The ABCD's of Cooking

Cooking By Heart Screening @ Moviehouse 3rd Ward Event

2012-02-08T12:00:00.017-05:00

Very exciting news! Cooking By Heart, a video series by friends Alana Lowe and Paul Helzer about preserving cooking traditions will be screened at a Moviehouse event at 3rd Ward this Sunday. One of the videos that will be screened features my father teaching me how to make chapati. You can watch that video here, but come to the event to see their amazing work on the big screen.

I'll also be preparing a Nigerian/Indian rice curry bowl with my buddy Ediomi, who's in one of the Cooking By Heart videos too that will be shown that night. There is word on the street that my cousin, Sumanth will be bringing his killer masala chai so don't miss out!

This is also a little bit of a send off for Alana & Paul who will be moving to France to work on farms and continue to document food traditions while traveling around the country.

And look out in the next couple weeks for an upcoming Cooking by Heart video featuring the world re-knowned chef and cooking instructor, Peter Berley!

Event Info

Sunday, February 12

3rd Ward map

195 Morgan Avenue, between Meadow and Stagg

Brooklyn, NY 11237

7PM - Doors & Food

8PM - Film Screenings

suggested donation of $10 to support filmmakers

More info

See you Sunday!

My Favorite Indian Spots in NJ for Brooklyn Based

2012-01-26T18:29:00.001-05:00

I was so excited to be asked by Brooklyn Based to write a piece about my favorite Indian spots in Edison and Iselin NJ, which is home to one of the largest Indian communities in the US. I have a lot of memories spending time on the main drag, Oak Tree Road, with my family when I was growing up and it was a treat to write about all of the places that I love. You can read the complete article here.

Curried and Creamed Kale for Gojee Potluck

2012-01-18T00:28:00.026-05:00

I made this dish special for the Gojee potluck last week, which was super fun because I got to meet a lot of the other writers in the area. I decided to make a curried and creamed kale, kind of a take on traditional creamed spinach and also Indian saag or palak.

For this recipe, I flavored the kale with Indian spices, and instead of using cream, used lebne, Lebanese strained yogurt - almost like yogurt cheese. I love the lebne from Kalustyan's in Curry Hill - they make it fresh and it's the most delicious I have ever had!

Realizing this was for a potluck, I threw in some red peppers because creamed kale is not the most attractive thing and I had some sev, fried chickpea flour strands in the fridge so I sprinkled some on top for texture and color, which went over well.

There were so many amazing dishes at this potluck, which you can also get the recipes for. Starting on Thursday, January 26, you can check out other potluck dishes my fellow gojee contributors shared. Go to gojee.com and enter “gojeepotluck” into I Crave. You can also follow #gojeepotluck on Twitter.

Enjoy!

Curried and Creamed Kale

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons ghee or oil

1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon ginger, grated

pinch of asafoetida or hing

1 tablespoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1/3 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon chili powder (to taste)

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

lemon juice - few squeezes

2 tablespoons lebne

sev (optional)

salt to taste

Method

Heat ghee or oil in a pan under medium high heat and throw in pinch of asafoetida or hing. Add in onions to pan and fry until translucent. Next add in ginger and garlic and fry for a few seconds. Add in the rest of the spices and mix around well. Add in red pepper and fry for 5 minutes or until pepper is cooked. Add a little bit of water into the pan, if the pan is getting a little dry. Then add in kale and stir well. Turn off heat right when you see the kale start to deflate and turn a rich green color. Add in salt and and lemon and mix. Transfer kale to a serving dish. Mix in the lebne well and sprinkle with sev.

Apple Tamarind Chutney @ Farm Bill Hackathon

2012-01-04T22:19:00.001-05:00

My good friend Danielle Gould, founder of Food+Tech Connect recently orchestrated the Farm Bill Hackathon in collaboration with Gojee last month. The Farm Bill Hackathon brought together over 120 tech and food policy experts to produce infographics, apps and tools to convey the complexities and relevance of the impending Farm Bill, a piece of legislation that comes up for review every 5 years and dictates the landscape of food and farming in the US.

There were presentations throughout the day given by individuals in food policy and technology from WhyHunger, NYT R&D Lab, Data Without Borders and Food & Water Watch. At the end of the 12 hour event, 5 graphics and 4 tools were created to address a variety of issues related to the Farm Bill's impact on new farmers, global hunger and a host of other issues along with ways to visualize sentiment of major stakeholders and weight support for different commodities and crops in the bill. A panel of judges rated each group's work and awarded prizes of dinners at Telepan, Red Rooster Harlem, and Northern Spy Food Co. to the winners. You can find out more about all of the amazing projects that were developed that day at Food+Tech Connect.

Although I'd love to be a coder, I'm not, and decided the best way for me to contribute would be to make make food for the hackathon participants. I also write for both Food+Tech and Gojee so I was really happy to support them on this event and to see it go so well.

For the hackathon, I prepared a bunch of tea sandwiches, curried paneer and chutneys (am on quite a chutney kick lately). Apples are the one fruit that is in abundance at the farmer's market so I messed around with some golden delicious ones and mixed in some tamarind to complement the sweetness of the fruit with sour. The chutney went really well with sharp cheddar and toasted whole grain loaf. Enjoy!

Apple Tamarind Chutney

Ingredients
1 tablespoon ghee
4 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and cut into cubes
3 dried red chilis
6 cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 cup almonds
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1/4 cup yellow raisins
2 heaping tablespoons of honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Crush the cloves in a mortar and pestle and set aside. Toast almonds in a non-stick pan under medium low heat and set aside.

Heat ghee in another pan under medium heat. Put in red chilis, cardamom, cloves and ginger. Fry for 30 seconds. Next add in the almonds and mix well. Throw in the apples and the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Mix well and bring to a boil. Simmer for 40 minutes or until fruit is completed cooked and turns to mush:) Taste to see that there is enough sweet and spicy and add more honey or chili flakes accordingly. The chutney should be sour and sweet with a spicy kick at the end.

Puree coarsely in a blender to make it spreadable.

Tempeh & Greens Over Kamut

2011-12-27T11:23:00.001-05:00

This recipe is not Indian, but it's one that I like to make from time to time. My friend Busayo introduced me to a new grain called kamut, which is really nutty, earthy and super high in protein. It's also known to be an easier grain to digest for those that have wheat allergies. It has almost a sweet kind of flavoring, really nice texture to it and is really filling. I highly recommend it!

This is what cooked kamut looks like:

And it makes for a really hearty meal with the tempeh and greens that are sauteed in just oil and tamari (or soy sauce). Tempeh is an Indonesian fermented soy bean cake so it makes for double dose of protein with the kamut. I had some cayote squash too so I just threw that in there, but I think the greens are quite sufficient.

Also, I actually used to hate tempeh because I thought it was kind of bitter, but then I realized that a lot of the tempeh probably at the store is not too fresh sometimes. I came across a tempeh vendor in Brooklyn called Barry's Tempeh who makes amazingly fresh and tasty tempeh and highly recommend if you can get your hands on some of this stuff or any other freshly made variety.

This recipe is actually really fast to make if you make the kamut ahead of time (kamut takes about 35 minutes in a rice cooker or 2 hours on the stove). I am always on the lookout for new grains to add to the mix and keep finding better and better ones that are more hearty and healthful. And I do love to eat like an oldster so this is kind of a favorite past time of mine:)

Tempeh & Greens Over Kamut
Ingredients
1 cup cooked kamut (1 cup of kamut to 3 cups of water)
2 tablespoons sesame oil
pinch of red chili flakes
8 ounces tempeh, cut 1/4 inch thick squares
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon of ginger, grated
2 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
1 bunch of chopped greens - (kale, spinach, mustard greens or any other type)
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method
In a non-stick pan under medium heat, add oil. When hot, add in the tempeh pieces and brown on both sides - about 5 minutes on each side. Turn down heat to low and add in a pinch of chili flakes, ginger, garlic and tamari. Simmer for 5-7 minutes and add a little water if you pan is getting dry. The tempeh should get glazed and to a chewy type of texture at this point. Next add in the greens and stir until wilted. Squeeze and stir in lemon juice and serve over kamut.

Vangi Baath (Eggplant Rice)

2011-12-20T11:00:00.018-05:00

Vangi baath is a South Indian rice dish that's made with eggplant and a really fragrant spice mixture made from urad dal, chana dal, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, dried coconut, dried red chili and curry leaves. I've written the recipe down that my mother had from her Aunt below, but if you don't have these ingredients, you can buy the spice mixture at the Indian store. MTR brand makes a good one. I had these little eggplants from my farm share, but you can use the regular Italian or Chinese eggplants for this dish too.

I actually made this for my Brooklyn Winery supper earlier in the year and it was a hit. This was a rice that my family would make when we'd go on long car rides or on picnics. It's quite hardy and since it's so flavorful, you can just eat it as is. Traditionally, vangi baath is made with eggplants, but I like the combo of onions, eggplant and green pepper and I've also made it with cauliflower too. My mom recently made this rice for Thanksgiving and added fried peanuts to the mix which was really good. I usually serve it with plain yogurt, raita or majjige huli.

I made vangi baath for my friend Mia when she came to visit from LA and she took this pic of it in the pan. Even though I really hate using a non-stick pan, I recommend it for this dish when frying the eggplant and rice so it doesn't stick!

Vangi Baath (Eggplant Rice)
Ingredients
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon mustard seed
pinch of hing or asafoetida
2 fresh curry leaves
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 small eggplant, cut into 1 inch long strips (can use different varieties)
1 green pepper - same size as eggplant
1 small red onion
2 teaspoons vangi baath powder (recipe below)
1 cup cooked and cooled rice
juice of 1/2 lemon (or tamarind extract)
fresh frozen coconut - optional if not in powder

Method
In a frying pan or wok under medium heat, add oil, mustard seeds and hing. Wait for the mustard seeds to pop and then add in the curry leaves and coat with oil. Add in the onion and fry until translucent. Add in the eggplant and green pepper and the turmeric and stir well.

Cook the vegetables until the eggplant is half-cooked. Add in the vangi baath powder and stir fry thoroughly so that the spice mixture is on all of the vegetables. Turn the heat down to cook through and stir periodically.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add in the rice and stir well. Turn off heat. Squeeze lemon and mix together. Top with coriander leaves and serve with yogurt, raita or majjige huli.

Vangi Baath Powder Recipe

Dry roast -
3/4 cup chana dal
1/4 cup urad dal

Fry in ghee -
4 1 inch size cinnamon
4 cloves
10 pepper corns

Fry in oil -
2 cups coriander seeds
1 cup dried red chili
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
3-4 strands of curry leaves

Cool and grind all of the above. Mix in 1/2 cup of dried coconut (optional as you can add fresh frozen when you are making the rice itself)

Nature Conservancy Auction & Upcoming Cooking Classes

2011-12-09T11:35:00.004-05:00

I was recently asked if I'd like to donate a cooking class to the Nature Conservancy Auction, and since I love the organization and it's mission, I jumped at the chance.

It was a lot of fun to do and really great to meet some new folks. Thanks so much to JT and Evelyn for bidding on me and to Jenn and Adam for the pics and hosting the class in their awesome kitchen. Here are some photos from the class.

This week I did another cooking class at Ted & Amy Supper Club, a cooking class and supper club venue in Fort Greene that is run by Kara Masi. I really enjoy offering classes there because, well first of all, Kara is awesome and now a friend and also because the venue has a really homey feel to it. I hope to be doing a supper there soon and definitely more cooking classes. Kara has a really eclectic mix of food events going on and you can find out about what's coming up by subscribing to her newsletter here - highly recommended by me!

Here's a pic I took when we all sat down to eat our South Indian feast.

Coconut Chutney @ Busayo Trunk Show

2011-11-19T13:07:00.000-05:00

Coconut chutney is the chutney I grew up eating. My recipe is a variation on the South Indian one that my mom would make usually to go with breakfast foods like idli, dosa, rice roti, etc.

Lately, I've really gotten into making different types of chutneys, but this one is still my favorite. You just blend up fresh frozen coconut, cilantro, green chilis, roasted chana dal, red onion, ginger, lime, tamarind extract (I use Tamcon brand), yogurt and then top with fried spices.

In case you're not familiar with chana dal, there are two kinds at the Indian shop. The one here on the left is unroasted chana dal, which I use in rice and vegetable stir fries to give a nutty flavor and crunchy texture. The one on the right is roasted chana dal which you use in this chutney for a thickener. It has a lighter coloring and a softer, more chalky texture compared to the unroasted dal.

I made this chutney for my friend Busayo's first fashion trunk show. Her designs use all Nigerian fabric and prints and come in all different cuts - dresses, skirts, onesies, scarves, shorts, etc. This is Busayo on the right with her sisters and mother. What a cute family!

I am so proud of Busayo as she recently left her law job to strike out on her own with her new fashion line. I've known Busayo since we were freshman at Berkeley and I have to say she has really come into her own after launching this line. And the girl obviously knows what's going on because whenever I wear one of her designs, people immediately want to know where I got it.

Busayo has always been so supportive of me in all of my food endeavors so I jumped at the chance when she asked me to prepare some eats for her event. The trunk show was a major success and I know it's only the beginning of some great things to come for Busayo's brand. You can check out her latest here and these are some shots from the trunk show:

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients
2 cups of frozen fresh coconut (can also use desiccated)
half a bunch of cilantro (can include some of the stem with the leaves)
2 tablespoons roasted chana dal
3 small green chilis (to taste and can use jalapeno)
1 teaspoon of tamarind extract
juice of 1 lime
1 inch ginger, grated
1/2 small red onion, chopped
2 tablespoons yogurt
salt to taste

For tempering:
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1/2 teaspoon urad dal (optional)
3 curry leaves
1 dried red chili (optional)

urad dal

Method
Blend all of the ingredients, except for the yogurt and tempering items. You will have to add some water a little at a time though. You want to add as little water as possible to get it blended. Once all blended, mix in the yogurt.

In a small pan, heat the oil at medium heat and toss in mustard seeds, hing and urad dal. Once the mustard seeds start popping and urad dal starts to brown, add the curry leaves and coat with oil. Immediately pour over the chutney.

If you refrigerate, the chutney will become kind of solid so you may have to add a little water to bring it back to the right consistency.

ABCDs at Occupy Wall Street

2011-11-11T12:22:00.006-05:00

Last Sunday, my cousin, Sumanth and I decided that we'd like to make a contribution to the protesters at Occupy Wall Street so I made a vat of yellow peanut rice

and Sumanth made a huge pot of his special masala chai.

I have to say I'm not a political person at all but for some reason this movement has struck a chord. I do believe in the main sentiment that the distribution of wealth is out of whack and something needs to change. I'm also fascinated by the structure or somewhat lack of structure really that is defining this occupation. And although it gets criticized for lack of direction, there is something that is resonating with others as the movement spreads to other cities in the US, Asia and Europe.

When we arrived at Wall Street, it took us a little time to figure out where we could serve our rice and chai, but everyone we encountered there was really helpful. In the canteen, there was space made so that we could serve our food alongside the other workers. It felt good to give back to people that are really devoting themselves to what they believe in (don't get me wrong, there were definitely some freeloaders in the mix, but the majority of the people we served were protesters).

