PF Changs Lettuce wraps

Original Source:
https://damndelicious.net/2014/05/30/pf-changs-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound ground chicken
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha, optional
• 1 (8-ounce) can whole water chestnuts, drained and diced
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 head butter lettuce

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add ground chicken and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the chicken as it cooks; drain excess fat.
2. Stir in garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and Sriracha until onions have become translucent, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Stir in chestnuts and green onions until tender, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
4. To serve, spoon several tablespoons of the chicken mixture into the center of a lettuce leaf, taco-style.

Kulithache Pithle

Kulith is a grain/ lentil that is either eaten in its seed version (soaked and sprouted) or it is finely ground to powder and consumed like a dal or a soup. It can also be made into zunka and eaten with bhakri. It may have more history to it than what I know. My mom made this as a comfort food with rice and I got hooked on to it when I last visited Ratnagiri with Maya. 
I came back with 2 big packets of Kulith peeth and plans to make a lot of it when I miss Bombay. I knew Rob wasn't a fan so I wanted an audience who would appreciate it. And of course, akanksha (AK) is the closest buddy whose taste buds would agree with the konkani pithle. 

We made it together when I visited her for an overnight experience without having Maya around. We both planned to make it often so we would not forget it. So many times I wanted to write down the recipe ever since my mom said it was the "easiest" thing to make. But proportions matter, ingredients matter, timings matter. And making it often matters, so it becomes a habit. One rainy afternoon, she texted me - Send or record the recipe for pithle! and the force doubled. In between other priorities, this recipe got written. Here we go.


(Serves 5 people at once or 2 people with leftovers :)

Ingredients: 
1 cup Kulith Peeth
2-3 glasses of lukewarm water or a jug of water to pour from easily.
Red Chilli powder
Kokam (A necessary ingredient which we almost forgot if AK hadn't reminded me!)
1 big onion finely chooped
4-6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
Kadipatta 4-5 leaves
Kothimbir finely chopped
Salt
Oil


Mise en place (French pronunciation: ​[mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "everything in its place."
Learnt it from Skyelar, but this term is Very important for this recipe. Have everything ready before you turn the gas on.

Method:
In a medium sized bowl, mix 1 cup Kulith peeth, lal tikhat, salt, and slowly add water and using your fingers blend in everything and smash any knots you may find. It will be very liquidy but fear not, it will thicken. Keep it aside.
Mise en place all ingredients, ready to be used. 
Turn the gas on. Add oil and let it heat over medium high gas. Once it is heated, add kadipatta, wait a minute and add lasun and wait a minute kokam. Then add Kanda and stir for 3-4 minutes.
Once Kanda and lasun aroma spreads around it is show time. Start pouring in the Kulith liquid mixture into the pot while stirring the pot.

Now it is time for judgement call. You will have to make the call of how thick you want the pithle to be. Once it starts to thicken, add more water and let it cook for 10-15 minutes. Once again, you will smell the delicious aroma. If you added more water, compensate it with lal tikhat and salt.

Kulith Pithle, Kobichi bhaaji and rice and the chips!

Hope you are stirring it continuously. AK was! She stirred the hell out of it and also tasted it, so we could adjust the condiments.
After you add the Kulith pith liquid, it should be done in maximum 20 minutes. The thickness is in between dal and zhunka. You'll know it.

Sprinkle fresh kothimbir and serve it with hot rice and lonche or papad (or avacado chilli chips as AK had them)
I love eating the whole garlic pieces fried in oil and coated with pithle. 
Mouth watering heaven. Enjoy!

