Orange Cranberry Sauce

Thanksgiving dinner is in-complete if you do not have the cranberry sauce. My favorite part of the dinner is the cranberry sauce and the stuffing. Combining the salt, the sweet , the tart and the sour flavors is just amazing. Mmmm...making my mouth water just thinking about all the amazing flavors.

But the cranberry sauce straight from the can is so very boring. So I have been using the most amazing recipe ever since I started making thanksgiving dinners. It is super delicious. And you have to try it to believe it.

Orange Cranberry Sauce (Cranberry sauce jazzed up with citrus flavors)

Orange Cranberry sauce

Ingredients:

1. 1 can cranberry sauce with whole berries
2. 2 teaspoons or less sugar (depending on how sweet you like you sauce)
3. 1/2 cup juice freshly squeezed orange juice
4. 1 teaspoon orange rind

Bring to boil all the ingredients in a saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Let it cool before serving

Roasted Turkey

Unbelievably this is my 4th year of making the Thanksgiving Dinner. The main dish this year is ofcourse, the star of the Dinner, Roasted Turkey. It all started when my daughter started going to the preschool and she loooooved Turkey , so I decided to make Thanksgiving Turkey at home and from that year on, it has become a tradition at my house to make the Thanksgiving dinner.

I always try to find the smallest turkey possible. Which is usually about 11-12 lbs. By no means it is small, but compared to the 20-24 lb birds it is small.

Anyway, the whole preparation / getting ready for cooking the turkey starts about 3-4 days before the day of cooking. So...since Thanksgiving is on a Thursday, Monday and Tuesday are for thawing the turkey in the fridge and Wednesday or Tuesday night is better for brining it and Wednesday for marinating the Turkey. It will be the most flavorsome turkey you would ever eat. ITS A PRODUCT OF PATIENCE AND LOVE.

Roasted Turkey (Turkey roasted with Indian/American flavors)

Roasted Turkey

Ingredients for brine-ing:

1. 1 container large enough to fit the turkey (i use a 15 gallon bucket just for this purpose)
2. 1/4 cup salt
3. 2-3 stalks of rosemary
4. few stalks of thyme
5. few stalks of sage
6. 1 heaped teaspoon red pepper flakes
7. 3 garlic pods crushed

Ingredients for marinating:

1. 1 tablespoon each of olive oil, butter, grated garlic
2. 1 teaspoon each of salt, coriander powder, garlic powder
3. fresh juice from 1/2 lemon
4. 1 teaspoon each of rosemary, thyme, sage chopped fine

Ingredients for roasting:

1. 5 stalks of celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
2. 1 onion, roughly chopped
3. 2.5 cups chicken broth
4. One 12-lb turkey
5. 1/2 cup olive oil (or melted butter)
6. 1 orange (juiced)
7. 1 lemon (1/2 juiced, and cut the other half in half.
8. 1 whole head of garlic (1/2 minced)
9. 1 bunch of sage (1/2 minced, 1/2 whole)
10. 1 bunch of rosemary (1/2 minced, 1/2 whole)
11. 1 bunch thyme (1/2 minced, 1/2 whole)
12. 1 tablespoon salt
13. 1/2 tablespoon crushed black pepper

On Tuesday night, mix the ingredients for brine in about 4-5 cups of water and put the turkey in it and leave the bucket in the fridge. On wednesday morning turn the turkey upside down.

On Wednesday evening, mix the ingredients for marinade and rub them on the turkey well. Leave it in the fridge overnight. 2 hours before you start roasting. If you have any more marinade left rub it on the turkey again. 

1/2 hour before you start cooking, place a bag of ice on the turkey breasts (this will help the turkey breasts not dry out when the dark meat is getting cooked)

Pre heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Mix all the ingredients for roasting an add it to the roasting pan. Place the turkey on the roasting rack. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and roast for 3.5-4 hours. Baste the turkey with the liquid in the pan every 45 minutes. This will give the turkey a gorgeous dark brown color.

Enjoy your turkey dinner with side 

1. Rosemary corn bread 
2. Stuffing
3. Sourcream Mashed potato
4. English Pea Salad
5. Brown Gravy
6. Roasted Vegetables

And ofcourse you can't forget the dessert

Sweet Potato Pie

Pumpkin Pie

zappy English Pea Salad

Today this is one of my side dishes for the turkey day. It turned out to be super delicious with some zapp to it

Zappy English pea salad 

English Pea Salad

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup frozen peas thawed or canned peas drained
2. 1 hard-boiled eggs, whites chopped and yolks crumbled
3.  1/4 cup red or yellow or any other color bell pepper, finely chopped
4. 2 ounce(s) (1/2 cup) Cheddar cheese, shredded
5. 2 teaspoons each of  mayonnaise and sour cream
6. 1 teaspoon dried basil
7. 1-2 tablespoon(s) finely chopped red onion
8. 2 teaspoon(s) chopped pimiento
9. 1 teaspoon(s) apple-cider vinegar
10. 1 teaspoon(s) sugar
11. 1 teaspoon(s) soul-food seasoning or seasoned salt
12. 1 teaspoon(s) granulated garlic
13. 1 teaspoon Boar's head mustard with white wine (I love this one) (If you don't have it, use any mustard but not the regular yellow mustard) (or just skip it)

Mix all the ingredients together except the peas. Stir in the peas and mix to combine. Leave it in the fridge for atleast 2 hours. Leave it on the counter for about 30 minutes before serving and serve at room temperature.

