A Tale of Two Stir-Fries

Well, the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart ended two weeks ago and I've decided to stick with being vegan for the duration.  This wasn't really my plan, but then, neither was being vegetarian.  We'll see how it goes.

Saturday evening after work (I work every other weekend.  Always fun.  Not.) I chopped up about half of the veggies I recently bought with a stir-fry in mind.  Why only half, you ask?  Well, because half seemed like enough for one meal plus one or two meals worth of leftovers.  It also occurred to me when I put the other half back in the fridge that I could stir-fry the same veggies a different way later on.  So, I made a Chinesy (I make no claim as to authenticity) stir-fry for us on Saturday and an Indian stir-fry for dinner tonight.  If you ever find that you have an overabundance of several veggies that hold up well in a stir-fry, give something like this a try!
 
The Chinesy stir-fry came out well and was simple enough, now that the fine folks at MediterrAsian have given me the confidence to do Asian stir-fries with or without coconut milk or red curry paste:

2 tbsp canola oil
1.5 cups (approx.) baby carrots, quartered lengthwise
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1.5 cups snap peas, ends trimmed
1 red bell pepper, sliced lengthwise
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
4 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 cup vegetable broth
salt and crushed red pepper to taste
2 tbsp corn starch mixed with 2 tbsp cold water

Heat oil over medium heat in work or wide saucepan.  Add carrots, garlic and ginger and saute for 3-5 minutes.  Add snap peas red bell pepper and cook another 3 minutes.  Add hoisin, soy sauce and Chinese five spice powder and stir well.  Add broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Check flavors and add salt and crushed red pepper as needed.  Add cornstarch mixture and stir often as sauce thickens to a glaze.  Remove from heat and serve over rice.
***
Then tonight I chopped up the snap peas, carrots and red bell pepper for an Indian-style stir fry.  The spices are all from a mixed vegetables recipe in my Indian cookbook, but the veggies that I used were different because hey - it's what I had.  Also a winner!

2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 bay leaves
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp urad dal
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 cup baby carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1.5 cups snap peas, cut in half and ends trimmed
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt

Heat oil in a wide saucepan over medium heat.  Add next four ingredients, cover and heat until mustard seeds start popping and urad dal is golden brown.  Add onion and tomatoes, stir and cook for one minute.  Add turmeric and stir.  Add remaining veggies, stir well and cook for 3-5 minutes.  Stir in tomato sauce and remaining spices.  Blend seasonings well and cook for another minute or two.  Add about half a cup of water to make it saucier and so that veggies don't burn.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another 3-5 minutes or until sauce has thickened.  Serve over rice.
***
Well, it seems that winter's finally here.  Today I actually had to wear running tights and a knit cap for the first time since I started running again post-foot injury.  I don't know about groundhogs; for me, dark-eyed juncos are much more reliable in the meteorology department, and I saw a bunch in my backyard a couple of days ago - always a sign of cooler weather to come. 

Stay warm, eat and be healthy!

My Sweet Sixteen Birthday Dinner Revisited

For those of you who don't already know, today's my birthday.  Over the weekend, when I was thinking about what I might like to do for dinner tonight (go out or dine in?), it occurred to me that the most memorable birthday dinner I've ever had was for my sweet sixteen, on this date 20 years ago.  (So guess how old I am now?)  I remember that, after a bad day at school, I came home crying about something or other, and when I settled down my dad asked me what I'd like for dinner.  I told him kielbasa, sauerkraut and black-eyed peas, so that's what he made. 

Das ist richtig, y'all.  And when I say my dad "made" it, I mean he heated everything.  The black-eyed peas and sauerkraut were from cans, and the kielbasa was sliced lengthwise and thrown on the skillet just like any other day.  That was how we ate back then, and until I learned to cook it was all good. 

As it happens, we've had frozen black-eyed peas and a package of Tofurky kielbasa in the fridge for a few weeks now, waiting to be used, and tonight seemed like a special opportunity to bring those unlikely flavors together once more and make the most of my vegan cleanse.

