I used what I had that needed to be used up and came up with this delicious salsa. You can adjust the heat and acidity to your liking. Serving size is difficult to judge because I don’t know if you need a small amount for a mini taco or a lot to cover a big burrito. This recipe made around four cups so that might be around 8 servings.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
1 1/2 lbs tomatillos – peeled, washed, rough cut
1/2 cup cilantro (leaves & fine stems, rough cut)
1/2 cup parsley – leaves only
2 teaspoons sea salt
5 garlic cloves – fine chop
2 serrano chili peppers – fine chop
2 pickled jalapeños (preferably home made or purchased from a farmer’s market) – fine chop
1 avocado – pit removed, flesh scooped out and rough chop
1 med onion – diced
brine from the jalapeños to taste (I think I used around 1/3 cup)
******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS******Tandoori Times 2 is a full service Indian Restaurant that is located in North Glendale Arizona. In addition to Indian cuisine some Pakistani Dishes are offered. They also offer some gluten free dishes, vegan dishes, a children’s menu, weekend entertainment, and a bar.
Tonight all the window tables around the restaurant are reserved with nice leatherette menus listing the bar drinks offered. Everyone else sits at an inside table and receives a sheet of paper of just the food.
We try several of the appetizers.
Chili Prawns
The chili prawns are nicely cooked but are in a sweet plain sauce.
Bhutta
The corn lacks Indian spices and heat…….Taste like a combination of bitter citrus and a burnt taste with chewy dry kernels.
chicken 65
The chicken chunks are wonderfully tender but are also extra mild tasting. The onion & pepper garnish is where flavors and heat are.
This chicken 65 is not at all similar to the chicken 65 we enjoyed from the now closed for business Desi Fusion that used to be in Peoria. See below the chicken 65 from Desi Fusion.
Desi Fusion – chicken 65
The Desi Fusion Chicken 65 was also tender but was layers of many delicious flavors and LOTS of heat….(maybe too much heat for most people…but it was delicious)……I could also taste nuts in the seasoning…. These dishes are so different. I wish that I could give you a taste of each.
Here is the Tandoori Times 2 again.
Tandoori Times chicken 65
The Forking Truth is that everyone is different and some people enjoy spicy and flavorful and other people enjoy milder and less notes. Its impossible to please everyone….(that might be why Desi Fusion went out of business…They started out serving full flavored spicy Indian food and later went mild to please all the people that complained about too much heat….bah) :
We also shared two entrees.
The better one was the one called chili spicy curry with fish.
chili spicy curry with fish
We asked for extra spicy but received no heat at all. This dish contained bell peppers, onions in a mild Indian laced sauce.
We also shared the Vindaloo Goan spicy curry with chicken. (We asked for extra spicy)
vindaloo Goan spicy curry with chicken
This dish also came out without any heat and very little seasoning…..To me it taste mostly like tomato paste spiked with turmeric.I do note that the chicken is very tender but the potatoes in this dish are undercooked and hard.
We also shared chili onion naan.
chili onion naan
It’s very tough….and taste burnt to me.
Our server only asked once on his things were and that was before we tried anything. My husband told the server that we didn’t try anything yet and she never asked again.
I note that I don’t know if what I got is typical? Maybe my server ordered extra mild? Or maybe they were out of all kinds of pepper today?
******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS********
Tandoori Times 2 – 5626 W Bell Rd Glendale AZ 602-993-1422
Veneto Trattoria is a Venetian Style Italian Restaurant located in Scottsdale Arizona. For many years now they have offered Passover Dinners in Venetian Style to honor the Jews of ancient Italy. Incase you didn’t know Passover is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the Israelites liberation from slavery from the Egyptians. Foods for Passover are a little different and are unleavened.
They offer seating on the patio.
It’s pretty hot today so we picked indoor seating.
Got sat in the next dining room.
They started us out with matzoth with this delicious honey nut marmalade. (They should bottle and sell that marmalade…It was really great!)
