Salty Over Sweet

Chocolate Caramel Coconut Cookies

Anisha — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 21:05:47 +0000

For weeks (maybe even months) now my husband has been asking me to make Samoa cookies. You know what I’m referring to, those girl scout cookies that everybody goes crazy for every year. In some locations in the country they are labeled as Caramel DeLites. If you are not familiar with these cookies, they are essentially a shortbread cookie base, covered in a caramel mixed with coconut, and drizzled with chocolate. Now, I didn’t want to copy these cookies exactly, I didn’t particularly like the shortbread base anyways. So I took my The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER and pretty much changed some of the ingredient amounts and other parts of the recipe, just because I felt like it was the right thing to do. To be totally honest, this cookie was a total experiment fueled by husbands constant whispers in my ear (samoa… samoa… samoa). I just made it up as I went, and I am so glad I trusted my gut. This cookie came out PERFECT. Even days later it still maintained the perfect level of chewy, and the balance of flavors were exactly what I had been hoping for! I honestly was surprised myself. We were planning to go to a friend’s house for a game night, which was where I was planning to take these cookies, and I had already mentally prepared myself to whip up a batch of my chocolate chip cookies as a back up. Luckily the need never arose =).

Before you make this recipe, you will first need to make my Homemade Easy Caramel Sauce recipe. I use this not only in the cookie dough, but also in the topping. Now the topping is option. These cookies are really, really good without the additional caramel/coconut/chocolate topping. If you are short on time, or just don’t feel like going the extra mile… trust me I’ve been there, you can definitely just completely leave out the topping. There is already caramel, coconut and chocolate in the cookie dough. And I had already gotten my husbands double thumbs up for the cookie by itself before I even added the topping. But, if you do have the time/desire, the topping really does make it clear what the cookie is and in addition to making it pretty, it also adds another dimension of flavor and texture. I leave the decision up to you =).

Now before I start rambling on forever, let me walk you through how I came to make these cookies =) (for just the recipe card with ingredients and basic instructions, scroll down to the bottom of the blog post).

First things first, we need to toast our coconut. We will start with Unsweetened Shredded Coconut. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper, and spread all of the coconut you will need for this recipe on the baking sheet. Make sure your oven is preheated to 350deg and place this into the oven for 5-6 minutes. It should not need more than 6 minutes. You may not be able to find this coconut at a regular grocery store, you will find it at whole foods, or a health food store like it. But the regular grocery stores will most likely only sell the sweetened coconut.

Your coconut should look like this when you take it out of the oven. As soon as you remove it from the oven, mix it around, and transfer it into a bowl to cool for later. If you leave it on the baking sheet it will continue toasting from the heat of the baking sheet. Once the coconut is done, reduce the heat in the oven to 325deg.

Next mix your AP flour, baking soda, and salt together and keep it on the side for later.

Now we will start to bring everything together. Unlike in my chocolate chip cookie recipe, we will start here with room temperature butter, not melted butter. So cream together your room temperature butter with your white and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer or the bowl you will use with your hand mixer. (ignore the brown sugar stuck to the side of the bowl in the first picture, I had just finished making a fresh batch of Easy Homemade Brown Sugar right before making this).

Once your butter and sugar are creamed, add in some of the Homemade Easy Caramel Sauce and vanilla extract and mix it in thoroughly. Then add in the egg and egg yolk and continue mixing on medium/medium high until the mixture gets fluffy.

It should look something like this. Lighter in color, and fluffy.

Next we will add in our flour 1/2 cup at a time while our stand mixer is mixing on low-speed. As soon as it is all combined stop. After that we will add our chocolate chips and some of the coconut we toasted earlier. Just mix it in until it is just combined.

Next we will put our cookies onto our baking sheet. Our oven should have reduced to 325deg by now. I like to use a Small Cookie Scoop to portion out the cookies. Bake the cookies in the oven for 15-17 min or until the edges are just starting to get golden brown. They will be a little inflated when you first remove them from the oven.

After the cookies have cooled they will flatten a little bit. Our next steps are all for the topping. If you choose not to make the topping, then you are already done! If you are making the topping, wait for 20-30 minutes for all the cookies to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cooled completely, we are going to mix our remaining toasted coconut (leaving a spoon behind for garnish) with our Homemade Easy Caramel Sauce 1:1. For every spoon of coconut we will mix in a spoon of caramel. (if you follow me on Instagram (@saltyoversweet) you would have watched me figure out how to make these cookies as I was making it in my Instagram story… there I realized I had not toasted enough coconut for the topping, so the amount in the picture above is not enough to cover all the cookies, I made more after I used all of this up.. ingredient amounts have been adjusted in the recipe card to reflect this).

Spread a little bit of our coconut mixture onto each cookie in the center of each cookie.

Lastly, heat up some semi-sweet chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave (in 10-15 second increments) or on a double boiler until just melted, and drizzle on top of the cookies. (I used a spoon/fork to drizzle the chocolate on top). I did this over the parchment paper I baked the cookies on to reduce the mess. Once the chocolate is drizzled you can sprinkle on the little bit of toasted coconut you left on the side for garnish! =). If you are going to need to store these cookies in a stacked way, stick the cookies into the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the chocolate on top to harden. If you made the topping and are not planning to eat these cookies within 24 hours I would recommend storing them in the fridge until an hour before eating and then take them out, for food safety, since the caramel is normally stored in the fridge).

That’s it! It’s really not too complicated =). I hope you give this recipe a try for yourself! They are incredibly delicious and perfectly chewy, coconuty, chocolatey and carameley! Please be sure to let me know in the comments if you do! I would love to hear what you thought of it! Be sure to subscribe so that you can be notified when I post new recipes! (link in the sidebar). Follow me on Instagram @saltyoversweet (I also post a lot of Instagram stories of what I am making that day) and find me on Facebook (the link is in the sidebar). You can also tag me on Instagram @saltyoversweet if you make any of my recipes I would love to see! =)

Chocolate Caramel Coconut Cookies

2017-06-02 14:59:37

Yields 21

A chewy, delicious carameley, coconutey and chocolatey cookie!

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Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

17 min

Total Time

1 hr

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

17 min

Total Time

1 hr

Ingredients

2 cups - All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon - Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon - Salt
1/2 cup - Room Temperature Unsalted Butter
1 Cup - Brown Sugar (loosely packed) or 3/4 cup tightly packed
1/4 cup - White Cane Sugar
2 Heaping Tablespoon - Homemade Caramel Sauce
1 Teaspoon - Vanilla
1 whole - Large Egg
1 - egg yolk
3/4 cup - Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup - Shredded Coconut (Unsweetened)

for the topping

3-4 tablespoons - homemade caramel sauce (match the coconut 1:1)
1/2 cup - Semisweet chocolate chips
(Remainder of toasted coconut from recipe)

Instructions

Heat Oven to 350deg
Once heated, spread out shredded coconut onto parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 5-6 min until just turning golden brown.
Once removed from the oven immediately transfer coconut to bowl to cool.
Reduce oven temp to 325deg.
Mix flour with baking soda and salt and keep on the side.
Cream room temperature butter with white and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand or hand mixer.
Once creamed add 2 heaping tablespoon of homemade caramel sauce and vanilla and mix in.
Then add the whole egg and egg yolk one at a time. Mix on med/high speed until lighter in color and fluffy.
Then add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time. Mix on low until just combined.
After that, add 1/2 of the toasted coconut (1/2 cup) to the cookie dough, and 3/4cup of semisweet chocolate chips. mix until just combined.
Distribute cookie dough onto baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15-17 min until just golden brown around the edges. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

For the topping

remove 1 teaspoon of coconut from the remaining coconut and leave on the side.
Mix the remaining coconut with caramel sauce 1:1.
Spread this mixture onto the center of each cookie.
Next melt 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips in the microwave in 15 second increments (checking everytime, until melted, don't burn them) or on a double boiler.
Once melted use a spoon/fork to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies. Finish the cookies off by sprinkling the cookies with the little bit of toasted coconut you kept on the side as a garnish while the chocolate is still warm! =)
If you are planning on stacking these cookies for storage or transportation, put them into fridge for 30 minutes to allow the chocolate on top to set properly. After that you can remove them for the fridge!
If they are going to be eaten within 24 hours then you can leave them out, otherwise i recommend storing them in the fridge for safety reasons. You can take them out 1hr before you plan to eat them to let them come to room temperature. (this only matters if you made the topping)
Enjoy! =)

Notes

*Im not sure right now how to make this vegan or gluten-free - stay tuned, I may find a way =)
*These cookies are pretty heavy, a single person cannot eat more than 1 MAYBE 2 if they're really hungry in one sitting.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

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Methi Thepla (Fenugreek Flatbread)

Anisha — Wed, 31 May 2017 22:57:22 +0000

I hope everybody had an enjoyable long weekend (if you live in the states)! I know that it’s been a week since I posted my last recipe! Sorry about that, life happens sometimes. But I was not going to let more than a week go by without posting if I could help it!

Let me introduce you to todays dish – Methi Thepla – roughly translated as Fenugreek Flatbread. Methi Thepla is a very traditional dish from the part of India my husband is from – Gujarat. Before I met him I had never had them before because they are not made where I am from in India. When we were in college together our families used to send meals for us to eat during the week. And we always used to share our homemade goods! I have such fond memories of the both of us sitting on the floor in our dorm room facing each other with a heated stack of these between us! =) It was only recently that I asked my husbands mother (who lives in India) for her recipe for this! I had been experimenting with Indian food quite a bit, and had decided that I was ready for this new challenge! Luckily my husbands mother is an AMAZING cook, so she very quickly sent me a detailed recipe through WhatsApp. I followed it to a T and I gotta say – it came out exactly the way I remember them. My husband was quite pleased also =). Since then I have made a batch almost once a week! These days we switch between these and the Breakfast Omelette Muffins for my husband to have in the morning!

