How bazaar

Party on a plate

My dad visited this week to see his new grandson (my handsome nephew!) and be with us on Father’s Day. He brought me gifts from his recent trip to Turkey and several other countries. One of those gifts was a small bag with a tiny jar inside. I immediately knew what it was: saffron! It’s no secret among my family that I've wanted to experiment with this spice. My mom gave me some saffron for my birthday, but I hadn't used it yet. Cut to me making an Indian inspired meal for Father’s Day using the saffron that just a week before was in the bustling Istanbul Grand Bazaar.

I started the meal with an endive appetizer because they looked so good at the store. I filled the endive leaves with lobster and crab salad and garnished each one with a pinch of paprika. To counteract my hot apartment, I served freshly brewed iced Chai tea. My dad had a gin and tonic, which I thought was fitting since I developed my love for Indian cuisine while living abroad in England.

Lobster and crab stuffed endive

The next course was chicken satay with peanut sauce. I now want to invest in a cast iron grill for my stove since I had to partially overcook the chicken in order to cook them all the way through (the bamboo skewers don’t fit well in a pan!)

The main entrée was tikka masala. I seasoned the diced chicken with curry, garam masala, salt and pepper. The vegetables included purple and regular sweet potatoes fresh from NC (thanks, dad!), carrots, onions, red bell peppers (If my mother wasn't sensitive to hot food, I would have used chilies), broccoli, fresh ginger and tomatoes. Once everything was mostly cooked, I simmered everything together in the tikka sauce with half a cup of coconut milk. Cucumber from NC (notched using a lemon zester) was used as a garnish.

Chicken Satay

I followed this recipe to use my saffron. I was very pleased with the results. The only thing I changed was putting the rice in a bowl to keep warm and firm instead of fluffing it with a fork (I’m partial to neither). The saffron created wonderful aromatics and went well with the jasmine and onion flavors.

To cool hot mouths during the meal, I made a cabbage and radish salad. The organic radishes were also fresh from NC and looked beautiful. There’s an Indian recipe for this salad that uses a citrus dressing. The dressing consisted simply of fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice, mustard (I used my grandmother’s homemade mustard), honey and a pinch of salt. I microwaved the dressed a few seconds to help emulsify the ingredients. 

Other things that helped put out the fire included toasted naan bread and mango lassi, which I made using Greek yogurt with honey, fresh mangoes, and almond milk. 

For dessert I served donuts and ice cream. The donuts were apple cider donuts from the Wooster Sq. farmer's market and the ice cream was Talenti's coffee flavor, my new favorite gelato.

Tikka Masala

Saffron rice

What the cluck?

Different shades of brown indicate different chickens

Feeding them leftover salad!

A lot has happened recently so I've been away from my blog. I've started a new career and I’m currently moving into a new apartment, but that hasn't stopped me from making tasty meals and sweet desserts. To see what I've been up to, check out my Twitter Danielle_Cooks.

Since I've been staying with my sister, I wanted to share photos of her chickens and their eggs. Her chickens are all different colors with different personalities- and they lay different eggs! Molly can always tell what chicken laid which egg. Although I can’t tell a difference in taste, she insists the white chicken, Fro, lays the best tasting egg. They are all good in my opinion because they are the perfect size for accurate baking and they have a rich orangey-yellow yolk that improves any dish!

Now THAT'S a yolk! Salmon & eggs with dill mustard.

I've used her eggs in everything from simple fried eggs to cinnamon toast crunch cookies. Molly wants to make a cake with them so I suggested pound cake because it takes lots of eggs. They produce so many eggs that it’s hard to keep up!

More like "Flavor Central"

Espresso Martini

I have so many pictures from Park Central Tavern that I thought I’d post a few I liked. They make killer cocktails there and one of my favs is their espresso martini. They mix made-to-order espresso, vodka and Kahlua. Then it’s topped with real espresso beans. It beats a Redbull and vodka any day! *That's my fav wine Chateauneuf de Pape in the background

Lobster Roll

Their lobster rolls are hand picked and delicious. They overstuff the bun and use melted Cabot Vermont butter. And don’t even get me started about the coleslaw. It’s cream based, yet has a nice tang to it.

Roast Chicken

If Tom can’t decide on a dish to order, he always knows their chicken will be good. It’s served with perfectly cooked green beans and mashed Yukon gold potatoes. The sauce is super buttery and has a slight gamey taste (perhaps made with duck fat?) The chicken is (almost magically) cooked so it’s crispy all the way around and as juicy as it could be!