Next came polpette with brodo di matza e pollo alla Veneziana (homemade Venetian style matzah ball soup) (This was better than from a famous place that sells this soup daily that begins with a “C”)
Three different main courses were offered (sole, stuffed chicken, braised brisket)
I went with the sogliola alla mosaica (petrale sole, tomato raisin sauce braised fennel, Brussels sprouts)
My husband went for the brisket called brisket in salsa Pasquale (dried plum sauce, braised fennel, Brussels sprouts)
They were extra generous with dessert. They gave us each a delicious torta tradizionale di mandorce per pesach (almond cake with chocolate sauce)
Delicious but we really only needed one so we took one home for latter.
That was Passover at Veneto Trattoria.
www.VenetoTrattoria.com 6137 N Scottsdale Rd Scottsdale AZ
480-948-9928
Easter is a Christian celebration commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Italian Daughter offered a very nice reasonably priced menu for Easter. They offered pretty much their whole menu plus some extras.
The Italian Daughter is a full service Italian Restaurant located in North Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant is brought to you by the daughter Melissa of the award wining late chef and restauranteur Tomaso Maggiore. This restaurant is a tribute to Melissa’s late father.
Father and Daughter photo
They offer bar seating. Traditional table seating, high tops, and patio seating.
They started us off with complimentary crusty bread and soft herb butter.
For our appetizer we shared the butternut squash purses.
They were in a creamy Frangelico cream sauce with amaretti dust. We had the pancetta on the side.
I had the Roman Salmon. It was a very generous portion. I got a nicely prepared moist piece of salmon in a lemon-ee white wine sauce. The plate was adorned with tender crunch asparagus, cauliflower, creamy risotto and was topped with a long stem artichoke. I do note that the risotto was especially good. It’s very rare that you get decent risotto out.
My husband enjoyed the slow braised short rib.
It came in a Demi/tomato sauce with asparagus and gnocchi.
I saved half my food for another meal so I’d have room for dessert.
The limoncello cake is always a perfect sweet ending.
www.TheItalianDaugther.com 23655 N Scottsdale Rd Scottsdale AZ
480-404-6085
That was Passover at Veneto Trattoria and Easter at The Italian Daughter both in Scottsdale AZ.
This is tasty and easy to make but it takes a while to fry the parsnips crisp….I didn’t time it because you just have to keep an eye on it but it seemed to take forever to me. The crisp parsnips taste amazing. They are much more flavorful than any crisp potato. I also fried up the parsnip sticks so they came out like French fries. The carrots got done in 13 minutes in my microwave while the parsnips were still frying. This dish got seasoned with equal amounts of curry powder, cumin, and coriander. his makes around 4 side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
canola oil – for frying
4 parsnips – peeled, woody center removed, one parsnip thin shaves from vegetable peeler, the rest fry shaped
6 carrots – peeled, small dice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon curry
sea salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
optional some clipped chives or scallions
Directions
Put a pot of canola oil (around 3 inches) to heat at slightly higher than medium heat.
The peeled parsnips go in till golden and crisp.
While you are making the crisp parsnips. Parboil the French fry shaped parsnips. You can do in either stove top or microwave. Boil around 5 minutes stove top or pop in microwave with water for around 9 minutes and drain.
When the crisp parsnips are done drain on a draining rack or sheet pan with paper towels. Fry up the parsnips till slightly golden. While the parsnips are frying boil the carrots either stove top or in the microwave and add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. I did mine in the microwave for 13 minutes and they were perfect. Then drain carrots and add 1/2 the seasoning to them (1/2 teaspoon cumin, coriander, curry) also add a few tablespoons of the parsnip oil to them and water to thin as you like. Add salt and pepper to taste while you are whipping them up.
Toss the parsnip fries in the seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Top with the crisp parsnips. Sprinkle with chives or scallions if you like.
someone is fascinated Parsnips two ways with whipped Carrots
I came across this container of Leeuwen PIZZA ice cream at my local Walmart Grocery Store. I kept looking at it thinking maybe I just needed bifocals and was seeing something incorrectly. Nope saw it correct it is pizza ice cream. Well I have to give it a try.
