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Archive for the ‘Entertaining’ Category

Indian Spiced Classic French Macarons: Chai Spiced Coconut Cream Cheese Macaron (front) and Garam Masala Chocolate Macaron (back).

Last year during the holiday season everyone was talking French Macarons. After watching the film Kings of Pastry, I was overwhelmingly inspired to take on the challenge to serve my guests at a holiday dinner party Classic French Macarons—but Indian-style!

If you saw Kings of Pastry you too would be aroused by their mouth-watering utterly majestic and artful hand-crafted sweets and be inspired to take on a feat of your own in the kitchen. These genius pastry chefs pour their hearts and souls into the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition putting their lives and loves on hold to win the title of Best Craftsman in France.

That film was enough inspiration to keep me up till midnight slaving over a hot oven in my first attempt at making my Indian-spiced macarons. A complete failure that was!

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Pav Bhaji ~ remixed!

My favourite Mumbai street food specialty is Pav Bhaji. I’ve already done my share of bragging about this as one of best street foods I’ve eaten in India, so I won’t keep going on and on about it here!

This past weekend I served Pav Bhaji while entertaining for Canada Day – but remixed! {Remix = an alternative version of the orginal}.

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Delicious for Father's Day Brunch ~ Curried Potato & Cheese Kebabs with Peas.

A friend in Mumbai, Pervin served these Curried Cheese & Potato Kebabs with Peas as an appetizer with a steamy cup of Chai upon our visit one hot Mumbai night. Pervin is a huge food lover and cook so it was fun to talk Indian recipes and exchange cooking ideas with a like-minded ‘foodie friend’!

This was my second visit to see Pervin who lives in the Malabar Hills area of Mumbai, just a stone’s throw from the famous Hanging Gardens of Mumbai—a much needed oasis from the Mumbai bustle, smog and heat.

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I stayed up for this week's lunar eclipse - it was spectacular! And this shot of the eclipse is amazing. Unfortunately, my photos did not turn out! Photo source: lawrence.com


The lunar eclipse this week was as fantastic as anticipated. Luckily the skies were clear, the stars were shining and the moon was a blazing deep red hue. My sleepy eyes stayed up to see the eclipse (yikes!) and in a dream-like state I gazed upon the red moon in amazement. It truly was spectacular.

That plus all the Christmas holiday festivities has left us with an exciting end to 2010!

My holiday dinner table is set. This is something I usually do way in advance of any dinner, as the day of entertaining should be all about the food.

The table is set...


Of course there is red and green on the table…

And there is a different shade of red and green...


And we can’t forget our beloved little elephant!

...we love elephants!


For our Christmas holiday feast traditions, we avoid curries of any sort. This is the time of year we embrace the traditional Christmas dinner along with the full array of trimmings, from oven roasted garlic potatoes to brussel sprout salad, gingered maple glazed green beans and carrots, cranberry chutney to homemade stuffing with toasted almonds. Dessert is a Sticky Date Toffee Pudding with a hint of garam masala.

The dinner table always gets set way in advance to avoid stress.


HOWEVER, there is usually at least one dish on our holiday table that has Indian flavours. Myself especially having a palette for spicy and bolder flavours needs one dish with intense Indian spices.

This year it will be Curried Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

Curried Mashed Sweet Potatoes is a side that can satisfy guests with a palette for intense flavours.


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Curried Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients:
1 lb. sweet potatoes (about 4 small), peeled and cubed
½ lb. potatoes (about 2 medium), peeled and cubed
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. ghee or butter
1 tbsp. Arvinda’s Curry Masala (I use 2 tbsp. but the flavour is intense)
1/8 cup heavy cream
sea salt, to taste
¼ tsp. Arvinda’s Garam Masala or chili powder, to garnish

Method: In a pressure cooker, add sweet potatoes, potatoes and salt. Cover with water and cook for 10 minutes until they are tender enough to mash. (If you don’t own a pressure cooker, boil on stovetop – this should take around 20 minutes).

Drain water. Using a potato masher (or fork) mash sweet potatoes and potatoes.

In a large skillet, melt ghee on medium heat. Add Arvinda’s Curry Masala and mix. Fold in mashed sweet potatoes and potatoes and coat with masala. Fold in heavy cream.

Serve in a bowl and garnish with Arvinda’s Garam Masala or chili powder. Serves 2-4.
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There, that’s more like it, now we have some spice!

The lovely Danielle, a fellow blogger, Holistic Nutritionist-to-be of Body By Nature blog just posted an amazing Apple-Curried Quinoa with Toasted Almonds – I think I’m now making this tomorrow too!

Thank you to all for your wonderful support and for reading A Teaspoon Of Turmeric. I wish you and yours a Happy Christmas!

What is on your holiday dinner table this year – either food or décor?

A teaspoon of: The Reindeer Section. Listening to: You Are My Joy.

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What gorgeous weather we have for our holiday weekend! Southern Ontario never fails to give us sunshine for Thanksgiving – we’re so lucky for that!

Here’s a simple recipe that will work alongside any Thanksgiving menu. We picked up these fingerling potatoes from the Oakville Organic Farmers’ Market. Fingerling potatoes are favoured for their buttery flavour and texture and can make a simple potato dish into something special. In Gujarat region of India, we refer to spinach as ‘bhaji’.

Start off with organic fingerlings & spinach.

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All week I’ve been thinking about tapas, and Indian-style tapas to be exact. Spain winning last week’s FIFA World Cup final has got me hooked on Spain On The Road Again …all over again!

