Tandoori Chicken

So this is really less a recipe than an endorsement of a particular product: SWAD brand Tandoori Masala. Pick it up at your local Wal-Mart or Superamerica.

The recipe is just on the back of the jar, but it tastes fantastic. The really best way to make it is outside on a charcoal grill... then you get the smokey tandoori taste. If you do it inside it's ok, but nothing to brag about.

1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 cup yogurt
4 pounds of chicken, chopped up
2 tablespoons of the SWAD masala

marinate overnight, and then grill or roast.

Shakshuka

Had Shakshuka at the wonderful Hummus Kitchen (http://www.hummuskitchen.com/) in Manhattan. It's a Middle Eastern stew with an egg in it. This recipe from the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/07/01/shakshuka_recipe/) but I've sort of messed with it. You can also add meat (in the one I had there was sausage and only one egg).

2	tablespoons olive oil
2	cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2	teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 1/2	cups canned tomatoes, drained and crushed in a bowl
1/2	teaspoon ground cumin
2	tablespoons tomato paste
8	eggs

1. In a skillet, heat the oil. Add the garlic and crushed pepper. Cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute or until the garlic is lightly browned. Add the tomatoes and cumin. Cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes.

2. Add the tomato paste, cover the pan, and simmer for 2 minutes. Taste for seasoning; the sauce should be highly flavored. Add more crushed red pepper or salt, if you like

3. One by one, break the eggs into the tomato sauce, jiggling the pan a little to spread the whites.

4. Partially cover the pan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until the whites set. Adapted from “Book of New Israeli Food’’

Baba ghanoush

2 eggplants, about 1 pound total
4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 lemon, juiced
1 handful fresh coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Roast the eggplant. it takes longer than you think it would. then let it cool enough to get rid of skin and mix with the other ingredients in the food processor.

Sort of Italiany Soup

• 1 pound Italian sausage
  
• onions
  
• garlic
  
• white cannellini -- soaked overnight or canned
  
• 2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried basil / oregano / Italian seasoning
  
• Spinach and / or other vegetables as you have or want
  
• serve with Parmesan cheese
  

Hummus

Crackers

Goya Chicken

Liver Pate

For an inexpensive variation on foie gras, try chicken livers in this tasty pate. Plan ahead for overnight refrigeration to let flavors blend.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 hard-boiled eggs, reserving 1 for the garnish
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium clove garlic, crushed
• 1/3 cup soft margarine or 5 Tbsp rendered chicken fat
• 1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 pound (450 g) cooked kosher chicken livers
• 20 grinds black pepper
• Generous pinch of ground nutmeg

Preparation:

Gently saute onion and garlic in the fat over low heat until browned, but not burned. Sprinkle onions and garlic with salt as soon as they begin to wilt.

Slice 3 of the hard-cooked eggs in half. Refrigerate the remaining egg to be used for garnish.

Scrape the sauteed onion, garlic, and drippings into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Blend until smooth. Add hard-cooked eggs, cooked chicken livers, black pepper, and nutmeg. Process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning, keeping in mind that flavor will increase during refrigeration.

Scrape chicken liver mixture into plastic wrap-lined decorative mold or bowl. Cover with another layer of plastic wrap, pressing wrap to touch the top of the pate. Refrigerate at least 12 hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, take pate from refrigerator and remove plastic wrap covering. Invert onto a decorative dish and remove bottom layer of plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature 30 minutes to 1 hour, then grate remaining hard-boiled eggs over the top before serving.

Serve with warm French bread or challah, melba toast, or saltines.

May be refrigerated up to 5 days or frozen up to 1 month.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings as an individual appetizer or 10 to 12 as a party spread

Old Bay Seafood Soup / Boil

1-2 cups of water

1 can (12 ounces) beer (optional)

1/2 cup OLD BAY® Seasoning

4 medium red potatoes, quartered

2 large onions, cut into wedges

1 Smoked chorizo sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces

8 ears fresh corn, shucked and halved crosswise / or frozen corn

2 unpeeled jumbo shrimp (21 to 25 count)

1 28 oz can of tomatoes

Mix the sausage, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, beer, Old Bay seasoning in the crock pot and let stew all day. This will create a marvelously strong bit of broth in there. When you're ready to eat, add the shrimp and just let them cook through. Then, you can strain everything out and eat it as a boil, or just eat in all together as a soup / stew / stoup.

Korean BBQ

Feijoada

Salad

Mexican Soup