Mélange - Soups

Wow! This is the longest blogging break ever. Long enough that I started going into withdrawal! Guess that's what happens when work mania takes over. Long hours, little sleep, and not enough cooking - that does not bode well for me!

Guess given how the drafts are piling up, it is time for another Mélange post. This time about a certified favourite subject - soups. We love soups - chunky, pureéd, spicy, hearty ... just bring it! And these bowls of goodness end up being even more appetizing on those cold snowy or rainy days - nothing like a cup'o'soup to warm the soul, huh?


I'm actually having to rack my brains about these recipes as I start to type them up - we made them a few weeks ago and I never did get a chance to write about any of them. Guess that's just one more reason why this whole blogging mania is so awesome - the e-trail that I can use to look up recipes!

All 3 soups featured here are relatively chunky or thick - guess that was a sign of wanting to warm the insides on a cold evening! And all of them have a zing - be it cayenne or green chillies or a healthy dose of garlic. So, if you're hankering for a read about some spicy healthy goodness, you're home!

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Spiced Cauliflower Soup

I'm sure cauliflower soups and bisques are a favourite in most households - who can resist the creamy, yet light flavours of this insanely cute looking vegetable? Yes, call me crazy, but I really think the cauliflower is a hottie in the world of vegetables! And this simple soup totally showcased the cauliflower - one of those recipes that completely relies on the quality of the vegetable rather than trying to force a plethora of flavours on it.


Servings: 4

1 small cauliflower - chopped
1 onion - chopped
1 T safflower oil
1 garlic clove - crushed
1 T grated ginger
2 t turmeric powder
1 t cumin seeds
1 t black mustard seeds
2 t freshly ground coriander
4 cups vegetable stock or water
1 cup nonfat yogurt
salt and freshly ground pepper
cilantro or parsley for garnish

Put the cauliflower and onion in a large saucepan with the oil and 3-4 T of water.
Heat till bubbling, then cover the saucepan and turn the heat down.
Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes.
Add the ginger, garlic and spices and stir occasionally for about 2 minutes.
Add the stock (or water) and season with salt and pepper.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.
Once cooled, puree the liquid to a coarse texture.
Stir in the yogurt and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Garnish with cilantro or parsley before serving.

Opinion?

Pretty good! We skipped using any potatoes, so the soup was not quite as creamy as we liked, but it ended up being much lighter - which was a good thing. Next time we make this, I think I want it chunky, not pureed - I'm a big fan of cauliflower chunks :)

***

Vegetable Curry Soup

One fine evening, we were hankering for desi flavours, but nothing too heavy or intense. After poking around some, we decided to go for a light soup-like version of a sambar - we skipped several of the traditional sambar seasonings, even the tamarind and instead settled for the earthy flavour of freshly ground coriander. And the sweet-tart Meyer lemon totally completed the flavours of this soup!


Servings: 4

1 cup red lentils (masoor dal)
2 scallions
3 cloves of garlic - crushed
1" ginger - grated
1 red onion - sliced long
2 carrots - sliced long
1/2 red bell pepper - sliced long
1 cup fresh (or frozen) peas
1 T freshly ground coriander
juice of 1 Meyer lemon
2 bay leaves
1 T olive oil
1 t cayenne pepper
salt

Wash the lentils and put it in a saucepan with 3 cups of water.
Cook covered on low for about 15 minutes till the lentils are cooked, but not mushed up.
In the meantime, heat the oil in a saucepan and saute the onions, ginger and garlic along with the bay leaves.
Chop the whites of the scallions finely and add them to the saucepan.
Add the carrots, bell pepper and peas and saute for 4-5 minutes.
Add the cooked lentils along with the spices and seasonings.
Simmer covered for another 4-5 minutes.
Once the soup is off the stove, stir in the lemon juice and check the seasonings.
Garnish with the chopped scallion greens before serving.

Opinion?

Simple and tasty- the perfect quick fix soup that makes for a lighter version of comfort flavours. And Autumn made a fabulous veggie roast - parsnips, carrots and potatoes from her PO box - the perfect complement to this soup.

