Chicken Tikka Masala

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 Chicken Breast ( seasoned with a dash of curry powder, salt, garlic powder, black pepper)
1 Onion diced
1 Potato (sliced into wedges and tossed with salt, pepper, and olive oil)

Sauce
3 Tbsp yogurt
1.5 Tbsp Tikka Masala spice (1/3 cumin, 1/3 coriander, 1/3 turmeric)
1 tsp tomato paste
dash of salt
1 Tsp of sugar
1 dried Chili crushed
7 tbsp water

Rice

Directions
Before dealing with the chicken portion of this dish, place the potatoes in the oven at 400 degrees and cook until soft.

If you want rice, also boil a pot of water and cook your rice. 

Main portion:
Mix the sauce ingredients and place to the side

Caramelize the onions and spice with a dash of vinegar

In the same pan, sear the chicken.  Then, add the sauce.
When the chicken is no longer pink, cut it into bite size pieces. 

Lastly, plate with rice and potato.

Lemon Garlic Chili Asparagus Tips

Serves 3

Ingredients
20 Asparagus stalks
Garlic powder
Salt
1 dried chili crushed
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions
Remove the bottom half of each asparagus stalk.  You want each asparagus to be about 3 inches long.  This is because the bottom can be stringy and touch.

Place the asparagus in a pan with a few tea spoons of water and the lemon.  Cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the asparagus turns bright green and softens.

 Drain the water and add one tbsp of olive oil to finish the asparagus.  Also add a dash of garlic, salt and the crushed chili.

Allow the Asparagus to saute until the asparagus browns on each side.

Eggplant Parmesan

Serves 4

Ingredients
3 Medium sized eggplants
3 Eggs
Breadcrumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder
Flour (1 to 2 cups)

Sauce
Same sauce as lasagna.  I used 4 times each ingredient for this recipe.

Cheese
2 to 3 cups of Mozzarella
1/2 cup of Parmesan 

Directions
Skin and slice your eggplant into 1/3 inch thick coins.

Then set up a station as shown below.  In the first bowl is the flour, then egg and lastly the bread crumb.  Each piece of eggplant should be submerged in each of these bowls.  First, flour.  Then, egg,  Lastly, breadcrumb.

Then, place the pieces of eggplant in a skillet on medium high with enough oil to keep the eggplant from touching the bottom of the pan.  Cook each piece until golden brown. 

Once all of the eggplant is cooked, stack the eggplant in a casserole dish lasagna style: Layer eggplant, layer sauce, layer eggplant, layer cheese (both cheeses)

Lastly, place in an over until the cheese is all melted and the top is brown.

Beef Bourguignon

Ingredients
1.5 Pounds of Beef, cubed.  (This should be a tougher, fattier cut of meat)
1/2 Cup of Spicy Italian sausage cut into small lardon pieces
2 Carrots (Rough chopped)
1 potato (Rough chopped)
1 large onion (Sliced into strings)
1 bottle of red wine
1 cup of beef stock
Olive oil for cooking
Salt
Garlic
Black Pepper
1 tb of flour


Directions
Quickly pan fry the Italian sausage and then place the sausage into a separate sauce pot.  Replace the sausage in the frying pan with the onion and carrot and fry them in the grease.  You should season the vegetables with some salt and garlic.  Allow them to brown and then place them in the same sauce pot as the sausage.  Lastly, pan fry the beef (which should be seasoned with salt and pepper).  You may need to add some more olive oil for cooking.  Also, this should be done in batches as the beef will not brown if its all added at the same time.
Once all of the beef is browned, place it in the pot with the sausage and vegetables.

The pot now contains vegetables, beef and sausage.  Add one bottle of red wine to the pot as well as one cup of beef stock.  You should also add a some garlic powder (to your desired amount), a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper and 1 tb of flour.  Take this mixture and place it on the stove on low and allow it to cook for 2.5 to 4 hours.  They is that the beef should be tender upon serving.

The last component is the potatoes.  They should not be added to the pot as the wine will dye them red.  Cut your potato into slivers, coat with salt, pepper, garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil and cook on high in the oven.  The potatoes will be served under or next to the beef bourguignon when it is plated.   