In the canteen, everyone was just kind of pitching in and fell into their roles of serving, refilling, etc.

Working there made me think about how the undefined nature of this protest works. The answer I think is really collaboration in its finest form. When I think about the projects I work on outside and at work nowadays, there is not really a defined leader per se, but each person on the project comes with a certain expertise that they contribute to bring it all to fruition. I don't know if that is really the case for Occupy Wall Street, but working at the site made me feel that maybe the structure reflects a more modern way of collaboration that we all are actually pretty familiar with but never have seen applied to a protest or an occupation.

Anyway, that is my two cents but I'm curious to see what happens next and I will most likely go back and serve food there again ... Thanks Sumanth for cousin collaborating:) and to Sheng and Ben for helping!

Pumpkin Sambar for Moviehouse @ 3rd Ward

2011-10-28T16:45:00.004-04:00

A couple weeks ago me and my friend Ben made a pumpkin sambar to serve at a film screening event called Moviehouse at 3rd Ward. Usually sambar is made with lentils, but since I saw all of these really awesome Japanese pumpkins at the farmer's market, I thought they would make a really good base in place of lentils. The green pumpkins are called kabocha and they look like this and have a really nice creamy inside. I also had some butternut squash so threw that in too.

The recipe is quite easy because you just have to roast the pumpkin, squash and potatoes, fry up some sweet potatoes with brown sugar and just cook it all down with water and the sambar powder for a while. We topped it with some yogurt, boondi (fried chickpea flour balls) and cilantro. Follow this recipe for sambar and just substitute in roasted and cooked squash for lentils.

Here are some more photos from the Moviehouse event (photo credit: Mark Sullivan Bernal/Moviehouse). The documentary shown that night was called American Meat ( I served a vegetarian soup of course:) by director, Graham Meriwether. The film explores the complexities embedded in the highly debated practices of the American meat industry. It was a really fun event to be a part of. Thanks Moviehouse!

serving Graham soup - I think he liked it!

Ben serving soup - way better at plating than me:)

Before the screening

scene from American Meat

QA with Graham

Cooking Video With My Dad

2011-10-14T12:35:00.002-04:00

My friends Alana and Paul shoot a cooking series called Cooking By Heart and in this episode they featured me and my Dad. Cooking By Heart is all about the passing of food traditions from generation to generation. In this video, my Dad teaches me how to make chapati, Indian flatbread.

Thanks so much to A+P for an amazing video that me and my Dad will always have:)

You can watch more episodes from Cooking By Heart here.

Red Currant Jam with Jaggery & Kirsch

2011-10-10T23:35:00.007-04:00

Alana and I made this red currant jam together (thanks Alana for taking all of the photos too!). We got these red currants in our CSA. If you haven't had them before, they are juicy, really tart and have a little seed:

We adapted a recipe from David Lebovitz by using jaggery, Indian cane sugar, in place of white sugar:

This recipe also calls for kirsch, a clear fruit liqueur originally from Germany but also made in France and other parts of Europe. By chance, Alana & Paul had just introduced me to it recently. Paul's mother, Brigitte, is from an Alsacian town that has very special a kirsch distillery so it was really exciting to try some of what they brought back from France. Unlike other fruity liqueurs, kirsch is light and actually tastes just like the fruit. But don't be fooled because it's really alcoholic:)

In France, kirsch is called eau-de-vie or water of life. I've started calling it fire water;) The traditional variety is black cherry but there are a myriad of different flavors - I really liked the pear one they had brought back too. It's usually taken after a meal and not mixed with anything. There are also these cute little cups that you drink the kirsch from. If you ever come across this brand of kirsch, buy it. It's so good!

The jaggery brings a really natural sweetness to the jam and the kirsch is a nice way to draw out the flavor of the fruit. This was my first time making jam and it is way easier than I thought it was going to be so I hope you give it a try too:)

Red Currant Jam, adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1 measure red currants
3/4 measure jaggery
Optional: a shot of kirsch

Method
1. Rinse the red currants and put them in a large pot. Add enough water just so that it covers the bottom of the pot.

2. Cook the red currants, stirring frequently, until they’re soft and wilted. Once cooked, pass them through a food mill, discarding the stems and seeds left behind (don't have a food mill so just pressed through a strainer and actually kept the seeds in the jam).

3. Weigh the puree. For each pound, add 3/4 amount jaggery to the pot.

4. Mix the puree and the jaggery in the pot and cook over medium-high heat, stirring until the jaggery is completely dissolved.

5. Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, let it boil for five minutes undisturbed.

6. After five minutes, add a shot of kirsch and turn off the heat skim off any scum.

7. Ladle the jam into clean jars up to the top and screw on the lids firmly. Turn the jars upside down and let cool completely.

ABCDs is on Gojee!

2011-09-14T19:48:00.003-04:00

If you have not visited Gojee already, go go go to Gojee! Gojee selects recipes from food bloggers (like me!) and presents them in a really visual and beautiful way. The interface is super simple too. You just type in an ingredient that you have and then you scroll through these huge, awesome photos of recipes. When you click thru on one, it takes you to the recipe on the food blogger's site it came from.

You can view my Gojee page here and to see one of my recipes, type in paneer for instance, and one of my recipes will come up!

I first found out about Gojee last year at Eats+Apps and covered them briefly on my SXSW Wrap Up. Since then, it's been really exciting to watch their idea evolve. Lately, they've been covered a ton in the press and you can read more about them on these sites:Food+Tech Connect, Mashable, VentureBeat, GigaOm, TechCrunch BetaBeat, swissmiss, Thrillist.

Thanks for having me Gojee!

Cabbage Palya (South Indian Stir Fry)

2011-09-10T13:39:00.000-04:00

Cabbage palya is a South Indian stir fry. To make it you only need a few spices, which I recommend buying at the Indian store - black mustard seeds, ground hing (asafoetida), dried red chili, curry leaves (dry or fresh), urad dal (with no skin) and chana dal. Once you have these ingredients, you can apply them to a number of different vegetables (beets, green beans), rices, yogurt and salad dishes. This stir fry just takes minutes to prepare.

I've been getting some nice cabbage from my farm share:

It's interesting because dals (lentils) are used in a totally different way than usual in this dish. Instead of boiling them and making something soupy, you actually fry them. They add a nice, nutty flavor and some protein to the curry.

This is what chana dal looks like:

Urad dal usually comes with a black skin on it, but for this preparation look for the dal skinned:

My mom would prepare this dish as a side and we'd mix it up with some rice and saru. I like to add some yogurt and a little pickle on top too.

Cabbage Palya

Ingredients

1 small head of cabbage, chopped

2 tablespoons oil or ghee

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

pinch of hing (asafoetida)

1 teaspoon chana dal

1 teaspoon urad dal

1 dried red chili, broken in half

3 curry leaves

cilantro

lemon

salt

Method

Heat oil in a wok under medium-high heat. Add mustard seeds and hing and shake the pan up. Add in the chana and urad dal. The mustard seeds should start popping and the dals should start to brown up. Once this happens, turn the head to medium and add in the red chili and curry leaves. Stir them around and coat them with the oil.

Next throw in the cabbage and fry for 7-8 minutes. If you are getting a little burn on them, add a little bit of water to the leaves. The cabbage should be wilty, soft and have just a little crunch to it. Mix in salt to taste and squeeze lemon on top. Garnish with cilantro.

The Spice Route: Nithya Das on Mustard Seeds

2011-09-06T23:00:00.004-04:00

On this Spice Route, I'm happy to introduce my friend Nithya who writes one of my favorite food blogs, Hungry Desi. She also just launched Half Pint Gourmet, a site of recipes for kids written by parents. Nithya is going to introduce you to mustard seeds, a spice that is used frequently in Indian dishes and pops when you cook them!

Name: Nithya Das

Where do you live? Brooklyn, NY

What do you love to do? Cooking and eating with my husband and daughter, writing Hungry Desi, a cooking blog featuring traditional Indian cuisine in my modern kitchen, and photography. By day, I’m a lawyer working with start-up technology companies.

What’s your spice? Mustard Seeds

What do you know about it? I use the small, black mustard seeds which are more mustard-y than the lighter, brown variety. Mustard seeds form the base of a common tarka, or tempering, for South Indian cooking. For the tempering, heat about a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add the mustard seeds. The seeds will sputter, and when they pop open release a slightly spicy, slightly bitter, slightly nutty flavor. Curry leaves and green chilies are often added to this tarka as well.

What do you like about it? Mustard seeds are tiny but pack a big, unassuming flavor punch.

What else? We grew up eating South Indian food four nights a week, so the smell and sound of popping mustard seeds in the kitchen takes me back to my parent’s kitchen. Standing before a skillet of them in my own kitchen still gives me the shivers. It makes me feel like I’m playing grown-up. Even though I’m married and have a 20-month old daughter!

What’s your favorite recipe using it? Any variety of rasam, a South Indian tomato, lentil soup.

Tomato Garlic Rasam by Nithya Das

Ingredients:
10 or so cherry tomatoes, rinsed and halved
3 cloves garlic, diced
½-1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 dried red chilies
3-4 curry leaves
2 teaspoons rasam powder*
~1 tablespoon tamarind paste
Fist full of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 cup cooked, mashed toor dal
Salt to taste

*Amount may very depending on the type of rasam powder and your desired spice.

Instructions:
1. Heat about ½-1 teaspoon of cooking oil in a saucepan then add the mustard seeds and cook until the mustard seeds sputter.
2. Reduce heat and add the red chilis, curry leaves and garlic. Cook until the garlic starts to become golden.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook on medium-low heat until the tomatoes melt.
4. Add about 2 and 1/2 cups water and the rasam powder and bring to a boil.
5. Stir in the tamarind paste and the toor dal and bring to a gentle boil again. Add salt to taste and sprinkle with freshly chopped cilantro.

Taste the rasam and adjust the amount of tamarind (sourness), rasam powder (spice) and water (consistency) as needed. Serve over hot basmati rice.

Kalonji (Nigella Seed) Potatoes

2011-08-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

In my CSA, I received a pound of Red Norland potatoes, which I found out are small red potatoes with a thin red skin and white flesh. I wanted to make a curry out of them with a spice I've been using a lot called kalonji, which is also sometimes called nigella seed or black caraway seed. It looks like this, kind of like little black pieces of charcoal:

It tastes a lot like onion, but I found it has no relation. The spice originated in Italy and Turkey but spread to African and Southeast Asian cuisine. It goes really well in dishes with potato and dal and also in breads. I learned too that it has a lot of healthful benefits including clearing up respiratory congestion and aiding in digestion so it's a good spice to add into the mix.

This dish is really fast to make if you boil the potatoes ahead of time - it's basically a couple fried spices, the potatoes and some sour cream at the end - sounds good right??

Ingredients

2 tablespoons ghee or oil

1/2 pound of dark red Norland potatoes (or any variety of small red potatoes), boiled and cut into quarters

pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1/2 teaspoon cumin seed

1/4 teaspoon kalonji (nigella) seed

1/4-1/2 onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

salt

1 teaspoon sour cream

Method

Boil potatoes, quarter and set aside.

Heat ghee or oil under medium-high heat and throw in hing, cumin seeds and kalonji seeds. When cumin seeds start to brown, turn down the heat to medium and throw in onions. Fry the onions until translucent. Add in turmeric and stir. Throw in garlic and ginger and mix up. Add in potatoes and stir. Cook for about 5 minutes or until tender. Add in salt. When potatoes are almost done, add in 1 teaspoon of sour cream and mix well.

Majjige Huli (Cucumber Yogurt Curry)

2011-08-17T17:51:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited to share this recipe from my Aunt Karen, whose son, Pradeep, actually shared a beet recipe on the site a couple weeks back. Her majjige huli (pronounced mudge-a-gay hool-i) recipe is one that she learned from my grandmother in Bangalore and has tweaked over the years. I had a taste of it at Thanksgiving last year and couldn't get enough so I've asked her to share it here.

Majjige huli is a yogurt curry made from cilantro, green chilis, coconut, soaked lentils and spices and it can be made with different vegetables - cucumber, squash, eggplant, etc. This dish is rarely found in restaurants and is eaten mostly in South Indian homes. What I love about it is first of all it's bright green:) and second, I've really never tasted anything like it. It's herby, cooling and really flavorful and goes well as a complement to spicy dishes. I also like that it's a cooked yogurt curry, which is unique.

My Aunt Karen didn't grow up in India so when she married my mother's eldest brother and moved there, she started to collect many of our family recipes by watching our relatives. I admire her because she came to India at a young age and learned to cook and speak the language (which I can't say I can even do). She's also a gifted artist, and among other projects, she makes handmade drawings and cards inspired by Madhubani art, a style of painting from Bihar, India. This is one of her drawings and you can read more about them here:

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© 2011 Karen Vasudev. All rights reserved

I hope you enjoy her awesome recipe! I like to eat it with rice and pickle.

Majjige Huli (Cucumber Yogurt Curry)

courtesy of Karen Vasudev

Ingredients

1-3 green Serrano chilies (to taste based on size and desired “hotness”)

1/2 bunch green coriander leaves washed and cleaned

1/4 cup of a fresh coconut OR 1/3 cup unsweetened desiccated dry coconut

1/4 cup roasted channa dal*

1/8 to 1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2-3/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp black mustard seeds

2 red chilies

2 sprigs curry leaves (optional)

3 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1” wide pieces

1 1/2 cups of plain yogurt** (natural style without gelatin or other additives)

Salt to taste***

1 tsp oil for tempering

*You can use chenna dhal soaked in hot water for 15 mins. if you don’t have roasted channa dal.

**The amount of yogurt can be adjusted to taste based on spiciness.

***Cucumber water has salt in it, so taste before adding more salt

Method

Peel the cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and cut in half again lengthwise. Then cut into 1” wide pieces.

Boil in salted water until tender (about 10-15 mins.). Cover for the last 3-4 minutes. Drain but retain about 1 cup of the water and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a blender container add the following ingredients in the following order: roasted channa dal, green chilies, coriander leaves, turmeric, cumin seeds, and leaves from 1 sprig of the curry leaves. Now slowly add the cup of cooled cucumber water and blend to a smooth paste - add just enough of the remaining cucumber water as needed to keep the blender blades moving.

Whisk the yogurt to a smooth consistency and add the blended mixture to it. Continue to whisk until well blended. Taste to adjust salt. Add the cooled cucumber pieces and stir to mix.

In hot oil, fry the mustard seeds till they pop (use lid to prevent spattering). Immediately reduce the heat, add curry leaves from the remaining curry leaf sprig and the red chilies. Heat for about 30 seconds. Immediately add to the yogurt mixture and mix well.

This can be served either cold or at room temperature.

Other vegetables that can be used: boiled potatoes; boiled Chinese winter melon (ash gourd); stir fried okra pieces; or stir fried Japanese eggplant.

The Spice Route: David Klopfenstein on Black Pepper

2011-08-10T10:40:00.001-04:00

I first met Dave at Food Obstructions where I was blown away by his risotto ball dish - I still think about them! He has a really inventive style of cooking using seasonal ingredients and you can find more about it at Dave's Kitchen. I'm happy to have him on The Spice Route. Get ready to learn a lot you didn't know about black pepper and get a really delicious recipe too!

