Recent culinary efforts: notes & comments

[starlady]

# Tamarind Soup - Finding the ingredients for this soup involved trekking to three separate grocery stores, for the tamarind concentrate. I wound up using Neera's tamarind paste, which despite what the packaging says is, I think, the same as the "tamarind concentrate" the recipe calls for. (I also really like Neera's curry pastes too.) More importantly, the soup was totally worth the two-day ingredient quest. It is so good--rich and tart and a little sour and spicy and delicious. I'll be making it again, for sure.

# Espresso Chocolate Shortbread - I took these to a vid party last Sunday, and they were quite popular--and darn tasty, if I do say so myself. Just as good, they're shockingly easy! You make the dough, roll it into a gallon bag, refrigerate for two days, cut the dough into squares and bake. Done! Also, the espresso breaks up the sweetness in a way that I like.

# Aztec Gold Brownies - I made these twice in the past two weeks. As usual, the fresher/higher-grade your spices and chocolate, the better, but oh, so good. As usual, don't microwave anything as long as you have a double boiler.

# Pseudo-Moroccan stew - I finally figured out how to make this amazing. For the spices, use 2tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 4-5 whole cloves, and 1Tbsp dry harissa (paste I'd imagine would be similar). Use two quarters salt-preserved lemon and 1 cup Israeli couscous. Nom ALL the noms.

Comments

[phi]

Those all look delicious, especially the shortbread.

In case you ever need the info for future reference, you can always make your own tamarind paste/concentrate from dried tamarind pods. Every Indian store in the country sells the pods in little flat rectangular packages (like this) -- just break off a chunk and soak in hot water for 15 minutes, then strain out the solids. I find paste or concentrate much more convenient to use, but the whole pods are easier to find.

[meloukhia]

Those brownies sound awesome. Adding to my 'to experiment' list.

[starlady]

They're so good. They are in my stable of "baked goods to give as gifts."

[starlady]

Good to know, thanks!

It wouldn't have been a quest except Berkeley Bowl was sold out of tamarind concentrate (!), and then Andronico's was too expensive, of course, so I wound up at Whole Foods (and then I got downpoured on, but that was partially my own fault).