My First Cooking Video: Radish Raita

I just made a cooking video with my friends Alana and Paul. It was so much fun and we're gonna make a lot more. I hope you enjoy the first one!



For the written recipe for radish raita go here.

How to Party with a Taco

It's pretty easy to party with a taco because there are so many things that go well with it. What's most fun is making different combinations with all of the fillings.

I made these tacos for my friend Sabra. That night we were working out the final details on a dinner we are throwing that blends Indian and Mexican food together. Inspired by this theme, I prepared the ingredients for our tacos.

I've just jotted down some of the fillings below to make you wanna throw future taco parties, which I highly recommend!

We had corn tortillas that I pan fried with some olive oil.

Tamarind Rice
Took a spoon of MTR brand Puliyogare (tamarind rice) powder and heated it with some oil in a pan and then threw in about a half cup of rice and mixed it all up. so good!!

Curried Tofu
Chopped whole block of tofu into little squares and fried it up with some oil under medium heat. When the tofu started to brown, I added in 2 teaspoons coriander powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/3 teaspoon turmeric, 1/4 teaspoon chili powder. Mixed it all up and cooked that for a few minutes and then added in 1 chopped plum tomato and some salt.

Beans
Fried 1/2 a white onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 jalapeno and 1/2 tomato. Added 1 can of refried beans and 1 can drained whole black beans with 1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder and mixed it up. Then when this cooked for a bit, mixed in some prepared tomato salsa and raw chopped onion. Cooked for a few minutes and added salt to taste.

Stir-fried Vegetables
Fried 1/2 red onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 red pepper and a bag of baby spinach in some olive oil and just added salt and oregano for flavor.

Salsa
Cut up three plum tomatoes, 1/4 of a peeled and seeded cucumber, 1/2 a red onion, 1 jalapeno, handful of cilantro. Squeezed in 1/2 a lime and mixed in a dash of cumin and chili powder. Salt to taste.

Gaucamole
Sabra mashed up 2 avocados with some cilantro, lime, salt and cayenne.

Crumbled Feta
Sour Cream

My favorite combination -- EVERYTHING! :)

Green Beans Palya

This is one of the dishes that I taught my friends Andrew and Faouzi to make during our cooking lesson. Palya is a South Indian word that means dry curry. You can make this recipe with a number of different kinds of vegetables besides green beans: beet, potato, eggplant, etc. This is a dish that my mom made quite often. It kind of spoils you from eating green beans any other way becuse it's so flavorful.

For this dish, you fry up some mustard seed, curry leaf, chili and then add the green beans in with some sambar powder* (you can buy this powder at the Indian store), coconut and lemon. You can have this dish on the side, mix it in with some rice and sambar or eat with a roti or flatbread. I've put it inside a burrito before - sounds wierd but was so good!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil or ghee

3/4 pound green beans - cut into about 1/2 inch long pieces

pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon urad dal

1/2 teaspoon chana dal

3 fresh curry leaves (can use dry)

1 dried red chili - broken into pieces

1/2 teaspoon sambar powder (MTR brand is good)

2 tablespoons frozen fresh grated coconut - thawed out

juice of half a lemon

salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil under a medium flame. Put in a pinch of hing or asafoetida, mustard seed, urad dal and chana dal. This is the good brand of hing - make sure you get the powdered hing:

When the mustard seed starts popping and the dals start browning, put in the curry leaf and broken up chili pieces. Mix everything around for 10 seconds until everything is coated with oil:

Next throw in the green beans.

Mix it all up:

Add a little bit of water, turn the heat to low, cover and cook until the beans are almost tender. Mix in sambar powder and cook until the beans are tender. Add the coconut and cook for a few minutes. Turn the heat off and add in the lemon and salt and mix well.

*Sambar powder is made from:

coriander seeds

chana dal

cumin seeds

mustard seeds

fenugreek seeds

urad dal

peppercorns

asafoetida

turmeric

cloves

cinnamon

chili powder

Egg Salad with Mint Chutney

There's a big snowstorm today and I didn't want to go outside so I had to make due with what I have in the house. To my delight I had 2 hard boiled eggs so I made an egg salad with some mint chutney. SWAD brand chutneys are good and I like to have some on hand in my fridge for emergencies like this one!

Egg salad is one of my most favorite things to eat in the world. It's so easy to make and a good recipe to build off of. This time I added some mint chutney, but I'm sure any type of spicey sauce will do.

