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Pasta Bliss!
2007-12-06 08:17:00
You're starving, you want something tasty, you want something quick! Know that feeling? I do! It rapidly descended on me a couple of nights ago. And it reeked strongly of wheat cravings too :)Quick ... tasty ... healthy ... wheaty .... pasta! PCC has this really awesome tomato/spinach whole wheat fusilli that picks up flavors really well. And I had a bunch of fresh bell peppers that I chose to broil before adding to the pasta. If you haven't broiled and sliced peppers before, I would heartily recommend that - the meaty texture and slightly smoky aroma is pretty awesome!Seriously, this pasta took about 25 minutes to make and made for a fabulously flavorful meal!Truly Presto Pasta !Cooked and eaten in under an hour :)Servings: 22 cups of uncooked fusilli1/2 large red onion3 cloves garlic - smashed2 red/orange bell peppers12-15 green olives1/2 cup of red wine2 T cider vinegar1 T extra virgin olive oilsalt and pepper to tastered pepper flakes to suit your palate :)2 T crumbled feta che...

Brussel Sprouts and Quinoa goodness
2007-12-04 08:00:00
Mmm ... I really must like brussel sprouts - seems like I buy some every second time I hit the store! No complaints though - it is a quintessential seasonal vegetable and looks so damn inviting, especially on that little sprouts tree! I've probably mentioned this a zillion times already - I love chopping sprouts, the way I love cutting cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli. *so* much of fun!P.S.: It snowed here! Care for some fresh powder? :DI felt like a quick meal - something simple, loaded with natural flavor, that didn't take too long to make. Something warm and comforting sounded good, what with all that crazy snow out there! After a long day of romping around in the snow, Vodka decided to settle for some warm oats and yogurt, and I went for brussel sprouts and quinoa.Brussel Sprouts and Quinoa Pilaf Got to love that grain from Peru :)Servings: 4 2 cups of quinoa20+ brussel sprouts - quartered1 red onion1 T sambar powder (I freshly grind mine as needed, but any store-bought p...
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Beet Orange Salad ... and eternal admiration for Alice Waters!
2007-12-03 08:01:00
Chez Panisse ... The name sets me aquiver. Organic, sustainable, local, ecologically sound, and above all fabulously delectable. *drool*. Well, I don't live in Berkeley, I've only been there once, but the memories are firmly imprinted, waiting to be refreshed. Well, I don't really remember what I ate, but I remember loving it ... every bite of it! And I can't wait to be back! In the meantime, I make do with reading Alice Waters ' cookbooks - sometimes before going to bed! Nothing like waking up with amaranth or fennel on the mind, huh? :) So, yesterday, Chez Panisse Vegetables was opened to page 45 - 'Red and Golden Beets with Blood Orange , Endive and Walnuts' it read. Guess it was our lucky day - the beets were in, the rest - we figured we'd substitute. Getting some flavor of this divine salad was *so* much better than skipping it! We decided to forego the raspberry undertones of the blood orange and replace it with the sweet satsumas instead. And the endive was replaced ...
More About: Salad , Eternal

Orange-Almond-Chocolate Cake ... and it is Vegan!
2007-12-01 08:44:00
Phew! Ok, I *might* squeeze this post in within the deadline for one of my fave events Vegan Ventures - guess it depends on how fast I can type! Yes, apparently, I love this event, but I haven't submitted a post for it yet. What can I say, I'm a lazy bum? :)After the last almost-vegan posting, I did my homework well before attempting a truly vegan dessert - I actually found it harder than I'd imagined! As I poked around several dessert recipes, I found a vegan orange-almond cake recipe from an all-time favourite book - Didi Emmons' Vegetarian Planet. But surprise of surprises! Didi wasn't vegan all the way! Her recipe used a couple of kinds of honey! Wow, guess she doesn't quite meet Suganya's standards here :)BTW, molasses rock! I'm in love with them. Truly, madly, deeply. When I was a kid, I used to have this gooey multivitamin concoction called Vidalin M - I absolutely loved the syrupy flavor of this medicine. And molasses totally reminds me of this :) So, I liberally swa...
More About: Orange , Cake , Chocolate , Almond

