Hosting South Indian Harvest Dinner on Oct 15 - Limited Tickets

On October 15th,  I'll be hosting a South Indian Harvest Feast in partnership with a group of individuals I have a lot of admiration for....

First off,  Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village contacted me last week to get this dinner going at his restaurant. Jimmy is probably one of the strongest advocates for local farmers and food producers in the area and over the years he's established many important events to celebrate slow food and sustainability including Pig Island, which I was a part of this year.  If you haven't visited Jimmy's No. 43. already, you should because it's a special place and probably has the most impressive listing of local, eclectic beers I've seen so far in the city.

Jimmy wanted me to come up with a seasonal menu that would pair with a local cider company out of New Hampshire called Farnum Hill Ciders in honor of Cider Week, an initiative to support local orchards making cider products. The more I learn about Farnum Hill, the more psyched I get about coming up with a menu for them.  The company was founded by Stephen Wood and Louisa Spencer and since 2000, they have been meticulous and taken great pains in order to make their cider the traditional way using apples that they grow themselves.  Awesome!

I'll be collaborating with my friend Cathy Erway on this menu.  Cathy founded the site Not Eating Out In New York, when she decided not to eat out from 2006 to 2008 while living in New York and chronicle how she did it.  As a result, her site and later her book and radio program have become a resource for many on how to live and eat more sustainably.  In addition, Cathy hosts many events that also support local food initiatives and I actually met her when I entered (and won!) one of her cookoff/fundraisers for the organization, Just Food.  Since that time, we have crossed paths many times, most recently working together at the Vegetopolis on Pig Island.  I'm very excited to learn from her and work together on this dinner.

For the event, we'll be sourcing our produce from Farmer Kara Kinney of Evolutionary Organics in New Paltz, NY.  You can find her products on Saturdays at the GrowNYC Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market in Brooklyn.

Without further ado, here is the menu! Each course is a traditional South Indian dish, reinvented in the 'ABCD' kind of way with local and seasonal ingredients thanks to Cathy's guidance. Buy your ticket now because this event is sure to sell out:

5 Course South Indian Harvest Dinner w/ 5 Ciders - $45
Monday, October 15th @ 7PM
Jimmy's No. 43
43 East 7th Street
New York NY
Buy Ticket

First course: 'Dosa'
Lettuce wraps filled with spiced potatoes and coconut chutney

Second course: "Kosambri'
Crunchy salad of kohlrabi, carrot, apple, sprouts, coconut, herbs, lemon and fried spices

Third course: 'Thovve'
Spicy lentil soup with seasonal greens and farmer's cheese

Fourth course: 'Vangi Baath'
Curried spelt grain, winter squash and cauliflower topped with radish raita and herb chutney

Fifth course: 'Carrot Halva'
Carrot halva cake topped with homemade yogurt and pistachios

Sprouted Moong Dal (Mung Bean) Farm Salad

I grew up watching my grandmother and mother germinate moong dal, which are also called mung beans.  The sprouted lentils are really hearty and delicious even on their own.  You automatically feel healthier just consuming them.

My mom puts them in a version of kosambri that she makes so I thought I'd try that out with these sprouts along with some of the vegetables I got in my farm share.









The germination process is quite easy, but for some reason it took me time to try it out myself. I think watching a hard lentil actually grow a sprout may have made me think it was harder than it is. Now that I've done it once, it doesn't seem so daunting after all.

This is what moong dal looks like before you start the process.



I soaked these lentils in water overnight, making sure they were completely submerged.

The next morning, I found that they had absorbed much of the water and plumped up like this.

Before I went to work, I just drained the dal in a colander and let it sit there until I came home.

Then I put the dal in a covered corning ware dish in my oven with the light on, and the next morning I had these sprouts! Success!



Sprouted Moong Dal (Mung Bean) Salad



Ingredients
1 cup moong dal or mung bean with green skins (will make more than you need for salad)
6 large cherry tomatoes, halved
2 small carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch discs
2 radish, sliced into 1/8 inch discs
1 small red pepper, large chop
1 tablespoon oil
pinch of asafetida (hing)
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 dried red chili, broken in half
3 fresh curry leaves
handful frozen fresh grated coconut
juice of half lemon
salt to taste
cilantro for garnish

Method

Rinse the moong dal and then immerse in water for over 24 hours.  On the next day, throw away the water and drain in a colander.  Pat the dal dry or leave it for a few hours to drain.  Put the moong dal in a covered dry dish in the oven with the light on overnight.  The next day, pick through and discard the dal that did not sprout or are hard.

In a bowl mix in all your veggies and put as many sprouts in the salad as you wish. I like more sprouts so sprouts make up a third of my salad.

In a little pan, fry oil with mustard seed and hing. When the mustard seed starts to spurt, add fresh or dry curry leaves and dried red chili. Stir for few seconds until coated with oil.

Pour this oil mixture over ingredients in bowl and mix.

Add lemon, coconut, cilantro and salt and mix well. 

Three Color String Bean Palya @ Vegetopolis Cooking Demo

This past weekend, I gave a veggie cooking demo at Vegetopolis at the Pig Island event on Governor's Island. I had found purple, yellow and green string beans at the farmer's market so I decided to make a South Indian stir fry dish called playa, which is basically fresh veggies cooked with fried spices, coconut, lemon and cilantro.  I realized after cooking the purple ones though that they actually turn green so enjoy the color before you cook them!

Sounds funny I know that I was cooking veggies at a place called Pig Island, but there were actually a number of vegetarians there and people that just wanted a bit of a break from pork consumption.

At the Vegetopolis, where the cooking demos were taking place, I also was lucky to meet vegetarian cookbook author Lukas Volger.  This is Lukas getting ready for his demo.

He made these beautiful zucchini, almond and basil veggie burgers from his cookbook, Veggie Burgers Every Which Way.  He had a copy at the table and I couldn't put it down so I bought it and have been reading it voraciously ever since.  His recipes are really inventive and the book also includes how to make your own burger buns.

My friend Cathy, who had organized the Vegetopolis, gave a demo on cooking an Asian mung bean noodle salad with julienned vegetables. It was really fresh and delicious and also was interesting to me because just last week, I had germinated some mung beans but not realized that they could be made into a noodle as well.

Three Color String Bean Palya (South Indian Stir Fry)

Ingredients
3/4 pound string beans, chopped into 1 inch long segments
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

pinch of asafetida (hing)

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon chana dal

1/2 teaspoon urad dal

3 fresh curry leaves

1 dried red chili

1 handful frozen fresh grated coconut

juice of 1/2 lemon

cilantro for garnish, chopped

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. 

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 and mix it all up.

Add a little bit of water, turn the heat to low, cover and cook until the beans are almost tender. If you are using purple string beans, those beans should turn green when they are completely cooked.  Add the coconut and cook for a few minutes. Turn the heat off and add in the lemon and salt and mix well.  Garnish with chopped cilantro.