I rolled the salad up in a tortilla that I had fried in olive oil - kind of like a kathi roll. My friend Busayo always fries up her tortillas like this and it is so much better than eating a cold tortilla or one that's just heated in a pan.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
two hard-boiled eggs
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
green pepper, 5 medium chopped pieces
red pepper, 5 medium chopped pieces
couple squeezes of lemon
1 heaping teaspoon mint chutney (SWAD brand is good if you don't wanna make it)
1 teaspoon cut cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

1 tortilla

olive oil

Method:
Mash up the hard-boiled eggs. Mix in the mayonnaise, green pepper, red pepper, lemon, mint chutney, cilantro, salt and pepper.

Turn stove to medium and coat a frying pan with a few drizzles of olive oil. Place tortilla on surface and fry on both sides until you get some brown spots.

Spoon the egg salad into the tortilla and roll up. Serve with some extra chutney on the side.

My First Cooking Class

me being a know-it-all.

On Sunday, my friends Andrew and Faouzi came over for a lesson on South Indian cooking. I was excited to teach them because I find that South Indian food many times is overshadowed by the North Indian food you find in the restaurants (i.e. naan, chicken tikka masala, etc.) and there are not as many places to eat or learn about it. Most of my South Indian recipes come from my mother or other relatives.

I'd say in general, South Indian cooking has a lighter feel to it than North Indian and can be on the spicier side. Many of the recipes include lentils, rice, coconut, lemon, cilantro, mustard seed, curry leaf, dried red chilis, in addition to spice mixtures. A nice tradition also is that every meal ends with rice and yogurt to help digest better.

The first part of the lesson was an introduction to my spice box, something that is found in most Indian kitchens. I put all of the spices that I use most frequently in it and it's great because I don't have to fumble around for different bottles every time I cook (and it's also very cute!).

Faouzi got very into my spice box:

After cooking for about 2 hours, we feasted:

Our menu:

sambar (previous recipe post here)

green beans curry

spinach raita

peanut rice

kosambri (previous recipe post here)

plain rice

plain yogurt

gooseberry pickle (from my mom's aunt)

I will be sharing recipes from this day in posts to come. Thanks to Andrew for taking photos!

Rajma (Kidney Bean Curry) with Spinach

Rajma is a North Indian curry of kidney beans cooked with onions, tomatoes and spices. "Rajma chawal" which just means rajma and rice is the most popular way to eat this curry, kind of like the Indian version of rice and beans. I liken rajma also to chili since it's cooked in a spicy tomato gravy. Usually, it's not made with spinach but I had a ton on hand so I just threw it in and it came out quite well.

This is a good recipe to make during the week because it's really quick*.  There's hardly anything to prep except for the cutting of onions. I had my rajma with a paratha and some labne, thick middle eastern yogurt. Another day, I had it with rice and some radish raita on the side. I was eating it throughout the week, and it was tasting better and better each day.

*If you are using dried kidney beans, that will take longer and I have directions for pressure cooking the beans below.

Ingredients:
15 ounce can red kidney beans (if you are using dried red kidney beans, see pressure cooker directions below)
1/2 pound baby spinach
2 tablespoons ghee or oil
pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon garlic paste or a clove garlic chopped
1 teaspoon ginger paste or fresh grated ginger
2 green chilis or to taste (can use jalapeno as a sub), chopped small
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups unsalted tomato sauce or fresh tomato puree
2 heaping teaspoons coriander powder
1/3 teaspoon garam masala
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon chili powder or to taste
salt to taste

Method:
Drain and wash the kidney beans. Set aside.

In a frying pan, heat ghee or oil under medium/high flame. Once hot, put in hing and cumin seeds. Shake up the pan so they mingle. When the cumin seeds pop or start to brown, throw in the onions and turn the heat to medium. Cook the onions until the become translucent and fragrant.

Next put in the garlic, ginger and chilis. Stir around and fry for about 30-40 seconds. Then throw in the spinach and sautee. When the spinach just starts to wilt, put in the tomato sauce and mix in the coriander powder, garam masala, turmeric, chili powder and salt. Cook until the tomato starts to separate from the oil.

Then, mix in the kidney beans. Simmer the curry for about 10 minutes until the gravy thickens a bit. You can also add some water to get to the consistency you prefer. Add salt to taste.

How to Pressure Cook Dried Red Kidney Beans
Soak 1 cup dried kidney beans overnight.
Wash off kidney beans and add to pressure cooker with 4 cups of water.
Bring kidneys beans to a boil.
Turn heat to medium and place cover and stopper on top.
Once the stopper starts to rock, cook kidney beans for 20-25 minutes.
Turn heat off.
Only after the pressure has completely released from cooker, should you open it (~25 minutes and as a check, make sure the pressure valve is no longer raised).
Check that beans are cooked and if not, boil for a bit more with lid off.
Follow steps above to finish curry.