JoelF wrote:Mmm that's the way to do eggplant parm - so many people turn it into a casserole. What's the point of making crispy eggplant slices of your going to cost it in sauce and bake it some more?

Yeah, I prefer it minimal but sometimes I like it saucy, too (especially when I make a really good sauce)!

It's definitely that time of year during which -- as long as you're in the mood to cook -- putting a meal together is so easy. Just an abundance of ingredients coming from all directions . . .


Sauteed Broccolini
Picked this up at the Dane County Farmers market on Saturday. Sauteed in evoo with garlic from 3SG, chili flakes, salt, black pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end.

Stopped by Zier's on my way home from work and grabbed some very nice NY Strip steaks . . .


Grilling

Ready to eat . . .


Plated Up
With yet more sweet corn from 3SG, some yukon gold potato salad (with spuds also from 3SG) and some homegrown tomato & basil salad. Not a store-bought veg on the plate. Homegrown beef? That'd be a problem. I have a pretty small lawn!

=R=

Working through some of the items we brought back from our trip to Madison, WI last weekend . . .


Charcoal-Grilled Chicken Thighs
Pretty much our standard #1 protein but seasoned with a couple of blends from Deliciouser, a restaurant in a spice shop whose menu showcases their products. We brought a few home. On this bird are a combo of their Umamier and Creole Cottage. I go back and forth between making my own blends and buying premades. These are solid, and fun to use.


Plated Up
With some very cute and delicious fingerling potatoes from the Dane County Farmers Market that we roasted in garlic and evoo, and yet another ear of buttered sweet corn from 3SG. It's definitely peak season for corn. Each delivery we get from Tracey is slightly better than the previous one. Oh yeah, there's also a blob of the weekly slaw.

=R=

A couple of cooking projects going on this weekend, some of it multi-day . . .

Because Tracey at 3SG had Asian pears (first time I can remember her having them), I decided to make some kalbi. Since Asian pears are known for their tenderizing properties (containing an enzyme: calpain), they're often used in marinades for tougher cuts. I'd never tried this specific marinade before but figured I'd never have an easier chance at it than now. My kalbi started with an overnight marinade . . .


Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Gyuto, 210mm
Everything but the meat . . . Ssamjang, salt, garlic, toasted sesame oil, mirin, Asian pear, scallion bottoms, soy sauce, honey, ginger, gochugaru, toasted sesame seeds and scallion tops. I ended up using both flanken-cut short ribs (known as L.A. Kalbi) and pork shoulder chops because I was curious which I'd like better. Because of the calpain, it is possible to over marinate (and get mushy meat), so I let these go for about 20 hours.

Separately, we also scored some very nice looking tomatillos at the Dane County Farmers Market in Madison, WI during our visit last weekend and while I didn't have a specific use in mind for them when I bought them, I decided to make some salsa today . . .


Tomatillo Salsa Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Gyuto, 210mm
Salt, scallions, homegrown peppers/chiles (red & green jalapeno, yellow and serrano), tomatillos, garlic, avocado, cilantro and white onion. Simmered most of this and once soft, combined it in my blender with the fresh cilantro and half the avocado. As for the garlic, I ended up using it 3 ways: some raw, some simmered and some roasted/skinned.


Tomatillo Salsa
Snack Portion.

Later, it was back to the kalbi, and out to the grill . . .


Grilling
Did all these in shifts, starting with the pork shoulder chops, and finishing with the beef. That worked out pretty well.


Plated Up
With some steamed baby bok choy (our last item from the Dane County Farmers Market?) that we hit with a K-Style spicy-sweet glaze, and a mound of freshly machined jasmine rice. Fwiw, the pork was good but the L.A. Kalbi (beef) was the unanimous favorite.

=R=

Okay . . . I think this is really the final thing we bought in Madison 2 weekends ago. Saw some beautiful -- and inexpensive -- leeks and immediately thought of making mapo tofu . . .


Mise En Place & Yu Kurosaki VG10 Fujin Gyuto, 210mm
Leeks, chopped garlic, fermented black beans, dried heaven-facing chiles, silken tofu (soaked in warm salt water, rinsed, drained), 4x gelatinous pork stock, Szechuan peppercorns, Pixian broad bean paste, coarsely ground pork, avocado oil, soy sauce, granulated sugar and corn starch (for slurry).


Mapo Tofu
Once the wok is fired up, this one goes pretty fast . . . about 12 minutes of actual cooking time.


