Tour of India

St Patrick’s day was a lot of fun.  Thankfully I was not drinking but was an observerer of utmost carziness all day long. Here’s one of the crazy shots.

It gets challenging to constantly channel your energy into finding something new to cook within the vegetarian realm.  Not that there isn’t enough variations.  My limitations of not using dairy is not allowing me to cook everything. so it takes me a moment to re-think what i wish to cook.  The other issue is that as chefs we are a spoiled lot.  Our palate’s like to taste and touch everything, and thats where it gets hard in real life.

My hands move involuntarily , it is so easy for my finger or spoon to dip into what I am cooking for my daughter, completely unconscious of course.  Nevertheless I have done well and have so far been able to avoid most if not all the items.  I cheat of course a little bit, almost always when I have something for my daughter in my hand…but shhhh cant let her find out.

I for one believe that the one true way to be happy is to eat and enjoy what you are having completely.  The choice of going back to being a vegetarian makes me feel lighter and rejuvenated through out the day.

A friend was recently asking me how do I settle my hunger pangs. One of the ways I focus is to have a lot of salads of course and also doing quick stir fry vegetables that don’t take too long to cook.  I am even devouring them for breakfast on days that I wake up really hungry.  I also have to eat through out the day which can be a bit challenging.  But I have come to a point where I prepare plenty of boiled vegetables or even cooked mixed vegetables that help me go through the day.  I treat myself on a small piece of chocolate everyday and actually look forward to the delight of eating it, but more than that I am really enjoying this new life style that I have embraced and will definitely find myself as a new person shedding her old skin.

Below is one quick recipe that I have really enjoyed cooking.

Ingredients

1 bunch spinach

2 tablespoon canola oil

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

2 green chillies finely chopped

1 pack button mushrooms sliced thin

1 large vine-tomato roughly chopped

2 teaspoon chaat masala

Method:

Take the bunch of spinach and remove the bottom thick stalks.  Chop roughly and put into a bowl,  fill it with cool water.  Remove spinach from the top into a drainer.  Repeat at least three times to remove any mud or dirt.

In a flat pan add the oil and make hot on high flame.  Add the garlic, give a quick stir for about half a minute before adding the onion.  Stir and cook till golden, throw in the green chilli and mushrooms.  Sprinkle a little salt, mix well.

Cook till the mushrooms soften, before adding the chopped spinach.  Continue cooking till all of the water evaporates.  Once cooked remove into a bowl.  Let it cool till it is slightly warm.  Toss it with tomatoes and chaat masala, enjoy with fresh roti or by itself.

One of the challenge of having a restricted diet is to cook food that can be eaten by everyone at home.  When I plan my menus at the restaurant or even at home I like to cook dishes that I can add items to, to make a completely new dish.  It allows me to use my ingredients in different ways, and provide a different meal each time.

One of the challenges as a mom of course is to trick the kids into eating those vegetables.  Occasionally I replicate some of the dishes at home that my daughter enjoys when we dine out.  Just so she can enjoy them, in a healthier way.

For this recipe I have used frozen mixed vegetables to get delicious results.  The vegetables are good by themselves or you can even mix the vegetables with rice, top them with scrambled egg, serve hot.

Ingredients

2 tablespoon sesame oil

2 inch ginger fine chopped

4 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 small onion sliced thin

2 sticks celery chopped fine

1 pack unfrozen mixed vegetable with carrots, peas, beans & Corn

6 small bokchoy, each stalk cut into two

2 tablespoon soy sauce

Salt to taste

2 teaspoon Crushed pepper

3 cups cooked rice (Optional)

Method:

In a medium flat pan take sesame oil and make it hot.  Add ginger, garlic onion, and celery in the pan.  Cook on a high flame till slightly golden in color.

Add the vegetables, sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of salt.  Cover the pan with a lid and continue cooking till tender about 3 minutes

Throw in the bok choy in the pan and cook for about 2-3 minutes, add the soy sauce and check for salt, if need be add more.  Add the crushed pepper, and serve hot immediately.

