Grilling - Rosemary Garlic Marinade

Filed Under From the Grill, Garlic, Lamb or Goat, Mushroom, Rosemary | 29 Comments

When we abandoned the suburban comfort for the fast city life, there were quite a few niceties we had to leave behind. A grill in the backyard being one. Now there is a common grill for the condo, on our beautiful rooftop garden. It is actually a lot better arrangement in some ways, first of all the grill is bigger, better and more powerful. Also, it is a great place to hang out with amazing views of the Puget sound and the harbor and Mount Rainier, but to me it is a major hassle going up there to grill something. We invariably forget to take something, then one of us has to go down for it. Since it is a common terrace and there are always people hanging out up there, I choose to go down versus staying back and socializing with our neighbors. I am sure they are all extremely nice and fun people, but I hate small talk, quite frankly I am incapable of doing any kind of small talk with strangers. So I volunteer to go down to bring the wine or oil or spatula or whatever that we forgot that day, leaving Siv behind, who is only slightly better than me at the small talk department. So we normally go up to grill only when we have friends over for a BBQ. With a big group there, we can safely ignore the neighbors.

Siv and I still do some grilling once in a while on our own when we are in the mood for some quick and easy dinner with minimal cleaning up afterwards. This Rosemary-Garlic marinade is my favorite grill recipe. I have been making this for years, the recipe is adapted from the Williams-Sonoma -Grilling book. The original marinade was for lamb, but whenever we have people over for BBQ, there will be at least one vegetarian in the group. So I end up making a big batch of this and use it for mushrooms and paneer as well as lamb. One thing I have noticed is that the spice level has to be reduced a bit for paneer, since the same marinade turns out much hotter in paneer compared to the lamb.

Some lamb and corn getting grilled:

Portobellos getting marinated in the rosemary-garlic marinade:

And finally the portobellos on the grill:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup minced fresh rosemary ( 2 tbsp dried rosemary)
• 8-10 cloves garlic
• juice from 2 lemons
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp ground pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste

Method

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process to make a coarse paste.

Apply the marinade liberally on lamb chops, marinate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight in the refrigerator. If using on veggies or paneer, marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature.

This is my first entry for Monthly Mingle, originated by Meeta and hosted this month by yours truly. The theme this month of course is Grill It!

So, what are you planning to grill this month?

Le Cirque, Bellagio - Las Vegas

Filed Under Las Vegas, Travel | 15 Comments

I am so behind on blogging that I never finished my Las Vegas restaurant trilogy from the first week of June!  I left the best for last; now after almost two months my memory is a little dicey! Same is the case with so many Seattle restaurants in my drafts, but those I can go back and refresh my memory any time I want.   With so many more Vegas restaurants remaining in our must-try list, a Las Vegas repeat is going to take a while. So I am just going to write about what I remember from the visit!

Pros

The ambience and the décor – top class! The place is decorated in bright colors with fun animal prints to invoke the feel of a fun circus tent . A clear view of the Bellagio fountains is definitely a plus! And wait till you see those festive tableware!

Service – Outstanding! It was all you would expect from a high end restaurant and much much more! When I was trying hard to take a picture of the menu, our way too friendly waitress offered to give me a copy of the menu to go. I forgot about it by the end of the meal, but she didn’t! Along with the check came a full menu folded and packed in a nice Le Cirque envelope to go, now that is some service, don’t you think?

Food – None of the other stuff matters if the food was just mediocre, but food really was the highlight here! Amazing fine French cuisine and excellent wines. Each and every course at this Michelin rated restaurant was outstanding. Freshest ingredients, exquisite flavors, each dish carved with so much detail and perfection, real treat for all senses!

Cons

Pricey – It is on the expensive side, the total bill for two came to almost $500 including taxes and tips, but we knew that going in. This was the anniversary dinner, and I would say it is totally worth it if you are celebrating something special. 

