The Omnivore’s Hundred

Filed Under Random Musings | 3 Comments

I found this very interesting little activity going on around the blogosphere and wanted to play along too. This was originated by Andrew of the Very Good Taste blog.

In Andrew’s on words

“Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all.”

If you want to play along, here are the rules.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (hope alligator counts)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I’ve had cognac of course, but I’d never have a cigar!)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (I don’t know, I might if I am really drunk and the insects are deep fried.)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more 
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse  (hmmm, I think the meat might be really tough)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

63 out of 100, I’ve got miles to go! Thanks Andrew for the list, I had fun doing this!

Campaign to Heal

Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons is organizing a fundraiser-Donate for a Heart ~ A Campaign to Heal! Lakshmi is a mother of two small kids and is suffering from Coronary Artery disease. She needs a surgery for survival. Every little bit you donate would surely go a long way! Check out this post for details on how to help.

Monthly Mingle - Grill It! Event Round-up

Filed Under Blog Events, Uncategorized | 38 Comments

I am proud to present a colorful array of grilled goodies cooked up by food bloggers from all around the globe! We have 71 grilled delights here today! These mouthwatering dishes include all sorts of grilled stuff - vegetables, fruits, fish, shrimp, chicken, lamb, steak, salads, sandwiches, pizza you name it, we have it here. A big thanks to Meeta, for giving me the opportunity to host the Monthly Mingle this month. This was quite a party, thank you all for joining us this month and making this event a grand success!

This is a semi-automated round up. I call it semi-automated since I had to fix the image names and URLs in quite a few entries manually. But other than that, all I had to do was to download the csv file generated from your submissions, write some code to download and resize and crop the images and display it in the format of choice.  Since it was automated, I am pretty sure I didn’t miss any entries, if you submitted it using the entry form, it should be here. In case your entry is missing, please let me know via e-mail or leaving a comment, I will include it as soon as possible.

Without further ado, I invite you all to take a tour of these culinary masterpieces hot off the grill. Presentation style was inspired by foodgawker.com web site. Entries are presented in alphabetical order under each category.

Read more »

Tidbit Bistro

Filed Under Capitol Hill, Italian, Spanish, Tapas | 7 Comments

idbit bistro is a casual European restaurant in Capitol Hill that serves Spanish and Italian comfort cuisine. Where Madrid meets Napoli is their slogan. The food is unpretentious, simple and extremely delicious, ambience is casual, staff is friendly and the prices are very reasonable - a perfect place to sit back and relax with a bunch of friends on a summer evening.

Tidbit has been on our wish list ever since it opened last year, but somehow the stars never aligned right for us to make that trip. Then Ms.KewlKat suggested this place for a Blossip™ (Ask her what that means) session a few weeks ago. Our second outing was even more fun than the first one that I completely forgot to take pictures. Thanks for the fun night A, M and K! The food was so great that I had to go back, so I did last week with Siv and some friends, and this time I remembered to take pictures.

The patio outside is perfect for summer evenings, but it is so narrow that only tables for four can be accommodated. We were a party of six, so after some major brainstorming they put two tables together for us at the far end of the patio so that we weren’t blocking anyone. First time when I went there, it was a Tuesday night and the place was packed. But this time for a Saturday night, it was kind of empty. Tuesday nights are half price wine bottle night, that could explain the crowd, but I don’t see any reason why it was empty on Saturday! So fellow Seattleites, don’t let another good restaurant bust out, please give them some more business, it is totally worth a visit!

We started with some great specialty cocktails. Between the six of us we ordered most of their cocktails on the menu, Pear-tini was my favorite. The food menu is divided into Tapas (ranging fro $1.50 to $10), Entrées with 1^st course (~$18) and 2^nd course ($18-$23) and Soups and Salads and Desserts. We pretty much concentrated on the Tapas section, and ordered the items we liked in triples and quadruples. Finally we shared a couple of entrées and desserts as well. We had so much food and drinks, but the bill was only a little above $100 per couple, which was way too cheap for the amount of stuff we had!

