Ginger & Garlic

Pumpkin cranberry muffins

2012-02-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

I am on my maternity leave at present. My parents were here for the first 2 months with the baby and it has now been close to a month of three of us managing by ourselves. While there have been rare days with the baby fussing and crying and dishes pilling up in the sink; in general we are managing great - spending majority of the time cuddling and playing with our little girl, eating very simple home-made food everyday, resting whenever we can and housekeeping and cleaning as time permits.

Life is setting into a rhythm. I make fresh dinner daily and the leftover dinner serves as my lunch the next day - works great for me as I get to spend the whole morning with my little bundle without worrying about lunch logistics. My little girl naps in the afternoon. After her nap I take her out to a stroll nearby; then we come home, she plays in her baby gym while I take a quick coffee break (gotta have caffeine!). Then we play together some more; spend time in the backyard counting guavas and playing peek-a-boo :) After another quick nap, its time for making dinner! We got a wonderful rocker chair as a gift from a friend and it has proven so very useful! I place my little girl in the rocker in kitchen and start working away preparing dinner. I keep talking to her about every little thing I am doing like asking her what to make, chopping veggies, sauteing etc.. I am pretty sure she cares not much about our dinner menu or the recipe, but neverthless she keeps looking at me trying to babble away making conversation as I cook... its our together time making food memories -- and needless to say it makes preparing dinner time just that much extra special for me :)

Anyway, coming back to today's recipe! I had some leftover pumpkin puree in a can which I wanted to use up one day. I was thinking of making my usual pumpkin kheer but instead thought why not make some pumpkin muffins - they would serve great as my coffee snack for next few days. Thus a little Googling later, this recipe came about. Its mostly a derivation of the banana muffin recipe I had posted earlier. The muffins were awesome - and I'll be sure to make them again next fall when fresh pumpkins are in season.

Recipe: Pumpkin cranberry muffins

Makes 9 large muffins or 12 small ones

Ingredients:

1C pumpkin puree (canned or made from freshly roasted sugar pie pumpkins)

3Tbsp melted butter

2Tbsp canola or vegetable oil

1.5C AP flour

handful of dried cranberries

2tsp vanilla extract

1 egg beaten

1/2C sugar

1.5tsp baking soda

pinch of nutmeg

1/2tsp cinnamon

3 pods of cardamom - powdered

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 360F
Mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom. Set aside.
Add melted butter and oil to the pumpkin puree. Mix well.
Add beaten egg to the puree and mix well.
Add vanilla extract, cranberries and rest of the dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
Mix lightly until every bit of the mixture is thoroughly coated.
Line a muffin pan with muffin wrappers.
Pour a couple of spoonful of batter until each muffin wrapper is almost full.
Top off with a couple of cranberries to each of the muffin slots (purely for decoration!)
Bake for 30mins until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack. Enjoy!

Chocolate covered strawberry bride & groom & other treats!

2012-02-13T16:57:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day is just around the corner and to a foodie like me that means chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates! I love how everywhere around this time one starts seeing the bouquets of beautiful roses, various chocolate treats and all sorts of beautifully wrapped gifts.

Strawberries and chocolates are two of my most favorite things so its only logical that chocolate covered strawberries happen to be on the menu whenever I am in the mood for making something cutsie without a whole lot of effort. With plump fresh strawberries and white and dark chocolates, your imagination is the only limit when it comes to making designs for strawberry chocolates but here are some of my all time favorites (and something I have blogged previously here) which sort of differ from the usual chocolate covered berries.

These chocolate bride and groom are the perfect treats if you are in the mood for a more delicately worked strawberry designs and perhaps a perfect gift for a dear friend's bridal shower :) Instructions are here

If bride and groom are not on the menu then you can always try one of these free-fall designs which are equally delicious. Really your imagination is the only limit! Instructions are here

Happy Valentine's day everyone! May the year ahead bring lots of love, peace and well wishes for everyone near n dear to your hearts :)

20-minute lime-orange cookies

2012-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, can't believe it has been so long since I last posted over here! For the past few months I have been a blog lurker, drooling over all the scrumptious recipes which have been making the rounds. Continuing to post was always on my mind but somehow or other different priorities took over. Never mind though, I suppose better late than never!

There really is no excuse for being absent for so long - however time flies by so quickly! It seemed only so recently that I heard I was expecting and needless to say life's priorities took over and now I am a proud mommy of a month and half old cutie pie who is entertaining us all throughout the days and nights :)

So many things change so unexpectedly with a little baby and the life as you knew before changes so utterly and completely - but you know what the best part is, every time she looks at you and smiles or holds your finger with her little fingers, you know for sure you won't be treading these moments for anything else!

I am still learning the tips and tricks of being a new mommy and juggling work, life and mommyhood (so feel free to share your tips in comments!) but one of the first few things I learnt is to go for easy, clutter-free lifestyle. Long gone are the slow simmering, 2-3 hr recipes which used to entice me so much (atleast for now!) and in its place are the quick cooking, fresh and healthy meals which can be put together from start to finish in 20-30 minutes and require very everyday ingredients.

One such recipe is this quick cooking easy lime cookies from Anjum's new Indian. These cookies are very easy, they cook up in ~20mins, are made from all pantry ingredients and are very forgiving. Best of all these are the cookies to go to when an afternoon sweet craving strikes to a largely empty cookie cabinet to go with a simmering pot of afternoon tea or coffee.

Original recipe called for adding lime zest to the cookies. I modified this by adding equal parts lime and orange zest so technically these should be lime-orange cookies.

Recipe: Easy lime (orange?) cookies

(source: Anjum's new indian recipe re-published w/ modification with an acknowledgment from publisher)

Ingredients:

1/2C AP flour

1/2C sugar (next time I would probably reduce the sugar a bit)

2Tbsp melted butter (original recipe called for ghee which I didn't have at hand; so I microwaved 2Tbsp butter for 30sec)

1tsp lime zest

1tsp orange zest (my addition)

1tsp powdered sugar for dusting

1tsp dried coconut flakes for dusting (original recipe called for pistachios or coconut flakes - pistachios will surely add a great color though!)

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix together flour, 1/2C sugar, butter and orange zest and gently work the dough until the mixture comes together into a ball (should not be crumbly)
Roll the dough into 8 little balls and on a foil lined baking sheet flatten each ball into a small cookie shape.
Mix together powdered sugar with lime zest.
Dust each cookie ball with a little bit of sugar, lemon zest and dried coconut mixture.
Bake for 10mins or until you see the coloring on the edges.
Let cool on a rack and serve with some hot tea or coffee!

Banana nut muffins

2011-02-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

Let me just say its so nice to be back - cooking, eating and of-course blogging! After many months of craziness I am basking in happiness at getting back my weekends, all the lost sleep and the desire to spend hours and hours planning and cooking something not-everyday. I know I have missed all the action in the past few months, but I definitely plan to get back in the saddle as soon as possible. Thanks to all of you blogger-buddies who left messages and encouraged me to continue to keep posting; you guys are the best :)

Today is a holiday in US and for a lazy brunch I made these banana nut muffins. These muffins are very similar to the banana bread recipe I had posted earlier. They are toasted and crunchy on the outside while still very moist inside. The original recipe called for 1/3C butter and 3/4C sugar; I reduced butter to 2Tbsp and sugar to 1/2C because I like my muffins very lightly sweetened, but you can increase to 3/4C if you like it better that way. As always I love anything baked with banana and walnuts so if you are anything like me, I am sure you will absolutely LOVE these muffins.

