Curried Lentil Soup

I decided to give lentils a try because they are inexpensive, high in fiber, and everyone keeps raving about them.  Mr. Monkey was a bit concerned.  The last time he tried them, he wasn't a big fan.  He wasn't sure exactly what it was he didn't like, he just knew he didn't like them.  I had just bought curry, however, and I was wanting to get a little crazy with it.  I found this recipe at Epicurious, but a lot of the comments were concerning.  Many people reported the soup lacked flavor and body.  Most everyone agreed that the amount of seasonings and garlic had to be doubled.  At least.  I decided to take their advise and give it a shot. 

Mr. Monkey ended up liking the soup, though his initial reaction was a bit meh.  In the course of making the soup, you make a very basic hummus to stir into it.  I couldn't quite get the texture of the hummus as smooth as I wanted, and that's what was bothering him.  However, after eating a bit of it he warmed up to it.  Pairing it with the rice was a very good idea as it made the dish more filling.  I also didn't add extra water to thin it out since I was cooking it longer than recommended.

Another note about this recipe.  It's technically done after cooking 30 minutes, but I highly recommend you let it simmer at least an hour or two.  This will also make the soup thicker.  You will need a food processor for the hummus!

Curried Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp olive oil - divided
• 2 to 3 green onions - sliced
• 1 medium carrot - finely chopped
• 6 to 8  garlic cloves - minced, divided
• 4 tbsp curry
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 cup lentils
• 4 1/4 cups water - divided
• 1 15 to 16 oz can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) - drained, rinsed
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp hot chili oil
• 2 tbsp (1/4 stick) of butter

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large pot over medium heat.
2. Add green onion and carrot; sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook until onion is tender and turning a little translucent on the white parts.
3. Add about half of the minced garlic, and stir until the vegetables are getting tender, but not brown.
4. Add the curry and garam masala, and stir until fragrant - about one minute.
5. Add lentils and 4 cups of water.  Increase heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Once 30 minutes is done, taste the soup.  Add a little salt or pepper as needed, but sparingly as we still are going to be adding stuff!
7. Puree the chick peas, 1/4 cup of water, lemon juice, hot chili oil, 2 tbsp olive oil, and remaining garlic in a food processor.  Process until smooth.
8. Add the butter and hummus to the lentil soup.  Stir well, and allow to simmer for another hour to hour and a half.  Stir every 15 to 20 minutes so the soup does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
9. If you want to have thinner soup, then add more water, but be sure to taste the soup after doing so to see if you need to add more curry or other seasonings.
10. Serve on its own, or with rice.

Serves 4 to 6

Pumpkin Pie Purse

Sometimes I find myself with odd amounts of ingredients.  I had leftover pumpkin puree from a pasta dish I had made previously, but it wasn't enough to make a whole pie.  I also had some puff pastry from a dinner that was supposed to be a Guinness steak and cheese pie, but ended up being stew due to me forgetting to take the puff pastry out of the freezer. -_-  I wanted to make a dessert with the pumpkin, and I wasn't sure what to do with the puff pastry.  I decided to try to make a pumpkin purse of sorts.

I like the idea of fruit purse type desserts, but the last time I had one it was quite disappointing.  The taste was good, but there wasn't much apple at all for the amount of pastry present.  Considering I paid $4 for it, I was pretty annoyed.  With this, I wanted to make sure there was a decent amount of pumpkin in the center.  I have a very small casserole dish that my mom gave me.  It must be 4 inches wide and about 3 inches or so deep.  It was perfect for this, and I ended up with a dessert that could make 4 moderately sized portions or two larger sized portions.

The bake time is approximate.  I set it for 25 minutes originally, and then kept incrementing the time up as I checked it to see if it was done.  The total bake time was probably close to 40 minutes, but I advise you keep a close eye on it past 30 to make sure all is going well.

Pumpkin Pie Purse

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg - lightly beaten
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie seasoning
• 1 tbsp buttermilk (heavy cream or regular milk will also work)
• 1 sheet of puff pastry- thawed if frozen
• Flour for rolling the puff pastry out
• Honey for brushing the top - optional

Directions:

1. Lightly flour the surface of a board or counter.  Spread puff pastry sheet out on the floured surface, and sprinkle a little flour on the sheet itself.
2. Using a floured rolling pin, large bottle, or large glass roll the pastry sheet out slightly so it will be thinner.
3. Cut the pastry sheet in half.
4. Lightly flour a small (approximately 4 inches) casserole dish or baking pan.
5. Carefully place one half of the pastry sheet in the casserole dish with the extra part hanging over the sides.  Carefully place the other half perpendicular to the other pastry sheet (think of a plus sign +).  Keep the sides of both sheets hanging out, and lightly press them together and make sure no part of the inside of the dish is exposed (no pumpkin leaks!).
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Mix the pumpkin with both of the sugars, the egg, cinnamon, and seasoning.  Stir until well combined.  The mixture will be visibly lighter in color than the original puree.
8. Spoon the mixture into puff pastry.
9. Fold one end of the pastry over the mixture.  Use a little water on the end of the next fold to make them stick together.  Repeat until the folds cover the pastry.  Use a little water to make sure the purse is sealed.
10. Brush surface with a little honey if desired.
11. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, checking at the 35 minute mark to make sure the pastry is puffing and turning golden.  The purse will be done when the pastry is puffed, flaky looking, and lightly browned/golden.