Drunken Barley Risotto
2007-11-30 07:49:00
Pearl barley is a fabulous thing - incredibly chewy and nutty, yet soft enough to release enough starch to make a wonderfully creamy risotto without any cream! Plus it doesn't ask for much stirring - unlike arborio which warrants a lot more special treatment :) Don't get me wrong, I love arborio - in risotto, paella, even an arborio salad ... but sometimes, I don't feel like dealing with the work involved in cooking arborio! And at such times, barley provides the perfect, wonderfully nutritious alternative. Random barley stats I just learned: Barley is among the oldest crops in the world, and was used in ancient Egypt for making bread and beer - beer is that old?!!Half of the world's barley production is used as animal feed!More than 75% of the remainder is used in beer and whiskey production :)Ok, so back to our barley risotto - I found a really interesting risotto recipe in The Complete Cookbook - am glad I picked this book up again, had totally forgotten the diversity of rec...
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Winter warmer soup
2007-11-28 07:30:00
Well ... yes, it isn't officially winter yet, but it is *so* damn cold outside! And yet, there isn't enough snow in the mountains! Where's all the fresh powder, huh? *grumble* *grumble* Cold weather often brings nostalgic cravings for warm and cozy food - a cup of piping hot chai (like Nags' daily drink :)), yummy onion pakoras, my mum's rasam or maybe a bowl of thick soup replete with late fall flavors!Well, the last is what I settled for, especially with all the yummy bread left over from the Daring Bakers' Challenge. An old favorite cookbook - the Complete Encyclopedia came to the rescue here with a fabulous sounding smooth soup - just the ticket to warm the soul!The original recipe called for potatoes and turnips - well, the bread was teeming with potato flavors, so I chose to skip that. And I was sans turnips, so that was out too! Instead, I went with some extra parsnip and some garlic. Winter Warmer Soup Perfectly legal on a cold fall day! :) Servings: 4 2 carrots - ...

A whole lotta bread - Daring Bakers Challenge (Nov 2007)
2007-11-27 07:18:00
Mmmm ... aroma of baking bread ... I finally got to this last night! This last month has been crazy - when the Daring Baker s Challenge details were sent out, I really thought 4 weeks is plenty of time to get going on some yummy bread making. Well, I was wrong! This month has just whizzed by - lots of cooking and baking has happened, but I just wasn't able to find the handful of hours needed to work on my potato bread. Until last evening - when I finally went to work for several hours, frantically kneading and rolling until my arm was ready to fall off :) This was my first bakers challenge - I was obviously all freaked out about it, even though baking is one of those zen things for me - kind of restores calm amidst chaos :) I got increasingly excited as I pored through the recipe outlined by Tanna from My Kitchen in Half Cups - this recipe sounded perfect! I settled for baking a bunch of rolls and a small loaf, figured I'd make stuff that Vodka could eat :) So, Tanna picked this...
More About: Bread , Halle

Yams - curried, not candied
2007-11-26 02:16:00
Sra threw out this crazy challenge a few weeks ago - Grindless Gravies!! With a zillion conditions to boot! :) I think I spent more time thinking about it than I finally spent cooking! Very clever, Sra - this event has made for more conversation than any others recently :) So, no ready-made gravies - obviously! And no premade/frozen gravies - clever! And no lentils or yogurt-based gravies - yes, that would make it too easy! :) This was actually getting more interesting by the minute :) As I was poking around several cookbooks, I stumbled upon one of my favorites - Vij's Elegant Inspired Indian Cuisine. And then I stumbled upon Suganya's rendition of a vegetable dish from this book. Hmm ... I could rework this to be more gravy-based and use completely different vegetables that were more in season. I finally went with yams and corn - both part of the Thanksgiving theme and available in plenty at PCC. Curried Yams with Corn and TomatoesNo grinding required :) Servings: 22 medium-s...

