Holy Cow! Vegan Recipe

Rhubarb Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:00:06 PDT

It's not a crime not to eat some rhubarb pie in spring but, honestly, it ought to be.

Rhubarb is one of the season's sweetest gifts. These crisp, tart stalks that look like ruby-red celery start appearing in the farmer's market in my suburban Washington neighborhood this time of year. They get snapped up in a hurry by eager bakers, but to the uninitiated they are a bit of a mystery. That's because rhubarb looks so much like a vegetable -- it is in fact a vegetable-- and is so lip-puckering sour that someone who's never tried it before can't help but wonder how it would fit in with sweets, where it is most often used.

Well, I have an easy solution to make you a believer: put some rhubarb where your mouth is.

But first, bake it into a pie, like this one I have for you today.

Something magical happens to rhubarb when it is subjected to a high temperature in an oven: it melts into that warm, gooey goodness you have craved all through the cold days of winter. Mix some sugar and some spice into that goodness, and you have a food you will likely get addicted to.

My rhubarb pie is very basic: the way I like it best. I just toss the sliced rhubarb with some sugar and vanilla (the sweetness of the vanilla is a perfect complement to the sour rhubarb. Nutmeg would be nice too). And then I bake it up in a classic pie shell with a lattice top crust that bakes up all flaky and crisp.

Be sure to let your pie cool thoroughly before you cut it-- a rule of thumb for almost any fruit pie. This is because the fruit juices continue to thicken and gelatanize as the pie cools down, and if you cut the pie when it's still warm you will likely find your plate flooded with still-runny liquid. Not a great pie experience, by any means.

I've been super busy at work, which you've likely guessed from my slow pace on this blog. I'm trying to cook more on the weekends so I can share more recipes with you, and I also hope to take advantage of this harried lifestyle to bring you more quick and easy recipes you can make on weeknights for your family.

So keep an eye out. I'm still around.

Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:

For the pie shell:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

8 tbsp vegetable shortening, cold and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

8 tbsp vegan butter sticks, like Earth Balance, cold and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1/4 cup powdered or confectioner's sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Ice-cold water

For the filling:

5 cups thinly sliced rhubarb (slice lengthwise, into little rounds. I needed 5 longish stalks of rhubarb for 5 cups)

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups turbinado sugar

1/4 cup tapioca starch

To make the pie crust, place all the ingredients except water in a mixing bowl. Using a fork or a pie-cutter, cut the butter and shortening into the flour. You should have a coarse mixture with fairly large-- about pea-size-- pieces of butter and shortening in it.

Drizzle the water a little at a time into the flour and mix rapidly with a fork until the dough comes together. Be sure to keep all your ingredients as cold as possible.

Divide the dough into half and wrap each half tightly in plastic wrap. Shape each half into a disc with the palms of your hands as you wrap it. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to 2 hours.

To make the filling, place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Set aside for at least 15 minutes.

To roll out the pie crust, take one of the discs of dough from the refrigerator and roll into a disc large enough to fit into a 9-inch pie plate with some overhang.

Fit the dough into the pie plate, pressing the dough into the corners, and place in the refrigerator while you roll out the top crust.

Roll the other disc of dough into a circle that will fit on top of the pie plate with a slight overhang. Using a pizza cutter or a knife, cut the circle into long strips.

Pour the filling into the bottom crust, mixing one last time before you pour it in.

To form the lattice, place half the strips across the pie, at roughly 3/4th-inch intervals. Fold back alternate strips and place a strip across those already in place. Unfold the alternate strips, fold back the remaining strips, and place another strip across the pie. Continue doing this until you've used up all the strips of dough.

Place the pie in a preheated 425-degree oven and bake 30 minutes. Then slide a baking sheet under the pie and continue baking for another 35 minutes or until the juices are bubbling through the lattice top.

Remove to a rack and cool the pie thoroughly before eating. This takes some time-- about 4-5 hours-- so be sure to plan accordingly and avoid the temptation to cut the pie before it has cooled.

Enjoy!
**
Craving more pie? Check out this Apple Tart that truly makes spring the best time of year. Or try one of the many other pies and tarts I've shared with you over the years on Holy Cow!
**

Frankie the cat appeared on our street last summer, a wide-eyed kitten who likes to hang out with her mom, Georgia. On warm days, she likes taking a drink out of the bird dish. Athough I always leave out a bowl of water for the cats, maybe the smells all those cardinals and finches leave behind just makes the bird dish more irresistible?

Frankie is semi-feral: she resists domestication, but she is friendly enough that she will approach those of us who feed her and even rub herself against our legs. My neighbor, Heather, has built her and her mom a little home on her porch, and we had both cats spayed to prevent more homeless little kitties. Frankie and Georgia now have the best of both worlds-- or so they think. By daytime they hang around in our or one of our neighbors' front yards, and by night they snuggle on Heather's porch. They always put a smile on our faces.

Vegetarianism: A New Tool for India's Radicals?

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:15:44 PDT

Food is almost always a politically fraught topic, but in India of late that politics is beginning to assume some truly distasteful flavors.

I ran into this blog post in the London Independent today about a Dalit fest at an Indian university celebrating beef as a way to assert "their culinary rights in public". This is because Dalits, as lower caste Indians are collectively called, have traditionally eaten meat unlike the upper castes, or Brahmins, who were usually vegetarian. I used the past tense there because that is not necessarily true in these changing times when a number of young people from Brahmin families, dazzled by westernization and the influx of international food chains like McDonald's, do eat meats like chicken and mutton outside their homes. Many, though, would probably still not eat beef because their religion deems the cow sacred.

The beef festival, I gather, was meant as a way for the Dalits to assert their right to eat what they want, even the holy cow (although it's usually buffalo meat that's sold as beef in India), without fear of suppression and objection by the upper castes.

While the idea of killing innocent animals -- cows or buffaloes-- as a political statement sounded tragic enough to this Indian vegan, here's what was more shocking: according to the blogger who wrote this post, a group of right-wing Hindu radicals disrupted the festival, threatening some of the women participating in the festival with acid attacks and gang rape.

When did vegetarianism in India turn into a preserve of the radicals?

Granted, vegetarianism has always been a political tool in India used tacitly by the Brahmins to assert their superiority, but it was also a very natural part of the Indian tradition. I grew up in a family staunchly divided into veggies and non-veggies: those of us who ate meat and fish, and those of us who wouldn't want to eat off a clean plate if someone else had, even years ago, served meat on it.

This is perhaps the only country in the world where you can find as many vegetarian restaurants as ones that serve meat. Where no one will raise an eyebrow if you tell them you are a vegetarian or badger you with questions about your health, or gush, how do you ever do it? After all, we've been doing it for centuries.

But there has always been one deep flaw in India's vegetarian tradition: it is strongly religion-based. While some Indians might argue that religion and ethics go hand in hand, it is a tough argument to buy when you find so many Indians today discarding their families' vegetarian traditions because of the easy availability of meat. In fact, for these individuals meat seems to have the allure of the forbidden fruit: something that definitely does not go with an ethical understanding of vegetarianism.

Indian vegetarians' arguments about not wanting to hurt animals also does not gel with the fact that India's animals, including the millions of stray dogs, cats, cows and other animals that dot its landscapes, are horrendously treated by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Also one look at India's sickening dairy farms, where cows are treated just as terribly as they are on any crowded dairy feedlot in the United States, puts to rest any illusions about Indian vegetarians' love for the cow because all this abuse does not stop them from guzzling milk, curd and ghee by the gallon.

Today, the tacit discrimination against those who eat meat is becoming disturbingly overt, not because the Hindu radicals objecting to the meat-eating have any empathy for animals or, for that matter, for other humans, but because it is a way to put certain groups "in their place." The Dalit fest was a reaction to exactly this kind of discrimination, although in my opinion they should have chosen an avenue of protest that did not involve hurting sentient creatures.

Just weeks ago, I read a story about vegetarian-only apartment buildings and blocks becoming all the rage in some Indian cities. While many vegetarians would innocently assume that this is a good thing (and it would be so if the only motivation was not hurting animals), the true reason is a desire to create enclaves meant for certain castes that have traditionally not eaten meat: the Brahmins, of course. Hindus not wanting to buy homes next door to people of other religions, even in a cosmopolitan city like Bombay, is by no means a new development-- it happened even 15 years ago, when I still lived in India. But what is disturbing is that it has become more mainstream and widely accepted now.

Not long ago, I wrote on my other blog about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a group of Hindu radicals responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, announcing that they would no longer use leather belts for members' uniforms. While dropping leather would have been a good thing in itself, it was a decision motivated no doubt by the fact that Muslims dominate India's leather industry.

As an ethical vegan, I am all for stopping the use of leather and in my ideal world no one would ever hurt an animal for any reason whatsoever. But in my ideal world -- and, I daresay, in the real world-- people arrive at vegetarianism not because they are forced to and threatened by radical groups. Or because religion tells them it's the right thing to do (although one could argue it helps).

Vegetarianism should always be a conclusion individuals reach because they understand what is wrong with the use of animals for food: the terrible conditions that animals raised for food live in, the horrible deaths they die, and the needlessness of using animal skin or fur for comfort when there are better synthetic alternatives available.

On a more intellectual level, a vegan, plant-based diet free of all animal products is also the healthiest one and can guarantee protection against a slate of lifestyle diseases, including some types of cancer, diabetes, and obesity.

The Hindu radicals who are using vegetarianism as a political tool have just one goal: dividing and ruling an India where rapid shifts in society and the economy over the past two decades have left many floundering to find their identity. Those who seek to fight their oppression couldn't do worse than assert themselves by promoting violence against animals. And those who support vegetarianism couldn't do worse than aligning themselves with groups that have nobody's interests at heart, human or animal.

Sweet Potato and Vaal Dal Curry

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:21:43 PDT

I am dropping out of oblivion for a quick moment to share an easy and delicious weeknight recipe: Sweet Potato and Vaal Dal Curry.

Vaal is a beloved legume on India's west coast. A small bean that's more round than oval, it has a hard beige coat that is pretty much inedible, unlike the coats of most common beans and legumes. But inside this tough coat sits a soft, creamy core. Peeled val cooks up quickly and easily into a pleasant, buttery, very slightly bitter flavor that's absolutely addictive.

Vaal is easily found at Indian stores here in the United States and you can usually buy the whole vaal, skin and all, or just the "dal": the split legume with the outer coat removed. I like keeping both on hand. The whole vaal, when you have the time to sprout it and then peel the coat off (yes, you have to do it one bean at a time), is gorgeous in dishes like Nupur's Dalimbay Bhaat, a recipe I make over and over again. The dal is a harried cook's best friend because it cooks up in a jiffy-- quicker than most lentils, in fact. I use it to make weeknight recipes like this one I have for you today.

I thought it would be a good idea to combine sweet potatoes and vaal because of the complementary flavors: sweet and bitter. To the dal I also added some fiery, grated ginger and a few splashes of lemon juice. All those flavors worked together really well.