Name: David Klopfenstein

Where do you live? Brooklyn, NY

What do you love to do? Cook and write about it (on daveskitchen.com).

What’s your spice? Black Pepper

What do you know about it? Black pepper is the fermented and dried berry of a vine officially known as Piper Negrum. It’s native to southern India but is now cultivated widely across tropical regions of the world (Vietnam is currently the world’s leading producer). White pepper comes from the same fruit, but is hulled: it’s the seed of the berry only, whereas the black peppercorn is made from the entire dried fruit. Green peppercorns – the unripe, un-dried berry of the same plant – can often be found either freeze-dried or preserved in brine. Fresh peppercorns, rarely found in the west because they’re very difficult to preserve and transport, are found in Thai and other Asian cuisines.

Black pepper was used in Indian cooking from ancient times, and was highly sought after by Europeans at least since the Roman era. It was so highly prized that it became an extremely important trade commodity and played a significant part in European empire building empires in Asia. It was largely access to black pepper that drove Vasco de Gama, and later Columbus to look for sea routes to India.

What do you like about it? Black pepper is almost an afterthought: always listed at the very bottom of a recipe’s ingredients list, a nearly forgotten mention of “salt and pepper to taste.” But its barely-noticed place in the recipe is really a sign of just how necessary and essential it is. Practically no dish is complete without it.

But black pepper’s role as a supporting player, as the picker-upper and rounder-outer of every dish in the cookbook, shouldn’t let you think that it lacks flavor or depth of its own. It is a berry, after all (well, technically, a “drupe”), and a good-quality black peppercorn has a complex fruitiness of its own. It holds up well as a featured flavor and can take a starring role in dishes like black pepper ice cream or like the black pepper and fresh herb biscuits for which I’ve listed a recipe here.

What else? Like every Midwestern kid, I grew up thinking of pepper as the stuff in the shaker, next to the salt on the kitchen table. It was a real awakening the first time I used freshly ground black pepper instead of the grey sawdust poured from a McCormick’s tin. Such aroma! Real heat! Actual flavor! It opened a small window into a larger universe of food and flavors, much bigger than the convenient, pre-packaged world of the suburban supermarkets I grew up with.

What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe using it? Black Pepper and Herb Biscuits

Black Pepper and Herb Biscuits by David Klopfenstein

Makes 10 to 12 biscuits

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ tsp salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup chopped fresh herbs, such as fennel, parsley, chives, tarragon, or a mix of several of these
1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper

Method
Preheat oven to 450.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry knife, two table knives or a food processor, cut the butter into the flour mixture until the largest chunks are the size of small peas.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Using a fork, gently stir the herbs and pepper into the buttermilk. Continue stirring, until the flour and liquid are evenly combined and a loose, crumbly dough is formed. Pour onto a lightly floured board. Using your hands and a bench knife, gently knead until it holds together as a single ball of dough. Be careful not to over-knead, or knead too vigorously, so that your biscuits won’t be tough.

Pat or roll the dough to a ½ inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a biscuit cutter. Gently pat together and recut scraps until all dough has been used. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12 to 16 minutes, until tops are browned and bottoms sound hollow when tapped. Serve hot, slathered with butter and honey.

Instant Gooseberry Pickle

2011-08-04T11:00:00.003-04:00

This pickle is the Indian kind, which is really a spicy condiment that you eat with hot rice and yogurt, but it's really good on almost anything - sandwiches, noodles, curry, etc. Usually, these kinds of pickles are very labor intensive and take weeks or even months to come out, but I've improvised and come up with an instant (or almost instant) one using gooseberries I got from the CSA. These gooseberries are somewhat juicy and really sour and tart when you bite in.

These are actually a different variety than the ones used in India, which look like this and are a bit bigger and crunchier with a larger seed. It's called amla in the North and nellikkai in the South.

Also, when eating pickle, you only have to eat a little of it at a time because it's quite potent with all of the chilis and spices. Think of it like sriracha or a hot sauce and something you wouldn't eat on it's own but on something. I had my friends Ben and Katie over and they almost ate the whole bottle and I feared for their lives but they were OK the next morning:)

Indian pickles are different from region to region depending on what types of oil, spices and local ingredients are found in the area. Most common is lemon or lime and then there is green mango, garlic, tomato etc. When I was growing up, my family would bring back pickles from India made by our relatives so we always had a fridge stocked with many varieties. One of my favorites is a red chili gooseberry one made by my mother's aunt, Saki, which my mother still brings back with her.

So it's kind of fitting that my first solo attempt at making a pickle was with the gooseberry and I was really happy with how it came out. I thought that it would be around for a at least a week or two but some people gobbled it down and I'm not going to name names:)

Ingredients

1/2 pound American gooseberries (about 35 small to medium in size)

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

2-3 tablespoons peanut or mustard oil*
large pinch asafoetida or hing

1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
3/4-1 tablespoon chili powder**
1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon jaggery or brown sugar

*If using mustard oil, heat the oil until it smokes and then set it aside to cool. You can also heat the entire bottle of mustard oil so that you can cook with it immediately for future use. This heating removes the pungency from the oil.

**this may vary depending on the potency of your chili powder

Method

Wash gooseberries and dry completely. Halve them and set aside.

Dry roast fenugreek and cumin seeds. Make sure not to burn the fenugreek because it gets really bitter. Grind in a coffee grinder and set aside. This is what fenugreek seeds look like:

Heat oil under medium heat and add asafoetida (hing) and mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start to pop, turn down the heat to medium-low. Add turmeric and fry for a couple seconds. Throw in the gooseberries and give a stir. Add in the chili powder and stir gently. When the gooseberries are softened but still retaining some of their shape. That should be about 5 minutes. Stir in the roasted spices, salt and sugar. Turn off the heat.

Serve with hot rice and yogurt

When the pickle is completely cool, put into a clean, dry jar. Should last you 2 weeks (if you don't finish it before.)

The Spice Route: Mia Kim on Gochugaru

2011-08-01T11:00:00.003-04:00

I'm really excited to introduce Mia Kim, one of my besties from Berkeley to The Spice Route. Mia was my devoted eating partner in crime on the West Coast and I miss her dearly. She is a wealth of information when it comes to Korean cooking and I'm sure you are going to love learning about her spice and recipe. You can find her musings on LA, food and other cool stuff at dubudiaries and read her restaurant reviews on Loopt.

Name: Mia Kim

Where do you live? Downtown Los Angeles, CA

What do you love to do? Traveling, taking pictures, cooking, eating and spending time with my husband, friends and family. I also enjoy chronicling my adventures on my site dubudiaries.

What’s your spice? Gochugaru (Korean Chili Powder)

What do you know about it? Gochugaru is a very common ingredient in many Korean dishes. It can come finely ground, in flakes or in a paste (gochujang). Gochu literally means “chili” and garu means “powder.” Gochugaru differs from hot pepper flakes or cayenne pepper in that it hasa slightly sweet and smoky flavor (one can describe it as a very distant and much spicier cousin to paprika perhaps).

The quality of gochugaru depends on how well the chili peppers were dried in the sun or with heat (sun is said to be better because it generates more spice and keeps the color a vibrant red). Gochugaru can be spicy so one should not be heavy-handed when using it in recipes.

This spice can be found in Korean or Asian markets and should be stored airtight in the refrigerator or freezer so as not to lose flavor.

What do you like about it? First, I really like the way gochugaru looks. What a wonderful, vibrant shade of red. It's very visually striking to me, like turmeric. I wish turmeric and gochugaru could get together and have beautiful little spice babies together.

I also like the unique flavor it lends – it’s different than any other chili I’ve had. The spice is not immediate, in the same way that kimchi is not spicy in a fiery way. It’s more like an afterthought. The spice doesn’t sit on your tongue like western chilis, rather it subtly adds heat and flavor at the back of your throat. To me, it’s the anti-jalapeno because the heat comes later.

What else? I read somewhere that until the 16th century, Korean food didn’t contain any chili at all. Now Korea has the most per capita consumption of chili in the world.

What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe using it? Bok Choy Kimchi. It’s refreshing, healthy, crunchier than regular kimchi, very quick and easy to make and can be eaten immediately (no fermentation period). I add fish sauce for some extra depth, but you can still definitely make it without the fish sauce for a delicious vegetarian option.

Bok Choy Kimchi by Mia Kim

Ingredients
4-5 bok choy, leaves rinsed and separated
1-2 cucumbers, sliced (preferably Persian)
3-4 Korean fresh perilla leaves, sliced (optional)
1/4 cup Korean chives, chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3/4 tablespoon sesame oil
3/4 tablespoon fish sauce (optional)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
3/4 teaspoon ginger, grated or finely minced
3/4 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon gochugaru
1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds
juice of 1 large lemon

Method
Separate and rinse bok choy leaves. Slice lengthwise and across into bite-sized pieces.

Slice cucumber(s). I prefer Persian cucumbers for their crunch, and usually slice them about a 1/2 inch thick at a diagonal. If using perilla leaves, cut into small strips, about an inch or so wide, snipping off the stems. If using Korean chives (can be found at Asian markets and differ dramatically from Western chives; similar to Chinese chives), cut off ends and cut into 2 inch or so pieces. Place all greens in a large bowl that allows adequate space to toss and dress the kimchi.

Finely mince garlic and grate ginger. Add both to greens mixture. Add soy sauce, sesame oil,
lemon juice, honey, sesame seeds and gochugaru. Add fish sauce, if desired.

Gently toss, ensuring that all greens are covered evenly. You can garnish with additional sesame seeds and strips of perilla leaves.

These measurements are not hard and fast at all. You can play around adding more or less of any of the above ingredients, depending on your taste buds. You can also add more gochugaru to make it spicier. I would just continually taste to see that any one flavor is not overwhelming, or that the ratio of liquid to greens does not outweigh it (making it too salty). I usually add one round of all the ingredients, and if I don't find it flavorful enough, repeat with another round of all the ingredients (excluding the greens).

I generally don’t add salt since the soy sauce, lemon juice and fish sauce add enough of a salty flavor. However, one can carefully salt to taste especially if omitting the fish sauce. I would let the kimchi sit for a few minutes before adding more salt however because I find that the dressing gets a little saltier once it sits.

Optional additions to this dish include sliced scallions and/or finely sliced white onion. An alternative dish would be to substitute about 5 Persian cucumbers for the bok choy for a quick and easy version of cucumber kimchi.

Can be served immediately. This recipe serves about 2.

Beet Pachadi

2011-07-20T11:00:00.003-04:00

I've been getting beets from my CSA lately so I've been digging into old recipes to use them up. A recipe that I received from my cousin Pradeep a few years ago is one that I have revisited a couple times already this season. It's a South Indian dish called pachadi that I actually didn't grow up eating even though my mother and Pradeep's father are from the South.

That's actually what's funny about Indian cooking that even within regions, there is so much variation. I found from talking to more people about this dish, that there is even a difference in the definition of it - some say it tends to be very spicy, while others say it's quite sweet. The consensus though is that it's commonly eaten as a side dish with rice and it's really good!

This version of pachadi is made from grated beets cooked with ground spices and coconut and then combined with yogurt. It's a nice combo of spicy and sweet but also cooling from the yogurt. This picture does not do it justice but it's a very colorful dish! Also, this recipe can be made with carrots or a combo of carrots and beets. And since Pradeep is in the UK, he was nice enough to list both kinds of measurements for the ingredients:)

Beet Pachadi

courtesy of Pradeep Vasudev

Ingredients

100 gm / 3.5 oz freshly grated coconut (or desiccated and soaked in water)
2 fresh green chillies, chopped (depending on taste, can cut lengthwise and deseed)
5mm / 1/4 inch cube ginger, peeled
1 tsp ground mustard seeds (I grind in coffee grinder)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
10 curry leaves
6 precooked beets, shredded (see variation)
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
225ml / 8 fl oz plain yogurt
salt

Method
In a spice mill (or blender), finely grind the coconut, green chillies, ginger and ground mustard together. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large pan, add the mustard seeds and as they begin to pop, add the curry leaves. Stir in the shredded beets, chilli powder, turmeric, a little salt and cook for 10 minutes over a medium heat, stirring frequently.

Stir in the ground coconut mixture. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove from the heat and stir in the yogurt. Serve hot or cold.

Variation:
Can use 4 large grated carrots.
I also do a combination of carrot and beetroot, where I first add the carrot and let it cook a while before adding the cooked beetroot.

The Spice Route: Howard Walfish on Caraway Seeds

2011-06-28T11:36:00.002-04:00

I'm really happy to have my friend, Howard Walfish on The Spice Route. Howard writes two food blogs that I love to read. One is called Eat to Blog where he and his friend Donny cover a variety of restaurants, recipes, ingredients, markets and basically all things food and the other is his personal blog, brooklynvegetarian where he writes about all things vegetarian in Brooklyn including some of his own recipes. You can also find Howard's writing at Serious Eats. Enjoy!

Name: Howard Walfish

Where do you live? Brooklyn, NY

What do you love to do? Cook, eat, and write about cooking and eating for eattoblog.com and brooklynvegetarian.wordpress.com.

What’s your spice? Caraway seeds

What do you know about it? Growing up in a Jewish household there was no shortage of rye bread (for deli sandwiches, anyway; PB&J got good old white bread). As a kid I assumed that the tasty little seeds in the bread were rye seeds – why else would it be called rye bread? When I found out (much later in life) that they were, in fact, caraway seeds I was dumbfounded. It has a taste similar to fennel, which it is related to botanically, but isn’t quite as licorice-like. Caraway seeds are used in many Northern European cuisines, in many different ways. When I first tasted the Swedish liquor aquavit, it took me a moment to place the flavor: caraway.

What's your favorite vegetarian recipe using it? Rye bread. I’m the kind of cook who prefers technique to recipes, even when it comes to making bread. The following recipe for rye bread is just a simple one that can be tweaked to your liking. A stand mixer will help immensely, but you can also do it by hand.

Rye Bread by Howard Walfish

Ingredients
1 cup of rye flour
5 cups of AP flour (more or less)
3 cups of warm water (more or less)
half a packet of active dry yeast
a pinch of kosher salt
a tablespoon of caraway seeds, plus a little more

Method
Start by briefly toasting the tablespoon of caraway seeds in a dry sauté pan for a few seconds, until you can smell them. Then dump them into your mixing bowl. Add the two types of flour, the yeast, the water, and the salt. Then mix until the dough just forms a ball. If the mixture seems too loose and sticky, add a little bit of flour at a time until it forms. If the mixture seems too hard and dry, add little splashes of water until it loosens up. Then let the dough sit and rise covered in a warm place, for about an hour.

After the hour is up mix it again for about five minutes, then transfer it to a loaf pan (a disposable aluminum pan would work as well). Sprinkle on the remaining caraway seeds, and if you’ve got some coarse salt that would be good as well. Then let it rise in a warm place again, for at least another hour. While it’s rising preheat your oven to 450 degrees and put a small, oven proof dish full of water on the bottom rack. A broiler pan works great for this. The steam that will be released from this oven will help your bread expand more and yet form a nice crust while baking.

