Pithari Taverna

Hi Everyone!

It's Meghna!! I went to Pithari Taverna about 2 months ago, and even though time has past, I'm still craving their food almost everyday.  Pithari Taverna is an authentic Greek Restaurant, its a place that you go for a casual meal.  The decor made me feel as if I was drinking wine on the streets of Athens.  For starters we ordered a Greek Salad.  This salad was not a Greek Salad that I'm accustomed too.  It didn't have any lettuce, instead it had olives, capers, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and feta cheese!  All the delicious components of the salad without the lettuce.  It was refreshing and left me wanting more. The waitress gave us bread and olive oil for the table.  The bread was a traditional Greek bread.  Flat, chewy, and soft.  It very much resembled pita bread. The olive oil was to die for, it was sweet, fruity, and it had olives in it which I thought was a nice touch.  For my entree I ordered the Veggie Pita Platter.  It was mouth-watering.  It came with bread, tzatziki sauce, salad, stuffed tomato, grape leaves, and a side of rice.  It was so yummy! The tzatziki was thick and creamy and absolutely addicting.   Normally, I'm not a fan of tomatoes, so when I say this stuffed tomato was delicious, it was delicious.  The grape leaves were different, they were warm.  Normally when I eat grape leaves they are cold and you can tell that they were made the night before.  These tasted fresh and you could really taste the fresh mint inside.  I thought it was a nice palate cleanser in between all the different components of my dish.  What I really liked about this restaurant, was that even though it had a lot of seafood and meat options, it also had a lot of vegetarian options.  I think next time I'm going to try the stuffed mushrooms.  My dinner date also commented that their gyro was one of the best gyros that he has ever eaten. Certainly a place for all to enjoy!  The best part, the portions are so big, you'll end up with leftovers for the next day.

Veggie Pita Platter

My mouth is now watering after writing this post, I think it's time for another visit to Pithari Taverna.

Pithari Taverna
http://www.thepithari.com/
28 Woodbridge Avenue
Highland Park, NJ 08904-3234


Till next time!

Happy Cooking!

Mango Rus

Hi Everyone!!


It's Meghna! It's summertime, which means that many of us tend to lean towards ice cream and other treat that will cool us down.  However, in my mind when I think of my summer, I don't think of ice cream.  I think of a dish my mom makes every single summer.  Mango Rus.  Summer is the perfect time for a mango.  They're sweet, refreshing, and cooling.  Rus is mango puree which many Indians eat with or after dinner.  It's simple too, since you only need 3 ingredients.

Ingredients:
12 ripe mangoes
water
Pinch of saffron

Cookware needed:
Blender
Knife
Strainer
2 big bowls
A ladle
An Apron....Mangoes tend to be messy

Directions:
1) Peel every mango.
2) Cut the mangoes.  Now this is probably the most tricky part of the recipe.  Mangoes have a huge seed directly in the middle of the fruit.  The best way to cut a mango is to cut around the seed.  I tend to just take my knife and go as deep as I can without cutting the seed.  You want every bit of mango.

Cut up mango

3) After you've removed all the meat from the seed, discard the seeds and put the mango pieces into a bowl.
4) Put mangoes into the blender, add a bit of water to get the mangoes going, and blend away.

Mangoes in the blender

5) Place the strainer over the empty bowl and pour the Rus into the strainer.  You have to strain the Rus to get rid of all the strings in the mango.  Use the ladle to help speed up the process.

Straining the Rus

6) After you've strained all the Rus, put just a pinch of saffron.  Saffrons really complements the mango, but don't use a lot.  You don't want the saffron overpowering the natural mango flavor.
7) Enjoy! The best part of this is the fact that you can freeze the Rus and take it out whenever you want a little treat!

Happy Cooking!!

Pav Bhaji

Hi Everyone!

