Cheesy Breadsticks

Food photography and blogging and breadstick  posers...

It is and will always be a favorite for the family, but the picture is all mine...back in '09, when the light box ruled meal time.

Right down to the blue glass idea.

Go ahead, grab one...

Pav Bhaji- Indian Street Food

While out doing my poetry at a local Princeton Open Mic, location Infini-T, a tea and Asian food inspired tea house and market- I had the most wonderful snack Pav Bhaji (pronounced Paav Ba-gee). It is served in places like Bombay as a street food.

Indian locals are seen out around an area Chowpatty Beach, India often at midnight looking for something to eat like crispy Dosai, Chaat, Kulfis and this dish- Pav Bhaji.

I read that there are a few places famous for this dish originally created as a light food for mill workers so that they do not return to their physical work sluggish from heavy meat infushed meals.  Its light, smooth, go that right amount of bite from chilies, and as I have noticed from various recipes, there is not too many the same. You can see from my picture it was more potato, and less red from chili powder and all the processes. I figured I could duplicate this at home.

The bhaiyya (Bombay street food chef) will start sauteeing the veggies (mash a boiled potato, peas, tomatoes, jalapeno, coriander) together with spices and enormous dollops of butter and mash the whole mixture into a sizzling vegetable dish. He will then serve this bhaji with rolls of bread called pav that have been likewise drowned in butter. The final touch: the dish is topped with raw onion slices and lemon wedges.

Now, if you go and google recipes for this, or ask your Indian neighbor about this dish, they may tell you it takes time, and has many processes for such a simple ingredient dish. However, from what I tasted and what I have seen it can be simplified and still have the same flavorful dish without having to buy a ticket to Bombay India, but that would be nice!  Oh and minus so much butter...

My bread however wasn't drowned in butter, but flattened and buttered. They seemed like crushed hamburger buns, but growing up we did this often for garlic bread if we did not have sliced regular bread around our house.

I liked this so much, there will be some Pav Bhaji projects going on this week!

Also on the note about Infini-T: I had read some pretty good reviews, but with it's share of negative on cost and lack of flavor. My opinion if anyone wants it....the food was great, service was great, desserts were great (I had a brownie), and the tea was fabulous. I will go back again and do a formal review next week, but for now I only spent $5 on the Pav Bhaji and thought that was a fantastic price for what you got on the plate. Very filling and tasty!

Sushi At Home

Who doesn't love going out for sushi?  Okay a few out there don't, but if they did and you wanted to have a night of Tuna, you could. The global market has made it so easy for us cooks today. We can get almost any ingredient. Even my son's Korean friends have been cooking up a storm, their beloved favorites because the Asian markets carry so much.

Sushi is adored in our house, and often we find eating it out can add up, so we make it at home. In the photo above you see-

Nigirizushi (握り寿司, "hand-formed sushi") consists of an oblong mound of sushi rice that the chef presses into a small rectangular box between the palms of the hands, usually with a bit of wasabi, and a topping (the neta) draped over it. Neta are typically fish such as salmon, tuna or other seafood.

There are many sites you can learn to make the vinegar'ed rice aka Sushi Rice for your sushi. Rice cookers are generally the best, but I still use my mom's pressure cooker and it turns out just fine.

Seared Tuna (right) and Salmon (left) and Sashimi Tuna and Salmon, which is out of the picture.

Mediterranean Dinner- Lamb

My tagine was not big enough, so I used my clay pot from Spain, and since I bought two of them, I capped this dish off with the other.

Braise the salt and peppered lamb pieces in olive oil (brown both sides) and place in bottom of dish; add (layer ALL ingredients) onion, various olives, sun dried tomatoes, fresh oregano, tarragon, lightly mashed garlic cloves, sliced lemon pieces , and finish with squeezed lemon juice and red wine.

Slow cook for 2 and half hours in oven. Make couscous with veggies (recipe next week).

