Corn Salad

My favorite thing in life is to get together with friends and family to enjoy great food. Even with the pandemic we have found ways to have socially distanced dinner parties. We recently were lucky to have a gourmet taco feast with friends. I needed a good side dish to go along with our fish tacos and pork carnitas. I harvested some sweet corn that morning from my garden and thought about making a corn salad. I love corn salad especially if it has good ingredients like avocados. This adds creaminess to the dish and — who doesn’t like a good corn salad?

After looking online for awhile I found a recipe that looked really interesting: Mexican Street Corn Salad from the Jo Cooks website. I have made corn salad in the past for my family. I used a vinegar-based dressing, however, and what attracted me to this new recipe is the use of mayo and sour cream. I expected this to add a great deal of richness and flavor.

This salad turned out to be really tasty and helped to make our dinner party a success! Our guests really enjoyed this corn salad as a side with their tacos. You can also eat this as a dip with tortilla chips. Or, you might like it so much that you want to eat it by itself! I hope you try it and see how you like it.

Ingredients

Salad dressing

1/3 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup lime juice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Corn salad

6 cups fresh corn kernel (6-7 ears)
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup red onion, small diced
1/2 cup green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tbsp jalapeno, minced
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, small diced
1.5 cup avocado, large diced
3/4 cup queso fresco, crumbled

Garnish

1/4 cup queso fresco, crumbled
1/4 cup green onion, thinly sliced

Instructions

Salad dressing

Mix all salad dressing ingredients in a large bowl, cover and keep it in the refrigerator until you get rest of the ingredients together.

Corn salad

Heat a large saute pan over high heat. Add oil. When oil is hot add the corn kernel. Cook it till lightly charred about 5-8 minutes while stirring often. Transfer the corn to a large plate. Spread it out, so it cools down quickly.

Once corn cools down. Get the dressing bowl out of the refrigerator. Toss all salad ingredients and cooled corn with the dressing. Transfer the salad to a nice serving dish.

Sprinkle garnish ingredients over the finished salad and serve.

Serves 6-8

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram.

Eggplant with Chickpeas

If you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve put in a new garden this year. One of the things I’ve tried is eggplant. Eggplant pairs well with spicy, sweet, and savory flavors. At first the eggplant in my garden wasn’t doing too well but by now in September it’s producing well. It complements Indian dishes like the curry I will make today. I am making an eggplant curry with chickpeas. The chickpeas add a really nice texture and color to the dish.

Eggplant is one of those vegetables that can be spongy, bitter, or bland if not prepared well. In this recipe I will show you some of the tricks I’ve learned that make eggplant turn out well. For example, I salt the eggplant to draw out moisture. This helps avoid an overly spongy texture.

Eggplant comes in many different kinds, shapes, and sizes. In my garden I grew Millionaire eggplant this year. Millionaire or Chinese eggplant tends to be long and thin, and the outer skin is violet or purple. It has a milder, sweeter, and less bitter flavor than other large eggplant. Millionaire eggplant is used in stir fries since they hold their shape pretty well. These eggplants will keep up to one week when stored in a cool and dry place.

If you need to buy eggplant from a store, I recommend choosing one with a smooth and shiny skin that is uniform in color. I don’t buy it if it looks shriveled. I try to choose smaller eggplant that feels heavier for its size; smaller ones tend to have thinner skin.

Ingredients

Curry spice

1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp Indian red chili powder (kashmiri)
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp ground cumin powder
2 tsp ground coriander powder
1 tsp garam massala powder
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt or to taste

Eggplant curry

4 cup eggplant, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cinnamon leaves
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 cup yellow onion, grated (easier in a food processor or box grater)
1 tbsp fresh ginger, paste
1 tbsp fresh garlic, paste
1 cup tomato, chopped
1/4 cup yogurt
1 (15.5 oz) can chickpea (garbazo bean), rinsed and drained well
1.5 cup water
1/2 cup coconut cream (fat sits on top of a coconut can)

Instructions

Curry spice

Mix all curry spice together in a small bowl and set aside.

