Kamal Kitchen

Citrus corn and peas salad - Spring's here!

2012-01-25T22:07:00.005-05:00

I know, I know! It's only January and Spring seems far away. But it can't be far behind. And this is a salad or side dish that is sure to perk you up even if there is a raging blizzard outside. It will taste best using fresh English peas and fresh corn on the cob, but you can get away with using frozen stuff too. The star ingredient here is probably the dressing, which is made with fresh squeezed orange juice. Curry powder adds a hint of spice and exotic flavor. This salad is fat free so you can indulge in it upto your heart's content.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 cups green peas

2 cups corn kernels

1 tsp crushed garlic

1 orange juiced

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup orange segments or pulp

salt to taste

Method -

1) If you are using fresh peas or corn, you will need to blanch them first. Boil a pot of water and dunk the peas/corn in the boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2) Prepare the dressing - Squeeze the orange along with the pulp, mix in lemon/lime juice. Add the salt, pepper and curry powder and crushed garlic. Whisk this and add to the corn and peas.

3) Depending on how juicy your orange is, you may add more orange juice if needed. This salad gets tastier with time.

4) Refrigerate at least overnight for the flavors to develop. Serve as a side dish, or use as filling for sandwiches or wraps.

This is a healthy treat you can indulge in. The citrus dressing takes the ordinary corn and peas to a whole new level. If you love the orange element here, be sure to try my Orange couscous salad.

Fat free Stuffed Peppers - Stuffed Shimla Mirch

2012-01-07T00:29:00.006-05:00

Hello and wish you all a very Happy New Year. The New Year generally ends a long period of indulgence that starts with Diwali and ends with Christmas. After so much revelry, most of us are tired of eating the heavy food but are also somewhat addicted to it. The New year is always the time for resolutions to stay on plan, eat healthy etc., and whether you follow it for a long term or not, you definitely end up eating some less calories, which can only be good for you.

One way of reducing a lot of calories from your food is fat free cooking. Some plans such as Eat to Live and McDougall advocate cutting out oil and fats from your diets altogether ( ETL does allow you some nuts and seeds daily). I have bought some books on 'zero oil' cooking from chefs such as Tarla Dalal and Sanjeev Kapoor, but I found that they substituted oil with skim milk or nuts often times. True fat free cooking should have none of the sources of fat. I am not a nutritionist, and not qualified to give anyone advice. So it is up to you if you eat 100% fat free, or eat one dish fat free. You are definitely eating something healthy compared to before.

Stuffed capsicum or stuffed bell peppers have been a favorite in our family for several years. Please do not confuse them with the jumbo peppers stuffed with meat/rice and baked in an oven. This is a purely Indian dish that is generally stir fried in a wok. Potatoes are boiled and mashed along with aromatic spices and stuffed in baby green peppers. These are then stir fried in a wok. This process generally needs a lot of oil, but I managed to make it totally fat free. The trick here is a good non stick pan and a lot of patience. The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

7-8 baby green peppers
4-5 medium potatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp Dry mango or Amchur
salt to taste

Method -

1) Boil, peel and mash potatoes. Add all spices, and mix well. Adjust seasoning. This should be well seasoned.
2) Wash and destem peppers. Remove the seeds and white membranes. If you are lucky, you will get the really small peppers or capsicums. This dish is specifically made with the small sized peppers.
3) stuff the potato mixture in all the peppers. The amount of potatoes needed might vary based on the size of the pepper.
4) Heat a thick bottomed non-stick pan or wok. Add the peppers and do not stir until they get a sear on one side. Turn over gently and sear on the other side.
5) Add a splash or two of water to avoid sticking and cover well. Keep the heat on low and let the peppers steam.
6) Check the water level periodically. After the peppers look almost cooked, remove the cover and heat until the liquid evaporates. Sprinkle some salt on the top of the peppers if needed.
7) The peppers are done when the skins look crumpled and the peppers reduce in size a bit.
8) Serve hot with rotis or rice or just on its own with a salad.

This is a great way to convert a popular favorite into something healthy and is worth a try.

Bharli vangi or Bharva Baingan - stuffed baby eggplants

2011-12-02T03:56:00.000-05:00

This is a classic Marathi or Maharashtrian recipe. As traditional as this is, every family has a twist on it, and will taste different from place to place. Some areas use more oil and heat, others use a lot more sugar. Any which way, this is a delicacy that ranks high among traditional food.

There are a few variations even within our family depending on the person making it, and I have come up with my own favourite over the years. The star here is the 'kala' or black masala that is generally eaten in parts of central India, and which is very much different from the goda masala otherwise common in Marathi households. The baby eggplants/brinjals/vangi themselves are the other main ingredient of course. I like the ones which are deep purple on the outside with very few seeds inside. The eggplants grown along the banks of the river Krishna are also very popular for this dish ( found in places like Sangli, Karad and Kolhapur).

The spice mix forms the secret ingredient here and is actually made up of many different things. A variation in the quanitity and variety of things used change the taste of this dish. I use a combination of nuts/seeds, spices and coconut. The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

10-12 baby eggplants

3 Tbsp peanuts

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 Tbsp dry coconut

2 Tbsp coriander or dhania seeds

1 Tbsp kala or goda masala

2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp turmeric

1-2 Tbsp gur/jaggery/brown sugar

salt to taste

2 Tbsp oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

Method -

1) Wash and clean the eggplants thoroughly. Remove the stems but cutting laterally at the base. Now make one vertical cut through the centre almost all the way down without actually cutting it into two pieces. You should go about 80% of the way down. Place a similar cut at right angles to the first cut.

Now you should have a clover type cut deep into the eggplant. There will be four quarters which are joint at the base. Handle the eggplant delicately from this point since we do not want the parts to separate.

2) Cut the remaining eggplants similarly and place in a tub of water. This is to prevent darkening by oxidation.

3) Dry roast the peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut and dhania seeds one by one and cool. Powder using a spice grinder and set aside.

4) Assemble all the spices in a bowl. Add the powdered mixture, masala, turmeric, cayenne, salt, jaggery or brown sugar and half the chopped onion. Mix this well. Work the jaggery into the mixture so that no lumps remain.

5) Now we start stuffing the eggplants. Remove the eggplants from the water and pat them to remove moisture. Now hold the eggplant in one hand, and place some of the spice mixture into the cut we have made in the eggplant. Eyeball the amount of spice you have and use it such that you have enough to stuff all the baingans.

6) Some mixture will fall into the plate as you stuff it, and that can be reused. All this will eventually become part of the sauce or gravy as the eggplants cook.

7) Heat oil in a heavy pan. Traditionally a kadai or deep stock pot called 'patela' would be used for this. Use a pot with a lid, as we need steam to cook this.

8) Heat the oil and give a tadka of mustard seeds and hing if desired. Or you can also directly add the chopped onion here. Lightly fry the onion until it becomes pink.

9) Place the eggplants along the bottom carefully so that most of them get a sear if possible. Lightly toss them for 2-3 minutes until all of them are coated with the oil. Add any remaining spice mixture to the pot.

10) Add some water, just enough to cover the eggplants and place a lid on it. Use a small to medium flame.

11) Keep storring occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid. The eggplants will soften and reduce in size as they cook. Most of the spice mix will dissolve in the sauce and thicken it.

12) Once the eggplants look to be cooked, remove the lid and add salt to taste if needed. Simmer very slowly now until oil separates. Since we are using peanuts, sesame etc., they will let off a lot of oil.

13) Add more water if needed to thin out the sauce. Traditionally the sauce is thick. Garnish with cilantro or dhania and serve hot.

This vegetable dish is generally served with hot rotis or bhakri, which is a thick roti made from jowar or bajra. The cuisine of Maharashtra is incomplete without 'Bharli vangi'.

Chana Masala with zero oil - High on Flavor

2011-11-24T03:32:00.001-05:00

I dare you to step out of your comfort zone and try this. Not only is this high on flavor, but is also low in calories. Directly minus the calories from the oil you would use otherwise for a chana masala. The trick to this is not harping on the fact that there is no oil here. It takes some time getting used to this type of cooking, but patience and good thick utensils are the trick. A good quality non-stick pan is recommended, but I prefer going with steel. Non-stick is a bit more forgiving, and does not burn your food too soon if you happen to get caught in something else. With the steel, you have to be more vigilant.

I am using a conventional spice combination with a few different ingredients. I am adding some mushrooms here. They are entirely optional but they gave a very strong heady flavour to the dish. I am also using some finely chopped apple as a sweetener, instead of straight sugar or substitutes. Using chopped onions and tomatoes instead of a masala paste makes this chunky and rustic. The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 cups boiled chickpeas

2 medium onions chopped

2 tomatoes chopped

3-4 cloves garlic crushed

4-5 mushrooms chopped

1/4 cup or quarter apple chopped

cilantro for garnish

salt to taste

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 bay leaf
1 tsp coriander or dhania powder
1 -2 tsp Amchur or Dry mango powder

1 Tbsp garam masala OR

( a powder of

1 inch stick cinnamon

1 Tbsp black pepper corns

3-4 green or black cardamoms

5-6 cloves)

Method -

1) Soak chickpeas overnight, pressure cook and set aside, or used canned ones. This recipe will use 1.5 to 2 cans.

2) Finely chop the onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and the apple and set aside.

3) Lightly roast the whole spices and powder. This can be done beforehand and stored in an airtight jar.

4) Take a thick bottomed stock pot, pan or wok. Place on burner and add the onion. Saute a bit and add a splash of water or vegetable broth as onion begins to stick. I generally use a vessel with a lid. This also enables steam cooking.

5) Keep an eye on the onion and cook until it softens and the raw smell goes off. Add more water if needed, and keep stirring.

6) Add the chopped garlic and mushrooms and cover. Add splashes of liquid so that the mixture does not dry out and stick. This is the one step which is very important here, and needs patience.

7) Once the mushrooms reduce a bit, add the tomatoes, stir and cover. Cook until tomatoes soften, adding a little water as needed.

8) Add the boiled chickpeas now with the apple and all the spices. Stir, add more water, about a cup and cover.

9) Bring to a boil and simmer until the gravy thickens and everything comes together.

10) Add salt at the end according to taste and garnish with cilantro. The apple will have dissolved by this time and its flavor is not even noticed.

11) Serve hot with rotis or rice. I served this with some nutty red rice and it made a sumptuous lunch.

This is a great meal idea for those on the McDougall or Eat to Live plans, provided you follow general guidelines regarding salt intake, or how much rice or beans to eat etc.

Churmura Laddu - Low calorie treat

2011-11-15T08:14:00.004-05:00

I have always wanted to make these and always thought it must be complicated. Making the right type of syrup that would hold the scores of churmura or murmura together to actually form a laddu - it seemed impossible. But it has turned out to be deceptively simple.

This is one low calorie treat that you can indulge in without any guilt. Just a cup or so of Gur or jaggery, lots of murmura, maybe some dalia or chana and you have these. The Gur or jaggery gives it a rich flavor thats quite different from white sugar.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1 -1.5 cups jaggery or Gur or brown sugar

4 cups CHurmura

1/2 cup Dalia ( the flat roasted chana dal)

1 tsp cardamom powder

1 cup water

Method -
1) Take a thick bottomed pan or wok. Add the gur/jaggery and the water. Stir on a low flame until the sugar dissolves and becomes syrupy. Keep heating until a 'goli band' syrup is formed. This means that a drop of the syrup added to a cup of water should solidify immediately.

2) Switch off heat and add the chana/dalia and the churmura. Stir to mix well until the syrup evenly coats the churmura.

3) Place a dollop on your palm and roll to form laddus or balls, slightly larger than a ping pong ball. The laddus will harden right away as the syrup hardens.

4) This should make about 40 laddus.

This is not only low calorie but also economical, and a quick snack on the go for kids and adults both. A great way to satisfy that sweet tooth!

Tofu Kebabs or Tofu Paneer Tikka - Pan grilled perfection

2011-11-06T09:17:00.000-05:00

Its been a long time since I have had time to blog about something. This is something I make often and is a favourite but seems so commonplace to us that it does not feel like something you would blog about. I make this with tofu, but the same technique can be applied to paneer. This is essentially like the paneer tikka you would get at restaurants. I stumbled onto a technique where i grill it in a pan for some time, and then just hold it over the gas flame at the end. This chars it a bit at the edges and gives a slight smoky flavor like you would get on a tandoor or grill.

The absolute main ingredient here according to me is Shan masala - either for tandoori chicken or tikka. Yes, it has some color, probably, and also has some raw papaya which acts as a tenderizer. Although that's not needed for tofu, it does change the texture a bit. I am using some yogurt in the marinade, but it can easily be replaced by vinegar or fresh lime juice to completely veganize this. The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1-2 packets tofu

2 large onions

2 large peppers any color

2-3 tomatoes

2-3 Tbsp Shan chicken tikka masala or more

1/2 cup low fat yogurt

Chat masala to sprinkle

wooden skewers

Method -

1) Prep all the vegetables and the tofu. Drain the tofu and cut in medium sized chunks and set aside in a bowl. Cut the vegetables in medium squares similar to the tofu. Place them in a seperate bowl. The onion should be in thick chunks. Deseed the tomato and cut it similarly.

2) Add the shan masala and half yogurt to the tofu. This is quite spicy so use it sparingly. You will know how much to use per your taste once you use it a few times. Toss lightly and set aside.

3) Marinate the vegetables similarly using the yogurt and some of the shan masala.

4) Marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour and even overnight if you are prepping in advance.

5) Alternately thread the tofu and the veggies into the skewers. e.g onion, tomato, pepper, tofu and alternate.

6) Place on a hot non stick pan and keep turning delicately. Once the liquid evaporates and the veggies shrink a bit or look done, hold these skewers over a gas flame one at a time. This can be done by using some type of pliers or tongs. Hold the skewers over the flame for a minute or two until there are one or two char spots.

7) Serve these hot, sprinkled with chat masala ( optional). This tikka is a great appetizer or entree. It can be served over a bed of rice, over some salad or just on its own with some pudina chutney.

Roasted Corn Salsa - Fresh and tangy

2011-10-01T00:30:00.000-04:00

This is a quick and easy fresh recipe that is sure to bring a zing to your taste buds. While I like the convenience of pouring salsa out of the bottle, there is something about fresh made salsas that no gourmet labelled salsa can compete with. The most basic salsa anyone can make would be pico de gallo, and this corn salsa is an extension of that. I am using fresh roasted corn and wholly recommend it for this particular recipe, instead of frozen or canned corn. The roasted corn gives a smoky flavor to the dish, which can be augmented by using chipotle powder if you like.

This salsa can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to a week. I do not think it will last longer, since it will be gobbled up long before that :). This is great for chips, in sandwiches or wraps etc. I served it alongside quesadillas for a fresh and tangy balance to the heavy cheese. The recipe follows -

Ingredients -

1 ear of corn or 'maka' or 'bhutta'

1 small onion

3-4 fresh tomatoes

1/2 to 1 jalapeno or other mild green chili

1/2 capsicum or green bell pepper

1 lime

1/2 tsp cumin or jeera powder

1/2 tsp sugar

salt to taste

Method -

1) Remove the green husks from the corn. Roast the corn over a gas flame slowly. If the gas flame is too high, the corn will burn and we do not want that. You may also roast it over charcoal if available. Keep turning the corn gradually until the whole surface is uniformly roasted and looks almost black. Set aside to cool.

2) Chop other veggies and add to a bowl. Finely chop a small shallot or onion. De-seed the jalapeno or other green chili you are using. Chop the tomatoes and the bell pepper/capsicum. Add seasonings such as salt, cumin powder, pinch of sugar and fresh lime juice. Mix well.

3) After the corn cools enough to handle, cut away the corn kernels with a knife. Hold the corn vertically with one hand, resting the tip against a surface/plate. Use a knife to scrape down the corn kernels with the other hand. **This could be tricky the first time.

Another option is to remove the kernels with your hand, plucking them off the cob.

4) Add the corn kernels to the rest of the veggies. Mix well. Adjust seasonings and add more lime juice if needed. Add a dash of hot sauce or cayenne pepper if you need more heat.

5) Add some fresh chopped cilantro/dhania/coriander leaves for added flavor and a nice garnish.

6) Refrigerate this for at least a couple of hours before serving.

This is a fat free healthy vegan and vegetarian side dish that can perk you up any time. Have you tried this yet?

Pav Bhaji -homemade yet streetwise

2011-09-23T03:26:00.000-04:00

Pav Bhaji hardly needs any introduction. It is one of the most popular street foods in Maharashtra, originating in the city of Bombay. It is said ( several internet sources) that mill workers in the 60s hardly got enough time to have any proper food during their short breaks. And Pav bhaji was born.

Pav bhaji is made with a melange of vegetables, typically potatoes, cauliflower, green peas, peppers and tomatoes, a bunch of spices, and a slab of butter. Everything is mashed up really good and this is dished up with dinner rolls fried or toasted in butter. I remember when the first Pav bhaji cart showed up in our city. It was everyone's favourite thing. I think the winning factor here is the unique spicy taste, the tang - coming from loads of tomatoes and fresh squeezed lemons, and the butter which clogs the arteries but lifts your senses.

I have typically made many healthier versions of this, using Country crock or 'I can' believe..' type spreads, and lotsa of different kinds of veggies. But this one is true to its street roots. Please feel free to add any other veggies you like, or use margarine or butter substitutes.

I have also made my own dry spice mix here, instead of using the standard Everest or Badshah pav bhaji masala. It makes a big difference and is worth a try.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

potatoes - 4-5 medium

tomatoes - 4-5 roma or vine ripe

onions - 2 medium

cauliflower - 1 small head

peas - 1 cup

green bell pepper - 1

carrot - 1

dinner rolls/dollar rolls - 4 per person or more

Butter - 2 sticks or more OR 150 g

salt to taste

1-2 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger and garlic

1-2 cups tomato puree or tomato sauce

Garnish -

finely chopped cilantro

Lemon wedges

finely chopped onion

Dry spice Mix -

1 Tbsp dhania seed or coariander seed

1 Tbsp jeera seed or cumin seeds

1 Tbsp amchur powder or dry mango powder

1 tsp sunth or dry ginger powder

1 tsp fennel seeds or saunf

2 large black cardamom

1 inch cinnamon

10 cloves

2 tsp black peppercorns

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 star anise

Method -

1) For the dry spice mix - Lightly roast the seeds without burning. Cool and powder in a spice grinder. Add the remaining powders and mix well. Transfer to an air tight jar.

This is cayenne or mirchi free and salt free, and lets you add the spice level without increasing the heat or making the dish too salty.

2) Boil the potatoes, peel, mash and set aside.

3) Chop onions and tomatoes. Chop the cauliflower florets in a food processor until they are almost a fine powder, or grate them. Thaw the peas and puree them in the food processor.

Grate the carrot. Chop the green pepper also in the food processor. Set these aside seperately.
4) Heat oil in a heavy bottomed skillet. Use veg or canola oil.

5) Add the chopped onions and saut them until soft. Add the ginger and garlic. Make sure it does not burn or stick.

6) Add the chopped tomatoes and keep frying until the oil leaves the sides.

7) Seasoning method - This dish has a lot of layers, and a Big yield. So I always season in layers or 'as I go'. I add a little salt and the Pav Bhaji Masala after every vegetable I add. This makes sure that the veggies cook in the spices and take on an intense flavor.

8) generally my quick method for this is to pressure cook all veggies together, and then dumo them in the onion tomato masala we fried earlier. But as I said, this time I am following the street method, and the slightly slower method. It makes a HUGE difference taste wise.

9) Add carrots to the onion tomato mixture in the wok. Season with a little salt and pav bhaji masala. Add a dab of butter.

10) Fry the carrots for a few minutes until they soften. Use a masher to mash everything together. Add the grated cauliflower.

11) Repeat above steps. Add seasonings and butter. Let it cook until the cauliflower gets incorporated into the whole mixture. Keep mashing periodically.

12) Add the green peas and green pepper now. Again add seasonings and butter. Mix well and stir together. Mash periodically.

13) Add the mashed potaotes now. Use the masher to mix it all together. Check seasonings. Add some more butter.

14) Add the tomato sauce or tomato puree. Check all seasonings and add enough salt, cayenne and spice mix to your taste.

15) Heat some butter in a pan. Lightly toast the dinner rolls or bread in the pan in the butter.

16) To serve - Dish up the bhaji or vegetable in a bowl. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top. Add chopped onions and cilantro. Dig in!!

Additional Method -

If you have ever seen a pav bhaji stall or 'thela', you know they have this really big griddle on which the bhaji is already made. TO serve the bhaji, they heat some butter in the center, add spices, and add a ladle or two of the veggie mix. They add some water ( and red color too), and mix it all up before serving.

I used this method at home this time. Even though time consuming, it lets you customize a lot. You can have a base bhaji version that is mildly spiced and then you can add as much butter as needed for a person, and spices to taste. This is also a good way to extend it or thin it out for more number of people.

The above recipe easily yields 10-12 large servings.

Pav Bhaji is a popular street food and is a must try at home.

SBDP or Sev Batata Dahi Puri - anytime delight!

2011-08-12T22:39:00.019-04:00

Chaat is that Indian delight which can awaken your senses any time of the day, month or the year, whether its sweltering heat outside or a snowy blizzard. It has several taste elements such as hot, sour, sweet, salty and is probably an acquired taste. I remember eating bhel and pani puri even as a kid, with eyes and nose streaming but still enjoying the experience. It's always been something of a forbidden delight, since it is readily available by the roadside, is very tempting and a complete cleanliness/hygeine disaster. Chaat is made up of a myraid of simple ingredients that are mixed together in various proportions, by hand!!

With an iron will to overcome aching tummies and infections, my mom took over making this stuff at home a long time ago. And over the years, we have added to our chaat repertiore. The SBDP is a popular name mostly in western Maharashtra, and is called Sev puri or dahi puri elsewhere in the country, depending on how many things are added. Sev is fried chickpea flour noodles, available anywhere, Batata or potato is your typical boiled spud, Dahi is of course yogurt, and Puris are small deep fried hollow - puris. All these are readily available in India of course, and in any Indian grocery store in the US.

There are a lot of small ingredients that make up this whole dish. You absolutely need Chat masala ( black salt giving the unique flavor here), unless you make your own. Everest, MDH, Badshash are some of the popular brands. I would stay away from Shan here.

You will need an optional or highly recommended green chutney, which is mostly cilantro/coriander with chili, and gives color and heat.

The Date-tamarind chutney will add a sweet and sour component and is an essential ingredient. Its easy to make this from scratch and store it in a jar in your fridge, or you can safely go with Deep brand Tamarind-date chutney. Several other brands like Swad etc. also offer this. Deep frozen foods also has a coriander/cilantro chutney that you can buy and use here.

Once you have all your stuff lined up assembly line style, its easy to put this together. Unless you are up to speed here, I recommend only plating 3-4 at a time so that they don't go too soft and lose their crunch. The detailed method is as follows. I have tried to post step by step photos as much as possible.

Ingredients -

Ready made round puris - 25-50 or more

3-4 boiled medium potatoes

Sev - thin and plain salted only

plain yogurt - 1 lb

sugar, cayenne, chat masala to taste

Garnish -

1 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

Tamarind-date chutney -

1/2 cup dry tamarind

1 cup chopped dates

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt to taste

sugar/brown sugar if needed

Greeen chutney -

1 bunch cilantro

1/2 deseeded jalapeno or serrano

salt to taste

pinch of sugar

1/2 lime or lemon squeezed

Method -

1) Boil and mash potatoes. Add a dash of cayenne and salt to season them per choice. Keep this aside.

2) For the yogurt mix - Make this beforehand, as this will taste better when very cold. Take a container, at least the 1 lb one of your favourite low fat PLAIN yogurt. The fat free ones are very sour and the full fat can be too heavy taking away from the taste, so I recommend low fat for this. Add salt to taste, and enough sugar - yes, plain white sugar- to make it sweet. Whisk this or beat it with a fork to make a smooth mixture and set aside. Please do not use a stick blender etc.

Refrigerate this!

3) For the green chutney - Blend cilantro, chili, salt, sugar and lemon juice in a blender or a food processor until you have a fine paste. This need not be very liquid. You will need very little of this anyway.

4) For the Tamarind - date chutney -

4.1) Soak the tamarind for some time in hot water. Remove all seeds and other fibre type matter.

4.2) Soak the dates in warm water.

4.3) After the above two are soft enough to brave your blender, blend them together and transfer to a small stock pot.

4.4) Add the salt, cumin, cayenne and bring to a boil. Simmer until slightly syrupy or until it coats the back of a spoon. Taste it and add some jaggery/brown sugar/sugar per your taste. This should taste sweetish but still have the tang of tamarind.

Alternate crude method -

This is my latest favourite. Dump all ingredients in a pot. Add enough water to cover it. Bring to a boil and let simmer. Add more water if needed. Eventually the dates dissolve and everything comes together. Then just strain it and your chutney is ready!

You can store this chutney in a jar/container and keep it in a fridge for a week or two, or even better, Freeze it.

Note -- Please take care that this cold at the time of assembling the main dish. If you have just made it, add some ice cubes to bring down the temperature, or pop in the freezer for a few minutes.

5) Have your sev ready in a bowl or container. This is the easiest thing, you just have to pour it out of a packet :).