***

West Indian Peanut Soup

Groundnuts - also known as earth nuts, goober peas (That's right!!!), peanuts ... Mmm! I can't imagine a life without these - they're ubiquitous in tropical foods, especially in stews and sauces. I love natural peanut butter over the commercial one which contains salt, sugar and several additives. This soup, often known as a Groundnut Stew, is a great showcase of tropical flavours - we replaced the potato with a turnip and skipped the okra - I'm sure traditionalists will cringe at that, but it takes a *lot* to make me eat okra :)

We adapted this soup from Jay Solomon's recipe in A Taste of the Tropics - a fabulous book, replete with mouthwatering Pacific and Caribbean recipes. Another favourite book of his is the truly brilliant Great Bowls of Fire.



Servings: 4

2 t safflower oil
1 medium sized onion - diced
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 T minced fresh ginger
1 cup of turnip - peeled and diced
5 cups water
5 T unsweetened chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup crushed tomatoes
2 cups shredded kale
2 t dried thyme
2 t ground cumin
1 t freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
cilantro to garnish

Heat the olive oil in a stockpot and saute the onions, ginger and garlic.
Add the turnip and water and cook for 10-12 minutes till the turnip is softened.
Throw in the peanut butter, kale, crushed tomatoes and seasonings and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently.
If the peanut butter clumps together, whisk it to blend it into the soup.
Remove from the heat and run a blender through the soup to make a coarse mixture.
Garnish with cilantro before serving.

Opinion?

*wow*! This is seriously one of my favourite soups now. I can't wait to try the chunkier stew version. *drool*! I might even throw in the okra next time around. Cyn, if you're reading this, you better tell me more about variations I can try here - I'm seriously hooked! :)

Paanch Mishuli - Bengali Vegetable Medley

Rosogolla ... rasmalai ... sandesh ... mishti doi ... malpoa ... cham cham ... *drool* ... bengali sweets rock! I love making them, love eating them, love writing about them ... Wait! This blog doesn't have a bengali dessert post yet! That sucks!

Note to self:
Make some yummy rasmalai this week just so I can write about it!

Ok, so this post isn't about bengali sweets. Sorry! But it comes close. It does involve bengali spices and a multitude of vegetables, all goodness. I haven't cooked much bong food, so it was fun to pick up one of those simple postcard cookbooks - this time Bangla Ranna was my choice. It has a slew of bengali recipes - reasonably well written out. I particularly like the fact that the author Satarupa Banerjee dedicated this book to the countless housewives in Bengal who keep the tradition of Bengali cuisine alive. Got to love that :)

As I flipped the pages, page 75 caught my eye - Paanch Mishuli - a vegetable medley that uses a choice of vegetables that are in season. Hmm ... I could extend that to apply to the vegetables that are in season and available in my fridge, right? :)

So, that's what we went with - a medley of acorn squash, plantain, bitter gourd, edamame, beans and snap peas - *lots* of green goodness!

Paanch Mishuli
Variation of the traditional vegetable medley

Servings: 2

1 acorn squash
1 bitter gourd - deseeded and chopped
1/4 lb green beans - chopped into 1" pieces
1 cup of shelled green peas
1 plantain - grated
1 cup edamame

a small ball of tamarind soaked in 1 cup of boiling water
2 t Paanch phoran (recipe below)
3 green chillies - sliced long
1 " ginger - ground into a paste
2 T mustard oil
1 t turmeric powder
1 T brown sugar
salt

Soak the bitter gourd pieces in the tamarind water for atleast 30 minutes.
Cut the acorn squash in half, place the cut faces down in a pan filled with 1/2" of water.
Bake the squash for 10 minutes at 400 F.
Once the squash is cooked, scoop out the meat with a spoon and discard the skin.
Heat the oil in a wok and toss in the paanch phoran.
Stir in the ginger paste.
Add the grated plantain and saute for 4-5 minutes.
Throw in the rest of the vegetables - beans, peas, edamame and bitter gourd (after discarding the water) and cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Now add the squash, salt, turmeric, sugar and green chillies.
Stir and cook covered on low till the vegetables are almost done.
Now, cook uncovered till most of the moisture evaporates - this should be a moist, but not runny curry.

This medley goes well with most indian breads or rice.

***

Paanch Phoran Recipe

This is usually a combination of 5 whole spices, though I've encountered a few variations.

1 t cumin
1 t kalo jeera
1 t mustard
1 t fennel
1 t fenugreek

Lightly roast the spices before grinding to a powder.

***

Opinion?