Serves 2 to 4

Homemade Mayo!

I like mayo on occasion, but not enough to buy a big tub of it.  Unfortunately the smaller jars are generally expensive, especially when you compare the price per ounce with the larger jars.  I'm making chicken salad sandwiches tonight with no knead bread and leftover roast chicken, and I didn't want to go buy a whole jar of mayonnaise just for the one meal.  After a bit of looking around, I found this post on Beantown Baker with a recipe instructions for making mayo!  The recipe is super simple, but it does require that you have either a blender or a food processor.  I also slightly reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe, but really the sugar is optional.  I recommend making it without the sugar, and then tasting the mayo to see if you really want to add the sugar or not.

The taste is really awesome!  I don't think I'll ever buy mayo again after making this.  Most of the ingredients should be things that you have in your fridge or pantry.  Please note that you can use Dijon mustard in place of dry mustard if you are lacking the latter.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 tsp dry mustard or Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 tsp sugar

You will also need:

• A food processor or blender
• A container for the mayo (jar, tupperware bowl, ziploc bag) 

Directions:

1. Add egg, mustard, salt, and lemon juice to the food processor and turn it on.  Blend on low until everything is well mixed, generally around 30 seconds or so.  The color will be a happy yellow or orange depending on your yolks.
2. Slowly pour in the oils with the food processor running.  Let it run for 30 seconds to a minute.  As it runs the color will change from orange yellow to the creamy white you're familiar with.
3. Stop the food processor and taste the mayo.  If you are happy with the taste, then you are done!  If not, then add the sugar and run the food processor again.  Add another 1/2 tsp if needed.
4. Spoon into covered container, and store in the refrigerator.

Makes approximately 1 1/4 cups of mayo

Chicken & Spinach Curry

Last week I roasted a whole chicken.  I decided to do it because of how inexpensive a whole chicken is vs getting boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  I don't think I did exceptionally well carving it, but I do have the carcass in the freezer for stock making purposes.  The leftovers provided at least 6 or 7 individual meals (counting myself and Mr. Monkey as separate meals), and that was with my lackluster carving skills on a 4 1/2 pound bird.  This was one of the meals that came out of it one day when I realized I had baby spinach that could go bad if I didn't use it, and thus decided to whip up a quick curry.  I remade this dish last night for the two of us, and served it over cous cous.  It's a light meal on it's own, so you may want to add rice, quinoa, or cous cous to make it a bit heartier.

I have a quick confession to make before we get to the recipe... I love curry.  I've had it a few times and was OK with it, but I finally broke down and bought some.  It's so good!  I can't wait to try adding it to other dishes. :3  Hopefully Mr. Monkey doesn't get tired of me using it!

The measurements for this recipe are for a small, single serving.  You can scale everything up slightly to make it for two or more people.

Chicken & Spinach Curry

Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 cups baby spinach
• 1/2 cup roast chicken
• 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 Tbsp hot chili oil
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp curry
• 1 tsp sea salt 

Directions:

1. Warm the olive oil and hot chili oil in a large pan over medium low heat.
2. Add spinach to the warmed oil a little bit at a time and stir to cover in the oil.
3. Stir the spinach until wilted and add the chicken, salt, curry, and milk.
4. Continue stirring until the seasoning is well mixed into the spinach and chicken and no large clumps are built up on either.  Add a touch more milk if necessary.
5. Continue to cook until spinach and chicken are heated thoroughly. 
6. Serve on it's own or with rice, cous cous, or quinoa.

Serves 1

Smoked Sausage & Corn Chowder Redux

In August I posted a recipe for Smoked Sausage & Corn Chowder.  It was the third recipe I posted here, and it was put up with no picture!  I finally got back to remaking the dish, and decided to update the recipe slightly too.  Go ahead and check it out!  I decided less bacon isn't necessarily a bad thing, and crisping the sausage with the bacon brings out more flavor over all.  I also added a picture!  Huzzah!

As I can, I will be updating the older recipes to add photos and to tweak the formatting and recipes themselves a bit.  I want to make sure everything has a yummy photograph to make you interested in what I'm cooking. :)

Golden Rum Cake

Today's my anniversary with Mr. Monkey!  It's been three years since we've been together, and I'm looking forward to several more.  I wanted to make something special for the occasion, but I haven't built up a lot of my baking supplies from when we moved.  I hunted around and found this recipe over at Food Blogga.  It's taken from the Booze Cakes cookbook, which I've now determined that I must get my hands on.  This cake is seriously simple to make, and it tastes so good!  A warning about the glaze... you put the rum in AFTER the main part of the glaze has cooked on the stove!  This means the glaze will be very strong tasting (which is awesome), and it will have alcohol in it.