Recipe:

Banana nut muffins

makes 9 large muffins
Source: adapted from this

Ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas

2.5Tbsp butter

1/2C sugar (note below)

1 egg

1.5C all-purpose flour

1C chopped walnut pieces

2tsp vanilla extract

1.5tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

dash of nutmeg (optional)

Recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 350F
Smash the bananas using a potato masher, meanwhile melt the butter (45sec in microwave)
Add melted butter to the smashed bananas and mix well.
Add sugar, egg, vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients - AP flour, walnut pieces, salt, nutmeg and baking soda.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix slightly to make sure every bit is thoroughly coated.
Line a muffin pan with muffin wrappers (available at any supermarkets)
Pour a couple of spoonful of batter into each of the muffin slots until the slot is full.
Bake for 30mins or until a toothpick inserted at the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.

Note: The original recipe called for 3/4C sugar. At 1/2C the muffins are lightly sweetened which is how I like them.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-25T10:57:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a very happy holidays and a wonderful new year ahead!

Here is an edible fruit tree I had made last year, hope you enjoy it too... have a safe festive season.

Check here for instructions of how to make this edible fruit tree.

Celery root soup (Celeriac soup)

2010-11-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

Have you ever cooked with a celery root or a celeriac before? It resembles the shape of misshapen turnip with beards growing here and there. At first glance to be frank it is not very appealing, particularly when seated next to the rows and rows of beautiful pink perfect red carrots of the season; but since I had heard so much about the delicate celery like flavors of these root vegetables, I could not pass up the chance to pick one up in the farmer's market yesterday.

Celeriac is a root vegetable in celery family. For a long time I thought celeriac is the root bulb of celery but that is not quite the case! The stalks and leaves attached to a celeriac are _not_ actually celery; I was planning to use them up in my soup but a bit of Googling told me that they may not be edible so I skipped them and used regular celery instead. In texture celeriac is simlar to the Mexican Jicama with a dominant celery flavor with a slight bit of sweetness like an apple!

Preparing celery root is very easy. First you chop off the celerish stalks attached to the root and then run the root through running water for a few minutes making sure to remove as much dirt as you can. Then using your knife peel of the outer skin as shown in the image below. You can then chop off the celery root into bite sized pieces. The celeriac is fantastic raw in salads or roasted with a bit of rosemary, salt & pepper or pureed in a soup. For my first attempt I decided to go with a simple but absolutely delicious celery-celeriac soup!

Celeriac is in season for a short duration and its not found that easily in supermarkets either, so if you get a chance to try this root vegetable, definitely go for it, I am sure you will love it!

Recipe: Celery root soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large celery root

3 stalks of celery

1 leek

6C water

olive oil

salt & pepper

red chili flakes

Recipe:

Prepare the celery root. First chop off the celeri-sh stalks attached to the root and then run the root through running water for a few minutes making sure to remove as much dirt as you can. Then using your knife peel of the outer skin. Then chop the peeled celery root into small cubes.

Prepare the celery and the leek. Chop the celery sticks into small pieces. Chop the leek into small pieces and wash well (dirt gets trapped inside the leek leaves, so cleaning them after chopping is the best way to get rid of the dirt.

Heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a large soup pot. Add leeks and saute for a couple of minutes. Add chopped celery and celery root and saute for a few more minutes.

Add 6C water, enough salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Let the soup come to a boil; then reduce heat and simmer covered for half an hour or until the celery root is tender. Remove from heat. Puree soup using a blender to a thick consistency. Serve warm garnished with some more good quality olive oil, crushed chili flakes and more pepper.

Couscous with roasted butternut squash and dried cranberries

2010-11-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you but I have always been a side-dish kind of person. What do I mean by that; well, for one, I usually relish the side-dish just as much as I like the main-dish! Infact, I have been known to be making meals out of side-dishes.. one pot quinoa salad for a quick lunch, smashed yams with a drizzle of honey for desert, soup as the main-course for dinner.. well, you get the idea. Needless to say, whenever I am invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, I am perfectly happy bringing a side-dish. Nothing screams fall to me like this dish with roasted, camelized butternut squash and dried cranberries with couscous!

The dish is wide open to variations and experimentations. I tried it with orange flavored dried cranberries from Trader Joe's and loved the orangy after-taste it gave. Occasionally I also add pumpkin seeds or pistachios for a crunch at times. As for the herbs, I suspect fried torn sage leaves would pair really well with the squash but I haven't tried it myself. I usually add the chives or the oregano from garden and its wonderful! If you are unsure what to bring to Thanksgiving and have been slated with a side-dish, give this a try, I guarantee you won't regret having to bring a side ;)

Recipe: Couscous with roasted butternut squash and cranberries

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1.5C whole wheat couscous

1.5C boiling water

1/2 of medium size butternut squash

1 medium sized onion

2 cloves of garlic - smashed

handful of dried cranberries

fresh herb of choice - sage, oregano or chives

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

olive oil

crushed chili flakes

salt & pepper

Recipe:

Pre-heat the oven to 400F.

Cut the butternut squash in halves. Add olive oil, salt & pepper and roast for about 30-35mins until the squash is soft (poke with a knife, there should not be much resistance). Remove from oven let cool. When cool, peel the skin off and chop the half of butternut squash into byte sized chunks. Reserve the other half for later use.

Heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a large bottomed pan. When hot, add onions and garlic and saute for a few minutes until onions are tender.

Add butternut squash pieces, dried couscous, lemon zest and mix well. Add boiling water to the couscous mixture and turn off the heat. Add salt & pepper. Mix well, cover and let stand for 5mins. Uncover, add the cranberries, drizzle with more olive oil (optional), lemon juice, black pepper and crushed chili flakes. Serve warm!

Buttermilk pancakes

2010-11-07T11:22:00.000-08:00

Pancakes is the ultimate lazy Sunday morning breakfast for me. I get up late (hey, daylight savings ended!) then spend another half an hour gazing over my morning cuppa mindlessly peeking at my friends' posts on Facebook while watching the rains drizzle outside on a gloomy Sunday morning. After an hour or so my tummy rumbles in protest which is when I go to the kitchen and start randomly opening and closing cupboards and refrigerator until I see an about to expire buttermilk carton that I used last week to make some very tasty whole-wheat pumpkin muffins. Buttermilk is not a regular ingredient in my pantry so finding it on Sunday morning meant this was a sign... to make some buttermilk pancakes.

This is a recipe I followed from Joy of Baking. I usually prefer banana pancakes but having buttermilk at hand I decided to give buttermilk pancakes a try instead. The pancakes were moist and fluffy and had a slightly tangy taste of the buttermilk. You can easily substitute buttermilk with regular milk for regular pancakes and add fruits such as blueberries, slices bananas for an extra edge! Serve with a pat of butter and a drizzle of maple syrup... what else do you need other than perhaps a pot of coffee and your favorite newspaper to make for a perfect Sunday morning.

Recipe: Buttermilk pancakes

Makes about 10 small pancakes

Source: this Joy of Baking recipe

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:

1C AP flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:

1 large egg

1C buttermilk

2Tbsp sugar

2Tbsp canola oil

Recipe:

Mix all the dry ingredients and set aside
In a large bowl whisk the egg and buttermilk together. Add oil and sugar and whisk some more.
Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and and stir well. Do not overmix otherwise it will yield tougher pancakes.
Heat a non-stick gridle on medium heat (4 on a 1-10 scale gas burner).
When hot spread 1/4C batter on the griddle and let cook for a minute or so until small bubbles start to appear on the outer side.
Flip the pancake and let cook on another side for another minute or two. Keep pressing slightly with a flat end of a rubber spatula for even internal cooking.
Remove from heat. Serve with a pat of butter and glaze with maple syrup.

