Veggie Burritos w/ Homemade Guac

I love Mexican food! An hour of time + busy mom lead me to scavenge the refrigerator and throw together a quick and simple burrito that came out pretty good. A couple of weeks ago one of my really good friends made these delicious chimichangas, which motivated me to make these.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Onion diced 
• 1/2 carrot shredded 
• 1/2 Bell pepper 
• 1/4 cup mushrooms 
• 1/2 cup shredded lettuce 
• 1 cup cooked rice 
• 1 can of black beans unsalted 
• 1 pepper seeded
• 3 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp paprika 
• 2 tsp chili powder (add only if you enjoy spice :-) )
• 1 tsp garlic paste 
• 1 lemon 
• Cilantro 
• wheat tortillas 

Procedure: 

1. In a bowl mix the cooked rice with lemon juice, cilantro, pinch of salt and paprika
2. Saute the onions, carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms
3. Add the rice, beans and rest of the seasoning

** Homemade Guacamole recipe was in a previous post. 

I'm always looking for new Mexican restaurants, but my favorite spots are: 

1. Chipotle - I know this is considered a fast food, chain type establishment but I LOVE CHIPOTLE!! There was a time that I would go everyday. 

2. Nuevo Loredo - their authentic chalupas are AMAZING!!! I can't even describe it in words. I need to go back here. 

I need to keep searching for more :-) 

Piedmont Park Food Truck Festival

Saturday morning while gloomy and ominous did not deter me from driving to Atlanta to feast. The food festival was compilation of 30 different food trucks. http://www.atlantastreetfoodfestival.com/#! After waiting in Six Flags style lines, I got a chance to grub on:

• Crabcake Poboys 
• Turkey Melt Crepe 
• Arugula, tomato and chicken Crepe 
• Banana caramel  crepe 
• Fresh AMAZING chicken tacos 

Honestly, everything was so juicy and delicious. Unfortunately, we decided to starve all day so we would be super hungry. As a result, we have very few pictures of the venue or the food.

I think this will be an annual event for me and my friends and I highly recommend it to everyone!

        

Food Photography

I haven't cooked anything worth putting up today. Instead I want to talk about an aspect of cooking that I need to improve on: food photography. Here are some websites that I found to be interesting.

1. Great Camera Angles: http://digital-photography-school.com/angles-for-food-photography. I have mostly focused on "above with perspective" camera angle. However, I think for the next blog entry I will try to take pictures using all the angles. 

2. Ways to style your food" http://digital-photography-school.com/10-tips-to-improve-your-food-photography-styling. I usually get super tired by the time I finish cooking, so I tend to get lax about my decorations, but in the future, I will pay more energy into the aesthetics.

This is an excellent food photography blog in case anyone wants peruse through. 

• http://www.whatkatieate.com/  
• http://souvlakiforthesoul.com/ 

I just signed up for a photography class to get in tune with my Canon D-SLR. Stayed tuned for better images! 

The Art of Guacamole

Today's post is all about avacadoes.

1. Types of avacado 

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2012/10/18/know-your-avocado-varieties-and-when-theyre-season
2. First lets talk about how to pick and buy avocados
• Hass avocados make the best avocado due to their rich, buttery texture. 
• How to determine if the avocado is ripe: We can ascertain if the avocado is ripe by observing the color.  They change from a dark green color to a darker almost black tint. Ideally you want to pick a darker avocado. In addition, we can squeeze the avocado to see if it causes bruising. 
3. Recipe for Guacamole

Ingredients: 

• 3 Haas Avacadoes, halved, seeded, peeled 
• 1 lemon juiced
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin 
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 medium onion diced 
• 1 roma tomatoes, seeded, diced 

Procedure: 

1. In a bowel add avacodoes and toss in lemon juice
2. Smash the avocados
3. Add salt, cumin, paprika and mix
4. Fold in the onions and tomatoes 

First Time Baker

I am an expert baker. Of course I am referring to baking out of a box. I decided that it was time to try baking from scratch and went with a blueberry cupcake with a buttercream frosting. I am not going to say I didn't come across any problems because I did; however, the final product was quite yummy! This recipe was inspired by a pinterest postings (http://pinterest.com/pin/253186810272988167/).

