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Chocolate Love!
2008-02-11 10:10:00
Mmm ... Death by Chocolate ... that sounds delectable :) Chocolate is one of things that I've had dreams about. And woken up feeling super happy. And sometimes hungry :) So, when Culinate announced this event, I started skipping around. It actually took me about 4 days to decide which of a zillion chocolate recipes I wanted to use. And then it took procrastinating till the last day before I baked one of my chocolate fantasies. Sad, but I really am this last-minute junkie!Anyway, friday was the last day for submissions for DbC, but the Obama rally took precedence over sending in a timely submission. Guess I'll write about these anyway :)After dithering between various recipes like an intensely decadent gateau, a fabulous ganache cake topped with chocolate curls, bitter chocolate mousse, mocha pots and more ... I finally settled for baking these delicious chocolate mousse tartlets. I adapted a recipe from one of my favourite dessert books - The Ultimate Dessert Cookbook.The origin...
More About: Love

Chili 1-2-3
2008-02-08 16:21:00
Cold and wet outside. Winds gusting. Snow in the mountains. Mmm ... something warm and earthy starts sounding good. Hot soothing liquid, full of flavour and spice.This pretty much sums the mood that often prevailed over the last couple of weeks - this craving for "warm+spicy+soothing" led to several chili cookouts :)So, is vegetarian chili an oxymoron?Isn't chili the quintessential texan dish that is meant to have just beef, chiles and spices. Not mounds of chopped up vegetables. No peppers, not even beans! CASI apparently has really strict regulations about what goes into a chili and what doesn't.The meat is the medium, but the chile is the message.- Cheryl and Bill Jamison, Texas Home CookingAnd to paraphrase Didi Emmons: With vegetarian chili, we're just changing the medium, not the message!You say chile, I say chilli ...Hmm ... I'm in a quandary of sorts as I type this post. There is chili - that fiery bowl of goodness. And there is chile - the peppers that define the chili....
More About: Chili

Green = good, Green+Tofu = better!
2008-02-05 06:08:00
Eat your spinach, you no good infink. Eat it. EAT IT. Eat it. - Poopdeck PappySaag Paneer has always been a household favourite - aromatic and flavourful greens cooked up with toasted, crunchy cheese bits. Saag and Palak are used interchangeably so often, more so because there is no exact equivalent for those greens in the U.S. For the most part, palak is just spinach and saag is a combination of spinach and mustard greens. But most folks I know often use a variety of greens when making saag - the more flavourful and diverse the greens, the merrier, right? :)In line with the recent push for healthy, high-protein and high-fibre recipes, I embarked on a variation of this popular greens dish from North India. I had a bunch of collard greens as well as some spinach and microgreens - this olio of leaves could definitely make for interesting saag, right? Also, in an effort to cut back on the fat, I decided to try this out with tofu instead of paneer. That was a big sacrifice - there are f...
More About: Green , Tofu , Good

'shroom soup
2008-02-02 18:28:00
Earthy, pungent, nutty, meaty, garlicky ... the range of adjectives go on! Yes, we're talking about mushrooms here - that whole world of dark, dingy fungi that taste *so* good!I've never been a big fan of mushroom soups - most of them seem so creamy and heavy, a few spoonfuls and I'm sated. But Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking made me think again. As I was flipping the pages, this homemade mushroom soup recipe caught my eye. It looked pretty light and flavourful, so I had to go for it. With a couple of variations of course!The original recipe called for white mushrooms as well as shiitake - I skipped the white mushrooms since I wanted my favourite shiitake to dominate the flavour of the soup. Also, instead of using rice, I went for a bunch of grated toasted tofu instead - this served as the perfect base for the soup! And yes, I skipped the celery -wouldn't be caught dead eating it!Homemade Mushroom Soup A whole lotta shiitake love!Servings: 21 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms1 t s...

