Do Indians host BBQ’s like Americans do? If they do, is there an Indian spiced coleslaw on the menu? I don’t know the answer, but I know that my Indian Spiced Slaw was a hit at both the picnic and the BBQ I took it to recently.
My rules for summer cooking is either not cooked or quick-cooked with low heat dishes. Since we find ourselves eating outdoors, I will add to my rules dishes that stand up to sitting out at warm temperatures like this Potato, Cauliflower & Green Bean Salad in Dijon-basil vinaigrette.
Whenever I’m in Chinatown, I have grab a bunch of garlic chives now and ask questions later approach. The question is usually what am I going to do with all of these garlic chives? You can get a quite a decent sized bunch for just a buck. I snap them up because I can’t buy them in my neighborhood. My last bunch made it into at least two dishes recently, Garlic Chive & Chinese Mushroom Potatoes and a dish I’m calling Garlic Chive Garlic Chard.
WILL WALK FOR FOOD. A guide on how to organize a food crawl, an event where food enthusiasts gather to walk around and try different places and dishes around a theme. There’s my recipe for miang kana, a dish that we had on our recent Thai food crawl in Elmhurst Queens.
Dinner for two at the River Cafe will run you over $300 without drinks. For the same money or less, you could feed up to 19 friends by hosting a barbecue in Brooklyn Bridge Park with the same multi-million dollar view. How To Host A BBQ in Brooklyn Bridge Park has tips and a checklist for you to plan, execute and enjoy a successful and stress-free barbecue in the park.
You have to make chocolate bark at your cafe a friend said before I opened Divalicious Chocolate Cafe, on the edge of Chinatown, in the neighborhood of NOLITA. I said, “Sure”, but I had no idea what she was talking about.
I envisioned a chocolate confection that resembled bark from a tree. It seemed fascinating and complex. How is it made? Did you have to pump air into the chocolate? How does that even happen? Perhaps it would look like a Cadbury Flake bar since it resembles layers of peeling. A Flake bar would be challenging to make without a machine. I seemed hard in my imagination.
Later, when I found out that chocolate bark was just thin sheets of chocolate with dried fruits, nuts, cookies, etc on top, I realized I’d really overthought this. I wondered “Is bark too easy to make and sell at my chocolate cafe?” Absolutely not. It turned out to be a hit and my Salted & Toasted Black and White Sesame Chocolate Bark was best-seller
Monday, I was back at Santina, a restaurant in the meat packing district that I’d been to this past February. I’ve been obsessed with one of their dishes, the cecina, since my first visit. It’s rare that I visit the same restaurant twice in a short time since I have restaurant ADHD. I want to eat at pretty, shiny new restaurants all the time. But my cecina obsession trumps my ADHD and I had a good blogger friend in from DC who wanted to try it. It hits many marks. It’s unusual. It’s easy to make. It’s gluten free. It’s vegan. It’s cheap to make. It’s fun to eat. It can be eaten alone or with a myriad of toppings or even a salad on top.
This morning, I was looking to give the gift of chutneys and relishes, I canned last fall, to a neighbor who did me a favor. I whipped up a list of sixteen ways to eat it because people always ask, “How do I eat it?”. The true answer is any way that you like it.
When I went to see what I had from last year, it turned out that I have quite a bit left over. Looks like I’m going to have to find people to give it to. If you see me, ask if I might have a jar in my purse. If I do, it’s yours.
I wish the story behind the recipe for this Lazy Cheesy Turkey Shepherd’s Pie was something interesting and compelling. Wouldn’t it be cool if it were a recipe that I never got from my estranged grandma, but was found by my mother in her old high school yearbook that she hadn’t looked at for 50 years? Only that wouldn’t have happened because she never got her yearbook since she graduated early in January instead of June. You’d think she still would have received one…
What if Lazy Cheesy Turkey Shepherd’s Pie were a recipe from a compilation cookbook by the Junior League of Copake Lake, where we summered as kids near The Berkshires? It does sound like a recipe that would show up in one of those kinds of cookbooks from the 70’s. Sadly, Copake Lake was a bungalow colony for blue collar workers from the city. It was probably not fancy enough for a bowling league, much less the junior league.
C-R-U-N-C-H!!! has to be one of the most satisfying sensations in your mouth. Caramelized Millet Puffs add a little sweet, crunchy texture to desserts. You can also sprinkle them on French toast, oatmeal or granola.