We had good friends over for this one -- Vij's lamb curry. It was really tasty and we will definitely be making it again.

I first wrote about Vij’s cookbook — Vij’s Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine — here in late December. At that point I’d cooked a few tasty dishes from it (love their Vancouver, B.C. restaurant so much) and just about licked the plate clean with every one. Since then I’ve cooked some more from it and I’m sharing some of that here with you.

I don’t often cook so much from any one cookbook in such a short amount of time but this one never lets you down and I’ve learned so much. I also happen to love Indian cuisine and haven’t found too much of it in Portland to be honest that hits the spot. (Although I’m really looking forward to checking out the newly opened Bollywood Theater.) If you love Indian food as much as I do I recommend checking out this book.

We served the Vij lamb curry with this quick cabbage curry with mustard seeds that still had a lot of crunch and flavor to it and was really tasty.

I went ahead and bought a twenty pound sack of basmati from Fiji Emporium on North Interstate Ave. since I cooked a lot of Indian food over the winter and early spring.

I've been bulking up on my Indian spices as well...

This simple vegetable curry was really tasty with raita and black chickpea curry.

We make a lot of the Vij chai now too. It's a simple one with green cardamom and fennel.

Vij’s Cookbook Pt. 1

Vij’s Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine
www.vijs.ca

Tyler packed me lunch the other day and it made me very happy...

Things are starting to get going in the garden — right now I have tah-tsai (which I thought was a new green for me but it’s actually another way to say tatsoi — funny), flashy trout’s back lettuce and borage are all sprouting and we’ve been eating some volunteer arugula as well. The rhubarb is getting very big and leafy and the snap peas have finally sprouted! The garlic is looking great although it still has a few months of growing — I usually pick it in June or July. And I have all the vegetable seeds I’m going to plant this spring and summer and will probably start my indoor seed trays in a week or so to be transplanted out in several weeks.

That’s all just a long-winded way of saying happy spring! Although not very much of the food photographed in this post came from the garden I still call it Yard Fresh as a catch-all for good things that I’ve been cooking and eating lately. Hope you are doing well. Growing anything interesting this season? Eat anything tasty lately?

Loved the art on the bag and the sandwich inside it. Simple ham sammy with seeded wheat hit the spot.

The only thing really going in the yard right now that's ready to eat is the arugula that volunteered so we've been having a lot of salads with it and throwing it in scrambles and sandwiches.

I love Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen and their oregano-coated Nuremberger is one of my favorites. I sauteed it and served it with potatoes and kale with lemon butter. Really good.

And I can't make a trip to Edelweiss without getting some of their paprika loaf thinly sliced. If you haven't had it then please do yourself a favor and go buy some. You won't be disappointed.

My favorite way to eat it is stacked on lightly toasted bread with mayonnaise and sometimes slivered onion. That's it -- keep it simple.

Simple broiled cheese bread with egg. Mixed mozzarella, onion and mayonnaise for the cheese sauce.

Another tasty, savory breakfast -- this time with leftover spaghetti in red sauce.

I decided to cook up this blackened bluefish recipe in the second issue of Lucky Peach...

I’ve been pretty loud and clear about my love of Lucky Peach magazine published by McSweeney’s. I wrote about it here in late November but at that point I had yet to cook from it. (We also hadn’t sealed the deal for the Toro Bravo Cookbook with McSweeney’s, fall 2013, at that point…) Now that I’ve cooked from it — and now that issue number three has hit the shelves — I’m putting photos of a couple of the things I’ve made here. That’s it. Oh, and go get yourself a copy if you don’t have it already. It really just keeps getting better and better.

I got the fixings together -- homemade miso mayo made with my year-plus old homemade miso, pickles, spicy chips and thinly sliced iceberg.

I blackened dover because that was what looked best at the market...

And then I put it all together in between buttered and broiled ciabatta. So fucking delicious. Cook this!

I made a custardy breakfast sandwich with the leftover blackening spices, miso mayo, iceberg and some cheddar on ciabatta.

The third and latest issue of Lucky Peach, on shelves now, has this story by Rachel Khong...

Including a recipe for this Two Minute Chocolate Mug Cake that I've made a couple times now. It's not so pretty but it is fun, quick and tasty.

LUCKY PEACH
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Because Gruner was out of their's the last time I went I decided to try my hand at deviled pickled beet eggs. They turned out great.

I planted my peas over the weekend even though I usually wait until early April. It’s been so warm that I thought I’d give it a shot. While planting them I noticed that the nettles are all coming up around the front porch along with the rhubarb and all the tiny oregano, peppermint, sorrel and lemon balm.

I bought a bale of straw last weekend at Urban Farm Store and weeded a few areas in the front and then covered them with it. Next weekend I’ll do the same in the back and plant some borage and arugula. I’m so happy that spring is on its way. I’m really looking forward to gardening this summer especially now that we cut down the old apple tree in the backyard. It’s bittersweet because we really loved that tree but it was old, hollowed out and threatening to do some structural damage. We’ll also get a lot more backyard sun light now that it’s gone.

Hope you’ve been getting outside more now that it’s been so nice. Here are a few of the tasty things we’ve been cooking and eating lately…

Dungeness scramble with butter, Meyer lemon and yellow onion.

Roasted chicken and brussels sprout sandwich on sourdough.

Big and buttery Grand Central Bakery peanut butter cookies.

Breakfast in bed with those PB cookies, tangerine and coffee and orange juice.

Leftover beans and rice from the excellent Mi Mero Mole with Costa Rican Lizano. Gallo Pinto!

Yard Fresh Pt. 19
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Yard Fresh Pt. 1

My first and favorite thing that I've cooked in a slow cooker. Posole makes me happy.

I started making posole a couple years ago when I bought my first slow cooker and now when the cold sets in I always get a craving for it. It’s a deeply warming soup with a good amount of spice, slow cooked pork and hominy but there’s also the fresh aspect — similar to pho — of adding raw ingredients before/while eating it.

We just got back from a vacation to my hometown Cincinnati where we ate and cooked a lot of good food so I think I’ll post about that soon. For now, here’s what we’ve been enjoying at home this winter in Portland. Hope you’ve been eating and drinking well too…

Some of my favorite posole fixings...

Breakfast doesn't get much better than this -- sunny side up over chanterelle risotto.

Late night snack -- cheddar/paprika/onion cheese breads and Fuji apple.

Brussels sprout bacon and miso butter spaghetti with toasted hazelnuts and pecorino. Will be repeating.

The last of the sweet Nantes carrot harvest from the backyard...

And the Belize-style hot sauce that I made with a lot of them. One of my favorites.

Caramelized onion and jalapeno spaghetti with hazelnuts and a lime radish salad.

Yard Fresh Pt. 17
Yard Fresh Pt. 16
Yard Fresh Pt. 15
Yard Fresh Pt. 14
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Yard Fresh Pt. 2
Yard Fresh Pt. 1