Matka Chai for that Liquid Comfort fix
2008-01-31 08:25:00
It is time to Click! Well, it has been for several weeks now. And I've been suffering from photographer's block (does that even exist?) ... I woke up this morning and realized that today is the 30th ... and I hadn't Clicked yet! Crap! The theme for this month is Liquid Comfort - as Bee & Jai put it "What liquid indulgence is it, that comforts you on a wet gloomy day?" or a hot summer day :) or just about any day! ... well, I know my many liquid comforts - the mocha-with-extra-chocolate that barista/bartender extraordinaire Matt Neyens makes for me on most weekends, the ginger lemonade that I crave in summer, the rum punch that fast became a fave in Belize, yummy mexican hot chocolate, my mum's rasam (*drool*), a glass of Vieux Telegraphe, the list goes on ... Oh! How could I forget apple-ginger chai - insanely warm and comforting, often the only beverage I can contemplate drinking before heading off on a long run. So, chai was my choice. Now all I needed to do was take a p...
More About: Chai

Citrus Love - Part Un (a.k.a. Daring Bakers' Adventure - January)
2008-01-29 07:33:00
One of these days, I'll get started on my Daring Bakers Challenge the day after the topic is announced - I mean it! I've only done 2 of these so far, but apparently I live on the edge even when it comes to cooking. Seriously, I'm a last-minute adrenaline junkie - proved unequivocally by the fact that I just finished my DBC about 30 minutes ago!Lemon Meringue Pie ...Hmm ... I wasn't sure what I thought of this when I first saw the topic. I love lemons, but most of the lemon desserts I lean towards are a lot lighter - lemon bars, light whipped lemon curd ... and this whole meringue thing sounded a bit daunting. But I got all excited about making tartlets, that's always fun - a bite-sized or one person dessert is usually fun to put together. But then I couldn't find any tartlet pans and today is a heavy snow day ... so that plan was abandoned and I went back to baking a regular pie instead.Jen of The Canadian Baker picked the recipe for this challenge - the more I read it, the mo...
More About: Love , Adventure , January , Part

Podalanga curry and Dahi Shorba
2008-01-29 06:10:00
Yeesh! Seems like I'm cooking a lot more than I have time to blog about - hate it when that happens and I don't get to write about what I made before it slips my mind. That is actually one of the things I love about blogging - I can keep track of my recipes, the variations I incorporate and the new ones that I whip up and often seem incapable of remembering for more than a couple of days! It often seems like my memory retention of a recipe is inversely exponentially proportional to how well something turns out! Crazy, huh? :) Anyway, sometime last week, I was craving desi flavours, but wanted to try out something I hadn't made before. With constraints like not wanting to hit the store and started to get hungry, I started poking around my collection of postcard cookbooks - these are what I call the 4"x6" desi cookbooks (by Nita Mehta) that focus on specific cuisines and have a plethora of regional recipes. The instructions are not always cogent, but they are quite workable and en...
More About: Curry , Dahi

Celebrating our tiranga ...
2008-01-26 19:40:00
59 years of being a republic.Where is India right now? Population of 1.1 billion (2006) Infant mortality rate has dropped from 60 per 1000 (2003) to 35 per 1000 (2007) Gross National Income of $906.5 billion (2006) GDP growth was 9.4% in 2007 Software exports totalled $28 billion BPO exports exceeded $8 billionCellular market surged to 160 million subscribers And then there is the other side ... 350-400 million people in India live under the poverty line, about 75% of them in rural areas More than 40% of the population is illiterate India is No.115 of 157 in the 2008 Index of Economic freedom (can that be good?) Malnutrition affects more than half of all rural children, even as obesity is starting to threaten their more affluent peers Second highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS (5.1 million) Unemployment rate is at 7.8% (2006) External debt of $132 billion (2006) Less than 93 women exist for every 100 men in the population Some interesting reads (I don't agree with all ...

