Menus and Odes

Appam and Curry Feast Menu

Daring Kitchen Menu

It’s Daring Kitchen time, and this one was an exhilarating trip through Southern India and Sri Lanka. Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

Mary taught us that much of the Indian food that we consume in this country is from the North and Northwest regions, and that a whole world of culinary delights awaited us in the preparation of the cuisine of the south. Boy, did this feast deliver – a fragrant theme of coconut, ginger, cilantro and chilies carried us through the courses served family style. It was the first party I’ve had in a long time where, when the food was finished, I got to sit down and tuck in with my guests. Not to mention the fact that the dishes were perfect for casually prepping with my guests helping in the kitchen. A true delight for which I have Mary to thank 🙂 Continue reading Appam and Curry Feast Menu →

Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Main Courses, Recipes, Side Dishes, The Daring Kitchen, Vegetarian Dishes

Curried Potatoes and Chickpeas

Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.
In the midst of planning a well-rounded menu for my second Daring Kitchen Feast, I had a formidable opponent in finding a party-pleasing veggie. My husband, though an adventurous eater, seems to have an outstanding war with turmeric. It just turns his stomach, negating all the loving care placed in perfecting the taste of the dish. I’d been reading through Amanda Hesser’s massive New York Times Essential Cookbook and was on the beans and legumes when I came across a recipe for Chickpeas with Ginger. The sauce had notes of Indian spices that rang true with the other offerings for the Daring Kitchen, and no troublesome turmeric. Continue reading Curried Potatoes and Chickpeas →

Baked Goods, Easy to Prepare, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Herb Roasted Baby Potatoes

Thank goodness for the word “potatoes” at the end of this recipe title – otherwise, you’d think I was writing “A Modest Proposal 2.0”  Ok, enough dark jokes for the day and on to the latest entry in the quest for the perfect weeknight side dish.  Barely a recipe (I love these!), this one graced the table the night my darling husband decided to cook me an anniversary dinner.  Given that I usually rule the roost that is our kitchen, I welcomed the offer excitedly, looking forward to the special menu that he had in mind.  I’d been missing hanger steak a whole lot, which is apparently hard to come by at regular markets here in Phoenix, so he drove to the other side of town to Hobe Meats in search of the beloved butcher’s cut.  He decided to round out the meal with homemade horseradish sauce (*in best Racehl Zoe voice* I die!), creamed spinach and a recipe from this blog, my Summer Salad of Heirloom Tomatoes, String Beans and Fingerlings.  What a treat! Continue reading Herb Roasted Baby Potatoes →

Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Main Courses, Poultry Dishes, Recipes, Soups and Stews

Mexican Chicken Vegetable Soup (Caldo Tlalpeño)

Tortilla soup has become a standard of tex-mex menus here in the states, becoming another pillar of the glorious international chicken soup pantheon.  While its origin is shrouded in mystery, food historians can pinpoint its arrival to America somewhere around the 1890s.  The combination of slow simmered chicken, tomatoes, and fried tortillas is a simple blend of flavors that seem as if they were always meant to be together.  Crazily, the myriad chicken tortilla soup fails come in the way of people bastardizing this formula, inundating the soup with unnecessary toppings (or worse, using cheese to cover up a watery broth or lack of chicken and vegetables). Continue reading Mexican Chicken Vegetable Soup (Caldo Tlalpeño) →

Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Creamed Spinach

When did the art of creaming vegetables become en vogue?  And when did it fall out of favor in the first place, with poor creamed corn holding up the fort, all the while labeled as low-brow and trailer park?  It’s rather silly given that if ever there was a way to get people to give vegetables a chance, it’s to slather them in cream.

The first time I ever tried creamed spinach, I wasn’t really a true spinach convert.  Boston Market (then Boston Chicken) had opened down the street from us and the family decided to give it a try.  The guy working the counter (aka the “Side Dish Pimp”) tried to sell us on the glories of their creamed spinach, touting it as a game changer.  We took the bait and I took my first bite of the stuff, more dairy than veg and not at all what I had imagined it to be.  Years later, I realize that what I had had wasn’t revolutionary, but it did deserve credit for resoundingly convincing me that spinach is on my team 100%.  *in my best Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet voice* “You win, spinach.  You always do!” Continue reading Creamed Spinach →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Meat Dishes, Recipes, Seafood Dishes, Side Dishes

Littleneck Clams with Chorizo and Garlic

My husband likes most all that I cook for him – in fact, the only thing that got a resounding thumbs down were my Cold Peanut Noodles – I still say it’s not the noodles so much as his distaste for cold pasta, but that’s another story for another day.  But because of his regular approval, I live for those dishes that mean adoration spelled across his face in a smile – the ones that get a “This is REALLY good, baby!” instead of a mere “It’s good.”  The bites that make him look up immediately, eyes creased with a smile, the satisfaction emanating in a grin and nod.  They don’t tell you when you get married that you become hypersensitive to context clues, but alas, here I am, reading facial expressions like ancient runes, sussing out the inside scoop. Continue reading Littleneck Clams with Chorizo and Garlic →

Easy to Prepare, Main Courses, Poultry Dishes, Recipes

Ginger Scallion Chicken

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This one is hardly a recipe in that ginger scallion sauce does all the heavy lifting.  As much as I feel that recipes within recipes can be daunting (I’m talking to you, Thomas Keller), the actual ginger scallion sauce is so simple that you’ll barely feel like you are tacking on extra steps.

