Summer Expedition - Muscoot Farms

Well, the rains of the past several weeks seem to have given way to lush lawns and a plethora of really beautiful flowers. A good way to enjoy summers bounty is to stop by farms and local parks. Last weekend we went to muscoot farms and I was pleasantly surprised at how crowded things were. There were kids and picnickers everywhere, they had an ice cream stand that was quite a hit. Lots of mushrooms, I found them really facinating! My children unfortunately do not really dig musrooms, so..

Hudson milk company - cheese, Euro syle butter, homemade natural yogurt.

Merediths jams and preserves

Japanese style marinades and salad dressings

Honey and maple syrup products

This came home so stay tuned for the recipes

Some interesting items like maple teas and coffee in this aisle, maybe it is just me, but this was novel to me.

Another pretty store, focussed on lavendar - food and beyond, had wreaths and such.

Kids did the hayride

Well, the rains of the past several weeks seem to have given way to lush lawns and a plethora of really beautiful flowers. A good way to enjoy summers bounty is to stop by farms and local parks. Last weekend we went to muscoot farms and I was pleasantly surprised at how crowded things were. There were kids and picnickers everywhere, they had an ice cream stand that was quite a hit.

Read more...

Seasonal Bounty

My daughter loves cucumber and yogurt - the natural tangy variety. In summer, she feasts on yogurt.

In summer, she is in heaven. She actually has cucumbers in her sandwich instead of lettuce. So cucumber raita is naturally a logical choice. If you are going be seeing lots of garlic scapes, in the farmers markets these days. If you like garlic the way we do, you can use them for anything. Here is what I did with the raita,

Cucumber, Garlic and Orange Raita

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

3/4 cup natural yogurt (with whey)

1/2 teaspoon black salt

1/2 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons orange juice ( 1 shall actually use small pieces of fresh sectioned oranges next time)

1 teaspoon very finely chopped ginger (optional)

1 teaspoon minced mint

1/4 cup finely chopped garlic scapes

1/2 cup peeled grated cucumber (1 small cucumber)

Method of Preparation

1. Beat the yogurt well, and mix in the black salt, honey, orange juice, ginger and mint till the ingredients are well mixed.

2. Stir in the garlic scapes and cucumber. Chill and use the raita as dip or side. We ate this with alu tikkis today.

Read more...

Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

A good sauce takes time to makes, not necessary a lot of effort but a lot of time. Sometimes the interesting element is that like a good broth a good sauce can be really versatile. This one initially seemed fussy as I started it - with red peppers and tomatoes, all picked up from our local markets. Initially roasting the peppers seemed like a good idea, especially since I was letting them do their thing, watching the black creep up and envelope the vivid red as I sat and chatted with my sister-in-law. Well, then I cut up the tomatoes, at again all of this seemed easy enough. As the sauce cooked for some reason it seemed like it was going nowhere, it look bright but rather insipid. But this ended up being - "mommy can I get this for lunch worthy!" with pasta. The key to justifying such an effort really make a large batch.

By the way on a totally different note, if like me you want a little lovely pick me up, try reading this piece. Totally touching and beautiful!

Anyhow as the sauce simmered, I could not help thinking we are living in bizzare times in terms of gubenatorial escapes, from the MIA man taking off to meet his lady love, to Ms. Fiesty non-conformist, who thinks it is cool to up and leave for greener pastures.

Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Makes 5 cups of finished sauce

Ingredients

3 red bell peppers

10 large ripe tomatoes (I used 4 lbs, vine ripened tomatoes)

1/3 cup fruity extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons grated garlic

5 shallots, cut into a dice

15 basil leaves

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon red chili pepper

2 cups white wine (I used a chardonay)

1 tablespoon sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Roast the red peppers on an open flame until the skin is blackened evenly, remove from the flame and place on ice cubes to rub and remove the burnt skin.

2. Coarsely chop and set aside.

3. Coarsely chop the tomatoes and set aside.

4. Heat the oil and butter add the garlic and the shallots. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently until they are transluscent and begining to turn golden at the edges.

5. Add in the peppers and tomatoes and stir well. Cook on medium heat for 45 minutes. By now you should have a pot of bubbling red liquid and chunky by fair well cooked tomatoes.

6. Add in the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat on low and simmer for another 2 hours, Stirring occasionally.

7. Cool the sauce and blend into a smooth puree. This yields a very flavorful sauce that can be used over pasta or actually as a base for anything that you can think off.

Read more...

A long long week

This has been a difficult week at work. The stress of things has just been exhausting! These troubled times can be very demanding, I actually think cooking and walking are extremely therapeutic. I am not sure what I would do if I did not have food, in my life. Food nourishes and sustains and cheers in the worst of days.

This fried rice was my first time cooking with really old and left over rice as in rice from a chinese takeout package. I was surprise how well it worked out. This recipe is an indo-chinese variation of fried rice.

Chili-Garlic Fried Rice

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 tablespoons oil

1/2 cup shallots, chopped

1/2 cup scallions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 green chillies minced

1 carrot, thinly sliced

2-3 large shrimp chopped

1/2 cup cilantro, minced

2 cups rice (at least 1 day old, kept for several hours in the refrigerator)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 teaspoon sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Heat half the oil and stir in the shallots, scallions and garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes.

2. Beat the eggs and salt.

3. In a seperate pan heat the remaining oil and cook the eggs like omelettes.

4. Cut the eggs into small 1 inch pieces

5. Add the carrots and chillies to the shallots and cook for 1-2 minutes.

6. Add in all the remaining ingrendients and cook till well mixed with the rice. Stir in the eggs and serve.

Read more...