6) Now to assemble the whole thing -

If you have those fancy ketchup/mustard type bottles with spouts, you can now fill 3 of these with green chutney, tamarind chutney and yogurt each. I used an old fashioned spoon. Its OK to be sloppy here!

6.1) Take 3-4 puris in a small plate. Pierce them with your thumb to break Only the top part. You might destroy a few before you 'get it'.

6.2) Add a little - 1 tsp - of potato mixture to each puri.

6.3) Add some sev.

6.4) Add some green chutney - a dab - or a sprinkle of cayenne.

6.5) Add some tamarind chutney.

6.6) Ladle in the yogurt mixture until the 'puri' is full.

6.7) Now sprinkle more sev, yogourt, green/tamarind chutneys over the top.

6.8) Garnish with chopped onion and cilantro.

6.9) Sprinkle loads of chaat masala and cayenne if you want more heat.

7) Hand this over, unselfishly, to the first person in line drooling over it and start making another batch. Await your turn patiently until you get to taste some.

Sev puri or Dahi sev puri or SBDP or SPDP - anything you call it, is a great pick-me-up that is sure to bring a smile to your lips. This can easily be assembled by using maximum store bought ingredients.

If you are someone who has never ventured into the 'chaat' arena of Indian cuisine, I urge you to try this simple wonder. Bon Appetit!

Corn Chaulai Bhaji or Sweet Corn with Amaranth greens

2011-07-30T00:40:00.005-04:00

Chaulai (marathi) or amaranth greens are readily available now in Pune. The tedious part is cleaning and plucking the leaves but its a necessary chore. Once you have that done, the next steps are relatively easy. The traditional way of making this subji in our household is a sautee with finely chopped onions. These leaves have a distinct strong flavor and the onion adds some sweetness and mellows it out a bit. It is also common in Maharashtrian cooking to add jaggery or brown sugar to take away the bitterness.

Greens cook down a lot and two big bunches generally become a small bowl. Palak corn or spinach with corn is another of our favourites and I thought about using corn here too. This not only helps bulk it up quantity wise and fibre wise, but the natural sweetness of the corn takes away some of the bitterness without adding too much sugar. The method used is pretty simple and even simple seasonings such as some cumin/coriander powder and fresh garlic will go great with this. The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 large bunches Amaranth greens or Chaulai

2 medium onions chopped

2-3 large cloves of garlic chopped

1 cup fresh or frozen sweet corn

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 pinch hing or asfoetida

1 tsp mustard seeds and/or cumin seeds

1 Tbsp light oil

salt to taste

1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp any curry powder or garam masala of choice

1-2 Tbsp tomato sauce or tomato paste

Method -
1) Pluck the leaves along with fine stems, discard thicker part of stems from the greens. Chop and soak in huge tub of water.

2) Pull out greens and place in colander. Discard the water along with the mud that will have settled down. Repeat this process until the greens are clean and no dirt settles down or water does not look murky.

3) Heat oil and make a traditional tadka - for the uninitiated - Heat the oil in a wok. As it smokes, add the mustard and/or cumin seeds. You can use either or both. Add the pinch of hing, then turmeric and cayenne. Immediately add the onion to avoid burning of the spices.

4) Saute onion until slightly softened. Add the greens gradually and keep stirring. The greens will cook down quickly.

5) Cover with a lid and keep sauteing until the greens darken in color and are cooked.

6) Add corn, curry poweder or garam masala, tomato sauce or paste and stir it all together.

7) Cover again and let it all cook together.

8) Add salt and pinch of sugar at the very end. The greens will have completely reduced by now and you will get a better idea of how much salt is really needed.

9) Serve hot with Roti or tortillas or pita bread, or as a side dish with a main grilled protein.

Amaranth is packed with nutrition like all greens, and this is a highly nutritious meal you can indulge in.

Vegetarian Pad Thai - tangy spicy thai fix

2011-06-06T00:58:00.000-04:00

Pad Thai was the first Thai dish that I ever tried. While my memory is vague about it's exact taste, I do remember it was spicy and pretty novel, unlike anything I had ever tried. It spurred us on to a lot of quick meals that we called pad Thai inspired where we just tossed some spaghetti or angel hair in a bit of oil and garlic and pepper and then added some crushed peanuts to it. I think I have achieved a bit more finesse with this recipe over the years.

Every restaurant has its own flavor as far as pad Thai goes. Some make it more tangy with a hint of sweet, while some places make it really sweet. I like an equal balance between the tangy element, the sweetness and the spice or pepper. Pad Thai is street food in Thailand, and they say its sold almost everywhere by the roadside - sort of like vada pav in Maharashtra.

It is very easy to make this at home, without the egg and fish sauce laden stuff that you would get in a restaurant. I once saw a Bobby Flay throwdown episode where a lady showed how its actually made in Thailand. The trick is to have only a little bit, like a serving size in the wok at a time. There is a huge pot of premade sauce and they just ladle the sauce in for each serving as they make it. Well, I certainly do not see myself tossing individual servings in a wok, but I implemented the excellent idea of having the sauce made in a different saucepan and ladling it into your wok gradually. You will need the flat rice noodle which is readily available in the grocery store.

There is no limit to the veggies you can use here - the more the merrier! Typical favourites are onions, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, broccoli, broccoli(get it?), bean sprouts, bell peppers, zucchini etc. Tofu is of course most welcome. Basil and Lime give a fresh taste. But the tang here comes from the tamarind. You can easily get tamarind paste in any Indian grocery store. You can of course also use dry tamarind. Using basil really elevates this to another level.

I used the veggies that I had on hand, but you have carte blanche here. I could only take photos the next day, so this is just leftovers.

Ingredients -

200g rice stix or flat rice noodle

one onion sliced

3-4 scallions chopped

3-4 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp grated ginger root

1 packet mushroom sliced

1 zucchini sliced

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1 cup julienned carrot or carrot matchsticks

1 cup steamed broccoli florets

3-4 baby corn sliced

1 pack tofu

1 cup tightly packed basil leaves

Lime wedges

cilantro for garnish

peanut powder for garnish

For the Sauce -

1-2 Tbsp tamarind paste or

tamarind extract from fresh tamarind

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/8 cup rice vinegar

2 Tbsp peanut butter

1-2 Tbsp sugar or brown sugar or honey

1 tsp dried chili flakes

1 tsp white pepper

salt to taste

dash of sesame oil

Method -

1) Boil the rice noodles according to package instructions and wash with cold water and drain. These cook pretty fast so keep an eye on them. Gauge the quantity by the number of people you have.

2) Wash, clean and chop the vegetables as given. You can chop or slice them per your preference.

3) Was and drain the tofu. Squeeze out as much water as you can. Chop in thick long slices the way you cut the vegetables. Sprinkle some pepper on it and set aside.

4) Mix all the sauce things in a sauce pan. If you are using dry tamarind, you will need to soak it before hand, and then squeeze the juice out. You can also nuke it for a minute in some water and then squeeze the pulp. Another method I use now is that I take the ball of tamarind and a cup of water in a pot until it softens and it all becomes tamarind juice, and then i just spoon the tamarind rind out of it.

5) Start with the tamarind you got above, and add all the other sauce ingredients. You may have to vary this depending on the quantity of your noodles.

6) Boil the sauce until everything is a smooth mixture and reduces a bit.

7) Meanwhile, heat vegetable/peanut/canola etc. oil in a wok or saute pan. Add the tofu and let it brown on one side. Season the other side and toss over. Do not toss too much or you might end up with a scramble. The tofu will reduce in size as it lets out water. Season with a bit of salt once the tofu browns.

8) Start adding vegetables now. Add mushrooms and saute until reduced. Add peppers, zucchini, sprouts, baby corn etc. Saute 2 mins between each new vegetable. We want them tender crisp so do not saute too much. Add julienned carrots and broccoli at the end so that they retain color.

9) Ladle a little sauce into the veggies and add the noodles. Add half torn basil.

10) Toss gently to mix. Now add the sauce slowly until the noodles get enough sauce to your taste. Save some for adding later. Cover and steam for 2 minutes.

11) Taste and add more seasonings as needed or add more sauce. It will take you some time to develop your own taste combination of the sweet, spicy and sour elements. You will automatically adjust the sauce accordingly.

12) Add the rest of the basil, torn roughly. Serve hot with a sprinkle of peanut powder for crunch and a lime edge.

This is a very easy recipe that is a must try. There is no more need to go to a Thai restaurant for your pad Thai fix. There are a lot of spices and fresh flavors in this dish, and its a kid and crowd pleaser.

So are you off to get those rice noodles yet?

Grilled Tofu with a Honey Chipotle Barbecue Sauce - Smokin' sweet

2011-05-29T23:51:00.001-04:00

Tofu is the go-to protein option for vegans and vegetarians. Of course, vegetarians do have paneer, which gets more and more popular each day. Being a lacto-vegetarian, I indulge in this fat laden hunk of cheese quite often. A smal two by two inch piece can have as many as three hundred calories, most of them saturated fat. Think of that the next time you enjoy your paneer dishes.

Getting back to the point, tofu is healthy soy protein and tastes great - it mostly takes on the taste of any marinade or sauce you dump it in. I made a barbeque sauce a few weeks ago exactly following the Neelys' recipe from food network, and it was pretty mean. I decided to give it a slight twist, adding smoky chipotle peppers, and using honey as the main sweetener. I marinated the tofu in spices similar to what went into the barbecue sauce, and set it aside while I made my potatoes and the sauce. The recipe itself is pretty simple and you can add some variations as needed, or adjust the spice level to your taste. You can use dry chipotle peppers, canned ones in adobo sauce, or just a spice mix. I used Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle spice mix. I like these spices because they are sodium free, and I can add as much spice as I want, and still add salt to my taste.

I served the grilled tofu with mashed potatoes. I would have liked to add some broccoli or green beans, but I was out of them that day. The recipe follows -

Ingredients -

1 - 2 boxes extra firm tofu

2-3 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 Tbsp Mrs. Dash chipotle blend

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp cayenne pepper or tabasco/pepper sauce

1 tsp honey

For the Sauce -

Half cup ketchup

2 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 tsp dry celery

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper

1-2 Tbsp Mrs.Dash Chipotle blend (powdered dry chipotle or chipotles in adobo optional)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup natural honey

1 tsp cornstarch if needed to thicken

Method -

1) Wa

sh and drain the tofu. You can take one or two boxes depending on the number of people, or to make extra batches for later. This tofu will refrigerate or freeze well, and will be great chopped up in a sandwich or wrap.

2) Combine all the spice ingredients in a wide bowl and mix well. Add some water to make a thick paste.

3) Cut the tofu in triangles or steaks of about half inch thickness. This will ensure that the flavors of the marinade seep in.

4) Place the tofu slices in the bowl and gently spoon the whole mixture over the tofu so that all the pieces are drenched in the spicy marinade. Cover and set aside.

5) Heat a dab of butter or 1/2 tsp oil in a sauce pan and gently saute the chopped garlic cloves until they change color. Mix all other sauce ingredients and add them to this sauce pan.

6) Stir occasionally and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the sauce thickens and develops a glaze. Use corn flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce to your liking.

7) Heat a non stick pan and brush with oil or spray. Place the tofu slices on the pan and brown from all sides on medium heat.

8) To serve - Place a scoop or two of mashed potatoes on your plate. Place 2-3 grilled tofu slices on the potatoes and drizzle with sauce. The sauce is pretty spicy and pungent, so you need to go slow with it.

9) The honey chipotle flavored sauce has a lot of flavors - spice from the onion and garlic, sweetness of the ketchup and honey, smoky flavor and the heat from however much chipotle spice you added.

This is a healthy and filling sumptuous meal when served with some green veggies, and falls right in with my other favourite comfort foods. I hope you try this simple dish that does not need a lot of effort.

Cavatappi Pasta in a Saffron Tomato sauce

2011-05-21T11:14:00.000-04:00

Saffron – just the name brings something exotic to mind. This is one of the most expensive spices and is popularly used in several desserts in Indian cuisine. Being very expensive, it is generally reserved for special occasions. Using this in a pasta sauce was a completely novel idea for me.

As I searched the web, I found that there really were several recipes of this kind of sauce. Rachael Ray used saffron with lotsa butter and parsley and mint and orange, but I was short on those ingredients. All I had was some tomato sauce and then the search for tomato+saffron yielded one even by the great Emeril himself. Bam!

To begin at the beginning, this whole thing started because I was presented with a bottle of rich saffron syrup. This was so heady and intoxicating that I immediately wanted to make something of it, something savory and other than the obvious desserts that came to mind. Pasta was the obvious vehicle, since I was craving pasta. Although all the recipes use pinches of saffron fronds, I decided to be bold and make the sauce using syrup.

Most recipes had certain elements – the usual onion, garlic, basil/spice, wine, cream, tomatoes and saffron. I made so many substitutions to this concept, that I fear I may have ended up with something totally different. I also made a much lighter version using whole milk instead of cream, and saved the cheese just for the garnish.
I used mushrooms and olives as the vegetables, and everything worked together well to give a unique flavor where you can’t really taste one particular thing.

Cavatappi is a long screw shaped pasta. You can use any ‘rigate’ or ridged pasta for this sauce. Something like penne or rigatoni will go really well with this sauce. The recipe is as follows –

Ingredients –

Half pound penne/cavatappi
One small onion chopped
1 Tbsp garlic chopped
1 Tbsp EVOO or extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried spices such as basil/thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup vodka
1 cup whole milk
1 cup tomato puree/sauce
2 Tbsp saffron syrup such as Mapro
Or 1 big pinch or 1 tsp saffron fronds
1 packet mushrooms chopped
2 Tbsp olives sliced/chopped
Parmesan or cheese of choice to garnish
EVOO to drizzle

Method –
1) For the sauce – In a heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the EVOO and add the chopped garlic. Add onions and sauté until softened a bit. Take care not to burn either.
2) Add mushrooms and fry until all the water from the mushrooms evaporates
3) Add vodka, or wine if you wish and sauté a bit until absorbed
4) Add tomato puree or sauce and the milk/cream
5) Add the salt/pepper and dried herbs and simmer this sauce
6) Add the saffron syrup. If using fronds, steep them first in some hot milk and then add to the sauce
7) Simmer the sauce until all the milk/cream is absorbed and sauce thickens. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon.
8) Meanwhile, boil the pasta for about 8-10 minutes, a bit less than al dente
9) Drain the pasta and immediately add to the sauce. Stir well to combine, cover with lid on a very low flame and let the pasta steam in the sauce for 3-4 minutes. This time can be adjusted based on the actual pasta and your liking of chewy versus well cooked pasta.
10) The pasta will absorb most of the sauce and flavors pretty soon. Switch off heat and keep covered
11) While serving, spoon on plate and drizzle some olive oil and some grated parmesan or any other cheese.
This is a very rich tasting pasta with big flavor, that will make a great impromptu meal served with some salad and good bread.

I hope you enjoy this unusual sauce laden with the goodness of saffron.

Margaritas in martini glasses – at Salsa, Corinthian Hotel Pune

2011-04-25T10:11:00.002-04:00

Much is said about the Corinthian(s) Club. One of the newer clubs to crop up on the Pune club scene, membership is at a premium and it’s a popular venue for concerts, weddings etc. in the east/south pune area. I am not sure if the Corinthians Club and the Corinthians Boutique hotel are part of the same place. The website seems to be the same with two different home pages –
http://www.thecorinthianspune.com/index.asp and http://www.thecorinthianspune.com/index.html
We have wanted to take the promo tour since a long time and have contemplated getting a membership here. Visiting the place for lunch incognito without being accompanied by a salesperson seemed a good idea to scout the place. This is touted as a five star hotel.
There are several restaurants portrayed in the dining section – Salsa, Pyramisa, Oceanus etc. Salsa was the only place open for lunch for non-members. We decided to give it a shot to end the curiosity about this place. Needless to say, as the title of this post suggests, we were in for a disappointment.

The whole Corinthians club has an Egyptian theme. There are sphinx like motifs everywhere, palm trees and what not. Salsa, as the website says, is Greek – Mediterranean – even mentions the Balkans. Wow. Some reviews I read on the web talked of mezze platters and falafel, and that seemed right for a spot of lunch.
The place we went to was said to be Mexican, continental and Indian – predominantly Indian( so why the misleading webpage?). A buffet menu was offered for lunch at 550Rs. This did not include any drinks. Cocktails were 400Rs on an average. A huge price to pay when you order a margarita and are served something in a martini glass which is just tequila shaken with ice at best. No seriously, imagine 100F + temperatures, a lazy Sunday afternoon, driving through the heat, envisioning a limey green margarita – sweet and sour and salty – and This is placed before you..for something like 10 dollars.. Not a good start, to say the least.

The buffet menu was both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian and almost everything had ‘Jain’ written before it. A clarification request yielded the response – the menu is mostly ‘Jain’ since most people visiting this place are ‘Jain’. I find this really surprising considering the huge population. But anyway, if you are particular about what spices go in your food, you should consider this. The server offered to make ‘everything’ (typical tall promise) fresh for me with the spices I wanted.

The menu was pretty sparse considering the price – a salad bar that had the usual green salad, devilled eggs, a pre-tossed Caesar, a salsa verde salad( unmentionable), some boondi raita, and that’s about it. There were some rolls and breadsticks.
There were two soups. The minestrone looked watery at best, and I ditched this considering the sweltering heat. The appetizers had some mutton seekh and some fish tikka. The fish tikka, I hear, was Ok.
Vegetarians has ‘nachos and cheese’ and veg seekh. The veg seekh was extremely salty, but was one of the few things that could be eaten as an appetizer. The ‘nachos and cheese’ were mostly a bed of corn chips, with some cheese on top, and baked enough to melt the cheese. It was not worth mentioning. There were some beans here and there on the nachos, mostly rajma which was pasty/undercooked. There was no cheddar like sauce, no salsa and the ‘cheese’ was mediocre at best.

There was a meat as well as soy shepherd’s pie. This was once again a pretty lame attempt. There was no soy or TVP mince as I expected in lieu of the ground meat and peas you would find in a meat pie, but just nuggets sprinkled here and there that were watery. The sauce was very tomatoey with a rosemary like flavor, no sherry etc.

The other entrees – a corn pepper subji, some white bland mixed vegetables with the grand name of ‘mughlai’ etc. were very ordinary. There was one vegetable which was their saving grace – paneer tikka cooked in a thick spinach sauce, kinda like palak paneer having paneer tikka in it instead of just paneer. This was specially cooked for us with onions and garlic.

There were only two desserts. One was like a mini gulab jamun in rabdi/basundi instead of in syrup. The other dessert was chocolate ‘pudding’, which was nothing but Dry sliced cake. Even the cake in the kayani bakery is richer than this. If my limited culinary knowledge of world cuisine is not enough to know that such a cake is also called chocolate pudding, someone please enlighten me. Both desserts were at room temperature. A cold one would have been nice considering the heat.

The ambience was good but was wasted in lieu of all other factors. There are statues of people playing guitar, sax etc., and there are a lot of black and white photos of people playing the sax. There was some nice jazz or latin jazz/salsa playing in the background. Which was difficult to hear due to a horde of noisy patrons. Half our time was taken up by a noisy table with voices that could be heard fifty feet away. The rest was taken up by a crowd with 3-4 babies, all screaming at the top of their lungs. Babies will be babies, but what to do when their erstwhile parents start playing music full volume on their cell phones??
A request to the staff yielded the response that they were helpless. I take points away from an otherwise well trained wait staff for this. They have to be assertive, and think of the common good.

When the check was presented, I was asked to fill out a feedback form. I almost shuddered, thinking of my experience at the Yellow Chili, but I still gave in and filled it out. I gave max points for service and ambience but remarked, rightly so, that the food could be better. The girl came back with questions on my comments, and I had to beg her to please leave me alone!!

Overall, this was disappointing. I can think of several places where I can get excellent food for this money. Sukanta can give me a much better and tastier Indian meal for one third of the cost. Anyone visitng this place expecting to go on a culinary mediterranean journey will certainly be in for a shock.

Misal Pav - Hot and Spicy Street Food

2011-03-31T01:43:00.008-04:00

This blog was started with the aim of posting some cherished family and regional maharashtrian recipes, both easy and complicated, regular weekday ones or delicacies. But a lot of the stuff we eat at home is so simple and 'automatic' that I think its not a big deal posting it. Like, who wants to see a recipe for alu subji or dal chawal? ( I know thats not true).

Misal Pav or Pav Sample or kolhapuri misal as it is called, is a very popular and ubiquitous street food in western Maharashtra, sometimes termed as 'poor man's food' that is hot and spicy and guaranteed to have smoke coming out of your ears. But it has enough of a wow factor that I feel I should write a post about it. I have been wanting to make this at home for a long time, and the historic India - Pak world cup semi-final provided a perfect opportunity. This dish is assembled with several ingredients, many of them store bought. You just make the 'sample' which is a hot soup or stock kind thing and the Moth or Matki usal. This can be made in advance, and you just heat it up before eating.

The recipe given below is simple, and the biggest challenge for me was to add as much chili or mirchi powder, and the HUGE amount of oil. But in the end, everything balances out really well. There IS some residual heat in the end, and your mouth will be slightly on fire, but that is the whole point of eating this dish, just like a fiery bowl of chili, or it wouldn't really be Misal Pav.

The picture also shows the typical way it is served, in stainless steel plates, because thats how they dish it up in our very own Maharashtra!

Ingredients -

2 cups dry Matki or Moth beans

1-2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp turmeric powder optional

1 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1 lemon juiced

1 medium potato

1 Tbsp jaggery/gur/brown sugar

4 cups+ Farsan or Mixture of choice

salt to taste

1 Tbsp and 1 cup oil

sliced white bread or pav or dinner rolls

For the Masala Paste -

8-10 dry red chillies

3-4 cloves garlic

1 inch piece ginger root

1 Tbsp black peppercorns

1 Tbsp cloves

1 Tbsp cinnamon pieces

2 Tbsp dry coconut powder/flakes unsweetened

1 Tbsp cumin or jeera powder

1 Tbsp coriander or dhania powder

2-3 cups sliced onion

For the garnish

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped tomato

1 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1 lemon quartered

2 Tbsp roasted peanuts optional

Method -

1) Matki or moth beans are crucial here and they need to be sprouted. If you live in India, you can easily get already sprouted matki at any street vendor's or even in a supermarket. In the US, big city stores such as in New Jersey might carry sprouted matki.

It is very easy to make sprouted matki at home. Here is the method and it can be applied for sprouting any beans such as Mung etc.

Soak the beans overnight or more until there is a break in the outer skin. Drain these and wrap in a damp towel or muslin cloth and put in a strainer or colander. Cover and put in a dark place. The seeds sprout in the next 12+ hours. This generally depends on the atmospheric temperature. In colder climates or in winter, it helps if you keep it inside an oven with just the light switched on overnight( the oven is NOT on here).

2) Generally, the matki beans could be part of the 'sample' or the 'soup', and the whole thing is very hot. I am making a milder version of the matki 'usal' and a very hot and spicy 'sample' or 'soup' or 'sauce'. This way everyone can add as many beans as they want, and then only take as much of the hot 'sample' as they can sustain.

3) To make the masala paste - Fry all the masala ingredients in a tsp of oil or spray until they are lightly browned. Fry the coconut very gently until it changes color, taking care to not burn it.

Saute the onions in some oil until they let out all water and are browned.

4) Grind all of the above together to make a thick, smooth paste. This should yield 1 to 2 cups of the paste.

5) Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wok or saute pan. Add jeera or mustard seeds optionally or directly add 2 Tbsp of the masala paste above. Fry to incorporate into oil. Add water as needed to avoid sticking. Fry this until it changes color and is aromatic and the oil starts to leave the sides. This could take 10 mins.

6) Add some turneric and chopped cilantro leaves. Add cubed boiled potato, or if you add raw potato, you will need to fry the potato in this paste until half cooked before you add the matki or beans.

7) Add the matki, add salt and jaggery or brown sugar, 1 tsp cayenne. Mix everything and add a little, maybe half cup water and let it come to a boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until the potato is cooked.

8) Keep this aside. This is regular 'matki usal' which can be made anytime and eaten with rice or roti.

9) Now to make the 'sample' - this is the challenging part since you really have to let go and add oil with abandon. Heat about 1 cup of oil in a thick bottomed sauce pan. I recommend a large one so that you have room to add more liquid and also it will contain the splatters.

10) As the oil heats, add all the remaining masala paste, and stir immediately, being very careful to keep your face turned away. You may even switch off the heat for a while during this.

Stir quickly and mix it all in the oil so that it becomes homogenous. You can add a little water at this point to cook the masala. Do Not add water to the hot oil until the paste is well mixed in.

11) Add 1 Tbsp cilantro leaves optionally. Adding a little cilantro or coriander leaf at this point gives a different aroma from that obtained from just a garnish.

12) Fry the paste until it gives out an aroma, and changes color a bit. Add a tsp cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

13) Add one litre plus of water creating a thick slurry. You can actually stretch this by adding even more water, and only the salt needs adjusting. Bring the slurry to a boil and simmer for 10 mins. Your 'sample' is ready. This is going to be very hot, and as it cools, there will be a thick layer of oil on top, since most of the rest is water and the oil floats to the top. You will actually not consume a lot of this oil, since this whole 'sample' or broth is so hot.