The paanch phoran flavours rock! I honestly don't know how the traditional mishuli is supposed to taste, but this medley with some garlic naan made for a terrific dinner!

I'm dedicating this post to Sandeepa, the awesome Bong Mom whose blog is inspiring me to try more Bengali recipes - we haven't seen her post in a while, I'm waiting for her to come back :)

Podalanga curry and Dahi Shorba

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 end up being a great learning experience of regional indian cuisines.

It is always fun to encounter desi recipes from different regions - with very different names and sometimes containing diverse ingredients that end up looking and tasting quite similar to each other. Think about Punjabi kadhi and the south indian mor kozhambu - very different, yet very similar. As I perused the Rajasthani postcard cookbook, I found another recipe that belongs with these two - Dahi Shorba. It is touted as a yogurt soup with mouthwatering spices and sounded like part of the perfect meal. To complement this, I went with a simple curry of snake gourd - I'm used to eating this in a koottu, but figured a curry heavy with some boiled channa dal might do the trick.

Dahi Shorba
Spicy yogurt soup

Servings: 1

1 cup homemade dahi (or any thick yogurt)
1 t besan flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 t red chilli powder
1/2 t turmeric (haldi powder)
1/4 t amchoor powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sesame oil
1/2 t mustard seeds (rai)
1/4 t asafoetida
4-5 curry leaves
1/2 t grated ginger
chopped cilantro for garnishing

Mix the curd, besan, water, red chilli powder, turmeric, amchoor and salt.
Beat this mixture well and run through cheesecloth or a fine sieve.
Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the mustard seeds.
Once it splutters, add the asafoetida, curry leaves and ginger.
Add the besan-curd mix into the saucepan, stir till it boils and continue to simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Garnish with the chopped cilantro.

Podalangai Curry
Got to love that snake gourd

Servings: 2

2 short snake gourds - deseeded and cut into small pieces
1 large green chilli - cut into small pieces
1 t mustard seeds
1 t urad dal
2 T channa dal - soaked for 10 minutes in boiling water
1 T dried coconut flakes
salt to taste
1/2 asafoetida (hing)
1 t sesame oil

Heat the oil in a wok, add the mustard seeds.
Once the seeds splutter, add the urad dal, asafoetida and green chilli pieces.
Drain the water from the channa dal and add it along with the coconut.
Cover and cook on low for 6-7 minutes.
Season with salt.


Opinion?

The dahi shorba was fabulous - had flavours similar to kadhi, but felt much lighter. Can't wait to make this again! The snake gourd was yummy - like always! I think I prefer the koottu version, but this turned out to be a healthy and tasty alternative. Plus it went well with the shorba! *yay*


I'm sending these off to Claudia from Fool for Food as my WHB entry for this week. WHB (Kalyn's brainchild ) is a fabulous weekly event focusing on vegetables, herbs, flowers and plants.

Thayir Saadam (Curd Rice) - quintessential comfort food

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 nature

That 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 hipness factor to it - Krd Rys in to-go boxes - guess Chennai truly can't do without it!

***

Comfort food

* Food that comforts or affords solace, hence any food (frequently with a high sugar or carbohydrate content) that is associated with childhood or with home cooking
[Oxford English Dictionary]
* Food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic and sentimental appeal [Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary]

***

Guess thayir saadam scores on all counts here - carbohydrates? Hell, yes! Nostalgia - full of it! Lots of pleasant memories of growing up and of home cooking - apparently, I often have this stupid grin on my face when I'm digging into a bowl of curd rice - can't help it, can I? The flavours, the memories, the aromas, *so* good!

A key aspect of curd rice has always been the home-made yogurt - freshly set yogurt is the best - soft, smooth, room-temperature, melting in the mouth!

Thayir Saadam
Call me a milquetoast, but I love it!

Servings: 2

1 cup brown rice (any kind would work here)
1.5-2 cups of home-made curd
1 t mustard
1 t urad dal
5-6 curry leaves
2-3 green chillies - chopped
1" ginger - grated
1 t sesame oil

Garnish
2 T pomegranate arils

Wash the rice and cook it in 2+ cups of water till it is totally done and soft.
Heat the oil in a work, add the mustard and let it splutter.
Add the urad dal and curry leaves and saute for a minute.
Throw in the ginger and green chillies and saute a bit more.
Mash the rice before stirring it into this garnish mixture.
Let the rice cool down a bit before stirring in the yogurt.