After the hour is up, move the pan into the oven and let it bake for about 45 minutes. Remove it from the oven, turn the loaf out of the pan, and let it cool for at least 20 minutes before eating. Best served with a smear of really good mustard and maybe a good half sour pickle.

Japanese Turnips with Miso Ghee

2011-06-24T11:00:00.006-04:00

My CSA just started on the 11th so I'm really excited. In the first batch, I got some Japanese turnips. I used to never like turnips but this variety has a mild flavor and a nice, almost watery texture compared to others. I have been cooking with this one recipe for Japanese turnips with miso butter from epicurious that I really like and realized that instead of butter, why not use ghee! Thus, miso ghee was born.

This recipe calls for white miso which is made from fermented rice, barley and soy beans. There are several different types of miso, and this one is on the sweeter side. I started cooking with miso not long ago and realized after purchasing it from a Japanese market in Manhattan that my local corner store carries it as well so it is quite easy to find. It adds really good flavor as a base in soups, salad dressings and as a glaze on vegetables and goes really well with mirin, a Japanese sweet rice wine that is also included in this recipe. For a vegetarian, miso is a good addition because it's high in protein.

These are my turnips. They are so small so I just cook them whole:

Japanese Turnips with Miso Ghee (adapted from epicurious)

Ingredients

3 tablespoons white miso
3 tablespoons unsalted ghee, divided
3 pounds small (1 1/2-to 2-inch) Japanese turnips with greens
1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons mirin

Method
Stir together miso and 2 tablespoons ghee.

Discard turnip stems and coarsely chop leaves. Halve turnips (leave whole if tiny) and put in a pan along with water, mirin and the remaining tablespoon of ghee. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and then cover and boil for 10 minutes.

Add greens by the handful and mix in. Cover and cook for 1 minute. Uncover and continue boiling, stirring occasionally, until turnips are tender and liquid is reduced to a glaze, about 5 minutes. (I sometimes add a little more liquid so it gets kind of soupy so I can mix it with rice but both ways are really good.) Stir in miso ghee and cook 1 minute.

This is what it should look like if you cook off all of the liquid:

The Spice Route: Louisa Shafia on Sumac

2011-06-21T11:00:00.001-04:00

I'm happy to introduce and welcome my friend Louisa Shafia of Lucid Foods and the author of a really amazing cookbook by the same name to The Spice Route. I can't wait to try out her recipe below. I hope you enjoy!

Name: Louisa Shafia

Where do you live? Brooklyn, NY

What do you love to do? Show people how tasty and beautiful healthy food can be.

What’s your spice? Sumac

What do you know about it?
Sumac is a dried berry that has a sour taste and a high vitamin C content. It’s used a lot in Mediterranean cuisine and throughout the Middle East as a garnish to give food a sour flavor. Sumac is delicious on everything from kebabs to cooked whole grains. Even though it’s used in other parts of the world, sumac grows wild throughout North America. In August through September, the berries appear like bright red cones on the lemon-scented leaves of this shrub. You can distinguish edible sumac from the poison sumac plant because the berries of poison sumac are white. After you pick the berries, crush them lightly and use them fresh, or dry them and store in an airtight container.

What do you like about it? I discovered sumac in Persian cuisine. It’s usually used as a garnish for fish. I love the sour taste, and it the red powder makes a perfect garnish for lots of foods.

What’s your favorite vegetarian recipe using it? Seared tempeh with sumac (recipe can be used for chicken as well and that is what is pictured below)

Pan-seared Tempeh or Chicken with Sumac by Louisa Shafia

Ingredients

2 8-oz packages tempeh cut in thirds or 4 chicken breasts or thighs
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 scallions
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons cumin
sumac to taste

Method
Lay the tempeh or chicken flat in a glass baking dish and season with the salt and pepper. In a blender, place the scallions, garlic, lime juice, olive oil, turmeric, and cumin, and blend until smooth. Pour half of the marinade over your protein and toss gently to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or as long as overnight.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add just enough oil to coat the bottom. Add the tempeh or chicken and sear until brown, about 5 minutes. Brush with the reserved marinade. Turn and sear the second side. Reduce the heat to low and brush with marinade. Cover and cook for approximately 30 minutes, or until the thickest part of the chicken is opaque inside.

Season with salt and pepper. Serve the tempeh or chicken over rice, and dust generously with sumac.

Doddapatre Tambuli (Herbed Buttermilk)

2011-06-13T12:54:00.012-04:00

Tambuli (pronounced thumbulli) is a spicy buttermilk dish made from the herbal leaves like the ones above called doddapatre soppu. This recipe is made in the state of Karnataka in South India where my mother's family is from. I had tambuli for the first time when my Auntie Asha made it for me recently and loved it. I got these leaves from my her and my Uncle Janardhan who grow them in their garden in New Jersey. The plant is a succulent and has thick, green leaves. Doddapatre soppu is referred to as Cuban Oregano. It has the flavor of oregano but it is more pungent.

My Aunt told me that often my Grandfather used to have tambuli if he was ailing from joint pain. The leaves are medicinal and have also been used as an Ayurvedic remedy for coughs, sore throat, congestion and digestion. This dish has a really nice flavor from the leaves, coconut, black pepper and cumin seeds. You mix it up with hot rice and eat.

These leaves are hard to come by and a lot of times grown in home gardens, but I'm going to give you the recipe anyway in case you ever chance upon them. Also, I know that some people make this dish with ginger if they don't have the leaves.

I'm really happy to share my Aunt's recipe for tambuli that she has perfected over the years. Enjoy!

Doddapatre Tambuli

courtesy of Asha Janardhan

Ingredients

2 teaspoons canola oil

6 doddapatre soppu leaves

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

2 tablespoons frozen fresh grated coconut

1 1/2 cups buttermilk or watered down yogurt or a mixture of buttermilk and yogurt

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

pinch of asafoetida or hing

3 fresh curry leaves

1 dried red chili

salt

Method

Wash the leaves and chop them.

In a pan add 1 teaspoon of oil and heat under medium high. When hot add the cumin seeds until they start to turn golden. Next add in the pepper grinds and fry for a few seconds. Add in the leaves and saute them until wilted. Cool the leaves off.

Add the leaves, coconut to a blender and make a paste with as little water added as possible. Put the paste in a bowl and mix with the buttermilk/yogurt.

In a small pan, add 1 teaspoon of oil under medium high heat and add the mustard seeds and asafoetida or hing. When the mustard seeds start to pop, turn the heat down to medium and add the broken red chili and the curry leaves. Mix around so they are both coated with oil. Pour on top of the yogurt mixture.

You can chill the tambuli and serve with hot rice.

The Spice Route: Recipe Relay on Cumin

2011-06-08T18:08:00.072-04:00

The Spice Route is a new segment on the ABCD's! Each post of the segment will feature one of my friends sharing what they know about a spice they like to cook with and a recipe using it. I hope you enjoy and I'm so happy to kick off The Spice Route with my friends Sarah and Brianna of Recipe Relay:

Name: Sarah Maine and Brianna Bain (co-founders of RecipeRelay.com)

Where do you live? Queens, NY (Sarah) and San Diego, CA (Brianna)

What do you love to do? We love to share seasonal recipes and stories about good food that’s good for you and good for the planet.

What’s your spice? Cumin

What do you know about it? Neither of us knew that much about cumin except that it was used across many different cuisines, such as Mexican, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Thai foods. A pretty impressive array, and one of the things that drew us to cumin for this segment. Since we didn’t know much about it we embarked on a little research and here is what we found: According to Wikipedia, cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a member of the parsley family. It was introduced to the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese colonists. Today it is mostly grown in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, India, Syria, Mexico, and Chile. A well traveled spice!

What do you like about it? Cumin sneaks up on you, it can be what MAKES your favorite dish without you even knowing it’s there. It’s like the song playing in the background that makes you feel so good, but you don’t realize until way later that you heard it. It’s a mood setting spice - rustic, full bodied and warm!

What’s your favorite recipe using it? There are way too many tasty recipes that include cumin to pick only one favorite. We decided to present two cumin recipes from cuisines on opposite sides of the world (in true RecipeRelay fashion!). Given that we are all gearing up for the summer we chose to do two quick and easy no-cook dips: Spicy Guacamole and good ol’ fashioned Hummus. Enjoy!

Spicy Guacamole by Brianna Bain

Ingredients
4 avocados
1 serrano chile
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 large tomato
½ red onion
½ bunch fresh cilantro
Juice of ½ a lime
salt to taste

Method
1. In a food processor mix onion, tomato, chile, cilantro, cumin, lime juice and olive oil. Blend to a coarsely chopped mixture.
2. In a medium bowl spoon out avocado flesh and smash with a fork.
3. Add to mixture from processor to avocado and mix well.
4. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

Hummus by Sarah Maine

Ingredients
2 cup well-cooked or canned chickpeas
¼ cup olive oil
3 Tbs chickpea liquid (add more for a thinner texture)
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 Tbs ground cumin
3 Tbs tahini
Juice of 1 lemon

Method
1. Drain the chickpeas, reserving some of the cooking or canning liquid.
2. In a food processor blend the chickpeas, garlic, olive oil and chickpea cooking liquid.
3. Once the chickpeas are all ground up add the lemon juice, tahini, and cumin and process until very smooth. You can add salt if you feel like it needs it.
4. If your food processor has limitations (like mine does!) you may need to transfer the mixture to a bowl and beat it with a whisk to get it really smooth.
5. Serve drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of cumin. Great with pita wedges, raw veggies, or even as a sandwich spread.

Kosambri Crostini

2011-05-19T22:14:00.011-04:00

Photo by John Mazlish

For the Tasting Hour @ Slideluck Potshow XIV last Saturday, I made kosambri crostini and this funny sign that I put up at my table.

Kosambri is a recipe that I have shared before and like so much that I even made a video for it with Alana and Paul. It is a South Indian carrot salad with cucumber, tomato, soaked mung beans, fresh grated coconut and topped with fried spices, lemon juice and cilantro.

At the event, I served the salad on top of crostinis, which you can make by slicing up a baguette, brushing each piece with olive oil and baking them in an oven at 350F for about 6-7 minutes.

Since Slideluck is all about celebrating local art and foods, I wanted to incorporate as many veggies and herbs as I could find from the farmer's market. What's cool about kosambri is that there is no set way to make it and you can add as many different kinds of vegetables as you like. I ended up adding radish, spring onions and peashoots in addition to carrots, tomato, cucumber and cilantro that I found at the markets. I had never used peashoots before and this is what they look like. I still have some leftover and I just grab a bunch and chew on some from time to time:) They are crunchy and really earthy tasting.

Thanks for having me Slideluck Potshow! You can check out photos from the event here and here.

ABCDs at Slideluck Potshow XIV

2011-05-12T14:34:00.000-04:00

This Saturday, ABCD's will be preparing food for the Beautiful Bountiful Brooklyn Tasting Hour at Slideluck Potshow XIV, an event put on by Slideluck Potshow and The New York Photo Festival. The tasting hour will feature sustainable farms, supper clubs and purveyors from the area. Slideluck Potshow is a non-profit organization, founded by Casey Kelbaugh, that holds events in about 40 cities all over the world and brings people together around food and art. The way it works is that there is a huge potluck where everyone brings a dish and then a multimedia slideshow made up of work submitted by local artists. At Saturday's event, the tasting hour will take place at 5:30 and will be followed by the potluck and a slideshow curated by Whitney Johnson, Director of Photography for The New Yorker. So excited!

Here are the details:
When: Saturday, May 14 from 5:30 to 10:30PM
Where: St. Ann's Warehouse at 38 Water Street in Brooklyn
Price: $12 for slideshow and potluck; $25 for slideshow and potluck w/tasting hour

Learn more about the event and buy tickets here.

Chapati (Indian Flatbread Roti)

2011-05-09T13:06:00.005-04:00

Chapati is a North Indian bread that is eaten at home almost everyday. My father learned how to make it from his mother and he's passed the recipe on to me. Some chapati recipes call for salt, oil or butter in the dough, but in our family we only use whole wheat flour and water. The whole wheat flour used is called atta, which is a bit more course than the whole wheat flour you find in regular grocery stores. Some recommended brands are Laksmi, Sujata, and Nature's Best. When buying atta, make sure to find one that does not include maida or all-purpose flour, because that's not the real thing.

Chapati does take practice to get right. I am still working on my rolling technique because many of my rotis come out all different shapes but I am getting better! The fun part of making this bread is that you roast it a little on a skillet and then throw it on the open flame where it blows up like a balloon. Mine does not do this on every try yet so don't feel discouraged if it doesn't happen everytime:) My family sometimes adds different ingredients to the dough such as flax seed powder, fenugreek leaves and other flours such as graham and chestnut to make it more healthy.

Recently, my friends Alana and Paul shot a video of my father teaching me how to make chapati. They are doing a series of videos capturing people passing a recipe on to a member of their family. We had a lot of fun and I was really happy when they asked to include us in this series. I will post the video when it's ready, but you can watch the first one they did here.

I made these rotis with my friend Mia when she came to visit, and she took these photos of the roti making. I refer to some of the equipment I am using in English and Hindi. You can purchase many of these items at the Indian store. Enjoy and thanks for photos Mia!

rolling dough with rolling pin or belan (best to use one that does not have handles because you want to keep your hands flat on the top) on a rolling plate or chakla, but you can also just roll on the counter surface.

roti on the skillet or thava

putting the roti on the open flame using flat tongs called chimta.

Chapati
Ingredients (makes 6 rotis)
1 cup of flour
~1/2 cup lukewarm water
extra flour for rolling

Method
Sift the flour into a bowl and slowly add water while kneading until you get to a dough that is soft, smooth and pliable. The longer you knead the dough the better but 5 minutes of heavy kneading will do.

Take the dough ball and cover with a damp cloth for a minimum of 30 minutes (you can also make the dough and put in your fridge for making another day).

Divide the dough into 6 dough balls or loee and roll them in flour.

Flatten each each dough ball with your palm and roll out to a 6 inch diameter, using extra flour so it does not stick.

Heat an iron skillet on medium heat. When it is hot (water drops should sizzle immediately), place roti on.

Let it cook and when you start to see bubbles form in many places, flip it over and cook until the other side does the same.

Over a medium flame, with flat tongs or chimta place the roti until it blows up or browns on both sides. (If you are cooking on an electric stove, you can press the roti in different places with a cloth to make it blow up a bit right on the skillet)

With the tongs, hit the roti against a surface to shake off any excess flour.

Butter one side with ghee and place in an airtight container lined with paper towel.

I like to eat my chapati with curry and yogurt and when I was younger, my grandmother used to put the curry in the middle and roll it up for me like a burrito!

My First RecipeRelay

2011-04-28T11:25:00.001-04:00

Recently, I was invited by my new friends at RecipeRelay to be a guest on their site (which I love!) The concept behind RecipeRelay is that each contributor shares a recipe that uses at least one technique or ingredient from the previous recipe posted - hence the term:) You get to do two posts on the site - the 1st one is about your process and then the 2nd one is the actual recipe you come up with. The site is also focused on using local and organic ingredients which is always a good thing:) And contributors come from all over the world which makes it interesting.