14) Now to serve the Misal - this dish is plated as shown in the picture. In a wide small plate, or even a shallow soup plate or cereal bowl, ladle some of the beans or 'matki usal'. Add the Farsan or mixture or hot mix - any brand of choice - on top. This is a dry mixture available in all Indian grocery stores, and several brands are readily available. Buy a milder version rather than a hot one.

15) So we have the bowl with the matki usal and the farsan layer on top. Add about half cup farsan. Ladle some sample on this, enough to wet everything but not until it swims. Garnish with raw chopped onions, tomatoes, cilantro and peanuts. Squeeze some lemon juice on top. Place this on a bigger plate. In a smaller bow, ladle some sample, ladling from the bottom up so that you don't get only the oil. Place this on the larger plate. Serve this with sliced white bread, yes white bread or dinner/dollar rolls.

16) If you eat only the sample, you will probably need to call the fire engine, but the way to eat it is to mix everything together, i.e the matki, farsan, onions, tomatoes etc. You can keep adding as much sample as you want to suit your spice tolerance. You can eat the bread in between to cool your tongue or it can also be dipped into the mixture.

17) In the end, the misal is definitely hot and spicy, but enjoyably so, and can be washed down with some ice cold sweet drink, or with loads of ice cream.

This Misal Pav is not only a popular street food but also a part of the cultural heritage of the state of Maharashtra. It is not as complicated as it looks, and the above ingredients can be stretched to make anything from 6-10 servings. You can refrigerate the usal and sample and heat it up just before serving. The other things just have to be assembled.

I hope you try this fiery dish and let me know how you did.

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

2011-03-24T00:03:00.000-04:00

Thai food is well known for its fiery nature. Many Thai food novices have exuberantly asked for 'Very spicy' or 'Thai Spicy' food, only to have their mouths burn and then learnt to ask for a much lower spice level. But this rice dish is the exception. This is one dish that I always order 'Spicy', and then it is just right for my palette. The reason is that this is made with loads of good things like pineapple, raisins and cashews which lend it a sweet flavour, and lots of chili flakes which then balance this sweetness with some heat. This dish is slightly sticky due to the fact that its made with pineapple and some juice which makes it moist. There are lots of veggies and tofu that add to the nutritional goodness, and this can be served either with a thai curry of your choice, or even on its own. I have used my favourite vegetables, but you can use what you have on hand. The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 white or yellow onions

2 carrots

8-10 green beans

1 cup mixed chopped peppers

1 box mushrooms

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup cubed tofu

1 cup pineapple chunks

1/2 cup pineapple juice from can

half cup black raisins

half cup roasted cashew halves/pieces

1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger and garlic

1 Tbsp chili flakes

1 Tbsp or more Soy sauce, tamari or liquid aminos

1 tsp rice vinegar

1 tsp white pepper(optional)

Salt to taste

2-3 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil

2 cups dry rice

Method -

1) Wash and clean the rice and then cook it with double the quantity of water. We want it to be fluffy and not very soft. You can either use jasmine rice or if you are using an Indian variety, the one to go for here is Sona Massorie or Kolam. I do not recommend basmati rice for chinese food.

2) Use a rice cooker for cooking the rice if you have one, or you can also use the microwave. Spread the cooked rice on a big plate or sheet pan, so that any excess moisture will dry up.

3) Chop the vegetables in similar chunks. You can use frozen broccoli florets, or steam and blanch fresh ones. Use red, yellow and orange peppers for a splash of color.

4) Use readymade baked tofu, or just grill the chunks on a non-stick pan so that all the moisture evaporates and they toughen a bit. This will ensure that the cubes do not break when you later fry them along with everything.

5) Use a micro plane or small grater to grate a small piece of ginger and 2 cloves of garlic. This will give a great taste.

6) Use a wok or a wide bottom saute pan. Heat the oil and first add the carrots, then the ginger and garlic and chili flakes. Add the chopped mushrooms and fry until all the water in the mushrooms evaporates. Add the green beans and after a minute, add the peppers. Add the onion at the end.

7) Do not over saute or over fry. We want the veggies to be tender crisp and retain a crunch. Now add the tofu and the pineapple chunks and raisins along with the juice.

8) Add the soy sauce and vinegar and mix well.

9) Add the rice now and use two spatulas to mix everything well without bruising the rice too much.

10) The rice is done when most of the liquid evaporates and it gets a sheen. Add the cashews now and mix in. Garnish with more cashews.

11) Serve hot with a curry or as a one pot meal.

This is a sweet and spicy healthy vegan and vegetarian dish that is simply loaded with vegetables and protein. Edamame is also a good addition here along with or instead of the tofu. This is also a very economical and simple way to have Thai night at home without overwhelming yourself with too many exotic ingredients.

Lower Fat Cream of Broccoli soup - too good to be true

2011-02-26T02:32:00.013-05:00

Can anything be too good to be true? Really? This soup is. Not only does it make you all warm and fuzzy, but also takes care of your heart so that you can use it to spread more love through the universe. That has got to be the corniest line I ever wrote! But jokes apart, I think I have unexpectedly stumbled upon a great way to make a satisfying low fat cream of broccoli. Since I no longer enjoy the panera broccoli cheddar having discovered its made with chicken broth, this is a great homemade alternative without all those calories.

Broccoli, as we all know, is a super food and is wonderful for your health. Please visit whfoods.com for a detailed appreciation of this humble vegetable. Broccoli is relatively new to the Indian grocery scene and is still under the 'exotic' label. Exotic, as we, all know, also means expensive. It is generally about 4-5 times the price of your regular cabbage and okra. So I was happy when I got it for a much lower rate in the Sunday market. I had been craving a thick creamy soup for a while now, so I had an idea where this broccoli would end up.

I looked up several recipes on the web. The vegan recipes went with soy milk and cashews or some other nut. Vegetarians added cream, cheddar cheese, half and half and what not. I found a few recipes promoting the humble potato as a way to add creaminess without adding fat, and that really made sense to me. I wanted to make this recipe as easy as possible, mostly made out of easy to find, hence economical ingredients. I just added a cup of whole milk at the end and that gave the requisite creaminess, mixed in with some corn starch. I served it garnished with some grated carrot and grated cheddar, and the result was a very thick and creamy filling soup.

I botched up the photos of the actual soup, but am still adding one here to give you a general idea.

The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients --

500g broccoli

2 small potatoes

1 small onion/half cup

4-5 garlic cloves

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

carrot for garnish

cheddar cheese for garnish

Method -

1) Seperate the broccoli into florets and finely chop the stems. The stems will add bulk and are also full of nutrition so you do not want to waste them.

2) Heat some oil in a stock pot. Fry the onion and chopped garlic. Add chopped potatoes and fry for some time until the potatoes soften a bit and are partially cooked. You may add a little water here to avoid sticking.

3) Add all the broccoli and about one litre of water and put a lid on the pot. Some of the water will be absorbed. Switch off the heat when the potatoes are cooked. The broccoli will definitely cook by this time.

4) At this point, you can use an immersion blender to blend everything roughly in the pot. If not, let this cool down and puree it in a blender or food processor in batches. Add everything back to the pot.

5) The blended potato will lend a creamy aspect to the whole soup and it should be quite thick at this point.

6) Season with salt and pepper.

7) Mix in 1 Tbsp cornstarch with a cup of milk at room temperature such that there are no lumps. Add this to the soup pot.

8) Keep stirring slowly so that the soup does not stick. The cornstarch will add some thickness and milk will add a creamy aspect.

9) Serve this piping hot. Ladle in bowls and add some grated carrot on top for garnish. Add about a Tbsp of grated cheddar and mix it in as you eat.

10) You can make this cheddar intensive by adding 2 cups of cheddar to the pot, or lots more cheddar to the bowl, but that will not make this 'low fat'.

This is a nourishing low fat soup that is a complete meal, served with some whoke grain crusty bread. I hope you try this simple recipe that gives exotic results.

TikhaT MiThachya Purya - Masala Puri

2011-02-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

Puris are the ultimate Indian indulgence. They are generally made with wheat flour and fried to golden perfection. The most common kind is the plain or salted version which is eaten as a bread with any curry. This post is about the TiKhaT MiThachi puri or Masala puri. TikhaT is pepper and MiTh is salt, so this is salt and pepper puri, the pepper here being cayenne pepper, which is more common in Indian cooking than black pepper as a spice.

This is a typical marathi dish and a family recipe. This is/was pretty common as food to be taken along during travelling. This is because these puris stay good for a long time and do not spoil easily. I remember many a long train journey ( 20-30 hours) when I used to have a pack of these with some sweet lemon pickle and curd rice, lovingly prepared by the ladies - mother, aunts, grandmas - and it provided enough nourishment for a pack of hungry kids on their way back to college.

Every family generally has their own version, with some secret ingredient passed on down the generations. Our recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 cups wheat flour

half cup besan or chickpea flour

1 tsp turmeric or haldi powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper or mirch

2-3 cloves fresh grated garlic

1 tsp Ajwain seeds /carom

salt to taste

2 Tbsp oil for dough

oil for deep frying

flour to coat as needed

Method -

1) Mix together the flours and seasonings. Add the 2 Tbsp oil.

2)Add water very slowly and knead to make a thick dough. You can use the food processor, but be careful not to add too much water. Keep pulsing patiently to form a thick dough

3) Make small puris of even thickness using a rolling pin and a platform or your 'chakla belan'. You can make a big roti and then use a cookie cutter or jar lid etc. to cut out the puris. This will make all of them the same size and shape. This is just a suggestion if you are big on unformity and are a novice in this.

4) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. As the oil starts smoking, add the puris. Do not crowd the oil. Add 1,2 or 3 puris at a time depending on the size of your wok and the amount of oil you have.

5) Serve hot with any pickle of choice and plain yogurt.

This is an elaborate item/recipe which is tricky for the likes of me, and we hardly make these a few times a year. But this is a typical traditional dish which used to be pretty easy for the ladies of yore. Happy Munching!!

Quick and Easy Microwave recipes - Shortcut to home cooked Indian food

2011-02-11T22:58:00.009-05:00

These were a bunch of recipes I had created for some cousins/friends who were 'challenged' as far as cooking goes, and were tired of eating frozen or ready to eat dinners. This can be used by anyone in a hurry and gives you a healthy and balanced meal at home in little time and hardly any effort. I have used these myself several times in a bind. There is a little effort involved in chopping fresh onion/tomato or herbs, something I find crucial to lend freshness to these meals.

These are mostly Indian recipes, something that will give you a home cooked or comforting feel.

Please refer to the book 'Microwave Indian Recipes' on Amazon for a detailed description of these recipes.

http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Indian-Recipes-ebook/dp/B006XVFGV8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327499192&sr=8-1

Spaghetti and Meat(less)Balls - Italian comfort food for the Vegetarian

2011-02-03T22:55:00.000-05:00

Wow..that seems like quite a verbose title! But I am excited since I finally came up with an alternative for meatballs that is high protein, made from whole/natural ingredients ( No TVP here), lower in fat, does not come from a grocery store freezer etc. etc. and is Tasty to boot. These 'meat'balls are steamed, so the frying is eliminated and also the baking step in the oven for those who are not fortunate enough to have one. The 'meat'balls are quite robust and do not break apart even after soaking in sauce for a long time, even overnight.

So what are the ingredients of this wonder food? And how did I stumble upon them? Quite by chance, honestly.. I have always regretted not being able to partake of the universally loved spaghetti and meatballs, since the meatballs are almost always made with meat that I did not eat. Even though I don't really know how a meatball does and should taste, I have seen numerous shows on tv and the usual spices are used. I can only assume that any 'typical' taste comes from the meat. Since this is not an option for me, or any other vegetarian, my main aim was to have a base of robust ingredients and then typical spices such as garlic, pepper etc.

Many recipes I found on the internet use only walnuts, or tofu, or mostly breadcrumbs etc. I am using Mung Dal - the yellow one. I couldn't praise this humble dal/lentil enough. Mung is easy on the tummy, high in protein and is even revered in Ayurveda for boosting metabolism. I used almond as my nut, only because I had them, but walnuts will also be great here. I use milk powder, which is commonly available in India, to add some more richness or sweetness and to tone down the strong flavour of the mung dal. This is in lieu of parmesan cheese, which is not too readily available to me right now, and is almost always expensive( the good kind is). I roast the dal and the nuts initially to get a toasty aroma. I use freshly ground black pepper which is Very Important to get a strong flavour. Just dumping some of your mcCormick powder will not really do it. The secret ingredient here is fennel seed or saunf. The only reason I used it is because I Like it so much. I could have gone with the typical dried Italian spices such as basil or oregano, but I wanted something different and the fennel always seems exotic to me. Plus this gives a kind of Italian sausagy flavour which went with the whole concept.

You can serve these as mini meatballs on skewers with a dipping sauce as appetizers, or just with some tomato sauce, or over some nice spaghetti. I used a jar of ragu for the sauce, but you can use any tomato sauce you want for this. 365 Organic has some nice pasta sauces which are economical as well as fresh tasting. The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1 cup yellow Mung Dal

0.5 cup whole almonds or walnuts

35g or 1 oz. milk powder

2 Tbsp dehydrated garlic or fresh chopped/grated

1 Tbsp black peppercorns

1 Tbsp fennel seeds or 'saunf'

1 Tbsp EVOO any brand

salt to taste

1 tsp crushed red pepper

2 slices whole grain bread

1 jar tomato sauce/pasta sauce

pinch baking powder optional

pasta -

spaghetti cooked per instruction

2-3 splashes milk

salt

Method -

1) Dry roast the Mung dal on a low flame in a non-stick pan until it gives a toasty aroma. We do not want to burn it or even want it to change colour a lot.

2) Roast the almonds/walnuts similarly until they are nicely toasted and set aside.

3) Dry roast the pepper corns and the fennel seeds as above.

4) After all the ingredients have cooled, use a dry grinder jar or a spice grinder to powder the above. You might need multiple batches if you are using a spice grinder, but it will do the job. I am not sure how effective a food processor will be to do this job. We want to powder this almost fine - slightly coarse is fine but it should not be too coarse.

5) If you are using dried or dehydrated garlic, powder it with the rest of the stuff.

6) Combine all the powdered stuff in a shallow dish or mixing bowl. Add salt, crushed red pepper and milk poweder.

7) Pulse the two bread slices to make fresh bread crumbs and set aside. Use these Only if required in the next step.

8) Add water slowly to the mixture in the bowl and mix together to form a thick dough like a tortilla or pastry dough. Be very careful in adding water. Add a pinch of baking powder here. This will make the 'meat'balls lighter when they cook.

9) As the dough comes together, add the EVOO or olive oil, and knead lightly with your hands. If you feel the dough is soggy, add the breadcrumbs, a little at a time until you are able to form small balls with the dough.

10) Form small 'meat'balls of desired size and set aside on a platter. I roughly made them the size of a ping pong ball.

11) Heat a steamer with lots of water in the bottom bowl. You can use a bamboo steamer or similar. I have this contraption that is like a double boiler. You fill water in the bottom vessel. The one that goes on top has a perforated bottom and a tight fitting lid. You keep your food on the perforated bottom, close the lid and it gets steamed pretty efficiently.

12)Spray the steamer botttom with some oil or just lightly oil it with your hand or a wad of paper.

13) Place the 'meat'balls or meatlessballs on the perforated bottom without crowding them.

14) Steam for 10-12 minutes until the 'meat'balls are cooked through. Use multiple batches depending on the size of your steamer.

15) Heat tomato sauce in a saucepan. Add the steamed meatballs to the bubbling sauce.

16) For the pasta - Boil pasta per package directions. I used whole wheat pasta and I think I could have used up even two bottles of sauce. You can use any pasta of choice, linguni will also go well with this one, or bucatini will too.

17) Toss the pasta with half the sauce. Add a few splashes of milk if needed. This reduces the acid in the tomatoes, and also takes the edge off certain whole grain pastas which can sometimes taste too 'earthy'.

18) To serve, place a generous amount of pasta in a dish. Ladle 2 or 3 meatballs along with some sauce on top. Garnish with fresh black pepper and fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil. Or go bonkers, and sprinkle some parmesan on top. Break the 'meat'balls with a fork and integrate with the sauce and pasta.

19) Dig In!! The weather is cloudy with a Definite chance of Meatballs :)

This recipe made about 16 ping pong ball sized 'meat'balls. They were very filling and sumptuous and it was difficult to eat more than two or three at a time. The fennel and peppercorns flavoured the dish beautifully. This is a very healthy and tasty recipe that you should definitely try especially if you are a vegetarian. This can be easily veganized by omitting the milk powder and adding something similar such as nutritional yeast.

You can try several variations such as different spices, adding sauteed spinach, using a different kind of lentil etc. You can totally ditch the pasta and eat these only with the sauce and a salad for a very filling low carb feast. The oil used here is minimal and only for flavour. Overall, with the risk of sounding like a braggart, this dish is a winner!

Thai Red Curry - with Tofu and Vegetables

2011-01-26T00:02:00.001-05:00

I think Thai food introduces some exotic factor into Asian cooking, and altho' it feels very familiar to the Indian palette in some aspects, there are just two or three typical ingredients that take it over the top. For a vegetarian, eating Thai food in a restaurant can be a challenge. It took me some time to realize why this much liked food often made me sick - addition of fishy ingredients, literally, such as shrimp powder or fish sauce. You have to always remember the special instructions, namely, no fish sauce, dried shrimp or eggs in anything, and if you ever forget this, you end up wasting a fine order of food. It is also tough to find ready-made thai pastes that cater to this requirement, some just don't list out the shrimp powder etc. There are some high-end brands such as those available at Whole Foods that will clearly label that this is suitable for vegans eg. But any ready made sauce in a bottle lacks the quality of freshly ground spices or pastes.

Now that I have made a case for making your own curry pastes, I am going to go ahead and post this recipe with a ready made paste I luckily found in the local store that was vegan. A readymade paste will generally make your red curry really red, or the green really green due to the addition of colour. But I am also giving the recipe for making this paste at home with the disclaimer that you may not get a similar red colour, and thats OK.

After perusing several websites, food tv, chef's sites, blogs etc. and of course my own experiences tasting red curry a million times, I have come up with the main elements that go into a thai curry paste. These are shallots/onions, ginger or galangal, garlic, kafir lime leaves or lemon zest, lemon grass and chillies. A red chilli gives you the red curry, the green gives the green curry, and most everything else remains the same. The sauce is generally made up of coconut cream or milk. I generally use the above ingredients by the 'eyeball' method, not being exacting in using measurements, and almost always add a stock of lemon grass to the boiling sauce, to get more flavour that way. My efforts generally end up tasting 'thai' like enough, for me to have made this multiple times.

You can use your choice of vegetables - carrots, broccoli, green beans, peppers, tofu etc. The recipe/method is as follows -

Ingredients -

2-3 medium onions

1 cup green beans

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup diced peppers any color

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup mushrooms optional

1 cup baby corn

1 pack tofu diced

1 can coconut milk

1 -2 tsp oil

salt and pepper

Curry paste -

3-4 Tbsp ready made paste from bottle

1 medium onion

12-15 fresh red chillies

1 head garlic

2 inch ginger

zest and juice of 1 lemon

stem of 3-4 stalk lemon grass

salt

Method -

1) If you are using your own curry paste, roughly chop above ingredients and grind to a smooth paste and keep aside.

2) Slice carrots and onions, chop peppers, mushrooms and dice the tofu.

3) Heat the oil in a skillet and add the vegetables one by one. Add carrots, beans, peppers, onions and tofu.

4) Add the curry paste and fry together with the veggies. Check seasonings and add salt/pepper as needed. Add curry paste a little at a time and taste until you get the required heat level. The coconut will dull some of the heat.

5) Add the can of coconut milk. You can use low fat if you wish. Stir everything and bring to a boil. You can add a stalk or two of lemon grass while this simmers to get more herby flavour. Add some water if needed to get a sauce of the desired thickness.

6) Serve hot with steamed rice.

This is a quick and easy recipe to make at home. The curry paste can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

Penne with Homemade tomato sauce

2011-01-18T01:19:00.000-05:00

This is a quick and easy recipe, or a non-recipe really. This is just a notch above boiling ramen noodles or maggi, I think, something that can easily be made even in a dorm room or during Exams week when time is really 'of the essence'. I seem to be caught in a nostalgic moment here, since I am shooting off analogies about the good old school days:).

The star of this recipe is the tomatoes. I have used fresh desi tomatoes or 'Indian' or 'gavran' tomatoes, as some people are wont to call them. This is the original variety of tomato, I think, that we grew up eating, and is miles away from the roma, vine ripe, heirloom or any other western variety. This is also totally different from the Italian 'sweet' tomatoes. I am using these for a slightly different taste/flavour and also because I found them very cheap like 10 rupees a kilo, which a very rare occurrence. Needless to say, this recipe can be followed exactly using Any available tomato, or canned crushed tomatoes or Italian stewed tomatoes that you get in a can. It will remain as easy, or perhaps easier. I use a little milk and some sugar to reduce the acid/tang, since these particular tomatoes tend to be quite sour. Any dry spice mix can be used, like Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic, one of my favourite blends, or just plain dried basil/orgeno/rosemary. I am using Herb de Provence. The recipe or method follows.

This is simple sans veggies, but feel free to add any vegetable etc. that you like to up the ante here.

Ingredients -

10-12 fresh tomatoes

1 onion diced

1 Tbsp garlic chopped

1 tsp dried herbs

2 cups dry penne

1 Tbsp EVOO or olive oil

salt and pepper

Method -

1) Stew, boil or pressure cook the tomatoes until they are completely cooked and the skin starts to come off.

2) After they cool a bit, pull off the skins and squash the tomatoes with hand, or with a masher. You can strain this if you want a super fine sauce, but I like it chunky and rustic, and so leave it the way it is.

3) Chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic first. The heat should be very low so that the garlic does not burn. The lower the temperature, the more flavour is released by the garlic. As the garlic starts changing colour, add the onions.

4) Saute until onions soften and add the squashed tomatoes. **This is where you add your can of crushed or italian tomatoes if you are using canned ones.

5) Season the sauce with the dried herbs of choice, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer. 6) Simmer the sauce until it thickens and coats the spoon. Taste and guage the level of sourness. Add about half cup milk and 1-2 tsp of sugar or any sweetener. The amount of tang or sourness you want here is to your taste.

7) Boil water, salt it and add dry pasta. Cook according to given directions until al dente or slightly undercooked.

8) Drain the pasta and pour sauce over it a little at a time and mix. Add sauce until all the pasta is evenly coated but not to create a gravy like consistency. * If sauce remains, keep it on the side to add on top while eating as needed.

9) Serve hot with more fresh black pepper, and some fresh grated parmesan if desired.

10) I think adding crushed red pepper to this sauce will liken it to an Arrabiata, but I want to keep it simple and call it plain old tomato sauce. This sauce can be used as base for any kind of pasta.

I hope you try this simple recipe the next time you start defrosting that Lean Cuisine or open yet another pack of Ramen noodles.

Vegetable Fried Rice - quick and easy homemade chinese

2011-01-11T23:59:00.001-05:00

The fried rice is the most ubiquitous thing on any chinese menu, whether it be a chinese takeout in the USA, or any Indo chinese menu in the smallest desi town. Whatever we order, the fried rice is generally a part of it. A special note, as most vegetarians and vegans know - the fried rice is offered as part of the entree in almost any chinese takeout place, but this has pork, so we almost always (have to) go with steamed rice, and then the 'vegetable fried rice - NO EGG' is a seperate order.

I think this may have been the first 'chinese' recipe I may have tried out, several years ago. There have been some changes in the way I make this, over the years. The Indian style 'chilli' sauce has given way to Sriracha or red pepper flakes, the soy sauce has become low sodium or Liquid Aminos(not low sodium), and the MSG or ajinomoto has been abandoned. I also tend to add more vegetables, and more variety of vegetables. I now have access to the exotic genre of vegetables - mushrooms, coloured peppers, coloured cabbage, baby corn etc. etc. Also, my favoured method for making any pulao, pilaf, fried rice etc. is to start out with loads of raw vegetables so that the finished product has at least 50% vegetables even after the veggies cook down, and you get several veggies in each bite, without having to 'search' for them. Each restaurant or takeout joint has their own thing, of course, and my latest favourite as far as fried rice goes has been the newly opened or relatively newly opened Rainbow buffet in the Short Pump Walmart complex. For less than 6 bucks, you get a relatively bottomless paper carton that is stashed with the ultimate fried rice. Slight snag - the oil and salt are on the high side, of course.

So back to our recipe, you start out with several vegetables, anything you have on hand and chop away merrily while your rice cooks. I have used white rice, and always just wanted to try brown rice. But you can use it by all means. There are also other vegetables I did not have such as baby corn, green beans, mushrooms, tofu etc. etc. that can be added to the pot. The detailed description follows -

Ingredients -

1.5 cups dry white long grain rice/jasmine rice

1 cup thinly cut cabbage

1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup chopped green peppers

1 cup chopped red peppers

2 cups thick sliced onions

1 cup chopped scallions or green onions

1 cup defrosted green peas or sweet peas

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp sriracha sauce/sambal olek

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tsp rice vinegar or white vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 Tbsp white or black pepper

salt optional

1-2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Optional vegetables

1 cup each of

baby corn

green beans

mushrooms

chopped tofu

Method -

1) Chop all the vegetables in a similar size. You can either make long thin slivers/juliennes as is common in Indo-chinese food, or fine dice everything. The onion should be thick, so that it retains a slight crunch.

