Salmon quiche

Cuisine: French/Southern American

My ex-roommate from Roanoake instilled in me an appreciation for Southern cooking. She introduced me to quiche, that can be quite expensive if you choose to have it in a cafe, but surprisingly easy to make it at home, if you have all the ingredients.

I modified it a bit to suit my taste....and made a salmon quiche. If you are vegetarian, you can make a vegetarian quiche without salmon.

Basic Ingredients (2-4 servings)
4 eggs
1/4 pound wild caught salmon cut into small cubes
Ready-made Pie crust
1/2 cup mozarella cheese (you can also add cheddar cheese instead of mozarella)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups half and half milk
2 cods of crushed garlic
Finely chopped 1/2 cup spinach
1/4d piece of finely chopped onion
1/4 piece of finely chopped tomato
1 teaspoon salt (alter to your taste)
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Optional Ingredients (2-4 servings)
Oregano, basil to taste
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1/2 cup Goat cheese

Step 1
Break the eggs into a large bowl and add the three types of cheese and milk.
Step 2
Add the remaining ingredients including salmon, veggies, salt, pepper, oregano and basil. Mix them well and set aside.


Step 3
After allowing the frozen pie-crust to thaw for an hour and a half, set it in a baking dish, greased with butter.

Step 4 
Pour the mixture into the pan, as shown below.

Step 5
Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F ( C) and bake it for 40-45 minutes. Cut into wedges and serve them.

Mediterranee - in Great Falls but not that great!

Mediterranee, 
10123 Colvin Run Road, Great Falls, VA. 

Pan fried flounder

If you like to try out small, family-run restaurants, Groupon is a good place to start your search. Last weekend, I used a groupon deal for Mediterranee, a small restaurant that specializes in American Meditteranean cuisine. 

The meal started on a positive note - complimentary bread which tasted like it might have been baked in-house. It was served with olive oil for dipping.  I had the opportunity to sample their three-course meal that was comprised of an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. Among the appetizers, my friend and I tried a soup and a pork pate. The soup, a vegetable puree made from greens, was adequate. The pate was chunky and cold - came with a smidge of mustard, and a salad on the side. Neither the pate nor the soup was served with any crackers or garlic bread, which is a shame, as I think it would have helped neutralize the blandness of the pork.

Flambe with rum and vanilla ice cream

The entrees, a grilled salmon and pan fried flounder, were both well-cooked. They were flavored with herbs and capers and came with a side of blanched greens and some pickled onions. The entrees as served were simply too rich. Going easy on the butter would have helped bring out the natural flavors of fish, with a little more herbs for flavor.

Finally, we had two desserts: a banana, mango, berry flambé with rum and vanilla ice cream, and a bread pudding with caramel sauce. The bread pudding with strawberries on the top was moderately sweet, which suited me. The taste of rum was too obvious in the flambé, masking the natural sweetness of the mango and banana. 

The Vegetarian Edition

Saravana Palace, South Indian

11725 Lee Hwy  Fairfax, VA 22030

Aloo Tikki Chaat

If you are a vegetarian, and in the mood for some Indian food, there aren’t many options in the Washington DC region. Among the limited choices, Saravana Palace is one of the few that exclusively serves Indian vegetarian food.

What’s unique about this place is its wide-ranging menu of vegetarian dishes, especially the “fast foods” from India. While they certainly cater to those craving Chole Bhatura, bhel puri, uttapam, masala dosa, idli wada, pao bhaji, I am afraid it may not meet your expectations if you have ever had the chance to sample such food in India.

Chole Bhatura

I tried several dishes during my visit to Saravana Palace. The aloo tikki chaat - comprised of small potato cutlets served on a bed of chick peas mixed in yoghurt, and a tangy tamarind date sauce, garnished with cilantro and onions. 

Though I didn't try it myself, according to my friend Debasree, the tikkis were a little too dense and dry, and the sauces didn’t help in masking the dryness .Their popular dish, Chole Bhatura - fried bread served with spicy chick peas was edible but not especially memorable. 

There were also several Indo-Chinese dishes on the menu that are not commonly served in many Indian restaurants. The Gobi Manchurian - crispy cauliflower cooked in a spicy Chinese sauce although somewhat chunky, was the best of the three entrees I tried. 

Guacamole

Cuisine: Mexican
A simple and tasty dip thats perfect with sandwiches, fried fish, or chips!

Ingredients

1 avocado

¼ onion

¼ tomatoes

2 teaspoons of lemon juice

1 clove of crushed garlic

Chinese parsley (cilantro)

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Step 1: Mash the avocado into a thin paste. Add finely chopped onion, tomato, lemon juice, chinese parsely (cilantro) and garlic.

Step 2: Add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 3: Refrigerate the guacamole for about 30 minutes before serving it.

