Indian Instant Pot

Indian Instant Pot 

I am late to the Instant Pot party,  I had zero interest in another kitchen gadget.  I made Jasmine rice in a pot and didn't really like how it came out.  The bag said for best results use a rice cooker.  I started researching rice cookers and discovered the Instant Pot is a rice cooker and six other things.  I had Kohl's cash and gift cards to burn and realized I could get the 3 quart model for almost free!  After researching the Instant Pot, I found that Indian food is very popular.  I hate Indian food, but I am so sick to death of everything else.  Suddenly I am obsessed with Indian food.  Why do I hate it? I have never even eaten it, and certainly have never made it.  I think I love Indian food!

My new Instant Pot

One almost free Instant Pot, 7 cookbooks, and $30 in Indian spices later, I was ready to make some Indian food.  First I made my own garam masala because the cookbook said to make your own.  I ordered coriander seeds on Amazon because it was cheaper than the grocery store.  I started to think I was going to like this because I love cilantro so much,  and coriander IS cilantro.  I used coriander seeds, cumin, cloves, cardamom seeds, bay leaves, cayenne, and cinnamon... in RJ's coffee grinder.  Wow, so strong and so fragrant! It smelled like citrus, nuts, and sunshine. And RJ probably should never use his grinder for coffee again...oops.

Garam Masala

Jasmine Rice in the Instant Pot

My first test of the Instant Pot was to make the Jasmine rice. It took about 10 minutes for the pot to come up to pressure, 4 minutes to cook and 10 minutes for the pressure to come back down. I had a beautiful pot of rice and it was so easy.

It seems Murgh Makhani, also known as Butter Chicken is the most popular Indian recipe. The Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre had a great recipe for it. The recipe required a can of tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, cayenne, the garam masala I made earlier, salt, boneless chicken, butter, heavy whipping cream, and cilantro.  I skipped the ginger because it tastes like soap to me. First cook the chicken in the pot with the sauce, use an immersion blender to blend the sauce, and finally add the butter, cream and cilantro at the end.  I had no idea Indian food used so much cilantro.  What have I been missing?

The sauce before the immersion blender

After the immersion blender

My Instant Pot is magical.  It was so easy to use, and the chicken was absolutely phenomenal.  It was so delicious that the second pickiest kid on the planet not only ate it and liked it, but asked for leftovers the next day. The spices were bright and aromatic, and just so different than anything I have ever tried before. The recipe makes a lot of sauce, and it says to save half for something else.  The extra sauce lasts three days in the fridge or can go in the freezer. The recipe was super easy to follow. Since I am new to Indian food and had no clue what I was doing, or what it should look or taste like, I think I did all right.  RJ and I both loved it, and it was even better the next day.

Butter Chicken

I already know I need the bigger Instant Pot! I found a Nutella Bread Pudding recipe...

Chocolate Mousse from the Great British Baking Show

The Great British Bake Off

I am obsessed with the Great British Baking Show.  So obsessed, I purchased 3 cookbooks from the show on Amazon.  I did get them used and with dirt cheap shipping from the UK. I sent my daughter a text of the Royal Mail label and said Look, I got Royal Mail.  She said everyone gets Royal Mail in the UK.  Oh.  But now I need to figure out how to bake in grams instead of cups.

The first recipe that caught my eye was Chocolate Mousse.  It seemed easy enough and what's not to love, it's Chocolate Mousse. I needed 200g of chocolate, so I purchased 2 bars of Ghiradelli dark chocolate.  I googled that and came up with 7.05 oz.  The bars were 8 oz, close enough.  I also needed 4 separated eggs at room temperature, and caster sugar.  Apparently that is a superfine sugar readily available in the UK but not in the US.  I read I could make my own in the food processor.  I also purchased heavy cream to make whipped cream.

Melted chocolate in the microwave

You are supposed to heat the chocolate over a boiling pot of water.  I heated it in the microwave.  That seemed to work, it was smooth and shiny.  I just needed to make sure I didn't heat it for too long.  Chocolate too long in the microwave smells like burnt leaves and bark.  I then added the egg yolks one at a time. They were not room temperature.  I became a little concerned that I was in the process of screwing up all that chocolate.  The texture changed from smooth and silky to chunky.

After adding the eggs and started to get scared

In the mean time I was also whipping the egg whites, and I was supposed to add the caster sugar that I was going to pulverize in the food processor.  Instead I thought what will happen if I just put regular sugar in, and that's what I did.

Fluffy egg whites

The next step is to mix the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture with a metal spoon.  Something happened.  Something magical happened to the chocolate chunky mess I was concerned about.  I believe I heard angels singing as the mixture came together into a chocolatey smooth velvety delicious fluffy mousse. While this was happening, I was also making Alton Brown's recipe for homemade whipped cream, which is heavy cream and sugar.  That beat in the mixer for about 10 minutes. I just threw it in there and it morphed into fresh whipped cream.