If you have never had Methi(Fenugreek) before I would highly recommend giving it a try! It grows like a herb similar to cilantro in that its small leaves that are picked young and the stems are also edible, it can be used like cilantro which is used in moderation, or it can be used in a more similar way to Spinach. Where I come from, we mix it 1:1 with potatoes or carrots to make vegetable dishes. It has a distinct bitter flavor. But it’s not an unpleasant bitter, it’s a really subtle pleasing bitter flavor. It’s really something difficult to describe. (I’m still working on my descriptive words!) haha. Most likely if you have ever eaten at an Indian restaurant you have had it unknowingly. In dried form it is used more like a herb. At the end of cooking a savory dish we sometimes add a pinch of Kasoori Methi (which is dried methi). If you ever smelled the Kasoori Methi you would recognize the scent form Indian restaurants. Fresh Methi is not so easy to find. I have never seen it anywhere other than a South Asian grocery store. It is also only sold fresh, at least where I live, when it is in season – which just so happens to be right now. Luckily you can also find it in the freezer aisle of any South Asian grocery store. When I started making these, Methi (Fenugreek) was not in season, so I just got used to making it with the frozen kind. That is the kind that is used in this recipe. If for some reason you cannot find Methi anywhere, you can probably sub Spinach for it. It won’t come out the same flavor, but it will probably be its own variety of delicious =). If you are really adventurous you can also try growing Methi, according to my husband it’s actually quite easy. I had a failed experiment trying last year, but I think I was just doing it totally wrong. The seeds are super easy to find since they are also used commonly in Indian cooking, you can find them on Amazon here. It needs to grow for a few weeks before you can start picking it. Apart from the amazing flavor that Methi imparts to any dish it is included in, Methi also has LOADS of health benifits, you can read up on that here.

Right before writing this blog post, I did a quick google search on Methi Thepla (to make sure I was spelling it correctly, haha) and I noticed first that everybody’s thepla’s came out perfectly round which was shocking to me, but then I also noticed that right there in the description, they mention that they make it with whole wheat flour only. After I saw that, the shape made sense. This recipe, the one my husbands mother sent me, uses primarily Indian Millet Flour with just a little bit of Whole Wheat Flour. It’s not so easy to shape this. Frankly I was just glad that it all stayed together while I was making it, the shape does not affect the flavor at all. I have never tried this made with only whole wheat flour. Sounds more like a Parantha at that point (which is a common flatbread where I come from in India), I have a feeling the more authentic way to make it is with Bajri (Indian Millet) flour but feel free to correct me if you know better in the comments. So if you are going to make this, I highly recommend getting your hands on it. Luckily you can find it on Amazon here.

There are a few more Indian specific ingredients in this recipe, but I will talk more about them as they come up in the recipe – for now, let me walk you through the process of how to make these!

First things first, I wanted to show you what the frozen Methi(fenugreek) I buy looks like. This is also the Bajri Flour that I use. I don’t believe that Indian millet is the same as the kind that you would buy in a regular health food store.

So first you want to measure out 200g of the frozen methi(Fenugreek) in the packet I buy, that comes out to 4 cubes. Make sure its in a microwave safe bowl because we are going to stick the bowl in the microwave for about a minute. We want the cubes to be just thawed. They may still hold their shape but if you press them they will fall apart. Once they are out of the microwave break them up with your hands. If they are still too frozen, put them back for another 20 seconds and then try the same thing. Once it can break up, just leave it out while we prepare the rest of the ingredients. By the time we are ready for the methi it should be soft enough.

While the methi is thawing, we will get our flours together. This flour is a mix primarily of Bajri (indian millet) flour, with a little bit of whole wheat flour. (the exact measurements are in my recipe card at the bottom of the post). Mix these together thoroughly.

next we want to get our garlic/ginger/chili pepper paste ready while the methi is thawing. So chop up a little ginger, a couple of cloves of garlic and indian chili pepper (thai chili peppers can be subbed) into smaller pieces.

Add them into your Mortar and Pestle one by one and smush them thoroughly until it creates a paste.

Next we want to add the remaining dry ingredients to our flour mixture. Those would be Salt,Sesame Seeds, Ajwain Seeds (which are another common ingredient in Gujarati cooking, it has a peppery flavor), and Haldi (Turmeric) Powder. Mix those all into the flour thoroughly, then add the oil and mix it in roughly, it wont look like you did much, but as long as there are little clumps of oil spread out its good.

Now your Methi should be thawed nicely. To that we will add our other wet ingredients. We will add a tablespoon of yogurt – I like to use Greek Yogurt. A tablespoon of Jaggery (Gur) – which is an non-centrifugal cane sugar that is commonly used in all of India – you can read up on its health benefits here. If you don’t want to use it or don’t have it, you can probably sub in brown sugar as a quick fix although it wont be the exact same. Lastly we will add in our freshly made chili-garlic- ginger paste. Mix everything together so that you cannot distinguish one ingredient from another. You may need to use your hands to melt the jaggery into the rest of the mixture. If your jaggery is drier, you may want to heat it up with a little bit of water to help soften/dissolve it and then add it to this. (we will be adding water in couple minutes so you wont be changing anything to add a little first to the jaggery.

The next step is to combine the wet and dry ingredients. For this step you will need to use your hands. You need to knead in the wet ingredients as best as you can, it will most likely still be dry, that’s okay, once you know you have mixed it as best as you can, then you can add a little bit of water at a time until you get a dough ball that is on the wetter side. See below.

Your dough should look like this when it is all done. You are not trying to over-knead it to develop any gluten, since there is just a little bit of wheat flour in it, we just want it to all come together. Once you have a nice dough ball, we will split it up into 10 little balls. Each ball should weigh around 70g the size of small lemons. If you do not have a kitchen scale I highly recommend getting one. You can find the one I use here.

Now that we have all of our individual dough balls ready, we can set up our rolling station. You will want an area to roll, a rolling-pin, and a container or bowl/plate on the side with more flour in it (I use AP flour, but you can use wheat flour, or even the Bajri flour). I use this really nice roti rolling circle that my husbands mother got for me from India. it just raises the area a little and makes it a little easier to roll This is very similar to what I use. But you can use any surface you want. A silicone mat, or your counter-top even as long as its clean. My mom uses the countertop to do all of her rolling. So everybody has their own preference. If you have never rolled roti’s before then this may be new for you. Since I needed 2 hands to roll, I couldn’t photograph as I was doing it, but let me verbally walk you through it, its pretty simple. First we dip our individual ball in the extra flour we have kept on the side, along with flouring our work surface. After that you can begin to roll. Soon after you begin rolling, you will notice that it will quickly get sticky. This is a very sticky dough. gently place the flattened disk back into the flour that you have on the side coating both sides with a layer of flour. Place it back onto the rolling surface, and continue rolling it until it comes out to your desired thickness. My husband likes them as thin as I can get them, but you don’t have to do that. Roll it out as much as you are comfortable. When you start rolling, make sure you heat up a large frying pan on medium heat, don’t start rolling until the pan is hot.

Don’t worry about it not being perfectly round. In this house we like to call that “rustic” =). Because I roll it out so thin, mine ALWAYS gets stuck to the rolling surface. I use a Bench Scraper to help gently scrape the dough off the rolling surface. then I use that same bench scraper to help transfer my rolled out dough to my heated pan. Once the dough is rolled out I add a teaspoon of oil to the pan and then gently place my rolled out dough on top.

When the Thepla (flatbread) is cooking you will know its time to flip, when the edges start to get slightly golden and it no long has a “raw” look to it. Before flipping it, brush/spread some more oil on the uncooked side and then flip it and continue to cook it. It should take around 3-4 minutes per Thepla (flatbread).

When you finish cooking each Thepla you will want to transfer them to an insulated container. Something like This would work well. If you eat them right away they will taste very dry. But if you leave them in this insulated container for 20 minutes, the steam will make them nice and soft and the perfect texture. If you do not have an insulated container, and you do not want to get one, you can also stack them on a plate and cover them with a large glass bowl after each one comes out. It’s important to trap the heat so that they can steam properly. My husband doesn’t like butter on his, so I add mine afterwards for myself, but you can also add butter or ghee at this point onto them when you put them into the container.

After 20 minutes of steaming they are done and ready to serve! =) You can eat them by themselves, with butter, or even with yogurt (which I have here in the picture) These are commonly eaten as a breakfast or afternoon snack with coffee or tea. They are pretty heavy, so one person with an average appetite would probably only need 2 or at most 3 if they are eating them as a full meal. But one by itself is a sufficient snack or breakfast =).

I hope you give this recipe a try for yourself! Please be sure to let me know in the comments if you do! I would love to hear what you thought of it! Be sure to subscribe so that you can be notified when I post new recipes! (link in the sidebar). Follow me on Instagram @saltyoversweet (I also post a lot of Instagram stories of what I am making that day) and find me on Facebook (the link is in the sidebar). You can also tag me on Instagram @saltyoversweet if you make any of my recipes I would love to see! =)

Methi Thepla (Fenugreek Flatbread)

2017-05-31 16:49:19

Yields 10

A delicious Indian flatbread - native to Gujarat - Makes a great breakfast, snack or meal! =)

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Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

1 hr

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

1 hr

Ingredients

250g - 2 1/2 Cups - Bajri (Indian Millet) Flour
50g - 3/8-1/4 cup - Whole Wheat Flour
1 Teaspoon - Chopped Ginger
2 Cloves - Garlic
2 - Indian Green Chili Peppers (Fresh) (Thai Chillies can be subbed)
1/2 teaspoon - Ajwain Seeds (Carom Seeds)
1/2 teaspoon - Haldi (Turmeric)
1 Tablespoon - Sesame Seeds
1 Tablespoon - Jaggery (Gur)
1 Tablespoon - Yogurt (I use greek)
2 Tablespoons - Oil - You can use any oil you prefer - I use Olive oil
1 Tablespoon - Salt
200g - 4 cubes - Frozen Methi (Fenugreek)
Water - As needed
Oil - for cooking (any neutral cooking oil)
Extra Flour - For rolling

Instructions

Thaw methi cubes in the microwave for a minute- minute and a half. until the cubes can be broken easily in your hands - leave on the side to finish thawing.
Make Ginger-Garlic-Chili Paste by smushing it together in a mortar and pestle until it comes to a paste. (keep on the side)
Mix both Bajri and Whole Wheat Flour together.
Add remaning dry ingredients - salt, sesame seeds, haldi, ajwain and mix in thoroughly.
Add oil and mix in until little clumps form.
Methi should be sufficiently thawed now, add yogurt, jaggery and ginger-garlic-chili paste to the same bowl. Mix together with hands. Heat from hands may be required to melt the jaggery into the mix.
Mix wet and dry ingredients together as best as you can. If dough is still dry, add a water a tablespoon at a time until it comes together into a ball. Dough will be a little wet and sticky, thats okay.
Split dough up into 10 equal sized balls - apprx 70g each.
Heat a pan on the stove on medium heat.
Set up your rolling station, and begin rolling thepla's (see blog post for detailed instructions).
Once theplas are rolled, you can add some oil to the pan and place the rolled out thepla gently onto the oil (without splattering and burning yourself). Cook for 2-3 minutes until edges become slightly brown, and middle no longer has a raw look to it, then brush/spread a little bit more oil on top and flip. Cook for an additional minute to minute and a half on the other side.
Once its done cooking, transfer to an insulated container and cover.
When all of them are done, let them sit in the steamy container for 20 minutes before serving.
After 20 minutes - Enjoy =)

Notes

*I have not tried this recipe without the wheat flour but seeing how little is in there, I cant imagine that subbing gluten-free flour with it would make much of a difference to make this recipe gluten-free. If you try it let me know!
*I'm not entirely sure the role the yogurt plays in the recipe since its such a small amount but if you are going to leave it out to make this recipe vegan, I would at least add some lemon juice or something to replace the "sour" the yogurt provides.
*Make sure you let these steam for 20 minutes before serving, thats a really important step. They will be too dry and wont taste good if you skip this step.