Summertime always reminds me of Spain. When I was younger my family hosted some Spanish students for a couple of months in the summer opening me up to their culinary traditions and culture. Meat was definitely on the menu! From Asturias to Valencia to the northern Basque country, it was interesting to learn from our Spanish friends how the cuisine was unique to each Spanish province. Similarly India’s regional differences are very pronounced.

For the Masala Papad recipe below, of course this is not Spanish but I like to call it Indian-style tapas. It’s a light snack made from papads, also known as pappadums, thin grilled wafers made from lentils. These are gluten-free!

Uncooked papads

This snack is crunchy but gets freshness from tomatoes, cilantro, green chili and onions. Choose heirloom tomatoes for their amazing taste! I heard Clover Roads Organic Farm may possibly have their delicious tomatoes at today’s Oakville Organic Farmers’ Market. So exciting, I’ve waited a year for these!

Ingredients:
4 papads, grilled
2 tomatoes, finely cubed
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 green chili, finely chopped
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. Arvinda’s Garam Masala, to garnish

Method of Preparation: In a bowl combine all ingredients. Top grilled papads with tomato mixture and garnish with Arvinda’s Garam Masala. Serves 4.

Masala Papad topping all mixed up!

Now for the experiment. What is the best way to grill papads?

Today I tried it on the electrical stove.

For the electrical stove, cook papads on top of a cake cooling rack.

And then on the gas stove and lastly in the microwave.

Gas stove (left); electric stove (middle); microwave (right).

To my surprise, the microwave fared as the most consistent and even cooking and most aesthetically pleasing. Stove top grilling tends to slightly burn them, as they are very thin and delicate. Grilling the papads on the electrical stove made them crispier however. Any tips on cooking the perfect papad?

You can serve Masala Papadslike this:

Whole Masala Papad

Or like this!

Masala Papad Chips!

A teaspoon of: Johannes Linstead. Listening to: Hour of the Lamps.

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I don’t know what it is about dads and grills, but whenever you put the combo together it equates to happy. Most often our Father’s Day celebration has one element of grilling added to the menu.

India’s northern region specialities include Indian-spiced grill buffets of Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Tikka cooked in a tandoor clay oven that reaches ferociously hot temperatures. Setting up the tandoor is usually a half-day feat! The coals need to heat up slowly over the course of a couple of hours and when the temperature peaks, it’s time to add in your marinated tandoori chicken (or paneer) skewers. No worries if you don’t have a tandoor – the grill works great and so does the oven when set to 400F.

Since Tandoori Chicken is a signature dish it is coloured with red food colouring. Going naturally, try a natural food colour or just omit altogether. Arvinda's Tandoori Masala will give you more of a orangy colour, as there is no added food colouring.

Tandoori Chicken is super easy. The marinade consists of a few simple ingredients — yogurt, lemon juice, sea salt and spices. Arvinda’s Tandoori Masala contains over 17 herbs and spices – we pack lots of spice into our little tin! The spices include: my favourite turmeric (a super antioxidant by the way), chili, plus our fresh organic Ontario garlic.

If possible marinate your tandoori chicken overnight for best results. If you’re cooking on the fly, the results will still be good but not as flavourful as if you gave it time for the yogurt to pentrate the chicken.

Tandoori Chicken served with tandoori-glazed organic sweet potatoes from Round Plains Plantation!

Since I’m a vegetarian, my tandoori grilling session always includes a Tandoori-Grilled Vegetable Medley of Bell Peppers, Zuchinni and Mushrooms; Marinated Tandoori Paneer Kebabs and a Cooling Madras-Spiced Cucumber Raita, a yogurt condiment. For any vegetarian substitutes, use tofu or paneer using the same recipe as the chicken and the results are delicious. Today, our Father’s Day menu was done in a snap!

A teaspoon of: Tim Chaisson and Morning Fold. Listening to: Would You Go So Far.

Went to see Jason Collett play this weekend, which was a great show. Surprisingly we were most impressed with PEI native Tim Chaisson. You may recognize him from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Cool set with The Trews!

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Whenever I get on the conversation of the infamous Samosa–one the most popular Indian snack foods to hit the world–with colleagues or friends from South Africa, they always seem to have a word or two to say. “Samusas”, as they call it, are described as delicious and memorable, and few and far between in North America–unless you’re making them from scratch.

Traditional Samusas have a thinner, crispier pastry and typically have an aromatic meat filling.

Similarly, I’ve always called my Samosas “Samusas”. Growing up with my mother’s crispy, thin and almost cocktail-like Samusas, I’ve never taken a liking to the bigger, flakier mainstream counterpart.

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Arvinda's Curried Cilantro Deviled Eggs

Growing up in the 80s, I remember deviled eggs popping up at spring luncheons and potlucks often (on the grown-ups’ table at least!). As a kid it was something I didn’t pay much attention to, but I remember seeing them everywhere!

Simple and elegant, this curried version was on my holiday table, keeping in theme with eggs for this weekend. The recipe is simple and of course has an Indian twist!

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Here’s a lucky recipe for your St. Patrick’s Day party – Open Face Potato and Peas Curry in a Puff Pastry Pocket spiced with Arvinda’s Curry Masala. Of course not a traditional food of the Irish, but we’ve added a splash of green with colourful peas paired with potatoes, making this a perfect compliment to a classic Irish stew.

Open Face Potato and Peas Curry in a Puff Pastry Pocket

Now it’s time to go find some green beer! Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

A teaspoon of: The Cranberries. Listening to: Dreams. Make a wish!

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