Powerless, yet tasty!
2007-11-21 08:25:00
I noticed this Powerless cooking event organized by the Simple Indian Food blog a few days ago and interpreted it as concocting a dish that basically used no source of power - including gas! Well, that was a tough one - especially given I was busy using my beater making the dough for some cookies that I was going to stick in the oven. Hmm, no chace of using that as a submission! :) Well, yesterday was one of those "Not sure what I want to eat" days ... and yet, we didn't want to indulge in super elaborate cooking. After some puttering around, finishing up some dosa batter seemed like the quickest option. Maybe a chutney to go with it? Somehow, that sounded "lame" (usually chutneys are *never* lame! :)) and uninteresting. And then, I remembered about the powerless cooking event and the obvious idea came to mind - a Southwestern black bean salad! I ended up marinating the vegetables for over an hour so I could get flavors to soak in without any cooking involved - the only reason I ...

Some more noodlin'
2007-11-20 08:34:00
It has been a while since I cooked noodles of any kind - some sort of (bad) record given how much I love wheat in general - noodles, pasta, rotis, upma ... mmm! They all make me quite happy :) Everytime I read about diets, especially those carb-phobic ones like Atkins and South Beach - I cringe in pain. How can life exist without wheat? I could live without rice, but without wheat?! I would probably shrivel and die, my cells would wilt in despair. Hmm ... I'm getting a little insecure now - maybe I should be making some rotis right away so I know that tomorrow will be a wheat day! :)So, why am I on this triticum eulogy? It all started when I realized last night that I hadn't Clicked yet. Eeek! One of the coolest events of the food blogosphere and I hadn't gotten in on yet. I decided cook and click and eat wheat - could life get any better? :)(Noodles cobweb - should this be a Click submission?)I had just returned from a successful PCC trip, armed with a fabulous brussel sprouts t...
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Weekend eats ...
2007-11-19 06:59:00
So, the best news ever - Vodka's tumor came out to be a Grade 1 - which, apparently, is the best thing to hope for when it comes to mast cell tumors - so no more surgery or treatment - Yay! The countdown is still on - 6 more days before his sutures and staples can be removed. 33 - that's how many staples there are in his franken-scar! But the monkey is a total sport, he's holding up really well - though he keeps wandering around wondering why he can't seem to find any ball to play with! :) (Photo Courtesy: Stephanie & Shawn of Dog-e-Central) Obviously, the occasion called for some treats - I was hoping to bake something totally human-grade, but Vodka-palatable too :) After some poking around, I found the perfect recipe to work with - Suganya's vegan lemon poppy seed cookies!I reworked these to use vegetable oil instead of margarine (and cut that by over half) and threw in a bunch of ginger - it actually worked really well.Since I'm still working through a mountain of appl...
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Does my blog look ugly in this?
2007-11-17 17:15:00
Cathy's event about incredibly tasty, yet incredibly ugly-looking food is such an awesome idea! It has been somewhat of a challenge this last week to take some time off from Vodka-watch so I can try out new recipes and ideas.A couple of nights ago, I wanted to try something different, yet easy - we finally settled on onion+tomato rotis and a couple of sides - all of which tasted absolutely fabulous. Wait, I had to take pictures of them before eating, but I also had to finish my meal and take Vodka for a walk ... I ended up spending 5 minutes on the photos as against the usual 15-30 minutes :) Well, the results speak for themselves! I have to say that the food really did taste good - the proof here was definitely in the eating, not in the visual! :) Ugly ? Cabbage'n'Moong DalTastes better than it looks!Servings: 41 cup whole moong dal1/2 green cabbage - shredded1 t sesame oil1 t mustard seeds1 t urad dal10-12 curry leavesa pinch of asafoetida1 t turmericsalt2 t ground black pep...
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Date candy - a la Panforte
2007-11-16 02:33:00
Panforte is a nut-filled Italian confection - kind of a cross between dessert and candy. It is traditionally served post-dinner with a cup of espresso. The one taste I had of this in Milan a few years ago is still strongly entrenched in my mind - a whole sea of flavors - raisins, chocolate, honey, orange, nuts, the works! Dates are so versatile - luscious by themselves, even better in most desserts, they even go really well with spicy and tart flavors! And fresh dates are simply delicious - another fabulous travel memory is of eating dates off the tree in Egypt. *so* good! The idea here was to come up with a recipe for some kind of date candy - an homage to Panforte of sorts. And maybe go with some different nuts - pistachios and cashews instead of hazelnuts and filberts. I also decided to skip the cocoa and let the dates define the flavor of the dessert.Date'n' Nut Candy An homage to Panforte Servings: makes about 12 1.5" squares8 dates - pitted 1/2 cup cashews - coarsely choppe...

