Copywriters' Kitchen

Slow Cooker Winter Palak Dal Recipe

Lorraine Thompson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:36:43 +0000

This hearty, complexly spiced lentil and spinach stew is delicious all year round—but adapts well in winter with frozen spinach and canned Italian tomatoes.

Feel free to use fresh ingredients when available seasonally.

A classic and simple Indian entrée Palak Dal is incredibly easy to make when you let your slow cooker do the heavy work.

After washing lentils, throw them in the cooker, cover with two inches of water and let them simmer to softness. About half an hour before you plan to serve, cook the spices and vegetables and add to the lentils. That’s it.

If you’re lucky enough to live close to an Indian grocery store, buy a whole spice garam masala mix. The few extra minutes it takes to toast and grind the spices pay off in wonderful, aromatic flavor.

I serve Palak Dal with brown basmati rice and condiments that include:

Unsweetened flaked coconut
Fresh chopped cilantro
Whole milk plain or coconut yogurt

Slow Cooker Winter Palak Dal Recipe

1 pound lentils or yellow split peas
1 large vegetable bouillon cube, optional
2 tablespoons butter or ghee
2 tablespoons whole spice garam masala or 1 tablespoon ground garam masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds or 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon crushed red chili peppers
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
4-5 small fresh or canned Italian tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped frozen spinach
1 cup coconut milk
Juice of 1 lemon
Kosher salt, to taste

Rinse lentils well in colander.
Put lentils into slow cooker and cover with two inches of water. Add the bouillon cube, if desired, cover the cooker and slow simmer lentils until tender—about two hours. Spoon off and reserve any clear excess water.
About half an hour before ready to serve, prepare remaining ingredients. If using whole spice garam masala, heat a small frying pan over a medium-high flame. Add 2 tablespoons of the whole spice garam masala to the pan. Stirring constantly so spices don’t burn, toast the garam masala for 2-3 minutes. Pour spices onto a plate to cool completely. Grind with mortar and pestle or an electric coffee grinder.
In a large frying pan or Dutch oven, over low heat, heat the butter or ghee. Watch the butter carefully and remove immediately from flame if it starts to brown.
When butter is hot, add one tablespoon ground garam masala, turmeric, cumin seeds or ground cumin and crushed red pepper. Stirring occasionally to keep them from burning, cook spices to allow their full flavor to bloom—about 2-3 minutes.
Add onion, stir and fry for about five minutes until onion is softened.
Add garlic and ginger and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Add tomatoes and simmer vegetable mixture for about 10 minutes to cook off tomatoes’ raw taste.
Spoon vegetable mixture into cooked lentils. Add spinach and stir to incorporate vegetables and lentils. Cook for 5 minutes to thaw and cook spinach.
Add coconut milk and lemon juice to lentils. Thin with reserved lentil liquid, if needed. If you did not add a bouillon cube, salt palak dal to taste. Cover and allow to heat through—about 5 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Serves 8.

Copywriters’ Kitchen Weekly Menu March 7, 2010

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:27:44 +0000

Need dinner ideas? Here’s what we’re cooking this week at Copywriters’ Kitchen:

Monday
The Spice Spoon’s Khagina-Aromatic Scrambled Eggs, Spinach, Apple and Walnut Salad with Lime Chutney Dressing, Baguette.

Tuesday
Mom’s Meatloaf with Creamy Onion Gravy, Best Classic Mashed Potatoes, Slow Roasted Cauliflower

Wednesday
FAST Whole Wheat Pizza topped with mushrooms, warm salad of Easy Oven Roasted Green Beans and splash of balsamic vinegar

Thursday
Quick Creamy Carrot Soup, Bruschetta

Friday
Slow Cooker Winter Palak Dal, brown basmati rice, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette

Want to see even more dinner ideas? Visit my Menu Archive.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives.

Copywriters’ Kitchen Weekly Menu February 28, 2010

Lorraine Thompson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:08:17 +0000

Need dinner ideas? Here’s what we’re cooking this week at Copywriters’ Kitchen:

Monday
Monterey Jack cheese omelette, The Spice Spoon Aloo ki Bhujia: Cumin Potatoes, warm salad made with Easy Oven-Roasted Green Beans and rice vinegar

Tuesday
Plain and Simply Delicious Beef Stew, From-Scratch Quick Corn Bread

Wednesday
Two-Bit Black Bean Soup with Pan-Roasted Potatoes and condiments: sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, chopped onions; Coconut Rice Pilau; 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette

Thursday
Grassfed burgers and veggie burgers, Crispy Oven-Fried Yams, mixed green salad with Copywriters’ Kitchen Secret Ingredient Salad Dressing

Friday
Bucatini all’Amatriciana, Slow-Roasted Cauliflower, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette

Want to see even more dinner ideas? Visit my Menu Archive.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives.