By Salty Over Sweets Husbands Mother =)

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Kimchi Fried Quinoa

Anisha — Wed, 24 May 2017 23:04:07 +0000

Ever since I started making my own Homemade Kimchi, this has quickly become one of my favorite things to make for myself at lunch. I often have leftover quinoa sitting in the fridge from the lunches that I make for my husband. Like I mentioned in my kimchi post I have recently become obsessed with Korean dramas. This obsession is what led to me making homemade kimchi, and has led me to find all sorts of ways to use my homemade kimchi. I have watched so many of my favorite fictional characters enjoy kimchi fried rice, or kimchi tofu soup, or kimchi ramen on my television screen. I am not the type to sit idly by when I am craving something. Even if I am irrationally craving something I have never had before! My favorite part about being proficient in the kitchen is being able to cook whatever I want, whenever I want (granted I have the ingredients at my disposal). Since I more frequently have leftover quinoa in the fridge rather than rice (which I also have but it’s normally indian style Basmati Rice) I just adapted the basic kimchi fried rice recipe to kimchi fried quinoa which in itself is a healthier rice substitute!

This recipes ease hinges on the fact that you will have already prepared Kimchi sitting in the fridge, and quinoa ready to use. You can easily make the quinoa fresh before making this recipe, fresh quinoa and leftover quinoa are equally great in this recipe. A lot of fried rice recipes use leftover rice that is cold from the fridge, but for quinoa that is not necessary. You can use whatever you have. There is one ingredient that I would highly recommend not skipping out on and that is Gochujang Paste. It is a fermented Korean chili paste and it plays a vital role in pretty much any red Korean dish. It’s not insanely spicy, in fact it has a more subtle pleasant spice level to it. So even if you normally cannot handle spicy food as well, I would still recommend giving this a try. You can adjust how much you want to use based on your own spice preference. I had found the one I currently have in my fridge at my local east Asian market, I had done a bunch of research on it beforehand, but I cannot read Korean and all of the packages for this paste look pretty similar. I didn’t realize until I was making this post that the one that I have has MSG in it, which I am generally sensitive towards. The one on amazon does not, which is where I will be ordering it from now on here: Gochujang Paste. If you are on a gluten-free diet, then you can find a gluten-free gochujang paste here. I tend to have adverse reactions whenever I eat anything with MSG, sometimes subtle, like just extreme exhaustion, or sometimes extreme like total voice loss. It really depends on the quantity and my state of health at the time. I need to be more careful myself in the future. Now my severe fatigue after eating this makes perfect sense. I am confident that the MSG free version of Gochujang paste would have no adverse reactions with me.

Anyways, now that you have the basics down, let me walk you through how to make this!

First things first, we need to heat up some neutral oil in a medium-sized pan on medium heat.

Once the oil is hot, we will add 1 cup of prepared Kimchi. Preferably Homemade Kimchi but store-bought will work too. Leave the water in the jar. We just want the cabbage and other vegetables. I also like to add additional Korean Chili Flakes otherwise known as Gochugaru at this point. If you made your Kimchi at home, you would already have these since they are a main component of kimchi.

Once you have fried it around for a few minutes, add a heaping tablespoon of Gochujang Paste. For a gluten-free gochujang click here.

The Gochujang Paste will melt from the heat pretty quickly.

After that add in your quinoa! I used cold quinoa straight from the fridge but you can use fresh quinoa also =)

Mix everything together and you get this! If you want to keep this vegan then you would stop and serve it now! If not then you have 2 more steps!

If you want to add an egg, which is optional, move everything in the pan to the side, add a little bit more oil or butter, and crack an egg inside. I like to add a little soy sauce or tamari(for gluten-free) into the egg also for additional flavor. Mix that around separate from the quinoa until it’s almost fully cooked.

Then just mix everything together and drizzle a little toasted sesame oil on top and you are ready to serve! =)

Enjoy! =)

Kimchi Fried Quinoa

2017-05-24 16:57:32

Serves 1

An easy quick recipe that is equally healthy, delicious, and satisfying! =)

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Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

20 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

20 min

Ingredients

1 cup - Homemade or Store-bought Kimchi (no liquid)
1 teaspoon - Gochugaru/Korean Chili Flakes (optional for more flavor and spice)
1 Tbsp - Neutral Cooking Oil
1 Cup - Cook Quinoa
1 Tbsp - Gochujang Paste (if you are gluten-free make sure you use a gluten-free gochujang paste)
1 - Large Egg (optional)
Splash - Soy or Tamari Sauce
1 teaspoon - Toasted Sesame Oil

Instructions

Heat Some Oil in a medium frying pan.
Add Kimchi without the liquid and Gochugaru/Korean Chili Flakes.
Fry in oil for a couple minutes then add Gochujang Paste.
Once Gochujang paste has melted into Kimchi add cooked quinoa.
Mix around and fry for a minute. (if wanting vegan kimchi serve now).
After a minute move the quinoa to the side of the pan, and add some more oil or butter. Crack an egg on top and splash some soy or tamari sauce on top.
Cook the egg mixing it around occasionally (kind of like if you were making scrambled eggs) Once its almost cooked completely mix it around into the quinoa. It should not take more than a minute or 2.
Once the egg has been mixed into the quinoa, remove the pan from the heat and drizzle some toasted sesame oil on top!
You are now ready to serve and enjoy! =)

Notes

*To make this recipe vegan, just leave out the egg.
*To make this recipe gluten-free just use tamari instead of soy-sauce and make sure your gochujang paste is gluten-free. (I have links in my blog post)
*Quinoa is a great protein rich substitute for rice, but this recipe can easily be made with cold rice instead of quinoa. =)

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

How To Cook Perfect Quinoa (Tutorial)

Anisha — Mon, 22 May 2017 23:04:34 +0000

Quinoa (Pronounced – Keen-wah) has made quite a statement over the last 8-10 years. Before that most people (other than the Mayans who used to trade quinoa like gold) were unaware of what this ancient grain even was, and then all of a sudden (as most new trends seem to be born) quinoa was EVERYWHERE! If you have not heard of quinoa yet, or have been too afraid to try it, now is the best time! Quinoa is kind of an amazing grain. It’s no wonder it got so popular so quickly. It’s incredibly healthy for you. It’s a great source of protein, fiber, and many other vitamins and minerals. It also happens to be a rare vegetarian “complete protein” which means it contains all 9 essential amino acids that make up protein. Most vegetarian proteins are missing some amino acids that humans can only acquire through food, but quinoa can supply all of them on its own. It’s naturally gluten-free which is great for people who are on gluten-free diets, and unlike rice, its carb to protein ratio is quite acceptable. (source)

Quinoa makes a great rice substitute for people who are looking for a healthier way to eat. You can pretty much substitute it in any rice dish. The flavor is a little bit nuttier than rice, probably closer to brown rice. Also, obviously the shape is different, so the mouth feel of quinoa to rice is different, but if you can get past that, you can be on your way to eating much healthier and nutrient rich meals! Quinoa is also surprisingly easy to cook. Rice is very temperamental. You need to get all the measurements and times right in order to get rice to cook properly. If you don’t cook it enough, it is inedible. If you cook it too much, it turns into mush, which some would argue is also inedible. Quinoa is not like that, yes you can definitely undercook it, but its super easy to fix that. And even though I have tried, I have never overcooked quinoa. There is a large window of forgiveness when it comes to quinoa. Nobody should be afraid to cook it! =)

A year or so after I graduated from college, I was pretty sick. One of the doctors I saw suggested going on a limited diet to see if that helped any of my symptoms. Almost everything was cut out. At least that’s what it felt like. All sources of sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs, some fruits and vegetables, nuts, rice, soy, and a bunch of other stuff I can no longer remember (I did have shakes that they provided that were supplementing my nutrition). I was on this diet for a month. Because of that, quinoa became an integral part of my life very suddenly. I have to be totally honest, I don’t cook it now as much as I used to, but every so often me and my husband will go on a healthy streak, and we will eat a lot of quinoa for a few weeks. I often make lunches for my husband using quinoa. Rice tends to make him really tired generally speaking, so eating it in the middle of a work day is difficult for him. Eating quinoa though has no negative effect, so he enjoys the quinoa in dishes that would normally contain rice, like in stir fry’s and with homemade seitan. It’s much healthier than anything else he would be eating in the middle of the day. =)

Since there are so many recipes that use quinoa that I wanted to share with you I figured it would be best to share with you the basic mechanics of cooking quinoa first so that you can use it as a reference in all of my future recipes! =)

Now that I have hopefully convinced you to try quinoa for yourself let me walk you through how easy it is to cook!

First thing you want to do is start out with some white quinoa. I like to buy my quinoa in the bulk section at whole foods so I can just take whatever I need for that week, and store it in mason jars at home. But you can also find quinoa on amazon here.

You’ll want to measure it out into a Mesh Strainer with a fine enough mesh to prevent the quinoa from passing through.