Khichdi from heaven
2007-11-14 08:06:00
Good upma is a beautiful thing - it isn't always as easy as it seems, it is something that I'm always aspiring to perfect. And it makes me incredibly happy when my upma seems to be as good as my mum's - which qualifies as the perfect 10! Speaking of upma and similar one-pot meals - I always wondered about the difference between upma and khichdi. Upma is often made with sooji, sometimes with rice rava, other times with vermicelli. And it seems like khichdi is typically a rice and lentils dish - kind of the desi equivalent of rice'n'beans? But then again, there is rava khichdi, right? Which is often this olio of sooji with a slew of vegetables. So, how is that any different from rava upma? Or are the names interchangeable? Food for thought :) Anyway, with all the stuff happening with Vodka, I really needed quick comfort food - which can easily translate to upma (or khichdi?). I often take the easy way out and skip roasting the rava - but this time I really wanted the flavors an...
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Questing for the perfect Banana Bread ...
2007-11-13 01:30:00
I'm on the eternal quest for the perfect AND healthy banana nut bread recipe - the bread I baked for LisaBee's bachelorette party was pretty good, but I'm trying to make it even moister without having to use loads of butter, in fact I want *very* little butter. But I want it moist. And reasonably light. And flavorful. And nutty. Lofty aspirations, eh? :) Well, this attempt was definitely a step in the right direction! In fact, this might be it! I might have to retire on this quest and move onto a different one :) The fun thing is that I've totally gotten back into baking - not sure if it was because of the plethora of frozen overripe bananas sitting in my fridge or my messing up of the last Pioneer Organics order that resulted in about 20 apples that I need to use up or just the fact that turning on the oven makes the house warmer :) Whatever be the reason, I'm loving it. And this time, I'm definitely loving the result! Banana Nut Spice Bread Light on the fat, NOT on the flav...
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The roughest Deepavali ever
2007-11-11 16:56:00
Earlier this week, we had plans for a Deepavali dinner, maybe some lights, no fireworks (not a big fan of those anymore), a shot at cultural immersion of sorts ... I go back and forth on these festival days, the nostalgia aspect of celebration is pretty high since we celebrated every festival and puja growing up. However, I'm not too big on any conservative or overly (note the highly subjective usage :)) traditional notions behind festivals - a classic example being Karadiyar Nombu - when women pray for the well-being of the men in the family ... hmm, not be a bad idea, but it does bug me that there are no puja days when the men honor the women! Back to Deepavali 2007 and what became of it ... wednesday evening involved a reasonably non-threatening visit to the vet - Vodka's had this weird-looking hotspot on his side that was bugging me enough to warrant a trip to Redwood. Well, after a long physical, several needle aspirations and a short wait, he was diagnosed with a mast cell ...
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Enchiladas, por favor?
2007-11-08 19:20:00
When the yen for mexican flavors descends upon me, there is little I can do to resist it :) Besides, why even try? Especially when I have all the makings for something as awesome as enchiladas!I still remember my first enchilada experience - Azteca - not exactly top of the line mexican food! And I still remember being shocked at the sizes of the platters of food they bring out - not plates, but platters, giant platters of seemingly never-ending mounds of cheese and tortillas and lettuce and beans and cheese and ... Oyy! But I'm super glad that didn't swear me off real mexican chow - it would've been quite tragic if that had happened!In case you didn't get it already, I'm not a fan of big wonks of cheesy overbaked tortillas :) But I do love the ones that have fun stuffings and spicy sauces drizzled all over. Mmm ... that's what I wanted to make - flavorful, spicy, nutritious enchiladas. Didi Emmons' Vegetarian Planet had this really interesting recipe for veggie enchiladas wit...
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Ole for Chole!
2007-11-06 21:28:00
Hmm ... lots of craving for desi flavors lately - I blame it on the festival season! :) Actually, the main reason we ended up making a simple chole a few nights ago was because we were hoping to make do with the stuff living in the pantry. We finally ended up making a quick trip to Madison Market when I put the kibosh on making naans - which we eventually regretted since the Indian Life naans we bought were totally lame - but that's another story! :)Anyway, we poked around the shelves and found several cans of garbanzo ... Yay! Chole for dinner. I love, love Chole, best when the chickpeas have been steeped in the juices and spices for a few hours. Hmm ... seemed like we weren't going to achieve that level of food bliss, but we could get close! We started off poking around Indira's recipe, but I finally decided I wanted more flavor - especially the ginger-garlic-green chilli explosion. So, we went with our own version of it, actually Pupp cooked most of it, I just was liberal with...

