Too Many Teas to Please?

We did some take and carry from a place tonight called Holly Cow. Such a delightful name. My only problems with the name are: (1) the the place was not vegetarian - which one might otherwise infer - and (2) that I did not think of the name first. We didn't do enough of a taste to do a formal review. The name was so enticing though that at 7:50 p.m. I felt compelled to pull into their lot to try it out. More on them to follow.

The other picture to the right is only part of the tea isle at the Gelson's in Studio City, CA. Gelson's is a higher-end market and this local caters to a lot of industry (film) types. I tried to take a picture capturing the entire display but would have needed a professional fish-eye lens to do it.

As we talked about in a prior post, Indian teas are often custom blends. These blends are known as Masala Chai. They typically have a black tea base. One brand I particularly enjoy when we don't make our own these days is Tazo's Decaf Vanila Chai. The spices include cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, chicory, cloves, black pepper, and star anise. As with most things in life these days other-worldly mysteries are easily unlocked via the use of Google. A quick Google search on Tazo lead me to their web site whereupon I found they were acquired by Starbuks in 1999. So, things come back full circle to an earlier post about my potential additional to Starbuks' iced Chai and my potential propensity to drink it every day like a Don Gorske inhaling tea addict.

Cheers.

Tea Time? Too Many Teas?

Later tonight I'll be adding a post about our adventures to find a tea in the grocery stores that resembles closely the teas that we make ourselves. As a teaser I'll upload a pretty remarkable set of pictures that will surprise and shock! We'll also make a posting about Lisa's further Chutney adventures. Cheers. Micahel

of radishes and cabbages, and paniyaram and panir

The recipe for cabbage curry (see post below) looks very neat. I might actually do it as a bubble and squeak (you folks over in Britain know what I'm talking about). Steam the cabbage and potato and saute briefly with the spices and tomato, then into a non-stick frypan with a good bit of oil at the bottom. Cover and cook until the bottom is browned, (hear it bubble?), really browned, (hear it squeak?), don't be scared now, go on, let it cook. Flip if out onto a big plate. Yum. This would be great with a piquant tomato chutney, some marinated panir (soak it in the spiced lemon vinaigrette recipe for a half hour), and simple chapati or roti. Oh, YEAH!

So...radishes. Not just for salads anymore. I am growing some lovely watermelon radishes in the garden (see the cross section photo, how lovely). They are so peppery hot that I can't eat them raw. I was thinking of pickling them, but then decided to cook them using a recipe from Lord Krishna's Cuisine. I also happen to be growing swiss chard, which was also featured in the same recipe. This turned out beautifully. The radish mellows and turns soft and buttery. Married with the tangy chard and suffused with spices. It was just heavenly. One downside is that cooking radishes, as with most cruciferous vegetables, smells up the house. So light some incense and get cooking.

OK, by now you must have suspected that the cookware pictured above is, in fact, the aebelskiver pan that I have been waiting for. Aebelskivers are puffy Skandinavian delicacies, like little souffle cupcakes. What does this have to do with Indian food? Well, the same pan can be used to make Paniyaram: little Indian souffle cupcakes. Paniyaram are made with a thick, fermented, dosa batter, with added spices and veggies. I didn't have any dosa batter brewing, so I used pancake batter with a bit of cardamom and the result was so cute. Little round fluffy pancake muffin things. Of course I ate them with chutney. Next week I will experiment with the actual dosa batter paniyaram recipes. Various websites suggest that these make great lunchbox fillers for the kiddies. We'll see about that.

Now, on to panir. I did make some the other day and did make a salad with it. Best salad ever. Can't really say anything more. Recipes are below, try them out.

Radish and Chard (mooli sabji)

6 medium radishes
1/2 lb Swiss Chard
1 t cumin seeds
1 t coriander seeds
1/4 t ajwain seeds
3 T ghee or oil (or less as preferred)
1/2 t turmeric
1/4 t cayenne
2 t sugar, maple or brown
1 t salt
2 t fresh lemon or lime juice

Thinly slice radishes and chop the chard. Steam in a vegetable steamer until crisp tender 10-15 min. heat the ghee or oil in a non stick pan and toss in the seeds. Fry for a minute then turn in the steamed veggies. Stir fry for 5 minutes, then toss in the turmeric, cayenne, sugar, and salt. Stir fry 2 minutes more. Turn onto plate and sprinkle with the lemon or lime juice.

Lisa's spinach salad with panir.

1/4 cup dry garbanzo beans
1 t fresh grated ginger
1/2 bag of fresh baby spinach leaves (or a large bunch of leaves, torn to salad size)
1 or 2 carrots, shredded
2 or three oz fresh panir, cubed.
Spiced Lemon Vinaigrette (see recipe page)

Soak the garbanzo beans overnight. Drain and mix with the grated ginger. Set aside. Put the spinace, carrots, and panir in a bowl and toss with the vinaigrette. Arrange on plates and sprinkle with garbanzo beans.
Simple, healthy, and good.

Cambridge Cabbage Curry Connection

(Re the title: Just saw a wonderful rainbow yesterday, which put me in the Kermit the Frog Rainbow Connection Song state of mind. Picture to follow in Saturday's Post.)

Our fried Neil from Cambridge has kindly sent us an interesting recipe for cabbage curry. Generally when we think of curries in the States (or when we are abroad taking with us our experiences and memories...) we conjure up in our minds visions of yellow sauces with chicken and assorted vegetables. This recipe is very promising; it will come down to execution. When I'm back in the states and we're in the kitchen together we'll make our best effor at this one. Thanks Neil.