Garnish with the pomegranate arils. Or maybe with sliced grapes. Or even cherry tomatoes. Or just cilantro. There is so much one can use here!

We often eat this with some pickle - avakkai, vadu mangai and gongura are favourites.




This goes to Meeta for her Monthly Mingle - the theme this time is Comfort Foods.


Am also sending this to the Skinny Gourmet for her Food for Thought event - in honour of how evocative this simple dish is - all the fabulous memories it brings back of growing up in Chennai, humid summer days, home food, family dinners ...

Yams - curried, not candied

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 Tomatoes
No grinding required :)

Servings: 2

2 medium-sized yams - sliced into thin half-moons
1.5 cups of corn kernels
3 roma tomatoes - finely chopped
1 yellow squash - chopped
3 leaves of bokchoy - chopped
1 t mustard seeds
1 t cumin seeds
1 t kalonji seeds
1 T coriander powder
1 T cayenne pepper powder
1 t sesame oil
salt

Heat the oil in a wok and toss in the mustard seeds.
Once they splutter, add the cumin and kalonji seeds and stir for a minute.
Now add the tomatoes, squash and a handful of the yam pieces along with the powder spices and salt.
Saute until the veggies are softened and pulpy.
Add about 1 cup of water and gently mash the mixture.
Cook for about 5-6 minutes with occasional stirring.
Now toss in the corn and remaining yams and simmer for another 4-5 minutes.
Yams actually cook really easily (a lot faster than potatoes), so careful about overcooking these - the idea here was the preserve some chunky yams in the tomato-squash-yam gravy.



Ok, so, what could we eat with this Sra-dish? :) We had a bag of frozen methi that we wanted to use up - first time ever that we were going to use that! I have such a hard time using any frozen greens, especially methi - it is so earthy, I can't imagine the flavors would be preserved through a freeze-thaw. Well, it wasn't! But the methi pulav turned out pretty good - very nutty and chewy actually because of the brown basmati rice. The end result was pretty decent.

Nutty Methi Pulav
No grinding here either!

Servings: 4

2 cups of brown basmati rice
2 cups of thawed methi leaves
4 red chillies
1 T cumin seeds
1 T garam masala (I use a homemade version, but pretty much any store-bought masala should do too)
1 t olive oil
salt

Wash the rice and dry it in a plate for about 10 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and saute the cumin and red chillies in it.
Add the rice and saute for about 2-3 minutes, constantly stirring.
Now add the methi leaves along with 4 cups of water.
Toss in the salt and garam masala and stir for 1-2 minutes.
Cook covered on low till the water is absorbed and the rice is fully cooked.
(If the rice does not seem completely cooked, add another 1/2 cup of water, stir and simmer for another 3-4 minutes)


We really liked the combination of this rice with the chunky yam curry - I think the only thing that could've made it better would've been a raita. Or maybe a yogurt-based gravy? But Sra wouldn't want that! :D

'k, Sra, have fun with this one! :)

Does my blog look ugly in this?

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 less than 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 Dal
Tastes better than it looks!

Servings: 4

1 cup whole moong dal
1/2 green cabbage - shredded
1 t sesame oil
1 t mustard seeds
1 t urad dal
10-12 curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida
1 t turmeric
salt
2 t ground black pepper
1/2 t ground white pepper

Rinse the moong dal and cook it with 2 cups of water (in a pressure cooker or over low heat).
Heat the oil in a wok, add the mustard seeds and let them sputter.
Add the ural dal, curry leaves and asafoetida and cook for a minute.
Now toss in the cabbage along with turmeric, stir and cook covered for about 12 minutes.
Once the cabbage is cooked, mix in the moong dal - try to fold it in so the whole moong doesn't get broken too much.
Add the peppers and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro, maybe? I didn't even get that far!


Uglier?

Acorn Squash'n'Leek Dip
Yellow, but yummy!

Servings: 4

1 small acorn squash
4-5 small leeks - chopped
2 t olive oil
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 t cayenne pepper
salt
1 t dried thyme

Cut the squash in half and deseed it.
Rub the halves with 1 t of olive oil, drizzle some thyme on them and bake in foil for 40 minutes.
Heat 1 t of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the leeks lightly.
Scoop out the baked squash insides and add it to the leeks, mashing them gently.
Add cayenne pepper and salt and saute for 1-2 minutes.
Finally, toss in the cottage cheese and mix.


