Monkey Bread with Brown Sugar Caramel

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup pack brown sugar 
30 oz. biscuit dough (ready made from store or homemade)

Instructions:

• Grease large Bundt cake pan
• Mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in one-gallon plastic bag
• Cut refrigerated dough into quarter-inch square pieces
• Shake pieces in bag to coat and then place them in the Bundt cake pan
• Heat to melt the butter and brown sugar in a sauce pan 
• Pour mixture over the dough in the Bundt cake pan
• Bake at 350 degree F for 40-45 minutes.
• Cool for 10 minutes at least
• Remove from pan and serve
• Note: it pulls apart like little golden drops of heaven ^-^

Sweetened Ginger

Sweetened Ginger

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. fresh ginger root

1 cup sugar

Enough water to cover ginger 

Instructions:

• Peel and slice ginger into even small strips by knife or mandolin
• Put ginger in sauce pan and enough water to just cover ginger
• Bring to a boil and reduce to medium and simmer for 45 minutes
• After water reduces, add sugar, bring to a boil again, reduce to medium, and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally
• At this point the ginger should be covered and sticky
• Dump ginger onto cooling rack with something under the rack to catch the sugar drippings
• Let cool, bag or bottle, lasts for several weeks in air tight container 

Simple Chocolate Banana Bread

Simple Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe Bananas (smashed) (I used 4 because I omit butter)
• 1/3 cup melted butter (I omitted butter and used minced apple)
• 1 cup white sugar (I used 1/2 cup white sugar)
• 1 egg (beaten) (I used a brown cage free egg)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (or all-purpose white flour)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened (or sweetened) cocoa powder

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix butter (or apple) into mashed bananas
• Add in sugar, egg, vanilla
• Add in baking soda and salt
• Add in flour and cocoa powder
• Pour into buttered 4X8 pan
• Bake for 1 hour
• Cool for 1 hour

Calories: 

For my recipe (omitting butter), the entire loaf is 1517 calories. (300 for 4 bananas, 387 for 1/2 cup white sugar, 70 for brown egg, 600 for whole wheat flour, and 160 for cocoa powder).

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Crust and Pumpkin Pie Filling Recipe

Crust Recipe:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 3 to 4 Tbsp ice water, very cold

Crust Instructions:

• Mix all the dry ingredients in your food processor
• Add butter to processor and mix until tiny butter chunks still exist
• Add a little water at a time to processor until you can squish the mixture between your fingers and it sticks
• Pour flour on a clean lightly flourered surface and roll mixture into a ball using your palms and then plastic wrap.
• Place ball into refrigerator for at least 1 hour
• Roll out ball on a clean flat surface, using a little flour so it will not stick
• When the crust is about 1/4-1/2 mm thick, place on and flatten into your 9 inch glass pie dish

Pie Filling Recipe:

• 2 cups of homemade (or canned) pumpkin purée*
• 1 cup evaporated light vanilla silk soy milk (or milk, coconut milk, or condensced milk)**
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs plus the yolk of a third egg
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon garam masala (I used this to replace 1/4 nutmeg, 1/4 cloves, and 1/4 cardamom)

 *I made my pumpkin purée from a small sugar pumpkin bought at a regular grocery store.  As the pictures show you below, I cut the pumpkin in half and scrapped the seeds and strings out.  I cooked my pumpkin halves with my pressure cooked.  This only takes 5 minutes.  Place a few inches of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker, put in pumpkin, cover pressure cooker, heat until you hear the whistle, reduce heat to medium, go for 5 minutes, turn off pressure cooker and let cool.  Remove pumpkin and scrape the purée.

**Because I only had light vanilla silk soy milk on hand, I made my own evaporated milk.  I took 3 cups of soy milk and brought to a boil in saucer; I reduced the heat to medium and then let the soy milk reduce half way.  Turn off heat and add as much sugar as you like, sweeten to taste (approximately 1/2 cup to 1 cup white sugar).  It is probably easier to just buy a can of evaporated milk (99 cents at regular grocery store).

Pie Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Mix sugars, salt, spices, beaten eggs, pumpkin purée, evaporated soy milk in a big bowl. Whisk all nicely together.
• Fill your pie crust
• Bake pie at 425 degree for 15 minutes
• Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 60-65 minutes (or until a knife in the middle comes out clean)
• Cool for at least 2 hours; the filling will proceed to harden as it cools

Pictures for Above Process

Crust Mixture

Crust wrapped in plastic

Sugar pumpkin before pressure cooker

Sugar pumpkin after pressure cooker ready to scrape

Two cups pumpkin purée

Perfect evaporated soy consistency with white sugar

Reducing the soy milk

Dry Ingredients mixed together

Dry ingredients with wet ingredients

Ready to roll out my crust (btw, I used the snoopy H2O bottle below to roll my crust...trick of the trade)

Pie pre-bake 

Pie post-bake

~Final words of advice: dollop with cool whip and serve! :)  Best pumpkin pie I have ever had!

Wheat Apple Pie

Eggplant and Split Pea Stew

Eggplant with garlic

Eggplant all done

Throw eggplant in cooked split pea stew - ew looks like poo!

Prajwal's Birthday Cake - Apple Coffee Cake

Zucchini and Yam Curry

Vegetarian Mao Po Tofu

Chick Peas and Curry

SJ Food Truck Crawl Summer 2011

I could have made these garlic noodles in my sleep! Very Disappointing!

Yum, Coconut milk!