Kedgeree

A Victorian era Anglo-Indian colonial breakfast dish (possibly invented in a Scottish regiment?). History is interesting.

Ingredients

• 8-12oz haddock, cod, or similar fillet
• 2 eggs
• 2 bay leaves
• 1c basmati rice
• 2tbsp butter
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp ground mustard
• 2 tbsp madras curry powder
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2c cilantro, chopped
• 2 lemons, juiced
• salt
• plain yogurt

Place the fish in a pan and add a little water - not enough to cover, I think. Add the bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes. Remove the fish and set to cool, at which time you can flake it apart. I think smoked fish might be a good alternative here (and more flavorful) so if you can get smoked cod, I'd say go for it.

Set up the rice cooking. If you use a rice cooker, do that. I use 1c rice and 1.25c water. If you use a pot, use those ratios, bring to a boil, simmer covered on low for 10 minutes, then set aside covered for 10 minutes. Done.

Meanwhile, set a small saucepan of water to boil. When it's boiling, add the eggs. Boil for 10 minutes, then remove and run under icy cold water to stop the cooking.

OK. Now, in a large-ish saute or similar, add the butter and onions. Cook until softened, then add the garlic and ginger. Cook another minute or two, then add the mustard and curry. Cook another couple minutes, then add the tomato and lemon juice.

When that's done, remove from heat. Add the rice to the onion / tomato mixture, along with the cilantro and the flaked fish, and toss to coat. Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut into quarters. Top the dish with the hard-boiled eggs, then serve with a little yogurt.

Thoughts: This dish was a little too lemon-y for our taste, and it needed a bit more salt. The fish lost some flavor to the weird boiling process (leave it to the Brits, amirite?) but if we had smoked fish, that might have worked well. I think next time we go with one lemon, smoked fish, and more salt. That would make this a pretty damn good dish.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients

• neutral oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• 2 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 c red lentils
• 8 c chicken stock
• 2 c chicken, cooked (optional)
• 1c chopped cilantro (optional)
• 1 can coconut milk
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1c basmati rice, cooked

At some point while you're making the soup, you can cook the rice: wash 1c of rice, then put it in a pot with 1.25c water.  Bring to a boil, then cover and set to very low heat and cook for about 8 minutes.  Then turn off the heat and let it sit (covered) for another 10 minutes at least.

To make the soup, heat a little oil in a pot, then add the onions and carrots.  When the onions are getting translucent, add the garlic and all the other spices (including the bay leaves) and cook for a minute.  Then add the red lentils and toss to coat.  Then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Take it off the heat and add the lemon juice and coconut milk, then blend until smooth (we used a stick blender).  Stir in the cooked chicken and cilantro and correct seasoning (we had to add more spices and salt).  To serve, put rice in a bowl and pour soup over the rice.

Thoughts: When we first made the recipe, I tasted it before we added the coconut milk and thought that the flavor was fantastic.  The coconut milk really muted the spices, so we needed to add a lot more.  But it was quite good.  It might be nice to only PARTIALLY blend this but leave some of the lentils whole for texture.  Even so, this was quite good.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Slow-Cooker Beef Biryani

Worked pretty well, but we need to work on the timing - when do you add the cauliflower?
Ingredients

• 2½ lb beef chuck, cut into 1" to 1½" cubes
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4tbsp fennel seeds
• 1tsp cumin
• 1tsp cardamom
• 3tsp coriander
• ½tsp turmeric
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1" lobe of ginger, minced
• 1c yogurt
• 1c water
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• ½c raisins (golden, preferably)
• 3 carrots, peeled and chopped roughly
• 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
• basmati rice (about 2.4c), washed

To a sauté pan, add onion, beef, fennel, cumin, cardamom, coriander, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and some oil.  Cook over medium heat until the beef is browned - about 10 minutes.  Add everything to a slow cooker along with the cinnamon stick, yogurt, and water.  Stir well to coat, then turn on low.  In one hour, add the carrots.  In another two hours from the addition of the carrots, add the cauliflower.  In 3-5 more hours from the addition of the cauliflower, fish everything out with a slotted spoon and toss with the raisins.  Measure the amount of liquid you have left in the slow cooker.  We had 3 cups.  To a rice cooker, add 1 cup of rice and 2tsp salt for every 1.25c liquid.  Add the liquid and cook until the rice is done.  Toss with beef and vegetables.  Serve.