Another round of comfort food
2007-11-05 07:58:00
After several super hectic days including a trip to DC and crazy work reorgs, a simple meal exuding comfort flavors was what I was craving. I've noticed this often - every time I come back from a trip someplace, I truly crave home food, especially something yogurt-based! Guess the most familiar flavors of childhood are what I want to return to - the stuff I often ate while drowned in a book, especially during summers! *sigh* Well, of course, a slight twist was necessary :) So, instead of brown or white rice, I went with quinoa - usually I use quinoa in a salad or a pilaf - both of which bring out the intense nutty flavor and chewy texture that I grew to love when in Peru. But this time, I did not want any fancy flavor, just something light and nutritious that I could eat with dollops of home-made yogurt and maybe some veggies. I finally went with a chayote squash curry to complement the quinoa+yogurt - perfect! Chayote Squash Curry (2 servings) ==================1 chayote squash ...
More About: Food , Comfort food , Round , Comfort

Assortment of vegetarian delights!
2007-11-02 16:54:00
Still catching up on stuff we made over the last couple of weeks here, but some of these were so good, I absolutely have to talk about it :) Which calls for this condensed roundup!I was poking around India's 500 best recipes and stumbled upon this cauliflower stew that looked really interesting. And quite simple to make. Like most south indian stews, it asked for a coconut base, but I opted for a lighter sauce and used a combination of light coconut milk and dehydrated coconut powder instead - worked better than I expected since the coconut was only the ancillary flavor and let the cauliflower dominate the dish. Yay! Speaking of cauliflowers, I *love* separating the florettes! Even more with cauliflowers than broccoli. So cathartic, and I always go through this crazy decision process - How big should the pieces be? Should I cut the florettes up? Slice them or split them? So many choices! :)Ok, back to the stew - I love the simplicity of this recipe - the main flavors just come from...
More About: Vegetarian , Delight

