Mussels and White Fish in a Light Saffron Tomato Coconut Broth

My next Vij's Seafood attempt was his version of Moules Mariniere. This was more of my response to Raquel saying she was craving Moules Mariniere (one of her favorite dishes). While I'm certainly a fan of the classic French preparation of mussels, I found the spicy, robust, full-flavored Indian version more exciting. Because even though the broth was light, it enhanced the plump, juicy mussels to a whole new level. Of course, it also helps that I threw in tons of jalapenos, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Yes, I like my food spicy.

For the record, this goes well with grilled bread, a spring salad, and big cold mug of beer.

Roasted Cashews, Sauteed Spinach, and Paneer in Tomato Yogurt Sauce; Broiled Butterfish in Tomato Coconut Curry

I treated myself, and my friends, to another decadent Vij's meal. Only this time, I'm knee deep the seafood section of the cookbook. Which, if you know me, is my favorite category. I was really interested in seeing an Indian interpretation on Hawaiian Butterfish (Black Cod or Sablefish). In fact, outside of Misoyaki Butterfish I hadn't really tried butterfish cooked any differently. I should've known that the delicate milky texture of the fish can easily blend with a rainbow of flavors. In this case, it was a light tomato coconut curry, which I personally associate more with Thai cuisine than Indian. Still, the dish was mouth-watering deliciousness!

For a side dish, I used one of Vij's interesting appetizers. I've never seen a combination of paneer, cashews, spinach, and yogurt sauce. But, wow! That was a really great idea! I don't know if that's a traditional Indian dish, but it's certainly a yummy one.

I'm really glad that I'm cooking my way through this cookbook. It's not only an adventure and tribute, but it's introducing a whole new wave of flavors to my palette.

Pasta Primavera

Lately, I've felt the need to lighten our meals a bit, ie. cook less meat. Mainly, because a lot of the meals that I cooked in honor of Jeff were meat heavy, and I'm also taking the start of this year's half-marathon training more seriously than before. So, I put together a vegetarian meal based roughly off of this recipe: Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree. I added my own spin by grilling all the vegetables first instead of roasting, because it's quicker and I'm impatient when I'm hungry. Also, instead of puree-ing everything, I reserved half of the vegetables to sautee so that there would be more texture and you could see what went into the sauce. Lastly, I used whole wheat penne.

You'd think that a meal like that would send Raquel to the taqueria down the street, but she actually really liked it! In fact, she took leftovers for lunch the next day. Seeing as how she normally needs meat in most meals and she's not a huge fan of wheat pasta, it's a miracle that she even finished her meal. Just from that healthy transformation, I feel like my work here is done. Amazingly, she said she didn't miss the meat. Here were my changes:

Modifications:
-use whole wheat pasta
-substitute red bell pepper for the tomatoes (that's just cause Raquel doesn't like tomatoes)
-grill the eggplant and bell peppers, reserve half to sautee at end. *
-blanch broccoli, and sautee in white wine, garlic, onions, and red pepper flakes.
-Add reserved veggies, cooked pasta, and pureed vegetables to sautee pan at end to throw everything together.
-use half the amount of Parmesan suggested, the veggies already have enough flavor.

*Nota bene -
Don't make the same rookie mistake I made. I had to taste test the wine before adding it to the sauce, just to make sure it was ok. That involved finishing a glass before grilling and getting tipsy. Thus, making it easier to burn your hand on the grill lid and missing the handle. So while war wounds sound cool, having a huge burn scar across three fingers is unattractive. I'd also like to note that burning your hand is a very quick way to get sober.

Barbari

Coming from a Chinese family, I'm lucky to be surrounded by many fantastic cooks; my aunty, my mom, and my grandmothers were big influences. And I know that's where my passion for food truly began. But, I'm also lucky that my extended family shared and expanded the culinary tradition. In particular, one of my Canadian aunties, who married a truly charming Persian man, excels in Mediterranean cuisine. So you can imagine my delight when I happened to move one city away from my cousin, who receives frequent visits from her mom. We've been fortunate to join in several of my aunty's dinner parties. And Raquel is still giving me a hard time for not bringing home leftovers from the great Lamb Kebab cookout that she couldn't make.

