Takin a little Cali-break...

Hello all :) So I'm back in california for a couple of weeks... Meaning I probably wont be cooking much :) mama's meals an all! But I will hopefully pick up tips from my moms so that when I'm back in Florida I can start making more Indian food and some persian food too!! Also I just now learned that I can write an entry on my iPhone! So that solves my problem of no-computer.. However I have no recipe to post today! Just wanted to say hi and that I miss blogging lol When I go back to Florida I'll continue- full force! :) <3

Cajun cream pasta w veggies!!

so todays recipe is going up because of my incredible sis-in-law-to-be AND very-soon-mom-to-be, Diksha! Hi sis!! her hubby is a vegetarian (and a bellend lol- hi Sach!) and this meal is probably my favorite vegetarian dinner ive made. so here we go..

so this recipe came from one i found on pinterest.. i took a couple steps and then changed the rest. i always wanted to know how to make a proper cream sauce. turns out... you just heat cream. hah - so then the rest of the recipe was inspired by Chili's (the restaurant's) cajun chicken pasta. so obviously i omitted the chicken. but i love the cajun spices in that dish... in anything actually. so i tried to make my own and add it to my pasta.

so lately i have less to say, and i think thats okay. in fact i was feeling kind of guilty that people have to sift through all my gibber jabber to find my recipe lol. anyway, onward!

if youre making your own cajun spice mix, youll want to make a little more than just for this recipe. get a tiny tupperware or a little ziplock bag and make your mix.
Cajun seasonings:

1 tbsp salt (slightly heaping)
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp paprika 
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tbsp ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp garlic powder

now the ingredients you'll need are:

a splash of chicken stock
1/2 packet (or 5oz) of Philadelphia cooking cream (i used the Italian Garlic and Herb)
1/2 cup regular cream (im sure you could use heavier cream, and i bet it would taste amazing! ...but of course, theres the annoying problem of heart attacks an all that :/
1 heaping tsp of your cajun seasoning you just made
2 small containers of marinated artichoke hearts (i had mentioned before that i like the brand Vigo- take these artichokes and cut them up before you use them)
1 cup of broccoli (i use frozen broccoli, microwave it for 1 minute and then cook it)
1 cup of uncooked pasta (i use bow tie :) but obviously use whatever you want. i like a pasta that scoops up the sauce the best)

fill a pot with water, drizzle it with oil and sprinkle it with salt. put the heat on high and when it starts to boil, throw in your pasta :) let it cook. i like to do this part, while im cooking the sauce so that hopefully everything is done at the same time.

for your sauce, put a medium size pan on the stove and put the heat on medium/low. pour in your splash of stock and when it heats up a bit, add your cooking cream. use a wooden spoon to stir it around and mix them together. the stock will water down your cooking cream so its more of a saucy consistency. when theyre fully mixed together, add your cream. stir them around until you feel like theyre fully mixed together too..

now add a heaping tsp of your cajun spice. stir stir stir until your previously-white sauce becomes a light orangey-coral. at this point, i like to taste the sauce.. if its a little salty, thats okay. when you mix in your veggies, they will soak up some of that salt.

let your sauce simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. then add your artichokes and broccoli. stir them all together and youre ready! i feel like red bell peppers would go well with this dish too? maybe someone try it before i do and let me know :) ?

then drain your pasta and throw the sauce and pasta together and youre ready to eat! :D enjoy!

butter chicken OR paneer :) mmm!

hello my amazing reader... whoever you are :)

last night i made butter paneer! it was just like my butter chicken (chicken makhani) but instead of chicken i used little blocks of paneer. in case i didnt explain it before btw, Paneer is a type of indian cheese.. its consistency is like extra firm tofu, but its waaaaay more flavorful, fatty and delicious! you can get it from any indian grocery store- there are a LOT of them. trust me, once you start looking for indian stores, they'll be there. especially in good ol' cali :) the melting pot of america!... im home sick hah - aaanyway, my paneer makhani turned out sooo good!!

we invited a couple of dipaks school mates over to have dinner with us, and everyone loved it! dipak said it was restaurant quality!! :D so now i feel like this recipe is worthy of the blog :)

the first time i made it, i was like 'wow, CUPS of tomato puree? CUPS of cream??' theres only two of us.. so i left out a bunch of the liquid, assuming itd be way too much sauce, but then it ended up being not nearly enough! so this time, i just used cups :)

and speaking of cups, i should mention that for the first month of my cooking career i thought that "1 cup of butter" was the same thing as "1 stick of butter" ... and its not. apparently 1 cup of butter means TWO sticks of butter- which i just think is ridiculous!! what needs two sticks of butter!? other than frosting! so because of my cooking-ignorance, i was using half the amount of butter that was in the written recipe... but my food still turned out fine!... better than fine actually :) so now, i always cut down the butter. on purpose. and it always works out really well.

