INDIANTOWN —The award for cleverest name goes to … Dee-Stefano’s Restaurant & Pizzeria at 15510 S.W. Trail Drive in Indiantown.

The 11-year-old restaurant specializes in homemade Italian, cooked to order, from recipes handed down through Dee Woods’ Italian family. “She’s our quality-control officer,” Steve Woods said.

Dee Woods tests the food and can taste subtle differences; she can tell instantly if anything has been changed, right down to the tomatoes used for her special-recipe tomato sauce, he said.

Steve Woods, who in summer 1999 was postmaster in Jensen Beach, bought into a pizzeria he frequented. three months later, the previous owner sold to the Woodses outright and their vision of Italian cuisine was born.

“We’re from Brooklyn and I tell people this is Brooklyn home cooking,” he said. “Every dish is made from scratch; the alfredo, the Francaise, the Marsala.”

Steve Woods said the most popular dishes are chicken Francaise and coconut-crusted grouper.

Pizza always is popular, including a pizza and subs made with their special-recipe flatbread made in the store.

From the catering menu, the stuffed mushrooms with Marsala sauce are the top appetizers, he said.

Dee-Stefano’s is open for lunch and dinner seven daily. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. Lunches, served until 2 p.m., start at $3.99; an early bird menu starts at $5.99 and dinners are priced from $7.99. The phone number is (772) 597-5600.

Hunting for a meal in Indiantown, or anywhere on the Treasure Coast? Visit www.TreasureCoastDining.com, the easy way to search for information about the hundreds of area restaurants. It’s a free service of Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and TCPalm.com.

It is my passion for learning that keeps sending me back to India.

The country has so much to offer in terms of culture, history, landscape, its people and, of course, its great diversity of food. After each visit, I try to incorporate the different techniques and spice combinations I’ve discovered into new dishes at home or at the restaurant.

On my last trip, I took 12 foodies to the East Rajasthan area. Food and spices were our main focus, and I wanted everybody to take a cooking class almost every day.

After a few days of travel, we arrived at a place called Chhatra Sagar in Nimaj. the setting was beautiful: luxurious tents running along a dam that had been built by Late Thakur Chhatra Singh Ji, bordering a wild bird sanctuary. the cuisine reflected the family’s continued status among the other maharajas of the state.

After our arrival, we were greeted with marigold garlands, refreshing drinks and the most delicious home-cooked meal. the dishes had no names, but they were beyond tasty. I realized, who cares what a dish is called as long as it tastes good and the flavours are well balanced? It’s the direction I feel high-end Indian food is heading: Food should be flavourful, with spices and textures that come together – not just a big bowl of muddled sauce.

Later, the owners showed us how to make “Maas ka Sula,” a traditional dish of marinated meat, cooked slowly over fire on skewers. the owners had updated it by adding flavours they had perfected over the years.

After eating, we built a huge fire in the middle of the tents. Everybody sat around drinking and exchanging stories. but all I could think about was food, and how it is important not to compartmentalize recipes, but to evolve with the cuisine and culture.

I believe that Indian food is versatile and the time has come to, while respecting tradition, start improvising in new directions. even French and Italian cooking has been modernized by great chefs: They have kept the basis intact but have built new ways of presenting and doing things. Indian food will continue to evolve as upcoming chefs in Delhi and Bombay – and home cooks such as yourselves – grow more confident in their abilities.

The following recipe is my interpretation of Maas ka Sula. use a barbecue on low heat to achieve the desired effect. it may be different – but that’s okay.

Maas ka Sula

Ingredients

1 kilogram lean mutton or lamb from saddle and leg

60 grams onion, thinly and evenly sliced

6 grams red chilies, powdered

12 grams of garam masala ground in 1/2 cup of drained yogurt. Mix the garam masala in the yogurt

30 millilitres (1 ounce) cold water

3 grams raw papaya, peeled and ground

Method

Clean, wash and wipe the meat. Remove the white membrane completely from the surface of the meat. with a sharp knife, cut 1/4-inch pieces and about 2×2 squares. Gently flatten the pieces by beating both sides with a wooden hammer or with the back of a heavy knife. Wet the hammer or knife with a little water to avoid sticking.

Heat the ghee and fry sliced onions to a golden brown. Remove and grind with water.

Mix salt, red chilies, garlic, garam masala yogurt and raw papaya into the meat. Add fried ground onions and cold water. Finally, add papaya and mix well.

Marinate the meat for an hour.