2) Boil or cook rice according to package instructions. As I mentioned before, the water to be added to rice depends on what kind it is. Generally, you can go with 1.5 to 2 cups for Indian Basmati rice, or upto 3 cups for Sona Massorie, Kolamb etc. The older the rice, the more water it absorbs. If you cook rice everyday, you will have guaged how much water your current batch needs to give a dry grainy cooked product. We do not want moist and mushy rice for this fried rice.

3) Empty the rice on a flat colander or a platter and spread out and let it cool some. This seperates the grains and keeps the rice dry, as you are getting rid of any residual steam.

4) Heat a skillet, preferably with a thick bottom and a wide base and add oil. I am using my Calphalon tri ply saute pan, which I have found to be perfect for these kind of dishes such as noodles, pasta, fried rice etc., where I want a wider surface area.

5) Add the vegetables such that the longest to cook goes in first. Saute each vegetable for a minute and add the next. I have come up with my own order depending on how much bite I like in a particular vegetable. Add carrots, peppers, cabbage, scallions and onions.

6) Add the soy sauce, hot sauce, pepper, vinegar and honey. Add salt at the end only if needed. I used Kikkoman soy sauce this time, and it is salty enough that you do not need excess salt. The same thing applies to Braggs Aminos.

7) Stir the veggie mixture around. We want this bite tender since it will cook a bit again with the rice.

8) Add all the cooked rice and mix well. All the rice should be coated with the sauce. You may need to sprinkle some water at this point, or add some more diluted soy sauce if the rice looks too dry.

9) Add the peas at this time. We are adding the peas last so that they retain their fresh green colour.

10) Cover and simmer for some time. This will allow everything to steam together and the flavours to mingle.

11) Serve hot along with any chinese style stir fry, or just on its own.

This is a healthier alternative to the restaurant bought chinese fried rice, and is ready in a jiffy. What is your favourite kind of fried rice? Do you have any particular takeout style recipe? I am all eager to hear your own experiences and comments.

BaTaTyacha Rassa - Potatoes in a tomato curry

2011-01-05T01:04:00.000-05:00

'BaTaTa'( buh'Ta'Tah) in marathi means potato, that humble vegetable that none of us can really ever have enough of. 'BaTaTyacha' literally means 'of potato', 'Rassa' means gravy or curry, so this means potato gravy.

This dish is ubiquitous in all homes and perhaps the go-to dish when either you are out of vegetables, or need something in a jiffy, or want to pacify a fussy kid ( young or old). This curry with hot steaming rice is a perfect lunch or dinner when you are at a lose end and want something comforting and simple.

Now that I have waxed enough over this wonder, lets get down to the basics. There are some ways of doing this, and depending on regional and cultural differences, each family recipe could be slightly different. Like in our own home, I prefer a thick tomatoey version using boiled potatoes, while the older ones prefer starting with raw potatoes that cook in a watery stock.

Tomatoes seem to be very economical nowadays and we are getting the local or 'gavran' version, which are big on taste. Adding a few or more peas easily turns this into Alu Matar, another favourite. Roasted peanut powder or 'DaNyacha KooT' adds thickness and some nutty rich flavour.

So without any further introductions, this quick and easy recipe follows. And if this is a carbfest, who cares? My tummy's happy and so am I.

Ingredients -

5-6 medium potatoes

1 green chili pepper optional

1-2 medium onions

3-4 fresh tomatoes

2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

1 tsp goDa masala or garam masala

1 tsp each cumin coriander powder

green peas handful

1 TBsp Peanut powder

oil and salt

Turmeric

Mustard seeds or cumin seeds

Cayenne pepper

Method -

1) Boil the potatoes, preferably in a pressure cooker, or microwave until cooked. Peel and chop them roughly and set aside.

2) Chop the onions and tomatoes, and the green chili if using.

3) For the peanut powder - this is something that is widely used in Marathi homes, and there is almost always a jar of this powder ready to be used in vegetables, salads etc. To make this in a jiffy, dry roast some peanuts - about 1-2 Tbsp in a pan until they are toasty and give out an aroma. Let cool for some time, and then either powder in a 1) spice grinder or 2) mortar and pestle or 3) place in a ziplock bag and beat with a rolling pin or some heavy weight, until coarsely powdered.

4) The process of preparing this dish starts with the 'tempering', the initial sequence that is followed generally while making most Indian style vegetables.

- heat 1 Tbsp oil of choice ( clear oil such as vegetable or canola)

- once the oil is hot, add mustard/cumin seeds, Hing or asfoetida(optional), turmeric

5) Immediately add the onions. There should not be a lag between the above step and adding stuff to the pan, otherwise the oil will burn. Fry onion till tranlucent.

6) Add the green chili if using and then add tomatoes. Fry the tomatoes till they are cooked and give out juices. A rough paste should be formed by this time.

7) Add the cooked potatoes and stir it all together. Now add 2-3 cups of water and mix everything. Adjust so that you have the desired thickness. Please note that this sauce or curry will thicken slightly as it cooks, plus the starchy potatoes and the peanuts will add to the thickness.

8) Now add all the masalas or spices needed. Add salt, pinch of sugar, the goda/garam masala or the cumin or coriander powder. These are all optional and you can use any or all of these. The 'goDa masala' is a traditional spice mix used in marathi cooking and is slightly different from the Garam Masala. If you don't have these, you can either just use cumin powder and that will work fine, or a readymade curry powder if you have it.

9) Add the powdered peanuts at this point.

10) Bring everything to a boil and then simmer for a few minutes till the gravy is thick enough.

11) Add frozen peas a few minutes before switching off the heat.

12) Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with steamed rice or with rotis - Naan or pita bread will also work fine here.

This is a simple recipe that does not use too much oil or any dairy etc. So how do you like your potatoes??

Texas Caviar and Happy New Year 2011

2010-12-31T23:47:00.008-05:00

Here's wishing all my readers a Happy New Year 2011. It is considered good luck to eat black eyed peas on New Year's day, especially in the Southern parts of America. Texas Caviar is popular in the Lone Star state as the name suggests, and thankfully has nothing to do with actual caviar. Although the typical 'chavLi AamTi' or 'chavLi UsaL' are popular dishes in our Maharashtrian kitchen, the texas caviar had not made an appearance as yet. Healthy, nutritious and easy to make, this is a great dish to take to a potluck, and that's where I first came across this wonder. This is so easy to make that it was always on the back burner..well, not quite..lol

As always I scoured the web for recipes and there are several variations. I went with what I had available and made some changes to suit my tastes. Texas Caviar is generally doused in Italian dressing, but I made my own honey/chili dressing. I have used dry black eyed peas from scratch but you can of course use canned ones. The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1/2 lb or 250 g dry black eyed peas/chavLi/lobia

1 medium onion any colour

3-4 stalks scallions/green onions

1/2 -1 rib celery

1 green pepper

1 red/orange pepper

3-4 tomatoes

1 cup sweet corn

dressing

2 lemons juiced

1 Tbsp ACV

1 Tbsp chili powder( seasoning)

2 Tbsp EVOO

salt and pepper

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp minced garlic optional

Method -

1) Soak the black eyed peas overnight or for 4-6 hours. These are less stubborn than beans, and do not need much soaking. Boil the peas until they are tender. Alternately, you can use canned black eyed peas. A note for vegetarians - be sure to check the contents/label of the can to see that they do not have bacon or ham etc.

2) Drain the cooked peas and set aside to cool. You can also do this in advance and refrigerate the peas until needed.

3) Chop all the vegetables - onion, green onions, celery, peppers, tomatoes. Use one whole stalk or half of the celery depending on the size and to your taste. Half a cup of celery will also give great flavour, and we do not want the celery to overpower everything else. You can use any kind of tomatoes or a can of chopped tomatoes even ( easy gets easier).

4) In a bowl, assemble the peas, all chopped veggies and corn(rinsed).

5) Prepare the dressing in a smaller bowl - add all the ingredients and beat with a whisk or fork until emulsified. You can either use plain or apple cider vinegar.

6) Add the dressing to the peas and veggies mixture and toss lightly to mix well. Do not use excessive force to avoid bruising the peas.

7) Refrigerate for 4-6 hours before serving. This gets better as it sits in the fridge and marinates.

It will taste better the next day.

8) Serve with tortilla chips and get ready to party.

9) Alternate serving suggestions - a) eat as a salad on its own b) Fill in a wrap c) Top your breakfast scramble etc.

Texas Caviar is a quick and easy tasty dish you can make anytime with common kitchen ingredients.

Review: The Yellow Chilli Restaurant, Pune - Haven for spice lovers

2010-12-26T23:00:00.005-05:00

The Yellow Chilli restaurant is situated in Lane 7 in Koregaon Park in Pune and is part of the Sanjeev kapoor brand. It means I suppose that Sanjeev Kapoor is the chef here and all recipes must be by him. The place has ample seating outside, and some inside. The place is somewhat crowded, perhaps due to many tables and people always walking around to and from the buffet tables. We went there on a holiday. This was my second visit to the place and some people in our party were going there for the fifth or sixth time.

The restaurant offers a lunch buffet for 375 without taxes, buffet + one soft drink costs 475, and then there is an option of unlimited beer with buffet for 899. The most irritating thing I find here is that they stop you at the entrance and ask you to fill out a form to write your name and your cell phone number, maybe ask some questions. This is kind of a dampener, 'coz you are all eager to go in and be seated and be wowed with something nice. There is an excess of people in various uniforms, and it is difficult to guage what they really do. After we were seated, we were offered the first two options, but not the third one of the unlimited beer etc. Perhaps they did not consider us able to shell out 899 per head? It is difficult to figure out the idiosyncracies of hotel staff, like why they do certain things.. Anyway, moving on..

The food options are limited here in my opinion. First of all, this is pure Indian food only, and there is no whiff of any alternate cuisine. There is one appetizer - veg or non-veg served at the table. For vegetarians, this has been some kind of fried potato both times -- a gnocchi sized small potato mixture deep fried. They have some salads etc. and a chat counter which is so-so. They generally have 4-5 vegetable curries and 3-4 meat/fish etc. dishes. The preparation is OK, and every thing tastes different, which is no mean feat, I suppose. The food is Very hot and Very spicy. I think they cater more to the local palette which seems to be their customer base. My own heat tolerance being low, I can hardly partake anything here without sniffling or without tears in my eyes. I think smaller children might find it tough too.

One factor that I use to guage any place is how long the food stays with you, or you have a 'heavy' feeling. I am not sure if any of you noticed, but sometimes you can eat a LOT, and then be hungry in 3-4 hours, and sometimes you eat very little, and still not want breakfast or lunch the next day. The food at Yellow Chilli seemed in this category. This could be due to a lot of oil or butter being used, or 'soda', or whatever.

Some other things were a bit 'wierd'. There were people taking soiled, half eaten plates to the buffet and using their 'used' hands to take more food on those plates. I think the restaurant should make an attempt to educate people about acceptable behavoir, at least in the interest of hygiene. It is common to write things on the menu or signs such as - use a fresh plate every time etc.

We were given a feedback form to fill out at the end, and the person kept hovering around us all the time. After submitting the card, he stood right there and read it all, and then questioned us on each point. Since I was in no mood to be given the third degree, I politely declined to explain, but the man persisted and kept questioning us. We finally had to ignore him and make an exit. This behavior was ridiculous. I think Mr.Sanjeev kapoor really needs to teach some soft skills to his employees.

Overall, the Yellow Chilli is a nice place if you are in the mood for hot and spicy Indian food, in a pleasant environment, but there are several other better options in this price range.

Makai Tikki - Sweet corn fritters

2010-12-21T23:41:00.000-05:00

These makai tikkis are great as appetizers or cocktail snacks and go really fast. They can be simply served with ketchup or any chili sauce of your choice. Makai Tikkis or corn kebabs as some call them appeared on catering menus almost two decades ago, and were a delectable offering that were difficult to ignore. Now we see Makai tikki on almost every restaurant menu, but alas they are becoming unhealthier and tasteless day by day. The versions we get at the few take out places we frequent are mostly laden with some kind of flour, over spiced, and deep fried. You would be lucky to see any actual corn in them.

I had two large corn on the cobs ( or corns on the cob?) lying around, and a lazy saturday evening ahead. Everyone welcomed the thought of fresh munchies while watching a nice movie. The recipe is simple and lightly spiced, since sweet corn has a subtle flavour that can be easily overpowered by spices, and I wanted the natural corn flavour to come through. I am using partially creamed corn, but with a few kernels still intact, and then the usual base of potatoes and grated paneer. Paneer can absolutely be left out to veganize this dish. You can use tofu instead of paneer, though it will not give the same taste and texture. You can use half a cup cashew paste, however, to get a similar rich flavour. I am using fresh boiled corn, but frozen corn or canned corn will also do. The fresh will give the best flavour. Fresh minced garlic, and dried onion flakes along with some coriander powder provide the spice base.

I am using my favourite 'Appe patra ' or Ableskiever pan to make these. This pan is very handy and I get tikkis that are crispy on the outside using only a few drops of oil for each batch. You have to patiently keep turning the fritters or tikkis till you get uniformly crisped balls. You can always deep fry these, if you do not care about how much oil you use. Alternately, these can be placed in neat rows on a sheet pan, sprayed with PAM etc. and baked in a 350 deg oven ( turned periodically). I got about 4 batches i.e 28-30 of these from these recipes, but they disappeared pretty fast.

The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 large corns on the cob or whole maize

2 medium potatoes

1 cup grated paneer

1 tsp minced fresh garlic

2 tsp dehydrated onion

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 TBsp rice flour or all purpose flour

salt and pepper

oil

Method -

1) Boil or pressure cook the corn so that it is soft and cooked. Alternately you can boil frozen corn or use washed canned corn.

2) Remove the corn kernels from the cob using a knife ( tricky process) or plucking them individually with your fingers. Add this and 2-3 cloves garlic in the food processor and pulse through until most of it is a thick pulp but some corn kernels remain. This should yield about 2 cups of thick corn puree.

3) Boil, peel and mash 2 potatoes and add them to the corn mixture.

4) Add the grated paneer ( or cashew paste or tofu if substituting paneer).

5) Add all the spices as mentioned, flour, lots of black pepper and salt to taste. Use salt sparingly.

6) Mix everything together with a fork.

7)Heat the ableskieverpan and add a drop of oil to each mould.

8) Take some of the corn mixture in your palm and form small balls, slightly smaller than pingpong balls. You can of course, form these like patties and use a skillet or frying pan by all means.

9)Place the 'balls' in the pan moulds. Gradually turn them using a wooden skewer or fork tip until they are evenly browned.

10) Serve hot with ketchup or sauce of choice.

These makai tikkis or corn fritters or corn balls are very soft on the inside and literally melt in your mouth. These are great as a party appetizer and can also be served with a toothpick inserted in them.

I hope you try this recipe for makai tikkis and let me know how it turns out.

Vegetarian Three Pepper Fajita Burritos - homemade Mexican treat

2010-12-10T00:44:00.003-05:00

oooohhh 'Fa-Hee-Taz'!! who doesn't love fajitas..Chili's has one effective ad, I am sure, because everytime the 'Chilis to Go' advertisement aired ( from a couple years ago I think) wooing you with how easily you could pick up a platter of smoking hot fajitas carside, I just wanted to run out, rain or snow, to get some for myself. No pizza ad had me drooling that much.

This is one thing that's readily available for vegetarians in hotels, thank god, and they are either stingy or generous depending on the place. Some chain restaurants just do not have any specific 'vegetarian' fajitas on the menu, and you have to order a meat one minus the meat. Then again depending on the whim of the cook I guess, you sometimes end up with just a few measly onions and peppers, and end up cursing yourself for ordering them. Some local Mexican joints, such as my favourite Mexico restaurant or Mi Hacienda in local Richmond actually have a seperate Vegetarian Fajitas on their menu, and treat you to a veritable feast with every possible vegetable from broccoli to mushrooms and what not on your platter.

My obsession with Fajitas started a very long time ago when I used to work at Mexican joint. They had two signature burritos called 'fajita' and 'mexicali'. The Fajita burrito had onions and peppers with your choice of meat and a very fattening but delish chipotle sauce( which moi had no idea was made of egg yolks), and the mexicali was seasoned mexican type rice with the sauce - and meat, of course! The flavour combination of grilled peppers and onions is unbeatable, and so natural. The slight spice of the pepper, the sweetness from the caramelization, the smokiness from the charring, oye!

Turning the time machine to the present, I had been dreaming about these fajitas for some time, and luckily there was a time when there were all sorts of coloured peppers in the ice box, and loads of onions, corn etc. - in general almost every grain and vegetable that was needed to turn out this delectable treat. The only thing missing was an avocado, that I spent and hour acquiring, which finally turned out to be raw, hence dashing my plans for guacamole :( . But hey, I guess you gotta lose some.

This is a detailed recipe where all the fixings are made from scratch, but doesn't take that long to put together, really. You roughly need the same amount of time to make a small or large batch of this. Leftovers are a MUST!! These can provide you lunch for the whole week, as burritos, salads, bowls etc. etc.

There are multiple ways you can serve this up -
1) Burrito Bowl - if you are interested in 'losing layers', just pile these on artistically one over the other in a bowl, or shallow plate, with lots of crunchy lettuce on top.
2) Taco salad - with or without the bowl - start with a large base of romaine or such, and then dish everything else on top
3) Fajita platter - everything here, plus some beans served with steamed tortillas
4) Burritos - wrap burritos and serve with some chips and salsa
5) soft tacos -You can also create soft tacos with your choice of these ingredients
.... and so on and so forth. The possibilities, my dear, are endless!!

I am listing the various things I made and then will give each recipe seperately -

1) pico de guile or 'pico'
2) corn salsa
3)mexican rice
4)grilled onions and peppers
5)grilled tofu
6) fresh tortillas ( courtesy mater)

Refried beans and guacamole are missing 'coz i decided to go beanless and the avocado turned on me.

We also decided to go sans cheese or sour cream and keep this totally vegan and healthy. We certainly did not miss it amidst all these fresh and flavourful homemade items.

The detailed recipes for each of the above follow -

1) Pico De Guile
I am not sure if I have spelt this correctly, but everyone knows this is the tomato intensive 'mild salsa' or tomato salad that goes with your burrito.

Ingredients
4-5 vine ripe or any tomatoes
1 small onion
1 jalapeno
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro or more per taste
salt
pinch of sugar
half a lime juiced

Method
1)Chop all the above and mix together. You can use canned chopped tomatoes in a bind, but fresh with always always taste best, especially the vine ripe ones. You can use a deseeded jalapeno and only a half one for a mild pico, and more if you like heat.
2) Add the lime juice and refrigerate in a covered bowl for at least an hour before eating. This will allow everything to blend and the tomatoes to soften a bit.

2) Corn Salsa

I just love this - adds a sweet element among other fiery ones.

Ingredients
1 can sweet yellow corn or 2 cups frozen thawed sweet corn kernels
1 onion finely chopped
1 small jalapeno deseeded and chopped
1 small tomato chopped
2 Tbsp cilantro finely chopped
1 tsp chili or taco seasoning
salt and pepper
juice of 1 lime

Method
1)Wash corn well if using canned corn and get rid of the canning liquid. If using frozen corn, you may want to blanch it a bit.
2) Mix all the above ingredients together in a bowl. Add the seasonings and the Fresh lime juice. The chili or taco seasoning will give a slight kick to this otherwise sweet salsa or salad.
3) Refrigerate for a minimum of one hour before use

3) Mexican Rice
Mexican rice recipe can be found here.

4)Grilled onions and peppers

There is no replacing these. They are what make a fajita a fajita :)

Ingredients
3-4 medium onions any colour
2 large green peppers
2 large red peppers
2 large orange or yellow peppers
salt and pepper
oil

Method
1) Cut the onions lengthwise in thick slices. Seperate them with fingers and set aside.
2) De-stem and deseed the peppers and remove all white parts. Cut long strips using a knife or kitchen shears.
3) Heat a non-stick pan and add a couple of drops of oil on a high flame. Add the onions such that they do not crowd the pan. Let them char a bit on one side and then toss them. You can fulfil all your fancies of tossing things in the pan in the air etc. chef style. The onions should only be slightly cooked and charred, but should have a bite to them. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and remove to a platter.
4) Repeat the above process with all the peppers in several batches as needed.
Tip - Sprinkle some sugar on the veggies. The sugar will caramelize and give a nice char to the vegetable
( I saw this on tv but honestly can't say if it made a difference)

5) Grilled Tofu

The tofu is our protein here, and needless to say, my carnivore friends can use this same process for any kind of meat etc. they like or dairy lovers can use paneer.

Ingredients
1 packet extra firm tofu
chili seasoning
vinegar or fresh lime juice
salt and pepper
oil for pan

Method
1) Wash and drain the tofu, and cut into longish pieces.
2) Add seasonings, lime juice, dash of vinegar and toss lightly
3) Let it marinate for some time, the more the better. I generally do this first, then cut all the veggies etc., and then by the time I light the pan, at least half an hour has gone by. This can also be done any time beforehand and refrigerated. 4)Heat a non-stick pan and add some oil or PAM type spray. Place the tofu on the pan and grill until browned on all sides. Turn periodically as needed.

6)Fresh Tortillas
You can buy any store brand, but this makes All the difference. It was simply heavenly taking a tortilla fresh off the stove, and this herculean task was graciously undertaken by the mater. Kudos!

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1-2 tsp baking powder
salt to taste

Method
1) I have used plain old flour here since this was the first attempt. You can use masa, wheat flour, corn meal etc. -- the choice is yours.
2) Mix all the ingredients together - by hand or FP- to make a dough like you would for roti or chapati.
3) Let the dough rest for some time, maybe half hour.
4) Make rotis as you would usually. I wasn't sure if these should be roasted over the fire like a 'phulka'. My Internet searches revealed nothing about this. They just mentioned turning the wrap in the pan.
5) The wraps were sufficiently 'chewy' thanks to the baking powder I think. The above measurements were my own experimentation, based on a few tortilla recipes I found on the web. Some used butter or lard, and a lot of it, for making the dough. I decided to go with a little bit of oil, or 'mohan' ( funny maharashtrian term for oil that is added while kneading dough).

Whew!! I hope I have covered everything that I set out to portray here.

What method did I use to eat this?? I will let a picture speak louder than a thousand words. Here is a pic of my three pepper fajita burrito before it got rolled and disappeared!!

Now where's that margarita?

Do you love fajitas? Have you ever tried them at home? What other veggies do you add to your fajita platter. Your questions, comments, suggestions are always welcome.

Spanish Style Rice or Mexican rice

2010-12-05T01:38:00.000-05:00

I suppose the title of this post sounds a bit unusual, but this is literally about the side of rice that you get in Mexican restaurants, either inside your burrito, or as part of fajitas or as a side of any other dish that you order. Various restaurants have their own versions, of course. Taco Bell has a highly seasoned dry and reddish looking rice, whereas Chipotle simply has pure white rice laced with butter and lime and cilantro. The fancier OTB/Mexico have their take too.

This version is actually a combination of various elements that I personally like, and also has some origins in a recipe called 'Spanish Rice' that I learnt several years ago in a cooking class. I am posting this seperately since I feel this deserves a seperate mention, and is a dish that can hold its own. But this is definitely a precursor to my upcoming post for Vegetarian Fajitas/Burritos.

The recipe itself is pretty simple, using the basic flavours you would find in Mexican cooking - the peppers providing the main flavour here, and chili powder or ready made taco seasoning takes care of the spice aspect. Fresh ingredients will always result in a supreme creation. An optional pat of butter will add some richness. The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

1 onion chopped

1 tomato chopped

1 green pepper chopped

1-2 Serrano peppers whole or jalapeno peppers

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 cup tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbsp Taco seasoning (any brand) or

1 Tbsp ready made chili powder*

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1 Tbsp oil/butter

1.5 cups rice

*Chili powder here refers to a ready made spice blend and not just cayenne pepper. If you do not have access to taco seasoning or chili seasoning, just substitute with 1 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp of roasted cumin/jeera powder. Roasting will give a smoky flavour as found in seasoning blends

Method -

1) Chop the garlic, onion, tomato and peppers and set aside. Use either whole Serrano/jalapeno peppers or split into two pieces. If you are using Indian chillies, use whole ones according to your taste or heat level.
2) Heat 1 tsp oil in a thick sauce pan or vessel. You can omit the oil if you wish if you are using a non-stick pot. Add the onion and garlic and lightly saute' till they soften. Add the green chill peppers in whole. Add the green bell peppers and saute for sometime, then add tomatoes.
3) The whole mixture in the pot will be very aromatic. Add the seasonings. Wash the rice, drain and add to this mixture. Fry for some time.
4) Add the liquid now. You will need a minimum of 3 cups of liquid for 1.5 cups rice. Add a cup of tomato sauce and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer. Cover and let the rice cook.
5) Check the rice periodically to make sure that it does not stick. You may need to add more water if the rice looks too dry, and is uncooked even after most of the liquid is absorbed. The liquid needed will depend on the quality of rice, and will differ not only according to brand, but also according to the batch of rice.
6) Once the rice grains look cooked, the rice is done. It may look slightly 'saucy' at this point, but that is ok, since it will soon be absorbed even after you turn off the heat. Check for seasonings and adjust as needed.
7) Turn off the heat. Add the chopped cilantro and lime juice and fold it in lightly in the rice.
8) Mexican/Spanish rice is ready to serve.

