BTTR Gourmet Garden and Sprouts!

Man alive (no pun intended), it is SO much fun watching something come to life. 

Exhibit #1.  Remember that mushroom box I picked up about a week ago?  Here's what it looks like today:  

Check it out!  Amazing!  I am so excited for this.  I am already dreaming about a big steaming bowl of Thai Tom Yum soup!

Exhibit #2: Sprouts!

Some of the seeds worked, some not.  Most notably, the yellow mustard seed went absolutely nuts, the fenugreek seeds look good and, I think with a bit more time, the black mustard seeds will look like their paler counterpart.  Nothing from the cumin, caraway and coriander.  Still, very exciting! 

Ike Jime

If you want to geek out for 15 minutes, read this.  It's about a Japanese fish slaughter technique where they ram a metal rod through the fish's spine.  Seriously, it's fascinating!

Sprouts!

If it's Friday night, I'm probably doing something pointless and inane wickedly awesome with food!  Tonight's experiment:  Can the BCC sprout seeds?  We'll find out in a few days!

Step 1. Two layers of moist paper towels on a baking sheet:

 

Step 2. Sprinkle with seeds:

From left to right: fennel, caraway, cumin, black mustard, fenugreek, yellow mustard and coriander.  I've seen fenugreek sprouts in a restaurant I used to work at but, as for the rest, your guess is as good as mine regarding sproutability.  

Step 3. More damp paper towels and saran wrap:

I'll check every couple of hours starting tomorrow.  I'm hoping this works because I've been eating a lot of salad lately and am looking for a cheap, cost effective way of spicing them up. 

Enhanced Stock and Coffee Filter Sieve

Instead of the usual crap I've been serving up lately, I decided to post something useful and informative.

First, enhanced stock.  Have you ever wanted something better than store bought stock but were too lazy to start from scratch?  Easy: enhanced stock.  Just take stock/broth from the store and throw in some onions, carrots, peppercorns, whatever.  Let it simmer and, in 30 minutes to an hour, you've got something infinitely better than plain ole store bought. 

For my stock, I threw in half of an onion, sage, chopped onion and serrano ham bones.  There might be some garlic hidden somewhere in there. 

Cover with your store bought stuff and bring to a simmer.  If you're simply using vegetables and herbs, give it 30 minutes and you're good to go.  If you decide to really kick things up and use some chicken bones, give it an hour.  If you decide to use beef bones, well, you're an idiot and SHOULD be making beef stock from scratch.

What to do once your broth is done simmering?  How about a coffee filter sieve?

Uhhh, it doesn't take a genius to figure this one out.  Strain your stock of the veggies and big chunks.  Let it cool a bit.  Ladle the liquid into the filter and let 'er rip!  See that nice, clear, clean liquid?

Coffee filters...not just for coffee anymore.  :)

Greatest Pork Chop Ever

Remember the pork chop from the previous post?  Here's what became of it:

Nicely golden brown, right?  I'm going to teach you a useful technique which can be applied to steaks, pork chops, seared chicken breasts, whatever.  Very useful.  Start by cooking your meat until it's nearly done.  When it's about a minute from completion, throw in a knob of butter and a few springs of herbs, some sage leaves, a sprig of rosemary, whatever.  Herbs.  I used sage leaves with my pork:

The herbs will flavor the oil so use a spoon and baste your meat with the herby butter.  Careful, it'll be hot.  This technique is great because your meat gets great color, the herby butter adds great flavor and, above all, it's easy.

Random: This ladybug has been living in my room for a month now.  I don't see it very often but I am always happy when it reappears. 

And, very exciting:

Mmmm, fresh mushrooms!  I am curious about this for a couple of reasons.  1. How many mushrooms will I harvest?  I ask because the mushroom box was $25 bucks.  Oyster mushrooms are about $5.00/lb.  If I harvest, say, 4 lbs, I will call it a success.  Additionally, I want to see if I can screw this up because, thus far, I haven't demonstrated much of a green thumb.

A REAL post coming in the next couple of days.

Random Stuff from the Past Few Weeks

Hi Bahar!!!  :)

Just a collection of random things.

BAKESALE BETTY

Most everyone loves Bakesale Betty but not me.  Its claim to fame is a fried chicken sandwich--breaded, fried chicken breast with a vinegar and oil slaw on a fluffy torpedo roll.  In theory, it sounds fine.  In execution, it fails because it is DRY.  D-R-Y.  The breast is overcooked and dry.  Combine it with bread and you've got a starchy mess.  I also find the chicken somewhat flavorless.  The kitchen needs a heavier hand with the seasoning.  Even the excellent slaw isn't enough to bring this sandwich back from the dead. Maybe slather some mayo or slaw juice on the bread?  I've had it four times over the past few months always wondering about the raving masses and whether or not my tastebuds are off but I've come to the conclusion that the sandwich is not all that.  Besides, at $8.50, that sandwich better scale some spectacular heights.  Sorry Betty, but I'm over your sandwich.

