Smoked Eggplant Tart Recipe

I had one leftover smoked eggplant from the weekend. I used large, heavy, firm eggplants that I brushed with a bit of oil so the oil could absorb the smoky flavor from the hot charcoals. This evening, I peeled the paper-like skin and processed it with sesame chutney (til chutney in Urdu). I fried a shallot, added a little mound of butter, then added ground beef, fresh dill and tomatoes. This preparation made the perfect filling for a savory tart.

If you do not have a grill, you could replicate similar flavors using an Indian cooking method, which was my husband's grandmother's. Simply heat a piece of charcoal, preferably natural charcoal, directly over a flame until it's bright red and transfer it to small metal tin that you place in the center of a saucepan filled with the puréed eggplant. Drizzle a little oil over the hot coal to provide smoke, then immediately cover the saucepan with a lid to trap the smoke and let infuse into the spread.

Sirloin Steak with Artichoke Butter

Here in the Bay Area, the weather has been gorgeous. I lit up my grill for the first time this season and made my favorite meal: top sirloin steak that I garnished with a dollop of artichoke butter, marinated artichokes capellini pasta and grilled artichokes.  

I cooked the steak a la plancha by placing a cast iron griddle over the charcoal grill. The hot plancha created a nice crust around the steaks, which I had marinated in soy sauce to tenderize. Simple, juicy and delicious!

Taj Kebab Recipe

When I was first offered the Haute Potato project a year ago, I was asked to come up with 75 gourmet potato dishes. On that very same day, I probably already had hundreds of recipes lined up in my head. I tried featuring potato dishes from around the world, but as you can imagine, a lot were left out of the final product. So today here's a potato dish that would have been in the "Spicy" chapter.

I learned this dish from Mina, my husband's cousin. It's called "Taj kebab" and if you like meat and potato as much as I do, you will love this one. This potato dish consists of layers of spiced ground beef, sliced potatoes, and thick fresh tomato slices.  The recipe was developed in Agra, just where the Taj Mahal is, and it will transport you to one of the seven wonders of the world!

Aloo Korma Recipe (Beef and Potato Curry)

I've prepared this Indian curry called korma countless times since I got married. I learned this dish from my husband Lulu's aunt (I call her Phoopi). It's a very flexible dish that allows for many combinations of meat and vegetable. Chicken, beef, goat, potato, taro and  various vegetables (peas, carrot, broccoli) are commonly used. The spicy gravy is what's constant.

The gravy is made of fried onion paste and yogurt and is flavored with ginger-garlic paste as well as several Indian spices. This version contains beef but you can easily omit the meat if you're preparing a vegetarian version.

I had initially planned to include aloo korma ("aloo" is Urdu for "potato") in my first cookbook, Haute Potato: From Pommes Rissolees to Timbale with Roquefort, 75 Gourmet Potato Recipes, but finally went for other Indian dishes such as kheema cutlets (Indian-style meat-filled pancakes), panipuri (bite-sized, crispy South Indian masala potato-filled appetizers) and aloo bonda (spicy potato fritter) to name a few.

Fig and Farro Stuffed Poblano Pepper Recipe

I prepared stuffed Poblano peppers in three steps. First, I cooked balsamic shallots until they were very soft and turned almost into a compote. Then, I cooked ground beef in chipotle fig sauce and mixed in plump and chewy farro berries. The last step consisted of stuffing the beef mixture into halved Poblano peppers and baking in the oven until golden.

Today, I used Bellindora balsalmic fig vinegar in this dish. The flavor is wonderful and I think the addition of dried fig spread added more sweetness to the sauce. These vinegars are so versatile!

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