Fall has fallen and that means one thing: the stinky poo smell of gingko fruit as they fall on the sidewalks and get all caught up in the treads of your shoes. On the bright side, you can come home and fill your stomach with rich beef stew. But first of all you have to cook it and I’m happy to show you how. Click on the photo below for my personal recipe. Believe me, it smells a whole lot better than gingko fruit.
So beefy, so good.
Okay, if this doesn’t generate ridiculous amounts of traffic to this site, nothing will. Hana my youngest and most adorable fan and daughter of Jake and Sari (of Almir’s Churrasco!! fame) is now also a contributor! Check out her video (expertly shot by Sari) as she demonstrates how she not only how eats natto (definitely an acquired taste because texturally it’s kind of like eating snot), but how much she loves it. In fact after watching this vid, I think I’m going to go get me some natto!
And now in contrast to the previous post, we bring you something completely vegetarian AND delicious (yes, such things do exist): palak paneer – aka saag paneer. In English it translates to spinach cheese which doesn’t quite do it justice because it’s such a rich and sumptuous, complex dish that when you’re eating it, you can’t believe that it’s just well, basically spinach with some chunks of tofu textured cheese. And as prepared by my beautiful wife Shefali, you’ll see how easy it is to cook. Click on the picture below for the full recipe and video.
Shef slaving over a hot stove
Almir’s self rotating meat roaster
A few weeks ago Shef and I embarked on our summer holiday which consisted of a road trip to the Southwest (view photos here) bookended by two weekends in LA. The first weekend we went to my college friend Ben’s wedding (congrats again to Ben and Maria on a beautiful wedding and amazing food – mmmm hand made tortillas!). The second weekend in LA was for the expressed purpose of attending our friends Jacob and Sari’s eighth annual Brazilian churrasco. Again, Almir Santre brought his expertise and culinary talents to bare and served up delicious grilled meats of all varieties to a lovely and appreciative group of Sari and Jacob’s family and friends (in whose number we thank our lucky stars to be included). For those long time you-food readers (probably numbering in the single digits – sad but true) you might remember the description and back story of Jacob and Sari’s BBQ as written about in Food Weekend in LA. With the exception that everyone has gotten two years older, not much has changed except that the video you see below you is now in HD which means the juiciness of the meat comes through a little bit clearer. Sorry, no smellovision or tastovision… yet.
Pork chops + soy sauce, sugar and a few other ingredients = delicious. Right? Well for this Asian brother that’s a no brainer. But what if the equation was tilapia + peanut butter and a bunch of other stuff? Would the sum of those parts still be delicious? Well, click on the photos below for the answer as well as videos and recipes for both dishes. Here’s a hint: Um…. yes.
Nature's Candy
peanut stew? yes.
