Category Archives: Recipes

I just made Christmas cookies using this recipe from allrecipes.com. They turned out OK, they taste great, but they are very delicate. So far all but two (a star and a Xmas tree) have broken. It may be because I made them too thin, or because I’ve taken them off the cookie sheets while still warm (I’m letting the last two batches cool before I take them out), but this did not happen with the rolled sugar cookies I made for Halloween – I just wish I knew what recipe I used (thus the point of this post, this was not the recipe I used last time).
I halved the recipe, btw, and it made about two dozen HUGE cookies.
I will probably make another batch of Xmas cookies in the next couple of weeks, hopefully they’ll work better.

Last night I cooked one of the recipes I’d learned at my Southeast Asian cooking class the day before: beef kurmah. I thought the dish had been good, though not great, but I also wanted to give it a try – and I thought the kids might actually enjoy the mild flavors. Indeed they did, Mika even pronounced it very good, (and if Mika likes something, Camila will be willing to eat it as well), which made me quite happy.
This kurmah is interesting as the spicing is similar to those of Indian dishes, but the base is very southeast asian – and it’s based on coconut milk rather than ghee or yogurt. It’s fairly easy to make and requires no unusual ingredients, save for the star anise, which you can find in many an Asian store. Or you could skip it and add some anise or fennel seeds instead. Our teacher used a small pyramid shaped red chili, but she said she had quite a difficulty finding it. I substituted with a jalapeño. If you want it spicy use a few more.
My one problem with this curry was that by the time the beef was done, after 30 minutes, it was still very liquid. I solved this by boiling off the liquid, stirring occasionally, on high heat.
Beef Kurmah

• 8 small shallots or 4-5 big ones, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 Tbsp ginger, sliced
• 1 stalk lemongrass, sliced
• 1 red chili, sliced.
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 lb flank steak, cut into 1 1/2″ chunks
• 1 Tbsp. ground coriander
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in two
• 4 cloves
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup peanuts, ground
• salt to taste

Preparation
Put shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chili in a blender or food processor. Add water. Blend until it becomes a smooth paste. Set it aside.
Heat a wok until very hot and add the oil. Stir fry the beef in batches until brown on all sides. Remove.
Add the shallot paste and fry until most of the water is boiled off, stirring often. Add the coriander, the cumin, the anise, the cinnamon and the cloves. Cook, stirring, for another minute or two.
Return beef to the wok and add the coconut milk and broth. Mix well and cook, covered, for about 30 minutes. Uncover and boil off some of the liquid. Add the peanuts and cook, stirring, until the curry is the consistency you like. Season with salt to taste. Serve with rice.

I felt like baking yesterday, but I didn’t have many ingredients around, so I tried this recipe for peanut butter cookies. It couldn’t be any easier, and it was quite good. Really, the recipe just calls for peanut butter & sugar, so that’s all what you are tasting, but lord, is that good! The original recipe said it’d made /70/ cookies – I got 18 out of it. With the modifications I made, this is the recipe:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 3 Tbsp. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F
Grease two cookie sheets
In the bowl of a mixer, lightly beat the egg. Add the sugars and mix well. Add the peanut butter and mix well. Add the flour and (yes) mix well. Add the baking soda and once again mix well.
Roll small balls of dough in your hands, place onto the cookie sheets and flatten with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern.
Bake for about 7 minutes.

I had a lot of mint left over from the Balti Lamb with Peas and Potatoes I cooked few days, and I wanted to use it up. So, of course, I went to epicurious.com and looked for a recipe that called for mint. Savory mint lamb chops is what I came up with. It was simple and got great reviews. The only minus is that it didn’t use that much mint.
Well, I made it last night and it was absolutely delicious. The lamb chops were tender and very, very tasty. You couldn’t taste the mint at all, but the marinade really enhanced the lamb flavor. In all, I loved them and I will for sure make them again. This time I served it with steamed broccoli.
I followed the original recipe closely, though I did not include the cayenne pepper, as my kids won’t eat anything spicy. The reviews also suggested that the chops were better without it.
Here is the recipe:
Mint lamb chops
Ingredients

