An Indian-inspired Sunday Night Supper

Okay, I'll admit it-- I've been slacking on my food posts.  I've gotten a little carried away on some of my other blogs and have left this one mildly unattended.  But fear not!  Tonight's meal will be broken down in excruciating detail...(okay, well maybe not), but at the very least you'll find some of my ventures into the world of home foodie-ism and hopefully some ideas on how to use leftovers as well as seasonal ingredients.

As it's gotten colder outside, I've found myself cooking lentils quite a bit.  And not just any lentils-- Lentil Dahl to be exact.  While I've read of how rewarding toasting your own sesame seeds and grinding your own spices in a mill or coffee grinder can be,  I really prefer something a little more user-friendly. Enter: curry paste.  There are a number of varieties that you can easily find at your local Farmer's Market. I've been using the Madras Curry Paste lately with much success.  For the Dahl, I loosely follow this recipe, but the last time I made it I substituted regular lentils and extended the cooking time.  Instead of the freshly-ground spices, I opted for a heaping tablespoon and a half of the curry paste and chicken broth instead of the veggie broth.  In a pinch, I used a portion of the massive bag of carrots that have been lingering in my fridge to substitute for the tomatoes.  The results were delicious.  Since I like my Dahl on the spicer side, I used some ground red pepper and added some extra cloves.  Long story short, leftover Dahl is great for making lentil cakes. 

To make the lentil cakes, add a little bit of water to rehydrate as well as a small amount of egg-white as a binder. Drop into a heated, oiled pan with a large spoon and cook on both sides until brown.  Much like veggie burgers you might find that the cakes crumble slightly, but you can piece the cakes back together while in the pan (with a spatula) and they will hold together rather well.

Following the Indian theme, I found this recipe for "Low Fat Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup" which I also followed loosely.  I altered the recipe by adding my beloved coriander, parsley, red pepper, and a splash of almond milk.  After cooking as directed and processing the vegetables, I reheated and added a little water since the soup was on the thick side. The results were spicy and were a good compliment the lentil cakes.

The easiest part of the meal were the asparagus spears.  I snapped off the ends, splashed with olive oil and sprinkled with some Parmesan Cheese and broiled on high until they started to brown a bit.

With a little time and effort a home-cooked seasonal soup will make those winter nights a bit more bearable.  But don't take my word for it-- try it for yourself!

Happy eating!

A New Game: Foodie Movies

I’m sure this goes without saying but in case you hadn’t noticed the title of this blog is a both a pun and a play on words. I cannot help but find this particular sort of Grandpa humor amusing and as such, I came up with a little game and included some friends. The game is called “Foodie Movies” and the only rule is to come up with movie titles with food-related words. These can either be in place of a word, making up a new word with some of the words that are already in the title, or listing actual movies that already have food-related titles. It got a little out of hand (not to mention too long for our Facebook thread) and consequently, I started making fake movie posters for the newly titled movies. If you’d like to check out the fake posters, please humor me by clicking here. To wet your palate, here's the first poster that started it all:

I’ll be updating the site frequently, so if you’d like to bookmark “Punny Side Up” that might not be such a bad idea.  If you see a hyperlink below, you can click to view the poster.  And without further ado, I give you THE LIST (each credited by the originator of the title)...