However, I feel like an ungrateful ass bad writing this because the staff at Bakesale Betty is AWESOMELY GENEROUS.  They are some of the nicest people I've ever met.  They hand out free cookies and brownies like Santa hands out presents.  And the baked goods aren't just free, they're delicious!  Pumpkin pie with a perfect flaky crust?  Yes please, no matter what season it is!

In short, this is a joint I really, really WANT to love but just can't.  I'll return for the baked goods but not for the (overhyped) sandwich. 

Bakesale Betty
5098 Telegraph Ave
(between 49th St & 51st St)
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 985-1213

How to Supreme an Orange (or any other citrus fruit)

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

1.  Find where the stem used to be.  Cut through the orange to level it.  Level the other side.  You should have two smooth sides.

2. Cut the peel off.  Just follow the flesh.

3. You will have an orange with mostly pulp.  Trim off any leftover bits of pith.

4. Find where the orange naturally segments itself.  Cut in between these segment lines.

5.  Done!

KIM HUONG

I've eaten here a few times over the past week because I love Vietnamese food and I love noodle soup.  The first time I went, I was lured in by the sign for Bun Bo Hue. Bun Bo Hue is a lemongrass scented Viet noodle soup from the city of Hue.  If done well, it is spectacularly delicious.  What brought me back for subsequent visits is 1. the quality of the food and 2. the owner.  The food is pretty good here, not mind blowingly good but pretty good.  The owner is the most loquacious noodle shop owner I have ever met.  He has a real passion for Vietnamese food and he loves what he does.  He wants to make everyone who walks into his restaurant happy.  He is also very specific about certain things.  For Bun Bo Hue, he puts rau ram (a Vietnamese herb), shredded cabbage and bean sprouts on the side plate.  For Pho, he puts Thai basil and bean sprouts only.  When I asked him why, he simply said that it's for matters of taste.  Gotta admire that.

His wife, the restaurant's cook, makes a delicious crab dish which isn't featured on the menu.  You have to order it a day ahead of time but it's well worth it.  It's a bit pricey ($25) but makes a fine meal for two people with a bit of rice.  Fresh crab, butter, garlic, salt and pepper...how can you go wrong?

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

If you are in Oakland Chinatown and find yourself craving noodle soup, I encourage you to give this place a try.  

Kim Huong
304 10th Street
(between Harrison St & Webster St)
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 836-3139

I walked 3 freaking miles in the pouring rain for this pork chop:

Sure is a beaut, isn't she?  Look at that layer of external fat.  Look at that intramuscular fat.  Look at that deep rich color.  Man oh man oh man.  And this isn't just ANY pork.  This is Becker Lane Pork.  Becker Lane is an organic farm which supplies many of the better restaurants in the area with their swine.   Just check out the marbling: 

I have delicious, delicious plans for this little piggy.  :) The pork was purchased at Cafe Rouge in Berkeley.


One last thing.  I purchased two slices of bacon at my local butcher today and this is what they wrapped it in:

It just strikes me as egregiously wasteful.  Anyone have any ideas on how I can solve this problem?  Ask them to use less paper?  Incidentally, the bacon was wonderful.  It is from Vande Rose Farms and is made from heirloom Duroc pigs.  This was my first experience with their product but I was very impressed.  Nice fat to meat ratio, a pronounced smokiness and delicious swine flavor.  I sliced it, crisped it up and threw it into a wilted green salad with chicken livers and sherry vinaigrette.  I will absolutely buy more of this stuff.

More on Zongzi

After yesterday's slapdash, slipshod, and sloppy (ha!) post on zongzi, I wouldn't at all be surprised if you readers were still confused as to what exactly a zongzi is.  So, because I love all of you so much, here's a little more on zongzi.

Zongzi, clothed in bamboo leaves:

Zongzi, naked.  They are mostly composed of sticky rice:

Zongzi, slain (I swear this isn't a metaphor for how I treat my women hahahahahahahah):

See the peanuts and the chunk of pork?  There's also a salted egg yolk hidden in there.

