January 12, 2012

Meatballs with spaghetti





It’s not because I don’t cook, it’s because I hate writing so much that I am irregular in blogging. I had my pictures taken of other foods, didn’t like it that much, so ended up not writing about the food either.  Today we had wonderful dinner! Me and my son enjoyed spaghetti with meat balls. They were very delicious with the home made sauce!!  I really don’t need to explain what the food is! Yeah you can make the sandwich with the meatballs or either eat with spaghetti. Those who don't eat beef you can either make it with ground turkey or chicken.......

Yield: 4
Time: Meatball (40 minutes), sauce (1 hour)

Ingredients:

Meatballs
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion finely chopped
Bread crumb ( 3 any bread processed in food processor)
½ cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon dry parsley
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
 Sauce
½ cup finely chopped onion
3 cloves finely chopped garlic
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
8 ounce tomato sauce
6 ounces tomato paste
1 teaspoon basil
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
 Directions:
Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs.  Make 16 meatballs and bake it in 400 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes.
For the sauce, heat the oil in the pan. In the medium heat sauté the chopped onions and garlic, add the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato paste, basil,salt,sugar, Italian seasoning to the pan. Simmer in medium low heat for an hour. Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce and simmer it for 10 minutes. Serve it with cooked spaghetti.

January 05, 2012

Chili


Another day!  Food that fits perfect for the cold temperature. Well it’s “Chili” a very popular American spicy stew! A lot of you who is not familiar with American chili might think it as a chili which we eat at Nepal. This chili which I am cooking right now is good in every way, its heat and spiciness is the one that kicks the tongue.  It has been one of my all-time American foods since the time I stepped in this country, a warm stew of beef mixed with beans and tomatoes cannot be beaten for any other comforting food.  This chili was superb in every way………

Yield: 4
Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
28 ounces chunked tomatoes
6 ounces tomatoes paste
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 cup finely chopped red onions
1 can beer
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon ground cumin powder
Directions:
Heat a big pot in medium heat. Cook the ground beef until it turns brown and add onions to it. Cook it in for five minutes. Add chunk tomatoes, tomato paste, pinto beans, black beans, salt, red chili powder, cocoa powder, black pepper and cumin powder to the beef. Cook it in low medium heat for 1 hour. Serve it with sour cream, cheese and cracker of your own choice.


January 04, 2012

Pierogi



Folks! Especially the Nepalese one, don’t get confused with this food over momos! It looks like momos but this one I am making is a very popular Polish Pierogi!!  This food is very simple yet delicious, I guess anything that is wrapped in the wrapper is always delicious. It is very similar to momos, but it is boiled in the water and fried in butter before serving. It is very cold recently and the food reminds me one of the comfort food to eat during winter.  The fillings in pierogi can be anything meat, sauerkraut or mashed potatoes usually mixed with certain types of cheese. It is very easy to make, really don’t need to have a round pretty flowery shape like momos, just use the fork to seal the side of the dough and wallaaaaaaa!!!!





Yield: 4
Time: 4o minutes


Ingredients:
2 big Idaho russet potatoes

1 medium size onion thinly sliced
4 ounces cream cheese

½ cup finely chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon of dry parsley

1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon red chili powder

½ teaspoon back peppers
1 tablespoon canola oil

4 tablespoon of unsalted butter


Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg

½ cup water
 

Directions:
In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the dough properly, set it aside covered with damp clothes.

Heat the oil in the saucepan. Sauté the finely chopped onion until it becomes tender.
In a big pot bring the water to boil. Peel and cut the potatoes in small pieces and add it in boiling water. Cook it for 10 minutes until the potatoes become tender. Drain the water from potatoes. Add the sauted onions, cream cheese, cilantro, parsley, salt, red chili powder to the potatoes, and mix it properly.

Roll out the dough with the rolling pin. Use the round cookie cutter to make the circle from the dough. Place the filling in each circle, brush water around the edge of the circle, fold it into moon shape and seal it by pressing with the fork.  Once the pierogi are made, throw them in batches into a large boiling water.  Boil until the they float in the water, minimum of six minutes depending upon the size.
Drain the pierogi and fry it in butter until it turns golden brown. 


January 03, 2012

Blue crab made in spicy coconut curry



Over all it was awesome day!! I ended up buying three live blue crab with the request of my son from the Smyrna farmers market. I have never cooked crab before let alone the live one. Freaked me out a little bit killing those poor crab, I needed some help from YouTube  “ How to clean the blue crab”  which came handy.  Still found out I didn’t clean properly later on, I was so scared of cutting the poor live crab I really didn’t bother to clean it in a proper way. But the taste of the crab made in coconut milk was simply worth and amazing. Wish I could have bought more for two of us. After intense googling of the recipe, I finally came to conclusion to make some spicy crab curry. Spicy crab curry with rice, and it was exactly the taste I wanted.  Sweet spicy blue crab!!!Yummy yummy…..


Yield: 2
Time: 30 minutes


Ingredients:

2 pounds blue crabs

1 small finely chopped onion

13 ounces coconut milk

1 roma tomatoes

2  finely chopped Thai chili peppers

1 teaspoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ginger

2 tablespoon  canola oil

½ cup chopped cilantro


Directions:
Heat the oil in saucepan, in the medium heat sauté the chopped onions for 4 minutes, add chopped roma tomatoes, chilli peppers,coconut milk,ginger,salt and chili powder to the pan. Simmer it for ten minutes.

Add the cleaned cut crab to it and cook it for additional 7 minutes. Garnish it with cilantro and serve it  with rice.

January 02, 2012

Calzone



Again after a long break I am here again. I meant to update blogs during December, but I was just being too lazy. In fact I was very busy baking cookies and eating, so much that right now I don’t even want to look cookies. Well I had a very yummylicious Calzone yesterday somewhere in Atlanta; it was nice change in my mouth something different from the holiday food I had been eating. The taste of of Calzone lingered long enough, so much that on the way home in the evening I stopped by Wal-Mart to buy Ricotta cheese, mushroom and olives. Sounds Crazy!! Calzone is the brother of pizza, except every ingredient is shielded in the dough. It is very simple and easy to make. I made the homemade marinara sauce to go with it. Scrumptious could all I can say about the taste of calzone with homemade marinara sauce, it was delicious!





Yield : 7 people

Time: 3 hours for the dough, 40 minutes marinara sauce, 45 minutes calzone


Dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm water

¼ cup cooking oil (olive oil)
¼ cup white wine

¼ spoon salt

Marinara sauce:

28 ounces crushed tomatoes
13 ounces tomato paste

½ cup chopped onions
½ cup white wine
 
1 teaspoon dry oregano

1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil


Fillings:
24 ounces ricotta cheese

4 cups mozzarella cheese
4 ounces chopped mushroom

½ cup chopped black olives
1 big chopped onion
 
1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil


Directions:
Preheat the oven at 450 degree.
In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the dough, cover it with a damp clothes and set it aside in a room temperature for 3 hours.
For marinara sauce, sauté the onions for four minutes in the sauce pan in medium heat. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, salt and oregano to the sauce pan; simmer it for thirty minutes in low heat.
For the filling, sauté the onion with salt and pepper in sauce pans for four minutes.  Divide the dough in seven balls; roll each ball with the rolling pin. Fill each of them with filling ingredients in layer, brush the end of the dough with eggs, fold and shield it into moon shape. Bake it in a preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Serve it with marinara sauce.