Balayya Again!!

As when I get busy, I bring to you some more entertainment yet again.
I am shifting my home, and will shift city too in a week or two. Broadband has been disconnected.. Will blog now and then, but then I couldn't publish the curry mela this weekend.

But I am damn sure this Balayya Magic will more than make up for it. Very entertaining... Much Fun comes.....

Triple Lemon Grilled Arctic Char

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Everything is daisy-sunshine happiness these days. Summer rocks!

In other words...what's not to like?

Brilliance!

*grin*

And me, I'm taking the summer one day at a time. Lots of relaxing and lots of tooling around thinking about the wonder of it all.

And one great place to spend an hour or so is one of our lovely outdoor markets.

I'm sure you know (or have maybe read), the SoCal farmers markets are a bit of a dream in terms of edible options. A cornucopia if you will.

So if you are open minded, flexible with your menu and willing to try new things (and eat a lot of fruit) it really can be a guilt free and lovely day-time excursion.

Phew.

So here is my recipe for a grilled triple lemon fish - ingredients for which can usually be found year round at any good farm stand. Sustainable, delicious, delightful. Perky too. Zippy, really, if you must know. And except for the pepper, it all came from my local farmers market.

I only wish I had captured a better shot of this before we ate it on down...

Now try this my peaches, and taste the joy.


6 each lemons
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup black olives, diced, dry cured such as Gaeta
4 each Arctic Char, fish steaks, six ounces apiece
1/4 cup olive oil
1 each lemon, zested and juiced
1 teaspoon pink peppercorn, coarsely ground
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the honey and lemon juice and set aside until ready to grill.

Marinate the fish in the lemon oil, olive oil, lemon juice and zest, pink pepper and salt at room temperature for no longer than 1 hour.

Using vegetable peeler, remove peel (yellow part only) from lemons in long strips. Squeeze 6 tablespoons juice from lemons. Blanch peel in small saucepan of boiling water 30 seconds; drain. Bring 6 tablespoons of the lemon juice, olive oil, canola oil, garlic, and pinch of salt to simmer in small saucepan. Add lemon peel and simmer over low heat until peel is soft, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the black olives.



Preheat your grill.

Grill the fish for 7 minutes per inch, basting once with the honey-lemon glaze. Remove and serve with lemon confit as garnish.

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking

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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at is guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright. And generally cheesing me off.

The city of Beverly Hills gave final approval Tuesday night on a deal that will bring a local restaurant from Thomas Keller, the only American chef with two 3-star establishments.Keller will be opening one of his casual-dining Bouchon bistros in Beverly Hills by fall 2009.

Popcorn was $11 for 20 lbs in January of this year. It's now $17 for the same bag.

Taco Seasoning: Getting away from pre-made mixes.

Whew. It's been a long week. My son's All-Star team played 5 games and had 2 practices in the last 8 days. They played hard and did a great job, but ended up losing the district championship game today. The boys were very disappointed and had their moment of sadness and tears - my son cried in the car and his friend (who came over for a sleepover tonight) confessed to crying in the bathtub, but guess where those two are right now as I type? Yep. Outside playing baseball. It's hard to see them lose, but they've been playing since February and football starts in 2 weeks, so it's not necessarily such a bad thing either. And now maybe my stomach won't be in knots every other day! Anyway, they may still have energy, but I'm wiped out, so I'll be keeping this one simple.

Taco Seasoning

Taco seasoning. This is one thing I've been very lazy about - simply out of habit and pure laziness, I repeatedly reach for the pre-made taco seasoning at the store. I've been trying to get away from unwanted added ingredients, so I when I reached for it the other day, I forced myself to turn the package over and look at the ingredient list. Yep, there they were - stuff like MSG and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Blech. So I put the seasoning back on the shelf. Surely it couldn't be THAT hard to make my own!

I did a little surfing and found this recipe over at AllRecipes. With over 900 reviews and a 5-star rating, I figured it was a pretty safe bet. And it was. Flavorful and with just the right amount of heat for us. This recipe ended up making about 3 tablespoons of seasoning which, for us, seasoned 1 pound of ground beef.

Next time I'll make up extra and keep it in the freezer. Very easy to throw together, but still that familiar taco flavoring we know and love. Our tacos were definitely a bit elevated that night.....we made our own seasoning and used grass-fed ground beef from a local farmer. Now if I had made my own taco shells............