Gotta run now, but here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Creamy Sweet Potato and Vaal Dal Curry

Ingredients:

1 cup vaal dal

2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into a 1/4-inch dice

1 medium onion, diced

1 1-inch knob of ginger, grated

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 heaping tbsp sambar powder (use garam masala if you have that instead, for a slightly different but still yummy variation)

1 tsp canola or any vegetable oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

1/4 cup chopped coriander

Juice of 1 lemon

Cook the vaal dal in a pressure cooker or on the stovetop in a saucepan. To cook in a saucepan, cover the dal with 1 inch of water, bring to a boil, turn the heat to a simmer, slap on a lid, and cook about 20-30 minutes until the dal is very tender. Add more water if the dal starts to get too dry.

Heat the oil in another saucepan. Add the mustad seeds and when they sputter, add the curry leaves, ginger and garlic.

Stir fry for half a minute or until the garlic becomes lightly blond. Add the sweet potatoes and the sambar powder and stir well to coat the sweet potato with the spices. Cook, stirring, another five minutes or until the sweet potatoes start to soften.

Add the cooked vaal dal and mix well. Bring the curry to a boil, lower the heat, put on a lid, and let the dal simmer away another 10 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are completely tender. Add water if the dal gets too dry. Vaal dal will turn really soft and break up when it's well-cooked, which is great because that's what gives this curry its really creamy consistency without any cream.

Add salt to taste and mix in the coriander. Turn off the heat and add the lemon juice.

Serve hot with some rice or rotis.
**

If you'd like to get a box of homebaked goodies from Holy Cow! in your mailbox, head on over to Richa's blog to bid for it. Richa is raising funds for VSPCA, an organization that's hard at work in India to make this world a better place for animals and other creatures. What's really cool about this group is that it not only works on animal welfare issues, but it also provides vegan meals for the disadvantaged, including seniors and children. I can only ship within the U.S., but Richa has more goodies you can bid on if you happen to be outside the country.

Good luck!

Mirch Ka Saalan With Peshawari Naan

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:18:49 PDT

I am not a Bolly-watcher, by any means. I am not hungry for the latest news on whichever middle-aged "hero" and painfully young "heroine" is dominating India's movie industry. I couldn't care less who's going out with whom. And I don't remember the last time I watched a Hindi movie I could half like (trust me, I've tried for nostalgia's sake).

But our times make it hard to dodge information, even when it is information we'd rather not have. Recently, I started to see a common thread in messages posted on Facebook and on some Indian news websites: apparently, a number of top Indian actresses are gaining weight. And not losing it, or at least not losing it as fast as their fans want them to.

Aishwarya Rai, Lara Dutta, Vidya Balan, Kareena Kapoor... the reports listed the who's who of India's filmdom. And as much as I didn't want to, I had to take notice: after all, weight is a loaded topic in our culture and one that always evokes a visceral reaction. What really struck me was how vicious some of these reports were in a country where a little flab around the middle was once considered a welcome sign of prosperity. In fact, all the way through the 1990s and early 2000s, actresses like Sridevi, Rekha, Juhi Chawla and Madhuri Dixit made curves fashionable and beautiful.

I understand the value of fitness and I am not championing obesity. It is true that carrying too much weight can be an indicator of health problems as well as lead to a whole slew of diseases. And it is also true that countries like India are getting fatter faster than ever before and rates of diabetes and heart disease are rising correspondingly.

But none of these actresses who are being reviled for gaining weight are obese-- not even remotely. They look like most women do and they still look perfectly beautiful. A couple of them gained a few pounds during pregnancies. One said she was in a happy relationship. It didn't sound like they were at all obsessing with their weight; on the contrary, they sounded blissfully happy. It was just everyone else that was outraged.

Now I am not going to go where others would after this rant and beat up on the media because, let's face it, the media today has been reduced to a barometer of what's trending on Google and Yahoo news. And to a large extent these actresses and the industry they work in are to blame for setting these impossible standards in the first place that they themselves are now not living up to.

Even so, I think it's refreshing to see that these actresses are, for a change, not obsessing with their weight -- even if it is a temporary phase-- because they are riding another high: the high of life. It offers us a welcome respite from that impossible obsession with impossibly thin, and reminds us that there's something more important in life than being a size zero:

Being completely, and perfectly, and incandescently happy.

***

Now here's a recipe that's going to make you decadently happy without adding inches to your waistline: my Mirch ka Saalan with a whole-wheat Peshawari Naan.

Mirch ka Saalan is a popular dish from the city of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, a south Indian state known for its spicy foods. The name translates approximately to a sauce of chilies, and if that makes your jaw drop and your mouth run dry with fear, pour yourself a glass of water and hear me out.

The sauce here is made of "sweet ingredients" like coconuts and peanuts and sesame seeds and they add a rich nuttiness that becomes a perfect base for the chilies. In India, the chillies used are long, skinny, hot green peppers, but because neither you (I presume) nor I could deal with that much excitement, I used a mix of green bell peppers and poblano peppers which both add great flavor without adding incredible heat. If you are braver, feel free to substitute the poblanos with a spicier chili like jalapeno or even serrano.

To scoop up the spicy-sweet sauce I made a whole-wheat Peshawari Naan. A Peshawari Naan is a puffy flatbread that traces its origins into Pakistan and north India. It's a little more special than your average, everyday naan because it is studded with nuts and dry fruits, making it the perfect complement to the spicy saalan.

I made the naan half whole-wheat-- I have an all-whole-wheat naan on this blog that I posted a while back, but I find that using part whole-wheat and part white flour gives a more authentic texture and look while still being healthy.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Mirch ka Saalan

Ingredients:

1 very large green bell pepper or 2 small ones, deseeded and cut into long strips

2 large poblano peppers (substitute with a hotter chili if you want to), deseeded and cut into long strips

1 large onion, sliced thinly

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup peanuts

2 tbsp sesame seeds

4 green cardamom pods

4 cloves

1 1-inch piece of cinnamon

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

10-12 curry leaves

1/2-inch ball of tamarind

1 1/2 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

Heat 1/2 tsp of oil in a saucepan and add the peanuts and sesame seeds. Toast them until they just begin to change color, remove to a plate to cool, and add the coconut to the saucepan.

Roast the coconut until it turns very lightly golden. Coconut burns very fast, so don't walk away from it and stir constantly.

Place the sesame seeds, peanuts and coconut in a blender along with the tamarind (make sure there are no seeds) and process with some water to a very smooth paste.

Heat the remaining oil. Add the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and saute until they just start to brown and become fragrant. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and when they sputter, add the onions.

Saute the onions for a few minutes or until they start to brown at the edges. Then add the sliced peppers and stir fry until they start to brown slightly.

Add the turmeric, chili powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and stir until they are evenly distributed and roasted, about a minute or two.

Add the peanut-coconut-sesame paste and mix it well. Add some water if the sauce is too thick. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the peppers are tender but still have a bite to them.

Stir in the lemon juice, garnish with coriander, and serve hot with the Peshawari Naan (recipe follows).

Peshawari Naan

(Makes four naans)

Ingredients:

1 cups whole-wheat flour

1 cup bread flour

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup soymilk or other nondairy milk

Water as needed

1/2 cup finely chopped dry fruits and nuts (I used apricots and cashews but you could use pistachios, walnuts, raisins, figs...take your pick.)

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a regular bowl, place all the ingredients and knead, using as much water as needed to make a soft, smooth dough.

Continue kneading for about 10 minutes on low speed if using a stand mixer, or a little longer if doing this by hand.

Place in an oiled bowl, turning once to make sure the dough is coated in oil. Cover with a cloth napkin and set aside in a warm place to rise for about 2 hours. (In winter, I leave the bowl in my unheated oven with the light on)

After 2 hours, punch down the dough and divide into four pieces. Let the dough rest for another 10 minutes, covered.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees and place a baking stone or unglazed tiles on the middle rack.

Place a bowl of water next to you, and place a ball of dough on a lightly floured surface.

Dip your fingers into the bowl of water and press into the dough with all fingers, making little bumps and indentations on the surface even as you stretch and shape it. I shaped my naans into rounds this time, but you could shape them into the more traditional teardrops or just about any shape you wish.

Sprinkle the surface with a fourth of your nuts and dry fruits and press them in so they sink into the surface.

Carefully, taking care not to burn your fingers, place the naan directly on the hot baking stone. Place as many of the naans as you can on the stone, taking care that you leave at least an inch of space between them. They should not overlap.

Bake about 6-7 minutes or until the naans are all puffy and the top and bottom are a pale gold-brown.

Remove with tongs and serve hot.

Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:58:54 PDT

This sun-kissed Maple Oatmeal Bread is so light and fluffy, you might have to fight an urge to cuddle it when it comes out of the oven. Or to gobble it all down in one sitting.

I made this bread this past weekend and of all the breads I've shared with you on Holy Cow! this has to be one of my favorites. It's part-whole-wheat, which makes it healthy, and it's a fairly dense sandwich-type bread which makes it easy to slice and then slather that peanut butter on (and you can hold the jelly). If you have kids, they will love this one.

Before I dive into the recipe, I want to talk a little bit about the messages you send me. I love getting them and they almost always put a smile on my face. When you have a question I am more than happy to answer it. But please bear in mind that if you send me an email with an urgent question when you are smack-dab in the midst of making a recipe, there is a good chance that I may not see your email and answer it before it's too late for you and for the recipe.

I wanted to bring this up because over the years I've often opened my inbox in the mornings or late at night and found these urgent messages waiting for me. But here's the thing: I am not glued to my email and the blog all day. I have a career and a family and this blog is strictly a hobby that I try and make time for in my busy day. As much as I'd love to help you out I may not be able to in time.

That said, here are a few simple things to keep in mind when trying out any new recipe:

1. Always adjust the spice to your taste. What may be near-bland to an Indian palate could be super-hot for someone not used to eating chillies in every meal. So if, for instance, a recipe calls for four red chillies, and you are someone who isn't used to spice, cut it down to one or two.

2. If you are a new baker, don't tweak a recipe before you've mastered it. Yes, I understand you are an independent soul who would like to put your mark on everything you cook up, but if you want that bread or cake to end up at the dinner table and not in the trash do try and follow a recipe thoroughly. Once you are a seasoned baker, you can definitely do all the tweaking you want-- and that day will come, believe me.

3. If you adjust proportions, make sure you adjust all of them. Don't for instance, halve the amount of bread flour and forget to halve the amount of water or soymilk or yeast. Get the idea?

4. Measure ingredients while cooking, especially if you are a new cook. Yes, Rachel Ray looks enviably confident eyeballing a tablespoon of EVOO straight from the bottle into the pan but some of us who are still learning all this cooking stuff need those measuring spoons and cups. This is especially true when you're dealing with spices because trust me, one teaspoon of turmeric in your curry instead of half would not be a good thing.

5. Taste the recipe as you go. This is a great rule of thumb for any cook. Tasting your food at different stages gives you an understanding of what the various ingredients contribute, and how textures and flavors change as they cook. Over time, you will master the alchemy of throwing ingredients together to create a whole new dish.

Then there are times when you might just want to use good old commonsense. Like if you baked up a bread and realized you had forgotten to remove the plastic wrap covering the loaf before you put it in the oven, there really is no way you can save it. Even if you spent a whole day making it, and it breaks your heart.

If you were wondering, yes, I really did get that question.

