Heatwave

If you don't know, we're suffering from an epic heat wave. Too hot to cook, too hot to eat, and forget about posting!

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Orecchiete with Beans, Carrots, Arugula and Pinenuts

This is another one of those week-day dishes that is far more phenomenal than it sounds. It is also amenable to prep ahead of time.

The Italians like to cook their arugula. It does bring out its peppery nature!

Ingredients

1 cup cooked beans (cannellini, or similar)
1 onion (sliced into thin half-rounds)
1 carrot
2 cups arugula
1/4 cup pinenuts

olive oil
salt
pepper
parmigiano-reggiano

Recipe

Cook the white beans in salted water until edible. This step can be done ahead of time, say on the weekend.

Shred the carrots using a box grater.

Toast the pinenuts on a skillet.

Cook the orecchiete in salted water until just under al dente.

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan, and sautée the onions over medium-high heat. Fry the carrots, followed by the beans, salt and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of the pasta water to thin. Toss in the arugula followed by the orecchiete.

Top with the parm and the pinenuts.

An Evening Meal

The CC enjoys the spoils acquired at the Indonesian and Burmese markets.

The white rice is scattered with fried garlic. Mmmmmmmmmm..........

Burmese Food Festival : Part 3

And then there was eating ...

Poached Scallops over Spinach Couscous

This is the ultimate weekday dish. You should be able to manage this even with your "busy schedules" and "heatwaves".

If you can't manage this, the CC suggests you keep all the local takeouts and deliveries on speed dial. Oh, and you are not fit material for this blog.

Heat some tomato broth in a pan. When it comes to a simmer, turn the heat down. Add salt, pepper, herbs of your choice -- the CC added rosemary and/or thyme -- pop in the scallops and poach gently until they are barely set.

In parallel, the CC heated some water. Use the nuker. Drop in a bouillon cube (go on! don't be so uppity.) Pour it over the couscous. Cover. Let the couscous do its thing.

Remove the scallops from the pan using a slotted spoon. Turn the heat for the sauce on high, and reduce.

Plate as below. Not exactly rocket surgery but a perfectly balanced delicious meal.


This is a fairly general idea. You can poach squid, or shrimp, or even a fish fillet (for which you will need a larger amount of broth.)

You could even poach an egg.

You can use whatever herbs you have at hand. Sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano. You can bung in a chilli pepper or two for some heat. Or an anchovy for some umami.

The variations are endless. This is a meta-recipe.

As the CC said, it's the ultimate weekday dish.

Burmese Food Festival : Part 2

Burmese Food Festival : Part 1

Food better than the Roman emperors. What did the CC tell you?

This one was also in Queens. All proceeds went to a child-development charity if you need to feel good about gorging. (The CC doesn't care either way.)

Special note to the "fermented tea salad" in the last picture. It's wonderful, and has a textural variety and crunch that is similar to that Bombay specialty bhel.

Indonesian Food Festival : Part 5

And then we ate some more ...

Special note to the purplish drink which is made out of fermented black rice. This was not to everyone's taste but the CC loves kvass too so it's right up his sleeve. Tart and a great counterpoint to the food.

Wild Arugula Salad with Beans & Pistachios

The beans are the "yellow-eyed beans" from Rancho Gordo. They were prepped by boiling them with a little bit of prosciutto. Yep, this makes all the difference in the world. Vegetarians will never "get it" but at the very least they can read a technical explanation here.

The pistachios, are well, pistachios. However, they've been roasted lightly.

The greens are wild arugula. They are thinner and more peppery than their cultivated counterpart.

The vinaigrette is a standard one. It was made with pistachio oil to bring out the pistachio-ness of the ensemble.

The white shavings ia parmigiano-reggiano.

There is nothing complicated here but the attention to detail makes it go zing, zing, zing.

Indonesian Food Festival : Part 4

What we ate ...

All you Southern boys, please note the two kinds of fried chicken in the second picture. One is covered with lip-smacking hot-sweet-sour sauce. Finger-lickin' good! (and that's not some shitty corporate marketing bullshit neither!)

