Mango & Tomato

5/19/10

Red Caviar Appetizers

Last week I received a gift basket (ok, it was just a cardboard box) from Black Star Gourmet containing salmon roe caviar, black caviar, smoked salmon and Russian blini.

Growing up in Russia, we ate caviar on all the major holidays. I was a fan of black caviar, while my twin Anna preferred red. She also likes Diet Coke, while I'm a Diet Pepsi girl. But back to caviar...

It's been at least a few years since I've had either red or black caviar, and I was excited to eat it again. I decided to make very simple appetizers. There really isn't an exact recipe for this: you'll just need mini phyllo cups, cream cheese, dill and red caviar, of course.

1. Take out the mini phyllo cups from the freezer and bake them for about 10 minutes at 350.
2. Mix cream cheese (it helps if it's at room temperature) with chopped fresh dill.
3. Once the phyllo cups have cooled down a bit, fill them with cream cheese & dill mixture and top with red caviar.

This is a simple appetizer to have at your next party. Your guests will be able to pop in the whole phyllo cup in one bite. No need for napkins or utensils.

Also, don't add salt to the cream cheese mixture, as the red caviar has plenty on its own.

Other ideas for using red caviar: on top of deviled eggs, in crepes, on top of white bread and butter, or just eaten with a spoon.

Stay tuned to see how I use other gifts from the Black Star Gourmet.

What is your favorite way to eat red caviar?

5/17/10

Brunch and Wine Tasting at Tallula

This past Saturday, Sangeetha (who does PR for Amber Pfau communications) invited me and 4 other food bloggers to check out a brand new brunch menu at Tallula.This was a special occasion, since Tallula was the restaurant where I met Sangeetha for the first time almost 8 months ago! Since then, I've had a pleasure of dining with her on multiple occasions: always fun, filling and delicious!

Others in attendance:
Courtney Battle: http://www.welovedc.com/
Danielle Witt: http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/
Alyse Kraus: http://dcist.com/
Anita Hattiangadi:http://gregslistdc.com/

To start off, I ordered a bloody orange mimosa, while others had Morning Mood cocktail.

Before we even had a chance to order, we received a plate of Nutella doughnuts. These were warm out of the oven, light (in texture, not in calories!), and not overly sweet.

Once we placed our orders, we also received a mini appetizer of house smoked salmon with capers, red onions, chives and hardboiled egg. I'm a huge fan of salmon, and did not mind the pumpernickel bread. But I did not really understand the separation of the egg yolk and the egg white on the plate.

For the main course I ordered braised pork roulade on top of anson mills grits, topped with a poached farm egg and surrounded with tomatillo sauce. The pork was out of this world. So tender, I almost didn't have to chew. It'd be amazing on top of a sandwich! The grits were cooked to perfection: not undercooked, but also not overcooked to the point of not having any texture to them. And I really liked the tomatillo sauce because it cut the fatinness and richness of the pork, grits and the poached egg.

And anytime I dine with Sangeetha, she "forces" us to order dessert :) We ordered one of each: Clover Honey Panna Cotta with marinated raspberries and an almond tuille; White Chocolate Bread Pudding with huckleberry ice cream, macadamia nuts and bourbon anglaise; Chocolate-toffee brownie cake with pistachio ice cream.

I'm usually a huge fan of chocolate desserts, and the brownie cake did not disappoint. It was rich, dark, and smooth (I'm very tempted to make a joke here, but will let you use your imagination). The cake was separated with a crunchy layer. And I was happy the cake was paired with pistachio ice cream, as it's one of my favorites.

I was pleasantly surprised that I liked both the bread pudding and panna cotta. The panna cotta had just a bit of a flower-y favor, and the texture was silky. Not sure what the chef used to marinade the raspberries, but they had a bit of a punch to them (a good thing!).

The bread pudding was moist and not as heavy as I'd imagined it would be. The huckleberry ice cream made me think of all the berries to come in the next few months: cannot wait!

Here is the photograph of our table at the end of the meal. Let's just say all I had to eat for the rest of the day was a salad.

Just when I thought our brunch was over, Sangeetha suggested we have a wine tasting with Tallula's Wine Director Juliana Santos.

Below are the four wines we tried. (Not sure why my photos are not in the order. The correct order is in the photograph above. My favorite ones were the two in the middle.)

All four wines were light, on the sweet side and smelled of summer fruit. What's not to like!? Tallula has wine tasting on Saturdays from 3-5 if you are interested. $10 for 4 wines.

Have you been to Tallula? If so, what was your favorite dish?

