Curry Pizza

We've been imagining all sorts of crazy pizzas to try out. This one was born of the fact that my pizza crust is so much like naan. It was amazingly delicious. We will be making it again.

Pizza dough*
Leftover curry
Mozzarella cheese
Pickled red onion**
Cilantro

Spread your pizza dough on a baking sheet till it's 1/8-1/4 in thick. Spread the curry on top, chopping up your chicken if the bits are too big. We used leftover chicken tikka masala with chicken thighs.

Sprinkle some mozzarella over the top and bake for 10 min at 450*

Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and pickled red onion before serving.

(If you don't want to pickle your own red onions, use fresh red onion or chopped jalepenos or something to give it some tang. Just the curry and dough was a little too tame. Definitely try the pickled red onions, though. It takes like one minute to make the brine and they aren't spicy at all, I really do love them on anything I've thought they might work with.)

*I made this pizza dough but I added about 3-4 TBSP of plain yogurt. Don't add too much extra flour to account for the wetness. You want a really wet dough. This will make 3 large, thinner crust pizzas.

**Pickled Red Onions: Mix 1/4 cup red wine vinegar + 1/4 cup cold water + 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon Diamond Kosher salt or generous 1/2 tablespoon Morton or another brand of kosher salt until sugar and salt have dissolved. Add thinly sliced red onion. Let marinate for 30 minutes (for very light pickling) or up to a week in the fridge. Put on everything.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

I only make this once every other year or so, so I never remember the adjustments I make and decided to write them down this time.

• 1 package (9 ounces) chocolate wafer cookies (or 1/2 pkg family size oreos or 2/3 pkg regular size oreos)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 bars (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup + 2 TBSP sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
• Rich Chocolate Ganache, for topping
• 1/2 C heavy ceam
• 4 oz semisweet chocolate
• 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Assemble a 9-inch springform pan with the raised side of the bottom facing down.
• 2. In a food processor, pulse cookies until finely ground. Add butter, and pulse to moisten. Transfer to prepared pan, and press crumbs firmly and evenly into the bottom. Place pan on a rimmed baking sheet; bake 10 minutes, and set aside.
• 3. Wipe out bowl and blade of food processor. Add cream cheese, sugar, and salt; blend until smooth. With motor running, add eggs, then sour cream, and finally chocolate; blend filling until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
• 4. Wrap bottom half of springform pan in foil, using one long piece, the length of the circumference of the pan. Pour in filling; place in a roasting pan. Place roasting pan in oven. Pour in boiling water to come halfway up side of springform pan. Bake just until set, 1 hour. Turn oven off, and let cheesecake sit 1 hour in oven, without opening (this helps prevent cracking).
• 5. Remove foil. Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan (this helps prevent cracking, too); leave in pan, and cool completely on wire rack. (After 1 hour of cooling, gently loosen pan edges to release any trapped water. Cover loosely and refrigerate, at least 6 hours or up to overnight.
• 6. Prepare Chocolate Ganache: Mix cream and chocolate in glass measuring cup. Heat in microwave at 10 second intervals stirring after each heating, until smooth and melted, about 1-2 min.
• 7.Unmold cheesecake. Spread ganache in center of cheesecake; let set before serving.
• 
  

sookhi murgi

Sookhi murgi means dry chicken. It is basically curry chicken without any water. This is my made-up recipe for it, just from having eaten it at various Indian all-you-can-eat restaurants.

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 can chicken

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add everything else and stir it up. Serve with cooked rice or cooked potatoes with peas.

caraway seed cake

I was thinking about how much I like rye bread with the seeds in, and it occurred to me that you could probably buy just the seeds, and eat as many of them as you wanted. I looked on Amazon, because it didn't seem like the sort of thing you would find at Walmart when you buy your weekly seven gallons of milk and its not like I'm going to drive to another store, and it turns out you can get a pound of the pokey little puppies for eight dollars.
The first thing I decided to make was a seed cake. (This was mainly because I have successfully made cakes before, so it seemed doable.) The ingredients list looked pretty easy: eggs, butter, caraway seeds, sugar, a bit of milk, and  self rising flour. I figured that just meant flour with baking soda mixed in. But it turned out I didn't have any flour, and I wasn't about to drive to a store,so I thought for a bit and I saw a box of lemon cookie mix from 2014. I looked on the ingredients and it looked like the mix was flour, sugar, baking soda, and a little lemon flavoring. I figured it was probably the right mix of flour and sugar, but since cookies are not as fluffy as cakes I added a teaspoon more of baking soda. So this is the recipe I used:

1 and a half sticks of butter
1 box of lemon cookie mix
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/3 cup of caraway seeds
1/3 cup (or so) of milk

The website had this complicated method where you were supposed to beat the butter and fold in the eggs and flour or something, but I just put it all in a bowl and used the mixer. The batter tasted okay, so I greased the small square glass pan and poured it in. I cooked it for half an hour at 350F, but it was all jiggly in the middle so I put it in for another 7 minutes and that seems to have been just about right. It turns out that cookie mix is still not bad after 5 years in a sealed bag, which I wasn't really sure about. Walnuts and olive oil seem to go bad really fast, but apparently not lemon cookie mix.
It could have been moister though, so maybe next time I'll add some applesauce, or maybe pour some kind of sweet liquid over it.

One Pot Cheesy Mexican Lentils, Black Beans, and Rice

Rachel found this recipe at https://reciperunner.com/one-pot-cheesy-mexican-lentils-black-beans-and-rice/ It's delicious. I could eat the whole pot by myself, it goes down so smooth, but it's enough food to feed a family of eight if six of them are kids or teenagers.

ONE POT CHEESY MEXICAN LENTILS, BLACK BEANS AND RICE
yield: 5 SERVINGS
prep time: 20 MINUTES
cook time: 50 MINUTES
total time: 1 HOUR (if you overlap some of the prep time with the cook time)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, grated or minced
1/2 cup uncooked long grain brown rice
1/2 cup uncooked French green lentils, rinsed (red or brown lentils may also be used)
2-3 cups low sodium vegetable stock
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle powder (optional)
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
15 ounces black beans (canned), rinsed and drained
1/2 cup fire roasted tomatoes, drained
4 ounces diced green chiles (canned)
1 small zucchini, shredded
1/2 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1 cup red enchilada sauce
3/4 cup shredded cheese, I used sharp cheddar and part skim mozzarella
Cilantro for garnish (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat a large pot or saucepan over medium high heat.
2. When the pot is heated spray with cooking oil and add in the onion and garlic.
3. Sauté for a couple minutes then add in the brown rice and lentils.
4. Add in the vegetable stock, stir and bring to a boil.
5. Once boiling, cover and reduce the heat to low.
6. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until lentils and rice are tender.
7. If there is any excess liquid drain it.
8. Season the rice and lentils with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and chipotle powder.
9. Add in all of the remaining ingredients except 1/4 cup of the cheese and stir together.
10. Heat the mixture until the cheese is melted.
11. Top with the remaining cheese and cover with a lid.
12. Heat on low until the cheese is melted and the mixture is bubbly.

NUTRITION INFORMATION: YIELD: 5 SERVING SIZE: 1
Amount Per Serving: CALORIES: 498 TOTAL FAT: 14g SATURATED FAT: 8g TRANS FAT: 0g UNSATURATED FAT: 5g CHOLESTEROL: 39mg SODIUM: 1274mg CARBOHYDRATES: 65g FIBER: 18g SUGAR: 11g PROTEIN: 30g