Thayir Saadam (Curd Rice) - quintessential comfort food
2008-01-25 11:13:00
There is Thayir Saadam* A mix of rice and yogurt, often with seasonings and garnishings - an essential aspect of the traditional south indian meal. And often considered a soporific - eat a meal of rice and yogurt with pickle and soon you'll be ready to take a nap! * A Chennai Tamil term used to denote a boring, dorky, risk-averse person. "Seriyaana thayir saadam!" - a phrase heard when ridiculing someone who goes by the book.And then there is a Milquetoast * One who has a meek, timid, unassertive natureThat sounds like our thayir saadam alright! :) *** Growing up in Chennai, on a primarily rice-based diet, we ended most meals with a dollop of curd rice - often we just mixed the curd into the rice on our plates, sometimes my mum would mix the rice in advance - maybe season it, add some more molagas or even some grapes - every variation led to satisfying flavours. And the longer the rice sat and the flavours seeped in, the better it tasted! Thayir saadam now even seems to have a ...
More About: Food , Rice , Comfort food , Comfort

Brazilian Chocolate Bananas
2008-01-22 06:00:00
A few nights ago, I was craving chocolate, maybe with some fruit, something sweet, something easy to make ... and I stumbled upon this recipe for brazilian coffee bananas in one of my favourite books The Ultimate Dessert Cookbook by Rosemary Wilkinson. And it was even tagged quick and easy - can't beat that! Wait ... almost 10 pm - do I *ever* need coffee at 10 pm? I'm the person who drinks a mocha at 10 am and bounces off the walls the rest of the day! The last thing I needed was espresso at night! But I did want my dessert - truly, madly, deeply. So, I went with chocolate instead and used one of Becky's magic truffles - *so* good! Yesss, I was a bit bouncy, dark chocolate and all! But still, so much better than espresso, right? :) This dessert was sinfully rich and took all of 5 minutes to make. Can't quite beat that! Brazilian Chocolate Bananas Zippy decadence! Servings: 12 small overripe bananas 1 small dark chocolate truffle 1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt3 toasted peeled a...

Banana Soy Muffins with pomegranate pear syrup
2008-01-19 20:11:00
Weekend Breakfast Blogging had my attention over the last couple of days - after the soy pancakes turned out great, I really wanted to make another soy-based breakfast recipe. Kind of hard to work primarily with soy flour though - it has no gluten content, which means no elasticity and there is no assistance during fermentation which is what helps the bread rise when baking. In addition to these, gluten helps keep the shape of the bread since it firms up when cooked. Gluten resources for those interested:Gluten on WikipediaGluten composition in cereals and gluten diseaseGluten free recipes Anyway, after poking around several cookbooks and sites, I couldn't quite find any cake or bread recipe that didn't use a combination of soy flour with either wheat or rice or triticum flour. Oh well, guess I just had to try it out - and hope that the end result is somewhat edible. I decided to play it safe and try a banana muffin recipe with soy flour. And to make things even simpler, I mic...
More About: Banana , Pomegranate , Muffins , Pear , Fins

Is this tofu craze here to stay?
2008-01-18 16:20:00
Over the last few months, a lot of tofu has been cooked - marinated in a variety of sauces, sauteed with a plethora of spices, baked into crispy bars ... and pretty much every single option has been extremely palatable. I'd love to think I had something to do with it, but the truth is that tofu is the ultimate sponge! It absorbs spices so easily and then adds its own tinge - every mouthful ends up with this mishmash of flavours.Hey, speaking of Mishmash - Shn just celebrated a year of blogging, if you haven't had a chance to check out her fabulous cakes and cooking, run there right now :)Ok, back to tofu love ... I wanted to try something new, something different with the tofu - not the usual chunks. I started off thinking that I wanted to make some kind of fresh vegetable rolls - shredded and grated vegetables in a cabbage wrap, maybe? Hmm ... no cabbage! How about kale? Or chard? Nope! Low on greens :( Wait, there is spinach - would that work? Well, even somewhat large spinach l...
More About: Tofu , Stay