Eggplant curry

Sprinkle 1.5 tsp salt over the eggplant. Toss to coat the pieces with salt.

Set it aside for an hour. After an hour you will see eggplant released some water. Drained all water. Set aside.

Heat 1.5 tbsp oil in a large sauce pan over medium high heat. Add eggplant to the oil. Be careful when adding eggplant it might splatter. Fry the eggplant for 8-10 minutes, stirring as needed. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Heat another 1.5 tbsp oil to the same pan. When hot add mustard seeds and cinnamon leaves. Fry for 10 seconds. Add onion, garlic and ginger. Fry this mixture till you see brown bit forming and raw onion smells are gone. Turn down the heat to medium low. Add the curry spice. Fry for about 1 minute. If the mixture is too dry add 1 tbsp of water. Don’t let the mixture burn.

Add chopped tomatoes. Stir well to mix in all the spices. Add yogurt, stir for another minute. Cover and cook till tomatoes are broken down. About 3 -5 minutes stirring in between.

Add water to the pan. Stir well. Cover cook for 5 minutes on medium low heat. Add drained chickpea. Stir. Cover and cook for a minutes.

Add eggplant back in the pan. Stir. Add coconut cream. Stir. Cook for additional 2 minutes. Taste. Remove from the stove. Transfer to a serving bowl.

You can serve this with rice, paratha, roti or naan.

Serves 4-6

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram.

Creamy Pasta Salad

I love the simplicity of pasta dishes. You don’t need a long list of ingredients, spices, or long hours in the kitchen to get something delicious on the table. Many of the ingredients could already be in your pantry. What makes it easy is store-bought pasta. You can try this with as many different shapes or color of pasta as you like.

Today I will be making pasta salad with kale, roast chicken (from the store), and a few other veggies in a creamy mayo-based dressing. This mayo-based dressing has a very unique taste from confectioner’s sugar and poppy seed. I think you’ll find that it pairs quite well!

I like to use the baby kale in this recipe since the taste is milder and not as bitter as mature kale. The kale requires no prepping; you just open up a bag of kale and sauté it in oil and garlic. Once you add the kale, tomatoes, olives, and chicken to the mix, this makes a perfect one-pot main dish for lunch or a potluck. This recipe would be perfect to make day after Thanksgiving or Christmas from your leftover turkey dinner.

This cold pasta salad is filled with chicken, tomatoes, kale, kalamata olives, and Parmesan cheese. Everything gets tossed in a creamy dressing and the result is a fresh, slightly tangy pasta salad with plenty of different flavors. Homemade pasta salad is healthier and tastier than store-bought deli pasta salad.

The best thing about this recipe is that even your pickiest eater will eat it without any fuss!

Ingredients

Salad dressing

1 cup full fat mayo
1/4 cup red onion, small diced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp powdered sugar (confectioner’s)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp poppy seed

Kale

1 5 oz pkg baby kale
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp salt

Pasta salad

Cooked kale
salad dressing
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 cup seeded tomatoes, med. dice
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, halves
1/2 of a box dried ziti pasta (cooked according to pkg direction, cooled)
2 cups rotisserie chicken (from grocery store), large dice
1/2 cup + 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Salad dressing

Whisk all salad dressing ingredients together in a medium size bowl. Set aside.

Kale

Heat oil in a large saute pan. Once hot add the garlic, fry for 30 seconds. Add kale and salt. Stir. Cook till just wilted.

Pasta salad

Place all ingredients except 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Gently toss everything together. Taste for seasoning. Divide salad on serving bowls. Sprinkle rest of the Parmesan cheese on top of each salad.

Serves 6-8

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram.

Taste of New Orleans Burger

I am always searching for a mouth-watering burger. I love going to burger joints and trying out new burgers with rich and unusual flavors. My husband likes his burgers traditional with ketchup, mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles. My son and I like novel blends of spices, sauces, and toppings like mushrooms or tomato corn salsa.

