We've Gone Fishing - Well On Holiday In Any Event

It has been quite a year for our family and our journey on project paratha.  We will be taking a break on blogging until the turn of the new year.  Earlier today I was in a Cost Plus World market buying Bretzels (large thin pretzels from Germany) for the kids and happened upon a display of Indian sandalwood candles, paisley decorated notebooks, and silk bed curtains.  This reminds me that Indian influences are everywhere, even last minute holiday shopping displays.   We will be continuing with the curry portion of the project over the next few weeks; so more to come from the I Heart Curry book.

Have a great new year.

Bengali Mustard Fish

Anjum labels this as a classic and "absolutely terrific." I could not agree more; although I never heard of this before it is something I could see making again and again.

The ingredients include:
450 g of halibut steaks - whole or quartered
3/4 tsp of tumeric
salt to taste
1 1/2 small tomatoes
3 "fat" garlic cloves
4-5 green chillies (preferably Indian finger)
1 1/2 tbsp powdered brown mustard seeds (Lisa and I debated this over dinner and it seems like one might be able to use country mustard?)
4 tbsp mustard or vegetable oil
1 1/4 tsp nigella seeds
a handful of corriander leaves (fresh)

The fish is marinated in the tumeric, while the sauce is made. The tomatoes, garlic, and 2-3 chillies should be blended. The oil is added to a pan, nigella seeds added, sizzled for 10 seconds, and then the tomato-chilli-mustard paste is added. The sauce is cooked over a moderate flame so that the excess moisture is cooked off. Reduce the heat to darken the sauce. Add 400 ml of water and add the rest of the chillies, bring to a boil and simmer for 7-8 minutes. Look for the right consistency, i.e. not too soupy. The fish should be fried in a separate pan and then added to the mustard sauce - bringing that back to a boil for a couple of minutes (this will allow the fish to really absorb the sauce). The corriander leaves are added at the end.

We've made a lot of fish dishes and this one is quite near the top of the list.

Time for the Curries!

We are now well into Project Paratha but have yet to venture fully into the curry terrain.  Last Sunday I found myself in London Heathrow killing time by browsing the book stores there.  I came across this lovely title, I heart Curry by Anjum Anand.  Anjum was the popular presenter of BBC2's Indian Food Made Easy.  This text contains about 50 curry recipes from different parts of India which are served up in a straightforward manner.  What a perfect entree for us into curry realm of our project.  She put's her finger on something key in the introduction, noting that is all too common for some to refer to Indian food generally as "curries" or to reference eating at an Indian restaurant as "going for a curry."  When I lived on the East Coast of the U.S. in a small city this was common there too and surprisingly culturally narrow in thought.  The book starts with Anjum's 5 secrets to making a great curry: (1) starting with whole spices - heating them in a pan to release their flavours; (2) using an onion base; (3) employing a garlic or ginger paste; (4) adding the ground spices; and (5) employing some tomatoes and/or yogurt which will add some soft texture/creaminess and slightly sour bite.  Tonight Lisa made a wonderful Bengali Fish Curry from the recipe in the book.  We'll add a separate post for that.  

Cheers.  Michael

masala baked puffed lotus seeds shake me out of blog blahs

I just haven't felt like blogging the past couple of weeks.  I've been cooking and eating Indian foods, but just didn't feel inspired to write about it.  Until that is, I made this cool snack. (The bag in the picture is what is left after my son and I ate most of it and I packed it for his lunch tomorrow).
  I was looking for a crunchy, savory, healthy snack.  After a few google searches I hit upon a site called jugalbandi.info and a recipe for masala baked nuts and pumpkin seeds.  It looked intriguing but I really wanted to make it with tempeh.  Sadly, when I went to open my package of tempeh, I found that it had gone bad.  So I thought and thought.  I looked through my pantry and found an unopened bag of puffed lotus seeds.  HMMM.  So I proceeded to make this recipe with the lotus seeds.  OK, I was eating them while they were baking in the oven.  I kept opening the door and snatching a few just "to test if they were done" of course.  They came out suitably crunchy and so much fun to eat.  They have a coating kind of like a pakora, but these are baked.  I adapted the recipe, which calls for chickpea flour, rice flour, and other spices.  The batter I made is just chickpea flour with a touch of almond flour, some garam masala, cayenne, and salt.  I used almond four to give it some fat (the original recipe was for baked nuts, so the fat was already in that).  The puffed lotus seeds are almost pure protein (although you would have to eat a whole bag (200g) to get about 8 grams of protein) and almost no calories.  Virtually all of the calories in this dish are from the flours; and most of that is from the chickpea flour.  I used Bob's Red Mill.  You can see the nutrition info at the right. What a powerhouse snack!
All in all, a great snack that is easy to make.

Masala Baked Puffed Lotus Seeds.

One bag of puffed lotus seeds 200 grams
1 cup of chickpea flour
2T almond flour
salt to taste
your choice of spices to taste (I used garam masala and cayenne)
1/3 cup of water
another 1/2 cup of chickpea flour

Place the lotus seeds in a large bowl.  combine the 1 cup of chickpea flour, the almond flour, salt and spices is a big measuring cup or bowl.  Add the water and whisk until smooth.   pour into the lotus seeds and mix until coated.  Then sprinkle on the additional chickpea flour (you can spice it if you like) and mix until coated, should still look floury.  Spread onto a baking sheet line with a silpat.  (you will probably need two sheets for this amount). Bake in a 350F degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  After that time use a spatula to mix the seeds.  If they appear to be dry on the outside, slip out the silpat and continue to cook them on the baking sheet for another 15 minutes.  Cool and store in an airtight container if there are any left.

Call me the Rooster

If you are a David Sedaris loyalist you will recall one of his short stories about his brother who insists on being called the rooster and takes on a street/rap persona in the process. Reading it was one of the few moments I've had in life where I simply could not stop laughing to myself aloud as I read.

In LA there is a company, Huy Fong Foods, Inc. that makes a Hot Chili Sauce that is out of this world. I tell Lisa that after years of cooking with it I've make the transition from hot to sweet - what was once wince inducing hot is now tangy and sweet. This is like jumping the shark in a good way (although, I insist there were plenty of good Happy Days episodes after Fonzy took on the California Kid). The bottle for this condiment comes with a unique green tipped top with a rooster prominently featured on the front. So, call me the rooster as I am close to in love with this spicy mixture. There are about 5 calories per serving, no fat, and 1 gram of sugar - so you can cook with it without guilt.

Tonight Lisa made a seeded rice, a basmatti rice with cumin, black pepper, fennel, nigella, and fenugreek seeds. I mixed in some egg whites, a bit of percorino and quite a bit of the rooster. This was paired with a McGregor 2007 Red Russian wine with a beautiful purple hue. We'll give some tasting notes on this wine in another post. McGregor is perhaps the only grower and producer in the U.S. of these wines. The saperavi (Georgian: საფერავი; literally "paint, dye" - due to its intensive dark-red colour) is an acidic, teinturier-type grape variety native to Georgia and is a wonderful base for a higher-end red wine that will age nicely. This wine had pleasant blackberry aromas joined by light floral notes. It has a juicy and soft mouth feel and is a great compliment for meats and if you are willing to experience it hot foods like the rice we made tonight.

