Lemon Rosemary Cut Out Cookies

How do I get through a particularly rough week? Baking and country music. This week's been a doozey and I thank God for Kenney Chesney and Fine Cooking. Today I turned to the magazine's recipe for lemon rosemary cut out cookies for solace. It's been perched (and occasionally blown off) a 6-inch pile of recipes I printed out over the course of the year.

I always have basic baking supplies on-hand and happened to have a lemon teetering about each time I opened the fridge. I planted rosemary in my plot at the community garden. I plucked several sprigs for the Thanksgiving turkey, but that was before the snow. I was wondering whether this member of the mint family had survived the recent blanketing. When I stopped by the garden, I found the top half of the plant poking through the white surface. The effort of its spindly branches reminded me of Charlie Brown's tree - pure and vulnerable. I stood in wonder, waiting for Linus's enlightened voice to kick in. When the moment passed, I harvested several branches and crunched back home, over the snow.

I found that the best part of this recipe is prepping the rosemary and lemon. The fine mincing that's required leaves the most remarkable fragrance on your fingers. Next time, I'll add a bit more sugar than the recipe calls for. Seehttp://www.finecooking.com/recipes/lemon

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Kashmiri Dum Aloo - ICC November

Kashmiri Dum Aloo,  Srivalli and Lataji have zeroed-in on this Kashmiri Special for this Month ICC.  Afte Checking some of my blogger buddies post on this, i was a bit hesitant to try this, coz, most of them have mentioned about its sour taste and strong flavour of the spices. So, i was actually like a 'Cat on the Wall', But, Finally i made it, Atleast i will come to know, how it taste like!!!! Personally, i didn't like it much, My Hubby liked it though, He too felt, its a bit high on the sour taste :) 

Recipe Source : IndianFood - Shared by Lataji

Ingredients

1 Kg Baby potatoes / even small potatoes 

4 tbsp Mustard oil

6 Cloves roasted and powdered 

A pinch of asafoetida/hing

Oil for deep frying the potatoes

1 tsp Cumin seeds, roasted & Powdered

1 tsp Garam masala

Salt to taste

A cup of firm dough made from flour and water 

For Marinade

3 -4 Kashmiri red chillies - roasted & powdered 

2 -1/2 cups of Fresh yoghurt (must not be sour)

1 tsp Ginger powder

1 tbsp Fennel/aniseed powder

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder 

Method

Wash the potatoes well and poke all over with a fork. I picked normal smaller Potatoes from the market for this. Soak in water for 20 mins with little salt. Heat a pan with oil for deep frying, Pat Dry the Potatoes and  fry them till golden in colour. Drain on a kitchen towel and keep aside. Meanwhile, Mix up the Marinade ingredients and add the potatoes well with this paste and keep it aside. 

Heat the mustard oil in another pan, add the clove powder and asafetida and mix well, add a half cup of hot water and salt to taste and bring to a boil. To this mix, add in the potato-yoghurt mix, stir thoroughly and cover.To do the dum, seal the edges of the pan's cover with the dough to ensure no steam can escape. Cook on a low flame for 10-15 minutes.Turn off the flame, remove the cover and add the cumin and garam masala powders, and cover again quickly. Leave for 5 minutes. Serve hot with Chapatis or Naan 

Coconut Milk Rice for Christmas

COCONUT MILK RICE

Coconut rice is a very tasty common South Indian preparation. We make a mildly sweetish aromatic variation during christmas, by using coconut milk., cashews and raisins. It is very aromatic, and can be served with tasty kurmas!





INGREDIENTS
Basmati rice - 1 cup
Freshly extracted coconut milk - 2 and 1/4 cups
(The method of extracting coconut milk easily is given in the previous post on Dodol.)
Finely chopped onion - 2 tbsps
Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
Raisins - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1" piece ( Break into tiny bits)
Cardamom - 2
Cloves - 4
Oil -2 tbsps
Ghee - 1 tsp

METHOD
1. Wash and soak the rice for at least half an hour.
2. Finely chop onions.
3. Heat 2 tbsps of oil and one teaspoon spoon of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan.
4. Add Cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.
5. Add cashew nuts and onion and fry till they become golden in colour.
6. Add raisins; drain rice and add it next.
7. Keep stirring till all the moisture evaporates and the rice gives out a pleasant aroma.
8. Add the coconut milk and stir in the salt.
9. When the milk starts to boil, turn down the flame to low and cover the pan with a lid.
10. In fifteen minutes time when the aroma of coconut rice fills the atmosphere, remove lid and gently stir once and cover it again with lid.



Turn off flame after five more minutes, and enjoy the steaming hot flavoursome coconut milk rice as it is or with any spicy curry of your choice.