Weave a Thousand Flavors

Silly Me & Halloweeny Ghostly Strawberries

 
The fact that this is Halloween week has just dawned on me like Zeus' bolt striking through the sky!

And now I am left with the enormous task of redeeming myself in the eyes of my two little ones who, like a score of other equally expectant boys and girls all around the US are anticipating ghoulish and ghostly treats to magically appear on the table for their afternoon and after dinner snacks.

Alas! I have failed them indeed.

So busy have I been with family visits, company for dinner and school bakes that I have done nothing - zero, nada & zilch to this end. Neither am I capable of spending hours on end thinking up wicked and witchy ways to delights my boys.

Fortunately, redemption appeared rather unexpectedly - in the haven of my refrigerator where I had, on this rare occasion a plethora of semi-sweet brown chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and many many red strawberries.

Having recalled these lovely bites from some Halloweens away, the fact that it is a mere 15 minutes in the making, inpired from one in the Taste of Home magazine is just the thing.

So if you too are scampering to gain some Halloween redemption, here are Ghostly Strawberries to the rescue!

 

Perfect 'Coq Au Vin' meets 'Emile Henry' Brazier - A French Classic, Chicken Stewed in Red Wine

 
I am of the opinion that life is too short for crappy pots, crappy knives, crappy shoes, crappy wine and crappy chai.

I'd also like to add that life is too short for fads & passing tricks on old Classics - like Coq Au Vin - the French recipe that is like a story for all to read. Simple ingredients, explosive results -chicken, shallots, garlic, a bottle of good wine and a nice long simmer with herbs and flavorful ingredients like button mushrooms, pearl onions and crispy salted pork.

And so it should come as no surprise whatsoever when I advocate that if one is to make a classic ragout, use a recipe that is truthful and honest and yet one that has evolved with time because cooking in my opinion is an organic art where we pour ourselves, our souls, our history and our culture into each dish.

So when it comes to Coq Au Vin, does it surprise you that  I should turn to Richard Grausman's Coq Au Vin?  If you have been following this blog this year, then No. Because here he takes a classic and tweaks it ever so slightly for the contemporary kitchen so all of a sudden, it slides perfectly into our hectic schedule.

I forever depend on my dogeared, curry stained and generally abused copy of his book At Home with the French Classics. Do you remember when we fixed the classic  'Child meets Grausman' Boeuf Bourguignon   - Well if you don't then do check it out because Mr. Grausman himself commented on the blog! Needless to say, one of those true as gold moments for me.

 
Fixing Coq Au Vin is an event in our home and it is my way to pay homage to my new Emile Henry Flame Top Brazier . If one is to put such a pot to test, what better way to test it than with a recipe which involves almost all cooking techniques - braising, stewing, from stove pot - to refrigerator - to freezer if needed - back to stove top and finally into the oven! Whew!

And let me tell, it performed admirably. It was the first time I had ever met ergonomic curved handles on a pot and all I could think of was - "Where have you been my whole life"? There something about the way my fingers curled around those curved handles, perfectly with no chance of slippage that made me sigh-out-loud.

And then, you know how when you add chicken to hot oil, it almost always sticks to the bottom of the pan? Not here! Not to mention that burgundy clay must be doing its job because in minutes both sides of the chicken were a perfect golden brown.

Needless to say, you know I'm a fan of all things Emile Henry and once again I see no reason to change my tune.

Now back to the recipe, here is a suggestion   - No I insist ( You know I'm pushy when it comes to food)

Fix this recipe over a couple of days beginning at least the day before and you will have a wonderful, stress free dinner and it's actually a blessing for the flavors!

 

Boundless Joy & the Question of Cake - One with Almonds and Raspberries

 

 
Most days of the year the average distance that separates my parents from me is about 7500 miles.

Today, zero!

 
Tadaa….They’re here and that my friends, is cause for drum roll, champagne and the things that rhyme with cookies,  spice and all things nice.