5/14/10

Eating in Madrid and Toledo

It's hard to believe that on this day last month I was getting ready for my first trip to Spain: Madrid! I came back with wonderful memories, a few souvenirs, and a few extra pounds due to all the food and sangria consumed during my vacation.

Below are some of the photographs of food I took during 5 days in Madrid.

I already blogged about my first meal in Spain: churros con chocolat.Below is a photo of one of my first tapas in Madrid: roasted green peppers in salt. They were amazing: smoky, slightly crispy, salty, and oh so addictive!

On our second day in Madrid, we went to a little Middle Eastern place for lunch: I wasn't planning on having tapas the entire 5 days. Unlike Anna, I'm a Diet Pepsi girl. Alas, all that was available was Light Coke. But what a cute slogan!

This was an awesome lunch: lamb, fries and a salad.

Another non-Spanish meal was a very long and relaxing lunch we had at an Italian restaurant while waiting for the rain to end. And why not start with a glass of red wine? I'm not a red wine lover, but Anna and Radha prefer it, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I actually liked it quite a bit!

We then shared tomato/mozzarella/basil salad, 2 pizzas and tiramisu!

Here's a little treat/snack we bought while on our way to Park Retario: macarons! This was the first time Radha has tried macarons. She chose the "violet" one and said it tasted blue :) I chose pistachio one, and Anna chose a raspberry one.

To be honest with you, I pretty much planned our entire trip: which museums we'll visit, which parks, botanical gardens, etc. When it came to choosing restaurants, I was exhausted. That led to quite a few mini "fights" about where to eat. Finally, I decided we should just play rock/paper/scissors, and the winner of the game will have 10 minutes to decide where we'll be eating. When it came Radha's time to choose, she chose a close-by Irish pub. I had a fabulous lamb stew with potatoes and carrots. The only thing missing was a chunky Italian bread to dunk in the broth.

And of course, we had plenty of ham!!!!

At a flamenco show we went to see we were served olives (!!!), seen in the back of the photograph below and ordered a fabulous flan (check out the pile of whipped cream that came with it!).

We also took a trip to Toledo. For lunch we ordered a 3 course pre fix meal. Anna's appetizer was the Russian Salad. It wasn't the exact version of the Russian potato salad that I've made before because it had tuna. But it was still great!

And for the last dinner in Spain we went to a Cuban restaurant where we had amazing ropa vieja, sweet plantains (pictured below) and a few other dishes which I can't remember because of a rather strong mojito I had that night. After that dinner we all went back to our apartment to pack for our morning flight, and then while Radha went to bed, Anna and I went back to this restaurant for a great night of salsa! It's not vacation unless the Berman sisters go out salsa dancing at least once :)

What are some of YOUR favorite food vacation memories?

5/12/10

Carb-free Herb-y Vegetarian Lasagna

Before I tell you about this recipe, please keep in mind the photos were taken at 10 pm...so I know they are not perfect...

One more important note: I realize that this is technically not a carb-free recipe, as it contains black beans. But those carbs are good for you, right? Plus, you'll be getting quite a bit of fiber and protein. So in this case, carb-free refers to lack of pasta.
ok

In January, I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. One of his rules for me is to avoid carbs after 6 pm five days a week. It's a hard rule to follow because I love potatoes, pasta and rice, but I've been doing pretty well so far (not that my scale or clothes have noticed it).

I came up with this recipe as a way to have lasagna without consuming noodles. The vegetarian part came accidentally: I just did not have any ground beef or chicken in my refrigerator.

Ingredients
1 cup parsley
2 garlic cloves
24 ounce cottage cheese (I used 2%)
1 egg
4 zucchini, thinly sliced
15.25 ounce can black beans, rinsed, drained
1 teaspoon olive oil
6 ounces fresh spinach
2 dashes red pepper flakes
28 ounce crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. In a food processor chop parsley and garlic.

3. Add cottage cheese and puree (if you want to buy Ricotta, you can skip this step).

4. Add an egg and puree till everything is incorporated.

5. Meanwhile, bake sliced zucchini for about 15 minutes, just to soften them up. Alternatively, if you have an outside grill, you can grill your zucchini slices.

6. In a medium skillet heat olive oil. Add spinach and red pepper flakes and saute till the spinach wilts (the photo below is of "before").

7. In an 8x8 Pyrex dish make the following layers:
crushed tomatoes
zucchini
cottage cheese mixture
black beans
crushed tomatoes
zucchini
cottage cheese mixture
spinach
crushed tomatoes
cottage cheese mixture
Parmesan

8. Bake for 45 minutes (it's best to set your Pyrex on a cookie sheet in case there is some spillage...it also makes it easier to take out the dish from the oven).

