Indian in August!

Hi all (3 of you)!  Sorry for the super looong hiatus.  It's pretty much all my fault.  

We did not end up doing the "dining in the dark" theme because none of us could think of particularly good foods to do, but rest assured, now that we have all been exposed to the idea, we will all keep it in the back of our minds, ready to notice the perfect foods when they make themselves known.  

I then changed the theme to be Melon and we were all set to go, and then the day of the event, I ended up with some stomach bug and so we post-poned.

I decided to change the theme yet again because I wasn't particularly ecstatic about the dish I chose, and Melons weren't particularly in season as they were before, AND I finally found a great Chicken Tikka Masala recipe, so I had to do Indian before someone else took it!  Jay and I love Indian food.  We actually went out for Indian on our first date <3

I think everything turned out rather well! The Chicken Tikka Masala may not be exactly authentic, but it tasted great to me, and more similar to the one at Bombay House than any other recipe I've tried.  (and I've tried many...)  It's relatively easy too, and it's great for summer because the chicken is grilled.  I will say, though, that I hate grilling chicken on skewers (it's such a pain to flip them!) so I just cut my chicken into long skinny strips for the grill and then cut them up to bite-sized with my wooden spoon when I added them to the sauce.

I also made my own Naan- it's not actually that hard, the trickiest part being getting the setting on your stove just right so you don't burn them.  I just used regular all-purpose flour.

Lindsay made the Samosas from a recipe I've tried in my Moosewood cookbook.  It is a really awesome vegetarian cookbook, for anyone interested.  It's really old and everything in it is hand-written and hand-drawn.  I always have quite a bit of extra filling when I'm done, but that's fine with me because it's delicious by itself and actually makes great baby food.

Vegetable Samosas
from Moosewood Cookbook pg. 155

1 hour to prepare (before frying)                    4 or 5 servings as main

These are turnovers with a yogurt pastry and a curried vegetable filling.  They are deep fried until golden and crisp, and served immediately.  You can assemble them several hours in advance, storing them in refigeration until frying time.  Serve them with chutney and plenty of raita (both of these in Sauce Chapter) and chunks of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables.

Filling:
    2 lg potatoes, cooked and mashed
    1 c finely-minced onion
    2 med. cloves crushed garlic
    ½ t fresh-grated ginger root
    ½ t mustard seeds
    ½ t ground coriander
    ½ c diced carrots, cooked until just tender
    ½ c cooked green peas (cayenne pepper to taste)
    1 t. salt
    juice from ½ lemon
    2-3 T butter

Heat butter in heavy skillet.  Add garlic, ginger, onion, salt and mustard seeds.  Saute 6-8 min, or until onion is soft and clear.  Combine all ingredients, except peas, and mix well.  Fold in peas last, taking care not to smash them.

Pastry & Procedure:
    2 c white flour
    1 t salt
    4 T melted butter
    ⅓ c yogurt
    water (<= ¼ c)

Sift together flour and salt.  Add melted butter, yogurt, and enough water to make a stiff dough.  Knead until smooth and elastic.  Roll out very thin ( ¼ -inch) on a floured board and cut into 4-inch circles.  Keep rolling and cutting until you’ve used all the dough.  PLace a T of filling (approximately... You might be able to fit more in.) in the center of each circle,leaving edges free.  Brush edges with a little water, fold over, and seal with a fork.

Heat a 3-inch pool of vegetable, safflower or soy oil in a heavy skillet to about 365 degrees.  Make sure the oil is hot enough (it should bounce a drop of water on contact.) Fry samosas until golden.  Drain well and serve.

Melissa made the Lassi's for a kind of dessert (in our experience, Indian desserts aren't that great...)  I've never heard of strawberry lassi's before but it was really good.  Melissa made two batches, the first with cinnamon instead of cardamom, and the second with cardamom.  Surprisingly, I think we all liked it better with cinnamon, though I would never think to put those two together.

All in all, we left stuffed and completely satisfied.

May's Theme...

