Roasted Carrot Soup

Here's another recipe I developed for Robyn's blog. Enjoy! I promise to post some new things in coming weeks :)

With this cold weather, it's a wonderful time to make soups. One of the least expensive vegetables around are carrots. Although inexpensive, carrots will win you over with their gorgeous orange color, natural sweetness and abundance of vitamin A, dietary fiber, antioxidants and minerals. Below is a recipe for Roasted Carrot Soup, which doesn't take much time to make, but will warm you on a cooler fall day. I bet even your kids will like it!

First, a note on roasting. Roasting is a wonderful technique of cooking at high temperatures. You can roast vegetables, poultry and even fruit. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness in your food and frees you to do other kitchen tasks while the food sits in the 450 degree oven. One of the keys in roasting is to make sure not to pile your food on top of each other. Roast your vegetables in one layer, and make sure that all pieces are of the same size: that way, it will all cook evenly.

Ingredients (makes about 5 cups)

7 large carrots, peeled, cut into 2" pieces

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne (less or more depending on your tolerance for heat)

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup milk

garnish: fresh thyme, cream (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. In a bowl drizzle carrots with olive oil and season with salt & pepper, and cayenne. Mix well.



3. Transfer the carrots onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the carrots are tender. They will turn a nice golden-brown color.



4. Let the carrots cool a bit, then add them to a blender and puree with chicken stock and milk. [Note, to make this soup vegetarian, use vegetable stock or water instead of chicken stock.]

5. Pour the soup into a stockpot and reheat. To serve, garnish with fresh thyme and a bit of cream.



Variations: you can use this recipe with sweet potatoes, winter squash, red peppers, or combination of the above. Try drizzling a bit of olive oil or good balsamic vinegar instead of the cream if you are watching your calories.

Daring Bakers: Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Somehow September, October and November are flying by before my eyes. How is it that the Fall is almost over and the Winter is almost here? Maybe it's all the Christmas decorations in the Mall that are messing up with my perception of time?

The point is, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything going on (cooking, blogging, trying to keep my apartment clean, dancing, freelancing for Robyn, etc) and was considering skipping this month's challenge.

Then I found out that my friend Jenny was going to be in DC. When I told Jenny about the cannoli challenge, she said it sounded like fun and "pressured" me to make them! So I did.

If you want a recipe, let me know.

The dough came together really easy, and I used my pasta machine to roll it out. I also decided to buy the cannoli molds (metal tubes), instead of making my own.

The hardest part of the challenge was removing fried cannoli from the forms. A few of them broke in the process.

For the filling, instead of using ricotta, I made home-made whipped cream and spiked it with a bit of rum, orange zest and confectionery sugar. The final result was tasty without being overwhelmingly sweet.



I made only 1/2 of the cannoli recipe and ended up frying 5 cannoli. The rest of the dough is sitting in my refrigerator and will most likely go unused. This wasn't a terribly complicated challenge, but it's also not something I'm planning on making again.

My original thought of adding some chocolate sauce to the shells and covering them with chopped almonds stayed just that: a thought.

Question: other than making more cannoli, is there anything else I can do with the metal cannoli tubes?

Warm Bulgur & Lentil Salad

While I'm on vacation, I thought I'd share with you a few recipes I have developed for Robyn's Blog. Here's one of them: Bulgur & Lentil Warm Salad.

Bulgur, for those that don’t know, is a form of wheat that has been parboiled and broken into smaller particles. Bulgur is popular in Turkish, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines, and is rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. You cook bulgur in the same way as cous cous: put dry bulgur in a bowl, top with boiling water, cover, let stand for 5-10 minutes and fluff with a fork. In case there is extra water, drain bulgur in a fine mesh before fluffing it with a fork.

Ingredients for 2-4 servings
1 cup cooked bulgur
1 cup cooked lentils
1 carrot, finely diced and sauteed in oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
olive oil
smoked sea salt
pepper

1. Combine everything in a salad bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with smoked sea salt and pepper.
2. This salad is best served warm. It can be a meal in itself or accompany grilled meat, roasted chicken or steamed fish.

