Enchilada heaven ...

... is such a happy place to be in. Warm, crispy-edged tortillas filled with all sorts of goodies, drizzled with pungent sauces, topped with cheese ... I could just pack up my bags and move there!

Atleast that's how I felt after experimenting with a couple of enchilada recipes from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. This book truly seems to have something for everyone - fresh, inviting salads, comforting soups, delicious stews and gratins, many a stir-fry ... the list goes on.

This is a recipe from yestermonth, I originally attempted to post it on June 5th, didn't quite happen. I tried to finish writing it on the 11th ... hmm, another failed attempt! And no, I don't really remember all my incomplete posts, just peeked into my drafts folder :)

So, here we are ... and I'm truly hoping I can remember how I reworked this recipe! The original recipe called for a variety of mushrooms and some squash. We were pretty low on mushrooms and loathe to head towards the store, so it was just time to improvise. Besides, we had a couple of acorn squashes waiting to be used up, can't quite go wrong with those! We finally settled on
a medley of lightly caramelized onions, mushrooms, diced acorn squash, crumbled home-made paneer and a slew of herbs from the garden. The paneer was actually more like chenna and not the usually firm kind, I chose to let it stay crumbled with a wee bit of extra moisture instead of forming a firm slab. Worked out perfect for this recipe.

The herbs that we threw into these enchiladas really kicked up the flavours - mildly sweet cinnamon basil, bergamot-scented orange mint, pungent chives, fennel - a whole bunch of goodness!

The metaphoric icing on the cake was the tomatillo sauce. We dithered a bit between a smoky adobo chilli sauce and a fresher green sauce, but finally settled on using a bunch of tomatillos that had been sitting in the fridge.

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Squash'n'Paneer Enchiladas
With some sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions to keep everyone happy!

Servings: 8-10

1 packet of whole grain tortillas (medium sized)
1 acorn squash - peeled and diced
1/2 red onion - chopped (not too fine)
3 cloves of garlic - minced
1.5 cups of crumbled paneer
1/2 cup of chopped crimini mushrooms
8-10 leaves of cinnamon basil
6-7 leaves of orange mint
a handful of chives leaves - chopped
4-5 sprigs of fennel leaves - chopped
a handful of italian parsley - chopped
1 T olive oil
1 t brown sugar
1 T cayenne pepper powder

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Heat the oil in a wok and saute the onions till they start to get translucent.
Throw in the brown sugar and saute a bit more (4-5 minutes) till the onions are caramelized.
Add the squash and mushrooms and saute for about 3-4 minutes.
Add a few tablespoons of water and simmer covered for another 2-3 minutes till the squash is partially cooked.
Take off the stove before adding the paneer bits along with the herbs, cayenne powder and salt.

Take a dollop of this veggie mixture and roll it in a tortilla. Make sure that you roll it really tight and fold the edges in if needed.
Place this in a greased baking tray.
Roll and fill the rest of the tortillas and stack them alongside one another in the baking tray.

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Tomatillo-Cilantro Sauce

Servings: 2 cups

5-6 chubby tomatillos - husks removed and quartered
1/2 vidalia onion - chopped
1 cup cilantro leaves
1 t grated lime zest
1 jalapeno pepper - chopped

Bring a couple of cups of water to boil in a saucepan.
Add the onions, tomatillo and jalapeno to the saucepan.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until you basically kill the bright green colour of the tomatillos.
Transfer the vegetables to a food processor or blender, add the cilantro and puree.
Stir in the lime zest and season with salt.

Pour the sauce over the rolled enchiladas.
Sprinkle any remaining veggie filling over the enchiladas.
Set the baking pan in the oven for about 8-10 minutes.

*********************

NOTE:
Watch out! It is hot! Don't scald your tongue trying to gobble up the enchiladas! :)

*********************

Opinion?

Fabulous. Truly. I think I dreamed of attending Deborah Madison's cooking classes the night I made these! Yummy squash'n'paneer filling, delicate herb flavours, tangy-spicy tomatillo sauce, what more could one ask for?

***************

Similar recipes here and beyond

* Spicy Nutty Enchiladas
* Bean-Chilli Enchiladas @ One Hot Stove
* Paneer and Mushroom Enchiladas @ Sunita's World

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Off this goes to Andrea for her awesome Grow Your Own event - every herb that went into this recipe came from my garden. W00t!

Squash parathas to celebrate ...

a return to blogging?

a manic work life finally easing up?

a fabulous weekend?

summer finally coming to life?

life, in general?

