For the Love of Food

Time sure does fly when you have a lot to do.  I want to apologize to my Taste&Create partner for being over a whole week late to post…even though i did have my recipe done with plenty of time left.

For those of you who are curious – this is what I have been working on: Columbia Bakery Café for over a year now, and I will finally be opening my café in July.

And, let me tell you, this soup is GOOD! really good. It tastes like silky smooth sweet and slightly savory buttery potatoes. Please check out Samayal Arai for her recipe. It’s really quick to put together and so delicious!

Here’s her recipe.

For this month’s Taste&Create I was partnered with Seduce Your Tastebuds…. who has a whole slew of exotic dishes on her blog.  I searched through her blog for a while not able to decide on exactly which dish I would make – they all looked so good – until I came across her Kiwi Salsa recipe and I knew then and there that that was the one I had to make.

I LOVE salsa: fresh tomato salsa, cooked tomato salsa, tomatillo salsa, roasted tomato salsa, mango salsa…but I had never heard of kiwi salsa.  And, I thought that it was quite fitting since I am currently on vacation in Texas to go ahead and make a salsa.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how well all the flavors harmonize together.  The acidity and subtle sweetness of the kiwis left little need for added acidity (lemon juice) and perfectly replace the traditional tomato.  I did add more kiwi than the recipe originally called for because I thought it tasted good, but needed more kiwi to really hold the name kiwi salsa, and I reduced the onion to 1/4th of an onion, which I still found a bit over powering – I will reduce to 1 Tablespoon in the future.  The cucumber gave the perfect body to the salsa helping to diminish the heat of the huge jalapeño I added.

As opposed to PJ, I went ahead and threw my ingredients, individually, into the food processor because I don’t like chunky salsa since I feel I don’t get all the flavors in one bite.  That and (sorry mom) my mom has a tiny knife that I don’t get along with when chopping vegetable…I really miss my cook’s knife.

Ironically enough, I didn’t have any tortilla chips on hand to go with the salsa, but crackers work well too.  I will be using the salsa tomorrow as an accompaniment to fish which I can’t wait to try because I think they will go perfectly together.  I will keep you informed on that!

Here’s my version of PJ’s recipe: Continue Reading »

As you can tell, my current cooking trend is fueled by my longing for warmer days. This meal is made up of predominantly Mediterranean dishes to compose a Greek Meze.

It’s great for when you’re going to have guests over – and works well in any season since most ingredients are preserved in some way, shape or form – well, when eggplant is out of season, you’re out of luck for the baba ganoush, but other wise, this meals practically throws itself together very well.

And, I made it with recipes I have tried over the years as well as items I picked up at my local Turkish store:
Falafel
Jajeek
Hummus
Baba Ganoush
Greek Salad
Stuffed/Marinated Chili Peppers
Stuffed/Marinated and Filled Mushroom Caps
Olives
Marinated Red Onion (red wine vinegar + a pinch of sugar + a pinch of salt)
Pita Bread
Rice-Stuffed Dolmas

I prepared everything early in the day, but made the falafel shortly before so that they were nice and warm.

Hummus is one of my favorite spreads to make because of the fact that it’s very versatile. It’s not just meat for dipping or scooping with different breads, but makes a great sandwich spread.

I have made quite a lot of hummus in the last 3 years – since discovering it, and I have learned that the secret to the silkiest and smoothest hummus is in the chick pea peel. By removing the peel, you remove a layer of roughness from the chick pea and pave the way for silky hummus.

Now, there is no easy or quick way to remove the peel from cooked chick peas – you just have to slip it off – one chick pea at t time. But, it’s well worth the effort. It takes me just under 10 minutes to “peel” a 400 gram can of chick peas. And, as is with most foods, although the quick way is tasty and edible – opting to take the long way has its rewards. Continue Reading »

I love the sunny days of summer. The warm air, the garden parties, and the simple meals.

A sandwich is the epitome of a simple meal, and this one is loaded with very complex flavors.

Prior to the creation of this meal, I had been very shy with using – or better said, not using – my chipotle chili powder. Now that I have taken a leap of faith and experimented, I am inspired everywhere I go with new ways to use it. One of my favorite ways it in guacamole. It will take an guacamole recipe and add the wow factor to it. And, because of the cool nature of guacamole, the chipotle chili powder doesn’t come over spicy at all, but rather adds delicious smoky undertones…which enhances any meal that you wish you could bbq, but can’t.

The chicken breast also has chipotle chili powder liberally sprinkled on it. Traditionally, I use Tone’s Garlic & Herb that I brought back from the US with me, and this time around I complemented it with the chipotle chili powder.

