Doing our part to support ginger growers everywhere

Well, we've survived the weekend.

Many house-readying things have been done (thanks, honey), and a good bit of cooking and baking, too.

First up: the Triple Ginger Pound Cake

Let me start off by saying it was a big hit.

The recipe yielded two loaves. I made it yesterday. We're down to one loaf...

Matt ate...2/3 of one loaf yesterday (with a little help from Alex), and gave the remainder of that one to his parents. The second loaf will go with him to work...anything to prevent Pop-Tarts consumption!

Matt reports that the cake itself was very light, and subtly flavored with ginger (that would be the ground ginger).
I had a brain-drain moment while putting together the batter...

I looked at the recipe, and although it clearly called for 1 1/4 cups of milk, I saw it as 1 1/2.

Realizing my mistake, I simply added an additional 1/2 cup of flour and @ 1/3 cup of sugar. The cake seemed no worse for the additions.

But adding the 1/2 cup of minced candied and the tablespoon of grated ginger...well, that put an already-tasty cake over the top.

Matt specifically asked that we keep this recipe around (like I'd ever throw away a recipe...silly boy).

Next: Indian food at home!

Mmmm...the fragrant spices still linger...and I'm two rooms from the kitchen.

Matt prepared the Murgh Tikka Masala...this is a very labor-intensive dish (as many Indian recipes are), but unfortunately, it wasn't anything spectacular.
Yummy, with a nice creamy sauce, but it didn't jump up and scream 'make me again!'.
Granted, had the food jumped up and said anything, I'd probably be consulting a shrink right now, not talking to you.

I made the Dum Aloo and the Puris.

Oh....oh, how very good.

The Dum Aloo? Beautiful. I mean, the taste? Rich, wonderful...the potatoes were completely cooked, but also completely intact (no mushy taters here, luv), a range of flavors, all working together. Spicier than either of us expected, but not so spicy that I couldn't eat it.
We will Definitely be making this again.

And the Puris?

Once I got the dough properly mixed (the recipe called for eight tablespoons of milk, but I think I used close to eleven or twelve before all the flour was incorporated), it was fine.
It called for sea salt, so we used what was on hand...Celtic sea salt. I really liked the flavor.

Again, the recipe didn't seem to be right: it said to use just three tablespoons of oil to fry the Puris, but it also indicated the Puris would be submerged.
I'm sorry? That's just not possible.

I tried it their way first, and the Puri didn't puff. Since that's what they are supposed to do, I increased the amount of oil in the pan (and continued to do so after almost each Puri), and got much better results. The more oil, and the hotter it was, the better and puffier the Puris.

All in all, easy to make and they went very well with the Murgh Tikka Masala and the Dum Aloo.

Now? I have a sink full of colored, sauce-encrusted dishes to deal with...but the food was worth it.