Tag Archives: #foodie

Who Knew that Puffed Rice could be Complex and Amazing

Bhel Puri from Saffron Authentic Indian Bistro Phoenix AZ

Bhel Puri from Saffron Authentic Indian Bistro Phoenix AZ

Puffed rice was always pretty bland tasting to me and usually reminds me of forking styrofoam. While dinning at Saffron Authentic Indian Bistro in Phoenix AZ a dish called Bhel Puri caught my eye because it sounded very interesting. It was described as puffed rice tossed with herbs and spices in a spicy and tangy sauce.

Puffed rice was totally transformed from bland styrofoam. It tasted sweet, salty, tart and spicy. It seemed light when you ate it and it had a refreshing quality about it with many textures. I sure never had puffed rice like that before.

Not sure but I think the flavors were tamarind, coriander, mango, cumin, garlic, ginger, lemon and chilies mixed with the puffed rice, bean flour noodles and a few small chunks of potato.

Who knew that Puffed Rice could be complex and amazing!

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancake Recipe

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancakes

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancake

These pancakes are quick easy to prepare. This great recipe is foolproof. The pancakes come out very light, moist and fluffy with a different flavor than your regular pancake. You can bling them up with a little bananas, dates and whipped cream if you care too but they are just right this way too.

Ingredients This recipe makes around 15 smaller pancakes and is about 3 servings

1 cup wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup malted milk powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

2 Extra large eggs beaten

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 oz. melted butter (room temperature)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Canola cooking spray for your fry pan

Directions in a large bowl combine your dry ingredients and in a smaller bowl combine your wet ingredients and mix well..

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now add the wet bowl to the dry bowl and mix well. The batter is on the thick side.

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Get your fry pan on medium heat. (I use regular fry pans because I FORKING HATE nonstick pans)  Spray with canola oil and wait till it looks hot and melted and then use a tablespoon and make 3 or four pancakes depending on the size of your pan.

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When they bubble like this flip them over.

 

See how fluffy they come out!

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancakes

Malted Whole Wheat Cinnamon Pancakes

 They are Great and that's The Forking Truth

They are Good Stuff and that’s The Forking Truth

Sometimes it’s better NOT to send Food the Fork Back in a Restaurant

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Sometimes it’s better NOT to send food back in a restaurant because you don’t know what kind of person is working there.

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We went out to a nice little restaurant where I heard the Chef has trained in France. It was a cozy small restaurant with an interesting menu. I ordered a salad with the house made bread and my husband ordered a panini sandwich with a request to leave off the aioli. I wasn’t sure what the fork was going on in the kitchen. I could see into the semi open kitchen that they had at least two cooks on and seven tickets (dupes) hanging in the window and the food was coming out at a snail pace. I also saw that the majority of the orders were the same salad I ordered and my salad was sitting in the window around a half an hour.

The panini shows up in the window and our waiter notices that the cook ignored the no aioli request and asked my husband if he would eat the panini with aioli.

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It seemed like the waiter was hoping my husband would take the forking panini but my husband told the waiter that he won’t eat the panini with aioli on it.

EKKKKKKKKKK! Aioli I HATE aioli!

EKKKKKKKKKK! Aioli I HATE aioli!

So we wait another half hour or more for a new panini while my salad is getting warm and wilted waiting in the window.

We’ve been waiting in this restaurant well over an hour at lunch time.

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The restaurant didn’t even seem that busy with a total of seven tables in there. Well really eight but the eight table walked out because they were waiting too long.

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Our meals finally forking arrive my meal comes out without the bread so I asked for the bread again.

Waldorf Salad with house smoked salmon from Vogue Bistro Surprise AZ

Waldorf Salad with house smoked salmon from Vogue Bistro Surprise AZ

I have to say even though my salad was warm and slightly wilted it was an amazingly delicious salad. The salad was very detailed. The creamy shallot dressing on it was so delicious I could drink it and the house smoked salmon was one of the best I ever tried anywhere. It was so fresh and buttery it melted in my mouth. The smoking was done so carefully, just slight to enhance the fish. Even the walnuts on the salad were very complex with flavors. I never tried walnuts that were that delicious before. About halfway through the waiter stops by to drop off stale bread and quickly runs off. He did a forking drop and run.

Panini from Vogue Bistro Surprise AZ

Panini from Vogue Bistro Surprise AZ

The panini arrives without aioli this time but I don’t know what the cook that was on inflicted on to the meat in the sandwich as it was unusually dry and drier than dog food jerky it was like the cook inflicted the meat with forking RIGOR MORTIS. My husband was already boiling mad from waiting so long and he just said to me this was a terrible choice for lunch and we are not forking coming here again.

God this place forking sucks!

God this place forking sucks!