Plated Up
With some leftover/reheated jasmine rice, spicy-sweet cucumber salad and some delicious tomatoes from our home garden (Carolina Gold and Cherokee Purple).

Happy Monday!

=R=

made a kind of hash hashed with a salad tonight: farmers market yukons crisped in bacon fat; bacon; lots of farmers market corn sautéed for a minute with butter and scallion; tomatoes from our garden; basil and chives from our garden - all tossed together and topped with a crispy egg. corn hash / corn salad mixup? it was pleasing and kind of a hump dish for late summer / early fall produce

Dinner for one from the garden (we had a big lunch):



Peas simmered in cream, a tomato, a plum, and a peach alongside a 1/2 pastrami on rye.

- zorkmead

zorkmead wrote:Dinner for one from the garden (we had a big lunch):

Peas simmered in cream, a tomato, a plum, and a peach alongside a 1/2 pastrami on rye.

Very nice. Do you grow those fruits? If so, I'd love some details.

For us, so many tomatoes coming in from our garden now. Decided to divert a few pounds of Sweet 100's and Sungolds to a Tomato Pie . . .


Tomato, Corn & Basil Pie
Mixed up the the tomatoes with one ear of sweet corn from 3SG (shucked), a couple tablespoons of mayo, some dijon mustard, hand-grated medium-sharp cheddar, fresh basil (also from out front) salt, black pepper and corn starch. Crust was my standard pie dough but with 25% of the AP flour swapped out for Cheez-Its that I ran through the food processor. (~100g). Baked it at 425F for ~25 minutes and then another ~60 minutes at 350F.


Plated Up
Have to say, this one didn't suck.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Grilling something nice from Zier's tonight but before that, working through some (mostly) homegrown ingredients for a side dish . . .


Veg Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Nakiri, 165mm
Evoo, black pepper, salt, homegrown eggplant, homegrown jalapenos & yellow hot peppers, garlic (from 3SG), homegrown tomatoes, red wine and white onion. Just slow simmering a bunch of stuff with the primary intention to make something tasty and use up our homegrown stuff, which is coming in fast and furious.

Also wanted to set up for some esquites . . .


Esquites Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Nakiri, 165mm
Everything but the corn (that was also from 3SG, and I grilled it later) . . . crema, cotija cheese, homegrown cilantro, lime, mayonesa and ancho chile powder.

Once that was all set and on its way, it was time to grill . . .


Hanger Steaks, Grilling
Was too lazy to truss them up but I kept a very close eye on them, and that worked out fine. Once they were off and resting, it was time to grill the corn . . .


Grilling
A little oil, a little salt and a little fire. This stuff's so sweet and tender, it doesn't even need cooking. This was strictly to add a nice charred flavor to it.

After the corn was off, it was time to assemble and eat . . .


Plated Up
With some leftover/smashed/re-roasted fingerling potatoes. Topped the esquites with a drizzle of homemade chile oil.

=R=

tried an NYT recipe for vinegar chicken with olives. easy effort, high reward. served with farro for the pan sauce and salad with tomatoes from our garden.

Wang dang doodle . . .


Grilling
Overnight, 90/10 marinade in buttermilk and hot sauce. From there, pat 'em dry, season them up and grill them indirect for about 30 minutes, flipping the bird halfway through the cook. These really hit the sweet spot . . . crispy skin, moist interior and FOB meat. Better to be lucky than good.


Plated Up
We have so many tomatoes right now, I feel like if I have a meal without them, I'm failing. So, more sliced tomatoes here and some steamed broccoli with lemon, butter, salt and a dash of gochugaru.

=R=

Wrapping up the long holiday weekend with a smoke. But first, some side-dishery . . .


Veg Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Nakiri, 165mm
Black pepper, chopped garlic, scallion tops, red wine, okra (from 3SG) homegrown tomatoes, scallion bottoms, salt, evoo and tomato paste.


Smoking
St. Louis spares, 3 hours in on the pellet grill. Hard to see here but I had a different rub on each of these 3 slabs . . . my SPG in front, my BBQ rub in the middle and Meat Church Holy Cow in the back.


Plated Up
Ribs "3 ways," simmered okra and another round of esquites with corn from 3SG via the instantpot. My favorite of the 3 rubs was my SPG. Nice and simple which, I guess, is what I was in the mood for. The pellet grill continues to do its job -- delivering BBQ that's 75-90% as good as an offset while requiring only a fraction of the work.

Happy Monday!

