survival at its best
December 14th, 2013 — ingredients, recipes, technique
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.
October 24th, 2012 — ingredients, life, technique
Dublin was a swell city. Full of sarcasm and cynicism, the Irish people tend to drown their sorrows (and celebrate their happiness) with a brew and a shot — so why break an age old tradition? Join in, I say! And join we did. We did some site seeing – drunk, I might add, saw the main brewery and distillery and then took a trip to a shore town called Howth for a day hike and some seafood. One night we did a pub crawl with the youth hostel…they really like classic rock music.
One day/walking/history tour we took took us past a farmers market where I are the best pie-thing ever. It was a chicken pot pie with spinach inside topped with sliced potatoes (of course…it’s Ireland) and sliced almonds. There was a lovely glaze finish on top and it was served with a delicious chutney made from tomatoes, raisins and cumin. I think the chutney could have used more spice, but the locals don’t eat almost any spice.
Water’s tagline is “a pint’s a pound the world around.” I think Guinness’ tagline should be “a pint’s a pound…just drink it you clown.” it really does taste better at the source in case anyone was wondering…and so light! I want the beerlines in the picture below installed in my house instead of water.
Jameson was great too, but I do love my scotch above all else. Still, it was great to see a whiskey distillery for the first time.
May 15th, 2012 — ingredients, recipes, technique
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!
Continue reading →
November 21st, 2011 — dining, technique
Went to Pop’s Garage last week for lunch, and what a treat I enjoyed. Fun decor and colorful ambience gives a very islandy, fun feel to the place. Owned by the same owners as Langousta Lounge, the food is in a similar style with emphasis on fresh ingredients and texture.
Chicken Flautas
November 17th, 2011 — ingredients, recipes, technique
April 4th, 2010 — recipes, technique
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 →
January 22nd, 2010 — history, recipes, technique
Mmm. What a delectable treat. A creamy custard concocted for the sole purpose of coercing and coddling your tongue with countless culinary sensations, strong enough to turn even the most crass curmudgeon into a charming cherub. Yet again jumping off the angel food cake, I was left with 12 fresh yolks. Mom used a few to make some spectacular meatballs, but I still had about 9 left. What can one do with a massive amount of yolks? Quiche usually uses whole eggs, but custard uses yolks! But I wanted a twist…how about a crème caramel (= flan)?…and that is where the story begins.
January 18th, 2010 — history, recipes, technique
A true gift from the heavens deserves its own post, especially since it can be twisted in so many diabolic ways. Â hehehe. In this post I am going to focus on angel food cake and will also highlight the differences between angel food cake, devil’s food cake, red velvet cake and chiffon cake.
Read on young padawan and when you make the inevitable journey to the sky, hopefully by that time angel’s food won’t be a surprise to you — ambrosia is another story.