PAPAS DULCES - Rosemary-scented sweet potato fries with a side of whole grain mustard aioli ($4.50). These must be the best fries I’ve ever had! We ordered at least four of these!

ALBÓNDIGAS CON ALMENDRAS - Lamb and beef Spanish meatballs in a saffron and ground almond sauce ($8.) Meatball was soft and well cooked, and the sauce was tasty! Quite filling dish for $8!

CROSTINO CON FUNGHI - Sautéed mushrooms, mozzarella, and parmesan $2.5. I always hate the name Funghi,  but if you get past the name, these will make some yummy nibbles.

INVOLTINI DI MELANZANE - eggplant rolls filled with bread, capers, olives, topped with sciué sciué and parmesan $10. We were six hardcore meat-eaters and we enjoyed this vegetarian dish, need I say more?

GAMBAS AL AJILLO Prawns sautéed in an Andaluz sherry sauce $10. This was okay, but nothing special, sauce was great with bread though.

CRESPELLE - Savory crepes with asparagus, mozzarella, goat cheese, gorgonzola, and
béchamel $16. Another vegetarian dish, which was absolutely delicious, very sinful with all that cheese and cream, don’t get one for yourself, share with at least three other people.

POLLO RELLENO AL HORNO . Chicken breast stuffed with bread and pine nuts in an Andaluz sherry sauce served with saffron rice pilaf ($18). This was the only disappointment of the night, I’d stay away from this one.

CORDERO A LA PLANCHA* Marinated leg of lamb grilled and served with herbed potato cake, whole grain mustard aioli and olive tapenade ($23). Siv and I shared this for our entrée, this was delicious! Lamb was perfectly cooked, and the potato cake was to die for! 

I don’t have any dessert pictures, but we got the some Italian biscotti with a glass of Tuscan sweet wine to dip those in, Tiramisu, gelato and some dessert wine to finish off the meal, perfect ending to a perfect meal.

Also, I must add that they have plenty of vegetarian dishes in the menu, and also offers Vegan and Gluten free alternates for most dishes.

http://tidbitbistro.com  

Kahlua Soaked Grilled Pears a la Mode

Filed Under Desserts, Nuts, Pear | 18 Comments

A gentle reminder that tomorrow- August 15th - is the deadline for Monthly Mingle - Grill It event. If you haven’t grilled anything yet, you have another 28 hours to go. Thanks for all the wonderful entries so far and please note that if you haven’t submitted your entry using the entry form, I won’t be able to include it in the round up.

I wanted to end my grilling expedition with a nice dessert; grilled pears have always been a favorite. The initial plan was to soak the pears in rum, but when I opened the liquor cabinet, I got another idea - Kahlua! Kahlua is a coffee-flavored liquor and the label of my bottle also mentioned notes of rum, vanilla and caramel, perfect for dessert isn’t it?

I mixed up some brown sugar, Kahlua, cinnamon and cardamom pods in a bowl and added some dark rum just for kicks and soaked the pear slices in it. The soaking liquid tasted so good, I kept “tasting” it by the spoonful. I was a bit drunk by the time the dessert was done! I just couldn’t get enough of that liquid, so I soaked some pecans in it and toasted them in a pan. Slightly caramelized sweet pecans were super delicious in this dessert!

(There really is no proper recipe, I was eyeballing everything. So adjust the measures to taste.)

Ingredients

• 2 pears cored and cut into six slices lengthwise.
• 1 cup Kahlua
• ¼ cup rum
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 large cinnamon stick broken into small pieces
• 6-7 cardamom pods broken
•  For serving
•     Pecans
•     Ice cream of your choice. I had coconut ice cream; plain vanilla will be great too!

Method

Mix the Kahlua, rum, sugar and spices in a large bowl and place the pear quarters in the bowl. Mix well so the pears are coated with the liquor. Leave it in the fridge for at least two hours, overnight will be great.

Heat a grill to medium high heat and place the pear slices at an angle, so that it gets diagonal grill marks. Grill for about 3-4 minutes per side, the slices will start to brown and the fruit will get soft.

In the meantime, soak the pecans if using, in the same marinade. Place a slightly greased pan on the stove. When the pan is hot add the pecans and heat them through stirring frequently. Remove when the pecans are brown and toasty.