The next step is to rinse the quinoa with water. This is a really important step. Rinsing the quinoa not only washes it (which is important) but it also removes some of the bitterness. If you did not wash the quinoa it would not taste as good. Just rinse it for a good minute or 2. Make sure every grain gets some good contact with the water.

After washing I like to leave my strainer over a bowl so that any remaining water can fall into that.

Once the quinoa is washed, heat up some oil in a 2qt pot on medium heat. Once the oil is hot you can add your drained quinoa. I also normally add half a Bouillon Cube for flavor, along with a little bit of salt. Mix everything around until the bouillon cube is dissolved and the quinoa is coated in the oil.

Then you want to add the water. I don’t always measure it since quinoa is so forgiving. I usually just make sure that the quinoa is covered by 1in of water. But I have the exact measurements in the recipe card below. Once you add the water turn the stove on high and bring the water to a boil.

Once the water has come to a boil, immediately cover it and turn the heat to the lowest setting. Leave it like this for 20 minutes.

If you have a clear lid, after 20 minutes it should look visibly cooked. If your lid is not clear just trust me that if you’ve followed my directions it is. Without removing the lid, remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for another 10-15 minutes to continue steaming.

After steaming off of the heat for 10-15 minutes, you can then remove the lid. The quinoa should look something like this! =)

After fluffing around with a spoon or form it should also visibly increase in quantity. =) If for any reason at this point you don’t think the quinoa is cooked enough, just add 1/4 cup of water, heat up the pot real quick on medium high heat for a minute or 2, and let it steam off of the heat for another 10-15 minutes.

That’s it! Now you are ready to serve it immediately, use it in another dish, or store in the fridge for later! =)

How To Cook Perfect Quinoa (Tutorial)

2017-05-22 16:59:38

Serves 3

The best and easiest way to Cook Perfect Quinoa every time =)

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Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

40 min

Prep Time

5 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

40 min

Ingredients

1 cup - Uncooked White Quinoa
1 3/4 cup - Water
1/4 teaspoon - Salt
1/2 - Bouillon Cube
1/2 tablespoon - neutral cooking oil

Instructions

Measure out quinoa into a fine mesh strainer. Rinse under water for a couple minutes making sure to wet all of the quinoa grains.
Heat a 2qt pot of water on medium heat. Add oil. Once hot, add the washed quinoa, bouillon cube, and salt. Mix around the pot so that the bouillon cube dissolves into the quinoa and the quinoa is coated in the oil.
Then add the water. And increase the heat to high - and bring to a low boil.
Once the water begins to boil, lower the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Leave like this for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, turn the heat off, and remove the pot from the heat. Without removing the lid, let sit and steam off the heat for another 10-15 minutes.
After that time, then you can remove the lid and fluff the quinoa with a fork or spoon.
If for some reason it seems undercooked, add an additional 1/4 cup water, put back onto the stove on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Cover then remove from the heat and let steam for another 10-15 minutes.
Now it should be ready to serve as is, use in another recipe, or store in the fridge for later!
Enjoy! =)

Notes

Different colored quinoa's take a little bit longer to cook. If you are cooking another color quinoa you should add an additional 1/4-1/2 cup of water and cook for an addition couple minutes on the heat and let steam for longer off of the heat.
Quinoa is naturally gluten-free.
Quinoa is naturally vegan.
Quinoa can be substituted for rice in any recipe that calls for it.
Quinoa is a great source of vegetarian protein.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookies

Anisha — Wed, 17 May 2017 20:59:51 +0000

Yesterday I had a sudden urge to bake something new. Something I had never made before, but using ingredients that I already had at home in a new way. I had this caramel sitting in the fridge. It was a first round trial for my Homemade Easy Caramel Sauce recipe. It came out less like a sauce and more like a thick sticky caramel that holds its shape. I knew that it was not a failure recipe, it was just not at the time what I was looking for since I wanted something more like a sauce. I kept it in the fridge and was trying to find a good way to use it. I still have many more ideas on ways to use it including homemade “twix” bars, but yesterday I decided to just wing it and try it in a cookie. I’m not typically a fan of overly sweet things, I have a hard time eating more than a couple bites of anything that only has a sweet flavor. I need a little bit more variety of flavor. In this cookie, the bitterness in the dark chocolate and the sprinkle of sea salt really compliment the sweetness of the cookie and caramel.

I used The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER as a base recipe for these cookies. I used less chocolate chips since the goal of this cookie was not to overwhelm with chocolate. Since I was only using one of my baking sheets, I needed to make 2 separate batches of cookies. This worked out to my advantage since the first round came out different than what I was expecting, so I adjusted in my second batch. In the end, even though it’s pretty much the exact same recipe I came out with 2 completely different looking cookies! I will share how I came to both versions here though. It will be up to you which way you want to make them. Ironically the one that looks messier is less messy to store and eat, and the one that looks neater, is more messy to store and eat! It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

In the first version, I baked the caramel into the cookie, and this resulted in a funny looking cookie since the caramel essentially melted right through the cookie and created a hole in the middle. It looks like a mess but it’s actually a really delicious chewy mess. The caramel re-caramelized in the oven and turned into a more solid caramel. The only gooey part comes from the melted dark chocolate. This version is easy to store in a container. The second batch I made, I baked the cookie part first. After it came out of the oven I pressed down the middle with a spoon to create a well that I then put the caramel in. This cookie also came out delicious, but the caramel never cooked into the cookie so it remained as a thick sauce on top. This cookie is also great but it needs to be stored in the refrigerator to ensure that the caramel holds its shape. Both versions came out great, but different.

I will show you now how I made them. And you can decide which way you prefer to follow, or do it like I did and make both! =)

Like I mentioned earlier this cookie recipe uses the The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe EVER as a base. So the first steps are all the same. I won’t go into great detail about how to make the cookie part, you can see everything on that recipe. But I will take you through the essentials. First cream together the melted butter and brown sugar and white sugar and then add the egg and egg yolk and vanilla. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my Easy Homemade Brown Sugar recipe.

Have your All Purpose flour, baking soda and salt mixed together and ready to go.

Once all the wet ingredients have been combined, add in the flour mixture. It will be a wetter dough. Be sure not to over-mix.

Now add the dark chocolate chips/chunks. You don’t want to add too much. Just enough that every cookie will have a few chocolate chips. In this cookie, the chocolate chips are not the stars, but a team player.

I used a 1/2 Tablespoon Cookie Scoop to portion my cookies. Normally (without the caramel) the cookies would not be as crowded like this, but with the caramel they spread more, so maybe crowd the pan less if you want to bake the caramel into the cookies.

After portioning out all of my cookies, I created wells in the center using a spoon.

Then I poured about a 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of the thick caramel into each well. This is a variation of my Homemade Easy Caramel Sauce recipe. I will post the exact details in my recipe card at the bottom of this post. If the caramel is too tough to manipulate (too thick) you can stick it in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften it.

It’s not salted caramel without the salt! I then sprinkled some coarse sea salt on top.

I also did a little side experiment where I added some more cookie dough on top of the caramel on some of the cookies. This proved to make very little difference at first but now looking back, maybe the cookies with the little bit more cookie dough on top didn’t have a hole in the center. So I would probably recommend trying this if you do not want a hole in the center. Put them into the preheated oven as soon as they are assembled.

As you can see, this is what the cookies came out like from the oven. They needed some extra time to bake. The original recipe is 15-17 minutes. But these needed closer to 20 minutes to bake properly. Keep that in mind if you want to bake the caramel into the cookie.

After letting the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes I transferred them to a cooling rack. This proved to be a challenging task since the cookies were so flexible, for lack of a better word, from the caramel. Since the cookies were not setting properly I then decided to put them into the fridge for 15 minutes to see if that would help, and it actually really did. Instead of doing what I did and transferring the cookies to a cooling rack after 5 minutes, I would recommend keeping them on the parchment paper or silpat and sticking it directly into the fridge for 15 minutes and THEN removing them from the baking sheet/parchment paper. I think this will help them hold their shape better. You can really see the holes in the center of the cookies better in this picture.

In my second batch, I baked the cookie dough as is in the oven for 17 min. Only after baking, did I push down in the center of each cookie with a spoon as soon it came out of the oven.

Once there was a little well created in the warm cookie, I then put the caramel in the center and then sprinkled some coarse sea salt on top. I put the cookie sheet back into the oven for a minute to let the caramel melt into the cookie just a little bit. After removing the cookie sheet I realized that this caramel needed to be set in the fridge so I put the entire cookie sheet directly into the fridge for 20 minutes. After that you can eat them immediately, or store them in the fridge face up until you are ready to eat them.

As you can see there are 2 different ways that you could make this cookie, but no matter what you will end up with a dark chocolate salted caramel cookie in the end! The cookies where the caramel is baked into it can be stored outside and stacked in a container. The cookies with the caramel added afterwards need to be first set in the fridge on a baking sheet, then they can be stacked face up once the caramel is cooled, but they must be put back into the fridge until you are ready to eat them.

I hope you give this recipe a try for yourself! Please be sure to let me know in the comments if you do and which version you decided to make for yourself! I would love to hear what you thought of it! Be sure to subscribe so that you can be notified when I post new recipes! (link in the sidebar). Follow me on Instagram @saltyoversweet (I also post a lot of Instagram stories of what I am making that day) and find me on Facebook (the link is in the sidebar). You can also tag me on Instagram @saltyoversweet if you make any of my recipes I would love to see! =)

Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cookies

2017-05-17 14:47:06

Yields 25

A delicious dark chocolate salted caramel cookie that is chewy and the perfect balance of bitter, sweet and salty =)

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Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

40 min

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

40 min

Ingredients

1 batch - adapted Caramel Sauce - see adaption directions below.
2 cups - All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon - Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon - Salt
3/4 cup - Melted Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1 cup - Brown Sugar
1/2 cup - White Sugar
1 Tablespoon - Vanilla Extract
1 - Large Egg
1 - Large Egg Yolk
1 Cup - Dark Chocolate Chips/Chunks
Coarse Sea Salt - for garnish

Adapted Caramel Sauce

Follow the directions for making Caramel Sauce in my previous blog post.
Use this ratio instead: 11/2 Cups Sugar, 2 Tablespoons Butter, 2/3 cup Heavy Cream, 1 teaspoon Vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon salt. This adjustment will result in a thicker stickier sauce.