Thoughts: The cauliflower was actually way overdone, so don't do it quite like we say above.  Probably the beef should cook about 8 hours total, the carrots about 6 hours, the cauliflower about 3.  Also, we should have salted the beef & vegetable mixture (maybe 1.5tsp salt) and added LESS salt to the rice (about 1tsp per cup of rice).  Claire disagrees about the rice.  I would have added a few more raisins, too.

Overall, I think this wasn't our best Biryani ever, but the beef was very tender, so that was good.  Cooking with a slow cooker is fun, but we're still really new to it.  We liked taking the drippings from the slow-cooker and doing the rice with that.  I also wouldn't add the yogurt next time, probably.  Claire suggests doing the yogurt but not the water.

We might toast the spices in oil first the next time, too.

This was easy, though, so we'll probably work with it a little.

Disaster Index: 3/10, but we'll try it again

Vegetable Biryani

Ingredients

For the rice:

• 1.5 cups basmati rice
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 tbsp golden raisins
• 4 tbsp chopped hazelnuts
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1.75 cups + 1/8 cup water
• 2 tsp kosher salt

For the vegetables:

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 tbsp chopped hazelnuts
• 3 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 4 tbsp fennel
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 12 oz potatoes, whatever you have, peeled and quartered
  
• 3 medium carrots, cut into 1" pieces
• 1.3 cups water
• 4 tbsp shredded coconut

Make the rice: rinse it until the water runs clear. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add raisins, hazelnuts, turmeric, cumin, coriander, cardamom, and cinnamon and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, about 4 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until toasted (another 2 minutes).
Add the water and bring everything to a boil. Set to a low low simmer. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Then remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes, covered. Set aside.
For the vegetables: melt the butter in a medium, straight-sided pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add the raisins, hazelnuts, coriander, fennel, cumin, and cardamom and cook until everything is toasty, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the carrots and potatoes. Raise heat to high, pour in water, and cook, covered, for about 8 minutes.
Uncover and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and most of the water has evaporated.
Add rice to vegetables and stir to combine. Season with salt to taste.

Thoughts: Pretty darn delicious. We made this for a dinner party of sorts, and it got good reviews. The original recipe calls for two more kinds of vegetables, cauliflower and green beans, but we didn't use those, and to tell you the truth, we didn't miss them. Next time I might add some peas in there. But the rice actually turned the yellow color it's supposed to, which is a first for us (not that we've made a whole lot of forays into the realm of Indian cuisine). We would also consider adding meat next time, maybe something like lamb or beef. Because everything is pretty much better with meat. This recipe calls for a lot of different ingredients, but the cooking aspect is actually pretty easy.

Disaster Index: 1/10 would definitely make again

Hainanese Chicken

Ingredients

• 2-3lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
  
• ~4 cloves of garlic
  
• 1-2 lobes of ginger, minced or grated
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 3 scallions, chopped
  
• 2c rice, thoroughly washed
  
• sesame oil, soy sauce, sriracha, black vinegar
  

In a pot, add the chicken, garlic, and ginger and enough water to just coat the chicken - about 5 cups for us, I think? Depends on the size pot, I guess. Bring the water to a boil, add some salt, and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is cooked through - about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on whether you started with frozen. The original recipe had you cook for 10 minutes then leave sit for 45, but we weren't too happy with the way it looked, so we just cooked it until it was done.

Remove the chicken to a cutting board and shred. Reserve the broth in a measuring cup. Add the onion to the pot with a little sesame oil and maybe some extra garlic and ginger. Cook until the onion is translucent and softened, then add the rice. Toss that around for a little bit, then add 2.5c of the broth (for us, I think this is all that was left - the closer you can come to hitting the 2.5c mark when you're done with the chicken, the better). Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer and cover, cooking for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let the rice sit for an additional 10 minutes before you uncover and fluff the rice.

