Cuisine

We seek him here, We seek him thereThose Frenchies seek him everywhereIs he in Heaven, or is he in HellThat demmed ... elusive ... Pimpernel!"The Scarlet Pimpernel", 1903, Baroness Emmuska Orczy?Yes, time for a return.There is some debate, Gentle Reader, about the origin of the word "bouchon" used today to describe some 21 establishments accreditted by the Association for the Preservation of Lyonnais Bouchon. Seems a little too self-absorbed for personal preference, but delightfully Gallic and likely useful as an argument starter.Your Humble Correspondent would fain join the debate, but notes with no little delight that the tradition of the bouchon has spread even to these Sakura shores in the form of a number of establishments that preserve the two essential elements: a focus on the cuisine lyonnais and overwhelming hospitality and bonhomie. Some examples worthy of your exalted custom include Le Lion in Ebisu and the superb Lugdunum in Kagurazaka. And now, Salle a Manger lately relocated to Ginza and pleasantly packed with happy punters ... although few looked like they were silk weavers or dyers, and most seemed to have bulging purses. Our guide was a wonderfully urbane Japanese gentleman practising in the law, whose company had showed remarkable foresight in despatching him to la belle France for some two or three years as a young solicitor fleeing the prison of a career as an enginer (deliberate). During this sojourn in Paris, he developed a penchant for Foie Gras in the French style. Why, then, Lyonnaise is still a mystery but Your Humble Correspondent shares this secret shame and was delighted to toddle along.The entree course was fulsome and "authentique", and YHC added a Pate en Croute to the Foie Gras and Salade Gatronomique chosen by one's fellow revellers (although the Andouillette and Pied de Couchon were also extremely tempting). My main course was a delightful Cuisse de pintade farcie au foie-gras (Thigh of Gineau Fowl, boned, and stuffed with Foie Gras and forcemeats) which was moist and mischeviously beckoning, likely adding an inch to Your Humble Correspondent's already bulging waistline.Unusually for a bouchon, the dessert list is interesting and complete - demanding attention and frivolous discussion. The wine list is exquisite, and we enjoyed a beautiful Sancerre as well as a lovely Rhone as well as (mais oui!) some Sauternes for the Foie Gras. One had little choice but to finish with a Calvados nearly as mature as YHC.There are some who dismiss Your Humble Correspondent as foppish and vague but he promises Salle a Manger will be a very welcome addition to your carte of inner-city refuges far from the madding crowds of bankers and lawyers. And should you spy a lurker at the door ... why, please invite me in! I promise I won't eat much...Pip! Pip!Salle a Manger: B1, 7-2-8 Ginza, Takaya-Ginza, Chuo-Ku, Tokyo 104-0061 t:03?62 80 64 81Rating: Food: 8/10; Bouchon-osity: 8/10; Service: 8/10; Ambiance: 9/10; Price-Performance: 8/10. Total: 41/50 (3 Forks)

Sauteed Fava Beans with thyme and red onion If you’re lucky enough to get a hold of fresh fava beans during the Spring season, then we suggest you highlight the taste of the beans themselves with little manipulation; hence our Sauteed Fava Beans recipe.  Fava beans (also referred to as broad beans) are the king of all beans with a lovely sweet/nutty and rich buttery flavor and are one of the oldest cultivated plants on the planet.   Fava beans have a reputation of being hard to prepare but we think that’s unwarranted claim. When we’re able to procure  fresh favas (look for pods that are firm and fresh looking;) they are quickly sauteed with finely minced  red onion, thyme, and very good extra virgin olive oil. Sauteed Fava Beans Print Sauteed Fava Beans Cook: Vince from Scordo Serves: 2-4 Ingredients Boiling water Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 lbs fresh fava beans, in the pod (yields about 1½ to 2 cups shelled beans) 2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil 3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme, remove leaves and rub together with hands to release flavor. ½ red onion (finely minced) Process Shell the beans from the fava pods (use your finger nail to find the seem and pull apart). In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil and add a bit salt. In a bowl, combine ice and tap water to make ice water; set aside. Add the shelled beans to the boiling water and let cook for about 1-2 minutes, then remove from saucepan and immediately plunge into the ice water to stop the cooking. Let the beans cool and thereafter peel the outer skin from each of them. Over medium heat in a large pan, add olive oil, then the minced red onion and sauté for 5 minutes (or until onion is soft). Add the peeled fava beans (along with salt and freshly ground black pepper) and sauté for about 5 minutes (stir gently, especially if your fava beans are small to medium sized) #version#   Sauteed Fava Beans is an article from - The Italian Life for Everyone