I "made" the vegan kielbasa the same as before - sliced and heated in the toaster oven until slightly browned.  Instead of popping open a can of black-eyed peas, I thawed some of the frozen ones and threw them in the pressure cooker along with some chopped bell pepper, onion and broth, adding a couple of teaspoons of chipotle Tabasco sauce at the very end.  In place of the sauerkraut, I picked up a head of cabbage and made the equally flavorful cabbage with coconut poriyal recipe from my Indian cookbook.  Delish! 

On a side note, Steve gave me a copy of Skinny Bitch which I can't wait to read!  But not tonight - after the dishes are washed (also his treat), we'll be settling in front of the TV, indulging our new addiction to Breaking Bad (we just ditched the cable and are Netflixing all the episodes in order) while munching on vegan cupcakes that he also picked up at Earth Fare today!

Hope everyone's having as lovely an evening as me!  Until next time...

Tamarind Rice and Okra Masala

Well, the holidays are here once again, which means that opportunities to overeat abound.  Since I just bought a pair of skinny jeans the other day (my first-ever time shopping at Old Navy), I'm going to do my best to restrict any holiday excesses in my kitchen to the big day (T minus 11 and counting) and to making stuff for the various parties we've been invited to.  Thankfully, my pantry is always well-stocked for making Indian food that's tasty, filling AND won't stop me from wearing the new jeans when we go out for New Year's.

Lately I've also been loading up on pantry items because I needed a break from all the cooking and juicing I'd been doing in order to keep the veggies in the fridge from spoiling.  With the exception of a bag of celery that Steve bought on sale last week, I soon found myself with an overabundance of dry goods that needed to be addressed.  One of my go-to recipes in this situation is the tamarind rice recipe from Healthy South Indian Cooking (p. 138).  Since I had a bag of cut okra in the freezer, I decided to make the okra masala from the same cookbook (p. 253) as a side dish and substitute a couple of celery stalks for the diced onion since it was the only fresh veggie in the fridge yesterday.  I made a few more tweaks with both recipes, but they're still pretty close to the originals.

Word to the wise: not for the first time with the tamarind rice, I followed the directions about soaking the split peas and then adding them to the hot pan uncooked, and (like before) I wished I hadn't.  Have you ever made six-bean soup from dried beans and some of the thicker beans didn't cook all the way through?  The result I get with the split peas is a little like that.  Not so undercooked as to render you flatulent for the rest of the day, but just a little too chewy.  I have to make a note about that in the book and just use some chopped nuts instead the next time.

As always with Indian recipes, any ingredients you've never heard of can be found at your neighborhood Indian grocery store.  Some ingredients you have heard of can also be bought there for less, like big bags of turmeric for two bucks.  If you haven't already been, check 'em out!


Tamarind Rice:
1 cup brown rice
1/3 cup yellow split peas
1 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola oil
8-10 curry leaves
3 dried red chili peppers
1/2 tsp asofoetida powder
1-2 tsp black mustard seeds
1-2 tsp urad dal
3/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chutney powder

Cook one cup brown rice in two cups of salted water, covered with a tight-fitting lid, until all liquid has been absorbed, about 30-40 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool at least 15 minutes.  (If using white rice, use 1.5 cups of water per cup of rice.  It's also better to make it several hours or one day ahead so it can dry out and not get mushy during the cooking process described below.)

Soak yellow split peas in 1 cup of water for one hour.

Blend tamarind paste, salt and 1/4 cup of warm water in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large saucepan or wok, heat oil over medium heat.  When the oil is hot, add the curry leaves, red chilies, asofoetida, mustard seeds and urad dal.  Cover and cook until mustard seeds pop and urad dal is golden brown.  (If the pan is hot enough when adding these ingredients, these items will cook fast.  Watch the urad dal and dried chilies in particular to make sure they don't burn.)

