Saag Paneer by Picklehead

I'd made Madhur Jaffrey's recipe before, but forgot that Flatmate took that book with her when she moved out, so I had to improvise based on memory. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

4 oz. paneer

approx. 8 oz. cooked spinach

4 oz. water

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

Oil and butter

Fry the oil and butter together. Add the mustard seeds. When they pop (about 30 seconds), add the cumin and stir. Add the paneer and cook until brown. Add the garam masala, chili powder, and turmeric, and cook for approximately 5 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the pan is close to dry.

Add the water, spinach, and garlic, turn the heat down to low, and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Add more water if needed.

(It probably could have been improved with a dollop of cream a few minutes before serving, but I didn't think of that.)

Rye Rolls and Rye Sausage Buns by Erythrosine

Rye Rolls

1 cup plus one tablespoon water
2 tablespoons sugar
1.25 cups whole rye flour
2.25 teaspoons instant yeast
0.5 cup all-natural sour cream
(optional one teaspoon to two tablespoons caraway seeds or sesame seeds)
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 cups white 100% whole wheat flour (King Arthur brand, which is lighter than whole wheat flour made from red wheat)
2 tablespoons wheat gluten

In the pan of a bread machine, mix the water, sugar, rye flour, and yeast together with a non-scratching spoon or spatula. Let the dough rest for twenty minutes, while the yeast wakes up and becomes bubbly. Add sour cream, seeds, salt, wheat flour, and gluten, then place in bread machine set to "dough". When the dough is ready (1.5 hours later in my machine), divide the rolls into 12 or 16 or 24 equal parts, depending on the size of roll you want, roll between your hands, and then flatten to the shape of a hamburger patty. Place on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes, then preheat the oven to 425°F.

While the oven is preheating, brush the rolls with water, using a pastry brush or silicone brush, and sprinkle on seeds, if desired. (Water works just as well as beaten egg yolk and is less trouble.) Use sesame seeds for hamburgers, or a mixture of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced dried garlic, minced dried toasted onion, and kosher salt for "everything" buns.

When the oven is preheated, bake the rolls until their internal temperature reads between 190 and 200°F on an instant read thermometer, about twelve minutes.

Variation:

Sausage buns

Include 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds in the dough. Cut a one-pound kielbasa into eight pieces, and wrap each one in one-eighth of the dough, when it comes out of the bread machine. Wrap carefully and place seam-side-down on the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Cook in a 425°F oven until the instant read thermometer says at least 190°F in the middle, about fifteen minutes.

Here is the original that the above recipes are based on: King Arthur Caraway Rye Bread. It does not call for the use of a bread machine, and it calls for more water and different flours, and doesn't mention buns or sausage rolls.

Pork adn Eggplant Curry by bookseller

Curry recipe by way of Fine Cooking magazine, but fairly heavily tweaked:

1 T coconut oil
1 cup sliced onion
3/4 pound pork loin, thinly sliced
3/4 pound eggplant in small, bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 t fish sauce
1 T brown sugar
1/2 of a 14 oz. can of coconut milk (not "light)
1 heaping T Thai red curry paste
grated zest of 1 lime
fresh lime juice to taste
1 t cornstarch
Garnish: 2 T chopped roasted peanuts or dried coconut or fried shallots/onions; fresh cilantro if you got

1. Shake the coconut milk so the thick and thin parts mix together.

2. Brown the pork, then the onions, and finally the eggplant in the coconut oil over medium heat; remove to a bowl.

3. Deglaze the pan (over slightly higher heat) with 1/4 cup of the coconut milk; simmer 2 minutes or so to thicken.

4. Stir in the broth, curry paste, fish sauce, sugar, lime zest, and remainder of the coconut milk (remember, you're only using half the can in total); simmer 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning (this is the point when I said WHHHHOOOO HOT HOT HOT! and threw in more coconut milk). It will look extremely unimpressive, like dirty dishwater, but it will taste great.

5. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in 1-2 T of the sauce; stir this slurry into the sauce and bring to a boil, stirring, until the sauce thickens. Taste again; add lime juice as desired (I added the juice of about 1/2 a lime).

6. Add back in the pork, eggplant, and onion, and simmer to heat through. Garnish with peanuts, toasted coconut, chopped cilantro (and bean sprouts, shredded carrots, thinly sliced chilies...all those would be good, too) as desired.

For me, this serves two over a large-ish bowl of mesclun greens (undressed).

Note the pork is much easier to slice when it's partially frozen (and in fact, I wound up making this because the only pork I had was FROZEN frozen, and I knew I'd need to slice it really thin if it was going to thaw in time for anything like dinner).

If diabetes is an issue here, FWIW, instead of sugar I used Locanto/Whey Low in a 2:1 ratio. Worked beautifully. The cornstarch comes out to 1/2 teaspoon per serving, which is 1 gram of carbohydrate. And by serving it over salad rather than rice, of course, it becomes very diabetes-friendly.

The original recipe added 2 cups sliced cabbage to the eggplant; I think that would be a good addition. And this would work with any number of veggies instead of the eggplant -- I plan to mix in some snowpeas for the second round, and maybe some sliced red pepper.

You could certainly make this more complex by adding some thinly sliced lemongrass and/or grated ginger to the simmering sauce, and/or by garnishing with some slivered Thai basil or pea shoots. Very good as is, though. And takes less time to make than it has to type up.

Finally, if you don't have coconut oil (delicious and very good for you) or peanut oil, use unflavored vegetable oil, like canola; don't use olive oil.

Walnut Martini by Grizzled Adams

Ingredients:

2 shots Vodka

3/4 shot Tuaca Liqueur

3/4 shot Walnut Liqueur

3/4 shot Vermouth (Dry)

Fruit Salad by bookseller

At this time of year, my vote would be for an enormous fruit salad. You can make a syrup by boiling down orange juice (and lemon juice, if you got) with some zest, maybe a few cardamoms, and some sugar; when it's the consistency of, say, light cream (don't go all the way to maple syrup), glug in some liqueur if you have any (Gran Marnier?), and toss it all with the berries, any other fruit, ideally some orange segments (the cherries are out, they would go nicely), and stick it in the fridge to marinate. Come time to serve, toast some walnut halves and scatter them on top -- or pistachios, they'd be pretty, maybe some fresh mint. Offer some whipped cream or Greek yogurt to anyone who wants, but it will be just wonderful without, and nobody will feel remotely deprived.