Tuna Tartare and Lobster Tail

And to finish the weekend off, two seafood plates - one is from a cookbook from Melisse restaurant, In Pursuit Of Excellence - ahi tuna tartare (although I'm not sure the tuna I have is ahi tuna), and then a very simple lobster tail, just because we happened to pick it up in the grocery store today.

First up, an "official" recipe from the book.

Peppers Stuffed With Cod On Roasted Tomatoes

My best friend went back to school to get her MBA and then went off for a semester abroad to Barcelona, Spain. I am quite jealous of all the wonderful food she gets to experience there, and her common photo postings on facebook only feed my jealousy more. But is is also quite inspirational. And although some ingredients, such as jamon (prohibited in US) and caught-this-morning-fresh seafood, are out of my reach, others I can get my hands on and can recreate a similar dish. Today I will use her photo as an inspiration and cook something similar - I have only a photo and a brief description (peppers stuffed with cod) to work of - no exact list of ingredients or a recipe here.

TAG U - Roasting

Today was a cooking class at TAG, subject - roasting. 3 delicious dishes to watch chefs make, 3 recipes provided to take home, mixology lesson at the bar with cocktails to sip, and a delicious lunch - that's TAG University.

Celebrating Ugadi

Today is actually a New Year. Yes, New Year. Celebrated in Karnataka as Ugadi, and also in Andhra and Maharashtra, today is a beginning of a new year for many Indians. As any other festive day, it must be a vegetarian day (see my previous post), but it is also a day to eat sweets. I am going back to the wonderful 1000 Indian recipes book for a new dessert recipe - Pistachio Burfee.

Shyam's Special Vegetable Pulao

I did write about how 1000 Indian Recipes book helped my Indian cooking a lot. It is a great book. Even Shyam consults it every now and then. But more as a guideline rather than following a recipe to a T. This post is about Shyam's own original recipe which was inspired by a vegetable pulao out of that book. But he changed the kind of vegetables, the spices, changed yogurt to coconut milk - it is entirely Shyam's specialty now. And while he is the one to usually cook this, since cricket season began and he is off to practice with his team, the honors of cooking it fall to me. Let's begin!