***

Whole-Wheat Maple Oatmeal Bread

(Based loosely on this recipe)

(Makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast mixed with 1/2 cup warm water and set aside for five minutes.

2 cups whole-wheat durum flour (can substitute regular whole-wheat flour)

2 cups bread flour

1 cup rolled oats

2 tbsp pure maple syrup

1/2 cup turbinado or brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil or other vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups hot water

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Mix the oats, maple syrup, sugar, oil, cinnamon, salt and water in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer and let it sit for about 10 minutes or until it's lukewarm

Add the yeast and water mixture and the flour and knead into a smooth dough by hand for about 10 minutes, or 7 minutes in the stand mixer. If the dough is too loose, add a little more flour.

Place the dough in a large, oiled bowl, turning over once to coat the top with oil. Cover the top of the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm spot for about an hour to 90 minutes or until the dough has doubled.

Divide the dough into two and shape each half into an oval, tucking the seams underneath. Place each half in greased, standard-sized loaf pans (around 9 X 5 inches, although a slight variation in sizes doesn't really matter).

Cover loosely with a kitchen napkin or oiled plastic wrap and let the loaves rise for 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees about half an hour before baking. Place the loaves in the oven and bake for 33 minutes until the tops are golden-brown.

Remove to a rack, cool for 15 minutes, then unmold the breads. If they stick a bit, run a knife along the sides of the loaf to dislodge it from the pan.

Cool thoroughly before slicing.

Brown Rice Uthappam With Sundried Tomato Chutney

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:20:36 PDT

A reader requested a recipe for uthappam and this past weekend I decided to do one better: I tried out a healthier version of this already waist-friendly snack. A Brown Rice Uthappam.

If you've never run into an uthappam before, think of it as a chubby, onion-flecked dosa crossed with an idly. The basic ingredients in all three recipes are the same-- rice and udad dal-- but the technique makes a world of difference to their final textures and even flavor. While a dosa is spread out into a thin crepe on the griddle using the back of a rounded ladle and an idly is steamed, the batter for an uthappam is poured on much as you would pour on a pancake batter and then left alone. The hot griddle browns the outside and steams the inside and what you end up with is a pancake that has a pleasantly chewy mouth feel.

Best of all, you can sprinkle all sorts of veggies and herbs on the uthappam as it's cooking, the most popular choice being onions and coriander leaves. The veggies sink cozily into the batter and cook up into a deliciously toothy texture.

I don't make uthappam very often because Desi loves his dosas crepey (I even make my Adais -- another kind of thick dosa-- paper-thin). But the brown rice was definitely an incentive for him because he's a bigger health nut than I am, and so was the Sundried Tomato Chutney I served up alongside. I also varied the thickness of the uthappams by making a few of them traditionally fat and then spreading a few others more thinly, as you can see in the picture above.

For my Brown Rice Uthappam I made parboiled brown rice exactly as I did when I created my Brown Rice Dosas. It is a technique that works like a charm and cuts down soaking time by several hours.

An Uthappam batter typically contains udad dal, or black gram dal, but I also added a couple of tablespoons of tuvar dal to my recipe although this is not a traditional ingredient. That's because even as I was soaking the dal I could hear in my head the voice of my sister-in-law Lalitha Manni, a fabulous cook, reminding me that tuvar dal adds crispness to any kind of dosa. So in it went.

She was right. My Uthappams had a lovely golden finish and crispy edges that were a delicious complement to the chewy middle.

I came up with the Sundried Tomato Chutney out of necessity-- I didn't have any coriander on hand for my chutney. And although I knew I was on to something good I had no idea how good it was until I tasted it. Although sundried tomatoes are not by any means an ingredient used in Indian cooking, their rich, deep, tangy flavor complemented the sweetness of the coconut and the spice of the garlic and chilies just beautifully. This one's a keeper.

Brown Rice Uthappam

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice. Cover with an inch of water in a microwave-safe bowl and zap for five minutes. Let the rice and water stand for another 30 minutes.

1/2 cup udad dal (black gram dal)

2 tbsp tuvar dal (pigeon peas)

2 dry red chillies

Salt to taste

1 onion, finely minced (you can also add tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, or green chillies-- any vegetable that would taste good when steamed lightly would work fine here).

2 tbsp chopped curry leaves or coriander leaves or both

Mix the parboiled brown rice and the two dals, cover with at least 2 inches of water, and let them soak for 5-6 hours.

Drain the soaked dals and rice and place in a blender along with the remaining ingredients. Add water and blend into a smooth batter that should be about the consistency of a pancake batter.

Heat a cast-iron or nonstick griddle on a medium flame until a drop of water flicked on the surface skitters and evaporates.

Pour about 1/2 cup of the uthappam batter in the center and, if needed, coax a little with the ladle to form a circle about 5-6 inches in diameter. You can make your uthappam thicker if you like. Either use more batter or shape it into a smaller circle.

Sprinkle on some of the chopped onions and any other veggies or herbs you're using.

Drizzle a few drops of oil along the edges of the uthappam. This makes for a crisper edge and also makes it easier to flip the uthappam.

Place a lid on top of the pan and let the uthappam cook about two minutes. It is important to cover the pan because if you don't you might end up with semi-cooked batter on the inside and that wouldn't taste any good. You want the uthappam to steam thoroughly on the inside.

Flip the uthappam once it is golden brown on the bottom and cook for about a minute more.

Serve hot with some Sundried Tomato Chutney (recipe follows) or with a traditional coriander-coconut chutney.

Sundried Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

6 sundried tomatoes (I used ones that are packed in olive oil and they are really moist. If you are using dry sundried tomatoes, soak them in a little water for at least half an hour to soften them)

1 large clove of garlic, chopped

2 green chilies (adjust to your taste)

Salt to taste

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend into a smooth paste. Serve with the Brown Rice Uthappam.

Tofu 'Shrimp' Curry And Dill Rice

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 06:55:15 PDT

Years ago I came across this delicious curry and rice combination on an old episode of Julia Child's Cooking with Master Chefs series. Child, the grand dame of American cooking, was hosting Madhur Jaffrey-- a chef who, I think, can easily be described as the grand dame of Indian cooking, at least in the western world.

In the episode, Jaffrey cooked a south Indian shrimp curry and dill rice. The spices, herbs, and flavors she added sounded perfectly harmonious yet vibrantly explosive. I just had to try a vegan version.

I changed up the recipe for the curry quite a bit to make it healthier and leaner, but Jaffrey deserves the credit because had she not made this curry, I never would have created mine. I used a few Mexican peppers to add fire and smoke to my recipe, including two anchos and a couple of arbol chilies. Adjust the spice to your taste because this sauce is quite fiery.

Jaffrey's dill rice was more easily veganized so I didn't have to tweak it much except to replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. This is my favorite rice recipe and one I've made in my kitchen over and over for years now.

Dill is an herb that's easily found in supermarkets here in the United States, yet it also tends to be rather underused. It has one of the strongest personalities among herbs but that personality is so pleasant that it's hard not to love it once you've tried it. If you never have, this is the perfect recipe to begin with.

In India, dill is considered a leafy vegetable rather than an herb. My mom would often pick a bunch of "shepu," as dill is known in Marathi, from the women who sold vegetables out of straw baskets along neighborhood streets in Bombay. She'd cook it up with a few simple spices into a delicious bhaji that I'll share with you some other day.

I hope everyone's looking forward to the weekend, wet or dry. And ooh, I need to buy a ticket for that record half-billion Megamillion jackpot on my way home from work tonight!

Enjoy, all!

Tofu "Shrimp" Curry

Ingredients:

1 block of soft tofu. Swaddle it in paper napkins and leave in a colander with a heavy weight on it-- like a steel saucepan-- for about an hour for the water to drain out of it. Cut it into slices, about 1/2-inch thick.

Marinate the tofu in a mixture of:

1 tsp grated garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

After 30 minutes, bake the tofu in a 400-degree oven for about 30 minutes or until it's golden brown on top and quite chewy. If you cut the tofu in big slices, cut it into smaller cubes before adding it to the curry.

For the sauce:

1 1-inch ball of tamarind, soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water for about half an hour. Squeeze the solids to extract the tamarind pulp and strain if it's too lumpy. Reserve the pulp.

2 ancho chillies. Remove the stem and seeds. (Cut down to one ancho for a less smoky version, or substitute this with a mild paprika if you'd rather)

2 arbol chillies.

1/4 tsp fenugreek (methi) seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 large onion or 2 small ones, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp cashew nuts

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tbsp jaggery (can use regular or brown sugar instead)

Salt to taste

1/4 cup coriander leaves, chopped

Soak the deseeded anchos in water for about 30 minutes.

Toast the fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds and peppercorns in a dry skillet set over medium heat, about 2 minutes or until the spices start to get fragrant and the coriander seeds turn a couple of shades darker. Don't walk away because you do not want the fenugreek-- or anything else-- to burn.

Remove the spices from the skillet and set aside to cool.

Toast the soaked anchos and the arbol chilies in the skillet until they start to change color. Flip over and toast the other side. Altogether this won't take more than 2 minutes.

Add the anchos, arbol, toasted spices, onion, garlic and cashew nuts to a blender. Add enough water to make a thick, smooth paste. I like to make mine really smooth because I love the velvety texture of the finished curry.

Heat the oil in a saucepan.

Add the mustard seeds and when they sputter, add the curry leaves.

Toast for a few seconds, and then add the blended chili and onion paste.

Cook over medium heat, stiirring constantly, until the mixture turns a few shades darker and the water has evaporated.

Add the tamarind pulp along with 1 cup water. If the curry is too thick, add more water.

Add salt, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat so the sauce simmers. Let it cook for 15 minutes without covering it.

Add the tofu cubes and let the sauce simmer for another five minutes.

Add the coconut milk and jaggery. Mix well and warm through. Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with Dill Rice (recipe below).

Dill Rice

Ingredients:

2 cups long-grain rice like basmati. Soak the rice for about 30 minutes, then put in a colander to strain. Set aside.

2 2/3 cups of water or vegetable stock

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 small dry red chillies

1 1-inch stick of cinnamon

4 pods of green cardamom

4 cloves

1 large or two small bay leaves

1 packed cup of chopped dill

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.

Add the red chillies, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves

When the spices start to turn color, add the rice and saute for a minute or until the rice turns opaque.

Add the water and then the dill and salt to taste. Stir to mix and bring it to a boil.

Put on the lid, turn the heat down to low, and let the rice cook 20 minutes. Leave it standing undisturbed for another 10 minutes before serving.

Fluff the rice gently with a fork to separate the grains before serving.

Best. Focaccia. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:59:50 PDT

I was planning an Italian dinner for my friend Margo and her family recently and I wanted to bake a bread that would appeal to her son Danny who's as picky as any four-year-old can be.

I pondered my Rustic Tuscan Loaf and my Whole-Wheat Ciabatta, but I wasn't quite sure that these fantastic but rather adult breads would hold the required kid appeal. Until I hit upon the idea of this cloud-like focaccia.

The focaccia recipes I've made in the past (including this one from Tal Ronnen) have been pretty good, but not captivating. As I pondered how to make a better focaccia, fate intervened: when I walked into the kitchen and turned on the TV (yes, I plead guilty to watching too much TV), an episode for America's Test Kitchen was just coming on. And they were making focaccia.

