Chicken Saag with Corn Roti

 I've been getting so much food through my CSA that I've been giving some of it away every week. Some mustard greens ended up making it to my friend Ricky who used it to make chicken saag, an Indian dish made with pureed spinach or mustard greens. The next week I got more mustard greens, and decided to make some myself. Saag can be plain or made with meat, chickpeas or paneer (cheese).

Breakfast Salad

One Saturday morning, I woke up and went to the kitchen with the intention of making a bacon and egg on bagel sandwich, but was out of bagels and bread. I did have some fresh salad greens that I needed to eat, so I improvised and made a breakfast salad.

Cucumber, Strawberry, and Basil Salad

A great summer dish just in time for late fall! Cucumbers and strawberries are two wonderful summer foods. They're fresh and in season, and their high water content makes them lighter foods that are agreeable in hot weather. The basil helps bring the flavors of both together. Paired with salad greens and grilled shrimp, it's a nice lunch and can be served on its own as a side dish with other courses.

Whitefish with Endive

I got this idea from a recipe in a book I like called Simple Cooking. If you look for it, try to get an edition with nice, big pictures. They were in the one got from the library, but not the one I got from Amazon.  It uses the idea of vegetable juices and purees in many of the recipes. The first four chapters are "Building Blocks": Juices, Vinaigrettes, Flavored Oils, and Vegetable Broths.

The recipe I was loosely following was "Whiting with Endive Broth". The dish consists of fish (whitefish in the book, cod here) with endive puree and juice. The tartness of the endive goes well with the delicate flavor of the fish.

Korean Bachelor Cooking

My former roommate was Korean, and he would often cook for himself. He was a single grad student, and he wasn't cooking "just like his mom," just something fast and easy. The cuisine was more the equivalent of mac and cheese with hot dogs, but at least healthier. This dish is what he cooked one night, and he often made a similar one-pot meal.