My Students- Sweet Vegetable and Potato Curry

Most  of you may not know this but I am currently in a relationship with curry.  I love her, and she loves me back.  This curry dish is so frickin good, and what makes it interesting is that there is no meat involved.  Now while I know most of you are going- Ha, well then to hell with this curry..  you must trust me, and give it a chance.  It has such a rich and creamy texture with the roasted potatoes coming together with the homemade curry sauce, yet a delicious sweet taste from the bright vegetables and sauteed raisins.  A lot of curries rely on spiciness or succulent cuts of meat to show themselves off.  This one however is simple, healthy, and tastes like a dish from the gods.  Enjoy!


What You Need:

• An onion
• 6-8 potatoes
• A bunch of spices such as: ground cinnamon, ground black pepper, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, cayenne pepper, curry powder etc
• Fresh veggies- Green and yellow zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, and peppers
• Coconut milk or cream
• Yogurt, tomato sauce, and salsa 

What You Need To Do:


-- Start off by Peeling and dicing both the potatoes and the onion.  Cut the potatoes into little cubes and the onion into long thin slices.

--  With oil, saute the onions on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until soft and golden.  When they are cooked, put them into a food processor, blender, or magic bullet and blend until the consistency is that of a paste.  Set aside.

--  Put your potato cubes into a bowl and cover them with oil, garlic powder, salt , pepper, and a touch of curry powder.  Mix together and dump into two separate baking pans.  Make sure to spread them out so that there is only one level of flat potato cubes.  Like below..

--  Next chop up your veggies in similar fashion, oil and spice them in similar fashion, and lay them out in a dish in similar fashion.  Although it's OK for the vegetables to overlap one another..  Place both the veggies and the potato's into the oven at 450 for about an hour.

--  Pour the onion paste into a large pot on high heat.  Begin adding the spices-  ground cinnamon, ground black pepper, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, and cayenne pepper.  Continue to stir the paste continuously until it thickens.

         

--  Pour the yogurt, tomato sauce, and salsa into the curry onion paste - stir in a bunch of curry powder, and bring to a boil.

--  Next melt a chunk of butter in a pan, and saute the raisins for a good ten minutes until they are inflated and shiny.

--  Once the potato's and vegetable's are completely cooked - the veggies soft and steaming, and the potato's crispy and golden..  Dump them all together into a large pot.

--  Mix the curry and let it cook together for another 10 - 15 minutes in the oven.  In the meantime you can prepare some quinoa, rice, or cus-cus for the curry to rest upon.

    And there she is --  Sweet Vegetable and Potato Curry..   Enjoy!!

~CHEERS~

Drinks: 

                            The Curry pairs nicely with a red or a white wine.  Also a lighter lager of a beer pairs well with the rich fullness of the dish.

My Students Lemon Pepper & Pesto Pasta

This dish is awesome because it has the presentation and taste of a fine dining restaurant dish, while actually being cheap and unbelievably simple to prepare.  It is light and zesty with a full bodied lemon pesto taste, yet at the same time will leave you feeling stuffed and satisfied.  Of course the homemade pesto can be swapped with store bought, and an interesting variation would be to use sauteed shrimp rather than the meat.  Or even sauteed onions and mushrooms in place of the peppers.  Whatever combination you go with, the thick lemon pepper pasta used for this recipe makes for a spectacular dish...  Time to impress your girlfriends men!  :)

What You Need:

• *Trader Joe's* - Lemon Pepper Pasta
• Pesto
• Meatball's and/or sausage (both is better)
• Red, orange, and yellow peppers

What You Need To Do:

1) While you bring a large pot of water to boil, go about preparing your homemade pesto topping.  Pesto is easy to make contrary to what you may think.  All you need to do is blend together (using a food processor) 

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and black pepper to taste

2)  Chop into little bite sized pieces both your 5-6 peppers as well as your meat...

3)  Throw in pasta and cook until noodles are totally soft.  Meanwhile sautee your diced peppers until lightly blackened and shiny.  Then add in the chopped meat and cover for about 10 min on low heat.

Also you'll want to pour your pesto into a buttered and heated pan.  Add a generous tablespoon of ranch and pinches of salt pepper and garlic powder.  If sauce needs to be thicker, add a bit of cream or half & half.