The vegetables can be served as is, or add the cooked rice to it and mix gently.   Sprinkle some chopped chives on top if you want.

I have been cooking for a friend for about a month who is highly allergic and so has a restricted diet.  Her meals needed to be efficiently planned restricting the menu to a different item in every meal.  The challenge was the greens, such that there is a different green in each meal.  It was fun as I finally started opening my fridge to vegetables like kale, bok-choy, Brussels sprout and the ever endearing broccoli rabe.

As a cultural influence for years I have cooked mostly vegetables like beans, spinach, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.  Not because I don’t like to experiment but more out of staying with comfort food.  But this months commitment is vegetable do I am going breaking out of all my habits and try cooking other vegetables even the ones I am not familiar with.  I hope you will enjoy this as much as I did

Ingredients

3 medium eggplants (elongated shape), sliced into rounds

1 pack extra firm tofu, cubed into 1 inches size

4 cups canola oil

2 tablespoon sesame seed oil

6 whole cloves of garlic, chopped fine

2 inch ginger, grated

one small onion, sliced thin

2 green chilli, chopped fine

6 small bok choy

3 portabella mushrooms, sliced thin

1 tablespoon oyster sauce mixed with 3 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

Method:

Sprinkle eggplant and tofu liberally with salt, toss and mix each, keep both in separate bowls.

On a plate put kitchen towels, now take the 4 cups of canola oil in a pot and make hot.  Now start inserting the eggplant into the hot oil, cook for about 4 minutes.  Remove the eggplant and put on the kitchen towels, drain the oil using extra kitchen towels if needed.

Reheat the oil and make hot, add half the tofu into the hot oil.  Cook till golden brown in color.  I kept it soft brown as that’s how I like it, but it can be browned more if needed.  Drain the oil well, covering all sides with kitchen towel if needed.  Finish with the second batch and keep aside.

In a separate pan add the sesame oil and make warm, fry the ginger and garlic till slightly translucent, cook till pale brown in color.  Add onions and continue cooking till slight brown.

Now add green chilli and give a quick stir, add the mushrooms.  Cook for about 3 minutes till the mushrooms turn soft and half the water disappears, keep stirring.

Thrown in the bok-choy white stalks and cook for about 2 minutes till it feels half cooked.  Add all the eggplant, tofu and bok-choy green section, stir all the vegetables, now add the oyster sauce and continue cooking for at least another 2 minutes till eggplants soften and the sauce coats all the vegetables.  Sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Serve immediately.  We finished ours in minutes, hope you will too.

Lentil & Spinach soup:

Lentils are one of the most important element in Indian cooking.  Nothing like a warm bowl of lentils with roti or rice.  If given a choice to pick their comfort food,  almost everyone in my family will say “dal chawal“, which is nothing but lentils with rice.  Growing up we had lentils in each meal, vegetarian or non-vegetarian they are a big part of our every day diet.  There are of course the many colored varieties of these protein boosters

Red Letils (Lal-masoor),

Yellow lentils small sized (Moong dal),

Yellow split peas which is slightly bigger also called Arhar or Toor

, and also the very interesting Chana dal, which is nothing but chickpea lentils.

Green lentils, called Green moong and of course the celebrated Black Dal that every person goes to Indian restaurants to enjoy.  Some of these I will hopefully cover at a later point.

Today I choose to cook Lal Masoor, as I had that in my closet.  But you can also use Moong, Arhar or chana.  Just know that the cooking times and the amount of water you need for each is different.  More than that each one of the lentils tastes different and gives a different texture profile to the dish.  They also have inherent qualities of either being too starchy or too soft.