Serve the rice topped with the chicken. Sprinkle with scallions and a sauce made of soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil, and sriracha. I think we actually ran out of soy sauce so we used "tempura dipping sauce" (which contains many of the same ingredients but it's a little sweeter - it was really good). We also served this with tomato, which I think we agree was kind of unnecessary.

Thoughts: Aside from the fact that you will feel you need more vegetables while eating this, it's really fantastic. I mean, you COULD add carrot, water chestnut, bamboo shoots, or whatever you're interested in and the dish probably wouldn't suffer (I'd cook them with the rice). But it's totally unnecessary. One of the most important factors in this dish is the sauce at the end - you have to do a lot of adjusting to make it just right, but it's really good. As mentioned above, when we decided to make this, we started by boiling the chicken for 10 minutes and then letting it sit. This didn't work at all. Maybe it's because our chicken was frozen? Anyway, I'd definitely consider making this again - it was really easy and quite good. Not all that healthy, perhaps, but who really cares?

Disaster Index: 1/10

Hoppin' John

Ingredients

• 1c dry black-eye peas, washed
  
• 6c water
  
• 3-4 smoked ham hocks
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
  
• 1/2 a red bell pepper, chopped
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 3c worth of chicken bouillon (for us, 1.5 cubes)
  
• 1 14oz can diced tomatoes (with chilies)
  
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
  
• 1c long grain white rice
  

In a large pot, add everything except the rice. It's a good idea to add the beans then the water before adding anything else, since sometimes the iffy black-eyed peas will float to the surface. Bring to a boil and reduce to a gentle boil / high simmer for an hour to an hour and a half, until there are about 2c of liquid left. Now mix in the rice, cover, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes on low (leave that lid on!), then take it off the heat and leave covered for another 10 minutes. Serve.

Thoughts: I'm not sure this is authentically hoppin' john - it was kind of cobbled together from the suggestions of several people who seemed to think they knew the "right way". But this was JUST awesome. Too good, in fact. Anyway, in the future it might be good to cook the onions first with the bell peppers, but I'm not sure that it's necessary - this was really good, and had a really rich, complex flavor.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Horchata de Arroz

Despite being white and murky, horchata has no milk. It is pronounced as "or-chat-ta" or "hor-cha-ta" if you want this marriage to work.

Ingredients

• 1c white rice
  
• 1.5c water
  
• yet another 1.5c water
  
• 1/4tsp cinnamon
  
• like, 3tbsp sugar
  
• a little bit of vanilla
  

Put the rice and 1.5c water in a blender with the cinnamon. Put the blender in the refrigerator. For maybe 12 hours. Nobody said this would a quick recipe.

Th next morning, blend the liquid until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Strain it through a cheesecloth. Add the sugar and vanilla and the remaining water. Enjoy.

Thoughts: This nigh impossible to strain at the end. I don't know how best to deal with that. I recommend decanting it a couple times and THEN straining it. It was a mess. Anyway, it was a LITTLE watery for me - I assume it's not traditional, but I wonder if it would be good with milk instead of water, at least at the end. The flavor was pretty good, though, aside from the wateriness. If I made it again, I would blend it for longer, probably before I even chill it. I might use milk, too. And more cinnamon. Some recipes use almonds, too, which might be good (even better: use almond milk?). Anyway, if you don't like it you can just use it to make oatmeal, and it works pretty well.

Disaster Index: 3/10

Mexican Rice

Ingredients

• 1c extra long grain white rice, rinsed until water runs clear
  
• 1.25c water
  
• 2 to 2.5tsp chicken bouillon (or veg, but I wouldn't recommend it)
  
• heaping .5tsp ground annato seed
  
• .5tsp cumin
  

Wash rice and put it in a pot with the water over medium-high heat. Don't stir it more than once or twice, and only briefly. When the water reaches a low boil, cover the pot and turn heat as low as it will go. Let sit for 15 minutes. In the mean time, combine the seasonings in a separate bowl. Add no more than 1tbsp water and stir to dissolve. When the 15 minutes are up, pour the seasoning-mixture into the rice and stir to coat. If the rice looks like it needs a little more time, cover and continue to cook. Otherwise, re-cover and turn the heat off. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so. If you want, once it has been sitting for 5-10 minutes, you can add a little NEUTRAL oil and turn the heat back on, frying the rice lightly.

