September Foods

I began photographing the food I make starting last month.  To catch up from last month:

Guacamole Salad

I feel less guilty when I eat this as a meal instead of plain chips and guacamole.  I don't know why this is -- both the salad and traditional guac have the same ingredients.  Perhaps it is the same texture difference that delineates baby food from real-person-food.  Either way, this delicious and colorful salad is filling and fresh, sweet and bitter, crunchy and soft all in one bite.  Unlike regular guacamole, though, the avocados must be at perfect ripeness.  Having large chunks of avocado in the salad is not forgiving!

Mini Frittatas

One of my friends, B, makes frittatas all the time.  They are easy and they are a great way of cleaning out your fridge the morning (or night) before going grocery shopping.  Problem is, I do not own a pan that may be used both on the stovetop and in the oven.  To avoid purchasing a cast iron skillet or a dutch oven, I baked by frittatas in a cupcake pan.

These were delicious but this method had its problems.  The frittatas stuck to the nonstick pan and I was only able to salvage 2/3 of the piece when removing them; this photo tries to hide their undersides.  Cupcake-sized frittatas have more surface area in contact with the pan than do traditional ones, so I ended up losing more food this way.

Beef Curry

A year ago I purchased almost two dozen bottles of spices from a shop in New Delhi.  The simple instructions written on each bottle's label does not mention proportions, so I am on my own to figure out what amount of curry I would like to add.  This was a simple stew of onions, tomatoes, and beef with "Meat Masala" mixed in.  Next time I will use less masala because I don't want to clear my sinuses during lunch at work!