Recipe Notes

Stable Whipped Cream Frosting:

From here.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

• 2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

1. Place a metal bowl and the whisk attachment of a stand mixer (or the beaters of a hand-held mixer) in the freezer to chill.

2. Combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan, and whisk. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream until smooth. Place on medium heat and stir constantly, to prevent scorching at the bottom, until the mixture thickens and almost comes to a boil. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl, and set aside stirring occasionally until it reaches room temperature. Make sure it is completely cooled before adding to the heavy cream—very important!

3. In the chilled bowl, combine the remaining 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream and vanilla extract, and beat with a stand mixer or hand-held mixer until the cream begins to hold shape (it will still be rather loose). While still beating, add the creamy confectioners' sugar mixture, a little at a time. Beat just until the cream forms stiff peaks when the beater is raised and is spreadable, but be careful not to over beat. Use immediately.

Cilantro Rice:

From the mind of Scribble.

Ingredients:

• Cooked rice, preferably jasmine, great for using up leftover takeout rice

• Cilantro, finely chopped

• Lime

• Salt

• Sunflower Oil

• Optional - Roasted peppers, Jalapeno or Poblano

• Optional - Whole Cumin Seed

Method:

1. If using Jalapeno, dice finely, if Poblano, coarsely.  

2. If using cumin, temper in oil first.  Cumin gives a more "indian" flavor.

3. Put the rice in a large mixing bowl, add a reasonable amount of cilantro, diced peppers, optionally tempered cumin, and sunflower oil to rice and mix well.  

4. Add salt and lime to taste with lots of mixing in-between.

Deepa's Favorite Chicken:

From the mind of Scribble.

Ingredients:

• 1 skinned boneless chicken thigh

• 1tbsp-ish garam masala

• 1/4tsp-ish hot red chili powder

• very large pinch of kosher salt - maybe 1/4-1/2tsp?  More than you'd think.

• 1 heaping spoonful 5% greek yogurt

• squeeze of lime

Method:

1. Multiple the recipe by the number of chicken thighs you want, naturally.

2. Cut chicken into pleasingly-sized chunks and trim excess fat - don't try to take it all off, just any big chunks.

3. Place all ingredients in a ziploc bag and mush them around with your fingers until well blended 

4. Squeeze out all the air you can and put it in the fridge for at least a few minutes and at most a few days.  

5. Heat a pan to medium heat, with a generous amount of sunflower oil, carefully place each of the chunks in the pan* and don't touch them until the side that's down is well browned, then flip and turn the heat down a bit.  When they are approaching brown, put a lid on it and turn the heat down even more until they are sufficiently cooked through.

6. turn off the heat, squeeze lime over chicken and toss, then serve on a bed of cilantro rice.

Notes:

 *don't try to get all the yogurt and stuff out of the bag, just take out the chicken and throw away any amount of the marinade that doesn't naturally come along for the ride.  

Despite some variation (I never actually measure the ingredients) this has never failed to get an enthusiastic response from DJ.

Biscuits:

From here.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 3 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/3 cup cold butter, cubed

• 2/3 cup 2% milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 450°. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk; stir just until moistened.

2. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead gently 8-10 times. Pat dough to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter.

3. Place 1 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Serve warm.

Notes:

I've made this once.  I halved the recipe and it was passable, but quite dry.  Consider adding more butter/milk and using the food processor instead of the pastry knife next time.  Salt and oven temperature are right on.

Chicken 65:

From here.

Ingredients Part 1 (Marinade):

• 1.3 lbs chicken (600 grams boneless chicken or 1 kg (2 lbs) bone-in chicken)

• 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

• ⅓ teaspoon salt

• 1½ teaspoon red chili powder

• ¼ teaspoon turmeric

• 1 teaspoon garam masala

• 2 sprigs curry leaves (finely chopped)

• ¼ cup 5% greek yogurt

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method Part 1:

1. Cut the chicken to approximately 1 by 1 inch pieces. Try to keep the sizes as uniform as possible, this helps in getting all the pieces fried evenly. 