Variations: you can always add red onions, roasted peppers and a few splashes of lemon juice to this salad. Use this recipe as a template and experiment with different flavors.


Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends tomorrow!

Capital Food Fight

This is just a quick write up on DC Capital Food Fight I volunteered at a few weeks ago.

Why volunteer? That way you don't have to pay for the ticket and can still enjoy most of the event. My original "job" was to do security, but I nicely asked to be reassigned to do registration instead.

Basically, with the help of other volunteers I checked off the guests for the event and put those bands on their wrists that you get when you go clubbing.

The highlights were seeing all the outfits and having a quick chat with Mike Isabella's wife.

Wait, I should tell you a bit about the event itself (from the website):

The Capital Food Fight brings the food industry’s best talent together to support DC Central Kitchen’s unique brand of community empowerment. Dozens of hot restaurants serve signature dishes to guests while top chefs battle on-stage. Food critics and national celebrities are on hand to mingle with the crowd and add to the excitement.

This year's event featured guest celebrities and top chefs such as: José Andrés, Anthony Bourdain, Ted Allen, Eric Ripert, Carla Hall, Michael Mina, Barton Seaver, and Bobby Varua.

The event was held at the Reagan Building: here's a photo of before the activities started:

While doing registration, we were offered a delicious soup and kielbasa skewer courtesy of Jackson 20 and I also had a delicious watermelon/cucumber drink: that really helped to deal with some of the less pleasant and patient guests.

Here are a few photos of the scene once the party started!

Luckily, I was able to leave the registration desk long enough to sample some of the amazing food served by DC top restaurants. Miranda (who I originally met on Twitter and who happened to be volunteering at the same event) joined me.

Scallop ceviche by one of the Jose Andres restaurants; amazing lamb (don't remember the name of the restaurant)

layered desserts

The judges (LOVE Eric Ripert: actually when I first saw him at the event just walking by the registration desk, I squealed like a little girl!). Other judges included Ted Allen, Carla Hall and Jonathan Umbel.

The pantry provided by Wegmans and the graduating class from DC Central Kitchen:

The final battle was won by Michael Mina: congratulations.

This was a fabulous event! So much great food, such an important cause and one of the best experiences volunteering.

Please Vote

Hi, everyone!
Hope you are having a great Thanksgiving week. I just wanted to let you know that I entered a photo contest at Marx Foods. If you like a picture of my Challah French Toast, please vote here.

Thanks!

The voting will be open for a few days.

Israeli Cous Cous Salad

I remember trying Israeli cous cous a long time ago and really not liking it: I can't remember why though.

What's Israeli cous cous? It's basically just little round pasta (also known as pearl cous cous because the pasta looks like mini pearls).

Well, I decided to give Israeli cous cous another try. Who knew it'd be so hard to find at the grocery store though? The only variety I could find was pre-packaged with spices (similar to regular cous cous and rice mixes).

This is really not a recipe: instead, it's just a combination of my favorite ingredients.

I cooked the Israeli cous cous in the same way I cook any other pasta, minus the pre-packaged flavoring mix. After rinsing, draining and cooling it, I added the following:

* chopped tomatoes
* chopped cucumbers
* chopped black olives
* lots of fresh dill
* canned corn, drained (of course you can also use fresh corn)
* finely chopped red onion
* lemon juice
* olive oil
* salt & pepper

Doesn't this salad just scream summer? You can also add feta, chicken or even good quality canned tuna. The possibilities are endless!

Note: if I don't get back to your comments, please don't be offended: I'm spending a week in Puerto Rico and will answer any of your questions when I get back on the 29th. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving with your friends and family.

Challah French Toast with Madagascar Vanilla

After coming back from San Francisco, I learned that Marx Foods was having a photo contest using vanilla beans. I was very excited about entering the contest and receiving 6 Madagascar and 6 Tahitian vanilla beans.