Zongzi are traditionally consumed on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival...aka 端午節.  The festival originates from the attempted rescue of an ancient Chinese poet named Quan Yu.  Poet Yu drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month which explains why the festival is celebrated on that day.  In 2010, the festival will be celebrated on June 16th.  To tie it all together rice, the main ingredient in zongzi, is traditionally thrown into the river in which Quan Yu died to prevent the fish from nibbling on his body.  Then again, Chinese mythology and history is filled with all sorts of symbolism so who knows what REALLY happened.

In truth, I wish I had done a better job documenting yesterday's zongzi because it was far superior to today's specimen in that the rice had better texture and the fillings were more ample.  Oh well, maybe I'll just have to get a third and dissect it in a future post.  :)

Tonight's Supper:

Salad with balsamic dressing and feta crumbles and a Chinese zongzi (粽子).  

Maybe this strange mix is just part of being half-Asian.  :)  I love zongzi aka Chinese tamales.  Tonight's version came studded with peanuts and stuffed with pork products and a salted egg yolk.  You can't see it from the picture but they are wrapped and steamed in bamboo leaves.  Yummmy! 

A real post is in the works.  A belated Happy New Years to all of my readers!

Product Review: Budweiser & Clamato

So what's better than one Chelada?

Having one with a friend, lol

But, seriously?  This chelada thing is horrible.  Think strained Campbell's Manhattan-style Clam Chowder mixed with Budweiser.  It's really taking a lot of effort to drink this but drink I will because I don't abuse alcohol.  :P  A solid D-.  DON'T BUY

X-Mas Eve Dinner

All right, a bunch of random stuff in here.  Christmas Eve was basically Meatfest.  For instance, this is what I had for lunch:

Food courtesy of Memphis Minnie's.  Other than the B+ sausage, the rest of the meal was uniformly awful.  Let's talk about the ribs for a second because this takes real talent.  First of all, the meat still had a deathgrip on the bone which would imply that it was undercooked, right?  However, the majority of the meat was already dry and stringy implying that it was overcooked.  I just don't get it.  Anyhow, several people had told me to avoid this joint but I just had to go see for myself.  BBQ FAIL.

In addition to the BBQ plate, we ate a ton of meat later that night.  I've been pretty obsessed with a cooking technique called "sous vide" which I'll detail in an upcoming post.  This post is dedicated to simply giving you an overview of the technique and my X-Mas Eve dinner.

Sous vide hanger steak.  One of the great things about sous vide is that it gives you a lot more control versus cooking over high heat.  For instance, say you like rare steak.  Normally, you might season it and throw it in a hot pan, right?  But notice...there is a ring of gray, overcooked meat surrounding the rare interior.  Compare this to sous vide cooking.  The temperature for rare steak is between 120 and 125 degrees Fahrenheit.  All you have to do when cooking sous vide is to set your water bath at the desired temperature, drop in your steak and the steak never cooks past the preset temperature.  This technique is used in many high end kitchens but it is also very practical for home cookery.  I've sous vide cooked two hanger steaks and they've both been amazing.  For the X-Mas Eve dinner steak, I flavored it with garlic cloves, thyme and a few bay leaves.  In addition, I also added a ton of butter.  I probably went a bit overboard with the butter but you do need some fat to help carry and disperse the flavors. After you cook it in the bag (I use Ziploc brand bags...I've read that cheap plastic bags use cheap plastic.  Whether or not this is true is beyond my knowledge but I figure it's only marginally more expensive to use brand-name plastic) you need to sear the steak because it comes out sorta gray.  After that, slice and serve.

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In addition to the hanger steak, I cooked a turkey leg sous vide.  I packed the bag with all sorts of aromatics...oregano, orange peel, garlic, ginger, star anise, a few cloves etc.  Very Christmas-y.  Throw in the turkey leg (rubbed with allspice and a bit of salt) and cover with duck fat.  BAM.  Turkey leg confit.  176 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 or so hours.  When cooked, I shredded the meat and folded it into some lentils. 

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Given how heavy the rest of the meal was, I decided that a light salad was necessary.  Lots of citrus in the market this time of year so that made my choice easy.  Mint, olives, a little red onion and romaine hearts finished it off. 

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

This just gives you an overview of sous vide.  I'm doing research for an upcoming post which will be more detailed but I hope this whets your appetite for more.  Hardy har har.  :)

Have Fun with Cooking!

Longtime readers know that I mostly blog things from cookbooks but I often improvise with what I have on hand.  Here was a recent experiment.

I saw a fig tree a block away from where I lived.  I know that wrapping things in fig leaves is a popular way to cook fish so I figured, hey, why not?  I asked the tree's owner if I could grab some leaves and he told me to grab as many as I liked.