Blogging By Mail - Fantastic Treats!!!

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First, before I start gushing and getting all over the top and grateful, I should explain that I took part in Blogging By Mail, an event that really is just the best thing ever.

In brief, participants names and addresses are added to the virtual pot, then names are drawn and voila, everyone gets a few little treats in the mail. All of this courtesy of Stephanie at uber-blog Dispensing Happiness. Is that a good time waiting to happen or what?

And now, on the the gushing...

Oh WOW. I feel like I won a prize package or something!

I got a simply lovely, and truly generous and kind package from that dear, sweet, love of a woman Brilynn of everyone's favorite site Jumbo Empanadas. She not only drew me a card (so sweet!) but she included a shot glass with the Canadian Maple leaf on it (it's as if the dear-heart just knew I love a good shot of Canadian Whiskey every here and again. And again.) then there were two sets of mini fluted tart molds (Oh the possibilities!) not one, but two Coffee Crisp bars (which have yet to be devoured) a giant bag of one of my all time favorite spices, paprika, from Toronto's House of Spice. (So nice! So nice!).

But wait, there's more!

She included a really fun peeler that actually does a julienne strip and a packet of Bali Breeze tea from The Language of the Leaf. (Canadian businesses sure do have excellent names, don't they! Love it!) That smells too good to be true. There was a Fair trade (yeah!), organic (yeah!) Cocoa Camino Matcha Green Tea candy bar that I ate in small nibbles, enjoying every moment of. And to tempt my sweet tooth even more, there are two pieces of candy that I am going to have to ask her about directly, since I cannot identify them.

My very mostest favorite thing was a bag of dried strawberry candies that were so sweet and juicy I almost wanted to pinch them! (What can I say, that's my reaction to sweet and juicy things.)

And last but not least, that gem of a woman included a copy of the film Waitress. Seriously folks, is she a peach or what.

I know its a bit strange to read me post about a few things I got in the mail, but I am so touched by Brilynn's spirit and the whole spirit of this event that I hope you are inspired and will sign up for the next round. My heart is so full of joy right now!

Of course, I was a bit of a slacker in mailing my gifty out, but there is a package on it's way to Little Spatula in Naperville, IL right now, so hopefully it will be there soon...(Update: It arrived!)

Thank you again to Brilynn for her wonderful package, and to Stephanie for organizing such a thing, and to you all for reading my silly little blog.

Kisses,
Rachael

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking

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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright. That means YOU, "Collection of Cooking Recipes"!!! Stop stealing!!!!

If only life were as easy as pie. - Tagline for the movie Waitress

All Cocoa Camino products are certified organic and Fair Trade Certified. This means that the ingredients have been produced in an environmentally sustainable manner and that Fair Trade prices and premiums have been paid to farmers for their cocoa and sugar. - Cocoa Camino

Food prices are affecting the bottom line at restaurants nationwide. Last year the $28 tuna au poivre entree at Boston's Chez Henri was eight ounces of fish. Now it's five. "I can't allow my food costs to go up because then I won't be in business," says chef and owner Paul O'Connell. - WSJ.com

More Strawberries....

Well, we ended up making good use of our 16 quarts of strawberries and except for the 2 bags I froze, they are gone. But I think I know where I could score some more........

Father's Day fell shortly after our strawberry picking so I decided that strawberries were definitely going to be on the menu. I made a special desert that I've never made before - strawberry shortcake. When I think of dessert, I tend to think in terms of chocolate, but as the years pass, I've begun to think beyond chocolate and embrace other kinds of dessert.........and with delicious results.

Strawberry Shortcake

This recipe from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food sounded delicious and looked easy to make - my kind of recipe. I also loved that the recipe called for making shortcake biscuits, creating individual shortcake portions. Somehow desserts just seem more special when everyone gets their very own portion with no slicing or cutting.

Shortcake biscuits are somewhat scone-like. They are subtly sweet and a bit crumbly, so be sure to let them cool completely and cut them with a very sharp and/or serrated knife. The biscuits are topped with strawberries that have been steeped with sugar to bring out their juices, followed dollop of homemade whipped cream with just a touch of vanilla. Top it off with the other half of the biscuit and you have a beautiful little dessert portion that comes together in no time.

