haha, he should have done six more and marketed it with a demonic slant.
Cooking 666 curries would open a portal to lucifer’s kitchen. TOO DANGEROUS!
All the recipes in the 660 Curries book are good. There are many stand outs. One is the Garlicky Festive Rice on p. 698. It requires a bit of labor and is well worth every minute. It is a real biryani. Not the stir fried knock offs you see in restaurants.
“Real” biryani (I’m hesitant to call anything I cook “authentic,” and calling it real seems to imply that restaurants serve me imaginary rice) is an absolute bear to make very, very well, but the extra effort to bring it up to that level is utterly worth it. Hnnnngg
It has Kashmiri chilies, cream, saffron, peas, Punjabi garam masala (page 25), carrots, green beans, cauliflower, garlic, onion, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, black cumin, and cumin.
It is so, so delicious.
RichVR
3006
I am in the middle of making ravioli from scratch with the wife. We are using the Mario Batali recipe here. We are not using the prosciutto and are adding a bit of fresh oregano to the filling.
Of course I have to give many thanks to my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and this version of pasta.
In no specific order because Photobucket:
RichVR
3008
What I would do differently next time? I ran the pasta sheet up to number 4 on the roller. That made the edges of the ravioli a bit chewy. 4 is a great number for linguini and such, but I’d run it thinner, maybe 5 or 6 for ravioli. I was worried about blow-outs and erred on the thicker side. People, myself included, don’t realize how strong a good pasta can be. Thinner is better. Building gluten by kneading can make pasta really forgiving. If you’ve ever seen those pizza tossing competitions, where guys toss incredibly large pizza dough rounds all over, you will know what I’m talking about.
Sorry for taking up so much space here and multi-posting.
Timex
3009
Very nice writeup.
I’m in the process of making a Biryani! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to document it.
It looks like it’s turning out pretty sweet though.
RichVR
3010
Thanks, man. That means a lot to me. Enjoy your biryani.
Yep, great photos. I don’t have the patience to attempt something like that! Maybe when the boy is a little older and I can ‘outsource’ some of the work to him!
Gendal
3012
I keep meaning to try and make my own ravioli as well, but I certainly wouldn’t expect them to turn out looking like that my first attempt. Those are some handsome, manly looking ravioli, just like what I would want.
That’s so cool, Rich. Homemade/handmade pasta is one of the great frontiers of cooking for me, and something that’ll have to wait till I can afford a much bigger place, but I think it’ll be a ton of fun when the time comes :)
Timex, how’d your biryani turn out? A good biryani is a beautiful thing :-D
I’ve made a couple over the last two Christmases, albeit adding in some Iraqi/Middle Eastern influences (e.g., chopped wheat vermicelli, fried potatoes, etc.) since my dad loves that stuff. I don’t think either shot is particularly great in retrospect, but I figured I’d share :)
2013:
2014:
I fried the potatoes separately and never mixed all of them directly in 2014, so they’d stay crispier. Strongly considering doing the same with the ghee-fried cashews, which are never as good as they are on the first day since they soak up moisture from the rice/chicken/vegetables.
Timex
3014
The biryani turned out awesome. It is also huge, so I’ll be eating it all week.
I’ve recently discovered using cardamom, and I’m having a lot of fun experimenting with the flavor.
The biryani I made is vegetarian, using young jackfruit as the “meat”. I’m very happy with how it turned out.
Jackkfruit, by the way, is an awesome meat substitute for anyone who needs one. It tastes kind of like a combination between chicken and artichoke hearts. I had bought a half dozen cans a year ago and found one in my cupboard, so in it went!
RichVR
3015
I don’t think I would have attempted it without the Kitchen Aid and attachments. The last time I tried to make ravioli was with my friend Ruth in her kitchen. We were young and so very naive. We had a recipe. What could be easier? Long story short we ended up with a block of dough that was as hard as a brick. No amount of pounding with a rolling pin would dent it. When we stopped laughing we threw it away and ordered pizza.
I was pretty sure it would turn out the same way this time. But in the years since the brick incident I absorbed a bit of basic knowledge about doughs and ambient humidity and the like. I still think luck had a big part in the prep. Having said all that, I’m glad I tried it and strongly recommend it to anyone that cooks.
Not so much what I cooked but a tip for storing and reheating lasagna. Do any of you remember boil-in-the-bag lasagna? I made lasagna before our trip to Chicago, and there were leftover portions that wouldn’t be eaten. I vacuum sealed them with our food saver and tossed them in the freezer. I just boiled some for lunch today. 25 minutes at a slow boil and it was nice and hot. The lasagna too well to freezing.
I made cornbread pizza last night from a recipe in All You magazine but didn’t take pics. Fam loved it though
I’ve tried chilaquiles for the first time.
It’s a baked version with black beans and homemade enchilada sauce.
Oh my. It is so freaking good. I need to work out some kinks. The sauce is way too spicy. I didn’t get the eggs right because in baking the dish and trying to set the whites properly, I’ve totally made hard-boiled yolks. I wanted them to be somewhat runny. Arg.
Still, delicious. Just the simple task of baking corn tortillas to make the chips makes me never want to buy a bag of corn chips again.
-xtien
Christien:
Mind sharing the details/recipe you’re working with? In particular, the eggs cooked into black beans intrigue me (shades of shakshuka, there), not even to mention the crispy tortilla-bits we aren’t seeing ;)