Not so ugly!


We made these quick'n'easy tomato-onion rotis to go with our lovely, ugly sides!

This posting is a couple of days late, but I'm sending it off to Cathy anyway - it *so* fits the ugly bill! :)

Another round of comfort food

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

Servings: 2

1 chayote squash - diced into small cubes
1 t mustard
1 t urad dal
6-7 curry leaves
1/2 t sesame oil
1 t ground spices (fenugreek + red chillies + turmeric + coriander)
salt

Heat the oil in a wok and toss in the mustard seeds.
Once they sputter, add the urad dal, curry leaves and spices and stir for 1-2 minutes.
Toss in the squash cubes and salt and cook covered for 3-4 minutes till slightly charred.
Sprinkle some water (2 T) on the squash and stir some more.
Again, simmer covered for 6-7 minutes or till squash seems cooked.

Quinoa

Servings: 2

1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
1 t salt

Soak the quinoa in cold water for about 15 minutes. This is essential to remove the bitter outer coating of the grains which contains saponin - an ingredient that can often upset the stomach lining!
Drain the quinoa and add 2 cups of water and the salt.
Simmer covered till cooked - about 15 minutes, I think - once cooked, the grains kind of expand and unfurl - it is pretty visible that they're done :)

All I did was eat the quinoa with the squash, a wonk of homemade yogurt (*so* good!!!) and some lime pickle that my mum made when she was here - the ultimate comfort food! :)

Assortment of vegetarian delights!

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 ginger, garlic and green chillies, with tamarind for adding tartness. When I first stumbled upon this recipe, I wasn't quite convinced about the flavors. No coriander or cumin or fenugreek or cinnamon or cardamom or anise or any other spice? Weird!! Well, I ate my words (and plenty of the stew!) The simplicity was definitely the essence - and it tasted and smelled fabulous! :)

Cauliflower Coconut Stew

Servings: 4

1 large cauliflower - florettes separated/cut into small pieces
2 small roma tomatoes - chopped
1 smallish vidalia onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
1" ginger
1 t turmeric
1 T safflower oil
1.5 cups light coconut milk
1 cup water
1 t brown sugar
1 t tamarind pulp soaked in a 3T of warm water
salt

Grind the onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies into a coarse paste in a food processor.
Heat the oil and fry this paste with the turmeric till the aroma gets really strong, but avoid browning it.
Add the cauliflower and toss till the pieces are coated with the paste.
Now add the coconut milk, water, sugar and salt and simmer for about 10-12 minutes.
Toss in the tamarind and chopped tomatoes - cook for about 3-4 minutes before taking off the stove.

This worked great with some naan from Trader Joe's - I really meant to make some, but got too hungry :)


Next in the roundup was this pretty different daal - with beans and squash! I was a little apprehensive about trying it, but I really wanted to use up the last of the butternut squash I had sitting in the fridge, so I decided to throw it in with some green beans and make a daal. The main inspiration for this combination is the killer green beans and kabocha squash dish at one of our favorite restaurants in Seattle - Monsoon. Absolutely divine :)

Green Beans and Butternut Squash Daal

Servings: 4

1/2 lb fresh green beans
1/2 butternut squash
1/2 cup each of tuar daal, masoor daal and channa daal
4 cloves garlic - smashed
1 t sesame oil
1 T cumin seeds
1 T red chilli powder
1 t sumac powder
kosher salt
2 T lemon juice
a handful of chopped cilantro

Mix the daals and cook in 3+ cups of water till softened.
Peel and cut the squash into small chunks - this was a pain since butternut squash has a rigid skin and is hard to peel and cut - but we opted to do this instead of baking it since we wanted to preservce the chunks and not soften it completely.
Heat the oil in a wok and brown the cumin and garlic in it. Add the beans and squash chunks along with 1/3 cup of water and cook covered on low for 8-10 minutes.
Add the seasonings and salt and cook for another 5-7 minutes till the veggies are done.
Season with the lemon juice and cilantro.