=R=

Still trying to keep up with our homegrown tomatoes . . .


Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Nakiri, 165mm
Gochugaru, salt, crumbled feta, homegrown basil, fusilli, evoo, homegrown tomatoes (sweet 100's & sungolds picked in the last 48 hours), leftover steamed broccoli, chopped garlic, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, dried oregano and block (Greek) feta.

This is a self-described "viral" recipe from Chef John via youtube. It caught my eye because it seemed like a good way to work through the tomatoes, and I already had everything else needed on hand. Basically, you bake the feta with the tomatoes, some evoo, the balsamic and some garlic, etc. for a while. Once that's all melted, you mash the tomatoes, stir it up, add the noodles (boiled separately), mix it all up, add some pasta water if you want, and top it with some fresh basil. This take didn't need any additional pasta water. It emulsified beautifully. I tossed in the leftover broccoli near the end because it seemed like a good use for it. Definitely some big flavors here and it was a nice side for Protein #1 . . .


Chicken Thighs, Grilling
Seasoned these with a few rubs, including one of my homemade jobbers that has a lot of dried oregano. A very hot fire, so these only needed about 20 minutes, covered in the indirect side.


Plated Up
Really enjoyed this take on pasta and will definitely make it again, with some tweaks. I'm not sure it'd be worth it without the onslaught of homegrown tomatoes but the base recipe itself is a nice template that should be easily adjustable depending on the season (and what's available).

=R=

We recently made a very similar pasta and were also really pleased with the result. We sometimes struggle to find ways to use our surplus garden tomatoes and this used a good amount of them, was relatively simple and very tasty.

It sounds like there are a lot of variation of this pasta! Ours is to roast the tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese (I've started adding a mashed sardine as well, based on a post from LynnB). When the tomatoes have collapsed, mash them up and stir in cooked fusilli (or penne if fusilli is not at hand) and shower with basil.

I never thought to try feta with it - I bet that was good!

Great minds think alike - I made our version this week to help use some garden tomatoes as well.

- zorkmead

P.S. Ronnie - I did not grow the fruits from dinner last week myself - I was visiting relatives in the PNW with a large property who grow a lot of produce. Their plums and peaches were dropping off the tree, corn, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes were ripe and one apple tree was ready to pick - it was a struggle, but I helped them eat as much as I could

zorkmead wrote:It sounds like there are a lot of variation of this pasta! Ours is to roast the tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese (I've started adding a mashed sardine as well, based on a post from LynnB). When the tomatoes have collapsed, mash them up and stir in cooked fusilli (or penne if fusilli is not at hand) and shower with basil.

I never thought to try feta with it - I bet that was good!

Great minds think alike - I made our version this week to help use some garden tomatoes as well.

- zorkmead

P.S. Ronnie - I did not grow the fruits from dinner last week myself - I was visiting relatives in the PNW with a large property who grow a lot of produce. Their plums and peaches were dropping off the tree, corn, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes were ripe and one apple tree was ready to pick - it was a struggle, but I helped them eat as much as I could

Very nice! Sounds like I need some better relatives!

As for the pasta, it does seem like a great jumping off point for just about any components that strike one's fancy and are in season. I already have some fall/winter thoughts for it.

Tonight, it had been a few weeks since I'd made pizza but about a week ago, I put up a dough (new recipe to me) and then promptly forgot about it. But then a friend's post a few days ago on another board reminded me about it. Tonight was the first time since then that I had a chance to go at it. This is Charlie Anderson's "Ultimate" pizza dough recipe which, according to him, is NY-Style. 61% hydration, with a blend of 85% bread flour and 15% whole wheat flour . . .


Sausage, Pepperoni & Red Onion Pizza, Top View
Hand-grated, whole milk mozzarella. Baked this in the inside oven, 550F for about 11 minutes, convected for the final minute. First 4 minutes in the pan, then the rest of the way directly on the stone.


Sausage, Pepperoni & Red Onion Pizza, Angle View
Sausage is from Poeta's in Highwood.


Slice
Loved the way this baked up. Crispy, golden-brown bottom, tender/airy crumb and nice flavor. I think I need to try it again with a less aged dough but even in this instance, I really enjoyed it. I plan on trying it again soon.

=R=

From our bounteous garden, yet another tomato pie . . .


Tomato Pie
A bit of cracking along the top but otherwise, it maintained structural integrity during the bake and did not leak.