Thoughts: When we made this, we used 1.5tsp chicken stock. We're trying to copy the rice that they have at Casa De Lara in Madison, WI. We were very close, and we decided it just needed a little more salt. In the future, we could add chopped up carrots and peas, as well. Possibly we could cook them separately and then stir them in when the seasonings are done.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Dirty Rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups extra long grain rice
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1.5 cups diced white onion
• 1 cup diced green pepper
• vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 hot sausage, chopped and quartered
• 1/4 lb ground pork
• 1 bunch green onion, chopped

Cook the rice: rinse rice in cold water several times (about 6) until the water runs completely clear. Place rice in pot and add chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Do NOT stir. You will mess it up.
Meanwhile, saute the garlic, onion, and green pepper in the vegetable oil until soft (15 minutes). Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and cayenne. Mix well.
Add this mixture to the cooked rice. Stir.
Cook the meat together in another pan and then add it into the rice.
Turn heat to low, and cook for another 10 minutes. Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty delicious. In retrospect, the rice was a little more mushy than I like - we cooked it according to the directions in the recipe, rather than using our own failsafe method, which usually yields less mushy rice. So in the future, we will use that method, and then rather than adding the various ingredients into the rice and stirring over and over again, we're just going to cook the vegetables and meet together, and then put it all in with the rice at the last minute. This will also decrease the mushiness of the rice. I thought that the rice: stuff ratio was a little off. I would have preferred more stuff to rice. Also, this recipe can feed like, 12 people, so we'll also halve the recipe next time we make it.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Smoky Cabbage and Raisin Risotto

Do NOT let the title of this dish throw you off. If I tried, I could have come up with something that sounded more appetizing. I think the recipe that we based this dish off called it "Smoky Radicchio Risotto 'Michu'" or something. Whatever "michu" is. But let's just call it what it is: Smoky Cabbage and Raisin Risotto. You know what else it is? Delicious.

Ingredients
Use the standard risotto base for this: arborio rice, onion, garlic, chicken stock, boiling water, salt, pepper, basil. We're just going to be adding some extra ingredients:

• 1 cup golden raisins
• 2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
• 2/3 cup dry white wine (FIXED, SEAN)
• 1/2 cup chopped smoked Gouda

Cover the raisins with hot water and let soak for 15 minutes or so. They need to be plump before you add them to the risotto.
Do the whole risotto song and dance - cook the chopped onion in some olive oil and garlic until the onion is translucent. Add rice and stir, making sure to coat the rice with all the oil and garlic you possibly can. Do this until the rice gets a little toasty. Add the wine to deglaze the pot. Then add the chicken stock, raisins, and cabbage and stir well. Keep adding water about a cup at a time.
When rice is pretty near done, stir in the Gouda. Make sure to season the risotto with salt and pepper. We also chiffonaded some basil and added that.

Thoughts: This was fantastic. I cannot stress that enough. Was the color weird? Yes, because it turned sort of a light purple. Was that a little off-putting at first? Yes. But don't pay attention to the color. The taste is so fantastic. The cabbage doesn't add a very strong flavor, but it's hella good for you. Golden raisin + smoked Gouda = fantastic flavor combination. I think we're actually going to put more raisins in next time. I was a little skeptical that this dish would work out, but it did and it was amazing. I highly recommend this for adventuresome foodies.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Avgolemono

aka Egg Lemon Soup.
Ingredients

• 4c chickens stock (or veg)
  
• 1/3c rice or 1c pasta
  
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
  
• ~2tbsp lemon juice
  
• 2tbsp chopped parsley (dried works)
  
• pepper, to taste
  

Cook the pasta in the chicken stock, adding extra water as it boils off. Aim to have a little less than 4c when the pasta/rice is done. Add the lemon to the egg yolks and whisk. When the pasta is done, take it off the heat. Temper the eggs by adding a ladle-full of soup stock to the eggs, whisking constantly. Then add the eggs to the soup, again whisking constantly. Stir in the parsley and pepper and serve.