I know it's been a VERY long time since I last posted, too long in fact.  Well this post acknowledges my Indian hertiage.  Pav Bhaji is one of my all-time favorite dishes.  Coming home from college I always requested my mom to make this for me upon my arrival.  It's spicy with layers and layers of flavor.  I ate this meal growing up almost every Friday night.  The dish  originated in Mumbai and it was made to be a quick lunch for workers.  It's a Mumbai speciality, in fact it's considered to be street food.  Walking the streets of Mumbai down Marine Drive you will find countless vendors all selling this item.  It's eaten with bread instead of the traditional roti or rice. You won't ever find it as good as the streets of Mumbai but I can promise you my Mom's, being the true Bombayian that she is, comes damn near close.  This recipe is not my original recipe, but my mother's, so thanks Mom!  With the right spices and the help of a food chopper, this meal can be made in 30 minutes.

Ingrediants:
3-4 small red onions
4 garlic cloves (one for every onion)
1/2 green bell pepper, seeds removed
1/4 of Chinese eggplant
1/4 of peas
2-3 boiled potatoes
4 ripe tomatoes

Spices:
Salt
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
2 Tablespoons Badshah (or any brand) Bombay Pav Bhaji Mix
2 teaspoons cumin-coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 Teaspoon smoked paprika
1 Tablespoon Indian Red Pepper powder

Preparation:
1) Bring 2-3 Tablespoons of oil to heat in a large saucepan.
2) In the chopper, chop the onions, garlic, and bell pepper.  Sautee until cooked.
3) In a small saucepan, boil the peas until they become tender.
4) In a pressure cooker, or on the stove, boil the potatoes until cooked. 
5) In the chopper, chop the eggplant and add to the onion/garlic/bell pepper mixture.
6) In the chopper, grind the tomatoes.  It will look almost like a tomato soup.  Also, blend the peas.  (You can leave them whole, but in my family were not big pea people so my mom use to blend them so we wouldn't know it was in the dish)
7) Add the tomatoes and peas to the pan,  Cover and let it simmer for about 6-7 minutes.  You want to make sure all the vegetables are cooked thoroughly before adding the potatoes and spices.
8) Once the potatoes are cooked, removed the skin and smash the potatoes with a potato smasher.
9) Add the potatoes right away into the pan and mix thoroughly. 
10) Add the spices and mix, bring the Bhaji to a boil.  If it becomes too thick, add some water.
11) On a griddle butter some bread rolls and toast until golden brown.
12) Serve the Pav (bread) with the Bhaji, add some raw diced red onions, a squeeze of lemon and celentro on top for a garnish.  It will top off the dish.  Enjoy!

Unfortunately, this is NOT a picture my MY dish, but an image I downloaded from google image.  I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  I ate it before my camera was found.  SORRY!!

Home spices starting from top left, salt, Badshah Pav Bhaji Mix, Paprika, homemade Garam Masala, Indian Red Pepper Powder, and Cumin-Coriander Powder

**Note**
For a milder taste, reduce the Badshah mix, red pepper powder and garam masala!

Stuffed Shells!!

Hi Everyone!!

It's Meghna!! So I am a complete sucker for any sort of baked pasta dish.  I just love the gooey melted cheese on top of bubbling pasta sauce, what could be any better?  Growing up I lived down the block from a pizzeria called Cugini's.  Cugini's was my place to go after school, for dinner, for a snack, pretty much whenever I got hungry and didn't want to cook.  When my mom wasn't home my sisters and I would order baked ziti from Cugini's for dinner and thus began my obsession with baked pasta.  Now I LOVE baked ziti and lasagna, but this recipe was a recipe that a neighbor of ours introduced to us when I was younger.  It's been a hit ever since.  You won't just eat 3 or 4 shells, you'll find yourself unintentionally devouring 5 or 6 shells in one sitting.

Stuffed Shells!!