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 4/ Day 2Theme: BM PairsDish: Quinoa Pongal from Suma's Veggie Platter For day 2 under "Cooking from BM members" theme, I'm paired with Suma @ Veggie Platter. Suma has been blogging for over 6 years and I've probably known her virtually for almost 5 years. Her blog is filled with ton of delicious Andhra, Karnataka and kid friendly recipes. I love the way she writes her recipes, she makes everything seem so easy even the most elaborate ones.I've tried a lot of recipes from Veggie Platter in the past. Her onion-tomoato raita, tomato bhath have become our household favorites too. Suma has some very innovative and delicious Quinoa dishes. I decided to make her quinoa pongal. I had some whole moong dal that I cooked for this recipe and I used that instead of regular moong dal. Here's how I made the dish.Ingredients:Quinoa - 1 cupMoong dal - ½cup (I used whole moong dal, but regular moong dal can be used)Cumin seeds - 1tspGinger - 1" piece, finely gratedCashews - 1tbsp (optional)Curry leaves - a fewGround Pepper - ¼tspGreen Chilies - 2Salt - to tasteMethod:Rinse quinoa well to remove the saponins, the protective coating on the grains. If left on, it might cause the dish to taste bitter.Bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup of quinoa to boil in a medium saucepan. Lower the heat and simmer covered until cooked through, about 20 minutes.Cook moongdal until tender and mix with the quinoa. Add salt to taste.Alternately cook both quinoa and moong dal together in a pressure cooker or directly on the stove.Heat 1tbsp oil in a small saute pan; add cumin seeds and once they start to crackle, add green chilies, curry leaves, ginger, cashews and ground pepper. Cook until it starts to smell fragrant. Add the tempering to quinoa mixture, mix well and serve hot.I served with a curry and chutney.Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 28.

As a follow-up to my piece on okara -- which is a by-product of tofu -- I'm happy to report that I have finally seen okara "in the wild" and gave it a try. When I visit San Diego for work, I often stay in the Kearny Mesa area near the intersection of CA-163 and I-805, which is known for its concentration of Asian restaurants (and apparently also its car dealerships). One night, a colleague and I found Wa Dining OKAN in the back corner of a mini-mall at 3860 Convoy Road and decided to give it a try. It's a tiny place that specializes in Japanese cuisine, offering a selection of daily "tapas" (their word, not mine) set out on the dining bar in the middle of the room, along with daily specials and non-rotating menu items.The night we visited, there was an intriguing sign next to a tapa near me: "Mixed Bean Curd Less" (and also in Japanese, as the photo below shows). I guessed that they meant to write "Lees" instead of "Less," and since the leftovers of a process are often called "lees", I deduced that the dish must be based on okara. A query to the waitstaff confirmed that deduction, and so I ordered a bowl.It was a cold dish of okara with various vegetables (hijiki, fresh edamame, carrots, etc.) and seasoning (soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil). If you think tofu as fairly flavorless, well, tofu has nothing on okara, which I found to completely disappear into the background. While tofu has a slight sour flavor and sometimes a silky texture, the okara was somewhat "dusty" and anonymous. Overall, the dish wasn't bad, and I might order it again simply because it is the rarely sighted okara. Random link from the archive: Let Cookies Be Cookies

For the final week of this month's blogging marathon, I need to cook from three blogs that are a part of this marathon. Valli chose our partners and my first post is from PJ's blog. She has a good collection of vegetarian recipes and I cooked a couple more from her blog other than this khichdi. I have been following her enough during these marathons to know that Padma is gungho over oats as I am about ragi/quinoa. :) I have been seeing these spicy oats posts everywhere and decided to try her masala oats porridge for my breakfast today. The plain old, boring oats get a spicy south Indian touch here. I skipped the onions and went with old fashioned oats and had a healthy, filling breakfast under 10 minutes. Using frozen vegetables / quick cooking oats hasten the cooking process. Ingredients for 1 serving: For tadka: 1 tsp oil, 1/2 tsp minced ginger, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp urad dal / skinned black gram, few curry leaves 1 tsp sambhar powder Salt to taste 1 cup water 4 - 6 Tbsp chopped mixed vegetables (I used carrot, beans and peas) 1/2 cup oats Method: * Heat oil and add the tadka ingredients. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add water, salt and sambhar powder. If you want a thicker version like the one pictured above, then go with 3/4 cup of water. I added a cup of water. * Add vegetables to the water and cook. Or meanwhile, cook the vegetables in a microwave for about 4 -5 minutes. If using frozen vegetables, there is no need to cook them. They can be just added along with the oats. * Add oats and cook according to the instructions on low flame until done. Old fashioned oats take about 5 minutes to cook. * Serve warm. Check out here to know what other participating marathoners are cooking. Comments

Chicken, Red Pepper and MethiDalBasmati RiceSteamed Green Beans and Baby CornChapatti

Here in New York, having outdoor space is seen as the ultimate luxury. Whenever you meet someone who has a backyard, front yard, roof deck, terrace, balcony, heck, even a fire escape, it’s hard not to feel very, very jealous. You imagine all the grilling they get to do in warm weather. And all the [...]The post Teriyaki Turkey Burgers appeared first on Appetite for China.

