gratuitous food post
Yes, internet, it's time again for another GRATUITOUS FOOD POST!
Normally, I get the meaty dishes out of the way first. But I'm trying to go in chronological order this time, so I'll just tell you now that numbers 1, 4, 6 & 8 are the meaty dishes, and I'll let you ctrl+f and scroll accordingly. In fact, because this is a massive food post, have a handy index:
01. Curried scallops*
02. Patta Gobi Wadi (Gujarat-style baked cabbage)#
03. Sun-dried tomato & zucchini risotto
04. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Sandwiches with Arugula & Olive Oil, made with love by eugis*
05. Fat Lee, the alcoholic beverage of choice for your interstellar travels
06. Ricotta & Red Onion Pizza*
07. Margherita Pizza
08. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Crostini, made with love by eugis*
09. Triple chocolate fudge cake
* Contains meat
# Vegan
01. Curried scallops, from Modern Spice.
This is the first recipe we've made out of the Modern Spice cookbook, and it wasn't bad for a trial run. The book has some tantalizing recipes that I can't wait to try out. I'm not crazy about the layout, but the recipes look yummy. I will say that if you're unfamiliar with cooking seafood (as we are), well, interesting things can happen. In our attempt to sear these scallops, we ended up burning some of the spices. If you don't like your food to taste like carbon, well, that might be a problem. (I added extra mango chutney to my plate and everything turned out fine, though.) I would definitely make this again, because in spite of the unfortunate burning, this dish smelled amazing. But next time I'm resolved to pay better attention to my pan (and my recipe). My best efforts to ruin dinner aside, it still looked fantastic:
Spices & scallops, pre-charring
We actually used our prep bowls!
Finished!
02. Patta Gobi Wadi.
I have been meaning to do a post about this dish for nearly a year. I even typed it up (with photos) in the last Gratuitous Food Post, but deleted it just before posting. See, the thing about this dish is that it's not one of those dishes you can take pretty pictures of while it's being prepared. In fact, it's one of those casserole-type dishes that you know you're making correctly if it looks like someone did something terrible in your mixing bowl. (Think of the utter mess that is green-bean casserole, and you're on the right track.) But when you put it in your mouth, well, all its sins are forgiven.
This dish really plays all of our favorite parts: it has cabbage, my newfound vegetable love (have I raved to you yet in this post about the wonders of roasted cabbage? because seriously, wonders), it has ginger, the spice-love of Mary's life, and it has the delightful treat that is garbanzo bean flour. If you've never made anything with garbanzo bean flour, you are missing out. Trust. It has such a wonderfully subtle yet distinctive flavor, and it really shines in this particular dish. This dish pairs very well with channa masala, by the way. Aces.
As an added bonus, if you knock the olive oil down to 2 tablespoons instead of 3 (which you can do without any ill effects, though I will note for the record that I tried it with just 1, and that really was just not what the doctor ordered), you've got a dish that is respectably low in calories and fat and still tastes just fabulous.
So, here it is, in all its fresh-from-the-oven glory:
03. Sun-dried tomato & zucchini risotto.
This isn't my all-time favorite risotto (I actually liked the Lemony Spring Vegetable risotto we did a few weeks ago better), but it was still pretty good and we'll definitely make it again. It's also very healthy (low-cal, low fat, decent fiber) so it's got that going for it, and (bonus!) putting this on our list of Food To Make For the Week meant that we had to buy some sun-dried tomatoes, which also pair deliciously with that Shaved Asparagus Pizza that is so very dear to our hearts. Mmmm.
04. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Sandwiches with Arugula, Tomatoes & Olive Oil, made with love by eugis♥
If eugis has not made you a sandwich, well, I'm sorry for you. These are amazing! Delicious prosciutto and mozzarella? Check. Fresh arugula? Check. Perfect baguette from a local bakery? CHECK. Ozark Pink tomatoes from the farmer's market? Big check. (They're a hybrid tomato developed locally at our University. They were an excellent choice.) Put all that together with some olive oil, and you've got these amazing sandwiches. MMMMMM.
05. Fat Lee.
I put the recipe up for this the other day, but we didn't have the fancy pictures to go with it, so here we are:
And, of course, Fat Lee the Hippo had to get in on this (or on top of this):
06. Ricotta & Red Onion Pizza.
Smitten Kitchen: in the words of Maeby Funke: MARRY ME.
We set out to make pizzas, but we couldn't decide what to make. Should we make the shaved asparagus pizza again, even though asparagus is out of season and we'd have to pick some up from the Wal-Mart? Should we try something new? We ended up with the best of both worlds: an old stand-by, the Margherita, and a new favorite, this Ricotta & Red Onion delight. Both were excellent choices.
The thing I love about this Ricotta & Red Onion pizza (aside from the caramelized red onion marmalade, anyway) is that it reminded me, a lifelong devoted sauce-lover, that pizza can blow you away even if it doesn't have any sauce. (This is also one of my favorite things about that shaved asparagus wonder-pizza.) That onion marmalade is packed with more than enough flavor to make up for the dearth of sauce, and the creamy ricotta is just like icing on the pizza-cake.