Ingredients
- 2 bags of fresh baby spinach
- 1 chopped medium size onion
- 2 cloves of minced garlic
- 1 small container of ricotta cheese
- 1 box of jumbo shells
- Tomato sauce, either homemade or your favorite jar sauce
- grated mozzarella cheese to top it all off
- 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon  red pepper flakes

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 F.
2) Bring a big pot of water to boil, add salt for flavor.  Cook the shells till they are a minute under al-dente.  Strain from water and immediately run under cold water to prevent further cooking.
3) On a skillet, bring 2 Tablespoons to heat, add the onions and garlic and red pepper flakes.  Slowly add the spinach in batches.  Cook and add more spinach till all the spinach is cooked. 
4) Add salt and freshly ground pepper to add taste.
5) Remove the skillet from heat and allow for the onions, garlic and spinach to cool.
6) Once the spinach is cooled, add the container of ricotta cheese, mix thoroughly and add a pinch of salt.
7) In a baking dish, add a single layer of tomato sauce to prevent sticking.
8) Stuff each shell individually with the spinach and ricotta cheese.  (The more the merrier =])
9) Cook the shells with tomato sauce, add enough because the shells will use a lot of the mositure from the sauce to cook more in the oven.
10) Bake covered for 30 minutes.
11) Remove from the oven, uncover and add mozzerella cheese on top.  Bake again for another 15 minutes.
12) Remove and let it stand for 5 minutes before digging in.

Enjoy!!!

The stuffing in the shells.

***TIP***
- If you want a lighter version of the meal, replace the ricotta cheese with cottage cheese.  I know it's not  a cheese that you would normally put in an Italian dish, but it was actually the way that I learned to make it.  I actually prefer cottage cheese instead of the ricotta, but when cooking for others I use the ricotta cheese to give it a creamier center.

Let me know what you think!

Happy Cooking!!

New Orleans

Hi Everyone!!

It's Meghna! I know I've been MIA for a while, I've been so swamped with classwork and presentation that for some reason I couldn't find time to blog.  But now I'm back. This post isn't a dish I made but rather, it's a post about this restaurant I fell in love with while I was in New Orleans.  I went to New Orleans a couple of weeks with two of my girlfriends for spring break.  Being vegetarian in the Big Easy was not easy.  Everything down there either had meat or seafood, even the simpliest such as rice and beans had meat in the beans.  But you certainly can't blame anyone for that.  Food is such a big aspect of New Orleans lifestyle.  I couldn't tell you the countless times I just saw a group of friends just lounging around eating a meal at 3pm on Wednesday afternoon.  Their culture revolves around good company, good music, and good food.  Which is certainly a motto that we should all live by.  The restarant that we went to was called The Green Goddess, located in New Orleans French Quarter.  This restaurant was actually recommended to us by a local that we made friends with on the first day that we were there.  He said and I quote, "The Green Goddess is an awesome restaurant and it's also vegetarian friendly."  Hearing this my ears perked up and I automatically made it my mission to make sure that we ate here at least once during our visit.  Boy, was I happy that we did.  The menu was quite extensive, with dishes that was prepared as soon as you ordered it.  It was a tiny place, it could only fit about 3 tables in the restaurant itself, but lucky for them they had a ton of outdoor sitting.  The food was all locally grown, with a drink menu that had alcohol from all over the world.  With their extensive dinner menu, they had a drink menu that could sure put any restaurant to shame.  The waiter was amazing, you can tell he studied the menu extensively and he also could pair any dish with the drink that would best compliment it. 

The alleyway where The Green Goddess was located.

 

 

 

 

 

Just a snapshot of some of the menu.

Some of the dessert menu.

 

I ordered the Sorcerer's Galette, it was an olive oil dough stuffed with a shallot reduction paired with greens and pears.  The pears complimented the shallots, the freshness cut the creaminess of the shallots and left every bite feeling crisp and clean.  It wasn't a heavy dish at all, light and delicious, just the type of meal you need for a late dinner.

Sorcerer's Galette

 

After an amazing meal it seemed only right to end the meal with dessert.  I think this was the BEST dessert I've ever had.  I'm a sucker for phyllo dough, so anything that has phyllo dough in it I'm mostly likely going to order.  We ordered the The Sultan's Nest, which was pistachio gelato topped with whipped cream and shredded phyllo dough.  It was topped with a saffron infused honey.  The pistachios had a salty bite to it which paired well with the sweetness of the honey.

