Hey everyone! I've been reading for several weeks now and I've finally decided to offer up a contribution. Enjoy!



( Another picture and the recipe are under the cut! )

I've been a member of this community for a while, and it has the most splendid recipes on it. Some are hard, some are easy, but all of them look YUM. The maintainer is awesome, and her work should have more plates to shine on. :)

http://community.livejournal.com/ethnic_cuisines/

This may be a bit of a long shot, but I'm hoping that there's someone here of Yugoslavian (or other Balkan) extraction who can help me name a kind of food that I used to eat at a now-closed Yugoslavian/Italian restaurant, and which I've completely forgotten the name of.

The mysterious foodstuff is a thick spread or dip which is usually served as an appetiser and eaten with bread. It's bright hazard-sign orange, and definitely contains red pepper, chilli and feta-type cheese. I'm pretty sure that garlic is also involved. It definitely isn't Ajvar, although it may contain Ajvar as an ingredient. I've asked everyone I know who used to eat at that restaurant, and they just say "Oh yes, that awesome orange stuff! I can't remember what it was called, but I loved that orange stuff!"

Does anyone here have any idea what this stuff is called? (A recipe would be nice too, but we've put together a pretty good simulacrum.)

Hello folks,
I'm posting this here with permission from Bronxelf. It's off topic, but is food related.

To benefit the Queen's Galley, a 501c3 organization that works to reduce and eliminate food insecurity in the Hudson Valley, the band Orleans is holding a benefit concert on April 6th. There are two shows, 4 and 8 pm and tickets are on sale through the box office Bearsville Theater Woodstock NY .
Between the shows, ending at 7:30pm, we'll be holding a silent auction of several food related items. We've made arrangements to be online to support this auction to gain the widest audience possible! When looking at the list, I think you'll see why we wanted to spread the wealth!


Dinner for four at Grammercy tavern, one of NYC's
oldest and most prestigious restaraunts

Tour and private luncheon for four at Food
Network studios NYC

Gift certs to Hickory Smokehouse in Kingston NY, Global Palate,
Bop to Tottom in Kingston, and Knightly Endeavors also in Kingston

Fox Hill bed and breakfast

Autographed items from the band

Autographed cookbook from Dan Leader of Bread Alone (a local and not so local bakery)

Cookware from le Cruset, Henkels and Wusthof

And of course tickets to Rachel Rae's talk show

Many other items as well!

We'll be holding the auction that Sunday and will be live for bids from 3pm. The website for the auction will be www.knightly.com/auction.html (No it isn't live yet, but I'll have it awake by Wednesday this week.) complete with pictures and full desciptions.

If you find this interesting, please visit the site and bid on something, heck everything. Your dollars go to helping feed over 70,000 people a year! Visit the Queens Galley website for more information on the charity.

I subscribe to the geekish site lifehacker and while I don't use a lot of their tips, every once in a while they have something pretty darn nifty. Like this: Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips.

What does an unemployed Chef do for lunch ???



The salad is herb spring mix, fresh organic strawberries, toasted almonds and gorgonzola with Brianna's Poppyseed Dressing. I had rare (leftover) steak with baby beets also on the side. It was GREAT !!!

There is a farmer's market every Sunday just two blocks from my dormitory. This week I managed to purchase a bag of coconut date rolls for $2 when they were being sold for $3, because I said I only had $2 left. But I can't have only "$2 left to spend" every week, if you know what I mean (although it was true -- I emptied my wallet at the market). What kinds of bargaining strategies and tips do you use at farmer's markets, if any? I'm asking as a poor college student... please, please share!

Secondly, here are pictures of delicious (and affordable!) lunch at a Thai restaurant in San Diego last week:

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Last night's dinner was slow-roasted pork with goat cheese and a sherry reduction sauce wrapped in garlic butter naan. Absolutely delicious as the goat cheese melted in little nuggets, tempering the flavor of the sauce. It was gone much too quickly to photograph! My husband and I had a lot of fun figuring how much this meal made from leftovers would sell for in a trendy cafe. :)

Apples, tomatoes, split peas, walnuts, prunes ...
That's how my friend began describing an Afghani dish that he had in Virginia. He is now searching for a) a recipe and b) a restaurant serving it in Arizona.

Frankly, he lost me at the second ingredient and my mind, which is usually quite good at imagining flavors and foods, just rejected all the rest of the list too.

The tomatoes threw in a ratchet for me.

He doesn't remember the name of the dish. Are these ingredients ringing a bell for anyone? Any tips on locating a recipe (or an AZ restaurant) would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you wise and wonderful community!

This is a recipe I made the night that I made all of those deeply browned onions to illustrate my blog post on the method of caramelizing onions.

It is a rice dish where the basmati rice is flavored with caramelized onions, garlic and ginger paste, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric (which also colored it bright yellow) and garam masala.  It also has thawed frozen peas and cilantro in it that I added at the last--I wanted the peas to retain their "pop," sweet flavor and brilliant color.

It was great with the grilled chicken dish I made to go with it as well as the kale and onion raita.. (This recipe will be posted tomorrow.)

Anyway, here is an Indian dish which isn't a curry which uses deeply browned onions.

This week, I've been cooking from Hot Vegetables by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison. The four recipes I've tried have all been outstanding, although on the labor intensive side. Tonight's turned out the prettiest, so here it is:

Fennel Salad with Mango-Walnut Herb Dressing (left) and Wok-Seared Broccoli with Orange Sauce and Pine Nuts (right)




( recipes below the cut )




I also made (on different nights) the Asparagus & Shiitake Mu Shu (wonderful) and the Spinach Goat Cheese Potstickers (VERY high fat and EXTREMELY labor-intensive, but worth it).

There are so many more interesting-looking recipes in this book that I can't wait to try. So much food, so little time!