All glory and praise for these pizzas go to leiascully and eugis, who expertly handled the pizza assembly line while I worked on a triple chocolate fudge cake.
07. Margherita Pizza
I think the pictures speak for themselves, here. Melted cheese bubbling over a fresh tomato sauce? Yes please.
Ozark pinks:
Assembly!
Look at all that molten mozzarella:
08. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Crostini, made with love by eugis♥
What do you do when you've got extra mozzarella, prosciutto and half a baguette? Well, if you're wise, you'll listen to eugis and make crostini. They're delightful. I could have made a meal out of these alone, but we had two delicious pizzas waiting to be devoured.
Before:
After:
09. Triple chocolate fudge cake
When you've got a guest who loooooooooves chocolate, what better time to make that triple chocolate fudge cake you've been eying for months? No time like the present, I say. A tip about this cake: don't make it while you and your friends are also trying to make two pizzas and crostini, because friends are fun, and cooking with friends is fun, and you'll con one of them into whipping cream to soft peaks for you, and then you'll whip an egg white and sugar to fairly stiff peaks, and you'll carefully fold all of that together with some melted white chocolate to make a delectable white chocolate mousse to sit between the layers of your cake, and then you'll let all that hang out on the counter for thirty minutes and slowly melt down to verrrrrrry soft peaks, because you'll be distracted by cheese and prosciutto and friends and your adorable dog, and when you go to assemble your cake, the cake layers will slide all over the place and you'll have to stake it and let it have a spell in the fridge before you can even do the crumb layer.
I'm not speaking from experience or anything, here. *_*
In spite of my terrible attention span and failure to put that cream in the fridge while the cake cooled off, everything worked out for the best, and we ended up with one very, very yummy cake, all with minimal cursing on my part. Win! \o/
It all started with some chocolate:
And a hippo trying to dive into the bowl of chopped chocolate:
But we distracted him with cookies:
A young hippo stalks his prey: the remnants of the bowl of chocolate icing
Cake from the side
Cake from the front
Look out, cake: Fat Lee is on your trail
Finally, after all that, here is a preview of what will probably be on the next episode of Erin's Gratuitous Food Post:
(Heeey, dashakay and liveonthesun, remember when leiascully made those AMAZING hand pies? Take that recipe and put it in one of these. Oh yeah. That's right.)
The only drawback of using our cookbooks, instead of, say, my beloved Smitten Kitchen, is that I can't just link you directly to these goodies so that you can go and make them yourselves. So if you'd like any of the recipes from any of the above dishes, give me a shout in the comments and I'll be glad to edit them into this post or send them to you.
Normally, I get the meaty dishes out of the way first. But I'm trying to go in chronological order this time, so I'll just tell you now that numbers 1, 4, 6 & 8 are the meaty dishes, and I'll let you ctrl+f and scroll accordingly. In fact, because this is a massive food post, have a handy index:
01. Curried scallops*
02. Patta Gobi Wadi (Gujarat-style baked cabbage)#
03. Sun-dried tomato & zucchini risotto
04. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Sandwiches with Arugula & Olive Oil, made with love by eugis*
05. Fat Lee, the alcoholic beverage of choice for your interstellar travels
06. Ricotta & Red Onion Pizza*
07. Margherita Pizza
08. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Crostini, made with love by eugis*
09. Triple chocolate fudge cake
* Contains meat
# Vegan
01. Curried scallops, from Modern Spice.
This is the first recipe we've made out of the Modern Spice cookbook, and it wasn't bad for a trial run. The book has some tantalizing recipes that I can't wait to try out. I'm not crazy about the layout, but the recipes look yummy. I will say that if you're unfamiliar with cooking seafood (as we are), well, interesting things can happen. In our attempt to sear these scallops, we ended up burning some of the spices. If you don't like your food to taste like carbon, well, that might be a problem. (I added extra mango chutney to my plate and everything turned out fine, though.) I would definitely make this again, because in spite of the unfortunate burning, this dish smelled amazing. But next time I'm resolved to pay better attention to my pan (and my recipe). My best efforts to ruin dinner aside, it still looked fantastic:
Spices & scallops, pre-charring
We actually used our prep bowls!
Finished!
02. Patta Gobi Wadi.
I have been meaning to do a post about this dish for nearly a year. I even typed it up (with photos) in the last Gratuitous Food Post, but deleted it just before posting. See, the thing about this dish is that it's not one of those dishes you can take pretty pictures of while it's being prepared. In fact, it's one of those casserole-type dishes that you know you're making correctly if it looks like someone did something terrible in your mixing bowl. (Think of the utter mess that is green-bean casserole, and you're on the right track.) But when you put it in your mouth, well, all its sins are forgiven.
This dish really plays all of our favorite parts: it has cabbage, my newfound vegetable love (have I raved to you yet in this post about the wonders of roasted cabbage? because seriously, wonders), it has ginger, the spice-love of Mary's life, and it has the delightful treat that is garbanzo bean flour. If you've never made anything with garbanzo bean flour, you are missing out. Trust. It has such a wonderfully subtle yet distinctive flavor, and it really shines in this particular dish. This dish pairs very well with channa masala, by the way. Aces.
