Ingredients:

Salad:

• Mesclun Greens
• Roasted Sliced Almonds – 1/2 cup
• Dried Cranberries – 1/2 cup
• 1 Sliced Red Onion

Butternut Squash:

• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 tablespoons cumin powder
• Cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries

Apple Cider Vinaigrette:

• Apple Cider – 3/4 cup
• Apple Cider Vinegar – 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 red onion chopped
• salt/pepper to taste

Method:

Butternut Squash:

• Chop Butternut squash in small pieces and distribute on baking pan
• Add Olive oil, salt/pepper, cumin powder, Cinnamon, and maple syrup to squash and mix well
• Bake in baking pan at 400 degrees for 20 minutes
• Take out of oven, mix well, and bake for 10 more minutes
• Take out of over, add dried cranberries, and bake for 10 more minutes
• Set aside in mixing bowl

Apple Cider Vinaigrette:

• Mix all ingredients together and boil for 3 to 4 minutes
• Set aside in a small bowl

Salad:

• Toss mesclun greens and sliced red onion into large salad mixing bowl
• Add Apple Cider Vinaigrette and mix well into salad
• Add butternut squash to top of salad
• Garnish with Roasted sliced almonds and dried cranberries

My Mom and I decided to make a healthy lunch today – Tabouleh with Quinoa.  We added chick peas for protein.  It was perfect for a hot summer day – here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Quinoa – 1 1/2 cups – cooked
• 2 pods Garlic chopped
• 1 Red Pepper chopped
• 1 Cucumber chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 Red Onion chopped
• 1/2 can chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• Fresh mint, dill, parsley – chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• toasted almonds (for garnish)
• black olives (for garnish)

Method:

• Combine garlic, red pepper, cucumbers, carrots, red onion, chick peas, mint, dill, and parsley in a bowl
• Add quinoa to mixture
• Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and mix well
• Garnish with toated almonds and black olives

Ingredients:

• 1 Box Orzo pasta (1 lb.) cooked
• 8 cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
• 1/2 cucumber diced (drain excess water with paper towel)
• 1/2 pound feta cheese crumbled
• Fresh dill (chopped)
• 3 tables spoonsFresh ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon White wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Combine orzo, tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, and dill, in large mixing bowl
• Combine ground mustard, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper into small bowl – mix into dressing
• Add mustard dressing to orzo salad and mix well

Since it is officially summer, I wanted to post an “on the grill” recipe.  I don’t know about you, but since the kick-off of Memorial Day weekend, I’ve been eating BBQ non-stop.  My cousin had a Memorial Day BBQ and I brought an orzo pasta salad to her house.  I had a lot of left over ingredients and did not want it to go to waste so I tried to think about what I could grill that would go good with these ingredients which were cucumber, dill, feta, and course ground mustard.  I decided to make a Greek fusion version of lamb sliders, topped with tzatziki sauce with a side of mustard coated potatoes.  I spiced up the lamb sliders (of course how could I not!!) with green chilies.  I have to say the combo of the spicy lamb sliders with the soothing and cold tzatziki sauce actually worked.  I have never made mustard coated potatoes before and decided to try this given the ingredients that I was trying to work with – I have to say that it had an interesting (but in a good way) taste with it’s mix of spiciness from the mustard and sweet blend from the balsamic.  Here’s the recipe:

Tzatziki sauce:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups plain yogurt
• 1/2 cucumber peeled and diced (make sure to also take the seeds out) this is important so that the sauce is not too liquidy
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Dash of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped dill
• 1 garlic clove minced
• A dash of  hot red sauce (tabasco or anything really works – I used Cholula Chili Garlic Sauce)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and refridgerate for 2 hours

Lamb Sliders:

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground lamb
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta
• 1 Red Onion chopped
• 5 Kalamata Olives chopped
• 3 tablesspoons chopped dill
• 3 tablesspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons cilantro chopped
• 6 green hot peppers chopped
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Slider Rolls

Method:

• Mix all ingredients except slider rolls in a bowl. Use hand to mix all the ingredients well into the ground lamb
• Form into 4 ounce patties
• Grill patties over medium heat – about 6 minutes on each side until cooked
• Toast Slider Rolls over medium heat for about 30 seconds to 1 minute
• Remove burgers from grill and serve on slider rolls; garnish with tzatziki sauce

Mustard Coated Potatoes:

Ingredients:

• 1 Potato – sliced in thin rounds
• 2 tablespoons of Grey Poupon’s harvest course ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

• Mix mustard, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and salt/pepper in a small bowl
• Coat potato slices with mustard dressing
• Fry potatoes on medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until fried crispy

I love the fact that I can go to my Mother’s backyard and pick out fresh herbs from her garden.  We are enjoying the Memorial Day weekend but starting to get sick of BBQ-ing for 3 days in a row – so we decided to make good old fashioned pastaaaaaaaaa to change things up a bit.  This dish is easy to make and light – plus again, my favorite part of making this was when I got to go out to the backyard and pick out fresh basil and parsley leaves to add to the dish.  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

Pasta:

• 2 hot Italian sausage links
• Broccoli chopped
• 2 tomatoes diced
• 2 cloves of garlic – diced in thin slices
• Red Pepper flakes
• Spinach leaves
• Penne pasta cooked
• 4 basil leaves
• Fresh parsley – chopped
• Capers
• Salt/Pepper to taste
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Lemon, Butter, White wine sauce:

• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 cups white wine
• 1 clove of garlic – diced in thin slices

Method:

• Break open sausage links with a spatula until they are in small pieces
• Heat olive oil in a frying pan and add garlic – cook for 2 to 3 minutes
• Add sausage and sautee until the sausage is cooked – about 10 to 15 minutes.  Set aside in a bowl.
• In another frying pan heat olive oil and add garlic and red pepper flakes- cook for 2 to 3 minutes
• Add tomatoes, spinach, and broccoli and cook for 5 minutes
• Add basil and parsley and cook for 5 minutes
• Add butter, lemon juice, white wine, and capers;  simmer for 10 minutes
• Add sausage to the vegetables
• Mix in sausage and vegetable blend to the cooked pasta
• Garnish with fresh basil and parsley leaves and grated Parmesan cheese

“How does my mom show her love for us? Not through words but through her cooking. Somehow the meals taste great because it’s mom’s cooking. Her secret ingredient? Love. And we feel blessed to have her cook for us.”  Unknown; meaning I have no idea who said this but it’s not mine!

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom, who is by far the best cook I have ever known in my life – no one can ever top her insane sense of food and cooking in the kitchen.  When I am in the kitchen, I only hope I do at least half justice to anything she has ever cooked.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom! I hope you enjoy this brunch that I made for you.

I decided to make coconut/chocolate chip pancakes topped with a mango compote because I wanted to try making pancakes with some Indian flavors.  I thought that the coconut would go well with chocolate and the mango compote would be a nice complement to the coconut and chocolate flavors.  Compotes originated in England and are also used in French cooking.  It is traditionally made with whole pieces of fruit but in this case I chopped the mango pieces.

My Mom also only eats hard boiled eggs – she can’t eat any other form of eggs so I really had to be creative to think of an egg dish I could make with hard boiled eggs.  I decided to make a hard boiled egg/mozzarella sandwich.  If you decide to try these items please let me know how it turns out!

Coconut/Chocolate Chip Pancakes topped with Mango Compote:

Mango Compote:

Ingredients:

• 6 medium sized mangoes chopped in small pieces
• 1 cup water
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• lime juice (squeezed from 1 lime)
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 5 cloves

Directions:

• Combine all ingredients together in pot and bring to boil.
• Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally until the fruit is softened and the liquid is a bit thick.