All of the above, I guess! And here's hoping to get through the mountains of recipes waiting to make it out here!


Tonight warranted simple comfort food - something healthy, quick to throw together? Something with desi flavours ... After poking around a bit, I settled on making some parathas. It has been a while since I handled that rolling pin, and I've been missing the cathartic experience of kneading the dough, making those balls, patting them out, rolling them, folding them, rolling them ... *so* relaxing!

Experimenting with stuffings in parathas is always exciting, we often play around with a variety of greens, cheese curds, tomatoes, onions, the works. But a squash variant was a first. I initially contemplated stuffing the parathas with a squash filling, but finally settled for just kneading it into the dough - definitely easier to work with, plus the bread turned out much softer! Also, instead of boiling/cooking the vegetables, I chose to grate the squash, mix it up with some spices and knead it into the dough instead.

I also wanted to play around with the dough a bit - so I threw in some coarse whole wheat pastry flour along with a 1/4 cup of corn flour add some earthiness and texture to the dough - always fun to get that chewy undertone!

“If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”
Robert Browning (1812-1889) English poet

Squash Parathas
Moist, chewy goodness!

Servings: 8-10 parathas

2 cups fine whole wheat flour
1/2 cup coarse whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup corn flour
2 T olive oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
warm water as needed for kneading the dough
2 yellow squashes - grated (medium)
salt to taste
1 T ancho chilli powder
1 T sumac powder

Mix the flours in a bowl along with the buttermilk, salt, spices and grated squash.
Start kneading it, adding warm water as needed.
Knead it.
Knead it some more.
And when you think you're done, add the olive oil.
And knead for a few more minutes or till your arm is ready to fall off :)

Cover the bowl with a wet towel and let it sit for atleast 20 minutes.

When your arm has recovered and you're ready to roll out some rotis ...

Take a large ball of dough (about enough to fill your palm), pat it down and roll it out using flour as needed.
Fold the circular roti into a quarter and roll it out again in case you want some funky triangular parathas.

[NOTE]: Every once in a while, I get a hole in my head and forget to complete my thoughts :) Guess that's why I forgot to finish talking about how to make these parathas! Thanks for all the comments remind me to finish my damn sentences :)

Once you've rolled the paratha out, put it onto a greased pan and cook. Once the bottom is mostly cooked, rub the surface with either a bit of butter or some oil (I tend to use grapeseed or sesame oil) and flip over. Grease the other side and cook till somewhat crispy and browned/blackened.

[I tend to store the cooked parathas covered till they're ready to be noshed on.]

Serve with homemade yoghurt and pickles - my choice for tonight was a spicy tomato pickle.


Opinion?
Simple, flavourful, chewy, earthy, very very happy! Adding the corn flour was a killer idea!

*burp*

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I know, I know, I'm super late in posting the roundup for Think Spice - Think Wasabi. What can I say, I'm a super lame duck :( But the dust from a manic work life is finally settling, so hopefully I can do justice to this in the next day or two.

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Whhoooaaaaa!!! Serious thunder and lightning out here! Very exciting :)

Dishin' about aviyal!

Aviyal:

[Wikipedia] a dish that has a unique place in typical Kerala cuisine. It is a thick mixture of a lot of vegetables, curd and coconut. It is seasoned with coconut oil and curry leaves.

A search for aviyal revealed a zillion similar, yet subtly different recipes. I didn't quite realize the ubiquity of this motley assortment of vegetables! Hell, there is even a aviyal.com site - just a placeholder, but exists nevertheless!

And here is the icing on the cake: a mallu rock band called Avial! I couldn't understand a word of this song except for 'Nada Nada' - walk, walk? Not right now, I'm comfortably ensconced on my couch! But the song does rock :) All you mallu folks out there: translation please?

So, last night's dinner involved Aviyal - the neatest thing about this dish is how adaptable it is. Yes, most traditional versions call for raw banana, drumsticks, potatoes, some yams ... but then again, variations almost seem welcome here - the slight twist in flavour induced by a different vegetable is always exciting! That was one of the fun things about eating aviyal when we were kids - it made for the perfect guessing game :)

This most recent aviyal version chose to skip the bananas. I can hear those traditionalists screaming"Sacrilege!" :) Well, it was a warm evening and I really wanted something lighter - the olio of vegetables included some golden beets, carrots, chayote squash, butternut squash, fava beans and green beans. This along with a dollop of some chewy brown rice made for a perfectly happy meal.