Batata rassa (Potatoes in curried gravy)

2010-10-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

People deal with stress in different ways. I have a few friends who splurge on chocolates or sweets when they are stressed, then there are others who go nuts for snacks and still a few others (and now the pie-chart is dwindling) who work-out a lot or take walks during lunch-time to beat the stress. I have never been a sweets person (note the 's' in sweets, less you would think I am not a sweet person :D) I rarely if ever crave anything sweet and I like dark chocolate but don't really crave it either. For me it has always been savory comfort food from my child-hood which acts as an instant stress-buster.

It is unfair how a few regional cuisines (like Maharashtra for example) are just so absent in the array of cuisines featured under the global "Indian cuisines" tag. Even in the heart of the bay area, there is hardly any restaurant which serves authentic Marathi food that I can turn to. Anyway, so as a result of a few stressful work weeks, I have been craving and cooking a lot more that usual Marathi food at home, which is why you would likely see a larger share of Marathi recipes on this space, just in case you were wondering :)

Today's recipe is batata rassa or curried potatoes. Batata =potatoes and rassa=gravy. The one unique touch that makes it Marathi for me is the addition of Goda masala. This is a spice blend common to Marathi cuisine made out of coriander, cumin, sesame seeds, coconut powder and a few other spices. I have never tried to make it at home but thats just because my Mom is really good about sending me a couple of packets of our favorite brand of goda masala every so often that I never seem to run out of it. If you can't find goda masala, feel free to substitute with garam masala; it would still be very tasty, but perhaps won't be equally reminiscent of those idle school nights sitting around the dining table savoring batata rassa with the freshest fulka and nothing else to worry about except perhaps a Biology homework so something silly like that.... whenever did life get so complicated ;)

Recipe: Batata rassa

Serves 6 (or 4 starving)

Ingredients:

1 medium onion - finely chopped

6-7 small garlic cloves - smashed

4 medium sized tomatoes - finely chopped

2 medium sized russet potatoes - cubed

3C water

1/4tsp red chili powder

1tsp kala masala/goda masala (or substitute with 1/2tsp garam masala)

1tsp coriander powder

1/2tsp mustard seeds

1/2tsp cumin seeds

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1Tbsp vegetable oil

chopped cilantro - to garnish

salt

Recipe:

Heat 1Tbsp oil in a pan. When the oil is hot temper with mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop, add cumin seeds.
Add chopped onions and saute until onions start to brown.
Add chopped garlic and saute for a minute until fragrant.
Add 2 of the 4 chopped tomatoes and saute until oil starts to separate.
Add turmeric powder and chopped potatoes. Saute for a couple of minutes.
Add 3C water (or more needed to make the desired gravy consistencies).
Season with salt and let the curry come to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer and cook covered for 15mins or so until potatoes are tender to your preference.
Add rest of the spices (coriander powder, goda masala, chili powder) and remaining 2 chopped tomatoes.
Stir well and turn the heat off.
Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with some hot chapati, naan or middle-eastern flat-breads.

Pumpkin dal

2010-10-24T15:59:00.000-07:00

I have always been the one (shamelessly so you might add!) who sneaks in a new untested recipe on unsuspecting guests. It always scares my Mom whenever I tell her I am 'experimenting' on a new recipe when there are guests in-house. But really, for me, trying out a new recipe is like a cook's reward, something that keeps me going. Sure, there have been a few mishaps and last minute runs to Safeway to activate backups, but more than often the new dish has been a great hit and has kept the fun going for me in entertaining!

So we had an unplanned visit from a few close friends last night. As luck would have it all I had on hand was pumpkins - two small sugar pie pumpkins which I had picked up on my morning TJ's visit. Together we brain-stormed a lot about what to cook and finally decided to be brave enough to make it a pumpkin night.. afterall isn't Halloween just around the corner! I made the traditional Marathi lal-bhoplyachi bhaji (red pumpkin sabji) with some left-over butternut squash soup from a day before. Our sweet ending was the pumpkin kheer which I was fairly confident would turn out well considering I had just made it the week before... and now my experimentation began! I have been itching to try my hands on this pumpkin dal recipe for quite some time now and what better company to try this on than a few unsuspecting close friends who are always game to be the perfect guinea-pigs :)

On a stormy cold evening we gathered together in the dining room overlooking the pouring rain with a scrumptious meal of rice, pumpkin dal and lemon pickle with a side of a bold merlot and needless to say the freshest batch of gossip and a whole lot of giggling over nothing!

Recipe: pumpkin dal

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 sugar pie pumpkin (roasted and mashed) OR 1C canned pumpkin puree

1C red masoor daal

4C water (more or less per the desired soupy consistency of the dal)

2 small red thai bird chilis

1 medium onion - finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic - smashed

1/2tsp mustard seeds

1/2tsp cumin seeds

3Tbsp vegetable oil

1tsp coriander powder

1/8tsp turmeric powder

salt

Recipe:

If using whole pumpkin, cut the pumpkin in half. Remove inner strings and seeds. Place the pumpkin halves on an aluminium foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Cover with another aluminium foil and roast for an hour and half in a pre-heated 375F oven. Remove from oven, let cool and using a fork take out the roasted pumpkin mass and smash using a potato masher to a thick consistency. 1 whole small sugar pie pumpkin will give you about 2C roasted pumpkin puree. This recipe uses half of that.
Heat 1/2Tbsp oil in a large pot.
Temper with 1/2tsp cumin seeds.
When cumin seeds start to sizzle, add chopped chilis and onion and saute until the onions start to brown.
Then add mashed pumpkin puree and saute for a minute or two.
Add cleaned and rinsed masoor dal, turmeric powder and water.
Bring to a boil. When dal starts to boil, reduce heat to simmer and simmer covered for 20-25 mins or until the lentils are well-cooked.
Remove from heat. Add coriander powder and salt to taste and set aside.
Heat a small tarka pan with 2.5Tbsp oil. When hot, add mustard seeds.
When the seeds start to pop add smashed garlic and cook on high heat for a minute or so taking care not to burn the garlic.
Remove from heat. Add the tarka to the daal just before serving.
Garnish with finely chopped cilantro and green onions. Serve with rice or chapatis.

Pumpkin kheer/pumpkin pudding

2010-10-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

Nothing screams fall like the rows and rows of neatly arranged pumpkins and squashes! The pumpkin display in front of our local Trader Joe's stores is so adorable that no visit to the groceries is complete for me now a days without picking up a new squash to try.

Last weekend I bought a small sugar pie pumpkin for a pumpkin pie. I halved the pumpkin and roasted it for an hour and half until sweet and moist. Just when I was mashing up the pumpkin I realized I had no eggs at hand. A last minute change of plans and some scavenger hunt later, I thought why not try some pumpkin kheer instead...

All I had was non-fat milk at hand but the kheer was still extremely creamy and wonderful tasting due to the freshly roasted and mashed pumpkins. Trust me, I am not a person with much sweet tooth, but this kheer was so simple and tasty that I gobbled half of it myself for dinner and next day breakfast!

Afterall it is the festivities and what better way to celebrate than some sweet pumpkin pudding. Happy Dasara to all!

Recipe: Pumpkin kheer

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 small pie pumpkin (or ~2C cooked, mashed canned pumpkin)

3C non-fat milk (can use 2% or whole milk)

1C water

5 pods cardamom (crushed)

1/8tsp nutmeg powder

1/2C sugar

1Tbsp ghee/butter

Recipe:

Cut the small pumpkin in half. Scoop out the inner strings and seeds.
Place the cut sides down on an aluminium foil lined baking sheet. Cover with another aluminium foil.
Roast in a pre-heated 375F oven for one and half hour or until the pumpkin is soft and fully cooked.
Remove from oven. Let cool.
Scoop out the inner roasted flesh (I got about 2C from a small pie pumpkin)
Heat 1Tbsp ghee/butter in a large pot.
When the butter is melted, add the pumpkin puree and cook for a couple of minutes.
Then slowly add milk and water, stirring constantly.
Add cardamom, nutmeg, sugar and mix well.
On a low heat, let the mixture come to a slight boil and continue cooking for half an hour stirring constantly.
Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste.
Serve warm or cold with garnish of toasted almond slices, saffron and raisins.