This dessert was extra special because not only did we make it with strawberries we picked ourselves, I also scored some cream from a local dairy at our local farmer's market and used eggs from a small organic farm in our county that sells to a natural foods store in our area.

For a different twist on strawberry shortcake, check out eggs on sunday's twist involving chocolate. Too bad I didn't see that post before I made these! But then again, I'm trying to branch out, right?

More on our Father's Day menu to come....including a delicious basil-stuffed scallop recipe....

Good old Meat and Potatoes!

Since my family has been so tolerant of my recent run on vegetarian recipes, I decided to "reward" them with a good old comfort food meal of meat and potatoes.

I read good reviews of a pot roast recipe on the CLBB, so I gave it a try. I used my Le Creuset Dutch oven - it's not oval, but the chuck roast (2.5-3 pounds) fit in it just fine. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, but I used little white creamer potatoes instead of Yukon gold.

Classic Beef Pot Roast

Once everything was finished cooking I had DH shred the meat while I dealt with the potatoes. Instead of eating the potatoes as is, I decided to mash them - along with a bit of light sour cream, a bit of cream cheese and a bit of butter. This was a great way to make mashed potatoes - cooking the potatoes right along with the roast allowed them to soak up a little more flavor and saved an extra cooking pot to wash later. They were delicious.

Overall, the recipe was very good, but I think we might prefer the Merlot Pot Roast. However, I'm glad we tried this recipe - I definitely will cook the potatoes like this again.

Two Toned Melon Gazpacho

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Now mind you, I am not the only woman vying for The Ombudsman’s time. Sure, his quality time is spent with me, (or so I like to think. Being that kind of friend) but he also spends some hours with The Historical Babe, doing all sorts of bendy yoga maneuvers and dining on raw foods.

Seriously, it seems as if they're always getting massages and doing all sorts of calming activities. It's sexy stuff.

So when I ran in to them outside of the very chic and delightful Akasha restaurant in when-did-this-place-become-cool Culver City the other night, I wasn't the slightest bit surprised. Having just eaten there myself in the company of everybody's favorite Texan, Pace, I was able to vouch for it's excellence and tranquil vibe.

The ideal spot for the health and environment conscious who still want a super star meal.

What is so darn-tastic loveroo about it is that they are all about the whole grains and locally sourced biz-nizz. Makes a girl happy. Plus, the food is just dreamy fabulocity. All earthy and groovy without getting too darned granola. (Not that I don't love my granola-eatin' peeps mind you, but this restaurant is just not that vibe) In other words, it gets my kudos rating.

Having split a roasted artichoke, tomato tart (so delish!), short ribs and a summertime trio of desserts (yum. rhubarb. yum.) I did think I may have gone a bit on the heavy side for such a postcard perfect evening. So the next day, with my farmers market bounty calling, I made this fun soup duo to balance things out. Light for heavy. Vegetable for animal.

Easy as can be to zip together and a visual delight to present. It's light and refreshing and just what a girl needs on a lazy summer day. Especially after sampling Akasha's key lime and hibiscus cocktails...

So do try this my peaches and taste the joy.

4 each tomatoes, 2 red, 2 yellow
4 cups melon, 1/2 watermelon, 1/2 cantaloupe
2 each bell pepper, 1 red, 1 yellow
2 each jalapeno chile pepper, one red, one green
2 each cucumber, peeled and seeded
2 cloves garlic
3/4 cup olive oil
4 teaspoons sherry vinegar
2 cups white bread , crusts removed
2 tablespoons sugar, as needed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
salt and pepper
3 bunches chervil , optional, for garnish


In a food processor, combine all of the red ingredients (including all of the tomato paste) and half the garlic, olive oil , vinegar and bread. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding sugar only if needed.

Clean out the food processor bowl and do the same with the yellow ingredients, (excluding the tomato paste) taste and adjust seasoning (salt, sugar, vinegar) as needed.

Refrigerate each batch until chilled.

To serve, you can either pour the two colors into a bowl simultaneously (side by side) or use chef rings (round cookie cutters) to make a bulls-eye pattern. You can also use a toothpick, drawing out from the center to create a pattern.

Garnish with chervil and serve.