But, there was one perfect brunch which keeps resonating for both of us: Barbari. It's Persian bread that my aunty makes from scratch and serves with fruits, meats, cheeses, various spreads, and cups of tea. It was a perfectly balanced light meal, that would be ideal after a workout. We happened to have this meal before a workout, and it still didn't really hinder us. The bread was the star of the meal. It's hard for me to describe, but I felt like it was light and hearty at the same time, if that even makes sense.

So, I bugged my cousin for her mom's recipe. Which, I successfully finangled from my last visit with her. Raquel and I feasted on this bread last weekend, and I served it with tomatoes, apples, salami, and goat cheese. She loved it, it's now her favorite breakfast. And I can't get over how many possibilities the recipe has. My aunty even used the bread as pizza dough, which I'm definitely going to have to try. And naturally, I couldn't resist making a healthier version by substituting 100% whole wheat flour for the regular flour. It added this nutty warmth to the bread that the original version didn't have. But, next time I'll try adding some honey to the wheat to balance out the slightly bitter wheat flavor. I'll probably also make tzaziki and hummus to go with it. Thanks Cuz!

Barbari

1 cup warm water
1 Tb quick acting/instant yeast
1/2 Tb sugar
1/2 Tb salt
2 cups flour
3-4 Tb olive oil

Dissolve sugar in warm water. Add yeast to sugar water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add salt to flour in a medium/large bowl. Make a well in flour and add olive oil. Add yeast/water mixture to flour and combine with hands to make dough(having olive oil on your hands will help to keep the dough from getting too sticky on your hands). Cover the dough with paper towel (you can put olive oil on the paper towel so when the dough rises it doesn't get stuck to the paper towel). Leave the dough in the bowl in a warm place (I usually turn an element on low and leave the bowl nearby) for 30 minutes. Spread the dough on a cook sheet (13 X 9 ??) that has been prepped with olive oil and dusted with flour. Leave the dough for another 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350 F. Bake in centre rack for 10-15 minutes (all ovens are different so just watch your bread). You may want to take the bread off the pan and bake for another minute or so to crisp the bottom, and/or turn the oven on broil to brown the top a wee bit.

Optional: Do an egg wash on the bread and sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion flakes (anything!). You can score the bread with a knife before baking, so that when the bread is done it is easy to pull apart the pieces.

Grilled Lamb Chops with Fenugreek Sauce and Tumeric New Potatoes

To continue my Vij's tribute to Jeff, tonight I cooked his all-time favorite dish from that restaurant: Vij's Lamb Popsicles. To give you a sense of the flavor, I marinated the lamb in a mustard and sweet white wine mixture before I grilled them. The fenugreek sauce is cream-based with a mixture of Indian spices, ginger, and peppers. Finally, the potato dish is a mixture of sauteed potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, and masala. I can see why this is their signature dish. It's clear that Vij really spent time working on this dish to achieve the optimum flavor combination between each element. The soft meaty texture, the luxurious spice-filled cream sauce, and the satisfying hearty warmth of the vegetables complemented each other in a manner which brought each element to a new taste level. The effect was like Gestalt Theory. It really made the dish sing. I think Jeff would've been proud...and full.

On a side note, I wanted to share another Jeff memory with this post that I didn't mention in my official eulogy. One of my fondest memories of Jeff was during his Bay Area visit. He arrived on the same night as my second date with Raquel. Once I informed him of this, here is the conversation that followed:

Jeff: "ooooh, you're going out with that girl again? nice. should I take a cab back from the airport instead?"

Me: "don't be silly Jeff. my family comes first".

Jeff: "it's ok. perhaps I should find a hotel for the week? ;)"

Me: "Cut it out. It's just a second date. That's not how I roll".

The second date went well enough that Raquel and I continued to text throughout the week. When Jeff noticed, he started reading her texts and my responses over my shoulder. As usual, he couldn't help but tease me about how I have no game. So, he then proceeded to act as my Cyrano de Bergerac and fed me my flirty lines. Raquel and I have been together for almost three years now, and I'd like to think Jeff had a hand in it in the beginning. But, when I asked Raquel if any of his lines actually worked, she thought I just wanted to be friends during those texts. Ouch. Sorry Jeff, guess we both didn't have game.