Roasted butternut squash soup

2010-10-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

Fall has finally arrived! Leaves are turning red, evenings are just a tiny bit chilly, Starbucks is serving its pumpkin latte and what all that means for me is one things.. time to make lots and lots of soups again!

I bought a butternut squash on sale at Trade Joe's. I was thinking of making the curried butternut squash soup I had made earlier but feeling a bit adventurous with extra extra pumpkin caffeine, this time I decided to try a long lost Cooking Light recipe that I vaguely remembered reading a few years back at a dentist's office (have you noticed how you never forget a recipe that you read at dentists's office, guess its the pain of whats coming ahead or something...)

The recipe is very simple. Original one called for chopping the squash into cubes and then cooking with stock and then slightly spicing it up with nutmeg. When it comes to butternut squash I always prefer roasting rather than chopping (the squash is way too tough to cut using any of the knives I have in my repertoire! Once its roasted though then its really easy to scoop up the cooked squash out.

This turned out to be a simple and yet extremely flavorful soup. Its best served on a cold night as an appetizer with some garlic bread (regular whole wheat or sourdough bread toasted with a bit of olive oil and then rubbed with some fresh garlic for a light garlicky flavor)

Recipe: Roasted butternut squash soup
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
6C water
1 large onion
1/2in piece of ginger
1/4tsp red chili powder (or less depending on the heat)
1/8tsp nutmeg
3 cardamom pods
s & p

Recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 375F
Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise (be very careful during cutting; butternut squash can be tough so be very careful that the knife doesn't slip during cutting)
Remove the seeds. Rub olive oil, salt & pepper on the squash halves and roast for 45mins.
Remove from the oven after 45mins and let cool.
Heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a large soup pot.
Add chopped onion and minced ginger and saute for a few minutes until onions start to tender.
Peel the butternut squash and roughly chop into small chunks.
Add the squash chunks and 6C water to the soup pot and bring the mixture to a boil. When it starts to boil reduce heat to simmer and simmer for 10-15mins uncovered.
Turn the heat off. When the soup cools down slightly, run it through a blender in two batches.
Add the blended soup back to the pot. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, chili powder, cardamom and mix.
Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste.
Serve with a crusty whole grain bread toasted and rubbed with garlic.

A Mexican fair.. tacos with sun sugar tomatoes and peach salsa

2010-10-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

What do you do when life showers you with cherry tomatoes? Experiment with different versions of salsas of-course!

Last spring a very dear friend of mine gifted us this tiny sun sugar tomato plant which to my utter amazement has grown over 5' tall (yes, thats 5 feet!) and is bearing fruits like crazy! When I planted it I expected a regular sized tomato plant only to realize within a month or so that the plant is growing frantically crazy. I had to quickly research my caging options. A trip to Home Depot later, I managed to cage the plant but two months later is looks like we should have bought the larger cage. Who knew a tomato plant could grow that tall!

A fun aspect of being a first-time gardener is you learn through mistakes. Now I know that there is something like an indeterminate tomato plant and the sun sugar variety falls into that - what it means is the plant will grow indeterminate only capped by the length of the season. In the world of indeterminate tomato plants, >5' tall plants are not that uncommon actually!

Sun sugar is a very sweet small tomato variety with a slight orangy flavor. Due to its sweetness and fruits tones its great for snacking as is or in salsas or salads. I made a roasted tomato pasta sauce, tossed it in salads here and there, snacked a lot on them and still the plant is laden with fruit! Got any cherry tomato recipes up your sleeve :)

Today's recipe is a simple peach and sweet tomato salsa. I made this quick throw together Mexican meal recently with a spicy black bean filling and a tangy tomatillo salsa (both recipes upcoming soon) and this slightly sweet, slightly sour salsa was perfect with the meal. If you don't have sun sugar tomatoes, feel free to use any cherry tomatoes.

Vegetarian tacos with sweet tomato and peach salsa

Recipe: Sun sugar tomatoes and peach salsa

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1C halved sun sugar tomatoes (or cherry/grape tomatoes)

1 peach - chopped into small pieces

juice of half lemon

zest of 1lemon

1 small red bird chili - deseeded and chopped into small pieces

1Tbsp chopped cilantro

salt & pepper

Recipe:

Mix all the salsa ingredients together. Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste. Make atleast an hour before serving for the flavors to mingle and develop.

Yes, I'm here...

2010-09-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

I know this space has been a bit quiet recently so I thought I'll stop by and say a quick hi.

Incidentally, this is my favorite time of the year! Summer is slowly turning into fall. There is a slight welcoming chill in the air (or may be that's because the summer never really came to the bay this year). I have been working a lot, weekdays and weekend, and cooking whenever I get a chance. Largely though I have been surviving on 20-min dinners and batch-cooked Sunday meals. I haven't been cooking anything fancy or new, just the everyday food that we somehow take for granted and never photograph :)

On the outdoorsy side, the garden is in full-bloom. My tomato plants are thriving; guavas are maturing, squirrels are devouring the figs and basil never looked any better. After a long struggles even the baby hummingbird who had nested nearby learnt to fly!

I know the recipes are missing recently but I am planning to be back very very soon. Yes, I promise :) Till then, leaving you with some of the garden macro shots that my husband recently took.

The garden weeds:

A photo journey through Seattle's Pike Place market

2010-08-15T10:28:00.000-07:00

This year summer never came to the bay. It rained a lot till April and somehow we slipped into a late-winter/fall like weather, skipping the summer entirely. Not that I am complaining. I am one of those people who are perfectly happy spending my weekends cuddled on sofa reading a good book with a cup of coffee instead of sun-bathing on beaches. This weekend we were in store for another such chilly trend. Having put off my plans of an outdoor lunch for a more warmer day, I was resigned to stare into the foggy day sitting on my porch and what better past-time to engage in than mind-lessly browsing through pictures of some old happy chilly days, spent with family, laughing and having fun. That was exactly our last Thanksgiving's Seattle trip!

Visiting Seattle's famous foodie-hangout Pike place market was definitely on top of my list. Seeing those old photos rekindled the memory of that market so much, that I thought I will share a small photo journey with you all.

Pike place market is an old marketplace founded in 1907 near the heart of downtown Seattle. It is a wonderful collection of shops overlooking the bay. It proudly boasts of an exhaustive fish market, a permanent farmers market and various specialty food stores. This market is also home to the original relocated Starbucks store (hence their house blend name 'Pike Place Roast'). Being a bay area resident I thought pike place in nutshell is a San Francisco fisherman's wharf on steroids :-)

We started off with a shop with the most unique dipping oils I have ever seen! It had varieties like this 18-year old aged balsamic, fig balsamic, roasted garlic-rosemary cabernet, truffle oil blends, sesame-ginger and many more! I so much enjoyed tasting these dipping oils with their crusty house-bread and an equally engaging chat with the hostess. After I long tasting deliberation I finally decided to go with the roasted garlic and rosemary cabernet.

Being a seafood fan I then proceeded to the seafood shops and what a variety! The shops and the folks at the pike place celebrate seafood in a most unique way! We saw a variety of fish, oysters, squids, seaweed, lobsters.. you name it! Then there is this unique "flying fish" shop where the tradition is to throw a fish (yes, heavier ones too) from one end of the shop to the other instead of passing it by hand.. here is how it goes: one server who places the order for a fish shouts the name of the fish that was just bought. All the other servers unitedly echo the name of the fish that they heard and then the server closest to that fish throws the fish in air and other server will have to catch it before the order is delivered. Needless to say heavier the fish more is the fun :-) Unfortunately I didn't get a good photo of this fish throwing ritual but there is one here.