Food for Maya - Brown rice khichdi

Ingredients:

1/3 cup brown rice
1/3 cup lentils (toor/ moong/ split moong/ masoor)
1/3 cup sprouted beans (moong/ chana/ vatana/ matki)
1 cup soaked soya chunks
1 tspn goda masala
1 tspn red chilli powder
Either grated ginger or Ova
1 cup veggies (carrots/ broccoli/ cauliflower/ green beans/ peas/ squash)
Salt to taste
Ghee 1 Tbspn
Hing/ Halad/ Mohri for tempering
2 cups water

Method:
Heat ghee in your pressure cooker and add the tempering / ova/ ginger. Add the brown rice, lentils, veggies, soya chunks and water. Stir in the goda masala, chilli powder and salt. Mix well.
Close the pressure cooker lid and count 3 whistles and turn the gas off.

Let it cool. Serve with yogurt or aachar.

Food for Maya - Barley and Broccoli

Making few new dishes for my 10-month old.
Her Breakfast usually is grated apple/ pear with oatmeal cereal or orange/ grapefruit/ strawberries.

I try to cook fresh lunch with grains (rice/ brown rice/ barley), veggies (carrots, green beans, broccoli, squash), fats (ghee or olive oil) and proteins (lentils, soyachunks)

This is one of her favorite recipes.

Ingredients:

1 cup barley (Soak in hot water for 1-2 hours)
1 cup broccoli florets and stems
1 carrot cut into pieces
1 Tbspn Olive oil
1/2 tspn Garam Masala
Salt to taste
1 and 1/2 cup water to boil

Method:

Place your pressure cooker (for best results) or a pot on medium heat.
Pour olive oil and let it heat before you put in carrots and broccoli. Sautee them for a minute.
Add the soaked barley and water to the cooker.
Sprinkle the garam masala and salt and close the lid.

I usually give upto 3 whistles for soaked barley. You can experiment and find the optimum level for your pressure cooker.

IF you are cooking in the pot, it will take over and hour and require continuous stirring of the pot.

Let it cool and serve warm like a soup.

yummmm,... delicious....

Skyelar’s Chicken and Biscuits and Waffles

Skyelar is the head chef of Craver Family. He is very precise in measurements, and tends to follow instructions by the book, uses almost all the pots and pans available to make his dishes. There is usually a lot of clean up after his cooking, but it is worth it.

His favorite cooking shows are the ones by Alton Brown. Skyelar is adept in the dishes he makes. Below are the ones that are considered the simplest to follow.

Skyelar’s Chicken and Biscuits

Biscuits:

• 2 cups flour
• 4 tbsp cold cubed butter
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup cold buttermilk

Feel free to add 1 tsp fresh black pepper and ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese!

Start by making sure your butter is cubed as small as possible, and putting in the freezer to keep firm. Preheat the oven to 400℉. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a good size mixing bowl, and get some flour on a work surface while your hands are still clean. Whisk the dry ingredients together to make sure they’re mixed, and don’t have clumps.

Take the butter out, and distribute into the dry ingredients. Then, using just the tips of your fingers, you want to squeeze/pinch/rub the flour and butter together, making sure not to melt the butter, instead smearing it in with the flour. Do this until the mixture is flaky, sticks together when pressed, and no more pieces of butter are visible. If you’re adding the pepper and cheese, mix that in now with the whisk.

Get your cold buttermilk and add it to the mixture. You can try to use a whisk, but your hands are already dirty, so use them instead until well combined into a very sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto your floured surface, and use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough out flat. Using a round cookie cutter, or an empty can at least 3 inches across, punch out your biscuits, and place so that they are all touching in a baking pan. Smush the rest of the dough together to get as many biscuits as possible. Place in the oven for at least 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Chicken:

• 1 large chicken breast cubed
• 1 large or 2 small onion(s) diced
• 2 stalks celery sliced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• ½ cup milk
• 1 + ½ cup chicken stock
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• Salt, pepper, thyme to taste

Put a skillet on medium-high heat with a tablespoon of oil, and put in the chicken and half the salt in. Cook the chicken all the way through, browning as much as possible - about 7 minutes.

