Curry Chicken Buns

I have long been a fan of Asian dumplings.  Unfortunately, they can be hard to find in many places across the US, which means I have to learn to make my own.  I love these curry buns, and they are one of my favorite meals.  Spicy curry chicken is wrapped in a soft, light bun and then brushed with a honey glaze, that little bit of sweetness contrasting to the spicy filling within.  They are amazing.

Cheese Souffle

Cheese souffle is the perfect example of a complicated dish that can be broken down into components that can then be frozen, making the dish easier to make on a weeknight.  I know from long experience that egg whites freeze really well.  They can be thawed and then used as normal without any noticeable change.  One day as I was putting some egg whites in the freezer I thought about cheese souffle.  I love cheese souffle, but it's too much work to make on a regular basis.  However, a souffle is made by folding whipped egg whites and a batter together..  Looking at the egg whites I was about to put in the freezer made me realize I could probably freeze the egg whites and batter separately.  Then to make a souffle all I would have to do was thaw the two components, whip the egg whites, fold everything together and bake. 

It worked!  I took me about an hour to prepare the batter.  This is why we don't eat souffle often, but with the components in the freezer it only took me a few minutes to whip up the souffles.  This means I could make a big batch of souffle and have souffle several times for the same amount of time and work that it would take me to make souffle once.

Chicken Potstickers

I love potstickers and now my daughter has declared them one of her favorite meals as well.  They are a bit time consuming to make, but they cook quickly straight from the freezer.  They'll definitely be a regular in our freezer meal rotation.

Difficulty: Difficult - They aren't difficult to make, but they are time consuming.
Category: Freezer to Pan
Recipe Column: DM

Yields about 50

Saag Paneer

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to have discovered a way to freeze this dish.  Saag paneer is one of my favorite meals and my favorite Indian dish.  Unfortunately we only have one Indian restaurant in town and while they have some delicious food their saag paneer is not great. It can also be pretty time consuming to make saag paneer.  Due to the lack of good saag paneer in my town and how time consuming it is, I haven't been able to have saag paneer on a regular basis for a few years now, hence the delight at being able to freeze it.  Now I make a quadruple bathc and can have it even more frequently than I did when we lived in a town with more Indian restaurants.  As I've said before, Indian food is one of my favorite things to cook.  It's such an enjoyable sensory experience.

Delicious saag paneer with an equally delicious mango lassi right next to it.

This recipe is time consuming and I classify it as difficult based solely on making the paneer, which is a process.  If you can find a store bought paneer or if you want to replace the paneer altogether with chickpeas, chicken or potatoes, this actually becomes and reasonably fast and easy dish.  I love the paneer though, so it's worth the effort to me to make it.

Pupusas

I uploaded an updated spreadsheet.  Go here to download it.

I enjoyed eating pupusas regularly when I lived in New York.  Unfortunately, I've had trouble find good ones anywhere else, and I have missed them.  Finally I have learned how to make them.   It took some experimenting because none of the recipes I found online tasted like the ones I had in New York.  All of those recipes called for the dough to be made with only instant masa and water.  This resulted in a dry, tough exterior not the soft exterior of the pupusas I remember.

Some internet research led me to believe that the difference is made by using instant masa instead of fresh masa.  I don't know of a place to purchase fresh masa and I don't have the equipment or inclination to make it myself.  After some experiments in adding butter and baking power to the dough with the instant masa I got very close to the soft pupusas I enjoyed so much in New York.  I realize this may not be an authentic way to make them, but they taste pretty authentic and delicious!