The waiter knows not to ask us how things are and waits till we are forking finished and then offers us dessert on the house for waiting so forking long. (not even knowing about the dry meat in the sandwich)

I picked the house made assorted chocolates for dessert not knowing we’d be waiting another forking half an hour or so.

House made chocolates from Vogue Bistro AZ

House made chocolates from Vogue Bistro AZ

My husband couldn’t  wait for me to snap the photo and wanted to dig in right away. The chocolates were made of very high quality chocolate and were forking ALMOST to die for.

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Sometimes it’s better NOT to send food the fork back in a restaurant. You don’t know what kind of person is working there.

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 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

Eddie’s House Scottsdale AZ is Worth a Fork ***UPDATE Now CLOSED for Business***

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When you enter Eddie’s House in Old Town Scottsdale AZ you’ll enter into a slightly different atmosphere than most other restaurants. It’s almost like walking into Eddie’s Real House because it’s decorated with many family photos and lots of personalized knick knacks. You’ll see many fishing items and also notice pictures of Eddie fishing that may also be representative of many of the assorted fish items offered on the menu.

In the metro Phoenix Area Eddie has been known as a celebrity chef and has made a lot of appearances on local TV. Eddie might know be considered a celebrity chef everywhere because of a recent award winning appearance on FoodNetwork’s TV Show Triple G-Guy’s Grocery Games where Eddie won the prize with his signature dish bacon infused meatloaf.

I’ve been to Eddie’s House a bunch of times over the years and always enjoy the complimentary blue cheese  butter with fresh herb pistou sauce with the fresh bread. That darn stuff is so delicious it’s very hard to stop eating it.

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We started with the grilled honey spiced chicken lollipops.

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The chicken is plump and juicy and very flavorful with a deep chicken flavor accented with sweet, salty and spices. The legs are very tasty and are very easy to eat the way the chicken has been cleaned up just right.

For dinner this time I ordered the half portion of the dinner named, what’s in this steak. (not all but many dinners are available in half portions)

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The name of this dish is as unusual as the presentation of the steak. It was a tasty tenderloin cooked to my liking wrapped in mashed potatoes with a crisp exterior.

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The steak was very tender and seasoned just right. The half portion was just the right amount of beef for me. The mashed potatoes had just a tad too much salt for me but were very yummy. Who the fork doesn’t like a yummy mashed potato and these had a tasty crust.

My husband had the bacon infused meatloaf. It was topped with crisp onion straws and was served with mashed potatoes. It was tasty and after all it’s an OFFICIAL Food Network Winning Dish!

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We also indulged in dessert as our server made the desserts sound so good and she was very excited about the white chocolate blueberry cheesecake so she talked us into it.

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I don’t always like cheesecake because some are too sour tasting to me. I also am not a fan of the dense style cheese cake but this one was good. Even my husband ate it and he usually hates cheesecakes.

Eddie’s House participates in Local Dines so you can save a bunch when you dine out! So when in the area………

Eddie’s House is Worth a Fork!

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

Baking Gordon Ramsey’s Cherry Clafoutis – Grasping at Straws

IMG_8754The Gordon Ramey Cherry Clafoutis.

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Literally I was forking grasping at straws to make Gordon Ramsey’s Cherry Clafoutis Recipe.

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After all the cherries needed to be forking pitted and I forking used straws to pit the cherries.

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So today I tried Gordon Ramsay’s Clafoutis recipe. It differed in ingredients from the other Clafoutis Recipes I already prepared. (see WTFork is the clafoutis Pt.1, 2 & 3 if interested) This one was made with mostly almond four and lots of eggs with heavy cream. It’s the richest of the clafoutis recipes I tried so far. I got the directions off the Sunday UK Times and perhaps some of the directions might have been missing so I had to wing it a little forking bit. I had to decide on how long to cook it and whether or not the clafoutis needed to be covered. I also had to decide if I wanted to slice the cherries. The recipe is pretty simple and easy to prepare. I also converted the UK measurements. This recipe came out great and taste delicious! You will impress your guest if you make this one!

Ingredients makes 6 servings

1/2 cup or 50g ground almonds

1/2 oz. or 15g flour

1 pinch fine sea salt

1 cup or 100g caster sugar (fine sugar)

2 large whole eggs

3 large egg yolks

1 cup plus 3/4 teaspoon or 250ml double cream

unsalted butter for greasing baking dish or dishes (4 small dishes are suggested)

icing sugar to dust bowl

3 cups or 300g fresh cherries washed and pitted

Directions set oven to 374 degrees F or 190 degrees C four individual serving dishes are suggested but the recipe said you can use one dish as I did. Your dish or dishes need to be buttered and dusted with icing sugar.

Mix the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.

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In another bowl mix your eggs, yolks, cream.

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And add to your well and mix in.

Your mixture will be on the thin side.

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It’s suggested to leave to mixture rest in your refrigerator overnight or at the very least and hour in your refrigerator.