Lauren
A Few Good Mint
Pie Another Day
Even Cowgirls Get the Stews
The Big Chili
Punch Drunk Clove
The Vegan Suicides
Big Fish
Big Fish Fry
The Breakfast Club
School of Rock Candy
The Lovely Bonefish
Bridget Jones’s Dairy
Stem City
Die Hard With a Pungence
Jurassic Pork
Flour Weddings and a Funeral
Mackerel and Me
Mustard Love Dogs
Last Action Gyro
Silence of the Clams
Never Bean Kissed
Lord of the Onion Rings
Star Fruit Trek
Bill and Ted’s Egg Salad Adventure
Half Baked
Half Baconed
All Corndogs Go To Heaven
Pie Baby
The Dark Crystallized Ginger
Allspice in Wonderland
One Missed Cauliflower
Spider Pan
Forest Gumbo
A Time to Grill
The Day After Tuna Marrow
Beauty and the Beet
My Big Fat Greek Salad
Catch Me if You Cantaloupe
The Karate Squid
Goldenpie
There’s Something About Cherry
Americanned Beauty
Despicable Meat
The Curious Case of Benjamin Mutton
Desperately Leeking Susan
Foxy Brownies
What Pies Beneath
Home A Scone
The Inedible Hulk
The Incredible Husk
The Inedible Husk
Charlie’s Angel Food Cake
Enemy of the Skate
Snack to the Future
Prawn in Sixty Seconds
Get Smarties
The Éclair Witch Project
Bread Poets Society
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Fruit
Sushi’s All That
Phenom-a-nom
Summer of Spam
Prawn With The Wind
When Harry Met Salad
Blazing Cattle
Romancing the Scone
Oh, Cod! & Oh, Cod! Part 2
My Pear Lady
The Wizard of Mozzerella
Crop Gun
Kick Bass
Pie Fidelity
Grumpy Old Mint
Meat the Parents
Meat the Fockers
The Count of the Monte Cristo Sandwich
Children of the Corn
Children of the Candy Corn
Night of the Living Bread
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
sCream (1-3)
Prawn of the Dead
Austin Sour Grapes
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Ratatouille
Drop Dead Bread
Father of the Chive
The Count of Monte Crisco
Mrs. Krautfire
Escargotface
Reservoir Hot Dogs
Reservoir Corn Dogs
The Meat of the Night
Cereal Mom
The Hand that Rocks the Ladle
They Call Me MISTER Pibb! 
The Soy Luck Club
Steaks on a Plane
Tea For Two
Cook Who's Talking
Milk Money
12 Angry Mint
Fight Club Sandwich
Sunset Bowl of Lard
Monty Python and the Holy Snail
Hot Dog Day Afternoon
Pepperachaun
Mary Poppyseed
Mr. Poppyseed
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Rind
The Nutty Professor
Raging Bologna
The Prince of Chives
Sherlock's Hams
 Honey I Shrunk the Squids
28 Days Wafer
The Parfait Man
The Fantastic Mr. Chops
The Brain That Wouldn't Pie
Confessions of a Cropaholic
The Blind Side Salad
The Princess and the Frog Legs
9 to Chive
The Roefessional

Leap Beer

Soup in Revolt

Shutter Pie Lan

Diary of a Wimpy Squid

The Girl with the Dragon Ragu

Repo Manwich

Why Did I Get Cherried

Pie, Did I Get Cherried?

Letters to Cod

Iron Pan & Iron Pan 2

Patty Longleg

Get Him to the Greek Salad

Get Him to the Leeks

Cheese Whiz Kids

The A-Cream

Dinner for Smucker's

Dinner for Ducks

Enemy of the Steak

Megarind

Due Date (date like the fruit)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Mallows

Hotel for Hot Dogs

Paul Blart: Mall Cobb

He's Just Not that Into Food

Pie Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Revolutionary Rocky Road

Madea Goes to Jell-o

Angelfood & Demons

The Brothers Grits

Drag Me to Jell-o

Away we Goat 
I'm Gonna Git You Succotash

 