The shops carried amazing fresh variety of seafood like colorful parrot fish or these lobster tails:

or this scary monkfish!

Even if you are not a seafood lover I am sure you will still find a lot of interesting unique shops to keep you entertained like this mushroom vendor carrying a cauliflower mushrooms (at $20/lb):

then there was this chocolate shop carrying the most unique chocolates from around the world including some unique mexican spicy varieties with chilis.. chilis and chocolate, now we are talking!

and a shop I spent a lot of time at with such unique pastas I could ever imagine:

and a varied jelly shop..

There is so much more to pike place than what I have described here. There is a shop with some very delicious chocolate covered cherries, then there are some ethnic clothes stores, an herb and spice shop, shop with the most unique salts that I have ever seen... the list goes on! Eventually I got tired of clicking photographs and just decided to enjoy the place :-) Pike place sure got me feeling like an Alice in Wonderland!

Poached fish tacos (with a vegetarian alternative)

2010-08-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

At our house we love our Mexican food. Of-course staying at San Diego for years didn't hurt either ;) If you visit San Diego, I definitely recommend visiting an area called Old Town which is famous for its spectacular Mexican restaurants and fresh produce and pottery markets. Whether you are in mood for some fine dining or merely a roadside devouring of tortilla wraps, Old Town is the place for you! For me the best part of Old Town are the fresh tortilla stalls. There are restaurants on the strip which have an extension overlooking the street where a lady makes fresh corn and flour tortillas. For about 50cents a piece you can enjoy a tortilla hot off the gridle lightly brushed with butter and seasoned with home-made hot salsa! Heaven wrapped in a foil indeed! The only thing is now you can't be skimpy about eating on the roadside ;)

Anyway, I digress. Looking at some of our old SD photos, I got nostalgic for some Mexican today. Fish tacos can be quite greasy with fried fish and a mayo leaden dressing so I tried poaching the fish instead and made a lemon-vinegar based coleslaw dressing. I must say I was impressed by the poaching technique! The fish cooks very quickly and absorbs all the deliciousness of the poaching liquid. To top it all its even an oil-free way to cook the fish. Overall, the fish tacos were absolutely delicious! The recipe is very adaptive so feel free to add your favorite Mexican condiments: spanish rice, tomato salsas, mango salsa, guacamole, sour cream.. all good :) Now really, if you needed a reason to make a margarita night, this is the one ;)

Fish tacos

Serves 3-4

Recipe: Coleslaw without the mayo

Ingredients:

1C finely shredded or chopped green cabbage

1/2C shredded carrot

1Tbsp chopped cilantro

lemon juice (few Tbsp - to taste)

olive oil (less than a tsp)

sugar (pinch)

1Tbsp sunflower seeds (for crunch)

pinch of dried oregano

salt to taste

Recipe:

Mix everything well. Taste and adjust the taste per seasonings.

Recipe: Black bean salsa

Ingredients:

1/2 lemon

1 15oz can black beans

2 ripe tomatoes

1/4 large red onion

1Tbsp chopped cilantro

1/2tsp cumin powder

pinch of dried oregano

pinch of crushed red chili flakes

salt

Recipe:

Finely chop the onion, tomatoes (remove the seeds if you wish), cilantro and mix everything well. Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste.

Recipe: Poached fish

Ingredients:

1 salmon fillet

1/2 lemon - cut into round slices

3-4 whole black peppers

2C water (water quantity depends on your pan's surface area and the size of fish - use enough to barely submerse the fish)

1tsp olive oil

s & p

Recipe:

In a wide bottom pan add enough water so the fish would barely submerge. Add few lemon slices; sprinkle some lemon juice; add a few whole black pepper and bring the water to barely boiling. Reduce heat to simmer. Add the fish fillet and cook covered for 5-10 mins until the fish is cooked through (when poked with a fork it falls apart easily). Remove from stove. Remove the fish from water. Using a fork shred it into smaller pieces. Add some olive oil, salt & pepper and set the shredded fish pieces aside.

Vegetarian alternative:

Lightly saute thinly sliced 1 green and 1 red bell pepper with 1 chopped onion and a few sliced mushrooms in 1Tbsp olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, crushed chili flakes and oregano (or your favorite Mexican spice blend). Cook for 5-10mins until the peppers are tender but not overcooked.

Assembly:

12 small corn tortillas

Freshly made salsa fresca or roasted tomato salsa

avocado pieces

sour cream

Mexican cheese blend (optional)

spanish rice

Assemble the tacos just before serving.

Zucchini soup

2010-08-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

My work weeks have been so hectic now-a-days that every Saturday morning's farmer's market has become sort of like an unwinding kick-start-into-the-weekend ritual. Sipping a hot cuppa coffee and idly strolling through the stalls overflowing with fresh produce, fruits and flowers is meditating and exactly what I need to melt away the stresses of the week to get into my lazy relaxing weekend mode! Have you seen how all the markets now a days are overflowing with summer squashes and zucchinis? I can never resist staring at those mounds and mounds of neatly arranged zucchinis and colorful squashes. This weekend I couldn't resist but buy a few fresh zucchinis, some leeks and a nice fresh celery.

Once I reached home I googled for zucchini recipes and finally settled on this zucchini soup from Kalyn. This soup had one more thing going for itself, it used rosemary; ever since I saw that bushel of rosemary growing in the backyard I have been itching to try it out in as many recipes as I can and this looked like a perfect one!

The soup turned out to be delicious. Zucchini and rosemary paired up really well! I did not blend the soup but instead crushed it using my potato masher. I like the bits and pieces of veggies floating in my soup :) Rosemary gave this soup a wonderful earthen woody flavor and lemon juice & zest gave it a wonderful lemony freshness. Definitely try this one before zucchinis go out of season.

Recipe: Serves 4

Source: Kalyn's kitchen

Ingredients:

1 leek (white and tender green parts only)

3 large cloves of garlic - smashed

5 sticks of celery

5 zucchinis - chopped into small pieces

5C water

1Tbsp freshly chopped rosemary (or 1tsp dried)

pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

olive oil

juice and zest of 1lemon

s & p

Recipe:

** I usually use water in my soups but feel free to substitute with vegetable broth or chicken broth. I find that sometimes broth overpowers delicate vegetable soups so I use water instead; but feel free to use your favorite broth.

** The key to any good soup is the simmering motion. Once the soup starts to boil, reduce heat as low as you can until its lightly bubbling. Boiling is usually a very vigorous motion for a soup and discouraged in general.

Chop the white and tender green parts of the leek and wash them well (dirt gets trapped inside the leek leaves so its usually better to chop the leeks first and then wash to remove all the trapped dirt).
Heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a large soup pot.
Add leeks and smashed garlic and sauté until the leeks are tender.
Add chopped celery and sauté some more.
Next add the zucchini pieces, chopped rosemary, 5C water and enough salt.
Stir well to combine and let the mixture come to a boil.
Reduce the heat to barely simmer and simmer covered for 30mins until the zucchini is super tender and falls apart easily.
Using a potato masher or an immersion blender, crush the soup slightly to desired final consistency. (I like my soup with lots of bits and pieces rather than a smooth puree; but if you like the puree run the soup through a regular blender).
Add lemon zest and juice. Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste.
Serve. Garnish with some more olive oil, red chili flakes, some chopped fresh zucchini pieces or some croûton.

