Summer on a Plate

On one beautiful summer weekend, Jeff and I along with four of our friends (with one couple’s two young children) rented a vacation house on a sand dune by Lake Michigan. Oh what a fun weekend we had!

We probably spent the whole weekend being outside. We swam in the lake, strolled around a cute beach town, grilled and cooked delicious food with international flavors, and chilled by the fire at night making smores while sipping wine and beer. Did I mention the delicious food we made and had? 🙂 It was no wonder at all. When you put six people who love to eat, cook, and appreciate good food, you could easily end up with some fantastic dishes.  I got too busy enjoying the food that I forgot to take pictures! So, I’ll just tell you what we had: Indonesian fried rice with shrimp, tuna steak with corn salad, turkey burger with red peppers and onions, a FANTASTIC guacamole, chili pepper marinade/dip, and an eggplant/tomato dish served with pita bread.

Now, for this blog entry, let me share with you the eggplant/tomato dish recipe—since I just made it too last night. So that weekend, we decided to take turns in making dinner. A couple of our friends brought fresh tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers from their garden. When it was their turn to cook, they prepared a one-pot meal of eggplants cooked with tomatoes, garlic, peppers, and a little bit of salt and pepper. Super easy and yummy. The dish reminded me of me of this Indonesian eggplant dish, only milder. Our friends served the dish with pita bread and gave the rest of the fresh vegetables they didn’t cook to me to take home.

Yesterday, I gazed at the abundance of fresh produce our friends gave us. I also noticed that my basil plants were in full force. A dinner idea came to mind: that eggplant/tomato dish and my basil pesto pasta  with pan-seared sea bass and sea scallops. What a great flavor and color combination they made! The green basil pesto coated the pasta with that fantastic basil fragrance, the savory taste from the cheese, and nuttiness of pine nuts. The eggplant/tomato dish gave out sweet, tangy, and fresh flavors that wonderfully complemented the pesto pasta taste. So delightful!

Here’s how I made the eggplant dish (just like how my friend made it at the beach house):

  • I used four smaller and skinnier eggplants
  • Halved the eggplants and cut into four long pieces
  • Chopped them up into shorter cuts
  • I diced up five medium size tomatoes
  • Minced four garlic
  • Chopped three sweet peppers
  • Chopped seven hot finger peppers (optional)
  • Heated up a medium pot with a tablespoon of olive oil
  • Let the garlic sizzled for a minute, add all of the above, and a little salt and pepper  into the pot
  • Closed with a lid and cooked until the eggplants turned soft and translucent

Click here to see: Basil Pesto Pasta with Seared Scallops recipe (I used spaghetti instead of penne for this one)

I’ll post more delicious recipes that came out of our beach house adventure soon 🙂

Have a great weekend, everyone!

(Original recipe by and a special thanks to Leena Hamdi, and to Spas)

Harini Riana6 Comments

Beef Chorizo Mini Burger

Whoa! Is it really the end of August already? What a fleeting summer it has been! It sure has been great one too though, thank goodness! Jeff and I have been hanging out and catching up with friends, staying outside, hiking, cycling, camping, swimming, and of course…grilling! I think I may have gone grill crazy this summer. I have done: lobster tail, shrimp, steak, lamb chops, chicken satay, burgers, eggplant, peppers, asparagus, and the list can go on. Yet, I still can’t get enough of grilling :).

Speaking of grilling, here’s another recipe I’d like to share: Beef Chorizo Mini Burger (I’ve also done the Beef Chorizo Sloppy Joe). Yes, I LOVE chorizo‘s seasonings, which definitely adds a little zing to the meat. It’s got smokiness, fantastic aroma, and spiciness. Yumm! Normally, chorizo comes in a form of a sausage. But since I wanted to make a beef burger with chorizo seasonings, I tweaked this recipe I found online and made it fit my plan.

I followed the original recipe (click here: Mexican Chorizo Sausage Recipe) with minor adjustments such as:

  • I substituted pork with ground beef. I think ground turkey would be great too.
  • I did not have ground cloves at the time so I went without.

As directed, I:

  • Mixed the ground beef with smoked paprika, chili powder, garlic, salt, ground pepper, oregano, coriander, cumin, distilled white vinegar, and water.
  • Sealed it in a ziplock bag and refrigerated it for a few hours
  • Made it into mini burger patties, grilled, and served them with sweet dinner roll

Note: If you prefer to have the chorizo burger to be on the milder side, do three tablespoon of paprika and one tablespoon of chili powder (instead of two for each).

Thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day wherever you are!

Harini Riana2 Comments

Easy Summer/Picnic Menu: Chicken Salad Sandwich with Basil Pesto


Freshly made basil pesto is heavenly. I learned about the sauce through a food talk with a friend a long time ago and I’ve been hooked ever since! Basil really liven things up. Not to mention the fragrance…oh so delightful. I have them growing in a container outside of our apartment this summer. So I’ve been able to use them a lot for pesto, on pizza, and on tomato salad. Yumm!

Anyway, one time last month I picked a bunch of basil leaves and made pesto sauce. Then I mixed it with roasted chicken breast and made sandwiches out of the delicious combination. I packed them up along with another type of chicken salad sandwich with mayo, chives, and celery and brought them for lunch on our hiking trip. The pesto sauce, with that fantastic aroma of basil, crunchy pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and garlic, wrapped the roasted chicken so well. Super easy to make and packed with great flavors. Now that’s a great combination 🙂

What we’ll need:

  • 1 pound of thick-cut roasted chicken breast meat from the deli section. (Next time I will roast bone-in and skin-on chicken in the oven, like this recipe. I was rushing to pack for the trip since I had miscalculated my schedule that day. Hence the deli alternative to create the sandwich at the time. It worked really well though!

Chop and mix in a food processor:

  • Two handful of fresh basil leaves (maybe close to two cups)
  • 3-4 garlic cloves
  • A tablespoon of pine nuts  (I’ve read that walnuts work fine too)
  • 1/4 cup of Parmesan/Asiago cheese
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Steps:

  • Dice the roasted chicken
  • In a large bowl, mix basil pesto sauce with the chicken
  • Serve with Italian or Pumpernickel bread

Harini RianaLeave a comment

Easy Summer/Picnic Menu: Chicken Salad Sandwich with Mayo, Chives, and Celery

During the warmer months, Jeff and I try to squeeze in a few hiking trips. Sometimes we’d camp out and other times we’d simply go for a day hike. It all depends on location and distance. For the shorter outdoorsy excursions that we do, I like to pack up some simple and good food with us. I keep them in a small cooler in the car. Though energy bars work fine, in my humble opinion, there’s something incredibly comforting about having real food before or after a hike.

Last month we went on a day hike at the Tahquamenon Falls State Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For the trip, I made a couple of chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. One with mayo dressing (inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe) and the other with basil pesto (next blog entry). The sandwiches made the perfect meal for that afternoon.

Here are the things that we will need for the chicken salad sandwich with mayo dressing:

  • 1 pound of thick-cut roasted chicken breast meat from the deli section. (Next time I will roast bone-in and skin-on chicken in the oven as the original recipe suggests. I was rushing to pack for the trip since I had miscalculated my schedule that day. Hence the deli alternative to create the sandwich at the time. It worked really well!  The second time I did the salad, I poached skinless and boneless chicken breast and it was a bit dry.)
  • 2 celery sticks (chopped)
  • ½ cup of light Mayo with Olive Oil (My friend, Leena, recommended this type a while back when I was looking for a good mayo. The suggestion worked. I like it very much.)
  • ½ tablespoon of dijon mustard
  • ½ tablespoon of horseradish
  • Black Pepper
  • Cayenne pepper powder
  • 4-5 fresh green stems of chives (minced). I have chives growing in my container garden. I love its mild onion-like flavor and aroma.

Steps:

  • Dice the thick-cut roasted chicken breast
  • In a large bowl, mix mayo, dijon, horseradish, chives, celery, pepper, and cayenne pepper powder
  • Add the chicken into the mayo mixture
  • Place in a container and a cooler for your picnic
  • Serve on either Italian or pumpernickel bread

Enjoy!

Harini Riana1 Comment

Eggplant with Chili Peppers, A Great Condiment

Aha! Another eggplant inspiration. After I told my mom about the grilled eggplant I recently made, she gave me another dish idea to try: eggplant and chili peppers or sambal terong. Sambal is a blend of chopped fresh chili peppers and it is used as a condiment. (Think salsa, only more intense.) Like my mom, I usually add garlic, shallots, and a half slice of small tomato in it too. Sambal alone has so many varieties in Indonesia. This dish is just one variant of it. Terong is eggplant in Bahasa Indonesia. So sambal terong is basically eggplant mashed in a mixture of chili peppers.

