Chili!! with or without meat!

so on tuesdays Dipak doesnt eat meat.. its a religious thing, and i respect it. it also gets me off my red meat obsession once a week lol which couldnt hurt. so while dipak was slaving away at school, i was schlepping on the couch trying to think of a vegetarian meal that would fill us both up AND (not to be too immature but) wouldnt make me gag :|

my friend Natasha said that the one healthy meal her bf likes is this turkey chili she makes. her bf and i have the same unhealthy taste in food. so it got me thinking.. i could do veggie chili and make corn bread that would un-health-ify it so id like it more too :)

ive never made chili so i was stressing it wouldnt turn out good, so i got two lean cuisines just in case hah. but it turned out great!! and i know it'd turn out even better with real meat. (i got fake ground beef for the meal- i prefer Morning Star brand for my fake-meat products btw) - oh! and i almost had a bean-catastrophe! so i had a packet of dry red beans already in my pantry so i thought ill try and use it in the recipe. the back of the packet of beans said "soak in hot water for 2 minutes" - i thought omg how easy! ive been avoiding this for no reason! ... yeah. i was wrong. i ended up soaking the beans in boiling water for like... over an hour! maybe even 2 hours! it was nuts! after two minutes, the beans were as hard as peanuts! and they looked so gross.. i ended up texting my friend and my neighbor asking how im supposed to do this.. basically you just wait. lol so it IS easy, but it just takes forever. BUT dipak was stuck in lab for just long enough, so its all good hah

okay so for meatless chili i used these ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil 
1/2 an onion (minced) 
1 tbsp garlic (minced) 
1/2 of a green bell pepper
1/2 of a red bell pepper 
1/4 cup of vegetable broth or stock (i have learned now that stock is more saturated than broth, so it tastes more flavorful but also has more calories.. just fyi lol)
about 2 cups or 16oz of crushed tomatoes (they come in these huge cans that are like 32 ounces, but i only used about half of it for this recipe- but you can also eye-ball it. the tomato sauce will be the base of your chili. so add as much as you want to make yknow? itll make more sense when youre doing it)
1 packet of McCormicks Original Chili spices (im pretty sure thats cheating, but ive never made this before and it was on kinda short notice lol)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
about 1/4 cup of red beans (okay iiim pretty sure you can also just buy a can of pinto beans or kidney beans in a can, drain them and dump them in your chili and let them sit in the pot bc the ones in the can are already smushy bc theyve been soaking for months.... ew. i just grossed myself out hahaha... i mean theyre fine to use. so im assuming you can do that too! drain them, and use however much you want. im not the biggest bean fan in general, so i tend to use less) 
1 packet of Morning Star crumbled meat (which also sounds gross lol so if you want to use real meat, i dont blame you haha but it was pretty good! its NOT meat! so even tho it looks like it, dont expect a meat taste or texture. but its not gross.. and it doesnt take away from the flavor. so really its just a little more substance in the chili to make it more hearty)

IF YOURE COOKING DRY BEANS: begin your whole journey by soaking your beans in hot water! put a pot on the stove, turn the heat to high and dump in your beans. once the water starts boiling, turn it down to med/low and let them sit there forever! check on them in an hour and see how firm they still are. im PRETTY sure mine soaked for over an hour and a half! if you want to use canned beans, ill just write that into the recipe below :)

TO ACTUALLY CREATE THE CHILI: start with the first ingredients. heat on medium. oil in your pot, throw in your onions. sprinkle a little salt on your onions. i saw on a cooking show that salting the onions while theyre cooking makes them more flavorful, and dipak loooves his onions. so i figure, why not! then add your garlic and peppers. let them simmer together and get smelly and delicious! (that takes about 5 minutes in my opinion lol.. make sure to stir frequently so they dont burn) Then throw in your vegetable stock. turn the heat to medium/low and let this all sit for about 5 minutes.

then pour in the whole packet of chili spice. i was wondering what makes chili that color... this combination of spices does. mystery solved. so pour in your spice and mix mix mix. once its all dissolved into your veggie broth concoction, add your crushed tomato sauce. stir that all around and then turn the heat to low and let it sit there. add all of your spices to this; garlic powder, salt, garlic salt, cayenne... let it simmer.

if youre using canned beans, i think you should drain and add them now. if not, wait until your beans are smushy enough and then add them whenever theyre ready.

