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Friday, April 11, 2014

Grilled Tomato and Eggplant Salad with Goat Cheese on Garlic Bread Crostini

I was anxiously anticipating, what I reluctantly believed to be, my final opportunity of the year to fire up my barely used Weber charcoal grill and gently grill this glorious T-Bone steak over a wood fueled fire to primal perfection. But, alas, the typical windiness of a late afternoon autumn day in northern Indiana almost foiled my farewell feast. Though I was hesitant to light the coal and allow the free flying ashes to set ablaze my mothers neighborhood which, like so many areas in this part of the country, is a tinderbox due to a serious lack of precipitation, I was glad to have the BBQ safety net that is the gas fired grill waiting on stand by.

To accompany this carnivores delight, some grilled veggies including eggplant, onion, tomato, mushrooms, and sweet red pepper. Chopped and combined with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, chopped fresh parsley and fresh goat cheese, spooned over grilled garlic bread. A simple spread made from butter, olive oil, a hint of lemon juice, a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper and a healthy sprinkle of salt all combined and schmeared, yes schmeared, all over a crusty French baguette and grilled to crunchy deliciousness.

Monday, March 31, 2014

It Takes Some Huevos to Cook on a Ranch

I was very excited when I saw Huevos Rancheros on my assignment list for About.com. Its one of those breakfast recipes that I love, but never remember to make.

Huevos Rancheros simple means ranch-style eggs, and if youve ever worked on a ranch, like I have (I picked corn one summer), you understand the importance of a hearty breakfast.

There are many variations of this dish, all which includes some kind of eggs topped with some kind of tomato and chili-based sauce. This video recipe shows a fairly traditional preparation with two slight twists. I like my ranchero sauce kind of smooth - where as most classic versions are quite chunky. Also, instead of the plain tortilla base, I slip in a slice of cheese for a little quesadilla action.

If you decide to go ahead and try this (and when you see the money shot at the end, you really wont have much choice), you should follow my lead and have it with the rice and beans. I love homefries the much as the next ranch hand, but theres something about the way the egg yolk and ranchero sauce mix together that works so well with frijoles refritos and arroz.

Since this recipe was produced for About, the following video link will take you off the site to watch the video, just don’t forget to come back. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp of tomato paste
1 tsp of vegetable oil
1/2 cup diced onions
big pinch of salt
2/3 cup diced green chilies - combination of hot or sweet i.e.jalapeno & Fresno chilies
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp oregano
14.5-oz diced tomatoes
1/2 cup of water
salt and cayenne pepper
Corn tortillas
Pepper jack cheese
2 eggs
Cilantro

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Featured on TheForeignDomestic com

Kirstein of theforeigndomestic.com featured me in one of her 100recipe Marathon. In this regard she tried one of the recipe in my blog "Healthy Phyllo rolls Recipe" I Thank her for trying and reviewing it. I am glad that she liked it.

These real comments and real reviews are the one we bloggers crave for. I really appreciate the idea of Kristein to take 100 recipes from different blogs and reviewing them and I wish her all the best.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW CALORIE CHART

Yours,

Monday, March 17, 2014

Santa Fe Huevos on Polenta aka Eggs Ranchero

Santa Fe Huevos on Polenta Recipe aka Eggs Ranchero

Huevos rancheros- a traditional Tex-Mex recipe featuring fried eggs, refried beans and salsa on top of warm corn tortillas- is a delicious brunch recipe, no doubt. But I decided to change up tradition. Just because.

Using a roll of pre-made polenta makes this a perfect weeknight supper or a quick and easy Sunday brunch. For the more ambitious cooks out there, stirring polenta from scratch isn't hard, it just requires a little patience. Kinda like motherhood. And meditation. And selling a house. For how to make make polenta from scratch see below.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Cocoa Cherry Pork Tenderloin – Based on a True Story

My favorite candy growing up was the chocolate covered cherry. I didnt have them often, but when I did, it was always a special treat. The way that thin, crisp chocolate would break away to reveal the florescent red maraschino cherry suspended in the clear syrup was intoxicating.

