apple crumble.

This is a dish that tastes best on cold winter nights. I was first introduced to it by Samantha (who made peach crisp) using her mom's recipe and we made it plenty of times during our senior year.  As with everything I cook and like to eat, this is a simple dish, involving a few ingredients but very high in taste.

Gather ingredients: Apples. All-purpose flour. Packed brown sugar. Salt. Lime juice. Pecans or walnuts for garnish. And one stick of butter (not pictured below). One can add ground cinnamon and nutmeg for a little more spice but I didn't have any in my kitchen.

   

3/4 cup of brown sugar in a bowl. I've usually prepared this dish with regular white sugar but the brown sugar definitely adds a little something more to it.

3/4 cup of flour. And 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Dice one stick of cold butter.

Mix it well with your hands or a fork till it achieves the desired texture/consistency.

Chop and dice apples and marinate in the juice of half a lime. I used the local ones we purchased at the Sunflower Market last weekend. About four of them, chopped and diced. I left the peel on.

Said squeezed half-a-lime.

 Layer the apples with the sugar-flour topping.

Garnish with pecans.

Bake in 375F for about forty minutes till the apple is tender, the topping is golden brown and crusty and the juices are bubbling. Serve with whipped cream or French vanilla ice-cream.

the one where Sachinky cooks and eats pasta willingly.

Mr. Sachinky loves pasta. I hate pasta. Actually, I think it's the heavy, creamy sauces that I dislike. Presenting a slightly healthier alternative -- my version of angel-hair-shrimp pasta that we consumed in one sitting. The shrimps were fresh and on sale at Sunflower last night, so score!

Ingredients: Minced garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (I wanted to use chillies but I forgot to pick them up yesterday during our grocery shopping trip), shrimp, angel hair pasta, one tomato, half an onion, mushrooms, romano cheese, chives, butter and olive oil.

Step One: Peel, clean and wash shrimps.

Step Two: Boil pasta in boiling water with salt and a few spoons of oil to prevent the pasta from sticking. Drain.



Step Three: Drizzle olive oil in a hot skillet generously. Melt two-three spoons of butter in it. Fry minced garlic, chopped onions (yaay for my Perfect Chopper!) and sprinkle red-pepper-flakes.

Step Four: Chop mushrooms and tomatoes.

Step Five: Drop the shrimp in the skillet with the aforementioned items. Cook thoroughly.

Step Six: Mix the pasta well with the shrimp and let it sit for a couple of minutes.

Step Seven: Chop chives and mix it in with the pasta.

Step Eight: Sprinkle salt, pepper and an additional dose of olive oil. Mix well. Serve with a sparse dose of romano cheese on top.

It was beyond delicious, thanks for asking! :)

P.S.: Pictures by the ever willing, ever talented Mr. Sachinky who has declared himself as the official Media Co-ordinator for This Blog.

buffalo chicken dip.

Today is SuperBowl Sunday! Yay. I'm more about the wings, the commercials and the half-time show. Anyway, Mr. Sachinky and I decided to have a party. Number of invitees: two. Yes, we're retarded like that, whattodo? We have a massive planned spread of pizza, wings, onion rings, jalapeno poppers, tacquitos, beer for Mr. Sachinky and bottled margaritas for me! I decided to email Mrs. G for her buffalo chicken dip recipe since Mr. Sachinky has been raving about it for days and she emailed me back from Florida where she and Mr. G are spending their weekend with Mr. Sachinky's grandmother.

Anyway, it looked easy enough so I gave it a try. Holy-moly! It came out fantastic and I can't wait to make buffalo chicken wraps with the left-overs. If there are any.

Step One: Gather ingredients. About three cups of a shredded rotisserie chicken, 1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot Wings Sauce, 1/2 cup of blue cheese salad dressing. 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. And one 8 oz. package of cream cheese. The bottle of Mike's Margarita is just for me.

