What's cooking?

[Robin Garr]

An intense mushroom risotto with a mix of dried porcini and fresh brown mushrooms.

I could eat that, Robin.

Poppy Seed Bread with a TWIST for fun.

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I made Thai pad prik gai bai grapow (stir-fried minced chicken with bird's eye chiles and holy basil) last night.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

Gobi Aloo Mattar: Indian cauliflower, potatoes and peas. 

Poppy Seed Bread with a TWIST for fun.

That looks gorgeous! Must have been NJ.

Poppy Seed Bread with a TWIST for fun.

That looks gorgeous! Must have been NJ.

I've been so busted!

My wife and I both left work late last night, so it was a fast food evening. I picked my daughter up and we stopped at the market to get a couple of pounds of mussels, a baguette, and some (yeah) frozen french fries. The mussels were cooked up with onion, garlic, lemon grass, and white wine. Took about half an hour to put together moules frites (using the "frites" term a bit loosely, but still).

Drank a Callaghan "Lisa's" white blend with it that was absolutely wonderful.

Gobi Aloo Mattar: Indian cauliflower, potatoes and peas. 

How does Aloo Mattar differ from Aloo Gobi (now that I am replying I see your picture is "gobi0120.jpg"!)

Aloo = potato, gobi = cauliflower, I think matar = tomato

???

[Robin Garr]

How does Aloo Mattar differ from Aloo Gobi (now that I am replying I see your picture is "gobi0120.jpg"!)

Aloo = potato, gobi = cauliflower, I think matar = tomato

???

Frank, it's not like I speak the language, but I assumed that Mattar = peas.

You're right. Tomato = tamatar, peas = matar.

Of course there are a gazillion legumes with different names.

I think I've seen peas in Aloo Ghobi. I make that a lot, sorta thought that if Cauliflower is a major ingredient that is the defining feature.

Anyway, your call. Who named the .JPG?

[Robin Garr]

Anyway, your call. Who named the .JPG?

I did, Frank, and one shouldn't read too much into it. I just had to come up with a filename and grabbed the first four letters that I saw.

[Robin Garr]

Sichuan stir fry with green peppers, onions and tofu.

Sichuan stir fry with green peppers, onions and tofu.

On Pizza Night?!

[Robin Garr]

Sichuan stir fry with green peppers, onions and tofu.

On Pizza Night?!

I am sorry to be such a heathen.

I am sorry to be such a heathen.

Well, I almost said, "I could eat that" before I realized what night it was.

[Jenise]

Tonight will either be stuffed bell peppers or a meatball pozole. Better decide soon, huh?

Sunday's dinner was bunchi moong dal kichari, from Yamuna Devi's cookbook Lord Krishna's Cuisine--The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. If you doubt that lacto-vegetarian cuisine can be rich, try this dish on for size. Needs nothing more than a green salad to make a complete meal.

-Paul W.

I cooked pot roast for dinner last night. But, the stand out dish was a creamy cauliflower and fennel gratin that had just the right amount of crunchy breadcrumbs on top. No one in my family likes cauliflower but me. Michael-Anthony and I split the dish and I was in heaven.

[Jenise]

I'm making pork adobo tonight. It's a dish that I got to know a long time ago when a file clerk who worked for me brought some leftovers in her lunch. She was American who married a Filipino man when she was just 13 (her family was poor in Tennessee, and he was about 20 and there working on a railroad project). Fortunately, he grew up helping his mother cook and was prepared to teach Roma the foods his mother had made. Her adobo was spectacular, strangely salty and sour unlike any meat I'd ever eaten. I've a version from a recipe once since and it got nowhere close; but I recently found an intriguing one in Greg Atkinson's recent book (Greg was a chef at Canlis in its heyday and is about to open his own restaurant, Marche, on Bainbridge Island). His recipe is taken from the way one of his Filipino cooks at Canlis made it for staff meals, and it sounds like it's going to get me in the zone I've remembered so fondly all these years. I'll serve it over rice steamed with olive oil and garlic and grilled baby bok choy following a starter parfait of scallops, bamboo and avocado. Not that same's authentic, other than adobo I don't have any history with Filipino food at all. But among ingredients I have on hand, these would combine in a nice way for something both tropical and semi-Asian.

It's Australia Day.

Lots of people are having barbecues to celebrate the public holiday. We don't barbecue. Business as usual here. There's a big pot of red soup on the stove top, which will be ready for lunch, and we're planning a red chicken curry for dinner.

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Lasagna, made in the Le Creuset: three cheeses (mozz/parm/rico), sausage, red sauce. Traditional and yummy.

Sunday's dinner was bunchi moong dal kichari, from Yamuna Devi's cookbook Lord Krishna's Cuisine--The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. If you doubt that lacto-vegetarian cuisine can be rich, try this dish on for size. Needs nothing more than a green salad to make a complete meal.

-Paul W.

Awesome.

Made a nice pot of masoor dal a couple of days ago. Polished off the leftovers for lunch today.

[Jenise]

Tonight we're having a simple grilled dinner of chicken drumsticks marinated in a hot Sriricha-based marinade along with a low cal, no carb finger salad of bell pepper strips and cucumbers. But what's thrilling is we're using the new barbecue! Bob assembled it yesterday.

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