Blueberry cupcake
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup flour 
• 3/4 cup sugar 
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 stick butter, melted 
• 1 egg 
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup blueberries 

Method: 

1. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt 
2. In a separate bowl mix butter and egg lightly, then add milk until just blended
3. toss blueberries in a table spoon of flour and fold into batter 
4. bake at 350 for 20 min 

Icing: 

Ingrediants:

• 1 stick butter (room temperature)
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar 
• 1/4 cup milk 
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method: 

1. Beat butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Add sugar, milk, vanilla, almond extract and beat!
3. Frost cupcakes 
4. add a blueberry for funsies!!

Garnishing Technique of India

Chaunk (Hindi), Thaalithal (Tamil), Oggarane (Kannada), Vaghaar (Gujarati), Baghaar (Urdu), Popu (Andra Pradesh) is used to describe a specific garnishing technique typically used in Indian cooking. This process involves adding whole spices to oil to release essential oils and increase the flavors.

The typical ingredients used include:

1.   Asafoetida, Inguva

What is it? Dried exudate from the tap root of ferula
Medicinal use: Anti-bacterial

2.   Mustard Seeds

• Nutritional content: B vitamins, vitamin E, Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Selenium
• Medicinal uses: the oil from mustard seeds has been used to relieve muscle and arthritic pain. The seeds themselves act as an laxative. 

3.   Curry Leaves (Hindi), Barsunga (Bengali), Limdo (Gujarati), Kadhilimbu (Marathi), Karivepku (Telugu)

• Nutritional content: Vitamins A, B, C, B2, Calcium, Iron
• Medicinal uses: The bark and roots act as a stimulant, anti-diabetic, cholesterol reducing, antiulcer activity and anti-diarrhea if eaten. They can be applied externally to treat bites from poisonous animals. Lastly the curry leaves are used in a calcium deficiency. 

4.     Dried Red Chili 

• Nutritional content: Vitamins A, B complex, and C, flavonoids
• Medicinal uses: The main component of red chilies is capsaicin, which gives the strong pungent component. Capsaicin has an anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic, and anti-diabetic properties. 

5.     Urad Daal (black and white)

• Urad dal is the prized pulse of India and is grown in the coastal regions of Andra Pradesh. This daal when harvested has a black skin and is called kali daal, which is used to make dishes like Daal Makhani. The kali daal is then skinned and halved. This daal is then used to make dishes like dosa. 

References: 

http://www.asianpharmaonline.org/AJPR/2_AJPR_2_2_2012.pdf

Tomato Pappu - Andra Tomato Daal

It is time for me to start cooking a little closer to my roots: Andra Pradesh, India. Tomato Dal is a south Indian comfort food much like the American macaroni and cheese.

Ingredients: 

• 5 Roma Tomatoes diced 
• 1/2 cup Toor Dal (Hindi) AKA Kandi pappu 
• Seasoning AKA popu
• 1 tsp Urad daal 
• 1/4 tsp Cumin 
• 1/4 Mustard seads 
• Pinch of ingua AKA Asafoetida
• 1 Dried Red chili 
• A few Curry leaves 
• 1/2 tsp Rasam powder 
• 1 Green chili 
• As needed Olive Oil 

Procedure

1. Cook daal in a pressure cooker
2. Heat oil on a large pan till heated
3. Add the popu, green chili and allow to cook
4. Add diced tomatoes, rasam powder and salt 
5. Cover the pan and allow the tomatoes to cook 
6. Add the daal and mix 
7. Taste and add salt as needed

Recipe made for 4 people

*** image taken from Sailu's Kitchen