I taste the white ice cream. It’s wonderfully rich and smooth. It’s not vanilla but it is a slightly tangy/sweet rich taste. It is suppose to be mozzarella but it just taste creamy, only a slight maybe cream cheese to it and and rich to me. Then I taste a cookie crumb. It’s really sweet like a brown sugar cookie….Little bummed……..Then I taste what is suppose to be tomato jam……It’s not an obvious tomato taste……It’s kind of tangy. I’m not sure how to identify this taste. My tomato jam that I made had cumin, coriander, mustard, vinegar, and cloves in it. I guess it also was no longer a tomato taste.
A few days latter I try it again. I think the middle of the container has more added stuff to it.
I go back and taste it again. This time I got a slightly bigger crumb of cookie. I can faintly taste basil in it but it iseems different and for some odd reason is much softer now like cookie dough and maybe a little less sweet.
This ice cream seems high quality and is rich and creamy. But I don’t get a pizza flavor. I want it to taste like pizza….Even a cheap sweet frozen pizza taste…….
On the other hand this ice cream isn’t horrible either because it’s so rich and smooth and not horrible…….and I keep trying to taste pizza here. It’s really more of a mystery flavor…..Everything is kind of odd. The base ice cream is slightly tangy and can pass as a cream cheese or yogurt taste. The cookie/cookie dough bits are sweet and are too scant with a basil taste. I think the taste working the hardest not to be pizza is the pizza jam. It’s very tangy and lacks a fresh or sweet tomato taste. I think the tomato is the least successful part of this ice cream trying to pass as a pizza flavor. It can be pizza without cheese…It can be pizza without a traditional crust (think Chicago) but pizza must have a fresh tomato taste and hopefully a little fresh basil.
I would not recommend this pizza flavored ice cream if you want it to taste like pizza. (unless your carton was made different….My husband also didn’t get pizza here)
Most likely I will be trying another flavor of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream the next time I’m at Walmart Grocery. Some of the other flavors they had were-
Blueberry Shortcake, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Bourbon Cherry Jubilee (maybe), Planet Earth (? don’t like earthworms), Hot Honey (maybe), Royal Wedding Cake with Elderberries and Lemon (?)
We’ll see.
I do note that your opinion may indeed differ from my opinion on Leeuwen Limited Edition Pizza Ice Cream.
A couple Thai restaurants in Phoenix offer this delicious Thai Treat called Miang Kham. It’s a minty type of leaf that not always but usually contains a combination of (sometimes shrimp), small whole pieces of lime, coconut, peanuts, shallots, hot chili (Thai or Birds eye), and ginger and also come with a tamarind based sauce. It might not sound as great as it really taste! It really is delicious and you should try it when you see it on a Thai Menu. Chada Thai AZ & Soi 4 Bangkok Eatery both are located in Scottsdale and both serve slightly different versions of this dish. I did an easy quick version of this dish. I think you can use almost any lighter protein if you want to add protein to this dish. Today I added some chicken breast. I think any fish would taste great here too! Portion size is difficult to judge because it depends on how much protein that you add and also on how many leaves that you want to eat. I’m guesstimating that this will make around the amount of stuffing and a light amount of sauce for around twenty leaves. I’ll guesstimate 4 servings. Also around here Perilla are easy to find at Asiana Market. They are not actual sesame leaves but are also called sesame leaves because of their appearance.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 Tablespoons cooking tamarind (nuuc me chua)
1/2 teaspoon galangal powder (sold at Asiana market)
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
2 Tablespoons date syrup (can substitute honey)
1 teaspoon Red Boat Fish sauce
1/2 lime – slice thin on mandolin and then cut into small pieces
1/2 cup toasted coconut chips
1/2 a small red onion – sliced thin and rough chopped
1/3 cup roasted salted peanuts – lightly crushed
1 Thai Chili pepper – fine chop (the smaller the better)
1 teaspoon crystallized ginger – fine chopped
optional protein
Directions
In a small mixing bowl combine the tamarind, galangal, extract, ginger, date syrup, and fish sauce. Mix well and set to the side.