The Sultan's Nest

This restaurant was definitely a place that you have to hit up if ever in the Big Easy, great atmosphere, great food, great drinks.

Happy Cooking!

I Love Pizza!

Hi All!!

It's Meghna!! It's been a while, but last night I made a 3-cheese mushroom pizza and it was delicious.  Complete blog worthy.   Spring break is rapidly approaching which means time to clean out the fridge.  All of the ingredients I already had on hand from previous blog post, so it was really easy to just throw this pizza together.

3-Cheese Mushroom Pizza

feeds 2-4 

Ingredients

- 1 prepared pizza crust

- 1/4 cup of tomato sauce

- 1/8 cup of thinly slice onions

- 4-5 sliced mushrooms

- 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese

- 1/4 cup of fontina cheese

- grated parmigiano reggiano cheese

- salt

- ground black pepper

- red pepper flakes

- Italian seasoning

- olive oil

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 350 F

2) Prepare your pizza crust.  Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle salt, pepper, red pepper, and Italian seasoning.  Bake for about 10 minutes.

3) Remove the pizza crust.  Add the tomato sauce (check Family Dinner Post for recipe), layer onions on top of the sauce.  Add the mozzarella and fontina cheeses.  Top the cheeses with mushrooms and grate parmigiano reggiano right on top.  Drizzle some olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste.  

4) Bake again for 5-7 minutes or until the cheeses are melted and the mushrooms reduce in size.

5) Eat while hot!

3-Cheese Mushroom Pizza!!

 

 

 

Happy Cooking!!!

Lunch for One

Hi!!

It's Meghna!! So today I was absolutely starving and had a complete craving for hummus.  I had no hummus on hand but I did have chickpeas!! So I thought why not make some?  I made a paprika hummus, and with that I made a Mint Cucumber Sandwich.  It was amazing, definitely a sandwich that I will make again.  The hummus was super easy to make, it only took 5 minutes plus the time it took to prepare my sandwich. Great lunch and quick, which is ideal when your a college student.  

Hummus

Ingredients

- 1 15 ounce can of Garbanzo Beans (Chick Peas), washed throughly

- 2 peeled garlic cloves

- 2 Tablespoons water

- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

- 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

- 1 teaspoon cumin

- 1 teaspoon paprika

Preparation

1) In a food processor, combine all the ingredients and pulse until smooth.  Remove into a bowl and season with salt and pepper for taste.  Enjoy with pita bread, pita chips or my sandwich which follows!!

Mint Cucumber Sandwich

Ingredients

- 1 Tablespoon hummus

- 1/2 Tablespoon fresh chopped mint

- 1 Tablespoon crumbled feta cheese

- 1/4 of a cucumber thinly sliced

- freshly ground black pepper for taste

- multi-grain baguette (enough for one person)

Preparation

1) Preheat the oven to 450 F.

2) Slice the baguette in half and place in the oven to get crunchy.  Meanwhile thinly slice your cucumbers and cut your mint.

3) After 3-4 minutes remove the bread from the oven and sprinkle the mint on one slice of baguette.  Cover the mint with the feta cheese and them place that slice in the oven.  Cook for another minute.

4) After 1 minute remove the bread from the oven.  On the other slice of baguette spread the hummus and place the cucumber slices onto of the hummus.  Sprinkle the sandwich with some black pepper.  Close it.  Take a big bite!!

The sandwich.

The final product.

Try out the sandwich! Let me know if you love it as much as I do!

Happy Cooking!!

Family Dinner!

Hi All!

