Weave a Thousand Flavors

Waking up from Post Thanksgiving Haze ~ Asian style Stir-fry Cashew Chicken

 

 
 

It's official! I am suffering from PTGS - Post Traumatic Guest Syndrome

We've had a houseful of friends Thanksgiving week and what a blast it's been! 6 growns-ups, 4 kids and 1 very big dog - 'nuf said. But after a week of  laughter, gossip, tall tales and avoidable ones, brunches, large Thanksgiving feasts,  meals, meals and more meals, hours of sightseeing, hot cups of chai, beer and wine  flowing at the rate of our very own personal river and whining kids, the last of the guests have gone.

And that leaves me with the dirties -  dishes, laundry, you name it and it needs washing, a refrigerator filled with useless sugary delights and a mound of turkey - none of which can be put together to make one decent meal.

So what do I do? I bury my head in my goose-down and go for a zzz.....a long 12 hour zzz...wake up and do some more zzz....ing. It has now been 48 hours and even I am running out of excuses for not creating a hot dinner. If it were up to me, I'll keep eating that cold turkey and stay in bed for another week. But it's not! I have a hubby who got up and went to work and kids that went to school and so I too must do just that - get up!

And what's on the menu tonight? Chinese.

Not the 'authentic' Chinese but the anglicized, take-away China King type grub - homemade.

 Delicious, somewhat greasy and always comforting, on such evenings, I turn towards my roots and my love for dhaaba or roadside eats and whip this up in  jiffy. Recognizable in its Chinese roots, I would draw the line authenticity there and no further. This one is all about a little bit of this and a little bit of that and full on flavor.

On days like tonight, this hits the spot. It's either this or cold turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving & Dangerously Good Carnitas

National defrost day in the US was over the weekend. I refer to the turkeys that are defrosting in millions of refrigerators around the US in anticipation of being roasted on Thursday Thanksgiving Day. Now here's a celebration that is one of the biggest holiday's in the US larger somewhat than even Christmas!

Most of us are anticipating the arrival of family in friends and with most of the grocery shopping out of the way, it's time to clean house, fluff pillow, polish the silver and wash the crystal to sparkling clarity.

Needless to say I will be MIA this week! My kitchen however will be seeing more action than it's seen all year! With guests arriving before the D-day, it's great to have easy to put together, blow them away meals that will basically cook themselves while you're getting laundry done and running around with last minute errands.

So when Ananda at Pinch of Love asked me to do a guest post I was thrilled to prepare my Cantina Carnitas, Mexican pork with soft tacos and Pico de Gallo. A staple around here and my go-to, save-me dinner of choice, please head over to Ananda's corner and read the post, here.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'all!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's be the people who have a blast and make the most of the holidays with love & gratefulness in our hearts!

xoxo, Devaki

 

Wicked Delicious ~ Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Grapes & Thyme for your Holiday Table

 
It's hard to imagine that Thanksgiving is already upon us!

Most of us have already spit & polished our menus. And even though I am just on the verge of being happily inundated, some things in life are good enough to break into a song and dance about. The fact that it is over a vegetable and that too one that almost always cooks with a slightly bitter undertone, should have your attention.

I have had brussel sprouts all the usual ways - steamed, buttered, shredded and coated in maple syrup - just anything to take away that bitterness and have the kiddies eat it too.

And for most part, its been a compromise. Well those day are over...over. 

You know how in biology we learning about symbiosis where one organism or plant life depends upon the other for its survival.....does that also sound like marriage...hmm?

Well, brussel sprouts and grapes may not depend on each other for their survival biologically speaking but in the culinary world, they do or they ought to.

I never would have believed it until I tasted these for the first time - the brussel sprouts borrows the subtle sweetness from the grapes and changes itself -  for the better.  It's a win win!

I am so glad I came across this recipe flipping pages of  Real Simple at the grocery store, remembered the salient features of the mag enough to recreate it and now it's making an appearance for everything from  holiday dinners, boring wednesday dinners to 'Guess-who's-coming-to-dinner?' dinners.