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking
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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at is guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright. And generally cheesing me off.

Stellar Organics Wine from South Africa is the top selling organic wine brand in the UK. Organic wine is now the largest sector in the organic alcohol category, and accounts for 56% of its sales; which with an extra 267,000 shoppers buying organic wine this year compared to last year, is an increase of 42% year on year. Stellar's wines are organic and Fairtrade, the only wine to gain both labels. – Harpers.co.uk

It costs farmers £1.45 to produce a kilo of pork, according to BPEX (the British Pig Executive), which represents the pork industry. At the beginning of 2008 supermarkets sold pork for £1.05 a kilo, and by May - eight months after farmers had started bearing the increased cost of feed - it had still only gone up to £1.20 a kilo. 78 per cent of the British public said they were prepared to pay more for pork to help farmers who have been campaigning for a better price. - BBC

Made In LA - Heaven Scent Cookies

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And now, for another edition of Made in L.A., my quest to find foods made right here in my home town...but available everywhere.

And this time peaches, we have a real treat! No, really...its a treat. Well, if you are the sort of person who considers a cookie a treat...because these are cookies we are talking about. See? A real treat!

So please allow me to introduce to you Heaven Scent Cookies. Made in Santa Monica, California (which is a city on the West side of the urban sprawl that is LA. SM has a fascinating history and is home to Douglas Aircraft, The RAND Corporation, public radio power house KCRW, the world famous Santa Monica Pier and of course, it's most celebrated son, talk show host Carson Daly!) they are available nationwide. I actually picked mine up at a grocery store in New York City. (I wonder if that is bad? I mean, that both me and the cookies travelled so far to meet...)

They are organic and Kosher and come in fourteen different varieties. For scientific (okay, not scientific) purposes, I tried Double Thick Chocolate Fudge, Gingerbread Boy, Old World Chocolate Sandwich and Brown Sugar Cream (which didn't make it in to the picture because they were so darned delicious!) And I have to say, those are some winning treats! Each one was better than the last.

So if really delicious, buttery, crumbly cookies with a lot of flavor and all natural ingredients sounds good to you...run out and find some of these little gems. You will thank me. They are beyond fantastic and absolutely worth seeking out!

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking

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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright.

Other things "Made in L.A." - Carl's Jr., Trader Joe's, Dennys, the Monte Cristo sandwich, Hot Dog on a Stick, Fosters Freeze, the French Dip sandwich, Orange Julius, FatBurger, Taco Bell and the Harvey Wallbanger cocktail

The average American eats 35,000 cookies in his/her lifetime.

In England, Schweppes makes a quinine soda called "Indian Tonic Water," which is somewhat less sweet than the American version. The sweetness Indian Tonic Water does have comes from saccharine.

Chinese Doughnuts

Ingredients:
Brown sugar 170 gms.
Hot water 3/4 cup
Rice flour,seived 330 gms.
Baking powder 60 gms.
Dry sherry 1 tbsp.
Coconut, grated 60 gms.
Peanut, roasted & crushed 60 gms.
Castor sugar 3 tbsps.
Sesame seeds, roasted 60 gms.
Oil for frying

Preparation:
Take hot water and dissolve the sugar in it and then add the sherry.
Allow to cool.
Add baking powder to the flour and make a stiff dough of this(do not knead).
Roll the dough to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
Cut this roll into 1/2 " slices and then flatten to 2" in diameter.
Mix the coconut, peanuts and castor sugar together and place a tablespoon of this filling in the middle of each slice.
Now bring the edge of each slice together and then roll it to form a ball.
Put sesame seeds on a plate and roll each ball in it.
Deep fry in the oil till golden brown.
Serve at room temperature.

Drink of the Week: The Devil's Tail/Rhubarb, Sugar, Vodka

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I think I first came across this spring-time indulgence with a dangerous sounding moniker in Denmark a few years ago.

Then again, it may have been in Baltimore.

I forget.

Either which way, it is an absolutely outrageous way to indulge in the crimson beauty of super-sour, uncooked rhubarb.

It's so hectically sour that I personally figure the only reason it's is eaten by anyone is that it's impossible to resist the deliriously shocking pinkness of it all.