Coconut/Chocolate Chip Pankcakes:

(serving size: 2 pancakes)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup Ghiradelli chocolate chips

Directions:

• Combine flour, baking powder, and sugar in bowl.
• Combine coconut, chocolate chips, milk, oil, and egg in another bowl and stir with whisk
• Add coconut/chocolate chip mixture to flour mixture and stir to make pancake batter
• Pour 1/4 cup batter onto a nonstick skillet and spread with spatula
• Cook for 2 minutes on each side until brown and fully cooked
• Serve pancakes topped with butter and mango compote

Hard Boiled Egg English Muffin Sandwich:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 English Muffiin
• 1 Hard boiled egg (cut in half)
• Olive Oil
  
• 1 slice of fresh mozzarella
• 1 slice red onion
• 1 slice tomato
  
• 1 fresh basil leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon basil flakes
  

Directions:

• Spread Olive Oil on English Muffin half and toast
• Top Muffin with slice of mozzarella, tomato, red onion, and hard boiled egg
• Sprinkle oregano and garnish with basil leaf
• Heat on griddle for 3 to 4 minutes

That is true……until you fastforward to March 16, 2010.  I organize a book club through a non-profit organization I volunteer for called NetIP (Network of Indian Professionals).  March 16th was the launch of our very first meeting in the city.  It was also, Ugadi – the Telugu New Year.  I was so excited about the book club that I invited my Mom to read the book and come along with me.  When we got to the book club venue in the NYU area, we decided to walk around for a bit and find a cafe to get a quick bite to eat.  As we walked around, we quickly stumbled across a small cafe.  When we got there, I ordered a bagel bread sandwich with cream cheese (can you believe it, I still crave cream cheese after my 2003 blackout escapade), cucumbers, and tomatoes.  My Mom spotted cupcakes and decided to order one to go with our sandwich and coffee.  Normally, we both don’t have a sweet tooth and I especially don’t particularly love cupcakes – or understand the cupcake craze in this country.  But she ordered it…..and what came next was 3 whole minutes of both of us DEVOURING the cupcake.  The cupcake was out of this world.  It was called the BLACKOUT.  Here is a picture:

The taste of this semi-sweet chocolate cupcake felt like heaven as I bit into it, consuming the chocolate custard filling topped with cocoa crumbles.  Forget Magnolia, Buttercup, and all the other cupcake magnets in NYC – Cafe Angelique on Bleeker Street (http://www.cafeangelique.com/) is the hidden gem to all cupcakes!  My Mom and I immediately ordered a half dozen to go so we can take it home and devour those bad boys for the rest of that week!  We then went to book club, met some great people, drank some wine, and discussed our first book, One Amazing Thing, by Chitra Divakaruni.

That night after we both got home, we talked about how New York City will never cease to amaze us – it is only in this city where you can just walk a few blocks whereever you are and just stumble across amazing cafes and food of pure greatness.  You don’t have to even try and you just get surprised second by second on all that this city has to offer.

As a tradition, Telugu people celebrate our New Year by making a special Ugadi “pachadi” (chutney) made with sweet and sour mixed ingredients as a symbol to taste  unique experiences in the year to come.  We didn’t get a chance to make our Ugadi pachadi this year but my aunt told me not to worry as we shared different views from different people at our book club meeting – and I discovered a good taste to a different kind of BLACKOUT – just like how we make Ugadi pachadi with mixed ingredients.

If that is so, then I don’t mind experiencing a BLACKOUT to kick off my New Year!  Here is a recipe I found on Food Network on the Blackout Cupcake if anyone wants to try it out at home:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/brooklyn-blackout-cake-recipe/index.html

TGIF!  What better way to spend it then drinking red wine and making steak.  Tonight I decided to make steak South American style and do a Chimichurri steak.  I always order it whenever I go to a South American/Latin restaurant and absolutely love that it is so simple to make yet SO tasty and flavorful.  Anything for which garlic is the main ingredient is the way to my heart:)

While Chimichurri can be found in multiple South American countries, I believe it originated in Argentina.  Some of my Argentinian friends are proud of their Chimichurri!!  We had this with a South American red wine, Cabernet – Los Voscos.