Summer Corn Salad

We have a big debate with our Long Island family (hubs), whether LI corn or Jersey corn is the best. I brought home a bag of Harb's corn on the cob (Northfork). We soaked it in a bucket of water for an hour and threw it on the grill, silk removed of course. Was good the first night. As usual though when I grill there is a need to use up the heat as so not to waste the coals, so we grilled quite a lot of corn.

A few nights later I took three ears corn and sliced it off, and added- 1/2 cup cherry heirloom tomato mix, sliced into quarters if large enough; 1 avocado cubed, 1/2 cup slow roasted tomatoes with herbs and white balsamic vinegar, 3 grilled artichoke (steamed and cooled), and 1/2 red onion small chop.

Heat up a non-stick pan and add a drizzle of olive oil, onion, and saute.  Add 1/2 teaspoon crushed and chopped garlic, salt and pepper; then add corn, blacken a bit, and remove from heat. Add rest of ingredients and stir gently. It is alright if the avocado spreads around.

Serve room temp or chilled. We like ours slightly room temp. Some heat adds a nice tone, so dash some of your favorite hot sauce, or even salsa to this. We grilled pork chops and I made an additional pan of summer squash casserole...another post!

Oh, and is my household going to sway the Long Island corn over Jersey corn debate? Not sure, we just like eating fresh summer corn.

Spicy Seafood GukSu (Soup)

I was so crazy about my son's girlfriend's (she is Korean) mom's recipe for  Dakbokkeumtang that I took a few recipe items and added them to this recipe. It was a seafood version of the other I wanted to try, so I kept the basic seafood items, plus vegetables which are similar, and changed a couple of things.

Just to give you an idea of how this starts off with major ingredients, I have listed them...but there are more...

Spicy Seafood GukSu (Soup) 

12 Jumbo Shrimp (or 15 Small Shrimp)
2/3 Cup Squid 15 Mussels
2/3 Cup baby scallops
2/3 Cup squid 
2/3 Cup Cabbage, small cut pieces (I used kimchi from Asian market, jar)
1 Cup Onion, medium cut pieces
1/3 Cup Carrot, small cut pieces
1 Handful Spinach
9 Stone Ear Mushrooms (Asian markets; often found in cans with water, or use shitake)

2 Hot Peppers (1 Red & 1 Green)
1 Green Onion, chopped (white onion will work)
Thick fresh (or Frozen) Noodles for JjamBbong (I did not use this, because vegetables were enough)

I borrowed the chili paste recipe from the first dish Yebyul made, then incorporated it into this recipe for Spicy Seafood GukSu.

After adding onion, cabbage, and carrot you stir in chili paste below. Omit the original seasoning. I really like the flavor combination of this chili paste over the other. I also felt the anchovy paste could have been also omitted, and will do so next time. Unless you really enjoy fishy flavor, which I do not, you can stick to the original GukSu recipe on the site I direct you too.

-Dakbokkeumtang Chili Paste:

Make seasoning paste by mixing ¼ cup  soy sauce, ¼ cup of minced garlic, ¼ cup hot pepper paste, ¼ cup of hot pepper flakes, and 1 tbs of sugar.

There are so many versions of this soup recipe it might be fun to try another. We enjoyed this dish very much.

Barcade, Jersey City, New Jersey

It has been a while since we have rated an eatery, so let's jump in with this micro-brew location up north from us. Barcade was suggested as a meeting place for me and a fellow poet-professor friend living in Jersey City.  He enjoys his beer, and we do as well from time to time. The weather was getting warmer out, and going over some of my performance poetry gave us good reason to hide inside.

The micro-beers are fantastic, and so is this sandwich. It is totally meatless too. We wanted to nibble before hitting another place around the corner for our big meal of the night, so I saw this Chickpea-black bean burger with coleslaw. Of course I thought it was on the side, not on the burger, but I gave it a chance and took a bite. Wow, was it fantastic! Like to take chances? Then do on this. They have a selection of other sandwiches, like pull pork, but this was paired with a belgium ale and it was even better!

Check out there Barcade menu (pizza crostini is good as well)

Barcade
163 Newark
Jersey City, New Jersey
(take Path train out of New York, and it's three blocks on the left hand corner)

There are other locations, like Philadelphia as well...