One glance and I tell you, a feverish desire to consume it comes on. It just has to be made palatable. And that is usually accomplished with the addition of strawberries and a gang of sugar. (And voila, Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie) That's pretty much the only way to go, seeing as those stalks are so puckery if you take a nibble, your mouth will seize up and wonder if you've taken leave of your senses.

But if you aren't the pie-makin' type and want a wild way to indulge, try this. After one bite, just bring on the the bracing sting of icy cold vodka and numb that mouth into submission.

It's a diabolically sweet-tart experience.

Try this my peaches, and taste the joy.


2 stalks rhubarb, sliced 4 inches long
4 tablespoons white sugar
8 ounces vodka, chilled

Gather three friends round, and pass out rhubarb spears. Pour an icy cold shot of vodka for each player. Simultaneously dip your rhubarb spears into the sugar, then bite in. Enjoy faces being made. Chew. Swallow. Take a shot of the vodka.

Repeat only if you dare.



© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking

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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright.

Rhubarb is a vegtable that is a relative of buckwheat and originated in Western China and neighboring areas. The leaves of the plant are poisonous.

Vodka was first sold legally in Sweden in 1498 by a Stockholm tavern keeper. Absolut Vodka was introduced in Sweden in 1879 as "Absolut rent branvin" - "Absolutely pure vodka". - AbsolutAd.com

Restaurants have long engineered menus to allow the bigger profits from pastas and vegetable side orders to subsidize such loss leaders as steaks. With food prices rising at their highest rate in decades, chefs are swapping out high-end ingredients for humbler substitutes and scratching low-profit entrees off the menu. Pink's hot dogs in Hollywood introduced a $6.75 dog that's more topping than wiener. At Gramercy Tavern in New York, the caviar-topped hamachi appetizer has been replaced with a tuna-and-beet tartare topped with sliced radishes. Raphael Lunetta of JiRaffe in Santa Monica is yanking pricey entrees from the menu to promote as daily specials. He says a good pitch from waiters helps sell more and reduces leftovers. - WSJ.com

Hmm... BachelorCooking.net is up

Yes Dear all, bachelorcooking.net is up and running. It is still very crude, all the picture have been badly skewed, I need to work on the template first... It will take up a number of day I am sure.

You may start updating your Blogroll with http://www.bachelorcooking.net


I will create a Blog for currymela at www.bachelorcooking.net/currymela and also a forum for all of us to discuss of cooking and tips anything we want to talk about at www.bachelorcooking.net/forum. Get yourself registered in the forum too. As and when it is up..
Also don't forget to link to the forum and curry mela.

Arre yaar, somebody do something about the template :)

Site still in BETA. Been busy so not been able to twaek much.

Bobby Flay: Boy Gets Grill

I don't know that I've ever made a Bobby Flay recipe before. No real reason, just haven't. But being that it's summer and we like to grill as much as possible, I picked up his cookbook, Boy Gets Grill (sequel to Boy Meets Grill) at the library a week or two ago. What I have discovered is that it's a darn shame I haven't cracked open one of his cookbooks earlier - so many of the recipes I've glanced over are calling out to be made. I wonder how many times I can renew this at the library before they make me bring it back?

The first recipe we tried - Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas - we liked very much, but we had a number of problems in the preparation.

#1 - The first problem wasn't at all related to the recipe - it was the weather - it was pouring. DH should win the prize for the world's most committed and dedicated griller - he's grilled in the rain twice in the last week, one of them a thunderstorm.

#2 - Grilling bacon can be kind of tricky. At least for us. I guess the grill was too hot:

#3 - Getting double-decked quesadillas onto the grill - oil side down - can be tricky too. I don't know how DH finally got them on, but I think he flipped them oil side down onto a plate first and tried to sort of slide them off onto the grill. He did manage to successfully flip them, but again, not so easy to do.

Crispy Bacon and Corn Quesadillas
with Avocado-Cherry Tomato Relish

#4 - Bobby Flay has crazy ideas about portion sizes. Our tortillas were 8-inch instead of 6-inch, but even with a 6-inch, a whole double-decker tortilla is a pretty large portion for us. Okay, so large portion sizes aren't really a problem, but still........

