Big Sis Little Dish

Carrot Cardamom Muffins with Coconut Rosewater Icing (Gluten-Free)

I wanted to make a carrot cake inspired by Indian carrot halva for Easter this year. I wanted it to have coconut instead of walnuts and feature cardamom and rosewater. We are spending Easter with my mum on Maui, where I grew up and she still lives. I knew that my mother likes cardamom and…

Creamy Jicama, Kohlrabi and Carrot Slaw with Garlic and Lemon/ Maui Farm Vegetables

I spent the second half of my childhood on the island of Maui. First in the old whaling town and tourist Mecca of Lahaina and later in the scorching hot seaside sprawl of Kihei. When my parents bought their house in Kihei, my mother was eager to start a garden. She had grown up on…

Bittersweet Boozy Goodness- Old Fashioned Orange Marmalade (with bitters and sour cherries)

Just before Christmas, I came home one night to find the teenage daughter of one of my neighbors sitting in our cold and dirty hallway. She was locked out. I invited her into my apartment and offered to feed her dinner. Her mother found the note that we had left her when she came…

Sinister Black Forest Trifle (Gluten-Free)- A birthday treat for the last cruel gasp of winter

I am lucky that I had the help of an award-winning cake decorator and artist (Tony) and also the help of a future surgeon (Bethany) with the decoration of our wedding cake, because if it had been left to me, we would have ended up with wedding trifle. Making pretty cakes is not my forte. I…

Cauliflower Gratin with Horseradish and Poppy Seeds

I just got off the phone with my best college girl friend, Rebecca. We lived together when she was a Sophomore and I was a Junior. We rented the furnished apartment of an old lady in Yonkers. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a great kitchen which flowed in a dining area and then…

Brown Butter, Hazelnut, Buckwheat Financier (Gluten-free)

I eat a lot of egg yolks. Luckily, egg whites freeze well. That said, the collection of egg whites that I have collected in the freezer recently reached a critical mass. I considered making pavlova or macaroons, but these delicious treats are as delicate as clouds and what I really needed was a treat that…

Lemon Mochiko Cake

Mochi flour, also known as mochiko flour, sweet white rice flour or glutinous rice flour is used to make delicious sweet treats in Japan. In Hawaii, where spent the second half of my childhood, American style cakes made with mochiko flour are a very popular treat. It has a springy texture that I love. When…

Sangeeta’s Butter Chicken

This recipe is from my friend Sangeeta, who I met when she generously housed my husband and I in her Delhi apartment. She made this excellent chicken and I begged her for the recipe. I made it for my husband’s birthday in mid December, he requested it again for Christmas eve and it is so…

Better Layered Blini Mushroom Casserole (gluten-free or not)

Last winter I made a Layered Wild Mushroom and Blini Casserole in an attempt to recreate a gluten free version of my favourite dish from the long ago closed House of Blini on East 86th street in Manhattan. For the full story about the inspirations click here. The version last year used wild mushrooms and…

Andalusian Style Honey Lamb Stew

This is my attempt to recreate the best thing that I ate when I visited Seville. I travelled to Spain many years ago now and I do not know why it has taken me so long to attempt to figure out how to make this stew. Seville is in the front of my mind again…