A few months back I entered a contest sponsored by the winemaker Sutter Home to create a burger to pair with one of their wines. If you are not familiar with Sutter Home, check them out here. To get inspired I tried out four of their wines. I didn’t necessarily like all of them, but found two that I liked: their Red blend and their Rosé. They are all very affordable.

The Rosé was my favorite so I set about creating a burger to complement its relative sweetness. I settled on today’s recipe, which uses spices including crab boil, Cajun seasoning, and hot sauce. As you can probably tell these are New Orleans’ style flavors, hence the name for my burger. If you’ve heard of the fast food restaurant Popeyes, my sauce might remind you just a bit of their sauce for their famous chicken sandwich. The combination of New Orleans’ style flavors makes for a unique burger, and one that goes great with Sutter Home’s delicious Rosé.

For my final presentation I used a tomato, corn, and arugula salad to top my burger. Boy, is it good! I hope that you try it too! It’s not too much effort.

Ingredients

Cajun mayo

1 cup mayo
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp regular paprika
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp hot sauce
1/4 tsp sugar

Burger

2 lbs ground grass fed Angus beef
3 slices or 1/2 cup chopped apple wood bacon
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tbs crab boil (finely ground in a spice grinder)
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp each dried basil, thyme, and oregano
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
6 pieces of sliced Havarti cheese

Salad

2 cups baby arugula
1 cup roasted frozen corn thawed, washed and drained well
1 cup seeded Roma tomatoes, medium diced
1 tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black ground pepper

Assembly

6 extra large brioche buns
Butter 2 tbs
Cajun mayo
Burger patty
Salad

Instructions

Cajun mayo

Whisk all the ingredients for the mayo in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

Burger

Mix all ingredients together gently in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.

Form into 6 patties. Transfer the patties to a parchment lined sheet pan.

Make the patties a bit larger than the bun to be used. Burger patties tends to shrink once they are cooked.

Heat an indoor electric grill to about 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Brush the grill grate lightly with oil or cooking spray. Cook the burger to your preference. It takes somewhere between 5 to 8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the patty. Place cheese on top of the patty during the last minute of cooking.

Tomato corn Salad

Toss all salad ingredients gently in a medium sized bowl.

Assembly

Melt butter in a large saucepan and toast buns face down until golden and crisp.

Spread a generous layer of mayo on each bun. Follow up with burger and a generous amount of salad on top of the burger. Avoid getting too much juice from the salad. Cover the salad with the top bun. Enjoy this burger with glass of chilled Sutter Home Rose wine!

Serves 6

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram

Vegetable Gumbo

Gumbo is a soup popular in the state of Louisiana. Creole and Cajun gumbos are served with rice. Any dish served with rice, I tend to love! I first learned about gumbo when a friend (who used to live in New Orleans) served this at a dinner party once. It had very interesting flavors which were new to me. She made it with chicken and sausage. Since then our friend has hosted Mardi Gras parties every year and has served her special gumbo dish. I look forward to this every year.

Today I am going to make gumbo with vegetables since I have a lot of zucchini, tomatoes and jalapeno to use up. To make a good gumbo you need a strongly-flavored stock, a thickener, and at least three kinds of vegetables ― celery, bell peppers, and onions. I didn’t have any bell peppers on hand so used jalapeno peppers instead (I like a bit of jalapeno in any dish!). The ingredient list for most gumbos can be very long and the whole process can take 2-3 hours, including simmering. You will only need 30 minutes to make this recipe since it uses only vegetables and a store-bought base.

Gumbo can be made with or without okra (ladies’ fingers). I really like okra, so I will be using some in this recipe. If you don’t like okra, leave it out. I used frozen, pre-cut okra. Another short cut is to use the Zatarain’s gumbo base. This has all the spices and thickener you need to attain the look and taste of great gumbo. I have used this before and was very happy with the results.

The nice thing about 30-minute meals is that you can spend more time with your family or get on with the rest of your day.