At my parents’, a type of sambal is served daily, typically on this traditional stone mortar, to accompany the main dishes. Man, now that I think about it, that’s a lot of chili peppers! And that’s only one household. Hmm…I wonder how much the total consumption of chili peppers would be in a country of 240 something million people. But I digress 😀

Anyway, here’s how I did my version of eggplant with chili peppers. I served it as a side to my fried red snapper fillets.

(Warning: This eggplant dish could be very spicy for those who are not used to chili peppers. Please see the milder version.)

In a food processor, chop:

  • 7-9 Thai peppers (For a milder version, use 2-3 Thai peppers or 2-3 Hot Finger peppers. I notice that, with chili peppers, the smaller the peppers the more intense. So if Thai peppers are not for you, choose bigger but skinny chili peppers. In my humble opinion, Hot Finger peppers have similar aroma and taste as Thai peppers but way milder.)
  • 1 small tomato (For a milder version, use 1 small tomatoes)
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 2 shallots
  • (Optional: 1/2 teaspoon of shrimp paste—find it at Asian grocery store)
  • Salt

Steps:

  • Cut up the 1 long eggplant (or the big one we normally see in many grocery stores) into ½ inch thick slices. Drizzle with a tablespoon of vegetable/canola oil.
  • Heat up a nonstick pan/grill griddle over medium heat and add a table spoon of vegetable/canola oil.
  • Reduce the heat and place the cut up eggplants on the nonstick cookware. Let them cook and brown for 5 minutes on each side. (The eggplant should be soft when they are done.)
  • In a medium bowl, combine eggplant with the chopped chili pepper mixture. Using a spoon, gently mash the eggplant, just a little bit, to blend it with the chili.

Serve with fried/crispy baked fish (red snapper, grouper, tilapia would work well here)/ roast chicken and rice.

Harini Riana2 Comments

For Eggplant Lovers

Many people I’ve talked to about food seemed to have strong opinions about eggplants. Most of them either love it or hate it. It’s quite interesting how a fruit/vegetable could arouse such strong feelings.

I happen to like eggplant very much. One of my favorite recipes is Spicy Eggplant. I love the soft and meaty texture of eggplant once it is cooked. The mild flavor makes it ideal to be a blank canvas in cooking too. So combining it with spices, chilies and either shrimp, beef, tempeh, or even tofu, could easily transform this purple beauty to be a fantastic meal. I must admit, though, that in the past I have tasted badly cooked eggplant, but I forgave, moved on, and said, “Maybe it wasn’t the eggplant, but the way it was cooked.” I’ve learned that with certain vegetables, many times, they could be even more appetizing and desirable when they get cooked and seasoned the right way.

Anyway, the other day I happened to be talking to a friend who is a vegetarian. She mentioned that she loved grilled veggies. For some reason I immediately thought about grilled eggplants (and mushrooms). By chance, minutes after the conversation, I saw  12 Recipes for Grilled Eggplant from the NYTimes. Check out the different countries’ styles!

I tried the Chinese Style with a little tweak of my own:

In a bowl, I mixed a tablespoon of sesame oil, one tablespoons of soy sauce, one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (I didn’t have the rice vinegar that the recipe called for), four tablespoons of oyster sauce (the recipe called for Hoisin sauce that I didn’t have), a dash of cayenne pepper powder, a dash of ginger powder, and two chopped garlic. Then I cut up one long eggplant (I am sure the big eggplant we normally see in many grocery stores work well too for this recipe) and marinated them in the sauce for 5-10 minutes.

Then I placed an aluminum foil that I have greased lightly with olive oil on the grill, fired the grill up, and cook the eggplants for 5 minutes on each side. (I could also grill them on the stove top using a nonstick cookware coated with a tiny bit of oil.) The result? Mmm…super tasty and meaty eggplant dish! It’s got a lot of wonderful flavors going on: savory, spicy, and a bit of smokiness too. Jeff and I liked it very much. I served them along with fried tofu and rice. Another yummy meatless menu!

Here are the pictures. They came out blurry, sorry! I think I was too excited to try this recipe.

Harini Riana1 Comment