What's Cooking (Take Two!)

I made Kung Pao chicken last night.

-Paul W.

We had our weekly neighborhood "Flamingo Friday" gathering, so I made gougeres. They were quite popular - I don't think too many of the folks there had ever eaten them before. I had several recipe requests.

[Robin Garr]

Repeating (more or less) a dish I came up with last September when we had a flood of garden eggplant: An Imam Bayildi pilaf, fresh eggplant sauteed with onions, garlic, ginger and fresh tomatoes with cumin, red and black peppers, finished like a pilaf with basmati rice.

Busy monday with kids being chauffeured all over town. Hastily put together..pancit noodles with stir fried louisana style hot-links. The stir fry was simple with sausages, onions, cashews, hoisin sauce, frozen peas, Sriracha hot sauce and cilantro. It sounds weird, but it was good and darn tasty!

Dinner last night was rasam, iddli, and a tomato and cucumber pachadi.

-Paul W.

Dinner last night was rasam, iddli, and a tomato and cucumber pachadi.

-Paul W.

Okay, I'll bite. Exactly what is this stuff. Sounds Indian, but I've never tasted any of it. I'm curious.

Midsummer salad.....arugula, walnuts, soft-dried fig, blue cheese, fig balsamic dressing. A nice change.

Jo Ann,

Rasam is a thin lentil soup (1/2 cup of hulled, split pigeon peas [toor dal] in 6-7 cups of water), seasoned with cumin, coriander, asafoetida, curry leaves, chiles, and tamarind. Iddli are made by coarse-grinding soaked rice and urad dal (a type of small lentil with a black skin; in this case the skins are removed and the lentils split in half) into a batter, which is then allowed to ferment slightly. The batter is then poured into circular molds about 3 inches in diameter and steamed for about 15 minutes. The finished iddli have a somewhat cake-like consistency. I like to float them in my bowl of rasam. Pachadi is a spiced yogurt salad, in this case finely chopped cucumber, tomato, and cilantro along with some South Indian spices.

-Paul W.

After 24 hours spent getting from Florida to California, four hours of sleep, and a day at work, I was in no mood for cooking anything yesterday. My wife whipped up a dish from a Todd English book that involved taking a couple of fresh tomatoes and whizzing them up in the food processor with some cumin and curry powder. The mix was fried gently for a few minutes in a skillet with some butter and sliced green onions and then a bunch of beaten eggs and a little cilantro went into that. Once the eggs were scrambled, it was ready to go. (I rolled mine into a tortilla.) Very tasty and easy, although we both thought it would be better to squeeze some of the juice out of the tomatoes to get a final product that was a little less wet.

An Eggplant/squash/Pepper tart. A great way to utilize the garden's late July bounty.

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Looks fabulous, Winger!

[Robin Garr]

Looks fabulous, Winger!

I could eat that.

That looks fantastic, Winger!

Last night, I cooked red lentils with cumin, coriander, and cinnamon. Dusted scallops with the same spice blend, seared them, and served them on top of the lentils. This was a tasty dish, but I like scallop dishes to be less assertively spiced in order to allow their flavor to come out. This was served with a salad of chopped tomatoes mixed with raw minced shallot and a bit of lemon vinaigrette.

Tonight, we had squash blossom fritters with Caprese on the side. The fritter recipe was from a blog called The Parsley Thief and they were delicious. I'm planning on making them for our next neighborhood get-together as they're a guaranteed crowd pleaser. Dessert was panna cotta flavored with PX sherry and topped with roasted fresh figs. That was the best dessert dish I've made in a long time.

Looks fabulous, Winger!

I could eat that.

Not if I get to it first... That does look good.

I've been loving the overflowing and affordable chanterelles here in Germany, so tonight it was pasta with a boatload of fresh chanterelles, basil, a mild pecorino and lemon. Absolutely delicious.

I've been loving the overflowing and affordable chanterelles here in Germany, so tonight it was pasta with a boatload of fresh chanterelles, basil, a mild pecorino and lemon. Absolutely delicious.

Ooh, am I jealous!

[Jenise]

I've been loving the overflowing and affordable chanterelles here in Germany, so tonight it was pasta with a boatload of fresh chanterelles, basil, a mild pecorino and lemon. Absolutely delicious.

Ooh, am I jealous!

Me too!

I've been loving the overflowing and affordable chanterelles here in Germany, so tonight it was pasta with a boatload of fresh chanterelles, basil, a mild pecorino and lemon. Absolutely delicious.

Ooh, am I jealous!

Me too!

Me too!

Now that I'm back in the States and went shopping at the local Whole Foods to find some pathetic-looking chanterelles imported from Romania (or Bulgaria, I forget) for over $20lb. In Germany I was paying half that for gorgeous specimens. Tomorrow is the farmers market and we do get some delicious mushrooms, but only shiitakes and the occasional oyster. Oh well!

[Jenise]

You got spoiled, Rahsaan. I'm actually surprised their season is so early. We'll see pretty chanterelles up here, but it won't be until October.

Tonight friend's are coming over for dinner. I ran into them at the market this morning and invited them on the spot, and made up dinner based on what looked good: a whole side of wild BC coho salmon that I'll slow-roast, topped with a fresh herb sauce and pan-seared baby lemon slices, along with Penn Cove mussels flash seared with chorizo and a white wine broth, roasted potatoes with shaved fennel salad, a red cabbage salad and some of Jo Ann's corn rounds.

[Jenise]

Making Indian food tonight. I asked Bob this morning if there was anything he was in the mood for, and nearly fell over when he said Indian food. Turns out he'd been thumbing through the new Saveur--the entire issue is on Indian food, by region--and he fell for a picture of a braised amb curry called Mirchi Qorma (Kashmiri lamb in Chile Sauce). Since the sky was full of clouds and heavy winds were blowing in cool breezes off the white caps of the Sound outside, it didn't seem like a bad idea. By the time we got home from the grocery store, however, the clouds were gone, the wind settled down and the temps were up about 10 degrees. But heck, it's on the stove and that's what we're having. Will post the recipe if it's divine!

Made up a batch of sourdough English Muffins today.

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Made up a batch of sourdough English Muffins today.

Whoa! Looks great!

[Jenise]

Those look outstanding. But then, all of Norma Jean's baking looks so grand. How does she stay so thin?

Dinner last night was bangers, grilled (broiled) tomatoes, and boiled potatoes. Delicious!

-Paul W.