It's Meghna! I recently managed to cook dinner for 8 people and after careful planning and much stress it came out to be a complete success!! First of all let me explain why this blog post is entitled family dinner! I guess we got it from MTV's Jersey Shore, where every Sunday the whole house sits down for a "family dinner".  Only at our family dinners, there aren't any paid actors playing a role being forced to eat dinner with one another.  After two years of living together, our little Stone house really has become into a weird family.  Our family consists of the 5 girls who live in a box of a house on Stone Street. How we function, no one will ever know, but somehow we make it work.   We started recently, to have family dinners on random Friday nights, where one of us (mainly me or Vida) cook for everyone else.  It's just another way for us to bond.  Now I KNOW this blog is suppose to be a vegetarian blog, but cooking a family dinner for meat-eaters, I had to make meat!

The family, minus Stef and I.

On the menu:
1) Stuffed Mushrooms
2) Mussels in a garlic tomato sauce
3) Linguine with homemade marinara sauce
4) Kale & Ricotta Salata Salad
5) Steak with a basil pesto
6) Balsamic Strawberries with Whipped Mascarpone Cheese

Once again, it was Italian themed, seemed fitting for a bunch of hungry loud college students.

The food!!!

Kale & Ricotta Salata Salad
makes 6 servings
Ingrediants
- 1 pound of Kale, stems and center ribs discarded
- 2 Tablespoons finely chopped shallot
- 1.5 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 ounces coarsely grated Ricotta Salata (this can be found in Italian-specialty stores or in the cheese department of your supermarket)

Preparation

1) Working in batches, cut Kale cross wire into very thin slices

2) Whisk together the shallot, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then add oil slowly whisking until everything is combined

3) Toss Kale and ricotta salata in a large bowl with enough dressing to coal well, then season with salt and pepper

Stuffed Mushrooms

serves 20-24

Ingredients

- 2 Tablespoons olive oil

- 24 Large mushrooms, (I used simple white button mushrooms that you find everywhere). stems removed and chopped with the caps still in take

- 1/2 cup chopped fresh fennel bulb (many grocery stores call it anise in the produce section)

- 1/4 cup chopped, drained oil- packed sun-dried tomatoes

- 3 garlic cloves, chopped

- 1/2 cup Fontina cheese

- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

- 1 large egg

Preparation

1) Preheat oven to 350 F

2) Brush baking dish with oil to avoid sticking

3) Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a skillet, add mushrooms stems, fennel, tomatoes, and garlic.  Saute until the stems and fennel are tender.  This takes about 12 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl and let it cool for a 10 minutes.

4) Mix in cheeses, then basil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Then mix in the egg. (The egg serves as a binder for all the ingredients)

5) Mound the fillings in mushroom cavities

6) Bake the mushrooms for about 25 minutes.

The Mushroom Caps with the stems taken off

The Stuffing for the Stuffed-Mushrooms

Stuffed Mushrooms

Mussels in a Garlic Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce

makes 5 cups

Ingredients

- 2 medium onions, finely chopped

- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

- 6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

- 2 24oz cans whole tomatoes in juice

- 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

Preparation

1) cook onions and garlic in oil for 6-8 minutes until softened

2) Add tomatoes, salt and simmer for 1.25 hours

3) Add basil

Mussels

Ingredients

- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

- 1/4 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes

- 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

- 1 cup dry white wine

- 1 cup tomato sauce

- 4 pounds live mussels, scrubbed and beards removed

Preparation

1) Cook garlic and red pepper in oil in a 6-8 quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, sitting until the garlic turns pale

2) Add wine and boil on high for 2 minutes

3) Add tomato sauce and mussels and cook over moderately high heat, covered.  Stir the mussels occasionally, until the mussels open wide, this will take 6-8 minutes.  Any mussel that doesn't open should not be eaten.

4) Garnish with fresh parsley and serve immediately!
**A side of crunchy bread will go wonderfully with the mussels, to scoop up all of that delicious sauce!

Mussels in a Tomato Sauce

Steak with a 3-Herb Pesto

This pesto was favorite part of the meal =]

3-Herb Pesto

Ingredients

- 1.5 cup fresh basil leaves

- 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

- 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese

- 1/4 cup fresh Italian Parsley

- 1/4 cup fresh Tarragon leaves

- 2 Garlic cloves

- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

1) combine the basil, garlic, pine nuts, parsley and tarragon in a food processor.  Blend until herbs are finely chopped.

