Sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk in a large bowl, stir and let stand about 5 minutes to dissolve. Add the egg, butter, sugar, vanilla, salt and lemon zest and beat until blended; small lumps of butter will dissolve with further mixing. Add 1½ cups flour and beat vigorously until smooth. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft but manageable dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes, then let rest for 10 minutes. Resume kneading for another 7-10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic, sprinkling on additional flour to keep it from being too sticky.

Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk.

Punch the dough down and on a floured surface, push, pat and roll it to an 8x16 inch rectangle. Using a sharp knife, cut into strips about ¾ inch wide and 8 inches long.

Form each strip into a loose knot. Let the beignets rise, about 30 minutes.

Heat at least 2 inches of oil to 365º . Fry 3 or 4 beignets at a time, turning them frequently until puffy and golden brown, 2-3 minutes total. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels. Sieve a light dusting of powdered sugar over them while still warm.

After toasting the Biryani Masala spices, allow them to cool down and then grind them into a coarse or fine powder depending on your preference. This makes enough biryani masala for deveral batches of biryani, store in a jar or sealed baggie, out of the sunlight, for up to 3 months.

In the thick parts of the chicken make deep slashes into the thicker parts of the chicken to allow the masala spices to better penetrate the chicken. (If your using boneless thighs you can make slashes at a medium depth)
If you are smoking the chicken, you can do that now.
In a large bowl, add salt to the chicken, lemon juice, then all the rest of the chicken spices, mix well, cover and let marinate 24 hours.

The next day, rinse your Basmati rice three times (removing excess starch from the rice) and then cover with water and let soak for 1½ hours. After the rice has soaked long enough, put on a large pot of boiling water, once boiling, add the spice sachet with all the rice spices and the Basmati rice (or add the spices without the sachet, you may want to pick these out before adding to the main pot, or go Indian style as I am sure in Indian households they don't mind eating around the whole spices.

Par cook the rice for about 4 minutes, we want the rice 90% cooked, don't stir the rice too often as we don't want to break the individual rice grains. After the 4 minutes, strain the water from the rice (and if you want the whole spices if you didn't use a sachet), remove the sachet and discard if you used it. Set the rice aside

In the bowl with the chicken that was marinating over night, add the 1 cup of yogurt and add 80% (about 5 oz) of the fried onions and ⅓ of the chopped cilantro bunch and ⅓ the chopped mint leaves and if your using the optional ingredients, add in the prunes, potato, carrot and peas. Mix well.

In a heavy bottomed pot, add 2 tblsp of ghee over high heat, when melted, keep the heat up high until it is roaring hot and now add your chicken pieces with its marinade and the potato cubes. Stir often cook on high heat for 5-6 minutes, cooking the chicken 85-90%, taste the masala for salt content and adjust as needed.

Now turn the heat to low, make sure the chicken pieces are spread out in one layer and add ⅓ of the chopped cilantro bunch and ⅓ the chopped mint leaves add 15% of the fried onions (about 1½ oz)
Add all the rice on top of the chicken layer, smooth the rice into an even layer. Drizzle 3-4 tblsp of the ghee over the rice and then sprinkle/drizzle the saffron liquid over the rice.
Now add the remaining 5% fried onions (about ½ oz) add the remaining ⅓ bunch of chopped mint and cilantro (coriander leaves). Seal the lid with a rolled out piece of bread dough, or tinfoil (or cheesecloth). If you can weight the lid down with something heavy, that helps too!

Cook for 10-15 minutes on low heat. Then turn off heat and let rest for 10 minutes.

I believe traditionally the whole pot is turned upside down a into a platter and served, or just scoop it out with a serving spoon. You can sprinkle some garam masala over the top and serve with a side of Indian yogurt to cool down the spices.

Toast the sliced almonds in a pan over low heat until they turn slightly toasted, keep them moving every 15 seconds or so, about 5 minutes total. Set aside to cool.

Peel the bananas and slice them ¼ inch thick. In a large skillet, over medium low heat, melt the butter, add in the banana slices and then add the brown sugar. Cook until the banana slices start to loose their shape and integrity, but not mush! Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Break up the short bread cookies into ¼ inch chunks, set aside.

Have the jar of fudge at the ready, set aside.

Melt the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler (I used a small steel bowl in a small skillet with hot water on low heat), as the chocolate melts, start adding in the cocoa powder, a little at a time until it is blended well with the melted chocolate. Whisk in the milk, a little at a time, until it is well blended. Add the shot of espresso, mix well. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Now whisk in the sugar a little at a time until all the sugar is incorporated.
Pour in the cream and vanilla and whisk to blend.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and blend. Cover and refrigerate until cold. About 1-3 hours.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.
When the mixture in the machine is almost to the point you want your ice cream at, add the extras in, the banana mixture, fudge, marshmallows, toasted almond slices and short bread pieces. Let the machine run another 2-4 minutes and transfer to a freezer container or two, minus a taste tester teaspoon... err tablespoon worth!

In my case, once I added the fudge, cookie pieces, marshmallows, almonds and bananas in the machine's drum, it wouldn't turn, so if this happens to you, just turn off the machine remove the blade/agitator and pour into your final freezer container and give it a brief hand mixing to your liking, like a swirl or in my case I made a zig-zag pattern.

Pre-heat oven to 400 °F

Mix all ingrediants together except the cheese, corn and roasted jalapenos. Once mixed, fold in the cheese and pepper.

Bake in an 8 x 8" baking dish, prepared with spray release or butter, for 25 minutes. Serve warm. Some accompaniments could be honey and butter. yum!

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the butter and milk

Drop tablespoonfuls into your soup or stew.
Simmer covered for 15 minutes