Update, Curry chicken salad

Hello! Here I am, a little more than a month after my accident. I still can't walk, I hae another month or two before I can put any weight on my leg. I'm starting rehab next week, and working on trying to go visit my mom so I can lie around her house and have her take care of me. Alex has been amazing through this whole thing. He has been so patient and wonderful, taking over both our roles, walking the dog, doing all the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry. We have been eating well. I've been devouring magazines, both bridal and food, and caught a recipe in this months Gourmet that seemed pretty quick and easy. I need meals I can serve myself when Alex is at work or out somewhere, and this picnic in a jar article they had seemed perfect! All I had to do was go get a jar out of the fridge and it was a full lunch!! He made it last night, and it's delicious.

Curried chicken salad with raita, chickpeas and grapes
From Gourmet, Aug 2008

For curried chicken salad:
1 medium onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced peeled ginger
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (1 cup)
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons cilantro
1 rotisserie chicken, meat coarsely shredded (3 to 4 cups)
1 cup grapes, halved

For chickpeas:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 (19-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and patted dry (2 cups)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne

For raita and topping:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 seedless cucumber, peeled, cored, and chopped (2 cups)
2 tablespoon chopped mint

Make curried chicken salad:
Cook onion, garlic, and ginger in oil over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add curry, cumin, and a big pinch of salt and continue cooking, stirring, about 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in yogurt, cilantro, and chicken. Cool to room temperature.

Make chickpeas:
Heat oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then cook chickpeas, stirring, 1 minute. Add cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring to coat, until skillet is dry, about 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Make raita:
Stir together yogurt, cucumber, mint, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Assemble jars:
Divide grapes among jars and layer curried chicken, raita, and chickpeas.

matzo ball soup and, for lack of a better term, samosas.

Tonight we had leftovers. Kind of. I always keep a bag of vegetable ends and chicken bones in the freezer (collected), so that every few weeks I make a big pot of stock. This time I had included a bunch of drumsticks that were in the freezer, so I shredded the meat and put it back into the stock once it had been drained. I've mentioned before, but haven't posted the recipe, I've got a recipe for gf matzo balls. I apologize to whoever I got it from, I stumbled upon it on the internet at some point, wrote it down, then months and months later tried it out. It's good. Really.

"Matzo" ball soup
Make soup however you want, I like to add a lot of dill when I have it, I love dill. Shred in some chicken, vegetables, whatever. To make the matzo balls:
4 eggs, beaten well
3 T chicken fat or melted butter
1 t salt
1/4 t xantham gum
1 c instant potato flakes
3 T chicken stock, or if you have to, water
A big handful of chopped fresh dill, or about 2 t dried dill

Beat the fat into the eggs, then add the stock. Combine the salt, xantham gum, potato flakes, and dill. Mix the egg mixture into the dry ingredients, stir well, and chill about 30 minutes. Form into balls the best you can, drop into boiling soup or water for 15-20 minutes, covered.
Notes: DO NOT take out from the fridge until you are about to drop the balls into the boiling water/soup. If you do, they will warm up and not stick together well. I like to cook them in water in case they fall apart a bit, that way I can put the nice whole balls into the soup and snack on the broken pieces.

"Samosas" or, bread pockets filled with Indian potatoes and chicken
I made chicken and potato curry from Madhur Jaffrey's An Invitation to Indian Cooking a few days ago and needed to finish the leftovers today. I hate leftovers. I'm someone who wants something new everyday, not what I had yesterday or last week. (I am someone, however, who will make something over and over again if I love it until everyone else is sick of it). At work we sell samosas, those delicious pockets of dough filled with curried potatoes and peas or whatever. I decided I would use the pizza recipe I have been using every few days and change it a bit, to make a firmer dough that I could knead and form into pockets filled with leftover chicken and potatoes. I didn't have high hopes. These totally exceeded my expectations. They were not exactly what I had been going for, but they were REAL good. They were more bread-y than pastry dough-y, but it worked out well. Yum. Oh, and the rest of the filling I pan fried like I was making hash browns with some onions that I found in the fridge, which also turned out well.

Samosas, or whatever you want to call them-
Recipe adapted from Annalise G. Roberts' Gluten-free Baking Classics recipe for pizza dough
1 c rice flour mix
1/2 c millet flour (you can leave this out, just use another 1/2 c rice flour mix)
1/3 c fine ground cornmeal
1 T sweet rice flour (this can also probably be omitted)
1 t xantham gum
2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1 packet dry yeast
2 t olive oil
3/4 c hot water
1 egg
extra rice flour for dusting your work surface
filling of your choice (you could probably do with with meat, cheese and tomato sauce for a calzone, vegetables, whatever!)

Combine all dry ingredients. Add hot water and olive oil, then beat to incorporate. Beat in the egg. Scrape down the bowl and beaters, then beat on high for a minute or two. Oil your hands and form the dough, in the bowl, into a ball. Cover with saran wrap and let sit somewhere warm for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, turn the oven on to 425. Have your filling ready. Divide dough into fourths, and flour your surface. Dough will be sticky, sprinkle the top of the dough ball with flour and coat your hands. Knead lightly, sprinkling more flour as you go, until you get a workable dough. Press dough out flat and form into a circle, place filling towards the bottom, and fold over the top. Press edges to seal, place on baking pan lined with a silpat or parchment paper or greased or however you do it. Repeat with remaining dough balls. Bake for abou 20 minutes, turning once, until samosas are browned.