Chana Masala

 Here is my recipe for Chana Masala, which was a big hit on Christmas this year.

Ingredient List:

1 1/2 medium yellow onions diced smallish
2 T coconut oil
pinch of baking soda
2 tsp cumin seeds
salt and black pepper
4 garlic cloves
1 inch of ginger root, grated
1 T. lemon zest
3 tiny thai chili peppers chopped fine

one can tomato paste, with 12 oz water
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
2 cans chick peas, rinsed
cilantro to taste

Cooking Method

Saute onions in oil, sprinkling in baking soda.  I used the large stainless steel saute pan. The baking soda helps the onions break down totally, so they will blend in and become saucy. Add cumin seeds. Cook til they turn golden brown, then add a bit of water, and continue cooking, and adding little bits of water until the whole mixture becomes brown.

Muddle together garlic, lemon zest (I didn't do this, but I hear its good for the garlic) ginger and peppers. You can choose how many peppers depending on your spice level preference. Add to pan, along with remaining ingredients. Cook, stirring to blend, and then let stew for at least 30 minutes for flavors to soak into the chick peas. Yum!

Apricot Scones

 This morning I taught Anthony how to make scones. They came out great, and I made so many modifications on the recipe that I found online, I knew I had to record just what amounts of each ingredient we used.

Apricot Scones

Preheat oven to 425  Cut a piece of parchment to fit a cookie baking pan

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup COLD butter (one stick) cut into 1/2 tsp size cubes

1 egg

about 1/2 cup half and half

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped into raisin sized bits (other dried fruits could be substituted)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt in bowl of food processor and pulse a few times. 

Add butter and pulse about 12 times, until butter is in small chunks. 

Being careful not to touch the blades of the food processor, smash larger chunks of butter between your thumb and forefinger. 

Add apricots, egg and half and half and pulse until roughly combined into a dough.

Pour mixture onto baking pan and gently mold into one 9 inch disc shape, using the large blob to add the stray dry bits onto the larger body of dough. 

Slice into 12 triangles like you are cutting a birthday cake, and flatten them a bit as you spread them around on the baking pan.

Bake in center of oven for 12 minutes or until you can see a golden color develop on the scones.

Chocolate Chip Scone variation-

Follow above recipe, with the following changes. Reduce sugar to 5 T, substitute 1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels for apricots. Anthony made these today, and we used less than 1/2 cup half and half. The mixture was so dry that it was hard to get all the crumbs back together to form the disc, but the resulting scones were incredibly delicious!