Watch as the whole country slowly goes to black… this is scary.

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Baking Win: Cookies!

I finally made cookies that turned out!  (See my earlier post: Cookie Fail).

I guess I subconsciously realized that Friday (Dec. 4th) was National Cookie Day, because I came home feeling the need to turn up the Christmas music, make a boozy peppermint mocha and bake cookies.

Challenge #1: Ever since my mixer died while making cheesecake, I am minus an electronic mixer.  The recipe had to be simple enough that it didn’t require anything that couldn’t be done by hand.

Solution #1: Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Challenge #2: One of my problems with baking cookies is that the recipes always end up making, say, three dozen cookies.  That’s a lot of cookies, considering that it’s just me and Eric here, and as many people as I can give them away to.

Solution #2: So I googled “Small Batch Baking” on Friday and found out that there is an entire cookbook (I should have guessed) dedicated to this.  Here is the recipe I used:

Giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted from Culinary Adventures of A New Wife)
Yield: 4-5 cookies

4 tablespoons very hot melted unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons beaten egg (break egg, mix it with fork, measure)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon water (optional)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

In a bowl, stir together hot butter, powdered sugar and brown sugar until smooth. If still very hot, let cool for about a minute, then stir in egg. Beat with a spoon until egg is fully mixed then stir in vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add flour and stir just until mixed. If dough seems too dry (falling apart), add the water. Stir in chocolate chips and broken cookies. Shape dough into a fat log of about 5 inches log. Chill for 1 hour. Carefully cut log into 4-5 equal pieces. If chunks of cookies and chips fall out, just stick them back onto the cut pieces.

Place cut pieces, spaced about 4 inches away from each other, 4-5 to a sheet, on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees F for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Cool on cookie sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Things I learned while baking cookies this time:

1. Parchment paper is critical: The cookies slid right off the paper.  Just another reason that I will be asking for a SilPat for Christmas.
2. Refrigeration is critical: Indeed, as promised, chilling the dough did wonders for the cookies’ size and shape.  Instead of flat, thin cookies, I got six plump and nice looking cookies.

These were cookies that I didn’t feel ashamed in giving to others… win!

Group of NU Students Demolish Tradition

http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2009/12/61306/chipping-away-tradition/

Best quote from the comments: “Oh, wait, you just destroyed history. Your art history professors should fail you.”

This (like my friend Gayle said) makes me irrationally angry.  But c’mon NU.  Really?

Had I been on campus I would have mobilized my friends and protested.

Christmas Time at Muffin Top!

I figured today was the perfect day to bust out my Christmas decorations (I bought the lights at CVS and the rest was left over from El Dorado) and listen to my first Christmas songs of the season as I hung said decorations.  Behold!  The results:

My living room.

A shot of the front door.

Stockings over the door…

The Kitchen.

I’m mad at myself for forgetting my fiber optic tree at home.  Wa wann.  But I think these decorations will get me through until I go home.

Eric and Me in Tim Burton form

Last week, Eric hit up the Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA while touring NYC/visiting his brother.

Yesterday, when I came home he had a present waiting for me: Corrie and Eric in Tim Burton’s world.  :o)

“Brie Boy” and “Staring Girl” figurines.

My desk is really really starting to look like a 5th grader works here…

Cooking without Eric: Experimental Tempeh

After this dinner, maybe I should cook without Eric more often.  :o)

I’ve never cooked with tempeh before (hence the “experimental” title, an ode to Lila’s experimental tart”), but after seeing Tempeh Curry from 101 Cookbooks come across my gReader, I thought I’d give it a try.  Also, see my failed Pumpkin Curry, and you will understand the second reason this is experimental.

Now, the recipe calls for potatoes.  :o/  I am not the biggest fan of potatoes, but you know what starch I am a huge fan of/happened to have in my fridge?  Rice cakes!  (Dduk in Korean).

They look like this:

The problem is, Korean cooking only really uses these babies in one dish.  One.  Dduk bokge (from my old blog, corzcooking).  And Eric refuses to “depart from the text” (Goodnight Opus, anyone?) and make anything else with rice cakes.

I love them a little bit crispy on the outside, after a little pan frying.  Okay, enough about my love of rice cakes.  Back to my curry tempeh.

Now, the following must totally be credited to Lila, who taught me that recipes are loose sets of tips: I “basically” followed the recipe, only 1/4ing it.  First I fried up the rice cakes in a side pan and browned the tempeh a little bit in the same pan.  The onions and butter and tomatoes etc. were made in a separate pan, and I didn’t bust out a measuring cup once.  :o)

And the final result:

A dish I would definitely make again.  The curry sauce was actually thick (thanks to the leftover whipping cream in my fridge) and the spices were evenly balanced (for me).  I would want to know what Eric thought of htis, if he allowed me to bastardize rice cakes.  All in all, I’m really proud of cooking this by myself, and not just succumbing to a salad or something.  :o)