So much to cook, so little time. Some of my favourite recent finds. Enjoy! (PS for more pics of borlotti beans, click here.)
Bring me the Spice
- Recently, as part of a regular travel post theme, I featured, I traditional vegetarian feasts on banana leaves in south India. In one of the meals we were served a wonderful golden yellow dal which was magnificent and became my favourite. Jugalbandi took up the challenge, talking about sadhyas (the banana leaf feasts) in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and explaining how parippu (lentils) are used and cooked in South India. They also provide the recipe for Naadan Parippu (Lentils, Kerala Style), that magnificent dish I ate on my recent trip.
- Jugalbandi again. They have the most wonderful looking Sag Gonglu (Greens with Turnips). Madhuran’s Eggless Cooking has a Beet Greens Dal.
- One of my favourite Indian restaurants in Hong Kong makes the best Puri. I order it every time that I visit. It looks exactly like this Alu Dahi Puri Chat, from Hooked on Heat.
- Another Indian favourite is rasam. This one will cure anything as well as taste delicious – Garlic and Pepper Rasam from Quick Indian Cooking.
- The Big Bite explains the tadka (spices cooked in ghee or oil to be added to a dish at the end of cooking)! She unravels the mysteries of the tadka, and explains how it works with different types of dishes.
Vegetables
- If oven baked vegetables takes your fancy, try this Smoky Tunisian Oven-Roasted Vegetables with Tabil from Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska.
- Or make some bread with beetroot in it! From Fiordizucca. Scroll down for the English, unless you speak Italian.
- Did you know that the Vietnamese make sandwiches out of spicy tofu, spinach, carrot and parsnip? No? Check out Cooking from A to Z’s Banh Mi Chay.
- What about soup? My French Kitchen cooks a Roasted Pepper and Red Lentil soup that looks delicious. I am starting to use red lentils a lot more – they are so easy to cook and do not need to be soaked beforehand. For a colour contrast, Orangette has a VERY GREEN Spinach and Green Garlic Soup. Cuesa backs it up with an Asparagus Soup with Curry and Creme Fraiche. It caught my eye as I am making my own creme fraiche at the moment.
- Cook (almost) Anything Once has a delicious Cauliflower with Bechamel Sauce. For green OR white cauliflowers. This is the type of food I grew up on!
Sweet Things
- It is citrus season here, with wonderful fruit at the markets. Mandarin Jam anyone? From The Traveler’s Lunchbox.
- Talking of citrus, how about making an icecream with coconut and limes. Eggs on Sunday will have you singing that song (She put the lime in the coconut….).
- I think I might have mentioned this one before, but I will do so again and it is right on topic. French Citrus Fruit Jellies, from Zoe Bakes.
- Do you remember cooking bananas with butter and sugar? We used to wrap them in foil and bake in the oven or on the BBQ. Well, For the Cook in Me brings them back, except this time she cooks the bananas in ghee.
- I was not sure whether to put this into Sweet Things or under Vegetables. Mac and Cheese make an avocado icecream. It looks delicious…
Salty
- Raw Epicurian discusses salt. I use Celtic Sea salt, here called French Grey Salt, and have also tried the Himalayan Salt.
::
::
::
::
::
::
::
::
::
::
:: 











































are those cranberry beans? they are beautiful.
They are! We call them borlotti beans here. Found some fresh in the markets the other day. The colours are simply stunning.
You’ve gt a veritable feast going on here… you’re little photos are gorgeous too.
Thanks Mallika. I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.
I also know them as berlotti and they are just beautiful! You have so many great links again. I’ll have to pick your brain soon as I’ve received some very interesting spices and I feel a bit out of my depth. You have so much knowledge about spices.
and thanks for the mention..
ronell
Hey, yes, ronell, email me and I will see what I can do…
Nice line up of links and thank you for including me. I am another one who appreciates the beauty of berlotti beans. I’m inspired to create a dish with it. Looking forward to visiting your site more often.
Hi Ingrid, so glad you found us here. The beans are very special. I look forward to your dish!
Those beans are simply stunning! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before.
Do they retain the color even when cooked?
Unfortunately, they don’t retain the colour. The beans inside are also striped like the outsides and look so fantastic. But the red leaches out as the cook. Still, they are so tasty, no one minds.
I have never seen these before!! forget cookign with them!:) but now you’ve both intrigued and inspired me to lookout for these:)
Hi Mansi, I hope that you manage to find some…
I love the pics of the Borlotti beans…especially the pink streaks.
Such beauties. I could not resist them.
those beans look so lovely..and of course your links are always exciting to check out!
thank you – quite colourful beans, aren’t they. I love having them around.
The beans look so beautiful. God is definitely one modern artist!
Thanks for taking the time to recipe hunt and posting them here.
Thank you Madhuram! Siva definitely has a wonderful palette of colours as he paints our lives in his wonderful dance of creation.
Hi,
just Came here and found some wonderful links,
You Have linked sadhyas recipe, I would like you to visit this link also , you will like it .
http://kitchenmishmash.blogspot.com/2008/04/sadya-vibhavangal-learn-to-make.html
I am glad that you came, Jaya. That is one great link.