This went well with mediterranean flatbread as well as the yummy pulao that follows :)


Ok, so we had a hankering for a rice dish. And we had a ton of crimini mushrooms waiting to be eaten. A long time ago, long before I fell in love with mushrooms, I tried this mushroom pulao and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was - and now that I'm all about most mushrooms (still not a big button and unmarinated portabello fan), we figured it was time to try out the mushroom pulao that I could smell in my head :)

Mushroom and Asparagus Pulao

Servings: 6

2 cups of crimini mushrooms - finely sliced
12 stalks of asparagus - chopped into 1" pieces
4 garlic cloves - sliced
2 cups of brown basmati rice

1 T olive oil
1 t cumin seeds
2 cardamom pods
1 2" cinnamon stick
1 T cayenne pepper
salt

Wash the rice and soak it in water for about 30 minutes.
Heat the oil in a wok and add all the spices plus the garlic and salt.
Add the mushrooms and asparagus and saute for about 4-5 minutes.
Strain the basmati rice through a colander before adding it into the wok.
Stir gently to mix things up, without breaking the grains of rice (since they are softened by soaking in water)
Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil before lowering the heat. Cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes.
Before serving, stir up the rice gently with a fork to mix the spices up once more.

Perfect! The rice was light and fluffy, the mushrooms aromatic, the end result was immensely satisfying! :)

Navarathri goodies!

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 chickpeas
1 can corn
3 red chillies - finely chopped
2 green chillies - finely chopped
1 T mustard
1 T cumin
1 t asafoetida
1 T sesame oil
1 t turmeric powder
3 T grated ginger
10-12 curry leaves
1 cup fresh coconut gratings
juice from 2 lemons
salt

Soak the channa in warm water for a few hours and then cook them till tender. Heat the sesame oil and add the mustard. Once it sputters, add the jeera, red and green chillies, ginger, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add the channa, garbanzo and corn. Sprinkle with turmeric and salt and simmer for a few more minutes. Finally toss with the grated coconut and lemon juice.

Happy, very happy!

So, we needed another snack - hmm ... poha? We often make poha for navarathri - sometimes like upma, sometimes with lemon or tamarind. But lately, the poha at the indian stores have not been thick enough and get all clumpy - I really don't like that! So, I went back and forth between using poha and basmati rice and finally settled on poha. Well, that was a minor mistake. I wanted to make mango poha - with a ton of grated raw mango and it ended up all clumpy! Minor disaster! After a few minutes of panicking, I figured I could salvage it by making patties out of the poha and baking them. Hmm ... worth a try!

Used-to-be-poha patties

another zillion servings!

1 lb poha (thickest available)
2 red chillies - chopped
a handful of peanuts
1 t mustard
1 t urad dal
1 T channa dal
2 raw mangoes - grated
1 t turmeric
salt
10 curry leaves
1 t oil

Heat the oil in a wok and add the mustard. Once it sputters, throw in the curry leaves, peanuts, urad dal, channa dal and red chillies. Once browned, add the grated mango, turmeric and salt. Cook for a few minutes. In the meantime, add some water to the poha to soften it. This often ends up being tricky - I add a little water at a time, wait for it to soak up and then add more. The poha seemed pretty happy till I added the mango mix and then it seemed a little too clumpy.

*grrr*! Time to bake! Heat oven to 450 F. Grease a large baking tray and make patties out of handfuls of the poha mix and bake these in the oven for about 20 minutes. Flip the patties over, douse them with some oil spray and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Wow! These turned out pretty good. Really, really surprising, but we were pretty kicked about it :)

Ok, we obviously needed a dessert here. I had read about Ganne ka kheer and really wanted to try it out, but I could only land my hands on a can of sugarcane at my fave latino store La Espinola. I proceeded to extract the juice out of the sugarcane stalks (?!!) using a juicer. Well, 45 minutes and achy hands later, I had about a cup of juice - figured that would have to do! Since that wasn't much juice, I decided to maybe make a kheer with nuts as well as the rice cooked in sugarcane. Hmm ... what we ended up with was a lot different :)

Sugarcane-banana cake in cashew-pistachio milk
Many many servings

Sugarcane-banana cake
------------------------------------
3/4 cup of basmati rice
1 cup sugarcane juice
3 overripe bananas
5 green cardamoms
8 slices of white bread

I cooked about 3/4 cup of rice in the sugarcane juice + 1 cup of water for about 20 minutes till the rice was completely cooked and soft. I tossed in the cardamom and bananas and cooked for another 5 minutes, mashing the rice+bananas along the way. While the mixture cooled, I ground up the bread slices into fresh crumbs. The last step here was the mix the bread crumbs with the rice/banana mix, pour it into a cake pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 F.