Holiday Pizzelle

Pizzelle are a traditional Italian waffle-like cookie made to celebrate annual festivals.  The word meads small flat round.  The tricks to a good pizzelle include a sturdy iron and a reliable recipe.   The origin of these cookies dates back to the 8th century in the south-central area of Abruzzi (now Abruzzo).

This is another recipe that can cross over ethnic palates and go fusion if you'd like.  I made about 50 of these yesterday for the kids using the following recipe.  They came out perfect which means thin enough to have a crispy snap when you bite into them, not too sweet, with hints at the key spices, and of course not too oily (which can be a problem if you use a traditional recipe with butter - which as you'll see below we substitute for...)

Batter Recipe:
5 eggs
3 teaspoon of almond extract (traditional recipes call for anise or anise seed)
2 table spoons of baking powder
1 cup of canola oil (standard is to use butter - which I think makes the dough cloying and greasey)
1 handful of coco or chocolate chips
4 pinches of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups of sugar (2 brown and one white or 2 brown and some honey) - don't go for all white processed sugar it will make the batter way too gritty no matter how you mix it
1 twist of some citrus - orange or lemon
3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons of garam masala, red hot pepper (if you are ok with sweet and hot mixed together)

Cooking:
Heat your iron or pizzelle maker for about 5 minutes, batter should make a sizzling sound when touched to the iron.
Press about a teaspoon of batter in each mold for 1 1/2 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool on a rank individually first.  Hold stacking them until they are not hot.

Cheers.

Thanksgiving Fish Post

We debated the making of a butter turkey until earlier this morning and came to the conclusion we simply don't care too much for the taste of turkey and didn't need to explore ways to disguise the flavour. Turkey made its presence at our table this year thanks to the arts and crafts handiwork of our lovely children. Without getting to ferklempft (going with the phonetics approach to spelling on a Mike Myers favourite) let me say we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

We went with a white fish in a yoghurt garam masala sauce. This went well with the overall Indian thanksgiving theme and was light enough that seconds were not a problem and we had plenty of energy for an afternoon basketball game.

Ingredients:

white fish - 3-4 fillets
2 teaspoons of garlic powder or 2 garlic cloves (pressed)
2 pinches of grated ginger
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 juiced lemon
1 table spoons of natural yoghurt
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cummin
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp of coconut oil

Heat a skillet to medium high and add mixed spices, oil, and coconut oil (pre-mix them). Add the fish and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from burner and allow to stand for a few minutes for the fish to absorb the spiced mix. (You can also marinate the fish for a bit before cooking).

Thanksgiving Menu

 We had a yummy vegetarian Thanksgiving today.  Of course, I spent 5 hours cooking and it was devoured in 30 minutes.  But that's OK.  We have leftovers!  Take a look at that pie.  Our son looks forward to this pie every year.  He says it's the best pie in the world.  Try it and you may agree.  It is a sweet potato pie made with light coconut milk and two eggs (you can make it completely vegan by substituting 3-4 ounces of firm tofu for the eggs, which was how I made it last year). 

 The main course was Maple Glazed Tofu, with wild rice and chestnut stuffing.  Sides included instant corn Paniyaram, sauteed swiss chard, spiced baked apples, and cranberry sauce.

The pie was heavenly and I also made some Pecan Bourbon Truffles.  Actually I didn't spend 5 hours cooking.  It only felt like it.  The meal actually comes together really quickly.  The pie and the cranberry sauce are the only thing that needs to be made a bit ahead so that they can cool, but everything else is quick.

Sweet Potato Pie

Crust
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz Earth Balance Margarine (or butter if you like)
3-4 T ice cold water

Filling
1 large garnet yam or orange sweet potato
10 oz light or reduced fat coconut milk (I used Trader Joe's)
2 eggs or 3-4 oz firm tofu
1/2 cup brown sugar or to taste
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t ground ginger
Hint: use a bit more spice if you use the tofu

To make the crust, place the flour and salt in a food processor.  Cut up 1/2 of the margarine into small pieces and add to the flour.  Pulse until the fat is incorporated and the mix looks like corn meal.  Add the rest of the margarine and pulse until the lumps are the size of lentils. Add the water one tablespoon at a time, pulsing until the mixture forms a loose ball.  Roll out the dough between sheets of wax paper and lay it into a pie plate.  Blind bake the crust for 15 minutes at 350F.

To make the filling, peel the potato and cut it into large chunks.  Boil the chunks for about 10 minutes or until they are tender.  Drain and cool.  Put the cooled potato into a blender or processor and add the coconut milk, eggs or tofu and sugar.  Blend until creamy and light.  Add the spices and blend briefly until they are mixed in.  Pour into the blind baked shell (you can use the extra dough to make leaf or other shapes to decorate the top) Bake at 350F for one hour.

Maple Glazed Tofu

As usual with this kind of recipe, I don't really measure, so portions and proportions are up to you.

Firm or Extra Firm Tofu (or super firm if you like it)
1-2 T canola or vegetable oil
1-2-T Maple Syrup
1-2 T tamari or soy sauce
1-2 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1t grated fresh ginger

Slice the tofu into cutlet sized slices.  Or cut into circles or other fun shapes.  Heat a non stick skillet and add about 1T oil.  (Depending on how much you are making, you will have to do this in batches, unless you have two or more skillets).  Add the tofu and brown the first side.  Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients.  When the first side of the tofu is browned, flip it over and brown the other side.  When the second side is browned, add 1-2 Tablespoons of the syrup to the pan and turn the tofu a couple times until the syrup mixture thickens and coats the tofu.

Wild Rice Chestnut Stuffing
once again the proportions are to your taste and approximate

1 cup cooked wild rice
1 package of Trader Joe's steamed chestnuts (or about 10 oz of cooked chestnuts)
2 slices of Ezikiel Bread (or your choice of whole grain or sourdough bread) diced
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped fine
1-2 shallots, chopped fine
1 cup of your choice of broth (I used 1/2 cube of Not-Chick'n buillion cubes purchased at Whole Foods dissolved in one cup of water)
1/2 t rubbed sage or 1T fresh sage
1T vegetable oil

Heat a skillet and add the oil.  Saute the celery and shallot until they are soft but not browned.  Mix all of the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and add the sauteed vegetables.  Pour into a casserole dish and cover with foil.  Bake for 45 minutes at 350F.

Instant Corn Paniyaram

1/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup barley flour
1/4 cup corn meal
1 red chili chopped fine
1t grated ginger
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 cup corn kernels (fresh or defrosted)
1/2-1 cup of kefir, buttermilk, soymilk, or thinned yoghurt.

Mix all the dry ingredients.  Add the liquid slowly until the batter is like a muffin batter (kind of thick, but not too stiff).  Cook in a paniyaram pan (or you could cook them like muffins).