Copywriters’ Kitchen Weekly Menu: February 21, 2010

Lorraine Thompson — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:02:54 +0000

Need dinner ideas? Here’s what we’re cooking this week at Copywriters’ Kitchen:

Monday
Roasted Red Pepper and Potato Frittata, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette, spinach salad with Mustard and Herb Vinaigrette

Tuesday
Pan-fried grassfed steaks, broccoli sautéd with garlic and olive oil, Salt Potatoes

Wednesday
Orecchiette with Caramelized Onions and Winter Squash Compote, mixed green salad with Mustard and Herb Vinaigrette

Thursday
Easy Shepherd’s Pie, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette

Friday
Curried Pumpkin Soup, Michaelmas Harvest Bread

Want to see even more dinner ideas? Visit my Menu Archive

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives

Fat Tuesday Pancake Recipe

Lorraine Thompson — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:00:29 +0000

On Fat Tuesday—also called Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras—the traditional evening meal includes pancakes. The custom hearkens back to days when Lenten fasts were strictly observed—as in some Christian Orthodox homes to this day—and fat, sugar and eggs forbidden during the 40-day fast.

Pancake dinners allowed families to enjoy a last indulgent meal before Ash Wednesday when Lent began. The meal also rid homes of their last stores of tempting, proscribed ingredients.

For at least a decade, here at Copywriters Kitchen we’ve shared a Fat Tuesday dinner with close friends and their children. Our meal includes rich appetizers, champagne—and a full “breakfast dinner.”

Side dishes vary but the meal’s culinary highlight is a platter piled high with stacks of fluffy, hot Fat Tuesday Pancakes.

We serve the pancakes with sweet butter and local upstate New York maple syrup bought from an Amish family outside Watertown.

The trick to making light pancakes is to avoid over-beating the batter. Mix wet ingredients into dry and blend as swiftly as possible. You’ll see lumps in the batter along with sprinklings of unmixed flour. Leave them. They will incorporate themselves as you fry the pancakes.

To cook pancakes to an even, golden goodness you need to keep a watchful eye on your griddle and continuously adjust the flame underneath the pan. A buttered griddle gives Fat Tuesday Pancakes their luscious, rich finish: I slide a stick of butter across the griddle before pouring each batch of pancakes.

Fat Tuesday Pancakes are so easy to make you may decide to include them in dinner menus regularly. You may want to double the recipe and store leftover pancakes: One of the few foods enhanced by microwave reheating, pancakes help you coax kids to the breakfast table on wintery mornings when they’d rather remain curled under covers.

Fat Tuesday Pancake recipe

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
2 tablespoons mild oil or melted butter
2 cups milk
Extra butter for greasing the griddle

Preheat oven to 140 degrees or “warm.”
In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk all dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl or measuring cup, beat egg and add oil or butter and milk. Stir to mix.
Quickly pour the milk/oil/egg mixture into the dry ingredients, blending with a few swift strokes.
In the meantime heat the griddle over a medium-low flame. When griddle is hot, slide a stick of butter across it to coat. You must work quickly now as butter swiftly scorches and turns bitter. Pour pancakes onto the griddle, making cakes about 4” across. You’ll find the pan is hotter in the center and you may need to move pancakes around to cook them evenly. When bubbles begin to form and pop on pancakes, check their undersides. Once cakes are cooked golden on one side, flip them over and cook the other side.
When the first batch of pancakes is fried, stack them on top of each other on a plate, cover with a damp towel and slide the plate into the oven to stay warm as you cook the remaining cakes.

Serves 6.