As an added bonus, if you knock the olive oil down to 2 tablespoons instead of 3 (which you can do without any ill effects, though I will note for the record that I tried it with just 1, and that really was just not what the doctor ordered), you've got a dish that is respectably low in calories and fat and still tastes just fabulous.
So, here it is, in all its fresh-from-the-oven glory:
03. Sun-dried tomato & zucchini risotto.
This isn't my all-time favorite risotto (I actually liked the Lemony Spring Vegetable risotto we did a few weeks ago better), but it was still pretty good and we'll definitely make it again. It's also very healthy (low-cal, low fat, decent fiber) so it's got that going for it, and (bonus!) putting this on our list of Food To Make For the Week meant that we had to buy some sun-dried tomatoes, which also pair deliciously with that Shaved Asparagus Pizza that is so very dear to our hearts. Mmmm.
04. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Sandwiches with Arugula, Tomatoes & Olive Oil, made with love by eugis♥
If eugis has not made you a sandwich, well, I'm sorry for you. These are amazing! Delicious prosciutto and mozzarella? Check. Fresh arugula? Check. Perfect baguette from a local bakery? CHECK. Ozark Pink tomatoes from the farmer's market? Big check. (They're a hybrid tomato developed locally at our University. They were an excellent choice.) Put all that together with some olive oil, and you've got these amazing sandwiches. MMMMMM.
05. Fat Lee.
I put the recipe up for this the other day, but we didn't have the fancy pictures to go with it, so here we are:
And, of course, Fat Lee the Hippo had to get in on this (or on top of this):
06. Ricotta & Red Onion Pizza.
Smitten Kitchen: in the words of Maeby Funke: MARRY ME.
We set out to make pizzas, but we couldn't decide what to make. Should we make the shaved asparagus pizza again, even though asparagus is out of season and we'd have to pick some up from the Wal-Mart? Should we try something new? We ended up with the best of both worlds: an old stand-by, the Margherita, and a new favorite, this Ricotta & Red Onion delight. Both were excellent choices.
The thing I love about this Ricotta & Red Onion pizza (aside from the caramelized red onion marmalade, anyway) is that it reminded me, a lifelong devoted sauce-lover, that pizza can blow you away even if it doesn't have any sauce. (This is also one of my favorite things about that shaved asparagus wonder-pizza.) That onion marmalade is packed with more than enough flavor to make up for the dearth of sauce, and the creamy ricotta is just like icing on the pizza-cake.
All glory and praise for these pizzas go to leiascully and eugis, who expertly handled the pizza assembly line while I worked on a triple chocolate fudge cake.
07. Margherita Pizza
I think the pictures speak for themselves, here. Melted cheese bubbling over a fresh tomato sauce? Yes please.
Ozark pinks:
Assembly!
Look at all that molten mozzarella:
08. Prosciutto & Mozzarella Crostini, made with love by eugis♥
What do you do when you've got extra mozzarella, prosciutto and half a baguette? Well, if you're wise, you'll listen to eugis and make crostini. They're delightful. I could have made a meal out of these alone, but we had two delicious pizzas waiting to be devoured.
Before:
After:
09. Triple chocolate fudge cake
When you've got a guest who loooooooooves chocolate, what better time to make that triple chocolate fudge cake you've been eying for months? No time like the present, I say. A tip about this cake: don't make it while you and your friends are also trying to make two pizzas and crostini, because friends are fun, and cooking with friends is fun, and you'll con one of them into whipping cream to soft peaks for you, and then you'll whip an egg white and sugar to fairly stiff peaks, and you'll carefully fold all of that together with some melted white chocolate to make a delectable white chocolate mousse to sit between the layers of your cake, and then you'll let all that hang out on the counter for thirty minutes and slowly melt down to verrrrrrry soft peaks, because you'll be distracted by cheese and prosciutto and friends and your adorable dog, and when you go to assemble your cake, the cake layers will slide all over the place and you'll have to stake it and let it have a spell in the fridge before you can even do the crumb layer.
I'm not speaking from experience or anything, here. *_*
In spite of my terrible attention span and failure to put that cream in the fridge while the cake cooled off, everything worked out for the best, and we ended up with one very, very yummy cake, all with minimal cursing on my part. Win! \o/
It all started with some chocolate:
And a hippo trying to dive into the bowl of chopped chocolate:
But we distracted him with cookies:
A young hippo stalks his prey: the remnants of the bowl of chocolate icing
Cake from the side
Cake from the front
Look out, cake: Fat Lee is on your trail
Finally, after all that, here is a preview of what will probably be on the next episode of Erin's Gratuitous Food Post:
(Heeey, dashakay and liveonthesun, remember when leiascully made those AMAZING hand pies? Take that recipe and put it in one of these. Oh yeah. That's right.)
The only drawback of using our cookbooks, instead of, say, my beloved Smitten Kitchen, is that I can't just link you directly to these goodies so that you can go and make them yourselves. So if you'd like any of the recipes from any of the above dishes, give me a shout in the comments and I'll be glad to edit them into this post or send them to you.