This morning Michaela wanted to bake – which is pretty amazing because she usually disappears when Camila and I start making anything. She wanted to do it all by herself (or mostly, she still can’t read a recipe) and she wanted to make cookies. I barely had any ingredients – definitely no chocolate chips – so she suggested we make sugar cookies. I found this recipe on epicurious.com (my favorite recipe site), which had the advantage of requiring few ingredients. It did call for cream of tartar, which I didn’t have, but I substituted with lemon juice with perfect results. Indeed, the results were amazing. I loved these cookies and I’ll definitely make them again when the occasion calls for sugar cookies. Do note that they are a bit more crispy than your regular sugar cookie.
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tsp. lemon juice
• Water and additional sugar

Instructions
In an electric mixer, mix the butter with the oil and sugars until well blended. Add the oil and vanilla extract and mix well. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into the butter/sugar bowl. Mix well. Add the lemon juice and mix once again.
Put the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes, or in the fridge for at least 30.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Grease two cookie sheets.
Place 1 Tbsp. of dough in your hand and roll into a ball. Place onto the baking sheet. Repeat until the dough is all used up.
Pour water into a small bowl, and sugar into another. Take a glass with a flat bottom, wet the bottom in the water and then press it against the sugar. Press the glass bottom on each cookie ball, each cookie should be about 1/4″ high.
Place the cookie sheets in the oven and bake until they start to brown, about 15 minutes. Cool down completely before removing.

It’s blueberry season and the blueberries at the farmer’s market are wonderful – though expensive at about $9 for a pint? a quart? I just know it’s a big bucket. But this week Safeway also has them on sale for $6 for a 2.5lbs box. They are from Canada, but they are just as good as the locals. So I got one of those boxes too. Now I have blueberries coming out of my years! (thanks god they are so good!). Anyway, I thought I’d use some making blueberry pancakes and I found this recipe at epicurious.com. It’s *very* good. The pancakes came out light and fluffy, without that obnoxious metallic taste of pre-made mixes, and they had a great blueberry flavor. The best thing is that it calls for the type of ingredients you have at home anyway. I modified it a little bit, but it’s basically the same as the original:
Ingredients

Last Friday, I made a cheesecake for the first time. I’ve been at home with the kids for a while, and I’ve been having this weird need/desire to bake. It’s weird, because I’ve never been much into baking, or into making desserts, for that matter. But lately, that’s what I’ve been wanting to cook.
So Friday I made this recipe for white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake. I omitted the strawberries, but the cheesecake by itself was REALLY GOOD. Alas, it didn’t taste at all like white chocolate, but it didn’t matter, as it really tasted like cheesecake and I love cheesecake.
So I learned a few things while making it. First of all, cheesecake is freaking expensive! I don’t want to think how much money I spent in buying all the ingredients. Just like with ice cream, it’s cheaper to buy the pre-made stuff. Second, cheesecake is pretty much fat and sugar. That’s why it tastes so good, but I could feel my arteries clogging while making it. I don’t think I’ll make it again, unless it’s for someone else to eat. Third, it’s not hard to make cheesecake, though it can be time consuming.
Anyway, the recipe I linked to is pretty good. If you make it, read the comments. The recipe makes enough batter for 1 1/2 cakes. I didn’t have 2 cake pans, so I put the remaining batter in ramekins and cooked them along the cake on a pan with water. I actually liked these “cheesecake puddings” more than the cake itself. I used chessmen chocolate cookies for the crust, which was good.

I never buy top sirloin, because I don’t find it to be the most flavorful of steaks, but it was on sale at Safeway and I figured it was worth a try. I looked for a recipe in epicurious.com, and found this one for Grilled Steak Verciano. I made it last night and it was *very good*. It imparted the meat with a strong flavor (lots of it from wine, so don’t make it unless you like red wine), and both Mike and I loved it.
I didn’t get the grill hot enough before I cooked the steaks, so 4 minutes on each side led to a very rare steak. Next time I’ll get it hotter, but I’ll probably do 5 minutes on each side anyway.
Grilled steak with wine-soy sauce marinade
1/2 cup red wine
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. dried rosemary
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2-pounds top sirloin steaks
Mix the red wine with the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary, garlic and salt. Add the steaks and cover well on both sides. Marinade in the refrigerator for 6 hours, turning half way through.
Heat a grill to medium-high. Grill the steaks until done, about 4 minutes on each side for medium-rare.
Marga’s Best Recipes