Drain the water from the split peas and stir them into the saucepan, stir-fry for one minute, then add the tamarind mixture and stir well.

Add the turmeric and chutney powder and stir for one minute.  Add the rice and stir until all ingredients are combined.


Okra Masala:
2 tbsp canola oil
1/4 tsp asofoetida powder
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp urad dal
1/2 cup chopped onion (this is where I substituted celery)
2 cups frozen (or fresh, if you have it ) cut okra
1/2 tsp cayenne or to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 tsp salt or to taste

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add asoefoetida, mustard seeds and urad dal.  When the mustard seeds pop and urad dal is golden brown, add the celery and stir-fry for 3 minutes.

Add the okra and spices and stir-fry for another 5 minutes.  Add the tomato sauce and salt (if needed; some tomato sauces are saltier than others), reduce heat, cover and simmer until okra and celery are tender, another 5-7 minutes.

Basmati Rice with Peas and Spinach Kootu

Before I go into detail about tonight's dinner, I have an unhappy update about my garden: about three weeks ago, following a short proliferation period, my yellow squash plants, zucchini plant and cucumber vine all fell prey to a powdery mold blight.  Steve did a Google search to learn more about it and found that spraying milk on the leaves helps to inhibit growth/reproduction of the mold, but it was already too late for the yellow squash, which were laid to rest in the compost bin last week.  The leaves on the cucumber look terrible, but the plant is still producing (for now), and the jury's still out on the zucchini although it appears to be making a comeback.  Lesson learned: don't encourage mold growth on members of the squash family by planting them too close together.  The "oh, screw it, it'll work out" approach worked well enough last summer, when I was mostly growing upright pepper plants, but I now know to space squashes exactly as far apart as the plant tag says (four to six feet).  Oh, well - all the more reason to expand the size of the raised bed next summer.

I've cooked a time or two since the last post and managed to use up pretty much everything in the fridge with the lunch I made on Sunday - and then a bag of spinach showed up in the fridge after I got home from work last night. What to do, what to do...

Spinach Kootu:
1/2 cup yellow split peas
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp canola oil
1 dried red chili pepper
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1/4 cup chopped onion (I had some in the freezer)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
10 oz. chopped spinach (original recipe calls for frozen, but what the hey)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt or to taste

Boil 2 cups of water, add the split peas and turmeric and cook on medium heat (covered) until they are completely softened (up to 45 minutes).

Heat oil over medium heat in a saucepan big enough for all the chopped fresh spinach (a smaller one is okay if you're using frozen).  When it's hot, stir in the red chili pepper, mustard seeds and urad dal.  Cook until the mustard seeds burst and the urad dal is golden brown.  Slightly reduce the heat, if needed, so that these ingredients don't burn.

Add onion and garlic and stir-fry for one or two minutes.

Add spinach to the saucepan along with split peas and one cup of water (cooking water is fine).  Add the cumin and salt and stir well to blend.

Cover and simmer over low heat for a few more minutes, until the spinach has at least wilted and all the ingredients are blended.

...And since this clearly isn't dinner all by itself, I made a rice and peas dish that can be made anytime (at our house) using pantry, fridge and freezer staples.

Basmati Rice with Green Peas:
2 cups basmati rice
2 tbsp Earth Balance
3-4 shakes of cinnamon (or 4-5 small pieces of stick cinnamon)
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp cashews, coarsely chopped
2 whole cloves
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (or two whole cardamom pods)
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 cup frozen peas (or 1 cup if you like more), heated in microwave for 1 to 2 minutes

Rinse rice well and get 3 cups of water boiling while completing the next step.  (Cookbook says 4 but I always get a better result using a 1.5:1 water: white rice ratio.)

In a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid (i.e. one you can cook rice in), heat the Earth Balance (or butter, ghee, oil or whatever) over medium heat.  When it's hot, add the cinnamon, bay leaves and cashews.  Cook until the cashews turn golden brown.