Plated Up
Celebrity, Red Snapper, Early Girl, Carolina Gold, Cherokee Purple and Green Zebra along with some homegrown basil, sweet corn from 3SG, grated cheddar and a few other components. Same crust as the pie I baked a couple of weeks ago (306g ap flour, 102g cheez-its, 18T unsalted butter). Pie is flanked by some roasted brussels sprouts. I ate most of mine while I was waiting for the pie to cool down enough for slicing.

I just need to bake 5 or 6 more of these and that'll take care of the rest of our tomatoes!

Happy Monday!

=R=

A couple from over the weekend. First, more pizza experimentation. These are both "Grandma+Detroit-style" hybrids with frico edging. 65% hydration. 100% bread flour. Baked in lightly oiled 14x10" (black anodized) pans . . .


Pepperoni & Red Onion
Sliced brick cheese. Hand sliced pepperoni and red onion. Parmano blend sprinkle.


Slice


Caprese-Inspired
Fresh mozzarella with some Parmano blend. Fresh basil from our garden.


Slice
Couldn't ask for a much better rise here.


Bottom
Initial bake at 500F for a few minutes in the oiled pan produced a very nice outcome. Turned it down to 450F for the rest of the bake. It got some very nice initial spring and some great browning. Finished both pizzas directly on the stone for the final 5 minutes of baking. Crispy bottom, light and airy crumb.

Also, still working through our tomato avalanche . . .


Tomato-Basil Bisque Mise En Place & Anryu Blue #2 Hammered Gyuto, 210mm
Evoo, salt, jasmine rice, heavy cream, homegrown tomatoes (Celebrity, Mr. Stripey, Green Zebra, Carolina Gold, Red Snapper), homegrown basil, celery, smashed garlic, white onion and black pepper. Realized I *might" need some sort of broth or stock here but decided to hold off until the end and only add it if absolutely necessary (it wasn't). Was more interested in seeing how the homegrown tomatoes performed without it (but not at the cost of blandness). From here, I trimmed the tomatoes, then ran them through the food mill. After that, it was a pretty standard build, saving the cream for the end. Last move was all of it into the blender (including most of the basil) to help achieve maximum smoothness . . .


Plated Up
With some toasted/buttered rustic hearth bread from Fausto's Bakery via Angelo Caputo's in Mount Prospect.

=R=

Warm September evening, salad night!

Marinated a chicken breast in evoo, s&p, dried oregano and basil, lemon juice and a little Chardonnay. Grill, slice.

Dressing: 2 cloves garlic, fresh oregano and basil, Duke's mayo, sour cream, s&p, lemon juice, a splash of pepperoncini brine and a little honey. Hit it with the boat motor.

Salad is romaine, feta, bacon, garden cherry tomatoes and cucmber, roasted red peppers, green and black olives from Fresh Farms, croutons and sliced chicken.

Still jamming full-speed through our tomato harvest but first, some grilling . . .


Hanger Steaks
Picked these beauties up at Zier's earlier today. After they grilled and while the steaks rested, it was time for a Caprese salad . . .


Caprese Salad
Basil and a variety of tomatoes from our garden, along with some nice burrata from Angelo Caputo's. Evoo, balsamic & salt. Our Green Zebras are really small this year (probably due to plant placement in the garden) but they're intense flavor bombs.


Plated Up
With a blob of the not-very-weekly potato salad.

=R=

I felt lucky to get dinner cooked and back inside before the rain started . . .


Charcoal-Grilled Chicken Thighs
A combo of a few assorted homemade rubs. Once the bird was done cooking, it was time for a quick side . . .


Corn Grilling
Tracey has sent out the word that we're pretty much at the end of 3SG's sweet corn season. One more delivery of it coming it later this week, and that's it for 2025. We ate a lot of it this season and I'm really going to miss it.


Plated Up
With some of Mrs. Suburban's signature roasted broccoli. Corn: esquites-style.

=R=

A couple of recent meatless sandwiches . . .

Wish I had some better bread for this but I used what I had on hand at the time and it still scratched the itch . . .


Caprese Sandwich
Homegrown tomatoes, homemade/homegrown basil mayonnaise, splash of balsamic and burrata. A blob of the occasional potato salad.

This one, courtesy (in part) of the forager, who stopped by yesterday . . .


Grilled Hen Of The Woods Sandwich
Seasoned, compressed and seared hen of the woods mushrooms on toasted ciabatta with melted pepper jack and Jarlsberg. Homemade sambal and homemade basil mayo. Leftover/reheated potato kugel riding sidecar.

