Brown Sugar-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

Update: these cupcakes were selected as one of the 20 best potluck recipes by the New York Times Magazine!  Make sure to check out all 20 recipes and read the related article by Amanda Hesser.


I don’t want to play favorites, but I’m going to have to: this here is my favorite cupcake to date. It’s actually my favorite cake (I’ve made it a few times before), but because I wasn’t in the mood to make a full-out layer cake (nor did I think it would be a good idea to have my favorite cake sitting in my apartment), I decided to just turn the cake into cupcakes.

Vegan Palak “Paneer”

Palak paneer is commonly called saag paneer despite the fact that there actually is a difference between the two. Technically, palak paneer is made with spinach and saag paneer is made with mustard greens and spinach, but most restaurants (and home cooks) make their versions with just spinach and call it saag paneer anyway.

My mom, however, has always correctly called her version of it palak paneer (yet another testament to her excellence in the kitchen). I’ve always liked my mom’s version of it better than anything I’ve had at a restaurant, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my mom – she really is an amazing cook.

Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies

In case you couldn’t tell from the lack of a single cookie recipe on here to date, I’m not really a cookie person. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth (but you might not know it from all the cupcakes I make - and then give away), but, if given a choice between a cookie and a cupcake, I’m going for the cupcake, and pie beats out both of those. Sure, I’ll eat a cookie every now and then, but only if it’s a really good cookie – meaning that it is moist, chewy, and contains lots of stuff – chocolate chips, dried fruit, maybe some nuts, whatever, but there needs to be a lot of them in the cookie.

660 Curries Book Giveaway

I’ve decided that I’m going to give away all three copies today as opposed to giving one away each week. Why?

I’ve tried out 4 recipes from the book and, quite frankly, I’m not thrilled by them. Granted, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to Indian food (I was raised on it, can you blame me). The recipes aren’t by any means bad, but I don’t think that they’re great, either. That being said, I do think that this book is useful for people who are looking to learn more about regional Indian cuisine.

So, instead of posting more recipes from the book, I’m giving away all three copies today (I sent emails to the three winners) and I'm going to return to business as usual around here.

Stay tuned for some yummy cookies.

Lady Baltimore and Lord Baltimore Cupcakes

Tomorrow is a big day in Baltimore – the running of the 133rd Preakness takes place tomorrow evening (and I’m going!). Although this race might not be as glamorous as its counterpart in Kentucky, it’s certainly not devoid of class, refinement, or traditions – you better believe I’ll be wearing a pretty dress, heels, and a big hat decorated with ribbon and flowers, as will countless other women at the event.

And while the Kentucky Derby may have the mint julep, Preakness also has an official drink, and it’s named for Maryland’s state flower: the Black-Eyed Susan. A mixture of vodka, light rum, Cointreau, orange juice, and pineapple juice, the Black-Eyed Susan sounds tasty as an afternoon cocktail (I’ll find out how it tastes tomorrow), but not so much as a cupcake to serve at the pre-Preakness party I’m hosting at my place tomorrow afternoon before my friends and I head up to Pimlico in our sharp attire.

Chana Saag (Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach) & Cookbook Giveaway

This is the first of three recipes that I'll be posting from 660 Curries. Don't forget to leave a comment by 9 pm on Sunday, May 18th to be entered into the drawing for first of three copies of the book (see this post for details).

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I had a ton of fresh spinach that I had gotten at the market earlier in the week, so a spinach recipe was in order. I was all set to search the index of the book for spinach recipes, but it so happened that when I opened the book, I landed on the page for this recipe. Since I had almost all the ingredients on hand, I decided to go for it.

Most of the ingredients for this recipe are either already in your house or easily available, but it does require one very special ingredient that is only available at Indian grocery stores: sambar powder. Sambar powder is a South Indian spice blend that is not only used for making sambar (as the name might imply), but also for flavoring vegetable curries. It's made by roasting spices and lentils and then grinding them to make a powdered spice blend. South Indians are apparently the only people in the world who roast lentils and use them as seasonings, either whole, as in this green bean dish, or ground as in this eggplant curry and tomato and lentil stew. Roasted lentils lend a nutty and almost sweet flavor to dishes, and the result is unlike any other seasoning I've ever had.

I followed this recipe almost exactly as written in order to be able to properly review and critique it. On the whole, I would give it a rating of 6 out of 10. I like the combination of chickpeas and spinach, and I’m a fan of using South Indian spices in dishes, but there was a striking lack of cohesion in this dish both texturally and flavor-wise. I wouldn’t specifically make this again unless I made the following changes:

• Reduce the amount of mustard seeds from 1 tsp to 1/2 tsp - the flavor of popped mustard seeds overwhelmed the dish.
• Omit the ginger and fried onion/shallot – onions, shallots, garlic, and other allium members are never used in South Indian cooking; ginger is rarely used, and, if so, never with sambar powder and popped mustard seeds (my mother’s jaw dropped when I told her that the recipe called for mustard seeds and sambar powder AND onions and ginger). I couldn't distinctly taste the ginger and shallots, but I would omit them nonetheless.
• Reduce the amount of water from 2 cups to 1 cup and increase the simmering time to at least 20 minutes (from 8-10) - the final product was really watery and not at all cohesive in terms of texture or flavor. Reducing the amount of water by ½ and increasing the cooking time would allow for more of the water to get absorbed by the chick peas, for the chick peas to give off some of their starch and thereby thicken the sauce, and for all the flavors to blend together.
  

I might also use frozen spinach instead of fresh, because the delicate fresh spinach flavor was totally drowned out by the seasonings.

