I don’t know much about “dragon fruit”. I was intrigued by it when I saw it in an Asian grocery store, H-mart, last weekend. I decided to buy it even though I had no idea how to eat a dragon fruit or which part of the fruit to eat. I was curious.

Internet (and youtube) came to the rescue. A quick research also told me that dragon fruit is also known as Hylocereus undatus, red pitaya, or strawberry pear. It’s popular in Southeast Asia (China, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, etc.) and believed to be native of Central America.

You eat the inner white flesh of a dragon fruit. The taste and texture of a dragon fruit is similar to kiwi because both have similar texture and contain small edible seeds. The flesh of a dragon fruit is uniformly distributed with black and crunchy seeds that give it nutty and somewhat oily flavor.

Dragon fruit is, perhaps, one of the least sweet fruits that I ever tasted. No wonder that it has low calories and consumed widely by diabetic people.

To eat dragon fruit, peel of the shell and eat its flesh. This is how I did.

Cut the fruit straight down the middle longitudinally through stalk.

Scoop out white flesh using a spoon.

Cut into cubes. Optional serving suggestion; serve the cut dragon fruit cubes in a boat made from its shell.

For those who have sweeter tooth, drizzle with honey.

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Posted in: Desserts - Ingredient - Produce - Vegetarian | Tags: dragon fruit, dragon fruit and diabetes, dragon fruit and kiwi, dragon fruit recipe, How to cut a dragon fruit, Hylocereus undatus, red pitaya, strawberry pear

In most grocery stores, containers of Baba Ganoush could be easily confused with similar looking hummus — often displayed together in a dip aisle. Both have a similar off white color, are of Middle Eastern origin, and have dash of tahini (sesame paste) – but the similarities end there.

Baba Ganoush is cooked mashed eggplant dish that can be served as an appetizer, salad, side dish or more commonly, in this country, as a dip with pita bread or vegetables (celery, baby carrots, cucumber etc). I heard somewhere that in Arabic it means dad (baba) and spoiled (ganoush). Whereas, hummus is made from chickpeas.

A simple Baba Ganoush recipe calls for roasting eggplant on open flame (or baking), peeling off the purple skin, mashing up and add sesame paste tahini and other seasoning. Many similar eggplant dish are served around the world such as Indian Baingan Bharta, Bulgarian Kyopolou, Greek Melitzanosalata, Lebanese Mutabal, Turkish Patlican Salatasi, Israeli Salat Hatzilim, etc.

This is my interpretation of Baba Ganoush

Get regular American eggplant (brinjal). American eggplants are dark purple in color, elongated oval size and about one to one and half pound in weight. Make incision mark on opposite sides.

Bake eggplants for 40+ minutes in 400°F oven. If possible, flip in the middle. The baking time depends on the size of the eggplant. When eggplants are done, they collapse

Let it cool. Peel off the skin.

Mash it with knife or lightly puree in food processor. I pulsed in couple of times in my blender.

Since I didn’t have tahini, I decided to use sesame seed powder. So, I roasted and grounded sesame seeds, then added it to mashed eggplants.

Add salt, lime juice (about 1/2 for each eggplant), chopped mashed roasted garlic (few pods, optional) and cumin (a pinch, optional).

Garnish by drizzling some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkling paprika.

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Posted in: Appetizers - Middle Eastern Food - No Chemical Diet - Salad - Vegetarian | Tags: Baba Ganouj, Baba Ghannouj, Baingan Bharta, Baingan Bhartha, How to make Baba Ganoush, Kyopolou, Melitzanosalata, Mutabal, Patlican Salatasi, Salat Hatzilim

I love barbeque. For me, that exceptional mix of spices and ketchup always delivers. So when I was offered the opportunity to experience experimentation in barbeque chicken, I jumped at the opportunity. The entrée – pulled barbeque chicken sandwiches.

From the start, I was surprised to see ciabatta buns instead of regular hamburger rolls. Lightly toasted, ciabatta provided the desired balance of taste and support to supplement the barbeque chicken and avoid a mess.

The pulled barbeque chicken sandwiches were simple, just served barbeque chicken with optional tomato slices. I had two sandwiches, identical except for a single element – the chicken itself. It was my job to figure out the difference.

The only problem was I couldn’t taste anything different about the two sandwiches. Both tasted great, juicy, with a good base barbeque – both tangy and sweet.

Finally I asked for the difference and was quite surprised by the simple, thought-out recipe.

First, the sauce was prepared by combining three commercial barbeque sauces: a sweet barbeque sauce, a spicy barbeque sauce and a smoky arbeque sauce, giving the sweet, spicy and smokey taste (Stubb’s Original Bar-B-Q Sauce, Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce, Trader Joe’s Bold and Smoky Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce).

Next, two types of chicken were used: first one was organic rotisserie chicken with the skin removed and shredded whereas, to my surprise, the other was canned chicken breast from Costco.