I am resplendent in the sheer joy that comes from rubbing my hands together at the delightful thought of all the things I just must cook for them. And even more excited about all the things they will cook for us. Both my parents do their own signature dishes and  since no one does them better, what an incredible opportunity I have to blog these.  Some of my fevered enthusiasm has obviously rub off on them because they have finally stopped getting on a weighing scale every morning!

So as I headed off into the kitchen declaring that I am going to bake them the very first dessert of their visit, their eyes lit up with anticipation only to be thwarted as they heard me say – Cake!

Whhaaaattt!!!

You see there are those of us in the world who bake our cake and eat it too and others who will never bake a cake and probably never eat unless of course they were tied to a chair, force fed or have a daughter like me.

So having declared that I was going to bake them a cake – I then promptly set out to rest their fears by clarifying that this is not one of those 3 cups of sugar confections that will promptly set them off towards a diabetic coma or the dentist at the thought of rapidly decaying teeth but rather an old-world seasonal cake with fresh fruit and nuts.

I am not sure that they believed me because my Mum who usually trails around with me in the kitchen like a shadow, was in  one word - missing. Maybe ignorance is bliss, Mum reasoned on this particular day.

This wonderful cake that I luckily came across on BBC Good Food is one with fresh ripe raspberries and relinquishes copious amounts of bleached flour and sugar to more healthful options of ground almonds and brown sugar.

Simple yet rich, what I love about it is that the simplicity of the ingredients reads more like the contents of Grandma’s Pantry than a NASA experiment - which is just how I like it. So donn on that apron and let’s get baking!

 

Southwestern Chili - A Spicy Stew with a variety of Meats, Chiles, Beer & Black Beans

 
I had never tasted Chili till I landed on the shores of the United States. My first introduction to this dish was on an episode of the 'Bill Cosby Show' where he makes Chili in this humongous stockpot and forbids anyone from opening the lid or sniffing into the pot. On this episode Bill Cosby states that secret to making great Chili is hours of cooking. Not knowing any better I believed him. I have since added a bit of a twist  of my own - that, coming up later.

Once I joined 'corporate America', it was impossible to dodge the annual Chili Cook-Offs and I began pottering around with this recipe & that. And though for many years I made a decent Chili by no means would I call it a great Chili and we'd often devour bowls of it on many a snowy cold nights with an equally mediocre corn bread.

Then inspiration struck out of the blue and quite unexpectedly as it often does. I was reading an article about Mark Miller - for those of you have been following the blog, you know that he is a source of great inspiration to me when it comes to Mexican & Southwestern cuisines & I admire the man immensely for his many contributions. Well, there was a mention of how he created a signature Chili at the Coyote Cafe using venison meat . And that fueled in me a desire to make a Chili using a variety of meats  &  Chiles.

Having taken an interest in southwestern cooking, I have been reading more and more about Chiles and if there is one thing I am learning is that unlike Indian cooking where chillies are used for heat, Mexican and New Mexico Chiles are used not only for heat but for there incredible smoky flavors & scents that is characteristic in good southwestern cooking.

I must thank the state of Virginia & 'Pesky Pete' for the use of beer in my recipe. I used to work with this guy and if you know Virginians then you know that most of the men here take great pride in their meat, their beer & their chili. Now let me tell you, I like 'Pesky Pete'- he was and I'm sure is still a nice guy. Except that he often spoke with great conviction about things he knew very little about.

For example one day, he started arguing with me about Gandhi - now most people would probably stop a second & think - wait a minute this girl's an Indian so maybe she does know a wee bit more about Gandhi than I do - not 'Pesky Pete' he began arguing with me that Gandhi's first name is 'Mahatma' - Between laughter, exasperation & anger I tried to convince him that 'Mahatma' was the title given to Gandhi which mean 'Great Soul - entomology of the word - Maha - Great, atma - soul hence 'Great soul' but his real name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

The guy wasn't buying it! Which is why I call him 'Pesky Pete'. Now 'Pesky Pete' may not know his Gandhi but he sure knows his Chili and it was he who told me to start cooking my Chili in beer & beef stock. So for that, I will always be eternally grateful to him. Also the addition of black beans instead of pinto or kidney gives this Chili that unique southwestern flair.