Thai-glazed vegetable skewers
2008-01-17 03:16:00
I'm going through that phase again - where I spend hours reading entire cookbooks. *so* fascinating! Of course, it doesn't help that I often end up hungry at the end of it - all those fabulous pictures and descriptions! A couple of nights ago, I picked up one of my favourite veggie cookbooks - New Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown - a collection of truly innovative recipes. This is the same book that has the fabulous fajitas recipe that I'm always drooling over.*drool* As I was flipping through the pages of this book, these vegetable skewers pretty much jumped out of the book at me - they looked quite delicious and I had most of the makings - which gave me room for reworking the recipe :) Thai spices are *so* delightful - spicy, sweet, tangy, a successful olio of flavours. And such a pleasure to work with, there was a time when I was indulging in a lot of thai cooking, but it has been a while now. But these skewers and the fabulous red curry that Jai & Bee just posted about...
More About: Vegetable , Skew

More brussel sprouts love ...
2008-01-15 07:38:00
Those fabulous brussel sprouts aren't really in season anymore. Bummer. As much as I'm a huge fan of seasonal cooking, we were still hankering for some yummy sprouts. After some searching, we discovered that the old favourite TJs still has some - such a relief! What with the snow and feeling somewhat stranded and all, the time felt right for a quick, yet tasty meal - and them sprouts definitely contributed towards that. A simple stir fry seemed quite inviting with this crazy weather outside - snow, wind, hail, what not. Anyone who reads this blog knows about my everlasting brussel sprouts love :) Am glad this recipe is a worthy addition to the collection. Especially since it involves another current obsession - soy :) Quick Veggie Stir Fry Brussel Sprouts, Mushrooms, Leeks ... Yum! Servings: 1 5-6 brussel sprouts - quartered 1/2 cup of chopped leeks3-4 oyster mushrooms - sliced 80 gms of extra firm tofu (about 1/5 of a regular packet)salt 1 t szechuan suce (recipe below)1 t s...
More About: Love

Soy pancakes?!! Not kidding! :)
2008-01-14 09:04:00
After the marathon cooking sessions over the last few days for the mega party last night, tonight called for a simple, light dinner. Hmm ... after poking around a bit, I stumbled upon this crazy soy pancakes recipe from a collection of ultra healthy recipes from the Pro Club! I was always skeptical about trying any of these 20/20 lifestyle recipe handouts available there, but after I spent some time reading them earlier tonight, I must say that I've revised my opinion. Some of these actually look pretty good!So, soy flour rocks! It makes for a really light batter - quite perfect for pancakes, actually. And it is the perfect texture to serve as a thickening agent - an attractive alternative to corn starch. And apparently, since it can add moisture to baking products, apparently it is also a perfect alternative to eggs in most recipes! That is really good to know, I can't wait to try some breads and cakes with soy flour! Weeeeeee! *exciting*!The recipe that caught my eye tonight was...
More About: Kidding , Pancakes

And the beet obsession continues ...
2008-01-11 17:30:00
Over the last several weeks, I've been feeling a lot of beet love - like this time and this and several more that I didn't write about - Maybe this blog should really be Cooking from Beet to Z? :) Well, January hasn't had a beet post yet, and this simple daal recipe was so light and flavourful that we just have to talk about it! I was originally hoping to concoct a marinated beets + moong sprouts salad, but on a cold winter night, the craving was for something warm and heartier. Seriously, it feels like January has been one giant wet blanket, cloudy and rainy all the time, I'm totally ready for a sunbreak!In this recipe, we went with a simple stir fry of red onions, beets, some yellow squash and cherry tomatoes finally topped off with cooked masoor daal. The seasoning was really simple too - cumin and a dash of fenugreek. But the best part of it was the generous squeeze of Meyer lemon juice at the end - this totally livened up the dish and imparted this sweet-sour flavour that ...
More About: Obsession

Care for some kohlrabi?
2008-01-09 03:28:00
I know I've eaten kohlrabi in some form earlier in my lifetime, but I remember nothing about it. Every once in a while, I think about it, wonder why I haven't done much it and then move on. But it was a different story last week - I was trolling PCC wearing my find-new-vegetables hat and I sighted bunches of pretty purple kohlrabis sitting around. I grabbed a bunch right away and got all excited about what I could do with it - saute? bake? gratin of some kind? *so* many options! I love cabbage. I like turnips too. In fact, I love most of those rugged green vegetables - brussel sprouts, collard, cauliflower, broccoli ... pretty likely that I'll like these cabbage cultivar. Whoa! Apparently, kohlrabi actually means cabbage+turnip - clever? (not!) :) As I was browsing one of my vegetarian cookbooks, I came across a recipe for a traditional caponata - it usually contained eggplants, tomatoes, olives, maybe some wine and some turbinado sugar to cut the tartness of the tomatoes. Wel...
More About: Care , Kohl