Thoughts: This is a really easy soup with a lemony, creamy taste. It's really great. The tricky part is adding the egg - it's supposed to thicken the soup without cooking all the way. So don't put it back on the heat after you add the egg. We use really little pasta - orzo is probably best. Though you could make it just as well with extra long grain white rice. It occurred to me while this was boiling away that the amount of salt in the stock probably lowered the boiling point of the water, so the pasta took a long time to cook. If you're working with bullion (as we were), you might consider cooking the pasta FIRST and then adding the bullion. Next time I think we'll do it that way.

This recipe is kind of a go-to for us; I don't know why we didn't blog it before.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Spicy Beef Strips and Rice

Ingredients

Spicy Beef Strips

• 1 lb rib-eye steak or some other boneless cut. We may have used sirloin. Who knows?
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp garlic
• 2 tbsp green chilies

Cut the steak into 1/2 inch-wide crosswise strips and place them in a shallow bowl.
Mix the other ingredients together to form a marinade.
Pour the marinade over the beef and put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, make the rice:

(I am only including this recipe here because it's the first time we've made perfect rice. No sticking to the pan, no chewy grains, nothing)

Rice

• 1 cup rice
• 1 and 1/4 cup water.

Wash the rice very well under cold water, until water runs clear. This will take about 3 minutes, maybe.
Drain well.
Put rice and water in a 2 quart pot over high heat. Bring to a boil. When it boils, immediately turn heat to "low" and put the lid on. Leave for 20 minutes. Don't open the lid. I know you'll be tempted to, but just don't.
After 20 minutes is over, remove the pot from the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 more minutes.
If you want to make sushi rice, add 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar. We did. Then set it aside.

Back to the steak. When it's done marinating, take it out of the refrigerator. Heat a griddle (you're SUPPOSED to use a grill, but seriously. This is Wisconsin. In February. Shut up.) to about 350. Once heated, lay the strips on one at a time and pour the remaining marinade over them. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from eat. Mix with rice. Eat them. EAT THEM.

Thoughts: I thought this recipe was pretty straight up except for one thing. The marinade was WAY too salty. It was overwhelmingly soy saucy. I had to get some of that sweet chili sauce and put it on the steak because it gave me a headache. For real. So in the future, try to cut the soy sauce with something. Maybe rice wine vinegar? Maybe sweet chili sauce? Also, it wasn't that spicy. I would recommend using actual chili peppers (serranos?) rather than the canned stuff, which we bought because there were no fresh peppers. Also we overcooked the beef. We cooked it for longer than 2 minutes on each side. It wasn't INEDIBLE, but you definitely have to work for it. But for real, that rice was just fantastic. It just fell out of the pot, and none of the grains were over or underdone. This recipe was pretty good. It definitely has potential.

Disaster Index: 4/10

Sausage Risotto

For this dish, just use a standard risotto base. I've listed it below.

Ingredients

• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1 chopped onion
• 3 Italian sausages, sliced
• 1-1.5 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup marsala wine
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• salt, pepper, olive oil
• Lots of hot water
  

Add onion and garlic to a pot with some olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper and sautee over medium-low heat until the onions are tender. Add the rice and stir it around, letting the oil coat the rice well. Let that cook for a few minutes over medium-high heat, stirring often to prevent the rice from sticking too much. This develops a richer flavor. Now add the marsala wine and stir well to deglaze the pot. Add the chicken stock and stir well.

As the stock cooks off, continue adding more (preferably boiling) water, a cup or so at a time, and then stir that in and let it cook off at a boil. Adding the water while it's boiling develops the starch in the rice. Between you and me, I can't really tell a difference when the rice is made with or without boiling water, but that's the way you're supposed to do it.

When the rice is cooked, add the parsley and stir. Cook to the desired consistency, and serve.