Fresh Lasagna

Ingredients

Sauce

7 Tomatoes (De-stemmed and skinned)
2 Tbs Olive Oil
6 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
.5 ts Black Pepper
Salt to taste
1 to 2 ts of Sugar
1 ts lemon juice
1 Fresh Chili Chopped
1 Dried Chili Chopped

Pasta
3 Eggs
3 Cups Flour
Pinch Salt
1 Glug Olive Oil
Water if the dough is dry

Cheese
1 Cup Mozzarella Shredded
300 grams Ricotta

Directions
Preparing the sauce

Add the tomatoes to a large sauce pot on medium with the olive oil. Mash the tomatoes with a potato masher. Add the other ingredients and allow the sauce to simmer for about a half hour, or until the sauce gains the right consistency.  If you prefer, you can  blend the sauce with an immersion blender. 

Preparing the Pasta
Mix the ingredients.  You are trying to get a pasta dough with just a slight stickiness.   Separate the dough into 6 balls and roll each ball out into a 7 by 7 inch square.  Make sure that the dough is about 1/8 inch thick.  Next, quickly boil each pasta sheet.  Because the the sheets are rather big, you probably want to do with one at a time.

Assembling the lasagna
This lasagna will be 7 layers.  I prefer to alternate sauce, ricotta and mozzarella in between layers of pasta.  The top layer should be sauce and mozzarella.

The Ultimate Omelette

This is an omelette inspired by the Hershey Pantry in Hershey, PA

Makes 1 omelette

Ingredients
10 thin slices of spicy Italian sausage
1/2 of a small potato cut into thin translucent slices (2 mm thick)
1/3 of an onion cut into thin shoestrings (2 mm thick)
2 eggs
Salt and pepper
30 g of Feta cheese
Vinegar

Directions
Flash fry the sausage in a frying pan (10 inch) and then put it off to the side

Replace the sausage in the pan with the potato. There should be enough grease from the sausage to cook the potato. Also, season the potato with a dash of salt and pepper. When the slices are brown on both sides they are done.

Lastly, replace the potatoes with the onions. You might need to grease the pan again at this point. Cook the onions until they begin to brown and then add 5 tb of water and 3 tb of apple cider vinegar to finish the onions off. The vinegar will give the onions a nice tang. When the liquid had evaporated, the onions should be finished.

All of your fillings are now prepared.

Next, beat two eggs and pour them into a different, clean, greased, hot 10 inch frying pan. Allow the omelette to set and then flip it.

Method of flipping an omelette if you can not flip omelettes

I have a lot of difficulty flipping omelettes and the thickness of the egg in this recipe is especially think which makes the task harder.

What I do, is I slide the omelette off of the pan onto a large dinner plate once its has set. I then place another plate on top of my omelette and flip the two plates over. The omelette will now rest on the second plate with the omelette flipped. I then slide the omelette back onto the frying pan.

Once the egg is solidly cooked on both sides, remove it from the pan and place it on a plate.

Place your fillings in the middle of the omelette. I did mine in the order of

1. Potato
2. Onion
3. Sausage
4. Cheese

This alternated the rich and tangy offerings in the filling.

Lastly, fold the two sides into the middle.

I again flipped my omelette before serving by placing a plate on the top so that the folded side was on the bottom.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Serves 3

Ingredients
250 g Button Mushrooms
100 g Cheddar Cheese (sliced or finely chopped)
1 Tb Cream Cheese
5 Large Crackers (roughly crushed)
1 Lemon
1 Tb Olive Oil

Directions
Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees F

Wash and de-stem the mushrooms.

Mix in a separate bowl the cheddar, cream cheese and cracker meal to make the filling. Make sure that the mixture is entirely consistent.

After the filling is made, use a spoon and fill each mushroom cavity with the filling. The filling does not need to be overflowing.

Place the mushrooms in a 10 inch baking dish and drizzle with lemon juice and the olive oil.

Place the making dish in the oven and cook until the filling becomes brown on top.