Cheddar Bay Biscuits

I'm so sorry it's been over a week since I posted anything, although since there are no comments on any of the posts so far, I'm doubting anyone missed me at all. :) We were up north in the mountains on a little vacation last week.

Since we've been here, I've tried several different recipes for those yummy Red Lobster biscuits, but they just never get even close. Tonight, I found on that I thought would come close, and tweaked it until I thought it might be just right. They were awesome! Here's what I did.

Cheddar Bay Biscuits

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 T. baking powder

1/4-1/2 t. salt

1 (100g) pack of Amul butter, cut into small squares

1 c. milk

3 garlic cloves, crushed or pressed

1 c. finely shredded cheddar cheese

Topping:

1/4 c. melted butter

1/2 t. parsley

dash of garlic powder, if you have it

1/4 t. salt

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add garlic and stir to combine. Add butter and blend in with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add milk and cheddar and stir with a fork until combined. Let rest a few minutes.

Meanwhile, melt butter in small bowl. Add parsley, garlic powder and salt. Stir to combine.

Scoop biscuits onto an ungreased baking pan in 1/4 c. portions. Brush parsley butter generously over the top of each biscuit, till it runs down the sides and gathers around the edges. Bake at 225 for 15-20 minutes or until golden on top. Finish with a last brushing of the parsley butter. Makes about 10 biscuits.

Tunisian Carrot Salad

Tunisian Carrot Salad

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick round

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or red chili powder

1/2 cup water

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar (or just plain vinegar if that's all you have, plus a little sugar)

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Cook carrots in medium saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 8 minutes.
Drain well.

Stir oil, cumin and cayenne in heavy large skillet over medium heat until aromatic, about 30 seconds.
Add carrots, then 1/2 cup water and vinegar.

Simmer over medium heat until liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from heat.
Cool.
Mix in cilantro.
(Can be made 1 day ahead.
Cover and chill.
Bring to room temperature before serving.)

4 Servings

Rhonda's Chicken Stuffing Casserole

Thanks to RhondaS for submitting my first guest recipe! Sounds yummy! I'm working on a recipe for homemade sour cream. Hopefully I'll post it by next week.

Rhonda’s Chicken Stuffing Casserole

4 pieces of preferably stale bread

1 c. butter

Rubbed sage to taste (brought from the states)

2-3 chicken breasts, chopped

1 small onion, diced

1-2 bunches broccoli, optional

1 can (or equivalent) cream of chicken or mushroom soup

1-2 small size Dahi packs, or 1 c. homemade sour cream

Toast the bread until really done and crunchy. Crush it up into chunky bread crumbs. Toss the bread crumbs with 1/2 c. butter and rubbed sage until smells right, tastes good. Salt and pepper to taste.

Melt 1/2 c. butter in a casserole dish. Add the chopped chicken and diced onion and coat with the butter. Bake for 10 minutes at 175 C.

While it’s baking, steam or boil broccoli until crisp tender.

In a bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup and the dahi. If you use two full containers of dahi, it will have a little more gravy. If you’d like less gravy, use 1-1 1/2 containers dahi.

Remove the chicken from the oven and add the broccoli and soup mixture. Stir together. Spread the bread crumbs over the top.

Return to the oven for another 25-30 minutes. Enjoy over rice!

Barbecue Chicken Hash

This is one of hubby's favorite dinners. It does require barbecue sauce, but I've been able to find Kraft Barbecue Sauce in some unexpected places in India. If you can't get it where you are, let me know and I'll post a recipe for homemade barbecue sauce. Serve this with a salad or green veggie and you've got a complete meal! A lot of my recipes take me around an hour to make. I'll try to post recipes that are shorter occasionally. This one takes about 40 minutes, and would take even less time if you have your helper peel and cut your vegetables before she goes, and cook the chicken in the afternoon. To keep potatoes from turning brown if you're not going to use them immediately, put them in a pot of water and cover it up.

Barbecue Chicken Hash

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 t. minced garlic

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped carrot

3-4 chopped roasted skinless boneless chicken breast/1 whole roast chicken, picked from bone*

3 1/2 cups potatoes, peeled and cut in small cubes like country style hash browns (not the shredded has browns)

1 cup water, more if needed

1/2 c. barbecue sauce

1 t. ground cumin

1 t. American chili powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 jalapeno, seeded and minced, optional

*(Brown 4 chicken breasts or one whole chicken in a bit of oil in pressure cooker. Add 1/2 cup water and 3-4 T. barbecue sauce if desired. Close cooker and cook 10-12 minutes.)

Prehead oven to 357 degrees.

Heat oil in a large cast iron or heavy skillet over high heat. Add onion, garlic, bell pepper and carrot; saute 1 1/2 minutes. Add chicken and next 6 ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer two minutes. Transfer to an oven safe dish and bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and jalapeno; bake an additional five minutes or until cheese melts. (Or, add more water and cook on stove longer, until potatoes are soft but not mushy, and skip the baking step).

(6 one cup servings, usually feeds our family of four with minimal leftovers)

Notes for cooking this in America: I add celery to the vegetable medley in the states, use a rotisserie chicken if available, and use a bag of frozen hash browns. Makes it a little easier!