For the Cookies

Preheat oven to 325deg.
Mix dry ingredients - AP Flour, Baking Soda, Salt - in a seperate bowl.
Mix butter and sugars together in a mixing bowl or stand mixer, add eggs vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.
Add Flour mixture and mix until just combined.
Add chocolate chips and mix in with a spatula or spoon.
Distribute dough onto baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

For version 1

Create well in raw cookie dough rounds on baking sheet and fill with homemade caramel sauce and then sprinkle some coarse sea salt on top.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
Once out of the oven, let baking sheet cool for 5-10 minutes and then put it into fridge for 15 minutes to allow the cookies to set.
Once the cookies have set you can remove them from the baking sheet and store in a container at room temperature.

For Version 2

Distribute cookies onto baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
Once cookies have finished baking, remove the baking sheet from the oven.
While the cookies are still hot, push down on the center of the cookies with a spoon to create a well.
Spoon in some caramel sauce into the wells of the cookies while they are still hot.
Sprinkle some coarse sea salt on top.
Place cookies back into the oven for 1 minute to allow the caramel to melt into the cookie a little.
After 1 minute remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow it to cool. Once cool, put the baking sheet into the fridge for 20-25 minutes until the caramel sets.
Once the caramel has set you can remove the cookies from the baking sheet and stack them in a container for storage. The second version needs to be stored in the fridge until you are ready to eat them to keep the caramel set.
Enjoy! =)

Notes

*Both versions of this cookie need some fridge time to help set the caramel properly.
*Be sure to use the adapted caramel recipe for the caramel added to these cookies.
*Version 1 is chewier, nuttier and more toffee-like than Version 2. It depends on what kind of cookie you enjoy.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Vegan Kimchi (From Scratch)

Anisha — Mon, 15 May 2017 23:14:35 +0000

Kimchi seems to be “THE” thing to eat these days. I have been seeing it pop up in the most random places. I don’t blame people for falling in love with this Korean side dish! It’s filled with healthy probiotics because it is fermented, it is super low-calorie since the main vegetable is cabbage, it can be used in such a variety of recipes, and it’s really just plain delicious! I myself came to learn about kimchi in a rather different way. Even if kimchi had not become a recent fad, my interest in kimchi would have still been born. This past January, I introduced myself to the world of Korean Dramas. I know, I know, it sounds so random. I am not Korean, nor have I ever been to Korea, but after watching a few Japanese Drama’s on Netflix (after having watched many Anime’s (thanks to my husband’s introduction)) I suddenly found myself quite by accident in the world of Korean Dramas. It only took 2 dramas for the addiction to take hold. Since January (it is now May) I have not watched anything else in my free time. I have abandoned ALL of the English spoken shows that I used to watch and have been exclusively working my way through all of the top rated Korean Dramas with no foreseeable end in sight. (If you also watch K-Drama’s feel free to leave recommendations in the comments!)

Since starting my Korean Drama binge, I have learned SOOOO much about Korean culture and Korean food. This is where my interest in Kimchi was born. Korean people eat Kimchi with EVERYTHING. I cannot say if this is true outside of the drama world, but in EVERY drama I have watched, Kimchi is served on the side with every possible dish. Or like in Kimchi Ramen, or Kimchi Soup, or Kimchi Fried Rice, or Kimchi Pancakes it happens to also be the main star. I have come to accept this as a Korean reality. If you are Korean and I am wrong, please feel free to educate me in the comments. Having watched so many fictional characters eat Kimchi, I soon became obsessed with it myself. Obviously my first instinct was to see if Kimchi was readily available, but unfortunately I learned pretty quickly that most readily available kimchi has fish sauce in it, which is not compatible with my vegetarian diet. There was one brand that did sell vegan kimchi that also happened to be available in my local Whole Foods, but it was such a small jar, it was 7 dollars for such a small quantity, and it was only mildly spiced. I did buy it, but I finished it in 2 sittings. This was not sustainable. That is when I decided that I was going to make it myself. I had watched many Korean mothers make kimchi in the drama’s I watched, how hard could it be? Turns out not too hard, I learned pretty quickly that the most important and difficult to find ingredient in making Kimchi is patience.

I then proceeded to find 20-30 different kimchi recipes online. I didn’t really care if they used fish sauce or not, I was more looking to learn the technique of making kimchi. I read SO many recipes. Until one day, I closed my computer, got my butt to my local East Asian store, got the ingredients I could only find there, and just made it. I didn’t use any particular recipe, I just made it. After reading and watching so many people make Kimchi, it seemed to come so naturally to me to make. Eating with chopsticks happened that way for me too. I was never bad with chopsticks, but after watching so many Japanese and Korean dramas where people eat with chopsticks, my muscles seemed to have just learned by observation because now I can use chopsticks as if I’ve been eating with them my entire life. It’s weird how the brain works.

In terms of Kimchi, there is a lot of debate out there as to what the correct amount of time to ferment kimchi is. The woman at my local Asian grocery store, told me she will only eat fresh kimchi, she does not like it fermented at all. A lot of people online only ferment it for a couple of days. And then there are some people like me that like it really fermented. The key here is that the longer Kimchi ferments the more sour it will get. So less fermented kimchi has its place, and more fermented Kimchi has its own place. It really depends on what you plan to use it for, how long you should ferment it. There is no way to stop kimchi from fermenting, there is only the fridge which will slow the fermentation process down. So keep that in mind when you are making it. You can leave it out on the counter to accelerate the fermentation process, but even after it is sitting in the fridge it will continue to ferment, just at a slower rate. I LOVE really fermented kimchi, so I leave my kimchi out on the counter for 4-5 days, and then put it in the fridge to continue fermenting. If you are not sure how fermented you like your kimchi just taste it every morning and evening until its tasting the way you want, then just stick it in the fridge. It’s that simple. If you are planning to eat kimchi raw, less fermented is better, but if you are planning to put it into a soup, you want a more sour kimchi for that.

Side note: Kimchi has a rather pungent smell. If you live in a house with people who are sensitive to that particular smell, I recommend you not opening the jar when they are home or around the kitchen, or turning the vent fan on. My husband can smell from 2 rooms over whenever I open the kimchi jar. It is particularly pungent when it has been fermenting at room temperature, but the refrigerator making it colder will only mask the smell so much. So just be wary of that. The smell does not bother me at all, and I am sure that my husband would love the flavor of kimchi since he is obsessed with cabbage, but for some reason the smell that travels when it is in its raw form is not pleasant to him. To each their own. I have yet to share my kimchi with him, since I have just been hoarding it for myself =D.

Ok enough talk, let me show you how to make it! I know this is what you have been waiting for! Be sure to read through all of my steps as I will be sharing a bunch of tips and tricks that I learned/discovered… but if you are looking for a quick ingredients list and cliff-notes version, you can check out the recipe card at the bottom of the page. =)

First things first, we have to gather all of our ingredients. I have only made this with Napa Cabbage which seems to be the more traditional cabbage to use for kimchi. I was not able to find a good sized Napa cabbage anywhere but my local East Asian market, but they did sell smaller ones at whole foods and the regular grocery store. You can adjust your recipe based on the size of your cabbage. You will also be needing Daikon (which is an asian radish) I found this at Whole Foods. The most difficult to find ingredient will be the Korean Chili Flakes. There is no substitution for this. You must use Korean chili flakes for making Kimchi. They are super red, and look super spicy, but they are not. In fact you can really control the spice level with them, while still making a beautiful looking kimchi. If you do not have a local East Asian grocery store, luckily you can find them on Amazon here: Korean Chili Powder. The other thing you will need is coarse sea salt. Regular sea salt is too small and will react too quickly with the cabbage. And then you will also need garlic, ginger, scallions, soy sauce or tamari for gluten-free, rice vinegar, and the last and secret ingredient at least for me is Vegan Worcestershire Sauce. The Vegan Worcestershire Sauce is not required, but highly recommended. I use it to help provide an umami flavor that fish sauce normally would, but it would still be delicious without it.

We have to prepare our station, and for that we will need to set up 2 Cooling Racks with paper towels underneath them.

Next take out your cabbage, and remove the outer leaves. (I always do that since the most outer leaves always seem to be the dirtiest).

Next we will cut the cabbage. First cut it in half, and then cut each half in half. You want each quarter to still maintain its connection the the stem, so it all stays together, this will make the next few steps easier.

You will want to pour a bunch of your coarse sea salt out into a bowl or place where you can easily reach it.

Now you will want to place a quarter cabbage into a bowl, and slowly layer by layer sprinkle salt in between. It’s not going to stick much, thats okay. You just want to sprinkle a teaspoon between each layer, it will work its magic. Making Kimchi is not hard, but its also not neat. You will most likely have a very salty mess, you should expect this. Luckily, its not hard to clean up.

After salting the cabbage quarters, place them on cooling racks face up for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes flip the cabbage over to the side sprinkling some more salt on the outside. Let it sit there for another 30 minutes. The paper towels should be pretty soaked by this time, by collecting all the salty water from the cabbage that the salt helped release.

The goal for the cabbage is to get it to the point where you can very easily flex the entire quarter like this. (Normally I would use both my hands to do this test, but since I was holding the camera with one hand I did it against the cooling rack). It’s possible that your cabbage can reach this point after the first 30 minutes of rest. Be sure to do this test at that time too. The first time I made Kimchi it reached this point after the first 30 minutes, but this time it took an hour, so each cabbage is different.

While your cabbage is salting you will want to prepare your other ingredients. Peel your daikon and cut them into approximately 2 in matchsticks.

The way you cut vegetables like daikon into matchsticks is like this. See photos.

After getting them the right thickness and shape, you will want to cut them to the appropriate length.

You will also want to prepare your scallions and cut them into 2in length pieces. I washed my scallions before cutting, but there was dirt on the cutting board after I cut them, so I washed them again after they were cut. (extra washing never hurts, but dirt really hurts the flavor).

Keep all of your cut veggies on the side. (The cabbage should still be salting).

Now we will make the kimchi paste. Where all the flavor comes from! You will start with an entire head of garlic. and a couple large chunks of ginger.

Be sure to peel everything properly.

