Monday, May 3, 2010

Monday: 5 Things I ate over the Weekend

Korma Sauce from Scratch...Pretty, Right?

1. Bojangles biscuit. Well, what can I say? The woman who arranged the Derby Party for our building thought: Mint Juleps and Kentucky Fried Chicken, but KFC was not right across the street, and Bojangles was. I didn't try the chicken, but I DID try that biscuit, and I have to admit: not bad. Okay, more than that: quite good. And they go great with mint juleps, especially when there's nothing else around.

2. Roasted Indian Spiced Cauliflower. This is on regular rotation. I've roasted cauliflower (and just about every other vegetable under the sun) for years, but Monica Bhide's Modern Spice has a recipe with the addition of a mixed spice rub. We all love it. It shows up a couple of times a month at least: SIMPLE.

3. Another go to for us? Chicken Korma using a store-bought Korma sauce. Patak's makes one, as does, I believe Tasty Kitchen. It's a lovely mild blend of curry flavors, tomato, cream, ground nuts, a hint of coconut and more. I've made it from scratch and it was easy, but this? This is easier.


4. Mint Juleps. Technically not something I ate, but it was important enough to blog here, so I have to list it here.


5. Homemade creamed spinach. Gary is often (kind of) on Atkins. He loves steak and creamed spinach, and I've found myself too often reaching for the creamed spinach in the freezer of the grocery store. It actually tastes kind of plastic to me. So I hauled out Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and it couldn't be simpler. Briefly saute/wilt the spinach in a bit of butter. Dust with flour then add cream or broth. I went whole hog for the cream and, since Gary asked, I made it cheesed. Gratineed, as Julia would say. Me? I think maybe that was gilding the lily, although is was awfully good. It won me over, although I am ashamed to admit G prefers the plastic frozen version. But I'm not giving up. I'll work on improving it...I will add some finely chopped shallot or onion and a bit of garlic to the butter before I saute the spinach, for sure..And I should have chopped the spinach, but that seemed like...oh, I don't know: effort. But still, creamed spinach is definitely worth making for yourself.

2 comments:

Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial said...

Creamed spinach! I've never made it, but I have loved it whenever I've eaten it. I always assumed it was made with frozen spinach. Thanks for the recipe!

Babette said...

Hey, Celia...check out my "other" blog at Florida Table--I wrote up my tweak and much better result of creamed spinache: www.FloridaTAble.com