the a-cup fried chicken sandwich at cafe 15

this is supposed to be a post about a fried chicken sandwich. "but," you say, "then why are you showing me a picture of fries and bread?" exactly.
some tout cafe 15's fried chicken sando as the nadal to bakesale betty's federer. i've eaten betty's sandwich, and it is a treat, bursting with slaw and sauce and chicken breast(s) piled so high i need to unlock my jaw a little bit, like a snake, or else devour it open-faced. cafe 15 shows more restraint. (except with the fries. which are truffled, and pretty decent, but nothing special.) do you see the chicken? that little breast -- very lightly breaded and fried to a dark caramel -- is peeping out modestly from behind a curtain of lemon-mayo-slathered baguette. it is like a tiny gorgeous starlet. next time, i will order it double-breasted.

*update: at my next visit, a larger starlet made an appearance. so perhaps the first one was just a fluke?

pav bhaji

i had a bit of a glut of random vegetables. tomatoes, potatoes, massive and lovely peas from the oakland farmers' market, maybe some others. it's hard to keep track, during the summer. so ... how to decide on the next bit of experimental cookery? enter my new favorite exploration technique: google "[vegetable(s)] [part of world/cuisine] recipe." so far, i've found that there is always an awesome indian recipe for any vegetable (or combination of vegetables) that a body has lying around. this time, it's pav bhaji. i had never heard of it, but it sounded good. fortunately bombay bazar (valencia & 17th) had a made-to-order spice mix -- it was key. most folks (i've read) make pav bhaji with an absurd amount of butter, and serve it on griddled butter-soaked bread. but, since it was monday and i try to refrain from death-inducing food on weekdays, i de-buttered the sauce and served it with khitchari instead.

ingredients

for pav bhaji
1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
3 yukon gold potatoes
6 tomatoes, grated (a newfound technique, courtesy of my bombay kitchen.)
about 1 cup shelled fresh peas
1 red pepper, minced
1 yellow onion, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 T ginger garlic paste (also from mbk. this is so handy to have in the fridge.)
2 T or so vegetable oil
2 T ghee
1 t turmeric
1 t cayenne pepper
pav bhaji masala spice mix (all this stuff, and a body still needs a spice mix!)
salt to taste
at least 1/4 lemon
cilantro

for khitchari
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup mung dal
1/2 cup channa dal
~8 whole allspice
salt
2 1/4 C water. did you know you can make this in a rice cooker? i didn't think i needed a rice cooker until i got one from my mom last christmas. actually, i didn't think i needed a rice cooker even when i got one! now i use it almost every day and feel really, really grateful. thanks mom!

directions
boil cauliflower & potatoes until tender. set aside.
in a deep saucepan, saute red pepper, onions, and jalapeno pepper in oil over medium heat, about 5 minutes.
add ginger-garlic paste & keep the saute going.
add turmeric, salt, grated tomatoes (should be sort of like a puree), peas, cauliflower & potato mix, ghee, and masala. stir.
keep cooking for about 20 minutes or so, mashing the mixture with a potato masher as you go.
add juice from 1/4 lemon, and adjust spices. i used about 3 T of the spice mix, but i like it spicy.
serve over khitchari with chopped cilantro, maybe more lemons if you feel like it.

it was also totally good with a little of the eggplant pickle mixed in (yes, again, from mbk. this book is literally a whole new world of deliciousness).

serves 4-6. or, enough for 2 dinners and 4 lunches.

that lurid color isn't quite accurate -- its just my kitchen light that makes it look a bit atomic.

cafe rio

on a sunny east bay weekday, cafe rio's setting is perfect: preservation park, surrounded by trees and fountains and 19th-century homes converted into nonprofits.

and the feijoada matches perfectly. dark, mysteriously delicious bean stew, with at least four different types of porky sausage floating about -- my favorite was the black blood sausage -- collard greens with cracklins, and a veritable beach of toasted farofa. eat with coffee: this is a literal knockout for lunchtime, and makes me look forward to the siesta days in my future.

parsi-style snapper ragout & khichri

for the last couple of weeks, i've been obsessing over my bombay kitchen, an awesome new cookbook that has rapidly taken a place next to the A16 cookbook in my heart. every single thing i've made from this book has turned out beautifully, with minimal fuss and much forgiveness for my little substitutions and/or errors.

the khichri is 1/2 basmati rice, 1/4 mung dal, and 1/4 red lentils, cooked with ghee, tiny chopped onions, and a ton of spices -- whole cloves (i used a combination of whole allspice and powdered clove), cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, salt, and a little turmeric. usually, rice is fine by me, but nothing special; adding the lentils turned what i used to think of as a side dish into fragrant, creamy deliciousness that i was happy to eat on its own!

but, i was happier to eat it with the ragout. you can make it with fish filets, or shrimp, or whatever is on hand -- i chopped up red snapper into approx. 1-inch chunks, and rubbed it with a mix of salt, cayenne, and turmeric. separately, i sauteed 1 chopped onion in vegetable oil, then added two chopped jalapeno peppers and my lazy-girl version of masala paste (finely chopped garlic, ginger, salt and hot pepper). next, about six chopped tomatoes, about a cup of chopped cilantro (including stems) and some tamarind paste and sugar. cooked down to a loose jammy consistency, then fried the fish separately, mixed in with the ragout, and adjusted spices. total yum.

i'm serious: everything in this book is delicious and totally easy. so far, i've made these two, the eggplant pickle (p. 235), parsi green chutney (p. 227), cabbage salad with lime & mint (p. 214), caramelized fried rice (p. 168), khima (p. 119), and savory khara ras chaval (p.113-14; the name "soupy meat" really doesn't do this light soup a bit of justice). i dread the day i need to return this book to the library.

apricot jam & goat cheese galette

so, this is one of the 8 jars of apricot jam that i (and an army of others) made in june, with the able guidance of the girls at yes we can. i've been wanting to make something with this jam ever since i made the jam itself!

instead of an apricot jam tart -- the original idea -- i decided to modify martha stewart's dried peach and goat cheese galette to suit my purposes. same galette crust: a pate brisee, rolled out to a 1/4-inch thick rectangle, about 8" x 15", with a 1/2-inch thick folded-crust border.

fresh thyme: so key. thanks to sarah for growing it in our backyard!

the pale-orange parts are a goat-cheese mix: fresh goat cheese, apricot jam, honey, salt, lemon rind, & fresh thyme. the dark-orange parts are just pure apricot jam! obviously, i didn't get to my camera before the galette was brutalized.