Thoughts: We've made this a few times, and it works really well. Afterward I discovered that it is close to a traditional recipe. Huh. In the future, I might try adding mushrooms to the recipe. I think they might go well.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Caramelized Rice Pudding

From Martha Stewart
Ingredients

• 1.5c whole milk plus 3/8c (eyeball it)
  
• 1/4c medium grain white rice
  
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1/8c white sugar + 2 tbsp or so
  
• 1/8tsp salt
  
• 1 egg yolk
  
• raisins
  
• some cinnamon (again, eyeball it)
  

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the rice in 1.5c milk in a saucepan with some raisins (as much as you like). Once the rice has absorbed most of the liquid (15-20 min?) remove from heat. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 3/8c milk, 1/8c sugar, the salt, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Pour it into the rice mixture, stirring constantly. Return it to heat and bring to a simmer. Divide it between two ramekins. Place them on a casserole pan or bread pan and add about an inch of boiling water to the pan with them (to kinda steam them as they cook) and bake about 15 minutes. Let them cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle the tops with sugar, and caramelize using a kitchen torch (or a broiler if you don't have one... we actually use a wind-proof lighter. Seriously.)

Thoughts: I really liked this a lot. Claire liked it "for what it was" but says that it was too rich that she didn't like the caramelized sugar on top. If she made it in the future, it would include more skim milk (less whole) and no caramelized sugar. I guess I was expecting it to be rich so I really enjoyed what I got.

Disaster Index: 1/10. But Claire probably wouldn't do it again. I, however, definitely would.

Coconut Sticky Rice with Nectarine

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups sushi rice
• 1.3 cups coconut milk
• 1/3 cup sugar + 3 tbsp
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large nectarine, chopped

Wash rice well until water runs clear. Soak rice in cold water for several hours (preferably overnight).
Put rice and milk and sugar and salt in a pot and cook until the rice is done. Add more milk if necessary.
Put chopped nectarines on top.

Thoughts: Christ. Everything that could have gone wrong in this recipe did. The original recipe tried to get us to cook the rice by suspending it in a sieve over a pot of boiling water and steaming it. But we tried this for like, 45 minutes and it wasn't cooking. So we were like "screw this" and just boiled it as indicated above.
The nectarines were also awful. The original recipe calls for mango, but the only mango we had left was rotten, so we had to throw it out. And we were like "what other fruit could we use?" And all we had was a nectarine. The nectarine was not ripe. It was crunchy and tasteless. So we tried to cook it in some water until it softened. This took forever. And when it was done, it tasted awful.

Disaster Index: 4/10: Dan says 3 and I say 5.

Fried Rice 2

Ingredients

• ~2c leftover rice (where it's really dry)
  
• 8 stems of broccoli, chopped
  
• 2 large carrots or about 8 small ones, chopped up smallish
  
• 1/4 of a red onion, chopped
  
• 1tbsp chopped garlic
  
• 1tsp chicken bouillon (or veg)
  
• 1/2tsp soy sauce
  
• 1 lobe ginger, minced
  
• 1 egg, whisked
  
• salt, pepper, peanut oil, sesame oil
  

Heat peanut oil in a wide wok-like pot with garlic. Once it's a little cooked but not burnt, add the carrots, onions, and broccoli, ginger, sesame oil (about 2 tbsp), and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes (5ish) until the carrots are tender. Push the veg to the side and pour the whisked egg into the pot. Stir the egg for ten seconds or so, then add the rice (the egg doesn't need to be done completely). Add the bouillon and the soy sauce and stir until the rice is warmed through and any clumps of rice are broken.

Thoughts: This actually tasted like fried rice should taste. Claire and I think it was the ginger and chicken stock that really made it. Texturally, the LEFTOVER rice is REALLY important - if you use fresh rice, it's just a gummy mess. Really, huge difference. In the future I would add some sauteed tofu or some chicken.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Chinese BBQ ribs with jasmine rice

Ingredients

• 2 lbs baby back ribs
• 1.5 tbsp peeled chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/6 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1.5 cups rice
• 2 cups jasmine tea
• 1 cup water
  

Preheat oven to 400 F. Put rack in middle position.
Puree the marinade ingredients together in a food processor.
Reserve 1/4 cup sauce and coat the ribs with the remainder.
Arrange ribs, meaty side down, in a broiler pan or a baking pan (lined with foil), and bake, turning the ribs and basting them with some of the reserved sauce about half way though. Bake for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, make the rice. This isn't difficult. Just make normal rice but instead of cooking the rice with water, do it with 2 parts jasmine tea and 1 part water.
Remove from oven. Turn on the broiler. Brush ribs, meaty side up, with the remaining sauce and put them under the broiler for 3 minutes, until there is char.
Eat.