So I watched the chef's rather unusual technique which involved creating a rather wet batter not unlike that used for a ciabatta bread, and doing away with most of the kneading. The resulting bread was soft and chewy but also really airy rather than dense as focaccia usually is.

I loved the idea and adapted the technique to my own focaccia recipe (which includes sourdough instead of a biga), not least because it sounded really easy. And who doesn't like easy?

I made a rather wet batter, added the salt after 15 minutes, folded it over instead of kneading it, and then baked it up in two round cake pans. The bread popped up rather high in the oven, making me wonder if it had formed an undesirable skin on top.

It didn't. Instead, the bread was soft and cloud-like, with a soft but slightly crisp golden crust. It was, hands-down, the best focaccia I've ever made or eaten.

I wasn't the only one tickled about it. As Danny ate piece after piece, he declared: "This is really good bread."

Good enough for me.

The Best Focaccia Ever

Ingredients:

1 cup sourdough

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp active dry yeast

Salt to taste

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 1/4 cups warm water

For the topping:

2 tbsp finely minced sage or rosemary

1 large clove of garlic, finely minced

1 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Mix the toppings together in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix the yeast in 1/2 cup of water and set aside to froth for five minutes.

After five minutes, add the sourdough to a large bowl. Then add the flour, oil, and the remaining water and mix with a wooden spoon until everything comes together. This is a very sticky dough at this stage, but it's fine. That's what will make it divinely airy and light.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in an oven with the pilot light on, about 1 1/2 hours or until it has doubled in size.

Using an oiled spatula, turn the dough over on itself in the bowl. Repeat 9 more times. You don't want to knead the dough with a heavy hand.

Turn the dough over on a generously floured surface. Cut into two with a bench scraper or a knife, then shape each half into a round. Be gentle so you don't deflate all the lovely gases that have formed in your focaccia loaf.

Place each round in a 10-inch cake pan coated with oil and sprinkled with some coarse sea salt. Press the dough gently out from the center so it reaches the sides of the pan.

Cover both pans with plastic wrap and place in the oven with the pilot on for another hour or until the dough has doubled.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees at least 30 minutes before baking.

Using a fork, prick the dough all over to remove any bubbles on top. Don't go heavy-handed because you don't want to deflate the dough.

Brush the top of the bread with the sage-olive oil mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Remove the focaccia tins from the oven and let them stand on a rack for five minutes. Remove the bread from the pans and continue to cool on the rack.
***

Desi and I planted this cherry blossom the year after we moved to our house. It was no more than a single twig, about two feet tall, when we put it into the soil. Six years on, it is a handsome little tree that ushers in spring with thousands of tiny white flowers with hearts of pink.

Carrot Bread: Low Fat And Wholegrain

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:15:39 PDT

Spring arrived early this year, like an unfashionable guest. The cherry trees in Washington's Tidal Basin-- gorgeous with their full, pink flowers -- have already bloomed, days before they were supposed to. The daffodils have been out for a while, and the tulips are beginning to bud. March is all dressed up in weather that would be best suited to May.

Early this morning I woke up when a thunderclap crashed overhead, a common May phenomenon. Opie scurried upstairs to get into bed with me and Lucy ran into the closet to burrow into a hiding place.

To be honest, I feel a little cheated. The anticipation of spring is almost as delicious as the season itself, but this year we have been robbed of it. Just like we were robbed of the snow and of the comforting chill of an icy winter. Meanwhile, my dad in Goa and my relatives in Chennai have been telling us of an uncharacteristically cold winter in these cities where typically the weather-- in my dad's words--tends to be hot for 10 months and hotter for the remaining two.

While the unusual weather might appear to be a great respite in the short term, it is sobering to be reminded that these changes could be permanent. According to a recent article in my hometown newspaper, the Washington Post, plant zones around the U.S. are shifting north-- which means that more areas higher up on the map are getting warmer. While the U.S.Department of Agriculture, which comes up with the plant zone maps, has yet to connect these changes to global warming, likely for political reasons, there is little doubt in most scientific minds that this is the reason why warm is becoming the new norm.

***

Spring may be here, but my refrigerator is still overrun with carrots-- one of my favorite veggies to have on hand year-round, but especially in winter. This past weekend, looking to make a healthy snack for my sweet-toothed Desi, I baked up this luscious Carrot Bread that comes with all the deliciousness of carrot cake and just a fraction of the guilt.

My Carrot Bread is whole-wheat, extremely low-fat, and it contains the wholesome goodness of applesauce and flax. I sweeten it-- as I do all my sweets-- with turbinado sugar, a raw sugar with the flavor of molasses.

I tried to reproduce in my carrot bread the flavor of a carrot halwa, a popular Indian sweet, by adding to it cardamom and cashews. It is a great idea that I first ran across on Suganya's blog years ago when she posted her carrot halwa cupcakes. My recipe is an adaptation of my zucchini bread recipe-- a good one to keep in mind for the summer bounty of squash.

Oh, and my friend Margo's little boy Danny loved this bread, so it's kid-approved as well.

Here's the recipe now. Enjoy, all!

Whole-Wheat Carrot Bread

(Makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp powdered cardamom (run the whole pods-- about 10-- in a coffee grinder with a tablespoon of the sugar to get a fine grind)

1 cup cashew nuts, chopped into large pieces

Mix the ingredients together and set aside.

In another bowl, mix together:

3 tbsp flaxmeal and 9 tbsp water

4 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 cup turbinado sugar

Then whisk in:

1 3/4 cup applesauce

2 1/4 cups grated carrots

1/4 cup golden raisins (optional)

Add the wet mixture to the dry, with a spatula or a whisk, using 1/3rd of the flour at a time. You want a lumpy but well-integrated batter. Do not overmix because you don't want to develop the gluten in the flour.

Grease and flour two standard-size loaf pans. Divide the batter equally between the two and smooth down the top.

Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool on a rack about 15 minutes, then slide a knife around the edges to unmold. Place right-side-up on a rack to cool

Eat Your Veggies And Save The Earth.A Guest Post

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:03:06 PDT

At Holy Cow! I come at the topic of vegan food from an ethical perspective. But there are many more great reasons to eat a plant-based diet and one of those-- of course-- is the environment.

One of my favorite blogs on the environment, Reduce Footprints, offers many great resources for an eco-friendly lifestyle, including a series of "change the world" challenges that are designed to get a whole lot of people thinking about doing the same green activity during the same time period. "It's the idea that when a lot of little actions are joined together ... the impact can be huge. We hope to take a huge step towards saving the earth," writes Cyndi, the blogger behind Reduce Footprints.

Today, in this wonderful guest post, she shares her insight into the environmental footprint of veganism and why eating a compassionate diet can make our Earth a better place. Read it and then take one of her challenges to do your bit for all of the world's living, breathing creatures!

Eat Your Veggies and Save the Earth

People who choose a vegan diet typically to so for one of two reasons ... they have a deep compassion for animals and/or they want the best health possible. But did you know that eating meatless meals is also Eco-friendly? In fact, it's one of the easiest ways to walk gently on the earth. Why? Simply put, it takes fewer natural resources to produce one pound of plant-based food as opposed to the same amount of animal-based food.

Here's a simple example...

Suppose you have one acre of land. You plant vegetable seeds, water them and end up with food for your table. Minimal natural resources are spent to produce it as it goes directly from your one acre of land to your table.

Let's say, on the other hand, that you use that one acre of land to produce beef. You buy an animal or two and put them on your acre. In no time at all, they eat everything growing so you either buy another acre to grow feed or you buy it from a farmer who uses his acre to grow it. At minimum, two acres are now being used to produce food. But we're not done ... those animals take quite a while to grow which means that several harvests of feed are required ... crops to feed animals, not us. Those crops are being watered and so are the animals ... so additional water is also required. Once the animals are "ready", they must be slaughtered, packaged (typically in packaging which isn't Eco-friendly) and transported ... and each step requires energy and natural resources. By the time that steak ends up on our plate, the environmental cost is considerable.

We've heard, for a long time, that many natural resources (like fresh water) are finite ... when they are gone, they are gone forever. Many people in the world today consider fresh drinking water a luxury and some live without it. So, it's in our best interest to conserve precious resources. We can do that by choosing foods wisely. It should be noted that the production of <U>any</U> food, plant or animal based, has a carbon footprint. Since we cannot live without nutrition, our goal then is to make choices based on the foods with the least environmental impact ... plant-based foods meet that goal.

Here's another consideration ... recently it was reported that the 7 billionth person was born in Thailand. The world's population continues to grow requiring people to share limited resources to feed themselves. As those resources diminish, many people will go hungry. If we again think of our example, how many more people can be fed if our one acre of land is used to directly produce food? Simple math tells us that more food will be available if we produce vegetables instead of meat. Vegetarianism could go a long ways towards solving the world's hunger problems.

There are other considerations ... animals produce more CO2 than plants and significantly contribute to air pollution and global warming. Animal waste leaches to nearby lands and waterways, contaminating them with harmful bacteria. And, since animal production has become unsanitary due to the sheer numbers of animals being raised in a small space, antibiotics are appearing in places we'd rather not have them (like our drinking water).

The fact is that eating a plant-based diet is much kinder to the earth. So, as you enjoy your next vegetarian/vegan meal, feel good about your choice. You're doing something good for your health, for animals and ... for the earth.

Whole-Wheat Sourdough Ciabatta

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:48:01 PDT

Latest in my adventures in baking with sourdough is this crusty, healthy Whole-Wheat Ciabatta. It is, quite simply, as good as bread can get.

Ciabatta, as you know, is my favorite Italian bread. Its crackling crust, soft texture with those large, airy holes, and delicious, slow-developed flavor are to die for. But so far I've only made ciabatta with white all-purpose flour because that's what everyone does, don't they? And as much as I had dreamed of making a healthier, wholegrain version, it was hard to imagine that whole wheat, with its low-gluten burden, would make a good ciabatta -- or even a passable one.

But baking with sourdough has opened up a world of possibilities in my kitchen. Sourdough is just a longer-developed biga -- the starter that begins every ciabatta loaf. But because sourdough has been sitting around for so long and has all of those alcoholic gases in it, it helps give breads a better rise. This feature is especially helpful in baking whole-wheat breads which can use all the rising help they can get to avoid turning into dense bricks (every health nut's baked one of those, haven't we?).

Sourdough, by the way, is perfect for health nuts because did you know that it actually lowers the glycemic index of breads? That's right. So sourdough breads are perfect not just for the food lovers among us, but also for diabetics or for those watching their blood sugar or even for those watching their weight. That's just about everyone in the world, I'd guess.

If you are among those folks who balk at using sourdough because you are worried about a very tangy bread, rest easy. Sourdough made at home doesn't seem to produce that overtly tangy flavor, and because neither Desi nor I really like a sour flavor in our breads anyway, you can take my word for it. Also, you can control the amount of sourdough you add to your bread. I add just a cup or two at most to most two-loaf recipes which never results in a strong flavor. All that the sourdough does is add a wonderful complexity that you'll love.

