Monthly Archives: July 2013

Jul31

Phoebe’s Indian Hot dogs with Mango Relish and Curry Mayo

Posted on July 31, 2013 by athaidek

Another one of those things I just HAD to try despite how much I try to stay away from hot dogs. Not exactly one of those foods you want to eat regularly, but the toppings for this dish I would DEFINITELY make again. Mango relish and curry mayo? Yes please.

She uses some nitrate-free ones which I would have used if we didn’t already have some other ones. This meal was a quick prep dish that was the perfect meal for two with leftovers for someone coming later. Serve with really any sides you want or it could even be an appetizer if you made little mini dogs with this relish and the mayo as more of a dipping sauce.

After a rough day, I could prep the ingredients in advance while on the phone with one of my friends. The only time when he realized I was multitasking was when I started the food processor and it sounded like I was on a construction site 🙂

I followed Phoebe’s recipe found here and finally found those top-cut hot dog buns my Dad is always asking for.

Highlights: Prep the relish in advance and use a mini food processor if you’ve got one. My mom wanted a bit more spice but I think it has a strong bite to it. This relish could later be used for a sandwich, atop any Indian dish or on some crostini. Or even as a topping for baked chicken or something.

The convenient thing about being on the phone with Brian at this time was his familiarity with ingredients common to Asian dishes. Thus, I found out how you’re supposed to cut up a mango. AFTER having already cut it up. So that’s how this mess happened. I ended up like scraping the side of the (invisible) mango pit. Seriously, where in the world is the mango pit? It looks exactly like the fleshy part so you kind of have to stab at it. Clearly this was my first experience with the mango. So, chop it up.

Chop up a jalapeno and scrape out the seeds.

A few steps later… adding the pureed garlic, shallots, cilantro, jalapeno, etc into the chopped mango (see it happened somehow, no pit involved!)

MMMM mango relish

Jul29

Poblano Salsa

Posted on July 29, 2013 by athaidek

Standard

I’m not really entirely sure why this turned out to look like a rainbow, but hey what can ya do! I had a leftover poblano pepper and really wanted to make some salsa; however, didnt really have any tomatoes. Woops! Here’s what I did in a pinch:

Turned the toaster oven on broil and charred this baby. A few things to remember here, when you hear loud fireworks coming from your kitchen…fear not, it’s just the outside of the poblano pepper charring. Another thing I learned is that broiling them in the toaster oven for like 20 minutes is WAY easier than trying to char them on the gas stovetop. While I love chatting with my mom whilst cooking, it was so much less enjoyable contorting my hands as a makeshift spit to turn the poblano constantly.

Next, I peeled off the charred part, scraped out the seeds and cut the top off, adding the chopped pepper to my food processor. To it I added my salsa additions: cumin, cilantro, lime juice, TONS of garlic, half a chopped Chipotle pepper, a few dashes of adobo sauce from the Chipotle can, some extra virgin olive oil, two cherry tomatoes (rando but all I had) some red onion and pureed it all up with some salt n pepp.

After mixing, it was still a little too smooth bc the poblano is such a mild pepper. To it I added some chopped red onion to give the salsa a little crunch bc that’s how I like it, but that’s the beauty of salsa, it can be adjusted easily to your tastes! Per usual, this kind of dip tasted better after having some time to fuse flavors in the fridge for a few hours.

Jul12

Plenty’s Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant Tomato Sauce

Posted on July 12, 2013 by athaidek

Standard

Having one of those moments where I’m still fawning over last night’s dinner. Per usual, Cessie and I sat around, sipping on white wine (how young 20s girls night can we get?!) and listening to country music while cooking in my kitchen and dreaming of our “future” lives. But I’m already there!! Planning girls weekends, laughing over funny voices and odd comments by summer campers, and talking about the adventures on which to embark in our new-found post grad years, these are my favorite summer nights.

Inspired by the Plenty cookbook her family gave me for graduation, it was appropo for us to test a recipe for once for my “recipe guy,” or rather, her mom. We decided that since this recipe is all fresh and veggies, it was “healthy.” Well, once you forget the butter, feta cheese, and FRIED eggplant, it is, right? It’s so beautiful too!!

The first good thing about cooking with Cessie is she’s always thinking ahead and has a knack for thinking intuitively in the kitchen. Sometimes I forget the details when they actually ARE necessary. The second thing is that when we are together, our personalities fuse to spit out alternate personalities, weird voices, and unclear jokes that trigger the cycle over again into new alternate personalities, thus spinning everyone else into confusion. Mixing this with food can only make everyone happy 🙂

If you haven’t bought Plenty, here’s the summary: Exquisite vegetarian recipes by a famed London writer, sometimes odd ingredients or those that you just wouldn’t buy a whole bottle of, fresh, very DETAILED recipes which is great, and amazing pics. This was the second recipe I’ve tried, and so far I love it!

This recipe involves making homemade polenta out of sweet corn pureed in the food processor, cooking an eggplant sauce with tomatoes, white wine, salt, sugar, and oregano (we substituted fresh basil which we agree was better!) While a bit time consuming, it’s fairly simple to make. The only thing we forgot was to add cooking liquid from the corn back into it once pureed to make the sauce creamier. But it still turned out great! Enjoy, mes amies.

On to NYC this weekend!! Where should I eat??? I’ve already got Momofuku Milk Bar on the list…

Jul8

Peach Avocado Corn Salsa

Posted on July 8, 2013 by athaidek

Standard

Delicious for a side salad or as a good chips ‘n’ dip! YUMMO inspired by cookie+kate’s Avocado Peach Salsa, I decided to try the sweet salsa road. I’m a total sucker for that Peach Mango salsa from the grocery store, but I’ve never tried to make a sweet and salty salsa. Having all that leftover chimichurri sauce, I needed to use it on something good. Even though the chimichurri has ginger in it, the cilantro lime cumin part of it is great for a salsa sauce.

I added 1 chopped peach, about 2 tbs of my chimichurri, half a can of drained corn, an avocado chopped up, some red onion, extra limejuice, fresh cracked sea salt (this is key), a tiny dash of sugar (the peaches were a bit tart) and yum, fresh salsa!