3.13.10 -- Indian

(click on pictures for great close-ups and on the underlined names to jump to the recipe)

Chili-garlic naan with cucumber raita





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Curried deviled eggplants



hard-boiled egg filled with curried eggplant & topped with poppy seeds.
thai & indian eggplants hollowed, roasted, and filled with curried egg yolk, topped with brown mustard seeds.

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Coconut soup with fresh turmeric, ground pistachios, and cilantro



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Coriander-chickpea pancakes with tamarind-date syrup. Fenugreek homefries with ginger ketchup.



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Homemade cardamom ice cream, garam masala blondie, caramel peanuts, mango-turmeric coulis.



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Guests (minus one), hosts





Photographs courtesy of Quin Childs.
Special thanks to Vanya for her post-dinner assistance.

Format Change

Just a quick note. Instead of posting our recipes and reflections as their own posts, we've put them all on a tab up top (we'll leave it to you to figure out which tab it is...)

Also, when browsing through the pictures (which we highly recommend clicking on for beautiful close-ups) and menus, there will be links that will jump directly to the specific recipe of interest on said tab. Yea, we're learning some fancy blog stuff.

Sorry to Pastastic Matt, whose comment got deleted in this change. We couldn't figure out how to move it to the new settings. Chocolate pesto intrigues.

LJ

Next Dinner: "Iron Chef"

For our next dinner, on Saturday April 3rd, we've decided to go in a new direction. We're abandoning the cultural theme and doing a sort of quasi-"Iron Chef" theme. What does this mean for you? You, the diners, will, along with your reservation, e-mail us ONE ingredient* that you want us to use in the dinner. And we will incorporate it in a creative and hopefully (definitely) delicious way. We are now accepting TEN reservations per dinner, so this means we'll have TEN random ingredients to work with. Plus whatever else we get to keep them company. So...make your reservation today! It'll fill up quickly!

*Nothing too weird, too expensive, or meat-based. Please. If you think your ingredient might be one of these things you can send one safer bet.

EXAMPLE:

Dear Jared and Luke,

My name is J****n L***h and I love to eat white truffles. I could eat them by the pound. I would like to reserve a spot at your Iron Chef dinner and my ingredient is white truffles. As a backup, my second favorite thing to eat is shark fin. Bye now.

Love,

J****n

SAMPLE RESPONSE:

Dear Mr. L***h,

You may not attend our dinner.

Best,

Jared and Luke

SEE YOU ALL THERE!!!

3.06.10 -- Italian

Click on pictures for closeups, and names to jump to the recipe.


Homemade crostini with rosemary-grape jam

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Radicchio, arugula, wine-soaked raisins, almonds, ricotta salata, sherry-balsamic vinaigrette



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Baked stuffed lemons & chive arancini with chili-infused olive oil



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Homemade beet & ricotta ravioli with swiss chard pesto

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Homemade dark nutella and caramelized banana panini. Shot of espresso-amaretto milkshake.



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Before the salad course, Luke briefly died, appeared in the dining room to serve the salad as a ghost, then came back to life and continued the dinner as a living, breathing, human. This stunning photograph captures that part of the dinner. Look closely.

The evening's guests with the chefs

Photos courtesy of Catherine Nakajima and Shaheen Lavie-Rouse.