The method for making this ciabatta is very similar to the quick, all-purpose-flour one I've posted earlier, except that I give it a longer rise.

I'm done talking for now, but I'll be back with a wonderful guest post for you on the environmental impact of veganism. Stay tuned for it, and bye now!

Whole-wheat Sourdough Ciabatta

Ingredients:

4 cups whole-wheat durum flour (this is the flour Indians use to make chapatis. It has a finer texture than regular whole-wheat flour, and is also a little lighter. If you can't find this, use white whole-wheat flour)

2 cups sourdough

1 tsp active dry yeast

3 1/2 cups warm water

1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (if you don't have this, substitute half the whole-wheat flour with all-purpose)

2 tsp sea salt

Mix the yeast and 2 1/2 cups of water in the bowl of a stand mixer and set aside for 10 minutes to get the yeast working. It should become frothy.

Add the sourdough, flour, vital wheat gluten, and salt. Using the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, mix until everything is combined. You should have a batter that's just slightly thicker than a pancake batter. If it's too dry, add the remaining cup of water a little at a time and keep mixing.

When the dough starts to rise on the paddle and makes a flapping sound, remove the paddle attachment and replace it with a dough hook.

Knead on medium speed for about five to seven minutes or until the dough comes cleanly off the sides of the bowl.

Pour the dough into a bowl or large bin coated with oil. It will be very loose, but that's how it's supposed to be. The container should be large enough to hold the dough once it has risen to about three times its size. Spray some oil on top of the dough to keep it from drying, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, put a rubber band around it to hold it in place, and leave overnight or for eight hours on the kitchen counter.

By morning the dough would have risen quite a bit. Sprinkle a large cookie sheet or two smaller ones with lots of flour. Turn the dough out into the sheet and cut into half with a bench scraper or a knife.

Flour your hands and shape the loaf into a rectangular shape using your fingers and the bench scraper. Tuck the ends underneath so you get as even a shape as possible, although your bread will still look very rustic. You don't want to deflate the dough too much by overhandling it.

Dust some more flour on top of the loaves, then cover them loosely with kitchen towels. Put in a warm place to rise, about 90 minutes.

Half an hour before you bake the bread, put a pizza stone in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees. If you don't have a pizza stone, don't worry-- we can do without. Place an empty pan in the bottom rack of the oven.

After 90 minutes of rising, the loaves should be puffy and should have doubled in size. Now place them in the oven and immediately add a cup of hot water to the empty pan you placed earlier in the bottom rack.

Close the oven and let the bread bake undisturbed for about 28 minutes or until the bottom sounds hollow then tapped.

Remove to a rack and allow the loaves to cool completely before eating.

Enjoy!
***

Bakers at San Francisco's popular Boudin Bakery turn out sourdough breads in every shape and size conceivable.
**
A quick update for sourdough nuts. The sourdough starter I'd been using was an all-purpose one, but I just started an all-whole-wheat sourdough. It looks great after three days of sitting on my kitchen platform, and has the same flavor, smell, and bubbly look. I'll let you know how it works out as I bake with it this weekend.

Eggplant Pullao

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:27:23 PDT

Long ago, when I hadn't yet learned how to boil water, I read an article in a Bombay newspaper about the great filmmaker Ismail Merchant and his passion for cooking. The reporter had spent a day with Merchant as he prepped dinner in a Bombay kitchen for friends and his film crew. I don't remember the details of what he was cooking any more, but I remember that reading about all those sumptuous foods made me long to be there, in that kitchen, eating that food.

So when I came across a hardcover, used copy of the 1994 cookbook, Ismail Merchant's Passionate Meals: The New Indian Cuisine for Fearless Cooks and Adventurous Eaters, while browsing through Powell's Books in Portland (said to be the largest used and new bookstore in the world-- the flagship store occupies a whole city block), I just had to buy it. Even if it meant lugging it back home in my bursting suitcase.

Merchant, who made visually sumptuous movies like Heat and Dust, The Bostonians, and Howard's End with his partner, James Ivory, grew up in Bombay. His recipes drew (he passed away a few years ago) from his Indian upbringing, but the spices appeared to be mellowed down to adapt to Western tastebuds. While I am not one to shy away from a full-blown spice experience, Merchant's recipes sound truly delicious and somewhat different than your traditional Indian offerings. Last night, I decided to try out his Eggplant Pullao, a luxurious-sounding rice dish made with just a handful of ingredients and quite different from the traditional Eggplant Rice (Vangi Bhat) I make.

It was a safe choice, in some respects: eggplant is the top veggie in our home, and anything made with it (and rice) is bound to go down fabulously, no questions asked. And I loved the peanut-eggplant combination too, because it's such a classic.

I didn't mean to change the recipe much except to replace the butter with a smidgen of oil, but I did tweak a few other things too: I replaced the sugar with jaggery, because this unrefined Indian sugar has a deep taste that is perfect with the eggplant-peanut pairing, and I reduced the ratio of rice to eggplant so I would have more eggplant in each bite.

I served the eggplant rice with my Tomato-Coconut Cream Curry, one of the first recipes I ever learned to make and one I got from another favorite Indian cookbook author, Vimla Patil. I already have that recipe on the blog and you can find it here.

The meal took less than an hour to put together, and it couldn't have been more perfect. The nutty eggplant was amazing with the sweet-sour tang of the curry. This is a great weeknight recipe for those times you want something special.

Enjoy, all!

Eggplant Pullao

Ingredients:

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp poppy seeds

2 jalapenos or serranos, cut into rings or finely minced (I keep the seeds, but remove them if you want the dish to be less spicy)

1 tbsp jaggery or regular sugar

1/4 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely powdered

1 medium eggplant, cut into small pieces (Merchant recommends peeling it, but as you know, I never do. Why put in more work for less nutrition?)

1 1/2 cups basmati rice, soaked in water for about 30 minutes, then drained

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet.

Add the cumin seeds and when they sputter, add the poppy seeds, peanuts, green chilies and jaggery.

Saute until the mixture is toasted and begins to brown, about 2 minutes.

Add the eggplants and mix them well. Now add 3 cups of hot water.

When the water comes to a boil, add the rice. Add salt to taste.

Bring the mixture back to a boil. Then cover with a tight-fitting lid, turn the heat to low, and let the rice cook for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes turn off the heat and let the pullao stand at least another 10 minutes before serving.

To serve, fluff up the rice with a fork, then drizzle over it some Tomato-Coconut Cream Curry.

***

I wanted to give a shout-out here to the very talented Mints of the blog Vadani Kaval Gheta who sent me the most beautiful table runner (the blue one you see in the Eggplant Pullao pictures) and doilies a few weeks back. I was really surprised to find them in the mail, and absolutely awed by how lovely they are. Best of all, she made them herself. Thanks, Mints-- I will cherish these for a long, long time!

***

Finally, some of you asked for pictures of our trip to the west, so here they are. Many thanks to my enthusiastic photographer, Desi.

Despite about a thousand noisy tourists, including some who found it really amusing to honk with the sea lions, this guy was determined to have his nap in San Francisco Bay. I watched him for a full 15 minutes to see if he would roll over into the bay, but he'd adjust himself ever so often without opening an eye.

Stunning California: We stopped many times along our drive to ooh and aah over the beautiful, picture-postcard landscapes.

Mount Shasta in California: Luminous, Gorgeous, Awe-Inspiring

The beautiful, colorful rotunda of the state capitol building in Sacramento, California

The imposing state capitol in Olympia, Washington.

And the rather unusual, art-deco state capitol building of Salem, Oregon
***

Oregon was one of the best parts of our trip, with its heady mix of natural beauty and weirdness.

Where it started: Tourists at the first Starbucks ever, in Pike Place, Seattle

Night over Seattle, from the Space Needle

***

In Vancouver's Capilano Rainforest, it's easy to remember the ephemeral quality of time: Ancient Douglas Firs like this 1300-year-old tree shoot more than 200 feet into the sky. One of the rainforest's chief attractions is a suspension bridge that hangs 230 feet above the Capilano River, swaying just a little with every footstep. And the glass Cliffwalk, a series of narrow, precarious-looking but actually very safe walkways, offers yet another thrill as you explore the forest from way above the treetops.

***
The Dogs we Met: From German Shepherds to Great Pyrenees, the people of the west coast sure love their dogs. These guys -- just a handful of the many, many canines we met on our trip-- were always ready and willing to offer a friendly wag and sometimes a kiss, making us miss our kids back home a little more. We even met a couple of intrepid dogs who were calmly walking on the swaying suspension bridge in the Capilano rainforest. Lucy, who hesitates to set foot on the tiniest wooden bridges over shallow streams when we go out hiking, would have had a heart attack!

This last guy was walking off the leash with his mom in Portland (a scenario I can never imagine indulging in with my highly opinionated dogs) and he absolutely refused to be distracted by anything or anyone. Desi tried his best to get some attention by falling to his knees and holding out a hand, but the dog, frankly, didn't give a damn.

Conchiglie Pasta With Kale Pesto

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:04:31 PST

I'm back after almost a month and if it's any comfort, I've missed you just as much as you've missed me. Part of the reason for my absence was that Desi and I were traveling. We flew up to the west coast and then made our way from San Francisco up through Portland, Seattle and finally Vancouver in Canada. Along the way we stopped at the state capitols in Sacramento, Salem, and Olympia (have I told you Desi loves to see statehouses?)

It was a hectic trip and we packed in a lot, but it was also exhilarating, as travel always is. We drove through curvy mountain roads flanked by snow-covered evergreens, and past breathtaking volcanic peaks like California's Mount Shasta and Washington's Mount Rainier. We walked in the misty rain in Portland without umbrellas (like true Portlanders, we're told), bought food from the city's famed vegan food carts, and I discovered I have a sweet tooth after all at the quirky Voodoo Donuts. We went up the space needle in Seattle and took pictures of tourists posing inside the first Starbucks at Pike Place. And even pouring rain could not keep us from joining hundreds of Vancouverites exploring the night life on buzzing Granville Street on a Friday evening.

I tried to keep up with your messages and emails through all this as best as I could, but if I was slow in getting back to you, you now know why.

I've been a little slow to get back to cooking too (cooking new stuff, that is), so I haven't had a whole lot to share. But last night, looking for a quick recipe that I could brown-bag for Desi, I came upon a Kale Pesto on Rachel Ray's website. I loved the sound of it, and I almost always have kale in my refrigerator (like any good vegan), so I decided to give it a try.

I followed my own pesto recipe, except for swapping the herb (or spinach, which I use sometimes) with kale. The kale needs a small amount of cooking, so keep that in mind as you plan. It's not a ton of time-- you just need to dunk the kale in boiling water and let it cook away for five minutes. And since you can use the same water to boil your pasta, it's no additional trouble at all.

I have more to share, and I'll be back soon. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a quick, nutritious, delicious weeknight supper or a light weekend lunch, give this a try. Ciao!

Conchiglie Pasta with Kale-Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

1 24-oz box of small pasta. (I used whole-wheat conchiglie which are tiny, adorable, shell-shaped pasta)

A small bunch of asparagus spears, tough ends removed, then cut lengthwise into 3/4-inch pieces (store the tough ends for vegetable stock).