I don't know how it became this 

Fresh whipped cream

The recipe just says to spoon into wine glasses or coffee cups, not how much. I have giant wine glasses so I only needed 2.  I filled them up and topped  them with the fresh whipped cream I just made.  Wow, this was one of my favorite recipes so far.  It was super easy, and the results were amazing, especially considering I only halfway followed the directions.  I couldn't believe I actually made that  mousse.  It was so light and creamy. RJ loved it and said it was as good as the mousse he had at restaurant named Lochobers in Boston. Then he asked if there was any left and I said um, no.  He said we didn't have to eat it all, and I said yes we did, it was in the wine glass.  Later I thought I wonder how many calories that was using two bars of chocolate.  But when I went to look for the labels, I had already thrown them in the trash.  Oops.

The most insane chocolate mousse ever

The Pioneer Woman's Enchiladas

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

I have been reading the Pioneer Woman's blog since she first started blogging back in 2006.  I have made many of her recipes, and every single one has turned out fantastic.  She does not have a bad recipe. Of course I had to buy all of her cookbooks, even though some of those recipes are on her blog and now on her show.  I picked the enchilada recipe out of her cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

The sauce

The recipe has three parts, the sauce, the meat, and the other stuff.  I needed to purchase a 28 oz can of enchilada sauce, chicken broth, and cilantro for the sauce.  For the meat I needed ground beef, an onion, two 4 oz cans of green chiles, corn tortillas and green onions for the rest.  I made the mistake of going to Giant on a Sunday evening.  They are ALWAYS out of cilantro on Sundays.  And why does the cashier even ask if you found everything you needed?  My answer several times has been "NO", and the response is either "Oh", or "Ok". That is the opposite of helpful.

The meat

I almost didn't make the recipe because I really needed the cilantro, but I found freeze dried cilantro.  It was the last jar, and I paid $4.99 which was a huge mistake.  The sauce was easy to put together.  Whisk together 1 tablespoon of oil with 2 tablespoons of flour,  after it bubbles for 1 minute add the enchilada sauce, chicken broth, salt and pepper.  After it boils, let it simmer. 

Meat ready to go

While the sauce simmered, I chopped an onion and cooked it with the ground beef.  I drained the fat,  and added salt and pepper.  Everything went smoothly so far, but here is where I started to have trouble. The recipe said to lightly fry the corn tortillas in oil until soft, and not to crisp them. Well, they are already soft so I don't know what that means. I attempted to fry them "until soft" but I don't think I fried them quite long enough.  After completing that task, you are to dip the tortillas in the enchilada sauce.  At this point, I had an oily, saucy mess but I kept going.  Maybe my tortillas weren't big enough, the recipe doesn't specify what size to use.  But I had great difficulty rolling up the tortillas with the filling inside.  They started to fall apart, and I was afraid they were too mushy.  After rolling them up and placing them seam side down, I poured the rest of the sauce on top.  However, after covering them with 3 cups of sharp cheddar cheese, you couldn't even tell I had any trouble.  First note to self' - cheese fixes everything.  That's too much cheese...said no one ever.

Very sad enchiladas

After baking the enchiladas for 20 minutes, I was supposed to sprinkle the fresh cilantro on top. I love cilantro so much.  I have mentioned before it's like catnip to me, and I would bathe in it if I could.  According to the freeze dried cilantro, it's supposed to "refresh" upon using. LIES!! It was as if I sprinkled grass clippings on my enchiladas I worked so hard to make.  I did not want to bathe in that cilantro, I wanted to take it out to the compost pile. I basically ruined my enchiladas with that $4.99 purchase of freeze dried cilantro.  Second note to self - use fresh cilantro or make something else.  My first instinct not to make this recipe when Giant was out of cilantro was correct. Trust your instincts.

Covered in sauce

Cheese fixes everything

RJ is not as big of fan as cilantro as I am.  He wouldn't even notice if it was there, but he said the enchiladas were really good.  They had a little bit of a kick from the chiles, but weren't too hot or spicy.  And he couldn't tell all the trouble I had assembling them thanks to the glorious gobs of melted cheese.  If I make them again, I will only use fresh cilantro just for me because...cilantro!!

If only my enchiladas weren't covered in grass clippings

Stanley Tucci's The Tucci Table

The Tucci Table

My daughter Stephanie bought this cookbook on a trip to Colorado.  She gave it to me the following Christmas because it's signed, and she knows I'm a Stanley Tucci fan.  I decided to make the Gnocchi with Sage Butter.  RJ didn't seem crazy about using sage, but he does love gnocchi.  I shopped for the ingredients and I only needed 1.5 lbs of potatoes, parmesan cheese, butter, flour, sage leaves, and eggs.

