Too many wasted meals of grilled vegetable plates for the vegetarian diner at restaurants had left me a little cynical. That changed this summer as we experimented with grilling.  There was lots of grilled corn, grilled stuffed tomatoes, grilled potato kebabs and this grilled cauliflower with a spicy tomato sauce.

I tried to cut the cauliflower into “steaks”. Does that sound hard? It is. I salvaged two “steaks” from one head of cauliflower and then tried to cut the rest into about 1 inch thick large pieces. Then I drizzled them with olive oil and a generous shower of sea salt. Onto the grill they went. Grilled cauliflower has a crunchier bite than sauted, and it gets a nice char that’s unobnoxiously smokey and gives it this great, deep balance to the fresh cauliflower-ness.

The spicy tomato sauce was the best Indo-Italian fusion I’ve experienced since this Roasted Tomato Vindaloo Sauce.

In case you’re wondering, we had this with Paneer Makhani and Crunchy Whole Spiced Potatoes.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:8]

We’ve been spending our weekends since August on Shelter Island – which means room for Surya to run and play in between “beach time” and “pool time” (and occasionally “ice cream time”). A few times, I’ve carefully toted my masala dabba along with me  to cook Indian food. Cooking in someone else’s kitchen – especially cooking “speciality” food, in someone else’s kitchen is hard. It meant blending tomatoes for paneer makhani in a smoothie blender and changing courses on certain recipes. I had planned to make a whole spiced potato recipe from Suvir Saran’s Indian Home Cooking, but then realized I left my cookbook back in Brooklyn and didn’t have whole spices handy. I had, however, thrown a pack of Panch Phoron in with my kitchen gear and a blend of spices which I wanted to use for making Til Aloo from Indian Food Rocks.

Panch Phoron is a traditional Bengali five spice blend combining nigella seeds, black mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds. Each bite is a crunchy mix of whole spices. A little spicy, a little bitter – and in this case, a little nutty and peppery from the sesame seeds and crushed red chili flakes that I threw in.

It was late, I wasn’t in my kitchen and I was missing a few ingredients here and there – the result though was tender nuggets of potatoes coated in crunchy whole spices and generous flecks of sea salt.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:7]

As a new mom, I often find myself stuck in ruts. And yet, I care a lot about food and what Surya is eating. It’s important to me that she eat a well balanced diet of food that spans the culinary spectrum with changing flavors and textures. It’s also important to me that I have recipe ideas in my back pocket because I find that without a well stocked pantry, freezer and fridge, fresh food is unlikely to make its way to the table. This resulted in emails back and forth to other parents with ideas for new finger foods, vegetables to try etc. etc.

So together with my close friend and fellow mom, Christina, Half Pint Gourmet was born. We’ll run a themed contest about every two weeks and then recipe test the top entries before finally selecting the Editors’ Picks. There’s also a blog with gadget reviews, Q&A with an expert, nuritional information and menu planning.

We kicked things off with a contest calling for your Favorite Sandwiches. Head over to Half Pint Gourmet, register, and Submit a Recipe for your favorite sandwich before 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, August 29th.  For now there’s no “prize” associated with winning a contest other than the pride of being an Editors’ Pick and knowing that you just made some little person’s meal more interesting. We’ll be hosting giveaways soon though so stay tuned!

We’ll also be doing profile posts of parents in a series called Beyond the Bib which will short looks in what you feed your little one and your family. If you’re interested in being featured, leave a comment below.

Cheers,

Nithya

I’m hoping Pinterest will be my solution. Pinterest is pretty cool – it’s a virtual bulletin board organized around different topics. You can follow people and be followed. You can repin other people’s pins. So it’s a great way to organize, share and discover.

I started a Recipes to Cook bulletin board and am pinning recipes as I find them on the web that I want to try. Here’s a link to my Recipes to Try board. The one thing I don’t think I can do on Pinterest is make it open so anyone can pin a recipe to my board suggesting that I add it to my “to try” list. Maybe I’ll invite a few friends to pin to my Recipes to Try board. If you want to pin to my Recipes to Try board, drop me an email or leave a comment below.

If you’re already on Pinterest, then click on this button to follow me:

First, I made her Baked Farro Risotto – I omitted the onions because we were out of them, added chopped broccoli and used a combination of parmesan cheese and gruyere cheese. I also spinkled a bit of bread crumbs on top and broiled the dish for a few minutes to get a nice parmesan-y bread crumb-y crust. It was an instant hit – even among certain diners in my house who also harbored preconceived notions about farro and “healthy grains”.

Then I decided to substitute some farro for semolina to make South Indian Upma. It’s easier than traditional upma, has a chewy, tooth-y texture and melds well with Indian spices. The farro was even just a little creamy without adding any cream.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:6]

It’s summertime which means I can literally start feeding my farmer’s market obsession. What’s popular in your farmer’s market right now? Ours is full of golden, yellow squashes, green zucchinis and pearly white onions. And juicy red tomatoes. My crisper was pretty full before Surya and I [and my dear friend Jason who I unintentionally failed to mention joined us for our trip through the market] took a stroll to the farmer’s market but I couldn’t resist picking up some veggies – all of the ingredients I needed for this summery Vegetable Tian. My sister shared this recipe with me a few months ago, and it’s a hit with Surya. And the rest of the family too.

After our trip to the market, Surya’s full of fun new words – squash, okra, onion… I can’t help but wonder if visits to farmer’s markets will help inspire and encourage her to eat fresh, healthy foods…

Vegetable Tian is really easy to make. The time intensive part is the cutting then baking – but once it’s in the oven, you’re free. If you’re venturing out on a picnic for July 4th weekend, make the Vegetable Tian ahead of time and take a loaf of crusty sourdough bread. Layer the tian on top, wash it down with a glass of cold, white wine and you have a perfect picnic lunch

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:5]