Ridge-gourd with cauliflower sabji

2010-07-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

This was a last minute kitchen sink sabji experiment that turned out exceptionally well so I thought I'll quickly post about it. I had one sole ridge-gourd at hand. Now one is not enough to make a sabji for two so I kept it in the fridge hoping to use it next time with a sambhar or in some mixed vegetable concoction. Now a week later, the ridge-gourd was still sitting alone in the fridge so I finally decided to quickly make a kitchen sink sabji with it. I had some cauliflower at hand so thought of making a cauliflower potato sabji and adding ridge-gourd as an extra kick. A lone red bell pepper was threatening to go bad so I added that too at the end. Overall I wasn't expecting much but the sabji turned out to be really good!

Recipe: Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 long ridge gourd

1 small head of cauliflower - cut into small florets

2 small potatoes - cubes

1 onion - chopped fine

2 small green chilis - chopped fine

3 cloves of garlic - smashed

1 red bell pepper - chopped fine

1/4tsp mustard seeds

1/4tsp cumin seeds

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp garam masala

1/2tsp cumin powder

1tsp coriander powder

chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

1Tbsp vegetable oil

salt

Recipe:

Wash the ridge gourd and using a potato peeler peel the skin off. Cut the ridge gourd into two pieces and chop finely.
Heat oil in large non-stick pan. When hot, temper with mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
When the seeds start to pop, add green chilis and onions and saute until onions start to brown.
Add smashed garlic and turmeric powder and saute for a minute more.
Add chopped potatoes and cook uncovered for a few minutes.
Add the chopped ridge-gourd next and cook stirring occasionally for about 5-10mins until the ridge-gourd softens up and releases most of its water.
Follow up with cauliflower florets. Mix well and cook covered for 5minutes until the cauliflower has slightly softened.
Add the chopped red bell pepper.
Add cumin, coriander powder and garam masala. Season with salt. Mix well. Remove from heat.
Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro and serve with hot chapatis.

Carrot ginger and roasted leek soup

2010-07-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy recently.. well, more specifically, work has been crazy recently. If it felt like I have abandoned you all, that was because of the crazy work schedules for the past few weeks. I have even started batch cooking and freezing on Sundays. Always a sign of crazy times ahead. I don't know though, I have still quite not gotten used to the idea of eating defrosted food. I freeze ~4 different portion size dishes for two on Sundays and defrost a new dish everyday morning before leaving for work. The plan goes well for may be till Thursday; somehow by Thursday I always start feeling that I am eating stale food. May be its just a mental block; it is still freshly defrosted food, right! Do you eat frozen foods much? Do you feel the same way? What do you do to liven up defrosted food?

Anyway, so coming back to the point, last Thursday my mental block came back in full-swing and we finally decided to dinner out to this nearby salad & soup place where I had this absolutely awesome carrot, ginger and roasted leek soup. I ate bowls and bowls of it with their house bread and immediately tick-marked it to try at home for the weekend. So this is my take on this soup. It has a hearty sweet component from carrots and sugar; roasting brings out a wonderful slightly sweet smoky flavor of the leeks and the carrots; and ginger-cinnamon just give your throat that much needed warmth with every sip of this soup. Perfect soup for a tired evening! Well, if it would freeze well that is ;) Enjoy, and assuming things do not get over-powering again, I promise to be around more often now. Happy Sunday.

Recipe: Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 fresh carrots

1 large leek (can substitute with a red onion if leek is unavailable)

3 unpeeled cloves of garlic

1in piece of ginger

1tsp sugar

1tsp red wine vinegar (balsamic might be better - but i was out of it)

zest of 1 lemon

juice of half a lemon

pinch of crushed red chili flakes

just a dash of cinnamon (optional)

salt & pepper

Recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 450F.

Roughly chop the carrots and leek into finger-length pieces. Run the leek pieces through running water to clean all the dirt that gets trapped inside the leaves. Line a baking sheet with an aluminium foil (super easy to clean up later!). Add the carrot, leek pieces and unpeeled garlic cloves. Add some extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper. Mix well.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven. Peel the roasted garlic cloves. Mince the ginger root to get about 1Tbsp minced ginger. Add all the vegetables and 6C water with enough salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to barely simmer. Simmer covered for 30minutes.

Remove from heat. Let cool a bit. Then using an immersion blender or a regular blender, blend the soup into batches (be careful to cool the soup before blending and do not overload blender). Bring the blended soup back to the soup pot. Add cinnamon, chili flakes, sugar, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice and zest and stir well.

Taste! Adjust the salt-sweet-heat-sour components per taste. Serve fresh with some chopped herbs (mint/cilantro/parsley) with a dollop of yogurt if you like or an additional drizzle of olive oil. Serve with a nice toasted whole wheat bread or any crusty toasted bread which will soak up the soup well.

Black bean curry

2010-07-18T15:41:00.000-07:00

Of all the beans I got introduced to after moving to US (and wow, isn't there a variety!) black beans are the ones I got adapted to most easily. Black beans are sure an integral part of the Mexican cuisine but their hardy taste and pair-ability with many spices makes them an ideal bean to be experimenting with. In particular, over the years of cooking with black beans I have realized that black beans and dried oregano is a match made in heaven! I always keep a bottle of dried oregano in my pantry just for the black beans :)

This black bean curry was born out of necessity (don't they always say necessity is the mother of invention ;)). One day all I had was a can of black beans and a few tomatoes at home so I made a quick black bean saute with onions-garlic-tomatoes and it was a big hit with both of us. Over the years I have tuned this recipe in more ways than one. It still remains my go-to recipe when I have 20-mins or less to bring something to table. Incidently, believe it or not this curry pairs extremely well with Injeras! Marriage of two vastly differently cuisines indeed.. if ever you do have some extra injeras lying around, do make this curry with some misir wot and I guarantee it will be a meal you will remember ;)

Recipe: Serves 2/3

Ingredients:

1 15oz can black beans (or soaked and cooked)

1/2 large onion - finely chopped

2 small green chilis - finely sliced

2 large cloves of garlic - smashed

2 tomatoes - finely chopped

1/2 red bell pepper - finely chopped (optional)

water (1/2 to 1C - depending on how liquid you want the gravy to be)

1/4tsp cumin powder

pinch of dried oregano

cilantro for garnish

2tsp olive oil

Recipe:
*** The curry will still taste good if you skip the oregano; but do try it with oregano if you have some at hand. Oregano elevates this simple black bean curry to something very very delicious. Sprinkle with lemon juice at the end, if you do skip oregano.

Saute onions, red pepper (if using) and green chili in olive oil over medium heat.
When the onions are tender add garlic and saute a couple of minutes until aromatic.
Then add tomatoes and saute until tomatoes start to fall apart.
Add black beans and enough water to make the desired curry consistency.
Add cumin powder, oregano and salt.
Let simmer for 10mins or so until the gravy has thickened a bit.
Remove from heat; garnish with cilantro.
Serve with hot corn tortillas or some freshly made cilantro rice.

Tandoori chicken

2010-07-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

Summer is here and so are the outdoor grilling parties and picnics! Tandoori chicken is one of my go-to grilling dishes (not that I am any good with grilling, I rather prefer indoor roasting). It cooks up super fast with minimal preparation (except the ahead of time marinating) and the best part is, pretty much everyone (yes, even people who generally dislike spicy Indian food) end up loving this simple moist roasted chicken when served with some yogurt mint raita. And not to mention this dish is also very economical to feed a large party because this is one chicken dish where drumsticks and legs actually work better than costlier chicken breats portions. I always buy all-natural organic chicken and anyone who has seen the prices recently will attest when I say that buying organic chicken cutlets enough to feed 10-12 people will cause anyone to go broke ;)

Tandoori chicken is prepared by marinating chicken with yogurt and Indian spices and then roasting it in clay ovens for a moist and tender meat. Traditionally tandoori chicken is cooked in these large clay ovens called tandoors. Now-a-days having a tandoor is very very rare so an oven with a broiler or an outdoor grill are good alternatives. Yogurt is a natural meat tenderizer so marinating the meat with yogurt and spices is essential for a good tandoori chicken. More the marinating time, the tender and moist the chicken will be. I usually marinade for around 4-6 hrs. It is also said that cutting slits into the chicken pieces before marinating helps the inner parts to get tender and spicy.

