Indian Culinary Center

I realize that I haven’t posted in quite some time but be assured that I have been cooking and eating – I suppose life gets in the way of blogging sometimes.

Following is a dinner I made a few days ago and like always the recipe is a guide and a suggestion – nothing I cook is written in stone.

We have 3 incredibly fresh filets of mackerel – season with salt and pepper and sear skin side down in a hot pan with melted butter.

Flip after a few minutes when brown and in the mean time I prepared a lemon – remove the skin and in this way you can cut up the flesh and add to the sauce which adds a nice pop of flavor.

While the fish is cooking on the flesh side, I added some capers, the lemon wedges, a splash of wine and a little more butter.

I had rice and vegetables that were already cooked and I plated those and then added the cooked fish a top.

In the same pan I added some more butter and seared shrimp and a tomato that I had laying around and some sliced red onion.  Cooked the shrimp quickly on high heat and added fresh dill.

I added the shrimp over the cooked fish for color and of course flavor.

Voila!  We have a beautiful, delicious and quite a healthful dinner.

I hope you try this simple dish – you can use just about any fish and don’t have to add the shrimp if you don’t want to.

But it sure makes the dish more attractive.

Until I cook again!

Some of you may remember I had made giant meatballs last week in a tomato sauce when I was cooking for my Super who was retiring.

I had made so many and I decided to make a rice dish with the left overs.I do this with many left over dishes – rice is comfort food for me and it can take on so many forms.

In Indian food rice is never a side dish – it is easily the main star.

Start with sauteing an onion in oil.

At this stage I would’ve added some whole spices like cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom but the meatballs were plenty seasoned and there was also the tomato sauce.

After browning the onions, I added the sauce of the meatballs and then about 2 cups of Basmati Rice.  Brown the rice for a couple of minutes and then add 3 cups of water.

Next add place the meatballs on top of the rice and bring to a boil.

Lower the heat to a simmer and cover.

In about 20 minutes you have a glorious meal.

I hope you try this and change your leftovers around or make it a brand new dish.

Until I cook again!

I cook a lot – I really do.  Both professionally and at home for myself and my family.

Many a night I want to get in and out of the kitchen and yet have a delicious meal.

This is one of those meals.

Saute asparagus ends and a couple of tomatoes in olive oil.

Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, decide what starch you want to serve the dish with – I used barley and put the water to boil for…

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Simple Yellow Daal (lentils)

Simple Yellow Daal (lentils)

I am surprised that I haven’t blogged the recipe for Lentils – maybe because they are so easy to make but let me remedy that.

There are many many lentils in Indian cuisine – some can be cooked in 20 minutes and others take much longer.

The following is mung daal – split yellow lentils, not to be confused with split yellow peas.

You will need:

A cup of lentils

1 tsp cumin seeds

a couple of dried…

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