The chicken was pulled and barbeque sauce was added.

Both types of chicken had the same sauce giving them a similar taste. Then they were put in the oven to heat and keep warm.

They tasted just like restaurant barbeque chicken. The best things about this recipe are the simplicity and the cost. It is easy to make, and could be duplicated easily and affordably for a larger party. And it tastes great, which never hurts when you’re in rush and eating on a budget.

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Posted in: American Food - Meat | Tags: canned chicken barbeque sandwich, ciabatta barbeque sandwich, Costco canned chicken breast, Kirkland canned chicken breast, pulled barbeque chicken sandwich, pulled barbeque sandwich, rotisserie chicken barbeque sandwich, Stubb's Original Bar-B-Q Sauce, Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce, Trader Joe’s Bold and Smoky Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce

My first encounter with a generic barbeque sauce ended with me wondering why anyone would add sweetness to meat. Slowly barbeque sauce was familiar flavor but it never grew enough on me to buy it off-the-shelf. A few months ago, a friend of mine was constantly professing his love for anything with the barbeque sauce. After listening to him, I decided to give a fight chance to a barbeque sauce. I decided to buy one generic barbeque sauce and ended up buying three more within a short period of a month.

Barbeque sauces varies according personal preference, manufactures formulation or regional nuances. However, typically barbecue sauces consist of three of the following base ingredients, in the order of the most commonly used to more exotic ones.

• Tomato is most common base for barbecue sauce and lends its unique flavor and sweetness to barbeque sauces.
• Vinegar results in sour and thin barbeque sauce usually contained red pepper flakes or black pepper powder.
• Mustard based barbeque sauces have obviously spicy mustard taste and thick in consistency. Mustard sauce is usually paired with pork barbeques.

Barbeque sauce is defined by your interpretation of harmonious balance between its four types of flavors; sweet, savory, sour, and heat/spicy. Here are some of the ingredients that can provide unique barbeque flavors.

• Sweetness; sugar, brown sugar, molasses, fruit syrup, honey, soda (some people do add Coke or Pepsi)
• Sourness; vinegar, lime, lemon
• Savory; tomatoes, herbs, worcestershire sauce, beef or chicken stock, soy sauce, bourbon, cloves
• Heat/Spicy; black pepper, mustard, chipotle, chili powder, cayenne pepper, horseradish, jalapeño, habanero, serrano, paprika

This diversity in barbeque sauce has resulted in each region of the United States developing their own regional favorites. Here are some of them listed alphabetically;

• Alabama barbeque sauce is mayonnaise-based “white sauce”.
• East Carolina barbeque sauce is vinegar based sauce spiced with ground black pepper and hot chili pepper flakes.
• Hawaiian barbeque sauce is sweet soy sauce based with fruit juice (typically pineapple) spiced with ginger. It may also have other sweet ingredients such as honey and molasses.
• Kansas City barbeque sauce is thick tomato-based sauce with molasses and vinegar.
• South Carolina barbeque sauce is typically yellow barbecue sauces made primarily from yellow mustard, vinegar, sugar and spices.
• Tennessee barbecue sauce usually has equal portion of tomatoes and vinegar, and often worcestershire sauce.
• Texas barbecue sauces are either thick tomato-based or thin peppery sauce with influence of Tex-Mex seasonings.

You probably have access to hundreds of barbeque sauces to choose from in your local stores. There are thousands of good barbeque sauce recipes. Hence, I am not going to give any recipes here. My suggestion is google your favorite type of barbeque sauce and gets idea of recipe by looking at few. Alternatively, you can always buy a standard barbeque sauce and change its flavor to suit your palette by adding one (or more) of the following;

• Bourbon
• Brown sugar
• Chipotle chili or any dried chilies
• Cinnamon
• Cumin or curry powder
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Honey
• Ketchup
• Lime or lemon juice and/or zest
• Mayonnaise
• Maple syrup
• Mustard
• Mint chopped (or any other aromatic herbs)
• Orange juice and/or zest (or other fruit juice)
• Pineapple or mango puree (or other fruit puree)
• Soya sauce
• Sriracha sauce
• Vinegar
• Wine

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Posted in: American Food | Tags: Alabama barbeque sauce, Barbecue Sauce, base ingredients barbeque sauce, customize barbecue sauce, East Carolina barbeque sauce, Hawaiian barbeque sauce, Kansas City barbeque sauce, South Carolina barbeque sauce, Tennessee barbecue sauce, Texas barbecue sauce

Ramadan Mubarak to all our readers!
August 11, 2010 – September 9^th, 2010

I started fasting for Ramadan when I was eleven or twelve years old.  I’d have to do a fact check on the exact age with my mom since she remembers it better than I do.  The first few days were the hardest.  It would get easier along the way, until the week or so after Ramadan when every time I ate during the day I felt like I was making a mistake or doing something wrong.  It’s interesting how a month can make or break a habit.