so the ingredients youll need are:

1/2 a stick of butter (the original recipe said 1 cup of butter, divided. i made this last night with only 1/2 a stick and it was amazing anyway! - and i took this 1/2 a stick and cut it into 6 tabs)
1 small onion (diced - or half a big onion)
1 tsp garlic (minced - or one clove minced)
1 can (15oz) tomato puree, or crushed tomato
1 cup regular cream (theres heavy cream, theres heaving whipping cream... this one just said regular :/ ?)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala

for the chicken:
boneless, skinless chicken breast (cut into small pieces) 
1 heaping tsp tandoori masala (also, "masala" just means "spice" - for some reason, knowing that made it less scary lol - if you dont have this, you can also sub it out for paprika, garlic, and a dash of garam masala)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
salt to taste

and if youre making this with paneer instead of chicken, take out the "for the chicken" part.
for paneer instead:
1 package of paneer (cut up into 1/2 inch or 1 inch cubes - i like the cubes to be smaller, but to each his own)

so if youre making this with chicken, set the oven to 375. -- if youre making this with paneer put your frozen paneer in a bowl of luke warm water to help it defrost so it'll be ready by the time you need it. (it comes in frozen blocks)

for either recipe: take a big, deep skillet and set the heat to medium/low. melt in three tabs of butter and then throw in your onions and garlic. stir them around occasionally, and let it cook for 10-15 minutes... until it smells nice :)

then pour in your tomato sauce and cream together. mix mix mix until you have a pretty, creamy orange color. then toss in your remaining butter and all your spices: salt, cayenne and garam masala.

then mix it all together well, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 30 minutes! (remember to keep a LID on the pan bc it will splatter) stirring occasionally. if youre making this with paneer, youre pretty done. let the sauce simmer for 30, and then toss in your paneer. let it all cook together for another 5, and serve! :)

if youre making it with chicken, while the sauce is simmering, sprinkle the chicken with salt, toss it with your vegetable oil and then douse it with your tandoori masala (or paprika, garlic and garam masala) and make sure the chicken is all coated. then spread the chicken on a baking sheet and put it in your oven for about 12 minutes (on 375)

when your chicken is done, mix it in with your orange sauce and let it all cook together for another 5 minutes. and then serve!  i like to serve it with garlic naan! its sooo good!

i hope that wasnt too confusing with the back and forth. if it is, please feel free to comment and ask questions!
good luck!! and let me know how it goes! :) also if youre having trouble commenting on the blog, as some people have told me they are, you can email me at parya.bahrani@gmail.com!

best mashed potatoes ever :D

last night i tried to make chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli w melted cheese.. the broccoli was awesome! the mashed potatoes were my sister, Neela's recipe and they were the highlight of the whole meal, and the chicken.... :/ ..... was so salty we pretty much couldnt eat it. UH. i always feel like i under-season my chicken, so this time i thought i would make sure not to under-season :| obviously i went over board. anyway, i thought i would give out neelas mashed potato recipe!

Neela's recipe was derived from Tamara's twice baked potato recipe which is LITERALLY worth dying for. okay not literally haha but close!

the idea started bc im trying to make more dinners from the food we've now accumulated in our place. i had just bought chicken tenders (which seems to be my favorite cut of chicken, bc its small and easy to work with) we had a whole bag of potatoes sitting in the bottom of my pantry and a bag of broccoli in the freezer.

the potatoes i bought about a month ago, assuming that id be like our moms and actually USE them in everything... not so much. i also realized why it was taking so long to get the house full of usable pantry/cupboard food. at our houses, our moms know how to cook! they know the whole family's favorites. so they keep those things on hand. also if youre mainly making indian food, or just persian food, then you need a very specific set of ingredients for most things: onions, garlic, rice, potatoes, specific spices. then you buy some meat to make the meal. but the other stuff is made up of stock items.