Take an 18-inch skewer and pass the skewer through the centre of each piece of meat. Pack the pieces closely, levelling the masala in between the pieces.

Preheat the barbecue for 10 minutes and then bring it down to low. Rest the skewers on a platform, at both ends of the fire, so the meat pieces remain 4 inches above the fire. Keep rotating the skewer to cook the meat evenly, and continue until it’s tender and well-browned. the flames should not touch the meat. it is a slow cooking process, so it depends on the barbecue.

Remove the meat from the skewers and put them on a serving tray. Serve at once.

The masala rub should be around the meat. if it is slightly runny, then baste the meats while cooking with the left-over rub. Serves 4 to 6.

PARIS (AFP) – A 32-year-old French chef who serves tea to match her Chinese-themed dishes won a precious star in the latest edition of France’s prestigious Michelin restaurant guide released on Monday.

The honour for Adeline Grattard, 32, and Yam’Tcha, her small restaurant near Paris’s Louvre museum, was a break from the norm for the 101-year-old guide, sometimes criticised as too traditional and out-of-touch.

Grattard attributes the success of the restaurant — which opened just a year ago — partly to her Chinese influences, which are less common in Paris than the Japanese or Thai fusion practiced by other French chefs.

Yam’Tcha serves dishes such as mushrooms and chestnuts accompanied by carefully chosen vintage Chinese teas, or suckling pig with aubergines set off by a spicy red Cotes du Rhone wine.

As rumours of her star circulated in the weeks before the guide’s release, the chef told AFP that being a woman had also given her an edge among France’s male-dominated kitchens.

“That has played a part. not many women set up all by themselves,” said Grattard, who previously worked for two years in Hong Kong where she lived with her Chinese husband.

“I saw and ate lots of things there. my chef encouraged me to bring back whatever I wanted from the market to try it out,” she said.

The guide’s editor-in-chief, Jean-Luc Naret, said he saw a brave new world taking shape as, in the wake of the economic crisis, young itinerant chefs like Grattard come home to France to roost.

“There has been a real explosion of young chefs who are setting the trend. they travel the world and come back with new cooking techniques,” he told AFP ahead of Monday’s release.

“There are more and more Japanese chefs in the kitchen in France and more and more women. the next few decades there will be more of a female influence, I hope.”

Critics have accused the Michelin guide of a blinkered attitude to foreign-influenced cuisine in favour of traditional high-class fare.

“One day Michelin is going to have to explain why it does not open its eyes to gastronomic reality,” wrote Francois Simon, the influential food critic for Le Figaro newspaper, earlier this month.

“It continues to push gastronomically correct cooking, sticking French cuisine in a genteel rut, underestimating the world of bistrots and letting itself be forever impressed by heavy, painstaking work,” he wrote.

“The guide used to be a Bible — now it is losing touch with food enthusiasts.”

Its headline choices were more low-key, however, than last year, when it awarded three stars to a restaurant favoured by President Nicolas Sarkozy, at Paris’s Le Bristol hotel, and two to British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

This time it crowned one new three-star restaurant: L’Auberge du Vieux Puits, a traditional eatery that opened in 1992 in Fontjoncouse, a remote village in southwestern France near the Mediterranean coast.

There are only 26 three-star restaurants in France.

The 2010 guide gave 10 restaurants two stars — itself quite an honour, as this brought the number of two-star eateries up to only 77 across France — and 47 won one star, bringing the number to 455.

Naret said that in the wake of the economic downturn the cooking world on the whole was “getting back to its roots,” focussing on local seasonal produce after years of globalised extravagance.

“Thanks to the crisis, a lot of restaurants are also going to have to reinvent their style of cuisine,” he told AFP.

“Chefs are going back to grandma’s recipes with new techniques and regional produce that is more affordable and unfussy.”

Check out more food recipes!

Cod fish recipes are delicious, healthy, and an easy way to make dinner. The great thing about cod fish is that you can make it in a variety of ways. you could bake it or fry it. you can dress it up with vegetables or you can serve the dish bare. The great thing about the dishes is that you can take what you like and incorporate it into the dish to make for a truly unique and delicious meal. you can’t go wrong when it comes to making cod fish.

First, when choosing between recipes, consider your needs. Do you want something healthy? If so, avoid frying the fish, as it isn’t the healthiest of ways to prepare the dish. Do you want something flavorful? Then consider choosing a recipe that involves using a variety of vegetables or sauces. Do you want something simple? If so, consider a bare-bones recipe that focuses on preparing the cod fish without any other garnishes or ingredients.

