Lunar New Year: Taro Cake Recipe

Remember I shared my crab cake recipe as a party food idea for the Super Bowl? Well, I developed a vegetarian version for my husband Lulu as well. I mixed shredded taro roots and rice and added green peas for extra color. Visually, they looked pretty similar to crab cakes, and their texture resembled the "real thing" too. The only difference, which you probably already guessed is the taste. But Lulu doesn't like crab, so that's a good thing!

Check back this entire week for my vegetarian dishes in preparation of Tết, the Asian New Year celebration.

Chocolate Ganache Tart (Halloween Ghost Dessert)

The girls have reached the end of the first quarter, so their school gave them a day off. With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would be fun for all of us to work on ideas for spooky desserts that they'll be able to share with their friends. It didn't take a lot of arm twisting to convince them!

I decided that we should make a simple chocolate tart and decorate it with ghosts. The tart shell is a shortbread crust that I topped with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache. To enhance the flavor of the chocolate, I added a little coffee. I let the girls pipe the top with vanilla buttercream frosting and create faces using chocolate sprinkles. As an added bonus, this dessert is egg and nut-free. We'll make smaller versions at the end of the month for when they share them with friends.

Potato Cutlet Recipe (Indian Snack)

Aloo cutlets are pancake-shaped snacks made of potato (aloo means "potato" in Urdu). Indian cooking rarely uses eggs as a binder so to make sure the patties don't break, soaked bread is added to the potato mixture. It's an easy vegetarian snack that satisfies my family's cravings. To make the cutlets a more complete meal, I added protein-packed chana dal (garbanzo lentils). I flavored these appetizers with a little ginger, turmeric and amchur (mango powder) to balance the flavor of the cutlets.

We often make a huge batch of cutlets on Saturday mornings with the girls. They’ve gotten so good that they pretty much do it on their own. Once they’re done cooking, we usually just serve them with a bowl of sour cream. Yum!