Squeee! Meeting the Forking Fantastic Gals

Remember how I was contacted by the authors of the new cookbook Forking Fantastic? Well a couple weeks ago Zora and Tamara came to the Lou to do a little reading and discussion of the book and sign some books. I skipped my bowling league night (and it's 8 for $20 whiskey sours) to go, because having chatted with them a bit on twitter and such, I felt I just had to meet these crazy ladies. I'm glad I did! They are so genuine and nice and hilarious. I really really want to go to one of their infamous Sunday Dinners in New York sometime (girls, maybe you could do a St. Louis theme! We have all kinds of regional specialties.... toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, st. paul sandwiches, pork steaks.... I'll bring the Dad's cookies!!)

I went to the signing with a friend of mine who is a vegetarian (see? I'm open-minded!), and during the Q&A part, he asked how they deal with veg guests at dinner parties. It was then they revealed that there is a top-secret vegetarian chapter in the book which their editor insisted they include. Now, a lot of the recipes in the book are side dishes that can easily be made veg. They said there's never a problem at the dinner parties, because they serve family style, so people can take what they want, and there is always 2 or 3 vegetarian friendly dishes. But you know editors (no... no I don't, but I can pretend)... they want to make sure books are hip and trendy and have appeal to all sorts of people. So they came up with a few more recipes to make this chapter. As an excuse to post the photo of me with Zora and Tamara, I made one of those vegetarian recipes. My favorite part of this recipe? BACON is an "optional" ingredient. Ha!!!


And since you should get the book, I won't quite post a recipe.... not that this dish NEEDS an actual recipe. It's so simple. I had my brother and sister over for dinner that night and they asked me about 5 times "what is this sauce again?" "It's just yogurt," I would respond every time. They couldn't wrap their heads around it. But yes, yogurt... they recommend the thick creamy awesomeness that is Greek yogurt, but my grocery store did not have that, so I used regular plain yogurt, which I let drain through paper towels in a colander while I prepared the rest of the components.

The components? Caramelized onions (I used 4.... 2 red and 2 yellow, sliced thin, cooked over medium-low heat with a bit of oil in 2 batches, making sure not to scorch them, but to cook them nice and slowly so they were soft and brown, not crispy or black... there are great instructions for this in the book...), bacon (in cut into small pieces and cooked with some grated garlic) and parmesan cheese. Cook some fettucine, add about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water to your yogurt, top the fettucine with yogurt, onions, bacon and cheese. Boom... a really rich and yummy dinner! With the added bonus of filling your home with 2 of the best smells in the world... caramelizing onions and bacon. And yes, that sauce? It's just plain yogurt!! Crazy!


Other "Squeeee" moments in Iron Stef history:
Ruhlman
Trevor Corson
Rick Bayless

taste & create: rassa sabzi

It's been awhile since I participated in Taste & Create, a monthly blogging "event" where food bloggers are paired up and have to cook something from one another's blog. It's a fun way to find new blogs and new food adventures. Of course I'm a few days late posting mine *bad blogger*. I was paired up with Supriya (awesome name!) and her blog Celebrating the Little Things in Life. Supriya made my spiced zucchini bread, and I'm glad because it reminded me how good that is, and that I should make it again! Perfect for fall.

Anyway, browsing through her blog of mostly Indian food, it was hard to choose a recipe. Being a sucker for cauliflower, I chose this Kolhapuri Vegetable Curry/Rassa Sabzi. I had most of the ingredients already, except for the Tamarind concentrate, which I am excited to now have in my fridge! Now, Supriya used whole spices and ground them herself. I already had the spices in ground form, so rather than buy more, I adjusted the recipe a bit to accomodate what I had. I also left out the peas, used canned tomatoes and, of course, added garlic. It turned out really well. Here is the recipe as adapted by me:

Kolhapuri Vegetable Curry/Rassa Sabzi

1 green pepper
1 large red potato
3 cups cauliflower cut into big pieces of 2 inches each
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can whole tomatoes
1 medium onion
2 teaspoons cumin
1 1/2 tablespoon coriander
4 green chiles
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoon grated coconut
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
6 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
oil for frying
salt and pepper for taste

Cut green pepper and potato into two inch and fry for 5-10 minutes till brown on all sides, set aside. Fry cauliflower for 4-5 minutes on high flame till crisp. Chop onion into small pieces. In a tablespoon of oil add chopped ginger, garlic and onion. Fry onion till brown. Chop tomatoes into small pieces and add, with juice, to the onion. Add spices, chiles, coconut and tamarind concentrate. Season with salt and pepper. Add the vegetables in the curry and cook the curry till the vegetables are soft. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with roti, rice or naan.

Previous Taste & Create Posts:
Wonton Soup
Crockpot Apple Butter
Steamed Buns
Egg Curry