Add the rice to the mix along with the cloves, turmeric, cardamom and salt.  Stir well and toast the ingredients for another minute or two.

Pour in the boiling water, stir, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for about 15 minutes.  The rice should be fluffy and all the water should be gone.

Stir in the cooked green peas (drain them first if necessary) and serve.
***
The nice thing about the rice recipe in particular is that, after serving Steve and myself, there was enough for two big leftover portions for later in the week.  I'm always glad to have leftovers when my work schedule's unpredictable, because it means I won't have to make do with the items on the largely non-vegetarian menu at the hospital cafeteria. 

Another happy discovery I made about the spinach recipe is the meaty flavor you get when you cook spinach with cumin.  Steve suggested that I figure out how to bring back the tuna bacon spinach pasta recipe, vegetarian style.  Be looking for it sometime in the near future!

My Kitchen of Indian Delights

So little time for cooking these days, what with the crazy hours I've been working at the hospital, but somehow I manage...
Before rediscovering some of the Indian recipes that I love but haven't made in a while, I had one more go at gyros on Tuesday, this time using mushrooms.   Since I ran out of Greek seasoning mix the last time I made gyros, I had to whip out my Greek cookbook and figure out an approximation.  It turned out to be as simple as salt, pepper, garlic, coriander and finely chopped onion.  The recipe in the book also called for a little bit of allspice and savory, which I don't have, but I found that the mushrooms did just as well with the seasonings I did have.

Yesterday (my only day off this week, boo) I made a couple of Indian dishes in hopes of getting through the next couple of days on leftovers.  One was a batch of Bell Pepper and Tomato Rice with Cashews, and the other was Zucchini Kootu.  Both recipes are in Healthy South Indian Cooking (see Books, Links, Blogs for biblio reference) and are totally vegan.  Recipes follow this colorful, texturific photo!

Bell Pepper and Tomato Rice with Cashews:
1 cup basmati rice (brown rice works too)
5 oz. frozen lima beans
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp canola oil
2 small pieces of cinnamon stick (or just sprinkle on some ground cinnamon)
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 cup onion, sliced lengthwise
1 cup tomato, diced
1 green chili pepper, finely chopped
1 cup coarsely chopped green bell peppers
1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cashew halves/pieces

Cook whatever rice you're using according to the package instructions and let cool for 15 minutes so that it's not sticky when you stir in the rest.

Cook the lima beans in just enough water to cover and 1/4 tsp turmeric until they are tender (10 minutes?), then drain and set aside.

Heat oil in a frying pan or large saucepan over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add the cinnamon, bay leaf, fennel and cumin.  Brown briefly, just enough to bring out their aroma, then add the onion, tomato and chili and saute for one minute.

Add the bell pepper, lima beans and remaining turmeric and mix well.  Cook, covered, over medium heat until bell pepper starts to become tender (3 minutes?).  Stir in the curry powder and salt.

Add cooked rice to the mixture and stir until blended.  Stir in cashew halves and serve.

Zucchini Kootu:
1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp canola oil
4 to 6 curry leaves
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 green chili pepper, chopped
3 cups diced zucchini
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp powdered coconut

Boil two cups of water and add toor dal and 1/4 tsp turmeric.  Reduce heat and cook until dal mashes easily with a fork (about 30 minutes; no need to mash it all, just make sure it's cooked to a "creamy" consistency).  Add water as needed until the dal is done cooking.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  When it's hot, but not smoking, add asafoetida and curry leaves.  (This is very important when using asafoetida, because if it's added to a pan that's too hot, it could smoke you out of your kitchen.  Take it from someone who learned the hard way.)

Add mustard seeds and urad dal and cook, covered, until the mustard seeds pop and urad dal is golden.

Add onion, chili pepper and the remaining turmeric and stir.  Add the zucchini and ginger and blend well with the other ingredients.