Mandazi for Supper

I am never in a rush on road trips and always prefer a nice leisurely meal at a local restaurant rather than restaurant chains for a quick bite. So, on our way to the Fallingwater in Pennyslavania, we stopped at a little old town diner in Frederick, Maryland. We opted for the a la carte menu instead of the buffet despite most patrons preferring the latter. I had a seafood omelette with fresh crab meat and shrimp with a side of well-cooked potatoes along with some pancakes. It was a very filling and delicious meal that kept us satiated until supper time. 

The next stop was in Morgantown, West Virginia. Partly due to the lack of interesting eating options, we ended up having supper at the Kenyan Cafe, located in a strip mall in this university town. It was my first time trying Kenyan cuisine. I was told it is very similar to the Indian cuisine. 

We started with some vegetarian samosas and mandazi for appetizers. For the entree, I tried the spicy chicken curry with a side of chapatti. I would agree that the curry served was bright and colorful looking like most Indian food. But it differed in taste. First, unlike most Indian curries that are smooth in texture for the most part, this curry had a lot of semi-cooked veggies – mostly carrots and peas. The spicy curry already came mixed with the rice, which I was not a fan of – another reason for not enjoying the curry with the chappati. This might be because I am habituated to mixing the curry with the rice in the proportion I want. The samosas were milder and had almost similar ingredients of carrots and peas. 

My favorite part of this meal was the Mandazi. It was a slightly sweet fried pastry made from wheat flour. I was not sure whether it was to be had with a curry or stew like the chapatti but it certainly had its own taste and tasted good by it self. 

Salmon on bread with gaucomole

If you are looking to make use of some salmon and Tari (Crema de Aji) (a Peruvian sauce), here is a recipe you could try.

Basic Ingredients (1-2 servings)
2 slices of bread
0.5 pounds of wild caught salmon
Quarter cup of cheese of your choice
2 tablespoons of Tari (Crema de Aji) (Peruvian sauce)
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Optional Ingredients
Black Olives

Step 1: Cut the slices of bread into two and toast them with butter

Step 2: Cut the salmon into small rectangular slices.

Step 3: Mix the Tari (Crema de Aji) and Worcestershire sauces with the olive oil.

Step 4: Dip the salmon pieces in the prepared mixture and shallow fry them onto a pan.

Step 5: Keep the fried salmon pieces aside.

Step 6: Place the salmon pieces on the bread along with Mozzarella or Feta, and olives if you would like.

Step 7: You could add more of the Tari sauce on the salmon before baking them for 10 minutes until the cheese melts.

Step 8: Serve the bread with guacamole (with an additional side of Tari sauce if you would like).

Spanish Omelette

Cuisine: Spanish

Ingredients ((1-2 servings)

Basic 

2 Eggs

1/4 of an onion

1/4 of a  tomato

Half a potato

Quarter cup of Mozarella Cheese

Dash of salt, pepper

Optional

1 Green chilli / Quarter piece of bell peppers

2-3 finely chopped Mushrooms

Dash of Oregano, chilli flakes, Basil and Parsely

Finely chopped Chinese parsely or cilantro

Total Preparation and cooking time: 15-20 minutes 

Step 1: Finely chop the onion and tomato

Step 2: Cut the potato into thin slices.

Step 3: Break the eggs into a large bowl. Beat them well with the veggies.

[If you are using more than 2 eggs, boil the potatoes slightly before adding to them to the mixture].

Step 4: Heat the pan, and add butter or olive oil. Pour half of the mixture on the pan.

Step 5: Add generous amounts of cheese on it.

Step 6: Add the remaining mixture along with another layer of cheese.

Step 7: Let it cook for about 10 minutes on a low flame (allowing the potatoes to cook and the cheese to completely melt.

Step 8: You could serve it with some bread or have it just by itself.

Goan or Peruvian seafood - You decide because I can't!

Fried seafood

Seafood is a staple of Goa. This spoilt me and made me critical of seafood from other parts of the world.

However, even I have to admit that the seafood in Mancura, a small coastal town of northern Peru, is comparable to that from my beloved Goa.

Obviously, ceviche was first on my list of dishes to try during my travel to Peru. Ceviche is raw fish cooked with citrus juices. It is served all along the coasts of Latin America. I obtained my ceviche from Restaurant Cevicheria Frutos Del Mar in the northwestern town of Piura. The fish was fresh and heavily flavored with citrus juices. To balance the acidity, it is usually served with a salad, fried yuca or potatoes, and plenty of corn.

For those who are used to eating their meats very well-done, a category that includes me, ceviche was a pleasant novelty, although I would have to admit that I have to eat enough of this before it becomes a consistent part of my diet.

Ceviche

On another occasion, I feasted on a platter of seafood after a fun-filled day on the beach. The platter comprised of calamari, fish and shrimp. It was served with French fries and garnished with a piece of avacado on the top. This was so good, that I couldn't get enough of it. Despite being fried, my appetite for it seemed boundless. And a glass of Peruvian beer perfectly helped in washing down all the spice.