As you already know, I used some of the beans to experiment with making vanilla extract at home. But what to do with the rest!? Luckily, Anna came to the rescue and suggested I make a Challah French Toast. Since she's my older sister (by 30 minutes!!!!), I listened to her.

This time instead of making my own challah, I bought one at the grocery store. And I also used a new whisk I received at the Foodbuzz Festival a few weeks ago: isn't it pretty? Unfortunately, it did not work too well in the shallow plate I was using...maybe it's best to be used in deeper bowls?

Challah French Toast with Madagascar Vanilla

Ingredients

4 3/4" challah slices

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk)

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 vanilla bean

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons butter

Directions

1. In a bowl add eggs, milk, orange zest, seeds from a split vanilla bean and brown sugar. Whisk together.

2. In a heavy-bottomed pan heat the butter. Dunk the challah slices in the egg mixture and cook in butter for 2 minutes on each side. Serve with a bit of powdered sugar. I found no need for maple syrup, as it would have overwhelmed the flavors of vanilla, brown sugar and orange zest.

The photo below will be my entry to the photo contest. I'll let you know when the voting will begin :)

Note: obviously the flower is not to be consumed.

Any suggestions for what to do with my remaining vanilla beans? Thanks!

Puerto Rican lunch @ Mio

Last week my friend Lisa asked if I'd like to go to Mio for media lunch instead of her. Of course I said yes: and am so glad I made that choice!

This was a special lunch to introduce Saborea Puerto Rico: A culinary Extravaganza. What perfect timing, since I'm flying to Puerto Rico this Saturday to visit my friend Laura and her family?

Just so that you know, I LOVE Latin culture: the music, the language, the people, etc., etc. I first visited Old San Juan, Puerto Rico 3 or 4 years ago with Anna and our friends and had an amazing time. Can't wait to spend my Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico.

But back to lunch in Mio. As I tried my best to mingle with people (something I really am anxious about), I tasted ceviche de carrucho (conch ceviche) served on white porcelain spoons: delicious!

I was also told about a pig the restaurant flew out from Puerto Rico specifically for this occasion and roasted to be served with yucca and onion confit. Not to be rude, but I must confess that I wasn't a huge fan of this dish. There wasn't enough meat, and the yucca was a bit plain. But the pig did look marvelous.

I was also urged to taste Puerto Rican rum. Not being a big drinker, I was only able to handle a little sip. But I did enjoy learning the proper ways to drink rum (you are to hold the glass or rum in your hand to warm it up before sipping it). Luckily, Mio also provided wine!

As if wine wasn't enough, we were encouraged to help ourselves to a great looking cocktail from the bar: pear nectar with kiwi juice and some kind of liquor (sorry, can't recall the name of it). I was a happy girl!

After drinks and appetizers, we went to a private loft area of the restaurant to hear a presentation about Saborea Puerto Rico and learn more about rum production. Both were educational, with an added bonus of listening to native Puerto Ricans: LOVE their accents.

And then there was more food: dorado en salsa de maiz tierno y sofrito (mahi-mahi with fresh corn sauce and sofrito with a potato chip). The fish was cooked to perfection, and I was a bit sad we did not get more chips!

The fish was followed by more wine and guinea al vino tinto y ron, pure de apio (guinea hen in a red wine and rum reduction served with celery root puree). This was the first time I've ever tried guinea. It was delicious, but just as in the case of chicken or turkey, I preferred the white meat.

And then we had two desserts: dulce de papapya con queso del pais (candied papaya with artisanla Puerto Rican cheese). The cheese was like a mild version of feta. I think it'd be amazing in a cucumber/tomato/olive salad. In this dessert it served as a good contrast to the sweetness of the candied papaya.

And last but not least, panacota de coco con mousse de chocolate y ron (coconut panacota with chocolate mousse & rum). Again, I've never tried panacota in my life! It's a combination of jello and custard, and I really enjoyed it. The chocolate mousse was even better.

What a satisfying and informative lunch! Thanks Lisa, Mio restaurant, Karla and Barbara!