Care for some snapper?
2007-10-30 22:11:00
We did! And we're glad we did! :) This is a long overdue post from a couple of weeks ago - with Navarathri and travelling and all, things have been really hectic and I'm woefully behind with my food postings. But things are back to being relatively normal, so the postings shall flow again! :) A couple of weeks ago, the guy at City Fish convinced me to buy some of what he called "super fresh" snapper - so much better than the cod, he said! Well, that sold me - anything better than fresh cod must be good, real good! And this worked really well for dinner a couple of nights later since Megan got all excited in anticipation of a seafood meal :)We poked around several recipes online before finally settling on a version of blackened snapper that sounded pretty happy. Simple seasoning, delicate fish, "herbalicious" sauce topping - all goodness!Blackened snapper with tomato-dill sauce (3 servings)================================ 3 fillets skinned snapper - 8 oz each2 T olive oila handful...
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Navarathri goodies!
2007-10-18 09:28:00
Got to love dussehra - dolls, dolling up, socializing, trading stories and catching up (often after a whole year!), eating, more eating ... :) This year, I chose to experiment a bit with our traditional sundal, snacks and dessert recipes and come up with some variations. I started this post several days ago, but the week has been expectedly packed, I'm glad I'm getting to post about these before Navarathri is actually over! :)Obviously, we needed a sundal of sorts - can't really do without that! After poking around the stuff we had on hand, I finally decided to make a mixed sundal - green channa, kaala channa, garbanzo and corn! The corn was truly a killer addition - the sweetness totally offset the tartness of the lemon juice and added to the crunchiness of the coconut. Yay for a sundal variation! Sundal Medley (a zillion servings!)============2 cups green channa 2 cups kaala channa 1 can chickpeas1 can corn3 red chillies - finely chopped 2 green chillies - finely chopped1 T m...
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Delightful squash bisque
2007-10-13 07:52:00
One of the best things about Fall - squashes! So many varieties, so many of them, makes me so happy! This was something I cooked up for Stephanie & Shawn a few days ago and never got around to posting. Which would be a crime of sorts since the bisque turned out so rich and flavorful, it deserves a post! :)The last batch of squashes I got were from (surprise!) Fred Meyer - it was an emergency pitstop for some fruit and I just happened to (literally!) stumble upon this motley assortment of squashes of all shapes and sizes! I ended up buying several delicata squashes that day, one of which went into this bisque that I adapted from a recipe from Best-ever Soups by Anne Sheasby.Roasted Squash and Garlic Bisque ( 4 servings)===========================1 medium sized delicata squash8 -10 cloves of garlic1/2 vidalia - chopped into big chunksa few fresh thyme sprigs2 T olive oil1 T fresh ground pepper1 t fresh ground coriandera few orange mint leaves - choppedkosher saltHeat the oven to 4...
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Good old black bean burgers
2007-10-11 08:08:00
Ever since I tried the black bean burger special years ago at the Hilltop, I've been hooked. I remember how disappointed I used to get when the special disappeared and I had to settle for the cilantro pesto quesadillas (good, but doesn't stand a patch against the BBB!) instead. And then we discovered that the 74th Street Ale House carries the BBB as a regular entree. As does the Columbia City Ale House! Weeeeeeeeee!!! So, the next natural step in the BBB ingestion process was to attempt recreating the burger. Pretty much all attempts so far have been pretty good. Plus the burger patties freeze really well - and it works better to make a big batch since I need to use atleast a can of black beans when making these. Well, last night was one of those BBB nights. It has been a few months since I made these, plus the blog doesn't have an entry for it! Which means it was time to embark on making another batch of BBBs. And this time around was the best, by far! All the flavors balanced o...
More About: Black , Bean , Good , Burgers , Urge

Cabbage koottu - supreme comfort food
2007-10-09 17:08:00
Last night felt like a "home" food night - classic south indian, like my mum makes. Since we didn't get a chance to do our grocery trips this last weekend, I started poking around in the fridge to find something I could work with. A cabbage! Yay! I love cutting cabbage! *so* much of fun :)Cabbage koottu was always a favorite growing up, about on par with onion sambar and mor kozhambu. I love the funny (almost stinky!) smell of cabbage cooking - very nostalgic. Ok, so cabbage koottu it was going to be. I also found some baby brinjals and dutch potatoes that I could work with. I poke around and found this posting on Indira's blog, figured I could rework it a little bit! Thanks, Indira :)Cabbage Koottu (4 servings) ==============3/4 medium green cabbage - chopped into 1"-2" long shreds1 cup cooked tual daal2 T channa dal - boiled till cooked (but not mushy)1 small ball of tamarindsalt Seasoning:----------------1 t sesame oil1 t mustard1 t urad daal2 red chillies1/2 t asafoetida7-8 cu...
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The best fajitas *ever*!
2007-10-07 03:22:00
I've always been obsessed with cooking and eating and even dreaming about food (probably reasonably obvious from the frequency of this blog!). But I've been noticing an interesting phenomenon - the last couple of weeks have been simply fabulous in terms of diversity of foods I've tried out as well as how well they've turned out! True gastronomic bliss :) And I'm attributing it primarily to this whole food blog obsession. Writing, taking pictures, reading all the awesome blogs out there, getting to know about fellow food bloggers and their cooking styles, this is truly rewarding!And on that note, I'll have to start writing about the best fajitas I've *ever* eaten. Maybe I should be more specific? Best veggies fajitas I've ever eaten. Whatever! I've only eaten veggie fajitas, though the plan is to attempt some kind of seafood fajitas one of these days :) Have I mentioned how awesome Celia Brooks Brown's cookbooks are? And how obsessed I am with her 'New Vegetarian' cookboo...

