Thai and Indian Fusion night!

We decided it was high time we had Thai and Indian food for girl's dinner night, and boy was that an awesome idea! There's only a handful of Thai and Indian joints in town, and they cost  a fortune, so we made our own  feast for a fraction of the cost.

 

When I think of Thai food, I think pungent smells, beautiful presentations and daring spices.

 

Indian food calls to mind delicious blobs of flavor. And while the word blob doesn't necessarily cause one to salivate, it totally looks like delicious blobs of food, don't you think? So we made a little Thai, a little Indian, and it was the perfectly delicious combination.

Main Course, by Sabrina:

 

Jalfrezi Chicken

 

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 grated yellow onion
• 2 chopped garlic cloves ( or 2 teaspoons Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic)
• About 1 – 1 ½ pounds chicken breast
• 3 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter…I think butter would work as well)
• 3 teaspoons ground cumin
• 3 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• ½ cup chopped cilantro leaves

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the chicken, and season with turmeric, chili powder and salt. Fry gently, scraping the bottom of the pan frequently and turning the chicken.
2. Pour in the tomatoes with their juice, cover the pan, and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes. Uncover, and simmer for another 10 minutes to let the excess liquid evaporate.
3. Add the ghee, cumin, ground coriander, ginger and cilantro, and simmer for another 5 to 7 minutes. Serve the chicken pieces with sauce spooned over the top. (serve with Basmati or jasmine rice)

 



Delhi Saag

-2 cups spinach

-2 cups mustard greens

- 1/3 cup minced onions

-1T. resh grated ginger root

-1 t. lemon juice

-1 t. salt

-1 hot pepper

Directions: Saute onion and peppers in 1 T. olive oil, then add greens and ginger root and saute until cooked down over low heat 10-15 minutes.

 

 

 

 Here's the roadmap to our delicious plate o' Indian and Thai food. We just bought Naan bread, but it's really easy to make if you feel up to it, and millions of recipes are all over the internet. The chicken was spicy and the Saag, Naan and rice really cooled it off and complimented it very well.

 

Dessert by Kala

 

Ma-Muang Sobey (Mango Sorbet)

 

-1 pound ripe mango, peeled, pitted, chopped

-2/3 cup sugar, cooked down in one cup water until dissolved.

 

Directions:

 

 Blend the mango with the cooled syrup in a blender until mixture is smooth. Put it  in the freezer for about an hour until mixture is slushy, then remove and reblend. Return to freezer 30 minutes at least before serving.

 

 

It took me a while to find a Thai dessert that didn't consist of elaborately carved melons and strategically placed berries, because I just didn't have time for that just now. Luckily, I found an awesome Thai cookbook with this sorbet recipe in it, and it was really easy to make and went  great with the flavorful main course flavors.

 

 

Cocktail by Stephanie:

 

Hello Kitty

 

- 1.5 oz shot vodka

-1.5 oz shot Ty-Su citrus liqueur

-8 oz.  Lemonade

 

Directions: Combine ingredients in tumbler and drink.

 

 

And I just love the name of this drink, being a devout Hello Kitty enthusiast. The glowing bottle of citrus liqueur is just plain fun. It has a button on the bottom to make it glow like radioactive alien juice. It was a semi-sweet cocktail with the tart lemonade to make it a great pair for our Thai/Indian fusion night. A great drink indeed that will go in the cocktail recipe book for a night when you want something a little fun and fresh.

 

All in all it was another success, we had high hopes for this night, and it was executed with finesse. As winter promises to show up soon, dinner night gives us something to do and look forward too on humpday. 

 

Next week: Fondue! How many things can we melt and dip in them... We'll find out!

 

 

 

Rise and Shine! It's Brinner Time!

Brinner! 

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “Brinner”…it translates to Breakfast for Dinner!  Oh – and it’s delicious!  Who says breakfast food has to be in the morning?

Last week’s menu consisted of homemade blueberry pancakes, garbage potatoes, and mimosas.

Main Course: By Stephanie

Blueberry Pancakes

-2 Eggs (separated)

-1 ½ Cups Flour

-2 ¼ teaspoon baking powder

-3 Tablespoons Sugar

-¾ teaspoon salt

-3 Tablespoons Butter (melted)

-1 Cup milk

                      -1 Cup Blueberries                       

-2 teaspoons vanilla

-Directions:  In small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff then set aside. In separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, sugar & salt. Beat egg yolks in mixing bowl then add milk & melted butter. Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients. Mix until batter is smooth & then stir in blueberries. Fold in beaten egg whites. Then pour batter onto pan or griddle to cook pancakes.

Side Dish:  By Sabrina

Garbage Potatoes

-6 small potatoes cut into bite sized pieces (I used Golden Potatoes this time)

-Then….add whatever sounds goods!  I added:

-¼ green pepper diced

-¼ red pepper diced

 -1/8 yellow onion diced

-1 package of maple sausage links (pan fried ahead of time)

-Directions:  If you choose to use sausage (or bacon), fry that up first and set aside.  Then fry the potatoes in the pan used for the sausage so the grease can be reused.  Sounds healthy right?  Well, that’s why we’ll add veggies later to make you feel better about it.  The potatoes will be fried until they are  just a light crispy brown (medium/medium –high heat).  Next stir in the peppers, then the onions.  Stir often so everything cooks evenly and does not burn to the bottom of the pan.  A splash of oil may need to be added to ensure nothing sticks.   In this version of garbage potatoes I added about ½ Tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper, and salt and pepper to taste.  Once cooked, cut the sausages into bite sized pieces and stir into the mixture.