Portion Size – Wow, I really don’t know what kind of people they had in mind when they decided the portion sizes. We had the Le Cirque Degustation menu which has an amuse-bouché, 5 courses plus a pre dessert, Dessert and Pettit Fours! That is three dessert courses people! To top it all, the main dessert course is huge, and each person on the table gets a different variety! So all in all that is 9 courses + a taste of your partner’s dessert course. With that many dishes, they should’ve really made each dish half the size. After the first couple of dishes we got the idea, so we deliberately didn’t finish any of the dishes afterwards, a really hard thing to do since everything tasted so darn good!

The Food

We had the Prix-fix menu as I mentioned before, which is $145 per person + $65 for wine pairing. Siv went for the wine pairing, there was no way I could have 6 glasses of wine, so I opted to just get wine by the glass. I also got a special glass with the foie gras course, since the wine they paired with foie gras was just out of this world! I had a sip from Siv and I had to have it! One of the few dishes I can really understand the whole wine pairing philosophy and appreciate the difference a wine makes to the dish is foie gras.

We started with the Amuse-Bouche which was a classic oyster and caviar combo served on crushed ice. Delicious!

Lobster Salad consisted of large pieces of fresh succulent lobster served on top of a salad of peas and some other veggies and topped with a frisee salad and a generous piece of shaved black truffle!

Sauteed Foie Gras with nectarines, grapes and diced fruits topped with a micro greens salad, was oh so delicious! It was paired with a Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos, a sweet Hungarian wine.

Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella Risotto with Roasted Diver Sea Scallops was delicious, but I didn’t think it belonged in a six course menu. It was rather heavy and as I mentioned before the portion was huge. We deliberately had just a little bit of this. I think just this course would suffice for a normal lunch.

Paupette of Seabass with Braised Leeks and Red Wine Sauce - I don’t remember the details, but I do remember it tasted great!

Roasted Beef Tenderloin, Cocoa Nibs, Peas Mousseline and potato souffle. Everything worked except for the shaved chocolate, I am not a big chocolate and meat combo fan, I just ignored the chocolate and had the rest, and it was one of the most succulent pieces of meat I’ve ever had! Again, a tad too big for this meal though, but I guess they can’t make a tenderloin any smaller and still keep it moist inside!

This was the pre-dessert. A sorbet with some fruit salad, I can’t remember what exactly was in it, it was a palate cleanser to get us ready for the real dessert course.

The dessert fantasy course had two different desserts for each of us. The table next to us was a party of four and I saw that they were served four different desserts! Siv was served a pineapple-coconut-mango ice cream in a real coconut half, and mine was a chocolate souffle. But I couldn’t take a heavy chocolate souffle after the meal we had, the ice cream was more to my taste, light and refreshing. We did a decent job on both the desserts.

Finally the petit fours to finish up the meal. You would think we couldn’t have another bite, but we did, these were too cute to resist.

And just in case all these sweets weren’t enough, they gave us individually wrapped gift boxes of chocolate truffles to go!

All-in-all, it was a meal to remember! Extravagant, over-the-top, pampering fine dining experience; just what we needed to celebrate the 10 wonderful years.

http://www.bellagio.com/restaurants/le-cirque.aspx

Seattle Magazine Best Foodie Blog Award and Bite of Seattle

Filed Under Awards, Seattle | 62 Comments

This certificate came in mail yesterday, along with a letter from the editor of the Seattle Magazine. I don’t have words to describe how I felt, I was in seventh heaven! I have been neglecting the restaurant part of the blog lately, and this one gave me a much needed kick in the backside to bring that lost enthusiasm back. Lately I haven’t been taking pictures of our meals out, or even if I do I sit on those for so long that I forget about the whole experience by the time I am ready to write about it. But with an honor like this, I think I need to get back in the saddle again! Thank you Seattle Magazine!

Talking about food and Seattle, one of the major food events that we have every year is the Bite of Seattle, an annual food festival over at the Seattle center. Frankly, the food portion of the event is kinda blah; when you see a Panda Express stall there you can imagine the class of food!