Next, add all of your garlic and ginger to your blender or food processor. I used the Dry Container for my Vitamix. Then add Korean chili flakes, soy sauce or tamari for gluten-free, rice vinegar, Vegan Worcestershire Sauce (if you are using it), salt and water to the jar. Blend it or process it until everything is completely smooth. The amount of kimchi flakes you use will determine how spicy the kimchi comes out. I used 1/2 cup of kimchi flakes and I would say my kimchi came out medium spicy. Use 1/4 cup for mild kimchi or 1 full cup for really spicy kimchi.

Once the cabbage is done salting, place it in a large bowl one by one and wash the salt off. You will want to remove as much salt as possible.

After it is done being washed leave it back on the cooling rack to drain for another 10 minutes.

Once a majority of the water has drained out, it is time to cut up the cabbage.

I like to cut mine into bite-size squares. you can see how I achieve this in the photos above.

Now all your ingredients should be prepared. Your cabbage should be cut to size, along with your daikon and scallions. And your kimchi paste should be made. Now you need to wear gloves for the rest of the process. This is not optional. You could burn your skin. Make sure you get some food-safe gloves. Now you will want to mix everything together. This is a messy process, I needed both of my hands, so I couldn’t take a picture of it. But essentially you will just massage the kimchi paste into the cabbage and other veggies, making sure everything is thoroughly coated.

Eventually you will end up with a really beautiful bowl of kimchi!

The next step is to store the kimchi. I like to use Wide Mouth Mason Jars. When you fill the jars, you will want to tightly pack it with each handful. Squish as much as you can down every time you add more to the jar. Don’t do what I did and stuff the containers all the way to the top. You probably want to leave about an inch and a half of space at least.

If you stuff it too high up, the vegetables will expand and the gasses will build up, more than what the jar can handle and after a couple days when you try to open it to taste it, you will end up with a mess similar to this. Learn from me. Do not make the same mistake that I did. I just only happened to have 3 clean jars available so I improvised. I would probably recommend using 4 quart jars. or 3 quart and 1 pint.

This was taken after they were sitting on my counter for 5 days. After this picture I put 2 of the jars in the fridge and left the third one out for an additional day.

The only thing left is to enjoy it! Be sure to taste the kimchi every day in the morning and again at night so that you can control just how much fermentation happens and stick it in the fridge whenever it reaches a point you are happy with! =) I will soon be sharing all sorts of ways that I use my kimchi! For the price of 1 small readymade jar, I was able to get 10x the quantity =) I think thats a good afternoon spent. =)

Vegan Kimchi

2017-05-15 16:57:09

An easy to follow recipe for Vegan Kimchi! Made from scratch! =) (Be sure to see my blog post for step by step pictures)

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Prep Time

1 hr

Prep Time

1 hr

For the Kimchi

1 Large - Napa Cabbage - mine was 3lb 9oz
1 cup - Coarse Sea Salt (For salting)
2 large - Daikon Radish - mine added up to be 1lb 13oz
1 bunch - Scallion/Green Onions

For the Kimchi Paste

1/2 cup - Korean Chili Flakes - Adjust this based on your spice preference (see notes)
2 Tbsp - Soy Sauce/Tamari
1 Tbsp - Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
1 - Head of Garlic - Approximately 10 cloves
2 large nubs - Ginger - Approximately 65 grams
1/4 cup - Coarse Sea Salt
2 Tablespoons - Rice Vinegar
3/4 Cup - Water

For the Kimchi Paste

Peel garlic and ginger.
Place all other ingredients into blender or food processor and blend or process until smooth. Leave on side until needed.

For the Kimchi

Cut your Napa cabbage into quarters, making sure base is present on each quarter.
Sprinkle salt in between every layer, and let sit on cooling rack to drain for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes flip over and let it drain for another 30 minutes.
While Cabbage is salting, prepare daikon by peeling and cutting into 2in length matchsticks.
Also wash and cut scallion into 2 in length pieces. Leave on side until needed.
When Cabbage is pliable enough to be folded in half without breaking, wash all of the salt off of the cabbage quarters in a bowl in the sink.
Place cabbage quarters back onto cooling racks to drain for another 10 minutes.
After draining, cut cabbage into bite size squares, place everything in a large bowl.
Mix cut cabbage with your cut daikon and scallions. Put some food-safe gloves on, and add in the kimchi paste you made and massage it into the cabbage and veggies.
Make sure everything it thoroughly coated.
You can eat immediately for "fresh kimchi".
To ferment, distribute Kimchi into air tight mason jars. Let sit on counter for 4-5 days. Taste every morning and every night until it reaches a fermentation you are happy with. Once you determine it is ready, put it into the fridge. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and enjoy any way you wish the next day! =)

Notes

*This recipe yields around 3 quarts worth of kimchi
*This recipe is inherently vegan
*If you use tamari and gluten-free/vegan worcestershire sauce it will also be gluten-free =)
*Kimchi is a great source of probiotics, which means it's really good for gut-health
*You can adjust the korean chili flakes based on your spice preference. 1/4 cup for mild, 1/2 cup for medium, and 1 cup for spicy.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Chaat Masala Seasoned Peanuts and Chickpeas

Anisha — Fri, 12 May 2017 21:20:56 +0000

Today I am going to share with you a super easy recipe that comes together in a matter of minutes. This is something my mom used to make all the time just for my husband. Before we got married when I was living with my parents, I think sometimes my husband used to come visit me just so that he could get a fresh batch of this stuff from my mom. He LOVES it. My mom used to fill up multiple gallon ziplock bags with this and send it back with him whenever he left our house. After we got married, the first time my mom came to visit us, my husband only requested that she bring this with her. Instead my mom brought the raw ingredients and just made it in front of me to show me how its done. Since then I have been making it every 2 weeks for my husband. These days, he keeps a large container of it at work with him so that if he ever gets hungry during the afternoon he can snack on it. This is a great source of protein and is a snack you definitely don’t have to feel guilty about eating =).

Indian people, as with most people, LOVE to snack. You will never go into an Indian persons home and not see at least 2-3 snacks sitting in bowls on the coffee table or kitchen island. At least one of those snacks usually always includes nuts. Most people these days just buy the snacks ready-made at the indian grocery store. There is a huge variety of different mixes that you can buy, I am guilty of buying them myself. It’s convenient to keep around for when guests are coming. This peanut and chickpea snack though is a perfect addition to your snack arsenal, and the best part is you can say you made it yourself! Sure we are using pre-roasted peanuts and chickpeas (you can absolutely roast these yourself), but bringing the whole thing together, that’s something that we are doing ourself. So you absolutely can say that you made it! =)

Let me walk you through just how easy it is!

First we start with our main ingredients. These were the same or equivalents that my mom brought from NJ with her. I just found what I could at my local Indian store. If you do not live near a South Asian Grocery store, fret not, you can easily find these on Amazon. Here are the links: Roasted Chana and Roasted Peanuts. It’s important that they don’t already be seasoned since we are going to be adding the seasoning. The roasted chickpeas I use are the same variety of chickpea that I use in my Dry Kala Chana (Black Chickpeas) recipe. They are not the same white chickpeas that you are used to seeing in regular grocery stores, these are a little bit smaller and a little bit crunchier.

It doesn’t really matter how much you make, the important part is to take equal parts of each and mix them together. I pre-mixed them together into a bowl.

We are going to heat some neutral oil into a large sauté pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot add the chickpeas and peanuts mixture. At first you will notice that the oil will coat the mixture and give it a shiny hue.

Mix everything around every 30 seconds to ensure that nothing burns. After a couple of minutes the shine will go away and the peanuts and chickpeas will feel really warm if you hover your hand above them. You want them to be heated throughout. If you pick one up, it should be hot. Once it reaches this point you can take the pan off the heat.

After the pan is off the heat, add your Chaat Masala. Mix it all in. It should stick quite well to the hot peanuts and chickpeas. Taste a piece and see if you have seasoned it enough. You can always add more at this point.

After that you can transfer everything to a bowl to cool. While it’s warm it won’t be as crunchy, but when it cools the crunch will come back. That’s it! It’s so easy and simple! =) Enjoy! =)

Chaat Masala Seasoned Peanuts and Chickpeas

2017-05-12 15:16:42

A simple easy to put together snack filled with protein!

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Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

15 min

Cook Time

15 min

Total Time

15 min

Ingredients

300g - Roasted Salted Peanuts (no additional ingredients) - Approximately 4 cups
300g - Roasted Chana (Black Chickpeas) - Approximately 4 cups
2 Tbsp - Neutral cooking Oil
1 Tbsp - Chaat Masala

Instructions

Mix equal parts peanuts and chickpeas into a bowl and mix.
Heat oil on the stove in a large pan on medium heat.
Once oil is hot add peanut and chickpea mixture.
At first it will be shiny. Mix every 30 seconds, for a few minutes. Once the shine is gone, and the peanuts and chickpeas are hot, take the pan off of the hot stove.
Add the chaat masala and mix it in. Taste for seasoning, and add more chaat masala if needed.
Transfer peanut and chickpea mixture to a bowl to cool.
Once cool transfer to a bag or container to store.
Enjoy! =)

Notes

*This recipe makes a large batch that should fill one large plastic container.
*This recipe will keep good for at least 6-8 weeks outside in a non-humid environment. Ours never lasts longer than 2 weeks though.
*This recipe is inherently gluten-free.
*This recipe is inherently vegan.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Mexican Restaurant Style Rice

Anisha — Thu, 11 May 2017 19:18:08 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE Mexican food. Me and my husband joke that I was probably Mexican in my previous life because I can eat Mexican food all day everyday without any need for anything else. (It’s only a half joke, sometimes I really believe it). There were weeks after I first got married where everyday for lunch I would just make tacos for myself with this rice recipe, homemade re-fried beans and Mexican cheese. I have, since then, decided to adopt a little bit of a healthier diet, but I still find myself coming back to this recipe whenever I want a quick Mexican fix. These days I find it really hard to justify going out to a restaurant when I can just make it at home myself. There was a time when I would order a vegetarian dish at a Mexican restaurant but be most excited for the side of rice and beans. Ever since I started making the rice and beans at home, I lost my desire to eat out. Having the ability to cook for yourself is so powerful. It is so hard to explain how lucky I feel when I can just make anything I want. The other part I love about making this rice at home is that I never have to wonder if it was made with chicken broth or not. I know 100% no questions asked that what I am making is vegetarian. The peace of mind that comes with that knowledge is indescribable.

