Tricolore Salad with Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, and Mozzarella

This is another delicious recipe from Plenty. It's a really great, light side dish. The mix of textures is really nice - the soft eggplant and mozzarella and the crispy peppers. It seems like a lot of capers, but they get mixed in and it's just right. The cilantro adds a nice, fresh flavor on top. Can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch!

Ingredients:

4 small eggplants, sliced into 1/2" circles

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 yellow pepper, in about a 1/2" dice

15 grape tomatoes, quartered

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

3 1/2 tbsp capers, plus 1 tbsp of the brine

5oz fresh mozzarella

1 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

This is a great winter warming soup. It's spicy, both in the sense that it's a little hot and that it has lots of great spices and seasonings in it. The coconut milk and garam masala make it a little Indian. The cool, tart yogurt is a great addition to the soup. Don't worry if you can't find nigella seeds. If you wanted to add a little protein, I think it could be great with some grilled shrimp thrown in at the bottom, or on top with the garnish.

Ingredients:

1 sweet onion, diced

2 tbsp coconut oil (or vegetable oil if you don't have it)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp ginger, grated

1 tsbp chili flakes

1/4 tsp coriander seeds

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp whole black pepper corns

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp chili powder

3 tbsp sriracha

1 tbsp honey

1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Marinated Lamb with Cilantro and Honey

Wow. This marinade is incredible. I wanted to just drink it. It involved almost everything you have in your kitchen and ends up costing a fare amount in herbs, but the end result warrants the effort. It's meant for rack of lamb, but my butcher was out so I used lamb chops. Still delicious! I wish I'd saved the extra marinade to marinate everything else.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 lb rack of lamb, French trimmed (or several lamb chops)

2/3 oz flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stalks

1 oz cilantro, leaves and stalks

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 oz fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

3 chilis, seeded

1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup canola oil or sunflower oil

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 tbsp water

Slow Cooker Dal Makhani

When we were in India, Jamie and I fell in love with dal makhani. It's a black lentil dish that's rich and creamy and perfect when sopped up with fresh garlic naan. When I got the new slow cooker, I did some googling and found a recipe for dal makhani using a slow cooker. It's a time commitment, but not labor intensive. You just need to start the night before you want to eat, and you need to have a lot of spices. The ingredient list pretty intimidating. (If you don't have all this stuff and live in New York, go to Kalustyan's - they have EVERYTHING. You can also order online.) I served this with some vegetable jalfrezi and chicken tikka with raita, mint-cilantro chutney, and naan. I can't wait for dinner tonight to eat the leftovers.

Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 cup urad saboot (whole, unskinned black lentils)
1/2 cup red kidney beans
2 tbsp chana dal
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter), if you don't have any, you can just use butter and skim off the milk solids form the top
1 1/2 tsp salt (more to taste)
4 cups water
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1 tsp cumin

Pork Buns

I love pork buns. I've had them in Chinatown, at Momofuku, at Fatty Crab... I've even made them myself. I think they are absolutely delicious. Perfectly savory pork belly oozing with umami wrapped in a sweet and fluffy steamed bun. I went down to Baohaus last week to try their pork buns. They were cheap and pretty tasty. They dipped them in brown sugar before serving them, and had really tasty little accouterments inside. They didn't have a dipping sauce, which was a draw back. They did have great tea and boiled peanuts, and really tasty fried bread of some sort for dessert. Momofuku's pork buns are legendary, and definitely worth a visit to the noodle bar for a taste. The pork buns that reign supreme, in my humble opinion, are those at Fatty Crab. They serve the buns with a spicy cilantro salad that you stuff inside. Then the dipping sauce is hoisin with a bullseye of Sriracha in the middle. They have the sweet and savory flavor of the others, plus the fresh perk of cilantro and a great heat from the sauce and the Sriracha. Hit all three for a pork bun trip around downtown.