IF YOU USE REAL MEAT: i think what i'll do next time is take a packet of ground beef, chicken or turkey.. throw it in a skillet with a little oil on the bottom. hit it with garlic salt, pepper, cayenne and maybe a sprinkle of your chili spice packet (optional) and let it brown up while you break it apart. then when its fully cooked, throw it in the chili you just made and let it all simmer together for a while. 

when you have all your chili pieces in one pot.. let it all simmer together for 10 minutes on super low. after i was completely done with my chili, i had to turn off the heat and wait for dipak to get home, so i had to re-heat it, but it was AWESOME anyway :) and i grated cheese on top and made corn bread (which is like my 4th or 5th recipe on here) and it was soo gooood!

let me know how it goes :) and what you added to make it better! i need more tips!

Adventures in QUINOA :)

i know i havent written in a long time but honestly whos reading this anyway lol.. recently dipak has been on a super health kick!! first things first, if you know me personally or have ever read my blog you should know that "healthy food" is generally NOT on my menu... or even near my menu really :/ anyway, im trying to cope. so i have discovered quinoa! and. im in love! :) it tastes like a mix between rice and pasta! and you make it about the same way too!

we've also bought cottage cheese, egg whites, hummus, boost (the old people drinks w extra protein), and a bunch of other things i would never eat. :/ altho i did start having the chocolate boost and.... its pretty good. maybe bc my mom used to feed my sister and me those old people drinks when we were little bc we were underweight hah... guess im nostalgic lol

so anyway, ive started using quinoa which is pronounced "keen-wah", not kwin-oh-ah like i thought. lol i learned that from an episode of White Collar. i learn a lot from TV. like gas is odorless!- friends. you can make a car bullet proof with phone books- burn notice. fig newtons werent named after issac newton- big bang theory. julius caesar invented a salad- how i met your mother lol some facts are less useful/true than others haha..

okay so today im going to give you the quinoa cake recipe with a lemon aioli! which btw is my new favorite dinner :) its so freakin goooood!

the ingredients youll need:

2 cups cooked Quinoa (i thought they meant cook 2 cups.. they really mean, cook about 3/4 of a cup. when its cooked it more than doubles in size! so i ended up with about 5 cups of quinoa the first time lol)
1 cup of grated fontina cheese (however when i was in london visiting my sis-in-law, i couldnt find fontina. i used chedder and it was awesome anyway.. so basically a cup of your favorite shredded cheese)
3 tbsp of flour (i used wheat flour in london and white flour in america haha and both were great)
2 green onions (finely chop)
1 egg (lightly beaten - and to get extra food-glue, ive been adding a splash of egg white only)
2 tbsp black pepper
salt to taste (i generally do like 1 level tbsp)

so start off making your quinoa! i noticed that some packets tell you how to make it, and others dont, so in case you dont know how to make it... heres how: pour one cup of quinoa in a pot, and add two cups of water to it. set the burner to high and when it starts to boil, turn it to medium and let it soak up the water and get puffier. generally from beginning to end it takes me about 15 minutes to make one cup of quinoa. and when you cook ONE cup, it makes about 2.5 cups of cooked quinoa. so itll be perfect for the rest of your recipe :)

now that you have your cooked quinoa, put it in a bowl and add your other ingredients right on top. i then put on gloves but if youre not insane like me, just stick your hand in there and squish it all around until its all mixed together and looks like... maybe like a cross between ground meat and latkes before you fry them lol

there is no finesse to this portion of the cooking btw. just dump and mix :) - and the best thing about this recipe is that you can make this part like in the afternoon and then fry each one up when people are waiting for dinner bc its pretty quick :)

whist that is sitting around soaking up flavor, you can make your lemon aioli! i have learned that i loooooove aioli. actually i already kinda knew that lol but i didnt think iii could make it AND love it too! but it was pretty impossible to eff up so yeah lol ..

youll need:

1/2 cup light mayo (i made it with full fat mayo too and obviously it was better, but the light mayo is actually pretty flavorful too... in fact its almost the same)
1 tbsp garlic (i have also learned that you can always add as much garlic as you want and youll never ruin the food :))
1 lemon (a little zest if you have the little zester, and the juice)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (it wont make it spicy.. must be something about the mayo that sucks up the spice or something)
1/4 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

for the ailoi, you just dump all of these into your blender and puree your heart out! then i put it into a little bowl and let it chill for about an hour while i cleaned up and made the quinoa cakes.

when youre ready to pan fry your quinoa cakes, take a skillet that might fit three small patties in it and put the heat on med/high. add about 2 tbsp of oilve oil and let it heat up. then (with my gloves!) take a little handful of your goopy quinoa concoction and roll it into a ball in your hand and then squish it down into a patty and place it into the oil. if you think you can toss it into the oil without burning yourself, youd be wrong :|

let the patties sit in the little bit of oil for a couple minutes on each side. dont let it get too too crispy tho. i thought at first that the crispier it is, the better, but its just not true. the flavor is so good, youll want to actually taste the quinoa and not just burnt cheese lol which is also yummy hah

i take a paper towel and when i move the cakes off the pan, i put them on a paper towel to catch any excess oil. i re-oil the pan every other time pretty much..

theyre awesome!! and not bad for you :) AND pretty filling! so make them and enjoy :) let me know how it goes!

this was my first batch btw.. so i had burnt them a little :/ they were still delicious

im back!...with pesto :)

hello blog :) ive missed you. im back in florida! and so the cooking continues! this entry is for my little churro, Natalia! (shes my churro bc shes sugar and spice and everything nice.. and so are churros) she requested i post the pesto, so here it is! also Congratulations on your engagement loveyyy!!! <3 :)

so as you can assume, i made my own pesto the other night.. i made a whole batch and then ruined it. had to throw it away. and then made a whole NEW batch.. and it ended up awesome! but its so sad that the first batch was so gross... i did something stupid. i added brown sugar to it :/ i know i know. youre thinking WHY!? why would you do that!?! well.. heres why..

first of all, i went to Publix and guess what is super expensive? Basil. guess what the main ingredient in pesto is? Basil. so yeah.. i ended up buying a basil ... plant. hah. a Sweet Basil plant to be specific. AND i also bought a package of basil too.. so for the first batch of pesto, i used store bought basil and added some of my plant leaves, mixed it with garlic and tasted it. it was bitter and a little spicy in a weird way and pretty gross. so i added salt.. that helped, but it was still bitter. so my stupid self added SUGAR - and it became inedible! soooo gross! i dumped it. super gross.

the next batch i only used the fresh leaves from my plant... my poor little plant... never saw me coming.

the ingredients that worked are:

2 cups of fresh sweet basil (i stripped that little plant clean)
2 tbsp garlic (minced)
1 tbsp pine nuts (the girls at the supermarket hadnt ever heard of pine nuts, so it took me about 20 minutes to find them! theyre with the planters peanuts btw :| )
1/4 red bell pepper (dice coarsely.. youre gonna blend them anyway- and this is what i used to add a little sweetness to the pesto.. instead of sugar like an idiot :/ ) 
salt to taste 

so take out your blender. dust it off.. i literally hadnt used this blender since i moved here! (4 months). honestly i always thought it was too hard to clean a blender- so i just didnt use it. turns out its about as hard to clean as a cup. so yay! i have a new toy :) .. well new to me. hah

take your blender and throw in all your ingredients except for your salt. wait for the salt!! so blend everything else together until its soupy and looks like.... well pesto. Then sprinkle in 1/2 a tsp of salt at a time and taste it over and over until you like the taste. warning: no matter WHAT, when its cold, the taste will be a little bitter and strong. when you cook it, the flavor becomes less intense.

so i made my risotto (which is the first recipe on this blog- except this time i added sun-dried tomatoes to it) and at the very end of the risotto, fold in a tablespoon of your pesto. then add more to your liking. you can take your excess pesto and freeze it, to use it next time. it will keep for months in the freezer!

badabing badaboom! youre done! :) let me know how you like it!

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 :)