Texas Bound and Deviled Eggs Diablo

Always love me some deviled eggs, but when mom Val said what would you say if we added bacon and jalapenos, I threw myself at her feet. Spicy and bacon is always a plus.

Try it and you'll be hooked, although they almost do not beat out my Black Truffle 'Summer Deviled Duck Eggs'...

Zucchini Bread Pudding

Like bread pudding? And making zucchini bread? Combine both for a dessert, and you have a winner. They are easy to freeze and pull out when you want one. Don't serve the brandy sauce with it and serve it as a snack. This just made sense.

Hubs saw this dish at whole foods in one of their small packaging and I slapped his hand away. Your bill at WF can already be huge, why add stuff like this to the basket.

I followed Paula Deen's recipe for zucchini bread, but use ramekins to bake individual servings. I added the slice of zucchini just like we saw in WF, and voila! Give some out as gifts to your neighbors as I do, and freeze a few.

Let them cool completely before removing from tins or ramekins, and I recommend using cupcake papers if you are going to do them in tins. The ramekins allow for a knife to slip around and they pop out.  If unfreezing or after a few days, add a pat of butter and reheat before pouring brandy sauce on top.

Now there could be a problem making brandy sauce for one or two, when the recipe calls for more than you need, and sugary sauces are not easy to keep, they become weepy. So I eyed a smaller batch just from my own experience. You can always add a tablespoon more of this and that if it comes out too thin, or too thick. Sugar, brown sugar (or not, plain sugar will do), water, and boil until begins to thicken (you want it to run like syrup off of spoon) and add brandy just at the end; unless you like to cook the alcohol out, and there is always an argument there, whether it does cook out. I believe it does on high heat after five minutes. If this is how you feel, add in beginning and boil away!

Some brandy sauces are all fancy and have 3 or 4 ingredients, but I use the old fashioned way like my mom and grandmother, sugar and water and thicken; add alcohol, stir and let sit. Some call for corn starch, but that is to thicken, and if you know it sugar thickens to make caramel, therefore thickens on its own. But you will not take it that far, only a runny sauce flavored by brandy or rum if you choose.

Enjoy! We did...

Remember, Dosai

This is still a number one snack and mealtime delight.

Eaten sweet and stuffed. Fresh Jersey blueberries and some syrup, oh yes!

Do a search in the upper left hand corner and you will see all the different ways I have used this batter, savory and sweet. Plan and simple, we like it the traditional way; stuffed with curried potatoes, tomatoes, and often with spinach. But there is no pan or home stove big enough to make the giant Indian restaurant style, so we make this version. It is also served with sambar- a vegetable lentil spicy soup.

Dosa or Dosé or Dosai is a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. It is indigenous to and is a staple dish in the southern Indian. 

You can make it at home, but you have to get the consistency thin enough to spread. Otherwise it will begin cooking once it hits the pan and puffs up like a chefs ego. Only use distilled water to thin it out if the batter thickens, and it will. You can think out a small batch if you are cooking it right away; adding regular tap water messes with the fermentation, which makes it a live food (raw food eaters). 

This is a gluten free food as well. 

Okay, now I'm hungry and there is a great Dosai restaurant near my destination for the evening of reading my poetry to a live audience. Go and try it for yourself...

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).