That being said, I think this would be a great weeknight dinner - it's quick, easy to make, inexpensive, healthy, and, with the aforementioned changes, probably really tasty.

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Chana Saag (Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach)
(serves 4)

2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or canola oil
1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon ginger paste
2 tablespoons fried onion paste (I used 2 tablespoons finely minced shallots)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons sambar powder
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
2 cups cooked chickpeas (I used a 15-ounce can)
2 cups water
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, well rinsed and finely chopped

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Heat the ghee in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover the pot, and cook until the seeds have stopped popping, about 30 seconds. Lower the heat to medium and add the ginger paste. Stir-fry until light brown, about 30 seconds. (Be careful with this step – the ghee will be very hot and the ginger will very likely splatter – I kept any splattering ghee and ginger out of my face by covering the pot and then pulling up the lid a bit to leave it ajar, then sticking a long wooden spoon into the pot to stir the ginger.)

Stir in the fried onion paste, tomato paste, sambar powder, salt, and chickpeas. Stir well to coat the chickpeas, then add the water. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Add the spinach and stir well to incorporate. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the mixture has thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Book Review and Giveaway: 660 Curries

A few weeks ago, I received a copy of Raghavan Iyer’s book 660 Curries. As the title might imply, the book contains hundreds of recipes for Indian curries. What the title doesn’t imply, though, is that the book contains recipes from all regions of India, and not every recipe in this book is for what generally comes to mind when you hear the word “curry.”

The book opens with an introduction to and recipes for the foundation of curries: spice blends and pastes. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as generic “curry powder” (so go throw away that bottle of curry powder you bought in the spice aisle in the supermarket), and Iyer does a wonderful job of providing recipes for and explaining the uses of many regional spice blends. What follows are literally hundreds of recipes that are organized into neat categories: appetizer curries, meat curries (I obviously skipped over those 160 pages), vegetable, lentil, and paneer curries, fusion curries, and side dishes. Indian food is incredibly diverse – dishes from Tamil Nadu are completely different from those you would find in Goa – and this book not only includes recipes from all the regions of India, but also explains the differences between the cuisines of the regions.

While I don’t think that this book is the ultimate guide to Indian cooking, I do think that it is an excellent resource for people who love Indian food and want to learn about regional Indian cuisine as well how to cook dishes that go beyond the narrow purview of the local Indian restaurant.

So, to that end, I’m giving away three copies of 660 Curries.

Here's how it works: starting today and for the next two weeks, I will post the recipe for and my comments and thoughts on one dish from the book. I'll post each recipe on Monday (actually, the first one will be posted tomorrow), and I will be giving away one copy of the book each week.

To be entered into each weekly drawing, all you need to do is leave a relevant comment on the post for the weekly recipe – maybe what your favorite Indian dish is, or what your experiences with Indian cooking have been, or anything along those lines. I’ll randomly select a winner on the Sunday of the following week. Just make sure that you

1. Leave your comment by 9 pm Eastern time on that Sunday, and
   
2. Provide either a link to your own blog (where I presume I would be able to find your email address) or your email address in the format name at domain dot com – for example, I’d be raspberryeggplant at gmail dot com (Leaving your email address this way instead of in traditional format helps prevent spammers from finding your email address and adding it to their list. I don’t want you to get spammed. I care about my readers!)

This is my first giveaway of any kind, and I’m excited about it! Good luck!

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I’ve wanted to buy an ice cream maker for almost a year now, and I finally bought one last Friday for the low price of $20! (Thanks to David Lebovitz for the tip about the sale at Amazon – apparently they sold out of them really quickly, so I’m glad I was able to get my hands on one.)

One of my favorite flavors of ice cream is (and always has been) mint chip, but these days I just can’t eat it if it’s green and the mint flavor is distinctly artificial. All-natural mint ice cream (made with real mint) is the way to go, and it’s even better with chunks of good quality chocolate in it.

Spring Onion and Potato Soup with Garlic-Parmesan Croutons

I’ve really become obsessed with buying everything at the farmers market – Michael Pollan would be proud of me. I haven’t been to the supermarket in weeks! (OK, that’s not entirely true – I’ve been there to buy yogurt and bananas. I suppose I could make my own yogurt, but growing bananas is totally out of the question.)

Spring onions are one of the things that are in season and abundant right now, so of course I had to buy a few bunches of them last weekend. Spring onions aren’t scallions (although they are frequently, and erroneously, labeled as such) – they’re young onions that are pulled before the onion bulb gets a chance to mature. They taste sort of like scallions, but they’re a little more pungent and onion-y (obviously, because they’re young onions!).

Strawberry Rhubarb Ginger Scones

I can’t believe I got up early on both Saturday and Sunday to go to the Waverly and Baltimore Farmers Markets, respectively. Saturday’s trip was exclusively for dairy, and Sunday was the opening of the larger Baltimore Farmers Market (the one under the JFX). I really love going to the JFX market – waking up early, perusing the market, and walking home with bags full of produce makes me feel productive, and, for some reason, walking to the market and then walking home with heavy bags of produce reminds me of being in NYC – probably because one of the aspects of living in NYC is that you have to lug all of your purchases home because you don’t have a car.

It’s not quite summer yet, and the market is still overflowing with spring produce: asparagus as far as the eye can see, spring onions, greens, and herbs are the most abundant right now. Both markets were selling strawberries from North Carolina, and there was but one vendor at each market selling rhubarb . I had to get the rhubarb because it’s going to be out of season soon and I wanted to make a pie with it. So of course I got strawberries to go with the rhubarb – they’re a classic pair in pies (although I prefer peach with rhubarb, but it’s not peach season yet, so strawberries it was).