Friday, April 30, 2021

Curry Sauce

 First of all, it is not often that I make curry. My husband is can not handle spicy food, so I would only make it for just me and my son. I had come across a curry sauce recipe that is a variation of a white sauce recipe in my grandmother's vintage cook book. That night I knew I was making curry. I was going to make a chicken curry, but my grocery store has a variety of sausages made in house and I went with this chicken spinach asiago sausage. I only took two sausages ( it was only me and my son) cut it up with about 1 carrot, some celery, and onion. I sautéed the veggies first in some oil until it was soft . Then added the sliced sausage.


Then it is on to the sauce. The cook book had variations for a thin, medium, and heavy sauce, I tried the medium version, I melted 2 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons of flour.  Cook this until it is a smooth paste. Slowly add 1 cup of milk, cook until the desired consistency. The cook book says 10 minutes, but it was already thick for me within a few minutes. I thought it got too thick and added some milk to thin out the sauce. I added 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon of pepper to the sauce. I added 1/2 teaspoon curry powder. I added the curry sauce to the veggies and sausage.

I served it over rice. Turned out to be really good curry.
I did make curry again. I had one left over pork chop. I had cut it up and cook with carrots and celery (I was out of onion, cut I did add onion powder). For the sauce I used 1 tablespoon of butter and flour with the cup of milk. The consistency was more to my liking. This curry turned out tasty, but the flavor for the first curry dish was better. I could be I had more butter, I had onions in my first dish, it could of been that my pork was bland (compared to the sausage), or I simple had less curry powder or other seasonings in my sauce.  Overall, my second version was still a tasty curry.

So here is the final recipe I am using to make the curry sauce:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

Melt butter over medium heat, add flour. Cook for about a minute, slowly incorporate the milk and cook until you have the desired consistency. Add the spices.


I had saluted about 1/2 to 1/2 cup of carrots, celery, and onion. Add about 1/2-1 cup of protein of choice. I added the sauce to this. Keep in mind that you could easily vary the protein and veggies.

I am no means an expert on making curry, but the sauce is a simple and good start for beginners like me.


I also have had many failed attempts at making rice. So here is a You Tube video from Alton Brown on how to make rice.

 


I am going to share this with:


Friday, April 23, 2021

Charlie's Chicken Dish

 My son is responsible for dinner on Sunday's. He usually buys dinner, but he does occasionally cook. I believe the chicken dish he created is suppose to be Chicken-A-La-King. I asked my son to tell me how he made the dish. All he did was give me a list of what was in it. 

His list of ingredients for the chicken dish include:

Chicken thighs

Bag of mixed vegetables 

Heavy whipping cream

Chicken stock

Salt

Pepper

I assumed he cut up and cooked the chicken, added to what I believe was a half a bag of mixed vegetables. He just used what was in our freezer. Add chicken stock. I don't know how much, but I guess he added 3-4 cups. I would just use a can of chicken stock. He topped with about 1/4 cup of whipping cream and seasoned it to taste. I topped mine off with biscuits that comes in a can and you have to bake.

He also made smashed red potatoes that include red potatoes, sour cream, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.

He did not measure any of the ingredients and totally winged this dish. He did use to cook in a retirement community, so he does bring in some experience from that job. Also my husband use to work 30+ years in the restaurant industry so my son could bounce ideas from him. 

So hopefully we will see more cooking from my son. 

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Saturday, April 17, 2021

Tasty Eats

In this edition of tasty eats, I have some take out food, store bought food, stuffed green peppers, coffee, dessert, and bacon. This nearly represents what I eat in the course of a week


This is pasta primavera in a bread bowl from Dominos.  My son is responsible for providing dinner on Sunday's. He chose to buy Dominos.

Sunday mornings I usually cook breakfast. It always involve bacon. I cooked bacon in the air fryer for the first time. I like how the bacon turned out and will likely cook bacon in the air fryer going forward.
I susally cook dinner on Saturdays. Last Saturday I made stuffed green peppers following instructions from May's Food Network Magazine. There is a section in the magazine called Mix-and Match Stuffed Peppers.  How it works is that I choose the protein, vegetables, spices, and mix ins. The peppers I made have hamburger, carrots, cauliflower, taco seasoning, sour cream, and couscous. 

You can check out the recipe here:

Mix-and-Match Stuffed Peppers | Food Network

 

This is an Easter cake my husband bought at the store. I thought it was really sweet.

This was another Sunday that my son decided to buy take out Chinese food. I usually get Sesame Chicken. I got something different, it is chicken with a peanut sauce. Very tasty.
This is equal parts instant coffee, coconut sugar, and powdered milk. If I had actual coffee creamer, I would of used that instead of the milk. I add a couple of teaspoons of the mixture to a cup of hot water. It is ok. I am really not much of a coffee drinker unless it is loaded with sugar and milk.
Finally I have nice cream with bananas and peanut butter, It is topped with the granola I had made previously. I am a fan of this over regular ice cream and it is healthier.

That is all for Tasty Eats, I might start making this a "What I Ate This Week" post. Though these photos cover a span of a few weeks.
 

I will be sharing this with:



Saturday, April 10, 2021

Flourless Breakfast Cookies



 To be honest, I started to make a small batch of peanut butter cookies. I had already put 1/4 cup of butter in a bowl was about to add coconut sugar when I saw the recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies on the bag. I immediately switched gears to make this recipe. This mean I had to work with the butter I already had in the bowl. I compensated with adding less peanut butter in the recipe.


They did end up spreading out a bit which makes me wonder if it was the butter in the cookies. Overall they were moist and delicious. Because I added the 1/4 cup of butter, I only used 3/4 cup of peanut butter.

What do you need to make these cookies.
1 cup of coconut palm sugar - you could likely use brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter or any nut butter
2 eggs
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1 cup of oats
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup of dried cranberries, cherries, or raisins - I had none of these so I added dried figs.
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine sugar, nut butter and eggs until combined. Add remaining ingredients. drop by 1/4 cup portions onto baking sheet, flatten with a fork, bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them onto a  cooling rack.

I will defiantly make these again.

I will be sharing this with:



Friday, April 02, 2021

Creamy Chicken Spaghetti

 I had come across this recipe that used an Instant Pot. I don't own one, but I wanted to make the recipe.


First ingredient -  4 cups of chicken broth

So first I forgot to chicken broth (or I thought we had some). So I just used water seasoned with Old Bay seasoning.

So in the pot went the water, 1 pound of broken spaghetti, 3/4 pound of boneless chicken thighs (cut up into pieces, you can use chicken breast), a small onion (1/4 cup) 1 teaspoon of garlic, 1 teaspoon seasoning salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. I cooked this over medium heat until the chicken and pasta looked done.

Then I had to pick out the chicken so it can be shredded. 

Add 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese, and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. I stirred this until the cheese is melted.  Add the chicken back. The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of heavy cream, but I ended up using the whole pint because it was really sticky before this and I thought it needed more liquid. 

Turned out tasty

I am not sure how different it would of turned out using an instant pot, you can find the instant pot version here:

Instant Pot Creamy Chicken Spaghetti - The Short Order Cook

Looking over the recipe I realized I forgot the paprika. If I make this again, I will make sure to use chicken stock and to remember to add paprika.