Copywriters’ Kitchen Weekly Menu February 14, 2010

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:05:18 +0000

Need dinner ideas? Here’s what we’re cooking this week at Copywriters’ Kitchen:

Monday
Penne with Slow Simmered Alla Vodka Sauce, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette, mesclun salad with Mustard and Herb Salad Dressing

Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday Cocktail Hour: Champagne, Olive Oil Black Pepper Parmesan Biscottti, Assorted Olives
Shrove Tuesday Dinner: Fat Tuesday Pancakes with sweet butter and maple syrup, Fried Spuds, scrambled eggs, pastured grassfed sausage, vanilla ice cream and Christie’s Corner Black Forest Chocolate Cookies

Wednesday
Stale bread and water—just kidding! Lent started, but you can still eat. Sparingly.
Chunky Tomato Soup with Arborio Rice, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette

Thursday
Pan-fried grassfed chicken marinated in Middle Eastern Honey Cumin Marinade, steamed brown basmati rice, Easy Oven-Roasted Cauliflower

Friday
Five-Layer Chili Cheese Casserole, mixed green salad with Copywriters’ Kitchen Secret Ingredient Salad Dressing

Want to see even more dinner ideas? Visit my Menu Archive.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives

Fried Spuds Recipe

Lorraine Thompson — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:32:59 +0000

In our carb-count-obsessed culture, I’m embarrassed to confess my weakness for potatoes. I adore spuds cooked just about any way—baked, oven-fried mashed, roasted, boiled and added to soups and pastas.

Yes, I know theoretically potatoes aren’t unhealthy. It’s all about moderation. Reasonable servings. Portion control. Unfortunately, I haven’t mastered these restraints. Especially with Fried Spuds.

That’s why I love Shrove Tuesday—aka Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. When this pre-Lenten holiday rolls around—tomorrow—culinary indulgence is not only forgiven, but encouraged. Fried Spuds hold place-of-pride on my Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner Menu.

On Fat Tuesday, or anytime, these crispy potatoes round out meals beautifully: Fried Spuds turn otherwise plain fried or scrambled eggs into a full, satisfying breakfast, brunch or dinner.

While Fried Spuds are cooked with mild safflower oil and seasoned plainly with Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, they’re also heavenly prepared with:

Olive oil
Crushed garlic
Oregano, rosemary and/or basil
Grated onion

Fried Spuds Recipe

4-5 medium russet potatoes
2 tablespoons safflower or other mild oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Peel potatoes and cut into ½” cubes.
In a heavy skillet over medium-high flame, heat oil.
When oil is hot, throw in cubed potatoes, tossing them to coat with oil. Fry for around 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
To speed cooking time, cover pan with lid, reduce flame and steam-fry potatoes 2-3 minutes to cook them through.
Remove lid and continue to fry, letting moisture evaporate and potatoes cook to golden brown, around 10-15 minutes

Serves 2, if I’m at table. Otherwise makes 4-6 portions.

Olive Oil and Black Pepper Parmesan Biscotti Recipe

Lorraine Thompson — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:28:45 +0000

Over the holidays, I stumbled on Smitten Kitchen’s superb Parmesan Black Pepper Biscotti. These rich, double-baked cheesy biscuits quickly became a holiday cocktail staple.

Naturally I wanted to serve the Biscotti to my food-loving son the day he came home from college for winter break. The recipe is so simple, I left preparation until the last minute. So when I swung open the refrigerator door, you can imagine my panic on seeing a tiny crumpled butter wrapper containing a tablespoon or so of butter.

Smitten Kitchen’s divine Biscotti call for a full stick and a half of butter.

Oh, pooh. (Actually, I said another word.)

My heart was set on Parmesan Black Pepper Biscotti. It was too late to run to the store. Then my eye fell on a quart of extra virgin olive oil sitting on the kitchen shelf.

Well, maybe…

The long and short: Not only were the results not a disaster, my good friend Michele—an excellent cook with a discerning palate—tasted both butter and olive oil versions and prefers the latter.

This recipe makes a lot of Biscotti. I usually bake half the dough into biscuits for immediate use, then roll the remaining dough into logs, wrap in wax paper and freeze them.

I feel so together when I can pull off tasty appetizers at the drop of a hat.

Olive Oil and Black Pepper Parmesan Biscotti

1 1/2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese, finely grated
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk

Place oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using a coffee or spice grinder—or mortar and pestle—coarsely grind the pepper corns.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, 2 cups of cheese, and 1 tablespoon ground black pepper.
In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, blend the oil, 3 eggs and milk.
Add the oil/milk/eggs to the flour mixture, stirring with a whisk or fork to make a soft dough.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into quarters—about 1 1/3 cup each.
Flour your hands and shape each quarter into a 12” log. At this point you may wrap the logs in wax paper, place in an air-tight container and store in fridge or freezer.
When ready to bake, thaw or bring dough to room temperature. Flatten the logs slightly to create a long log about 2” wide and 3/4” high.
Place logs 3” apart on 2 ungreased baking sheets.
Beat the remaining egg and brush it over the logs.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 tablespoon crushed black pepper and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the logs.
Bake the logs, switching sheet position half way through baking. Bake until logs are pale golden and firm, about 30 minutes total.
Remove sheets from oven. Cool logs on sheets for about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
Carefully transfer a log to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs into diagonal ½” slices.
Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining logs.
Bake Biscotti, turning slices over once midway through baking, until they are crisp and golden on both sides, 35-45 minutes total.
Cool Biscotti on sheets on racks until cool enough to handle—about 10 minutes—and serve.