Zachary
Quesoblanca
Schindler’s Grits
Citizen Cake
Braising Private Ryan
Silence of the Lambs
Grapes of Wrath
There Will Be Bloody Marys
A Streetcar Named Dessert
A Clockwork Orange
Ingluorious Bass
Crabyrinth
No Country Ham for Old Men
Spartacustard
Grilly Madison
The Postman Always Brings Rice
Hard Boiled
An American Meatloaf in London
Roots (as in root vegetables)
Mulholland Fried
Romancing the Calzone
The Unbearable Lightness of Beans
Prawn Air
Mac and Meat
The Prawnbroker
Pie
Singles (it’s about processed cheese)
Fig
Pearanormal Activity
Titunac
The Codfather
Lawrence of a Rutabaga
Chainatown
The Malt Falcon
To Grill a Mockingbird
Butch Casserole and The Sundance Kid
M*A*S*H*E*D
The Manchurian Candied Date
Tea HX 1138
American Gra-ziti
American Graffishsticks
E Tea
Eat T
Duck Soup
Pulp Fishin’
City of Cod
Sea Biscuit
Toastbusters
Bean Streets
Jackie Brownie
Close Encounters of the Curd Rind (Zach & Dan)
Me-Mentos
The Passionfruit of the Christ
Rosemary’s Gravy
Million Dollar Gravy
Tombstone (pizza)

Dan
The Corn Identity
The Lamb Shank Redemption
The Chives of Others
Pie Hard
The Inedibles
Planet of the Grapes
The Crepes of Wrath
Angel Food in the Outfield
The Wonderbread Boys
A Field of Beans
Romancing the Snocone
The Dead Calzone
Stew Romance
Lost Pieway
The Flan Who Wasn’t There
Braising Arizona
Stew Velvet
Twin Leeks: Fire Cook With Me
Big Mac and Me
Tootsierolls
My Own Private Idaho Potatoes
Spice Age
All Hotdogs Go To Heaven
Plantain 9 From Outer Space
The Rangoonies
50 First Dates
The Snack Cauldron
Pulp Fiction
You’ve Got Snail
Ferris Cruller’s Day Off
Mousse Point Blank
Rosemary’s Baby
There’s Something About Rosemary

Jessica
Bridge on the River Kiwi
Requiem for a Dreamsicle
Batman Begins With Soup or Salad
Million Dollar Baby Back Ribs

Katzi
Raiders of the Lost Tart
Sexy Beets
Red Velvet Goldmine
Children of the Corn on the Cob

Joshua
Ichiyo the Cereal Killer
The Longest Chard
Saved By the Bell Peppers (it’s a show but they did make a movie, too)
Men in Blackberries
Kale Bill
A Mushroom With a View
The Bad News Pears
The Tim Plum
Rhubarberella
The Black Scallion
A Star Fruit is Born
Swiss Chard Robinson
28 Leeks Later

James
Mr. Collard's Opus 
The Gizzard of Oz
Citizen Candy Cane
The Spamtastic Mr. Fox
The Fantastic Mr. Lox
Corn on the Fourth of July

Will
Three Men and a Bagel
Me, Myself and Ice Cream
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Rangoon
Last of the Macadamians
Passion Fruit of the Christ

Jim
The Pig Labowski
Star Anise Wars

Laura
Rosemary’s Baby
Ferris Bueller’s Beef Stroganoff
The Lemon of Billy Jean
A Nightshade on Elm Street
Some Like it Hot (hot dog, hot chocolate, hot sauce…)
The Blue Legume (or Return to the Blue Legume)
The Horseradish Whisperer
Conan the Rhubarbarian
Desperately Seeking Lazy Susan
Gleaming the Cube Steak
 Little Shop of Hericots Verts
 Romancing the Stone Crab
 The Secret of My Succotash (Michael J Fox movie)
 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Pecan
A Legume of their Own
The Men Who Stare at Goat Cheese
The Soufflé also Rises
Twin Peaks: Fire Wok with Me
Watercress Down 

Chad
Swim Flan
Flantasia
Cauliflowers in the Attic
Borscht on the Fourth of July
...

(From the comments)

Geoff 

27 Dressings

Don't Tell Mom, The Babysitter's Bread

Breakfast at Tiffany's

The Blair Sandwich Project

 

Stephanie (via Katzi)

Valcurry

Children of the Cream Corn

Bite Club

The Hang-Over Easy

Me, Myself and Icing

Pulp Frosting

New Spoon

Pimento

Slaw Dog Millionaire

Lunch-time Favorite: Hankook Taqueria

Recently featured on The Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate," Hankook Taqueria has been a lunch-time staple of mine for a while now.  When I first discovered this gem, I must have lunched there two to three times a week.  Due to its concept similar to L.A.'s Kogi truck (Korean BBQ meets Mexican food) and its growing notoriety in Atlanta, the small dining area has become slightly more crowded but the food and service prove to hold strong.  I've recently become enamored of their daily taco specials (my favorite is the brisket) but most of the time, I stick to my usual. 