I almost never eat them anymore; only on the rare occasion my mother, Pauline, or mother-in-law, Peggy, happen to have some out, usually around the holidays. One such occasion came on my recent trip back to Clifton Springs, NY, and as I enjoyed the sweet treat a strange thought popped into my brain. What about a savory dish that celebrated the same basic flavors?

I remembered seeing Alton Brown use cocoa in a rub for chicken, and since I had a pork tenderloin sitting in the fridge, just a shelf away from a jar of black cherry preserves, I figured, why not?

I really loved how this came out, and while its obviously an unsweetened version of chocolate being used, the plate definitely had some of the same culinary DNA as my beloved candied cherries. Anyway, thats the odd-but-true story of how this recipe ended up here, and as usual, I hope you give it a try and tell me what you think. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1-2 pork tenderloins

salt as needed

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

For the rub:

2 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder

1 tablespoon ancho chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle

For the sauce:

1/3 cup cherry preserves

1/3 cup white vinegar

big pinch of oregano

View the complete recipe

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Finally a Food Wishes Fan Page on Facebook!

Thanks to the social networking revolution, we now have the platform for a Food Wishes fan page on Facebook. While its very hard to do here on the blog itself, this Facebook page with allow you foodwishers to post photos of your recipes.

Hopefully, you will also share your brilliant ideas, tell stories, have spirited discussions, ask each other questions, and so forth. If you are interested in being one of the moderators, please email me and I will hook you up. Im sure I could use a little help keeping the page Food Wish focused.

So, it you are a regular on this site, and you make the dishes seen here, please go and become a fan, and begin sharing your food with others! Im not any kind of Facebook expert, and dont spend a ton of time there, so please feel free to make suggestions on the sites wall. Enjoy!

Saturday, March 1, 2014

That One Time I Took My Boyfriend on a Date

{Stemless champagne glasses at The Pearl Spa. I turned down the offer of a brownie. Im still regretting it.}

In my entire life, Ive never asked a guy on a date. My dad once told me that when girls asked him out in his single days, he would always say yes, no matter how disinterested he was because he thought it would be mean to say no. WHAT?! Were gonna cover the whole topic of the human species inability to differentiate between honesty and meanness another time, but WTF?

My dads story of teenage cowardice was all it took to convince me for a lifetime that a girl should never, under any condition, ask out the guy, because inevitably it would mean he actually wasnt interested. Or that he was. Or something. I dont know. Guys are complicated. And so for over two decades, I stuck by that guiding principle, until this past weekend, when I swept my boyfriend of 4 years off his feet and took him on a spa/sushi date.

Notice I didnt exactly say that I "asked" him on a date, because in fact, I did not. Instead, I surprised him with an amazing trio of treatments (including a DIY mud room/sauna situation and a 60-minute massage) at the ridiculously luxurious Pearl Spa and sushi at, and I kid you not when I say this, the BEST sushi restaurant Ive ever been to, Sushi Sono.

Would you like to know how good both of these establishments actually are? Theyre in Columbia, MD. From my DC-area residence, its a good hour drive away. And not on big, spacious freeways with 60+ MPH speed limits. No. Sixty minutes on long stretches of city streets, running rampant with traffic lights, narrow lines, and pedestrians with a death wish. And yet, I still wanted to go there.

Beyond the amazing treatments themselves, The Pearl also has a few over-the-top touches that make you long to repeat the experience, kinda like Amanda Bynes with vehicular accidents. The customer service was indulgent-- they offer champagne and brownies post-treatment. They even have their own signature fragrance of bath products: Moonflower.

If the spa experience wasnt enough to land me the Girlfriend of the Year Award, then the dinner that followed totally was.

{Head Sushi Chef King working his magic}

Okay, so just believe me when I say these pictures dont hold a candle to the actual experience of eating this sushi, so youre gonna have to pretend a bit. What makes Sushi Sono so great? Oh, I dunno, how about EVERYTHING!!!

To start, they have some of the most unusual and adventurous rolls Ive ever seen. Not to mention, they have the best fish Ive ever eaten. Ive even read that theyve flown in fish from Japan. I dont wanna suggest that we should use our non-renewable resources for something as frivolous as fish, but I am suggesting that we use our non-renewable resources for something as frivolous as fish.