Beverage:  By Kala

Mimosas

-Champagne

-Orange Juice

-Directions: Pour champagne, pour orange juice, stir and enjoy!  We may or may not have added a whiskey cherry to the bottom of our drinks because…why not?!  We like to experiment!

“Cheers!” to another successful  Girls’ Dinner Night!  Up next:  Indian Food!

Tonight's menu: Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Popovers and Spring Green, Wasabi Almonds and Craisin Salad

There are three main elements that are of the essense when planning a Girl's Dinner Night:

#1: A good menu. Every week after our satisfying and amazing dinner, we chat about what to make the next week. In the two years we've been doing this, we've only had a few duplicates. But not because we're not super creative ladies, because we wanted quiche again or pizza. Who doesn't, right?

#2: Everyone brings a dish that fits the theme, and you take turns doing the main courses to fit whomever has the most time or ambition each week. Or a very bustling social calender, etc. etc.  You also rotate houses, for a change of scenery, or a premium cable show's availability, for example.

#3: An earnest desire to forget about the work week, and or bitch about it a bit, and drink a beer or glass of wine with your delightful friends. Your cooking improves, your social skills improve, and you have a 65% less chance of going postal at work because you're feeling much more grounded after a night of Thai food and cheesecake. Hey, it's science folks, I can't make these statistics up.

 Dinner night is fun, and we proclaim every week we're so excited for next week's creations. We've also been saying that our dinner night's are very worthy of a blog, so we've finally started one.

This week's menu consisted of Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Popovers and a Spring Green and Crasin salad that is an awesome side dish. It was perfect timing, because the day ended up chilly, and soup and bread were just what the doctor ordered.

Main Course: By Kala

 

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

-2 cups cooked chicken, diced

-2 cups wild rice, cooked ( u use a crock pot and it cooks very well within 2 hours)

-3 cups chicken stock

-1 medium onion, chopped

-2/3 cup flour

-1 cup cream of mushroom soup

-3 cups milk

-2 cups swiss cheese, shredded

-1 cup diced carrots

-1 cup diced celery

-2 bay leaves

- 1/4 cup parsley

 

-Directions: In a large  soup pot melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, celery and bay leaf, and cook until onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Add chicken, mushroom soup  and carrots and cook another 5 minutes. Add wild rice and broth, and cook 15 minutes, do not boil. In a small pan heat milk until warm and whisk in flour, after combined stir into soup and cook another 10 minutes, stirring often. reduce heat to low and stir in swiss cheese, salt, pepper and parsley before serving.

 

 

Hearty wild rice soup is the best on a chilly day. It reminds you that winter and fall aren't so bad, because hey, there's soup!

 

 

 

Meaty chunks of chicken and  wild rice and a creamy cheesy base, this is my favorite wild rice soup recipe I've ever made, and I've tried a lot of them

 

 

 

Side Dish #1:By Sabrina

 

Popovers:

 



Popovers are a delicious and easy flaky delight you can make from ingredients which are common household staples:

 

-3 Eggs

-1 Cup flour

-1 Cup milk (2% or whole work best)

-1/4 tsp salt
-1 tablespoon melted butter

-2 tablespoons chilled butter.

 

*If you do not have a popover pan, you can use a muffin tin, - they just turn out smaller and slightly more dense.(and will make 12 instead of 6)  If your popover pan is not non-stick, make sure to spray with some PAM or grease. 

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425.

Once oven is warm, place the pan (empty) in the oven for about 2 minutes to warm. 

Mix together all ingredients except for the chilled butter.

Cut the chilled butter into 6 even pieces.

Remove pan from oven and place each pad of butter in each one of the cups.  Place pan back in oven for about a minute or until butter bubbles.

Pour the batter in the popover cups (about 1/2 full for each one).

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes

After 20 minutes REDUCE HEAT TO 325.  Bake an additional 15-20 minutes. 

 

 

This is us being impatient and peeking at the popovers... Hurry up!!!

 



 

These hollow goodies can be served with a pat of butter inside which melts all around the center of the roll, or experiment and stuff them with other treats (like cheese!) Or marshmallows, or ice cream, or jelly... We came up with several hundred things that would be good inside popovers.

 

Side dish #2: By Stephanie

 

Spring Greens Salad with Craisins and Wasabi Almonds

(3 servings)

 

- 3 cups spring greens

-  1/2 cup chopped red onion

-1/2 cup blue cheese

-1/2 cup craisins

-1/2 cup wasabi almonds

- raspberry viniagrette

Directions: distrubute ingredients evenly  over three plates and add dressing to taste.

 



 

 

An awesome, flavorful accompaniment to a hearty fall meal. In the immortal words of girl's dinner night, "We win!" it was a successful and delicious dinner night.

 

Next week's menu: Brinner, it's what's for dinner! Homemade pancakes, Breakfast fries, Mimosa's, and probably something else... Stay tuned!

An Introduction

This is us with an abnormally large zucchini. There's no reason behind it, other than the fact that it is large and ridiculous, and we find that kind of thing funny. It's not a phallic symbol, you sickos.

It started out with three separate hungry ladies,rummaging through our cupboards in the middle of the week, drawing blanks for what to make for dinner. Then the three of us got together, and something magical happened. We were suddenly inspired to make all sorts of delicious things. Suddenly a ton of themes popped up, Thai food, Mexican, Quiche, snickers salad with whipped cream and apples, you name it, we make it. And it has become an (almost) every week tradition for almost two years. We hope to inspire you talented (or working on it) cooks and bakers out there to grab a bottle of wine and a recipe book, and get together with girlfriends and have as much fun as we do!