Cranberry Sauce
1 package of fresh cranberries
1/2 cup brown sugar or to taste
1/3 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cinnamon

Add all of the ingredients to a heavy bottomed saucepan.  Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries have burst and the mixture is thick.  About 10-20 minutes.

Keuka Lake & Indian Fish Curry

https://www.mcgregorwinery.com

We have been eating a lot of fish lately (see our prior posts re our affinity for tilapia). We've also been on a Finger Lake wine run for the last few weeks. I recently took a trip to Lake Keuka, the crooked lake, in upstate NY and did some wine tasting with my father. We started in Hammondsport with Bully Hill of Taylor Wine Family fame and ventured on to the East Side as well (the picture here is from the East Side overlooking the fork in the lake). The white wines from this region pair particularly well with spicy foods and curries. The following is a recipe for a fish curry you might enjoy.

Ingredients: for fish curry indian :
1 1/2 lb white fish
4 cloves garlic
2 hot peppers chopped (selection depends on local availability)
1 tbsp ginger
4 tbsp tomato puree - coconut milk works better to me
2/3rd cup water
Salt to Taste
1/2 cup ghee or table butter - this can be cut down
Spices :
1tsp white cumin seeds, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp garam masala powder

The cooking bit:
Cut the fish into medium-sized pieces.
Heat the ghee in a frying pan, mixing in the spices and garlic (you can also pre-do the garlic) and fry the fish pieces gently for 5 minutes. Drain the fish on absorbent kitchen paper and set aside.
Add the liquids and bring to a boil and then simmer.
Add fried fish pieces.
Reduce the liquid by about half.

If you are looking for a Riesling (I promise my last plug for this varietal) you may want to try the 2008 one from McGregor Winery in Keuka Lake, which won the 2010 NY Food and Wine Critic's award as the best dry Riesling. This Riesling has pleasant aromas of flower blossoms and orchard fruits. It is nifty little wine with floral hints on the palate including hints of stone fruit (white peaches, appricots) and some lime peel and orange honey blossom. It is a particulary good match with hot foods.

Oh, Fudge, I'm in a Pickle

 Two things that I can't stop eating are sweet things and sour things.  Oh, ha ha, I just realized that pretty much includes everything.  Well, here are a couple of items that I whipped up recently.  I neglected to pick some of my green chilies and they turned red.  What to do?  I decided that pickling them would make good use of them.  I went to Manjula's Kitchen and found a pickled jalapeno recipe.  I thought the spicing looked nice so I started making it.  While I was preparing the pickling spices, I was also making some hari chutney and had squeezed a lemon.  The lemon shell was lying on the cutting board when I grabbed my red hot peppers and threw them down on the same board to chop.  The bright red peppers next to the sunny yellow lemon was too much to resist.  I chopped up the lemon rind along with the peppers and pickled them together.  Super hot and super tangy.  This was a pairing that was meant to be.  I ate them with an experimental instant utthapam.  That turned out OK, a bit dry.  I'll experiment further and post a good recipe once I figure one out.
It's Clementine Season here again and I felt the need to make something with them.  I decided to make some quick fudge flavored with the clementine zest and walnuts.  Yum.  Just the kind of thing to round out a meal featuring the pepper lemon pickles.  The zest gives a subtle hint of flavor and marries well with the mellow walnuts.  The clementine sections themselves never make it into any recipe because I just don't think I can improve upon them just as they are.  Although sometimes I do include a couple of them in a smoothie.

I had actually started out wanting to make Persimmon Fudge.  I had bought some persimmons at the farmers' market and I thought a couple of them were ripe.  I forget, they take approximately 25 YEARS to ripen.  I cut one open and it seemed soft and fleshy.  I scooped out the fruit and tasted it.  GAG.  Nothing worse than an unripe persimmon.  So, no persimmon fudge this week.

Lemon Pepper Pickle

adapted from Manjula's Kitchen

2 tablespoons coriander
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seed
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon mango powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons oil
6 red serrano chilies (or your favorite)
one lemon

grind the seeds and mix all the dry spices together.  Heat the oil and temper the spices lightly. mix the oil and spices into the vinegar.  Chop the chilies and whole lemon.  Mix the spice mix into the lemon and pepper and put in a glass jar or container.  Refrigerate at least one day.  keeps about two weeks in the refrigerator, unless you eat it all first.

instant chickpea idli and roti hot pockets

 Today I felt motivated to cook.  Not that I haven't cooked in the past few days, but I was neither motivated to do it nor to blog about it.  This morning the kids were off from school, so I had a leisurely morning.  I wanted idli, but I wanted them now and I wanted to use chickpea flour.  I took some inspiration from Usha at Veg Inspirations and some recipe bits from Lord Krishna's Cuisine and whipped up an Instant Oat Garbanzo Idli.  I also spiked them with some nutritious powdered, dehydrated dandelion greens and some dried, powdered arame seaweed.  I make dehydrated greens and I use them in cookies, cupcakes, muffins, pancakes, etc. to get some veggie nutrients into the kids' diets.  I powder the dried land and sea greens in a spice blender and keep them on hand.  I figured that they would go just as well in the idli.  These idli were low fat and high protein from the addition of nonfat kefir and the chickpea flour.  I garnished them with some toasted coconut, sesame seeds and mustard seeds.  A perfect breakfast with a beet/carrot/mango smoothie. 

A few days ago I saw some vegan pepperoni in the supermarket (Yves brand).  I thought I would use it on the matzah pizza.  I prefer to stick to unprocessed fresh foods, but I just couldn't resist this as a treat.  They are high in protein and have lots of vitamins and minerals added, so, as processed foods go, this seems OK.  Instead of pizza, I wanted to experiment with something that could go on the road.  I rolled out two very thin rounds of dough, layered in a half slice of lite provolone and a few slices of the pepperoni on one and put the other on top and pressed the edges.  Cooked like a roti.  Not bad, although more cheese would have been more tasty.  Definitely something to put in a lunchbox. 
The recipe below for the idli is not quite perfect, and I always estimate the amounts.  So here it is:

Instant Oat Garbanzo Idli

1/2 c oat flout
1/2 c garbanzo flour
1t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 chili pepper chopped fine
1t ginger grated fine
a generous grinding of black pepper to taste
1/4 t salt or to taste
1 - 2 t of dried ground dandelion greens
1/2 t ground arame or other sea vegetable
1/4 t turmeric
pinch of hing (asafetida)
kefir, buttermilk, or thinned yoghurt (about 1 cup)

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add kefir, buttermilk, or yoghurt a bit at a time, mixing until the consistency of the batter is good for idli (like a thick muffin batter).  Make the idli in the usual way; takes about 20 minutes.

Coconut Garnish

heat a bit of butter in a pot and toast some mustard seeds, coconut, and sesame seeds.  Use to garnish cooked idli, or sprinkle on top of the uncooked idli and steam into the idli.