Aviyal Recipe for May 2008
Well, this recipe could hold for atleast a month, right? :)

Servings: 4

Vegetables:
1 chayote squash - peeled
1/2 butternut squash - peeled and deseeded
12-15 fresh green beans
1 cup fava beans (shelled or frozen)
2 carrots
1 golden beet

Gravy:

1/2 cup coconut flakes
4 thai green chillies
1" ginger
2-3 black peppercorns
1 t cumin seeds
1 t turmeric powder
Lightly sour curd/yogurt - 1 cup
salt for seasoning

Garnish:
2-3 bay leaves (I'm yet to drag myself to the indian store to get some curry leaves - are they even back in the stores?)
1 t coconut oil

Cut the squashes, green beans, carrots and beet into long thin fingers.
Toss these veggies into a stockpot, add about a cup of water and boil them till almost cooked - this should take under 10 minutes.

If using fresh or frozen fava beans, blanch them before tossing them into the stockpot. Cook for a couple of minutes once they're in.
If using dried beans, cook them in a pot of water till done before throwing them into this mixture.

Grind all the gravy ingredients, adding water as needed.
Throw this paste into the pot with the veggies and boil for a few minutes.
Heat the coconut oil (low) and saute the bay leaves till lightly browned.
Garnish the aviyal with these leaves.


Opinion?

*zing*! Those thai green chillies packed a wallop! The aviyal turned out really flavourful, the coconut and spices danced quite happily with the veggies. I might be hooked onto this Aviyal-Lite - didn't miss the bananas or potatoes at all!

Vegetable Ribbons in gravy

If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?
~Author Unknown

I felt like eating some pasta. And some vegetables. But if those veggies were my antipasto, does this mean I was going to end up hungry after my meal? Well, what if i combined my pasta and antipasto - or even better made my antipasto the pasta? Have I confused you yet? :)

All this started when I stumbled upon a recipe for pasta-like veggie ribbons. Fascinating! Ribbons of zucchini and carrots in a lemony sauce. I could totally work that! Well, I did ... except it only took an hour and a half of peeling those damn vegetables into ribbons. Why didn't anyone tell me this was a ton of work? I want a vegetable ribbon maker *now*!

Veggie ribbons in gravy

Vegetables a la fettucine

Servings: 4

4 long zucchini - peeled
4 long carrots - peeled
8-10 brussel sprouts - halved
1 cup silken tofu
juice of 2 meyer lemons
2 T fresh parsley
1 t cayenne
1/4 cup - grated feta cheese
salt
freshly ground pepper

Ok, get ready for applying some serious elbow grease here!

Peel the zucchini and carrots.
Use a potato peeler and peel long strips of the zucchini and carrots - we basically want strips/ribbons of these veggies. I found that it was a lot easier to make strips of zucchini than carrots - those damn carrots are *so* damn hard!
Once the veggies are all ribboned out, throw the zucchini into a pot of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. No more or it'll turn into mush! Throw the zucchini into a bowl.
Do the same 3-minute cooking thing for the carrots, drain the carrot strips and add them to the bowl.
Now cook the brussel sprouts in the boiling water for 4-5 minutes before draining them out.
Puree the tofu with the lemon juice, parsley and cayenne, season with salt and pepper.
Cook the tofu puree on medium-low for 2-3 minutes before adding it to the veggies.
Toss the vegetables with the sauce, season with salt and pepper.


Opinion?

It turned out pretty tasty. The vegetable ribbons were perfectly cooked and picked up the flavours really well. The tofu sauce had this mildly nutty taste that blended really well with the sweet-tart flavours of the meyer lemons - that was really yummy!

The only thing I wasn't super happy about is how my ribbons turned out - they were a real pain to work with, I'm wondering if I needed a different peeler here to make life easier. Plus the carrot strips did not turn out as long and dainty as I wanted them to be. Whatever, it tasted pretty happy :)

I meant to send this out to Lady Coffee yesterday, but totally zoned out. This is my entry for JFI-Lemons/Limes.

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 :)

Roasted Bell Pepper'n'Squash Soup

In the social state to which we have come today, it is hard to imagine a nation which would live solely on bread and vegetables.
- Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savari
The Physiology of Taste (1825)

If tonight's meal was any indication, Monsieur Brillat-Savarin is totally in the wrong! Well, I'm not sure if a whole nation could survive just on flavourful soups and some tortillas, but I think I could.

:-P

Simply the thing that I am shall make me live.
- William Shakespeare

And so said the bell pepper to the squash :) And the squash nodded vigorously as she said "Me too! Me too!" And then, both of them jumped into a pan, got roasted and ended up living in this fabulously tasty soup.