Cashew-Pistachio Milk
----------------------------------
5 cups nonfat milk
1 can condensed milk
a handful of unsalted cashews
another handful of unsalted pistachios
2 T saffron

I cooked the nuts in the milk for about ten minutes. Once cooled, I pureed this milk and set it back on the stove on simmer. Next, I added the condensed milk and saffron kept stirring the milk till it boiled and got thicker. It took another 15-20 minutes of constant stirring before the milk was thick enough for the dessert.

Ok, so the final assembly of our dessert involved submerging a piece of the sugarcane-banana cake in a cup of the milk till it completely soaked up the flavors and got all soft and sweet and yummy! Kind of contrived, a little complicated but totally worth it! :)

Ok, Lakshmi has convinced me, this has got to be my submission for Jihva's Festive Series :) Thanks, Lakshmi!

Cabbage koottu - supreme comfort food

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

Servings: 4

3/4 medium green cabbage - chopped into 1"-2" long shreds

1 cup cooked tual daal

2 T channa dal - boiled till cooked (but not mushy)

1 small ball of tamarind

salt

Seasoning:

----------------

1 t sesame oil

1 t mustard

1 t urad daal

2 red chillies

1/2 t asafoetida

7-8 curry leaves

Masala:

-----------

1.5 T coriander seeds

2 red chillies

2 T grated coconut

Garnish:

------------

Chopped cilantro

a few fresh pomegranate seeds

Roast the masala ingredients and grind to a coarse powder.

Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water till the juices can be completely extracted. Squeeze out the tamarind and save the water.

Heat the oil in a wok and add the seasoning.

Once the mustard sputters, add the tamarind water and turmeric.

Once the water boils, add the cabbage and cook covered for 7-8 minutes.

Add the cooked channa daal and stir for a couple of minutes.

Now, toss in the tuar daal along with the masala and salt and simmer for about 5 minutes just so the flavors can blend.

Garnish with cilantro and pomegranate seeds (I've never tried these before - the sweet crunchiness was a perfect complement to the tart and spice of the koottu).

Baby Brinjals and Potato curry

Servings: 4

7-8 baby brinjals

5 dutch potatoes

1 t sesame oil

1 t cumin seeds

1/2 t turmeric

1.5 T sambar powder

salt

Chop the potatoes into long pieces (4 per potato). Cut off the stems of the brinjals and make a plus cut at the tops (just like for stuffed brinjals).

In a wide skillet, heat the oil and toss in the cumin seeds.

Once browned, add the potatoes and sprinkle some water. Cook covered for about 6-7 minutes. I liked the idea of roasting the potatoes instead of boiling them just so they could be more crispy.

Once the potatoes are parboiled, add the brinjals along with the sambar powder, turmeric and salt. Cook covered for about 6-8 minutes till both the potatoes and brinjals are done and have absorbed the spices. You could optionally simmer for another minute (uncovered) in case any water needs to evaporate.

Simple, yet delicious - seems like eggplant behaves best when left to its own devices :)

Saag on my mind

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

Servings: 4 generous portions

1 cup tuar daal

1 cup masoor daal

1 bunch baby spinach - chopped
1/2 bunch collard greens - chopped
1 onion - minced
1 T grated ginger
1 t turmeric

1.5 t black mustard seeds

1 t jeera (cumin seeds)

2 red chillies

1 t sesame oil

salt

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 t saffron

Cook the daals in 4.5 cups of water till soft (in a pressure cooker or covered on the stove).

Heat the oil in a pan, throw in the mustard, red chillies and jeera.

Once the mustard sputters, add the onions and ginger and cook till the onions turn translucent.

Throw in the greens and turmeric with about 1/4 cup of water and simmer covered till the greens are cooked.

Add the daals and salt, maybe a pinch of cayenne too!

Garnish with a swirl of buttermilk and some saffron. I used the middle-eastern saffron here (not Indian) - it seemed a lot thicker and less intense - definitely has the hay-like smell, but doesn't impart much of a flavor.