With the rain pouring down, I asked DH if he wanted to just do everything inside, but as I said, he was committed. And it did taste better - the tortillas had a nice charred/grill flavor to them, but the bacon - not surprisingly - was over done. I'll have to make sure that DH really keeps the grill a bit on the cooler side if we attempt bacon on the grill in the future.

The quesadillas were tasty - corn, bacon and cheese - can't really go wrong there - but the avocado relish was fantastic (though mine was probably chopped a bit too coarsely to really be considered a relish). I've made salads using similar ingredients before, but for some reason, this one tasted so much better. Maybe it was the jalapeno - that's something I don't normally use - I just don't think of it. Or it could have been the chives - again, something I don't normally use in this kind of dish as red onion or scallions tend to be the more commonly used ingredient. Bobby's actually does call for red onion, but I forgot to buy any, so I snipped some chives from the garden and they were really good with the rest of the flavors.

In the end, it all worked out and DH declared that it was worth the flaming bacon, the pouring rain and the tricky flipping. And since he's the grill master, who am I to argue?

In Season: Strawberries!

Strawberry sorbet, strawberry ice cream, strawberry vinaigrette, strawberry jam, and strawberries in the freezer.

That's what's on tap this week at our house after my son and I were perhaps a little over zealous in picking 16 quarts of strawberries this week! And that was nothing. I saw trunks of cars loaded up with probably 30-50 quarts. I mean, I like strawberries, but that's a little nutty. I wonder if some people re-sell them? Or maybe they just make A LOT of jam?

Anyway, our 16 quarts will be keeping me busy this week. So far I've made two batches of strawberry sorbet and I've frozen two trays of strawberries for making sorbet and/or smoothies and/or jam later on.

The strawberry sorbet is one I've been making for a few years now and was shocked to find that I haven't yet shared the recipe on my blog! I found a post from last year promising to come back and post it, but I never did. Then I remembered that I was not able to get a good photo of it and that's why it never made it to the blog. But this time.......we've got photos, so it's time to share this recipe.

This recipe is based on a master sorbet recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I took their basic technique and created a delicious strawberry-lime sorbet that tastes like a yummy strawberry daiquiri. It's so refreshing.....really a perfect summer treat. And boy has it felt like summer here lately - hot and humid! (But thankfully it's cooled off today.)

Strawberry-Lime Sorbet

I replaced the water in their recipe with lime and added some lime zest. I love strawberry sorbet without lime, but the lime gives it a nice extra zing and I have decided is a must. The vodka in the recipe keeps the sorbet from turning into a block of ice - it keeps the sorbet a bit soft and helps it retain a pleasing, almost creamy texture. Sometimes I find that the vodka makes it too soft and sometimes I find that it doesn't make it quiet soft enough and I have not been able to figure out if it's the amount I'm using or the type of vodka or what! I do know, however, that adding vodka is something that I now do to ALL sorbets to achieve a nice texture. Even if it's a little too soft, I prefer that to scraping my sorbet out of the container and eating ice chips.

Lots more strawberry recipes to come. It's been a busy week - so much for that relaxing summer vacation - but the next 2 days or so will be nice and quiet, so I should have time to whip up a few recipes. I don't really have a choice with a fridge full of luscious berries!

Bachelor Cooking Now Number one on Google for Bachelor Cooking

This Blog, Bachelor Cooking was never number on the google search result, when you do a search for bachelor cooking on google. It was alway Jeremy Zawodny, since he had once mentioned the term Bachelor Cooking on his Much Linked Blog. It has been like this since i started my blog, but after a few tweaking with anchor words, I just saw today that a search for the word Bachelor Cooking returns my Blog. And not only that, but my new blog on wordpress is number. Once I start writing that blog, We will have that one the number one Position... Hopefully.

On my not updating my Blog... I didn't have net connection at home for the past 2 months. My office computer is hardened, ie, all the USB ports are not accessible, so I thought I had take a break.

Also Now I want to post all recipes only in the new blog, whose design will be ready by first week january hopefully, as promised by a very dear blogger friend who is designing it for me.
This Blog will not die... Just keep it in your blogrolling as is..

I will Host the Curry Mela on this blog only, when I do resume the curry mela... As such, this blog had become more curry mela than my recipes. The new blog will be a Pure Recipes and Tips Blog. I will let the old posts remain here only.. I tried to import to the new blog, but the images gets warped.. so I'd rather post new recipes.. maybe I will repost some selected posts from here. But I have Huge list of recipes I will be Cooking up this Comming Year.