Okay, I am being a little too hard on the food part; there really is some good stuff there, if you look around and if you are willing to stand in never ending lines! The only exotic food I’ve ever had from here is the Alligator meat on a stick, which quite frankly tasted like fried chicken, with a little harder texture.  We still went there this weekend, just because we had nothing to do and it was just a few minutes walk from our house, also the crowd is crazy fun!   

We got some snacks from an Indonesian food stall just because that had the shortest line, and got us a couple of cold beers from the beer garden. It was so hard to find a place to sit, but I did some major annoying hovering over this couple who were done with their drinks, but were showing no signs of leaving, finally they couldn’t take my staring anymore, they got up and left. There was good music and the weather was great, people were having way too much fun, especially the kids.

Apart from the crowd, the only interesting thing from the evening was the quick lesson we got on the right way of smoking the salmon.  Apparently this company goes around the world giving demonstrations on smoke roasting seafood, and this is a sight we would never get to see unless we go to some factory, at least that is what they told us. It really was a fun demonstration.

They use alder wood for the fire, since it doesn’t crackle and burns very clean and cedar wood for smoking the salmon, for the fragrance and because cedar produces some natural oils which keep the fish moist.  This was the best salmon we’ve ever had, or it might just have been the whole experience, who knows!

Monthly Mingle Announcement - Grill It!

Filed Under Blog Events | 40 Comments

It is that time of the year! Well, at least in this hemisphere that is! Before we know it, summer will be gone… Let’s celebrate the last few weeks of sunshine with some serious cooking fun! Who wants to slog inside the house when it is that nice outside? You want to keep that house cool, right? So, forget the stove, get out and fire up that grill and get grilling! Bring some of those goodies over here for the party of the year, our gorgeous hostess Meeta has assigned me the responsibility to host her glamorous Monthly Mingle for this month and I am thinking, let’s Grill It! Thank you dear Meeta for this opportunity!

Don’t have a grill or you live in a place where it is not the outdoor grilling season? Don’t worry; you can use an indoor grill or a grill pan on the stove or even the oven… I am looking for those recipes which are versatile enough to be cooked on the grill and adapted for indoor cooking in the colder months.

You think you can only use the grill for meat? Think again! Grilling vegetables elevates their taste to a whole different level! And grilled fruits? What better dessert can you think of after a huge meal than a simple grilled pineapple with a side of coconut ice cream or grilled peaches with some honey or grilled pear and walnuts with goat cheese? Oh there are so many non-meat grilling ideas, you can’t use the “I don’t eat meat” excuse for this one.

Think marinades, sauces, burgers, Kebabs, Pizza, Corn, Grilled fish - anything goes! Check out this page for a bunch of grilling  ideas: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/et_sl_grilling/0,1972,FOOD_9872,00.html

Monthly Mingle - Grill It! Rules

1. Post a dish cooked on the grill (or can be adapted for the grill) in your blog by the deadline 15th August 2008
2. Link your post to this announcement and the main Monthly Mingle page to encourage more readers to join in the fun.
3. You can send in as many entries as you like!
4. Older entries on blogs can be accepted only if they are republished with a link-back to this announcement.
5. Feel free to use the logo above.
6. Use the entry form below to send your entries in.
7. If you have any questions, send me an e-mail to MailLiveToEat(at)gmail.com

Monthly Mingle - Grill It! Entry Form

cforms contact form by delicious:days

If you want me to include an image in the round up, please enter the link to the image in the form below. To get the link to the image, follow the steps below:

–If using Internet Explorer, right click on the image and select Properties. The link is shown in Address (URL) field, you can use your mouse to select and copy this URL and paste it in the field below.