Indian Lamb Stew, Yogurt-Marinated Cabbage, Cumin Basmati Rice

I'm heartbroken to say that I lost my dearest cousin, Jeff, to complications with his leukemia treatment two weeks ago. He was only 33 years old. Jeff and I were very close. He'd often jokingly say, "You're the perfect female version of myself. We're a bit narcissistic in our relationship that way. As long as you like yourself a little bit, you'll like me". I love him very much and I deeply miss him. These past two weeks have gone by ridiculously fast, and I'm still having a hard time accepting the permanence of him not being here.

So this year, I've decided to pay tribute to him in a combination of ways. As I gear up again to run the 2010 Nike Women's Half Marathon, I will join Team in Training for the first time with a few of my other cousins in tow. Our goal is to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and to donate the money in his memory. I know his presence will be with us on that day.

Aside from chatting with him online or catching up on the phone, we'd often have adventures with hiking, biking, and eating. One of his favorite Vancouver restaurants, was Vij's. So, my other tribute has been to cook my way through Vij's cookbook. And my first attempt was the Cinnamon-scented Lamb Stew, Yogurt-Marinated Cabbage, and Cumin Basmati Rice. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm allowed to post the recipes here. But, I can probably give the general idea of how it tastes.

Jeff was rightfully enamored with the rich depth of these flavors. Although, I probably altered the taste since I didn't use any ghee, and I only used non-fat plain yogurt. The combination of spices are strong enough to not need any help from ghee or heavy yogurt. I thought it was a fantastic meal worthy of Jeff's praise. And apparently, my friends agreed since they cleaned out my stockpot. Look Jeff, no leftovers! And leave it to me to make rich Indian food healthy.

For those who'd like to try out the recipes, this lamb stew and this cabbage recipe look close to Vij's. For the rice, just add cooked onions and whole cumin seed to the basmati rice while it's cooking. Stay tuned for Jeff's favorite Vij's dish: lamb popsicles.

Coconut Shrimp and Chipotle Mango Sauce

Ok, I realize that a large amount of my recent posts have somehow involved shrimp. Well, there's a simple reason for that. If you buy a huge bag of frozen raw EZ-peel shrimp, you're going to have a convenient and nutritious protein source always at your fingers. So, I'm sure my next several posts will still be about shrimp. And surprisingly, Raquel isn't tired of it. Anyway, tonight was a heavy workout night so we weren't in the mood for anything heavy afterwards. Thus, this dinner could be summed up as Happy Hour (minus the alcohol) at Surfrunner and Raquel's house.

The star of the menu was the Coconut Shrimp and Mango Sauce from Cooking Light. It was so flavorful, crunchy, and relatively healthy that Raquel has added this dish to the list of dishes that she wants me to cook for her parents. That's saying a lot considering Raquel takes days to figure out what restaurants to take her parents to when they visit. The rest of the menu was rounded out by home-made guacamole, home-made hummus, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, and bell pepper sticks. I love finger foods after a tough workout, because I always feel like I get more bang for my buck. Now, if I only could have had a beer....

Home-made Guacamole

-1 lime, juiced

-1 avocado

-1/4 onion (finely minced)

-2 Tb cilantro (chopped)

-Hawaiian Sea Salt, to taste

Throw all ingredients together and mash.

Home-made Hummus

-1 can of garbanzo beans, drained

-about 6 garlic gloves, chopped

-1 lemon, juiced (optional)

-2 Tb Extra Virgin Olive Oil

-Hawaiian Sea Salt, to taste

Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend. Add water as needed to thin it out. You can also add Tahini if you have it, but I didn't.

Modifications to Mango Sauce:

(Note - I didn't have Scotch Bonnet Peppers so I substituted my own)

-Add 2 chopped chipotle peppers in blender at end. (I used the canned chipotles in adobo sauce)

-Add 2 Tb cilantro in blender at end

-Add 1 serrano chile (chopped) in to saute with garlic.