This week, I am featured on the site and I share an Indian inspired recipe for shakshuka, an Egyptian dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato sauce. The recipe before mine used fava bean greens so it made me think of some of the foods I ate while visiting Egypt a few years back. On the post, I share some of my photos and memories from that visit as well. You can read all about it here and here.

Also, everyone is welcome to contribute to their site so if you are interested, holler at them!

Thanks for having me RecipeRelay!

New Cooking Video: Kosambri (Carrot Salad)

2011-04-13T10:45:00.003-04:00

Alana, Paul, and I just made a new cooking video for kosambri, a South Indian carrot salad. You make it with coconut, soaked lentils, lemon, cilantro and then top it off with fried mustard seeds, curry leaf and dried red chili - so fresh! It's a really colorful dish with so much texture and a good one to bring to picnics.

You can find the written out recipe on this post. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

Also, if you want to see more cooking videos go here.

Potato Curry Tacos with Mole Chutney

2011-04-06T19:50:00.021-04:00

It was really fun to prepare foods for the Brooklyn Magazine launch party. For this event, I collaborated with my friend Ben to make up a whole new Indian taco. We decided on potato curry topped with mole chutney and homemade yogurt crema in a corn tortilla. I will share my recipe for potato curry and Ben's notes on making mole chutney with you below. I posted how to make yogurt in a previous post. I just added a little sour cream to my yogurt to put on these tacos.

The potato curry was basically the filling of a dosa which is a fermented rice and lentil crepe from South India. The curry is made with turmeric (why it's yellow), fried mustard seed, curry leaf, red chili and some dried lentils. This is a picture of a huge dosa that me and my friend Fiana had in Mumbai this last winter:

Ben's mole chutney was outstanding and it really worked well with the curry and the crema. The color was so deep and the flavors were really smokey, spicy and rich - the kind of flavor that stays on your tongue in really good way! After the event, I was putting it on everything I was eating.

It was really exciting to learn about so many new chilies and the process of making a mole base from Ben. His family comes from the Jalisco area of Mexico and he grew up in Los Angeles where I met him. I wanted to include his notes below and hopefully they will serve as a guide on making your very own mole chutney for your Indian tacos! Thanks for sending Ben!

South Indian Potato Curry
serves 4

Ingredients
3 tablespoons ghee or oil
1 1/2 pounds potato, boiled and cubed (thin skinned white or yellow are good)
1 medium sized yellow onion 1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of hing or asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon dried ural dal
1/2 teaspoon dried chana dal
3 fresh curry leaves
1 dried red chili
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
salt to taste
cilantro for garnish

Method
Heat oil under medium heat in a pan. Put in hing and mustard seeds and shake up. After a few seconds throw in the urad dal and chana dal. You can cover with a lid so that you don't get hit by the popping seeds. Once you see that the mustard seeds are popping and the dals are browning, turn the heat to low and add in the curry leaves and chili. The oil will start to spurt so be careful. Coat everything with oil and fry for a few seconds.

Next, add in the onion and fry till translucent. Add turmeric and mix well. Then add the ginger and fry for 30 seconds. Throw in the potato and cook until coated with flavoring. Add more oil depending and salt to taste and fry for a few minutes. I like to cook mine until it is kind of mushy for these tacos.

Garnish with cilantro.

Ben's Mole Chutney

Disclaimer: This recipe may seem really complicated but it's actually just a lot of playing around with proportions and ratios. I had a lot of fun learning from Ben on this one and hope you will try it out because it is delicious!

Ingredients
2 parts dried pasilla
1 part dried mulato
1 part dried guajillo pepper or Anaheim pepper
less than 1 part or to your taste dried chipotles
less than 1 part or to your taste dried chiles de arbol
tomatoes, red, orange or yellow
salt
sugar
Mexican chocolate
1 or a combo of the following roasted pine nuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds
lime juice
red onion, chopped coarsely
cumin, coriander, garam masala (optional)

Ben's Notes

For this recipe, I used five different kinds of dried chiles. The main chili was a dried pasilla, followed by the mulato and the guajillo pepper. I also used chipotles and chiles de arbol for kick, with the former also adding its characteristic smoky quality. The mole base primarily consists of pasilla, mulato and guajillo.

The proportion I use for the chilies is two parts pasillas to one part mulato and one part guajillo pepper and a little less than one part each for the chipotles and arbols. You can vary the last two chilies depending on how much heat you want. Since this recipe is very much based on preference and the intensity of your chilies, you should smell and acquaint yourself with the character of them all. The mulato chili, for instance, is quite sweet, almost smelling of raisins.

Next, I dry roasted the chilies and the seeds, making sure the seeds hit the pan. Beware of the smoke (cover your mouth and open some windows). After the seeds and chilies are slightly blackened, take them out and submerge them in fresh water. Let them soak until soft. I like to soak my chilies for at least 24 hours. Once your chilies are soft, blend them without the water (only adding if you need to get your blending going). You will end up with a thick, spicy paste.

I then blend in some tomato, usually one red tomato and an orange or yellow tomato. I use the entire tomato, including seeds, because it tames the hotness of the paste while adding some umami flavor, especially if you use unrefrigerated very ripe tomatoes. You can also blend in some salt to taste and either sugar or mexican chocolate to add some sweetness.

I have added cumin, coriander, garam masala before but for these tacos, I just wanted the flavor of the chilies to speak for themselves. Adding roasted and ground nuts or seeds like pine nuts, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds will help to give an earthy flavor and mellow out the heat a bit. We used about half has many nuts as guajillo pepper in this recipe. Once blended, you have your mole base that you can make your chutney out of!

Since a lot of the proportions and additions should be determined by taste, a good way to experiment is to try out a few different combinations in different bowls to see what you like best. Start with a tablespoon of the paste in a small bowl and start adding lime juice, coarsely chopped red onion, sugar and salt to taste and other seasonings to your liking (i.e. cumin).

Cooking Class @ Ted and Amy Supper Club

2011-04-04T16:02:00.018-04:00

I'm so happy to announce that Kara Masi of Ted and Amy Supper Club has invited me to collaborate and teach a South Indian cooking class. More details below and you can sign up here. We are offering a limited number of seats so hurry and pass along to anyone who would be interested.

I'm really excited to focus on South Indian not only because it's delicious but because there are few classes offered on it and many of the dishes I love and grew up on are not found in restaurants. South Indian is known for inventive vegetarian cuisine that is light, fresh and spicy - lots of fresh veggies, lemon, coconut and fried spices. The menu is made up of family recipes passed down to me from my mother who grew up in Bangalore. The plan is to cook together, feast and drink wine:) Should be a blast!

When: Tuesday, April 26th @ 7PM
Where: Ted & Amy Supper Club, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Cost: $45 (includes wine)
Menu:
Sambar - spicy lentil stew
Chitranna - peanut rice with lemon and coconut
Kosambri - carrot salad with soaked lentils, coconut and fried spices
Spinach Raita
Sign up: here!

Hope to see you there!

ABCDs at Brooklyn Magazine Launch Party

2011-03-24T10:10:00.003-04:00

The L Magazine is launching Brooklyn Magazine, a new quarterly print magazine all about Brooklyn and its people and ABCD's was asked to provide some foods for the launch party tomorrow! I will be posting the recipes after the event. I'm collaborating with my friend Ben for a new Mexican taco - corn tortilla filled with potato curry (basically the potato filling in a masala dosa), topped with mole chutney and homemade yogurt crema. So excited because I had a blast at the last L Magazine event.

SXSW Food & Tech Session Wrap-Up

2011-03-21T14:09:00.009-04:00

Photo by Christian Payne of Documentally

Last week, Jas and I moderated a core conversation at SXSW entitled How Technology is Revolutionizing the Way We Eat. In this forum, the audience was encouraged to participate and share. We had a great turnout from individuals at the Food Network, Martha Stewart to IDEO and developers of new technologies and apps in the food space and of course a grip of food bloggers (yay!).

Photo by Jodi Bart of Tasty Touring

Since writing the original proposal back in July, the concept kind of morphed into a discussion that covered not only the effect existing technologies, bloggers, online cooking shows, etc. are having, but also about the myriad of new technologies and apps that have been developed in the food space. It was a great opportunity for those that are creating new food apps and technologies and those with existing food brands that are looking to expand in the area of technology to get a better sense of consumption habits among the audience members.

The discussion flew by and we did not get a chance to delve deeply into all of the areas that technology and food are hitting right now, but there were definitely some great insights about how technology has affected the realm of food not only in how we eat, cook and dine, but also how we form communities and run food businesses. For instance, we discussed Food Sprout, a data-driven website that is mapping the food supply chain to improve transparency about where our food comes from and helping companies become more sustainable by connecting consumers, restaurants, food manufactures and suppliers. We talked about how sites like Yummly are now making it easier for people that have strict dietary restrictions to find recipes online and how new companies like Gojee can provide us with personalized recipe recommendations based on what we have purchased on our loyalty cards at grocery stores.

During the course of preparing for the session and getting to know new innovations in the space and the people behind them, there were certain trends I was drawn to that I want to share. One area we touched upon that I feel passionate about is how technology is allowing locally grown foods to be more accessible to the masses. I grew up in a household where my mother was constantly on a quest for finding farmstands with the freshest produce. I think in some ways she was attempting to attain the freshness in the vegetables and fruits she grew up eating in India. Her obsession has become mine so I am thrilled when I find out about sites like Real Time Farms.com, Greenling and Relay.

Another area that I am involved in is food education for children. I volunteer for The Children's Storefront, Slow Food, Just Food and Added Value Farms - organizations that support programs that teach children about healthful cooking, gardening and general food knowledge. There is much opportunity in this space for technology to help further this message and several initiatives have been put forth.

Foodista, a crowdsourced resource for recipes, encourages its users to submit their favorite kid-friendly and family cooking videos to be featured on The Kids Cook Monday!, a program that provides resources such as recipes and videos to help families cook together at least once a week. A children's cooking video game was released for Nintendo by America's Test Kitchen called Let's Get Cooking and has been getting positive reviews. One of the most vocal and active advocates of this cause is Jamie Oliver who won last year's TED Prize for his Food Revolution project, a movement with a strong focus on teaching children healthful eating and cooking. His speech from last year was inspiring and he has gone on to partner with IDEO to form Cooking & Company, a program that extends the Food Revolution from schools to the workplace with a goal of teaching 350,000 adults basic cooking skills.

One other area I find fascinating is how technology is reviving food traditions and craft. It is kind of like old world meeting new, where through blogs and videos, a larger audience can now learn how to brew beer, make cheese, jar & pickle, bake bread and also access cooking traditions and techniques from all over the world - making kimchi for instance! David Chang released Lucky Peach, a quarterly iPad app and print journal that introduces one dish or ingredient at a time (first one was on ramen) through several facets with a host of videos, recipes, graphics, etc. In addition we now have more access to finding artisanal and small batch goods with sites like Lovefre.sh which allows you to upload voice recorded interviews and photos about local artisanal shops and owners in your area that you love so that others can find them too.

Michael Rulhman wrote Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking which is about how many traditional recipes originated based on ratios of the weights of ingredients. For instance, the pound cake earned its name from its ingredient measures - 1 pound each of flour, butter, eggs and sugar with a ratio of 1:1:1:1. Along with his book, Rulhman released the Ratio application that calculates the amount of ingredients you need based on what you have or how much you want to make. Rulhman worked with Will Turnage who developed the application and the two have just launched a new (and amazing) iPad application in a similar vein called Bread Baking Basics. Now, there is even an application called Cookulus where a customized recipe will be provided after you select your preference in cookies using three scales: crispy-soft, chewy-crunchy and thin-thick!

While at SXSW, I also attended a really interesting talk actually given by Will Turnage and his colleague Chloe Gottlieb entitled The Refrigerator Speaks: The Secret Language of Things that covered new smart products and the ability for embedded sensors in these devices to make an impact on our lives. Some of their talk touched on innovations in the food industry such as the iGrill, the first grilling/cooking thermometer and application which transmits temperature measures to your smartphone through a Bluetooth connection, but also addressed where trends will take us in the future, which we did not have time to discuss at our session.

Many of the new consumer facing technologies in the food space that I have come across are focusing on customized recommendations based on previous choices, diet preferences, etc (Food On the Table, Fourquare Explore Tab), transparency between the seller and buyer (Food Sprout, QR codes on vegetables), tighter relationships between merchants and consumers (Social Grub on Facebook, Specials on Foursquare), forming social communities (Super Marmite, Grubwithus), sales/specials aggregators (AnyLeaf, Seven Lunches), education (Snooth wine app), improving economies of scale for buyers (Wholeshare) and closer to a time where our smartphones are telling us we're out of milk in the fridge and need to pick up more:)

There is so much more and I could go on for hours on this topic but I will spare you. You can find a great recap on the additional apps and technologies mentioned at this session at Tasty Touring. I also wanted to call out a couple resources if you are interested in learning more. Food+Tech Connect, which is run by Danielle Gould, provides a wealth of information on this topic and was a great resource for preparing for this session. You can find in-depth interviews with many of the innovators in the space mentioned above at Danielle's site. I am a member of the related meetup group in New York that is organized by Lizzy Greene that has been a really amazing way to learn about new developments in the space. It's where I found out about and met the creators of Real Time Farms.com. Food+Tech Connect also helped to put on i deaCOMM at SXSW, an event with foods prepared by chefs that locally sourced their materials using some of the newest food applications and technologies. Also during SXSW this year, TechMunch, a food bloggers conference that features experts in the digital field, was held. You can view their site for upcoming conference dates.

Thanks to all that attended and special thanks to Danielle Gould of Food+Tech Connect and Will Turnage of Bread Baking Basics for providing some great information and resources on the topic. Please comment below if you'd like to add more to this discussion!

Pairing Wines With Indian Food

2011-03-17T15:56:00.002-04:00

For this post, I am going to have my very first guest blogger, Lizzy Esqueda of the Brooklyn Winery, discuss how she went about pairing wines with the Indian supper I prepared. There is not a lot of information out there on this pairing so I am very excited to share Lizzy's insight on the topic. Here's what she had to say:

As you know, Indian food is notorious for being too difficult to pair with wines. When pairing food with wine, the goal is to balance both the flavors of the food with the flavors of the wine, so that neither the food nor the wine overpowers the other. In doing so, there are a few things to consider when pairing, and these points will help you find the best match for this cuisine.

One important key is to always match the weight of the food to the weight of the wine. A food with a creamy sauce, or creamy like texture will need a wine with a little bit more body. For example, your raita needed a wine with a little body, so we chose the Finger Lakes Riesling which is a medium bodied wine.

Also, matching the intensity of food to the intensity of the wine is very important. Delicate flavored wines and strong flavored foods do not match. Therefore, it was important that in order to match your Indian dishes that are full of intense flavors, whether it be spicy or sweet, it was necessary to choose wines that were not delicate but had intense, robust flavors to accompany the cuisine in the best way possible.

When dealing with spicy foods, which some of your dishes had a bit of, it is important not to choose wines with alot of tannin or spice to enhance it even more. In order to balance the heat in food, it is important to choose a wine with juicy, ripe fruit and/or with residual sugar to mellow out the spice a bit, rather than making it overpowering. This is why we chose both the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, which had really nice ripe black raspberry, cherry flavors and also the Moscato d' Asti, which had both rich, ripe apricot and peach flavors, and was also a semi-sweet wine.