–If using Firefox, right click on the image and select Copy Image Location. Now you should be able to paste this using Ctrl + V in the field below.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Logo Image © Bernard BAILLY - Fotolia.com       

Mango Coconut Panna Cotta and Cafe Campagne

Filed Under Belltown, Breakfast/Brunch, Coconut, Desserts, Diary, French, Mango | 24 Comments

Finally it is summer in Seattle! I don’t think anyone else enjoys summer as much as us Seattleites. We have learned to fully appreciate the few sunny days we get every year. The streets are so lively these days, it is so much fun to go out into the city and get lost in the crowd. A friend and I had a fabulous Parisian style Sunday today. We started with brunch at Cafe Campagne, followed by a waterfront stroll and a few hours of shopping and finished with a late lunch at Le Pichet. Both these restaurants are so truly French, we imagined ourselves to be on a holiday in Paris.

Café Campagne is a French bistro in Pike Place Market. It is a cheaper and more casual version of its more upscale sister restaurant Campagne. Situated in Post Alley, Cafe Campagne is the perfect place to have a relaxed brunch and people watch on a sunny Sunday when Pike Place Market and surroundings are swarmed with tourists and locals. We both had Omelette choisy- French-style rolled omelette flavored with herbs and filled with escarole and chèvre. My friend asked for an egg white omelet and to hold the sausage, they gave her the best looking egg white omelet we both have ever seen and also brought her a side of fruits to replace the sausage. Great customer service, I must say. I had mine the regular non-healthy way with a pork and chicken sausage, what can I say, I love food too much to skim fat. We also had some sparkling drinks to complete the Parisian experience, I had a mimosa and she had a drink with crème de Cassis and sparkling wine which was awesome, but I can’t recall the name now!

It was easy to imagine we were in France after that meal, well except for the shopping of course, which doesn’t come anywhere close to Paris sadly. But we had fun shopping anyway. I tried out some 25 different outfits, shortlisted five and ultimately bought just a couple that I really loved. I was so proud of myself, the old me would’ve bought the whole bunch even if I liked them just so-so, but the new me is determined to not waste money on unnecessary items. I bought a fabulous dress and an equally fab cropped jacket and a pair of hot pink wedges. Okay, the shoe was unnecessary and extremely uncomfortable, but it was on sale and it looked hot, a girl is allowed to have a small treat for being so uncharacteristically frugal right?

Talking about treats, this Coconut Mango Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coulis is exactly that, a sinful treat! If you are on a diet, this is definitely not for you!

Mango Coconut Panna Cotta

Ingredients

• 1 cup Mango Puree
• 4 tbsp mango juice/orange juice
• 1 cup coconut cream (see note below)
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 12 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 packet powdered gelatin (1.5 tbsp)

Method

Sprinkle gelatin over the juice in a small cup and keep aside to soften the gelatin.

In a non-reactive pan, combine the half and half, sugar, coconut milk and cardamom pods and cook on medium heat stirring frequently till the liquid is heated through but not boiling. Remove from the stove and discard the cardamom pods.

Add the softened gelatin and stir well till the gelatin is completely dissolved.

In a separate bowl, whisk the yogurt and mango puree well to combine. Add this mixture to the prepared cream mixture and whish well.

Pour into 8 individual ramekins and chill in the refrigerator for about four hours or till set. Serve with Raspberry Coulis (below).

Note: If you don’t have coconut cream, you can use regular canned coconut  milk. Open the can carefully without shaking and use just the thick cream from top.

Raspberry Coulis

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup raspberries
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup water

Method

Blend all the ingredients in a blender till smooth. Chill before serving.

Sending this one to the gorgeous hostess Meeta who has chosen my favorite fruit Mango for this month’s Monthly Mingle - Mango Mania.

This is also my entry for Sweet Series - Cool Desserts hosted by Mythreyee.