Cabbage Curry

Ingredients

One small tapering green cabbage

One small peeled potato

One medium sized tomato

4 tbsp of cooking oil

¼ tsp cumin seed

¼ tsp ginger powder (or chopped root ginger)

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp cumin powder

¼ tsp chilli powder (otherwise cook without)

1 ground cardamom

1 cinnamon stick

2 to 3 cloves Salt and sugar (according to taste)

Cooking Instructions

Wash the cabbage and chop it finely into strips. Slice the potato into 2cm cubes. Chop the tomato into small cubes. Heat the oil in a saucepan and when it is hot . Put the cumin seeds, put the sliced potato . Fry the potato for 2-3 minutes, then add the chopped cabbage and stir. Add 1/3 tsp salt when you are frying and then add the spices one by one . Then add chopped tomato. Go on stirring at a slow heat for about 15 minutes. Add ½ tsp sugar and stir it. Taste it, make sure potatoes and cabbage is boiled, sprinkle ground cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.

Michael

Okra Gets a Second Chance and Panir Tales

I owe Okra an apology. I'm sorry I doubted you. With fresh okra from my very own garden, picked when they are just a few inches long, Okra Supreme is pretty delectable.
I also have a confession to make: I tried to make panir with goat milk a couple weeks ago and utterly failed to get the stuff to curdle. I don't know what exactly when wrong; maybe I was not in a panir frame of mind. I was a bit discouraged by that; but then my sister sent me an email with... The Cheese Picture. Observe the groovy 70s collar, belt, and hiphuggers. Look at Joan's face at the right edge as she skeptically reads the instructions! Reminded me that a few failures should not stop me from trying again. So I did manage to make a cow's milk panir today and it turned out just fine. I will have in in a nice spinach salad for tomorrow's lunch.
I won't be posting tomorrow on Rosh haShanah, but I will on Friday. Maybe the Aebelskiver pan will be here by then!

King Fisher in the UK

Went for a bite to eat tonight at the India House in Cam. Earlier posts and comments regarding Indian food in England continue to resonnate. I tried a chicken curry; which tasted gritty and sugar cane like sweet. The one upside to the meal was the King Fisher on the menu which I happened to order... We have not yet covered the history of beer in India and pale ales and we will certainly get to that - which should be exciting!

There is nothing like a good Kingfisher on a hot day, or to accompany a less than desirable meal. The beer orignates from a handful of small breweries in South Indian. The oldest, Castle Breweries, dates back to 1857. In 1915 the breweries were combined under the United Brewery label. The beers remain popular in Madras and other locations. The lore is that the beer was particularly popular with Brittish troops stationed in India. When we cover beers in more detail we'll also go in to khaki pants and India as well as what it means to "cut the mustard." I am starting to think the tolerance for sub-par Indian food in England is partially influenced by the abundance of drinkable and often delightful beers (which I understand some consider a food group by itself). L'Chaim.

Lisa will be making some posts this week while I'm in the UK on more eatable and interesting food things :)

Idlli...Uppma; Uppma...Idlli

For our readers who are unfamiliar with American pop culture ...the reference in the title of this post is to David Letterman introducing Uma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey at the Oscars in 1995. He was ad libbing a bit and became fixated on the unusual first names of those women, who were sitting toward the front, and so he "introduced them" to each other: "Uma ... Oprah; Oprah ... Uma." Apparently, neither woman appreciated the humor.
So, I am now fixated on Iddli and Uppma (and also some other things which I will blog about soon). What are Iddli and Uppma? Well you might ask. Iddli are a kind of steamed dumpling/cupcake make from rice and dal (how healthy!!!) and can be spiced up with other ingredients. Uppma is a sort of fluffy polenta-like mixture often made with semolina, but can be made with other grains. I had no idea what either of them were supposed to look like or even how to eat them. So the internet came to the rescue once again (you can find video on youtube of people eating various foods so you never have to be embarrassed at an unfamiliar restaurant again! Like the time, I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant and didn't know what to do with some stuff in a bowl: eat it? wash my fingers? drink it? use it to douse the flames of the barbeque?). Above, are a couple of pictures of what they are supposed to look like compared to mine. HA! it's just so pathetic. In my defense, I didn't pose my food and they tasted quite good. Also, I don't own an Idlli cooker so I had to use muffin cups in a dutch oven with a vegetable steamer. I might have to break down and get an idlli cooker. No real excuse for the Uppma, since I make polenta and risotto.
Anywho...the Idlli were not quite as light as maybe they should have been. My batter might have been a bit too thin (and also I used brown rice and split peas instead of white rice and urad dal, so ya' know...see above for more excuses). But our son liked them with a bit of butter on top. I ate them with a tamarind coconut chutney. Good microwaved for 20 seconds the next day, too. The Uppma was hearty and filling. Comfort food with a kick! I actually like to heat it up and thin it out with some yoghurt or buttermilk and eat it like a porridge or cream of wheat for breakfast.
I'll post some recipes once I get more experience with these. I am going to try to make varieties of Idlli for lunch box fillers and snacks.
OK, I have to tell you...I ordered an aebleskiver pan!! It will be here this week!!! Stay tuned for news about that!!!! Is there any reason to use all these exclamation marks????!!!!!