How to Make Vanilla Extract at Home

I've written before about my resistance to sign up for Twitter. But then I joined (@MangoTomato) and have found the experience addictive and helpful so far. For example, after received vanilla bean samples from Marx Foods in Seattle, I posted a question on Twitter asking for suggestions for what to do with those vanilla beans.

Stephanie from Adventures in Shaw recommended I make vanilla extract and even gave me a link for a recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini.

All you need for this is rum (or vodka), vanilla beans, glass jar with a tightly fitted lid and 8 weeks of your time.

By the way, did you know vanilla beans come from orchids? (And I LOVE orchids.)

Basically, what you do is sterilize a glass jar with a tightly fitted lid by pouring boiling water into the jar and letting it sit for 10 minutes.

Then pour out the water. Take 3 vanilla beans and split them open with a sharp knife. Put the split beans into the jar and top off with 1 cup of rum. Close the jar tightly and shake it!!

Keep the jar in the dark cool place for 8 weeks (I heard you can also do it for 6 weeks) shaking the jar occasionally.

Thanks Cindy for the jar :)

I will let you know how this experiment works out!

Also, stay tuned for another recipe I made with the vanilla beans from Marx Foods and a chance to help me win $150 certificate from them :)

Saturday at Foodbuzz Food Festival, Part 2

Are you tired of my Foodbuzz recaps yet? Please say "no" or just wait a few more days: I promise to post something non-Foodbuzz related.

Saturday night (last weekend) was perhaps my most favorite part of the Foodbuzz Food Festival. We were put on a bus and driven to a produce warehouse in the middle of nowhere (or so it seemed).

That's where we had a truly outstanding dinner: Outstanding in the Field, which included great food, a lot of wine, chatting with friends we've made over the weekend and being surrounded by cartons of tomatoes, onions and huge containers of soy sauce.

We were greeted by the owner of the winery which produces 2008 Ca' del Solo Albarino.

While sipping the wine (and refilling it at least once) I walked around the warehouse taking photos of food and cool quotes:


Look at all the tables Outstanding in the Field set up for us!

The menu had an Asian feel, and most of the food was consumed using chopsticks.

Just so that you know, there wasn't too much light: we were enjoying candle light instead (the situation was different depending on where in the warehouse you were sitting).

And now to the food:

Mushroom dashi, maitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms (in plain English, a delicious mushroom soup)

Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisee & yellow pear tomato with chojang & sesame vinaigrette (served with 2007 Le Cigare Blanc)

not pictured, but consumed and really enjoyed:

Sea trout baked with dashikombu, fried garlic and Japanese curry powder

Mushroom risotto with koshihikari rice, crispy maitake mushrooms

Soy braised beef cheeks with oxtails, baby carrots and fingerling potato, OB Beer and denjang demi

Roasted brussels sprouts, ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, bonito flakes (served with 2005 Le Cigare Volant): this was everyone's favorite course

Koshihikari rice pudding, cookie crumble and warren pear (with 2008 Vinferno): this was a disappointing end to the meal: I wasn't a huge fan of the dessert or the Vinferno.

After dinner, I was guilted into going salsa dancing with Anna. I'm sorry, but the people asking me to dance were horrible. One guy was not even moving to the beat of music, but wanted to teach me how to dance! Seriously!?

Sunday we enjoyed brunch at Lulu restaurant, said our final good-bye's to the people we met at the festival, also Foodbuzz employees, and then hung out with Anna's friends the rest of the day, before heading back to the airport.

Such an awesome long weekend.

I leave you with one "person" photo of me :)

Saturday at Foodbuzz Food Festival, Part 1

And now back to Foodbuzz Festival recap. Saturday morning Anna and I got a late start. I was not going to get up at 8 am :) After a cup of coffee at our hotel, we headed to the Ferry Building for breakfast. Below are a few photos I snapped on the way. For those who don't speak Russian, the first sticker says KGB, the second one says "Come in, Sit down, Hold on, Shut up!"--priceless. The third photo is just a cool sculpture I saw across the street.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to breakfast, there was only one pastry left and a bunch of grapes. Not to worry, with grapes in hand, we headed back out to an art/craft market in front of the Ferry Building, where I bought a pretty jade necklace and a matching bracelet. Anna wasn't able to find anything that she loved (I will try to take photos of jewelry later and post it on my other blog).