2) Add oil and blend to a coarse purree

3) Remove the pesto and put it in a bowl, then add the Parmesan and mix until the cheese is incorparted. 

4) Season the pesto with salt and pepper

**Tip**

To toast your pine nuts, put them in a skillet and turn the heat to medium.  Toss the nuts and remove from the skillet once you see them turn golden brown.  This won't take long, because pine nuts are rich in oil no oil or butter is necessary to toast them.

Steak

- 1 Tablespoon fresh black pepper

- 1.5 Tablespoons salt

- 5 8ounce ribeye steaks

- 5 sprigs of rosemary, chopped, stems removed

- 4 garlic cloves minced.

Preparation

1) Pat dry any excess mositure from the steak

2) Add salt and pepper to both sides of the steak

3) In a pan drizzle oil and let it heat up slowly.  As soon as the oil becomes hot add the garlic and rosemary and immediately remove from heat.  Let the garlic and rosemary cook until the oil stops sizzling.  This allows the rosemary and garlic to infuse the oil without completely cooking it.

4) Spread both sides of the steak with the marinade

5) Cover the steaks and refrigate for 4 hours

6) Take the steaks out an hour before cooking 

7) Preheat the oven to 500 F

8) On an oven-proof skillet add oil, as soon as the oil becomes smokey add the steaks.  After 30 seconds flip the steaks and cook for another 30 seconds.  Then place the skillet in the oven for 6 minutes, remove the skillet and flip the steaks one more time and place it back in the oven for another minute.

9) Remove the skillet and let the steaks rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

The marinade

Raw steak marinading

The final product

Linguine with homemade Marinara Sauce

Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

- 2 small onions, finely chopped

- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

- 2 stalks celery, finely chopped

- 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 freshly ground black pepper

- 2 24 oz cans crushed San Marizano tomatoes

- 2 dried bay leaves

Preparation

1) Heat oil, add onion, garlic, and saute until the onions are tender.  About 10 minutes.

2) Add celery, carrots, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper.  Saute until all the vegetables are soft about 10 minutes.

3) Add the tomatoes and bay leaves. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour

4) Remove and discard the bay leaves

5) Season the sauce with salt and pepper

Linguine

Ingredients

1 pound linguine

Preparation

1) Bring a 6-8 quart pot of water to boil. Season it with salt

2) Cook till it's al-dente (cooking times vary with different brands of pasta)

3) Toss the linguine with sauce and top with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.

Linguine with Marinara Sauce

Balsamic Strawberries with Whipped Mascarpone Cheese

makes 6 servings

Ingredients

- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

- 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar

- 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

- 1/2 cup chilled mascarpone cheese

- 1/2 cup chilled whipping cream

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Strawberries

Preparation

1) Combine vinegar, 2 teaspoons of sugar and lemon juice in a heavy small saucepan.  Whisk over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.

2) Boil until the balsamic vinegar reduces to 1/4 cup, about 3 minutes.

3) In a medium bowl, combine the cream, mascarpone, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Whisk until thick soft peaks form.

4) Combine the berries and balsamic syrup and let it stand for 30 minutes.

5) Serve with a dollop of the mascarpone on the berries.  Garnish with fresh mint.

Sorry about the picture, I started eating it =]

Reviews:

Well, I can't really review much about this dinner seeing that I didn't eat half of it.  However, there was zero leftovers and my roommates left the table happy and in a food coma.  If you don't want to make two different types of tomato sauce, you can use the same tomato sauce for the mussels and the linguine.  Also, the tomato sauce, the balsamic syrup, and the pesto can all be made a day in advance.  I did this because a college student simply wouldn't be able to make all of this food in one day.  I will definitely be making those stuffed-mushrooms again.  In fact the only thing that I would do differently and maybe try out a new technique in cooking steak.  The best part of the meal, was that it was affordable!  People that ate steak and mussels paid $12 for the dinner!

The aftermath, it really did come down to the shells.