1 tsp red pepper flakes

8 large leaves of kale, tough stems removed

4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted (this is easy to do in the microwave. Spread the walnuts in a plate and microwave on high for a minute. Toss them around, then microwave for another minute)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 heaping tbsp white miso

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Juice of one large lemon

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Dunk in the kale leaves. Bring the water back to a boil and let the kale leaves cook for five minutes. Then, using a pair of tongs, fish out the kale leaves and set them aside. Bring the water to a boil again and add your pasta.

About five minutes before the pasta is cooked, add the chopped asparagus.

Meanwhile, assemble the pesto. Place the cooked kale, 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts, nutritional yeast, miso, garlic and olive oil in a food processor or blender.

Process into a paste. I processed mine pretty smooth this time, but you can leave it coarse if you like your pesto that way. The jewel-green color of this sauce has to be seen to be believed-- it's just gorgeous.

Mix the pesto, cooked pasta and asparagus, lemon juice, and remaining walnuts in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste, if desired.

Serve and enjoy!

Chewy Tofu In An Apricot, Chipotle and Tamarind Sauce: Vegan Mexican

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:21:49 PST

I like to think I was Mexican in another life. I love traveling through this warm and beautiful country, its food appeals most to my tastebuds (after Indian, of course), and I even look a little Mexican with my olive skin and dark hair. Ever so often someone speaking Spanish approaches me on the street to ask for directions, or a salesperson tries to make me feel comfortable by breaking into what they assume must be my native language. They even look a little incredulous when I explain to them that I don't speak a word of Spanish.

Lately my kitchen has started looking a lot like a Mexican one too. I've packed my refrigerator and my kitchen cupboards with fresh and dry chillies of every kind, I've been confounding Desi with words like "piloncillo," "jamaica," and "achiote," and I've been dropping hints several times each day about that tortilla press I don't have to use up all the masa flour sitting in the pantry.

Part of the reason why I've become an even greater fan of Mexican food in recent weeks is this very addictive PBS show, Pati's Mexican Table, where the chef, Pati Jinich, shares recipes from her childhood in Mexico. This relatively new show has edged out my other PBS favorite, Rick Bayless's Mexico: One Plate at a Time, because while Bayless's show is quite wonderful, his recipes appear rather sophisticated since they are adapted to suit American tastes. Pati-- who grew up in Mexico and is now a fellow Washingtonian-- creates what seem to be truly authentic, often rustic recipes that you can actually imagine folks in Mexico cooking up in their kitchens for dinner.

A lot of the recipes in Pati's Mexican Table contain animal ingredients, but the sauces and bases also pack a lot of flavor that comes from the plant-based ingredients that go into these dishes (she does a great job describing these flavors with vivid imagery). Recently, I watched her cook up chicken with tamarind, chipotle peppers, and apricots. The sauce sounded so flavorful that the chicken only appeared an unnecessary intrusion.

So I went into my kitchen and got cooking.

I got a block of firm tofu, squeezed the water out of it, then baked it to chewy perfection.

I soaked some tamarind, then separated the incredibly tangy water and added some piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar) to make the base of my sauce.

I chopped up some gorgeously orange dried apricots, and scooped out some smoky and fiery chipotle chili sauce.

Dinner was amazing. This sauce is perfect drizzled over some rice, and you could very well serve it some spicy Mexican rice.

Oh, I feel so Mexican right now. Enjoy!

Chewy Tofu in Apricot, Chipotle and Tamarind Sauce

(Makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

1 block firm or extra-firm tofu. Press out most of the water by swaddling the block of tofu, then placing in a colander. Place a weight on it, like a saucepan, and leave alone for an hour for most of the water to drain out. Spray a baking pan lightly with some oil, place the tofu on it, and spray the top lightly with some oil. Bake in a 400-degree oven 30 minutes, then flip over and bake another 20 minutes. Let the tofu cool, then cut it into 3/4-inch cubes.

1 tsp olive or other vegetable oil

4 cups mushrooms, preferably mixed for more texture. I used cremini and shiitake. Chop them into fairly large chunks.

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Salt to taste

3/4 cup dried apricots, sliced

1 recipe tamarind sauce (recipe below)

2 tsp sauce from a can of chipotle chilis in adobo sauce

2 tbsp apricot preserves

Heat a saucepan and add the oil. Add the mushrooms, pepper and salt and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms start to caramelize and turn golden, about 10 minutes.

Add all the remaining ingredients-- the tofu, apricots, apricot preserve, tamarind sauce, and adobo sauce. Add 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes until the apricots are quite soft.

Add salt to taste. Serve hot.

Tamarind Sauce

Ingredients:

1 large lemon-size ball of tamarind soaked in 2 cups of boiling water for about half an hour. Strain out the solids and reserve the liquid.

1/2 cup piloncillo, grated (this unrefined sugar is separated at birth from jaggery a popular sweetener in Indian cooking). Use brown sugar if you don't have this.

1 tbsp lime juice

Salt to taste

Place the tamarind liquid, piloncillo, lime juice and salt in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. The liquid will be thick and syrupy.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 172, Total Fat 3.3 grams, Cholesterol 0 mg, Potassium 591.4 mg, Dietary Fiber 3.4 grams, Sugar 21.3 grams, Protein 6.4 grams

My Dad's Not-Mutton Mushroom Curry, Fat-Free

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:00:05 PST

My favorite dish to cook and eat has always been My Dad's "Not-Mutton" Mushroom Curry-- a recipe I shared long ago here at Holy Cow! It is a spicy, saucy vegan curry made using the same flavor base my father used when he cooked his very special mutton curry for our family each Sunday, when I was growing up.

The vegan version I first shared contains far less fat than my father's curry did, because I both cut down on the amount of oil added to the dish and because, of course, I cut out on all that fat that meat inevitably introduces to a dish. As I explore ways to make my recipes even leaner than they already are, I decided to challenge myself this weekend: to see if I could make a version of my dad's not-mutton mushroom curry with no added fats whatsoever, without losing any of that wonderful flavor.

I must say I surprised myself-- very pleasantly. I left out completely the two tablespoons of oil that I had used in my earlier version, and I cut down on the coconut milk. But I also modified the process to add more flavor without adding more oil. For instance, I roasted the garlic and the chillies, and I added green bell peppers. It had been a suggestion from a reader who'd tried the recipe, and it was a really good one.

I also used a different spice mix: instead of the garam masala that my father mixed up each time he made the dish, I used Kolhapuri Masala. This is a zingy red masala from Kolhapur, a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra known for its fiery chillies. I chose it because it has more ingredients than garam masala does, and therefore it adds more depth to the dish-- very important when you're cooking without fat. Since Desi can't stand too much heat in his food, the chillies I use to mix up my Kolhapuri masala are just the moderately spicy dry red chillies I keep in my pantry and not the super-spicy ones. Still, the flavor's quite special. I always keep a jar of Kolhapuri masala around for those evenings when I need to come up with something really special really fast.

Here are the recipes, then, for my no-fat-added version of My Dad's "Not-Mutton" Mushroom Curry, and for that very special Kolhapuri masala. Enjoy, all!

My Dad's "Not-Mutton" Mushroom Curry, the Fat-Free Version

Ingredients

2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms

2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms

2 medium potatoes, cut in 3/4-inch cubes

1 large green pepper, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

8-10 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1-inch finger of ginger, coarsely chopped

1 cup tomato puree

2 green chillies

1/4 cup Kolhapuri Masala (recipe follows)

1/4 cup coconut milk

Heat a large pan. Turn the heat to medium and add the onions. Roast, stirring frequently, until brown spots appear.

Add the garlic and ginger and saute another two minutes.

Remove the onions, ginger and garlic to a blender. Add the tomato puree, green chillies, and half the coconut milk.

Add enough water and blend into a smooth paste.

Heat the same pan and add the kolhapuri masala to it along with the rest of the coconut milk. Saute for a couple of minutes, then add the potatoes, mushrooms, and green bell pepper and stir to coat everything.

Add the blended masala paste and add enough water so the veggies are almost but not quite submerged. Bring everything to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Slap a lid on the pan and let it cook for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Season with salt to taste. Garnish with some fresh coriander and serve hot with rice, roti, naan, or a crusty bread.

Kolhapuri Masala

Ingredients:

8 dry red chillies

1 cup coriander seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

8 cloves garlic

1 large onion

12 cloves

12 green cardamom pods

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 tsp mace

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1 2-inch piece of cinnamon

4 large bay leaves

2 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 tbsp turmeric

Roast all the ingredients one at a time (except the turmeric), until they are a couple of shades darker and aromatic. Roast the garlic and the onion until dark spots appear, but don't let them burn.

Remove everything to a dish to cool, and then place in a blender. Blend into a coarse powder. I sometimes add some coconut milk, blend the masala into a paste and then freeze it, but you can skip that because we are trying to cut out fats from our diet.

Whole-Wheat Berry Muffins, Fat-Free

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:50:41 PST

Everyone needs something sweet every now and then. And what better way to satisfy that craving than with a delicious whole-wheat muffin filled with the nourishing goodness of fresh berries and free of added fats?

I flavored my Berry Muffins with a puree of fresh strawberries and a handful of plump, juicy blueberries that burst in your mouth as you bite into the muffin, taking this sweet treat to a whole new level of sublime indulgence. My sweetener is turbinado sugar, a healthier, less processed sugar that I use in most of my sweet recipes, but you could just as well use maple syrup which would add even more flavor to an already delicious, not-too-sweet muffin.

In our home, these muffins made perfect pre-breakfast treats. Each has just around 112 calories and lots of protein, dietary fiber, and potassium. There is just 0.5 grams of fat in each muffin and it comes from heart-healthy flaxmeal which also adds some moisture to the muffin and great, nutty flavor.

I hope you are enjoying the fat-free recipes I've been posting. Although I have always been a healthy eater and conscious about adding as little fat as I can to any recipe I make, I must say I've been really enjoying coming up with ideas to cut out added fat altogether from my cooking. I've been whipping up dals, hummus, pasta sauces and baked goods without added fat and I am not missing much, flavor-wise. And I know that I am getting healthier. This doesn't mean you'll only see fat-free recipes here at Holy Cow! from now on, but you will definitely see more of them than you have before.

Here, then, is the recipe for my whole wheat, no-fat-added, very berry muffin. Enjoy!

Whole-Wheat Berry Muffin

Ingredients:

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (sub, if needed, with 1 cup regular whole-wheat and 1 cup all-purpose)

1 1/2 cups strawberries

1 cup blueberries

1/2 cup non-dairy milk, like almond or soy

1/2 cup turbinado sugar (use maple syrup instead for great flavor. This is not a very sweet muffin so you might want to use more sugar if your strawberries are very tart)

2 tbsp flaxmeal

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Mix the whole-wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

Puree the strawberries in a blender along with the nondairy milk. Place in a bowl. (You can sub half the strawberry puree with an equal amount of applesauce for some added sweetness and moistness).

Add the flaxmeal and vanilla extract and mix well.

Make a well in the flour and pour in the wet ingredients. Using just a few strokes of your ladle or whisk, mix until everything's just moistened. Don't overbeat-- a few lumps are just fine. Just make sure you don't have any visible dry flour. If the batter is too dry, add a little more nondairy milk and mix it in.