Fish biryani

Fish Biryani is something which feels weird but its super delicious to eat. Especially hen the weather is cold and you want to eat something hot.

I called it biryani but it is actually fish Pulao, because it is not cooked in the over for the second half.  I am making the whole dish on stove top

Fish biryani ( rice cooked with lightly fried fish)

Fish biryani/ fish pulao

Ingredients for marinade

1. 12 oz of your fav white fish cut into 1-1.5 inch wide pieces (I used Swai)
2. 2 tablespoons each of corn starch, lemon juice
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, turmeric, garlic powder

Ingredients

1. 2 cups basmati rice
2. 3 tablespoons oil divided
3. 1 medium large onion sliced thin
4. 1 medium large tomato sliced thin
5. 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
6. 1 tablespoon lemon juice
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, dried fenugreek leaves
8. 2 dried red chillies or 2 green chillies slit
9. 1/2 cup plain yogurt beaten

marinate the fish with the marinade ingredients for 1-2 hours.

In a  pan heat 2 tablespoons oil and fry the fish 4 minutes on each side . drain and set aside. Add the remaining oil add the cumin and dried red chillies (if using) and fry till cumin splutter. Add onions and fry till they become dark brown. Drain and reserve some onions. Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies if using and fry for a minute. Add the spices and mix well. Add tomatoes and fry for 5 minutes. Add the rice and mix well. Add the beaten yogurt and 4.5 cups of water (normally the ratio is 1:1.5 cups of rice: water. But this basmati I am using is taking more water hence I am adding 2:4.5 cups rice:water). Stir well. add half of your fried fish pieces and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes or until almost done. Spread the saved fried onions and the remaining fish and lemon juice. Simmer further for 7-8 minutes. Serve hot with cucumber, carrot and onion rings. 

I served it with my tri-color carrots I got from Trader joes today

Tri colored carrot

Chinese Chicken with Mushroom

The place we moved to, from Los Angeles has very less choices for Chinese Restaurants and and whatever are there their version of Chinese tastes different from what me and my family are used to. Unbelievable how ethnic food tastes get modified to the tastes of the local population.

Anyway, I wanted to make chicken with chinese flavors and the only vegetable I had on hand was mushrooms. And I made the chicken with mushrooms Chinese flavored and I served with with Black and white rice. What is Black and White rice??? I cup regular white rice and 1 cup black rice (I found them in Costco) cooked together

Chinese Chicken and Mushroom curry

Chinese Chicken and Mushroom Curry

Ingredients for Marinate

1. 1 tablespoon each of oyster sauce, soya sauce, white vinegar, sesame oil
2. 2 tablespoons corn starch
3. 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

Ingredients

1. 2 chicken breasts cut into 1/4 inch thick slices about 1-2 inches long
2. 8-12 oz mushrooms wiped clean and quartered
3. 1 medium onion chopped into 1 inch pieces
4. 1 teaspoon each of grated ginger, garlic
5. 2 tablespoons oil
6. Salt and pepper to taste

marinate the chicken pieces in the marinate ingredients for atleast 30 minutes. Heat oil in a wok or pan (don't use non stick) until its very hot. Add the chicken and fry stirring regularly for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Add one more tablespoon of oil if needed. Add the onions and fry for 3 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and the mushrooms and stir regularly and fry for 10 minutes. Add the chicken back to the pot. Add 1/2 cup water and stir to combine. Simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust the salt and pepper and garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with steamed black and white rice or white rice or brown rice with some siracha on the side

Sweet potato scones

I got this beautiful orange sweet potato some time ago and I left it on the counter so that I won't forget about it. I have been meaning to cook it for almost a week and finally I got to it yesterday. I decided I wanted some breakfast item with it and my search lead to sweet potato scones. It is so simple and so delicious .

The recipe called for 2 cup of mashed sweet potato and mine yielded 2 cups so I have enough for one more batch of scones. Yum yum

Sweet potato scones

Sweet potato Scones

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup mashed boiled sweet potato

2. 1 tablespoon butter

3. 1/3 cup packed brown sugar

4. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, baking soda, cinnamon , all spice and nutmeg

5. 2 teaspoons baking powder

6. 1-2 teaspoons plain yogurt

7. 1 egg beaten

8. 2 cups all purpose flour

Beat the egg with salt and sugar . Add butter and sweet potato at room temperature and mix well. Sift the flour with baking powder and baking soda and  the rest of the spices. Mix the egg mixture and knead the dough for about 10 times. If it is too sticky add flour 1 tablespoon at a time.

Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll it into a circle 3/4 inch thick. Cut it into 8 wedges and lay them on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack and serve with fresh butter or strawberry cream cheese like I did