Crazy sidenote: I've had the bowl shown in this picture since I was 4 years old! :)

Bring on some Balti

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 took about 7 minutes)
1 small head of broccoli

1/2 green apple - cut into cubes
3 small green tomatoes
1 shallot - chopped
3 green chillies
1" ginger
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup of yogurt
4 T coriander leaves - chopped
2 T mint - chopped
1 t sesame oil

Garnish
---------------
7-8 chopped almonds
12-15 chopped sugar plum tomatoes

Puree the apple, green tomatoes, garlic, ginger, mint, coriander, yogurt and shallot into a coarse paste.
Heat the sesame oil in a wok and pour in the yogurt mixture. Cook for about 2-3 minutes.
In the meantime, chop up all the veggies other than the fava beans into large chunks (atleast 1"). Toss all the veggies into the yogurt mixture and cook covered on low-medium for about 12-14 minutes till they are fully cooked.

Garnish with the almonds and tomatoes and maybe some cilantro.

Obviously, this dish was begging for some roti to go with it. After poking around my fridge, I finally decided to go with some carrot parathas. After boiling a couple of carrots, I mashed them into the dough (mix of organic pastry and stone ground wheat flours) and added some sumac and garam masala for seasoning. This seemed like an easier option than stuffing the parathas with the carrots, I only have my sheer laziness to blame here :) Turned out decent, so no complaints!


Asma asked for more details on how I made the carrot parathas, so I'm attempting to outline proportions here:

Carrot Parathas

3 cups of whole wheat flour (I usually use the organic flour from the bins at PCC, but regular atta should totally work)
1 T salt
1 T cayenne pepper
2 carrots - boiled and mashed
1 t sumac powder
1 t garam masala
1/2 cup warmed milk
1 T olive oil
warm water for kneading the dough

Mix the spices and carrots with the flour, constantly adding the milk to soften it.
After kneading for about 5-6 minutes and the atta starts getting mixed in, add warm water one tablespoon at a time till the dough gets an elastic consistency.
Now add the oil and continue kneading for about 5-7 minutes.
Cover with a damp paper towel for about 15 minutes before rolling it out into parathas.
Make 1.5" balls of the dough and roll each into a flat circle.
Fold this circle into half and then a quarter.
Roll this quarter out again till it gets the right thickness for a paratha.
Cook each paratha on a tava, adding oil spray as needed (Obviously, you can use butter or oil here :))

Rice Mixup, mon?!

Indian rice dishes are among the best out there, what with pulao and biriyani and bisibela and vangi bath, the list just goes on! But then there are the fiery latin and caribbean flavors that arouse all the senses - the paellas and beans'n'rice and arroz con something or the other!

Last night was definitely a rice night, after poking around Didi Emmons' book, we stumbled upon this yummy looking Jamaican rice mixup recipe that we morphed to work with what we had. Instead of using regular long-grain rice, we use this nutty rice and lentils mix that I found at PCC a few weeks ago. With 3 kinds of wild and brown rice as well as red lentils, it ends up bursting with flavor and blends really well with strong spices like cumin and coriander. All the stores seem to be teeming with squashes right now, so we settled for this Delicata squash - even as I cut it, it seemed to be redolent of sweet potato rather than squash. Well, wikipedia seems to think the same! :) We went with onions and spinach, but skipped the usual black beans since our rice mix already had lentils.

Jamaican Rice Mixup

1/2 large red onion - minced
5 cloves garlic
1" ginger
1 jalapeno
1 delicata squash - peeled and diced
20-25 leaves of baby spinach - cut into long shreds
1.5 cups of wild/brown rice + red lentils
chives for seasoning
salt'n'pepper

Spices:
1 t coriander powder
1 t allspice powder
1 t saffron

Cook the rice in 2.5 cups of water. In the meantime, saute the onions in 1 T of olive oil. Grind up the ginger, garlic and green chillies and throw them in. Once the onions are translucent, add the squash along with 1/2 cup of water. Add the spices and simmer covered till the squash is cooked. Add the cooked rice along with the spinach. Stir in the salt and pepper and cook for 1-2 minutes longer.

Garnish? Chives fresh from the veggie patch :)


I was hankering for a side for this and wasn't quite sure what would go with it. We finally settled on a raita. Since this rice had strong flavors like indian food, the raita ended up being the perfect complement. And it took all of 5 minutes! One grated carrot and a spoon of mango pickle stirred into 2 cups of buttermilk. Done! :)