Happy to have a few more maitakes still available to use over the next couple of days.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:A couple of recent meatless sandwiches . . .
This one, courtesy (in part) of the forager, who stopped by yesterday . . .


Grilled Hen Of The Woods Sandwich
Seasoned, compressed and seared hen of the woods mushrooms on toasted ciabatta with melted pepper jack and Jarlsberg. Homemade sambal and homemade basil mayo. Leftover/reheated potato kugel riding sidecar.

Happy to have a few more maitakes still available to use over the next couple of days.

=R=

This kind of prep is a favorite of mine for hens. I like to think of it as a smash patty melt situation, I call it my "henny melt." I also weigh down nice fist fulls of hen in the skillet to flatten and get a good sear. I grill onions in the same pan and deglaze with a couple shakes of Maggi (h/t Titus for that technique.) Piled on griddled sliced bread with munster, dressed with giard and Kewpie mayo.

It was a funny season, my three spots all flushed at the same time. Though I did lose a giant oak this year that would flush late in the season. I'm happy with my haul – all young, tender, and relatively free of shrapnel. I did a big butter chicken style curry for some friends, a huge hit. A risotto fed us for a couple of days (love that my son brags about foraged shrooms in his Thermos at school!) Tomorrow night some for pizza. Then I'll finish the stash with another family favorite, Stroganoff, all shroom, no beef, but my in-laws mid-century Lipton packet-based sauce.

Jefe wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:A couple of recent meatless sandwiches . . .
This one, courtesy (in part) of the forager, who stopped by yesterday . . .


Grilled Hen Of The Woods Sandwich
Seasoned, compressed and seared hen of the woods mushrooms on toasted ciabatta with melted pepper jack and Jarlsberg. Homemade sambal and homemade basil mayo. Leftover/reheated potato kugel riding sidecar.

Happy to have a few more maitakes still available to use over the next couple of days.

=R=

This kind of prep is a favorite of mine for hens. I like to think of it as a smash patty melt situation, I call it my "henny melt." I also weigh down nice fist fulls of hen in the skillet to flatten and get a good sear. I grill onions in the same pan and deglaze with a couple shakes of Maggi (h/t Titus for that technique.) Piled on griddled sliced bread with munster, dressed with giard and Kewpie mayo.

It was a funny season, my three spots all flushed at the same time. Though I did lose a giant oak this year that would flush late in the season. I'm happy with my haul – all young, tender, and relatively free of shrapnel. I did a big butter chicken style curry for some friends, a huge hit. A risotto fed us for a couple of days (love that my son brags about foraged shrooms in his Thermos at school!) Tomorrow night some for pizza. Then I'll finish the stash with another family favorite, Stroganoff, all shroom, no beef, but my in-laws mid-century Lipton packet-based sauce.

Yeah, nice. "Henny Melt," I like it!

Infinite variations and I've tried many. One of our faves is basically a teriyaki (soy, sake, mirin and a touch of sugar). But the key is always the 'smash & crisp' method. From there, you can take it wherever you want, depending on what you have on hand and/or how proactive you are in your provisioning. I wait all year for this, so you'd think I would have been better prepared. Still, I had enough on hand to make it interesting.

=R=

Saw this take on Tandoori chicken recently on the Chuds youtube channel. While it didn't look particular authentic compared to other versions I've cooked, it looked good enough to try. With some company coming over, no time like the present . . .


Marinade Mise En Place
Avocado oil, lemon zest, spice plate (Kashmiri chile powder, turmeric, black pepper, salt, sweet Hungarian paprika, garam masala, tandoori masala, fenugreek leaves), lemon juice, whole fat Greek yogurt and freshly microplaned garlic & ginger. I opted out of the red food coloring. Mixed all this together and then some whole, bone-in thighs and drumsticks -- minus their skins -- got soaked in it overnight. I flipped the bird a few times during the soak and next day, it was ready for the charcoal grill.

As for those skins we'd removed . . .


Chicken 'Cracklins'
Salted and low-temp convection roasted on a rack until they had rendered out and were crispy. Very little goes to waste around here and this ended up being a nice snack along the way.

Even though Chuds didn't include one, I figured a veg side would be a good idea. Debated between okra and eggplant, and eventually decided on eggplant . . .


