back on the wagon

chicken satay
Originally uploaded by itslynzee.


i seem to have fallen off of the blogging/cooking/baking/do-anything-at-all wagon. my nightly dinners as of late have consisted of cheese and crackers and the occasional dinner out. the reason for this you ask?

Sheer laziness.

i have no excuses or legitimate reasons for this lack of movement. i’ve just been feeling lazy.

the solution? i invited someone over to dinner. cooking for others is always more fun than cooking for oneself right? and i’m sure that emily post would agree that to invite someone to dinner and serve them cheese and crackers as a main course would be highly inappropriate. HAHAHA... so cooking is a must! i pulled out madhur jaffrey’s step-by-step cooking: Over 150 Dishes from India and the Far East, Including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. this is a cookbook that i read frequently, as i love the pictures and simple instructions, but for some reason have never cooked anything from it.

i settled on the spicy chicken kebabs with peanut sauce, saffron rice, salad (supplied by my guest), and pomegranate ice cream. the madhur jaffrey recipes (including my substitutions or alterations) and the pomegranate ice cream recipe are provided below. the madhur jaffrey recipes are pretty quick, easy, (and most importantly) tasty. go make em!

Madhur Jaffrey's
Spicy chicken kababs

4 chicken thighs (skinned and deboned)
1 garlic clove
1 T ginger paste
1 T minced shallot
4 t soy sauce
1 T lemon juice
1 T ground coriander
½ t sugar
¼ t chili powder

Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes. Peel and mince garlic. Combine garlic, ginger, shallot, soy sauce, lemon juice, coriander, sugar, and chili powder. Mix well and mix with chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.

Place chicken on presoaked bamboo skewers. Broil 4 inches from the heat source for approximately 5 minutes on each side (or until the meat is browned). Serve with peanut sauce.

Madhur Jaffrey's
Peanut sauce

4 oz roasted peanuts
2 garlic cloves
1 shallot
2 T vegetable oil
½ t chili powder
½ t salt
2 t dark brown sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
5 t lemon juice

Grind peanuts as finely as possible (I used a food processor but the cookbook recommends a coffee grinder or spice grinder). Peel and finely chop the garlic and shallot (used the processor again!). Heat the oil in a small frying pan over a medium heat. When it is hot, add the garlic and shallot and fry, stirring, until golden brown.

Add 2 cups water, the chili powder, salt, sugar, and ground peanuts. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened to the consistency of a creamy salad dressing. Allow to cool slightly, then add the lime juice and pepper to taste.


Pomegrante ice cream
original recipe link (altered ever so slightly)

who knew that pomegrante ice cream was jewish food? Actually this dessert was inspired by a recent foray to fenton’s where i had their sherbet freeze, “A refreshing, low fat alternative! A delicious blend of your favorite sherbet and sparkling soda water,” but substituted pomegranate ice cream for sherbet. YUM. this recipe comes darned close to their version but i missed the dark red color (this version is more of a creamy color) and the extra pomegranate kick that fenton’s version had. perhaps next time i would use more juice and less half and half.

1 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
2 cups half and half
Heat orange juice in saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/2 cup. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add pomegranate juice and chill. Mix chilled juices with half and half and process in ice cream maker until fairly thick, about 15 minutes. Add pomegranate seeds. Finish processing according to manufacturer's directions.