After jewelry shopping, Anna and I parted ways: I went to a seminar on Farm to Table (all about meat), and she went to Cowgirl Creamery tasting. Needless to say, she made a smarter choice.

And then it was time to sample a ton of food at the Metreon. Below are just some of the photos of the great food Foodbuzz made available. Apologies for not noting down everyone's brand name, etc.

The first photo is the amazing ceviche with octopus: loved it! And what a pretty presentation. And then of course there was a ton of cheese from Kerrygold.

For a bit of sweetness, there were these chocolate/peanut butter/jam concoctions. I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter, but really liked these.

Then there were adorable little tarts with beef and the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. The cookies were from Annie the Baker. It's amazing how she got the consistency to be chewy, the chips to stay intact, and the cookies to be so tall.

And then it was time for a tasting of Sparkling wines from CA. Four different wines ranging in color and flavor. By the looks of the wine, I liked the one on the right the most, because it was pink. But scroll down to see which one I liked the most taste-wise (the glass with the least amount of wine left).

Happy and slightly tipsy, Anna and I spent the next few hours shopping (without buying anything), then went back to our hotel and changed for Outstanding in the Field Dinner (best part of Foodbuzz Festival): stay tune for write up of that coming up soon.

Faux Pho with Tofu

It has been a while since I've posted a recipe. So here's one for Faux Pho with Tofu soup I made Monday after my red eye flight from San Francisco.

A while ago I received a few coupons from Nasoya Brand. I've used their wonton wrappers and tofu before, and this time bought their Chinese noodles and firm cubed tofu to make this soup. The rest was inspired by the Pho Daring Cooks challenge and the broccoli I had sitting in my refrigerator.

This is an incredibly easy soup to make: it is perfect for the cold and rainy weather we are having in DC, and is great for leftovers.

Ingredients
2 star anise
3 cloves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tablespoon roughly chopped ginger
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 orange pepper, sliced
8 ounces firm cubed tofu
1 cup broccoli florettes
2 teaspoons chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
Chinese noodles, cooked per package direction
lime wedges

Directions

1. In a heated pot roast star anise, cloves and cumin seeds for a few minutes.

2. Add the liquid, ginger, garlic and onion, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the liquid and put back into the soup pot.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients (other than noodles and lime wedges) and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Adjust the seasoning.

5. Add noodles to a soup bowl and cover with a few ladles of the liquid, tofu, and vegetables.

6. Serve with a lime wedge.

Friday at Foodbuzz Food Festival

Hi, all! I'm back from San Francisco and had a wonderful weekend at Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. Here is my attempt at a recap :)

Friday was an early rise for me after a late night of volunteering, cleaning and packing. San Francisco greeted me with gray skyes, rain, and cool weather. The hotel told me that they were out of rooms with twin-sized beds, so I had to share a queen sized bed with my twin, Anna, who was flying in for the festival as well. After meeting up at the hotel, we went for a quick lunch at Osha Thai Noodle Cafe where I had dinner the last time I was in San Francisco. Luckily, Anna liked the place and the food :)

We then walked over to the Hotel Vitale to pick up our passes and gift bags! I LOVE gifts, and Foodbuzz did such an excellent job: there were chocolates, books, gadgets, pesto, Panko, olives, and other fun items in our bags. After dropping the gift bags in our hotel, we headed back to the Hotel Vitale for a Meet & Greet, drinks and appetizers. Look at the amazing views of San Francisco from the hotel's rooftop.

There were so many people! And I must admit that I'm not the best person at chit-chatting: no one will call me a social butterfly. Still, I ran into John from So Good, who I've met at the DC Food Bloggers Happy Hour last week, and Anna and I also met Mecaela from Wine & Food Culture.