beacuse 1. im learning to cook. and 2. dipak and i are pretty american, it took forever to fill the house with the "stock" items that i use. i love eating american and "italian" foods, dipak loves indian food obviously, but he'll actually eat most things. we both love mexican food! i like persian food too, but the things i love, dipak doesnt, and the things i think he'd like are just way too intimidating for me to make. ANYWAY, the point is.. i think we're finally there. theres enough in the house for any kind of food now :)

so back to my potatoes. first of all i would like to state that when food has "body parts" it grosses me OUT. why? why would you say that potatoes have "eyes" :/  i was just complaining about this to neela yesterday.. blekh! and naval oranges? why?? it makes me think of a belly button, and then theyre just super gross. "baby corn" ew. i dont want to eat a baby anything!!! call it little corn, potato weeds, just oranges. ukh. thinking about it makes me sick. hahaha.. okay im a little dramatic,

anyway, later i learned a little something. i asked this cute little aunty at the indian store the other day "how long can you keep potatoes before they go bad?" and i learned, from her and from internet searches (god bless google) that you can keep potatoes for months! as long as theyre kept in a cool and dark place. i also learned that when you buy a bag of potatoes, you should take them out of their original packaging and move them to a clean plastic bag. (apparently there could be roaches in the original bag from the warehouse they came from... gross fact #45 about potatoes) so take the potatoes and put them in a new bag. put them in the bottom drawer in your fridge. that way you can keep them the longest amount of time.

IF you leave potatoes to sit around for a while.. say a week or so, they can -blekh- grow. eyes. im sorry, but when you say it like that, doesnt that gross everyone out?? anyway, so if they "grow eyes" you can just wash them off.. i have gloves for that. then theyre okay again. and in fact, i read online that as long as the potatoes arent secreting brown ooze, you can still eat them and they wont poison you.


so thats my potato knowledge :) and now for the most amazing mashed potatoes ever. the ingredients are:
for 2 people!

3 potatoes (washed and peeled)
1/2 a packet of ranch seasoning mix (make sure youre not getting the ranch DIP, you want the salad dressing and seasoning mix)
2 tabs or tbsp of butter (salted)
splash of milk
start with 1 tsp garlic salt (then add more and more until its to your liking)
bacon bits (to your liking)


so you begin by putting a pot of boiling water on the stove to boil your potatoes. after youve washed and peeled your potatoes, put them in your pot of water and turn the heat to high. once the water stars boiling turn the heat down and let the potatoes sit for a while. i let them cook for about 25 minutes. you know theyre done when you can push a fork through the potato. you dont want to over cook them... i think neela said they get too mushy then. anyway, after about 25 minutes, i was so impatient and hungry that i dont think i could wait to let them overcook anyway lol.

then strain the water and use your potato masher to smash them in the same pot you just used to cook them in. (neela made sure i had a potato masher when i moved in :)) so after youve mashed the potatoes, toss in your tabs of butter. the reason you should cut up your butter into 2 tabs is so that it melts more evenly.. when the butter starts melting, pour in your splash of milk and ranch powder. i kept using the masher to mix all of these ingredients together, then i think its time to taste your potatoes. at this point, they will have flavor, but they will need salt. so pour in your garlic salt. then use a wooden spoon to mix it all up and taste it again. at this point youll be able to tell how much more salt you need.

then dump in your bacon bits. however much you want :) or none if you dont like bacon. and there you go! the best mashed potatoes ever!!

and yes. that is my super salty chicken on the right there.. :/ lol. but neelas potatoes were awesome!!! try them out and let me know how it goes :)

my Perfect Pancake

hi! :)
i was looking through my pictures and thought a useful recipe would be my cinnamon sugar pancakes! theyre SO good! i love them! in fact, theres only two of us here, but i make a whole batch and then put the rest in the fridge and dipak eats them in the mornings before school. so, yeah, very useful!

this was one of the first recipes i was after when i started cooking. i figured pancakes are a staple of a good mom hah so i was frantically looking for a good recipe. each recipe was about the same, so i figured it was up to me to try making them a bunch of times and figure out how to make it the way i want.

i was thinking of "rosco's chicken and waffles" waffles. if youve had them, you know that theyre good even without syrup. so thats what i wanted to emulate. The Perfect Pancake. lol .. although theyre not as fluffy as some people might like, but i still think theyre great!

i serve them with the best scrambled eggs i can make and fakon (fake bacon) - i use Morning Star tofu-bacon. when it gets crispy we really like it! i do not like turkey bacon tho. dont let it fool you! blekh :/

anyway, the ingredients are:

1 and a 1/2 cups flour 
3 tbsp sugar 
1 tsp cinnamon (heaping tsp if you really like cinnamon :) which i do)

1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (if you dont have one or the other, just do 1.5 tsp of either one. i still dont know the difference between them, i just choose a combination, and if it works well, i keep it going hah)
1 cup milk 

1 egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil 

initially i just took one big bowl and a whisk and just started at it :) now i think there is a rhyme and reason to the order of ingredients. 

