Quarantine Recipe Round Up

If you're like me, you've been cooking at home a lot lately. A LOT. Now I like to cook, but the stress of what to make and what to shop for (when we have to order online and pick up) is daunting and frankly not as fun as sitting down on Seamless with a glass of wine after a long day. I've been trying to plan ahead more and make recipes that I've always wanted to learn how to make (like homemade paneer, see below), as well as things that I normally buy instead of making from scratch (na'an and pizza dough).

Our homemade Indian Feast. Garlic naan from scratch, butter chicken, and saag paneer.

As someone who loves to order takeout from some of the best restaurants in Brooklyn, I'm spoiled, and I miss having delicious food to look forward to, especially on the weekends. I'm a good cook, but I typically stick to my normal stirfrys and other simple staples (that I know my dad will eat now, as he's a bit of a meat and potatoes kind of guy).

As something to do after work that's in the house, fun, and results in deliciousness, I went on the hunt for some of the best home cooked food blogger recipes (that actually have pretty photography, excuse the I-phone photo above, I'm not a huge food blogger, yet!). Here are some of my absolute favorites that I've found:

THIS HUMMUS, is a mind-bendingly good recipe. I've never had better hummus even at the best Zagat rated restaurant in Brooklyn (that happens to be one block from my house). My favorite hummus I've ever had, oddly enough, is from a restaurant in Iowa City, called Oasis. This recipe is JUST AS GOOD.

Photo and Recipe from inspiredtaste.com. WOW.

Another item that I've been missing from restaurants (especially in Iowa) is good ranch dressing. After you have good restaurant ranch, it's hard to go back to the bottled version. Of any kind. This recipe was GREAT and ALMOST as good as restaurant ranch (those Sysco ranch packets are apparently crucial). Iowa does better ranch than most Brooklyn restaurants though, I will say :)

Photo and recipe from barefeetinthekitchen.com

Now for our INDIAN FEASTTTT I got inspired after watching this TikTok from @MamaBeastska on how to make your own paneer. I've always been told it was super hard to do, and also super easy to waste a gallon of milk if you mess it up. Not true. It was SO easy, and so worth it, and I highly recommend making your own instead of buying.

We used this recipe to make butter chicken (NOM) along with the paneer, as well as this recipe to make garlic naan.