Mistake #1. I'm not sure why I thought we needed the 20 lb bag of potatoes from Costco.  The potatoes were huge, like the size of small cats.  As I have mentioned, I am famous for using too much of something in recipes.  For some reason I thought 6 cat sized potatoes would be 1.5 lbs.  Um, no, it was more like 6 lbs., and I realized that after I had boiled them.  It was supposed to take 20 minutes to cook the potatoes, but because they were so huge it took 40 even though I had cut them into quarters.  What was I going to do with all the extra potatoes? I decided I would just double the gnocchi recipe.  That was Mistake #2.

Mashed potatoes

The recipe has you boil the potatoes with the skin on, then "gently" peel the skin off afterward.  There was no "gently", it was a battle.  I wished I had just peeled them first, Mistake #3. Next, use a potato ricer to mash the potatoes, which I don't have.  I used a potato masher, and piled my enormous pile of mashed not riced potatoes on the counter.

Adding the ingredients

Finally the dough!

Gnocchi

I made a well in the center and added my eggs.  Since I was doubling, it should have been 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks.  But I screwed up one of the eggs I was separating, and ended up with 3 eggs and 1 yolk.  Mistake #4, and at this point I was afraid I would be there all night.  I also added the olive oil, salt, flour and parmesan, and attempted to mix in with a fork to make a dough. This did not happen.  It was more like a giant sticky mess. Mistake # 5.  The recipe says to keep adding flour, so I added flour for what seemed like 3 days. I did eventually end up with some kind of dough.

To make the gnocchi, I rolled out the dough into a long sausage shape and cut every 1/4 inch.  This wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't have to make a million of them.  The gnocchi was easy to cook.  Drop them in boiling water.  They sink first, and then float when they are done.  Again, this would not have been so bad if I didn't have to cook 1 million gnocchi.

The finished gnocchi

Yum!!

The sage butter was also super easy.  Melt butter, add sage leaves, toss in gnocchi.  Add parmesan, salt and pepper.  5+ mistakes later, RJ said they were really good, and he even seemed to like the sage butter.  It wasn't as strong tasting as I thought it would be.  Somehow the gnocchi ended up being fluffy pillows of potato goodness.  I really don't know how that happened.  Of course we had a ridiculous amount of leftovers, and the next day I made homemade tomato sauce.  Next time I will use 2 cat sized potatoes, instead of 6.

Leftover the next day with homemade tomato sauce

Nancy Fuller's Boneless Chicken Breast with Boursin on the Rachael Ray Show

Homemade Boursin Cheese

Nancy Fuller was on Rachael Ray a few episodes ago, and made Boneless Chicken Breast with Boursin Cheese from her cookbook Farmhouse Rules: Simple, Seasonal Meals for the Whole Family.  I do not have this book, I am pretty sure I don't need any more cookbooks.  But this recipe caught my eye because RJ loves Boursin cheese.  I told him I was going to make it, and he reminded me that I had his mom's recipe for it.  I decided to make the Boursin, and then make the Boursin chicken.

Giant Chicken Breasts

I actually used part of RJ's mom's recipe, and one from the internet.  I liked the combination of dried and fresh herbs.  And no wonder Boursin is so good, it's cream cheese mixed with an entire stick of butter.  What?? That is crazy!  I used 1 stick of butter, 16 oz. of cream cheese, fresh dill, thyme, marjoram, basil, black pepper, and chives.  I skipped the parsley because I hate it.  After whipping it, it chilled in the refrigerator for 24 hours.  RJ said A. It wasn't creamy enough.  I said it was creamy when I made it yesterday.  B. He didn't like the dill, it was too strong.  Well, I like it and I'm using it anyway!

Leeks

For the chicken, I purchased leeks, baby spinach, chicken broth, and tarragon.  Again I skipped the parsley. I had to google how to clean a leek as I have never used them before.  Only use the light green and white parts, and separate the layers to wash out the grit.  My mistake was the chicken breasts were huge.  I am famous for using too big or too much of something in a recipe.  I recently made banana bread that required 3 bananas, but I used 7.  Guess what, that didn't work.  It was more of a banana blob then banana bread, but it was good warm with vanilla ice cream on top.

Spinach

First I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper, and browned it in olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes. I moved it to a plate, and added more olive oil and the leeks and cooked them for 4 minutes. Next I added white wine for 2 more minutes, added the chicken back in the pan with the broth, and cooked it for 8 more minutes.  But thanks to my giant chicken breasts, they weren't done yet.  I had to use a thermometer, and it took another 8 minutes.  At this point the leeks were too browned.

