Pomegranate Margarita

 

Pomegranate Margarita: Recipe and Photos by For the Love of Cooking.net

• 12 oz glass filled with crushed ice
• Margarita salt
• 1 shot of tequila
• 1 shot of triple sec
• 1 shot of pomegranate juice
• 3 (or more) shots sweet and sour
• Squirt of fresh lime juice plus more for the glass rim
  
  Run a slice of lime around the rim of the glass then dip the glass into margarita salt. Fill glass with crushed ice, add the tequila, triple sec, pomegranate juice then fill the remainder of the glass with sweet and sour. Stir drink and serve with a wedge of lime.

Pickled Eggs

 

INGREDIENTS

Beet pickled eggs with cardamom and anise

• 1 beet, peeled and roughly chopped into 1 to 2-inch sized pieces, cooked*
• 1 cup beet juice*
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1/4 onion, sliced
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 cardamom pods
• 1 star anise
• 6 hard cooked eggs**, peeled

*Simmer the chopped beets in a cup of water, covered, until tender, 30-40 minutes, or used canned beets. Use the beet juice from the cooking water, or the juice from canned beets.

Curried pickled eggs

• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 onion, sliced
• 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 3 cardamom pods
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds (yellow or brown)
• 1 Tbsp yellow curry powder
• 6 hard cooked eggs**, peeled

Jalapeno pickled eggs

• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 6 cloves
• 2 jalapeno peppers, sliced in half lengthwise, seeds removed and discarded
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
• 1/4 onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 6 hard cooked eggs**, peeled

Tarragon pickled eggs

• 3/4 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 onion, sliced
• 2 sprigs fresh tarragon
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon herbs de provence
• 6 hard cooked eggs**, peeled

**Boil or steam the eggs until hard cooked. To steam the eggs, place in a steamer rack over boiling water, cover and steam for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water. To boil the eggs, cover with 2 inches of cold water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 12 minutes, then rinse with cold water. Hard boiling works best with eggs at least a week old, otherwise they may be difficult to peel. Steaming works great with fresh eggs.

METHOD

1 Peel the eggs and place in the bottom of a clean glass jar, quart sized.

2 In a medium saucepan, add the vinegar, water (or beet juice if using), the onion (and jalapeno if using), sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, until the sugar has dissolved and the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes.

3 Pour the vinegar onion mixture over the eggs in the jar, covering the eggs completely. If you are making the beet pickled eggs, place some or all of the cooked beets in with the eggs in the jar (this will help to bring color to the eggs, and you will have pickled beets as well.) Secure close the jar's cover. Refrigerate up to a month.

The pickled eggs will be ready to eat after a few days. The longer the eggs sit in the pickling juice, the more the pickling juice will penetrate the eggs.

Yield: Makes six pickled eggs.

Kheer

Recipe by: Katie Skoglund

I recently had kheer, or Indian rice pudding, at at a local restaurant called Taj Mahal. I absolutely loved it and wanted to recreate it at home. It tastes very similar to the restaurant kheer, but I actually prefer my recipe more. I also replaced the traditional pistachios with walnuts, since I don’t particularly like pistachios.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups coconut milk (I used light coconut milk to save on calories)
• 2 cups milk (I used vitamin D milk)
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 cup Basmati rice
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  
  Directions:
  
1. Bring the coconut milk, milk and sugar to a boil in a large saucepan. Add basmati rice, and simmer over low heat until the mixture thickens and the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Stir in the raisins, nuts,  and cardamom. Chill the kheer in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Serve chilled.