Keep Coming Back..

Wishing you and your family a very happy New Year 2007..

Using up the Zucchini

After all that garden talk, it's time to share a few recipes showing how we're using our bounty. Okay, so "bounty" is probably overstating things a bit, but it sounds good......

So far it's mostly been zucchini and cucumbers coming from the garden. I'm definitely lacking in cucumber recipes (and I'd better find some soon as we're about to be overrun), but there seem to be infinite ways to use zucchini. I only planted one zucchini plant, so I don't think we'll be totally inundated. And that's probably a good thing seeing as how none of us actually love zucchini. So why the heck did I plant it? I guess because everyone always seems to be trying to get rid of their zucchini and it's always super abundant at the farmer's market, so I figured it must be easy to grow. I suppose I just wanted a sure bet.

Even though none of us are crazy about zucchini on its own, it's very easy to disguise and or fit (or is it hide?) into other tasty dishes. Like zucchini bread. My son wrinkled up his nose and said "EW!" when I mentioned zucchini bread, but then I reminded him of how tasty carrot cake is and that helped him keep an open mind.

Zucchini-Pecan Sauté

But before I go on to the zucchini bread, the first zucchini I picked I used in one of our favorite savory zucchini dishes - Zucchini-Pecan Sauté. A really simple dish that, for whatever reason, really elevates zucchini from just "meh" to "yum".

I'm sure there are lots of great zucchini bread recipes out there, but for some reason I've never strayed from this one from Jane Brody's Good Food Book (she calls it "Grate" Zucchini Bread). I like that it uses half whole wheat flour and she tries to keep the oil and sugar to a minimum. Even though it's fairly healthful, it is still quite moist and delicious.

Zucchini Bread

My two zucchini were a lot bigger than I thought, so even though I had planned on making two loaves, I still ended up with a lot of grated zucchini left. Stay tuned for some yummy vegetable pancakes I made to use up the rest of the grated zucchini.........

If you have some zucchini that you need to use up, check out these other zucchini recipes we've tried.

Two from Simple Suppers

So it's been a while since I had a real post. I got off track last week because of a house project - I've been painting our bedroom. More on that later.....

On to the recipes. Both of these recipes earned my "it has potential" rating; meaning that while they were not out-of-this-world-fantastic, they were good solid recipes that I think could elevated to a higher status with a little tweaking.

Mexican Polenta-Stuffed Peppers

The first was a polenta-stuffed pepper dish in which bell peppers are lightly roasted and then stuffed with polenta, topped with cheese and placed under the broiler. The peppers are served over a super easy but very tasty warm black bean and salsa mixture. I really liked all the different elements of this dish, but the polenta was underwhelming. I think that part of the problem is that the polenta did not cook fully enough and still had an off/raw taste. The 3 males in the family commented that sausage would make this dish really good. Although I'm trying to eat more vegetarian meals lately, I have to admit that a little sausage would really be good here. :) To elevate the taste without resorting to meat however, I would look to maybe a bit of chipotle and perhaps some black olives. Polenta is certainly versatile enough to tweak as you wish - this dish could be turned into something with a more Italian flare with a bit of Parmesan and served over a white bean mixture. Or with a little feta and black olives, it could turn Greek. The possibilities really are endless.

Southwestern Cheese Soup
(I'm afraid that no amount of photo editing could save this photo!)

I've had a couple of inquiries about the Southwestern Cheese Soup that we had earlier this week. It's a very easy soup to throw together and everyone enjoyed it, but again I think it could use a bit of tweaking. Of course I tweaked it just a tad the first time, but just a little - I made a substitution for the canned green chiles. First of all I didn't have any on hand and second of all, I really don't care for them - they seem to have this off/tinny taste that I can't get past. Looking for something to add a bit of heat and flavor, I stumbled on a jar of pickled jalapenos in my refrigerator - these were perfect - they added heat, color and no tinny taste. The soup got very positive reviews from the males at the table. I thought it was very good considering how quick and easy it is to make, but I thought it could be kicked up a notch - maybe some black beans, replacing some of the cheddar with a bit of light cream cheese. And yes devoted carnivores - a little sausage would ramp things up a bit too.