This is great even on its own, and can be made sumptuous by adding a cup of cooked black or kidney beans as the rice cooks. This mexican rice makes a great filling for burritos or as a side with fajitas(coming up) or in wraps. You can make this ahead of time in the fridge as a large batch, and also other veggies etc., and then assemble wraps on the go.

This Spanish/mexican rice is definitely a must-try on chilly evenings.

Saag Chole - down home comfort that packs a punch

2010-11-29T00:53:00.000-05:00

Saag Chole, Chole Palak, Chana Saag etc. etc., there are n number of ways this dish is named or called. The main base ingredient here is Chole a.k.a Chana a.k.a chickpeas a.k.a garbanzos - you know what I mean. The 'Saag' in this word means 'green', any greens but traditionally is either spinach or a mixture of spinach and mustard greens. This can be called a combination of two typical punjabi staples - the chana or chickpeas, and the omnipresent 'saag' or greens. I have typically found that this dish is making an appearance on a lot of Indian restaurant menus nowadays, either due to its increasing popularity, or also maybe in an effort to increase the number of items on the menu without really adding anything different. I hope that does not sound too caustic :o

You can make this for two people or a crowd with roughly the same effort. This is really super easy, especially if you use canned chickpeas and frozen spinach, as I am wont to, especially 'coz I almost always cook this when I am pressed for time. This is a vegetarian's delight, packing a mean nutritious punch, and you can eat it on its own, or with some steamed rice. I dare you to eat a big bowl of this and Not feel full :).

Traditionally, I am pretty sure the hardworking ladies must have soaked the dried chickpeas for 12 hours plus and cooked them in an iron pot, and also this is much cheaper than buying a can, but sometimes the hustle bustle of life just takes over and whats a girl to do. At least its infinitesimally better than takeout, right?

A typical blend of spices is used here, which I call 'punjabi' spices. But these are nothing to be afraid of. They are present in almost all pantries, even American ones, the only difference being that their usage may be different. I make two versions of this dish - the crude one and the finer one. Knowing time constraints, I almost always end up making the crude one( as seen in the crude photo above). Both things taste the same, the only difference is in the presentation. The finer version uses pureed spinach instead of just chopped, hence the added step of using the FP. So without wasting any more time, the recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 cans chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1 packet frozen chopped spinach ( or half spinach and mustard)
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 medium onions
4-5 cloves
3-4 one inch sticks cinnamon
2-3 black or green cardamom pods
1-2 dry bay leaf
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garam masala
1 Tbsp fresh chopped garlic
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
oil
1 tsp sugar

Method -

1) Chop the onions and finely grate the ginger. Grate garlic if possible or chop it finely. I do not advocate the use of ready made ginger garlic pastes since they are tasteless.

2) Thaw and wash the spinach under hot water and drain in a colander. Try to squeeze any obvious moisture out of it. If using mustard, use 50-50 with spinach. Please do not use mustard on its own since it is very bitter.

3) If you are doing the fancy version with the FP, put the onions, ginger, garlic and the spinach in the food processor and give it a whirl until you get a thick pesto like paste.

4) Wash and drain the canned chickpeas taking care to remove all the water/liquid from the cans. This is laden with who knows what preservatives and they are better down your drain.

5) Assemble all the dry spices in front of you. Heat oil in a pan and add the spices once the oil splutters. If you are using the fancy process, add the pureed spinach mixture to the oil at this point. The process continues here *.

6) Add the chopped onion to the oil and spices and fry till the onion is slightly cooked and changes colour.

7) Add the ginger and garlic and saute for a minute without letting it burn.

8) Add the drained spinach now and cook, stirring for 5-10 minutes until the spinach changes colour and is completely cooked.

9) Step 5 continues here *. Add the cup of crushed tomatoes at this point and also add the drained chickpeas.

10) Add the cayenne and the garam masala, salt and sugar. Stir this together.

11) Cover this and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Since the canned chickpeas are already cooked, this time is enough for everything to get friendly.

12) Serve hot with steamed rice, rotis or just in a bowl like a thick bean soup.

This dish is vegan as well as vegetarian and is a powerhouse of nutrition with all the spinach( and mustard if used) and the proteins from the chickpeas. Very little oil is used, but even that can be omitted by using a non-stick pan and using some broth or water in the initial step instead of oil.

Looking forward to finding out what you think of this.

Ajwaini Panch Daal - Five lentil Mix spiced with Carom Seeds

2010-11-17T01:09:00.000-05:00

I have always liked mixed lentils - be it the 10 bean or 15 bean soup mixes of dry lentils you get in any grocery store or any homegrown/made mix that's born just to clear out the pantry. One of my cousins had a tarla dalal book with a recipe called 'panchmel' daal, and lately even our local Indian grocery store sells a ready made blend called 'paach daal' or 5 lentil mix - one more thing made easy for us to avoid more activity( to our detriment).

This recipe was born when I wanted to create something that tasted a bit different from the usual garam masala type spices that we use in Indian cuisine. Lately, I have started using one or two dominant individual spices to flavour a whole dish, instead of using blends. I feel this not only transforms everyday food to something unexpected, but also does not drown the taste of the main ingredient. This lentil mix looks very colorful when dry, but loses all this colour when it is cooked. I use the pressure cooker to first cook this lentil mix - these are split lentils and there is no need to soak them ahead of time, and this can be ready in half an hour or under thirty minutes :). You can also use a crock pot for this, I suppose, but I have never used them so far.

The dry red chillies are available in any Indian grocery store. I use whole chillies so can get away with the high number I am using. The Ajwain is the star in this dish, giving it the spicy kick. Ajwain or carom seeds are kind of pungent and spicy, as are the leaves, widely used in India as a grandmother's remedy for stomach aches, colds, upset stomachs etc. I chewed on them quite a bit in my college days. They can of course, be an acquired taste, but the taste has also been likened to thyme. I am adding some sugar to make this sweetish tasting like a gujrati daal and also to soften the punch from the Ajwain.

This daal can be eaten with hot steaming rice, or also as a thick lentil soup with some fresh crusty bread. Either way, it is sumptuous and fulfilling and will keep hunger at bay for a long time.

The recipe is as follows. This should make four big servings of thick daal.

Ingredients -

1/4 cup tur daal

1/4 cup yellow mung daal

1/4 cup green split mung daal or chilka daal

1/4 cup red lentil/ masoor daal

1/4 cup black masoor daal

6-8 dry red chillies

3 tomatoes or 1 cup grape tomatoes

1 Tbsp Ajwain seeds

1 Tbsp fresh ginger

1 tsp turmeric

1 TBsp oil/ghee

1 Tbsp sugar/substitute

salt to taste

Method -

1)Combine all the lentils or dry daals together in a pot and cook them in a pressure cooker with the usual time you need to cook daal in your particular cooker. Three whistles and steam for 10 minutes should be enough.

2) Assemble all ingredients that you need for the tempering to avoid scrambling while the oil smokes and burns i.e the dry red chillies - break one or two and keep the others whole. The whole chillies will mostly be ornamental, since the seeds will stay inside; fresh ginger - grated or julienned; ajwain seeds

3) Heat oil or ghee in a wok or thick pan. Add the Ajwain seeds and immediately add the ginger. Add the turmeric powder and the red chillies.

Stand a bit away from the stove at this point, since the chillies might splutter a bit and have the potential to create some art on your forearms.

4) Add the cooked daal and stir. Season with the salt, add sugar and add water if needed to get the desired thickness.

5) Bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer for 5-10 minutes for the flavours to combine. The more you simmer, the more concentrated the taste will be.

6) If you are Not using a pressure cooker, repeat all the above steps and add the uncooked daals( washed and drained) in step number four. You will then need to let it cook in the pot like any lentils and will take a longer time in excess of half an hour. I think the tur daal will take the longest to cook, while the mung or masoor should cook in a jiffy. A crock pot might be a better solution.

7) Cut the tomatoes in long thick slices, or just quarter them. Add them to the simmering lentils/daal just 5 minutes before you switch off the heat. You can alternately add whole grape tomatoes. We want the tomatoes to be barely cooked - just softened but not raw and retaining their shape. I think this looks restaurant style aesthetically, and also adds a nice unexpected tang between bites.

8) Serve hot with steamed rice or crusty bread.

Please note - If you are planning to store this in the fridge for more than a day or two, take care to take out the chillies. This is because the longer it stands, the chillis will gradually soften and release their heat into the daal.

You can further improve the nutritional profile of this meal by adding any vegetables of your choice to make this a vegetable-lentil type stew. I hope you like this Ajwain flavoured daal and make it often as I do.

Jeera Alu Shimla Mirch (Cumin flavoured potatoes and peppers) - quick and easy all-time favourite

2010-11-12T00:58:00.002-05:00

Lofty mountains, picturesque valleys, swirling mists, chilly breezes, and tummies grumbling for food - this is how I remember one nostalgic afternoon in Kodaikanal, one of the popular hillstations in Southern India. The resort had a restaurant perched on a hilltop with glass all around where you could see the valley view all around you. The food was piping hot - simple roti and Alu Subji, but with a slightly different recipe than the usual thing we ate at home. The aroma of that dish has stayed with me along with happy memories of a great vacation. As young as I was that time, I did not waste any time recreating the simple comforting dish the moment I got home.

Fast forwarding to the present day, Alu Shimla Mirch has always been a very popular dish in our home, and the goto dish when any last minute guests turned up. The flavour of the green pepper or capsicum elevates the everyday potato to a different level, and a strong dose of cumin with a secret spice further makes this taste exotic.

This vegetable dish is ready in a jiffy, since in a typical Indian home, the potatoes are boiled in a pressure cooker along with the usual rice and daal. The green peppers are coarsel chopped meanwhile and then they are stir fried together with the spices. In the wintertime, we sometimes get small green peppers, and my mother makes a further variation where she stuffs the boiled mashed potatoes into the peppers and then sautees them in a pan. This changes the presentation but the taste is the same as the following recipe.

Ingredients -

4-5 large potatoes

3 green peppers

1 Tbsp cumin seeds

3-4 green cardamom pods(elaichi)

hing and turmeric

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp oil

salt to taste

pinch sugar

Method -

1) Scrub and clean the potatoes and boil them either in a pressure cooker or in a pot of boiling water. You can also microwave them if in a hurry, but the texture is slightly different from boiled potatoes. You can use 4-5 Idaho potatoes or 10-12 small new potatoes. Peel and chop the potatoes.

Note - the ratio of potatoes versus peppers here is more to your liking and also on how much the peppers cost :). There will not be much of a difference in flavour if you add 2 versus three or four peppers, since this is a strong flavoured vegetable. More peppers of course mean more vitamin C and more nutrition.

2) Destem the peppers and remove all white parts. Cut into largish pieces, such that the pieces will be intact even after getting cooked.

3) Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds and cardamom pods. As they splutter, add hing and turmeric powder. Immediately add the chopped peppers. Sautee for some time until the peppers are cooked.

4) Add the chopped potatoes, the cayenne pepper, salt and a pinch of sugar. Stir everything together and cover. Let it simmer for five minutes.

5) Your Alu Shimla Mirch is ready to be devoured.

This is a simple and easy family favourite that is liked by young and old alike. I hope you try this simple recipe and let me know what you think.

Rava Besan Ladu and Diwali Greetings

2010-11-05T03:22:00.000-04:00

Diwali is here again, once again reminding us that the year's almost over. Diwali brings with it several twinkling lights, great food, happy times, vacation for the kids, and alas, lots of smoke and pollution due to crackers. I have never really caught on to what fascination people find in things that make a loud bang!

In our childhood, Diwali used to be a leisurely festival. Preparations would start weeks in advance, where initially my grandma would get all the various grains ready to be ground from the 'chakki' or neighbourhood flour mill. A different delicacy would be made everyday, and stashed away out of sight so that we kids could not sneak out anything before the big day. There was the bad with the good, since this was also the time for exams, and it would be torture trying to study with all the different aromas wafting out from people's windows. The dreaded exams would give way to a 2 week vacation, and the first job would be to build the 'killa' or fort. This was almost always a group project, run in grand fashion with the bullies haggling over 'design', and the meeker kids doing menial tasks like filching and carrying bricks, sand , mud etc. from the neighbourhood as needed and assembling it before the 'construction' began. The completed 'fort' would be either painted in a maroon paint called 'geru' and/or sprinkled with mustard seeds so that a verdant fuzz grew over it by the great Diwali day. Lamps would be lit in the fort and crackers burst around it.

I have no idea if kids still do this, or engage in these simple but exciting pursuits since the virtual world of Wiis and Xboxes has taken over. Also, with our busier lives, and the proliferation of goodies available 'ready-made' in the market, the number of goodies made at home is dwindling, and hence the interest in them too. But nothing can really equal the pleasure of feasting on fresh, hot chaklis that your mother is lifting out of the kadai, or home-made shankar palas or laddus. Although I have been away from home for Diwali for most of the last several years, there is one thing that I always make at home, and this to me brings the quintessential feeling of Diwali - rava besan ladus.

These Ladus are slightly time consuming and difficult since they are made with a syrup, and also are mostly common in my family, compared to the pure besan ladu that is more widely seen. I am providing the method and recipe for a small measure, but the quantity can be doubled as needed.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1 cup rava/semolina

1 cup besan/chickpea flour

1 cup ghee

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 Tbsp crushed cardamom

5-6 cashew pieces

2 Tbsp raisins

Method -

1) Heat half cup ghee in a kadai and add the Rava to it. Roast the rava on a Very Low Flame until it becomes slightly pink and lets out a nice nutty aroma. Remove and set aside.

2) Add the remaining ghee to the Kadai and add the chickpea flour or besan. The chickpea flour will initially soak up all the ghee. Keep roasting the besan patiently on a low flame. The besan will gradually change colour and at some point dissolve in the ghee and become slightly liquid. Continue roasting till its a nice brown colour - but not burnt. Remove and set aside.

3) Crumble the cashews and the raisins and powder some cardamom pods. You can also add some grated nutmeg if you wish.

4) Put the sugar in a thick pot and add 1 cup of water. Heat till the sugar dissolves and a simple syrup is made. Continue heating until you get a 'ek tari paak'. This is a marathi term that might be difficult to explain, but I am sure that this has some equivalent in candy terminology. I will try to explain this roughly - as the syrup thickens, check if it starts coating the spoon. Take a little of this syrup between your thumb and forefinger( after cooling slightly slightly), press down, and lift your finger. Check if the syrup forms a strand between your thumb and forefinger. IF you see one strand, you have 'ek taari' or 'one strand' syrup. You want something which is slightly thicker than what you get with the one strand. The thicker the syrup, the more rapidly, it will harden. We want a medium syrup so that our roasted flours soak in it for a couple of hours and absorb all the sweetness. This way, the mixture also cools down enough to allow you to roll the ladus. If the syrup is too thick or hard, everything will harden into a solid ball and will not be pliable at all.

5) After you determine that the syrup is a desired thickness, switch off the heat. Add the cashews, raisins and elaichi powder to the syrup. Add the roasted flours. Start mixing immediately.

6) This is the crucial point in this recipe. If your syrup is very thick, everything will start hardening and will dry up at once. You will have to start rolling the ladus right away. Ideally, the mixture will be a thick liquid that you can cover and let rest for some time - anything between half an hour to four hours. Everyone has their own tack here that they develop over years of making delicious ladus. Keep checking periodically to see if the mixture has solidified and come together like a dough ball.

7) Start rolling the ladus. Take a small amount in the palm of your hand, squeeze as you would squeeze a ball and roll on your palm to form round balls.

8) Place on a plate and let cool.

I wished to share this simple and traditional recipe for rava besan ladu. The description here is a bit crude, and especially esoteric to someone not exposed to Indian cooking and I apologize for it. I am not a pro at this myself, and only ever make this once a year. I have tried to describe this as simply as possible, and am posting this for the benefit of anyone who wants to try it out.

So what are you cooking this Diwali?

Review: Indijoe's Pune - Multi-cuisine buffet that ends with chocolate

2010-11-02T06:48:00.000-04:00

I had heard about this restaurant, belonging to a big nationwide group(BJN), and had heard various accounts of the diverse cuisine that they offered. Their website calls it an American style diner, but the next paragraph touts it to have Mexican, Italian, Lebanese etc. type of food. http://www.bjngroup.in/restaurants/indijoe.html

While I did not see any, or many 'American' type of dishes, I can only conclude that it wasn't included in that day's menu, or maybe they have a different a la carte' menu in the evening.

But to begin at the beginning - This restaurant is located in the Jewel Square mall next to the Taj Blue Diamond. For some reason, any reviews that I read had led me to expect a fast food counter, self-service kind of place, so it was a pleasant surprise to find a decent dining space. We got a long picnic style table with attached benches. A glass wall looked onto the terrace where they had a guy making pizzas and prepping vegetables. A tiny bit of the koregaon park skyline was also visible - mostly some tree-tops. We went there on a saturday morning around noonish, and along with one or two other diners, got first dibs on the buffet.

There was an extensive drinks menu, with various cocktails and beers. I don't think I saw wine. Mocktails included sodas, iced teas and some fruit based drinks. The buffet was laid out in a smallish area, but the vegetarian stuff was labeled well. There was a salad section - not a salad 'bar' - that had a bowl of lettuce and some tossed salads. There was a 'mexican cucumber salad' that had some cucumbers etc. tossed in some chilli powder, not particularly mexican tasting. There was a simple salad of sprouts, onions and tomatoes dressed in lime juice. Then there was something with cottage cheese and pineapple in a creamy thick dressing that I gave a wide berth dreading the obvious presence of mayo. There was one salad called tomato mozzarella scallopini, which was thinly sliced tomatoes and mozzarella with some basil. This was just about ok tasting.

There were some assorted breads - dinner rolls and some french type bread and some cubed cheese. There was a tray of chat with some chutneys that I did not taste.

One positive thing was that there were an equal amount of vegetarian and meat dishes. There were two big pots of soup - cream of broccoli and almond turned out to be very watery with a broth like consistency. The soup tasted right, so looks like it was made that way by design. Needless to say, it was not impressive.

There was some thin crust pizza - not too great -- the sort you would get in Cici's e.g. There was one vegetarian and one chicken pizza. There were two vegetarian appetizers - cashew cutlets and vegetarian seek kabab. The Veg seekh was typical -- dry and minty and not something I usually go for. The cashew cutlets were mostly potato based with a cashew inside and deep fried. The meat section had Chicken wings.

There was a lasagna called Cajun grilled vegetable lasagne. This was a creamy concoction with no noodles and lots of vegetables. There also did not seem to be any or much cheese, so I can only assume that the creamy sauce contained the cheese. But there was no clearly visible ricotta layer that you will generally find in a lasagna. There were lots and lots of vegetables which made me happy - thin layers of grilled eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, beans, mushrooms, baby corn etc. etc. The overall taste was tomatoey and comforting, but once again, I failed to understand what cajun elements or spices it contained.

There was some grilled fish in abundance and a sea-food salad that kept my carnivore companion happy. There was some sort of non-veg thai curry too. The oriental section contained burnt garlic noodles, ginger rice and some green veg thai curry. Although assured by the server that it was totally vegetarian, i detected a slight itch like thing when my throat protested, so that got a wide berth too.

There was a live pasta counter that was not very impressive. There were 2-3 already cooked vegetables, that the chef added less than a spoon of to the pasta. There was a choice of red or white sauce. The dish when put together was ok - not really great.

Moving to desserts - they had a diner style revolving(fast) display where they had mini desserts or 'shots' already assembled and you just had to pick a cup or two. There was a lot of cut fresh fresh fruit (no error), and viola - a chocolate fountain. This is the first time I encountered one in real life and I was thrilled to bits. ( Later my bubble was burst when someone told me how ubiquitous a chocolate fountain is in Pune - it seems even places like Big Bazaar have them). There were some pound cake pieces and marshmallows with skewers that you could dip into the fountain, and dip I did. The chocolate was super rich and super sweet - the kind that makes your eyes glaze and takes you on another plane. I could have gone with a darker, more bitter taste, but I suppose this is mostly to attract the kiddies.

The check, when it came was not much - two buffets costing around seven hundred odd. I think this place was likeable overall. The music was very loud, as seems to be the norm in Pune. The food was above average. The overall ambience was ok. The service was good - there when you need it but otherwise unobtrusive. The one slight disappointment was not finding anything mexican on the menu.

We left the place with a heavy step and a solemn promise that we always make to ourselves while leaving any buffet - No More Buffets!!!

Bowtie pasta with Gouda sauce

2010-10-26T03:59:00.002-04:00

Down with a cold and confined to bed, I was dreaming of something comforting all day like a mac and cheese or a chowder. After finally getting down from bed, a raid of the fridge revealed a sad lack of vegetables, so pasta was the de facto choice. There are no frozen treats handy here, like stouffer's or AMy's mac and cheese, so I prepared myself to slave some over the kitchen stove, telling myself the heat and steam would only help my cold. I had wanted to try the Amul Gouda cheese for a long time, but hesitated since most stores don't have any refrigeration that lasts 24 hours and who knows what happens during the power cuts? The same applies to buying any expensive imported cheeses. But I had finally taken the plunge this weekend and bought some of the Gouda. A simple cheesy sauce with bowties seemed to be a good test run for the cheese.
The pasta or the cheese is of course just a 'method' as Rachael Ray so often says. You can use any pasta on hand, made from anything. You can also use any cheese you want or any ready made blend you may have. I think I remember one '30 minutes' episode where Rachael made a sauce with smoked gouda and added chipotle peppers. That must definitely have been the inspiration for my sauce, although I used simple or unsmoked gouda and had no chipotle peppers on hand. The small voice in my head that kept screaming 'what, no veggies ????' was pacified by adding some chopped olives and tomatoes. Herb De Provence, my favourite spice blend from the 365 brand, gave this a rosemary intensive flavour. You can of course use any dry or fresh herbs like basil, oregano etc.

The recipe is as follows -
Ingredients -
5 cups dry bowtie pasta

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

2 chopped medium onions

1 tsp Herb de Provence

1 tsp crushed red pepper

1 tsp black pepper

1.5 cups milk any kind

1.5 cups vegetable stock or water

2-3 tsp flour

2 cups grated gouda cheese ( ~ 200 g)

salt to taste

pinch of grated nutmeg

1 cup sliced/chopped olives

2 small tomatoes chopped or 1 cup grape tomatoes

olive oil
Method -
1) Fill a large pot with water and set on one stove to boil. After the water starts boiling, add salt liberally and add dry pasta. I used roughly 5 cups or half of 500g of Barilla Bowtie pasta. ANy brand or type can be used here. ROtini will also be good for this sauce.

2) Chop 2 medium onions and finely chop the garlic.

3) Heat about 2 TBsp of olive oil in a pan and add the onions. Sautee till they are softened without burning. Add the garlic and let it change color slightly but take care that it does not burn.

4) Add 2-3 tsp all purpose or white wheat flour to the pan. I have used ordinary atta or wheat flour in a bind, but it does give a more earthy taste. Stir the flour into the onions and garlic on a low heat. After frying for 3-4 minutes, add 1 cup of stock and one cup of milk. Keep stirring so that no lumps are formed.

5) Once the sauce thickens, guage the thickness and add some water or milk if you need it thinner.

6) Meanwhile keep an eye on the pasta, and after 10-12 minutes check if it is just cooked. Drain and wash with cold water to stop cooking.

7) After the sauce looks cooked, add the seasonings -- peppers, salt, herb de provence or other herb mixture and nutmeg. Stir and let it bubble to absorb the flavours. Add the chopped or sliced olives at this point. Also add roughly chopped tomatoes or whole grape tomatoes. You should be able to see the tomatoes. We do not want them to dissolve in the sauce.

8) Add the grated cheese and stir until it is incorporated into the sauce.

9) Add the cooked pasta to the pan and mix everything. Let it all simmer for 5 minutes so that some sauce is absorbed into the pasta.

10) Serve hot with some pepper sprinkled on top with crusty bread to mop up the sauce :)
You can add a whole lot of veggies in the beginning along with the onion -- mushrooms, coloured peppers, spinach, steamed broccoli, zucchini - the list is endless. This was a very rich treat that made me drowsy, so I am going back to the land of dreams.

Oh yes, the Amul gouda cheese gets a lot of points from me. Though I am not a big cheese fan, it did have a different flavour, and was slightly bitter and sharp. Tasting something like this in India was very welcome, after all the waxy looking and salty 'processed cheeses' that seem to be omnipresent. This cheese did Not taste like the good old 'cheese cubes' and hence seems promising. Costing around 90Rs for a 250 g wheel, it also does not break the bank.

Have you ever tried this kind of sauce, or this cheese? What is your favourite comfort food when you are ill?

Review: Seasonal Tastes at the Westin Pune – an overall unremarkable experience

2010-10-11T03:22:00.004-04:00

This blog has been mostly about posting recipes but many a times, I have thought of including a section for restaurant reviews. This has mostly been when I have been awed or highly impressed by any particular restaurants, or to write about places that are all time favourites. After spending a disappointing afternoon at the new Westin hotel in Pune, I decided to get down to it and narrate what I saw and felt. There are plenty of review sites and most of them require you to go through the tedious process of creating logins. But why go through all that when I have my own blog? Now I can only hope that the google gods smile on me and this review comes up in searches to provide people with some useful information. I personally did not find a lot of detail available on the web for this place, and I am hoping to provide a level of detail that will provide people with a better picture of what to expect.