This recipe in particular is super simple and easy to make. I made it up one day when I first got married as a spin-off of my Enchilada Sauce (Mexican Red Sauce) recipe. I was inspired after making that a few times and decided to apply what I learned from that to the rice and it turned out AMAZING. This rice goes great in any and all Mexican dishes. You can use it in burritos, tacos, enchiladas, as a side dish, in a burrito bowl, or in a Mexican casserole. Literally anywhere you can think of, this rice can be used. It’s that good. Sometimes I will just eat it plain by itself too, it has enough flavor to stand alone, but it’s not so overwhelming that it will not go great with other additions that would like to steal the focus. I highly recommend you give this a try. If you are anything like me, soon you too will no longer feel the need to eat outside. As an added bonus this recipe is inherently Vegan and Gluten-free. So it is very friendly to all sorts of dietary restrictions =).

Let me walk you through how easy it is!

First thing you need to start out with is your onion and garlic.

Dice your onion into small pieces, and give your garlic a rough mince. It’s not so important that it be so uniform, so don’t stress out about it.

Next we want to heat up some oil into a medium-sized pot with a lid on medium/low heat. Once the oil is hot you can add the onions and garlic.

While the onions are cooking, measure out your rice. I used California White Basmati Rice.

You don’t need to wash it as intensely as I do for my Perfect Basmati Rice with Jeera (Cumin) recipe, but you will still need to wash it. Fill the bowl up with water and move the rice around and drain it. Repeat this step 5-6 times. The water will not be clear yet, but that’s okay. We just want to wash away the majority of the starch.

By now your onions and garlic should have reached the point where they begin to get translucent.

Add the water, measured out to the amount you need to cook your rice.

To the water, add your Not-Chick’n Bouillon Cube, tomato paste and chili powder.

Bring the water to a boil, and stir it around until everything is dissolved (it should dissolve quickly). As soon as everything is dissolved, add your drained rice to the pot.

Since the water is already boiling hot, you do not need to wait to cover it. Cover it immediately and lower the heat to the lowest setting. Let it simmer like this for 20 minutes covered. After simmering for 20 minutes, remove it from the heat, and leave the cover on for an additional 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes you can remove the lid and mix it around. It should look like this. Now you are done! You can use it immediately in another recipe, serve it as is, or store it in the fridge for later =).

Enjoy!

Mexican Restaurant Style Rice

2017-05-11 13:09:21

Serves 4

An Easy Vegan, Gluten-Free, Restaurant Style Mexican Rice that anybody can make at home =)

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Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

40 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

40 min

Ingredients

1/2 - Large Onion or 1 small onion
2 - cloves of garlic
1 Tablespoon - neutral cooking oil
1 teaspoon - Tomato Paste
1 - Not Chik'n Bouillon Cube (see blog post)
1 Cup - California Basmati Rice
1 1/2 Cup - Water
1 teaspoon - Chili Powder

Instructions

Dice the onions into small pieces and mince the garlic roughly.
Heat the oil in a medium sized pot on medium/low heat.
Once the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic.
While the onions and garlic are cooking, measure out and wash the rice in a large bowl.
Fill the bowl with water, move the rice around and drain. Repeat this step 5-6 times.
The water will not be clear, that's okay. Most of the starch will be washed out, leave on the side drained until ready to use.
Once the onions and garlic have begun to get translucent, add the water for cooking the rice and the tomato paste, chili powder and bouillon cube.
Bring to a boil, while stirring to help dissolve the paste and cube.
Once the water comes to a boil and the paste and cube have dissolved (which should have happened by now) add the rice and cover immediately.
Lower the heat to the lowest setting and let it simmer like this covered for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes remove the pot from the heat and let it steam for 10 minutes before removing the lid.
After 10 minutes you can remove the lid and mix with a spoon or fluff with a fork.
The rice is ready to use however you wish =)
Enjoy! =)

Notes

*This recipe is inherently Vegan.
*This recipe is inherently Gluten-Free.
*This rice stores well in the fridge so you can make a bigger batch and use it for later if you want.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Homemade Easy Caramel Sauce

Anisha — Mon, 08 May 2017 20:42:09 +0000

Incase you haven’t noticed by now, I generally like to make as much as I can from scratch. I feel like there are 2 really important things that happen when you cook stuff from scratch. The first is that it really gives you a thorough understanding of the final product and how it comes to be the way it is. Once you understand the final product and how it came to be, it is really easy to modify it for various purposes. You are not forced to adapt to an existing products limitations, the only limitations are the ones that you create for yourself. The second really important thing I find, for cooking stuff from scratch, is that you have full control over the ingredients. Not only do you get to control quantity of ingredients completely, you also get to control the quality of the ingredients. I don’t mention it much, but when I cook I generally always try to use organic/pesticide free/natural ingredients. You will never, ever see me use anything with any type of artificial sweetener, artificial color, artificial flavor, chemical preservatives, hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup. These are all ingredients on my blacklist. I generally won’t let anything made with those ingredients even enter my house. There have been times when my husband has purchased something (without reading the ingredients list, as husbands do…) and as soon as he walked in, either he had to go return it, or it went straight into the garbage. I was also the same way when I was living at home with my parents, it used to annoy them at first, but they came to appreciate it by the time I got married. I have a pretty low tolerance for anything artificial/chemical. When I cook colorful, its always naturally colored. When it comes to sweets, it’s very, very easy to get sucked into the world of hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, sweeteners and colors. Even some ready-made caramel sauces are artificially colored. Caramel?! If you make caramel correctly it should color itself! I find the whole world of artificial and chemical anything nauseating to be honest. I am a HUGE advocate of cooking natural ingredients. For this reason, cooking from scratch has become something that I practice in every dish that I can. If it’s possible for me to make something from scratch with the ingredients and tools I have access too, I will most definitely be making it from scratch.

In terms of this particular recipe, my homemade easy caramel sauce, it’s not even difficult to make at home. It just takes a handful of ingredients nothing complicated, just some time, and patience is all that’s needed. There are no preservatives, no artificial flavors or colors, it’s as pure as you can get. Of course, if you are watching your sugar consumption, maybe this is not the best recipe for you! haha! But in moderation even this is not so bad for you! Once made it has such a strong flavor that you really only need a little, to make it go a long way. I’ve made this recipe many different ways, with many different ratios of butter/cream/sugar. Depending on the application, the ratio should change. When I need it to stay thick and stretchy, like the type you would find as a filling in chocolate bars, it’s the same ingredients just a different ratio. Today I am going to share with you my recipe and ratio’s to make this into a caramel sauce. This sauce works great for so many different applications. You can use it as is, as a topping on ice-cream, I like to use it to make homemade caramel latte’s, I also like to use it in many cupcake recipes that I make. This particular recipe has dairy in it, but I will soon also be sharing with you my “vegan caramel sauce” recipe which I also make regularly. This sauce also makes a great gift to give to people, especially people with a sweet tooth! =)

Let me show you how easy it is to make!

First thing’s first, you need to make sure you choose a pot with a heavy bottom, and high walls. You don’t want the sum of your ingredients to come even close to the top of the pot, otherwise by the end you will have a terrible mess to clean up. It’s better if it’s a heavy bottom steel pot, I happened to have mine filled with frying oil at the time I made this, so instead I used my heavy bottom non-stick pot. It worked fine. Add your sugar to your pot, and put it onto the stove on medium heat.

The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for the sugar to caramelize. You will be staring at the sugar for a long time, probably lose your patience, wonder if anything is actually happening, and want to give up. Don’t give up! It’s probably right around that time that things will start to happen. Eventually and very suddenly the sugar will start to caramelize.

You don’t have to shake the pot like I did to make it look like this, I just wanted to show you how much is actually caramelizing. It’s your choice what to do, just DO NOT use any utensils. The only thing you could do is shake the pot to get things to move around. When sugar melts, it melts at REALLY high temperatures, and its also VERY sticky. There’s no reason to create something difficult to clean right now.

Eventually you will notice that instead of brown crystals it is starting to liquefy. (see the back of the pot). This is good. The rest will follow suit. It will happen quickly, and exponentially.

Soon it will look like this. I got most of those crystals because I shook the pot a little bit too early. It’s okay if the same thing happens to you. At this point you can lower the heat to medium low, and continue to cook, make sure to shake the pot a lot at this stage to help the large crystals dissolve into the syrup.

You may think you are done at this stage, but you need to look carefully, if you stop at this point, those crystals will never dissolve (see arrows in picture). Make sure to move the pot in circles to help the crystals dissolve (if this is all that’s left, it will happen quickly).

Soon everything will be dissolved, this is exactly what you want! Take the pot off of the heat now. DO NOT touch the syrup.

Once the pot is off the heat, quickly add COLD butter and Whisk it in. This should be the first time a utensil touches the caramel. The sauce will start to bubble up the pot, that’s what you want. As soon as the butter is mixed in thoroughly, add the heavy whipping cream, and whisk that in. If for some reason, the caramel has cooled too much and is not combining with the heavy whipping cream, return it back to the stove on medium heat, keep whisking until everything is combined. (I could not whisk and photograph at the same time, so I do not have photos of this), as soon as the cream has been whisked in, add your salt and vanilla extract. That’s it, your sauce is done! Pour it into a glass container or jar. (It can melt plastic). The quantity that you get with this recipe fits perfectly into a Pint Size Mason Jar. Place it into the fridge to cool for 3-4 hours or overnight. It will be ready to use once it cools. =)

*If you are having trouble cleaning the pot and/or whisk that you cooked the caramel with, fill up the pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stove for 5 minutes with the whisk inside. The hot water will dissolve any remaining caramel that may be stuck to the walls of the pot and/or whisk. This is the easiest way to clean the pot.