Meal Plan - Week of 6/30

Last week was very chaotic, just has no time for planning, among other things our dishwasher was out of order should be fixed this week.

Deepta starts camp this week, and I now have to do 8 weeks of lunches, this is traumatic, nothing I put in her lunchbox works. I am not sure how she does with her school lunches, but is not quite so personal. Anyhow so I now plan, our dinners, her lunches and anything else that I can think of.

Monday - Deepta's Lunch - Chicken Salad Sandwich with butter letuce and cucumber spread

Chicken Curry as Prepared over the weekend with Brown Rice

Tuesday - Deepta's Lunch - Assuming the Chicken salad sandwich worked we repeat this.

Remaining Chicken Curry, lentils and Brown Rice

Wednesday - Deepta's Lunch -Fresh Tomato Pasta

Pan Seared Fish

Garlic Scapes and Tomato Parathas

Thurday: Deepta's Lunch - White Bean and Eggplant Spread Sandwiches

White Bean and Eggplant spread

Spiced Garlic Bread

Friday: Deepta's Lunch - Chicken Salad Sandwich

Leftovers

Saturday: South Indian Rice Noodles

Sunday: Rice and Karhi

Read more...

Elmsford Farmer's Market

The past couple of year's the only market that fit my timing and geography was the Pleasantville Farmers Market. Driving by yesterday on the corner of Tarrytown Road and Rte 119, I was rather surprised to see signs saying Farmers Market.

Actually, much like Alice in Wonderland, I stumbled into a really nice outdoor market. The produce and flowers were just so extensive. I will tell you, that this place carried some unusual items like mangoes, but over all had lovely produce. My son picknicked on the grape tomatoes a la fresco, but overall take a look...

Read more...

Murg Makhani au Vin

It has been a week of sorts at both personal and global levels. I spent a fair amount of time at the doctors office dealing with a procedure of sorts. That is always annoying to me. My cousin and uncle are supposed to visit this weekend, but they are flipflopping between tomorrow and Sunday, well...

The whole Iran election has touched an unknown chord with me. Not sure why?

Added to that the Michael Jackson new has also saddened me in an unexpected way. If you are in the vicinity of the 40 number, you have grown up to his music, and it really troubles me to head of someone dying so alone. I wanted to do something to feel a little better and had to cook something company worthy as they say. I could not help remembering this New York Magazine article that I husband had pointed out. It was about this Indian guy in Paris with an Indo-French recipe. I liked the article but thought it was especially thoughtful of my husband (non-cook him) to save the recipe for me. Well, the thought of the recipe lingered although I had no article. I came up with something along the lines. I have to tell you if I have something along the lines of a signature spice, it is tandoori masala. So I came up with this chicken dish, which I have to tell you was pretty good.

Murg Makhani au Vin

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 -inch piece peeled ginger

4 pods peeled garlic

4 fresh green seranno chilies

3 lbs chicken on the bone, (skinned and cut into small pieces)

2 tablespoons tandoor masala (a commercial blend works fine)

1 teaspoon salt

1 large lemon

1/4 cup butter

2 onions, sliced into 3/4 cm rounds

3 pieces star anise

2 cups chardonay

1 cup sliced mushrooms

3/4 cup sliced grape tomatoes

For the garnish

2-3 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Method of Preparation

1. Grind the ginger, garlic and green chillies into a paste.

2. Mix into the chicken with the tandoori masala and salt.

3. Squeeze the lemon juice and set aside for 30 minutes.

4. Heat the butter and add the onions and star anise and cook for 3-4 minutes.

5. Add the chicken and cook till the water is evaporated and the butter resurfaces. This takes a good 15 minutes. Stir the chicken for another 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned.

6. Add in the wine and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for another 15 minutes. By now a thick sauce should and formed and the chicken should be very soft.

7. Turn off the heat and stir in the cilantro and black pepper.

While this was cooking I did take some time to scope out the original article that inspired this dish. Ok so I did not even use the right wine, but this was a nice article and I think you will like my chicken.

Read more...

Monsoon Cake

This was yet again one of those chance forays with baking, that surprised me. A few weeks back we were visiting these dear friends of ours - the Brushes and I was all set to make a chocolate cake since that was high on the popularity rating, my resolve began to change one I realized how much tropical fruit I had (bits and pieces) sitting around. I had a rather juicy clementine, some pineapple and of course the bananas that had reached that level of fragrant ripeness, where you were reminded of their presence every time you stepped into the kitchen.

The ingredients were whizzed together in my food processor and cooked on low heat and cooled overnight. The cake does bring a lot of complexity of flavors, so you want to let it settle down nicely before serving. I think the overnight did it for me.

Monsoon Cake

Wet Ingredients

Juice of one Clementine (about 1/4 cup)

3 very ripe bananas (peeled and mashed)

4 eggs

3/4 cup ricotta cheese (1 used part skim)

1/2 cup low fat sour cream

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dry Ingredients

1 cup white all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1/2 cup powdered unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the topping

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup butter

1 cup thinly sliced pineapple

1/2 cup almonds

Method of Preparation

1. Prepare a cake pan, I used a 10 inch spring form pan, by greasing it lightly.

2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

3. Place the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl (I used the food processor) and mix until well mixed.

4. Place all the dry ingredients except the cranberries and stir well. Mix in batches into the wet mixture until very well mixed. Stir in the cranberries.

5. Line the base of the cake pan with the pineapples and almonds.

6. Cook the molasses, butter and water until just mixed through and pour over the pineapples.

7. Pour the cake batter over the pineapple topping. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes.

8. Cool overnight and then remove.

9. Enjoy with your favorite cup of tea.

Read more...