Its been a long time since we had an opportunity to spend some good time as a family and were looking forward to going out some place nice in Pune. There seems to be a proliferation of new restaurants in Pune, most vying for the label ‘multi-cuisine’ and ready to charge you an arm and a leg for it. I also find that frugality or ‘value for money’ seems to be out of fashion, and people seem to take pride in dishing out the big bucks. That’s perfectly fine since this is a free world J
Since this was a special occasion, we wanted to go some place nice and the search narrowed down to three places – Westin, Barbecue Nation and Sen5es. The challenge was having good vegetarian choices and also Indian vegetarian choices. Barbecue nation was ruled out since none of us could bear the thought of having a hot grill on the table, and having to sweat and cook our own food. Isn’t that what we do in our own kitchen anyway? Westin was chosen over Sen5es since it had a buffet that was described in their own words as ‘lavish’ and ‘best in town’. Even taken with a pinch of salt, it seemed to provide more choice than Sen5es which has an eclectic but very limited menu. I personally love Sen5es and as this review will soon portray, it definitely turned out to be much better than the Westin.
‘Seasonal Tastes’ is the casual 24 hour café type place in the Westin that has a ‘big’ buffet. I have never had the chance to visit a Westin anywhere else, even in the US I am more partial to the Marriots or Holiday Inns or Wyndhams etc. The Westin building itself is huge and can be spotted from miles around in the area. There were elaborate security checks where even the bonnet of our car was opened, purses were scanned through an airport style scanner and there was also some body scan type thing. Men folk were frisked. All the restaurants are on the second floor, and Seasonal tastes was situated at the far end of the lobby towards the right. The décor is modern to put it simply. The place is spacious with tall windows that offer a panoramic view of the surrounding area, mostly the urban landscape of the surrounding buildings of Kalyani Nagar.
I had reserved a table and requested for a good quiet spot. But no one there seemed to have our reservation and the only reply given was ‘I am not aware of it, someone else must have taken your call’. We finally got a table with four chairs somewhere in the middle of the floor, while there were several booths facing the windows and facing a pool that were empty but not given to us because they were ‘reserved’. This was our first experience with the mis-management. As I had found earlier from some reviews and from calling the restaurant, the buffet was 900 odd rupees with taxes, coming up to 1200 approximate ( 25$ approx). There was a separate flat charge for alcoholic drinks – only wine/beer. Our server appeared and was totally untrained and unable to explain anything at all. He informed us that if we wanted soda or coffee, there was a separate non-alcoholic package for 300 rupees roughly. There was no separate menu for any other drinks, like cocktails or scotch etc., or there did not seem to be any option for ordering just one soda or one lemonade etc. After being told we would take the non-alcoholic package, the server kept asking us what beer we wanted. After a lot of time spent in trying to explain alcoholic versus non-alcoholic, we gave up and just asked for water. This was a very disappointing beginning, as we would have expected a better mannered and better trained person in a 5 star hotel. This was no different than trying to explain something to a high school kid at the McDOnalds counter.

Although the buffet promised everything under the sky, I had reconciled myself not to expect anything on the lines of a vegas style buffet, and had blotted out images of the MGM Grand or the Rio buffets from another lifetime.

The counter closest to us was the salad/sushi bar. The sushi was unremarkable. There were two kinds – veg/non-veg. The veg rolls had either carrot or cucumber in them, certainly no avocados. The Wasabi was a bit watery but easier to spoon. But hey, sushi in Pune!! Wasn’t that something?? Moving on to the salad bar, my hopes of having some crunchy romaine or baby spinach or micro greens were dashed when I saw some solitary green leaf lettuce leaves in a small bowl. There were a lot of marinated things in oil like garlic and olives etc. The olives were simple green and black olives that you get in a can, and not kalamata or any other gourmet type olive. There were a few pieces of fresh cucumber in a small bowl ( smaller than a cereal bowl) and some various marinated veggies like peppers, mushrooms etc. There was some shrimp and other meats I did not look at and I suppose there were boiled eggs somewhere. They had two kinds of gazpacho in shot glasses – tomato and pepper. Both tasted fine, but were almost room temperature. They would have tasted even better chilled. There was a mushroom pate also served in a shot glass which was creamy and earthy tasting. There was some kind of jelly like strawberry or cherry at the bottom of the glass which I did not much care for. There were some sauces in small bowls that were unlabeled but no dressings in sight. I later saw some bottles on a very high shelf – asian sesame, tahini, etc. There were 4 or 5 bottles, and none of the usual suspects like ranch, honey mustard, Italian, blue cheese etc. I drizzled something from the bottle labeled asian sesame, but it turned out to be mostly sesame oil. There was a glaring absence of plentiful raw veggies on the salad bar. There was some broccoli which was steamed but had almost turned black.
Overall the salad bar was a 2.5 out of 5, points given mostly because there Was something akin to salad, that’s all.

There was a carving station with a deli counter that advertised burgers and sandwiches made to order. None of us wanted to go there. Somewhere down the line, I ventured to the burger station and opted for a vegetable burger with No Mayo – stressed 2-3 times to not put any mayo on the burger. I was not asked for any cheese choices or any other toppings like pickles etc., nor mustard. After a long 20 minute wait, I was served something unimpressive looking. Of course the first dreaded action on my part was to lift the bun and turn it over – it was slathered with mayonnaise. The server of course appeared clueless. One young person questioned another young person and they were happily exclaiming ‘Oh **, it was no mayo’ and laughing. So is the Westin employing trainees from schools or just neglecting to care about the service they offer? After declining to wait again to try my luck, I just opted out of the burger.

There was a teeny weeny Indian section, the reason for the limited Indian food being given as this was a ‘multi-cuisine’ buffet with ‘several other’ options.
There was a mutton biryani and London style butter chicken, no use to vegetarians. There was one daal and one mixed vegetable. It is a bit surprising that a big restaurant should serve something as mundane as ‘mixed vegetable’. The image it conjures up is a bunch of leftover veggies, and in recent times, the ubiquitous packet of frozen ‘mixed vegetables’ in my freezer. There was a paneer dish described as Paneer in a rich and creamy cashew sauce. It turned out to be huge chunks of paneer floating in a white watery liquid, something like half and half. I gave it a wide berth thinking that my neighbourhood small restaurant gave me a much better version of this ‘rich cashew gravy’ ( which is more a dessert than a vegetable, and something people in Pune seem to be fond of). So Indian food was totally ruled out. This was a big disappointment for one of us who only ate Indian Veg and no Paneer. Bread such as roti or naan was served at the table. This was brought almost 20-25 minutes later by which time, the one sole vegetable and dal had been discarded. The whole Indian experience then gets 1 out of 5 from me, so unfortunate since any restaurant in India should proudly be able to cook good Indian food.
There was a big station near the entrance where a lot of South Indian chutneys were displayed along with a sign of dosa made to order. We ordered one dosa from a snooty youngster who seemed to be too good for us. There were other cooked foods in chafers which I will run through real quick.
Bowtie pasta in some creamy tomato sauce – just average with no seasoning
Baked vegetables in a béchamel type sauce – lacking salt or any other seasoning
Huge container of crispy bacon
Pan fried snapper – seemed ok according to one of us who tasted it, but had the skins on the fish
Asian fried rice – Had eggs so ruled out for me
Stir fried vegetables – some vegetables in a watery soy based sauce
Seafood panang curry – Good according to one seafood eater among us – had shrimp, squid, clams and crabs
Some asian noodles
There was a sign advertising various noodles that could be made to order – Singapore, Korean etc. I opted for a pad thai made without any fish sauce or eggs etc. This was brought to my table and turned out to be spicy and tangy and hot. I think this was the one thing I actually ate with relish.
There were 2-3 cheeses – unlabelled along with some crackers that seemed to be more ornamental.

Now we come to the dessert section. There were fifteen plus items and were arranged artistically. There were some eggless desserts. Ras Malai was the only Indian dessert but it was soft and perfect. There was some mango and blueberry mousse in small glasses – average, new York style cheese cake – unimpressive , a few shortcake/ mascarpone type cakes with fruit topping etc. There was Tiramisu which was disappointing as it seemed to be actually made with layers of dry cake, thin layers, but dry layers of what seemed like chocolate cake. There was a chocolate pudding type thing with an exotic name which was good. There was ice cream with a lot of toppings. I had hoped for fudge or caramel sauce but it was not available. The ice cream was strawberry or blueberry. The ice cream was placed on ice like on a salad bar and a lot of it had melted. Ice cream toppings were good – chocolate chips, almonds, raisins, pecans, hazel nuts, gummy worms etc.

Inspite of this pornucopia of ‘options’ I didn’t really eat anything substantial. We mostly grazed on a few fancily arranged things, and then I filled up with a huge bowl of ice cream. The whole anticipation of eating something exotic prepared by a five star trained chef was dashed, and there was not even one sumptuous thing I could enjoy, as a Vegetarian. The omnivores in our group weren’t too pleased either. Overall the whole experience was disappointing and frustrating. Average food and below average service soured the whole experience. I think I have had better food paying 7$ at Golden Corral. Some would argue that it is unfair to compare a place in Pune with a place in the US, but I think it is warranted for a place like the Westin, which is touted as internationally acclaimed. Why shouldn’t a customer expect such a place to live up to some standards? I spent the rest of the day repenting we did not goto sen5es, wistfully recalling our stellar experience over there. Although this is not a comparison between the two, I mention Sen5es since it is the other place I had contemplated.
I hope this review is helpful to anyone who is thinking of visiting the Westin hotel. It is of course written with my perspective, based on my dietary restrictions and personal expectations based on prior experiences elsewhere.

Very Veggie Paneer Bhurji - sloppy spicy scramble

2010-08-02T23:04:00.002-04:00

I saw these rolls at the local bakery, not dinner rolls, but something between a hot dog bun and a hoagie, and totally white. They looked soft and just waiting to be filled in with some delicious filling. I decided not to let their colour work against them, and to make up for it with loads and loads of vegetables. I had some Paneer that had to be used up soon and I pretty much cleaned up the vegetable drawer of what I had. Some very pungent celery gave this a kick and a strong flavour. The only other seasonings I used were paprika and black pepper, and some dried
basil. The flavour was unique and just as I love it - spicy with the pepper but not 'hot', minus the heat that you would get with a green or red chilli.

Carrots, peppers, onions, tomatoes, fresh corn, green peas, all went into the pot along with some tomato sauce. You can add anything of your choice really. Squash, zucchini, asparagus, and mushrooms will all taste equally good and add to the veg element.Adding the tomato sauce was a spur of the moment inspiration. The amount of cooked veggies was roughly 3 times that of the paneer. I simmered the mixture long enough to get a thick conconction, but if its left slightly semi-liquid, this will make a great sloppy joe( although without the traditional condiments), whether you use a long roll or a burger bun.In the end I added crumbled Paneer to the mixture. Needless to say, you can easily add tofu instead of the paneer. I will definitely make this with tofu next time. The Paneer being 'rich' in animal fats, made this quite filling and added a creamy texture. The rolls also turned out to have a buttery flavour which I had not expected. I served these simply, just ladling the mixture onto the roll, without any toppings. I did not find the need for any condiments, since the filling was spicy and strong flavoured enough, even when eaten with the bread. If you are a pickle lover, a nice cruncy dill pickle will taste great as an
accompaniement. Add some baked hips of choice, and a cool drink and this is a sure way to bliss.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients:
3 small onions

1 large carrot

1 large green bell pepper or capsicum

1-2 stalks celery

1 cup fresh corn kernels

1 cup green or sweet peas

2-3 tomatoes1/2 cup tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

1 Tbsp oil1 tsp paprika

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp chopped garlic

200g paneer or 1 packet tofu

fresh bread rolls or hoagies

Method:
1) Chop all the vegetables such as onions, carrots, celery, peppers and tomatoes in a small or medium dice. Chop or mince the garlic.

2) Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a pan or wok and start adding the vegetables one by one. Add the carrots first since they will take the longest to cook. Saute the carrots for 2 minutes and add celery. Gradually add onions and saute till they change colour. Add water or broth to avoid
sticking. Add the bell peppers and fry some more. Add the corn and the peas. If you are using frozen sweet peas, add them at the end so they dont shrivel. Mix in the corn and peas and add garlic and chopped tomatoes. Mix and let this simmer until most of the tomatoes are cooked
through.

3) Add seasonings and the tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes. Let the mixture come together and simmer. Add salt to taste, and a pinch of sugar.

4) Add crumbled paneer or tofu. Add half a cup water.

5) Mix this in. As this simmers, this will have a 'sloppy' consistency. You can let it thicken as much as you want, depending on how robust your bread is, or how much of a mess you want to make while eating.

6) Switch off the heat, and let this cool to room temperature.

7) For serving, split the roll in half and ladle enough filling to make this a hearty sandwich. Enjoy!8) This can also be used a filling for regular bread, or in a burrito or wrap with some crunchy fresh veggies.

( the photo does not do justice to the actual product, the colours are washed out due to a low battery)

General Tso's Tofu - chinese takeout treat

2010-07-28T01:13:00.004-04:00

General Tso's is a pretty popular item on the chinese takeout menu. Called by different names such as General Tao etc., it is doubtful if there was ever any such general in the chinese army. But this General is pretty favoured by one and all when they order their favourite takeout. We had a weekly lunch thing at one of the places I worked where we always ordered chinese food, and general tso's chicken was always my favourite. I later found a few places that had General Tso's tofu on the menu. Some joints were obliging enough to substitute tofu for meat in the sauce by special request.
I had no idea of the nostalgia the thought of this would evoke, while I was down with a cold for a week, unable to taste anything, in a land far away without access to my usual speed dial for Chinese Express or City Lights. A little bit of standard browsing via google revealed a few recipes for the sauce. Interestingly enough, I found hardly any food blogs that had posted this recipe. At least, none of my usual 'favourites' of vegan/vegetarian blogs seemed to feature this. I particularly liked the recipe for the general Tso sauce by Tyler Florence given on the Food Network website. Not that I used it verbatim, but I took it as a broad guideline.

I wanted this to taste like American Takeout Chinese, and not like 'Indian Chinese'. Surprisingly enough, to my delight, I found that I did get the taste and flavour I wanted. I have often wondered what makes these two adaptations of Chinese cuisine so different, since most of the sauce ingredients are the same. I think its the particular soy sauce and also the dash of sesame oil that makes all the difference. I spent the big bucks on a small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce, but it was worth it. I would really have preferred to use Braggs Liquid Aminos, because I have come to love its flavour much more than any ordinary soy sauce. But finding a bottle of Braggs here is as impossible as seeing orange groves on the South Pole. The recipe follows without further ado.

Ingredients:
1 Package Extra Firm Tofu
2 cups broccoli florets
1 cup finely chopped scallions
2 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 Tbsp fresh chopped garlic
1 cup soy sauce for sauce
3-4 Tbsp soy sauce
Sambal olek to taste
2 Tbsp + 1/2 cup Rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup honey
Cornstarch as needed for coating
2 Tbsp cornstarch for slurry
Oil for frying
Black/white pepper to taste

Method:
1) Wash, drain and cube the tofu in pieces of desired size, and arrange in a large zip lock bag or a shallow dish
2) Sprinkle soy sauce, sambal olek/chilli paste or sriracha sauce, grated ginger and white pepper
3) Toss lightly so that all the tofu is coated with the marinade and refrigerate for an hour or more
4) Add some corn starch to the marinated tofu a little at a time, and keep tossing lightly until all the tofu is lightly coated. This will act as a binder and also give a crispy cover to the tofu when we fry it. Alternately, the marinated tofu can be spread around on a sheet pan and baked in an oven for 15-20 mins at 400F, turning once. Since I was going for the 'takeout' effect, I decided to go all out and fry mine.
5) Heat some vegetable oil, roughly a cup, in a wok and fry the tofu in small batches. Drain on some paper towels. You should not need a lot of oil, and the remaining oil can be used while making the sauce. ( This is a step where you need to guard your tofu. Half of it will disappear as samples. The best thing is to get some more tofu than the recipe demands).
6)Wash and clean broccoli and tear into florets, or you can use frozen florets. Heat water in a saucepan and steam the broccoli for 3-4 minutes until just tender and shock it in cold water. This will help in preserving the colour. Set this aside.

For the sauce -
7) In a bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients such as soy sauce, vinegar, honey ( or sugar), 1 tsp sesame oil, sambal olek, white pepper and grated ginger.
8) Now we can utilize the remaining oil in the wok. Add half the scallions and the garlic to the hot oil and fry for a minute without letting it burn. Add the sauce mixture.
9)Add three cups water. I made a Lot of sauce, but if you want less, you can adjust the soy/vinegar accordingly. I found that this vinegar was a bit much so I will reduce it next time. The soy sauce also had enough salt so that I did not need to add Any salt seperately.
10) Bring the sauce to a boil. Meanwhile, prepare a slurry with 2 spoons of cornstarch and some water. Add this gradually to the sauce and let it thicken. The sauce is done when it develops a glaze. Taste and adjust any seasonings per taste.
11) Add the fried tofu and broccoli to the sauce just before serving or vice versa. Garnish with the remaining scallions. Serve this with hot steamed white rice or any other rice of choice.
This is by no means a 'healthy' recipe, since it is high in sodium and oil. The only solace is that it has a lower calorie count than what you would get in a restaurant, and I know what ingredients, esp what kind of oil went into it. And hey, vegetable/sunflower oil is better than cheesy or creamy sauces anytime, right? ;). As mentioned above, this can be modified to be slightly more figure friendly by baking the tofu and using a low sodium soy sauce.
It certainly hit the spot for me, and more chinese takeout style recipes are coming up soon.

Chickpea and beet salad - Dressed in Pink for Memorial Day

2010-05-31T02:28:00.008-04:00

Happy Memorial Day to you all. If you read the title of this post and are wondering what kind of fashion disaster I am committing, rest assured. The pink here does not refer to the color of my attire, but my chickpea's costume or dress(ing). This weekend is always long awaited because it is a long time coming after the endless dreary winter, and denotes the beginning of summer to me. This day also reminds me that its been four years since I met a lot of my friends. Folks have moved on in various ways, most have crossed the big 3 mile marker and changed their tax statuses more than once. Time has also flung us over different corners of the globe, making it more difficult to plan any reunions. Which brings me to this quick and easy salad. Not that there is any connection here, just me reminiscing for a few minutes.

This is a pretty simple salad mostly thrown together out of things languishing in the fridge fast nearing extension. A bowl of boiled beets, a cup of boiled chickpeas, red pepper about to wilt, and son on...you get the idea. The dressing is simple - mostly splashed over everything in the pot, instead of any fancy emulsifying by whisks or blenders or in jars etc. I use a couple teaspoons of my favourite hot sauce and several dashes of Mrs.Dash Tomato and Basil. I truly love Mrs.Dash. I feel its copy 'Salt free, Falvour-full' does it full justice. I have tried a lot of these and they are sure to add some zing to all of your dishes without upping your sodium levels. I did not have any Mrs.Dash Lemon pepper blend on hand, otherwise I would have used it here.

Once everything is mixed together, it gets a uniform coating from the beet juice and its all cloaked in pink. Of course, there are the inevitable stains on my clothes too :o

This is my quick lunch as I continue reading old entries from NYtimes's Frugal Traveller blog/column which I stumbled upon today. I also keep looking at this pink salad and dream of SATC2, which sadly I haven't watched yet.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

1 can chickpeas or 1-2 cups boiled

2-3 boiled beets

one onion chopped

1/2 cup green peas

1 red pepper diced

Hot sauce to taste

2-3 tsp Mrs. Dash

splash of vinegar and EVOO

Method -

1) Assemble all ingredients in a bowl. Dice the red pepper and onion in bite sized pieces. Dice the beets in a medium dice so that they retain their shape. The more you cut them, the more 'juice' they will give away. Add half a cup of rinsed frozen peas for some green color. You can also add scallions, but I did not have any on hand.

2) Add the hot sauce, Mrs.Dash seasoning of choice and roughly one turn of the vingear and the extra virgin olive oil.

3) Season further with salt and pepper if desired.

4) Mix everything and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. As with any salad, the flavours will intensify after chilling and over time.

This can be eaten as a meal served over a bed of lettuce, or in a wrap if desired.

'Cool' Millet rolls with a curried tofu filling - checking out a new whole grain

2010-05-21T00:35:00.005-04:00

Millet is also known as Ragi or as NachNi in Marathi. My introduction to this grain has been limited to nachNi papads which I may have eaten more than 10 years ago. The NachNi bhakri( thick pan bread or roti) is popular in Mahrashtra, but I have never had the opportunity to sample it before. There was a packet of 'NachNi Satva' lying around in my freezer for a very long time. On searching around I found out that this is eaten in an oatmeal kind of fashion, mixed with either hot water or yogurt, fruits etc. But I was craving something savoury and sumptuous, especially after a few hours spent reading food blogs.

Browsing food blogs somehow always leaves me exhausted. I think it may be because I don't know where to stop :). Its like a roller coaster ride where you drool, salivate, feel hunger pangs, energized to get up and make something exotic and then gradually only the hunger pangs remain, and you just feel like taking a nap. I think its the same with Food Network. Watching Food tv for just half an hour can motivate you to cook something nice, but a 3-4 hour marathon takes you through a wide spectrum of cuisines and dishes and leaves you totally muddled. This is something I have done and experienced scores of times. I also came up with another theory which is not substantiated by anyone, and I have no idea if there is any science behind it. I think watching food tv all the time can maybe mess with your digestion, 'coz maybe thinking of food, drooling a lot, generates or stimulates your intestinal juices, enzymes and what not, and could interfere with the normal routine work or background processing that our body needs to do. I know it sounds quite laughworthy, but hey, maybe there Is some mind-stomach connection triggered by this?

So anyhoo, I was determined to capitalize on my burst of energy to use some long standing tofu and make a great afternoon snack. The afternoon or evening snack has revered place in our family. Breakfast can be toast or cereal or smoothies, but the evening snack is what awaits you when you come home from work or school, and its what motivates you to tackle the traffic and fumes on your way home. Most Indians do not eat dinner at 6 or 7 - they generally have some snack after they come home, and dinner time is 8, 9 or even later for some people. There is always great anticipation about what you will get to eat after you come home, and as a child I was fortunate to be always greeted with something hot and fresh and aromatic every evening.

The 'cool' in the title is not self being narcissistic(spelling?), but a hint at another ingredient - cucumber - Summery and cool and fresh! I found some grated cucumber in the fridge that had also let out a lot of juice, and so it made it into the pot. This was my way of bringing the taste of another favourite family recipe ( kakdi che thalipeeth or cucumber pancakes) into these rolls. There are a lot of different spices or herbs used in both the outer crepes or rolls or dosas or dhirdis - whatever you call them, and the tofu filling, but you could just stick to something as simple as salt and pepper. I think I may do that next time if I want any one spice to shine through. I used saunf, ajwain and little curry powder to season the tofu filling, a somewhat odd combination but something 'different'. The cucumber added its own distinctive taste to the batter which was complemented by a dash of cayenne and cumin. You can make the stuffing beforehand, and also the crepes ahead of time and assemble it last minute. These rolls can be eaten at room temperatur, hot or cold, and they will taste just as great. The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

For the crepe/dosa batter -
2 cups nachNi/millet/ragi flour

1/2 cup rice flour or all purpose flour

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp cumin powder

1/2 cup fresh cucumber juice1/2 cup fresh grated cucumber

2 TBSP sour yogurt or lime/lemon juice

1 tsp minced garlic

salt to taste

For the tofu filling -

200g or 7-8 oz herbal tofu

1 small onion

1 medium carrot

1/2 cup peas or corn

1/2 cup cilantro

1 tsp Saunf or fennel seeds

1 tsp ajwain

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp black pepper

Hing and turmeric

pinchsalt to taste

oil as needed

Method -
1) Mix the flour, yogurt or lime juice, cucumber juice, cucumber in a bowl. Add all the spices and then slowly add water to form a pan cake like batter. Whisk well to remove any lumps and set aside. This can be done 2-3 hours in advance if desired and it will ferment a little, or you can also use it right away.
2) Chop the onion and carrots in a small dice. You can also use the frozen 'peas and carrots' for a quick fix. I used corn since I did not have any peas on hand. Any combination is ok here.
3) Chop the tofu in small chunks. I used a herbal tofu which contains cilantro etc. as I was using Indian spices. You can either use plain tofu or any other appropriate herbal tofu. e.g you can use the tomato/basil tofu and use Italian seasoning in the filling, or also use the thai style tofu. You can get different types depending on where you are. Whole Foods generally has 2-3 types of herbal tofu available right next to the plain tofu.
4) Heat one tsp oil in a pan or wok. Add the fennel and ajwain seeds and let them splutter. Add hing and a pinch of turmeric if desired. Add onion and saute until it changes color. Add the carrots and the corn and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the tofu pieces and the grated garlic. Adding garlic at this point will avoid burning the garlic. Add cilantro, curry powder, cayenne and salt and cover the pan for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally and check that everything comes together. The carrot should be al dente to retain some crunch. Switch off the heat and set aside.
5) Heat a flat dosa tava or a flat griddle. Start making the crepes or dosas. PUt the batter in the middle of the pan and lightly spread it around in a circle with the base of your spoon. Unlike a pancake, you will need to use your hand to do this, since we want a thin roll. Cook on both sides.
6) For assembling - Place a crepe flat on a plate. Spoon some filling in the centre. ROll in burrito fashion, by first tucking in the two ends and then the bottom flap and close it with a rolling motion. You can also keep the ends open and just roll it like a frankie. You can add ketchup or any condiment you like to the roll such as hot sauce or sour cream.