Serve your sandwich with a side of chips and some homemade lemonade, and you can pretend (or not) that you are basking in the warm summer son of a few months ago. Continue Reading »

This is the dish I served as entrée for the luxurious Iraqi dinner party that I held this weekend.

I used my favorite bulgur salad recipe and found this delicious shrimp recipe on Taste Buddies. The shrimp were out of this world. The harissa really gave it a nice spicy flavor without leaving my mouth burning. And, the cooling flavors in the salad help to off set the spiciness of the shrimp. This is definitely a dish worth making again.

My guests were all thrilled about the bulgur salad. They all thought this was such a complicated dish to make, but I reassured them that there was nothing more than a bit of chopping.

The servings in this dish are meant as a side dish. To serve as a main course double the amount of shrimp – 2 large shrimp per person, and double the salad recipe. Continue Reading »

Voting is now open!  Please cast your vote for me here. 

Now, I have hosted many parties in my short life: impromptu dinner parties, lunch parties, brunch parties, garden parties, winter solstice parties, children’s birthday parties, Thanksgiving parties…I could go on for quite a while.  But, I’ve never hosted a luxurious dinner party.  So, when Foodbuzz challenged us to host a luxurious dinner party I hit the web to get ideas on how to host one.

To my utter surprise, there is not a lot of information out there on how to host a luxurious dinner party – needless to say a small intimate dinner party.  There is plenty of information on how to throw huge and elegant wedding bashes, but since I cannot seat 100+ in my home, I had to turn to other sources.

I quickly emailed the two people I knew would have detailed thoughts as to what a luxurious dinner party would entail.  Could I hold it in my home since my dining table is in my kitchen?  Would I need a server?  These are just some of the questions I had.  Surprisingly – well, maybe not – I got quite different answers from both sources, but good advice none the less.

So, what do you need to put together a luxurious dinner party?? Continue Reading »

I have been craving spicy food for the past few weeks like crazy. What I wouldn’t give for some really Jamaican jerk chicken that leaves your mouth burning with happiness. But, I don’t have any plans to travel to the Caribbean right now, so when I was paired with Denise from Eat Laugh Love for this month’s Taste&Create, I was excited to see her recipe for Jalapeño Poppers!

Now, I have eaten quite a few jalapeño poppers over the past few years, but I have never eaten any filled with refried beans. I was really surprised how easy these were to make. I never could quite figure out how they could easily be de-seeded, but the trick is in the few minutes you microwave them to soften them! Oh, and if you leave a few too many seeds inside it will be very spicy.

I love making taco salads, so I thought this would be a nice change to my typical taco salad toppings. I also made a fabulous roasted tomato and tomatillo salsa that my brother-in-law taught me – but more about that next week. Continue Reading »

I have been dying to try to make Chinese dumpling (in any form) for quite some time now. And, when I stumbled across Jaden’s really easy-looking recipe I decided it was time to stop procrastinating and time to start cooking!

She has a really great step-by-step tutorial on how to fold them – and it is really fool-proof! I did have some issues in making the dumplings, but this problem started at my local grocer. Where the heck do I find dumpling wrappers in my small town?? No Where. But, I never let that stop me – I was determined to make these babies. So, I grabbed a pack of wonton wrappers and made my way home. And, yes, wonton wrappers do hold up well, but you will end up with rectangular dumplings. And, I’m not sure if the flavor is any different than that of dumpling wrappers. Oh, and although I have 3 huge bouquets (or bushes) of chives growing in my garden, I somehow came home without any and ended up having to use the green onions.

We really enjoyed the dumpling, despite their rectangular coutures. The pork and cabbage filling is full of flavor and I promptly started dreaming up other dishes that I could use it in. Jaden recommend enjoying the dumpling with some hot chili sauce, but we found that the slippery consistency of the dough wasn’t able to hold much of the flavor of the sauce. Maybe this wouldn’t have been the case had I pan fried them?? On the other hand, the next day my Chinese friend stopped by the a bowl of Congee (she stops by practically twice a week with some sort of new and exciting Asian food for me to try) and we warmed it up with these dumpling inside (did I just commit a mortal sin by doing that??) and they worked wonderfully together.

Here’s the recipe, and you can find Jaden’s step-by-step tutorial on how to fold dumpling here in her Steamy Kitchen. Continue Reading »

Last week I blogged about the lactose-free ricotta cheese that I made. And, today I’m finally getting around to showing you what I did with it!

I made these zucchini rolls for dinner for us and a friend and they were a big hit. I love making appetizers for dinner some times – especially when it’s really hot outside. They are pretty simple and tasty.

At some point I ran out of ricotta and substituted with feta cheese – but it is way too salty for a dish like this in comparison to the ricotta. Continue Reading »