Although I had my first raw kale salad years ago in the form of a kale Caesar at a restaurant in Berkeley, it’s taken me until this now to make it myself. Raw kale salads haven’t appealed to me as much as they have to others for the sole reason that most of the kale sold has had tough, super curly leaves. Salads made from that kind of kale are like chewing on a wet Brillo pads. I know that raw kale is a super good-for-you food but how much of it can I really eat to be ‘healthy’? Not much. Kale, I thought, was best boiled, simmered, or sauteed. Well, until now. We’ve been making an Asian style kale and seaweed salad once a...

It’s strawberry season and every market you go, there are plenty of fresh, big, juicy, sweet, ripe strawberries on sale. In Irvine, there are still many strawberry farms around, and some of them are right off the roads. I was driving by one of the main roads in Irvine one early morning and saw the hardworking workers harvesting the strawberries. I couldn’t help it but went straight to the farmers market right next to it and bought two boxes of them. The good news about strawberry is that everyone in my family loves it, including my picky eating toddler. He had two big and juicy strawberries that day and asked for more. As a mother, I couldn’t be happier that he is eating healthy and that he loves his fruit. I decided to use some of the strawberries to make strawberry scones for breakfast the next morning. I love my scones with strawberry jam but adding some chopped...

I have a very busy life packing a lot of things into it, in an attempt to live it to the fullest.Especially my music class, it is one thing I never like to miss. So on those days even if We have had to eat a pasta dinner it is ok.There are times when I want to be ordering those delicious Pizzas and save with the Dominos Coupons my order is never complete without garlic bread and cheese dip.In recent times I came across this service called FoodPanda, you can order online from a choice of your favourite restaurants and save with FoodPanda Coupons. I do it especially when I have company to share all the yummy food. Else slog like I did! Really!!I completely missed that I was out of stock of rice. There was no atta to make rotis and no besan to make chillas. That's when I found the used packet of Vari or foxtail millet. For us Vari is fasting food and the spicing is always kept simple with just cumin seeds and green chilies. On this day I wanted something hearty yet with a touch of spice moving away from the satvic taste associated with recipes using Vari.I made this Hotchpotch just a little loose not a khichadi and not a biryani somewhere in between. It was lovely to sit with our little pots cuddling them and eating straight out of them warm and satisfying. Ingredients1/2 cup Vari2 cups shredded cabbage1/2 cup peas1/2 cup cooked chickpeas1/2 cup shredded carrots1 large onion diced1 tablespoon Suhana veg biryani masala1 tablespoon oilsalt to tastea pinch of sugarHeat oil. Fry onions. Follow in with the vegetables one by one and stiring to mix. Add the biryani masala. Top up with 3 cups water. Cook until thick and soft but not mushy. Cover and cook. Before removing from heat add salt and sugar and allow the flavours to steep for 5 mins. Put off heat. Serve in individual pots with lids and enjoy steaming hot!On another note my friend Nimmy, suggested I read Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Bhagawad Gita. I simply love Flipkart's deliveries and when you have these FlipKart Coupons then nothing less than a happy dance. I ordered the book instantly and it was door delivered the next day.It's a phase I am in when I need this much. I have read several versions before and have aborted reading some due to discomfort with the fonts or sometimes the language. I have done several Parayans of Dynaneshwari but yet find it difficult to understand and even more difficult to accept and implement in my life. One who claims that they understand Gita are surely evolved I must say and if they are able to live the prescribed life eliminating some of the time contextual thoughts in it, are surely of the cadre above the average person. This new translation is beautiful and will appeal to that class who are not comfortable with Sanskrit and vernacular versions. The language used is beautiful the author has painstaking maintained the meter of the original poetry and Nimmy and me agree that the choice of words is perfect! Order your copy and add to your collection a wonderful book that you can read and then pull out anytime for your daily motivational quotes.All material on this blog is Copyright © 2006, 2007 to Anna Parabrahma