{Squid appetizer}

{One of their amazing rolls--the brown rice was actually crispy!}

{This roll was fresh and light, wrapped in lettuce instead of seaweed}

{Im sick of hearing myself use the word "best" but I cant help it--this was the BEST roll Ive ever had. Named after the restaurant, this roll had tuna, salmon, Japanese squash, spicy mayo, and tempura flakes.}

{ZOMG}

{One of the other reasons I love Sushi Sono is for their tempura fried ice cream. As if that werent bitchin enough, it was green tea ice cream. I KNOW, RIGHT?!}

Im happy to report that not only was Kyle thoroughly surprised and loved his date, but he actually DOES like me! So, theres that.

How do you feel about asking guys out? Have you ever taken your guy out on a date?? And does he ACTUALLY like you if you did???

Friday, February 21, 2014

On how the monstrous zucchini got Tambrahm ised

[Those who voted for me and got me into the final 6 Healthy Cooking Blogs, thank you! In the finals, my blog as of now is 5th. Feels kinda pointless asking to vote now as the better blogs lead by tons of votes, but if youve loved my work here, go ahead and vote for me. Directions here ]

My garden always surprises me. Which is why I like to take my morning tea up to my terrace garden, perch myself on one of the tiny stone benches and sharing that morning moment with the plants to the background music of the birds. While I try to get a few sips of my tea, a little fruit, a new flower and small shoot will beckon me to admire it. And I will go take a look at them while my tea sits on the bench going cold. Every morning, a new surprise, however little, that makes me smile and sets the mood for the rest of my day. It is an exercise in positivity. Many flowering plants that I assumed were dead, suddenly start showing signs of life as spring is round the corner. My lavender bushes, since 9 months didnt show one sign of flowering and I thought "Damn! The nursery fooled me with a non flowering variety!" And I was proved wrong when the prettiest lavender flowers bloomed this month. If there is a tiny bit of life left in the plant, come spring time and it will revive. Whats more beautiful in life than hope, after all?

And then sometimes a garden makes you laugh out loud. Like this monstrously huge zucchini that had been hiding under the huge leaves for nearly a month, that had missed my keen scrutiny each morning only to be found by my driver a few days ago. He showed me this green thing nearly as big as a new born baby-and I shuddered! And then laughed so hard when I knew that it was indeed a zucchini that had hidden away from all prying eyes and grown so big~nearly 2.5 kilos.

Not to show off my (old) iPhone but to give you size perspective :)
This is after a third of the zucchini has been chopped off

I kept it on my table to admire its beauty for the first 2 days, then it spent a few more days in the refrigerator. When other vegetables came in from the supermarket, this big fellow could no more occupy precious refrigerator real estate and he had to be brought out.

The husband is not a big fan of zucchinis and though we had shared enough jokes about how big this sly vegetable had grown, his enthusiasm stopped there. When I was cutting it up this morning, he said, "Please, I dont want this for lunch." Since there are very few things he doesnt like, I usually indulge his whims, but this time, I just smiled and said "We will see."

Over the six years that Ive been food blogging, Ive seen several bloggers making Zucchini thogayal. But zucchini, in India, has always retailed at around Rs.100 a kilo. At that price, why on earth would I want to puree it to death in a blender. I wanted to see and enjoy this vegetable in salads, pasta and such. But thogayal, no way!

But when you have a 5 pounder zucchini sitting on your counter top, the thogayal did indeed seem like a good idea. And boy, did it taste good or what.

Zucchini Thogayal and Zucchini Curry (both recipes below)

For the uninitiated, thogayal or thuvaiyal is a Tambrahm style of converting mildly unpalatable vegetables (Chow-chow, pumpkins, ridge gourds, bottle gourds etc) into chutneys so Tambrahm uncles will mumble good things about the food even if they are eating some vegetable they dont like. Many blogs will say you can eat Thogayal on bread or with idli or dosai or chapathi or pasta or just about anything. I wont say they are lying. But there is only one way to really savour this. Hot rice, gingelly oil (yes, oil and NOT ghee) and thogayal and a roasted appalam on the side.

And the zucchini hating husband tasted some of it, hesitantly, after he had eaten beans curry-rice and rasam and said "Please keep some for me, I want to eat this for dinner."