Biscotti may be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature up to two weeks.

Makes about 5-6 dozen Biscotti.

Copywriters’ Kitchen Weekly Menu February 7, 2010

Lorraine Thompson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:27:31 +0000

Need dinner ideas? Here’s what we’re cooking this week at Copywriters’ Kitchen:

Monday
From-Scratch Sloppy Joes, tossed green salad with Copywriters’ Kitchen Secret Ingredient Salad Dressing

Tuesday
Burritos made with grassfed ground beef and Healthy Homemade Refried Beans, tossed green salad with Copywriters’ Kitchen Secret Ingredient Salad Dressing

Wednesday
Mulligatawny Soup with Coconut Rice Pilau, 5-Minute No-Knead Bread Machine Baguette

Thursday
Plain and Simply Delicious Beef Stew, From-Scratch Quick Corn Bread

Friday
Cocktails: Le Carline Lison from Vino 2010, Olive Oil and Black Pepper Parmesan Biscotti
Dinner: Orecchiette with Caramelized Onions and Winter Squash Compote, Italian bread, mesclun salad with Toss-in-the-Bowl Lemon Garlic Salad Dressing

Want to see even more dinner ideas? Visit my Menu Archive.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives

Classic Shaken Mai Tai Cocktail Recipe

Lorraine Thompson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:43:00 +0000

I disagree with T.S. Eliot. April is not the cruelest month. February takes the cake.

Just as you round the corner of January, plowing through bone-chilling days and post-holiday bills, you’re smacked in the face with another full month of winter.

Some lucky few slip away for a week of warm weather vacation. I can’t escape to the tropics. So I do my best to bring the tropics to me—with the help of a cocktail shaker. This Classic Shaken Mai Tai Cocktail, with its exotic mix of potent liquors, makes the perfect winter restorative.

Mai Tais often get a bad rap, perhaps because drinkers’ first taste of the cocktail comes from a pink, acidic bottled mix.

Real-deal Mai Tais use fresh fruit juice, rum, a citrusy liqueur—triple sec in my recipe—simple syrup and orgeat, an Italian almond-flavored syrup.

Be sure to measure and mix Mai Tai ingredients carefully: Add more than a splash of simple syrup and you wind up K O’d with a very alcoholic but cloyingly sweet Hawaiian Punch.

Bartenders guard Mai Tai formulas—and contest their authenticity—fiercely. One website lists 14 recipes, several claiming to be the original, only, or real Mai Tai mix.

For me, one mixologist’s opinion matters more than any other: My Twitter friend, Noelle Chun—Evangelist/Content Manager at Alltop, Social Media Coordinator at Ashoka’s Changemakers, collector of classic cocktail recipes and blogger at The Joy of Drinking.

Given Noelle’s encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails in general—and Mai Tai cocktails in particular—with a trembling hand I mix and offer this…

Classic Shaken Mai Tai Cocktail Recipe

For each cocktail you’ll need:
2 ounces golden rum
1/2 ounce Triple Sec
1/2 ounce orgeat
1/4 ounce lemon simple syrup, see recipe, below
Juice of one lime, strained
Cracked ice

Measure and pour liquors, syrups and juice into a cocktail shaker. Add a handful of cracked ice. Cover shaker and agitate vigorously until shaker begins to frost on the outside. Strain and pour Mai Tai into a lowball glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.

Lemon Simple Syrup recipe

1 cup sugar
Juice and zest of one lemon
Water to fill one-cup measure when added to lemon juice

Pour the sugar into a small saucepan.
Grate lemon zest and add to the sugar.
Juice the lemon and pour juice into a measuring cup. Add enough water to make one cup. Pour lemon juice/water into the saucepan with the sugar and lemon zest.
Over a medium flame, stir mixture and bring to a boil. Lower flame and simmer until sugar is dissolved—about 1-2 minutes. Turn off flame and allow syrup to cool.
Strain syrup, pour into a jar, cover with lid and store in refrigerator.