To serve, arrange 2-4 pear slices in a bowl, place a scoop of ice cream, pour some of the marinade over and top with the pecans.

I really wanted to get some flaming action going with the alcohol, but Siv wasn’t home and I don’t know how to operate the fire extinguisher, maybe next time…

Wishing a Happy Independence day to all my fellow Indians!!!

Arugula-Cilantro Pesto with Yogurt

Filed Under Greens, Pastas | 18 Comments

I have a lot of admiration for those who can whip up some delicious meal with just the ingredients from their fridge and pantry. My pantry is relatively well-stocked, but my refrigerator is almost always devoid of anything useful. A few containers of week old take-out food, bits and pieces of wilted veggies, yogurt-eggs-butter-cheese-etc with very dubious expiry dates and lots n’ lots of beer – these are the staples in my fridge.

So home alone one day when just the thought of fixing myself up and getting out of the house was dreadful, I decided to just “whip something up” with the ingredients in hand. I opened the fridge to find some arugula and cilantro, both of which looked acceptably fresh and a tub of yogurt way within the expiration date. Pesto was what came to mind immediately. I had never made pesto without cheese, but that was not going to stop me, only substitution I could think of was the yogurt. Yogurt + Garlic + Pine nuts + Greens + Seasonings, I knew that will make a great dipping sauce for sure, so how bad could it be in pasta? So I decided to just try it and see how it turns out. If it is a disaster, nobody has to know and in case it turns out great I get a topic for a blog post.

So, what is the verdict? Well, as you might have guessed from the mere fact that I am blogging about the dish, it actually turned out pretty good. The bitterness of Arugula and the tanginess of the yogurt kind of balanced each other out. Low-fat yogurt is definitely a healthier option than cheese and since the yogurt helps the pesto stick to the pasta, I didn’t have to use as much oil as I’d normally use. Altogether a keeper recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 cups packed baby arugula (rocket)
• 1/2 cup packed cilantro
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
• 2 tbsp yogurt
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• crushed red chili flakes to taste

Method

Place the garlic and  pine nuts in a food processor and pulse to chop. Add arugula , cilantro, yogurt, lemon juice and olive oil and process until smooth. Add the salt and pepper and red chili flakes and mix well. Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed.

To Serve: Cook the pasta according to directions on the package and drain well. Toss the warm pasta with pesto till well-coated. 

Grilled Sardines with Tarragon-Garlic-Lemon-Chile Butter

Filed Under From the Grill, Seafood | 29 Comments

The grilling saga continues! This time it’s Sardines! Yes, I finally found fresh sardines here at Uwajimaya! Grilled these on my non-stick grill pan, since I was a bit afraid to use the cast iron grill. I didn’t want the skin to stick to cast iron, crispy skin is the best part of sardines! Yeah, yeah I know the theory, if you pre-heat it and apply oil, nothing will stick, etc. I didn’t want to take that chance and the non-stick grill pan worked perfectly for this. I have a real smelly house now, which is a totally different problem altogether!

The sardines were seasoned with just salt and freshly ground pepper, and grilled crispy! Back home, we apply a lot of spices to sardines and fry these, but ever since we had the crispy roasted sardines at How to Cook a Wolf , where they just used salt and pepper to season the sardines, we have been meaning to try it out. Since my oven is broken, I couldn’t roast these, I thought grilling would work just the same, and it did! To go with these, I made a tarragon-garlic-lemon-chile butter, which was the perfect accompaniment to the simple grilled fish! This butter is a versatile dipping sauce for other seafood dishes and even veggies!

Grilled Sardines

Clean the sardines and season both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat a well-greased grill pan. When the pan is really hot, place the sardines and grill for about 3-4 minutes on each side till the skin is brown and crispy on both sides.

Serve hot with the tarragon-lemon-garlic-chile-butter.

