For somebody who loves Indian cuisine as much as I do, I’m not quite sure how I’d gone so long without trying butter chicken, one of the most popular Indian recipes outside of India.

But now that I’ve tasted it, I can definitely understand it’s popularity.   After all, who can resist  chicken when it’s swimming in a luscious sauce made from butter, yogurt, heavy cream and Indian spices?

The hardest part about this recipe is rounding up and measuring out all of the different spices.  Otherwise, you’re just a quick saute and simmer away from a pretty great meal.

Continue reading: Indian Spiced Butter Chicken

Although I most often associate dill with pickles and Scandinavian cuisine, it was Vietnamese (specifically cha ca thang long) and this Indian dish that finally turned me onto the polarizing herb.

And so the girl who could barely tolerate dill as a garnish (I’m a sweet gherkin girl through and through) became somebody who can’t seem to pass up the large, leafy bunches when they make their appearance at the farmer’s market.

Chickpeas are simmered with garlic and onions, Indian spices, a slightly sweet tomato sauce and plenty of chopped, fresh dill in this healthy vegan dish.  If you’ve got pre-cooked chickpeas on hand, the dish should only take about 20 minutes from start to finish.

Continue reading: Indian Chickpeas with Tomatoes and Dill

Dear hard boiled eggs.  We’ve come a long way, you and I.  A couple years ago  I wouldn’t even consider allowing you to pass through my lips.   And now you’re one of my go-to spinach salad toppings.   I also like to cut you lengthwise and stuff you with glorified tuna salad and use you as a protein in Asian curries.

I was so wrong about you.

You really are the incredible, edible egg.

Because I missed out on so many good years of eating hard boiled eggs, I’m doing my best to make up for lost time. I tend to make a large batch every week to store in the fridge for salads, which means that if I plan ahead and make a few extra, this egg curry becomes a very quick and easy weeknight meal.

Continue reading: Onion and Yogurt Egg Curry

Creamed spinach.  It’s pretty good stuff, right?  I mean, even folks who hate greens and vegetables in general would probably be happy to eat it on the side of a char-grilled steak.

But what about those of us on the other end of the spectrum, i.e.  those of us who would happily eat spinach, kale or just about any other green every day of the week?  Those of us who don’t need excessive amounts of butter and cream to make those greens palatable and would be happier without the extra fat and calories?

Well, I think I’ve got something that will appeal to both factions.

Large bunches of Swiss Chard and kale are combined with a lightly-spiced onion mixture and rich and creamy coconut milk  in this Indian-spiced creamed greens dish.  Even though it’s much, much healthier than your average creamed spinach recipe, it tastes no less indulgent.  Coconut milk for the win yet again.

Continue reading: Indian-Spiced Creamed Greens

I”m in the middle of a massive fridge, freezer and pantry clean-out, which means that all of my dried beans and legumes have got to go before I even think about putting in another order from Rancho Gordo or visiting the bulk bins at the local health food stores.

While a lot of beans have risen in popularity over the past decade or so (I definitely remember thinking that beans were really uncool as a kid, although I don’t know where I got that idea), I’m not sure if any of that popularity has extended to yellow split peas.  Even Safeway, the only supermarket that carried them out here, stopped selling them a few months back.

And that, my friends, is kind of a travesty.  After going overboard with lentils a couple years back, yellow split peas have become my pulse of choice.  They’re great because, like lentils, they don’t require super-lengthy cooking times or overnight soaks.  And with their happy and vibrant hue, they’re like  a warming bowl of sunshine.

Continue reading: Indian Yellow Dal

I don’t know about you, but my Instagram feed and feed reader are clogged with photos of ramps and ramp recipes, respectively.   Unfortunately I’m going to have to miss out on the fun yet again since I’ve never seen a ramp at a farmer’s market or grocery store out in Honolulu.

Bummers.

I guess I’ll just have to drown my sorrows with excessive amounts of rhubarb and asparagus.

These days it’s rare that I leave a grocery store without 2-3 large bunches of asparagus.  Although I love basic grilled or roasted asparagus as much as the next girl, I’ve been trying to branch out and use it in other recipes as well.

Although the cold weather crop isn’t a vegetable that I normally associate with Indian cuisine, asparagus makes one heck of a side when paired with shredded coconut and Indian spices.