Although red wines are very difficult to pair with Indian cuisine, I think the Cabernet Sauvignon and it's ripe, rich fruits were able to work really well. The Moscato d' Asti wine seemed to pair very well with many of your dishes and I was really happy with how it really balanced out and complemented almost every dish, especially the shahi paneer, which had a great amount of flavor and spice. The wine was able to balance out both the heat from the spice and the intensity of flavors in the sauce.

Lastly, another tip is to try and pair sweet foods with sweet wines. Dry wines can seem tart or too acidic when paired with food with a degree of sweetness. The sweeter the food, the sweeter the wine needs to be. Although not many of your foods were sweet, the carrot salad - kosambri, had a bit of a sweetness to it from the coconut. Not enough for the Moscato d' Asti to hold up, but just enough for the slight residual sugar in the Riesling to pair nicely.

The Prosecco was used more of an aperitif to clean the palate, but worked really well with the papri chaat, with a slight bit of residual sugar and flavor to be able to balance out all the different flavors and slight spice that were occurring within the food.

I hope this helps and it was really great working with you!

Thanks for contributing to this post Lizzy!

Photos by Alana, except kosambri:)

An ABCDs Supper @ Brooklyn Winery

2011-03-09T23:58:00.030-05:00

This past Sunday, I held an Indian supper for 30 paired with wines at the Brooklyn Winery. It was a really great experience to work with Jenesy and Lizzy at the winery to understand which wines complement the flavors of Indian cooking as there is not many resources out there with regards to this sort of pairing. Lizzy will actually be a guest on my next post about the topic.

The Brooklyn Winery opened up recently and has a really unique concept behind it - you can actually make your own wine there and bottle it yourself.

The space is absolutely gorgeous - all wooded and my dinner was held in their parlor room:

I dedicated this dinner to my parents, who have taught me most everything I know about Indian cooking. I named it Uttar Dakshina, uttar meaning North in my father's language of Hindi and dakshina meaning South in my mother's language of Kannada. I wanted to serve a meal to my guests that resembled the ones I ate growing up, which were a mix of North and South Indian foods. This is the menu with a picture of them on their wedding day:

I would not have been able to pull it off without the help of my dearest friends - Ben, Dan, Alana and Paul. Ben stayed with me for 2 days cooking, Dan came to help me chop and also made an incredible mix (lots of music from Satyajit Ray films - one of my all time favorite directors) for the night which you can grab here and with Paul and Alana we all made up the kitchen crew that night. Alana took all of these amazing photos too!

This is kitchen crew messing around before the dinner.

Me and Ben

Me and Paul

Dan mid sentence;)

No pics of Alana because she is behind the cammy:(

This is me, Jenesy and Lizzy kicking off the dinner:

We started off with papri chaat - my favorite!

During the meal, Jenesy and Lizzy talked to the guests about which wines would bring out flavors in which foods. The guests were served four glasses - one sparkling, two whites and a red (I will share more detail of the wines in the next post with Lizzy).

The main was served family style - vangi bath (spicy eggplant rice), thove (yellow dal with green chilis and ginger), potato and green peppers curry, shahi paneer, raita, kosambri (carrot salad with coconut, soaked lentil and fried spices), coriander and tamarind chutney, Indian pickles, and roti:

After serving a dessert of lapsi - cracked wheat porridge topped with honey, almonds and chocolate, I gave each guest a tiny little katori, a small stainless steel bowl to remember the night:

Thank you Brooklyn Winery for collaborating and providing an amazing space for the supper! It was a really memorable night for me and my guests.

photos & collage by Alana Lowe

ABCDs is going to SXSW!

2011-03-09T10:21:00.002-05:00

This week, I'll be heading to SXSW in Austin (first time!) with my buddy Jas from Plato Putas to co-chair a session on Food & Technology - How Technology Is Revolutionizing the Way We Eat. This session is a core conversation which means that everyone in the audience is invited to contribute and participate in the discussion.

Should be interesting as there is a lot going on in this space right now - from sites like RealTimeFarms.com that show you the farm from where each menu item at a restaurant was sourced to applications like Ratio that calculate the amount of ingredients you need based on what you have or how much you want to make (genius!).

We welcome people that work in both food, technology, or both or people that are just interested in the intersection of the two. If you are going to be in town please come out or send to friends that are attending and would be interested. Here are the details on our session and you can read more about it in the SXSW schedule:

How Technology Is Revolutionizing the Way We Eat
Tuesday, March 15
11:00AM

Marriot Courtyard
Rio Grande B
300 East 4th Street

Kapoor's in Delhi

2011-02-18T16:51:00.004-05:00

So when I was in Delhi, I did eat a ton of food, but I have to say Kapoor's was most memorable. This place is one of my great aunt Kumud's favorites and it's obvious from how the owner dotes on her that she is a regular. The restaurant is roadside and quite close by to where she lives in Malviya Nagar. They make two of my favorites snack foods (both deep fried of course!) - chole bhatura, fluffy and thick bread with chickpea curry -

and khasta kachori, flakey bread stuffed with curried lentils -

It was definitely the best I have ever tasted and I don't like superlatives! I brought some kachoris back home with me. I realized they print out your name on a label for each take out item so every time I took one out from my fridge, Kumud's name was on it. How cute because they already reminded me of her!

Kumud and my father enjoying their kachori -

Here are some more photos from the day.

My Great Aunt's Garam Masala

2011-02-09T21:09:00.003-05:00

When I was in Delhi, I took a crash course in North Indian cooking with my grandmother, great aunt and their cook, Ramesh. We must have prepared 20 recipes in the course of 5 days...and we had planned for more even. I will share a few of these on the site in the coming posts. The first recipe is for garam masala, which many people know as the Indian all spice.

The spice is used in many North Indian recipes and is a mixture of roasted cumin seeds, black pepper,

cloves,

black cardamom,

star anise,

cinnammon,

bay leaf,

and because we were fancy we added some mace (javitri)

and also nutmeg (jaiphal)

Every family's recipe varies and you can omit or add more of any of the ingredients based on your taste. You just dry roast most of the spices on the stove or in the oven and then get out your trusty spice grinder (or coffee grinder but cleaned out well).

This is my great aunt, Kumud grinding away. She is darling and I miss her!

You sift it well to make sure that you grind out all the big pieces.

Finished!

Garam Masala Recipe

Ingredients
6 tablespoons black pepper
3 1/2 tablespoons cloves
4 1/2 tablespoons black cardamom
2 tablespoons star anise
1 1/2 tablespoons whole cinnammon
4 bay leaves
3 tablespoons cumin
2 mace pieces - optional
1/2 of 1 nutmeg piece, grated - optional

Method
Traditionally, you roast the spices separately but it takes quite some time. When making the recipe with my great aunt we roasted the black cardamom and star anise separately from the other spices.

Oven method - Lay all the spices except for mace and nutmeg onto a large sheet pan and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees. Keep watch over the spices, especially the bay leaf which you may have to take out.

Stove method - Dry roast all the spices except for mace and nutmeg in a heavy skillet under medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep watch over the spices, especially the bay leaf which you may have to take out.

For both methods wait until the spices give off a nice aroma, turn darker in color and start to crackle.

Cool the spices and then grind with the mace and nutmeg. Store in an airtight container in the cupboard. Keeps for about 2-3 months.

You can use in curries towards the end of cooking or also in salad dressings.

New Cooking Video: Yellow Peanut Rice

2011-01-20T16:44:00.006-05:00

Me, Alana and Paul just made a new cooking video on yellow peanut rice, a South Indian dish from Bangalore, flavored with lemon, coconut & fried peanuts, dals and spices. The actual name for the dish is chitranna (no relation to me!) and means "mixed rice."

The rice goes well with these dishes: spinach raita, palak paneer, green beens palya, sambar, saru. You can find the written out recipe on this post. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

Mumbai Foods Part 2 - A Giant Dosa & The Street

2011-01-19T16:25:00.002-05:00

In Mumbai, I think I ate the largest dosa ever with my friend Fiana. Dosa is a South Indian crepe made from a fermented batter of rice and lentils and then cooked on a skillet. You eat it usually with sambar and coconut chutney. We had the dosa at Shree Krishna in Worli -

Walking the streets, you get to see and try so many different foods. Here's some of what I saw.

This vendor is making bhelpuri, one of the most popular street foods in Mumbai. It is a type of chaat or snack food consisting of puffed rice, sev (little tiny noodle threads made from chickpea flour), tomatoes, onions, chilis, sometimes boiled potato and roasted dals, sweet tamarind chutney, spicy mint chutney and cilantro.

Served in some recycled paper with a cardboard spoon -

This is another chaat vendor or wallah. The mound of yellow in front of him is his sev and the bag on the right is papri, fried dough chips. There are also green mangos in his stall that give a sour taste to the mixture. This vendor was making several kinds of chaats.

We ordered the papri chaat from him - papri chips on the bottom and layered with chickpea, potato, chutneys, chili powder, chaat masala, onion, tomato, sev and cilantro.

And then watched him make some bhelpuri -

Next door to the chaat wallah there was a man selling tender coconut - which you drink first and then scoop out the flesh with a spoon cut from the coconut.

We came across a little hole in the wall place making pav bhaji - spicy mashed veg curry and bun -

This stand was selling spiced cucumbers and lemonades -

In the street markets I saw these green and black varieties of chestnut -

Several vendors were selling mixed fruit cut into really decorative shapes -

This was a shop selling Ayurvedic digestives called churan, which are made from dried fruits and spices. In India, there is a huge variety of these that come in powdered form or little nuggets. I like the anardana variety, which is made from dried pomegranite seed and pulp and have tasted one called hing goli - which is a churan made from asafoetida.

Mumbai Foods Part 1 - Chowpatty Beach

2011-01-13T12:58:00.006-05:00

I just came back from a trip to India where I visited Mumbai and Goa with some friends and then headed to Delhi to hang out with my family. In the next few posts, I'll share some of the foods and cooking from this visit.

The first 2 posts from my trip are on Mumbai, which I really loved and definitely want to go back to. These photos are from Chowpatty Beach, which is famous for its variety of fast foods. The beach gets really packed at night with young people, families, locals, tourists, etc. and kind of resembles a carnival or fair with a lot happening all at once:

There are a number of food vendors strewn all across the beach and then many stalls all at one corner with every kind of food imagineable - belpuri, papdi chaat, pani puri, vada pav, wok noodles, paneer pressed sandwiches, etc

This vendor on the beach is selling vada pav, which is one of the most popular snack foods in Mumbai. Vada is a vegetable, a lot of times it is made out of balled up potato, battered in chickpea flour batter and fried and pav is a bun. Vada pav is served as a sandwich with chutney inside. This was a two man operation with one guy making the sandwiches and another battering and frying up the vadas.

This stall was serving a snack food from North India, pani puri, which is made from a tiny puffed bread that you poke a whole at the top and fill. I used these puris for an appetizer at one of the suppers.

You fill them with any combo of boiled potato, chickpea, onion, chaat masala, chutney and then fill or dip it into a flavored liquid, which is where the name pani comes from because it means water. The pani is spiced in many ways, either with cumin (jal jeera), tamarind, lemon, mint, dates, etc. Chaat masala adds a pungent flavoring, almost sulfuric from the black salt that's used in it, but the main ingredient is dried mango powder which is sour.

The pani puri guy makes one at a time and you just stick the whole thing in your mouth right away and wait for the next.

This stall was selling pav bhaji, which is similar to the vada pav, but instead the pav is served with a spicy mixed vegetable curry that is mashed. This snack is a specialty from Gujarat and the Mumbai area. It is served with onions, cilantro and lemon.

This stall was selling wok-fried noodles that are made with a mixture of Indian spices, soy sauce and vinegar:

There was also a variety of pressed sandwiches using fresh veggies, chutneys and paneer:

The last stall that I visited was selling paan, which is a digestive and mouth freshener made from a spicy betel leaf that is filled with supari or areca (difficult to describe but it is kind of hard to chew, brown in color and leaves almost a freshener aftertaste in your mouth), a white paste made from pickling lime (a white calcium powder derived from limestone) and then a mixture of different spices depending, like saffron, cardamom, cloves and sometimes even tobacco. You can also get it sweet with sugar, fennel seeds, coconut, rose petal, dried fruit, etc. inside too. This was maybe the most elaborate paan I have ever seen.

You take the whole leaf in your mouth and chew it. Some people swallow it and some people spit it out. In India, if you see these red splotches on the street, it is most likely from someone spitting paan out - yuck!

In the next post, I'll share more of the street foods that I saw in Mumbai.

Spicy Tzatziki @ Drawing Class

2011-01-07T17:41:00.020-05:00

My friends Dan and Nate host a really fun model drawing class every two weeks in Nate's art studio in Gowanus called +DRAWING+MODEL+MUSIC+BEER+. Here they are. Dan is the blurry one:

This class is special though because not only do you get to draw a model, you also get to listen to music curated by Dan while having a glass of wine or a beer. The class is really magical because time goes by so fast there and when it's over you don't want to leave as evidenced by the lingerers. To share, I brought snacks of persimmon salsa and spicy tzatziki (recipe below). Coincidentally, the food I brought fit in with the theme of that week's class.

Each class has a different music theme. This one's was British Invasion but not what you'd think. In Dan's words - '"British Invasion" was less about the Beatles, Stones, etc. crossing the pond and going all D-Day on the Billboard charts, but more about the interaction of English music culture with that of the Queen's subjects.' That night we heard music that paired UK influences with ones from India, Nigeria and the US, an eclectic mix from Lily Allen 50 Cent satires to mid-century Nigerian art music, while eating some of my East meets West food:)

The theme for the upcoming class is "first impressions" in light of the New Year where you will hear songs that start an artist's debut album. Here is info on the next class and don't forget to RSVP because space is limited:

Wednesday January 12, 8:00 - 10:30 pm
269 Douglass Street and 3rd Ave., Brooklyn
$10 pays for model, beer, and music.
RSVP nathan.sensel@gmail.com

Thanks to those for sharing their drawings:

Spicy Tzatziki Recipe

Ingredients
17.6 oz Fage container of Greek yogurt
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and grated
2 cloves garlic
couple squeezes of lemon
~1/4 teaspoon coriander powder, add more depending on taste
~1/4 teaspoon roasted cumin powder, add more depending on taste
cayenne powder to taste
fresh cilantro, chopped
fresh mint, chopped

black pepper
salt

Method
After peeling, seeding and grating the cucumber, wrap it in a paper towel and squeeze out water gently. Leave it in the paper towel to absorb more water.

In a mortar and pestle, mash up the garlic with a couple pinches of salt.

Combine the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, lemon, spices, herbs, black pepper and salt.

*For a variation, I have also fried the coriander, cumin and cayenne in a bit of oil and poured over the yogurt.

Taro Root Curry

2010-12-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

This is what taro root looks like. There are leaves too with these plants, but my father just bought the root or corms as they are called. I had previously eaten a purple variety of the root in a Chinese restaurant at dim sum in the form of dumplings and taro cake. I really liked this preparation and was curious to try and cook the root for the first time according to an Indian recipe my father had learned while in Delhi. We had filled this curry into our samosas but I thought it tasted really good on its own, kind of a nutty, sweet flavor to it. We cooked a variety that is white on the inside of the skin.