Let the lasagna stand for at least 15 minutes before cutting into it.

CONFESSION: the lasagna looked and smelled awesome! However, once I cut into it, there was a lot of liquid. I guess this could be due to the high water content of spinach and zucchini? What are your thoughts?

Still, I managed to take a few decent photos. And what matters the most, is that this is relatively healthy dish that tastes good.

This is just me playing around with the f stop on my camera to blur the background (a red vase, a bowl of lemons and a chair).

Do you have any suggestions for making this lasagna less watery? What are your favorite carb-free meals?

5/10/10

Holler for Challah Bread Pudding

I might have mentioned a few times that I'm Jewish, but don't follow Kosher laws and mostly enjoy the cultural aspects of Judaism as opposed to religious ones. One such aspect is challah. I absolutely love challah bread and have baked it several times: plain, with cranberries and orange zest and with Nutella. I've also made Challah French Toast and baked challah casserole with apples.

This past Friday, I decided to buy a loaf of challah at an outside market right by Union Station. At $3/loaf, this was a great deal. Unfortunately, the challah tasted on the stale-ish side. What to do? Make challah bread pudding of course!

Like many of the recipes I invent and post on this blog, this one includes the ingredients I had on hand. I combined a few things together and crossed my fingers that I'll like the final result. This is as much of living on an edge as I can handle ;)

Holler for Challah Bread Pudding

Ingredients

PAM spray
5 eggs
1/8 cup real maple syrup
2 teaspoon vanilla (I used the one I made at home)
3/4 cup half & half
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup dried cherries
1 challah loaf cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions

1. Spray a 12 inch muffin tin with PAM.

2. In a bowl whisk together eggs, maple syrup, vanilla and half & half.

3. Fold in chocolate chips, cherries and challah cubes. I found that using my hands was the best technique for it.

4. Fill each muffin cup with the mixture. Again, using my hands was the easiest way to do this as I was able to make sure that each mini bread pudding had an even amount of chocolate chips and cherries.

5. Cover the muffin tin with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. [If you wanted to, you could also bake it right away...the flavors just would not have time to mingle together.]

6. Preheat the oven to 375F and bake the challah bread pudding for 30 minutes.

7. Serve warm out of the oven with a drizzle of maple syrup.

Note: I had a really hard time removing each mini challah bread pudding from the muffin tin. Perhaps it would have been better to use butter instead of PAM.

This is a great make ahead brunch/breakfast dish. It took about 10 minutes to put it together: I'm sure you have 10 minutes!

Of course you can change this recipe by omitting chocolate chips (but why would you?), switching up dried cherries for cranberries or raisins and adding other flavors such as citrus zest or almond extract.

After baking these mini challah bread puddings, my apartment smelled sweet for hours!

5/8/10

What Healthy Foods are you Craving?

Earlier this week I asked my Twitter followers the following question: What healthy foods are you craving right now?

For me, it was watermelon. Below are some of the responses I received. (Yes, I realize none of the photographs really go with any of the answers, but those are the things I had on hand to photograph...and they are fresh and healthy.)

http://twitter.com/jennettinger Grapefruit. all. the. time.

http://twitter.com/floridagirlindc Clementines, strawberries, avocado

http://twitter.com/carriesita Caprese salad. Or spinach with garlic. Or clementines. yummm.

http://twitter.com/heylovedc avocado! Although now you've got me wanting watermelon too :)

http://twitter.com/umamigirl Love that question. Lobster, oysters, avocado with lemon, sometimes a big salad.

http://twitter.com/MichelleNoVaMag I'm craving a mango.

http://twitter.com/HealthyDelish I would kill for a peach

http://twitter.com/Kay819 I'm with you on the watermelon- I could easily eat a 1/4 of one in one sitting, haha

http://twitter.com/urbanbohemian I could go for some grapes and baby carrots right about now.

http://twitter.com/Shaw_Girl Strawberries!!!

http://twitter.com/bookbloom Strawberries. Especially this time of year.

http://twitter.com/SallySummerson Hummus, Smoothies/Fruit or Yogurt.

http://twitter.com/ElyssaK I often crave sauteed spinach w/garlic. Roasted veggies: esp. brussel sprouts and cauliflower. I love veggies!

What about you? What healthy foods are you craving at this moment? And if you are not following me on Twitter, you are missing out :) Sign up here.

PS For those of you who are reading this on Sunday, Happy Mother's Day!

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