The New Chef's Journal

Mulligatawny is a traditional Indian, curry flavored soup. I first tried it at White Tiger on Capitol Hill, and that's still my favorite version of it. The recipe I used comes from guiltykitchen.com . My version was definitely not as good as some that I've had in restaurants, but it was still okay. I think that that the big mistake I made was the type of coconut milk I used. I accidentally bought some Trader Joe's light coconut milk, instead of the regular stuff. Real coconut milk would have added a bit more thickness, which my version was lacking. If you try this recipe yourself, make sure you get the right stuff. Ingredients: 2 tbsp butter 1 medium onion, diced 2 carrots, peeled and diced 2 celery stalks, diced 1 granny smith apple (or other tart apple), peeled, cored and diced 1″ piece fresh ginger, finely minced 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp tumeric 1 Tbsp curry powder 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/4 tsp freshly gra...

For my birthday my lovely girl friend signed us up for a cooking class at CulinAerie . The class we took was on Indian summertime favorites. If you're looking for a place to take a cooking class in DC, I would highly recommend them. The staff and the instructor were very knowledgeable and helpful and the facility was excellent. The dishes we made included raita, green chutney, vegetable samosas, lamb kathi rolls and butter chicken (murg makhani), all of which were very good. The highlight though, was an amazing mango ice cream. This mango ice cream recipe is incredibly simple, but remarkably good. The result is smooth and creamy with a rich mango flavor. The key to the recipe is to use Alphonso mango pulp, rather than diced or pureed mangoes. This is a somewhat obscure product. You probably won't be able to find it at your local supermarket, but its available online and in some Indian markets. I found it at the Indian A-1 Grocery store in Arlington, Virginia. The there a...

Chicken and broccoli is a Chinese restaurant staple. It was also one of may absolute favorite dishes growing up. My sister and I ordered it from our local Chinese delivery place so much that we just had to give them our address and they knew what we wanted. This recipe from the food network does a really good job of replicating restaurant quality chicken and broccoli. It has a flavorful and rich brown sauce which is absolutely delicious. I was very happy with how this turned out. On the side I decided to make some fried rice, using another recipe from the food network. This didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. The rice was mushier than I would have liked. The culprit may have been the store-brand long-grain white rice I used. A better quality rice may have come out better. I think this recipe is definitely worth another try. Chicken and Broccoli Ingredients: 1 pound chicken breast (about 2 breasts), cubed 3 scallions, whites only, thinly sliced on an angle 2 cloves g...

I'm a huge fan of burgers, but I haven't eaten beef or pork for about 8 years now. Of all the foods I've given up, a good juicy hamburger might be the one I miss the most. Baby back ribs are right at the top, too. I haven't found any sort of substitute for ribs. If any of my readers know of one, please let me know.  There are some decent burger substitutes out there; boca burgers are pretty tasty, healthy and convenient, but they really don't measure up to a real hamburger. After some searching, I found an amazing recipe for flavorful, juicy turkey burgers at offthebroiler.wordpress.com . The author of the recipe does a great job explaining the keys to a good turkey burger. One is to make sure that you use 93% percent fat free ground rather than the 99% fat free ground turkey. With the 99% fat free there is just too little moisture to have a really good burger.  Another key is make sure that your burger is very well-seasoned. Ground beef has a lot more flavor on i...

Seared scallops are one of my absolute favorite foods, but they can be very difficult to get right. Their basic preparation is very simple - just sear them in a pan with some olive oil or butter. The challenge is cooking them for the perfect amount of time. There's a very delicate balance between scallops that are too raw and scallops that are overcooked and rubbery. Most recipes will tell you to cook them for 1 1/2 to 4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the scallops. Generally, you just want to cook them until they've got a nice golden brown crust on each side. The recipe I'm using comes from the cooking blog bell'alimento . This recipe takes a basic pan-seared scallops and adds a saffron cream sauce. The sauce turned out thinner than I would have liked, but it still added a nice buttery flavor to scallops. I probably should have let the white wine reduce a bit longer. On the side I made balsamic roasted brussel sprouts with grape tomatoes and slivered ...