for an order to follow, just stir them in, in the order that i put them up.

whisk together all of your dry ingredients, and then add the wet ones. i learned this method from Alton :) except when he does it, he mixes the dry ingredients in one bowl and then the wet ones in a separate bowl, and then  mixes them together! but i just hate using extra b-- actually i hate washing extra bowls. :/

so there it is. THIS was actually my shortest recipe :) you. are. welcome. haha
let me know if you try it! i want to know how you like it!

chicken artichoke package

wooh!
its been a long day! and its only ... 4:45 back in cali hah. but its 7:45 here and we just finished dinner. tonight i made thai green curry with tofu. i have never had this meal before in a restaurant, so i didnt know what i was making, which makes it harder to make, but apparently i pulled it off. although i should say, extra-firm tofu my ass, it fell all apart while i was cooking it. :/ anyway, next time i know what to do to make it better.

however, yesterday i remade the chicken artichoke crescents (really theyre little packages bc apparently i cant make a crescent shape out of this pre-cut pastry but whatever), and they were goo-ood! it was one of my first repeats that we were both craving! so i think its time for this one..

So the crescent pastries that you will later stuff with deliciousness, come in these air tight tubes. aaaaand ihatethem. hate. theyre like a jack-in-the-box for grown ups! every single time i have to open one, i end up almost dropping it and screaming a little bit. you have to unravel the paper on the outside and then at some point, without warning, it just POPs open in your hand!!  and then its open and you can make your food... but really, i hate the crescent tubes. in fact, i made dipak open the second one this time. and from now on until forever.

so the ingredients you will need are:

3 cans of the scary pillsbury crescent rolls (i ended up getting the low fat ones bc they were out of the regular, and they actually taste exactly the same! and i am definitely one to always pick the fattier thing first, but really, these ones tasted the same. so why not :) )
1 packet of ground chicken (something that im sure seasoned chefs already know, but if you buy the chicken with more fat, it tastes so much better :/ this time, i got the one that was 98% fat free and it still turned out just fine... but i really wish id gotten the fattier one)
1/2 an onion (diced) 
1 tsp garlic (minced) 
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 of a red bell pepper (or more if you like it to be a little bit sweeter)
18oz of marinated artichoke hearts (i have found the Vigo brand to be very tasty! i get 2 tiny 6oz jars- also youll want to dice these up too. its an oily mess, but its worth it!)
2/3 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric 
1/2 cup mozzarella (shredded)
salt and pepper to taste

start off by preheating your oven to 375 degrees :)

so you begin, the way i seem to begin everything i cook these days, heat your olive oil over medium heat, and then throw in your onions and garlic. let them simmer for a few minutes, moving them around so theres no burning. when theyre slightly browning and "aromatic" (still cracks me up.. it really doesnt have to be that technical) .. so when they smell good lol, throw in your ground chicken. now, i like working with ground chicken bc i dont actually HAVE TO touch it. i know that the grown up, super cheffy way to do this is to put the ground chicken in a bowl, pour all the spices on it and smoosh it all together with my hands.. but imagining raw chicken under my fingernails makes me want to become a vegan. (and if you know me, you know thats just ridiculous) so anyway, i just dump the chicken into my pan, and turn the heat down to med/low. i like to salt my chicken as soon as possible, so id sprinkle it all with salt and pepper right off the bat. then take your flat topped wooden spatula (assuming you have one lol) and start smooshing it all up. as it cooks, you will stop smooshing and youll just be breaking it apart.

one cool way that my second mom (dipaks mom) taught me to make my chicken break apart is to drown it in water, turn the heat up high, and just wait! its amazing. the water evaporates and the chicken is all broken up into beautiful tiny restaurant-perfect pieces! so you could do THAT, or you can just keep smooshin'!

then start throwing in your spices! your garlic salt, chili powder, and turmeric (which stains your life!! be careful not to get it on your clothes :/ ) smoosh, smoosh, smoosh! try and get the spices all over your chicken... (also, at this point im pretty sure some moms out there are reading this shaking their heads at me.. i know theres a more mature way to do this than to smoosh the hell out of your cooking chicken, but it turned out okay and i didnt have to bleach my hands after! so ...? lol HOWEVER, i am always open to new and better ideas! so comment away please!)

so now, if you have the low low fat chicken, you might need to drizzle a little olive oil over it again or even pour a splash of chicken stock into the pan. this will moisten your chicken... i think it keeps the flavors all together.. lol if that even means anything..

when the chicken is almost fully cooked, toss in your bell peppers and diced artichoke hearts :) mmmm!! i think these little jars of marinated artichoke hearts are my new favorite thing ever!