This recipe calls for boiling of the roots. Then kind of in the same style that tostones are made, you flatten them out and shallow fry them with a few spices. My father said that for this dish, you should use the spice, ajwain as it complements the root well. Ajwain, also called carom seed, kind of looks like cumin or a carraway seed and is really good to use when making doughs for breads and also to flavor fried things like this taro! The flavor of the seed when fried is similar to thyme but more pungent.

Another spice that is good with taro is amchoor, which gives kind of a tangy, sour taste and is made from unripe dried mangoes. Amchoor is sometimes used as a substitute for lemon in cooking. This is what the powder looks like:

After you boil the taro and peel it, this is what the inside looks like. The root is very starchy so it is very sticky and slimy, but frying takes this quality away and makes them more firm. Since the inside is so soft, taro root is sometimes made into a porridge. It's also a nice substitute for potatoes because it's higher in fiber and protein and the type of starch that is in the root is extremely easy to digest.

You take one of these taro corms and flatten them with your palm. This is my Dad doing it:

I'll put the measurements below for the recipe but just wanted to show how the taro looks when cooking. Place oil in a pan under medium heat - mustard oil is best but you can also use canola or vegetable. Start placing the taro pieces in the pan. Sprinkle spices on each of them - ajwain, turmeric, amchoor powder, paprika, salt:

Flip them over to cook on both sides and coat with spices:

Fry them until browned and cooked through - 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve them with roti:

Taro Root Curry

Ingredients
8 taro root corns
2 tablespoons mustard oil, can substitute canola or vegetable

sprinkling of following spices on each taro root piece: ajwain, amchoor, turmeric, paprika, salt

Method

Boil taro roots in water for 20-30 minutes or until tender. Wash under cold water and peel the taro roots.

Heat oil under medium heat in a non stick pan. Take each peeled taro root and flatten it with your palm and place it in the oil on the stove. Sprinkle ajwain, amchoor, turmeric, paprika and salt on each one.

Flip the taro over until both sides are coated in oil and spices. Fry until browned on both sides and cooked through - 5 to 10 minutes.

Serve with roti.

Samosas - 3 Kinds

2010-12-07T19:39:00.015-05:00

Over Thanksgiving, me and my Dad made samosas together for the first time. He had just learned from his Aunt in Delhi how to prepare them and wanted to teach me how. My family was in San Francisco for the holiday and my Aunt had decided to invite us all over for Thanksgiving so we prepared three varieties to bring to her house with a coriander chutney:

potato and peas

sweet potato and feta

taro root

The first two fillings came out really well and I'll share the recipes with you on this post. Although my little nephew liked it, the taro root came out a bit dry. The curry is delicious though by itself so I will share that recipe in the next post. Here are our samosas!

It was so fun to make these with my Dad. It does take time, but it can be a really communal activity where everyone can help to wrap the samosas.

I took photos of how to roll out, wrap and fry the samosas - kind of hard to explain in words. My Dad was the hand model:) Recipe for the dough is below for 24 samosas. After you let the dough rest for an hour or so, knead it again and divide and roll into 12 balls like these. Keep these dough balls covered with saran wrap so they do not dry out while you are rolling:

On a floured surface, roll out your first dough ball:

Should be rolled to about a 6 inch diameter:

Cut the circle in half:

Make a cone out of the half piece of dough with a seam that overlaps about 1/4 inch. Seal the seam together with water. Also press the edges together just to make sure that your seam comes together.

Fill your cone with a heaping tablespoon of filling:

Rub a little water in the inside of the top of the cone and close the top. Press well so that it is airtight.

Me and my Dad just folded up the corner of our samosas. Place your samosas on a tray and cover with saran wrap while you fill the rest:

Fry the samosas in a frying pan until golden brown. You can also bake but frying tastes better:)

Thanks for teaching me how to make samosas Dad! T'was fun:)

Samosa dough - makes 24 medium size

*I just used what my brother had in his pantry, you can make this with all all-purpose or with all whole wheat flour

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon salt

~3 tablespoons warm water

Method

Mix up the flour and the butter with your hands so that it gets all crumbly like bread crumbs. Next add in water, 1 tablespoon at a time. You may need more or less water, but knead until you get a dough that is soft and pliable. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour. Now you can make the filling:

Potato and peas filling - enough for 10 samosas with some leftover

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil

2 medium sized Yukon gold potatoes (or any other you have on hand), boiled, peeled and cubed small

3/4 cup frozen green peas, defrosted

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon ginger, grated

pinch of hing or asafoetida

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1/2 teaspoon amchoor

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/3 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon coriander powder

salt

Method

Heat oil under medium heat. Put in cumin seeds and hing. Shake up the pot. When the cumin seeds start to sizzle or brown more, put in the onion. Fry until the onions are translucent. Add the ginger and stir well. Next add in the amchoor, garam masala, turmeric and coriander powder. Mix these well, adding oil if necessary. Throw in the potatoes and peas and mix well. Add salt and fry the potatoes and peas for about 8 minutes. Cool mixture for filling.

Sweet potato and feta filling - enough for 10 samosas with some leftover

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed small

1-2 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch of hing or asafoetida

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ginger, grated

2 green chilis or to taste, minced

1/3 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin

4 oz. crumbled feta

salt to taste

Method

Heat oil under medium heat with mustard seeds, cumin and hing. Shake up the pot. Once they start to pop and sizzle, add in the onions. Fry onions until translucent. Next add in the garlic, ginger and chilis. Fry for a few seconds. Put in turmeric, coriander powder and cumin powder and mix well. Throw in the sweet potatoes and mix until coated with all the spices. Fry until the potatoes are soft - 20 minutes or less. If you feel that the potato is burning up, add water from time to time to cool the pan down. Transfer to a bowl and mix in feta. Add salt to taste. Cool mixture for filling.

Winter Vegetable Soup with Coconut Milk and Chilis

2010-11-23T10:53:00.002-05:00

I prepared this soup for my friend Busayo's birthday dinner. She was leaving for Nigeria and would be gone on the actual day, but I wanted to give her a little celebration before she left. I brought this soup over with a beet salad, baguette and one of my favorite cheeses - Prima Donna, which tastes like a sharp Gouda. And of course there was cake - red velvet from Cake Man Raven.

This soup is sweet from the butternut squash, sweet potatoes and coconut milk, but also quite spicy from the chilis and spices. I used many of the winter vegetables I had received in my CSA that week, including celeraic, or celery root. This is what it looks like, kind of like a monster:

It's actually kind of great though once you peel it. The inside has a nice white color similar to a turnip. I tasted a little of it raw and it's kind of pungent, a cross between celery and parsley. When you cook it, the taste becomes more mild and the texture is soft and creamy like a potato. And I found out it's actually a great alternative to using potatoes because it hardly has any starch in it.

Happy Birthday Busey! xo

Ingredients
makes 16 cups (good for freezing)

3 tablespoons oil or ghee for soup pot, 1 tablespoon for roasting butternut squash
1 butternut squash, halved, roasted and spooned out
1 celeraic, peeled, cubed
5 small carrots, peeled and cut
4 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, grated
12 cups water
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch of asafoetida or hing
2 tablespoons coriander powder
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup coconut milk
juice of 1 lemon or lime
salt and black pepper
brown sugar - optional
cilantro
Indian green chilis or jalapenos, chopped

Method

Note - I roast the squash because I don't like having to peel and cube it since it's quite hard, but you can also just pan fry it with the rest of the vegetables instead if you choose to.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Pour about 1 tablespoon of olive oil with a sprinkling of salt into a baking dish and place the halves face down on the bottom of the pan. Rub them around so that they absorb the most amount of oil. Roast butternut squash for about 40 minutes or until soft. Cool and scrape out flesh. Place in a bowl and set aside.

Warm 3 tablespoons of ghee or oil under medium heat in a heavy soup pot with the cumin seeds and pinch of hing or asafoetida. Once the cumin seeds start to brown or crackle, throw in the onions. Fry them until translucent. Mix in the coriander powder, turmeric, garam masala, chili powder. Fry for 30 seconds. Add in the garlic and ginger and stir around. Fry until fragrant, 30 seconds or so.

Next throw in all of the veggies - butternut squash, celeraic, carrots and sweet potatoes. Mix everything around so it is coated by the onions and spices. Next add the water (you can use less or more than what I have noted based on how thick you want the soup). Bring to a boil and simmer until all vegetables are so soft you can mash them against the side of the pot. Add in the coconut milk and heat the soup up to a boil. Puree this mixture in blender. Add in the lemon, salt, pepper, brown sugar to your taste.

Serve with cilantro and fresh cut chilis on top.

Persimmon Salsa

2010-11-16T12:20:00.019-05:00

Last Sunday, Sabra and I served Indian tacos at a 3rd Ward Moviehouse event that featured music from Kodomo which I loved! I wanted to make a special salsa to go along with our tacos so I made one from persimmons I had brought back from my favorite grocery store, Berkeley Bowl and farmers at the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

I like the crunchy persimmon variety called fuyu, which is what I used in the salsa. The other popular variety is mushy and called hachiya. The fuyu persimmon is kind of like a papaya apple. It has a rich flavor like papaya and a texture similar to a crunchy apple, but looks like an orange tomato - so confusing I know!

My nephew had his first taste of one:

And then wanted more - such a cuteheart!

Thanks for event photos Alana!

Persimmon Salsa

Ingredients

3 fuyu persimmons, chopped

juice of 1 navel orange

tiny green pepper, chopped fine

1 cherry pepper or anything hot like a jalapeno or serrano chili, chopped fine

half of a cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 small red onion, chopped

juice of 1/2 of a lemon

cilantro

salt

Method

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Green Tomato Chutney

2010-11-03T21:26:00.000-04:00

This is a sad story of some green tomatoes. I got these from my CSA and wanted to make a special chutney to take to my brother's house in San Francisco, but I forgot to pack it in my checked luggage and the airport authorities took it away along with my tupperware that I am really attached to!! I got to enjoy it for a couple days before this unfortunate incident but my brother did not:(

Green tomatoes are usually present at the end of the season because they are the tomatoes that are having some trouble ripening. They don't really taste good raw so you have to cook them. Usually people fry them, but I kind of wanted to go a healthier route so I made a chutney out of them and it came out quite well.

This recipe is dedicated to my lost tupperware - I miss you!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon canola oil
4 green tomatoes, chopped
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek
1/2 onion, chopped
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ginger, grated
8 green chilis (more or less to your taste)
water
1 bunch of basil leaves
handful of cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt
1 cup yogurt (or more to your taste)

Method
Heat oil in a pan under medium heat. Put in hing, cumin seed, mustard seed and shake up pan. Add in the urad dal. When the mustard seeds start to pop and the urad dal is turning golden, throw in the fenugreek seeds. Fry for a few seconds until they turn brown (if you fry these guys too much they taste super bitter). An alternative to frying these seeds is to roast them separately and powder them in a coffee grinder. You can then sprinkle this mixture when you throw in the tomatoes.

Throw in the onions and fry a few minutes. Mix in the turmeric and fry the onions until they are translucent. Mix in the garlic, ginger and chilis. Stir well and add in the tomatoes and salt. Cook the tomatoes until they are soft ~ 20 minutes. If the pan is dry, add in some water. You can also cover with a lid to cook faster.

Spoon the tomato mixture into a blender and puree with the basil, cilantro, sugar, lemon juice and salt. Add more chilis if you want it to be spicier. Transfer mixture to a bowl and mix in yogurt to your taste.

Serve as a side with roti or rice.

A Fall Supper

2010-10-20T10:15:00.018-04:00

Sabra and I hosted another supper this past weekend. There were lots of nice fall vegetables at the farmer's market and in my CSA delivery so many of the dishes were inspired by the season.

This was our menu and place settings that Sabes put together:

For the starter, I made a soup using moong dal, a yellow Indian lentil, potatoes and leeks and blended it so it was creamy. Right before serving, I fried some guajillo chili powder mixed with kalonji, cumin seeds and onion and topped the soup with that and some mint, cilantro and boondi.

For the main course, we served chili relleno. I used my grandmother's sister's recipe to cook the filling of butternut, acorn and carnival squash. Sabra roasted poblano peppers and sauteed kale to add texture to the filling. We topped the chili relleno with melted oaxacan cheese.

To go along with the peppers, I made some homemade yogurt and tamarind rice topped with fried cashews and peanuts. I had a ton of sundried tomatoes so I made a chutney out of that and also a coriander chutney made from chilis from my aunt's garden. We also served chapati bread and some sliced avocado with the meal. I'll share all of these recipes in coming posts:)

Sabra made a dessert of fried plaintains and vanilla ice cream, topped with blackberry chili sauce and we served this with chai.

At the end we gave everyone a present of a cute little pumpkin:

Thank you Sarah, Ann and Ian for helping in the kitchen. And to La for the pictures and everyone for a great night! Also our good friend Alana provided some of her very own photo prints to decorate the dining room. They were lovely.....xo

Yellow Peanut Rice

2010-10-07T11:08:00.030-04:00

Yellow peanut rice is a South Indian recipe that I've been eating since I was young. I don't even know if that's the right name but that's just what we call it in my family. The rice is made with lemon, coconut, fried spices, peanuts, cilantro and it's yellow in color from hulthi or turmeric spice:

Turmeric is really good for health so I try and put a little bit of it in most things I cook. It's a close relative of ginger and similarly has a bit of a pungent flavor and helps to soothe the stomach. The spice comes from the root of a tropical shrub. It’s been used in traditional Indian medicine for a long time to treat ailments and recently has been shown to help fight diseases - cancer, diabetes, arthritis and Alzeimers. You can find it in most grocery stores.

I remember my 4th grade teacher had all the students bring in foods from their cultures and this is actually the dish I brought in. My school was mostly Irish and Italian kids so I was nervous to bring Indian food in, especially the bright yellow kind, but since peanut rice was one of my favorites that’s what my mom made. I was so worried about it and to top it off I was so shy (I cringe thinking back). I thought no one would try it and I’d have to eat it all before going home so that my mom wouldn’t feel bad. I was a mess UNTIL I saw this one Tupperware with octopus in it. I was like oh Italian food looks funny too! Anyway it was really cute because all the kids loved it and the octopus. And there was none left to bring home.

I like serving this rice with yogurt and its nice to pack for a picnic. When I gave my friends Andrew and Faouzi a cooking class we ate the rice with spinach raita, sambar, green beans palya and kosambri:

I just shot the video for this recipe with Alana and Paul. Take a look here.

Yellow Peanut Rice

*fresh dill is a nice addition to this rice which I fry for a few seconds before adding in the rice to the pan.

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice

2 cups water
1/8 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon oil + 1 tablespoon oil
1/3 cup raw peanuts

pinch hing (asafoetida)

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon urad dal
1/2 teaspoon chana dal

1 dried red chili, broken in two (alternative is chopped green chilis which adds more spice)

4 fresh curry leaves

juice of 1 lemon

handful frozen fresh grated coconut, thawed
cilantro for garnish

salt

Method

Cook the rice in a rice cooker or on stove with water and turmeric mixed in. To make the rice not stick I sometimes add a little oil. Set cooked rice aside.