Put the chicken into a bowl, and reduce heat to medium. Place in the vegetables and the rest of the salt and stir occasionally until everything is soft. Move the vegetables to the same bowl as the chicken and place in your butter. Once melted and sizzling, sprinkle in the flour and stir well until no more flour is visible. Slowly add the milk mixing constantly until smooth with no lumps. Put the chicken, vegetables, and chicken stock in, and stir until combined. Bring the mixture up to a simmer, and add salt, pepper, and thyme to taste, and add water if necessary.. Serve over split biscuits.

Skyelar’s Waffles

• 2 cups flour (cake flour if you have it)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 3 eggs
• 4 tbsp melted cooled butter (too hot and you get scrambled eggs)
• Cooking spray

Start by melting your butter in the microwave, 5 seconds at a time swirling after each 5 seconds until melted. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl, until there are no clumps. Crack the three eggs into a separate mixing bowl, and whisk vigorously until pale colored, with no egg-white streaks. Add the now cooled butter and whisk thoroughly before adding the buttermilk, and again whisking very thoroughly.

Pour the wet egg mixture in with the flour mixture, and stir only 20 times, or for 15 seconds. Small lumps will work themselves out while you wait for your waffle iron to preheat - at least 5 minutes. Spray the waffle iron down well with cooking spray in between each waffle, and each waffle should take at least 3 minutes. Store finished waffles on cooling racks inside a warm (less than 200℉) oven. Dress with butter and syrup, or chopped fruit and whipped cream.

Rob's Fried Rice

Very Easy to prepare fried rice. It is a hit every time Rob makes it.

Ingredients:

- Vegetables
Any vegetables will do, mixed frozen vegetables are perfect, but I have made this with just carrots, cabbage, green beans.  Use your favorite veggies you have available, just be sure to cook the veggies until they are tender. 

- Protein

Generally we use chicken cut into small pieces.  This is also good with shrimp, or scrambled eggs or fried tofu.

- Scallions (the green part chopped finely for garnishing)
- 1 small onion (optional)
- Salt to taste

- Oil for frying

For the sauce
- 5 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons chili garlic paste (maybe ommitted, use 2 cloves of garlic instead)
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (any vinegar will do in a pinch)
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (may be substituted with honey or regular sugar)
- 3 tablespoons water

Method:
Prepare rice a day in advance, if possible.  

(Tip:  Use 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. For rice that is less clumpy, rinse the rice three times with cold water before preparing.)

Break the cooked rice up using the back of a spoon or your hands.  The goal is to have single and separate grains of rice.
Use a wok instead of a frying pan for better results. 

Heat oil over medium heat, add garlic and onions (salt if you want).  Add the meat, cook until almost finished, then add vegetables and cook until tender.  Add rice, stir and fry until all ingredients are mixed well.  Add the sauce mixture and mix well.  Allow all moisture to cook through and be absorbed by the rice.  

Sprinkle the scallion greens. 

Remove from heat and allow to cool before eating.

Simple Unripe Mango Curry

This dish is made with simple whole ingredients and it is food for the soul in winter:)

Ingredients:
1 Greenish yellow unripe mango (Found in local grocery stores) Peeled and diced into cubes
Toor Dal or split yellow lentils (Found in Asian sections or Indian stores) 1 cup
Onion 1 cut french style
Ginger 1 inch grated
Garlic 2 cloves grated or finely minced
Jalapaeno Chilli 1 cut into round pieces  (you may remove the seeds if you don't want it too hot)
Cilantro few twigs chopped finely
Water 3 cups
Oil and salt per taste

Method:
Soak the lentils in hot water for 1-2 hours.
In a pot (or pressure cooker), heat 2 tablespoons of oil on high.
Add the jalapaenos.
Add the onion
Add the garlic and ginger
Sautee them for 3-4 minutes on medium heat
Pour the soaked lentils in the tempered mixture.
Add the mango pieces and stir in some salt.
Add the 3 cups of water and cook for 35-40 minutes on low heat. Keep stirring continuously.
If using a pressure cooker, go on for 2 whistles and turn it off.

When it is ready to be served, sprinkle the chopped cilantro. It can be enjoyed as a soup or poured on a bed of basmati rice.