Add the blueberries and mix in.

Pour the batter in a muffin tin lined with paper liners. If you don't have paper liners spray with oil, although I do recommend the paper liners so you can get your muffins out more easily.

Sprinkle some sugar over the top of each muffin. This is not a very sweet muffin, so I like the little added crunch and sweetness on top.

Bake the muffins in a preheated 400-degree oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the muffins on a rack for about 10 minutes, then slide the muffins out of the tin and continue cooling on the rack.

Nutrition estimate per muffin: Calories 112, Total Fat 0.5 grams, Potassium 103.5 mg, Dietary Fiber 2.4 grams, Sugar 3.2 grams, Protein 2.5 grams

Five Kitchen Gadgets I Almost Can't Live Without

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:09:24 PST

There's no thing in this world that I can't live without. But as someone who loves to cook and usually doesn't have a lot of time to do it, I do rely everyday on a handful of gadgets that take off my hands some of the more time-consuming chores cooking involves. So, just for fun, I thought I'd list them for you.

This list doesn't include some of the most basic cooking appliances and tools that you simply wouldn't be able to cook without, like ladles, stovetops and ovens. And I do share the brand names of some of the appliances I own, but please keep in mind that the companies are not paying me for this and this is by no means an advertisement or even an endorsement. I list the good and bad points of each. And the only reason they are named is because, by choice or accident, I ended up with them in my kitchen and I know enough about them to discuss them.

Here, then, are the five kitchen gadgets I almost can't live without. They're pretty basic, really.

1. Blender: This is the workhorse of my kitchen. I use it everyday to make smoothies, grind masalas for dinner, whip up dosa batter, and dry-grind everything from spice mixes to flax seeds. Because of all the use my blender gets, it has also always been the gadget that breaks down most often in my home. My first blender in the frugal days of studentship in the U.S. was a $15 Hamilton Beach. It put up a brave effort to handle my "not just smoothie" blending before sputtering out and dying in a year or two (yes, it did actually last that long). Next came a sturdy, more expensive Cuisinart and although it stuck with me for several years, it finally gave up and died (or maybe it was so fed-up, it just committed suicide). A couple of years back I paid a small fortune to buy a Vitamix from Costco. It came with a very tall jar perfect for smoothies, a regular sized one great for masalas, and a third jar fitted with a dry-grinding blade. I must say it's lived up to expectations so far but with one rider: the dry-grinder doesn't work as wonderfully as it claims to. I've never managed to get better than a coarse grind. For finer spice mixes, I still use my trusty coffee grinder.

2. Pressure Cooker: Every Indian kitchen has one and no kitchen should be without one. Pressure cooking has tremendous health benefits because it preserves the nutrients in food better than cooking in a pan over a stovetop would. And cherry on the icing, it cuts down cooking time to a fraction. I use my pressure cooker to cook beans, lentils, stocks, soups, stews...the list goes on. I had a pressure cooker from India which gave out within months, after which I bought a Fagor pressure cooker that was great and kept going for years. But I found it too much of a hassle to replace the gaskets which usually have to be ordered from the dealer and by the time you're done paying shipping and handling you might as well have bought a new pressure cooker. Last year I bought a Fagor electric cooker that I absolutely love and use everyday, sometimes twice a day. It takes the guesswork out of pressure cooking, is silent unlike stovetop pressure cookers (a big bonus when you have a scaredy-cat dog in the house), and turns off on its own once the food is cooked.

3. Stand Mixer: A stand mixer might not seem an obvious "can't-almost-live-without" kitchen gadget, but to someone who enjoys baking as much as I do, it is. My stand mixer, surprisingly, is not one of those great-looking KitchenAid ones or even a Cuisinart. It's a plain old Hamilton Beach that I bought on sale at Target for about 70 bucks, more than a decade ago. It still works fine and although the bowl has a tendency to jump out of the base when I subject it to stiff, heavy bread doughs (what are your hands for?), it gets the job done most of the time. Bravo!

4. Knives: A good knife is really the only gadget a cook absolutely needs. Desi bought me a great set of Henckels' knives for Christmas several years ago and I don't know what I'd do if they weren't around to chop, dice, julienne, and slice for me. Remember to always keep your knives sharpened so they can give you their best. When mine started to lose their edge, I picked up a Chef's Choice knife sharpener (the manual kind) and it's done a great job bringing them back to shape.

5. Cast-iron skillets and carbon steel wok: I've said this before: I don't do nonstick because I don't trust my food in surfaces made up of myriad chemicals. Most of my cooking happens in steel pots and pans but for the times I need something with a nonstick surface I turn to my cheap, hardy and well-seasoned cast-iron skillets and my carbon-steel wok. Cast-iron gives foods a great crust and it adds some iron into your food which is always great for a vegan (or non-vegan) tummy. It is also great for baking: I've made breads and cakes in mine.
A wok stir-fries anything at high temperatures without causing it to stick and burn and since I don't have a kadhai (a smaller Indian wok), I use this instead for subzis I want to roast and not steam. Be sure to follow instructions on seasoning your cast-iron pans and wok before use. Also, when buying cast-iron cookware, it's important to ensure that the entire pan, handle and body, are forged in a single cast. Apparently some brands don't do that and imagine what would happen if your handle snapped as you picked up your hot cast-iron skillet.

So what's the kitchen gadget you almost can't live without?

Whole-Wheat Sourdough Baguettes

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:37:06 PDT

My dead oven sprang to life last week and I couldn't wait for the weekend so I could put it to work again. I had the perfect job for it too: baking up a Whole-Wheat Sourdough Baguette. Or two.

Baguettes can be tremendously healthy eats, especially when made my way. These crusty hunks of French goodness contain no fat, are largely whole-grain, and the sourdough brings down their glycemic index, which makes them perfect for the diet-conscious, diabetics, and just about anyone who likes to eat consciously while eating well.

My sourdough starter, which has been going for a few months now, has matured beautifully and it adds tremendous flavor to anything I add it to. It was just amazing in these baguettes because it contributed a discernible yet mellow tang.

This recipe makes two loaves: one for eating, the other for sharing. Or for eating more, if you'd rather. This is a great bread for sandwiches or for dunking into soups. Or for just slathering some vegan butter over.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Whole-Wheat Sourdough Baguettes

(Makes two 12-inch baguettes)

Ingredients:

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 cups sourdough starter (recipe here)

3 cups white whole-wheat flour or regular whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (if you decide to skip this replace 1 cup of the whole-wheat flour with bread flour)

Up to 1 cup bread flour

1 tsp salt

Mix the yeast and the warm water and let stand for 5-10 minutes or until the yeast is all bubbly and happy.

Add the sourdough starter, mix it well with the yeast, then add the whole-wheat flour and the vital wheat gluten.

In a stand mixer set to low speed or by hand, mix everything. Then slowly, a little at a time, add the bread flour until you have a dough that's not sticky. I needed just about 3/4th of a cup. You might need less or more.

Continue kneading by hand or in the stand mixer for 10 minutes. You should have a very beautiful, resilient, elastic dough.

Form the dough into a smooth ball. Spray oil to coat a large bowl, place the dough, top side down, in it, and turn over once so the top is coated in oil.

Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place for about two hours or until it has doubled in size.

Once it has doubled, punch down the dough to get all the gases out. Then divide into two, shape into balls, and let them rest on the countertop, covered, another 10 minutes.

Follow the shaping techniques in this step-by-step recipe post to form two baguettes.

Place the baguettes on a baking sheet dusted with cornmeal, at least three inches apart. Dust them with some flour, cover loosely with a kitchen towel, and let them rise in a warm place for another hour.

Start preheating your oven to 425 degrees about half an hour before baking your bread. Place a pan in the bottom rack of the oven.

When you are ready to put the loaves into the oven, take a sharp knife or blade and score each loaf three times. The cuts should be diagonal and should be parallel to each other.

Just before you put the loaves in the oven, pour a cup of water in the pan you placed in the bottom rack. Then place the baking sheet in the oven and bake 30-35 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Remove the loaves to a baking rack to cool.

Kholamba, A Low-Fat Vegetable Stew

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:39:23 PST

India's regional cuisines are so strikingly diverse that when resemblances and overlaps occur they inevitably make you wonder where the dish could have originated. There's never a simple answer.

A long-running food argument in our home has been over the beginnings of what is perhaps Tamil Nadu's most famous stew: the sambar, or kuzhambu. You would recognize sambar if you've ever ordered a dosa or an idli at an Indian restaurant. It's the lentil and vegetable stew that comes alongside as a dipping sauce.

Lentil stews, or dals, can be found across regional cuisines in India, but what sets the Tamil Sambar apart is the tang of tamarind and the unique blend of spices that go into it. Sambar is one of the most-cooked foods in my kitchen because my Tamil husband, Desi, adores it more than any other food in the universe-- after all, it's what mom would cook.

Then one day I came upon an article that said the sambar may have actually originated centuries ago in the kitchens of Maharashtrians occupying Thanjavur, a region in Tamil Nadu. I went home and gleefully rubbed that bit of information in Desi's face.

He remains cynical to this day-- and to be honest I have no idea about the article's veracity (it's just something fun to needle him with every now and then). But no matter who first created it, over time the sambar or kuzhambu has found a home in kitchens across south India under slightly different but always delicious avatars.

My recipe today is a version that I grew up eating in my Konkani home and it goes by the similarly different name of Kholamba, or Kholambo. This is my stepmom's recipe, exactly as she would make it, except that I cut down on the oil almost entirely except for spraying the pan a couple of times, once to roast the spices and the other to roast the garlic. Altogether, it works out to less than half a teaspoon of added oil and that's important because let's not forget-- this is the year for healthy, fat-free eating. I also cut down on the chillies: the recipe asked for six, but I knew Desi wouldn't be able to stomach anything over two. My stepmom uses Byadgi, a chilli from the state of Karnataka, which gives the dish a deep red color. I have to make do with whatever chilli I can find here at my Indian store, so my Kholamba looks a little paler.

Kholamba uses more spices than you'd find in a Tamil kuzhambu and there is one surprising addition: garlic, which imparts a fabulous depth. Traditionally Kholamba almost always includes drumsticks and red pumpkin, so I used these, although you can easily substitute other vegetables. Try any squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, eggplant, or even green beans. You can mix and match as many veggies as you like. You can also use tomatoes instead of tamarind to add the sour tones to this dish. I went with tamarind because I had that on hand, but use tomato by all means, if you'd rather.

Here's the recipe, then, for a low-fat version of Kholamba, a childhood favorite. Enjoy, all!

Kholamba (Konkani Sambar)

(Makes 8 servings)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup tuvar dal (about 2 cups cooked). Boil with 1/4 tsp turmeric until very tender and mushy.

1/4 tsp asafoetida (hing)

1 cup red pumpkin cubes

1 cup white pumpkin cubes

1 large onion, diced

15 2-inch pieces of drumsticks (You can find these dark-green, ridged stick-like veggies, already cut up into smaller lengths, in the freezer at your Indian store. Indian drumsticks have nothing to do with chicken-- they grow on tall trees and are named thus because they are long and slender like the drum sticks a drummer would use. Drumsticks have great flavor that is ethereal in a sambar, but parts of a drumstick are not edible. You chew on the cooked drumstick to extract the flavor from the flesh and seeds inside, and throw away the hard part.)

