Something for Nancy

Okay, so each time I've posted (this year a bit more irregularly than last), I've kind of jammed my Indianized recipes or twisted Indian recipes down your throats whether you liked it or not. Today I thought, I'll start with an Italian one, for my friend Nancy, who loves Italian (food I mean, men, I'm sure) and also Asian food.  
   A couple of days earlier, after a long hanging out session with Nancy in her lovely La Jolla home, I somehow managed to return to my apartment with a bunch of parsley, oranges, lemons and avocados from her garden. Don't ask me how, but that's what happens when you go to Nancy's. No, you don't steal from her garden, she just hands these beautiful veggies to you.
   So I thought, how about making something that I know she's good at making, but something that I have been hesitant to try. No reason, but the first time I had this dish, it was dry, too cheesy and the rice was undercooked. And I was told that it was how it always tastes. Did. Not. Like. It. And I like pretty much everything. Risotto. So, I tried it again in Portland. And it was AMAZING. And no, I don't have images of it, I ate it up way too fast for the camera to capture it. But I can tell you where it was. A place called Equinox on North Shaver, Portland--it's a small place, with a patio, and cozy dining area, all built with recycled materials. If you are planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest, give this place a try--fresh local ingredients, with a keen respect for vegetarian, vegan as well as meat eating customers.
   And since I don't have a photo of that restaurant itself, how about just a cool Portland shot? Like this one at the Saturday Old Town Market.

And not to miss the most wonderful Voodoo doughnut shop that is just decadent, crazy and a Portland must-do and has nothing to do with this blog:

   Okay, enough digression. Risotto with Shitake Mushrooms (a mix of Italian with Asian mushrooms, and of course, par-boiled rice is the Indian aspect to it). Did you know, Shitake mushrooms have been cultivated in China, Korea and Japan since pre-historic times? And that they grow only in cold places, so San Diego may not be the place to start a shitake farm? Did you even think you'd get a history/agriculture lesson from a food blog? Hah. Anyway, the mushrooms have a fragrance, and a texture that adds a lot of body to the risotto, so it's a good addition (in my opinion) to the Italian dish.

 

Ingredients
1 cup par-boiled rice
Optional: 1/4 cup barley and spelt mixed
1 cup grated (good) parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp vegetable broth mix added to 3 cups water, or
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups roughly chopped mushrooms
1 cup sliced white onions 
4 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp (or more) garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground pepper
salt to taste
2 tbsp grapesed oil
1 tbsp melted butter

 

Recipe

• In a big pot, boil the broth. Check for salt. If it's too salty (some pre-made broth mixes are oversalted), dilute it with water.
• In a pan, add the oil and butter on medium low. Cook the onions, and then the mushrooms, till they are browned. Add the garlic, sauté some more.
• Bring the pan off the fire once the vegetables are cooked. You can substitute this with asparagus, salmon, carrots, you name it.
• Cook the rice in the broth on medium-low flame. Once all the broth is absorbed in the rice, stir in the mushroom/onion/garlic mix.
• Keep stirring (the mixture, not yourself). Add the parsley. Your kitchen should smell very nice or else, you've done something wrong.
• Add the cheese at the end. Switch off the gas, stir the pot some more.
• Add more parsley, sprinkle some ground black pepper, more salt (if you want to get high blood pressure) and enjoy the dish warm!

 

Serves (at least) two.

Mine looked like this:

Anyway, if you really want a closeup of the same, this is what it looks like when it's hot, steaming:

     And like I said, I'm sure Nancy has made this multiple times, but it's worked for me this time. So I am a risotto convert.

     Happy Birthday, Nancy, enjoy!

All Things Italian

They're showing my favorite movie, "Gladiator" on TNT as I write this. I can't even type I'm so giddy with excitement. And no, I don't need you all to look down upon me for liking this cheesy movie, but I LOVE it. And Maximus is my favorite name. No discussions, that's that.

     Anyway, speaking of Gladiator, Europe and cheese...our little San Diego has a little Italy with the best gelato place (Cafe Italiano) that I need to dedicate a whole blog to, so I won't go there, but Sanjay and I did visit Little Italy a couple of weekends back since it was their little Festa (or festival) with the gesso artists' paintings all down India Street. It also helps that they named a street after our country so we go there as if Indians need to be represented on India Street in Little Italy.
     Yes, it isn't NYC or Boston, but hey, we have Italians here, and the fried foods, the pizzas, cannolis...all things so bad and yet so good...yes, they were all there too. We were good though, we just walked around, but come on, it's Festa and it's Little Italy. Succumb we did. To Cafe Zucchero. Their napoleans, fried iris, chocolate cheesecakes...everything decadent.
     But the prime attraction were the paintings--these are chalk art pieces drawn the same day and erased the next. And were they gorgeous. Here are a few:

If you didn't know any better, you'd think this was real...or at least an oil painting, right?

And this one was gorgeous--you can see the street crack through it too, and yet it's quite something!

     What with all things Italiano, I came home in the spirit of Italy and pulled out everything I could to make an Italian meal. Of course we had only 5 basil leaves, no pine nuts, hardly any cheese...Murphy's law, right? Wrong. This was my turn to twist all the Indian ingredients I had into a somewhat Italian meal.

Orzo with pesto sauce, and olives. How's that?

Pesto Sauce:

Note: I substituted coriander leaves instead of basil, walnuts instead of pine nuts. I'm sure you can try the same with almonds, though the taste will be slightly different.

Ingredients

5 cups chopped coriander leaves

1 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup Parmeggiano Reggiano

5 cloves garlic

1 medium green chili pepper

1 tsp ground pepper

salt to taste

Recipe

Mix above ingredients in a blender and slowly pour olive oil while blending till the mixture becomes a thick paste. Use it as a spread, or in your favorite pasta. Store leftover pesto sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 weeks or so.

Now, once the pesto sauce was made, I rummaged through our many plastic containers and discovered we had a packet of orzo pasta. Orzo looks somewhat like rice, and precisely for that reason, the rice foodie that I am, orzo is one of my favorite pastas. I haven't tried to make anything else besides Italian pasts dishes with orzo, but I have a strong feeling I soon will. When I do, I'll let you know.

Till then, here's my recipe for Orzo Pasta--

Ingredients

2 cups cooked orzo pasta

1/2 cup chopped purple onions

2 cloves garlic

3 tbsp parmeggiano reggiano

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

2 tbsp chopped olives (black or green, your choice)

2 tbsp olive oil

3-4 tbsp pesto sauce

salt to taste

Recipe

• Heat the oil in a skillet, add in onions, and garlic till they brown
• Add the pasta, coat it with the oil
• Follow that with the olives
• Season with salt and pepper
• Mix in the pesto sauce, remove from flame
• Follow that with cheese, your choice, how much
• Serve with a healthy sprinkle of cheese, black pepper and maybe more pesto sauce

Note: You can add in chicken, shrimp or vegetables like bell peppers, tomatoes and such to the orzo too

     This is my effort--

And yes, I used black olives because I LOVE Trader Joe's sliced black olives. Nothing could be better unless you get olives from Italy. Nothing...except maybe "Gladiator".

 While we're still in Italy, here are a few more gesso paintings.

Enjoy!