Cinco de hold the Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I want to share a special recipe with you today to celebrate Mexican's heritage. Tom recently brought home an extra tamale that he said I had to try because it was a recipe from a friend of his that has a successful restaurant in New York City. Although I don’t have that particular recipe, click here to view one that’s easy to follow and includes some interesting background info.

Enjoying Nachos on
Cinco de Mayo, 2011

I had never had a traditional tamale before, so I didn't know the encasement isn't eatable. Just before I took a bite, Tom texted “By the way, don’t eat the outer layer.” That was a close one! The outer layer was a tough banana leaf. It was tightly wrapped around the contents. The tamale was folded in foil, which is used to steam it to perfection. Because it’s steamed and encased in thick banana leaves (or sometimes corn husks), the flavors of the contents are strong and it stays nice and moist.

The tamale I had was filled with chicken and masa. The masa is what fascinated me. It’s corn-based dough that makes this wonderful, light consistency that soaks up all the flavors of the steam. You can add spices or herbs to the water or broth when steaming them. When you think about how many flavors a tamale can be, there are too many combinations to count! You can use different meats, add vegetables, switch up the masa, or vary the spices added to the water. 

No matter what kind of tamale you choose to make, don’t forget the margarita!

Little hats off

There's a delightfully thick pasta I discovered that I'm very excited about. To Italians, orecchiette, or Little Hats, is a well-known pasta that is typically served with broccoli rabe and tomato sauce. Although the name of the pasta on the bag I bought was Little Hats, the direct translation of orecchiette is Little Ears.

Since moving to New Haven, I've learned a lot about Italian food. And it's not just because Connecticut has the largest Italian population in America (what, you didn't know?) Rare, imported pastas and other Italian foods make their way into the aisles of my local grocery store. Also, Tom is half Italian. Through his family I've learned new names of pasta, tried new dishes, and learned Italian food is far from a quick, simple meal (my previous impression.)

I wish I could say the dish I made was with homemade orecchiette, but I wasn't up for the task. The ingredients are simple enough, but it takes a certain finesse I've not yet acquired to shape the tiny pasta's rounded edges thicker than the middle. One day...

I served the pasta with a salad, pan fried chicken and my first homemade cream sauce:

• In a saucepan on medium heat, saute finely chopped onion and garlic in white wine, then add salt and pepper. 
• Pour in a cup and a half of heavy cream and two tablespoons of butter. 
• Continually stir the sauce with a wooden spoon until it thickens, then add chopped parsley (finally got to use my new herb window boxes!) 
• Toss the strained pasta in the saucepan, coating it
• The chicken breasts were simply coated in flour and fried in oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Surprisingly enough, Smart Balance makes an oil that fried beautifully (I'm trying to be healthy...And I was out of olive oil.) The chicken was crispy on the outside and full of juicy flavor on the inside. Mmm, mmm!

A nip and a nibble

Just a quick dinner I made for myself one night...

Slices of toasted pita bread & hummus

Pan fried chicken with melted gouda goat cheese

Sliced figs and strawberries

Raw spinach leaves with a walnut oil dressing

Glass of Rothman & Winter Crème De Violette Liqueur & ginger ale

Pot Pie (chicken, that is)

Although this chicken pot pie is mighty pretty on the outside, it's guts looked like, well, guts! I totally guessed on this one because it's hard to mess something like this up. I already had plans to try out a local Japanese restaurant, so I left Molly and Jeff to eat it with little explanation. If you saw how the ingredients had combined inside, you'd know what I mean! I've been eating the leftovers as my lunch for the past couple of days and I'm happy to report it tastes pretty darn good.

The bottom layer is cubed, seasoned chicken, then a layer of chopped, steamed spinach, then potatoes, onions, carrots, a layer of cream of mushrooms, then grated cheese, and biscuit topping. Whew! And to think I initially wanted to add rice! Mon dieu!

Dueling Dinners

As the unofficial in-house cook, I was on duty to make a meal for my sister in case she returned from our grandparents' house unfed (which is unheard of!) I wanted steak, but we had a chicken breast that needed to be used, so I made both. My steak, (seared in walnut oil with salt and pepper) with a romaine and heirloom tomato salad, and her chicken, (cooked with garlic and salt) with steamed asparagus. Both dishes were served with sushi rice because that is the requested rice to use for meals (*Sigh...*)

What are you tacoing about?

Considering I made tonight's dinner in about 10 minutes, it tasted pretty good! It would have been made in nine minutes, but I have a problem refraining from eating freshly grated cheese...

I like to heat the tortillas in the pan used to cook the chicken so the grease browns and flavors it nicely. The guacamole was made with some leftover cherry tomatoes and the chicken, I must confess, was seasoned with a Mexican taco seasoning pack.