4)  Once your noodles are soft, your peppers and meat are cooked, and your pesto sauce is creamy and warm, let them cool for about 10 min so the combination of pasta and toppings forms the right consistency.

5)  Finally, add the three together into a bowl and ENJOY!

~CHEERS~

   ***Some other pasta's:

Zucchini and sun-dried tomato - spaghetti 

Fresh tomato and roasted garlic - manicotti

~Here's the version with sauteed shrimp, moshrooms and onions!!~  Hella Bomb

Shrimp and vegetable - pesto linguine

My Students Clam Chowder and Cookie Dough Cinnamon Rolls!

Here are the recipes for seriously the easiest and the freakin best clam chowder as well as cookie dough cinnamon rolls that you may ever see.  Plus they are alot of fun to make because you can tweak the tastes to your specific preferences.. For example the bacon in the chowder can be replaced with spicy sausage or thick cuts of ham or whatever.  And the cinnamon rolls could be chocolate themed or raisin and brown sugar themed or even roasted macadamia nut themed.  The point is that - No matter what kind of tastes make your tummy grumble, you're in for a treat and a half!

Bacon & Clam Chowder:

Soup Base:  Milk, chicken stalk, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary flakes..

 

  

Next:  Add the main ingredients into the boiling soup 

base, and stir well for about 20 minutes.  The soup will drastically thicken after the cheese and potatoes cook into it, so make sure you got your stirring gloves on!  The ingredients can vary depending on what your style is, but a good place to start is:  Chopped up crispy bacon, seasoned and roasted potato bites, small cubes of brie cheese, sauteed mushrooms, chopped green onion, and a can or two of diced clams.  And it helps a ton if you add in a packet of clam chowder mix.. (kinda cheating, but it helps alot!)

Dump everything in and as stated above - stir at a high heat for  roughly 20 minutes or until it turns to a rich and creamy chowder-like texture.

And there you have it ladies and gentleman..  Seriously, the chowder at the Santa Cruz wharf doesn't even compete with this shit!!  Haha

Pair with a tasty glass of wine, or it even goes really nicely with an ale!

Cheers & Enjoy!!!

Cookie Dough Cinnamon Rolls:

These rolls are seriously the best thing to wake up to in the world!..  As the smell permeates the house and engulfs your room, you'll be lost in time as if every delicious meal and amazing taste was all wrapped up into one.  Time will stop, and all that will matter is you and your cookie dough cinnamon roll..

To make these - simply make the dough, roll it out into a flat square, spread the filling, wrap the dough up into a cylinder like tube with the filling twirling towards the center.  Then cut one and a half inch slices, lay them into buttered baking dishes, bake, drench with icing & devour!!

 Dough Ingredients:

1 container of pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough

1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast

1 cup warm milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup margarine

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

4 cups flour

*( Make sure that you dissolve the yeast into the cup of warm milk before mixing in all the ingredients..)

FILLING:

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/3 cup margarine, softened

ICING:

8 tablespoons margarine

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown..  Cover with the icing, pour yourself a hot cup of coffee AND Enjoy!!!   ~Cheers~

My Students All-Star Food Lineup!

All meat, mushroom, onion, sun dried tomato, goat cheese, and triple cheese - double stuffed pizza pie.

Broccoli, roasted pepper, mushroom, and ground sirloin bisque.

The best home made fried chicken tenders - Recipe coming soon.

Filet Mignon and sausage - monster baguette sandwiches 

Sunny eggs, beef, chorizo, onions, peppers, hot salsa, and chips. - The $1000 breakfast

Garlic jalapeno Tri-Tip roast - soaking in lime juice.

Doin some good old BBQ'ing!

Grilled chicken with quinoa, beans, cilantro, and mashed corn. 

Smoked turkey and sausage - morning omelet.

Jalapeno bagel double stacked monster burgers - Yumm

Linguica, Canadian ham, pepperoni, and sausage pizza!

The morning angel - Poached egg on top of toast and BBQ shredded pork.

Dark Chocolate Oreo Truffles - So freaking good!!!
Recipe to come soon..

        Enjoy, And Keep On A Cookin'!!!  ~CHEERS~