Red Pepper Soup

The first time I made this soup it turned out really good.  But I've never been able to re-create it until now.  Ever since I started doing this blog I've had to pay more attention to how much of each ingredient I'm putting it and it's helped my cooking.  Now I can re-create things I've made.  I usually make this with water but I had vegetable broth in the fridge so I used that.  Most of the red pepper soups I've had in restaurants have a strong tomato taste in them which I don't like. It feels like I'm have a tomato soup.  This soup isn't like that.

I adapted it from a recipe I found at AllRecipes.com.  My main change was to replace the heavy cream with evaporated milk.  I never have heavy cream at home.  I also added some sun dried tomatoes.  If you don't have any sun dried tomatoes, feel free to leave them out. 

Black Bean Soup

I found the original recipe for this on AllRecipes.com.  I made some changes to it to work with what I had in my fridge.  After looking at the original recipe I think I may try it now that I have most of the ingredients at home.  I usually make this with water but I had vegetable broth so I used that.

Chicken Biryani

I got the original recipe for this from my sister in law.  I made a few changes...added potatoes and more spices.  I usually make this with boneless stewing veal but this time I wanted to try it with chicken.  The origianl recipe uses yogurt but I didn't have enough so I used sour cream.  I usually eat biryani with dahi ki chutney (raita) but I didn't have time to make any so I just ate it with plain yogurt.  If your meat gets tender and there is still a lot of water left in the pot, remove the meat and cook the water down.

Oreo Truffles

These are so easy to make.  Only 3 ingredients needed!

I found the recipe for these on Simply Frugal but I believe the original recipe is from Kraft Canada.  This was my first time making truffles. I had some trouble getting the hang of dipping  the truffles in the chocolate.  Next time I'm going to put them in the freezer to chill so I don't have any trouble when I dip them in chocolate.

Chicken with Shrimp Sauce

Every time I make this dish I always think of my brother.  I think he would really enjoy it....one day I'm going to make it for him.  I have this file on my computer that's labeled "Red Lobster Recipes".  I don't remember where I got it from but this recipe was in there.  I've also seen it on numerous other websites so I don't know who the original author is.  I've posted the link from AllRecipes.com which has the original recipe.  My main changes were to increase the garlic and onion.  I salt and peppered the chicken breasts.  I also added salt and red chilli flakes to the sauce.  I used lemon juice instead of lime juice and left out the rosemary, reduced the butter and added oil.  I used frozen raw shrimp and much more than the recipe calls for.  This dish is very simple to make.  I've read some reviews where people thought that 1/2 cup of flour is way too much and didn't like the consistency.  I like my sauce thick but I did end up added water to thin my sauce.  The sauce has a slight sour taste which I liked.

Beef with Broccoli

I recently started looking at The Pioneer Woman blog.  The recipes look amazing.  As I looked through them I started noticing a lot of them had lots of butter, cream or alcohol.  This one looked really good.  When I started cooking I noticed it had a half cup of reduced sodium soya sauce.  Even with the sodium reduced that is still a lot of sodium.  But I wanted to try the recipe as close as possible to the original.  The recipe had 3 tbsp of sherry.  I used orange juice instead.  The original recipe uses snow peas.  I don't like snow peas and my son has trouble eating them.  So I used broccoli instead.

The recipes says that it cooks in 15 minutes.  I couldn't understand how you could cook beef in 15 minutes. With Indian cooking you cook beef for so long to get it nice and tender.  So I was curious to try the cooking technique in this recipe.  I used pasanday and sliced it really thin against the grain.  The meat turned out really tender.  I had started out using a stainless steel wok but the sauce was burning at the bottom.  Thankfully there was no burnt taste in the dish.  Next time I'm gonna try to reduce the soya sauce in half. 

Japanese Zucchini and Onions

This recipe is really quick to make.  The most time consuming part of this recipe is peeling the zucchini into strips.  It tastes great on it's own.  You can easily halve this recipe.

I adapted it from a recipe I found at AllRecipes.com.  I added garlic, omitted the teriyaki sauce and increased the soya sauce.

