Michelle's yummy tacos and creamy cilantro dip

I told Michelle I'd post a photo of her meal from last week as a little push to try to get her to post her recipes on our blog. The creamy cilantro dip was good. Spicy. Made you eat a lot till your mouth was burning, and then inexplicably eat more.

Sunflower seed pasta sauce and Summer fruits with ginger syrup

I'm way behind - that's what happens when school is back in session. I'm determined to catch up though - two weeks of meals to write up.

My Austinmamas group has a wonderful side group called the Austin Red Tent, that runs foodtrees, does laundry, runs errands, and whatever else might be useful for any of our members in need of help. After my last birth, this group did such wonders helping me out, while I was stuck on a couch with extreme anemia for a few months. So, I am paying back. I track all pregnant ladies in AM and coordinate the arrangements for a redtent for them once they've given birth, and then I often provide one of the meals for these mamas.

Last week was the first week of classes, plus the kid's dad was out of town, so things were really busy and I needed a quick and easy meal for food coop. I cooked my standby fast redtent dish - Spaghetti with Roasted Capsicums, Sunflower Seeds and Sundried Tomatoes - from Cooking with Kurma. I've been asked for the recipe for this pasta sauce many times, having made it for many families. I've never got around to typing it out until now. By the way, capsicum = australian for bell pepper. Kurma Dasa, a Hari Krishna, is a cooking celebrity back home in Australia, with a popular cooking show and a number of recipe books. His recipes introduced me to asafoetida - a really interesting spice used in indian and persian cooking with a number of names, most notably "hing". Hare Krishnas do not eat garlic or onion, but use asefetida as a substitute. My two standard tomato based pasta dishes are from his cookbooks and use this spice. They are, obviously, delicious.  Asafoetida is ground up resin-like gum that comes from the sap from the stem and roots of Ferula Assafoetida. It is no coincidence that its name makes you think of the word fetid. This stuff really stinks, but with magic similar to Thai fish sauce, something stinky added to a dish makes it taste all kinds of wonderful. It's hard to find in Austin. Neither Central Market, nor HEB carries it. I haven't tried Whole Foods. Wheatsville sometimes carries it. I ended up ordering online a stash from Frontier Spices, because I didn't find it though Penzeys, my usual favourite online spice supplier.

In the middle of summer, the easiest dessert to make is fruit salad. We'd already had a few fruit salads, but I wanted to keep things easy, so I looked for an easy fruit salad that was a little different than usual, and emphasized some of the fruits more specific to this time of the year. I found a recipe in an old Bon Appetit magazine that fitted the bill, and am glad to report that it was very fast, easy, tasty, and different from the normal - Fresh Summer Fruit in Ginger-Wine Syrup, using nectarines, peaches, raspberries, and figs. I made a double batch, and it was a good amount of fruit. I still have half the syrup left over, so I think you could safely halve that part of the recipe.

Spaghetti with Roasted Capsicums, Sunflower Seeds and Sundried Tomatoes
from Cooking with Kurma, by Kurma Dasa.
Feeds 4 (I doubled the recipe)

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup raw hulled sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
2 red capsicums, roasted, seeds and membranes removed, cut into thin strips and then chopped.
   (To save time, I buy a jar of roasted red peppers and use 1/3 - 1/2 jar.)
1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained, chopped
2 Tbsp oil from sundried tomatoes
3 cups tomato puree
   (I use one large can of Muir farms diced tomatoes pureed with my stick blender)
1.5 tsp salt
   (I halve this)
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1-2 tsp sugar
   (I use 2 tsp)
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped.
1 packet linguine
parmesan (optional - I don't use it)

Chop the capsicums, sun-dried tomatoes, basil. Puree the tomato. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the sunflower seeds and saute until they start to brown. Sprinkle in the asafoetida powder and swirl to mix. Add the red peppers and stir briefly. Add the rest of the ingredients, saving a little basil to add at the end. Bring to the boil, and simmer, while stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta. Serve garnished with basil and topped with parmesan if you like.