Veg Mise En Place & Moritaka AS Nakiri, 165mm
Scallion bottoms and tops, turmeric, cumin, Kashmiri chile powder, Kashmiri masala, red Leysa sweet pepper (from 3SG), ghee, homegrown tomatoes, homegrown jalapenos, lemon, garlic/ginger/homegrown cilantro, buttermilk, red & white onion, eggplant and tomato paste.

Normally, I would go 100% DIY on the spices but a friend gifted me a 6-pack of the Floyd Cardoz (RIP) blends from Burlap & Barrel, so I figured I'd give one of them a shot here. Not bad and definitely an easy way to take things in a new (for me) direction.

While the veg all simmered, I had time for another thing. I'd never made naan before but seeing Chuds do it in his video, it seemed easy enough, so I gave it a try . . .


Garlic-Sesame Naan
Pretty straightforward the whole way. A relatively quick-rising (~1 hour), easy-to-handle dough that gets rolled out with the toppings before being cooked in a hot, dry cast iron skillet. After they're done, brush them with garlic (ghee) butter.

Once the naan were cooked and keeping warm, it was time to grill up the bird . . .


Grilling
Used the Summit for this one because I needed the extra capacity.


Plated Up
With some aromatic basmati rice (cardamom pods, bay leaves, cumin seeds). I also made some raita, which never made its way into the pic. All in all, a big thumbs up to Chuds, not only for the inspiration but also for the solid guidance. This was a fine meal that went over very well with our entire group. I was especially pleased with the skinless aspect. Marinated chicken skin rarely crisps up to my liking, so removing it really helped here. Exterior of the chicken was very nice (no rubberiness), and we enjoyed the skins on their own.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:S
. . . spice plate (Kashmiri chile powder, turmeric, black pepper, salt, sweet Hungarian paprika, garam masala, tandoori masala, fenugreek leaves)

Before seeing this I had never heard of tandoori masala - does anyone have a brand or spice combo they would recommend?

We are still inundated with cherry tomatoes from the garden so Tomato Cobbler was the star of our dinner last night.



Basic outline goes:
Caramelize an onion oil, add garlic, crushed red pepper and salt. Off heat add the tomatoes and flour. Make a cheese biscuit dough, drop on top of tomatoes and bake at 375 for about 45-60 minutes.

Recipe inspiration is here:
https://www.lottieanddoof.com/2011/08/tomato-cobbler/

I've streamlined it a bit over the years, but one thing I think is key - if you follow the recipe for the biscuits they seem a bit salty tasted alone, but the salt level is just right when you eat them with the tomatoes.

- zorkmead

zorkmead wrote:Before seeing this I had never heard of tandoori masala - does anyone have a brand or spice combo they would recommend?

I've never done a deep dive into it, but I've used (Pakistani) Shan-brand tandoori masala to good results. I can't speak to its availability everywhere, but Shan brand spices are pretty easy for me to find at non-Indian stores here on the Southwest Side. My local Pete's Market and Shop and Save carry it, for instance, in the Asian section.

Binko wrote:

zorkmead wrote:Before seeing this I had never heard of tandoori masala - does anyone have a brand or spice combo they would recommend?

I've never done a deep dive into it, but I've used (Pakistani) Shan-brand tandoori masala to good results. I can't speak to its availability everywhere, but Shan brand spices are pretty easy for me to find at non-Indian stores here on the Southwest Side. My local Pete's Market and Shop and Save carry it, for instance, in the Asian section.

I think I used MDH this time but I've used Shan in the past and it's fine, too. The former is available at my nearest Fresh Farms (Wheeling), so that's the one I went with.

=R=

This one was interesting . . . Found some very old dough in the fridge. Had to have been at least a month old, if not older. It was so old (how old was it?), I couldn't even remember which recipe it was. Still, I figured what the heck. Why not try it . . . ?


Grandma Pizza
Used homegrown tomatoes and basil, fresh mozzarella, salt, dried oregano and evoo.


Slice
This baked up pretty flat with complex flavor and unsurprisingly, (as you can see) very little rise. Still, I'm glad I gave it a go. I really need to make a fresh dough and try some more fresh tomato variants. We've still got a bunch on hand and they're delicious, and in very good condition. Baked down a bit, this was a great way to show off their explosive flavor, even though they deserved a better carriage.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Used homegrown tomatoes and basil, fresh mozzarella, salt, dried oregano and evoo.

I usually prefer new, not used, tomatoes.

JoelF wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Used homegrown tomatoes and basil, fresh mozzarella, salt, dried oregano and evoo.

I usually prefer new, not used, tomatoes.

LOL, me too!

=R=