Palak Paneer (leave Indian cooking to Indians)

Ethnic cooking is extremely difficult if you don't really know what the dish is supposed to taste like. Sure I can follow the recipe, but in order to become a good cook, you gotta have that "sixth sense" that tells you to add a little bit more of this or that. I have never been a fan of palak paneer, mostly because of its appearance. But it's probably one of the most popular Indian dishes known even to the non-Indians. So I decided to give it a try.

FAIL.

I'm not sure if it's because I didn't puree the spinach long enough or pour enough heavy cream. I just did. not. like. it. at. all.

wak.

So I've decided to leave Indian cooking to the experts (for now).

Paneer

I made paneer. And it was ridiculously easy.

I had planned to use this for various Indian dishes, palak paneer included. (more on that later)

But for now, I'm just glad that I was able to make my own paneer without any issues.

Here's how I made it.

Paneer

8 cups whole milk

4 cups butter milk

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a large pot. Add the buttermilk and stir until the mixture separates into solids and liquids.
2. Line a sieve with cheesecloth and place it over a bowl. Pour the mixture into the cheesecloth-lined sieve to drain the curd, the discard the liquid.
3. Wrap the curd in the cheesecloth, place it in the sieve, and put a heavy weight. Let it drain for 20 minutes
4. Remove the cheesecloth. You can use the cheese immediately or refrigerate in a covered container for up to 5 days.

Pasta Puttanesca

The first pasta puttanesca that I have attempted. Possibly the best.

There are tons of pasta puttanesca recipes out there, but no one explained it or demonstrated more interestingly than Nadia G. from Bitchin' Kitchen. Pasta puttanesca is usually easy to put together and doesn't require ingredients that can't be easily acquired. What makes this recipe more interesting than others is the bite (red pepper flakes) and a hint of sweetness (brown sugar) that it brings. I absolutely LOVED this dish.

This is ridiculously simple to put together. You first cook the garlic, red peppers, and crushed anchovies in olive oil. Then add the cherry (or grape) tomatoes. Then olives, capers and brown sugar.

Finally the pasta.

That's it. It's that simple. Yet, amazing.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken

This is Ina Garten's recipe, which I've used before. For some reason, this time, I didn't think the chicken was as flavorful and tender as the last time. I did marinate the chicken in a ziploc bag for 24 hrs, instead of using a baking dish. I would think that using the plastic bag would help with the marinating process better. Hmmm... not sure how I can fix this going forward or even make this again.

Served with glazed carrots and basmati rice.

(Veggie) Meatloaf with Balsamic Glaze

This is by far the best meatloaf I have ever made. I took Bobby Flay's recipe and just added bacon on top. Adding bacon to any dish automatically makes it 10x better.

I hate meatloaf that has consistency of canned meat, such as Spam. This one held its shape, but stayed light/fluffy.
The complex flavor of the balsamic glaze made the plain old meatloaf into a gourmet dish.