Yellow Cake with Chocolate Glaze

I adapted this cake from Smitten Kitchen.  I've made this cake with butter and margarine and it turned out good both times.  Of course it's always better with butter.  Also I don't buy buttermilk.  This time I used yogurt.  The time before I used 1 tbsp vinegar and enough milk to measure 1 cup.  I don't have cake flour. I used all-purpose flour but reduced the amount.  I made half the recipe.  The chocolate glaze is from Anna Olsen.  I cut the recipe in half.  I found previously the whole recipe was just too much.  The chocolate glaze tastes just like the chocolate glaze you get on donuts.

I wanted to fill the cake. I didn't have time to make custard so I bought some pre-made vanilla pudding and used that to fill.  It was okay but custard would have tasted so much better.  I like eating this cake chilled.  I know if I had followed all the directions on Smitten Kitchen it would have turned out even better....but I had to work with what I had....

Middle Eastern Kebobs with Toum

I adapted this recipe from one I found on Aarti Paarti.  (She has a video where you can watch how she makes the kebobs)  I made a few changes.  I used more garam masala, garlic and ginger.  This recipe uses pomegranate molasses which you can find at Middle Eastern or Indian grocery stores.  I had to grill these in two batches.  The molasses burns on the grill so I bunched up a paper towel and wiped the grill before I started the second batch.  You can adjust the amounts of fresh coriander and parsley.  I prefer more coriander and I think these would taste good even with just coriander. When adding the pomegranate molasses, after adding the first tablespoon don't scrape all the molasses out.  I found that when I did this it made the kebobs sweet.  Just put the first tbsp and then immediately measure the second.

I was searching all over the Internet on how to make Toum.  I found a bunch of different recipes and made a lot of adjustments and came up with the recipe below that we really like.

Easy Khorma

I originally got this recipe from my sister in law.  I had passed it to friend.  We went over for dinner one day and my friend had made this chicken dish and it was so yummy.  I asked her what the recipe was and she said that it was the recipe I had given her.  She had used red chilli flakes instead of cayenne pepper and she roasts and grinds her cumin, coriander and garam masala powders.  She also used a lot more oil than I do.  I took her changes but I used less oil.  I also added a potato because I love potatoes.  I don't like a lot of garam masala so my khorma doesn't have a strong garam masala taste.  Mine turned out mild since my red chilli flakes were not very hot.  You can substitute 1 pound of veal or lamb for the chicken.

Channa Ki Daal with Red Onion

The first time I made this daal I didn't really like it.  It felt like something was missing.  I'm so used to daal always being a bit sour and this isn't.  After I got used to the idea that this daal isn't sour I started liking it a lot more.  I adapted it from Smitten Kitchen Everyday Yellow Daal.  I used half the amount of red onion because I think a whole onion would make it too sweet.  I reduced the turmeric to 1/2 tsp and I omitted the buter.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

This is a recipe I adapted from one I found at AllRecipes.com.  The original recipe is for blueberry muffins. I've used this recipe with blueberries and it turned out well but I think it could use a crumb topping or sprinkle of turbinado sugar on top.  As chocolate chip muffins they were good as is.  If you like them really chocolatey you could add more chocolate chips.

Comments

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Thx!!!!

Muhammara Pasta

This is a recipe I adapted from Aarti Paarti.  I like this pasta but I think I like saying "Muhammara" more.  This is very quick. It is based on the Syrian dip Muhammara which is comprised of roasted red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate molasses.  You can find pomegranate molasses in Arab or Indian grocery stores.  I got mine from Iqbal in Thorncliffe.  This is a bit sour so if you want less of a sour bite you can reduce the lemon juice.  It is not a smooth pasta sauce.  If you would like it more smooth you can grind the walnuts in the spice grinder and then add it to the sauce.  The original recipe called for 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil which seemed like a crazy amount to add to me so I cut this in half.  In the video on the website, Aarti adds sundried tomatoes.  I only have the dried ones so I used those.  This made quite a lot of sauce.  You can use the leftovers as a dip.  Next time I'm going to reduce the amount of walnuts to try to reduce the fat. 

Happy Birthday Rafia!!!

Happy Birthday Rufster!! Hope you have a super terrifico day!

Lentil Soup

I got this recipe from a friend.  It is very easy to make and is very filling.  The changes I made was to increase the garlic and baby carrots.  Also, I use water.  I never have 6 cups of chicken broth lying around.  This soup is made in a pressure cooker but you could just as easily make it in a pot.  Serve with chilli oil (recipe follows) and slices of toasted baguette.  Now you can buy frozen loaves at the grocery store and just reheat in the oven for fresh bread.