After drinks and appetizers, it was time to head out to Taste of SF Street Food Fare at the Ferry Building.

Below are just a few of the tasty things Foodbuzz provided for us: 1) look at the crowds! 2) delicious mini cupcakes by Mission Minis. This was the first time I tried red velvet cake, and I liked it!

One of my favorite foods Friday night was a sandwich by Roli Roti. How can you go wrong with porchetta, onion marmalade and a side of potatoes? Unfortunately, the photo of the sandwich did not meet my standards :)

For more sweets, there was ice cream by Straus Family Creamery and the best cheesecake by Alive (completely raw food!).

And then there was also a selection of raw oysters byHog Island Oyster Co.: fresh, sweet, salty and delicious!

Are you getting full just reading and looking at photos? Wait, there is more! The Pie Truck had two types of mini pies. I tried the steak & Gruyere kind and really liked it: flaky dough, flavorful meat inside: all I was missing was a fork.

And then there was also thin crust pizza by Pizza Politana.

There was more food and more drinks, but that's all I've been able to capture :)

The other highlights of the night were meeting Esi from Dishing Up Delights, Chrystal & Amir from The Duo Dishes, Ryan the Girl and Alexa from Foodbuzz, and spotting Jenn from The Leftover Queen and Jaden from Steamy Kitchen. I did not get up the nerve to say hi to Jenn and Jaden, because I'm such a chicken.

Anna and I headed back to the hotel at 8:30, watched Ugly Betty and 20/20 and then it was time for bed. I was so tired, but full with great food and great memories.

Stay tuned for Day 2 and Day 3 of the Festival to be posted later this week.

San Francisco Bound: Foodbuzz

I am so very excited to be joining about 200+ food bloggers at one of my favorite cities (although I've only been there once) for Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in San Francisco!

This promises to be a fabulous weekend of eating, meeting new people, seeing Anna banana, and maybe doing a bit of shopping.

I hope to get some sleep on my flight from DC to San Francisco after a night of volunteering and last minute packing.

Will do my best to take detailed notes and photos to report back all the great adventures.

"See you" all back on Monday!

Best of the Web: Saveur

Good thing I'm obsessed with checking my Sitemeter account, because that is how I found that Saveur chose my Crystallized Ginger and Pistachio Biscotti as their Best of the Web recipes!



I'm so psyched!

POM & Cherry Pancakes

This past Sunday for breakfast I decided to make pancakes. But not any regular pancakes.

First, I must confess to using a pancake mix. It's just convenient, fast, and only requires you to add water.
Speaking of water, this time around, I decided to use POM juice instead! This idea just came to me a few days earlier: I thought that not only would the pancakes be a pretty pink color (LOVE pink!), but they'll also have a great sweet/sour taste to them.

Not wanting to stop at just adding POM juice, I also added chopped dried cherries.

Other than that, follow directions on the box or however else you make pancakes.

Unfortunately, once cooked, the pancakes lost the pretty pink color, but they still tasted great. You can see my latest purchase in the background: a miniature glass pitcher.

Serve the pancakes with maple syrup to offset the slightly sour taste of POM.

Just think of the possibilities! Next time you are making pancakes, try adding orange or apple juice, or grape juice, or cranberry juice!!

Please Vote for Me

Morning, all.

Yesterday I shared with you a recipe for Indian Styled Pumpkin, Lentil & Bulgur Side Dish that I created for Foodie Fights.

Here is the list of other participants in the Foodie Fights:

Cook Teen
Dust Bath
Good Food, Good Wine, and a Bad Girl
Silly Tater Tot
Wallflower Wonderland

The polls are open now and I would really appreciate your vote if you liked my dish.

To vote and to see other great pumpkin & bulgur dishes, click here.

Thanks!