After the chicken has marinated you can either grill it, bake it (like the recipe below) or do a broil-bake combination. All three work very well. I do not own a grill and ever since I moved into my new house which incidently is missing the broiler pan, baking has been my only option but feel free to experiment with other cooking techniques.

Recipe: Serves 2

Ingredients:

5 chicken drumsticks or leg pieces (skin ons are okay)

1C yogurt

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/2tsp red chili powder

1tsp cumin powder

1tsp garam masala

2tsp paprika (for color)

2tsp coriander powder

juice of half lemon

salt

1onion - sliced thinly lengthwise

2 small boiling potatoes - quartered

olive oil

Recipe:

*** The trick to getting the tandoori color is the addition of paprika. Traditionally you would add more chili pepper to get the color but unless you have a very mild variety of chili pepper, this will make the dish very spicy. I find that paprika is best in cases when you want the color without the heat.

*** Many people prefer to cook tandoori chicken on grill which I have heard gives excellent results. You can always cook this on grill if you wish.

*** If on 480F you still don't get browning as you wish, then broil the chicken for a few minutes.

Combine yogurt with rest of the spices and lemon juice. Do not add extra water. Mix well.
Clean wash and pat dry the chicken pieces. Using a knife make a few cuts on the pieces. Add the chicken pieces to the yogurt. Make sure yogurt fully covers the chicken pieces.
Cover the pot and marinate in fridge for ~4hrs.
After 4hrs, preheat the oven to 425F.
Cover a cookie sheet with an aluminium foil. Add onions and potatoes. Add some olive oil, salt & pepper and mix well.
Remove chicken pieces from fridge and add on the bed of onions and potatoes. Make sure the yogurt marinade still covers them well (shake off any extra marinade).
Drizzle more olive oil and salt & pepper on the chicken pieces.
Bake for ~30mins. Then increase the heat to 480F and bake for another ~20-25mins or so on upper third of the oven (one nearest the heat source) until the chicken pieces are well browned and the chicken is cooked through (use a meat thermometer or when pierced with a knife juices should run clear).
Remove from heat. Cover with another tin foil and let stand for 10mins before serving.
Serve with some pulav and cool yogurt mint raita.

Pav bhaji

2010-07-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

Pav bhaji (translates literally to fluffy Indian bread with a spicy vegetable concoction) is a very famous street food in India (or Pune/Mumbai to be more precise). Bhaji is a pan-fried vegetable concoction with tomatoes, peppers, cauliflowers, potatoes and of-course a special blend of pav-bhaji masalas which give it that tangy, spicy chaat-like flavor. Pav is an Indian version of a small fluffy bread which is served pan-fried with butter and spices.

On a typical pav bhaji platter, you get a few butter toasted pavs, a mound of spicy bhaji and a lot of condiments like chopped fresh onions, chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes, lemon wedges and of-course to finish off more butter :) Some people eat the pav-bhaji like they would eat roti and vegetables, mopping up the bhaji with slices of pav while others make a small sandwich for themselves by stuffing the bhaji and condiments in the slits between the paav. Either way anyone who has ever had this dish in India will vouch for the fact that its absolutely finger-lickingly delicious!

Till now I was making pav-bhaji bhaji like I would make any other street-food bhaji except with the addition of pav-bhaji masala. The taste was good, but never quite the right. While I was planning to make pav-bhaji for friends yesterday, I decided to Google the recipe first and came across Nupur's Pav-bhaji post. Just the sheer number of testimonials attached to that recipe convinced me that THIS was the one! I made a big batch for a few friends who were coming over last night; the bhaji was awesome! I was secretly hoping for some left-overs for today's duet brunch but alas the pot was wiped clean in the first half an hour :(

Recipe: Pav-bhaji serves 4

Source: One hot stove

Ingredients:

18 small ladli pav (available at Indian stores or regular white bread will be a good substitute too)

1 red bell pepper

2 large cloves of garlic

1/2in piece of ginger

4 tomatoes

3.5C small chopped cauliflower florets

2 large boiling potatoes

1C water

Spices:

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/2tsp red chili powder

1Tbsp paav bhaji masala (available at Indian stores - Everest or MDH brand spice blends are both good)

1.5tsp paprika (for the deep red color)

1Tbsp vegetable oil

1Tbsp butter

salt

Garnish:

1 very finely chopped onion

1/2C chopped cilantro

few lemons - cut into quarters

Recipe:

Roughly chop potatoes into medium sized pieces. Boil the cauliflower and potato pieces until knife tender (10-15mins). Remove from boiling water, set aside.
Meanwhile roughly chop the tomatoes and make a fine puree.
Heat oil in a large pan. Finely chop the red bell pepper and saute over medium heat.
Make a fine paste from the ginger and garlic and add the ginger-garlic paste to the pan. Saute for a few more minutes until the raw garlic smell is gone.
Add turmeric and chili powder, saute for a minute more.
Add boiled cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes, paav-bhaji masala and water. Mix well.
Continue to cook partially covered for 30minutes, stirring regularly and using a potato masher to blend the bhaji to a fine consistency.
Remove from heat. Add butter, mix well.
Serve with freshly chopped cilantro, fresh lemon juice and finely chopped onions.

Pav: Cut each pav into halves. Melt butter in a large gridle over medium high heat. Slightly toast the bread halves until crusty. Serve with hot bhaji with some extra lemon wedges, chopped cilantro and chopped onions.

A peek into the garden

2010-07-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

When we moved in about four months ago, three fourth of the yard was cemented and half of the remaining one fourth was occupied by a small lawn patch. The only open space to plant any new vegetables was around the perimeter of the yard. The perimeter was largely occupied with rose bushes with spaces in between. People who lived before us must have been rose lovers because at the last count we had 21 rose varieties! Yes, we have white roses, yellow roses, pink, red, crimson.. you name it and we probably have it. My husband is specially happy because now even if he forgets the anniversaries and the birthdays all he has got to do is run to the garden and pluck a few different roses :) The roses probably deserve a post for themselves, so this post I'll stick to the vegetables and fruits instead.

One of the first two plants that were our addition to the house were a fig tree and a lime tree. This mission fig tree is about eight to ten months old but is already bearing fruit that is very sweet!

(mission figs)

The tree is about say 4ft tall and yes, I am racing for the first fruits with the squirrels who seem to have an eye to feast on them :)

(fig tree)

The lime tree is a dwarf which is bearing fruit but has not grown a lot since we planted a few months ago. The fruits seem a bit immature and dry still but hopefully next summer I am looking forward to some homemade lime serbet!

(lime tree)

One of the sweet surprises I had after moving in was to discover this hugely grown rosemary bush and an adjacent thyme bush! I don't know how I missed this tree when we viewed the house the first time, but I was so glad when I first realized it was rosemary (and not a spring flower bush) that we were looking at!

(rosemary bush)

If you were wondering about the sudden abundant use of fresh thyme on this blog, then thank our previous home-owner for this wonderful thyme plant! Its just so much fun to go out in the garden and pick some fresh thyme to stir into pastas and sauces.

(thyme bush)

After a prolonged delay, last weekend I finally managed to plant some basil and cilantro seeds and look, the new seedlings are already coming up ready to say hello world!

(basil and cilantro saying hello world)

A new visitor just popped up within the last few weeks. We never planted mint but a few plants are showing up. Everyone is telling me to keep them contained as otherwise they might just take up the tiny basils and cilantro nearby!

