Chickpea, potato, and spinach curry.

New year, new post, new me! I told my doctor that my New Year's Resolution is to be healthy. In keeping with this resolution I decided to give vegetarianism a try.

My first foray into vegetarian cuisine is a chickpea, potato, and spinach curry. I've heard that this is a standard Indian dish and often served with rice or chapati. Since I didn't have or know to make chapati I decided to have it with whole wheat tortillas. That worked very well.



I didn't really use a recipe but used ideas from a few different recipes I've made before. Don't let the ingredients list scare you it's really easy. Give it a try, it was divine.

2 cans of chickpeas
2 potatoes, cut into small chunks
1 frozen box of spinach
1 can of diced tomatoes, juice included
1 can of coconut milk
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch of ginger, grated
1-2 Tbsp of curry powder
1 Tbsp tumeric
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp chili powder or 1 serano chili, chopped(optional)
2 Tbsp of oil
cilanto to garnish


Saute onion, ginger, and garlic in oil on low to medium low until brown. Add curry powder, tumeric, cumin seeds, and chili (if using) fry about 1 minute. Add chickpeas, potatoes, can of tomatoes, and can of coconut milk. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add spinach and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with brown rice and/or whole wheat tortillas.

Not so lazy Sunday morning.

My usual Sunday routine is to sleep in until as late as possible and then laze around in bed until the bladder says, "GET UP!". For some reason this morning I woke up clear headed and a lot more energetic than normal. What to do, what to do? Well, cook, of course!

Monkey Bread

2 cans of home-style biscuits
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven, 350 degrees. Combine cinnamon and sugar in plastic bag. Cut biscuits into quarters, toss in cinnamon/sugar mixture. In pie plate, arrange coated pieces. In saucepan, combine melted butter and brown sugar, boil 1 minute. Pour butter/sugar mixture over biscuit. Bake 25-30 minutes. To serve, invert pie dish over plate.

Ahhhh! Yum! Breakfast is served.

Hrm... wonder what other goodies I can make today....

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

A few people have bugged me about the lack of recent post on this blog. Since illness reared it’s ugly head I haven’t been able to cook as much so posting about nothing didn’t seem like something other people would read. However, looks like with the summer sun my illness has decided to give me a breather and I find myself cooking, reading, living, and loving life again. In commemoration of this feeling I decided it was time to post on this blog once more. This time around I think I’ll be going back to blogging about whatever the heck I feel like. If you don’t like..... well too bad! Stick around. My life might not be that bad after all....

Tea Time Thursdays VIII - China Green Tea

Welcome to the eighth edition of Tea Time Thursday. Today I was actually going to feature a different tea but, after trying the China Green I knew I had to write about it. I actually had an opportunity to taste this tea in the tea store the first time. A week later I was back in Gong Fu Tea to pick up some, it made that much of an impression.

I noticed that it didn't taste the same when I brewed it at home. Today I had a chance to try it again in store and was lucky enough to borrow a bit of Mike's time. During our conversation he mentioned that green teas really need a gentler temperature and a little less time to brew. So now ,per Mike, I will be picking up a thermometer to make sure the water is only 175 degrees or I will have to try letting my kettle sit for 5 minutes off the heat after bringing it to a boil. The optimal temperature of brewing green teas is 175 degrees, because if the water is hotter you release the tannins in the tea making it bitter. I'm hoping I got that right, if not Mike or Rusty please correct me.



This tea is very mellow with almost a sweet after taste. I'm in love with the how mild it taste. I was also surprised to learn that it is a green tea from China. For some odd reason I thought green teas only came from Japan. You learn something new everyday, huh?

If you like green tea I highly recommend you try the China Green. It's very nice and my current favorite. Yeah, I know that doesn't say much since I change favorites practically every week. You try drinking these teas and see if you don't fall in love with them. I dare you.

Enjoy!

Tea Time Thursday Friday?

Er... oops! I totally spaced today was Thursday. I knew, I just spaced it though. Or I should say yesterday since it's 12:30am right now. My rule is usually if I haven't been to bed it's still Thursday, so here goes. Sorry, everyone, I promise to do better next week!

Well.. I did have something planned but it got interrupted by a very special gift. Please excuse me for a minute...

*jump up and down and squeals like a teenager at a boy band concert*

Ok, sorry had to get that out. You see, this week I was the lucky recipient of a package from Montreal, Canada. Mon ami, Joel, a tea purveyer who resides in China and owns Golden Teahouse in Montreal, sent me a bunch of new teas to try. They are mostly Oolong teas and then one package of Chrysanthemum pearls which I had requested. I can't wait to try them and tell my readers ALL about them!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Joel! I heart your gift.

Gaeng Jeud Mara Sai Moo

I’m not sure if it’s the bitter cold here in Iowa that reminded me I had made this soup recently or if I’m craving it again. It’s probably both. In Thailand, soups are divided into two categories; spicy soup and non-spicy soup. The spicy soup category includes those favorites such as Tom Yum Gai and Green curry. The non-spicy soup, generally not well known in the States, is more typical of the western idea of a broth type soup. We ate both types quite a bit and if there were children under the age of six in the house there was always a bowl for them at the children’s table. Unlike it’s western counterpart Thai non-spicy soup is eaten with rice and is part of the main meal.



Pork-stuffed Bitter Melon soup is one of my favorite non-spicy Thai soups. It is probably taken from the Chinese as there is a huge Chinese influence in Thailand. The first time I had it I absolutely hated it but, the more I ate it the more it grew on me. Now I get cravings for it’s unique flavor. You can find bitter melon at your local Asian market if they have a good produce section. I’m lucky mine does so when I get a craving for this soup I can just pop down for one and scurry home to make soup.

One thing I’ve noticed about Thai soups is that it does not require a lot of time. While you can use stock or bullion cubes I’ve done it without. I make mine pretty much the same way I’ve seen our cook back home make it a million times.

1 bitter melon, cut into 3-4 sections, hollow
½ lb of ground pork
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground white pepper
1 cilantro root or 3 cilantro stems, finely minced. Keep leaves for garnish.
2 Tbsp soy sauce

If you have a mortar and pestle ground garlic, white pepper, and cilantro until it forms a paste. If you do not, mince together finely. Mix ground pork, white pepper, salt, garlic, and cilantro stems until combined. Stuff into hollowed bitter melon. In a pot bring to boil 4-5 cups of water, add stuffed bitter melon and soy sauce. Boil for half an hour until melon is very tender. Garnish with a dash of white pepper and cilantro leaves, serve with rice.

Enjoy!

Recipe slightly adapted from Thai Table.

Tea Time Thursdays VI - Pound cake

Welcome to the sixth edition of Tea Time Thursdays. Please let me know if you have a blog an would like to join me in any tea related post. I may be contacted via email or you can just leave me a message on the blog. If you want to join me, I’ll be happy to feature your blog and write a short note regarding your post of the day.

Last Sunday I decided I would try a recipe found on eGullet.com for a pound cake. I’ve grown up all my life eating Sara Lee’s frozen pound cake but, never thought of making my own. Well, since this year I decided I wanted to learn more about baking, I figured, "Hey, Why not?"



This pound cake is rich, moist, and dense. It’s a little sweeter than what I’m used to but, it made a great treat for afternoon tea. I sliced up some strawberries, whipped up some cream, and made a wonderful strawberry shortcake. Today's tea was the Dalai’s Daily from Gong Fu Tea store. I’ll post about that next week.



For Becca’s delicious pound cake recipe click here.

Enjoy!