Lentils, carrots, and okra

This week’s Indian meal was surati dal, sambar (with bottle gourd and okra), and carrot fry.

Pasta with roasted vegetables

This week’s Indian meal: okra, cauliflower, and rice/lentils

I made bendakaya vepudu (okra), Bengali moong dal khichdi, and gobi masala (cauliflower).  The cauliflower in the creamy cashew sauce was certainly the star of the plate, despite my lack of fondness for cauliflower in general.

Another menu for a hot day: meze

I brought meze to a friend’s house for dinner.  It included yogurtlu havuc salatasi (carrots in yoghurt), hummus, baba ghanoush and borani esfanaaj (spinach in yoghurt), served with fresh homemade pita.

A simple summer meal: farinata and courgette/zucchini

Tonight I cooked farinata which I served with courgette/zucchini with lemon, mint, and pistachio dressing.

The weekly Indian dishes: spinach, green beans, aubergine/eggplant

This week I made egg roast, green beans patoli, vankaya gasagasala kura (eggplant with poppy seeds), and lassoni dal palak (spinach and lentils).

Vegetable tagine, for a rainy summer dinner

Tonight I made a vegetable tagine.  I used sweet potato instead of squash and added a courgette as well, but otherwise stuck with the recipe.

Cardamom cake with rose-saffron whipped cream

I really like cardamom, rose, and pistachios so this cake seemed like a nice choice for a gathering.  I wasn’t able to find organic roses to decorate it, but the rose flavour still came through clearly from the rose water.

Another week, another Indian meal

I made bendakaya pulusu, carrot-beetroot fry, and a dal.  This week my food is colourful!

An indulgence of cake

I was recently horrified by and covetous of the Brown Eyed Baker’s six-layer cake with marshmallow filling and malted chocolate frosting and decided to bake one for the office.  I made a few modifications, such as replacing the coffee with a chicory substitute and making homemade marshmallow fluff (I used this recipe, but replaced the corn syrup with agave; it makes about 30% more than needed).  I also found that a food processor is better than a mixer for breaking the toasted marshmallows into pieces, and it’s better to cool the cake layers 40 minutes on the rack before trying to turn them out.

It’s probably the richest cake I’ve ever made.  Although it was quite good, and two people asked for the recipe, I can’t see myself making it again.  It’s just too much; it looks like it could meet the daily caloric needs of a small city.  So far, 10 people have eaten some and I still have about half a cake left.