Add the toor dal plus 1/2 cup of warm water (any water leftover from the cooking is fine), cumin and salt.  Stir well, cover and cook until the zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes.  Add the coconut powder, stir and remove from heat.
***

I was glad that the zucchini dish was relatively mild when I served it last night, because it seemed like a heavy seasoning blend might have clashed with that of the rice dish.  However, when I had the leftover zucchini for lunch today as a pita filling, it seemed a little bland all by itself.  The simple solution?  Stir in a little salt and cayenne pepper before nuking.  Easy, delicious lunch, and I still have some of the rice for when I get home from work tonight!

If you don't hear from me again before the weekend's over, have a safe and happy 4th!

Fun with radishes

Here are my radishes - the first veggies I ever grew from seeds!

I was pretty anxious to use them once they were out of the ground and washed, because I've noticed in the past that radishes can dry out after just a few days in the fridge.  So, I replayed the radish sambhar recipe here but left out the bell pepper (didn't have any), used more radish than the recipe called for (all the ones pictured above) and used extra yellow split peas in place of the toor dal that I was fresh out of.  I also had a bunch of cilantro that all went in at the end.  Word to the wise: when making any recipe using yellow split peas plus veggies, start cooking the yellow split peas about 15 minutes before the rest since they take a while to soften completely (about 45 minutes).  Here's how it turned out, served over brown rice:

I also figured I'd be cheating myself if I didn't come up with a use for the greens as well.  I have a recipe on file for a pureed radish green and potato soup, but another use came to mind that also allowed me to dispense of half a block of tofu, a package of mushrooms, a zucchini and about four carrots that I had no other plans for: the hot pots that I first made back in January for Steve's birthday.  The broth was pretty much the same as before.  The rest included sliced mushrooms, zucchini and carrots cut into matchsticks, cubed tofu, the last of my rice stick noodles and radish greens sliced into ribbons.  I sauteed the carrots to soften them up a little before assembling the dish. 

Yummy as always, with or without sriracha!

This week's looking like it will be too hot for soup, so be on the lookout for some sort of salad recipe that will use at least one ingredient from the garden.  Stay cool everybody!

Back in the kitchen

...after nearly a month of not blogging and hardly cooking.  It's not that I didn't cook at all, but on the rare occasions that I did, I simply replayed favorites like the sweet potato spinach praram and pasta salad or just made a plain Greek-style spinach and feta salad.  The rest of the time, when I wasn't up for making anything, it was either frozen dinners or chips and hummus.  Clinicals are over, and I've had a little more time to cook this week.  That's a good thing, because I'm back to having a lot to work with and not a lot of time before it goes bad. 

Bring on the Indian (-style) food.

Yesterday I dispensed with a couple of carrots and a big bunch of cilantro by making something like chickpea soondal but with carrots and cilantro and no coconut.  Easy peasy.  I was afraid that the big bunch of cilantro I had would be too much for two chopped carrots and one can of chickpeas, but it actually came together really well and the leftovers were just as good in today's lunch.  I cooked up just enough brown rice to mix with both of the generous helpings I got from it.

Tonight I made palak tofu.  The inspiration was actually a frozen dinner that Steve buys sometimes called Mattar Tofu.  It's a vegan version of mattar paneer that uses tofu instead of the cheese.  Well, I just happened to have an unopened bag of spinach and half a block of tofu leftover from the last time I made the praram, so I made the palak tofu using those ingredients plus a few seasonings I always have on hand:

3 tablespoons canola oil
3 dried red chilies, torn into pieces
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon ginger paste
9 ounces fresh spinach
1 onion
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Madras curry powder (medium hot?)
8 ounces extra firm tofu, pressed and sliced into 1-inch squares

Heat the oil over medium-low heat, add the next three ingredients and saute until fragrant (just a few minutes). 

Meanwhile, puree the spinach and onion in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Add to the ginger-garlic mixture in the pan.  Add salt, curry powder and tofu, stir well, cover and cook until onion flavor no longer overwhelms the dish, about 15 minutes.  (Avoid the temptation to over-salt it before it's done; the onion flavor will cook out.)