In a small bowl combine the lime, coconut chips, onion, peanuts, Thai chili, ginger, and if you are using protein add that too in small pieces. This is what gets added to the leaves. I used mini bite size paper cupcake liners to hold the leaves. Serve sauce on the side and enjoy!
Perilla Leaf Thai Style Treats with Tamarind Sauce
Topnotch Island Flavor Kitchen is a casual Jamaican Restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona. They offer a lot of Jamaican dishes, cocktails and more that you don’t find all the time. It’s not a fancy place but looked sparkling clean on my visits.
inside
Besides soft beverages they offer beer, wine, and signature cocktails.
cucumber margarita and a rum punch (the rum punch is mighty strong)
They offer appetizers like jerk wings, codfish fritters with a tasty creamy Jamaican pepper spiked sauce, –
codfish frittersJamaican beef patty (this is unusually good)1/2 order calaloo & cod stuffed pocket
Jamaican beef patties, Jamaican jerk chicken patties, calaloo (large green leaf from the amaranth family) & cod stuffed pockets, and jerk chicken kabobs.
They also serve some things that you would never expect like jerk chicken tacos, FLAMING (spicy not actually flaming) beef tacos, shrimp tacos, and a spicy chicken jerkadillo!
Not all but some of the entrees offered are- Jamaican jerk chicken (prepared expertly tender but we thought that this ran on the mild side for jerk the day we tried it), –
Jamaican jerk chicken
molasses rubbed jerk pork, braised oxtails, –
curry goat
curry goat, curry chicken (melt in your mouth tendered no bones), –
curry chicken
Island flavor shrimp fried rice, chicken fricassee,-
Island spices fried fish escovitch
Island spiced fried fish escovitch (the pickled onions make this dish pop!), brown stew snapper, ackee & salt fish (national dish of Jamaica), vegan chicken stir fry, and rasta pasta.
They offer sides like steamed vegetables, fried plantains, festival (slightly sweet cornmeal bread), bammy (cassava flat bread), potato salad, and breadfruit.
breadfruit
Children’s meals such as grilled cheese, chicken tenders, and hot dogs served with fries are offered.
Desserts are also available. They offer Jamaican fruit and rum cake, sweet potato pudding, tropical fruit cobbler pineapple upside down cake, mango lime cheesecake, chocolate cake, and a few ice creams.
Parking is easy because they are in a strip mall.
Topnotch Island Flavor Kitchen offers so many Jamaican dishes that you can’t find at most places so it can be considered a Jamaican Destination restaurant and is Worth a Try especially for foodies!
That was a little taste of Topnotch Island Flavor Kitchen in Phoenix AZ.
The Stillery in Nashville is famous for live country music, drinks, and bar food. It’s only been open a few days and is already a packed house early in the evening.
Not all but most of the tables inside and out are high tops. I usually have trouble with high tops but these are easier than others that I have tried because they are light chairs that are easy to move with a step in just the right place.
They have brought in a very good singer from Nashville.
It is almost COLD on the patio in 97 degrees F. These are the strongest misters that I have ever felt.
I decided to try a drink off of the cocktail menu.
smoking mule and a mixed drink
I tried the mason jar smoking mule on the left. It’s a mixture of Fossil Creek Whiskey, ginger beer, amaretto, and lime. It’s not for me but might be great for others.
We tried the sriracha devil eggs (with crispy prosciutto, parmesan, chives).
The chives didn’t really make it to the eggs but they were tasty.
For my main I tried the hot chicken sandwich (crispy chicken, spicy sauce, fried pickle, lettuce, tomato, blue cheese spread) with a side salad.
I do have to say that the bun is grilled nicely. To be honest my first two bites were disappointing because I ate the part of the sandwich that didn’t have any sauce. Then I tried the other side and it tasted like what a hot chicken sandwich is suppose to taste like cayenne, paprika, garlic, pepper…….. in medium hot (when you order the hot-hot…….regular hot chicken here is no heat) This chicken today is slightly over cooked and is a little dry today…..The top bun soaked up some of the hot sauce is also tasty. I like that they gave me a large fresh salad but the dressing is a bit bland. I had the blue cheese spread on the side and it is also on the bland side.
