Meals – Page 8 – The Kitchen Tourist

Moroccan Orange and Date Salad

This is one of the most attractive and unusual salad recipes I’ve found. It goes well with a number of Mediterranean dishes and only takes a few minutes to have ready. I’ve tweaked the recipe to take out the only part I found labor intensive.

Psari Plaki – Greek Fish with Tomato Sauce

My brother made this dish for our Mediterranean dinner yesterday – it was a new recipe for us, but one that stood out, even among some favorite recipes, as one to try again soon. With the help of a food processor, the sauce came together very simply, then the fish went into the oven while the rest of the meal came together and was done very shortly.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

A friend at church today told me her favorite dessert is the peanut butter chocolate cake at Whole Foods. I don’t have a recipe for that exact cake, but I do have a picture of the first cake I baked, from Betty Crocker’s ©1969 cookbook. I will now try to combine my friend’s request and my ~20 year old memories to create a recipe that might just serve the purpose.

Roasted Red Pepper Risotto

Risotto requires a bit of patience, something I’m usually in short supply of on a Monday night. But a last week – when I first said I’d be “restarting this blog” – I came home on a cold dark evening to find no one would be home for a while. I was hungry and felt…

Banana Split Birthday Cake

If you’ve ever baked cornbread or muffins, you can make a really fabulous looking birthday cake with very little trouble. It looks like a fancy bakery creation, tastes wonderful, and is even relatively healthy. Or you can use the cake recipe to just make banana cupcakes.

Homemade Gnocchi

Gnocchi uses very simple ingredients to create something that tastes sublime. Store-bought frozen gnocchi simply can’t compare – but the warnings on the recipes I’d read made me think it must be hard to make. I didn’t find that to be the case when I actually tried it, though you do have to be willing to get your hands a bit messy.

Feasting and Fasting vs. Routine

Friends who attend our occasional feasts sometimes suggest they’d like to sit at our dinner table every night. They probably wouldn’t eat much if they did. We’ve recently had to establish a daily dinner schedule just to make sure we don’t forage grumpily every night out of laziness.

Puerto Rican – Pastelón Plantain Casserole

A wonderful family recipe from my friend Iris – the “structure” is similar to lasagna or moussaka and many other layered casseroles from around the world, but the flavor is completely unique, the faint sweetness of the plantains contrasting with the richly seasoned meat filling.

Sri Lankan Favorites: Pineapple Curry

This unusual, colorful dish is one you can mix up in 10-15 minutes (depending on how fast you chop an onion). If you keep canned coconut milk and pineapple on hand, this is also an easy pantry dish, though it does taste extra special with fresh pineapple.

Sri Lankan Favorites – Fish Cutlets

This recipe works nicely as an appetizer or as a quick main dish. It can be made ahead (mostly) or put together at the last minute. It’s cheap, versatile, and delicious. Of course it’s becoming a regular at our house.