I think the chicken looks better before the sauce

In another pan I melted the butter and added garlic and cooked the spinach until wilted.  This only took about 4 minutes, but the chicken still wasn't cooked through. Finally, the temperature reached 160.  I plated the spinach and the chicken, and added the Boursin to the liquid and whisked it. I forgot the tarragon so threw it on at the end.  Tarragon is something else I have never used.  It tastes like a leafy version of anise which I love.

Boursin and Leek Sauce

My chicken looked nothing like Nancy's, but it was very juicy.  RJ said it was rich.  He seemed to like it, but not love it.  If he loves it, he tells me and he didn't tell me. The plate definitely looked better before I put the sauce on it. The over browned leeks made the sauce extra brown.  It was still good though, and I really liked the leeks.  If I made it again, I would use smaller chicken breasts.

The finished dish before I remembered I forgot the tarragon 

Finished and nothing like Nancy's!

Rachael Ray the Book of Burger

The Book of Burger by Rachael Ray

I made Caribbean Burgers with Mango Salsa from Rachael Ray's Book of Burger.  Ground chicken, pork, or turkey can be used for the burger, and I went with the chicken.  The recipe uses allspice, dried or ground thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, brown sugar, basil or cilantro, and kosher salt and pepper.  I skipped the allspice because I was afraid of it, and the recipe was sounding more like pumpkin pie than a burger.  I also used sriracha seasoning instead of cayenne, because I have a thing for sriracha.  RJ gave me personal sized sriracha bottles that I can take with me anywhere.  I always get comments on them.  But this seasoning is a spice and not a sauce that I purchased on Amazon. I also chose cilantro over basil because cilantro is like catnip to me. I love it so much I would bathe in it. I wish someone would make cilantro soap...cilantro shower gel..and cilantro body lotion....

The burger mix

If you have ever watched Rachael Ray she always talks about scoring the burger meat into four equal parts when forming the burgers. Otherwise you will have one giant burger, two medium, and then a tiny burger.  She mentions this in the book as well.  This seems so logical.  Clearly I am not logical because  I always have the misshapen burgers!  I followed her directions and this was the first time I ever made four equal size burgers in my entire life.

The mango salsa

The salsa was made with mango, red bell pepper, jalapeno chile, seedless cucumber, and lime.  I am terrible at cutting up mango.  And I think the pit smells like a pine tree.  I realize now, I am also terrible at picking ripe ones, because this was the first time I ever purchased a ripe mango.  They are much easier to cut when they are ripe, and the pit does not have that weird smell.  I actually managed to peel it and slice it around the pit and it was not pretty but it was good enough for salsa.  I seeded and chopped the jalapeno and it did not seem hot at all without the seeds.

The burgers on the grill

Everything came together quickly, and it was a fun recipe to make. I assembled the burgers on fresh Kaiser rolls from Giant with butter lettuce and Cooper Sharp cheese, with the mango salsa on top.  Yum!! These were the best burgers I have ever made, absolutely fantastic. The sriracha mixed with the sugar and the cinnamon and the cilantro gave it the perfect mix of sweet and a kick. The burger was so juicy! There will definitely be some repeats from this book, and I will no longer second guess Rachel's ingredients because she knows what she is doing.

The finished Caribbean Burger with Mango Salsa!

The Great British Baking Show

Cookbook #487

I was going to call this blog 484 Cookbooks, but then I bought a few more cookbooks and changed the name to 489 Cookbooks.  I have this thing where I like a thing, so I need all the things.  If Gap makes my favorite shirt in 7 colors, I need 7 colors.  If Ina Garten has 10 cookbooks, then I need all 10.

The Great British Baking Show is truly great.  My daughter Stephanie told me about it and I thought how exciting can that be to watch people baking?  I started watching it on Netflix, and I was hooked immediately. It is the happiest baking show on the planet! I watched all 4 seasons and was sad when it was over.  I found these on Amazon used for $3, with $3.99 shipping from the UK. How could I not buy them?  And they came Royal Mail!

Here are 487, 488, 489 which I will be using soon... because I want to make good bakes.

Cookbook #488

Cookbook #489

Ghirardelli Caramel Chip Pecan Cookies

Ghirardelli Caramel Chips

This recipe is not from one of my cookbooks, it is from the back of a package.  I was at Giant, and saw new Ghirardelli caramel chips and had to have them.  I purchased them along with a large bag of pecans and baked them that night.  Wow, those cookies were good!  The caramel chips were very large and tasted like buttery brown sugar, and the cookies turned out soft and chewy and delicious.  I make my own vanilla and that added to the flavor as well.  I'm pretty sure it's the best vanilla on the planet.  In fact, these may have been the best cookies on the planet.