let this all cook together on med/low (more LOW tho) for about 5 minutes. then taste your chicken mix and see how much salt it needs at this point. then leave it on low, and "fold" in your cheese.

when all this is cooked together, take it off the fire and let it sit aside. itll warm up again in the oven, so dont worry if it cools off.

now for the "fun" part. :/
take the crescent rolls and pop them open. OH! make sure to keep them refrigerated until you want to use them! if theyre room temperature when you open them, the dough sticks all together and you can forget it. seriously. so when you open it, its a sheet of dough that has been pre-cut into little triangles. honestly the first time i made this, i had to google "how to roll a crescent roll" ... pathetic haha. but i had NO idea!! and they just assume you grew up eating this? or that youre not an idiot??-- wrong on both counts. :|

anyway, the triangle has one short side and two long sides.. jeez, apparently im not good at geometry either. anyway, take the short side and roll it towards the tip of the other long sides. hopefully that made sense, or youve done this before. if it didnt help, youtube it.

so i took each triangle of dough, and spooned a scoop of my chicken-asparagus mix and put it near the end of the short side of the triangle. then roll it, and fold the ends over until its a little package of dough and meat. this is just one of those things that you just need to do to see how to do it. its really easy. i cant roll a crescent and i could do it lol so youll be fine :)

place your packages of deliciosity onto a slightly greased baking sheet and pop them into your oven for 12 minutes. (or until the crescent dough is golden and a little browned on the top)

and this ones great bc for once, i can take my food out of the oven and NOT worry about it being undercooked :) bc we did all the cooking already! woo!

enjoy! and let me know if you try it out!!

9.5 vodka sauce!

i think its time to give out my vodka sauce recipe! i already emailed it to Natalia, who passed it to Negin, whos making it tonight :) :) which makes me so happy! so i figure i should put it up here too..

i never thought i could make a sauce properly. but it turned out better than i could have imagined! dipak in all his infamous wonder, gave it a 9.5! and since he refuses to give almost anything an actual 10, thats huge news haha.

so heres something so obvious, and yet i didnt think it was true.... food is named after its ingredients. lol .. the things that particularly confused me were things like "tequila chicken" or "vodka sauce". did you know that vodka sauce actually has VODKA in it??! i didnt! ... and it does. a whole cup! ...and tequila chicken has tequila too but this isnt about that.

also, you should know that this recipe makes a whole jar of sauce! if you dont have an empty jar sitting around, use tupperware. its totally worth saving! the ingredients are:

1/2 stick of butter
1 onion (diced)
1 tsp garlic (minced)
1 cup vodka (i bought this random vodka called 360, the bottle is so cute!)
1 giant can (28oz) crushed tomatoes (or two 14oz cans obviously lol)
1 pint heavy cream (you dont have to use the whole pint.. we'll get to that)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 full tsp dried basil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (leave out the peppers if you dont like spice)
2 tsp sugar
salt to taste

find a big skillet that is deeper than your other skillets ... put the heat on medium and throw in your butter. move it around until it gets melty, then throw in your onions and garlic ... is it just me or do i start all my recipes like that? - anyway, when the onions get slightly brown, pour in your cup of vodka! let it cook on medium heat for 10 minutes!

when your alcohol has cooked for 10 minutes solid, pour in your big can of tomatoes, and all your spices now. stir it all around and mix everything together properly, and then let it cook on med/low for 20 minutes. stir it around every few minutes so that the bottom doesnt burn.

honestly, at this point you COULD totally stop and youd have awesome marinara! in fact i think ill do that next time and jar that too! taste it at this point and see how much salt it needs. however, continuing on to the next step will create the vodka sauce!

after that, you can decide how much cream you want to use! i used about 3/4 of the pint.. but then your sauce will be thick when its all finished and cooled off a little. (thats another thing i learned, when sauce cools, it becomes thicker. these things seem super obvious, but i had no idea until i did it myself) if you like your sauce more soupy, then you can use all your cream. the first time i made it, i poured the cream until the sauce became the orange color i wanted.. then i stopped. so you choose how orange you want your sauce :)

when you pour your cream in, cook the sauce for another 10 minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.  and then pour it over your cooked pasta! suuuuper good!

when i made my vodka sauce pasta meal, i also took a handful of cheese and tossed it into the sauce at the end, with chopped up andouille sausage! it was amazing!! the cheese made the sauce even more chunky, but it was still awesome. and in this photo, i wanted to have garlic bread, but we only had naan, so its pasta, vodka sauce and garlic naan lol