If I Were A Street Food

I often daydream about having my own food cart and thinking about what I would serve in it. This recipe is definitely it. It has been a favorite of mine for many years. I like to revisit it often because there are so many variations to it, depending on what I have on hand. The staple ingredients though are tofu, whole wheat pita, hummus, yogurt. It basically consists of making the tofu and one or two vegetables (I really have liked green pepper and onion in the past) into a North Indian curry. Then I make a hummus sauce with yogurt and some kind of Indian pickle (mango and tomato are my favs) or chutney (mint and coriander are good ones). If I feel like it too sometimes I will chop tomato or cucumber small and throw it in too.

This time, I had cabbage on hand. I had never made it with cabbage so this was an experiment for me and it came out quite well. Also please note that the measurements for Indian spices are really variable. If you put a little bit more or less it will not make that much difference.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat pita
Tofu/Cabbage Curry
3 1/2 tablespoons veg/canola oil
3/4 block of extra firm tofu small cubes
1/2 cabbage head chopped (I used 1/4 b/c mine was literally larger than my head)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch of asofoetida (hing)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/3 teaspoon chili powder
salt to your liking
cilantro
lemon juice - optional
Hummus sauce
2 tablespoons hummus (Sabre brand I like the best)
1/2 tablespoon yogurt (I heart Fage!)
few drops of sauce from mango pickle
(this is where you can experiment with putting in chutney or other pickle sauces if you like it spicy)
warm water is optional if you want to thin it out a bit

Method:
In a non stick pan, put in 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of oil under a low/med flame and throw in small cubes of tofu. Once, the tofu gets cooking, I like to lower the heat a bit. I like to cook the tofu until it is fried on the outside. Every few minutes go back to the pan and just turn the tofu over so that it gets evenly cooked. This may take about 15-20 minutes. Once cooked to your liking, turn off the heat.

In another frying pan, put in 2 tablespoons of oil under a medium flame. When hot, put in the cumin seeds and a pinch of the asofoetida (hing). Shake the pan a bit so the two mingle. When the cumin seed starts to brown a bit, put in all of the spices. Mix them up a bit so that they start to become fragrant but not burn. Then throw in the cabbage and mix very well. Cover the cabbage and cook for about 5 minutes. At this point, throw in the tofu and salt to your liking and mix well and cover again for another 5 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Add chopped cilantro and optional, you can add some lemon juice as well.

For the hummus sauce, combine hummus and yogurt and mix well. Then add in your pickle sauce or chutney, whichever you prefer. I added in some mango pickle sauce even though I had a sore throat but I just love it. You can add some warm water if you want a thinner sauce or more yogurt if you want it to be more sour. If I have sauce leftover, I just put it on the side for extra dipping.

I heat the pita in the oven until the outside is a bit hardened but not too crispy. Cut the pita in half.

For assembly, with a spoon, take the hummus sauce and put it all over the inside of the pita half. (Be careful not to burn yourself as the inside of the pita is full of trapped steam). Fill the pita with the curry and then you can put a little sauce on top. If you decide to put in some tomato and cucumber, I usually like to layer a little bit of curry, sauce, veggies and sauce on top.

I usually have a lot of leftovers so you can eat it again the next day and put it together really fast as if you are making street food for real!

Strawberries

These are some of the pretty strawberries that I got from the CSA. I was going to make something with them, but in thinking of something I actually ended up eating all of them. I guess sometimes the best recipe for strawberries is no recipe...

Broccoli/Kale/Ricotta Pasta

To confuse you, my first recipe is actually not an Indian one. It is vegetarian though. Recently, I have been very into the idea of ricotta and greens with pasta and have been trying many different variations. I just joined the Fort Greene CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and it has definitely been supporting my habit by providing me with ample amounts of green vegetables. Kale and broccoli may seem like an unlikely combo, but they actually go together really well. So enough talky talky here goes:

Ingredients:

1/4 lb spiral pasta

1/4 lb whole wheat penne pasta

(you can choose any type of pasta, this is just what I had)

2 tablespoons olive oil

pinch red pepper flakes

one small bunch broccoli, just tops with some stem

one small bunch kale leaves, chopped (stems removed)

2 cloves coursely chopped garlic

1/2 cup vegetable broth

about 1 cup of ricotta

parmesan to your liking

salt/pepper

Method:
Cook pasta according to instructions. Keep some of the pasta water to mix into the pasta later.

In a large frying pan, put in the olive oil under a medium heat. When hot, put in red pepper flakes and garlic.

Once the garlic has been in for about a minute (should not be too brown), throw in the broccoli, kale and salt and fry for a minute. Add the broth and cook covered for about 4-5 minutes. Check to see that the kale and broccoli are tender and turn off heat.

Take a small bowl and fill it with ricotta. Add some salt and pepper to your taste. You can add a bit of milk also if it is too solid in texture for you. Mix it well.

In a large bowl or pot, mix up the vegetables and ricotta mixture. If needed add in some of the pasta cooking water so that the consistency is thinned out a bit. Mix in the pasta. Add as much parmesan as you like and stir it all up.