Now, fish wrapped in fig leaves.  Hmm.  I went to the local fishmonger and looked over options.  I settled on the ling cod because it was relatively affordable and because I've enjoyed it in the past at Commis.

I walked home and thought to myself, hmmm, what do I do with this piece of fish.   

I looked in my fridge and spied leftover harissa.  A ha!  I'll rub the fish with harissa!  I also had some leftover coconut milk so I decided to mix some harissa and coconut milk for spice paste.  Seem weird?  Not really.  In Cambodian cuisine, there is a dish called amok trey.  It's basically a fragrant curry paste mixed with coconut milk which is rubbed on fish.  The fish is then wrapped in banana leaves and the banana leaf packages are then steamed.  I figured chili paste (harissa) and coconut milk is similar enough to the Cambodian original so no biggie deals.  Done.

From here, it was easy.  I put some thinly sliced red onion underneath the fish and some very thinly sliced Meyer lemon slices on top of it.  Wrap fish in fig leaves and bake (initially, I figured 375 degrees for 15 minutes would be sufficient but that seemed a little underdone so I threw it back in for another 5 minutes.  At that point, the fish was a little over done.  Ooops.).  I served it with leftover hummus and some oil cured black olives.

 

 

Anyhow, things here at the Budget College Cook aren't always perfect...witness my undercooked and then overcooked fish but who cares?  The end result was still totally delicious.  I've always thought that cooking should be fun.  Sure, mistakes will be made but it's just food.  The Food Network mentality of perfect food everytime is poisoning our minds.  It's an unrealistic expectation which keeps Average Joes out of the kitchen.  Real people (and even professional chefs) screw things up but, most of the time, even the mistakes are edible.  Just smile, move on, and please don't let failure prevent you from trying again.  It sure hasn't stopped me over these past few years.  :)

Hold On, Little Dude

Look what I found on today's exploratory walk of Oakland:

I know nothing about botany but is that the last strawberry of the year?  Only 4 more months of cold weather!  Hold on, spring is right around the corner...

Random Food

I've been hella lazy with posting recipes. As a consolation prize, have a looksie at the random things I've eaten over the past month.

Featured Restaurants (in order of appearance):

Han Il Kwan

1802 Balboa St
(between 19th Ave & 20th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 752-4447

Tartine Bakery

600 Guerrero St
(between 18th St & 19th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 487-2600

Vietnamese Noodle House

726 Clement St
(between 8th Ave & 9th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 668-8896

Golden River

5827 Geary Blvd
(between 22nd Ave & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 668-5105

Delfina

3621 18th St
(between Guerrero St & Oakwood St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 552-4055

Layaly

2435 Clement St
(between 25th Ave & 26th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 668-1676

Luna Park

694 Valencia St
(between 18th St & Sycamore St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 553-8584

Tanpopo

1740 Buchanan Street
(between Post St & Sutter St)
San Francisco, CA 94115

Dragon River

5045 Geary Boulevard
(between 14th Ave & 15th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118

Ton Kiang

5821 Geary Blvd
(between 22nd Ave & 23rd Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 752-4440

Swan Oyster Depot

1517 Polk St
(between California St & Sacramento St)
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-1101

The Cheese Steak Shop

1716 Divisadero Street
(between Bush St & Sutter St)
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 346-3712

Although I love my Chinese food, I'm having an affair with Italian.  I checked out A16, Delfina and Oliveto Cafe.  With more to come.

Panda Country Kitchen...my favorite Chinese restaurant in San Francisco.

4737 Geary Blvd
(between 11th Ave & 12th Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 221-4278
 

Anyone?

Do any of you have experience with re-teaching yourself to play a musical instrument? I am looking for a three month plan with about 5 hours of practice per week. My goal is to get to a decent enough level to join some other amateurs for a public performance night at a local coffee shop. My background: 20 years of violin lessons, attended a prestigious music conservatory where I studied with, his-eminence, Victor Danchenko. I was playing at a fairly high level when I quit but went cold turkey for 7 years. There is significant rust.

I am thinking scales and arpeggios (played against a drone to check intonation), double stops (thirds, fourths and sixths), and slow bow exercises for the first month. With a metronome, of course.

After the first month, let's hit up some Kreutzer etudes! With rhythms and bowings.

For the third month, I think I'll play it by ear (no pun intended).

I also need to buy new strings and get my bow re-haired.

Help Needed

Hi gang. Sorry for not posting for nearly a month but, aside from a notable exception, I've not cooked anything worth mentioning for quite some time.