Tarragon-Lemon-Garlic-Chile-Butter

Ingredients

• 1/2 a block butter
• 2 tbsp fresh tarragon minced
• 2 large cloves of garlic minced
• 1 Habanero chilie seeded and finely minced (or use any other spicy variety of chilies)
• grated zest from 1 baby lemon
• juice of 1/2 a baby lemon
• salt to taste

Method

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Add the tarragon, garlic, chilies, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir well to combine, let it heat for a minute or so. Keep warm till ready to serve.

You can also use other fresh herbs in this recipe.

And obviously, this is another entry for Monthly Mingle- Grill It!

If you want to make sardines the way we make it back home check out Shn’s mouthwatering creation here.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Harissa and Grilled Peach and Arugula Salad

Filed Under Bell Pepper, Chutneys and Dips and Pickles, From the Grill, Greens, Lamb or Goat, Soups and Salads | 33 Comments

Isn’t summer supposed to be the season of leisure? In my case it is quite the opposite! When I announced the “Grill It!” event this month, I had big plans. There were dreams of grilling at least twice a week. There were plans to grill everything – fruits, meat, seafood, vegetables, pizza – you name it! Even a jalapeno corn bread from one of my Grilling books was going to be tried out. It turns out that I was getting way ahead of myself as usual. Half a month is already gone by since the announcement, with hardly any grilling. But it is better late than never, right? I got a good start on Sunday and I am definitely going to try and continue this Grill fest. It is doubtful that I will ever get to that corn bread, but I sure am going to try.

I’ve had my eye on the cast-iron Le Creuset Reversible Grill & Griddle for a while. Spending $150 on a stovetop grill when all we need to do for grilling is to take an elevator up to the terrace was not justifiable. That is when I saw this cute little Cast Iron Single Burner Reversible Grill/Griddle by Emerilware at Williams-Sonoma on sale for $19.99! Now that is a deal you can’t pass up, right? I am absolutely in love with this grill! We grilled lamb chops on it, 6 chops fit perfectly on this small grill. We have a Calphalon non-stick grill pan, which we’ve been using for indoor grilling, but apart from the grill marks on the food, it really is just a glorified sauté pan. But this one is just awesome! Lamb chops turned out perfectly grilled, charred outside and perfectly juicy and moist inside.

To go with these lamb chops I made Harissa for the first time! From Wikipedia:

Harissa is a North African hot red sauce or paste made from chili peppers (often smoked or dried) and garlic, often with coriander and caraway or cumin and served with olive oil. It may also contain tomatoes. It somewhat resembles sambal and chili sauce. Harissa is used both as a condiment and as an ingredient in recipes. It has been described as an important item in Tunisian cuisine[1]. Harissa is also used in a few recipes of other North African cuisines, namely Morocco, Algeria and Libya [2], though it is often treated as a condiment to be served on the side. In France, couscous is generally served with Harissa sauce.

Ever since I saw the cutie pie chef Tyler Florence making Harissa on TV, I’ve been dying to try this out. I followed Tyler’s recipe pretty much exactly, halving the ingredients, but I used a very hot Habanero pepper instead of the 1 small red chili suggested in the recipe. So my harissa was very spicy. I am sure Tyler couldn’t handle that much heat. Also, I thought the spices (cumin + coriander + caraway) were a little too overpowering, so I’ve reduced the amount of spices in the recipe below.

To complete the meal, I made an arugula salad with grilled peaches. The slightly caramelized peaches went so well with the bitter arugula greens and the spicy Harissa. Harissa sauce did double duty, acting as the main ingredient in the salad dressing as well, of course I it had to be toned down with some honey and balsamic vinegar and some mint syrup for the salad dressing. Altogether, this was a true gourmet dinner, if I must say so myself!

Harissa

Original recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tylers-ultimate/pan-fried-lamb-chops-with-harissa-recipe/index.html  

Ingredients

• 1 red bell pepper
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tbsp coriander seeds
• ¼ teaspoon caraway seeds
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 small fresh red chile, chopped
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 ½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 lemon, juiced

Method

Roast the bell pepper on open flame on the stove till the skin is completely charred. Place it in a bowl and cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Scrape charred skin off the pepper and cut into thin strips.

Place the cumin, coriander and caraway in a small skillet and toast over low heat until fragrant. Then grind to a powder in a spice grinder. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse to puree.