So, two solid recipes that could be really good with a little tweaking. Again, I tend to value recipes as much for the overall ideas they give me for future meals as I do for the overall end result.

Super Spicy Habanero, Tomatillo Salsa

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I don’t know what happened! Honestly…looking at my calendar for the next three months it seems as if I have exactly 28 minutes of unblocked time coming to me – sometime in July I think.

It’s as if I got caught up in a tornado. Wait, sorry, is that the funnel cloud one? Yes, what I meant is I got caught up in a funnel cloud of social engagements and activities and meetings (well, not so many of them thankfully) and all sorts of summer-centric-paloozas.

I’m not complaining though, as a matter of fact, I am quite looking forward to it. I’m a bit of a planning calendar (“diary” if I were British) addict. (Do you use Google calendars? The best! The BEST!) and happy to see all the good times that lay ahead.

And due to that, I have got to dust off my BBQ/Potluck/Cocktail Soiree recipes and get myself in gear. Like a soldier going in to battle I must be prepared!
I have to bust out the good stuff! Bring out the big guns! (My, MY, lots of military references today. How…odd.)

So peaches, if you want to arm yourselves too…try making a big batch of this scorching salsa. It’s sure to put a bit of zip in your step (and tears in your eyes. Seriously.) and get you in the mood for Cinco de Mayo and the long, hot summer.

Try it, and taste the joy.

2 habenero chiles
2 jalapeno chiles
2 serrano chiles
1 large onion, large dice
2 cloves garlic
6 tomatillos
Juice of 3 limes
½ cup minced cilantro
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt

In a large cast-iron pan, roast the chiles until charred on all sides. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to steam.

Meanwhile, char the onion and garlic in the same dry skillet.

Next up, (carefully!) rub the charred skin off and pull out the seeds.

Puree everything in a food processor. Taste and add salt as needed.

© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking
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© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright.

My dear friend EB produced some great Office Workout shorts for MSN...try them out and feel the burn!

The Naga Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) is the world's hottest chile pepper.

Burger King Holdings Inc. said Thursday that strong same-store sales in each of its segments and new restaurant growth helped to boost profit 21 percent in its third fiscal quarter.

Arugula Pesto

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Hollywood is going green!

That's right kids we are all (each and every one) goin' green. And don't forget lil' punkins, you heard it here first.

Right here in super-sunny Southern California the thought on every single resident's mind (seriously, its a massive thing. 17 million strong) is how can I cleanse my body and my soul while eating something tasty, and simultaneously practicing silent yoga. (Well, not everyone is doing that, it only seems that way to me this week.)

And of course the answer is to eat more locally grown, vibrant greens. And what better way to start doing that than with a sassy springtime spin on pesto.

The leaves of the basil plant, at their best in the heat of summer, so fragrant and delicate, are almost the parallel opposite of arugula, which has a bitterness and fortitude one wouldn't expect from such a small green leaf. The ultimate early spring green.

And when it comes to my current fixation with allspice (oh, have I mentioned this? I am obsessed with allspice.) well my darlings, arugula is the perfect foil. They go so well together, it's like a dream come true.

This version is completely raw, but if the arugula is too strong for you, try a quick blanching of the leaves.

So try this my peaches, and taste the joy.

6 cups arugula leaves, stems removed
Salt to taste
Pinch of allspice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon pine nuts

Rinse the arugula in cold water. Puree with the rest of the ingredients. This is great to do with a mortar and pestle, but if you don't have that, a food processor works well too. As you can see, that was how I did it.

Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve with crudite, over pasta, or as a sauce for grilled meats or tofu.

Puree the wilted arugula with a hearty pinch of allspice,
© 2008 Fresh Approach Cooking
______________________________________

© 2008 Rachael at "Fresh Approach Cooking" www.freshcatering.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at might be guilty of infringing upon terms of copyright. This means you cooking recipes collection. Stop stealing my content.

Arugula is popular in Italian cuisines and was commonly featured in ancient Roman meals. - Willie Green's Organic Farm

Judy at No Fear Entertaining and Lolo at Vegan Yum Yum also made Arugula Pesto.

800 million people on the planet suffer from hunger or malnutrition, but the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States. Mark Bittman, NYTimes