Melon Papaya Salad with Honey-Lime-Mint Dressing

I had sort of taken a break from blogging for a couple of weeks and I have noticed that this is becoming a trend for me during summer. Even last summer I stayed away from blogging for a while. I think its because a lot of outdoor activities, travel etc come into your weekend and weekday routines that atleast I find myself staying at home way less during summer than at other times. So as I spend less time at home, I cook less, photograph less, stay in front of the computer less and as a result blog less. See the connection? Any "cooking", if at all you can call it that, I do these days is make icecreams!! Lots and lots of it! But sadly, I am yet to take any pictures of it, so the icecream posts will just have to wait till then. Meanwhile, I leave you to enjoy this simple refreshing summer salad that I made recently. Chill in the refrigerator before serving and/or serve with some icecream on the side!

Melon Papaya Salad with Honey-Lime-Mint Dressing -  The Recipe

1 small watermelon, seeds removed and balled

1/2 ripe papaya, seeds removed and balled

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint

2 tbsp honey

juice of 1 lime

1/ 4 tsp salt

Mix the olive oil, mint, honey, lime and salt together. Combine the melon and papaya balls - the fruits can also be cut into little pieces instead of balling them and you can use other fruits like strawberry, pineapple, mango etc. Add hte dressing to the fruit mix and toss well. Refrigerate to chill a little and serve chill as is or with some icecream of your choice.

Enjoy the summer!

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Brunchtime Seattle : Portage Bay Cafe & ART Restaurant & Lounge– Four Seasons

It has been a while since a restaurant review has been posted here at Mirch Masala. I have been pretty busy lately and have been mostly concentrating on making and photographing something blog worthy and somehow managing to post at least one recipe a week. Going at that rate I don’t think I will write a full-fledged restaurant review for a long time. Also, after reading Dianne Jacob’s Will Write for Food I have been very skeptical about writing any reviews at all. The amount of trips made to a particular restaurant, the kind of observations made – most of the time I don’t even do half of that.But I want to put it out somewhere – the new places we try out, whether I recommend it or not, what I like and not like about it etc. So, consider these as just pure personal recommendations from a friend who has dined at a restaurant and sharing her experiences / views with you.

Because of these various reasons, I have decided to start writing mini reviews – just including what we ate, whether we liked it or not, whether we will go back there or not etc ad of course some pictures. That way it will be a quick list for someone wanting to know where to dine in Seattle and surrounding areas.

Portage Bay Cafe We thought going to Portage Bay on a weekday ( a holiday weekday! so maybe that counts as a weekend) will be a good idea as we will be able to avoid the crowd, but we were totally wrong. The place was packed! We had to wait for 20 mins before we got a table – not complaining. We were super hungry and ordered the Goat Cheese Omelette -

Organic baby spinach, mushrooms, green onions and Laura Chenel goat cheese. Garnished with nicoise olives - $12, the Rancher’s Breakfast - 

Three organic eggs any style, your choice of pepper bacon, black forest ham or Isernio’s chicken-basil sausage and two organic pancakes or two slices of challah French toast. Includes a trip to the toppings bar - $13, with the sausage and the pancakes and a

French Toast - Three slices of organic challah bread are dipped in organic egg batter and grilled - $10. I thoroughly enjoyed the Goat Cheese Omelette and AJ had a hearty breakfast with the Rancher’s breakfast he ordered.

The French toast was meant to be shared but what with so much food that we ate already, we had to box it. The best part of the brunch was the trip to the toppings bar – mind you, only one trip allowed and you can take all you want but you have to eat all you take! Overall it was a great experience although I would have liked it a little less crowded – but I think we just ended up being there at their peak -est time.

Price: $$ (10-15 per entree)
Ambiance: 3.5/5
Food: 3.5/5

Overall: 3.5/5
Will I go there again? Definitely!

ART Restaurant & Lounge - Four Seasons

ART is the place to go to if you have out of towners, you show them around the Pike Place Market and want to head in to a fancier place to eat – modern chic is how it can be best described. This place has lovely breathtaking views of the bay as well. We went here during a sunny Sunday with some friends, of course with a trip to the market later.

Between the four of us we ordered the

Crab Cakes -

sweet butter, cured lemon, garlic, chives 15,

Three Egg Omelette -

choice of three fillings:

ham, smoked salmon, aged cheddar, fresh herbs, vine-ripened tomatoes, mushrooms, grilled onions, spinach, peppers 15,

Eggs Benedict -

applewood smoked bacon, hollandaise sauce 15,

Smoked Salmon Benedict -

hollandaise sauce 18 and shared the

Belgian Waffles -

warm maple or chocolate syrup 14. The food was fresh and tasty but best of all I liked the little tomato tartlets and the roasted potatoes that came on the side. Overall the food was ok, nothing that knocked my socks off,the prices a little on the higher side for the kind of food and the quantity of food served but the view totally compensated for it.

 

Price: $$$ (15-25 per entree)
Ambiance: 4.0/5
Food: 2.5/5

Overall: 3.0/5
Will I go there again? Maybe

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Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

Looks like summer has finally decided to grace us folks here in Seattle. The temperatures have been in the 80s for the last two days and is forecasted to increase or stay the same for some time to come. We have a camping trip planned for the weekend and hope this awesome weather stays so till then. Now I can start making all those summer dishes that I have been waiting to make. I bought an icecream maker last weekend and have the perfect icecream recipe for this weather. I just need to make some space in my tiny freezer. So, till then I leave you with this easy steamed dumpling recipe.


Ingredients:

12-15 dumpling / gyoza wrappers 1/2 cup chopped napa cabbage 1/4 cup carrots cut match-stick size / grated 2 stalks scallions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp grated ginger 1 egg,beaten 1 tbsp soy sauce 1/2 tsp hot sauce (Sri Racha) 1 tsp hoisin sauce 2 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped salt, if needed freshly ground black pepper water to seal the wrapper

Mix together all the ingredients except the wrappers and water in a medium bowl for the filling. Take one wrapper and slowly smear some water around the edges with your finger. Spoon enough of the filling on the wrapper in the center – avoid the water smeared edges. Now fold the wrapper with the filling intact inside but do not make the two sides meet. Make the sides meet on just one end. Keeping one of sides as it is, fold the other side and keep pressing it on to the intact side, till you reach the other end of the wrapper. I know the step sounds confusing as I write it. I tried to take some step by step pictures but I am not sure they came out all that well for you to understand clearly.

 
If it is still confusing, here is a great video from which I learnt how to fold the dumplings.

Once one dumping is done keep it covered so that it does not dry out and repeat with the others till the wrappers or the filling is over.

 
Steam it in a bamboo steamer or any other steamer of your choice till the wrapper becomes a little transparent which tells that it is done. If you are using a bamboo steamer like I did, line it with parchment or wax paper ir else the dumplings will stick to it.

Variations : You can easily make a meat dumping by adding some ground meat or chicken to it.

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