The cake was a big hint with Mr. Monkey, and I sent him to work today with a slice that I made sure to get a good bit of glaze on.  I had a piece this morning for breakfast (don't judge me), and it was nice, moist, and delicious.

Honestly, I just love any excuse to use my bundt pan.  It's purple, it's Nordic Ware, and it's awesome.  Plus it has it's own cake carrier that it came with.

Happy anniversary Mr. Monkey! <3

Golden Rum Cake!


Cake Ingredients:

• 2 sticks ( 1 cup) unsalted butter - room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup dark rum
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark rum 
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease and flour a 9 to 10 inch Bundt or tube cake pan.
3. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating after adding each egg.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
6. In another bowl (or in the measuring cup you use for the milk if it's big enough), stir together the milk, rum, and vanilla extract.
7. Beat the flour mixture and milk mixture into the mixing bowl with the butter. 
8. Pour batter into pan, and bake for an hour (or until golden brown).
9. Cool cake on rack, and then place on serving platter (or carrier platter).
10. For the glaze: In a small pot melt the butter over low heat, and then stir in the sugar and water.   Raise heat slightly and bring to a boil while stirring constantly.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the rum.
11. Slowly pour the glaze over the top and sides of cake until completely absorbed.  You can also dust with confectioner's sugar (I forgot to!) before serving.

Makes 10 servings (in theory...).

Alive and well (and in another state!)

It has been quite the adventure recently!  Mr. Monkey got a new job which meant we got to move back to Kentucky from North Carolina.  As much as I love the Bluegrass State I hate the stress associated with moving too, so it was mixed emotions for me.  Thankfully I love the new apartment, and now that I have internet I love it even more!  I figured I would post a regular recipe blog post later, but for now I wanted to share a few pictures that show what I've been up to. 

Just a portion of the packing from the old apartment!

As you see with the above picture, we had to pack everything up, and the place was quite the disaster.  Which made this feel even odder right at first:

My dining area! So much gorgeous light!

 Of course it didn't take long to fix all of that empty space...

Eeep!

 

 

I managed to slay the evil box pile with the help of my trusty box cutter!

Take that!

Before we made the long (11 hours) drive from NC to KY, we visited with family in SC to say good bye.  While we were there, I got to check out the Charleston Baked shop.  It has different owners now, and the name is slightly different (The Bake House I believe), but the food is the same!  The brownies were just so.... mmmmmmmmmm!

You know you want one!

We also had this while we were there:

Pumpkin Cheesecake. Yes.

Speaking of pumpkin, you must go find this now:

Yes, it tastes like pumpkin pie.

I was toying around with French Toast this week and made two items, one horrifying and one silly.  I'll let you decide which is which.

Zombie French Toast - it's green!

 

 

I turned these donut holes...

... into this French "Toast".

I'll leave you now with a picture of my mantle... which still is lacking a few items, but I'm pleased with nonetheless!

Geekery at it's finest.

Garlic and Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

I commend those whom have the willpower to be vegan.  I do try to have my meatless days, but I love meat too much to totally give it up.  I'll be moving back to Kentucky soon, and one of the things I'm going to miss is the Farmer's Market.  In addition to the various produce, baked goods, and plants there are also a few vendors that sell meat.  We managed to snag a couple of amazing looking pork tenderloins for a really nice price, so I had to come up with something good.  Luckily I had bookmarked this recipe from a site that's devoted to recipes for pork tenderloins.

This recipe may seem like a bit of a piggy overload for some people, but it doesn't come across as such in the taste.  The meat was super tender, juicy, and the flavor was so good.

Garlic and Bacon-Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

• 1 Pork Tenderloin - I used a one pound tenderloin, but you can use a two pounder
• 4 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• 1 tsp Greek Herb Blend seasoning
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 4 to 8 slices of bacon (enough to completely wrap the tenderloin)
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place pork tenderloin in a roasting pan and set to the side.
2. Combine garlic, thyme, herb blend, sugar, pepper, and liquid smoke in a small bowl.
3. Mix the honey and vinegar in a separate bowl and set aside.
4. Rub the mixed seasonings all over the pork tenderloin coating it well.
5. Wrap the tenderloin completely in bacon.  I laid one slice of bacon down the length of the tenderloin, and then wrapped the others around it in a slightly diagonal wrap.
6. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and brush the surface with the honey vinegar mixture.  Continue roasting another 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F.
7. Remove from the oven and let rest for about 10 minutes.  Slice and serve.

Servings vary according to tenderloin size and weight.