Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

This is a perfect summer cake. There are so many mangoes around and as I have mentioned many times before, we usually have quite a few on hand all the time. My daughter takes one cut up for camp everyday with a slice of cheddar cheese. She enjoys them for her morning snack right after a swim. I am quite happy giving her a healthy fruit and some low fat protein.

Anyway, since there were so many mangoes around, I decided to make a cake- well, it is more like a tea bread.

I blended enough mangoes to equal one cup and made a super fast and easy bread. I love making these kinds of treats that are relatively healthy. I usually pack a slice as dessert for my daughter and give some to my husband as a snack during the day with tea.

To give the cake an extra boost of flavor and a surprise, I added some cardamom. I love mango and floral cardamom together- it makes me want to drink masala tea, lounging in a comfortable chair on my deck…

Make the mango cardamom cake this season…
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I made this dish with the south Indian style chicken I made for my husband the other day. Since I was making dinner, I had to come up with some vegetables to serve with the protein.

I wanted to echo the same flavors I added to the chicken tikkas. I bought a bag of shredded cabbage and I had a head of broccoli. I decided to cook them together and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. I also added shredded coconut that I buy frozen from the Indian stores on Oak Tree road in Edison. They package and freeze fresh, grated coconut- it is great to have on hand for sauteed vegetables or meats and even desserts.

The vegetables took about 20 minutes to cook- so ideal for the summer. I finished the dish off with a good squirt of lemon juice. It wakes up all the flavors and makes everything delicious.

The chicken and the cabbage went really well together. I grilled some corn on the side and also made a garlic bread. It was perfect- we opened a Rose and enjoyed the meal outside….
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These are a one of a kind of tikkas I came up with the other day. I asked my husband what he wanted to eat for dinner. He thought about it and suggested I make something with south Indian flavors. I knew I wanted grill some chicken- so I decided to come up with a recipe for chicken tikkas but not with the usual suspects. I added some south Indian flavors to it.  Instead of the lemon juice, I used tamarind. It provides the same tanginess but also adds an earthy flavor lemons don’t have.

For the spices, I used a combination of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg. I roasted them with curry leaves and ground everything up. Everything was mixed with the greek yogurt and marinated for several hours. It resulted in a super flavorful chicken. Everyone loved it, especially my husband.

I think this chicken will be part of the summer meals repertoire- it is perfect to serve with grilled corn and other vegetables. Try it- you will love it.
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Since I had leftover sweet pepper sauce, I decided to pair it with sausage and pasta. The sauce, I have to say, is delicious. I roasted a red and orange pepper until their skin was charred and the flesh soft. I covered the peppers until the skin became soft enough to peel off. I always have fresh tomato sauce made in the fridge which I added to a blender with the roasted peppers. It created a delicious sauce that consisted of healthy peppers and tomatoes- your kids don’t need to know that.

I bought a weird shaped pasta from the grocery store and cooked it till al dente. I added it to the sausage and sauce and then topped it with a bit of shredded parmesan.

My daughter’s friend was over for dinner. I gave them each serving of pasta and some baby spinach on the side. They ate up the pasta in no time and asked for seconds- to me that is a sure sign of a successful dish!
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This was a great dish I made up the other day. It was one of those days where I had no idea what I was going to make. I looked in my fridge and I had half a cauliflower and a bag of broccoli. As usual, I had sausage in the fridge as well. I took all of those ingredients out and decided to use them for an entree. I roasted them with a drizzle of olive oil until everything was golden brown and delicious. I then added the sweet pepper and tomato sauce to the veggies and sausage and made a delicious concoction.

I could have served it with al dente pasta but I thought of something different- how about polenta?? I had not made polenta in a very long time so I wasn’t sure if I had it in my pantry. I found just enough for the evenings dinner. A lot of people buy the pre-made polenta in a large tube. I don’t think that stuff tastes really good. Make it fresh- it is super simple and delicious. I used a combination of chicken broth, milk, parmesan cheese and a bit of butter. It took all of 10 minutes to make, and I had a delicious, healthy starch to serve for dinner.

I served the vegetables and sausage on top of the warm, creamy polenta. It was unbelievably delicious. It took a bit of convincing for my daughter to try the dish. It was the first time she tried polenta and ate it- I am not sure how happy she was, but she ate it.

Try the roasted cauliflower, broccoli and sausage on polenta- you will love it.
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