Here is the recipe and enjoy if you decide to make this!!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup EVOO (in true Rachael Ray fashion!!) even though I wrote 1 cup, I would be liberal in using EVOO as the sauce is supposed to be oily.
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 lemon – for lemon juice
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• a sprinkle of chopped basil
• a sprinkle of salt and pepper
• a sprinkle of red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup cilantro (this is not part of the traditional recipe but I decided to try it and I do recommend using it in the chimichurri – it was delish!!)
• 4 cloves garlic – minced
• Steak seasoning – or salt and pepper

Directions:

• Sprinkle steak with any steak seasoning or salt and pepper and set aside
• Combine rest of ingredients and grind in food processor
• Marinate sauce on steak for 2 to 3 hours – up to a 24 hours would be best
• Grill steak to order
• drizzle leftover Chimichurri sauce on steak

Ingredients: (we didn’t measure this – please use measurements to your discretion)

• Barley
• Lentils
• Chopped cucumber
• Chopped tomato
• Chopped red onion
• Chopped carrots
• Chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 can corn
• Chopped Cilantro
• Dill
• Lemon juice
• Chopped green chillies
• Chopped fresh garlic
• Fresh ground cumin
• Pinch of turmeric
• A dash of olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

• Cook barley and lentils in a pot of water on medium heat until well cooked (about 20 to 25 minutes)
• Mix all ingredients well in a bowl

So when I went out to dinner with a few new friends of mine from the NetIP-NY board (one of them being from Hyderabad), I discovered Chicken 65.  We all went out to Nirvana, an Indian restaurant in NYC.  One of my friends, Shobha, ordered Chicken 65 and proceeded to tell me how it is from Andhra.  I could not believe that I had never heard of it before – until it later dawned on me that my Uncle always talked about Chicken 65 and how great it is – in fact at one of our recent Dasika get togethers (this past Summer 2009), my entire family discussed the origin of Chicken 65 and why it was named Chicken 65.  I myself had never tasted it until last weekend.  I immediately wanted to learn how to make it.  My friend, Sami, the Hyderabadi, asked his Mom to give me a few pointers on the recipe and voila – there you have it. CHICKEN 65!

Chicken 65 is a deep fried, spicy chicken dish mostly served as an appetizer.  It of course is a Hyderabadi dish and has many theories as to the origin of the name:

• The 65 in the Chicken 65 represents the year it was introduced by the famous hotel in Chennai called “BUHARI”. Hence the name “Chicken 65″. They also serve Chicken 78, Chicken 82, Chicken 90 which are all introduced in those years.

• The pants size of Tarul Assani, the chef that invented the dish nearly 200 years ago.
• The number 65 is variously said to be the number of days taken to prepare the marinade or the year of the dish’s creation.

I loved making this dish – it’s great for all you spicy lovers.  I have to admit that even though I eat spicy food, I actually sweated while I was eating this dish!!  Here is the recipe that I used – I improvised and added my own ingrediants too = )  I hope you enjoy!!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 tsp of cloves mixture
• 2 cloves garlic – minced
• 2 tsp ginger grated
• 2 tsp red chilies powder
• 3 tsp Sriracha red sauce
• 1 Egg
• 2 tsp All purpose flour
• 4 drops red food coloring
• 2 cups Yogurt
• 6 Green chilies
• 2 tsp Cornflour (if you don’t have corn flour you can use corn starch but it will be a little thicker)
• 3 tsp lime juice
• Vegetable/Canola oil
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 onion chopped
• Cilantro

Directions:

• In bowl mix corn flour, all purpose flour, ginger, garlic, chilli powder, egg, clove mixture, and salt
• Add chicken pieces to batter and marinate for 1 hour
• Deep fry chicken pieces until golden
• In sauce pan, heat oil
• Fry onions for 1 minute and set aside in a bowl
• Add fried chicken, yogurt, green chillies, Sriracha sauce, red food color, lime juice and fry for 4 to 5 minutes.
• Garnish with onions and cilantro