For the past two days, it's been a rush of grocery shopping, cooking, eating, baking, cooking, eating (in that order, not kidding). Basically, a lot of food. It's been fun though, because when I was in school I missed my kitchen BADLY (spoken like the girl whose favorite room in the house is the kitchen).
So this is what I've made, and what I've eaten (of course, since I didn't bring my camera, my
food did not actually look like this--it looked similar or better):
1. Butter Chicken (made): Chicken with butter, yogurt, half-and-half, garam masala, cayenne pepper, lemon, cumin, tomato puree etc.
I thought this recipe was PRETTY
BAD. AND the recipe said that it was from an Indian restaurant. AND it got 4.5 stars as a review. Anyway, I guess it was not too bad but it was definitely not authentic. I followed it halfway
through and realized that the chicken tasted Italian and not really Indian. More specifically, the sauce tasted like a creamy tomato sauce. In addition, the spices that were mentioned did not
add a depth of flavor and complexity to the dish which I normally associate with Indian food. Given that, I stopped using the recipe and just went off on my own, adding more spices (cumin,
garam masala, pepper) than was called for, and cooking the chicken in garlic-infused oil.
If I had to free-handedly do this dish again, I would maybe cook the ginger and garlic paste first with some of the oil or the butter and then maybe add in some of the spices for flavor then kind of sear the chicken to give it the flavor first. After that I would set the chicken on the side and cook the sauce using crushed tomatoes for some texture and just add a lot more spices to it, then eventually add the chicken back in.
2. Indian Spiced Shrimp (made): Shrimp with turmeric, cayenne pepper, onions, tomatoes, etc.
I was a bit more obedient to the recipe this time (but not really either). Since the request was not to make this too spicy, no jalapeno was added to this recipe, which was ironic because even with that, my heavy-handed and spontaneous spice application (which also included extra garam masala, garlic
powder and
curry powder) put a lot of cayenne pepper into my shrimp, making it pretty spicy...OOPS. But of course I know how to deal with these sorts of mishaps, and I added yogurt, lemon and sugar to the shrimp. Final result? It tasted pretty Indian and not too spicy. I was fairly satisfied.
3. Tonkatsu (eaten): panko-breaded pork with ketchup-based sauce
Thanks to the 99-cent-per-pound pork chops at the supermarket, these were pretty cheap. De-boning and pounding on pork chops really makes them much bigger and extends their...eating life (for lack of a better word). New idea for saving money.
4. Cat Cora's Holiday Spice Cookies (made--not exact picture but looked close to this): cookies with shredded carrots, oats, dates, walnuts, cranberries, raisins, etc.
These were okay and did not taste like guilt (sugar or fat); instead, they tasted like cakey little bites of crunchy carrot cake. Kind of. Pretty easy to make I think, and relatively healthy and high in fiber...not bad in my
opinion.
5. Ingrid Hoffman's Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (made): cookies with NO BUTTER (instead, olive oil and applesauce), chocolate chips, oatmeal, etc.
[DID NOT PUT A PICTURE ON PURPOSE BECAUSE NONE OF THE ONLINE PICTURES LOOKED LIKE MY COOKIES...or vice versa I suppose]
This recipe was "meh" to quote MLIA and a friend, same as the other cookie recipe (in terms of meh-ness). It was pretty cakey but crunchier than the Cat Cora recipe. I feel like with healthy cookie recipes, you lose out a lot on the chewiness of the cookie which is what I look for in my baked goods. I miss the kind of fattening cookies I used to make (and give to a lot of people to... spread the love) which looked more like this (and were chewy, warm, and not that sweet--perfect with milk too):
YUM.
Other things...
So apparently this place is known for popcorn and there are long lines of people who try to buy this popcorn. I tried it by chance because I was buying a ticket in Downtown for Billy Elliot tomorrow and my aunt parked the car and bought popcorn here because it was next door to the Oriental Theatre. Both of us munched on the Chicago mix (half cheese, half caramel corn) because we hadn't eaten
lunch yet, which was...
This drive-in, which is also a Chicago institution was featured on the Food Network special for hotdogs around the US (Hot Doug's was also featured, which has reaaaaallyyy good and more "out there" hotdogs). They had a pretty good basic hotdog (Superdawg) but I thought their Whoopskidawg was better, since it was bigger and had a different blend of spices.
Anyways, must sleep.
* I ate so much food I feel like a floating cat
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