Vegetable Curry

I just got a craving for a spicy vegetable curry and had most ingredients on hand so into the pot it went.

I used a mixture of diced yellow onions and carrots, garbanzo beans, cauliflower flowerets, chopped garlic, mustard seeds and good curry powder. After a quick saute I turned the heat down and cooked it slowly till tender. Then it goes into a bowl with a dollop of cilantro-mint yogurt to cool the curry heat, I add a spoonful of very spicy mango pickle sauce for flavor and more heat.I just needed to serve warm naan bread with it, next time.

Breadsticks

With all the pizza I am now making with my new oven stone, I seem to always have extra bread dough.I sometimes use it to make these nice crisp bread sticks. I first roll out the dough and then simply top with different toppings like sesame seeds, grated cheese or maybe fresh chopped herbs. Then using a pizza cutting wheel, I then cut long thin strips which are then placed on sheet pans dusted with corn meal.The sheetpan(s) go into a 400F oven for 5-10 minutes untill golden brown and then they are done. Its really hard not to eat them all before they cool off. My Kids love them!

Caponata relish

Caponata is a Sicilian relish or side dish, it is eggplant with maybe olives, capers, garlic. Strong flavors that I like, I roasted thick eggplant slices with extra virgin olive oil, then chopped it with green olives, parsley, fennel, lemon zest, onion, garlic and more olive oil. I used it as a pasta sauce, but it can be used in sandwiches, pizza, etc..

Winter salad

Here's a nice salad for this winter season. Its composed salad of roasted bosc pears, toasted walnuts, Sonoma county blue cheese and crisp frisse greens all lightly dressed in a light shallot vinaigrette. Its packed with lots of flavor and contrasting textures.

Storm Black Out Dinner

It seems like we always get a big storm around the new year. Only three days into 2008 and we get slammed with a hurricane force storm, up to 8 inches of rain and winds up to 80mph in some parts of the bay. I came home from work to mild damage to my fence, palm leaves all over my yard and no power. This is not the way I want to start my weekend. I had noticed that my local market was open with generator power, so I stopped for something to cook on my working gas stove. The store did not have enough power for all the meat and fish cases, so everything was slowly getting warm. "Sell it or lose it" said the owner,everything was reduced in price to half off, it was a buying frenzy. I went with some big monster beef short ribs. At home with candles burning next to the stove the meat was seared till brown then allowed to braise for a few hours. A glass or two of wine helped keep me warm. Dinner was good then early to bed and power was restored by morning. Hot coffee in a warm house for breakfast helped erase thoughts of the cold dark night.