Hot From The Kettle ®
Grandma's RecipeHere's a unique salad that Grandma makes for nearly every Summer party. It's crispy, it's sweet, it's savory, and it's the perfect accompaniment for Pulled Pork!
Much of the preparation can be done ahead of time, but the dressing should wait until serving. And remember shake the dressing well!
Ingredients:
For Salad
1 Large Nappa Cabbage
6-8 Green Onions
Between the white picket fence, the soft glow of string lights that traverse the ceiling, and the open air kitchen, Market, 12 Church Street, Montclair, feels a little like someone's backyard barbeque. It's relaxed, intimate, unpretentious and comfortable, but don't let atmoshphere fool you. The food being prepared in the Market kitchen is first class.
On my first visit to Market, I had the pleasure of meeting the extraordinarily talented, humble and soft-spoken Chef Tre Ghosal. Ghoshal, who is of East Indian descent, has been cooking since he was thirteen and joined Market during the restaurant's re-opening in November 2010.
Owners of Market, Joshua Cedarbaum and Adi Hecht, are committed to using organic, sustainable and local products. The Menu offers the "Market Plate," a sampling of the freshest ingredients of the day, manipulated the Chef Tre way. 
During the HFTK visit to Market, Chef Tre prepared two dishes, including the phenom of winter decadence, House-made Spinach Agnolotti stuffed with Humboldt Fog Chevre and Maitake Mushrooms, atop a purple and green kale saute, with white truffle veloute and prosciutto frizzle. Chef, no doubt, is creative, but also remarkably intutive; the combinations played in harmony, and not a single ingredient over powered the others. It was the perfect winter storm, and truly one of the most delicious and satisfying dishes I've ever enjoyed.
Watch the video to see how Chef Tre creates this incredible dish. And when your finished viewing, click here for the recipe, or here to make a reservation at Market.
Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines are two of my Grandmother's biggest heroes. She's a huge fan of boxed cake mix! In fact, she thinks it's absolutely ridiculous when I insist on making a cake from scratch.
Here's the second recipe out of Grandma's Recipe box, a very decadent confection, Death By Chocolate! Although it's incredibly easy, relying heavily on instant ingredients - boxed cake mix, instant mousse and Cool Whip - the tall, chocolately Trifle makes a very impressive appearance.
When I was in college I worked for a man who came from Southern India, his name was Desai. His wife, Lhata, would send us all kinds of southern Indian fare to snack on.
We received packages of spicy naan flecked with fenugreek, yogurt that was sweet and thick and topped with crushed pistachios, and tiny spicy balls. . . . I don’t know what they were, but they were good too.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed all the Indian food I had shared with Desai, I never attempted making it myself. In recent years I have purchased the ready made jars of Maya Kaimal Vindaloo or Coconut Curry from Whole Foods, but I never created an authentic Indian meal.
A few months ago, Hot From The Kettle visited Aroma Palace, 379 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ. When we arrived the lunch buffet was set out, and the diners were filling their plates, for a very reasonable $7.95. The staff were very welcoming and hospitable.
We walked back to the sizable kitchen where we met the chefs, George and Alex. They prepared two Indian dishes, one from the north, Chicken Tikka Masala, and one from the south, Masala Dosa. It was remarkably simple, and quite delicious.
Take a look:
Pineapple FlatLet's dig into the recipe box! The first recipe I've come across is the incredibly flaky, and not overly sweet "Pineapple Flat."
This recipe was first attmpted by my mother when she was 12. It was delicious and everyone in the family wanted the recipe, including Aunt Rosie.
Days later, my grandmother was walking her dog past Aunt Rosie's house when the side door flew open and Aunt Rosie came running out. "You Son-of-Bitch! You said this was easy!" she yelled.
Grandma's wooden recipe boxI've started a new project I call simply, Grandma's Recipes. I plan to forage through her wooden recipe box and sort, organize, type, and ultimatly chronical all of her recipes.
The recipes are not organized a la MS Office; they're not even typed. They're written, by human hand, on index cards of various size and color, or on sheets of folded, lined notebook paper.
There are other recipes that have been cut from newspapers or snipped from magazines, some as far back as fifty years, and some as recent as the latest Taste of Home or Bergen Record.