Inspired Indian

Namaste! The Mrs. took a class with DanaTreat, local blogger + cook extraordinaire. Indian Vegetarian - with emphasis on Southern Indian dishes. A dinner for 4 had to be made. Here's what came next:

Found this photo online and it shows a small sampling of some of the 

most often used spices. Turmeric and saffron, cloves and cardamom, 

all very important to this cuisine. All pack a punch, even just the smallest amounts.

It's really all in the prep. Here we have some garlic, the curry leaves (thanks Dana),

potatoes and ginger. There is an onion waiting in the wings. It will be chopped too. 

The frozen peas and cinnamon sticks were such cool additions to the rice dish.

As were the cashews. It was probably the biggest hit of the night.

Bay leaves, the nuts and a spice assortment really added a rustic

flair to this delicious Basmati rice side dish. 

Chutney (prepared by sister-in-law), naan (Trader Joes), 2 potato vindaloo, curry rice and turmeric chicken (also sis-in-law's making).

Plus some plain yogurt to cool down your palette. Oh yes, there was some spice happening.

The minty-cilantro chutney was good for that too. Definitely a very balanced flavor event going on.

Plating the food, trying to get one more picture before we devoured it all. 

We actually had some leftovers (see below) for the next night, but very little. We are looking forward to using up the spices in different recipes in the coming weeks. 
Thanks again to Danatreat for the inspiration & for the curry leaves & just being awesome. 


Here are some links if anyone wants to try these dishes: Two Potato Vindaloo and Turmeric Garlic Chicken (this is close to what was made). I can post or email the other recipes too.


Everything came out amazing! My main advice about cooking Indian food is: prep, prep, prep. Most the recipes have a lot of ingredients and it helps to have everything measured and cut and chopped.  


Here's what the next night's dinner of leftovers plate looked like, not bad! 

Tempting Tempeh

Guest contributor/collaborator/wife/aka the Mrs. is responsible for the following post.
Take it away:

Sometimes, while wandering around the grocery store, random things will end up in the basket, with no pre-planned menu ideas whatsoever. Occasionally, tempeh is one of these items. On it's own, it doesn't look particularly appetizing.  This time we thought it needed some livening up and this Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh recipe from 101cookbooks.com  seemed really appealing so why not give it a try? Plain quinoa and some roasted green beans (from thekindlife.com-one of our faves) are also on this last minute menu.  Let's get to chopping and prepping now.....see how easy my hubby makes it seem? He is an excellent chopper!

Chopping the garlic for the glaze on the tempeh.
Fresh squeezed oranges really added the flavor punch to this dish.

Here's the glaze - fresh with citrus and garlic and ginger.
We didn't have cilantro or cloves, so they were omitted. 

Roasted green beans were a nice side dish.
We used Trader Joe's frozen beans.

Sizzling, naked tempeh.

Presto! And just like that, it is a beautiful  orange-y brown.
The crispy factor makes all the difference and it smells so good.

Plated, on to a bed of quinoa.
Healthy and relatively quick.


Here are links to the Tempeh and Green Beans recipes.
We would definitely make these dishes again.