Indian Styled Pumpkin, Lentil & Bulgur Side Dish

For the longest time I've refused to join Twitter, but a few weeks ago I gave in and joined @MangoTomato. That's how I found out about Foodie Fights: bloggers sign up to battle it out and receive two ingredients they must include in their dish. This time around, the two ingredients are pumpkin and bulgur.

As soon as I received the "assignment/challenge," I was terrified. I've never cooked with pumpkins and could not think of too many ways to combine it with bulgur.

Then I decided to breath and to treat the pumpkin as any other winter squash. After going through various ideas, I ended up settling on making Indian Styled Pumpkin, Lentil & Bulgur Side Dish. (Before you read the recipe and look at the pictures, please keep in mind that the taste of this dish was truly great, despite the less-than-attractive photographs.)

Who knew finding a pumpkin would be so hard? I finally found one pumpkin at Whole Foods, but it had began to rot. I pleaded with the produce guy to sell me just half of that pumpkin (the half that was still intact), and he agreed!


Ingredients for 2-4 servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1" ginger piece, peeled, finely diced
2.5 cups peeled, cubed pumpkin
salt & pepper to taste
2 cups vegetarian broth
2 tablespoons curry paste (use less or more depending on your tolerance for heat)
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup bulgur

Directions

1. Heat oil in a pot, add onions, garlic and ginger and saute for 3 minutes.

2. Add cubed pumpkin and saute for 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, cover the pot and cook for 5 more minutes.

3. Add vegetable broth, curry paste and lentils. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover the pot, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Add bulgur and simmer covered for 10 minutes. The bulgur will soak in most of the liquid.

5. Adjust the seasonings and serve immediately.

This dish is hearty enough to be served on its own or can be used as a side-dish.

This will be put to a vote on Tuesday: Vote here.

Brunch at Creme

A few weeks ago I met Chelsy, Sarah and Christina for brunch at Creme. These are my Avon girls: we met during training for the 2 day Avon Walk in May. Unfortunately, we haven't been too good at keeping in touch. I saw Chelsy and Sarah at my gallery exhibit and a few other random times, but haven't seen Christina since we crossed the finish line at the 2 day walk.

It was time to change all this! Miraculously, everyone was in town on the same Saturday, and was able to meet for brunch. The weather reminded us all of a training walk we had during a horrendous rain: how fitting.

Once we stepped into Creme, however, it all changed. We were hit with amazing smells of brunch food: waffles, fried chicken, and sausage. The place is a combination of industrial decor and warm touches; make sure to get there early: they don't take reservations and get packed!


Christina ordered English muffins with mushrooms and eggs, and both her and I had bottomless mimosas...enough said :)


Sarah had fried chicken and waffles. Compared to the fried chicken in Founding Farmers, this was AMAZING!

Both Chelsy and I went for Shrimp and Grits with sausage. The portions were big enough to share with another person, but somehow we managed to finish all the food on our own!


Great food, great company, on an otherwise crappy Saturday. Can't wait to see the girls again.

Pork Salad, New Dishes & Simple Dessert

This is really not a recipe post at all. Mainly I just wanted to share a few pictures of the new dishes that I bought at Crate & Barrel outlet over the weekend: the pretty white bowl and a few martini-shaped (but short stemmed!) glasses.

Over the weekend I made a Pork Chop & Cherry recipe for Robyn's blog and had one pork chop. I decided to make salad with it.

Given that it's fall, I wanted to incorporate some fruit to the salad: so here it is!

Pork, Fruit & Feta Salad

Ingredients

cooked pork chop, cubed
grapefruit, segmented
grapes, halved
spinach
feta
olive oil
salt & pepper

Directions

Combine the first 5 ingredients, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt & pepper if you feel like it.

The pictures below are of a composed version of the salad. I really liked the sweetness of the grapes and grapefruit contrasted by the salty flavor of feta.



And now for dessert: all this is a pomegranate/vanilla sorbet (store bought), drizzled with some chocolate syrup and sprinkled with almonds. Delicious!

Don't you think these glasses would be so cool for cold soups? Hmm, is it too late to make gazpacho?