* This recipe uses fish sauce; otherwise it is completely vegetarian. *

Ingrerdients

1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup onion, small dice
1/2 cup celery, small dice
1 tbsp jalapeno, seeds removed, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, chopped
1 1/4 cup, seeded tomatoes, small diced
3 cups, yellow and green zucchini, large dice
1 cup okra, cut in to rounds
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 4.5 oz package gumbo base (I used Zatarains’s)
6 cups water
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Cooked rice, grits or polenta to serve

Instructions

Mix 6 cups of water and the gumbo base in a large measuring jug or mug. Use a whisk to mix in until well blended and no lumps. Set aside.

Heat 1/4 cup of oil in a large saucepan in a medium high heat. When oil is hot add onion, celery, and jalapeno.

Cook till soft. Add garlic, cook for 30 seconds. Add zucchini. Cook for a minutes.

Add 1 cup tomatoes, leave 1/4 cup for later use. Cook for a minute.

Add okra, gumbo base, 1/4 cup parsley and fish sauce. Stir.

Cook for 10-15 till sauce is slightly thickens.

Stir often so the sauce doesn’t scorch in the bottom. Taste. Turn off the heat. Stir in the rest of the tomatoes and parsley.

Serve over rice, grits or polenta.

Serves 6

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram.

Shrimp Curry with Cucumber

Shrimp and freshwater prawns are two of my favorite things to eat. I could eat these pretty much everyday if available. One might think that shrimp and prawns are the same thing but they’re not. Check out this link to see the difference.

I grew up eating fresh water prawns in Bangladesh and could get them fresh right out of my backyard. We raised them in two freshwater ponds. If we felt like eating prawns for lunch we would go out in the morning and catch them ourselves. When I was very young I would collect the smaller prawns from the pond edge. When I was older and able to cast a net, I caught the much larger prawns that lived in the deep water of the pond. Nothing could beat the taste of fresh-caught prawns! In the United States this is no longer possible, and I tend to eat shrimp from the store. Shrimp are generally much more available than prawns, fresh or otherwise.

Today I will be making shrimp curry with cucumber. I have a lot of cucumber on hand from my garden. In Bangladesh this same dish is called Lau Chingri and is made with bottle gourd – a pale green vegetable shaped like a bowling pin. Lau Chingri is a Bengali delicacy. Since I don’t have any Lau (bottle gourd) on hand, I substitute cucumber since they taste similar when cooked.

I made this curry without cream, but you might also add cream to add extra richness to the sauce. Either way I think you will love this one!

Ingredients

Curry spice

1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garam massala powder
1.5 tsp salt or to taste

Curry

1/4 cup canola oil
2 cinnamon leaves
1 cup yellow onion, grated (process in a food processor)
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp mince, garlic
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
3.5 cup cucumber, seeded, most of the skin peeled, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 lbs shrimp deveined and peeled (40-50 counts) thawed and drained well
1 cup water
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)

Instructions

Curry spice

Mix all the curry spices in a small bowl and set aside.

Curry

Heat oil in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add in cinnamon leaves and fry for few seconds. Add onion, ginger, and garlic. Fry the mixture until you see brown bits forming and the raw onions don’t smell. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add in the curry spice and fry for about a minute. If the mixture is too dry, add a tbsp of water. Don’t let the mixture burn!

Add in chopped tomatoes and stir well. You want to make sure to incorporate all the spices. Cover and cook till the onions break down for around 3 -5 minutes, stirring in between. Add the cucumbers and give it a good ol’ stir!

Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in a cup of water. Cook for 10 minutes while covered and stir once or twice in the meantime. Check to see if the cucumbers are done to your liking. I like mine soft.

Stir in the shrimp. Cook for 3 minutes while covered. Stir in the cream and taste for seasoning. Turn off the stove and transfer the curry to a serving bowl. Serve with rice or grilled naan.

Serves 4-6

Did you make this dish? I’d love to know how it turns out! Feel free to like this post and comment or use the hashtag #globaldinein on Instagram.