I guess after this, I can well call this 5 pounder- Zucchini Iyer.

Ingredients

2 medium sized green zucchinis

1/4 cup scraped fresh or frozen coconut

a tiny piece of tamarind soaked in 2-3 tsp of water

2.5 tsp gingelly oil or any other cooking oil

2 tbsp + 1 tsp udad dal

4 medium dried red chillies

1/2-3/4 tsp salt

2 sprigs curry leaves

Fat pinch asafoetida

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 green chilli

Directions

Chop the zucchini into medium sized cubes. No need to peel the skin.
Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a pan. Add 2 tbsp udad dal and red chillies and saute on medium heat until the udad dal is golden brown. Remove onto a plate and cool for few minutes.
Heat the remaining 1 tsp oil in same pan. On high heat, scald the chopped zucchini by tossing it around for a minute or so.
Reduce the flame, add 1/4 cup water, pinch of salt, cover and cook till zucchini is tender and fully cooked.
In small mixer-grind the fried udad dal-red chillies, soaked tamarind and coconut to coarse paste. To this add the cooled cooked zucchini, salt and scrape the sides of the mixer and grind to a paste. Remove this into a bowl.
Heat 1-2 tsp oil in a tempering ladle or small kadai. Add pinch of asafoetida, mustard seeds, once they splutter, add curry leaves and udad dal. Wait for dal to turn golden and transfer the tempering over the thogayal.

Notes

Traditionally a lot more coconut is used, so you could use as much as your health consciousness permits.

If you know this one recipe, you will have at least one way to deal with most of the vegetables that the world at large considers boring.

Another way to Tambrahm-ise Zucchini : Zucchini Curry

A small clarification here. In Tambrahm cooking, a curry is not a gravy dish that Brits seem to love. Its a simply prepared dry saute with minimal spices and the star being the tempering. I pressure cooked this for a bit as it was a mature zucchini, if yours is tender, you can simply add it raw and cover and cook till done.

Place 1.5 cups of zucchini pieces (small) in a container in a pressure cooker. Dont add water to zucchini. Pressure cook for one whistle.
In a kadai, heat 2 tsp oil. Add pinch of asafoetida, 2 dried red chillies, 1 tbsp udad dal, few curry leaves, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and saute till udad dal is golden.
To this add the cooked (or raw) zucchini, pinch of turmeric (optional), salt and toss gently to coat with tempering, on a low flame.
Add a bit of fresh coconut and its ready to serve. Those who find this very bland can add 1-2 tsp of sambar powder or rasam powder towards the end and give it another toss.

See what people on Twitter have to say:

@saffrontrail thanks for reminding about this , though I didnt add tamarind and also didnt grind it fine .SuperIt is fb.me/1FlmX3yKa
— monika (@monikamanchanda) March 10, 2012

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Shrimp Cooked on Himalayan Pink Salt – I Sherpa Hope You Like It!

Ive always wanted to cook something on Himalayan pink salt, but I just cant for the life of me tell you why. I knew that flavor-wise there couldn’t be any real difference between cooking on pink salt, and simply seasoning with it, but that didn’t seem to matter.

Just the idea of cooking on whats basically a slab of crystal, appealed to some indefinable internal force inside of me. Having said that, I still reserve the right to continue to mock those people that wear crystals for their healing properties, because thats just nuts.

Anyway, back to these shrimp. As I summarize in the video: it was fun, Im glad I did it, but I dont think I would do it again, unless it was for some showy, interactive first course.

Theres no doubt letting your guests cook their own shrimp on hot, pink salt would definitely be a neat way to start off a dinner party.

Above and beyond the Himalayan pink salt experiment, the ultra-simple shrimp preparation seen here can be easily adapted to your trusty non-crystal saute pan.

Youll be pleasantly surprised how good seared shrimp are with nothing more than a pinch of cumin and cayenne. Just don’t forget the salt! Enjoy.

Note: After you cook on it, the salt block can be scraped clean, rinsed off (even though they said not to), and wiped dry. Its a completely antiseptic surface and can be reused as many times as possible.

Ingredients:
1 pound large shrimp
1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
salt to taste if using conventional cooking methods