Fourth of July Foods

In case you haven't guessed, I'm not really much of a grill master. I blame the fact that I don't own a grill (no balcony in my apartment) and my tendency to use more vegetables and less meat. So if you don't think there's enough meat in this post about foods on the 4th, then I'm sorry. Believe me, there was still plenty of grilled chicken to go around...

Besides, those are pineapple chunks wrapped in bacon up there. I got this idea from Mark Bittman, who suggested pineapple wrapped in prosciutto as part of his "101 Fast Grilling Recipes." Nea did all the cooking. Here she is getting excited.
I did make a side dish that was great for garnishing grilled meats. This pickled onions recipe yielded a tasty, vinegary side.
Finally, it's a Fourth of July tradition at my house for my Grandmother to prepare a dessert trifle. She's always kind enough to pretend I helped in some way, though she's the master. Anyway, it's delicious with yogurt, angel food cake, berries and jello.

Kohlrabi Curry / Noolkol Kalan

This recipe was new to me. Unlike many Indian curries, I had never heard of this before cooking it. I googled kohlrabi recipes, and from there I got excited about some curry. Not only did I learn about a new kind of curry, but I also learned how to spell kohlrabi (challenging!).

This particular kind of curry calls for yogurt while cooking. The recipe, which I adapted, explains why/how in a bit more detail. All I know is I love plain yogurt...

Finally, a third lesson: purple kohlrabi are only purple on the outside. I was really hoping this cauliflower-like vegetable would yield a pinkish curry, but no such luck. Once you peal them, green and purple kohlrabi are essentially the same.

Ingredients:
3 kohlrabi, peeled and cubed
2 cups water
6-7 green chillies
2 cups plain yogurt
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 cup coconut (fresh or dry, unsweetened)
1/2 cup cashews
2 tablespoons olive/vegetable oil
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
6-7 curry leaves
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
4-5 dry red chillies, purchased whole but split in half before cooking

Boil kohlrabi in water until soft but not mushy. Ideally, most of your water will have evaporated too. Add turmeric, chili powder, salt and pepper. Mash together green chillies, cumin seeds, cashews and coconut. It should resemble a paste. Add this paste to the kohlrabi and then mix in the yogurt. You can cook the yogurt a little but be very careful not to boil or burn it.
Make some tarka by frying mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilies in oil. Once its nice and cool, add it to the curry. Serve this dish with rice. I used a mixture of brown rice and lentils.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

I love lemons. If I had lived in a cool climate hundreds of years ago, I probably would have asked you for lemons for Christmas. Loving me as you do, you would have bought me several, and I would have baked you a delicious lemon cake as a reward.

Thanks to globalization and fossil fuels, I can now buy lemons any time I want...

But still, a lemon cake was in order. The whole wheat flour made it healthier, but maybe less delicious than this similar smitten kitchen cake. I didn't follow that recipe exactly anyway. My cake was still very tasty and maybe a little healthy.

Ingredients:
1 cup plan, whole milk yogurt, unsweetened
1/4 lemon juice
2 tbs butter
1 cup sugar
Zest of one lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups fresh berries (I used blueberries and a few raspberries)
**You can use frozen berries too**

Grease two small bread loaf pans with the butter, use some cooking spray if surface is uneven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all liquid ingredients and stir well. Add sugar, and stir that well too. Add the dry ingredients and the rest of the butter, and mix until the batter has virtually no lumps. Fold in berries and pour batter into pans. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. It's done when a toothpick comes out clean.