In a small pan heat 1 tablespoon of oil and put in peanuts under medium heat. Fry peanuts until they are fragrant and turn golden brown. Put peanuts aside. (They will get crunchier as they sit out.)

In a wok, heat 1 tablespoon of oil under medium heat. To test the oil is hot put in a couple mustard seeds and they should start sizzling. Then add the rest of the mustard seeds and hing. Shake up the pot and cover (this is so the mustard seeds don't pop out of the pan and burn you!) Once they pop for a few seconds, lower the heat and add the urad dal, chana dal, dried red chili and curry leaves (rub leaves between your hands a little before putting in pan to release oils). Coat them with oil and fry for a few seconds. The urad dal and chana dal should turn a brownish hue. Add the rice into the wok and mix well. Fry for a few minutes.

Turn the heat off and mix in the lemon juice and coconut. Add in the peanuts and salt to your taste. Garnish with cilantro and serve with yogurt raita.

Paneer in Sundried Tomato Curry

2010-09-22T11:23:00.016-04:00

I saved some of the pistachio paneers I had prepared for Vincey's film screening to put into this sundried tomato curry. I love sundried tomatoes and have been wanting to make a curry out of them for some time. Their tangy and salty flavor is very complimentary to Indian spices. I added in some ground cashews to thicken the sauce and also used some nice heirloom tomatoes I had gotten from my CSA. If you want to make this recipe healthier, you can substitute the paneer with tofu.

Lately, I've really been into using dried fenugreek leaves and put some of these into the curry as well. You can buy a bag of these leaves at the Indian store where they may be labeled in Hindi as methi leaves. They are good to throw into sauces and curries and carry a little bitter taste to them. I really don't like bitter tastes but for some reason these leaves are not too overpowering for me. The seeds of these leaves are sometimes used to make chutneys, pickles and spice powders and are much more bitter.

I served this curry with rice and some corn tortillas at a dinner party.

Ingredients

14 oz paneer or tofu, cubed

1 tablespoon oil

2 tablespoons ghee or oil

10 sundried tomatoes (not in oil)

2 medium tomatoes, rough chop

2 small onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 inch piece ginger, grated

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder or to taste

2 pinches dried fenugreek (methi) leaves

3 tablespoons ground cashews

2 tablespoons cream

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon sugar

salt to taste

cilantro for garnish

Method

*To powder the cashews, I use a coffee been grinder.

Fry your paneer or tofu cubes in 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan. Set aside.

Soak sundried tomatoes in boiling water for 15 minutes. Blend the sundried tomatoes and tomatoes into a puree - adding the soaking water as necessary. Set aside.

In a pan under medium heat, put ghee or oil and onions. Fry the onions for about 10-15 minutes, stirring so they do not burn. I like the onions to be a little carmelized. Then stir in the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute.

Add in the tomato puree and mix. Next add in the spices - garam masala, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, dried fenugreek leaves. Fry until the oil separates from the tomato.

Add in the cashew powder and 1/2 cup of water (you can use the soaking water from the sun dried tomatoes if you have left). Add more water if you want your curry to be more liquidy. Bring to a boil.

Add in the cream, sugar and salt. Stir well. Add in the fried paneers and make sure they are all covered with curry sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro.

Papri Chaat at Farm City Fair

2010-09-16T16:50:00.005-04:00

Last Saturday, I sold papri chaat at the Farm City Fair alongside some fellow vendors from the Greenpoint Food Market. The fair, put on by French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), was a new take on old timey country fairs and featured arts, music and foods local to Brooklyn. It was held at the Invisible Dog Art Center, an old factory space that used to manufacture invisible dog collars and now houses artists studios and events. There was so much going on and over a 1,000 people there but one of the highlights of the day was when a marching band started playing Björk outside in the rain!

This is me serving my chaat with two light bulbs on my head:) Many people didn't know what chaat was so it was fun to introduce them to one of my favorite foods. And I think they liked it because I sold out 2 hours before the event was over!

Oh yeah and right across from me, Wylie Dufresne, the famous chef from wd-50 was serving up his own foods!

Thanks to Summer, Jennifer, Sheng, Louis, Busayo and Lili for helping out and FIAF for having me.

An Anniversary Cooking Class

2010-09-14T13:27:00.006-04:00

Last Wednesday my friends, Marsa and Tony celebrated their 5 year wedding anniversary with a cooking class taught by me! I was so excited when Marsa called up and wanted to hire me for the occasion. For their wedding reception, Marsa and Tony had invited their guests to take part in a cooking class and then feast on what they had made together. Marsa wanted to recreate this experience on their anniversary as a surprise for Tony.

We first all shared an appetizer of papri chaat and toasted champagne to the cutest couple. Tony was so surprised:)

Then I divided the 10 of us into groups and we got to cooking!

It was really fun and also a nice way for everyone to get to know each other. I love this picture of Marsa cracking up:

The guys got acquainted with the magic of ghee and cilantro:

Everyone did a really a great job pulling the meal together and finally we all sat down to eat.

On the menu:

papri chaat

peanut rice with lemon, coconut and dill

shahi paneer

potato and spinach curry with tahini

moong dal

cucumber raita

Marsa made a special beef curry and ordered in a few naans to round out the meal.

After our feast.......

I also made recipe booklets for everyone so that they could remember the night and make some of the dishes at home.

Thanks so much Marsa and Tony for including me in your celebration. It was a blast! xoxo

Green Goddess Got Me!

2010-09-08T10:43:00.008-04:00

Most people I know are aware that I've never eaten meat or fish in my life, but that changed last week when me and Sabra ordered the green goddess salad off the menu at Roman's. I had always been curious about the dressing and even had looked up the recipe, but totally forgot that there was anchovies in it. Only after we had dug into the salad did the waiter confirm that indeed our dressing had anchovies!!

I was first startled and then my stomach just kind of sank. It's strange because I know I've probably had some small form of meat or fish served to me before, but when I was told I had eaten it for sure, it definitely kind of shook me.

Ok enough dramatics but I really liked the taste of the dressing and wanted to figure out a way to make it vegetarian and with Indian flavors. I stayed true to the mayo and sour cream in the original recipe but added in some cilantro and dill instead of parsley, roasted fennel powder instead of tarragon and also some yogurt. And to replace the salty anchovies I put in capers.

It came out well, but you be the judge. Especially the anchovy eaters, please let me know how it compares!

My Green Goddess Salad

Ingredients:
2 romaine leaves, torn into pieces
1 slice of tomato

Dressing
makes 1 cup

1/3 cup greek yogurt
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon dill
1 scallion including green parts
3 tablespoons capers with some juice
1/2 teaspoon ground saunf (roasted fennel seed)
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:
Put dressing ingredients in a blender and puree with a tablespoon of water. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

Serve on romaine or any other kind of sturdy lettuce with a bright red tomato!

Cantaloupe Chutney

2010-08-30T11:42:00.012-04:00

Cantaloupe chutney sounds funny I know, but it is really good I swear! The idea came about because I kept getting melons from my CSA and so I decided to make this chutney in the same vein as a mango chutney. It is really sweet, but also spicey from dried red chili.

I made some tea sandwiches with this chutney for my friend Busayo's fashion line preview party. I spread some onto toast with a thick slice of swiss and cut them into cute little squares. I've also made these with gruyere and cheddar and it works quite well. The other tea sandwich I prepared for Busayo was basil chutney cream cheese and cucumber.

The cantaloupe chutney was a hit at the party and I ended up getting some orders for more. I've been making batches of it so if you live near and want to buy some let me know!

Here are some photos of Busayo's line. She uses traditional Nigerian fabrics in all of her designs and many of them are one of a kind. I own a few of her pieces and love them!

You can see more of Busayo's line here.

Cantaloupe Chutney

makes 2 cups

Ingredients

1 cantaloupe, peeled and cubed

1 1/2 tablespoons ghee

2 dried red chilis broken in two or can use dried red chili flakes to your taste

6 cardamom pods, peeled and crushed

4 cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon ginger, grated

1/2 cup jaggery or brown sugar

1/2 cup blanched and sliced almonds, toasted

juice from 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup honey

1 cup yellow raisins

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped rough

Method

Crush the cardamom and cloves in a mortar and pestle and set aside. Toast almonds in a non stick pan under medium low heat and set aside.

Heat ghee in a pan under medium heat. Put in red chilis, cardamom, cloves and ginger. Fry for 30 seconds. Next add in jaggery and almonds and mix all around for 15 seconds. Throw in cantaloupe and rest of ingredients in pan. Mix well and bring to a boil. Taste for more chili and add flakes accordingly. The chutney should be sweet but with a spicy kick at the end. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour until chutney is syrupy.

Puree coursely in blender to make it spreadable.

Savoy Cabbage Potato Curry

2010-08-19T11:14:00.003-04:00

I recieved a Savoy cabbage in my CSA delivery the other week. I had never cooked with one before. The cabbage I grew up eating was just the regular white kind, which is what is mostly used in Indian recipes. I didn't think that it would make much of a difference and put the Savoy cabbage into a curry I was making with potatoes. I found that it's actually way better than the white kind - a lot more tender and mild in flavor. Also when cooking it, the odor is not as strong and it's very pretty looking with crinkled and curled leaves:

Ingredients

1 small Savoy cabbage, chopped

3 small red potatoes, boiled and chopped in bite size chunks

2 tablespoons oil or ghee

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ginger grated

pinch of hing (asafoetida)

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/3 teaspoon turmeric

1/4 teaspoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon garam masala

salt to taste

juice from 1/2 lime

cilantro for garnish

Method

Heat ghee or oil in a pan under medium-high heat. Put in cumin seeds and pinch of hing and shake the pot up so they mingle. Once the cumin seeds start to turn darker brown and fragrant, turn the heat to medium and mix in garlic and ginger. Sautee them together for 30 seconds.

Throw in cabbage and sautee. Put some water in the pan if you feel the cabbage is burning or getting too dry. Add the spices and cook for about 5 minutes. Next add the potatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes or until cabbage is tender. Add salt to taste. Turn the heat off and add lime juice and cilantro.

Sundried Tomato Paneer and Basil Chutney

2010-08-12T14:18:00.008-04:00

I made two homemade flavored paneer cheeses for a screening party of my friend Vincey's short film, Señorita which he wrote, directed and starred in. At the party, I served one sundried tomato paneer with basil chutney on the side and one carmelized pistachio paneer with honey on top. To make flavored paneer, you follow the usual directions and mix in your flavoring right before you hang the paneer to drain.

It was definitely a labor of love to make these paneers but I am so proud of Vincey and all of his hard work. His film has been invited to more than 15 international festivals and was screened at the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival this year. Yay Vincey! The party was also a bit of a sendoff/fundraiser because he will be returning home to the Philippines to shoot the feature length film of Señorita. I'm so excited for him and can't wait to see it.

To donate funds towards the making of Vincey's feature film, you can go here.

Sundried Tomato Paneer

Ingredients
8 oz. homemade paneer
5 or to your liking sundried tomatoes (not in oil)
black pepper

Method
Soak the sundried tomatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes. Chop them into small pieces.

Mix in sundried tomatoes and black pepper with curds right before you hang the paneer to drain. (reference paneer recipe here)

When paneer is solidified, cut into cubes and shallow fry in a non-stick pan until browned.

Basil Chutney

Ingredients
3 cups green herbs - 1 bunch worth of basil leaves and the remainder filled by equal parts cilantro and mint leaves
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons pine nuts and blanched almonds
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
3 Indian green chilis (to your taste and can also use jalapeno as a substitute), chopped small
salt
water

Method
In a mortar and pestle, pound down the garlic cloves with a few pinches of salt. Next add the nuts and pound down. Add this mixture to the blender and puree with the herb leaves and olive oil. Next add in the lemon, ginger and green chilis and puree. Add salt to your taste and water until you get to the consistency you like.

Sorry picture is a little blurry but this is how I served it:

Carmelized Pistachio Paneer

Ingredients
8 oz. homemade paneer

handful of pistachio

1 tablespoon ghee or butter

3 tablespoons sugar

Method
In a non stick fry pan, heat ghee or butter and sugar under medium low heat until sugar starts to get pastey. Turn down the heat to low, add pistachios and constantly stir until brown and fragrant. Lay them out to cool and harden.

Mix in carmelized pistachios (leaving some aside) with curds right before you hang the paneer to drain. (reference paneer recipe here)

When paneer is solidified, cut into cubes and shallow fry in a non stick pan until browned.

Top with with honey and leftover carmelized pistachios.

Masala Loca @ Emerging Artists Showcase

2010-08-03T16:27:00.009-04:00

Last week, Sabra and I served some of our Masala Loca tacos at a party celebrating The Emerging Artists Program. The program is a collaboration between The L Magazine, Bumble and bumble and NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) and showcases emerging artists in NY.

Me and Sabes getting our food ready.

We made shahi paneer tacos topped with gaucamole and crema of homemade yogurt and sour cream.

The event was held at a Bumble and bumble hair salon and we served food on the terrace of the salon which had really nice views.

And some of our friends from the Greenpoint Food Market were there too which was fun.

Anita of Electric Blue Baking Co. made little vegan pizzas:

And Clara and Dan of empandas ¡dpm! served up two kinds of empanadas:

We had such a good time cooking for this event. Thanks to The L Magazine for having us.

Garlic Scapes Curry

2010-07-30T16:16:00.009-04:00

I had never cooked with garlic scapes before but I recieved them in my CSA one week. I guess out of pure laziness, I decided to just stir fry them along with a bunch of other vegetables I received that week and it turned out quite well. I added broth, lemon and yogurt to make it a bit soupy and enjoyed just eating it on its own. This recipe is with collard greens, but I have also made it with kale and spinach.

If you have not cooked with garlic scapes, I highly recommend. Unfortunately, I think they are only in season for a short time though. They are really cool looking and are all curled up. They are not as pungent as garlic itself but have a really fresh and spicy taste to them. I learned that the scapes are shoots that grow on young garlic and are cut off as they prevent the garlic head from growing larger.

These are the collard greens from the recipe:

Ingredients
2 tablespoons ghee or canola oil
2 scallions, white and some of the green chopped

1/4 pound garlic scapes, cut off the bulb part and chop into 1/2 inch segments
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1/3 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/3 pound snap peas, use whole or take peas out 1 bunch collards, chopped (can use spinach, kale, other greens in place of)

1/4 cup vegetable broth

1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons yogurt

salt to taste

cilantro for garnish

Method
Note: Depending on if you want to eat on its own as a side or with rice, you may want to add more broth or yogurt.

Take yogurt out of fridge so that it is at room temperature. Bring pot of water to boil and throw in collard greens. Boil for 5 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. (If using other greens, no need to boil).

In a frying pan, warm oil under medium heat. Throw in onion and garlic scapes and fry for a few minutes. Add spices and mix well. Mix in peas and fry for a couple minutes. Add in greens and mix well. Next add in broth (can add in more if seems too dry) and cook for about 5 minutes or longer, but just make sure the greens don't get overcooked. Add in lemon at the end.

Transfer to a bowl and cool for a couple minutes (this is so that the yogurt does not break from the heat). Mix in yogurt fast and well. Add salt and garnish with cilantro.