Thoughts: Pretty damn good. This was the first time we attempted to make ribs, so we were pretty impressed with the outcome. I was worried they would be too dry, but they were not. I liked the chinese marinade, but in the future I would probably stick with traditional American BBQ sauce because I am a huge fan. Part of the ribs didn't cook all the way through the first time, so we can to throw those in for another 10 minutes, but they came out fine. The meat pulled away from the ribs pretty well, which was good. The jasmine rice was also pretty good. Not overpowering.

Disaster Index: 2/10

Jambalaya

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups chicken stock
• 1 22-oz. can of whole tomatoes
• 1 chorizo sausage (ours was frozen)
• 2 cups fresh shrimp, tails off, deveined, all that good stuff.
  
• 4 chicken thighs (again, ours were frozen), cut into small chunks
• 1 cup long-grained rice
• 1 very small onion, diced
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp beef bouillon
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp savory
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 bay leaf

Thaw the chorizo and cook it until it's mostly done. Set aside.
Thaw chicken and chop it up. Set aside.
Put everything except the shrimp into a stockpot, large soup pot, or, ideally, a dutch oven. In a dutch oven, the rice won't stick to the bottom as it cooks. In everything else, it will.
Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and set simmer for 20-30 minutes. A minute or two before the time is up, throw in the shrimp. Save the shrimp for very last because they're already cooked. If you put them in too early, they'll get all rubbery. And we don't want rubbery shrimp.
Eat.

Thoughts: This was sort of a complicated recipe, but my goodness, it was hella delicious. We added the chicken to the recipe, which was a fantastic idea (but don't do it unless you have leg or thigh meat). I'm surprised this recipe worked out so well, actually.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Corn Risotto

Ingredients

• 2 ears corn
• olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 5 strips turkey bacon
• 3/4 cups Arborio rice
• 3 cups chicken stock (or veg stock, if you must)
  
• additional water, as needed
• salt
• pepper
• parsley
  

Using a sharp knife, slice the kernels of corn off of the cob. You should have about 1 cup of corn.
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute until soft and fragrant (about 8 minutes). Add the bacon and saute for another 5 minutes. Add the rice, and stir with wooden spoon to mix with the onions. Start adding the stock, about 1/2 cup at a time, adding more when the rice has absorbed the stock. Do this for like, 15 minutes, until the rice starts to get tender. Add the corn and stir. Add enough stock such that the rice is tender but not mushy.
Stir in parsley, salt, and pepper. Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty easy to make and it was super delicious. The corn and bacon make the texture sort of chewy, which is pretty delightful. This is super tasty. That's all I have to say.

Disaster Index: 1/10

key lime shrimp with mushrooms and rice

This is based off of a Bobby Flay recipe. The original calls for lobster tail, so...yeah, we didn't use that. Because we have no money.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces of cremini mushrooms, sliced
  
• 2 cups of small shrimps
• 1 scallion/green onion, sliced
  
• 2 tbsp white wine
• 1/2 cup key lime sauce (1/2 cup margarine, 1 tsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, generous pinch of pepper, generous pinch of cayenne pepper, 2 tbsp fresh key lime juice)
• 1 cup medium-grain rice

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sliced mushrooms and scallion and cook until the mushrooms start to sweat.
At the same time, start the rice. Add 1 cup rice with 2 cups water. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Then reduce to simmer, cover, and let it sit until done (about 10-15 minutes). Don't stir it too often or check on it too often, otherwise it will get soggy.
Make the key lime sauce. Just mix all the above ingredients together.
When the mushrooms are tender enough, add the key lime sauce and white wine. Let cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the shrimp. Since we used pre-cooked shrimp, we only had to cook them for like, a minute to heat them through. If you're using raw shrimp, you'll want to add them sooner. But don't overcook them either way.
Remove from heat, serve with the rice. Nom nom nom.

Thoughts: I would have preferred a little less lime juice in the key lime sauce. It was a little too citrus-y for me. But Dan liked it. He actually added more lime juice than was in the original recipe. Maybe next time we'll add the normal amount of lime juice and serve key limes on the side so people can add the amount they want. Overall, pretty darn delicious.

Disaster Index: 1/10