Indian Influences

http://www.ronobirlahirimusic.com/


One of the things we enjoy about Southern California is the diverse cultural landscape. We had blogged before about "Paneer Avenue" and the Indian community here; but, had not mentioned the music scene. On a recent farmers market trip to buy some flowers, pretzels and juice for the kids, etc. we happened upon an innovative sitar player Ronobir Lahiri who was was lighting up the market with his melodic riffs and moving the market goers to impromptu dance and half dancing (think car dancing up until the driver in the car next to you catches your eye). On Sunday around dinner time we were making a batch of breads, drinking some wine, and listening to an Ronobir album we had purchased at the market. A link to his music site is attached, something very different and relaxing.

Stay Healthy Rant

Hi, Sorry for the bit of a hiatus in posts.  Busy week for us.  So, I just have to get this off my chest.  Read this article in the New York Times.  Now, I'm a dyed in the wool liberal, but really, this is no way for our government to be spending its time and our money.  I love milk and cheese and I support well operated, sustainable, humane dairies, but clearly, when an industry is being subsidized by government purchases of "excess" dairy and at the same time uses hormones to increase production, the case for continuing subsidies and market interference falls apart.  Not only that, but when the USDA can't keep up with testing foods for safety, the diversion of resources to promote cheese strikes me as the definition of bloated, self-perpetuating bureaucracy.    Check out the stats on the pizza in the image above (from the NYT).

In past posts, we blogged about making healthy and quick roti pizza.  Here is a recipe for a Matzah Pizza that has less than 200 calories and 4 grams of satfat and is even faster to make in the microwave. Add in a cup or two of easy and quick vegetable soup and a piece of fruit for dessert (heck, you can even add one of my vegan sesame cashew cookies and still be healthier than a slice of the store bought pizza).

Healthy One-Minute Matzah Pizza and Soup

for one serving
1 Whole Wheat Bran Matzah (80 cal)
2T organic fat free pizza sauce (I use Trader Joe's brand, but whatever you like) (20 cal)
1 oz shredded organic Mozzarella (80 - 100 cal depending on the brand)

put the Matzah on a large plate.  Spread the sauce and sprinkle the cheese.  Microwave for one minute or cook in a toaster or regular oven until the cheese melts and bubbles.

Soup, So Easy
chop your choice of carrots, celery, summer squash, eggplant, bell pepper, peas, corn, potatoes, sweet potatotes to equal about 1 1/2 cups of veggies and put in a pot.  Add water just to cover.  Add 1/4 t. iodized sea salt (or uniodized and add a bit of wakame or other sea vegetable).  Add 1/2 t. of salt free seasoning such as Spike or Bragg.  Simmer until the veggies are tender.

Speaking of healthy, I am in love with this healthy, protein packed salad.   This features soaked split mung dal, thinly sliced cucumers, and a bit of shredded fresh coconut.  I made this for dinner a couple weeks ago.  I made two servings hoping to have leftovers, but ended up eating it all at dinner!  Guilt-free because this is so nutritious.

Here is the recipe, again with credit to Lord Krishna's Cuisine

Mung Dal, Coconut, and Cucumber Salad

1/2c split mung dal
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 c grated fresh coconut
1/4 cup or more of thinly sliced cucumber
1-2 hot green chilis
1T lime juice
1/2 t sea salt
1T ghee, oil, or coconut oil
1t black mustard seeds
1/8 t hing (asafetida)

Soak the dal in the water for 4 hours or overnight.  Drain.  Combine the dal, coconut, cucumber, chilis, lime juice and salt in a bowl.  Heat the ghee or oil in a pan and add the seeds.  Fry until  they pop.  Then add the asafetida and immediately pour into the salad.  Mix and Eat!

Fall Colors in Food

We don't have much fall color to speak of here in So.Cal. so I have to get my fix of autumn display through food.  I had a butternut squash taking up space in the fridge and I was inspired to make a lovely dal homage to the turning leaves of the Norway Maple.  I also felt that it was the right time of year to feature apples and carrots.  I made a shredded carrot - apple salad with a creamy yoghurt dressing.  The dressing is an adaptation of a sauce in Lord Krishna's Cuisine.  The sauce features a smoky roasted soy or garbanzo flour and toasted warm spices and almonds.  Nutmeg is the predominant note, supported by creamy smooth and tart yoghurt with ... a wasabi (or horseradish) kicker!  I thought it would go well with the sweet apples and earthy carrots.  I had some squash left over so I steamed it and paired it with a tamarind-coconut-cashew chutney.
Not pictured, but a nice surprise, was batter-fried paneer balls.  I got the recipe from a nice blog called Authentic Food Delights (click for the recipe).   I don't usually do fried foods, but this looked irresistible.  I didn't make the whole recipe, just the balls.  The simple batter made from all-purpose flour, salt, and water fried up so tender and light.  I was very surprised at how "un-oily" these were.  I made them small (half-dollar sized patty) and they were absolutely delightful.  Lots of bright herbal flavor paired with richness from the paneer and the batter-crust.  I definitely need to make these again. 

Butternut Dal Soup

1 cup diced butternut squash
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup chopped spinach leaves (or more it you like)
1T oil or ghee
1/4 t each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, and fennel seeds
1/8 t asafetida
1/2 t salt or to taste

Place the squash and red lentils in a saucepan and add enough water to cover the ingredients by one inch.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the squash and lentils are very soft.  You may need to add more water to achieve soup consistency.  Add the spinach and cook a couple minutes until wilted.  In a small skillet, heat the oil and then add the seeds and cook for 1-2 minutes until the seeds start to turn color.  The longer they cook, the stronger the color.  Add the asafetida and immediately pour into the soup.  Add salt and stir.

Shredded Carrot Apple Salad
sauce adapted from Creamy Almond Sauce with Horseradish in Lord Krishna's Cuisine

1 medium carrot
1 apple
currents or sultanas or raisins (optional to your taste)
1T oil or ghee
1/8 t each ground cardamom, nutmeg, cayenne, turmeric, and white pepper
1/4 t ground coriander
1T toasted soy or garbanzo flour
1/4 cup almond meal or ground almonds
1 cup yoghurt (thinned with water to thick-cream consistency)
1/4 t salt or to taste
2T freshly grated horseradish or 1/2 T ground dried horseradish or wasabi powder.

Shred the carrot and disc the apple and place in a bowl.  Add the dried fruits if using.  In a small saucepan, heat the oil or ghee and temper all the spices for 1 minute or so.  Take off the heat and add in the remaining ingredient, whisking until blended.  Return to heat and gently heat until the mixture simmers and thickens.  About 10 minutes. Allow to cool and then mix about half of the mixture into the carrots and apples.  You can refrigerate the rest of the sauce to use in another dish or just make a bigger salad with more carrots and apples!  You could also include grapes, cucumbers, jicama, persimmons, green tomatoes or other type of firm, juicy, fruit, depending on the season.  The nutmeg makes this a fall/winter dish for me, but if you left out the nutmeg, this could be part of a summer or spring menu, especially with a bit more horseradish.