Get your buttered and dusted bowl or bowls.

If your doing the four bowls your cherries should be one layer.

Place your cherries in the bowl

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and cover with the batter.

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Here is where I winged it. (I note if your doing four bowls you will have to figure out the time in the oven yourself)

I placed the clafoutis uncovered in the oven for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes I saw it had a long way to go so then I covered it and let it go 20 more minutes covered. The clafoutis was done at this point.

The Clafoutis is suppose to be served warm so I cut a few slices.

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The clafoutis came out forking great for still being very warm. It’s also delicious. It’s not too sweet and has a really nice texture with an almond background. It’s light but also rich at the same time. I liked the whole fresh cherries in it and the ends had this tasty caramelized taste that added something.

This Gordon Ramsay’s Cherry Clafoutis Recipe is Forking Great!

 The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WTFork is the difference Between Butterscotch and Caramel?

Butterscotch Krimpets

Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets

Butterscotch is very similar to Caramel.

Caramel is made from water, sugar, cream, butter and vanilla cooked to the firm ball stage…..340 degrees…..and is slightly burnt sugar and taste burnt- slightly burnt.

Butterscotch is brown sugar, butter, cream, vanilla and salt and is cooked to the soft crack stage…270-289…….degrees and not always but usually taste very sweet.

They do taste different. One of them I almost never eat.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

 

 

Pickled Fried Rutabagas, Beets with Scallions, Blue Cheese and Walnuts

 

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What inspired me to come up with this dish was rutabagas that were unusually strong in flavor with an extra fiber texture. I tried to use them anyway and I decided I needed to infuse sweetness cut with some vinegar with beet essence.

I roasted up a few beets with rutabagas in a covered pan with a little water, sugar, and rice wine vinegar till they were fork tender. Around an hour.

Then I fried the rutabagas, beets and scallions in a combination of butter and canola oil till they were slightly crisp. I sprinkled the hot vegetables with fresh ground sea salt and pepper.

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To serve I slice the rutabagas and beets in slices. I topped them with the fried scallions, blue cheese, heated walnuts and some shredded pepper.

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Adding sweetness with beets to the rutabagas and the strong blue cheese mellowed the rutabagas in a way where they became edible and more beet like. This was the perfect flavor combination for this dish.  The scallions got slightly candied from the sugar coming out in the fry pan from the root vegetables.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad Recipe

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad

Refreshing Rosemary Cucumber Salad

Rosemary is very aromatic and the key to this recipe being successful is a careful hand adding the rosemary. This recipe is simple but is light and refreshing.

Ingredients makes about 8 servings

2 large cucumbers pealed and sliced I sliced mine slightly thick so they won’t get too soggy

1 red onion pealed and sliced thin

1 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

2 cups red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped fine

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

Just combine, chill adjust seasonings if necessary and serve

It Forking Good and that's The Forking Truth!

It Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread Recipe

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This bread came out forking delicious! It’s crispy on the outside , chewy and moist on the inside with that just right charred onion taste and you get a little sweet from the apples and a real rye taste.

Ingredients Makes about 10 servings

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 pack dry yeast

1 cup warm water (mine needed to be 100-110 degrees for the yeast)

1 1/2 cup rye flour

1 cup bread flour

2 Tablespoons canola oil

1 Tablespoon caraway seeds

1 small apple pealed, cored, sliced thin and a rough chop

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

2 Tablespoons garlic dill pickle brine  ( I used from my pickle recipe on this site)

7 oz. shredded Swiss cheese (Swiss with the bigger holes)

1/2 red onion sliced thin

cooking spray for baking pan

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions Set oven to 450 degrees

Combine yeast, sugar and water and set in a warm place for about a half hour until you see the yeast has bloomed. Then add canola, both flours and caraway seeds and combine well, roll in a ball, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for about an hour. Punch down and add, apple, salt, brine, about 3/4 of the cheese (your saving a handful for the top), onion. Mix well and pat into a sprayed sheet pan and let sit about 1/2 hour. Now you make the dents in the surface with your fingers. Top with remaining cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Place in the oven and it will be done in around 20 minutes.

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread

Onion Swiss Cheese Apple Rye Focaccia Style Bread

Pickle recipe- Boil and pour over pickles and fresh dill

Pickle recipe- Boil and pour over pickles and fresh dill and onions

It Forking Good and that's The Forking Truth!

It Forking Good and that’s The Forking Truth!

 

 

 

An Overall Not Worth a FORK Dining Experience in Metro Phoenix AZ

Sort Rib Taco from Salt and Lime Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

Sort Rib Taco from Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

Mexican Food can be delicious and is usually made with various fresh herbs and lots of spices. This kind of food is not boring and certainly isn’t bland.