Indonesian Food Festival : Part 3

Cornucopia time, bitches!

Risotto with Vegetables and Rosemary

The first early summer vegetables are here. Risotto was called for.

This one contains squash, carrots, peas, corn, and rosemary.

If you chop the rosemary as well as add whole pines, you will get both the fragrance as well as this bitter edge that adds a low bass note as counterpoint to the alto sweetness of the carrots and peas.

Indonesian Food Festival : Part 2

The classic - gado gado.

Please note the use of the rice crackers for textural variation. (This is a very big thing in Indonesian cooking.)

Palak Paneer (Redux)

The CC was asked for the recipe here.

Follow these steps, and you will nail this delicious dish every single time.

The CC will assume that you can buy paneer at a local store. If not, you can make your own but that's a lot more work (and grist for a future post.)

Be aware, that this version sticks fast and close to the peasant roots of the dish. You will find innumerous fancified versions of this, mostly on the spicing front, but there's a time and place for fancification and there's a time and place for eating a "down home" cooked meal.

This is the home-cooked version that screams "comfort food".


Ingredients

paneer
4 large bunches of spinach (read below)
1" ginger
4 garlic cloves
4 green chillies
1 large red onion
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp garam masala
salt

peanut oil (read below.)

Recipe

Cube the paneer into uniform cubes. Heat about 1/4 cup of peanut oil and fry the cubes. This takes a while because you need to keep flipping the cubes to make them uniform. Also, a tad problematic because the paneer contains moisture so there's a tendency for the oil to splatter. Be VERY careful!

(And yes, this step is crucial.)

Drain the paneer on paper towels. Set aside.

Wash the spinach carefully, and dry. (The local spinach that the CC buys is covered in dirt. His basin is filled with a full layer of dirt when he finishes washing the spinach. Your's may differ but you have been warned.)

Be aware that spinach shrinks a lot when cooked. A lot.

You are better off buying more than you think you need than ending up with a huge amount of paneer with some green things hanging on. The CC has made this mistake so many times that he routinely tells people -- buy more spinach -- more, more, more.

In a food processor, process the onion, green chillies, ginger and garlic to a loose paste. This should not be totally smooth just till they are all shredded into fine pieces. (This is a standard step in many many North Indian recipes so you should memorize this.)

Fry the paste in some oil. Toss in the cumin till it is fragrant. Add the spinach. Toss it around. Marvel at the forces of nature that an entire pot of spinach turns into so very little. Where did it all go?

(Also marvel at the fact that raw spinach is poisonous but cooked spinach is absolutely delightful. Take that, you "raw food" fetish fuckers! Bet you didn't know that one.)

If you have an "immersion blender" (the CC highly recommends it!), blend the mixture to a smooth paste. Otherwise use an ordinary blender.

Add the garam masala, salt, and the paneer cubes. (The quantities for the masala are approximate. You may need more.)

Heat and serve.

Indonesian Food Festival : Part 1

The CC goes to this monthly Indonesian food fair in Queens. The money goes to charity.

As the CC has repeatedly mentioned, if you are willing to hop on the subway, you can live like a God in modern-day New York. Something that Roman emperors would've envied. (Not that many of them would've hopped onto the subway.)

First up, a salad with an "edge".

India : Day 8 : Post 2

We're doing a repeat eatery. Original eats post was here.

Why mess around when it's this good, eh?

Dinner at Mexican "Bistro"

The CC and a friend from out of town had dinner at a local spot. The friend was vegetarian so the CC ordered a compatible meal so the friend could try everything.

The friend was in raptures. The CC says "DUH!!!"

Butternut Squash Soup (with corn)
Huitlacoche Enchiladas
Gnocchi with Squash in a Saffron-Epazote Broth

India : Day 8 : Post 1

Black chickpeas, potatoes, onions, green chillies, black salt, lime.

This shit is addictive, yo!