Roasted Bell Pepper'n'Squash Soup
I'm easy, I taste good, what more could you ask for? :)

Servings: 2 as an entree (or 4 as an appetizer)

2 red bell peppers - quartered
4 yellow squashes - sliced long and cut into chunks
1 t thyme
1 t marjoram
1 t olive oil
1 t red wine vinegar
1 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t honey
1/2 cup yogurt
salt'n'pepper to taste

Toss the bell pepper and squash chunks in a large bowl along with the herbs, pepper flakes, oil, honey and vinegar.
Pour the vegetables into a pan and broil them in the oven till the veggies just start to get charred.
Once cooled, puree the vegetables after adding the yogurt and some water.
Season with salt and pepper.
Garnish with a few drops of yogurt.



Opinion?

*bliss* The pepper and squash truly came to life in this soup, with the herbs making for a nice, mild seasoning. The soup was a happy dip for some whole wheat tortillas.

Erin, you got to have this one for WHB :) Thanks Kalyn for starting this trend!

Got to love that squash!

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 simple side to go with maybe some flatbread or rotis. And an acorn was waiting to be used up! This is one of the easily microwaveable/bakeable squashes - about 8 minutes and it is uniformly cooked. And it isn't too hard to scoop the meat out. We went for a strong garlic flavour with a touch of sugar to cut off the mildly bitter aftertaste that the squash seemed to have - it worked really well!

Squashed Acorn Squash
With a sweet garlic aftertaste!

Servings:2

1 acorn squash
4 cloves garlic - chopped
1 t thyme
1 t muscovado sugar
2 t olive oil
salt
1 t cayenne pepper

Slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
Rub the inside of the squash with 1 t olive oil and the thyme.
Place the squash halves flat face down in a bowl containing water about 1" deep and microwave for 8-9 minutes.
If the insides are not uniformly softened and cooked, microwave for another 1-2 minutes.
Heat 1 t of olive oil in a saucepan and saute the garlic till you can smell it ... *drool*!
Add the squash meat along with the sugar and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Season with salt and cayenne and saute for another 1-2 minutes.

That's it!


Good?
*nod* Surprisingly good! The garlic+sweet flavours kicked ass!


Thanks, Namratha for reminding me about sending this to Fresh Produce of the Month hosted by Marta - this month's theme is squash.

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! :)

Delightful squash bisque

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

Servings: 4

1 medium sized delicata squash
8 -10 cloves of garlic
1/2 vidalia - chopped into big chunks
a few fresh thyme sprigs
2 T olive oil
1 T fresh ground pepper
1 t fresh ground coriander
a few orange mint leaves - chopped
kosher salt

Heat the oven to 400 F. Cut the squash in half and rub inside of squash halves with olive oil. Take a piece of foil and place the garlic cloves along with the thyme and close the foil. Place the squash, garlic foil and onions (drizzled with olive oil) in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Once roasted, scoop the squash out of its skin into a saucepan. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the skin and throw them along with the onions into the saucepan. Add about 4-5 cups of water (or vegetable stock) and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pepper and salt and simmer for another 5-7 minutes. Let the soup cool before pureeing it in a blender or food processor.

Once the soup is ladled into bowls, garnish with the orange mint.

*so* much of flavor - sweet squash, pungent garlic, fragrant thyme, coriander, orange mint ... Yum!

P.S.: This was my submission for Julia's (http://asliceofcherrypie.blogspot.com/) fun seasonal event: In The Bag!

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! :)

Yay! Dosas!

Dosas always make me happy. Very happy! And this time, they made Stephanie & Shawn super happy too! They were long overdue for a south indian food tasting, so the makings were pretty traditional. Figured I'd go with a chutney, sambar and some veggies.

The chutney was super simple, and turned out awesome! I just blended a bunch of cilantro, bengal gram, couple of green chillies and seasoned it with lemon-ginger juice and salt. Yummy!

The sambar was a little different - no coconut this time since Stephanie is not a fan of it. No onions either. So, it was a simple broccoli sambar. I love the earthy texture and flavor that coconut lends to the sambar spices, so I figured I needed some other flavor to compensate for it - I went with some pureed tomatoes instead. It turned out pretty good!

The highlight though was the grilled sunburst squash. I just chopped up the squash and marinated it for about 15 minutes in a lemon-ginger-garlic-olive oil marinade before grilling the bits. The flavors were fabulous! The Ballard and Redmond farmers markets have been carrying some awesome squashes this summer - am truly going to miss the sunbursts (along with the sunshine!) when summer is gone :(