April 6, 2007: Mogul Lamb

Hey, I am making a brand new dish out of a brand new cookbook from a couple of (not brand new) friends. It's called Mogul Lamb.
First, I needed to make some garam marsala. I have a tiny food processor attachment for my beaters that I love, just perfect for grinding the spices. Unfortunately, I seem to have left one of the essential pieces at Lourdes. So, I figured as there wasn't much stuff, I'd use a mortar and pestle:

Very picturesque, eh? However, after about 45 seconds of grinding I decided that this was going to take too long, so I poured the spices into the blender:

Yeah, now that was very effective! I now need to go to 'Jason's', a fabulously expensive supermarket in the 101 building to get cardamom pods, the only spice I was missing.
I have chopped and blended the garlic, onion, ginger, almonds and water for the lamb. The lamb has been cubed and is now thinking happy thoughts while marinating in this mixture. Mmmm, I think it will be nice.
This dish is what I am bringing to Andy's for dinner tonight. I offered to bring this as (a) it is within my 'diet' and thus I can eat it with great abandon and (b) it gives me a chance to use the cookbook Simon and Constance gave me for my birthday.
Talking of diet: My 34" pants are wearable and comfortable, I even need a belt to stop them from sliding down and irritating the heck out of me. 5 lbs down, 25 lbs to go -- happy Amanda!
[Later] While I was on the MRT on my way to 101, Andy called and said he had cardamom, I didn't need to buy any. Huh? How did you--oh, you read my blog! That was funny. I went anyway as I haven't been for ages. I got a few great spices but...no cardamom. Hmph. So I went to the 'good' "Wellcome (sic) Supermarket" which has a pretty good selection of foreign goods. SOL, no cardamom. Oh, well, home I went, figuring I could add the cardomom when I got to Andy's tonight.
Here are a few more 'in progress' photos. First I had to make some 'ghee'. This is made by melting unsalted butter then letting it simmer for 30 minutes while the water evaporates. You skim the bubbly scum off the top, let it cool a bit so the milk solids sink to the bottom then pour off the clear fat or 'ghee.' It seems though, that even at my absolute lowest flame my burner was still too hot so the milk solids started to burn after about 15 minutes. It didn't taste burned but had a deeper colour than usual. At the same time I dry roasted some corriander seeds and then ground them up. When dry roasted they are really easy to grind up in the mortar and pestle.



Next I put some ghee in the pan and added the cinamon stick and cloves. There should also have been some cardamom pods here but I had to use 'pretend' cardamom.

It smelled really good! I added the sliced onions and fried them until they were beginning to brown. This lot got transferred to a bowl. I then added the marinated lamb:

This got fried for about 5 minutes, turning a few times. I added some hot water then let it cook covered for half an hour. I then poured in cream, the fried onions and some more spices and let it cook gently for another 30 minutes. It was served with toasted almonds and was gooood.

Feb. 14, 2007: Poor Knights

I worked this morning, went to Lourdes this afternoon and then taped again from 4~7. At Lourdes we made something I had never made before: 'Poor Knights.' This is, apparently, a recipe that dates back about 500 years. The Knights of the Realm (which realm? I don'™t know.) were not very well paid. They couldn't afford to eat meat much, instead they often had something similar to French Toast. I say '˜similar'™ because mixed in with the eggs, milk and cinnamon was some white wine. A more fancy version was a sandwich filled with assorted goodies which was then dipped in the egg-milk-wine mixture and fried. After doing a bit of research on the net, I came up with this:

4 eggs
350 mL milk
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ loaves bread, crusts trimmed
Assorted fillings: cream cheese, raisins, jam, brown sugar, sliced bananas, peanut butter, Nutella:  whatever appeals to you!

It's best to use bread that is a couple of days old (but not stale! Yech!) If you have fresh bread as I did today, dry it out for a few minutes in a warm oven.
Make a sandwich using the fillings of your choice. This afternoon we made two kinds: cream cheese/raisins/brown sugar and cream cheese/jam. Whisk with a fork the eggs, milk and cinnamon. Dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture then fry in a pan with some melted butter until golden, turn over and fry the other side (just like French Toast.)
Cut into quarters and share with your friends. Yum! Here's a photo that Sister Teresa took of us. The guys were all standing around me, smiling broadly and posing. Sis T tried to shoo them away without success. They wouldn't un-pose. Then she said they couldn't stand next to me for this photo as it was going to be published in the annual report. That's ok, they all said. No, she insisted, we can't have photos with your faces in. That's ok, they repeated. Let me tell you, Sis T is not a woman to be thwarted. So I suggested they turn around and do manly Chippendale-esque poses (but with clothes on~please!) This photo was the compromise we reached, a little fuzzy but charming! One guy was recognisable by his profile so I very inexpertly fuzzed it out. If you think the tall guy on the right looks weird it's my fault!