Saag on my mind
2007-10-04 17:49:00
It doesn't take much for me to crave for greens - quite surprising given I used to run away every time my mum made spinach when I was a kid. All that changed once I came to the States and started my trysts with cooking! I totally fell in love with all greens - spinach, mustard, collard, bok choy, methi. Not to mention the new favorites - beet, broccoli rabe, nettle, the list goes on!Since S&S are swamped with the doggies and Stephanie is still recovering from her flu, figured some saag would work wonders for her :) After getting through my crazy car misadventures last night, I needed to make something that wasn't time intensive. Lentils & greens, can't go wrong with those!Daal Saag (4 generous servings)=========1 cup tuar daal1 cup masoor daal1 bunch baby spinach - chopped1/2 bunch collard greens - chopped1 onion - minced1 T grated ginger1 t turmeric1.5 t black mustard seeds1 t jeera (cumin seeds)2 red chillies1 t sesame oilsalt1/4 cup buttermilk1 t saffronCook the daals ...
More About: Mind , On My Mind

Bring on some Balti
2007-10-03 07:15:00
I was craving desi food tonight (I blame all those awesome desi food blogs that I've been reading lately!), but didn't quite feel like anything rich or creamy. And I wanted something different. So, I did what I love doing - started reading a cookbook trying to find the recipe for tonight. I got India's 500 Best Recipes as a gift a while ago, but hadn't tried too many recipes from it. Tonight, I stumbled upon the Balti section -this sounded like the best of all worlds - all the desi flavors, but much lighter than authentic punjabi cooking.The recipe I liked asked for chicken in a green sauce - I started morphing it to work with the veggies I had on hand. Half a ridge gourd, bell peppers, fava beans, broccoli, hmm ... seemed like I could do it! Also, I cut down the apple in the sauce and threw in some green tomatoes instead. Balti vegetables in Hara Masala Sauce ==============================1/2 ridge gourd 2 bell peppers 8 fava bean pods - shelled and boiled till cooked (only too...
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Tofu heaven!
2007-10-02 07:41:00
My current favorite veggie cookbook is New Vegetarian by Celia Brooks Brown - I think she, along with Rose Elliott are among the best authors of vegetarian cookbooks. Total aside: Celia's book has one of the best gazpacho recipes I've ever seen, too bad I'll have to wait till warm weather comes around again before I try it out! :)Sometimes, a noodle dish bursting with flavor and topped with marinated tofu just does the trick. And the New Vegetarian has what seemed like the perfect recipe - egg noodles with glazed green vegetables, topped with teriyaki tofu steaks. I decided to go with a few changes - just soba noodles instead of egg noodles seemed like a good option, 400 calories per serving (that's egg noodles for you!) sounded too heavy for dinner today. Besides, PCC carries some awesome soba noodles that pick up teriyaki flavors really well, we decided it was time to try those again. We ended up cutting the tofu into smaller chunks instead of the giant steak-like slabs since...
More About: Heaven , Tofu

Mmm ... bowl of spicy soup
2007-10-01 05:51:00
After the long, tiring week that was, I felt like starting this week's cooking adventures off with a soup. So, we started perusing one of my favorite soup books Best-ever Soup s by Anne Sheasby. We landed upon this spicy moroccan lentil soup - actually an old-time favorite, but I figured we'd make it a little differently this time using some of the ideas from Anne's recipe. We chose to skip the garbanzo since it often tends to overwhelm the flavors and I really enjoy the dominant flavor of puy lentils in a spicy soup. The whole process took us only about 30 minutes, cooking the lentils (20 minutes) just happened in parallel with the cooking of the veggies. Simple, straightforward, stellar flavor! Spicy Moroccan Lentil Soup (makes about 3 servings)=====================1.5 cups of dried puy lentils 1/2 red onion - sliced 1 carrot - diced 2 medium tomatoes - chopped 1" ginger 4 garlic cloves 1 jalapeno 1 t olive oil 1 t cinnamon powder 1 t fennel seeds 1/2 t turmeric powder 1 t le...
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