Truffles from heaven
2008-01-08 09:39:00
Ok, all I did was take the pictures! :) Becky churned out these fabulous truffles today - she made some milk chocolate ones as well as the ohh-so decadent darkies. They are like pure velvet - incredibly decadent and silky, and the flavours are just explosive. Hmm ... I could wax eloquent about these all night, given the cocoa high I'm on!I don't even have a recipe, maybe I'll bug Becky for it, but I'd rather she just made these for me on a regular basis :)
More About: Heaven , Truffles

Got to love that squash!
2008-01-07 08:25:00
The world of squashes is a beautiful place, filled with succulent vegetables in all shapes and sizes, a plethora of greens and yellows and oranges, striped and mottled, round, fat, skinny, scalloped, pear-shaped ... ohh ... *so* good!Yes, I bought some squash last week :) Acorn this time. Well, I got some zucchini and yellow squashes too, but that's it! And this is the story of an acorn squash that got made into this fabulous ... squashed squash?!!So, did you know that the terms "summer" and "winter" for squashes only relate to current usage and not seasonal availability? Summer types are on the market during all of winter, winter squashes are on the market in late summer/fall. So why confuse us with non-seasonal seasonal terminology? Just because the terms summer and winter relate more to how long the squashes could "keep" - if the squashes were hardy enough to last well into december, they came to be known as winter vegetables.Anyway, back to the acorn squash - we wanted a simpl...
More About: Love , Squash

Pomegranate Chocolate Pots
2008-01-05 08:16:00
Several days ago, I wanted to work this recipe for the really fun Royal Foodie Joust that Jenn organizes every month. Such an entertaining event - the whole idea of picking a trio of ingredients for each month. Some of the combinations are insanely imaginative and the results often sound fabulous - nothing like stretching the boundaries, huh? :) So, I made this dessert over a week ago, but never got around to posting it and sending it to Jenn. But it turned out pretty good, so might as well talk about it, huh? The ingredients for December were pomegranate, pistachio and mint. They seemed like pretty good candidates for pandering to my sweet tooth.I poked around an all-time favourite - The Ultimate Desserts Cookbook and stumbled upon this Chocolate Chestnut Pots recipe that I ended up reworking to suit my needs. I never met a chocolate I didn't like. Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next GenerationAnyway, I think this whole recipe thing was just my excuse to work with chocolate. *dr...
More About: Pomegranate

And a year rolls by ...
2007-12-31 07:46:00
2007 is almost done with! Quite unbelievable how quickly an entire year has gone by. Yoikes! I'm going to have to get used to writing 2008 now, that's the most tiresome part of the new year :) The end of a year is often mired in nostalgia, soon followed by anticipation. I often spend several moments thinking about the highs and lows that went by. And then I start gleefully anticipating all the things that come with the new year - more snow, snowboarding, anticipation of spring, seasonal fruits and vegetables, suddenly everything starts to seem new and exciting! ... :) Nupur's Best of 2007 event comes at the perfect time - I'm already in nostalgia and I'm usually thinking about food, so it seems perfectly natural to talk about AtoZ's life so far. 122 days, 58 posts, pretty much every one of them involving a recipe. Cooking has always been a passion, but the more we cooked, the more I wrote, the more we starting thinking about the "right" things. Now we spend hours talking su...
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Salsa rojo ... and still lusting for Mexico :)
2007-12-30 20:47:00
The aftereffects of the trip down south are pretty clear - especially the impact on the palate! We miss our street taco guy, have dreams about tamarind margaritas, veracruz fish, salsa verde y rojo. And every once in a while, the smell of queso fundido seems to waft through the air ... *sigh*. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands, after all we had a new mexican cookbook, right? So, we cooked up this flash-fried fish - turned out too dry. Never been a fan of fried fish, never want to eat it again! We also tried out this new red salsa recipe - we followed the recipe pretty closely and used 2 juicy off-the-vine tomatoes, but the salsa seemed too "tomato-ey". So, we ended up adding some onions and it seemed too oniony (for me atleast). We used a combination of ancho and pasilla peppers and the spice flavours turned out great, but the base sauce needs some work, so I'm not posting that recipe just yet :)We did get a cool picture, so that goes here - just so we will rememb...
More About: Mexico , Salsa , Rojo

