Posts made in March, 2012

No Parchment?

Posted by Colleen on Mar 29, 2012 in All Posts, Baker's Tricks, Colleen's Kitchen, Tips & Tricks | 6 comments

If you have just used your last sheet of parchment paper, don’t run out to the store just yet.  You can actually use paper bags in place of parchment paper if you’re baking cakes.  I learned this trick from “Joe the cake guy” who helps run a small cake supply shop in the next town over, which his mother has owned for over thirty years.

I popped into his shop one day looking for chocolate molds and a new cake pan. We ended up in a two-hour conversation where Joe taught me all kinds of tricks and shortcuts.  One of my favorites was his thoughts on parchment paper.

Fool-Proof Boiled Rice

Posted by Colleen on Mar 26, 2012 in All Posts, Beginner Recipes, Colleen's Kitchen, Indian Recipes, Learn the Indian Basics, Recipe Index, Rice Dishes | 9 comments

There are many things I can do well in the kitchen, but cooking rice has never been one of them.  It’s a low priority item in our household as we prefer chapatis over rice.  On the days we have made rice, Hubby has always been the one to make it. He cooks his mother’s recipe, which he learned when leaving for America.

On a recent night out to eat, Hubby had taken me to dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant in the bay area, Bombay Gardens.  It was there that I realized how delicious a simple rice dish can be when it’s made the right way.

How To Store Curry Leaves

Posted by Colleen on Mar 23, 2012 in All Posts, Colleen's Kitchen, How To's & Tutorials | 1 comment

Now that you know a bit about curry leaves, it’s time to pick them up from the store.  My Indian grocery store sells them in little bags.  Curry leaves are usually still attached to the stem and I get a small bag that usually contains three stems worth.

Many of the cooks I’ve learned from will say they use “half a stem or a full stem” of curry leaves as a way of measuring out how many they use in a dish, rather than naming the number of leaves (e.g. “six curry leaves”).

If you’ve bought a little bag of leaves, you’ll probably only use

Curry Leaves & Powder

Posted by Colleen on Mar 16, 2012 in All Posts, Colleen's Kitchen, The Indian Spice Cabinet | 3 comments

When people who are new to Indian food hear the word “curry”, they think of curry powder and of course, the wonderful spicy sauce we see in so many Indian dishes.  But did you know Curry is actually a plant?

Curry leaves are used in Indian cooking and provide a unique smoky flavor.

Curry powder is a blend of spices that contains coriander, cumin, fenugreek, mustard, turmeric…which gives it that great yellow color and of course, red chili, which gives it’s signature heat.

How To Cut a Kiwi

Posted by Colleen on Mar 14, 2012 in All Posts, Colleen's Kitchen, How To's & Tutorials | 4 comments

Kiwis were something I’ve always avoided, mainly due to their fuzzy brown skins.  However I was getting a bit tired of the same pear and omelet breakfast so on my last trip to the Indian store I decided to shake things up a bit by picking up some kiwis.

Feeling proud of my brave choice of fruit, I headed home and placed them in my fruit basket, where they continued to sit for a full week.  Every morning as I reached for kiwi, I didn’t have a clue of what to do with it.  Do I scoop the kiwi out with a spoon? A good option, but I like to eat my fruit before the omelet and dripping kiwi juice over the eggs wasn’t too appetizing.

Reader Questions

Posted by Colleen on Mar 6, 2012 in All Posts | 4 comments

I’ve been getting a lot of email questions from readers which I thought were so great that I should take the opportunity to answer them publicly.  I learn something new every time I get to answer your questions and I’m sure others are wondering some of the same things.  So for all our learning enjoyment here are some of the latest questions I’ve got from readers. As so many of our readers are talented cooks, bakers and bloggers themselves, I would love for you all to add your own thoughts, answers, tips and stories. Just jump down to the comments section and share your own kitchen wisdom.  Perhaps we can put a compilation of “Kitchen Wisdom” together from everyone’s comments.

Polish Silver Without The Effort

Posted by Colleen on Mar 2, 2012 in All Posts, Tips & Tricks | 2 comments

When I have guests coming over, I like to pull out all the stops.  A fancy table, beautiful dishes, candles, even a printed out menu.  They all help make the evening, and the guests, feel a little extra special.  So for this week’s dinner party, I riffled into the back of my one and only storage cabinet, where I have a set of silver serve-ware from my grandmother.  It’s a beauty to behold…when it’s polished.  At the moment, let’s just say it’s seen better days.   The set is rather large, with a full size coffee pot, tea pot, creamer and a sugar container.  Every time I build up the energy to pull it out and give it a polish, I feel daunted by all the elbow grease it would take.