(mint)

and what would a summer kitchen be without tomatoes, right? This is an early girl variety that I inherited at my work-place. The plant is bearing small green fruits and I can't wait for them to ripen up!

(early girl tomatoes)

Another tomato plant that was a house-warming gift from a very close friend is also doing wonderful! For a month old plant this has grown a lot and is now bearing close to 35 small tomatoes at the last count... needless to say my salsas are all most anxiously waiting for these fruits to mature :)

(tomatoes plant)

and last but certainly not the least is one of our most treasured but untested plant of the house.. this ten-some year old guava tree! Guava trees are rare in this climate so I am looking forward with a bit of anxiousness to see how sweet the fruit will be. The tree right now is budding with a LOT of small guavas and is attracting a variety of chirping birds! I am thinking guava paste, guava jams... any more tasty ideas?

Have a great 4th of July weekend, everyone! See you next time.

Moroccan couscous salad

2010-06-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Couscous is one of my favorite quick cooking grains. Its the perfect food to cook when you have had a long hard day and all you want to do is curl up in front of the television eating a big bowl of fresh homemade food but don't want to spend more than 10-15mins in the kitchen. Cooking couscous couldn't be easier. You boil one portion liquid (stock or water); turn the heat off; add equal portion couscous; stir; cover and let sit for 5minutes. After 5minutes, remove the cover, fluff up the couscous and that's it, its ready! How easy is that!

Couscous is a grain made out of semolina, rolled into really tiny small rounds. There is a whole-wheat variety of couscous that Trade Joe's carries which I particularly like. Like any pasta, couscous lends really well to many sauces, dressings and sides. I sometimes chop up whatever veggies are sitting in the fridge and then make an olive oil-lemon juice dressing for a quick couscous salad. On other days when I am craving something warm and comforty, I cook couscous like I would cook Bhagar (a Marathi fasting dish made from a grain called bhagar which is amazingly similar to couscous. The dish is made out of roasting and then quick cooking bhagar with roasted peanuts and a tadka of oil-cumin seeds eaten with some fresh yogurt. Cooking couscous like bhagar is in-fact one of my husnband's kitchen specialilties!).

Today I made a simple Moroccan couscous salad with some garbanzo beans, sun-dried tomatoes and raisins. Olives and preserved lemons would also be a great addition to this salad!

Recipe: Serves 4

Ingredients:

2C whole wheat couscous (or regular couscous)

2C + 1/4C water

1 red pepper - chopped finely

1/2 red onion - chopped finely

handful of cherry tomatoes - halved

4 sticks of celery - chopped

handful of fresh mint - chopped

handful of raisins

1 15oz can chickpeas/garbanzo beans - rinsed

2Tbsp chopped sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

1Tbsp finely chopped preserved lemons

For dressing:

4Tbsp lemon juice (I like this 1:1 olive oil lemon juice ratio; but feel free to adjust to suite your taste!)

4Tbsp olive oil

zest of one lemon

pinch of crushed red chili pepper (more or less to taste)

2tsp cumin powder

2tsp coriander powder

1 clove of garlic - minced

salt & freshly ground black pepper

Recipe:

Heat water in a pan.
When water starts to boil turn the heat off. Add 2C couscous, stir and let stand uncovered for 5mins (or follow the package instructions for cooking couscous).
After 5mins, the couscous would have absorbed all the water; fluff up the couscous using a large fork. Set aside.
Meanwhile mix all the dressing ingredients in a glass jar and shake well.
Mix the cooked couscous, dressing and rest all ingredients and let stand for half an hour or so for flavors to combine.
Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste (the salad tastes even better a few hours ahead).

Social matters:

Moving onto social matters, after a prolonged delay I have finally created a Facebook page for Ginger & Garlic! Yeaayy! When I post a new recipe, it gets updated on the Ginger & Garlic Facebook page; so if you are one of the millions of Facebook addicts like me, this might be a perfect way for us to stay in touch! Hop on by and say a Facebook hi if you are around Ginger & Garlic sometimes!

Fish curry with salmon

2010-06-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

I was raised a vegetarian. My father occasionally eats poultry and seafood but my mother is a strict vegetarian. Growing up meat dishes were never a part of our household meals. However when I left for college to a state halfway across India, my diet suddenly suffered due to the hostel (dorms, as they are called here) food. In our hostel vegetarian meal was included in the standard meal-plan while you had to pay a hefty extra amount to get non-vegetarian food served three times a week. Needless to say, extra costly non-vegetarian food was much nutritious and wholesome than the standard meal-plan included veg food (note that vegetarian food can be in-general completely nutritious; but the way it used to be prepared at our hostel made it especially unappetizing and thereby non-nourishing as we would mostly skip the meal and snack on chips to satisfy our hunger). Due to the heavy school-work and the unbalanced dorm diet, over the years I lost some weight and my health started to suffer. I still remember the day when the college doctor finally wrote me an Rx prescription which said 'eat non-veg food' :-) I suppose he was a bit too well aware of the state of default meal plan in school!

Anyway, with some encouragement from my dad I did follow the doctor's advise and signed up for the extra meal-plan and thats how I started eating non-veg :) Funny story but its true! Over the years I have come to love my chicken biryanis, tikka masalas and prawn currys. Now-a-days I mostly eat healthy and wholesome vegetarian food but once in a while do prepare a chicken or a seafood dish. One thing I love to date the most though is the fish curry! I don't really have a fish curry recipe. I either pan-fry the fish fillets and add them to the curry sauce or simmer the fish cubes in the sauce. Sometimes I add frozen coconut while at other times its just a simple tomato based sauce.

Everyone in India knows that when it comes to fish currys no-one can beat the Goan and the Bengali currys! So when I saw this fish curry recipe from Sayantani I instantly book-marked it. Today finally I got around to trying this curry and it turned out wonderful! I adapted some of the spices with what I had at hand and chose salmon as the main fish.

Recipe: Serves 4

Source: adapted from A Homemaker's Dairy

Ingredients:

2 medium size salmon fillets

2 small green chilis

1 large onion

4 cloves of garlic

1in piece of ginger

2 ripe tomatoes

2 small boiling potatoes

1.5Tbsp yogurt

2C water

1 lemon

1Tbsp canola/vegetable oil

salt

Spices

1/2tsp nigella seeds

1/2tsp mustard seeds

1/4tsp garam masala

1/4tsp chaat masala (optional)

1/2tsp turmeric powder

1/2tsp cumin powder

1tsp coriander powder

1tsp mild chili powder

1/2Tbsp paprika (for color)

Recipe:

Remove the skin from the salmon fillets and cut them into large cubes (about 10 cubes). Sprinkle juice of half lemon, 1/4tsp turmeric powder and salt. Set aside to marinade.
Meanwhile, coarsely chop onion, ginger and garlic and puree them in a food processor to make an onion paste. Chop the chilis and tomatoes finely. Slice the potatoes into thin round slices.
Heat oil in a large bottomed pan. When hot, temper with nigella seeds and mustard seeds.
Wait for the mustard seeds to pop and then add chilis and onion-ginger-garlic paste. Saute for a few minutes until the raw onion smell disappears.
Add the potatoes and cook for a few more minutes.
Next add all the dried spices and toast for a minute or two until aromatic.
Add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes start to fall apart (about 5mins)
Add 2C water little by little and let the mixture come to a boil.
Reduce heat to simmer and add beaten yogurt and mix well.
Add the fish pieces, enough salt and cook covered for 10-15mins until the fish is cooked through (salmon will turn pale white and will flake easily when poked with a fork).
Remove from heat and serve with freshly squeezed lemon juice and hot rice.

Recipe notes:

This recipe works best with a thick flesh fish - salmon, cod, halibut would all work well. Boneless, skinless fish would be ideal. When adding yogurt make sure that the heat is barely to simmer so the yogurt does not curdle.