Mexico y Belize - Comidas y Bebidas y los demas
2007-12-29 06:30:00
I think I got that title right, it took several minutes of thinking :) It was a fun trip replete with great food and drinks, crazy commuting (flight+bus+taxi+water taxi to get to Caye Caulker, water taxi+twin-engine bumpy plane+van+flight to get back to Mexico ), warm waters, sunny skies and crazy adventures. The best street taco guy in Mexico City. Harry (the guy who took us out on his boat off Caye Caulker) cooked up the best fish we had on the trip. Near the split on Caye Caulker.Sunset - from outside the Lazy Lizard on Caye Caulker.
More About: Belize

Machli ka Salan and much more!
2007-12-28 08:09:00
Last week, we were hankering for a desi cookout - well, that's pretty normal except this time we decided to try out a fish recipe.Being relatively new to eating fish, I often end up going for simple flavors that easily showcase the fish - marinades followed by grilling or broiling. But this time, we wanted obvious desi flavors, so we attempted this salan recipe from Art of Indian Cuisine by Rocky Mohan. BTW, I'm digging this book more by the recipe - it distinctly lacks cooking times, but makes up for it by showcasing really flavorful and often different dishes.Once we picked our fish recipe, the next step was finding the right sides - after a little deliberation, we decided to skip rice and went with Aloo Kurma and collard green rotis - another greens fix :) Madison Market has become a pretty good destination for reliable fish - the folks behind the counter totally know what they're talking about and are pretty amiable about picking the right size of fillets - especially since ...
More About: Salan , Mach

Middle Eastern Greens Soup
2007-12-26 18:08:00
As part of the ongoing greens craze, we made this soup a couple of times in the last week - it was *so* good the first time around, it totally warranted an immediate repeat :) The recipe that we adapted from is Mollie Katzen's Middle Eastern Spinach Soup from the kick-ass Still Life With Menu cookbook.I loved Mollie's recipe, but sometimes spinach seems a little wimpy. It seemed like this recipe warranted stronger greens - chard, collard, the works :) So, we added a variety of greens and let them work their mojo. The original recipe also asked for rice or potatoes, but in an ongoing effort to skip carbs where possible and focus on fibre instead, I went with garbanzo beans instead - think I'll stick with that as a permanent alternative. The net result was quite fabulous, especially the way the yogurt accentuated the flavors of the greens. We ended up with this really thick soup that could be slurped up or dipped into or even eaten with rotis like daal! Middle Eastern Greens So...
More About: Aster

Root vegetable kurma
2007-12-26 01:58:00
Beetroots. *drool*.Every once in a while, I dream of frolicking in this endless vegetable garden. And my garden is teeming with beets - those fabulous crimson nether parts :) Red beets, sugar beets, chiogga beets, they all taste fabulous - earthy, sweet, succulent, flavorful, pungent, I could go on, huh? Apparently, there are the globe-shaped varietals that we regularly encounter, and then there are the cylindrical ones that I haven't seen yet - these carrot-shaped beets are apparently more common in intensive vegetable plots. Beet Etymology Trivia:* Maybe from an imagined resemblance to the greek letter beta - this sounds like a serious stretch of imagination!* Maybe from the Celtic word "bett" meaning red - a little more plausible, I guess. Parsnips. *drool*. My dream garden is also teeming with parsnips - easily one of my favorite vegetable smells.They make for fabulous soups, taste divine when roasted. the options are endless! And the nutrition value is a total bonus - it is...
More About: Vegetable , Root

