Oven-Fried Cauliflower Bites with Ranch Dipping Sauce

Cauliflower happens to be one of my most favorite vegetables. Of course, I have many “most favorite vegetables.” But cauliflower has a unique flavor and, when properly prepared, it loses all of the obnoxious sulfur tones. It is a vegetable which grows on you — the more you eat it the more you like it. I learned to like cauliflower when fried cauliflower was served on the cafeteria lime at the hospital where I worked at in Flint, Michigan. That was in the heydays of the auto unions and Flint was the ultimate “auto town.” Autumn and winter are the seasons for cauliflower when you can pick up some really nice ones. I decided to see if I could make an oven-fried variation of the fried cauliflower bites that I used to like so much using this really nice cauliflower which I purchased recently.

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Let’s Cook Lebanese: Baba Ghanoush

“Baba Ghanoush” is a wonderful smoky, eggplant dip of Eastern Mediterranean origin. My favorite Greek & Lebanese Café serves a version of this dip which is just the best one you will ever find. It combines the flavors of smoky eggplant, tahini paste, lemon juice, fresh garlic plus a little salt to make a a creamy and smooth dip. There’s still time to make this dish with the last of summer’s eggplant in fresh produce markets. I decided to try see if I could duplicate Serop’s “Baba Ghanoush.” It is more difficult than you might think to properly marry all the ingredients and flavors. Although still different from Serop’s, my version is tastes great, too!

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Brown Sugar & Walnut Dairy-Free “Ice Cream” a.k.a. Frozen Dessert Delight

Summer and early autumn means that it is time for homemade ice cream. However, if you are lactose-intolerant, then eating lots of ice cream may result in an uncomfortable digestive reaction. Since we’ve started drinking almond milk at our house, I decided to see if I could make a dairy-free and lactose-free “ice cream” variation. I used almond milk, brown sugar and walnuts in the recipe and amaretto liqueur for flavor. To make a “smooth texture” I added xanathan gum. The recipe doesn’t contain eggs making this recipe good one for a vegan diet. For a finishing touch, I topped the frozen dessert with my “Fresh Cherry Topping” and some of the topping even got mixed in with the frozen dessert for a swirled effect. Well, surprise, it turned out to be quite delicious. Let’s enjoy this concoction.

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Eggplant in Spicy Garlic Meat Sauce

This recipe pairs Japanese eggplant with ground pork and oriental spices to make an absolutely delicious “hot and spicy” eggplant dish. While looking through my recipe files for eggplant dishes, I found a strikingly large number of recipes which combined eggplant with pork and occasionally pasta. I’ve never thought of putting these ingredients together and decided to give the recipe a try. Well, we loved the oriental-style concoction and promptly ate it all.

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