Admittedly, Hankook has seen a lot of me in the past week.  I dined there both Friday and today (Monday).  The small space was quite crowded on Friday.  I suspect everyone not only adores the food as much as I do, but also probably like to treat themselves to a good lunch at the end of the week.   I decided to order the Bibimbap on Friday since my stomach was a bit on the hungrier side.  On the menu, the Bibimbap is described as "rice with sesame vegetables and spicy Korean sauce."  The dish is something you would normally see as street food and Hankook definitely serves it that way (in a nondescript, rectangular Styrofoam container); although you almost fail to notice your eating vessel since the meal itself is so visually stimulating.  Rice is piled high and topped with steamed bean sprouts,
carrots, marinated mushrooms, pickled cucumbers, spinach, Korean BBQ-style beef, green onions and is topped with a spicy sauce that hides a fried egg: the yolky snowcap to your mound of food.  To enjoy properly, break the fried egg and stir everything together.  The spicy Korean sauce mixes with the runny yolk and the newly-formed super-sauce coats the rice and veggies.  The crunchiness of the carrots, bean sprouts and pickled (yet cripsy) cucumbers brings a textured balance to the dish and a squeeze of the provided lime slice adds a great citric element.  Overall, it is quite a generous portion for $6 and I can never eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Since today was Columbus Day, I found Hankook's dining area to be much less crowded than normal (which I considered my reward for actually having to work on Columbus Day.)  I decided on my old standby order: one Bul Gogi (beef) taco and one Dae ji Gogi (pulled pork) taco.  A friend and I chose to split an order of the sesame fries served with spicy ketchup, as well.  Our food arrived quickly and our tacos spilled over in our baskets with meatiness.  As their menu states, all of Hankook's tacos come with lettuce, green onions and green cabbage tossed in a sesame soy vinaigrette and garnished with yellow onion, cilantro and lime juice.  Both of my tacos were also served with a bit of cheese.

close up of the Bul Gogi Taco

My favorite of the two tacos is always the Bul Gogi since it has that hint of traditional Korean BBQ beef short ribs.  The Dae ji Gogi tastes homey and always reminds me of a slightly spicer Sloppy Joe.  (If you prefer your Sloppy-Joe tasting food in bun form, go for the pork sliders-- those are also very tasty and feature the same pickled cucumbers mentioned in the Bibimbap.)

Our sesame fries were as good as always. In my opinion, the trick to good fries hinges on their crispiness.  Hankook's are never soggy and seem to be battered and/or twice fried for added texture.  Vaguely reminiscent of sesame crunch candies, they also have a donut-like hint of sweetness.  One difference I noticed was in the spicy ketchup.  It always seems to vary (perhaps they are experimenting with the ratio of spices or the actual recipe itself), but either way the condiment was still quite good.

Though it may have had its fair share of "blah" reviews when it first opened, Hankook is going strong and in my opinion the food keeps getting better and better. To conclude, if you just finished reading this post and have decided to try Hankook for the first time, make sure to tell Pamela that "Almudena" sent you.  And as for you, Hankook...I'll see you next week!

Fall Cooking: Homemade Butternut Squash and Ginger Soup

Hello fine readers.  It was just days ago that I did a late post on C's birthday meal.  In the spirit of authenticity, I'm trying to get my thoughts down while they are fresh on the brain.  With that said, I figured now is a good a time as any to  recap on tonight's first authentic Fall home-cooked dinner.

