So, I spent some time today going over the old blog posts and trying to set up my recipes page linking to the recipes in the posts. That is coming along. I realized that I am at a sort of equilibrium phase where I have my routine for cooking and eating my Indian foods. I am actually eating mostly Indian (or Indian inspired) foods all day. So here is how my day goes. In the morning, I make a smoothie and a dosa. Since I always have the batter on the counter, it is just a matter of heating up the pan. For lunch I have pre-made foods such as a rice, dal, chutney, vegetables, tofu or paneer, etc. I make a lot of good stuff once or twice a week and just re-heat for lunch.
For dinner I often make chapti, roti, or paratha and have that with another smoothie or some dal and veggies. Check out tonight's dinner. The roti recipe is below. Accompaniment is a sweet potato and parsnip sambar (see recipe section for Quick Sambar).
I picked up the smoothie habit when I did a cleanse from the book Clean by Alejandro Junger. His recipes include lots of spices such as tumeric, cinnamon, and cardamon for their cleansing and healthful properties. So a morning smoothie might look something like this:
Morning smoothie
Choose from the following ingredients and mix and match (amounts are up to you)
frozen fruit such as mango, peach, pineapple,
fresh fruit such as apple or pear
raw almond butter
raw cashews or cashew butter
avocado
fresh young coconut meat
raw pumpkin and raw sunflower seeds
spinach
romaine lettuce
coconut water
coconut milk
chili peppers
fresh herbs such as basil, watercress, parsley, mint, dill, coriander
dried powdered spices such as cardamon, tumeric, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice
To make a smoothie, put 8-10 oz of pure water in your blender and add 1/2 - 1 cup of fruit, a generous handful of greens, 1-2 Tablespoons of one or two fats (nuts, seeds, avocado, coconut) and a complementary herb and spice blend. Blend it up until very smooth (if not using frozen fruit, add a couple of ice cubes to keep it cold or put the blended smoothie in the fridge to cool).
Tonight, I made a roti that was out of this world. I just used a basic roti concept and put together this little gem:
Chili, coconut, mint/basil roti
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup besan (chickpea flour)
1t salt
1/2 -1 serrano chili - minced
1T each fresh mint and fresh basil - minced
2T dried shredded coconut
1/3 - 1/2 cup water
Mix together the dry ingredients, including chili, mint, basil and coconut in a bowl.
Add water a bit at a time until you get a workable dough (not too wet, it will come together when you knead it). Knead until soft and pliable. Set aside under a bowl or towel to rest for 30 min. Cut the dough into 6 pieces and roll each into a ball. Flatten each ball and roll out to a six inch circle. Heat up a skillet and place one roti at a time on the hot skillet. Cook until brown spots form and then flip. It may or may not puff up. Flip again and cook briefly until it seems done. Try to resist! HA! can't do it, can you?