Anyhow, I'm here to see if any of you want to help out in my kitchen and be a taste-tester! I'm doing some recipe testing for an upcoming cookbook on Japanese hot pot dishes and have three recipes I need to create and taste. Given that the recipes make far too much food for one person, I need mouths to food! So, you help out in the kitchen and, in return, get fed!

If you are interested, drop me a line at mikeczyz@gmail.com

The Omnivore's Hundred

I'm a little late to the party but here goes:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOBAMA

That is all. GObama!

Happy Halloween

I hope that you had a good time. I'm currently sitting at home drinking martinis (gin, ftw) listening to Mozart ( K. 365) at an ear-splitting volume while contemplating whether or not I should shower and head out for the night. I think I'll walk to a bookstore and browse cookbooks....

And, oh yah, I'm really bummed. My favorite part of Halloween is handing out candy to the lil' trick-or-treaters. Not. A. Single. One. Not one. Seriously, parents. Do your damn job and take your kids out on Halloween!

NYRD06

Sexy reader Nyrd06 writes,
"exactly when do you plan your meals? do you plan a week's worth the weekend before? or do you plan for two weeks? I'm curious because I'm looking for more efficient strategies/ routines for planning my meals. It's been especially hard lately because I've been busy this semester plus my dorm this year (and thus the kitchen) is not nearly as big as the one I had last year..."

Well, I typically spend 30 minutes to an hour on a Saturday or Sunday deciding what it is I want to make for the upcoming week. My final choice is a function of what we have in the 'fridge, what I'm craving, what the weather is like, whether I feel fat or not (don't laugh...this actually does play a part), what I think I can find at the local markets, which cookbook I've been reading, what I've recently seen on TV, what friends have suggested...etc. I'll generally have two index cards with shopping lists. There's usually one ingredient which might be hard to find so, if I can't find that ingredient, I have another shopping list for a different dish. Kind of anal but it's saved me on many an occasion.

I do almost all of my cooking on weekends because I have next to no time on weekday nights. I get off work around 6, grab a bus home and get back around 7. I go running most weeknights so there's another 40 minutes. I really don't have the time to go grocery shopping and cook. I need cooked meals already in the fridge.

Let's talk about how I planned for this week's meals: On Saturday, I purchased some apples at the farmers' market. I decided to cook something with those apples. I'm awful at dessert so I needed something simple...so, voila, apple crumble. That part was easy.

For the savory component of the upcoming week's meals, I peeked in the fridge. We had somewhere around 40 eggs, all nearing expiration, so I decided that I needed to do something with eggs. A frittata popped into my mind. My usual frittata recipe involves onions, potatoes and cheese. Eggs=breakfast=sausage so I decided to toss in some pork sausages. I used a combination of breakfast links and mild Italian sausage.

Frittata, even a 14 egg frittata is only going to get me through 6 meals (breakfast and dinner Monday-Wednesday...I eat lunch in the office cafeteria). I knew I needed four more meals so I kept that in mind while on my grocery shopping trip. While at the butcher, I saw some good looking steak on sale. In addition, it was still in the vacuum bag so it would last longer than an unwrapped steak. I talked to the butcher and he said that the steak would be fine until Wednesday night. Great, so I can finish the frittata on Wednesday night, cook the steak, and be set for Thursday and Friday. I need something to eat with steak so I grabbed some salad greens/lettuce. I get a little bored of rice so I grabbed some whole wheat lavash. A ha. An idea...sliced, grilled steak, lettuce...I'll make steak wraps for Thursday and Friday. Done. So, I've got dessert for the week, frittata for the first three days and steak wraps for the last two. Not a bad plan.

I find that stews, soups, braises etc. also work really well for this kind of schedule. Not only are they super convenient (just pair them with the starch of your choice), they actually taste better the longer they sit (up to a certain point...don't be an idiot about it). I guess this is why I make so many chicken curries...they're affordable, go great with rice and work well on my schedule. Also, hearty soup, bread and side salad is a fine meal although I don't do that as often.

Thinking ahead and going grocery shopping with a general plan is absolutely key. I'm definitely not one of those people who goes to the store with an open mind. Nope. If I see a great sale or an ingredient which looks especially good, I'll find a way to fit it in but I generally know exactly what I'm cooking before I go shopping. Just think about your schedule and what you can do with it. Hope this helps.

Post

No new post for this week as I made another batch of this recipe. I LOOOOOVE curry leaves.

To be served with dal and brown rice. Cauliflower and potatoes on the side.