Just remember the smaller the lentils, the faster they will cook.  Larger beans take longer, keep in mind lentils with skin take longer.  As I intent to eat the lentils as soup I have combined them with some spinach, you can omit the spinach if you wish.  Also if you don’t have Panch Poran in your spice cabinet, simply replace it with a teaspoon of mustard seeds.  When I use panch poran spice I almost always use mustard oil, as that reminds me of the essence of Bengali cooking and personally I feel the two marry well in the dish.  Lets get on with cooking…shall we.

Ingredients

1/4 cup red lentils called Lal Masoor

1 bunch whole leaf spinach, roughly chopped, remove the bottom stalks

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

Salt to taste

2 teaspoons oil (use mustard oil if you want a more traditional taste)

1 teaspoon panch poran *   (five seeds mixture, you can buy pre-mixed at any Indian store, if you don’t have it look above for replacement)

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 vine tomatoes, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

Method

The most important step for making any kind of lentils is to wash it a minimum of three times.  The correct way to wash is to put lentils in a bowl and fill it with water, then using your hand to wash the lentils really well.  Rinse out the access water.

Take a minimum of 3 cups of cool water in a pan, add the lentils, spinach, turmeric powder and salt to taste and put on high flame.  Bring the mixture to a boil and lower the heat to medium, and cook for at least 30 minutes till the lentils turn soft and cooked.  I like to use a pressure cooker, just because it quickens the process and also this way I am not cooking the spinach too much and keeping its nutrients.

In a pan take mustard oil and make it hot, add the panch poran spice and cumin seeds.  If you wish to omit the spice mix you can, instead use mustard seeds to replace the blend.  Cook for half a minute till the seeds start to crackle.

Now add the chopped garlic, give a quick stir and add the chopped onions, continue cooking till golden brown in color.  As the onion is cooking put a half cup of water (more if you want your soup thinner) into the lentils and put it for a boil.  Once boiling turn the heat low and let it stay at that temperature.

Now add the tomatoes and continue cooking for another  5- 8 minutes, till the tomatoes turn soft.

Throw in the cooked tomatoes into the boiling lentils and cook for another minute or so before turning heat off.  Serve hot.

At some point in our life we need to take a step back and cleanse ourselves of all the food we have engrossed ourselves into.  All the extra sweets…hmmmmm, and all the extra glasses of wine, most importantly of course “I am still hungry” and can I bite on something in the night.

I love eating, no kiddin, I am a chef I have to love it.  I love new dishes for every meal and I enjoy each one of them.  Born and brought up a vegetarian I ate very differently as a child, more vegetables and lots and lots of smaller meals.  And then of course I turned into an adult and that’s what embarked me on a journey of long wonderful abuse of my body.   I feel that somewhere I have fallen off the wagon, somewhere my portions got larger, and I am eating more protien than my body can digest. So I am hoping to achieve a new me, hopefully a healthier me by embarking on a journey to cleanse my body by staying  primarily on plant food, cooked or non-cooked is not the focus, but I cannot use any animal product.

Maybe it’s a bit extreme but I am hoping that my 15 day journey (hopefully 30, but lets not bet on that) will help me incorporate vegetarianism back into my lifestyle. Having been a vegetarian for most of my life I am assuming that the journey will be an easy one.   Here are my focus: Detox my body, eat as many vegetables as I want, and the key cook a different vegetable everyday.  I can reuse the same vegetable as long as it has a new element to it.

Since I love hot food I intend to try and cook as many vegetables and have them as either warm salads or soups, or grilled.  Starting  today I will share the recipe of my hot or sometimes cold vegetable dish or dishes that I cooked that you can try at home.  Here’s the recipe for today:

Quick spicy cauliflower 

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 whole cauliflower, broken into florets, then sliced thin 

1 tablespoons canola oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 inch ginger, grated fine

1 fresh green chile, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon turmeric

Salt to taste

1 plum tomato, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

 Method:

Soak the cauliflower florets in cold water and set aside.

