Some of you may know that I never attended culinary school. My professional training has been strictly on the job, learning from chefs who take it upon themselves to teach their employees well. Even before that, however, my culinary education was more self-directed (in keeping with my liberal arts education, I suppose). Every so often I would try a new cuisine and love it so much that I felt compelled to teach myself how to cook it. I would scour local libraries for cookbooks (this is before the internet), search all the grocery stores for the proper ingredients, and get to work cooking whatever I could. My first discovery was Thai food, but I think that my exploration of Indian cuisine was my most in-depth. During the two years we lived in Portland it seems I must have made Indian food for almost 50% of all my dinners. And much of it was made completely from scratch. I made my own ghee, chutneys, breads, paneer, and of course my own spice blends. I was very lucky to have several great Indian groceries within driving distance, but none of them ever seemed to carry fresh curry leaves. Curry leaves are the one ingredient that is a must for a true curry powder, in my opinion. I was pleasantly surprised to find them readily available when I moved to New York, and since then I’ve always had some homemade curry powder in my kitchen. Having the proper ingredients really makes a difference. I have toned down the spiciness since the kids have been born, but it still beats any other commercially produced brand. Once I get it all organized I hope to actually sell it someday.

I’ve been way too busy these past few weeks as many of you may have guessed. I haven’t posted any recipes for a while, that’s for sure. What have I been doing? Here’s what I did Friday, as an example. In the morning I woke up and got breakfast for the kids before taking them out to the playground. Then it was back home to get them some lunch and print my invoices for the day’s deliveries. I dropped Mia off at school before driving to Carroll Gardens for delivery #1. Delivery #2 was in Manhattan (with heavy traffic on the FDR Drive). Then up to the Bronx to pick up a month’s worth of flour, chocolate and the like. The drive back to Brooklyn took an hour and finding a parking space took 15 minutes. Next stop - the kitchen to bake a few dozen more cookies to be shipped the next day. Back at home I needed to print shipping labels, assemble nine gift boxes and six etsy orders, and pack it all to be taken to the post office. Somewhere in there I had to make dinner - frozen cheese tortellini (I am not ashamed!). And, to top it all off, we got the kids in their pajamas, loaded up the car and drove out to Jenna’s parents for a weekend of shopping and apple picking. The kids went straight to bed from the car where they both fell asleep and I did the same soon after.

OK, that may have been one of my busier days, but you get the idea. I actually had a few hours with nothing to do last Tuesday so I took the opportunity to try out two new recipes. The first is a Spiced Pumpkin Sandwich Cookie. I took my favorite gingersnap recipe, added pumpkin, and sandwiched them with white chocolate. The cookies are actually quite cakey, not unlike a whoopie pie. Jenna is particularly fond of this cookie and we may start selling it online soon - it is almost October, after all. The second cookie I tried is a chocolate drop cookie with toasted cumin. Sometimes I feel like I’m running out of spices to incorporate into my products, but nothing as of yet has any cumin. I thought it would pair well with dark chocolate, a combination which sounds unlikely but is actually not totally unheard of. The texture might need a little work, but I absolutely loved the flavor. I even topped them off with some cocoa nibs for a little extra crunch. My only hesitation is whether or not anyone will actually buy a Chocolate Cookie with Toasted Cumin. Would you?

I actually had a few extra minutes to myself a few days ago and I figured I’d try out a new shortbread flavor. We picked up some matcha (green tea powder) last month with the intent to use it in one of our products and shortbread seemed to be the obvious choice because it has such great shelf life. I know that green tea shortbread has been done many times before, so my challenge was to add something to make it unique. After much deliberation I settled on lemon zest and fennel seed. I took the opportunity to use some special fennel seeds that I came across. These seeds are called Lucknow Fennel and are a bit smaller and sweeter, and they are the kind used for making the Indian candied fennel seeds that I love so much. I ground them finely, added them to the dough along with the lemon zest and green tea powder. The color of the uncooked dough was a beautiful dark green - it almost looked like a giant lump of wasabi. Unfortunately the color faded a bit after cooking. When I told Jenna what flavor the cookies were her initial reaction was “huh?”, but the flavors work surprisingly well together. The spices just need a little balancing. Watch for them!

My first attempt at a BBQ spice mix lacked sweetness, so I gave it another try. I switched the sweetener to regular sugar and took out any spicy elements to make it more kid friendly. Instead of pork ribs I used a simple London broil, which I rubbed well with the spices, searing it in a pan, and finishing it in the oven. The sweetness really came through this time and helped push all the other flavors forward. I think it might need one more refinement before I will be completely happy with it. I also plan to make a version that’s spicy with plenty of ground chipotle peppers, but I wanted to try out this basic mix so we can have it for dinner. Mia, of course, loved it since she is such a carnivore. And Claudine, well, no surprises here: she had a bowl of Kix with milk for dinner.