The Red Tilapia: Snappy and Peppy

Lisa has made a delicate pan-fried tilapia in a red curry sauce. The sauce was made by tempering some a garlic ginger paste and some dry ground spices. The spices included ground chili pepper, cayenne pepper, tumeric, cumin, and coriander. The pan was de-glazed with a dab of water and then coconut milk was added to the pan and simmered until reduced by half. (Lisa will post the complete recipe on Thursday)

We paired with yet another riesling, a Firestone Vineyard 2008. This wine has a yellow-green colour with apple and floral aromas, and a medium body. There is a bit of acidity and some ripe apple flavours and a relaxed finish.

Andalusian Sausage and Rice Dish With Riesling

Fridays are often a time for odd combinations of foods in our house. Today we paired a grilled Andalusian sausage with a classic Indian yellow rice, a basmati rice with tamarin, corriander, cinnamon, etc. This was topped with a smidgen of red hot pepper. True comfort food. The Spanish hot spices coupled with a delicate and mellower rice and the different hotness of the pepper make this work.

Truth be told this was just an excuse to imbibe in my new found fondness for Rieslings, a wine that for too long I had ignored as either too sweet or too mineral induced. Apparently I had not tried a good one before. Last weekend I stumbled upon a nice German rendition and have been hooked since.

This meal was paired with a 2007 Claiborne and Churchill that Lisa picked up from Bristol Farms. Lisa rocks pretty much everything she does, her selection of wines this week was no exception. The vines for this wine are planted on the marine and alluvial bench lands of Monterey County (California). The property is close the ocean breezes which help create an intense fruity flavour. The wine has tasting and aroma hints of kaffir lime and white peach and a subtle finish. There is not much of a residual sugary taste left on the palate but rather a delicate mineral undertone. It really was a nice experience with hot food.

Pistacio Cupcakes and Healthy Milk

This story has not been given much play in the media, (we'll get to that in a second), but the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has determined that rbGH and rbST, hormones given to cows to increase milk production, have a detrimental effect on the quality and healthfulness of the milk. You can read the article here on NPR.org. 
The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said there is a "compositional difference" between milk from cows given growth hormones and those without.
The court gave three reasons they're different:

• Increased levels of the hormone IGF-1;
• A period of milk with lower nutritional quality during each lactation; and
• Increased somatic cell counts (i.e. more pus in the milk).

Now, why wasn't this front page news?  The adverse effects of hormones and anti-biotics in foods, and the ability of producers to label their products, and of consumers to get information about how their food is produced, should be an important news topic.  Not as dramatic on the front page as e-coli or salmonella, hormones and anti-biotics (and other farm practices) are a much more insidious threat to food quality and public health.  Anyway, I hope that this gives serious researchers and serious food producers hope that their efforts to label foods to provide information for consumers will not be quashed by regulation.

OK, Now for the food stuff.  In the previous post, Michael gave the link to the Pembroke College kitchen blog.  I browsed around it for a while yesterday.  Oh, my!  How does the chef do it?  He creates gourmet meals every day with incredible variety and sensitivity.  He is not just slinging the same old hash around every day; the menus are ever-changing and spectacularly presented.  The green pistacio cake caught my eye.  I searched the internet for a recipe and was disappointed to find mostly recipes that called for boxed mix and instant pistacio flavored pudding mix.  HMMM, I finally found a recipe that used fresh ingredients and real pistacios at a site called PlanetGreen.   I slightly modified it by using whole wheat flour and adding dried shredded coconut.  I did use eggs in the recipe, but I will experiment with an egg-free version.  I made 24 mini cupcakes from this recipe.  Of course my daughter loved them!  I feel OK about that as they are pretty healthy and I used a relatively small amount of sugar.  They didn't turn out green, however.  I'm not sure where one gets "green" pistacios, but I didn't want to put food coloring in them.  Maybe some spinach juice in the next batch!

I didn't take a picture of my cupcakes, since they didn't last long enough, but here is a pic of the cake that inspired me.  Doesn't that look yummy?

OK, here is my recipe

Pistacio Cupcakes
makes 6 large or 24 mini

1/2 cup "white" whole wheat flour
2 oz ground raw pistacios
1/4 cup dried shredded coconut
1/4 t cardamom
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2T goat milk butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3-4 oz goat milk (use your eye to mix in enough milk to make a thick batter)
2T spinach juice???? for green color????

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.  In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar, then add in the egg and whip until creamy.  In batches, add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/3 of the milk, folding until just mixed each time.  Continue adding in until you have a nice cake batter.  Pour into lined muffin tins and bake at 350F for 30 min for large cupcakes, 18-20 min for mini cupcakes.

Potential Paratha Project at Pembroke College

http://thepembrokekitchen.blogspot.com/

David Harwood, the head of Pembroke's kitchen, has graciously added a link on his blog to ours. David is a master in creating fine dining experiences that appeal to a variety of tastes and people from different culinary backgrounds. A link to David's blog can be found above. We will also include it in our blog roll as a permanent item. We encourage you to check out his adventures as chronicled on the Pembroke Kitchen Blog. If we can get the planning right hopefully we'll be able to work on something together in the UK in the Pembroke Kitchen and we'll write about it.

Cheers.

Roti Calzone Experiment

The Roti-Calzone for our son came out nicely. Pictured is a mini one I made last night. The key was to pinch the ends (thanks for the suggestion Lisa) and to bake it at 450 degrees (F) for about 10 minutes. The recipe for the dough is the same basic one we used for the pizzas.

For those following in the UK we understand there is a local variety stuffed with chicken tikka or shish kebab served up with spicy onions and a side of papadoms.

Today we will go back to writing about the more traditional dishes we have been making although the fusion approach on things has been pretty interesting.

Rainy Tuesday & A Warm Kitchen

"How beautiful is the rain! After the dust and heat, In the broad and fiery street, In the narrow lane, How beautiful is the rain!" H.W. Longfellow.

It is a wet day here in Southern California and nothing like the downpours one would see in India during the rainy monsoon season (a map of India and avg rainfall is posted - if too small to read you can find it at www.mapsofindia.com.)

Rain for me brings to mind the comfort of a warm kitchen with friends and family enjoying conversation and awaiting something from stove top.

As a follow-up to our post last night we'll be doing an Indian calzonne with a write-up to follow.

Roti Pizza Party

Our beloved Mac is still in the shop, but neither rain not sleet nor gloom of nigtht will keep us from our Paratha adventures. Sunday our daugther had a craving for a cookie, and since we don't keep any in the house usually an emergency Trader Joes run was in order.

We have been very in to bread making lately and while a T.J.'s decided it might be a good idea to make our our pizza so we stocked up on cheese and pizza sauce. Rather than make normal Italian style pizza we went for a roti base. Pictured to the right are two mini roti pizzas with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Delightful. We are going to try for a calzone next and need to think about ways to doctor them up so they are more Indian like. Using whole wheat flower these are much less bready, and the sauce-to-cheese-to-crust ratio is nice.