 Using a large heavy-bottomed skillet with a lid, heat the oil over high heat. Add the cumin seeds and cook until they turn golden brown, about 30 seconds. Add the green chile, grated ginger and all the spices. Drain the cauliflower and add to the skillet; season with salt to taste. Sauté for 5 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid burning. (If the mixture starts to stick, add a tablespoon of water.) Lower the heat, place the lid on the skillet and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes until the cauliflower is tender.

 Add the tomatoes, cover and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove the cover, turn the heat up to high and cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently, until the tomatoes are soft and the skillet is dry (any liquid should be cooked down). Stir in the cilantro to finish. Serve immediately with rice or bread.

I love to eat it straight up, I also make a quick salad mixing the hot cauliflower with cucumbers, tomatoes, avocadoes, some salt and lemon juice.  Toss togather and enjoy.  I had the salad with this wonderful juice,  Healthy and flavorful. 

Invigorating
Juice

Ingredients

4 stalks celery, wash and remove the bottom end

1 long cucumber, peeled and cut to fit the blender

2 long carrots, was and scrub clean throughly

1 apple, cut into quarters, core removed

½ inch of ginger

1 teaspoon lemon juice (sufficient from ¼ lemon)

Method:

Juice all the fresh vegetables in the blender, squeeze some fresh lemon
juice and enjoy.

Last month was the wonderful Harvest Festival, Lohri celebrated through-out the north.  Children walk to every home in the neighbourhood, collecting peanuts, hard candy (Gajjak) and Nut brittle.  People gather in the evening, light bon-fire and celebrate by singing, dancing and eating around the fire.

I was asked to do a cake with the bonfire on the cake to celebrate the festival.  To make the cake was easy, what was challenging was to make the bonfire on top.  I decided to make each fire flame separately, and then combining to make one composition.

I first mixed gum powder into fondant, generally the ratio is 1/2 teaspoon of gum powder to each pound of fondant.  I created the mock bon fire flames by mixing three different shades of yellow, orange and a very slight blue color in fondant.  The color was mixed so that it keeps a marble look but is not blended completely.

I then proceded to roll the fondant on a corn flour dusted surface.  Generally i keep it about 1/4  inch thick.  The fondant was then cut into long uneven strips.   I then proceeded to use a small roller to roll each one of the petals  into longer shapes.  As you roll them the ends get uneven and hagged looking that is precisely the idea.  When keep them to dry it is good to let them roll slightly and rest on each other to give them a natural shape.  The petals need to dry overnight.

The next day you petal dust them just like petal dust handmade roses.  This helps give a bit of shimmer as well as color effect on the petals.

To create the bonfire you first take a large piece of yellow color fondant and roll it the size of a 1 1/2 inch ball approximately.  Start sticking the petals from inside out, using royal icing.  Take care when you pick them up as they are quite fragile and will break easily.  The right thing to do it to put royal icing on the petals itself and hold them to the surface you want to stick them on.

As the shape will get bigger use the taller flame petals..  Let the composition rest for at least 5 – 6 hours before assembling on the cake.

Stay tuned for AIR – BRUSHING in the Next post.

Ever wondered, how to use green cardamom in your cooking.  You can find it in three different forms.  Green cardamom as whole, green cardamom seeds only and green cardamom powder.

There is also the very confusing white cardamom that is available in the store which is nothing but green cardamom that has been dried longer to bleach it and to attain that white color in the cardamom. ( I usually find it less strong and never buy it)

Indians use the spice in both savory and sweet dishes.   In Savory we  fry the whole pod in oil and then add ingredients to it, some recipes also call for it in the powdered form.  It is one of the key spice in  Garam Masala Powder.  In sweets we generally crush the pod in motar pestle, remove the husk and almost always use the seeds, crushed to a fine powder to give flavor.  Generally the spice is added to the very end of the dish right before you put it away to cool.  Usually the whole pods are used in sugar syrups.

FIND BELOW A PICTURE OF GREEN CARDAMOM ON TREE WHILE STILL RIPE