Peach and Arugula Caprese Salad
Ingredients:
I wanted this caprese salad to be the kind where one gets a surprise with the first bite and maybe even the second bite – like a surprise in the palate. When I made this feta/mozzarella combination in a caprese salad I was thinking that Feta with its briny tangy fresh flavor would make the perfect accompaniment to the milder fresh mozzarella cheese. The caprese is unexpected in that you don’t know what you are getting when you take a piece – since both fresh feta and fresh mozzarella are the same color and look similar, its hard to tell them apart creating an unexpected flavor surprise when eaten. Continue reading Feta Mozzarella Caprese Salad
If you are looking for an artsy avant garde appetizer that tastes outstanding then this recipe is for you. Sour from the raw mango, sweet from the apples, and delicious from the addition of green chillies and onions. This is the type of unique appetizer that comes from Indians who lived in Morocco and now live here in the Bay Area- a true global background my friend Radhika and her Mom have. Continue reading Raw Mango Chutney & Sweet Apple on Baguette
Shishito peppers are a Japanese variety of peppers that are bright green mild chili peppers that have a green chili pepper flavor without the heat. It is said that one in every 10 shishito peppers is spicy, and it’s hard to know if that one spicy pepper will end up in your batch, making the entire experience of eating shishito peppers a lot of fun. The excitement, the anticipation, the unknown, and the wondering of “Am I going to bite into that one spicy shishito pepper?” makes it a fun experience eating shishito peppers 😳😡😀. Shishito peppers are so pupular these days that restaurants around town serve blistered peppers as appetizers. Continue reading Blistered Shishito Peppers with Mustard Seeds and Turmeric
Artisanal creamy cheese topped with fig jam on a baguette, it’s a positively decadent combination. This is the easiest appetizer to pull-off with the most luxurious of results. Our friend Shelley brought this delectable cheese appetizer to a holiday party that tasted and looked amazing. Most of the fun in making this appetizer is shopping for the ingredients. Selecting the right creamy cheese, picking up a sweet fig jam, and grabbing an awesome baguette – this is a great opportunity to try something new and have fun with it! Pick a cheese that is spreadable and packed with flavor for this wonderful appetizer. Any type of soft flavorful creamy cheese such as Blue Cheese, Brie, Camembert, Chèvre, or Gorgonzola will work. Continue reading Creamy Chèvre on Baguette with Fig Jam
Rather than have the family binge on some cookies and crackers on a Sunday afternoon I made this roasted cauliflower dish for a late afternoon snack which the entire family devoured 😋. I picked up this recipe watching an old episode of Ina Garten’s show Barefoot Contessa on Food Network channel. The episode was all about vegetable side dishes, and this cauliflower dish caught my attention because it was so easy to make and looked scrumptious. It involves just roasting cauliflower and then melting Parmesan cheese over the florets. How easy is that? The best part of this cauliflower dish is how awesome it tastes!! Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower by Ina Garten. Continue reading Parmesan Roasted Cauliflower
I had my cousins over for tea a couple of weeks ago as I hadn’t seen them in a while, and when all our schedules finally aligned, getting together for Sunday afternoon tea seemed like the perfect low-key way to meet up, catch up, and hang out with some afternoon treats. What I had planned for tea was going to be delicious and fun 😋 😃. Continue reading Pakoras, Cake and Chai. A Menu Worth Replicating
Happy International Women’s Day! 🌹🌷
This is the perfect recipe to share on International Women’s Day as I made these delicious pakoras with my girlfriends Lakshmi and Basanthi. Pakoras are deep fried Indian fritters made with chickpea flour and vegetables. Some of the best pakoras I’ve had are made by my friend Lakshmi. She makes the most delicious pakoras I have ever tasted. Any time Lakshmi is invited to a dinner gathering or a party, she brings her signature appetizer – her veggie pakoras. Lakshmi’s pakoras are in a league of their own – full of a wide variety of vegetables, crunchy, with a kick of green chili spiciness, they are so good that you could never have just two or three. It’s the variety of vegetables that makes her pakoras taste so good. The veggies add so many flavors that there are no spices in these pakoras, just salt and green chilies for a little heat. Continue reading Lakshmi’s Out of this World Veggie Pakoras
I took this appetizer to our friends Dave and Rose’s Hanukkah party recently that got many nods of approval. I wanted to make an appetizer with greens that wouldn’t release too much water that way when I stuffed them into a tortilla or lavash bread the bread didn’t get soggy. Kale seemed like a good option and just in case my greens got a little too moist I added potatoes to the mix for some heft and mushrooms for extra flavor. Continue reading Kale and Feta Lavash Rolls
One of my most requested appetizer recipes over the years has been a mushroom and artichoke baguette. Every time I have served my mushroom and artichoke baguettes I have received so many requests for the recipe that over the years I have typed and re-typed the recipe and emailed it to many. I made this appetizer more times than I can count for parties that I finally got tiered and stopped making them completely.
Then recently over the summer break the kids asked me how come I haven’t made my mushroom and artichoke appetizer in a long time? They were craving some 😋. So I dug up my emails from years gone with the recipe and made the mushroom baguettes again when I had my uncle visiting from India. His newly married nephew and wife came to see him from Salt Lake City and making a yummy appetizer for a large gathering seemed just perfect. These mushroom artichoke baguettes tasted just as delectable as the first time I made them over fifteen years ago. Continue reading Mushroom and Artichoke Baguette