We fast from sunrise to sunset each day during Ramadan.  It is especially challenging during the summer months when the days are longer and the weather is hot.  The highlight of the day is definitely after the call for maghrib salat (prayer after sunset) when it’s time to break the fast.

Muslims host iftar parties for relatives, friends, and/or the community to share in the breaking of fast together.  Breaking fast with someone is considered a blessing even if you aren’t fasting.  It is also a good deed to feed those who are fasting during the month of Ramadan.  And God knows we can all use those extra brownie points.

This year I hosted my second ever iftar party.  Last year, I had a dozen or so guests and I was just starting out learning to cook.  This year I have some experience under my belt and of course, the rest is left to God to make my food delicious or not.  I hosted 33 guests on the 14^th of August which is also Pakistan Independence Day, so obviously it was themed accordingly!

I set the menu as follows:

Appetizers
Kajoor (dates)
Keema samosas (shaped like dumplings)
Aloo samosas
Chaana chaat
Vegetable Pakoras – Eggplant and Zucchini

Entrée
Palak Paneer
Lamb Korma
Chicken Biryani
Chicken Jalfrezie

Dessert
Pineapple cupcakes with cream cheese icing
Chai
Roofza with milk
Roofza with water

It is traditional in my culture to have an iftari which is more snacks based (see appetizers list) and follow it with a dinner later in the evening.  This was the largest dinner party I have thrown.  It was definitely a lot of work to cook for that many guests.  Of course, I had my mom on video chat and on the phone guiding me, but it also took a lot of planning and coordinated execution.

First I thought of my theme.  I am a proud Pakistani American and saw the opportunity to combine the celebration of Ramadan iftar with the celebration of Pakistani Independence day – 8.14.10.  That set my color scheme: Green.  I sent out a custom evite to all my guests 6 weeks in advance.  Reserving the first weekend in Ramadan is very difficult because there will be many competing parties.  I bought green glasses, white silverware and of course it helps that proud Pakistanis have lots of souvenirs, flags and symbols to scatter around the house.  I got my holiday lights out and put them up, I used a giant Pakistani flag as a table cover, put out village souvenirs near the cupcakes at first and then near the drinks when we needed the freezer.

I rearranged all the furniture in the house to comfortably seat guests.  I went for an open floor plan, removed all tables from the center, and created a large oval.  I threw floor cushions in various spaces so people could sit on the carpet with comfort.  I put small tables near chairs so people could rest their glasses.  I developed an icebreaker so people would be forced to be creative, come out of their comfort zone and engage with the wider crowd.

Then I thought about my menu for about 10 days.  I finally settled on the above mentioned menu. I bought green food coloring for my cupcakes as well as green icing to decorate them.  I asked everyone to either wear green or South Asian clothes.  My guest-list consisted of mixed races and faiths so it was great to have people join in the theme even when they were not Pakistani or Muslim.

My biggest concern was whether the quantity of food would be enough.  At least a dozen of the guests were not fasting.  The rest were so they had neither drank or eaten anything all day.  Having many items is actually a plus because everyone will take a little of everything and then the dish can go a long way.  I knew the main dish was the biryani.

I had to make as much of that as I could.  Knowing my nature and tendencies to do things big, I have pots that will cook large quantities.  I made 8 cups of uncooked basmati rice for the party.  I began by creating the chicken masala for the biryani.  I then boiled my rice with salt, bay leaves and black cardamom.  Once the rice had boiled I strained it and divided it into two halves.  I layered one half of the rice on the bottom of the large pot and put in all of the chicken masala on top, then I layered the rest of the rice on top.  I added the yellow food coloring and put the entire pot in the oven at 180⁰F to keep warm until the guests arrived two hours later.

I served all the appetizers first. I fried the samosas and pakoras right before the breaking of the fast so they would be fresh and hot.  In the meantime, I kept all the entrees warm.  Fifteen minutes after everyone had a chance to eat the appetizers I reviewed the table, removed what was finished and set up the entrees.

After dinner, I facilitated the ice breaker, served dessert and chai.

All in all it was really memorable for me and I am glad I did it.  I definitely think it was crazy to cook for so many people, but now that I have this under my belt it won’t be as overwhelming the next time around.

More photographs on DesiGrub’s facebook page

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Posted in: Appetizers - Desserts - Drinks - Pakistani food - Vegetarian | Tags: Aloo samosas, Breaking fast Ramadan, Chaana chaat, Chicken Jalfrezie, iftar parties, Iftari Appetizers, Iftari biryani, Iftari dish, Iftari food, Iftari snacks, Kajoor, Keema samosas, Lamb Korma, maghrib salat iftar, Pakistani chicken biryani, Pineapple cupcakes, Ramadan Iftar food, Roofza, Roofza with milk, Rooh Afza, Zucchini Pakora