Serve over rice.

Mulligatawny

...inspired by the "Soup Nazi "episode of Seinfeld.

I've come across a couple of recipes recently that only vaguely resemble the one I make - with chicken, tomatoes and yogurt instead of coconut milk (their version, not mine).  This recipe here is the first one I ever found, years ago, when I went looking for a recipe on foodnetwork.com.  To date, it's the only one I've ever worked from, and it never occurred to me that anyone else made it differently.  So imagine my surprise when I went hunting for recipes and found that nearly all contain chicken, celery, carrots and apples!

Well, the chicken's out because I think I'm done with it (and seafood and red meat) for the duration.  And I don't have any apples, carrots or celery on hand right now - not that I'd want the apples in a soup if I had them.  Really, the reason I decided to make this is to use up the leftover coconut milk from Friday's praram, a jalapeno (with the seeds) and the remaining cilantro.  I might try it one day with carrots and celery if I ever have everything I need to make it that way, but for now I think this version is just as good as any.  It all gets pureed, the coconut milk is stirred in at the very last, and voila - a lovely, silky-smooth lentil-coconut-curry bisque.  Served over rice.

To keep it totally vegetarian, I used Smart Balance instead of the butter and Better than Bouillon vegetable base instead of the chicken broth.  And Steve's been such a good sport about the vegetarian thing.  He bought himself a rotisserie chicken from the Pig the other day, and I told him he could add some to his bowl of soup if he wanted, but he didn't.  He even went back for seconds!

Worst case scenario, he'll have a bigger appetite for snacks by the time 30 Rock comes on.

Indian Rice Salad with Cabbage Poriyal

I finally cut into that head of cabbage that's been sitting in my fridge for over a week.  That means I'll be hurrying to find a recipe (probably Greek) to use up the rest in the next couple of days. 

I also happened across this basmati rice salad recipe for the complementary beans/rice dish and wondered why I hadn't used it since I got my Indian cookbook.  Then I read through the reviews, a couple of which talk about how bland it is.  When I read the quantities of each spice, I couldn't help but agree.  As Indian food and Emeril's cooking go, this recipe is kind of bland.  Maybe that's why I hadn't made it in five years.

Until tonight.  I substituted brown rice for the basmati since we've pretty much switched to that here, used half the rice and kept the spice quantities the same, in effect doubling up on the spices.  If you like spicy food, try it this way.

"Poriyal," according to the authors of Healthy South Indian Cooking, is a type of stir-fry dish to which unsweetened shredded coconut is added at the end.  The ingredient list was relatively short:

2 tbsp canola oil
4-6 curry leaves (I chop mine to distribute them further through the cabbage)
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dried red chilis
2 tsp urad dal
4 cups chopped cabbage
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut.

I started this when the rice was almost done because it comes together fast and you don't want it sitting around getting soggy while your rice or whatever else is still cooking.  Just heat the oil in a frying pan, add the next four ingredients and cook until urad dal turns brown and mustard seeds pop, then add the next three ingredients, stir and cook just until the cabbage wilts, then turn off the heat and stir in the coconut. 

Easy and delicious!  And if you use the basmati rice, it should be done in about 15 minutes, during which you can whip up the cabbage and coconut poriyal. 

Off to watch the last few minutes of Jeopardy.  Good night!

Mattar paneer

Second cooking experience with the new stovetop.  I was so glad to finally get around to this!  It was also good to use up the paneer, which I was tired of looking at in the cheese drawer in the fridge.

I used this recipe with a few adjustments.  The yogurt seemed like overkill (didn't have any anyway).  I used cayenne pepper instead of the green chilies I didn't have and canola oil in place of the ghee I never buy.  I didn't have any cilantro ("chopped coriander leaves") so I skipped that, although this is one recipe where it really would have added to the flavor.  Also, I couldn't see using garam masala as a garnish, so I just stirred it in before covering it and letting it simmer.