LW is becoming more feisty: yesterday evening and this evening he came downstairs when I arrived home and demanded his dinner in No Uncertain Terms. Yea, LW!
Tomorrow I am working in the morning only. I'll come home for the afternoon, then back to the city for dinner with friends. This dinner will mark the beginning of the Lunar (Chinese) New Year celebration: I will be off for nine glorious days. Hooray!

Feb. 10, 2007: Pinenut Cookies

These cookies were a hit! Here are the ingredients ready to go:

Mixing...

Dipped and ready to bake...

Finished. They were delicious!

The first ones we made were too big so we were only able to make about 23. When scooping the batter into the pinenuts you should use a heaping teaspoon/cookie. Also, we ran out of pinenuts for coating the cookies, so you should use 2 1/2 cups of pinenuts. The modified reipe is:

PINE NUT COOKIES
Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, these cookies are like almond macaroons with a pine nut bonus.
2 1/2 cups pine nuts (about 7 ounces)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) almond paste,* crumbled
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large egg whites
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for dusting)


Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 2 large baking sheets. Using on/off turns, blend 3/4 cup pine nuts and next 4 ingredients in processor until crumbly mixture forms. Transfer mixture to large bowl; add egg whites. Using electric mixer, beat until mixture is smooth. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in small bowl to blend. Add to pine nut mixture; beat until smooth (dough will be soft and sticky).
Place remaining 3/4 cup pine nuts in shallow bowl. Spoon generous teaspoonful of dough into pine nuts in shallow bowl, coating 1 side of dough with pine nuts. Using floured fingertips, transfer dough to prepared baking sheet, pine nut side up. Smooth edges of dough to form even round. Repeat with remaining dough, flouring fingertips as needed to prevent sticking and spacing cookies 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake cookies 1 baking sheet at a time until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, transfer to plate, and serve. (Cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.)

*Almond paste is available at specialty foods stores and in the baking-products section of most supermarkets. Or, if you live in Taiwan you have to make it yourself! Recipe below.

Makes about 28.
Bon Appétit
December 2003
Almond Paste (I got this recipe from Ellen's kitchen.)
Makes approximately 1 pound

2 cups whole almonds, preferably Mission

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

a few drops of almond extract

Cover the almonds with boiling water and let them stand for at least a minute. Slip off the skins with your fingers. If they are very stubborn, cover them again with boiling water or let them soak and remove them just a few at a time to work on.
Combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a pan and cook, without stirring, until the temperature is 235 degrees F. Then stir in the almond extract.
While the syrup is heating, preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Put the peeled almonds on a cookie sheet and leave them just long enough to dry out and warm up, about 8 to 10 minutes. Then, while they're still warm, grind them in a food processor until the texture is fine and smooth. If necessary, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water to loosen the mixture and make it easier to process.
With the food processor going, gradually pour in the syrup in a slow, steady stream. Process until the paste is uniform. Remove it from the work bowl, wrap it well in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it until needed. To make it soft and easy to work with, put it in a warm place, such as on top of the stove while the oven is on, or heat it in a double boiler or a steamer set over simmering water.

1. I only needed 1/4 cup of almond paste, so I made 1/4 of this recipe.
2. 235 F is 'soft ball' stage.
3. I didn't pre warm the almonds. Mine were already skinned and semi-ground.
4. My 'food processor' is a small attachment for my beaters (in the top photo.) It is impossible to add the syrup as the machine is running, so I poured in some, ran the machine, poured in some more, ran the machine and so on until the syrup was all added.
5. When we wanted to use the paste the next day it was like a little block of cement! I took it out of the plastic bag and into a small bowl. I then microwaved it on the lowest setting for 20 seconds--still hardish. After another 20 seconds it was soft and crumbly.
6. Making the almond paste took about 10 minutes, start to finish and it is delicious.

February 3, 2007

Here's the recipe for the peanut butter cookies I made on Thursday, courtesy of CP. I changed her recipe slightly (less sugar) as Taiwanese don't like things as sweet as North Americans do. (If you like your cookies sweeter, add 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar.)
1/2 C butter, softened
3/4 C br. sugar
1 egg
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C).

1. Combine butter and sugar.
2. Add egg and peanut butter
3. In separate bowl, combine flour, salt & soda. Then add to batter.
4. Add vanilla.
Roll the dough into small balls. Using a fork dipped in flour, make a criss-cross pattern on each cookie. (Photos in entry from February 1, 2007.) Bake about 8 minutes. Enjoy with coffee and good friends. (Or milk, your kids and all their friends!)