Green Tomato Contest - I'm a Finalist!

Last week, on a whim, I entered my recipe for thakali masiyal (South Indian green tomato stew) into a green tomato recipe contest hosted by Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen. Who knew that my recipe would end up as one of the six finalists! In addition to a surge in pride, the winner of the contest will receive a tomato-themed prize package, the best part of which is an awesome Wüsthof tomato knife.

You get to decide who the winner is, so head over to Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen, register (it's quick and painless, I promise), and cast your vote (hopefully for me). Voting closes at 5 pm (EST) on Monday November 11th, so please, don't be a procrastinator like me, and head over before the voting closes.

Tartness, Diwali, and treats from the UK

It’s been a slow week in my kitchen. I actually did make some chole (aka chana masala) last night, but I’m not posting it here because I wasn’t completely enthralled with it. It was good, but it didn’t taste the same as my regular version, and I know why that is. I normally use this garam masala, but last night, I used this chana masala mix that I had bought a while back but had never used.

What's the difference? Here's the difference:

Garam masala: Cumin, Black pepper, Coriander, Cardamom seeds, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Dry Ginger, Bay leaf, Caraway, Mace.

Chana masala: Coriander, Salt, Dry Mango, Pomegranate seeds, Chilli, Cumin, Musk melon, Black Pepper, Black Salt, Fenugreek leaves, Cloves, Mint, Nutmeg, Dry Ginger, Cinnamon, Bay leaf, Cardamom seeds, Caraway, Mace.

Dry mango, pomegranate seeds, and musk melon all add tartness. (By the way, all of these things are dried and ground up and added to the mix; there aren't whole pomegranate seeds in there.) Black salt adds a salty and sulphuric taste. I'm not so concerned about the salt or chili because I add those ingredients to my chole so they would have ended up in the pot anyway.

I always add a bit of tamarind paste (which lends a bit of tartness) to my chole, but clearly I didn't need to do so, what with all the things in the chana masala mix that are tart. Furthermore, I’m not a huge fan of those spices, as they’re not used in South Indian cooking and so I’m not accustomed to them (nor do I really like them, unless they’re in chaat). I'm going to save this mix for making chaat that involves chickpeas. I have learned my lesson and will stick to good ol' garam masala for my chole. (I should have listened to you, mom.)

Anyway, I did manage to fix up the over-tart chole and it was actually really good, but it just wasn’t how I like it to be. Which means that you don’t get to see it.

My brother and I are going to NY this weekend for my mom’s birthday (happy birthday mommy!) and for Diwali, so you better believe that I’m not cooking this weekend, as my mom, who is an amazing cook, is cooking up a Diwali feast for the family. Although my mom is also making some Diwali sweets, I will be baking a birthday cake tomorrow (it’s a spin on my mango kulfi cupcake). I will definitely bring back photos of my mom's awesome food, and the recipe for the cake will go up next week.

In the meantime, here are some interesting confections I picked up in the UK.

I’m not a big fan of chocolate, so most of these things are going to my friends.

OK, I'll admit that I've tried almost all of these while in the UK. The bf and I shared a peppermint Aero bar or two (which I liked, but really couldn't eat more than two pieces of) and the Mars planets (of which I only liked the crunchy, of which there were far too few in the bag). I ripped open a Flake bar the other day, and I was disappointed - it's not all that flaky, but the dark chocolate is pretty good.

I saw these cookies in a convenience store in Edinburgh and I had to get them!

They're not that great - they're just chocolate chip cookies with hazelnuts - but they're good for fixing a cookie craving.

And here is the best purchase: Scotch Whiskey!

We picked these up at the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. We didn't take the tour, but we did pick up one tiny bottle (50 ml) of each type of whiskey there is - Single Malt (of which there are four types - Lowland, Highland, Speyside, and Islands), Blended, Malt, Liqueur, and Cream. These are being saved for a rainy weekend, at which point we will sit down and have a proper whiskey tasting (and no we are not going to get drunk because each bottle is so tiny and we're splitting them over the course of a number of hours).

OK, back to work.

Spinach and Avocado Sandwich

Look, people, I apologize for the dearth of activity on here, but I haven't been feeling inspired this week. I've been a bit out of sorts due to residual jetlag and a barely-there-but-noticeable-enough-so-it's-annoying fever/malaise. That's not usually enough to stop me, but, because I had been out of the country for ten days, my fridge was empty save for condiments (I recently discovered that I have lots of vinegars), onions, potatoes, and jarred olives. I did have things in the pantry with which I could have culled together a meal, but that would have required far more brainpower than I was willing to exert. The combination of these circumstances has resulted in lunches of penne with defrosted vodka sauce (good thing I made lots of it last time) and dinners of microwaved black bean Gardenburgers with melted cheddar cheese (and sans bun – call it Atkins if you want to legitimize it; I just call it pathetic), a baguette with olives and brie, and chickpea, leek, and saffron soup (yet another thing I froze before I left). Go ahead, make fun of me and my weak meals.

Well, I felt slightly inspired this morning and threw together this sandwich for lunch because, quite frankly, I'm pretty damn sick of penne alla vodka. It would be silly for me to write this out as a proper recipe with measurements and all because, come on, it's just a sandwich that I made this morning. But I do think that the combination of ingredients is a good one and, having just eaten said sandwich, I can vouch that it's also a tasty one.

Spinach and Avocado Sandwich
serves me at lunchtime

• Good bread – I like oatnut or 12-grain
• A few slices of Fontina cheese
• Greek yogurt (or mayo…which is what I might have used if I had any in my barren fridge because I have no qualms admitting that I love mayo on sandwiches and with my fries, or frites, if you will)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Toasted pine nuts – just a sprinkling
• A few leaves of basil – I threw these in because I accidentally shook Basil (my basil plant, clever name, huh?) and he dropped a few leaves in his anger at this agitation that had been inflicted upon him. I showed him who's boss by putting them on my sandwich.
• Avocado slices – I used an entire half because my avocado was small
• Sliced cucumber
• Sliced tomatoes (good luck finding ones that aren't pink and don't cost upwards of $3/lb – I cheaped out and got mediocre romas that are sort of red…sort of.)
• Fresh baby spinach – a big handful is plenty

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Assemble all the ingredients on the bread in a manner that makes architectural sense. (You should probably do so in the order in which they are listed because, last time I checked, recipes list ingredients in the order in which they are used, right? Right.)

Slice the sandwich in half diagonally (you cannot slice it in half any other way because then you wouldn't be following my recipe, now would you) and scarf it down at mealtime, whenever that might be.

Bostini Cream Pie - Daring Bakers Challenge

A few months ago, I ran across a blog that is a member of The Foodie Blogroll: The Daring Bakers. Their premise is simple and fun: each month, one member shares a recipe for a baked good and all the other members make it exactly as written (substitutions are only allowed for dietary reasons and for certain flavorings, and the recipe can be scaled down) and then everyone posts their results on their blog on the same day at the end of the month. It was interesting to see how one recipe produced such different results, and, since I bake so much, I thought I’d join.