Panfusine

Grill baby grill is my motto during summer. (of course I can cheekily say so given that its in the comfort of my kitchen with the stove vent on at full blast.) Uber simple to assemble, Grilled paneer slabs cut into cubes, Black beans from the can, corn off the cobs grilled on the stove top, and fresh blueberries. spiced with smoky ancho chile powder, and lime. mmm... mmmm... Good!

I prefer salads with body any day to those 85% lettuce offerings, no matter what exotic greens you added to the mix, I still don't find those leaf  heavy bowls filling. When I make my salads its usually filled with a lot of the toothier, chunky vegetables, nuts and cheese. I love adding sunflower sprouts , since the tiny leaves are almost cactus like in thickness and have a fantastic burst of flavor. A generous sprinkle of crumbled Feta and avocado slices dispenses the need for adding any added oils to the salad as a dressing. Simply drizzle with honey, a crack of salt and pepper does the trick.

Summer time is Salad time.. and I''m not a fan of putting salads together, or maybe I like the way it sounds being called a 'Salsa' (invokes savory spicy visions) I made this over a year ago, and it qualifies enough to be called semi home made, canned corn & beans, with fresh avocado mashed in. spiced with finely minced green chilies, shallots, cilantro & lime.

Pomegranates are out of season in Summer, just when they are most needed to fill that niche of colorful, delicious and healthy salad ingredients. But then currants fill in that niche beautifully, ruby like spherical pearls, they're perfect for this traditional South Indian Kosmalli/Koshimbir salad. Sweet tart and bursting with Juicy flavor.

The Holiday season is officially upon us. As the manic 'shopping' season get underway, I just got over clearing out all the dishes from my food coma inducing Thanksgiving feast. Thanksgiving must be the most festive non-denominational holiday in the US, irrespective of religion, social status, geographic location, Everyone gathers around as a family to celebrate and eat. and eat, and then fill up on dessert and coffee!  For me, Its an opportunity to shift to high gear and get cracking on experimenting with the flavors of Fall ingredients - Pumpkins, cranberries, apples. This year, I volunteered to test a 10 cup stack n'snap food processor from Hamilton Beach and I received a package last Monday. While my kids had a little spat over what the packaging carton would be converted into, (a cloning machine vs. a car), I took the opportunity to explore the new gadget..  My first food processor was a Hamilton Beach which was a perfect workhorse until a little pi...

Its been quite a while since I even opened up the blog, While I returned from my summer vacation 2 weeks back, turns out my mojo & motivation was happily following Newtons 1st law! Well, better late than never I say! Trying to minimize white rice from the daily diet is harder than one thinks. For one, the pearly whites are so accessible and the devious temptation in the form of shorter cooking times is often hard to resist. But its well worth the effort to make a hearty protein rich dish like this quinoa and Beluga lentil salad. Yes it does take some time (~15 minutes) to cook the lentils and quinoa separately, but those minutes are well spent prepping the vegetables that are tossed in almost equal volume. You need: 2 cup cooked Quinoa (I used a blend of tri colored quinoa) 2 cup cooked whole Beluga lentils (or whole plain Masoor dal) 1 diced Zucchini (I ran it through a spiralizer and made them into a spagetti 1/2 cup finely diced red onion 1 large tomato finely chopped ...

What do you do when you want both semi junk and Healthy rolled into one..You make this salad. I'm a sucker for Indian junk foods and my favorite has got to be the Bhel Puri . but plain puffed rice with just the veggies and none of the deep fried additions.. just does not cut it. The mouth feel textural factor is so crucial and using Farro was the perfect solution. You need: 1 package pre cooked Farro (I used one pack from Trader Joe's) 1 cup dice heirloom tomatoes 1 cup diced kirby cucumbers. 1 cup diced Candy onions 1/2 cup fresh blueberries 1/2 cup fresh raspberries For the Dressing: 1/3 cup Cilantro Mint chutney 1/4 cup EVOO Juice of 1 lemon 1  tablespoon Honey a couple of cracks of pepper Salt to taste In a small smoothie blender jar combine all the ingredients for the dressing (except for the salt), pulse until the mixture has a smooth creamy consistency. Cook the Farro as per the instructions of the Package. Drain and combine with the diced tomatoes...

I love eating salads as much as I try to procrastinate making  them. You spend a good deal of time carefully dicing the produce, whisk together a dressing, chiffonades of herbs yada yada, and POOF, it takes half the time to polish it off! but all said and done, salads ,especially with those that contain fresh summer fruit, are a pleasure to nosh on. I made these with some firm peaches I picked up at Trader Joe's yesterday, you know, the kind that are ripe, and yet not soft enough to give in easily when you press them. I peeled and diced them,  a simple dressing of freshly squeezed clementines and Pistachio oil,  a pinch of citrus salt and finished off with a chiffonade of Thai basil. The end result was simply divine! You need: (Makes 1 serving) 2 ripe yet firm peaches juice of 1 clementine 2 teaspoons Pistachio oil pinches of citrus sea salt 8 - 10 Thai basil leaves Peel the peaches and dice the flesh into small cubes. Whisk together the clementine juice an...

I can never thank providence enough for givin me the common sense to prepare myself for the much touted Frankenstorm Sandy. Plenty of flashlights, spare batteries in bulk, Water, a back up sump pump for the basement, Firewood, the list could go on.. Nothing, NOTHING could have prepared me for the terrifying experience of living through those six hours.  It sounded like a  full payload Boeing 747 was taking off for a transatlantic flight right in the backyard. Sure enough, the lights went out, and we were left  hunkering down in total darkness with a diabolical, howling wind screeching through the house. And yet, it stopped almost as suddenly as it started around midnight, almost as if the trees had no more strength to even flutter a leaf. All that could be heard was a proverbial sound of silence, equally eerie. The next morning, the most visible evidence of the storm were the felled and leaning trees and the side of the house spattered with shreds of torn leaves h...

Ever heard of this joke? Wife: I bought a spoon today & they gave me a 4 place dinner set for free!! Husband: Really?? that's great.. & how much did the spoon cost? Wife: $ 249.99... Lets face it, all of us have sneaky stories like these that we will never share, (or .. we may brag about it on FB assuming that the ones closest to us will not notice). Well on a foodie note, yesterdays healthy light salad lunch was kind of built up on those lines. I remember an episode of last seasons 'The next food network star' which catapulted Aarti Sequeira to Food network stardom and brought in a much needed Indian influence to the channel, one of the episodes featured a dish which called for pomegranate molasses . Now Indian cuisine puts the hallowed pomegranate to full use in the form of anardaana,  the dried version, and its powdered form, but one seldom sees it being used as a thick syrup in Indian cuisine. OK.. the word molasses conjures up the image of somethi...

In India, along with the pongal season arrives a slew of rhizomes in the market that are associated with this festival. Fresh Ginger & turmeric are found everywhere, whole plants with the rhizomes still caked in fresh muddy earth. The aroma is incomparable. At home, invariably after the festivities were over there would be plenty of the fresh turmeric & ginger left over after some had been replanted in pots (Its quite another story that we needed to eventually buy more next year!)  for the next season, my dad would dice these finely, add finely minced green chilli, salt & a dash of lime to make this yummy relish/salad.. (it was a bit too spicy to load up by the ladleful, but mild & piquant enough to scarf down generously for an 'achar' (pickle/relish), so in later years I took to calling this a salsa). My mother in her characteristic southie tradition would add a tadka of mustard & a pinch of asafetida. This was one of my late father...