With such great inspirations, I must confess that I now make a darn good Chili and won an award at a Chili Cook-Off at my husband's firm...yea!!!! (please picture me gleefully  clapping my hands together like a little girl in pig tails)

So here goes - Southwestern Chili : Warning -  Not for those souls who define 'spicy' as a dash of pepper! Now, I don't consider this Chili hot but lets just say - it has a spine!

 

Holiday Favorites : Decadent Sugar & Thyme Roasted Acorn Squash

 

Big beautiful mounds of squash are all over the market place. Sitting a few places from the potatoes, these delightful creatures don't always receive the attention they must covet and rightfully deserve.

After all, beneath their hard cold exteriors, hidden by a labyrinth of seeds & membranes is succulent  & sweet flesh. When cooked right it does an excellent job enhancing a slab of steak or perfectly cooked pork chop.

And like most root vegetables what better way to bring forth their inherent sweetness than roasting. And if we stopped right there it would be good enough but once applied with a generous smear of butter, brown sugar, thyme and spices, this beautiful mound of squash is no longer just a mound of squash but turns into an entirely different decadent offering.

 

Now of all the squash in all the world, Acorn here is my absolute favorite. For one, there is that aesthetic quality to its shape. The architect in me seeks that sort of thing and secondly, I find it more delicate in flavor than its bulbous cousin the butternut.

I also enjoy the fact that that it's a leave-me-alone sort  of vegetable which suits perfectly, since it likes nothing more than to do its thing on its own in a hot oven.

Shami Kababs - Literally translates to Syrian Kababs, these are deliciously spiced meat and split chick pea kababs

I am still mourning the loss of these kababs from Saturday night's Foodbuzz dinner. If you haven't a clue of what I speak, you really ought to click here

 

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE  a good dinner party with good friends but I belong to that breed of hostesses who can't ever taste the food at my own party and only truly relish it after everyone has left - preferably barefoot, with my feet curled up on the couch and hopefully in my favorite flannels. Alas, that was not to be....an empty platter was all that was left for me.

I can write many a verse in elaborate description of just how good these little meat morsels turned out but I think our friend Terry described it best, "I couldn't believe the kabobs and was relieved that I restrained myself from trying to take another and put it in my pocket to savor the unique flavor yet again:)"

Now, if a humble kabab can reduce a decent, lovely woman to kleptomania, you have to ask yourself, just how good were those doggone things?

 

Spices & Garlic Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Parsnips, Carrots & Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

I am on some kind of a roll with pork tenderloin - I can't seem to get enough of it!

It has been this way ever since I fixed the Brazilian style Pork tenderloin, Marinated in Feijoada Spices & Roasted with an Orange-Serrano Chile Glaze . It is as though I have just discovered something that was in front of me this whole time. How fun!

I guess I should have listened more closely to all those ads in Sydney that kept playing over and over again on the tele - Australian pork - the New White Meat! It's a bit scary that I can still remember the jingle after all this time. Half the time I can barely connect the name to a face but when it comes to a pork tune, stuck in there like glue! Wow!

Anyway, I have been dying to fix parsnips - Like with most root vegetables what better way to cook them than roasting? I also wanted to do a tenderloin recipe that did not require a lot of marinating - just a few hours and still have a wonderful infused flavor. Now, I've always been a dry rub kind of girl - OK I did not mean for that to come off as kinky so just to be straight, we're talking food ya'all!

I love dry roasting spices, dry grinding them, adding a little bit of olive oil & marinating the meat in it and I do this just about any kind of meat always with excellent results. However, this is the first time I'm going pork tenderloin this way and I don't really have a recipe in mind, just a rough sketch so I'm going to work this I go along.

I also have an idea to use the 'vaghaar' technique in Indian cooking i.e. temper or season the hot oil with spices and then toss the vegetables in it - with the vegetables. I think its going to be wonderful with it. I thought of using turnips and rutabagas with the parsnips and carrots but  I think their bulbs will not be aesthetic with the linear forms of the other two vegetables - what can I say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks - once a designer, always a designer!