Any vegans out there could just as easily use cubed tofu instead of the paneer in this and any other paneer recipe.  I kinda wish I had myself, since I'm coming down with something and try to avoid dairy products when I have a cold.  Oh, well.  Some of the soup from Saturday is still in the fridge; hopefully it will get me through the next day or so...

Lemon rice with cucumber and tomato salad

Still had a bunch of stuff in the fridge after making the lentil soup the other night, so Indian seemed like the easiest way to use it up.  I nearly went with Greek again but figured I should make something different for variety.  Both of these recipes are in Healthy South Indian Cooking by Vaivaran and Marquardt, but I had to make some adjustments to their recipes based on what I had (e.g. no cilantro).  It went about like this:




Lemon rice:
2 cups water
1/2 cup dry yellow split peas
1 cup water
2/3 cup jasmine rice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp canola oil
4-6 curry leaves
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chutney powder

Bring two cups of water to a boil.  Add yellow split peas, stir, cover and simmer on medium heat until tender, about 20-25 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

Next, bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a separate pot and add rice.  Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook on medium-low heat for 12-15 minutes or until all water has been absorbed.  Fluff with fork and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, salt and turmeric and set aside.

A few minutes before the yellow split peas finish cooking, heat oil in another small pot over medium heat.  As soon as it is heated, add curry leaves, mustard seeds and urad dal.  Cover loosely and cook until mustard seeds begin to pop and urad dal turns brown. 

Add the drained yellow split peas to the aromatics, stir well and cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Add the lemon juice mixture and chutney powder and stir well.  Add the rice, stir and remove from heat.
***

After making the lemon juice mixture and sticking that in the fridge, I still had a few minutes of down time from the rice, during which I made the accompaniment.






Cucumber and tomato salad:
Half of one large tomato, diced
Half of one large cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1 green onion, chopped

Combine all ingredients except the green onion in a mixing bowl.  When ready to serve, garnish with chopped green onion.

I served Steve with the items side-by-side and stacked mine.  As far as I can tell, it turned out well both ways.  And Steve was pretty hungry by the time it hit the table, so I didn't have to package a ton of leftovers.  This was pretty much how I ate all summer in 2006, when I started training for my first half- and full marathon.  Would that I could be so skinny again!  Well, hopefully I'll be upping my weekly mileage pretty soon to get ready for a spring half, which should help.  And I plan to keep eating healthy at least until Thanksgiving arrives.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty hungry now...Hungry enough to eat a deep-fried Snickers bar, which I've never done before...maybe this year I'll make it to the State Fair?

Dudhi chick pea masala

Adventures in new veggies part one: The dudhi. 

I'm taking an online nutrition class right now, and one of our assignments (for bonus points at the end of the semester) was to find a vegetable we'd never eaten before and share the experience, and/or recipe as appropriate, with the class.  Well, I didn't think I'd have much luck at a regular grocery store - sometimes they have jicama, sometimes not - so after work on Friday I stopped by Royal India Bazaar (formerly J.M. Emporium, next to the Big Lots on Two Notch Rd. in Columbia) to check out their modest produce section.  It turns out that they have several items there that I'd never heard of, and the three that I ended up buying are called dudhi (pictured above), Chinese okra and bitter melon.  In the near future, I'll post on new veggie adventures 2 and 3 as well.

But back to the dudhi: unfortunate name, good squash.  According to my quick Google search, "dudhi" translates to "bottlegourd" in English.  It's about the size and shape of an eggplant, and the texture of the raw vegetable is about the same.  Unlike with eggplant, you do want to peel the skin before cooking.  Some people recommend removing the seeds, others say they're fine.  I went with a recipe that called for removing the seeds but didn't do a very thorough job.  A few seeds made it into the final product, and they didn't hurt anything.  I borrowed heavily from this recipe but made several changes: I added about two teaspoons of urad dal with the aromatics at the beginning, skipped the potato and onion (didn't have any), only used two cups of water and added a can of chick peas (drained) at the very end.  And since I don't have chappatis in my freezer, I served it over rice."Salt to taste" ended up being about 2 teaspoons.

