September 2012 Archives

At an Indian buffet recently I was eating a curried ground chicken called murgh keema, and all I could think about was making it into tacos. So I did. There is no real flavor fusion here, just some delicious Indian food presented in taco form. The taco shell is a grilled homemade naan, the salsa is an Indian style pickle, and the sour cream is a mint raita.

Most people think that a tomatillo is a relative of the tomato, but it is actually in the same family as a gooseberry and has a super tart flavor. Because of it's sourness, and propensity towards pie filling running in it's family, I thought tomatillos might make an interesting sweet treat. Interesting was indeed the first adjective one might use to describe this tart. Tomatillos have a nice sour flavor, but also an underlying mustiness that was definitely in the forefront as I ate this. That doesn't mean it was bad, I didn't have a problem eating a whole big piece with a pile of whipped cream on top.

I was inspired by a recent event I went to at Salvatore's to make these pizzas. The only problem is that after 10pm, these pizzas are only 3 dollars. 3 bucks! It took me a lot more time, money, and effort to make these, but I am staying outside the city for a few months, so popping in for late night pizzas is sort of out of the question. The real surprise that night was the vignola cherry pizza. Dried cherries soaked in booze and placed on a pizza with mozzarella, prosciutto, and honey. So good that you need to be of age-to order it!

Most people think of august as the tomato month, but for me, it's more of a September thing. Seems like every day someone offers me some tomatoes from their backyard, and the heirlooms at the farmers market are more vibrant and bulging than ever. I had some excess tomatoes laying around last week, and Mandi thought it would be a good idea to slice them all up nice and thin, layer them with a little bit of garlic, onion, oregano, and provolone, and toss them in the oven just long enough to enhance the flavors.

The crisp autumn air is around earlier than normal this year, and this kind of weather has me thinking about chili. Over the weekend I was supposed to make a Vietnamese chicken curry dish, but the thoughts of chili dominated my brain and I ended up making a hybrid stew that contained elements from both chili and curry. Turns out the two go really well together.

Tuscan Market in Salem, NH is planned to be the largest artisanal marketplace in New England. It opens in a few weeks, but I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the place this past weekend. I was inspired by the fresh veggies and crusty delicious bread I saw there (and took home) to create these tasty little sandwiches. Make these while you can, tasty peaches won't be around much longer.

I think that these rice krispies treats were actually the biggest hit at the wedding. At least they were amongst my drunk friends as we were all leaving! They were also the easiest thing there. I initially did 2 test runs of these with homemade marshmallow and caramel, and failed both times. Finally for the wedding I gave up and used store bought and they came out amazing.

Making this wedding cake alternated between being awesome and scary every hour or so. With every success, I could envision the final product sitting on display with everyone telling me how great it looked and tasted. On the other hand, every time something went wrong, I pictured total disaster with curdled frosting on an ugly cake, and the bride crying because I totally ruined her day. As I was finishing things up the morning of the wedding, it became a real Ace of Cakes race against the clock situation, with me and Mandi even doing the final touches at the reception hall with a crowd of people watching.

One of my best friends is getting married tomorrow and I am making all the desserts for the wedding. It's a huge undertaking, but I am happy to do it. Right now however, I'm right in the thick of it and have tons of baking and frosting to do today. At least yesterday I finished these little candy party favors. These guys are actually super easy to make, with no baking or candy thermometers involved! The only hard part was individually wrapping all 400 of them...

To all my friends and relatives: I'm not ignoring you because I hate you. I am in fact really really busy at work with limited access to email. Seriously, some people are starting to get mad at me. I'm sorry! Things will get back to normal soon I think. Luckily, I have friends who are helping me out. After a long day at work last week I came home exhausted and was surprised to find a whole meal cooked and photographed for me! Rich and Mandi worked together on this tasty combo of Italian, Asian, and American flavors that really hit the spot after a 12 hour shift.

One day while eating pork belly with udon noodles at an asian food court, I broke the yolk of a beautifully fried egg perched on top and was briefly reminded of carbonara. The quick sauce that the egg yolk formed blended perfectly with the udon and pork belly, just the way it does with the spaghetti and panchetta in the Italian dish. I instantly decided to make an Asian style version of the Italian carbonara, and this is the resulting recipe.