Recipe from Cooking Light

Kushiri-A traditional Egyptian Street Food

I went to Cairo on vacation when I was single. I spent a whole day wandering around the Khan-Al-Khalili, an ancient market in the middle of town. It was totally enchanting, and I ended up eating lunch at a little stall in the market. They specialized in one dish: kushiri (pr. koo-shi-ree). When I got home, I searched the internet for several years, trying so many different recipes, until I figured out how to get it to taste like it did on the streets of Cairo. This dish has become a staple dinner in our house, and I was even pureeing it for our kids by the time they were 11-12 months old. Now it's one of their favorite dinners. It uses a lot of pots, but it's well worth it. :)

Kushiri

1 c. uncooked brown or white rice

1 c. brown lentils

1 lb. pasta (spaghetti, angel hair, macaroni or combination, whatever you've got!)

1 ½ T. olive oil, divided

2-3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

2 boxes tomato puree

½ c. water

¼ c. white vinegar

2 medium onions

Cook rice according to directions. Cook the pasta according to the directions. Rinse lentils and put them in a pot, covering them with water and bring to a boil. Then simmer on a low heat until almost all water is absorbed and lentils are well cooked (or cook in pressure cooker). Add extra water if longer time is needed. To make the sauce, first sauté the garlic in ½ of the oil until golden. Add all of the tomato sauce and simmer 10-15 minutes. Add water and vinegar and bring to a boil. Remove from heat immediately and add salt to taste. Finally, slice onion in thin, small pieces and sauté in the remaining half of the oil until brown and crispy.

To assemble, in individual serving bowls, arrange a layer of lentils on the bottom, followed by a layer of rice, then pasta, then sauce. Repeat the layers, and top with more sauce and onions before serving.

I'm pretty liberal with my oil in this recipe, I don't measure when I'm sauteeing the onions. :) I also have found that occasionally throwing a little salt on them while they're cooking makes them nice and crispy. I have started cooking the pasta first, then dumping it into another bowl to keep warm and cooking the rice in the same pot, just to reduce the number of dishes. Usually these two things take about the same amount of time as the lentils alone. In the meantime, I'm making the sauce and sauteeing the onions. Also, I realize it's a double carb with the rice and pasta and only one protein with the lentils, so you can go easy on the rice and pasta and double up on the lentils if that's better for you.

I hope you all end up loving this comfort food as much as our family does!

Make-Your-Own Campbell's Soup

So many casserole recipes call for Cambpell's soup. There are two ways to get around this. Almost anywhere in India you can find Maggi or Knorr soup packets in varying flavors: cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, etc. The powdered soup mixes say to reconstitute them with four cups of water. If you want to use these as substitutes for one can of Campbell's soup, you can add one pack to your recipe with two cups of water. But the flavor of these soups is very distinct and a little "Indian."

Another solution is to keep a creamy soup mix on hand. I mix this up and keep it in an airtight jar with my flours in the pantry. Here's the recipe:

Creamy Soup Mix

2 c. powdered milk (I use Every Day brand)

3/4 c. cornstarch (called corn flour here)

1/2 t. pepper

2 T. onion flakes (I use about 1 T. of onion powder brought from the states)

1 t. basil

1 t. thyme

Mix all together in an airtight container. Equivalent of 9 cans of soup.

To use: Combine 1/3 c. of mix with 1 1/4 c. cold water. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring until thickened. Or just add soup mix and water to the recipe you're making as it cooks. You don't always have to mix this up separately and then add it to your recipe, depending on what you're making.

To make cream of chicken soup: Add one cube of chicken buillion. (Most stores carry small packets of Maggi "Chicken Magic." That's what I use.)

To make cream of mushroom soup: Chop 1-2 mushrooms, fry in about 1 t. butter, then add soup powder and water and cook.

You can get creative and make just about any kind of creamy soup you might want!

Enjoy!

A Place to Share Recipes!

I've been living in India for two and a half years now, and in that time, I've had to learn how to cook. I thought I knew how to cook from scratch in the US, but I was so so wrong! :) In the states we used to eat meat almost every night for dinner, but here we've begun to eat more vegetarian meals. I've had to figure out how to make things without certain ingredients that are easy to find at Walmart, but impossible to find here. I know there's lots of other women and moms in my boat, living abroad, trying to figure out how to cook food that is healthy and you are happy to serve your family, without stressing yourself out.

I'm hoping this will become an information-sharing place. I'd LOVE for you to send me your recipes of things you've found that work here using locally available ingredients. I will try to always post recipes that only call for things that are easy to find, but occasionally may post things with ingredients from the states that I try to keep on hand through friends and family sending them or bringing them. My goal is to start with a few standby recipes, and then post one recipe a week and have things categorized to make it easy for you to find what you're looking for. Hopefully in a few months we'll have a good selection of things for you to choose from.

Any comments and suggestions are welcome! Let me know if you've got some ideas of recipes you want to see on here or things you're looking for! Also, if you are new to South Asia and don't know what a certain ingredient is called in Hindi or things I may take for granted at this point, like how to use a pressure cooker to cook beans, then just leave a comment or email me directly with your questions. There is no such thing as a stupid question when it comes to cooking. :)

blessings!