Continue reading: Indian Asparagus with Shredded Coconut

Even though we’ve got pretty great weather year-round here in Honolulu, I’m certainly not immune to a little spring fever.  The longer, warmer days mean even more frequent trips to the beach and, more importantly, more frequent beach picnics.

While I’d love to be the kind of person who can put together a magazine shoot-worthy picnic set atop a chic table in a bag, more often than not, my picnics consist of  several friends huddling around a cooler, passing around Pyrex containers of food.  While I may fall short when it comes to providing ambiance, I’d like to think I can put together a mean assortment of food.  And this curried tuna salad?  I can assure you that it’ll probably be in just about every cooler I pack this summer.

In this quick and easy dish, canned tuna is combined with sauteed onions, garlic, ginger and a hefty dose of curry powder while some sliced Serrano chile pepper provide a bit of heat .  I’d happily eat this stuff plain with a fork, with crackers or in a sandwich.  Hot, warm or cold.  With mayo or without.   Honestly, it’s hard to go wrong here.

Continue reading: Curried Tuna Salad

They say that some folks are predisposed to dislike cilantro (even Julia Child hated it!).  I am so, so glad that I’m not afflicted.  It’s far too important an ingredient in so many of my favorite foods.   I mean, what other herb would I put in Pico de Gallo?  How would I garnish tacos? Would I have to pick out the cilantro from summer rolls?  A world without cilantro?  It sounds like a scary place.

While I most often use cilantro as a final pop of freshness , color and flavor to many dishes, here the cilantro is the primary flavor and star of the show.   Cilantro, one and a half cups of it to be exact, combines with Indian spices and coconut milk for a rich and creamy curry sauce with extra herb-y goodness.

It seems like I’m pretty much all about meatballs and/or sliders these days (see here, here and here) and I’m happy to continue the streak with this curry.  Consider this dish the meat equivalent to the Mexican green cilantro rice I made a couple years  back (has it really been that long?).

Continue reading: Meatball Curry with Green Coconut Cilantro Sauce

Soon after I’d made the rash decision to move to Hawaii, I was looking through the Oahu job classifieds online.  Sandwiched somewhere between the ads for fire knife dancers and coconut tree climbers was an ad for field worker at a pineapple plantation.  Clearly the job market in Honolulu was going to be a little bit different than on the mainland.

Since my fire knife dancing and tree climbing skills were rusty at best, I figured if I couldn’t get a job that utilized my college education, I could always work on a farm picking pineapples for the summer.  Never mind the fact that at that point I thought pineapples were grown underground, with only their spiky tops reaching above the surface.  It  seriously blew my mind when I first visited Dole Plantation and saw pineapples growing on top of the plant, almost like somebody had just walked by and rested them on the foliage.

Thankfully I found a more suitable job within a couple weeks of arrival, because I’m pretty sure I would have only lasted a day or two doing manual labor.  It’s a toss-up as to whether it would have been heatstroke or lower back pain that would have done me in.

In any case, I’m lucky to have access to local pineapples that are grown just a few miles away.  But for too long I’ve been guilty of using pineapples exclusively for smoothies or mixed drinks- it never occurred to me to include them in a savory meal (no, Hawaiian pizza and Hawaiian chicken aren’t popular out here).  So I have India to thank for making me finally recognize pineapple’s versatility.

Continue reading: South Indian Pineapple with Chile and Mustard Seeds

David Piscuskas kitchen, Photographed by Nikolas Koenig for Architectural Digest

The night before  I had what was supposed to be my final counter measure for my quartz countertops (they need to come back one more time, argh!), I had what was hopefully my final freak out over my color/product decision.

While I didn’t end up swaying from my initial pick of Yukon Blanco, it certainly didn’t help that a bunch of folks had recently posted a bunch of lovely photos of projects using my runner-up choice, Silestone Lagoon.  And to compound things, two quartz manufacturers have come out with new marble-like products that look really, really promising.

Because I know a lot of you are just as obsessive about kitchen design as I am, I’m doing one more post of marble alternatives to include some photos from various projects around the World Wide Web as well as the new products.

Continue reading: White Marble Alternatives for Kitchen Counters: Part Two