Get in the kitchen! Try out these recipes and let me know how it turns out!

Happy Cooking!!

Welcome!!

Hey everyone! It's Meghna =]

I LOVE cooking, absolutely LOVE it, to me cooking is the most calming experience one can ever have.   The kitchen I have grown to realize, is one of the only places where I'm not stressed, where everything just seems to mold together into perfect unison.  In the kitchen all the stresses of the outside world just melt away. Since I love cooking and cooking for others, I've had many people (mainly my housemates) come up to me telling me that I need to start writing a food blog as soon as possible.  So here it is!  

My first post is going be last night's dinner!  It was Italian Night at Stone Street and on menu was garlic bread, Greek Salad (I know not so Italian but simply delicious =]), and Linguine in a garlic and cherry tomato white wine sauce. 

Serves 2-4 Hungry College Students

Ingrediants

7 cloves of garlic

1 pint of cherry tomatoes

half a carton of baby portabella mushrooms

Half a pound of linguine

half a loaf of Italian bread

1 head of Romaine Lettuce

1 quarter of a small red onion

1 cucumber

dry white cooking wine (or a dry wine such as a Chardonnay if you have it, if you use a Chardonnay you can drink a glass with dinner as well!)

feta cheese

1/2 teaspoon of fresh chopped mint

salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and Italian seasoning 

olive oil 

red wine vinegar

Garlic Bread

Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Slice the Italian bread into about 1/2 inch thickness. Place them all on a baking sheet.  Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on every slice of bread.  Mince one clove of garlic.  Now this is where it can get a bit tricky, on the minced garlic sprinkle a little bit of salt.  Take your knife and with the blade down press and slide the garlic.  Doing this will make the garlic and the salt combine into a paste.  Take this new homemade garlic paste that you have just created and put it on your bread.  Bake the bread until golden brown should be around 5-7 minutes.  The bread will come out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Greek Salad

Chop your romaine lettuce into bite size pieces.  Place it into a big bowl. Slice your cucumber and put that as well into the big bowl.  Thinly slice the red onion (the thinner it is the better it will taste in your salad), place that along with your lettuce and cucumber.  Sprinkle feta cheese on top =] (I love feta so I add a lot!) 

(You can also put Kalamata olives into this salad which will taste really good, I normally do but I didn't have any on hand =[)

Dressing

In a small bowl, use 2 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar.  Mince one glove of garlic and put it in the small bowl.  Add 1/4 teaspoons of salt and 1/4 of black pepper.  Whisk it all together, (the oil and vinegar will separate after you are done whisking so whisk it one more time before you dress your salad).  Add the 1/2 teaspoon of freshly chopped mint and whisk it one more time, set it aside until serving. 

Linguine in a garlic cherry tomato white wine sauce

Bring a big pot of water to boil, add salt to give the pasta some flavor.  Once the water is boiling add your linguine and cook it until it is al-dente.  (Different brands of pasta will have different times for cooking so check the box.)

Meanwhile, prepare your sauce.  Mince 5 cloves of garlic (I know it's a lot but trust me it will be worth it!) cut the mushrooms into quarters.  Cut the pint of cherry tomatoes into half.  In a separate pan heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and put the mushrooms (mushrooms take a longer time to cook) add black pepper and salt.  Once you add salt to mushrooms liquid will come out from the mushrooms, it's fine =].  Saute the mushrooms until they are half-cooked.  Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute.  Add about 1/2 cup of white wine and the cherry tomatoes.  Let this all cook together.  Add in the Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes (if you don't like spicy don't add the red pepper flakes), your going to just eye-ball how much of the seasoning you want.

Once the pasta is cooked al-dente, transfer the pasta into the sauce.  Mix it well.  Add salt and black pepper on top for some extra seasoning.  (If you have Parmesan cheese, add it in with the pasta it will be delicious)

That was dinner! It was easy and yummy.  In fact writing this post is making me wish there was leftovers =/.

Hungry yet?? Try it out and let me know how it comes out!

Happy Cooking!