2. To a large mixing bowl, add chicken, salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, garam masala, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice, yogurt and finely chopped curry leaves. 

3. Mix well and cover. Marinate for a minimum of 1 hour. You can refrigerate for upto to 36 hours.

Ingredients Part 2 (Deep Fry):

• 4 tablespoons cornstarch

• 2 tablespoons rice flour

• 1 egg white

Method Part 2:

1. add cornstarch, rice flour and egg white to the marinated chicken.

2. Mix well to coat the chicken well with flour and eggs or yogurt. The coating should be moist and not runny or too dry. If it is too dry, you may splash some water and mix well.

3. Deep-fry the chicken as you will, at approx 350-375

4. Briefly deep-fry the curry leaves and chiles.

Ingredients Part 3 ("Sauce"/Tempering):

• 2 sprigs Curry leaves (rinse & pat dry completely)

• 4 to 6 green chilies (slit, seeded & pat dry)

• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic (2 large cloves)

• 2 teaspoons Kashmiri red chili powder

• 2 tbsp water

• ½ to 1 tablespoon garlic paste

• ½ teaspoon sugar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon lime juice

• ½ teaspoons ground black pepper

Method Part 3:

1. Mix red chili powder, sugar, crushed garlic or paste & 2 tbsps water. Mix together to get a thick paste.  (consider doing this well in advance, see notes)

2. Start tempering oil in a small pan

3. add chopped garlic, 5 to 6 curry leaves and 2 slit green chilies. Stir fry until the curry leaves turn crisp, do not brown the garlic.

4. Slide the curry leaves and the chilies to a side.  Pour the chilli garlic paste, 2 tablespoons water and salt. Mix well and let it cook on a medium heat until all of the water evaporates.

5. Taste test and adjust as needed, toss chicken in tempering.  Serve w/lime and fresh onion

Notes:

Pretty legit "classic" 65.  Could use a better sauce perhaps, first time I made it the tempering/sauce was "sandy" and didn't adhere.  If that happens again, consider a different method or entirely different sort of sauce.  

Second time - sauce sticks fine but is too much just hot and not enough acidity, IMO.  DJ loves it but I think something a little more saucy would do.

Falafel:

From here.  Thanks Dinnis#1520 on Discord.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dried chickpeas (Do NOT use canned or cooked chickpeas)

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 1 cup fresh parsley leaves, stems removed

• ¾ cup fresh cilantro leaves, stems removed

• ½ cup fresh dill, stems removed

• 1 small onion, quartered

• 7-8 garlic cloves, peeled

• Salt to taste

• 1 tbsp ground black pepper

• 1 tbsp ground cumin

• 1 tbsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper, optional

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method:

1. Soak chickpeas for 24h.  

2. Add the chickpeas, herbs, onions, garlic and spices to the large bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Run the food processor 40 seconds at a time until all is well combined forming a the falafel mixture. (note: consider doing chickpeas and other ingredients separately so the onions and garlic can be more finely integrated?)  Note: try to keep the mix dry as possible for better frying.  

3. Transfer the falafel mixture to a container and cover tightly. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or (up to one whole night) until ready to cook.

4. Just before frying, add the baking powder and sesame seeds to the falafel mixture and stir with a spoon.

5. Scoop tablespoonfuls of the falafel mixture and form into patties (½ inch in thickness each). It helps to have wet hands as you form the patties.

6. Fill a medium saucepan 3 inches up with oil. Heat the oil on medium-high to about 375. Carefully drop the falafel patties in the oil, let them fry for about 3 to 5 minutes or so until crispy and medium brown on the outside. Avoid crowding the falafel in the saucepan, fry them in batches if necessary.

7. Place the fried falafel patties in a colander or plate lined with paper towels to drain.