As far as Atlanta dining goes, I love Dynamic Dish. Unfortunately, their strange hours and almost lunch-only options (on the opposite side of town from my job) leave me little time to get over there to eat.  Instead,  I read the menus daily on Twitter, longingly.  The first and only time I ate there, I remember a celeriac and ginger soup with pumpkinseed oil.  It was delicious.  Since funds are somewhat low and this little piggy just took a Sunday trip to the Farmer's Market, I decided to try a twist on that soup with butternut squash.  I'll admit, I was a bit apprehensive about cooking butternut squash again.  Of all of the vegetables in the world, butternut squash and I don't have the best track record.  Years ago, I was cutting open one the vegetable in question to make "butternut squash fries" (sliced and baked with a sprinkle of salt, they make a tasty snack akin to sweet potato fries) and the knife caught and I sliced my thumb open.  I've been afraid of the vegetable ever since.  Now, years later (and older and wiser) I have a better knife and took on the squash like a pro...well, sort of.  I got the cutting down this time, but the peeling is quite tricky.  (In hindsight, I left a lot of the flesh attached to the peel, but better safe than sorry, right?)

I loosely followed Food Network's Butternut Squash Soup recipe, but added ginger to the mix.  I had already bought the ingredient on Sunday and when Eric Ripert mentioned it in a Tweet, I had no choice but to follow my foodie fate.  After cooking chopped onions down for 10 minutes in (admittedly) more butter than the recipe called for, I started the process of the soup.  I added minced ginger in the end (again, not sparingly, probably a tablespoon) and cooked the soup down after pureeing the squash until it thickened a bit.  Instead of nutmeg, I opted for coriander.  I cannot tell you how much I adore coriander.  It's nutty in such a subtle way.  After cooling, I served and topped with fresh cilantro and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  (Excuse the dribble on the bowl-- I am a home cook, after all.)

As for the butternut squash seeds, you didn't think I'd let those go to waste, did you?  Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, clean and coat in melted butter and salt and roast for 45 minutes. Voila! They don't call it the butternut pumpkin for nothing ;)

There you have it. If I can conquer my butternut squash fears, so can you...(or whatever other vegetable fears you may have.)  This season has some amazing ingredients. Get thee to a Farmer's Market and start cooking!

 

A Birthday Luncheon at Super Pan

Birthdays are special occasions where you are either a member of camp #1 and refuse to accept the fact that you are a year older and want nothing to do with the day, or camp #2 where you choose them as a reason to celebrate in style with those you love.  Luckily for me, C is a member of camp #2, so I took a half-day off work on Wednesday to take him to Super Pan for lunch.  I had heard nothing but praises sang and hats tipped for Hector Santiago and his crew from the moment the shop opened so I was looking forward to eating one of their "moderately-priced, but totally worth it" sandwiches and seeing if the buzz was well-deserved.


Since Super Pan is only open Tuesday through Friday, 11:30am - 2:30pm,  we were delighted to find absolutely no line inside when we arrived.  Our friends, Super Pan veterans, were just as excited as we were and the four of us magically glided upstairs feeling like VIPs. (Happy Birthday, indeed!)  We made our selections, grabbed bags of chips and bottles of Mexican Coca-Colas and took our pick of the many available tables in the lower-level dining area.

We all chose to split a couple of the special empanadas (beef, mushroom and cheese) and those arrived first.  They were fresh, cheesy, gooey and straight out of the fryer.  C and I broke ours open to let it cool before eating but agreed that we were glad we ordered the special.  Apparently, the sizing has changed and Super Pan now serves one big empanada per order instead of the several smaller ones that used to come standard. In any case, they were delicious and the ingredients complimentary and well-balanced.  I found it to be a bit on the salty side, but that did not stop me from enjoying this precursor to my super sandwich.