The dough is easy to make, combining 2 cups of whole wheat flour with 1 cup of H2O and a pinch of salt, and then mixing by hand (which would take a while) or using a kitchenaid mix master and dough hook for about 5 minutes of effort (which is the avenue we took). Pounding and folding the dough out is more practice and art than science and after a few attempts you'll get the hang of it.

Cheer.

Onions: Use them or Lose them?

Why the fuss  about onions today?  I have been cooking extensively in the Vedic tradition, which does not typically use onion or garlic.  So, it had been several weeks since I had made a dish with onions, when I made a beetroot curry that I saw on VahRehVah (link at left).  The onions were optional but highly recommended.  My instinct was to leave them out, but I wanted to follow the recipe as given the first time I made it, so, I made the dish with the onions.  It tasted fantastic... at first.  But then I realized that the onions were actually overpowering the tastes of the beet and the subtle spicings.  Funny, when you cook without onions for a while, the taste comes on very strong when you do have them.

I first noticed that when I discovered Zen temple cooking a few years back.  Zen temple  cooking also does not use onions or garlic or related foods. Instead, it allows each ingredient to come to its full fruition.  A simple boiled carrot slice, then, becomes itself, to be enjoyed for all of its orangeness, grassy bitterness, sweet overtones, firm yet smooth bite.    

I think I may leave out the onions in the future and just let the tastes of the other ingredients develop themselves and shine.  My sense of onions is that, because they do have such a powerful taste, they can become a sort of crutch.  Need flavor? Add an onion.  After a while, you get used to the onion flavor and think that that is what all food tastes like.  You have forgotten that there are other flavor possibilities. 

Of course, onions, too, offer their own unique experience and health benefits. (Captain Cook ordered his crew to eat raw onions every day to prevent scurvy, as if they weren't smelly enough already).  I have certainly made dishes where the onion played its role, and was balanced with the rest of the dish.  Macrobiotic cooking, in particular, treats onions in such a way as to allow them to complement the dish without overwhelming it.

So, use them or lose them?  Use them, but rarely, and with restraint.  I'll make that beetroot curry again, hold the onions. 

Sorry no photos for this post.  My laptop is in the shop and I am using my barebones backup. 

Tofu Korma

Ok, so I took the Korma challenge.  Korma seems to be a traditionally meat dish, but I prefer, for various reasons, to keep primarily vegetarian.  There were plenty of vegetarian variations to be found on the internet.  Nevertheless, the most interesting korma recipe I found was in Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape and it was for lamb korma.  I liked the spicing of the recipe, so I just decided to make it with tofu and some veggies.  I had my garden fresh butternut squash sitting on the counter.  I purchased some green beans and got to work.  The results can be seen at left.  I made it kind of dry (don't really like soupy stuff) and it was so rich and redolent of cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves.  I also decided to skip the extra cream that the recipe calls for and just use 2% yoghurt, which is plenty rich for me, and keeps the dish healthy and easy to digest.  I used extra firm tofu (which has a consistency like paneer) and is loaded with protein.   This dish was so filling, but, as I said, not heavy.  So here is my recipe.  The proportions are approximate and you can vary the veggies and proportions as desired.  I made only a small amount, but the recipe scales up.

Tofu Korma
adapted from Lamb Korma in Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape.

1/2 package of extra firm tofu, cubed
1 cup of butternut squash, cubes and steamed lightly until just tender
1/2 cup of green beans, steamed lightly until just tender
2 green chilis,
2T almond meal
6 cashews
1 inch of ginger peeled and chopped
1/2 cup water to blend
2T vegetable oil
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup water to blend
salt and pepper to taste
lemon wedges to serve

Toast the cashews a bit and set aside.  Then toast the almond meal and set aside to cool with the cashews (you can also use whole almonds, they will get ground up in the next step).  Place the cashews and almond in a blender with the chilis, ginger and 1/2 cup water and blend to a paste.  Mix in the yoghurt and 1/2 cup water and set aside.  In a large saute pan, heat the oil and saute the onions until they start to wilt.  Add the tofu and saute until the tofu just starts to turn golden.  Add the dry spices and toss for a minute, then add the yoghurt/nut mix and the steamed veggies and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer lightly until the veggies are cooked tender (5 minutes or so).

Enjoy with some chapati and a squeeze of lemon.

Harvest Cooking

I have been doing some (not enough) cooking from fresh garden ingredients.  I used my radishes and swiss card and bell pepper to make the quinoa flax utthapam from Veg Inspirations.  I love healthy stuff. I made the batter from Usha's recipe (except I left out the cooked rice because I forgot to put it in).  It's been a bit cold here so it took a bit longer to ferment, but I was patient.  Then I sauteed my veggies and some black salt and mustard seeds and poured the batter on top.  This is exactly the opposite of how the recipe calls to make the dish, but the veggies I used definitely benefit from a quick saute.  The batter was pretty thick so I turned down the heat to low and covered the pan and let it cook slowly.  It turned out thick and hearty.  Mine came out thicker than the utthapam one might get at a restaurant and with a stronger flavor from the quinoa and brown rice.  But I like strong flavors, so that worked out OK for me.  Of course I ate it with coconut chutney.  It really is a meal in itself.
This morning, I made ... guess what... idli out of the batter.  No surprise that they came out great.  Took a bit longer to steam (about 20 minutes) than traditional idli. Of course I ate it with coconut chutney. 
I also make a nice coriander parsley chutney using a recipe from Manjula's Kitchen (Hari Chutney).  I have lots of parsley in the garden, so I did a half coriander half parsley chutney, but otherwise followed the recipe.  Came out great.  After I tasted it I went out to the back yard and sprinkled a packet of coriander seeds into a portion of a freshly dug bed.  Coriander is so easy to grow here, the perfect winter herb.  A few years ago I made the mistake of harvesting the seeds from our coriander while sitting on the lawn.  A month later and our lawn was sprouting coriander from the stray seeds.

I think I need to try something completely different from the things I have been cooking.  Not sure what that might be yet.  I haven't made a korma yet, so maybe...

Our New Friend Fish Tenga

There is something weird going on with our taste buds lately when it comes to fish. Lisa has made two of the most fantastic dishes back-to-back and while I have come as close to one can in terms of falling in love with a food, Lisa has not had quite the same reaction. I think it comes down to where your expectations are set. This adventure has raised the bar for us, maybe a little more for Lisa.

Fish tenga is a light and sour fish curry from northeast India. We used salmon for this with some tomatoes and potato. Thinking it over, we think we would have used sweet potato rather than a regular yellow potato. This was made based on a G. Ramsey recipe. There is a seemingly better recipe on healthy living India's web-site, which offers a spicy version of the dish.

http://www.healthylivingindia.org/2009/03/fish-tenga-recipe-spicy-tomato-fish.html

We will give this one a go and see if there is a desirable difference.

Cheers.

_____________________________________________________
Fish Tenga
from Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape

4 salmon steaks
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tbsp of mustard oil
some coriander
2 green chillies (no seeds and chopped)
ginger to taste
5-6 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped - I would have gone with more garlic on this one)
1 tsp of ground tumeric
200 ml of H2O
1 large potato
4 tomatoes
Some fancy caster sugar as a way to pep this up, I don't think it needs it.