Also, consider the amount of time you have to make this meal. If you’re in a rush, you may not want to prepare sauces to soak or coat the fish in. Know the amount of time you have to spend making cod fish recipes before looking for the right one for your meal. Also, consider where or not you want fresh or frozen cod fish.

The following is just one of the many cod fish recipes you can make for yourself for others. though easy to make and inexpensive, this recipe will taste like a dish you might have a fine dining establishment. The recipe is simple and involves tomatoes and cheese, but otherwise, its fairly bare bones.

First, you will need to know your ingredients. you will need: 1 1/2 pounds of frozen cod fillet, 1 teaspoon of butter, salt and pepper, four sliced tomatoes, Swiss cheese (as much as you’d want on the fish), and 1/2 cup of half and half.

To make the cod fish recipe, first remove the fish’s skin and bones. Dry the fish using a paper towel. Your oven should be preheated at 375 degrees. Take the butter and melt it. Take your fish and top it with the tomato slices. Sprinkle on as much cheese as you’d like, pour the cream on the fish, and add the butter to a baking dish or pan. you are now ready to bake your fish. Cook your cod fish for 25 minutes or until the fish appears to flake.

You can of course substitute many of the ingredients. for example, if you dislike Swiss cheese, you could always go with cheddar cheese. If you dislike tomatoes, you could always use green peppers instead.

Candis Reade is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

To learn more about Cod Fish Recipes, please visit Fish Recipes Online for current articles and discussions.

When Health magazine promoted “Your new Favorite Dinners” in its December issue, there was just one problem: the dinners weren’t exactly new.

Real Simple, which like Health is owned by Time inc., had created and run essentially the same five recipes, for dishes like chicken with roasted sweet potatoes, in its February 2009 issue. Health had slightly revised them and added nutrition facts. It also republished the original photographs.

In Chinese culinary culture, rice is an integral part, no doubts. apart from cheapness, satisfaction and great taste, it can also be used in diverse ways.

Both steamed and fried rice are very common, generally accepted and are usually used as complementary dishes to many other meals. Cultivation of rice has been for several thousands of years in China, and even till this moment despite China’s transformation from a subsistent Agrarian nation to a manufacturing behemoth.

If you have learned how to cook ordinary rice, try it out first before attempting to prepare Chinese rice.

Cooking rice may appear simple but, this is not absolutely true. it can get messed up anytime and in many ways.

Those things that spoil rice include having water in excess, having too little water, overcooking, undercooking and burning. all of these are mistakes that easily made.

The Chinese recipes standards usually require an exact type of rice that is cooked in a specified way so if you have been think your jasmine rice will taste just as good a little crispy, you are very wrong.

Indecently cooked rice can reduce even the most superb Chinese recipe to something very irritating and the reaction from those you had planned to entertain might make you stay away from cooking it for a long time.

Rice cooking has been made easy with the invention of rice cooker; they are quite cheap and user friendly.

If you strictly follow the directions, you will definitely not make a good meal but if you don’t the rice cooker won’t make a difference. it will just be like any other cooking pot in your kitchen.

In many countries, Japanese restaurants are great places to hang out in, as the food tastes great, and the ambience is cool and relaxed. more and more people are becoming fans of Japanese food, as it is also very healthy; making them look for Japanese food recipes. There are many different dishes offered in Japanese restaurants, and two of the favourites are teriyaki and tempura. to show that Japanese food recipes are easy to follow, we will look at how these two are prepared.

Teriyaki sauce is an example of a Japanese food recipe that’s easy to follow. There are plenty of foods that use teriyaki sauce, and it is certainly a great addition to meats, giving it a tangy and sweet taste. you will need a half cup of soy sauce and a half cup of mirin, or Japanese cooking wine. Pour both into a pan and stir. put it in low heat and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Let cool and place into a jar. Pour onto beef or chicken for a sweet sauce.

Many people cannot resist tempura. This is good food that can be eaten as part of a meal, or even as a snack. Best of all, tempura batter can be done so easily. all you need is an egg, a cup of ice water, and a cup of all-purpose flour. Beat the egg in a bowl and add the ice water in. Slowly add in the sifted flour and mix lightly. Dip the shrimps into the batter and fry. If you are making vegetable tempura, make sure you fry the vegetables first before the shrimps or seafood.

These two are favourites among Japanese food enthusiasts, but are very simple to make. now you can enjoy these foods in your own home, and serve them to friends and family.