Short'n'sweet post: Hot'n'Sour Soup
2007-12-24 19:19:00
Too much cooking, too much to write about, not enough time! Guess I first need to catch up on posts before starting work on the new look for 2008. Winter begs for warm comforting food. For me, that often translates to soups - thick chowders and bisques are often the norm, but every once in a while a lighter soup makes me quite happy. In lieu of the continuing green craze, this soup is along the lines of the yummy sweet'n'sour soup we used to eat at Cascade in Madras. A ton of shredded cabbage, onions, some corn kernels, some spices, that's about all it took. I will admit that freshly roasting and grinding the spices made a *huge* impact on the flavor of the soup! Hot'n'Sour Soup That indo-chinese favorite!Servings: 4 1 small cabbage - cut into long shreds 1 bunch of scallions - chopped 1 cup of corn kernels 2 T grated ginger 5-6 cloves garlic - crushed 2 T soy sauce 2 cups of vegetable broth 3 cups of water 5 T white vinegar 1 t freshly ground white pepper 1 T ground mix of...
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Baked Polenta with Swiss Chard
2007-12-24 09:49:00
The next couple of weeks are probably going to be replete with green posts - the last PO box had many varieties of greens which we quickly ran through and I stocked up on more today.Life has seriously been enriched with spinach and chard and collard and rutabaga greens - all goodness. It has been a series of fun experiments trying to find different ways to cook greens. There are daals and curries and sambars and sautes - all of which are awesome, but this time I was really seeking a dish that did not involve extended cooking of the chard.Swiss chard is a power food - it belongs to the Chenopod family - shared by beets and quinoa. And it is chockful of nutrients like Vitamin C, potassium and magnesium. Like with several other greens, long term cooking (20 minutes or more) ostensibly depletes the nutrients by as much as 50%. To work around this, I chose to flash cook the chard and bake it with the polenta to let the flavors blend and settle rather than go in for extended cooking that...
More About: Baked

'shrrrrooooommmmmssss!!!
2007-12-22 06:19:00
"I confess, that nothing frightens me more than the appearance of mushrooms on the table, especially in a small provincial town."Alexandre Dumas, early 19th century I don't think I can agree with Dumas anymore! Them mushrooms are growing on me by the day. Such a fascinating world too - apparently there are approximately 38,000 varieties of mushrooms (not all of them edible)! And their growth and proliferation is so odd - the fungus thrives in the dark, totally at odds with the whole "plants thrive in the sunlight" story. Having grown up vegetarian, I had a really hard time getting used to the meaty, chewy texture of mushrooms. And they seemed to absorb flavors in really odd ways. Besides, I started off with the generic white mushrooms that I still have no interest in. But the rest of the mushroom world awaits exploration - oyster, chanterelle, enoki, shiitake, porcini, morels ... mmmm ... even portabello - if they're sliced and marinated :)Fun tip when working with mushrooms:A ...

Hey Monkey! Show me your nuts!
2007-12-20 08:56:00
Nuts, nuts, nuts! One of my favorite food groups - yes, it qualifies as a separate food group in my pyramid :)Bee'n'Jai made me super happy with their Click theme for this month. I started fantasizing about pictures of this bowl of unending chestnuts on my counter. Or maybe peanuts? Peanuts rock! Plus, they're visually so damn appealing! Hmm ... how about cashews? Wonder if I could find fresh cashews anywhere. Or maybe pistachios? *so* good! Hazelnuts? Pecans? Almonds? Pine nuts? The list goes on!!!Yeeesh! Mired in indecision! Wait! Walnuts! Daria brought back mountains of walnuts from her ranch near Paso Robles in California. And we totally lucked out on hanging out at her place surrounded by bags and bags of walnuts - if I remember right, she mentioned one varietal was the Hartley, and maybe the other one was the Franquette - both looked quite similar to us, but she soon pointed out an obvious difference - only one of them could stand upright, the other toppled right over! Fun...
More About: Monkey , Show , Nuts