To cook:
Rub the steaks with salt and pepper, heat the oil in a pan and cook the steaks for about 2 minutes on each side. You will want to brown them.

The ingredients can be blended in a bowl or mixer and then used as a paste. You will want to add this mix to the fish and allow it to simmer for a bit with the tomatoes and potato added in (say 10-15 minutes).

A moment of haiku

I had a haiku moment last week.  Here is the poem that resulted:

An evening cloudburst!
That redtail is flying fast
Toward a patch of blue

Any literary types out there feel free to comment...gently.

I had another moment this morning.  I wanted coconut chutney, but really wanted something quick to make.  Thinking on my feet, as I do, I heated a tablespoon of oil in a saute pan and toasted a teaspoon or so of mustard seeds, then I threw in a half cup (or a little more) of shredded dried coconut and a quarter cup of soy flour.  Toasted that up and put it in a bowl.  chopped up one of my smokin' hot serranos, and mixed that in to the coconut with a bit of salt and a pinch of hing (asafetida).  Stirred in some yoghurt and enough water to make a pourable consistency.  Can I make a haiku out of that?  Let's see...


Coconut chutney
Do you think you can make it
In just three minutes?

OK, not bad.

I ate it with leftover quick oat idli.  What a good breakfast!
No pictures with this post.  Just use your inner eye to imagine the hawk flapping, flapping in the suddenly chilly rain, flying west to what it hopes is a dry warm tree.
Smell the toasted coconut, feel the heat of the chilis, hear the popping of the mustard seeds in the hot oil.  Taste the smooth yoghurt.

Tilapia, It's Not Just for Tax Shelters Anymore

Tilapia, a virtually boneless freshwater fish, historically was a great tax shelter vehicle. The housing structures could qualify for all types of government subsidies, including energy credits. Losses for the start-up years were also a sure thing, with plenty of delicate fish to go around for Southern Hush Puppies and Fried Fish bake diners. Not any more. The Federal government has generally clamped down on most of the tax benefits of farming Tilapia. And, as more chefs discover its versatility as a "non-fishy" fish staple, you'll see it in a host of different ethnic dishes. Tonight was one such occasion. Lisa had prepared a grilled spiced Talapia, the recipe for which you can find here under grilled snapper. Unlike prior attempts there was not pre-salting. There is a Seinfeld episode where Jerry goes to Poppy's restaurant and orders the duck which is "oh, so succulent." This was exactly the case here (without the horrid bathroom incident in the TV show - we wash our hands unlike Poppy).

So, we recommend you play around with Tilapia in some of your dishes (i.e. the cooking of it and not actually playing with the fish) and see where it takes you. We have one more piece left which probably won't make it past breakfast on Tuesday.

Cheers

Abondanza!

Abundance!  That's what we have in our garden this fall.  I trimmed the basil and parsley and there was a ton!  Several big radishes, two big butternut squashes and the swiss chard and okra are going strong and, HOORAY, my serrano peppers are smokin' hot.  So naturally I had to think of ways to use it.  I tried to make a basil chutney, but I'm not sure how I like it.  Made it with walnuts, lemon juice, serrano, and ginger.  Not the greatest, but maybe I'll pour it into some vegetable soup tomorrow.  The parsley on the other hand, that was good.  Now, I am into macrobiotic cooking and I have this favorite recipe for a tofu parsley sauce to serve over linguini that I am just addicted to.  So I took my inspiration from that and put threw some parsley, umeboshi paste (that's the macro B part), some salt and water to blend and blended gently until the parsley was just chopped fine (like a cilantro chutney).  Then I heated a good bit of olive oil and tempered some mustard seeds.  Stirred that into the parsley.  Interesting.  The parsley and umeboshi (which is salty and pungent) blend with the mellow olive oil and rich mustard seeds.  Nice with a plain papadam.  Should be good with a roti.

veggie utthapam

quick oat idli

radish and chard utthapam

macro parsley chutney

I also have been making some things from a lovely blog called Veg Inspirations (link at left).  Usha, the blogger, creates healthy innovative dishes that are just yummy.  I tried her quick oat idli.  Oh, boy.  In addition to being quick to make, with no fermentation required, they are toasty and filling, rich in healthy fiber, and just so cool.  I want to make her quinoa flaxseed utthapam this week.  I have been making utthapam this week as I fermented a nice urad dosa batter and have been using carrots, radishes, chard, and bell pepper (all except the carrots from my garden).  I love utthapam.  It's basically a thick dosa with vegetables cooked in.  So good.  Kind of like an Egg Fu Young without the egg.  I've got lots more to blog about but I need to wrap  this one up.  So, catch you on the next post.

Akbar Turns Biker Bar

Akbar, who was 13 when he took the Mughal throne in Deli, was a patron of the arts including paintings (especially murals) and literature. My friend Jeff and I took an adventure to a place bearing Akbar's name at lunch time today. This was a scene in the making for a Larry David Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. The wait staff more resembled a collection of biker bar rejects than one you would expect in a restaurant in a more tony area of town. When ordering a chicken dish I asked the waitress if the chicken was chicken breast and she asked me what I asking about her breasts. When we tried to explore what types of breads they offered, since they were not listed on the menu, she inquired why we were asking about her breasts? Maybe an LA thing? Or maybe they hired wait staff with the worst possible hearing in the world? Odd to say the least. The food was not particularly memorable although Jeff ordered a lamb vindaloo that looked OK.

I have been experimenting with an Indian omelette that is moving in the right direction: two eggs, a pinch of garam masala, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of red pepper, a pinch of cardamon, a russet potato mashed in, and some pecorino romano to top. We've included a picture below and one thing I must do before this adventure is out is improve my photography skills. A close second is learning to speak Indian biker bar lingo because apparently I missed the conversation or joke at lunch.

Red Lentil Recollections

I love lentils.  There, I said it.  I have always loved lentils.  My mother made the best lentil soup.  But all my life (well, until I was 26), I thought lentils came in only one color - brown; and that lentil soup was strictly vegetarian.  What a shock when I was having dinner at a friend's house and they served lentil soup ... with little hot dogs in it!  I was apoplectic.  It couldn't be...no, not my lentils, being defiled in that way.  A more pleasant discovery, however, was that lentils came in a new and exciting color: RED.  My first grown up cookbook was Vegetarian Pleasures, by Jeanne Lemlin.  I still can turn to the exact page for my favorite recipes in that book without looking them up in the index, that is how much I used that book.  VP introduced me to red lentils.  At that time, red lentils were not so easy to come by; definitely not to be found in the supermarket.  Fortunately, I had access to wonderful varieties of foods in Philadelphia and South Jersey.  I think I found the red lentils either at the Reading Terminal Market or at Healthworks, a little health food store in Collingswood, N.J.  I tried them in a great recipe for dal and I was hooked.  They tasted a bit more peppery than the brown supermarket lentils, cooked quickly (a plus for a working gal), and, well, they were red.  Pink, really, but exotic and alluring.   Much later, I discovered mung beans, but even then, I thought of them as things to be sprouted, not cooked.  With this project, I have been exposed to such a variety of lentils such as I never imagined.  The Indian grocers are lined with row upon row of lentils, split, skinned, whole, ground into flour.  I have so far been using split mung, toovar (or toor), and urad.  There are others that I have yet to try.  I still love brown lentils (as you may have read in earlier posts, I use them in dosas).  I also love all of the other lentils and their cousins, the split peas, and chick peas, and azuki, and ...