This is a yummy and tasty healthful option for a heavy snack or can even be a good lunch with a cup of soup or a salad. I know I am definitely going to try out more recipes options using millet.

Achari Dum Alu( Potatoes steamed in a sauce of pickling spices)

2010-05-17T00:30:00.003-04:00

'Achar' is the hindi word for pickle, 'Dum' means steam, so this is just a simple vegetable dish of potatoes steam cooked in a spicy gravy using pickling spices. The pickling spices here are not your salt and vinegar kind, but Indian pickling spices. Dum Alu was a favourite growing up, since it traditionally uses tiny baby potatoes which are simmered in a spicy and tangy sauce. What child doesn't love potatoes, and this was yet another way to eat the spud. Nowadays, I use any kind of potato available even in a medium size, just cut it in half or quarters, depending on how big it is. As the tators slowly cook in sauce, they absorb all the spices. I use a ready made spice mix made by shan called Achar Gosht mix - check shanfoods.com. This is readily available in any Indian or Asian grocery store for around a dollar.

This mix can be directly used in any stir fry or simple vegetable saute. For this dish, I made a masala paste with onions, ginger, garlic, chillies, cilantro etc.(read ahead) and added the Achari spice mix instead of garam masala to give it a different twist. Yogurt or tamarind can be used alternately as a sour component and so can amchur or dry mango powder. The use of tamarind or mango will allow this dish to be vegan. Cilantro may or may not be used as a part of the ground paste, depending on your taste. This is excellent served with hot steamed rice or rotis.
I served this with rice crepes, or 'Tandulachi DhirDi' which is a traditional Maharashtrian recipe, mostly from the coastal parts. It is a simple batter consisting of rice flour, salt, pinch of sugar and water, and then used to make a thin crepe. A piece of the crepe is broken off and dipped in the sauce, where it absorbs all the delicious gravy and then takes off for your mouth :)
The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -
6-7 medium potatoes

2 medium onions

4-5 garlic cloves

1 inch piece of ginger

2 green chillies - jalapeno or serano seeded

1 Tbsp dry grated coconut

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1 Tbsp tamarind paste or juice of golf ball sized tamarind

oil

Shan Achari Spice Mix

Method -
1) Roughly chop the onion and peppers. Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok or use spray. Fry the onions, chillies, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds and coconut one by one until lightly browned and set aside to cool. Take care not to burn the coconut and sesame seeds.

2) Using a blender or food processor, make a thick paste of the above without using too much liquid. You can add the cilantro leaves at this point if desired.

3) Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wok or sauce pan and add a little hing and turmeric to temper. Add the masala paste and fry on low heat till well cooked. You may need to keep
adding a little water to avoid sticking. Continue frying the paste for 12-15 mins at least.

4) Meanwhile, peel and cut the potatoes such that one piece is the size of a golf ball.

5) If using fresh tamarind, soak one or two small pieces in a little water and extract the juice by kneading the pulp lightly.

6) Add water to the spice paste to make a thick sauce or gravy. Add the Achari spice mix, about 2 spoonfuls according to desired spiciness. This is a pretty potent mix, so it is better to start by adding a small quantity and then adding more at the end. Add the tamarind paste or juice.

7) Add the potatoes, bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and cover the pot. Let the potatoes cook slowly in the simmering sauce.

8) Check every five minutes or so to make sure there is enough liquid in the pot and stir to avoid burning or sticking. Once the potatoes seem to be done or almost cooked, taste for salt and spiciness. The spice mix contains salt so please consider that before adding more salt. Adjust seasonings like salt, spice mix etc. and also add a pinch of sugar to balance the tartness.

9) Add fresh chopped cilantro to garnish and serve hot, once the potatoes are fork tender.

10) As the sauce settles, it will thicken and also have a slight sheen to it due to the oil from the sesame seeds and coconut used in the paste.

This only gets better with time, and will taste fabulous the next day too, as the potatoes absorb more spices over time.

Mung Beet Cutlets - nourishing finger food

2010-05-06T00:06:00.003-04:00

Low carb diets have been popular for a while now. Ranging from the controversial Atkins to the still in vogue South Beach Diet, they promote rapid weight loss. There are several other factions who also promote whole grains, and 'whole grains' have become such a buzz word that even a box full of chocos or other colorful cereal says it contains 'whole grains' in the box. It is hard to follow any plan that restricts food groups, be it certain fruits, or vegetables or staples like pasta or rice. However, I have found that low carb diets do show you results in the initial week or so. Its the sustained low carb journey where I have failed so far. In their defense, its only the first one or two weeks where these diets are very restrictive. You are allowed to gradually add the carbs or grains back in very limited quantities, and these may vary from person to person. As some saint has said, total abstinence is much easier than controlled moderation. I have seen that I do quite well, though I struggle, in the first 8-10 days, but re-introducing limited quantities of carbs is where I have always gone downhill.

The low carb diet is extremely easy to follow if you are a meat eater and like meat. The word 'meat' here includes any kind like poultry, fish etc. What could be easier than just grilling a few marinated chicken breasts and freezing them to eat with steamed veggies at will? Or just popping a salmon steak sprinkled with lemon juice, olive oil and some Mrs. Dash under the broiler for 10 minutes or just scrambling some eggs? Although I certainly do not miss eating all that stuff, I do sometimes miss the ease with which meals could be put together, or procured and also the high protein content they provided. What they also provided along with the protein is another story :). Another possible drawback of not eating bread or pasta or rotis etc. is that you miss the chewy texture or the feeling of actually sinking your teeth into something. I like my tofu and TVP and soy products as much as the other person, but it sometimes gets tiring eating just that for every meal. Boca and Morningstar are not prolific in the city of Pune. The vegetarian person is then left with lentils and pulses and beans that although highly nutritious in every way, also pack equivalent amount of carbs. Summer is not a season when you can merrily slurp dal or lentil based soups all the time, and something different seemed the need of the hour.

The Mung bean is my chosen one out of all the different dals in my pantry. The Mung bean is relatively less unknown in the western world compared to other indian dals courtesy the 'bean sprouts' found in most grocery stores. The Mung bean is easily available in different forms - the yellow mung dal, the whole green mung beans and the green split mung dal or chilka dal. Ayurveda has also put the mung bean on a pedestal. Mung beans 'light the intestinal fire' and give a boost to your metabolism. They are also easy on digestion and hence the mung khichadi or mung water/soup is mostly given to convalescents for its recuperative powers. The mung bean, in fact, seemed the answer to my prayers, offering me all this goodness and so I came up with this recipe while looking for something different that also fulfilled all my criteria regarding nutrition, taste, texture etc.etc.

This recipe uses sprouted beans (not the white sprouts you get in the store), fresh beetroot and tons of fresh mint. The beetroot, although sweet and sugary is loaded with folates, manganese, potassium, fiber, vitamin c etc. and is a powerhouse of nutrients. I recommend only fresh grated beets for this recipe. You can use boiled whole green mung beans too instead of sprouted beans. The mint and beetroot form a very pleasing color of fuschia and green. The mint lends a freshness to the recipe and gives out a minty aroma as the cutlets cook. The ingredients and method are as follows:

Ingredients -

2 cups boiled sprouted mung beans
1 cup grated fresh beetroot
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
2-3 cloves garlic fresh grated
1-2 Tbsp besan or chickpea flour
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chat masala
dash of hot sauce
salt to taste
oil or non-stick spray as needed

Method -
1) Drain and mash the boiled mung beans. Add all ingredients such as the beetroot, mint leaves and all spices.
2) Lightly brown the onion in a pan using cooking spray just enough to extract all the moistness from the onion
3) Add the onion to the mixture. Mash and mix everything together with a spoon.
4) Add enough besan/flour a little at a time until the mixture looks like soft dough and small patties etc. can be formed.
5) Form small flat patties or form a ball in your palm and roll it sideways to form oblong sausage like links. You can also use some small moulds you may have to form fancy shapes like heart shaped etc.
6) Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 300 degree F oven until evenly browned - turn once or twice as needed. You can also grill them in a non stick pan using minimum oil or spray.
7) Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Soya Vegetable Burger with Garlic Cilantro Schmear

2010-04-23T00:54:00.011-04:00

There are several recipes posted for soya burgers. Everyone has a favourite way of doing this. Some use tofu, various vegetables, TVP etc. with different kinds of spices. I have tried out various different recipes before but never blogged any. This recipe was created from available ingredients and can be customized in several ways to suit your palette and anything you have on hand. This offers a quick ready to eat high protien and low carb snack. You can make the batter/filling in advance and refrigerate it. You can just grill the patties when needed. I have gone for a bunless or bread less burger here, since I am on a low-carb binge. But this can be dished up with any bun of your choice such as a seeded bun or kaiser roll or english muffin etc.

I have adapted Heidi Swanson's (http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/vegetarian-lentil-burgers-recipe.html) method here for serving the burger. I had read it a long time ago and always wanted to try it. However, I found it tough to slit the patty laterally maybe due to my lack of finesse. So I just created small patties, and added the salad veggies or toppings in between. I have used plain white all purpose flour in addition to some potatoes as a binder. This surely adds some carb content but I used whatever I had on hand. You can add a beaten egg or two, use flax, almond flour or bread crumbs - anything that holds the patty together. These go pretty fast and one person can easily eat 2 or three of these as a sumptuous snack. These burgers have a heavy double dose of veggies, because there are vegetables in the patty and we also use them as stuffing.

I hope you like this recipe for the soya vegetable burger.

Ingredients -

-------------

2 cups dry soya granules or TVP( Textured vegetable Protein)

1 cup grated paneer or crumbled tofu

2 small boiled potatoes any kind

1 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup smashed green peas

1 Tbsp grated garlic

1 Tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp black pepper

2-3 dashes hot sauce or pepper sauce

4-5 tsp all purpose flour

cheese slices optional

salt to taste

For the topping -

-----------------

1 red onion thinly sliced

1 cucumber thinly sliced

1 tomato thinly sliced

pickles or jalapeno optional

1 tsp chat masala

For the Schmear -

------------------

1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro or dhania

1 cup greek yogurt

1 tsp grated garlic

1 tsp black pepper

salt to taste

Method -

---------

1) Boil water in a pan and add the TVP or soya granules. Let them soak for 5-10 mins. You can add some salt to taste if needed. Drain the granules and wring all the water out of them.

2) Crumble 1 cup of tofu or grate some fresh paneer. Add this to the granules.

3) Mash 2 boiled potatoes and add to the mixture.

4) Grate 1 cup of carrots and add half a cup of smashed peas directly into the mixture. You can also add beets or other mixed vegetables pulsed in a food processor. Sweet corn will add a different twist.

5) Add the garlic, cumin, cayenne and black pepper, hot sauce and salt.

6) Lightly mix this together with a spoon. Too much stirring will cause the mixture to loosen and become watery. Also avoid using your hands as the warmth from the hand will also create moisture.

7) Add all purpose flour or any other binder you want to use one or two spoons at a time and continue mixing lightly. Add just enough flour so that patties can be formed. Please do Not add water. There will be enough moisture to absorb any flour you add.

8)Moisten your palm with some water and form small patties of desirable size. Place these in a non stick pan and grill on each side till done. You can use non stick spray or oil as needed.

9) To create the schmear - Use 2% or fat free greek yogurt if available. If not, You can make this at home by draining some yogurt over coffee filters. You will need at least low fat yogurt to get a good creamy consistency. Alternately, you can also get 100g 'chakka' from a dairy if available.

Beat the curds and add the garlic(smashed or grated raw), salt, pepper and cilantro. Mix it together to get a dip like consistency. You can add a little bit of yogurt or milk to loosen the schmear a bit if needed. This adds a tangy garlicky kick to your burger.

10)Thinly slice onions, tomatoes, cucumbers to add to the burger. You can also use a lettuce leaf but I did not have any on hand. Pickles, jalapenos, banana peppers, fresh sliced peppers etc. can also be added.

11) To serve the burger - Place a generous dollop of the schmear on one patty. Place all sliced veggies one over the other on the other patty. Sprinkle a little chat masala if needed. You can add a cheese slice here if desired. Place the other patty on top. Garnish with some grated cheese if desired. Enjoy this delicious low carb vegetable burger without much guilt :)

This recipe can easily be made vegan by omitting any dairy and using tofu instead of paneer, and soy cheese if desired.

Beat the Heat - Pudine ki Paneer Kadai ( Grilled onions, peppers and paneer cheese in a yogurt mint sauce)

2010-04-02T00:43:00.005-04:00

Summer has come early to Pune and the heat is unbearable. We are always looking for natural ways to cool the body and what could be more refreshing than a bunch of fresh mint? Spending the least possible time in the kitchen is desirable. Even the not so fresh variety of paneer available with the small baniya (grocer) shop is much fresher than the 'refrigerated a zillion years' brands that we are forced to use in the US. I had come across a dish called pudina paneer tikka at a neighbourhood restaurant. I liked the concept but the dish itself had turned out to be over spiced and salty. A simple sautee of onions and peppers and paneer cubes in a mint and yogurt sauce seemed just perfect.

I wanted the mint to shine and use a bare minimum of other spices. Pudine ki paneer kadai was born out of laziness and the need to spend the minimum time near a hot tove. The recipe is as follows -
Ingredients
200 g fresh paneer cubed

2 small onions

1 large green bell pepper

1 small clove garlic

1/2 tsp fresh ginger

1/2 tsp cayenner pepper

1 tsp black pepper

3 tbsp sour yogurt

1 small bunch fresh mint

1 tbsp lemon juice optional

Method
1) Cube the paneer according to desired shape/size

2) Dice the onions and pepper similar to the paneer. The pieces should be somewhat large so that they retain shape and texture

3)Grind the mint leaves, garlic, ginger and lemon juice to a fine paste

4) Add the yogurt and stir to make a smooth batter or mixture

5) Add paneer cubes to the above mixture and toss lightly till all the pieces are coated evenly. This can be done in advance and refrigerated. A minimum of 30 mins of mariantion is required.

6)Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or kadai. You can also use a cooking spray if you are using a good non stick vessel

7)AFter the oil heats, Add the onions and sautee them lightly on a high flame. The onions should be charred slightly if desired. Remove the onions while they are still
curnchy and have a slight bite to them.

8) Add the diced pepper or capsicum to the wok and repeat above process. Remove the peppers while still crunchy.

9)Now add the paneer/yogurt/mint mixture to the wok and stir lightly. The yogurt will evaporate soon. You can fry this until it is dry enough for your taste. I recommend a thick coating of the masala paste. At this point, the paneer will be infused with the tang of the yogurt, and the mint will be most flavorful.

10) Toss lightly to combine everything and remove from heat.Note - Do not over mix at this point as the onions/peppers will soften pretty soon

11) Your minty kadai paneer is ready to be served.
Serve hot with rotis or bread of choice.

Banana Delight - Creamy Rice pudding sweetened with Bananas

2009-10-11T08:41:00.002-04:00

I am not sure what is the first image this title will conjure up for anyone who reads it. A quick google search revealed that people have called a wide variety of things 'Banana Delight'. I got this title from the mater whose first reaction after tasting this was, its delightful! Why not call it 'B.. Delight'? So delighted at this reaction, I decided to go ahead with this title! :D

I had a bunch of very ripe bananas sitting on the counter. I am not a big banana fan, and I lose interest once they start giving out a strong smell, and the skin turns black. I wanted to make use of this in some disguised form, and also needed to make some kind of dessert for my company. After looking at some banana recipes on a bunch of websites, a sort of hodge podge formed in my brain and I finally came up with something simple and closer to home. In India, the rice kheer or rice payasam or pudding is more of a south Indian delicacy. In Maharashtra, and especially in our family, this dish is made only on certain sad occasions, like when someone passes away, or ceremonies related to people who have passed on. Queer though this may seem to some, it is true. Hence, I have never really seen this kind of kheer made much in my family. The few attempts I did make, the rice ended up being far more than the milk, or it mostly looked like a 'dudh bhat' or milk and rice.

Having learnt a few lessons, I decided to try a new proportion, and add a few other ingredients to enhance the creaminess. I also decided to use the banana here for sweetness and also for its own unique taste and flavour. The result turned out to be extremely creamy, sweet and flavourful. There are no artificial sweeteners or sugar in this, making this all natural and sugar free. Of course it has the sugar from the bananas, so please keep that in mind if you need to seriously watch your sugar levels. The banana literally dissolves but you get this intense flavour of the banana in each bite, making this so much more than a simple rice pudding. In fact, you can see neither the rice nor the banana, you just spoon a thick creamy mixture bursting with flavour. Without further ado, the recipe for my Banana Delight follows -

Ingredients

-------------
1.5 litre milk

2 Tbsp Rice grains

10-12 almonds

2-3 ripe bananas

3-4 strands saffron

nutmeg to taste

2-3 elaichi or cardammom

1 tsp butter or ghee

pistachios or nuts to garnish

Method

----------

1) Take a thick bottomed pan or wok and start heating the milk. I used full fat milk, but 2% can also be used. I will not recommend anything lower, since this is predominantly a recipe made from milk/cream and should be indulged in sparingly anyway

2) Melt the butter in a small pan and roast the rice grains till they are pinkish in colour. This will release their aroma. You can use basmati rice if you have it, or any other regular rice

3) Roughly chop or dice the bananas and fry them in the remaining butter. The bananas will caramelize. Check that they do not burn and keep stirring. Depending on the
ripeness, some or all the bananas will dissolve or disintegrate. This is OK since we are going to mash and mix it in the milk later anyway. This step will give a subtle caramel like flavour to the whole dish

4) Soak the almonds for some time and remove the skins. Roast them lightly.

5) Grind the rice grains and the almonds in a grinder to make an almost fine powder, between coarse and fine.

6) By this time, the milk should be boiling. Bring it to a simmer and add the rice and almond mixture. Keep stirring. After 10-15 minutes, it will thicken considerably as the rice cooks.

7) Soak some saffron strands in 2-3 tbsp of milk and add them to the rice and milk mixture. You can omit the saffron if you do not like it or do not have it on hand.

8) Mash any remaining bananas, so that most of it becomes puree like. Add this whole mixture to the milk. Keep stirring to avoid burning.

9) Add some grated nutmeg and 1 tsp of freshly ground or ready made elaichi powder or cardammom powder.

10) Also add some chopped pistachios, cashews etc. for crunch.

11) The dish is done once all the ingredients have mixed well and formed a thick pudding like consistency. This will thicken even more after it cools, so please factor that in.

12) Refrigerate and serve chilled garnished with a few chopped nuts

This is a very simple and economical dessert that can be made from stuff in your pantry. The whole process will take 45-60 mins, but you can also be cooking something else while you stir the milk. I hope you try this simple sugcar free treat and let me know how you liked it.

Hara Bhara Kabab Masala ( Spinach cheese balls in a creamy tomato sauce) - Favourite appetizer goes mainstream

2009-10-07T07:29:00.015-04:00

This recipe is an adaptation or enhancement of something that I learned years ago - the Hara Bhara Kabab, when it was not common to see this kind of a 'kabab' on restaurant menu cards. They served a version of it at our club. Very different from now, when almost every small joint that opens up in our Pune neighbourhood has things like Hariyali kabab, Hara Kabab etc. So one fine summer many moons ago, when we kids were being especially troublesome, some family elder heard about a cooking class and dispatched self and cousin there, hoping to keep us busy for at least a few hours. The 'class' turned out to be much better than expected, and I am pretty sure it lent a hand in developing some of my culinary instincts. Some things I learned there are even now coming into vogue, and I really admire the lady who taught us and wonder how she was sort of advanced for the time. There used to be 2-3 things made everyday and we could take some home, so by the time we got home, there used to be a bunch of rowdy kids - cousins and siblings - waiting on the doorstep, ready to sample the exotic fare we had 'cooked' that day.

We were taught this Hara Bhara ( Green) Kabab recipe in the 'Appetizers' section and it has been the star of several cocktail parties at our home. The basic ingredient is spinach, and to balance it there is potato and paneer and a bare min of spices. Since I did not have much else, and needed something for dinner, I decided to make a sort of kofta curry out of this and serve it with rice to make a complete meal. The initial part - the Kabas - can also be eaten by themselves with some dipping sauce - yogurt and mint will go well with this. I have made an additional Makhni type gravy or a tomato cream sauce to accompany these balls/croquettes/koftas.
I used the Appe Patra or Ableskiever pan to 'fry' the kababs, instead of shallow or deep frying them. This is one gadget which is certainly NOT overrated. My only peeve is that it did not reduce the smoke generated, as compared to using a frying pan.
The recipe is as follows -

For the Kabab -
1 cup frozen/blanched spinach tightly packed
1 cup boiled and mashed potato
1 cup Paneer shredded ( Can use tofu or farmers cheese or Queso Blanco)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste

For the Sauce -
1 cup crushed tomato
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup half and half or cream ( low fat or fat free)
1 tbsp crushed Kasoori methi
1 tsp Garam masala
1 tsp honey
salt to taste

Method:
1) Mix and knead all the ingredients of the Kabab given above. Make sure that all the water is drained off from the spinach. This should make a thick mixture.
2) Adjust pepper such that the mixture tastes strongly of pepper. Pepper is the dominant flavour here, like in a vegetable cutlet
3) Make small balls with it, roughly the size of a ping pong ball
4) Heat the Appe pan on the stove top and add one drop oil to each mould. Place one ball or kabab in each mould and keep turning with the skewer until all sides are uniformly crisp and brown. Drain these on a paper towel.
5) Now for the sauce - Puree the crushed tomatoes and cashews in a blender until smooth. Alternately you can add cashew paste to the crushed tomatoes.
6) Heat the tomato cashew mixture till it bubbles. Add all the spices like garam masala, salt and honey.
7) Add the half and half. I use low fat or fat free versions. This is optional and we are adding a little just to lighten the colour and get a 'creamy' look. The creamy taste is obtained from the cashews and they will lend a richness to the sauce. So although there is some fat content added through the nuts, it is of the healthy kind and not dairy fat.
8) Crush some kasuri methi and add it to the sauce. Simmer for five minutes and take off the stove.
9) While serving, place 2-3 kababs in an individual serving bowl and ladle some sauce on top. DO NOT add the kababs to the sauce in advance, as they will very likely dissolve or soften and crumble.
10) Serve with Hot Parathas/naan or steamed rice

Schezwan Scrambled Tofu - a few nothces above your everyday scramble

2009-09-29T03:36:00.009-04:00

There were some things lying in my fridge for a long time that needed to be used up pronto. There was a package of tofu, some aging red peppers and mushrooms, wiliting celery, you get the picture. I also had an un-opened bottle of Ching's secret schezwan sauce lying around that I hadn't sampled yet. The need of the hour was a 15 minute lunch leveraging what was in the fridge, and the taste buds demanded something tangy and spicy, maaybe Indo-Chinese.

All the typical things that come to mind like schezwan tofu/paneer, manchurian, paneer/tofu chilli etc. required time, effort and Oil. I was missing the simplicity of the 'bhurji days' when all you had to do was fry some onions and tomatoes and crack a few eggs in it.

I decided to combine all these myraid elements into making a simple tofu scramble using the ready made schezwan paste/sauce. The results cleared my sinuses and burnt my tongue, mostly due to my over zealous use of the paste/sauce and my greed !! This recipe uses a few vegetables, but you can pretty much use anything you have and want. I would probably prefer to have a home made sauce so that I can control the heat, but then it would not fall under the almost instant category. The recipe follows -

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms

1/2 cup chopped red/greeen pepper

2 TBSP Shezwan sauce ( more as needed)

salt and pepper to taste

1 package of firm or extra firm tofu

1 Tbsp Oil

Method:

1) Chop or slice all vegetables in a similar form and size

2) Drain and wash tofu and set aside

3) In a wok or heavy pan, heat the oil and fry the onion till it softens. Add the celery and peppers and then add mushrooms.

4) Once the vegetables soften a little, add the sauce and fry for 2-3 minutes

5) Crumble the tofu into the wok and keep stirring/sauteeing until any water from the tofu evaporates and the tofu is well mashed into the sauce

6) Adjust seasonings according to taste

Serving Suggestions: Serve hot with roti or paratha, USe as a spread for subs/hoagies and eat with lots of crunchy fresh veggies, steamed rice, or fry rice into this mixture for a bhurji fried rice

Orange Couscous Salad - for summer evenings

2009-08-27T08:06:00.005-04:00

With the summer at its peak, its the same story almost everywhere. We want to stay away from hot and heavy stuff and just enjoy something light and refreshing. What could be more refreshing than the tart bite of something citrus? I like to use lemons, limes and oranges a lot in almost all my food, especially in a salad. Dressings made of lemon or orange are more appealing to me than heavy oil or mayo based ones. I also had a big pack of couscous from the local mediterranean shop (http://www.mediterraneanbakeryanddeli.net/) which you must surely visit once if you live in the area. Although its more popular amongst the Asian population for the
halal meat that it sells, it has a small but eclectic grocery section, and also a huge section of carryout kind of food. The hummus and baba ghanjouj are great and fresh tasting, they have a variety of fatayars(pies), sweets like baklava, grape leaves et al. They carry a lot of spices and spice mixes at really economical prices. Also the couscous, bulgur, coffees, tahini etc.etc. One tasty find I have made here is a kind of pepper spread that will be on another post, since it deserves its own. We also stumbled on their stock of pita bread which is something you will not find in a super market. You have pitas in several sizes, ranging from your small one to
12 inch or 14 inch ones, white, wheat, fresh and economical.