Grilled Peaches and Baby Arugula Salad

Ingredients

• 4 cups baby arugula
• 1 large peach, pitted and quartered (apricot, plum etc will also work)
• 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
• Dressing
  • 1 tbsp harissa (see above)
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp mint syrup (or use finely chopped mint leaves)
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Brush some olive oil on the peach slices and grill on a pre-heated grill for about 2 minutes per side. Place it in an angle, so that you get the beautiful grill marks on the flesh.

Prepare the dressing by placing all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisking well to combine.

Just before serving, toss the arugula with the dressing and serve topped with the grilled fruit and toasted pine nuts.

Lamb Chops

Ingredients

• 6 lamb chops
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp peppercorns
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• a handful of cilantro
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method

Place the cilantro, garlic, peppercorns and salt in a mortar and pound to a coarse paste with the pestle. Place the lamb chops in a Ziploc bag, add this paste and the olive oil and mix well to make sure the lamb chops are covered with the marinade. Marinate for at least an hour or overnight in the refrigerator.

Heat the grill and grill for about 8 minutes per side for medium-rare to medium. Remove from the grill and let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Serve with the arugula salad and harissa sauce on the side.

Burrrrp… I am full, how about you?

The Quest for Pimientos de Padron

Filed Under Spanish | 25 Comments

Pimientos de Padrón aka Padrón peppers is a variety of green peppers from Spain. We had these in Spain last December and were totally hooked! I looked around for them here after we got back, to no avail! So I gave up and assumed that I will have to just go back to Spain for another taste.

Well, everything changed last Monday! I first found this post at House of Annie, looking at all those peppers in their green glory was pure torture! I went to the Happy Quail Farms website from there, but they only ship the peppers wholesale. The minimum order was 5lbs, for a moment there I was seriously contemplating getting a 5lb bag and throwing a pepper party for all my friends. Anyway, I left a comment on that post and as luck would have it, fellow Seattleite (and I must say lifesaver) Chris of We [Heart] Food saw the comment and sent me an e-mail that The Spanish Table was selling these right here in Seattle! Check out Chris’s post on these as well!

Spanish Table is at a walkable distance from our house, but they are only open till 6 PM. It was a really bad week at work, I was putting in about 12 hours a day. But the craving for these peppers was so bad, I got out early and just made it in time at 5:59 PM, only to be informed that they ran out of the peppers, but not to worry, they were getting a fresh batch on Wednesday. Wednesday and Thursday were so bad, I just couldn’t get out in time. Finally Friday came by, and this time I made it! Three bags of the most amazing peppers in the world were mine! At $6.99 for a 1/4 lb bag, these are kinda pricey, but I must say it is totally worth it!

These peppers are somewhat sweet, and the preparation is so simple! Just saute these in olive oil and sprinkle some salt, you are ready for the treat of a lifetime!  About one in ten of these peppers are supposed to be hot though, so eating them is considered a culinary Russian Roulette! We had these twice in Spain, and never found a hot one, so I was really looking forward to finding at least one spicy one. This batch had a few, but they were still kind of mild for my Indian palate!

While at the Spanish Table, we picked up some more Spanish goodies- couple of wines, olive oil, sea salt, smoked paprika, a bunch of olives, chorizo, pink peppercorns, olive spread and some chocolate.

With all that loot, we had to make ourselves a Spanish Tapas dinner. Siv made his now-famous Spanish style sauteed chicken with garlic. This time he made it the real authentic way, with the Spanish olive oil and the Spanish smoked paprika and Spanish wine! With some fried chorizo and bread with the olive spread, our dinner was as good as any restaurant fare we’ve had!

I couldn’t get a good close-up of the peppers, so here is one we took in Spain! Thanks again Chris, you have no idea how much we enjoyed these! All of you who haven’t had these, you must think I am crazy, all this for just some fried peppers you say? I challenge you to give it a try, and let me know if it is worth all the fuss. If you are in the San Francisco region, you are in luck! This site has a list of places to buy these from. All others, search around I am sure you will find them somewhere. But hurry up, summer won’t last forever!