My husband was going to order a burger but the burgers are smaller here and they only cook them medium-well so he tried the Mac and cheese with added hot chicken tenders in hot-hot.
The tenders seem like pre-cooked. They are very dried out and almost cold.
The macaroni and cheese is very unique. It’s thick creamy and rich. It taste like cheese mixed with something that taste similar to cream cheese. It might be the house made gournay cheese? If you like cream cheese then you might like it. My husband hates cream cheese so he was very unhappy.
This trip wasn’t the best. I would still consider trying it again and order different things that I might like more.
I was reading a recipe about Turkish Stuffed Pasta that was served over yogurt leeks. They made a green Chile butter for the Turkish pasta….So I thought that a Calabrian Chile Brown Butter would taste good on any pasta. I made my own ricotta gnocchi…you can make any pasta that you desire. I don’t have a pasta recipe with this one but I do have ricotta gnocchi recipes on my blog so you can find them if you want. I didn’t think that yogurt leeks would be very appetizing so I made up a creamy version that taste delicious. The recipe might need some adjustments to the leeks because I thought mine were unusually small inside….This makes only enough brown butter and leeks for only around two portions. You might get more if your leeks are bigger than what I had.
Ingredients for around two servings
2 ounces unsalted butter
1 dried Calabrian chile – crumbled
pinch dried mint
2 leeks – cleaned, dark greens removed, sliced thin
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon flour
4 Tablespoons white wine
1 ounce cream cheese (or a splash of heavy cream)
1/4 cup vegetable stock
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste
Directions
Heat the butter on medium heat till it turns brown. Strain it and add the crumbled Calabrian pepper and a pinch of dried mint. Set to the side.
The leeks take 15-20 minutes to prepare. Have you pasta done accordingly.
Make your leeks – Melt butter on medium/low and add the leeks. Cover pot and let them go around ten minutes. Add garlic and cook another two minutes. Stir in flour cook one more minute. Add wine and cook till the wine has evaporated. Then stir in cream cheese and vegetable stock. Stir till smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning (add salt and or pepper)
Plate the leeks. Toss the pasta in the Calabrian Chile Brown Butter. Top on top of the leeks.
Calabrian Chile Brown Butter Pasta and Creamy Leeks
I can’t write about everything that I cook or I won’t have time to cook lol! Up above are brined oven fried crispy juicy turkey wings. I do them a few times a year and they are insanely delicious. I wrote about them a few times on my blog already but this is my favorite photo of them.
Recently I made beef shanks braising with bay leaves, tomatoes lots of vegetables and seasoning. I wrote about how I did osso buco a few months ago. This one was pretty much the same but was cut into thicker slices so I braised them for 5 hours. I also blended up the vegetables this time and made a celery leaf gremolata for it.
osso buco
Instead of the usual polenta or risotto that normally goes with osso buco I made sunchoke gratin.
It taste amazing and I learned a new trick about softening the sunchokes in cream…..That recipe that I followed added that cream back into the dish….I knew it wouldn’t work out…..but I did it anyway because I trusted the source. It was too much liquid ( and maybe too much fat) that broke my sauce…(could be a misprint….or maybe something was left out?) So with some of the remaining sunchoke gratin I made mackerel cakes with that sunchoke gratin.
These were easy to do and came out great! I first marinated 2 mackerel steaks in curry oil and fried them for around 5 minutes on each side. Cleaned up the skin and bones. Broke them down into chunks. Mixed them up with some of the sunchoke gratin, two eggs, a small amount of. panko and some dried fruit. Baked them off and they are pretty darn good! Actually really great! Topped the mackerel cakes with honey mustard.
Had a really nice filet mignon out at. dinner. Could only eat. half. The other half made two lunches.
I broiled off some baby bell peppers. After they cooled I cleaned them out and stuffed them with thinly sliced filet tossed with morita salsa, some pickled onions, scallions and some got cheese.
Made another eye roast….(last was in November).
The hardest part is to trim off all the fat and silver skin.