I listened to a Meal Makeover Mom's podcast where they went to an event in Boston called "Dining in the Dark".  It sounded so fun I thought I'd do it too!  The idea is basically this: we would taste our food more thoroughly if we took more time to eat and really focused on our food when we ate.  They achieve this by eating blind-folded and they aren't told what they're eating.  This means, no silverware.  (because we are not skilled blind people who could do this without making a mess!)  All the foods had interesting or mixed textures and/or some kind of interesting/notable/pungent flavor.  We are not allowed to tell each other what we are serving.  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Holiday Feast

Wow. The Dinoround gals have truly let the blog go. The February dinoround is coming up on Saturday, and the last two dinners haven't even been documented!! It has been discussed with the ladies and we have decided it is officially the responsibility of the dinoround hostess to document her event in a timely manner. So let's see...that means the November dinoround is all ME (Lindsay).

The theme: Gourmet Holiday Feast

Inspiration: Last year (2010) I had subscribed to Martha Stewart FOOD magazine and around the holidays it was chalk full of really nice looking holiday fare. I just couldn't pass it up. At least three of the dishes were straight from the mag.

Here are some of the guests:Don't forget about this little guest.
And this little guest.
I wanted to keep the decor (or "tablescape" as the Food Network likes to call it...) fairly simple, but I couldn't help but get a nice arrangement for the centerpiece.
And of course, what kind of holiday meal is complete without sparkling cider?
Now...the food. We'll start with the main course and work our way down. First we have Martha's rib roast with herb crust. It came out a little rare, but I thought it was pretty darn tasty.
For side dishes we had Martha's spinach and gruyere souffle, compliments of Libby. I thought it tasted fantastic.
Melissa brought a classic: green bean casserole and it was very tasty.
I also made rolls. And by "made" I mean let rise and baked. I haven't yet had the urge to pursue the "bread arts", but right now I am in the process of testing all of the brands of frozen dough to find out which one is best. Any suggestions?
And finally, dessert. Martha's maple cheesecake with roasted pears.
I thought it was pretty good, but all in all I think I am done with Martha Stewart desserts. This is the third or fourth one I've tried and they are just a bit too snooty for me. They never taste more than pretty good, and they can be rather difficult to make look even remotely as pretty as the picture in the magazine. I think I'm going to stick to simpler and more ooey gooey mouth watering desserts from now on.

December was a busy month so we decided to skip to January. And for that we turn to Libby!!!

February's Theme...

Breakfast for dinner!

And stay tuned for updates of the last two dine-o-round get togethers.

Mini Foods

January's theme was mini foods.  Honestly, I mostly chose this because I really wanted to make my new favorite meatloaf recipe, and I like cooking it in muffin tins so you can make extra and freeze the amount your family will eat for later.  I decided mini-cornbread muffins were also appropriate.
The meatloaf is a Test Kitchen recipe, altered by my mother-in-law.  Here's a link to my google doc with her edits.  The glaze is sooo good and the meatloaf is especially tender and moist because of the secret ingredient- gelatin.  Weird eh?  If you're going to use the muffin tins, make sure you use extra lean ground beef, otherwise you will be super grossed out by the congealed fat that will appear on the surface.

The cornbread muffins are from The Bread Bible - I've really liked this cookbook so far.
You can see the changes I made at my note at the very bottom.

Melissa outdid herself and made mini quiches and sweet potato fries.  Both of which were delicious!




Lindsay cheated and bought her mini sesame seed cheesecakes from Les Madeleines.  I thought they were good, but I don't think anyone else was crazy about the sesame after-taste.  (I did have a cold though and was super congested, perhaps I didn't get the full taste).

Pumpkins

Last Saturday the Dine-o-Round crew gathered at Melissa's tiny, but cozy, apartment to enjoy some pumpkin-inspired food.  And in case the pictures don't speak for themselves, I must tell you that the food was insanely good.

Rarely does the hostess go all out on the place setting, but this was one of those lucky occasions :)

Pumpkin Place Settings

Green Beans with Pepitas

Pumpkin Chili

And for dessert...
Doesn't she just look tasty? :D

(Don't worry.  No babies were harmed in the implementation of this dinner.)

Now for the real dessert....

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

**Take note that Libby made these using her mixer, as opposed to by hand like the directions say. She ended up using more than 2 c all-purpose flour and if she were to do it again (despite their deliciosity) she might try adding chopped pecans.

 

October's Theme...

Pumpkins!

'Tis the season after all.

We have some great recipes lined up for this one.  Hopefully we won't go home with orange tints to our skin.

Oh!  And I have a centerpiece/place setting idea that I'm really excited about.  Can't wait to share!