Fix this and change your brussel sprout universe forever!

 

Warm Squid Salad with Edamame and Bell Peppers

Most of us only ever consume calamari or squid in our favorite Italian restaurant and usually deep fried with a bowl of Marinara sauce on the side.

I have been guilty of this as much as the next person. These past few months however as I have been passing the tray of fresh squid in my Asian store there has been whispers of longing in my heart as I have scurried past the aisle.

Had I acted on these whispers in a timely fashion this post would have come to you a lot sooner. The final straw was when my boys this past week took the tongs in their hand, lifted up the beady eyed squid and gleefuly asked me to take some home.

Let me be honest, when it comes to food Mr. Hubby and I believe that since the boys are en route to becoming men, they must have a palete that grows with them and so they must be adventurous and open to food from all cultures.

It should therefore come as no surprise that at 6 months, the first solid food in the mouth of my older babe was Spanish Paella. And yet as adventurous as my boys are, the parent in me had an incling that the boys may be more enamored by the tenatales than the actual taste of these deep sea creatures.

Needless to say, I made a mental note to keep a side of whole grain toast  and jam for them - just in case. The idea of a warm salad was appealing to me because I heart the thought of quick stir-fried squid on a bed of crispy tender summer veggies.

The end result thankfully left us all speechless - in a good way.

Food + Booze + Schmooze @ Foodbuzz Blogger Festival 2011 ~ San Francisco

And since a picture's worth a 1000 words I'm giving you more of one and less of the other. If you can't guess which then you need more coffee!

Welcome reception at the Terra Gallery

Here are my fellow bloggers I can't wait to get to know better :)

A Photography session worth clicking about

The DSLR-Free Zone: Taking Gawk-worthy photos with lo-tech equipment

Our shepherds were ~

Greg Henry (Sippity Sup)
Chuck Lai (Foodgawker)
Angi Chau (Rice and Wheat)

Look who I met at the Taste Pavillion?

The very lovely Zoe Francois without whom Artisan Bread in Five Minutes would be non existent. Can't wait to do some serious damage to our waistline with Zoe & Mark's new book - Artisan Pizza & Flatbreads in Five Minutes

nibble, nibble, nibble

Have you ever seen anything like this?

Gorgeous organic endives

Off to Alexia Foods Cooking Demo with Tyler Florence & the Gala Dinner

(I sweartogod the skirts hiked up a few notches for this one...he..he)

An evening with friends ~

A highlight of the evening was hanging out at leisure with Greg Henry of Sippity Sup

And the very talented and adorable Nam from The Culinary Chronicles who twitter schmoozes with the best of them!

What a meal & far too much wine than I care to admit.

(Mr. Hubby knew what he was doing when packed in those Advil liquigels. 'nuf said)

Here's who I hope to meet at the next one :

Steve @ oui, chef & Joumana @ Taste of Beirut

Are you listening?

And with Foodbuzz events out of the way, it was time for this ~

sights, sights & more sights

And ofcourse more of this ~

An unforgettable evening at the highly recommended The Slanted Door with Steven & Heguiberto of weirdcombinations whose food is anything but and whose friendship is a rare find.

And of course to my dear friend Nia who made my trip even more memorable.

Such wonderful moments would never have been possible had Mr. Hubby not been such a good sport and held the fort back home with the munchkins.

Thank You...mwah...mwah...

I am eternally grateful that neither my kitchen, pots or refrigerator had been messed with in my absence.

10 Tips to Pie Crust Nirvana & Good Ole' Buttery Sweet Potato Pie

At the risk of repeating myself, let me just say this yet again, "Pie crusts are like predators,  they smell fear".

I have come to a point and I say this with nothing but humility that I no longer fear the pie crust. For me having fixed it week after week, year after year has a lot to do with this. Yes we eat a lot of crust in its myriad uses. But this puffing of the chest business didn't come overnight. Nothing worse than the night before Thanksgiving being up till 1.30am trying to fix a pie crust recipe that is flawed, that came from a solid source and I say it again,  flawed.

