A Cause & A Venture

The right side of my brain has been more active recently, especially after spending my day with mathematical models. I have been inspired by my friend Sujju Prakash, who has been making jewelry as a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in memory of Dr. Prakash Krishnaswami from K-State. I am trying to help, in my own little way and as an added bonus I kill some of the boredom when Shankar is not around. 

I have a google site ~ Bee's Beads & Colors ~ where I am selling handmade earrings & my paintings & in a few days hoping to add some of my crochet stuff. All of the proceeds will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Below is my productivity tonight after a day of wildlife, vaccines & models!

Kourkouto from Greece

One of the first dishes I made when I started my Cooking the World Challenge was Kourkouto from Greece. I came across this recipe at Peter’s Kalofagas blog and adapted it just a little bit. I didn't have the Kasseri that he mentions and hence doubled up on the feta, reduced the amount of oil and left out the scallions. And the "pie" was great was lunch with a dribble of hot sauce. Since Peter does such a great job with his recipe, I am not reposting it here. Definitely a great dish to use up some of the zucchini and a good alternative to the usual zucchini bread.

Eritrean Alitcha Birsen

The summer has been keeping us pretty busy and I was happy to have my break from blogging. We were travelling quite a bit and generally spending more time outdoors. Also, with Shankar not being around during the week, I have been cooking mostly during the weekends. Anyways, now with fall already here, there is going to be more time spent on the couch and catch up on blogging and other things.

Tonight I made a simple savory lentil recipe called Alitcha Birsen from Eritrea. The recipe is from here and I modified it a little bit. I sautéed a small tsp of black cumin, a clove of minced garlic, half a  chopped onion,one nice Valencia tomato and a couple of small green chilies from my garden, and a few radishes from my friend's CSA box. To this I added 1 cup of pressure cooked lentils, added a tbsp of hot sauce (instead of berbere), seasoned with salt and brought to a boil. Once cooked, we had the savory lentils with rice and Blitva for dinner!

I am sending this entry to Susan's My Legume Love Affair #27.

With this, I have completed cooking from 75 countries! I don't think I will finish my Cooking the World challenge before the end of 2010, but hopefully soon in the next year. 

Super Special September

The theme of this month's Daring Baker's Challenge is Decorated Sugar Cookies with themes that are special  to us about September. The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking. Shankar and I have a very long list of events to look forward to this month, including our 7 years of happiness being together! Hence, my cookies reflected that and also his love for the Green Bay Packers :) 

I am not a big fan of icing and this is my first attempt at decorating cookies ~ using royal icing I made in a ziploc bag. The recipe for the cookies can be found here.

Our next biggest day in September is today, when we celebrate the Adoption Day of Amy and Nikko. I can't  believe its been 4 (long) years since these two babies walked into our lives - they are testimony to love at first sight and not a day has gone by where they haven't filled our house and hearts with loads of love.

Amy enjoying a very special frozen custard and a swim

And here is a very special video of Nikko...

Amy in her new Pool

How else could she cool off in this crazy heat, after playing in the dog park?

Brazilian Rice in my new Le Creuset

Celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary last week, Shankar totally surprised me with a Le Creuset 5 1/2 Qrt Dutch oven! And we had our friends Brooke and John visit from Nebraska and spend the weekend with us. We had an awesome time, my only regret being that I didnt get a chance to cook a good meal for them. I made pancakes and french toast for breakfast and rava dosas stuffed with cheese for dinner one day, but that was it. I was hoping to use my new pot for making something yummy.

And I did make two yummy dishes tonight in the new pot. First I made a Brazilian rice, inspired by this recipe. In the pot, I added a tsp of butter and a tsp of olive oil. To this I added 1/2 a chopped onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic and let it cook. Then I added 1/2 chopped tomato. Once the tomatoes were soft, I added 2.5 cups of water and brought it to a boil. To this I added 1 tsp of vegetarian broth powder and seasoned with salt and pepper. Once the broth was boiling, I added 1 cup of rice and cooked under high heat for 5 minutes and simmered it for another 5. The rice turned out to be very flavorful but in a subtle way and not over power the accompanying curry. Perfectly cooked flavorful rice garnished with chives = Yummy :)

Katogo Matoke from Uganda

I had a non-functional keyboard on my laptop for the past week and has not been able to post on the blog and missed quite a few events. I am back now with a new keyboard, and hope to catch up. 

This recipe from Uganda adapted from here, has the influence of Indians who migrated there. The recipe is simple and doesn't take much time. I heated a tsp of olive oil in a pan, tempered 1/4 tsp of mustard seeds and cumin, and added 1/2 a chopped onion. Once the onions were soft, added 1 chopped tomato along with 2 cloves of minced garlic, grated ginger and a couple of chopped green chilies. To this I added 2 chopped plantains, and a pinch of turmeric, salt, pepper and 1/2 tsp of cumin/coriander powder. Then I added 1 tbsp of peanut butter and 1/2 cup of water. Once the stew boils, I served it with hot rice!

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Pavlova from New Zealand

After missing a couple of the Daring Bakers events, I managed to participate in this month's challenge. The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard. The recipe for the wonderful dessert is here.

I followed the recipe pretty closely. I didn't make the mascarpone cream for drizzling though. I mixed a syrup of horlicks in cream for a malty drizzle. Yesterday I served them with bananas and with blueberries today. A special thanks to Aakriti for helping with the free-form pavlovas. Having never tasted a pavlova before, I am definitely hooked to them now. And I am ticking off New Zealand from my Cooking the World!