Here's a cocktail and a pick-me-up all shaken into 1 drink. That's our kind of beverage!

makes 1 cocktail

The best part about this cocktail (besides its great taste) is that it's so easy to remember: equal parts of four ingredients. Put everything in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice and shake shake shake. Serve over ice on a nice hot day. We like to garnish with coffee beans or star anise.

makes 1 cocktail

Put all of the ingredients, with plenty of ice into a cocktail shaker and shake, shake, shake. Strain and serve, garnished with star anise and a few drops of cardamom bitters.

How delicious are these samosa? Flaky on the outside and nice and spicy inside. The Hipcooks trick to making the perfect samosa (with ease) is to borrow from the Argentines! Empanada skins are a breeze to use, since you buy them pre-made. You can bake the samosa for an outstanding result (instead of frying). Even better: make many, and freeze some to enjoy later. They'll go straight from freezer, to oven, to plate!

Serves 6

For the samosas:
Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Par-boil the potatoes: Cook in a pot of salted water until just soft, letting the potatoes boil for about 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Begin the samosa filling by heating the grape seed oil in a large sauté pan. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, serranos, and mustard seeds. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes —  the onions should be softening at this point. Add the turmeric, cayenne, and paprika. Stir and smell — it should smell delicious as the aromatics release their flavors.

Add the potatoes and cook for another minute or two. Mash the potatoes into the spices and onions. They don't have to be perfectly smooth but just bashed in a bit so that they can absorb the other ingredients in the pan. Remove from the heat.

Add the peas, and mix thoroughly.  It's time to salt the dish, and taste. If you find the heat too mild, add more cayenne. Remember, the lemon juice will really lift the dish and also minimize the spice — add some and taste again.  You'll want the samosa filling to really pack a punch since it needs to stand up to the dough of the samosa, once it is assembled and baked.

Next, make the samosa by filling the empanada wrapper with a heaping spoonful of the potato mixture. Seal and repeat with all of the wrappers. (At this point, you can freeze some of the assembled samosas to bake at a later date.)

Place the samosas on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until golden. 

For the tamarind dipping sauce:
Heat the water in a saucepan over high heat until it boils. Turn off the heat and add the tamarind, sugar and spices, stirring until dissolved.

Turn the heat back on and reduce the sauce over medium heat, until its thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Cool and serve. (This sauce will keep in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to a month.)

Saag paneer is so satisfying and seemingly sinful for such a healthy dish. Once you practice this recipe, it will quickly find its way to your list of go-to things to cook when you're looking for something fun to make and eat. Stores like Trader Joe's carry frozen pre-chopped spinach, making the prep for this dish a breeze. We always keep a bag of spinach in our freezer, and paneer will keep for ages in the fridge — so we can make this delicious dish whenever we have a craving.

Serves 6

Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions, ginger, and garlic until the onions turn translucent.

Add the cumin (the pan will be wonderfully fragrant). Stir in the paneer and cook for several minutes. Add the spinach and cook until it's warmed through. Now comes the fun: taste. You'll need salt and pepper for sure. If you love a little heat, add a sprinkle of chili or red pepper flakes. Otherwise, the warming addition of garam masala is beautiful.

Finish the dish with a swirl of cream. 

Here's a wonderfully fresh and zingy curry for those who love a sour flavor. Like the saag paneer, this dish will come together quite quickly, especially if you have a food processor. Here's what we do at Hipcooks, to prep for this recipe in a flash: toss the ginger, garlic, and chilies all together in the food processor and whiz away until they're finely chopped. Pop these into a prep bowl, and then add the onions to the food processor (no need to rinse it out in between tasks). Whiz these until fine, put in another prep bowl and finally, whiz the tomatoes (you guessed it — without rinsing the food processor bowl). It's all going to the same place, so no need to give yourself more work. Using this technique, the prep is a breeze!

Serves 6

Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the mustard seeds. When they pop and begin to dance in the pan, the onions, ginger, garlic, and serranos. Allow the onions to turn translucent. It smells good in the kitchen!

Add the dried spices, stir, and then add the tomatoes, coconut milk and curry leaves. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat to simmer for about 15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt, tamarind paste, and give it a taste! More cayenne will work if you like things spicy, or you can balance with salt, sour flavors to seasoned just how you like it.

Poach the fish in this sauce, by nestling the fish pieces into the curry sauce.  This fish should cook quickly in the simmering sauce, in 2 to 3 minutes. To finish, stir in the spinach so that it just wilts. Serve, garnished with cilantro.

Here's the perfect counterpart to the fish curry recipe above. While the fish curry is sassy and sour, this curry is rich and buttery. The longer you can simmer it, the better. The flavors will deepen and meld to produce an intoxicatingly delicious curry.

Serves 6

Marinade the chicken:
Combine all the marinade ingredients and coat the chicken. Let the chicken sit in the marinade for at least an hour and up to a day in your refrigerator. It's best if you can allow it to come room temperature before you cook, but it's fine if you don't have the time.

Prepare the chicken:
We don't have a tandoori oven at Hipcooks, however, you can cheat a nice char as we do. Preheat your oven to  450°F, and cook the chicken in a broiler pan (so the fat can drip through) for about 15 minutes, until nicely browned. Don't worry if your chicken is not completely cooked through, as it will have more cooking time in the masala.

Make the tikka:
Melt the butter in a large pot or pan over medium heat. Add your aromatics: the onion, ginger, and garlic. Sauté until the onions are translucent. Stir in the dried spices. Add the tomatoes and cream and turn the heat to simmer. Cook for at least half an hour, on low.

Transfer the tikka base to a blender, and carefully whiz. Return to the pot. How is the curry base tasting? You should add a bit of salt, and if you like, you can add a little more cayenne for a kick, garam masala for warming spices, or cream for richness. Add the chicken and cook until the chicken is heated through, cooked completely but still tender. 

Serve with cilantro.

Everyone these days has rice cookers, and we seem to have lost the fine art of cooking flavorful rice. It doesn't take much effort to pre-prep the rice, by first sauteeing onions and spices. Then, for cooking the rice, we use the "ignore it" approach. A heavy-bottomed pot (we use enameled cast iron) is a good ally, since it distributes heat evenly, and retains heat nicely so that the rice can cook without direct heat.

Serves 6

Sauté the onion in the grapeseed oil until just translucent. Add the dry spices and cook for a few minutes, allowing the heat to release their flavors. Stir in the rice and cook for a few minutes, so that the rice can absorb that deliciousness and toast a bit.

Add the water and bring it to a boil. Give it a stir, being sure to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot, count to 10, and turn off the heat. Ignore it, setting the pot to the back of the stove while you get on with other things. No peeking until you're ready to serve! (But if you're curious, the rice will need about 20 to 30 minutes to fully cook until light and fluffy. No peeking! Everything will be ruined if you do. Okay, just kidding. But no peeking!

We're lucky at Hipcooks to have a Vitamix...how about you? Please email us so that we can help you source a reconditioned machine at a fraction of the retail price. With a high-speed blender, you can make fresh sorbet in a flash (and so many other things, too.)

This recipe also works if you have an ice cream maker. Blend the ingredients (in a high-speed or regular blender), and then transfer to the ice cream maker to churn.

Either way, prepare the sorbet just before serving. it's a refreshing finish to the spicy meal!

Add all the ingredients to the Vitamix and blend, using the tamper, until the sorbet is a smooth consistency. Pour into a shallow bowl or dish, and freeze for no longer than an hour or two (or it will freeze to too-hard-to scoop).