Sometimes I’ll ask the kids what they want to eat for dinner before I make my weekly shopping trip. Yesterday Mia replies without hesitation, “Chicken Curry!” Sure, why not? My 4-year old actually asks for chicken curry, so I’ll make it. I picked up some chicken thighs and coconut milk and made a Thai curry with a coconut milk base. Thai cuisine is the first kind of food that I learned to cook, way back in college when Thai restaurants were just starting to open up, and it’s like comfort food for me so naturally I want my kids to like it as well. Until they take to spicy food, however, they won’t be able to try the real thing. I made a toned-down curry instead with my mild curry powder as opposed to an authentic curry paste which sort of made it a mix between a Thai and Indian curry. In the end it turned out that Mia was asking for neither, but rather a Caribbean chicken curry much like her babysitter often eats. She said, “Where’s the drumstick?”, referring to the fact that mine was boneless, whereas the version she wanted had whole pieces of chicken. But she ate it anyway and has also decided that she wants chicken every day - we’ll see about that.

Chicken Curry (serves 4)

5 boneless chicken thighs, cut into large pieces
1 Tablespoon curry powder
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 can coconut milk
4 slices of fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
4 ounces haricot vert, cut in half
juice of one lime

Mix the chicken, curry powder and garlic together. Let it marinate for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a heavy pot, then add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside. Add the onions to the same pot and cook until golden. Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, ginger, soy sauce, salt and pepper, and simmer until the potatoes are almost cooked. When they are almost cooked, add the chicken and cook until the chicken is done. Stir in the lime juice and haricot vert and turn off the heat. Let it rest for a few minutes, then serve over rice.

I actually made a real dessert at home last night. This, surprisingly, doesn’t happen very often and crème brûlée at home is an even rarer occurrence. I have made thousands (no exaggeration) of them during my years as a Pastry Chef, but only one or two times in my own kitchen. I may be making them more often, however, because my marshmallows need egg whites which leave me with lots of yolks. What better way to use them than crème brûlée? Vanilla beans are most often used as the main flavoring in traditional crème brûlée, but anything can be used. I chose cardamom last night because, well, I love cardamom and thought it would add a nice flavor.

Cardamom Crème Brûlée
(makes four servings)

3 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons whole green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

Heat the cream and cardamom in a saucepan until almost boiling. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl whisk the yolks and sugar together. Gradually whisk in the hot cream mixture - this is called tempering. Strain after all the cream has been added and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the water bath: Put the individual crème brûlée dishes into a pan large and deep enough to hold them. Fill the dishes with the warm crème brûlée mixture. Now, fill the pan carefully with water until it reaches almost all the way up the sides of the dishes. Carefully put the pan in the oven, cover with a clean baking sheet, and bake until just fully cooked. Over baking will cause the crème brûlée to separate. Baking should take about 20 minutes, but give a dish a gentle tap to check - if it doesn’t look liquid in the center it is done. Remove from the oven and chill for several hours before serving.

To caramelize the top, sprinkle sugar evenly over the top of the chilled custards. If you have a blowtorch, use it. If not, use a broiler. Either way, hold the crème brûlées several inches from the heat source until the sugar starts to caramelize and turn golden. Turn off the heat, let the sugar harden briefly and serve.

I actually found a use for these tiny little measuring spoons during my latest round of recipe testing. It’s best to make the smallest batches possible when testing in order to keep too many ingredients from going to waste. Since my shortbread cookies batches were so small, my regular measuring spoons were just too big for such precise measurements, especially when using stronger spices. I wanted to add ground cloves to a brown sugar shortbread, for example, and the 1/8 teaspoon I tried first was just way too much. I miraculously found these tiny spoons, a gift from many years ago, way in the back of my kitchen drawer. The spoon labeled “dash” is exactly 1/16 teaspoon, so I gave that a shot, but the cloves were still too strong. So I went all the way down to “smidgen”, a mere 1/32 teaspoon…and perfect! I am so glad I actually kept these things, which I admit I thought I would never use.

People always ask how we manage to keep within our food budget. One thing that I do is to take just a few minutes each week and actually plan every meal. Normally that means one night is pasta, one is fish, one is chicken and so on. I find it much easier to avoid buying unnecessary items when I have a detailed shopping list. The trick is to think of tasty variations within each category so we aren’t eating the same thing every week.

Tonight just happened to be chicken night so I decided to make my favorite yogurt curry chicken. It’s basically a simple tandoori chicken recipe baked in a home oven, but a bit of planning is key, as the chicken really needs to marinate for at least 8 hours. Perhaps more important is a really good curry powder (I like to make my own). Curry powder is not the traditional tandoori chicken seasoning, but I use it anyway because it’s both easy and delicious. A quality curry powder, however, makes all the difference. The yogurt and curry combine to form a delicious soft crust for the chicken, a welcome change from whatever boring chicken I might have made last week. Serve this dish with basmati rice and any Indian style vegetable dish.

Yogurt Curry Chicken

2 cups whole milk yogurt
2 Tablespoons curry powder
1 Tablespoon salt
1 chicken, cut into pieces

Whisk the yogurt, curry powder and salt together in a large bowl. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.

Preheat the oven to 375. Remove the chicken from the marinade and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Brush any remaining marinade over the chicken so it is coated with a thin layer. Bake until golden brown and completely cooked, 45-55 minutes. Serve immediately.