Red Lentil Soup with Red Bell Peppers and TomatoesBy foodjoyaThis is the best - absolutely the best - red lentil soup we have ever tried, including renowned ethnic restaurants and top selling cookbooks. Red Lentil Soup with Red Bell Peppers and Tomatoes is unusually flavorful. The flavor comes from the slowly cooked thyme, marjoram, grains of paradise (<- these can be substituted with black peppercorns), parsley, cayenne powder, caramelized diced tomatoes ... and your favorite tomato sauce, also caramelized. (The use of the caramelized sauce is the secret to the rich taste of the soup.) Though light (in fat and calories), the Red Lentil Soup is both nourishing and satisfying. With the meticuloulsy selected herbs and ingredients, this soup will always turn out good, we promise! (In fact, the soup is so good that our 4 year old eats a full bowl every time.) Oyster Mushrooms, Tarragon and Sour CreamBy foodjoyaI love mushrooms. When I was a child, my grandma took me mushroom-picking in the forest. She pickled most of the small mushrooms with cloves and bay leaves and cooked the bigger ones. And no one had ever cooked mushrooms in sour cream better than my Mom! After spending the entire morning in the forest, nothing tasted better than her fresh mushrooms sautéed with sour cream! In Oyster Mushrooms, Tarragon, and Sour Cream, I use my Mom’s time-tested technique for cooking mushrooms. It results in oyster mushrooms so tender that they melt in your mouth. Tarragon complements that tenderness wonderfully. For this recipe, please use only oyster mushrooms. Do not cook chanterelle or shiitake mushrooms using this recipe. Please also do not replace sour cream with yogurt (e.g., Greek or Icelandic), because yogurt curls up on the hot pan and doesn’t taste good. (We've tried.) Finally, note that this dish is finished under the broiler (we’d used the broiler function in our Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven). This step helps settle the flavor and eliminate any excess moisture from sour cream. Finally, this dish (Oyster Mushrooms, Tarragon and Sour Cream) yields 3 servings as a small rich side. Orange Cranberry Sauce: Honey and Juice SweeteenedBy foodjoyaOur orange cranberry sauce, honey and juice sweetened is perfectly chunky, zesty and absolutely healthy. We don't use too much honey, and for this reason, our sauce is slightly tart (just pleasantly so). If you prefer a sweeter sauce, add another 1 to 2 tbsp honey. To develop the Orange Cranberry Sauce, Honey and Juice Sweetened, we made numerous batches of the sauce over two years. This version, therefore, is guaranteed to delight you wtih an amazing texture and taste. If you don't have fresh berries, you can use frozen ones. Try our Orange Cranberry Sauce, Honey and Juice Sweetened, and this will become your go-to cranberry sauce recipe! Brussel Sprouts with Spicy Carrots: Novel, Zesty, FreshBy foodjoyaOur Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Spicy Carrots are soft inside and crispy on the outside. Thanks to the spices and the lime juice, they are zesty and not bitter. We achieve softness by roasting them covered for an extended period of time. We make the outer leaves crispy by finishing our brussel sprouts under broiler. After years of roasting this wonderful vegetable, we've noticed that lime juice - especially in combination with mint and chives - substantially softens its bitterness and brightens up its color. The idea to add carrots came from Food & Wine's America’s Greatest New Cooks 18 (2012). Spices, herbs, cooking methods, and even vegetable cutting methods are entirely ours.Eggplant Caviar (French) with Herbs, Roasted TomatoesBy foodjoyaWhen I was growing up, Eggplant Caviar was our summer staple. We made it with sautéed or fried tomatoes and onion, raw tomatoes and onion, plenty of garlic, or mayonnaise. This version – with roasted tomatoes and herbs – is very tasty and light. Now, why French? After all, we hail from Moldova. Even though we did not know this dish as French, we call it now "Eggplant Caviar (French)" to distinguish from Baba Ghanoush. Baba Ghanoush is a heavier and smoother eggplant dish and more likely to be used as a dip. By contrast, our Eggplant Caviar (French style) is light and chunky, just like a salad. This recipe boils down to just a few steps: (1) roasting the eggplant, (2) letting the eggplant drain, (3) roasting the tomatoes, (4) mashing the eggplant and mixing in the tomatoes. Here are our tips. First, the eggplants for this recipe should be fresh (firm, without shriveling, and with crisp stems), medium in size, and oval in shape (tear-like or round eggplants will not cook uniformly). Second, the traditional method is to grill the eggplant on a gas or charcoal grill. That way you get a nice smoky flavor. But you can certainly roast in the oven instead. Regardless of how you cook your eggplants, though, you must cook them until they are not only soft, but also mushy inside. When the eggplant is ready, its skin is brown (if roasting) or dark (if grilling) and collapses, and its flesh is mushy when pressed with a fork. Finally, this salad serves 4 as a very generous side to any dish. Atlantic salmon roasted in savory glaze: easy and pleasantBy foodjoyaAtlantic Salmon roasted in a savory glaze is easy and yummy. Though this fish tastes mild (and even somewhat bland), the glaze transforms it into a zesty entree. And what's in the glaze? All the ingredients we bet you already have, like coriander, Dijon mustard and fresh oregano. Another secret to this recipe is the high roasting temperature. We've noticed that Atlantic salmon roasted at a higher temperature tastes better. The goal is to accomplish a crispy top with a tender inside. (By comparison, Atlantic salmon roasted at a lower temperature remains soft all over, and its flavors do not fully develop.) This entree makes a delicious dinner for everyone in your family ... in no time at all!