My first dance with the glory of ginger scallion chicken was at my favorite haunt for Chinese food in the DC Metro area, XO Taste.  Prepared the traditional way with a whole poached chicken accompanied by small dishes of the spicy, complex ginger sauce, I was in love.  Not with the chicken so much as the sauce, which I wanted to drink by the canteen full if possible.  When I set out to make this recipe for myself, I tried to amp up the chicken a bit to include all of my favorite elements.  Rather than poach and serve with loose, rubbery skin, I decided to sear the skin on bone-in chicken breasts and then finish them off in the oven.  The result is crisp, crackly skin protecting moist, white meat chicken, all of which is adorned with ginger scallion saucy glory.  Victory is mine, and can be yours as well with a few easy steps. Continue reading Ginger Scallion Chicken →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Lighten Up, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegetarian Dishes

Lemony Tzatziki (Greek Yogurt with Cucumber and Mint)

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One of my absolute favorite aspects of food blogging is being able to float down the rabbit hole (a la Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, and not the more macabre connotations of the expression) of food histories.  Maybe I get the desire from my mother, an expert etymologist and language expert.  Or from my father, the history buff with a memory like a steel trap for facts and figures of all kinds.  For whatever reason, I seem to approach all of my posts similarly – dig through my personal recipe book for dishes that I’ve been cooking for years, wade through the memories that accompany them, and then circle back on the actual history and general origins of the dish.  It always leads me to these tangential thoughts that are as much a delight for me as I hope they are for you, dear reader. Continue reading Lemony Tzatziki (Greek Yogurt with Cucumber and Mint) →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Easy to Prepare, Friends Recipes and Hacks, Impressive Dishes, Main Courses, Recipes, Seafood Dishes

Classic Mussels with White Wine and Herbs

Today’s guest post is coming at you straight from NYC courtesy of my good friend Arber.  We met under non-culinary circumstances during my time as the master of web goodness at The City College of New York.  I had the dubious honor of serving as the advisor for his student organization, a cluster of entrepreneurs, programmers and designers who created the brilliant website, In Your Class.com.  Funnily, in order to get their student organization up and running as quickly as possible, they found it easier to take over an already established group rather that go through the appeals process to create a new one.  Thus, although I am out and out Brazilian/Italian/African-American, I soon discovered that I was the newest advisor to the Albanian Students Organization.  The founders (Arber included) were all Albanian, so to prove my mettle, I showed them all I learned from Wikipedia about Albania and had them fill me in on the rest of the important details.  I adored the multiculturalism mixed with the laughs, and was totally honored that they asked me to be their advisor in the first place. Continue reading Classic Mussels with White Wine and Herbs →

Appetizers and Small Plates, Lighten Up, Recipes, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Simple Tabbouleh

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Despite my undying love for New York City and all of its glories, I hate that sunshine there is at a premium.  With much of the year swathed in gray, there’s something endlessly appealing about the 364 days of sunshine that Phoenix has to offer.  I’ll probably never truly fit in here on the left coast (I’m an out-and-out East coast ex-pat, who bleeds 100% DC love when cut), but lemme just say that when Cali kids speak of their junkie-esque need for light on the regular, I kind of get it.  My move out here to the lawless desert has provided me with blissful sunshine and true blue skies that could cure the seasonally depressed in an instant, and I’m totally hooked.

Nothing speaks more to my adjustment to the bright perfection out here in AZ than my urges to whip up all sorts of cold salads.  From chilled pastas and crisp veggies sopping up vinaigrettes, to a simple toss of fresh berries, splashes of liquer and a chiffonade of mint, these chilled dishes keep my kitchen cool and my mood light.  Tabbouleh is a favorite of mine – this herby salad is a quick accompaniment to grilled meats, a homey companion on a mezze platter of hummus and olives, or a throw together potluck favorite that pairs up with any and everything on the buffet line.  Best of all, it’s a throw-together dish that is forgiving in terms of time – you can prep it ahead or even serve it right away.  Arabic for “little spicy,” tabbouleh is the marriage of tart, spicy, savory and sweet – all that you want for a cool summer supper. Continue reading Simple Tabbouleh →

Foodie for Life—Delicious to Death