OK, coming back to the point ( yes, there is one) after this long detour, I generally make something warm out of couscous, more like upama or pulao and also eat it hot. But keeping the minimum cooking criteria in mind, I decided to try and make a salad. With the mediterranean theme fresh in my mind, the ingredients kind of suggested themselves - cucumbers, olives, red peppers, onion, chick peas for some substance, some orange element and a simple dressing with orange juice and a touch of cumin. The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -
1 cup dry couscous any variety

1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed, or 1 cup chickpeas boiled at home

1 cup finely chopped red onion

1 cup chopped cucumber

1/2 cup chopped spanish olives

1/2 cup chopped red pepper ( or any colour pepper)

1 cup mandarin oranges

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

2-3 tbspn fresh lemon juice

1 tsp orange zest

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

salt and sugar to taste

2 tbspn pinoli or almonds ( optional)

1 tbspn olive oil (optional)

Method -
1) Boil the couscous according to package directions and set aside. This can be done in advance. Make sure the couscous is not very soggy now since the dressing will moisten it again later

2) In a large mixing bowl, combine all the vegetables - onions, cucumber, pepper, olives, mandarin oranges. Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas to make sure all the gooey liquid is gone. Add the chickpeas to the bowl.

3) Add the couscous to the bowl. Make sure its cool by now since we want the veggies to remain crispy and fresh. Adding hot or warm couscous will slightly cook the vegetables which we do not want here. Lightly mix everything once.

4) Now for the dressing. In a seperate bowl or cup, mix the fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh lemon juice. Make an effort to use fresh juices only. This will make a big difference in the taste. Add the paprika, cumin, orange zest, salt to taste, and little dash of sugar or honey to balance the sourness.

5) Add the olive oil. Use Extra virgin oil for a better flavour. Now you can use as much oil as you want here. You can keep streaming oil food tv style( no offense to any great chefs) until you get a thick emulsion, or you can just use maybe a tbspn as I do to get the flavour from the oil, but not enough to affect any other metrics. Beat together all the ingredients till they are combined together and add this to the bowl.

6) Add the dressing in two or three batches, depending on how dry or soft you like your couscous. I kept it slightly on the soggy side earlier, but it was all absorbed by the next day. I forgot to mention above -- this salad gets better over time. The flavours concentrate more and more, so remember that while adding your spices.

7) Add some of the chopped cilantro, keeping some for garnish. Now you can thoroughly mix everything together, ensuring that the dressing goes through the salad.

8) You can add a few almonds or pine nuts. I did not add them this time.

9) Refrigerate for a few hours, if you are not already salivating.

We ate this salad by itself as a meal, and ate leftovers as a filling for pitas with some lettuce and tomatoes. This was a very satisfying meal, and the taste intensified the next day. The crunch and freshness of the cucumber, the saltiness of the olives, the slight spice of the onion, and the juicy orange wedges intermingling, this orange based summer couscous salad is a perfect treat that can be made in a short time. The fresh citrus dressing gives this a clean flavour and
keeps things light.

Sweet and Sour KaDhi ( Savoury Buttermilk stew)

2009-08-19T07:53:00.006-04:00

KaDhi is a traditional Indian dish made across various parts of India. Each region has its own way of making it - Gujarathi, Rajasthani, Punjabi, Maharashtrian - we have all had and savoured various versions. KaDHi is supposed to be the quintessential 'brahmin' dish in Maharashtra. It is supposed that those learned men of yore ate KaDhi with rice everyday, and many a brahmin kid (self included) has been at the butt of 'KaDhi' jokes. The Kadhi in Maharashtra is supposed to be of a thin and watery consistency as opposed to that in other parts such as Madhya Pradesh etc.

In our family, Kadhi is traditionally made from sour buttermilk, the one that is left over after churning butter. I remember many a lazy afternoon when a pot of kadhi would be bubbling away on a stove on rainy afternoons, inviting one and all with its typical aroma. With the times changing, I no longer heat a pot of milk everyday, so I don't skim off the cream to save it in a jar, so there is no homemade butter across the Atlantic, hence no fresh buttermilk. Not that its impossible, but with our hectic schedules, it is just something that we have stopped doing. So coming to the point, since we always have Dahi or curd available in a jar from the supermarket, this is the best go to dish you can have when you are in a hurry, too tired to cook and long for something that reminds you of home.

Every region has a peculiar recipe. The Gujarathi kadhi is usually thick and sweet. The rajasthani kadhi has a lot of unusual spices such as cloves and pepper and ber ( a kind of gooseberry). The punjabi kadhi is very spicy with almost equal amounts of dahi and besan. The version I have today is my own concoction. It takes a little bit from the different
things I like in various different recipes. The result is spicy, tangy, sweet and extremely slurrrrpy. I generally try to use the desi dahi brand you get in Indian stores since that has a sour taste. If not available, any fat free yogurt is a good option. I have found that for any super market brand, be it Dannon or Stonyfield or Kroger etc., the fat free yogurt is always more sour compared to the full fat or low fat version. I have no idea of the mechanics behind this.

The recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

Sour Curd (plain yogurt) - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Besan or chick pea flour - 2 Tbsp
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1 green chilli - 3 or 4 pieces
3-4 cloves
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oil or ghee
4-5 fresh curry leaves
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro or dhania
Asfoetida/turmeric - pinch for tempering
salt and sugar to taste

Method -

In a sauce pan, mix together the curd/yogurt, water and chick pea flour and whisk to form a smooth mixture. Make sure that there are no lumps. Add the grated ginger and the green chilli. Bring this mixture to a boil and then simmer for 12-15 minutes till it thickens. There should be no floury taste remaining. Add salt and sugar to taste to get the desired sweetness and desired balance of sweet and sour. This will vary according to individual tastes. In a small kadai or vessel, heat the oil or ghee ( traditional), and add cumin seeds, cloves, curry leaves, a pinch of turmeric and hing or Asfoetida. Add this to the mixture in the pan. Mix together and continue to simmer for 5 more minutes for the flavours to blend or until ready to eat.

This can be served hot with steamed rice, or just slurped away on its own. A healthy, nutritious and low cal delicacy, ready in the time your rice cooks. I hope you enjoy this simple Indian dish that is a household favourite.

Nimona - a fresh twist on Alu matar

2009-08-16T12:09:00.014-04:00

Independence Day is here and there is a lot of green and orange around with people portraying their patriotic spirit. I decided to do my bit and try something green. I love the colour green, especially in food - yes I really like all kinds of greens like palak, methi, sarson, etc. and the other quintessential green ingrdient - Peas.

In days bygone, peas usually came out of a pod, mostly in the winter, and I had a swell time shelling the peas and eating half of them raw. There are a lot of childhood pea recipes that I will reserve for another time, but I came across this one only after transponding to the 'green peas come from a bag in the freezer' days.

Although I am calling it Alu Matar with a twist, this dish is way more exotic. You have to taste it to believe it. It is very simple in execution, and has very few ingredients. Its also great on a budget and for stretching a dime, as you can extend this dish even using very little raw material. I was first treated to this by a dear friend during the good old school days, when the purse was tight and there were always countless mouths to feed - anyone who has ever lived on or near a college campus can attest to the unpredictable number of people who always turned up for the pleasure of your company ;).

This dish is called Nimona, and is from North India - mostly Uttar Pradesh. The only time I have heard the word Nimona is when I heard my friend mention this, and make this. For us lesser mortals, it was always A's special matar dish!!
The star ingredient here is green peas and a lot of dhania or cilantro. Since Cilantro is another green I cannot have enough of, I use it abundantly. You can use as little or as much according to your taste, but I personally think that it is the combination of green peas, cilantro and Saunf ( yup, one more green) that gives this its unique flavour. Potato is added to the gravy and you can add as much as you want. This is where the crowd friendly aspect comes in. You can thin out the gravy as much as you want, and increase the bulk by adding more potatoes to feed more hungry mouths.

Note: One thing you have to be careful of is to curb all instincts to add turmeric or haldi, and also red chilli powder. This will spoil its colour.
So without further ado, and any more use of the 'g' word, here is the recipe -

Ingredients:
3 cups frozen peas (1 small frozen bag)
1 cup tightly packed fresh cilantro
1 inch piece of ginger
3-4 garlic cloves
1/2 jalapeno or any green pepper
1 small onion
1-2 tspsns black pepper
1 tspn dhania jeera powder
2 tspns saunf( fennel seeds)
2 medium potatoes
oil, salt and sugar to taste
1 tbsp ghee optional

Grind together peas, cilantro, ginger garlic, onion, chilli and 1 tsp saunf or fennel seeds to get a thick paste. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a wok or non stick pan and add the fennel seeds till they pop/splutter. Add the green puree to the oil and begin stirring immediately to avoid sticking. Keep stirring till the paste appears to be well cooked. Keep adding a little water to avoid sticking/burning. The water will be easily absorbed. Meanwhile peel and dice potatoes in medium pieces. Add water to the paste, enough to get the desired sauce thickness. Add more water than desired since the gravy will thicken and also the potatoes will add some thickness when cooked. Add diced potatoes. Add pepper, cumin and coriander powder ( or any masala of your choice - just a dash - not to overwhelm the natural taste of the pea/cilantro
combination), salt and a pinch of sugar. Bring to a boil and let this simmer till the potatoes are cooked. The gravy will thicken a bit by the time the potatoes cook.

You can add more or less potatoes according the number of people - or as people show up :) Add a little ghee at the end. This is totally optional, and will just give a richness to the dish.
Serve hot with rotis or steamed rice. The gravy can be thinner if serving with rice.
Leftovers are great as a sandwich spread, for wraps, or even as a pesto tossed with pasta.
And as I am sure some enterprising minds out there must be thinking, you could add Paneer or Tofu instead of the potato for a new kind of twist !

Sarson Ka Saag ( mustard greens)

2009-04-12T11:04:00.003-04:00

If you are a Hindi movie fan like I am, or even watch the occasional odd one, especially a Yash Chopra film, you have surely heard of 'makki ki Roti and sarson ka saag'. Its a cult classic, just like the gajar Halwa, Mooli ke parathe et al. I especially remember Amrish Puri exclaiming nostalgically and dancing around in DDLJ ( famous Hindi Movie),just by the thought of getting to eat his favourite sarson ka saag.

Although I cannot claim to have the earth's bounty around me as you would in rural Punjab, nor the sprawling yellow mustard blooms that one can run amock in, I did lay my eyes on some fresh bunches of mustard leaves or Sarson that beckoned to me in the local grocery store. Even though we have seen the occasional swallow or two, and the temperatures have tempted us showing the 70s now and then, they do still seem to fall back into the 50s and 60s. Its as if winter just does not want to go away this year. So presented with a chilly evening, some welcome spare time and lots of fresh mustard and spinach greens, I decided to try my hand at this classic Punjabi dish. My only introduction to this was a couple of times I had it at a friend's place, but I learnt from the experts, I must say!

Mustard greens are slightly bitter in taste and they need to be balanced with something, in this case an equal quantity of spinach. Indeed, even when i prepare a simple stir fry with any frozen mustard greens, i always combine it with an equal amount of spinach.After carefully cleaning the spinach mustard leaves, cut off any thick stems and pressure cook the leaves for 1-2 whistles. Meanwhile, you can prepare the curry paste or the sauce. Sautee two medium onions and all the spices in 1 tsp oil till its light brown. Drain all the water from the cooked greens and blend all the greens and the onions and spices to a smooth paste. All you need now is to simmer this a little and viola, your saag ( greens) is ready !

The detailed recipe is as follows -

1 bunch of spinach and mustard greens

2 medium onions roughly chopped

2 cloves

2 cardammoms

2 inch cinnamon stick

2 tsp peppercorns

1 small bayleaf

1 tbsp ghee or butter optional

2 tbsp thick cream or half/half

Pressure cook the greens as given above and drain all the water. Sautee the onions and spices on low heat till they are roasted and aromatic. Blend all the greens and onions/spices in a food processor to make a smooth paste. Transfer to a pot and simmer on low. Add water as needed. This dish is generally of a stew consistency so that it can be easily soaked into the corn/ makai roti that it is eaten with. After simmering the greens for 10-15 minutes, they should change colour and turn slightly dark. Add salt to taste and some cream or half and half. This will lend the dish some richness and also balance any remaining bitterness. You can also add butter/ghee if you want to splurge.Serve piping hot, preferably with Makai Roti ( Corn meal roti)

Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps

2009-01-07T15:44:00.006-05:00

Hello Readers and wish you a very Happy New Year! This must be the only blog that slumped down before it ever took off.. And I have yours truly to blame for that. I was travelling extensively the past two months and blogging took a backseat. But I am back with good intentions and greater resolutions to not go on a hiatus anytime soon.

Lettuce wraps have always seemed magical to me. I first came across them at PF Changs where they seemed something exotic at first glance. They are a dieters' delight, promising to satisfy almost any criteria like low carb, meat only, vegetarian, salad centric etc etc. The restaurant rarely served a veggie version, although lately both Changs and the local Peking deigned to provide us a meat free one. So maybe its based on their mood, or they are thinking 'healthy', or they just pull straws to decide what to do. Either ways, I decided the time had finally come to take the mystery out of it and finally try this seemingly simple but scrumptious dish at home.

When you think Chinese ( at least Indo chinese), you automatically think of certain vegetables like cabbage, carrots, french beans, capsicum etc. But this was a day when I was running short on fresh veggies, and there was also a big half-used bag of Asian stir fry in the freezer that I had to use soon. That gave rise to an idea and also the base of my vegetarian filling. The sauce, we decided should be inspired by Chang's. If you have ever been to this place, they have a trademark method where the server comes and creates the signature sauce for you. Basically, they just have mustard, vinegar and chilli oil on the table and explain how mixing these in varying proportions will either burn your tongue or clear your sinuses ;). The filling in the restaurant is very dry and smoky and you have to add the sauce on top. I wanted to shorten the journey from plate to mouth and reduce the steps in between, so I decided to make a jumbo superset of a filling.
I slightly thawed the stir fry veggies and put them in the food processor. A few pulses and it yielded 3-4 cups of very finely chopped veggies. I used TVP or Nutrela to add some protein component. I actually used Nutrela granules but you can also use any TVP you get in the bulk bins, I suppose. Crumbled tofu would also be a good option here. I just used what I had on hand.

So we start with a tbsp of optional oil - optional as you will not taste this at all, and not using it will make no difference. Add about 2 tbsp of chopped garlic and crushed red pepper flakes to this oil. Once that changes colour a bit, add the chopped veggie mixture and the soy granules ( soaked in hot water for a few minutes till they soften) and fry for a few minutes. Keep frying till the veggies are half cooked. Now this is a point where you can decide how far you want to go according to your personal taste. Since I was using frozen veggies, they were soft anyway, but if you are using fresh crunchy ones, you can just saute them for a few minutes on high heat and keep them crunchy. I also added a few chopped scallions to the veggies.

The sauce - I think the sauce is important in this dish and makes this dish very versatile. You can vary the taste every time by changing the sauce. I mixed some dijon mustard, some sriracha hot sauce, some ketchup and some soy sauce, and as weird as it may sound, this gave a really lip smacking taste to the whole thing. The ketchup added a hint of tomato and some sweetness. I also added some fresh lime juice. The crunch came from toasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and chooped scallions that I liberally garnsihed the dish with.

Now lets talk about the wrap aspect of this dish. I think iceberg lettuce is the best for this, but you may try other kinds if you want. They key is to freeze the lettuce leaves a bit so that they are cold and crispy. Also, the veggie mixture should be really hot and steaming. I am sure we all know how to proceed next, but in case of doubts, let me explain. You peel away one or two layers from the iceberg and make a sort of shallow dish of it on your palm. Then you spoon the steaming mixture in it and add any hot sauce etc. you want. Then close the two ends like a soft taco or wrap and Dig In !!

You can now proceed to gorge on this spicy treat w/o any guilt whatsoever ! I hope you try this simple dish and enjoy it at home. It's a crowd pleaser too, and needs about the same effort whether you make it for 4 people or 8. The recipe is as follows. Photos are coming soon, as soon as I get rid of some upload error I am getting.

Ingredients:

4 cups finely chopped vegetables

1/2 cup chopped scallions or green onions ( both white and green part)

2 tblsp chopped garlic fresh

Iceberg lettuce - 1 head or as needed

1 cup soaked TVP or Nutrela granules

Crushed red pepper

Sauce:

Dijon or chinese mustard - 1 tbsp or to taste

Soy sauce - 1 tbsp

Hot sauce - 1 tsp acc to taste

Vinegar - 1 tsp

Garnish:

Toasted peanuts - 2-3 tbsp

Toasted sesame seeds - 2-3 tbsp

Scallions

Chopped cilantro

Lime or lemon wedges

Method

Pulse Veggies in the food processor. You may also chop them finely by hand if desired.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in the wok and add chopped garlic and crushed red pepper. Saute for half a minute and add all the vegetables. Saute till vegetables soften slightly.

Add the TVP/soya granules. Saute some more and add all the sauce ingredients. Mix it well till it is heated through.

Garnish with peanuts, sesame, scallions etc.

Serve piping hot with chilled lettuce leaves.

Black bean soup cookoff

2008-10-22T16:15:00.000-04:00

I almost posted two recipes this weekend, a Spanish paella and a chickpea salad, but decided against it since I did not take pictures. But I think they were winners and I will revive them some other time. This weekend was quite an achievement, since we did not eat out at all, nor even get any take out. Whats more, I even took home made food when we went to see the Fall Colours. Skyline Drive is fabulous this time of the year, and not to be missed.

Fall has set in here in VA, some would even say winter (;)), and there is a nice chill in the air. So a big bowl of hot steaming soup seemed to be the call of the day. I had also finally soaked some black beans that I had bought a long time ago, and that I found hidden in some corner of my pantry. I also had a butternut squash that I had to use up. But there were varied opinions on the method to be used to make the soup. One wanted a very spicy Indian like thing and I leaned towards mexican. So I came up with this idea of having a cook off tv style - A black bean shorba versus a vegetable and black bean soup. I added some butternut squash for colour and to keep with the Fall theme. I was not sure how it would mingle with the other veggies and beans, but in the end, I think it had a pretty neutral effect. It added a touch of sweetness and did not take away from the main flavours.

I decided to use mostly Mexican kind of spices in my recipe. I started with the usual mirepoix and added green and red peppers. I used chipotles in adobo to add a smoky flavour, and boy, did it work ! You can easily get a small can of chipotles pretty cheap in Walmart in the Mexican foods aisle. I used only two, which was quite enough for me for a big pot of soup. But you can use less or more depending on your heat tolerance. I used oregano and cumin as the main flavouring in addition to the chipotles. Nowadays, I heat up some cumin seeds in the microwave or a pan so that they are smoky and just grind them on the spot using my mortar and pestle. This 'fresh grinding' process gives it tons more flavour than if you use store bought cumin or jeera powder. I decided to use the butternut squash in place of corn as a starchy component, just to try something new. I debated over using tomatos in some form, but finally left them out, just adding fresh lime juice instead for a touch of tang. I garnished this with fresh chopped cilantro and lime juice and served it with a fresh whole grain baguette. Another serving idea is to scoop some rice on top, gumbo like.

I think this recipe is completely vegan, except perhaps the touch of optional honey that I added. This is also fat free and can easily pass muster as an 'Eat to Live' recipe.

Recipe #1 - Chipotle Black Bean and Vegetable soup

Ingredients:

2 cups black beans (soaked overnight and pressure cooked) or 2 cans
2 small onions
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
3-4 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime, freshly squeezed
chipotles in adobo - 2 - chopped
1 cup chopped butternut squash
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried crushed oregano
1 tbsp cumin poweder freshly ground
4 cups water or 2 cups each water and veg stock

Chop the onion, carrot and celery in small pieces of roughly the same size. Chop the peppers into similar sized pieces and chop butternut squash into slightly larger chunks. Crush and finely chop the garlic. I prefer fresh garlic only and do not recommend the one you get in a bottle.

Add the onions to a big non stick pot and sautee them for a while. Apart from being oil free, this method will char the onions and give them a smoky flavor. If the onions start sticking, add a little water, 1/4 cup or so at a time and keep sauteing. Add the carrots and celery gradually along with the bay leaf. When these are slightly softened, add the peppers. Also add the chopped chipotles and the garlic. Sautee this mixture till the vegetables look slightly cooked. The more you cook now, the lesser time it will take later for the soup to come together. Add the butternut squash and sautee for a minute. Add the black beans now and the water. I would have liked to add some vegetable stock at this point, but i did not have any on hand, and for some reason did not feel like adding a bouillion cube. Add all the other spices - paprika, oregano and cumin at this point. Add a touch of honey - optional. Bring this to a boil. Put a lid on it and let it simmer for 15-20 mins till all the vegetables are cooked and the thickness is to your liking. Add the lime juice at the end after switching off the heat and garnish with lots of fresh coriander/cilantro.

Serve hot with bread or rice, garnished with more lime juice, cilantro and black pepper.

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Now the other recipe - Black bean Shorba! I am just giving the recipe here without prolonging this post which I fear may have become too long. Who was the winner of this cookoff? Our tingling tastebuds, and our tummies, which were thorughly satisfied :)

Recipe #2 - Black bean Shorba

cumin - 1 tspn
black pepper - 2 tspn
Bay leaves - 1-2
cinnamon - 1/2 inch
cloves - 4-6 pcs
onion - 1 medium
celery - 2 stalks cut in pcs
cayenne - 1 tsp

1. Soak black beans overnight for abt 12 hrs
2. pressure cook
3. in a deep pot add 1 tbsp of white butter and heat for 2-3 min untill it melts and sizzles
4. add cumin, bay leaves, clover, and cinnamon, and saute for 3 min
5. add onion and fry untill golden
6. add celery and saute another 2 min
7. add black pepper
8. add 1 cup black beans with 1 cup of stalk from the cooker
9. add 1 cup veg broth and bring to boil
10. garnish with cilantro and serve with garlic bread.

This is my maiden entry for a blog event, sra's legume love affair - fourth helping.

Fresh Turmeric Pickle ( HaLdi cha LoNcha)

2008-10-16T16:47:00.001-04:00

Hello readers and welcome to my first post. The first of several more to come, I hope. I gave some thought to what I wanted the first post to be. I wanted it to be ethnic and something that was not too common or well known. I also wanted something that was interesting enough to hold my readers' attention, since I am not yet one of the blogging elite :|. Something spicy and healthy that would be good for you.

I stumbled into my local Indian grocery store as I was pondering over all this, and what do I see in front of me? A huge box of FRESH turmeric ! Turmeric ( Hindi: Haldi) is a spice or condiment which is very commonly used in Indian cooking. Apart from giving curry its yellow colour, it has tons of other advantages - antiseptic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, to name a few. It is part of the typical ingredients present in any Indian pantry's spice box, and is used in almost every dish. We all remember the turmeric paste our moms and grandmas put on our scraped bloody knees, bruises, tooths etc. I am sure a lot of you will also remember the Vicco turmeric ad explaining how 'turmeric' gave 'Banno' her creamy complexion. I fondly remember those good old college days when a primitive besan and haldi face pack was your lifesaver before any impromptu party. Enough said about all these nostalgic references.

Turmeric contains the antioxidant curcumin which has a variety of advantages. It is supposed to be very good for you and improves heart health, lipid numbers, Alzheimer's, arthritis, inflammation, various forms of cancer etc. Some good detail can be found here and here. Google will also come up with any more info needed.

The turmeric you get in the store is dried and ground to powder, but there is also a 'fresh' form which looks very much like ginger from the outside. Turmeric pickle is a popular family recipe, mostly because it is something so different and tastes great. Also, you can feel good about it since it has all the inherent medicinal properties. Some might argue that the words 'pickle' and 'healthy' do not go together, and I agree to some extent. But you can control the salt and oil added as much as you want by substituting with more lemon juice and vinegar. Also, since this is 'hot', the most a person eats at a time is maybe a tsp or less. I also make it in small batches so not much salt is needed. This is not like your ancient year long pickle in earthen jars, that had to have tons of salt to last for several years. Refrigeration also reduces the salt needed.

If you are not used to having turmeric in your food, the taste can be a bit strong and pungent at first. But I hope that you try this out and come to like it. Other uses I am working on are making some kind of chutney, and adding it fresh grated to vegetables, soups etc. to increase the nutrient value. The recipe follows -

Ingredients:

Turmeric - 2 cups grated

2 teaspoons - mustard powder
2 teaspoons - methi (fenugreek) powder
2 tablespoons - cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon - salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon - sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup oil

Peel the turmeric with a vegetable peeler and grate it. You can also use a food processor. Heat some oil and let it cool a bit. Mix all the spice powders given above and put about 1 tablespoon of oil from above and mix it up. Do not use hot oil as it will give a bitter taste to the mustard. Mix this spice mixture with the grated turmeric, and put it in an air tight bottle or jar. Add the lemon juice and remaining oil and mix well.You can later add more oil, or more lemon juice/vinegar as
needed if you want more 'juice' to this. Let this pickle marinate for 2-3 days before serving.
Enjoy!