Entries Tagged 'recipes' ↓

So I’ve cooked a few chops in the last year, and I love them. Lamb chops can make a man melt. My favorite method, unsurprisingly, is roasting them. Wether in an oven or on a grill, it requires some careful technique and skill, but the end result is always worth it. I prefer the oven as it allows for a controlled temperature throughout cooking. I’ve also seen a prior marination does wonders for buying some insurance during cooking.

Rubbed with herbs, roasted in the oven.

What a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. It has been a while since I have been to my parents’ house, and even longer since I have been able to cook all weekend. Friday night, after coming home from NY, my mother made some exotic Indian fare — millet wheat roti, okra and yellow lentil soup. Very delicious. I learned how to make roti as well, although my mother is considerably better at it than I.

Almond Cake
While cleaning the dishes, she was telling me about an Almond cake she made earlier in the week that had no flour and no (explicit) sugar. But she said it came out a bit flat (later I learned it was because she got lazy and didn’t whip the egg whites! =P). I decided to whip up a batch then and there. The recipe is here at Anja’s Food 4 Thought. I think it turned out wonderfully. I only made a few small changes: added 1/4 tsp of vanilla essence and orange essence and instead of toasting and grinding almonds, I used almond powder which resulted in a finer (cake-like) texture, but no toasted almond flavor.

More deliciousness after the jump!
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SO many pastas were harmed at this dinner at Scalini Fedeli in NYC. This was a complementary mushroom ravioli with truffle cream sauce.

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Just some thoughts on salads…

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Goat Biriyani, a special dish, which when properly made, takes many hours to prepare. It is a layered rice casserole and features braised goat meat and saffron as its main flavor points. Slivered nuts are also added. The vessel is then sealed with dough around the edges to lock in the moisture as it is slowly cooked over the heat.

As an aside I now have an iPhone and I’m attempting to make shorter, quicker posts more frequently. I hope you enjoy this new style and the content to come!

Bobby Flay knew what he was doing when he concocted this crazy sauce de coeur. Although I didn’t do the cheesy bread in the recipe (trying to cut down on carbs :-/), the steak was great! Juicy and flavorful; chewey and meaty for a brotherly pairing with a bold cabernet. I used to not be a huge fan of flank because of how tough it is, but if you either pound it out or just accentuate the natural flavor with a great sear and a sauce, it’s an absolutely fantastic budget cut that will be sure to bring some smiles your way. Enjoy!

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This recipe was quite decadent. Next time I may cut down on the butter in the crust…It was seriously good though: the onions added some sweet earthiness, the bacon and butter created this mouth-filling richness, the Camembert added some sophisticated notes of salt and grass, and the rosemary tied it all together with this cleansing, yet rich herbal goodness. Try this one out!!!

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Again, I’ve been slacking, but I’m gonna try to knock these all out of the park today. A while back my lovely mother woke us up in the morning with some “crazy” french toast. Why was it crazy? It may have been the ricotta. We also used some amazing chocolate chips (60% Ghiradelli), which truly made everything very velvety. Enjoy the pictures! (more after the jump)

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The problem with delaying a post is that you forget how you prepared a dish…even if you have pictures of the process :-/ I suppose that’s a jab at my memory! In any case, I have a good “excuse” — I had ACL surgery in early March, so most of my mind was occupied with that. Today (3/20/2010), I was finally “recovered” enough to take a trip to Whole Foods and cook up some damn fine grub. But this post isn’t about that. This post is about a different fine meal that I prepared at home on Jan 30, 2010 (Yes…almost 2 months ago!!! ). Btw, I also finally set up my own website =D –> www.varundube.com, which seems to be off to a good start. We’ll see how it goes. Continue reading →

I’ve been pretty lazy about writing the past 2 weeks, but I’ve been cooking even more, so when I get around to it (I have at least 2 posts to be written), it will be worth the wait…hopefully. I think we had 3 dinner parties and 1 ‘nice’ dinner since I last wrote. Let’s see if I can remember what was made:

Dinner Party 1:
zucchini lasagna (post worthy), chocolate ?foam? muffins (semi post-worthy…although I don’t have pictures of the final thing since we ate them all), spicy chicken with american raita

‘Nice’ Dinner (2/4):
mom made thai noodles with chicken and shrimp, I made manchego mashed potatoes and spinach artichoke dip

Dinner Party 2 (2/5):
senegalese chicken peanut soup, chocolate mousse part 1, chole, thai rice veggie wraps

Dinner Party 3 (2/6):
cheese dip, chocolate mousse part 2, chicken salad