I therefore no longer shop around for pie crust recipes but stick with this true blue, time tested recipe because I know that it will render the same result in all its  fabulous glory, day in and day out.

As I set out to write about sweet potato pie, I realised that even though none of us needs yet another pie recipe, I reckon we can all do with a really good one. This right here, right down to its naked crust is just that.

It's taken some thought churning to really pin down what leads to my personal pie nirvana and having penciled down the lot, I'm ready to share it with you.

~ 10 Tips to Pie Crust Nirvana ~ 

1. Invest in a really good quality pie dish. 

I love my Emile Henry because the burgundy clay used to make it and its thickness, ensures even baking throughout. I never realised what a difference a dish makes till I got rid of my cheapo one.

2. Use chilled butter

Using somewhat softened or sweaty butter softens the whole dough ball making it very tough to handle and making you sweat in the interim!

3. Have all your ingredients ready to go before you begin

Yes, a few minutes of advance preparation really pays off because once you get on the pie train, there's no getting off. 

4. Get rid of distractions & follow instructions meticulously

This is not the time to watch your fave soap or psycho-babble with a girlf friend. Plus you're going to be a lot more excited blowing your trumpet after you fix the pie.

Stop playing with the recipe - you ain't a cat and the pie crust ain't your ball of yarn. Stick to the recipe - it works!

5. Use a timer or a seconds watch for the dough

When the recipe says pulse for 25 seconds, it means 25 seconds - not 15 & not 30 so it's best to use technology.

6. Use your palms. And chill baby chill!

Divide the dough into little balls and flatten with the heel of your hand. This gives the crust the flaky layers we love. Also chill that dough for the allotted time because if you don't you'll be cussing the whole way through as the dough will be very hard to handle.

7. Work fast once the dough is out of the refrigerator

Don't turn it into a sweaty dough ball because you left it sitting out on the counter top.

8. flour, flour, flour

Liberally flour the work surface where you'll be rolling out the dough - use 1/4 cup flour. This means you can easily quarter-turn the crust as you roll.  

9. Roll evenly & 4" beyond the base of the pie dish

Nothing worse than not having enough crust to cover the dish. So I always roll out to 4" beyond the diameter of the base which covers the sides real well and gives me enough overhang to do the edges.

While you roll use a light hand and roll out the edges too. Its very common to end up with a thin center and a thick rim. Distribute the pressure as you roll.

10. Don't trim exactly to the edge of the pie dish

Trim 1/2" beyond the edge of the pie dish so you can pinch the edge to give you a nice scallop. Remember the crust will shrink once you bake and if you don't have enough of a overhang, you'll end up with a naked edge in spots much like a receding hairline.

So there you have it!

PLEASE share your pointers that work for you and I will be happy to add it to this list.

And now onwards to fixing some buttery sweet potato pie.

Brrr.....Roasted Butternut Squash Curried Soup

  

We've just had our first snowfall - in  the fall. If that isn't occasion enough for soup, I don't know what is!

There are few things in my humble opinion that comes close to the joy of this roasted vegetable nestled with herbs emerging from a hot oven. And my love for butternut squash exceeds all apprehensions.

And speaking of which I refer to the slight apprehension that overcomes me each and everytime I have a Chef's knife poised over the hard skull of a butternut squash. Murmuring a string of prayers, kids safely tucked away into their rooms, I intensely focus on two thoughts -

1) Under all circumstances emerge from this with all ten fingers intact.

2) Overcome fear of said task by thinking of the warm, toe curling soup that awaits at the end of this tunnel.

The roasted glistening skin now tender and soft to touch with the succulent flesh almost saccharin sweet as the squash has released all its natural sweetness,  is a wonderful thing  to behold. And all of this goodness is only outdone by the addition of  some  madras curry powder, naturally sweet coconut milk and a scattering of plump raisins.

Now here I believe is a soup fit for a weeknight treat or any holiday meal. Like the  good ones this recipe is inspired by the best of the season and nature's bounty.