Check out the other panna cotta recipes in this blog:

• Orange Panna Cotta
• Jackfruit Yogurt Panna Cotta with Blueberry Coulis
• Lychee Mango Two Layer Pudding

Mutton Stew and a Weekend Getaway

Filed Under Coconut, India - Kerala, Lamb or Goat, Mains, Travel | 28 Comments

Leavenworth - a charming town in WA where we spent a relaxing July 4th weekend. A beautiful house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by Pear orchards and the stunning Wenatchee river in the backyard; lots and lots of food, drinks and games… it was truly the perfect weekend! Inspired by the resemblance of its countryside to Bavarian Germany, Leavenworth was remodeled as a Bavarian village in the 1960s. The town center is beautiful with its quaint Bavarian architecture, but sorry, I didn’t take any pictures of the buildings on our very brief trip into the town. We spent most of the time in the house, so all the pictures I have are from there.

What does this gotta do with a mutton stew? Nothing really, other than the fact that I cooked it during this trip. Our group is made of some extraordinarily talented chefs, so we all took turns to cook. There were some scrumptious dishes, wish I’d clicked some pictures, but I was having way too much fun to care at the moment. So all I have is a picture of the stew I took sometime ago.

This stew tastes better a day after it is made, letting it rest in the fridge overnight helps the flavors to blend well, so I made it one night and we all had it for a late brunch next day. The best accompaniment to stew is Appam (hoppers), but it is not an easy task to make Appams for nine hungry souls, so we had to make do with bread.

Kerala Mutton Stew

Ingredients

• 2lb Goat/lamb meat with bones cut into medium sized pieces
• 1 tbsp oil
• 6-8 cardamom pods
• 6-8 cloves
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 1" piece of cinnamon
• 2 star anise
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
• 2 tbsp thinly sliced (julienned) ginger pieces
• 2 tbsp thinly sliced garlic pieces
• 2-3 green chilies sliced
• 1 can coconut milk
• a few curry leaves
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp vinegar

Method

In a large pressure cooker, heat some oil and add the cardamom, cloves, pepper, cinnamon, star anise and bay leaves and sauté for a minute. Add the sliced shallots, ginger, garlic and green chilies and saute till soft. Add the meat and curry leaves and mix well. Fry for a few minutes till the meat pieces are heated through.

Add the coconut milk. vinegar and 1/2 a cup of water and mix well. Add salt to taste and close the pressure cooker .Cook on high till the first whistle (when the pressure cooker has reached the full pressure). Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 12 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool.

The meat has to be fall-off-the-bones tender to get the full impact. As I mentioned before, I like to keep it in the fridge overnight and heat it up next morning.

Serve with Appam, bread or rice.

JFI Tamarind Round-up

Filed Under Blog Events | 57 Comments

The talent and enthusiasm of my fellow food bloggers never cease to amaze me! I asked you all to come up with a dish that features Tamarind, and you all happily played along! I am overwhelmed by your support! There are enough varieties of Tamarind based dishes to create a full-fledged multi course meal. My heartfelt thanks to all the participants and a special thanks to Indira of Mahanandi, creator of Jihva for Ingredients for this opportunity!

Without further ado, presenting the JFI-Tamarind round up!

Note: This round-up was generated automatically from the entries you have submitted through the entry form, after a bit of tweaking and re-categorizing. I have double checked to make sure that all the entries are included, but in case I am missing your entry, please e-mail me or leave a comment in this post.

Drinks

Soups / Salads

Chutneys / Dips /Pickles

Veg Snacks / Starters

Non-Vegetarian

Dessert

Other

Veg Entree

Rice

That’s all folks! Head over to Soul Food to check out what Rachna has come up with for JFI-August!

A Chicken Curry with Tamarind

Filed Under Chicken, India - Other | 40 Comments

I barely made it to my own event, that is how hectic life’s been lately! But the good news is that I have a four day weekend coming up and we are going away on a mini-break. Nothing major, driving to a nearby town with a group of friends for some much needed R&R. So I won’t get to do the JFI-Tamarind round up till early next week, therefore if you want to send me some more Tamarind entries, you can do so till Thursday - July 3rd. If you still haven’t send me your entry (You know who you are!) please do