Here is my mom's recipe for lentil soup, with a couple of optional additions.

MJ's Lentil Soup

1 cup of brown lentils, rinsed and picked over.
4-5 cups of water
one medium brown onion, chopped
2-3 celery ribs, chopped
1T salt or to taste
a good grind or two of black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fennel bulb (optional)
1T dried dill weed (optional)
1T crushed fennel seed (optional)
(1 or 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped) optional
three or four leaves of swiss chard, chopped (optional)
lemon wedges and pecorino romano or parmesean cheese to serve

Put the lentils, water, onion, celery, salt and pepper in a stock pot (along with whatever mix of optional items you like) and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to low and slowly simmer for about an hour or more until the lentils are falling apart.  If you like an even creamier texture, puree one or two cups of the soup and then stir it back into the pot.
You can serve it plain, but my mom served it mixed with cooked vermicelli cut up into one inch pieces, or with rice.  Squeeze the lemon into the soup and sprinkle the cheese on top.  Still my number one meal.


Red Lentil Dal
from Vegetarian Pleasures

1 1/4 cups red lentils
3 cups water
1/2 t salt
2 T Ghee or oil
1/4 t black mustard seeds
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t ground coriander
1/2 t minced gingerroot

Rinse and pick over the lentil and cook in the water for about 25 minutes until soft and smooth.  Heat the ghee or oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds.  cook until the seeds start to pop and then add the remaining spices and ginger and cook two more minutes.  Add to the cooked dal and stir in.
My note: This makes a fairly thick mixture.  You can cook the dal with one extra cup of water for a thinner consistency.

This is my Go To dal for a quick and easy treat.  Nice to add cooked vegetables (such as squash, carrots, radishes, greens, etc., to it as well for a well-rounded meal.

Well Shut My Mouth and Call Me Paniyaram

 Here are the results of our corn-sesame paniyaram/idli batter.  The batter did not quite ferment as I had hoped.  I think it was a bit dry and so just didn't have the oomph to rise.  Also, maybe needed more heat and time.  Anyway, I cheated a bit this morning and added a half teaspoon of baking powder to make sure they wouldn't turn out like hockey pucks.  They actually turned out pretty good.  A nice breakfast. Michael likes HushPuppies and Corn Bread.  So these were the Indian version of that.  The paniyaram do have a fritter-like feel to them.  They are not deep fried, but are cooked in just a bit of butter to give them a nice browning on the outside and to keep them from sticking.  I am still trying to figure how to turn them over.  You can see the one next to the handle did not quite make it all the way back into its little cup.  I am using a spoon and chopsticks and fingers to try to get them flipped.  I'll get it eventually.  As for the idli, they were a bit dense (really did need to get a better fermentation going) but still tasty.  We put in corn kernels and hot pepper flakes (a bit of a deviation from the recipe) and they had a nice Southern feel with Indian overtones. Michael ate them with maple syrup.  I ate mine with, get this, a sweet adzuki bean paste chutney.  I'll post about that another time.  Here is the recipe as we made it.

Corn-Sesame Idli/Paniyaram
adapted from Lord Krishna's Cuisine
1/4 cup semolina
1/4 cup Cream of Rice or Idli Rava
1/3 cup corn meal
2/3 cup urad flour
1 cup yoghurt or buttermilk
1 and 1/2 t salt
water to make a smooth batter like cake batter
1-2T sesame oil
1t cumin seeds
1t mustard seeds
1t or more if you like it spicy crushed red pepper flakes
3T sesame seeds
1T sugar
1/2 - 3/4 cup of corn kernels (fresh or thawed if frozen)
1/4 cup of minced red bell pepper
(1/2 t baking powder if you are feeling insecure or your batter didn't rise as it should)

Toast the semolina in a pan until it starts to darken a few shades.  Let cool and mix with the remaining grains in a large bowl.  Add the yoghurt or buttermilk, salt, and enough water to make a smooth batter, like half-whipped cream or cake batter.  Cover and set in a warm place to ferment.  This can take as little as 12 hours or up to 36.  To speed things along, heat you oven to 180F and the turn it off.  Place the bowl in the oven and let it ferment in there.
When it has fermented, it well have almost doubled in bulk and will have cracks on the top and hopefully some bubbles.  Heat the oil in a pan and fry the cumin and mustard seeds until the mustard seeds start to pop.  Add in the crushed pepper and fry for 15 seconds and then add in the sesame seeds and sugar.  Cook until the seeds start to darken.  Let cool a few minutes and stir gently into the batter.  Stir in the corn kernels and/or the minced bell peppers.
Meanwhile heat up your paniyaram pan and when hot, place small dabs of butter or ghee in each cup.  Use a pastry brush to spread the butter around the cup and onto the rim to prevent sticking (I am using a cast iron pan, but they do sell non-stick).  Place a generous Tablespoon of batter in each cup and turn the heat to moderate/low.  Needs to be on the low side so the inside cooks while the outside gets lightly browned.  When the tops are dry, carefully turn them over.  Cook for a few more minutes til browned.
For idli, use the same batter, but put them in your idli stand and steam for 15 minutes.

Dedication is Driving Around A Culver City Rave

On our quest for vegetarian Indian food last night we ventured to Culver City. We drove around for about 20 minutes trying to find the restaurant and in the process passed by scores of teens and early twenty-somethings that looked like they had emerged from a Rave. People standing all over and in the middle of busy streets, no shoes, talking on phones, trying to flag down cars... It had the making for our own version of the Tina Fey & Steve C film "Date Night." When we finally found the place judgment said it was probably best to go there for a lunch than hang out with Seus Hat wearing acid dripping crowd.

On we went to our local standby Kate Mantilini; where the only thing Indian on the menu was arguably a pale ale which Lisa ordered. My tasting notes are:

West Coast India Pale Ale. The key aromas are of fruit - a piney grapefruit, coupled with a malt undertone. These also come through in the taste which has a sweet crystal malt feel. The mouth-feel is astringent on the palate and thick - not quite like pancake syrup but heavy none the less.

While all this was going on we had a batter for corn idli fermenting on our kitchen counter for cooking today (which Lisa is doing as we speak). We're also going to try and make fritters out of them. The key ingredient included yogurt, semolina, corn meal, idli rava, and urad flour.

I'm sure these will make for a wonderful Sunday breakfast.

Pictures & Post to Follow :)

Michael