That’s all there is to it! It’s so simple to make at home you will never buy the ready-made stuff again! =)

Easy Homemade Caramel Sauce

2017-05-08 14:29:48

A simple and easy way to make homemade caramel sauce that you can use as an ingredient in so many other recipes! =)

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Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

30 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

30 min

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups - White Cane Sugar
3 Tablespoons - Unsalted Butter (cold)
1 1/2 Cups - Heavy Whipping Cream (cold)
1/4 teaspoon - Salt
1 Teaspoon - Vanilla Extract

Instructions

Put your white cane sugar into a heavy bottom pan with high walls. (Steel is better, but I any heavy bottom pan that heats evenly will work).
Place the pot onto the stove on medium heat.
Don't walk away. Watch the sugar until it begins to turn brown in areas.
Continue to watch - move the pan around as it begins to brown. (DO NOT use any utensils)
Eventually the large brown crystals will begin to liquefy.
Continue to move the pan around until everything in the pot has liquefied. If there are any large crystals left, keep moving the pan around until all the crystals have dissolved into the caramelized sugar.
Once everything has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and add your cold butter and whisk it in immediately. The caramel will bubble and rise up the walls of the pot, that is expected, whisk until the butter has been completely combined with the caramel.
Right after that, add the cream and whisk until combined thoroughly. If the caramel has cooled too much for the cream to mix in, place the pot back on the stove on medium heat, and whisk until everything is thoroughly combined.
Once the cream has been combined in, remove the pot from the heat and add in the salt and vanilla and whisk it in.
Your sauce is now done, be sure to pour it out into a glass container or jar. (It can melt the plastic). Put it into the fridge for 3-4 hours or overnight. The sauce will be ready to use after it has cooled in the fridge.
If you ever need the sauce to be thinner you can always stick the glass container or jar into the microwave for a few seconds to thin out the sauce.
Enjoy!

Notes

*This recipe yields 1 Pint of Caramel Sauce.
*This sauce is inherently gluten-free.
*I will soon be posting a vegan version of this sauce.
*This sauce goes great in coffee, cupcakes, and on ice cream.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/

Bhindi Subzi (Indian Style Okra)

Anisha — Fri, 05 May 2017 21:55:17 +0000

If you are not familiar with Indian food, okra may be something you only associate with American Southern food. In fact, okra is a very common ingredient in Indian cooking. Okra, known as “Bhindi” pronounced “Bhin-dee” in north India, where I am from, can be used in many applications. We use it as is, in subzi’s (which are spiced vegetable dishes) and also in kadhi’s which are chickpea flour based soups. Okra is a very, very healthy for you. Super high in tons of vitamins and minerals, and also low in calories. The seeds are also known to be very high in protein. Depending on the variety you buy, the seeds will take on different sizes. Indian Okra tends to be thinner and have smaller seeds, while American okra is a bit wider, and the seeds are a quite a bit bigger. Where you live will determine which variety of Okra you will have access too. You can also frequently find it in the freezer section of your grocery store, but you should know that even though it’s not bad, at least in Indian applications, the frozen okra has a different texture than the fresh ones. My mom has always been able to know immediately whether a restaurant has used frozen or fresh bhindi. If you have access to the fresh vegetable its better, but frozen is a good alternative.

I was never partial or impartial to bhindi growing up. I ate it when it was made, but I never went out of my way to ever request it. When I met my husband, I realized that there were people out there that LOVED it. According to him, when he was a child he rarely ate any vegetables, his diet consisted mostly of just bananas and roti’s (indian flat bread). One day, his mom had made this dish (in her style), and he suddenly had an epiphany about how delicious vegetables could be. It was bhindi that opened the door for him to the world of vegetables. Even though he eats meat (unlike me) his love of vegetables goes much deeper than mine. He would be perfectly happy eating just a large plate of vegetables cooked literally any way. I am more demanding, I need some bread, or rice and other things to make it a meal.

The way that I cook this subzi is not really anything particularly special. I pretty much make all of my vegetable dishes in a similar manner. It’s the style of how my grandmothers and mom cooks. That is the beauty of Indian vegetable dishes. You can cook them all in a similar way, with all the same spices, but depending on the vegetable they will all come out completely different! It’s pretty cool how that works.

Let me walk you through how I make my version of Bhindi Subzi!

First things first, there are only 2 vegetables in this dish, Bhindi(Okra) and Onions. I bought my Okra from a local farmers market, so they are not Indian style, the seeds are quite large but the flavor is still good. The onion is just a large yellow onion.

Like many or most vegetables, Okra reduces in size quite a bit when it’s cooked, so you need to start out with a lot in order to get a good amount. Here I started out with 900g of okra. (It was 4 of those little green paper based boxes they put vegetables in at the farmers market).

To me one of the most important steps in any recipe is proper washing. It’s no different for this. Unless you are using the frozen okra, you want to make sure you wash it properly.

For cooking though they need to be dry, so after washing I like to lay my okra out on a paper towel to dry.

After everything has been laid out I take another paper towel and dab the remaining water off of the okra.

Once the okra are dry, you will need to chop them up. First thing is to chop off the tops and discard them. After that you will want to cut them into 1in pieces. There are a lot to cut, and I like to make the process go faster by grabbing a bunch that are the same size and cutting them together.

After that you will want to prepare you onion. Chop it up into a large dice. 1in pieces would be good.

Now your vegetables are ready to use. It’s always important to make sure all your vegetables are cut before you turn on the stove.

First thing you need to do is heat up a large skillet with oil on medium heat. Make sure that whatever skillet you choose, it is one that you have a lid for. Once the oil gets hot, add your Mustard Seeds. If the oil is hot, they will start to pop quickly. Put the lid on quickly, to make sure the seeds don’t pop all over your kitchen.

After about a minute of popping, take the lid off and turn the pan so that the oil is pooled to one side. This will prevent the mustard seeds from popping out of the pan. Add your Jeera (cumin seeds) and Indian Dried Chili Pepper. Let that roast for a minute, until it becomes fragrant. Then add Haldi (turmeric powder), Indian Chili Powder and Dhaniya Powder (Coriander Powder). Mix it into the oil so that it dissolves inside.

After that, add your chopped onions and mix them all in so that they are coated in your spices. Lower it to medium/low heat and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Once the onions are starting to soften after 2-3 minutes, then add your okra and mix it in. Also add some additional oil, and salt. Once you add your okra, make a slurry on the side in a small bowl with 1/8 cup of water, haldi (turmeric), indian chili powder, and dhaniya (coriander) powder. We will need it in a few minutes, so it’s good to have it handy. Be sure to mix the okra around occasionally.

After some time, you will notice that the okra will start to get gooey or stringy when you mix it around. This is good, it means its cooking. The goal by the end of the cooking process is for that to stop being there.

Once your onions and okra begin to get brown and soft, add your slurry and cover it with the lid for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes remove the lid, stir everything around, let the remaining moisture cook off and then add another 1/8-1/4 cup of water, mix it around, recover it, and then cook it again for 3-4 minutes. Remove the lid after 3-4 minutes and then fry it until all the water is gone again. At this point the okra should be nice and soft. The green hue should have darkened, and it should begin to be falling apart. Taste it for done-ness and for flavor. If it feels almost done then that’s where you want it, but if it still feels raw then repeat the process with the water and covering one more time. At this point, mine tasted almost cooked completely and it needed salt, so I added the salt. The last step is to cover it, and leave it off of the stove for 20 minutes to finish cooking. After 20 minutes it will be ready to serve. If you are making Basmati Rice or roti (indian flatbread) this is a good opportunity to make those while it finished steaming.

Then its done! And ready to enjoy! My husbands favorite way to eat it is with yogurt and roti (indian flatbread). =)

Bhindi Subzi (Indian Style Okra)

2017-05-05 15:49:33

Serves 4

A simple Okra dish cooked in the North Indian style.

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Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

1 hr

Prep Time

15 min

Cook Time

30 min

Total Time

1 hr

Ingredients

900g - Raw/Fresh Bhindi (Okra)
1 - Large Yellow Onion
2 Tablespoons - Neutral cooking Oil (first)
1 Tablespoon - Neutral cooking Oil (later)
1/2 Tablespoon - Black Mustard Seeds
1/2 Tablespoon - Jeera (Cumin Seeds)
1 - Dried red Indian chili pepper
1 teaspoon - Haldi (turmeric powder)
1/2 teaspoon - Mirchi (indian chili powder)
2 Tablespoons - Dhaniya (coriander) powder
1 teaspoon - Salt
1/4 cup - water

For the Slurry

1/8 cup water
1 tsp - Haldi (turmeric powder)
2 tablespoons - Dhaniya (coriander) powder
1/8 teaspoon - Mirchi (indian chili powder)

Instructions

Wash and lightly dry bhindi (okra).
Cut off the tops and then chop into 1in pieces.
Make sure you wash the knife properly after this, it will be gooey and sticky.
Chop your onion into a large 1in dice.
Heat the first 2 tablespoons of oil in a large sautee pan (with a lid) on medium heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds. Cover with the lid.
The mustard seeds will start popping, after about a minute, take the lid off and tilt the pan to the side so that the oil collects in one area. (this keeps the mustard seeds from popping out of the pan), add the Jeera (cumin seeds) and dried chili pepper. Cook this until fragrant, then add the dhaniya (coriander) powder, mirchi (indian chili powder), and haldi (turmeric powder), mix it into the oil.
Add the chopped onions, lower the heat to medium/low and mix around into the spices. Cook for 2-3 min until beginning to soften.
Then add the chopped okra and the additional 1 tablespoon of oil and the salt.
Mix everything around and fry. (prepare the slurry by mixing all the ingredients together into a small bowl)
Eventually the okra will begin to get sticky, or stringy. Continue cooking it. Once the okra and onions begin to soften, add the slurry mix it in, and cover the pan with the lid. Cook this for 5 minutes.
Remove the lid after 5 minutes, stir, fry for a minute to let the moisture evaporate.
Then add an addition 1/8-1/4 cup of water, mix it in, cover and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes.
After 3-4 minutes, remove the lid, stir and mix again over the heat until most of the moisture is gone.
At this point you will need to taste it. If it needs salt add more. Mine did, so I added more salt. It needs to be just almost finished cooking. If it tastes more raw still repeat the steaming process one more time by adding some more water and covering it for an additional 5 minutes.
If it seems almost done, then remove the pan from the heat and let it remain covered on the side for 20 more minutes before serving. At this point it is done.
Enjoy! Serve with rice or roti (indian flatbread).

Notes

*This recipe is inherently vegan.
*This recipe is inherently gluten-free.
*Different varieties of okra take different amounts of time to cook, so you will need to judge for yourself when it is finished.

By Salty Over Sweet

Salty Over Sweet https://www.saltyoversweet.com/