From the moment our food arrived, I knew we were in for a treat.

sandwich photo op

C ordered the BBQ Rib Bolillo (pictured on the bottom right) and the sandwich was huge.  Made up of beef rib adobo meat, carrots, onions, cilantro, and an orange chipotle BBQ dipping sauce, the sandwich was massive.  The toothpick held the key to the Bolillo's architectural integrity and C had to leave it in the whole time while eating it.  The construction of bread and meat was a bit of a puzzle, but did not stop us from enjoying the sandwich.  The orange chipotle sauce was quite spicy (the way I like it) and the portion was very generous.  We shared bites and C ended up having to eat the meat out of the bread so it would not go to waste.  Heck, if someone woke up at 5am to smoke and make the meat for my sandwich, I know I would do the same!

 My selection (pictured left) was a spin on the Cuban sandwich, called the Medio Dia and was made of adobo pork, ham, choyote pickles and swiss with a habanero mustard and clove salt served on pineapple bread.  I took one bite of this sandwich and saw heaven.  My friend Jordan said he teared up the first time he tried this sandwich.  What I loved about the presentation was the relaxed and casual feeling behind everything.  Sure, the Medio Dia came wrapped in a banana leaf, but we received everything in baskets and waxed paper.  Super Pan lends itself to a real homey feeling and for a moment I forgot I was dining in Atlanta.

Back to the sandwich, the Medio Dia was better than I expected. The pineapple bread was sweet, but not too sweet and you could only get a taste of the pineapple when you broke it off and tried it separately.  The meats were perfectly tender and the combination of flavors in the two types of pork danced.  If I could marry a sandwich, I dare say the Medio Dia would be a contender.

What birthday luncheon would be complete without dessert, you ask?  Well, this one certainly came to a close on a high note.  The Farm Egg Flan with burnt caramel was one of the better flans I've had.  Normally, I'm not too fond of flan.  Mediocre flan tends to have a "scrambled tofu" consistency that is a bit of a turn off, so I was delighted to find that Super Pan's flan was creamy, smooth and the perfect size and consistency.  The portion might seem small, but it is rich and packs a big punch.  The flan was decadent and even though we were full we could not leave without finishing the dessert.  The burnt caramel did not disappoint...this flan could hold its own with the best of flans.

So, will I be returning to Super Pan? Was the birthday lunch worth all of the hype?  Let's just say, I know exactly where I'm going for lunch on my next day off from work.

Food and Fall

Since an early age, I've not been able to escape food. Both of my parents were very proud of their cultural backgrounds and luckily for me, they were both great cooks. My mother was from the southern part of Georgia and utilized her mother's southern cooking with her father's Sicilian background. She made delicious sauces. She liked to feed us different cuisines. She made what my little brother called "Mom's Best Chicken." Every time it was the best. Every time, it surpassed her former best. Top chicken.

My father was from Lafayette, Louisiana but you wouldn't guess it from the accent. He lost that a long time ago when he was stationed in Georgia for the Air Force. As far back as I can remember, cold months always marked the beginning of gumbo season. Like many family recipes my father never wrote it down-- ours was all from memory. I still have a small pock mark on my thumb from the day I asked him to teach me how to make it. While quickly stirring flour and butter with a wooden spoon to make roux, I couldn't keep up and one renegade clump of flour bounced out of the stock pot and landed on my thumb. My battle scar serves as a reminder of that day: traditional Cajun mirepoix combined with stock, chicken and andouille sausage and the amazing smells that came from cooking it down for hours to perfection. It's all in my head now.

I learned other secrets like the importance of checking the weather if you want to make pralines (you can't make on a day where it might rain) and that ground sassafras leaves thicken a stock. I like to think my genes have provided me with the palette to handle the heat, have helped me know how to season properly and appreciate the taste of butter. But maybe that's just silly. Maybe I just love food.

I'm reflecting gumbo season since today marks the beginning of Fall. Fall always brings on a certain nostalgia. The juxtaposition of the beginning and the end of things. The start of the school year, fresh with possibilities. The change of clothing trends, color schemes, leaves, flowers dying, rainy days. It's the mixed emotions that come from the beginning and the end, the memory of town fairs, Halloween parades, candied apples and art festivals that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Perhaps that's the reason Fall is my favorite season. And the food. Fall food is arguably the best.

So, cheers to the new season. I'm ready to eat.