The end result (pictured here) is what we had for lunch today.  The wedge-shaped things on the plate are the stewed bottlegourd.

This definitely would have needed 3-4 cups of water had I used the potatoes, even if they were cooked ahead of time.  Without any extra starch to thicken it up, this maybe would have been all right with only one cup of water, simmered with the lid on for about 10 minutes and then cooked uncovered on a higher heat setting until it was thick enough to eat with a fork.  With two cups of water, I had to cook it for about 30 minutes on medium heat and then on medium-high heat to thicken it up.

Since I did use the sambhar powder, it came out spicier than it would have with the garam masala.  This, I suspect, is the reason that Steve suggested having some sour cream or plain yogurt on hand as a topping the next time.  Anyone who has difficulty digesting spicy foods might consider adding a dollop of plain yogurt on top or even stirring in half a cup of yogurt right before serving.  (Sour cream's too pedestrian for a dish like this.)

So this was my experience with my first new veggie since...okra, I guess, but that was about 15 years ago.  If you live near an Indian grocery store and want to try something different, the dudhi/bottlegourd runs about 99 cents a pound.  Some things, like shallots, are also cheaper than at a supermarket.  Plus the people are very nice, love new customers and will answer any and all questions you have about whatever catches your eye!

Happy Sunday, and enjoy this beautiful weather while it lasts!

Eggplant kootu, or deliverance from meat

Suffice it to say that, by lunch today, I was considerably less thrilled about eating chicken than I was on Friday night when Steve brought home a $1.99 rotisserie chicken from the Pig.  That was one dead bird that would not go away.  Plus I was too zonked to cook over the weekend, which meant that yesterday and today I had to grab whatever leftovers were in the fridge (chicken, chicken and more chicken) and head off to work.  I vowed that, if I could help it, tonight's dinner would be totally vegan - and even though Steve brought home another $1.99 chicken (still in the fridge uncarved), it was. 

I still had an eggplant left over from my last Pinckney's stash of the summer but didn't feel like making anything as labor intensive as moussaka or eggplant parm, so I made this instead.  BTW, I LOVE my Indian cookbook - there's a side dish recipe for every veggie I've ever bought and then some, which saves me having to think too much about what to make when I'm already hungry.

The book (reference below) defines "kootu" as "a thick, creamy textured and mildly flavored vegetable dish prepared with dal, ginger and cumin."*  This recipe didn't mention ginger, which I'm not sure I would have liked with eggplant anyway.  If any of the ingredients below sound unfamiliar, well...they're all available at your friendly neighborhood Indian grocery store.

1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp canola oil
4 to 6 curry leaves
3 cayenne peppers, chopped
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 cup chopped onion
1 eggplant (3-4 cups), cubed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin powder

Boil 2 cups water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add toor dal and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric.  Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, about 30 minutes or until dal has a creamy consistency, adding water as needed.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add curry leaves, cayennes, mustard seeds, ural dal and cumin seeds.  Fry until mustard seeds pop and urad dal turns golden brown.  Add onion and eggplant, stir well to coat the veggies and cook until eggplant has softened, about 10 minutes.

Stir the cooked toor dal plus 1 cup of warm water into the eggplant mixture.  Add salt and cumin powder and stir well.  Cook, covered, over medium heat until veggies are tender and most liquid has evaporated, about 5-7 minutes.  Serve over jasmine rice.

Thankfully, Steve had eaten very light during the day, so I didn't feel like I was cramming food down his throat just a couple of hours after his 3:30 "lunch."  And now I have leftovers that I'll be looking forward to around 11:00 tomorrow morning!

*Vaivaran, A. and Marquardt, P.  Healthy South Indian Cooking.  New York: Hippocrene, 2001, p. 38.  (Recipe p. 234)