When I walked into this establishment besides nearly turning forking deaf from the blaring 70s hard rock anthem tunes, I could see by the patrons that the cuisine would not be authentic Mexican and would be some sort of Americanized Mexi Style kind of food. So I only had forking dreams of an average meal but soon my only average dreams turned to a mediocre experience.  We were quickly whisked to the dining room filled with tables and booths that were very close together and some members of our party were actually rubbing elbows with strangers. We soon receive a basket of half broken corn chips that weren’t oily…….. YIPPIE!………. I dipped a chip into the salsa. It was oddly tasteless. It seemed like a few key ingredients were missing from that batch of salsa. It seemed like the fresh cilantro, chilies, salt, garlic and fresh onions were hanging out with the missing Lindbergh Baby.

I thought it might be a good idea to share a pitcher of margaritas. I tasted my margarita and it was cloyingly sweet like hummingbird water and seemed to only had trace amounts of liquor in it if any. It made me go mmmmmmmm not a forking good idea.

Oddly someone was running around passing out tickets to win a forking beer logo floatation raft. It sort of reminded me of a forking circus. My number wasn’t called so I felt deflated and didn’t win the forking floatation raft.

The tacos were $2.00 off for happy hour so they seemed appealing to start out with as appetizers. Four of us were at the table and between us we tried five different tacos. Four out of the five tacos were made with dry undeveloped with flavor meats and seemed to lack similar taste that the salsa was missing. I had the Huachnanco Taco, that is a snapper taco.

excuse the forking poor photo but that’s the fork how it came out.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

The fish didn’t seem over cooked like all the meat tacos but this taco didn’t have any delicious flavor to it either. You can see this taco lacks fresh cilantro and fresh scallions. This taco was loaded with a creamy sauce that lacked the cilantro flavor that the menu promiced and other good flavors it was suppose to have. You can’t tell by looking at the photo how the pickled onions taste. Usually pickled onions in a taco taste good. These onions tasted like straight vinegar. They lack the sweet to balance them out.  It’s a little hard to see but there are small chunks of pineapple in the taco. The pineapple lacked a fresh pineapple texture and taste. I don’t know for sure but they seemed like sweetened pineapples from a forking can. When I bit into this taco I couldn’t forking taste much more than plain vinegar that made my mouth hurt. that taco was very unbalanced in flavor.

I had the kale and mango salad for dinner with added salmon.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

After the the not so good tacos (saying the forking least), weak sweet margaritas and not so good salsa I wanted to forking hate my salad but honestly it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. While it wasn’t forking awful like everyone else’s meal but it was expensive for what I got. The salad does come in small and large so I asked the server the different in size so with her hands she makes like the small is a forking 4 inches big and with her hands like the large is a foot long so it makes me think I better get the forking large one that cost $18.75 with salmon. That’s a lot of forking money for a salad even for forking Scottsdale.  The kale was prepared nicely and cut in the right size pieces. Mango, red cabbage, jicama, avocado, queso fresco and pepitas all were a good combination in the salad and did taste good. I can’t forking bust them for bad tasting dressing because the orange lime vinaigrette dressing was mostly forking tasteless. I did get about two bites out of many over the course of two days (because it was forking gigantic and took the rest home) that were DELICIOUS because those couple bites had the orange taste. That leads me to believe the dressing might have not been mixed well and I only got the light stuff off the top of the batch of dressing with all the flavors settled on the bottom. I have to say my salmon was cooked perfect. It had a nice crust and was prepared medium-medium rare. The salmon it’s self was very good.

My husband tried the carnitas. Sorry for another forking poor photo, I wasn’t drunk I swear because I couldn’t choke down that forking margarita.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

The carnitas were dry and not developed with flavor.

One person at the table had a vegetable burrito. I don’t know what was wrong with it but the Sr. Citizen that had it said, “it was mediocre at best”.  I didn’t forking question that.

Another person at the table had the carne asada fajita. I saw the meat and could see it looked forking dry and shriveled up like beef jerky. It’s too bad the cook that prepared it didn’t feel like a forking jerk for sending that thing out. The person who had the fajita did say something to the waitress and she offered him a replacement that he refused. Later she did remove the fajita from the bill. That was nice and our server did seem very nice. Sadly she works in a place that prepared mostly mediocre food and drink when we were there.

So if your a fan of overly sweet/weak margaritas, American/Mexi Style food that’s bland and mostly dry, expensive salads, in a loud rubbing elbows bar and circus like atmosphere…….This is JUST THE Place for you!

Overall

Not Worth a FORK!

Not Worth a FORK!

I note your forking opinion may differ and you just like this kind of cuisine. I also note this it how it was on the forking day I was there and on other days they could possibly be better.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Slight update- The manager contacted me and said they’d turn down the music if we asked them too and that the pineapples weren’t canned. She also said I could come back and get a free appetizer.