Step Two: Three cups of shredded chicken in a baking dish. No skin, of course. We used a rotisserie chicken since that was easier but I'm sure you can use uncooked chicken breasts as well.

Step Three: Pour the buffalo wings sauce and blue cheese over the chicken.

Step Four: Add a package of slightly melted cream cheese. Then throw in the shredded cheese as well. We used our regular variety of colby-jack-monterey. I debated between that and blue cheese crumbles but our salad dressing had chunks of blue cheese in it so out of consideration for Mr. Sachinky I didn't want the blue-cheese taste to be too over-powering. (As if there's such a thing as too much blue cheese!)

Step Four: Mix well and bake in the oven (350F) for about ten-minutes. If you're using uncooked chicken, it'll probably be twenty-five minutes before the chicken is cooked and the cheese mixture is bubbling.

Voila!

P.S.: As always photo credits go to Mr. Sachinky.

breaded chicken.

I love this dish because it is so versatile. You can serve this with pasta or salad or freshly buttered bread. Our favorite though is to cut it up and put it in sandwiches. Big rolls, lettuce torn up, a hint of salt and pepper on large sliced tomatoes. Mayo, swiss cheese, feta cheese. Bacon slices for variety. And a big dollop of Sriacha. Mmmm, I told ya, that shit goes with anything. Anyway, here's how you make my version of breaded chicken. Try it and let me know how it turned out.

Gather ingredients in an assembly line:

Flour mixed with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Two eggs. Or if you use four big pieces of chicken you might need an extra egg, like I did. Whisked, of course.

Chicken. I used four big pieces of thigh meat. We usually purchase breast pieces but this week they weren't on sale at Sunflower.

And a plateful of Japanese Panko bread-crumbs. Another solid investment.

Drench chicken piece in flour. Shake off excess. Dip it and cover it in egg.

Cover with bread-crumbs on both sides. If you want a heavier coating, press the bread crumbs onto the chicken with your fingers so that they stick. I prefer a light coating so I usually dust the bread crumbs on top of the meat.

Arrange said chicken on a greased baking sheet and bake the pieces in a 400F pre-heated oven for forty-five minutes.

Once thoroughly cooked, fry them in canola or vegetable oil for a couple of minutes on both sides till the coat turns golden brown for a not-so-healthy option.

PS: Plis to excuse the quality of the photographs. I took them with one hand on The Android.

the guide to eating out in ABQ

I wanted to do a post on the best places to eat in Albuquerque, at least the ones we've tried so far.

Evergreen Chinese Buffet:

Our favorite go-to-place anytime hunger strikes. Excellent sushi, crab rangoons, breaded shrimps, dumplings, dim suns, wontons. You name it, they got it.

Village Inn.

Suzanne took me here one Monday evening and I fell in love with their breakfast items. Best sausage gravy ever! The fact that it is open till 2am on weekends is a definite plus.

Saggio's.

This is located near the University. This is where we had our first staff-only-dinner. The calamari was perfect.

Elephant Bar Restaurant.

Chris made reservations for my birthday. Located in ABQ Uptown, this place has an amazing ambience, and perpetually crowded (at least on a Saturday) so make your reservations early! Loved, loved, loved my sushi. I think it was the sea-weed fried in batter that did the trick.

O'Neill's.

Great Irish pub in the neighborhood. We had an early dinner there once, I loved my shepherd pie. The portion was quite big so I had left-overs as well! Chris liked his beer and his ginormous burger. I ate his fries.

Krung Thai.

The pad-thai I ordered the first time was quite mediocre but I am glad we stuck with this place for a second, third and fourth tries in quick succession. I get the stir-fried basil with chicken and Mr. Sachinky sticks with the red curry chicken with rice. We split half-and-half.

India Palace.

Good buffet with a reasonable price-tag. Large variety and amazing desserts.

Viet Q.

Banh mi and spicy lemongrass noodles with pork. Big portions and extremely reasonable prices. 'Nuff said.