1 sprig curry leaves

8 large cloves of garlic, minced

For the masala:

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

15 black peppercorns

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)

1 tbsp chana dal (Bengal gram dal)

1 tbsp udad dal (black gram dal)

2 dry red chillies

1 1-inch-diameter ball of tamarind (make sure there are no seeds hiding inside)

1/4 cup coconut milk or 2 tbsp freshly grated coconut

Heat a skillet, spray it with some oil, and then toast the ingredients (except the coriander), one by one, until they are a couple of shades darker and aromatic. Cool in a plate and transfer to a blender along with the tamarind.

If you are using fresh coconut, toast it to a light brown shade. If you're using coconut milk, add it directly to the blender.

Place all the prepped veggies, including the onion, in a microwave-safe dish, ad 1/4 cup of water, cover loosely and zap for about 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is very tender. Set aside. You can do this on a stove-top as well.

Blend the spices with enough water to make a smooth paste. Set aside.

Spray a saucepan with some oil and add the garlic and asafoetida. Saute, stirring, for 30 seconds to a minute. Don't let the garlic turn dark brown or burn.

Add the curry leaves and stir in. Now add the blended masala and let it come to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes.

Add the cooked vegetables and the cooked tuvar dal. Bring the mixture to a boil and then let it all cook on low heat, about 10 minutes, for the flavors to meld. Add water if the stew is too thick.

Add salt to taste. Serve hot over boiled rice.

Nutrition estimate per serving (for 8 servings): Calories 109, Total fat 2.4 grams, Potassium 400 mg, Dietary Fiber 4.4 grams, Sugar 1.4 grams, Protein 4.6 grams

Fat-Free Burrito Bowl: Cilantro Brown Rice, "Refried" Black Beans, No-Avocado Guacamole, and Tomato-Corn Salsa

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:05:46 PST

This morning, as we walked our dogs in a county park near our home, Desi and I noticed a squirrel running frantically up a tree carrying something large in her mouth. It was a plastic water bottle. And she was not carrying it --her mouth was stuck in it.

We couldn't help the poor squirrel because she was high up a tree and probably would've been too afraid to let us approach her, so we did the next best thing we could: we spent the next few minutes picking up more than a dozen bottles and cans that people had dumped around the park despite the fact that there were at least a half a dozen trash bins within a 20-foot radius. Of course, we knew that what we were doing did not really matter-- that more bottles and cans would be back on the ground a few hours later and some unsuspecting animal might stick its mouth in one in the hope of finding food. But it was a good reminder that thoughtless littering has consequences far worse than just marring the beauty of our surroundings.

You have likely seen photographs of geese with bills stuck in beer cans or duck with feet trapped in six-pack holders. In India, hungry cows on city streets munch on, often with fatal results, discarded plastic bags and cigarette butts. A lot of litter ends up in waterways, hurting the fish, turtles, and other creatures who make rivers, streams and oceans their home.

Not all of us litter, but most of us can stand to reduce the waste we create which, even when we are cognizant about putting it in a trash bin, does end up littering our Earth. Over the years, Desi and I have worked hard to cut down to a minimum the trash we generate. Here's what we do:

1. We cook most of our meals from scratch. It is healthier to make our own food because we know exactly what's in it, but cutting out prepared and semi-prepared convenience foods also helps us cut down on our consumption of packaging materials. You can, for instance, buy a bulk, 20-pound bag of rice in a single recyclable bag, but buy a package of instant microwaveable rice and you are buying a lot of plastic packaging for just one or two servings.

2. We don't buy canned and bottled drinks. If there is one product in our world with absolutely no nutritive value, it has to be soda. Vitamin drinks and flavored waters are just more sugary stuff that don't do your health any favors. And bottled water is plain silly. Filtered water is the favorite drink in our home and when we travel, we take some along in those handy little steel water bottles. Water not only tastes great, it's good for you.

3. We bring our own ceramic cups to work (and I nag those who don't :D). My workplace, which is very eco-friendly, doesn't offer styrofoam cups for coffee-- everyone's encouraged to bring their own reusable cups. But almost every other office I've worked in previously offered employees styrofoam cups. I once had a colleague who occupied the office next to mine and I'd watch in horror as she'd go through five or six styrofoam cups each day. I talked to her about it at every opportunity I had, reminding her that it takes 500 years for a styrofoam cup to break down in a landfill. She was probably annoyed beyond imagination, but I did wear her down: she finally brought in her own ceramic cup. And she used it.

3. We bring our own bags to the grocery store. We've been doing this for years now, and when we do-- for any reason-- end up with a plastic bag, we put it to work as a trash liner, dog-poop-picker-upper, etc. Canvas and reusable plastic bags are easy to find, cheap and environmentally friendly. They even look better.

4. We reuse almost all plastic and glass containers. Most plastic and glass food containers that come into our home find a use in our pantry. Jars of nuts turn into nice little holders for beans and lentils. Hardy jars of protein powder with screwtop lids are great for storing flour. Glass bottles of jelly get washed and recycled into spice containers. Styrofoam vegetable packages become homes for seedlings. If we absolutely can't use something, we put it in the recycle bin.

Our squirrel with her face stuck in the water bottle had a happy ending. Minutes after she had climbed to the top of the tree we heard the bottle clatter down to the street-- she had managed to free herself. But not all animals are so lucky.

***
One of my favorite things in the world to eat is a burrito bowl. How can anyone not love the fresh, layered, healthy deliciousness of rice, beans, guacamole, and salsa?

I've been exploring fat-free deliciousness in my kitchen, trying to make my healthy favorites even healthier, and my last attempt was this vibrant bowl that is so healthy, it'll make you glow.

To make my burrito bowl healthier than burrito bowls already are, I made cilantro brown rice, refried black beans, avocado-free guacamole, and a tomato-corn salsa-- all of it without a drop of fat or oil.

You might wonder why I'd cut down on the avocado. After all, it is a veggie and the fats it contains are heart-healthy. I couldn't agree more, and I love me some avocado every now and then. But the goal with my fat-free cooking recipes is to cut down on as much fat as I can and avocados do contain a fair amount of fat. Besides, if you can get the same delicious goodness without the fat, why quibble?

I used a rainbow of Mexican chilies to give my fat-free burrito bowl a flavor boost: serranos, habaneros, chipotles and jalapenos. The avocado-free guacamole is made with sweet peas and spiced with habanero. Habanero is one of the hottest peppers you can eat, but I use just about a fourth of a pepper. I love habaneros because besides the heat they have a great flavor that's wonderful in this guacamole. I blend the peas to silky smoothness in my blender, which gives them that smooth mouth-feel that avocados have. They taste different, of course, and a bit sweeter than avocados would, but they are perfect. And they have almost no natural fat.

The cilantro rice is brown rice with a dash of jalapeno fire. Use long-grain white rice if you want to, by all means. Long-grain white rice, like Basmati, has a fairly low glycemic index, so it won't send your sugars shooting into the stratosphere. I like the taste of the brown rice here, and the added fiber boost.

To spice my fat-free refried black beans, I used chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. I sauteed my onion and garlic in vegetable stock before adding the beans, which gives them a deeper flavor profile that goes perfectly with the cilantro rice.

Here are the recipes. Enjoy, all! And a very happy New Year to all of Holy Cow's readers.

Fat-Free Burrito Bowl

(Serves four)

Cilantro Brown Rice

Ingredients:

1 cup long-grain brown rice, like basmati

3 cups vegetable stock

2 cups packed cilantro or coriander leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 of a regular-sized habanero pepper (use more or less per taste).

Salt to taste

Place the cilantro, lemon juice and pepper in a blender with 1/2 cup of the vegetable stock. Blend into a smooth paste.

Place the rice in a strainer and wash it. Washing the rice ensures it won't burn as soon as you put it on a dry saucepan (remember we are not using any oil here).

Heat a saucepan and add the washed rice. Saute for a minute or until the rice starts to dry and turn opaque.

Add the cilantro paste and the remaining vegetable stock and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and put on a tight-fitting lid.

Let it cook undisturbed for 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it continue to stand for at least 10 minutes more.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 59.1, Total Fat 0.4 grams, Dietary Fiber 0.9 grams, Protein 1.3 grams

Refried Black Beans

Ingredients:

1 cup black beans, soaked for several hours or overnight. Cook the beans on the stovetop or in a pressure cooker until tender. Reserve a cup of the cooking liquid and strain the beans.

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1 large onion, finely chopped

5-6 cloves garlic, minced

1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely minced

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Heat the vegetable stock in a saucepan. When it simmers, add the onions and garlic. Add some salt and saute until the onions are soft and the stock has evaporated.

Add the beans and the chipotle chilli. Add the reserved bean stock and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and using a potato masher or a heavy ladle, mash the beans.

Add salt and ground black pepper, if desired (remember you already have the heat from the chipotle chili).

Let the beans cook until most of the water has evaporated. You don't want the beans to dry too much because they will thicken further on standing-- keep the mixture a little soupy.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 151, Total Fat 0.6 grams, Dietary Fiber 6.8 grams, Protein 8.7 grams

No-Avocado Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen shelled sweet peas.

1 jalapeno pepper, minced (deseed if you want to reduce the heat)

1 large onion, finely minced

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp lemon or lime juice

1/4 cup chopped cilantro or coriander leaves

Salt to taste

Cook the peas for 2 minutes in boiling water or until just tender. Strain them immediately and place in a blender along with the jalapeno and lime juice.

Blend until the peas are smooth and creamy. Remove to a bowl.

Add the onion, garlic powder, cilantro and salt to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 72.8, Total Fat 0.3 grams, Potassium 175.6 mg, Sugar 4.1 grams, Dietary Fiber 3.7 grams, Protein 4.2 grams

Tomato-Corn Salsa

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen sweet corn (use fresh if you find it)

1 large tomato, cut into a small dice

1 serrano pepper, finely minced

1 tbsp lime or lemon juice

1/4 cup cilantro or coriander leaves, finely minced

Salt to taste

Cook the corn in boiling water until just tender. Strain and add to a bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

To build your fat-free burrito bowl, layer the rice, beans, guacamole and salsa. Enjoy!

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 53.4, Total Fat 0.5 grams, Potassium 235.7 mg, Dietary Fiber 1.7 grams, Protein 1.8 grams

Sweet Potato Humman With Papada Kismoor: Fat-Free Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:09:34 PST

I always felt a bit like an outsider looking into the extended household of my childhood where uncles, aunts and cousins spoke to each other in Konkani, cooked Konkani food, and retreated to their Konkani native towns with cute names like Hubli and Sirsi for the summer.

That's because although my dad was a Konkani from Karwar in northern Karnataka, my mom-- a Maharashtrian-- taught my brother and me to speak Marathi as our first language. She also cooked mostly Maharashtrian food at home. As a result, Ashwin and I were the only two kids in the Honawar clan whose Konkani didn't sound as musical as it sounded stilted, and whose dinner plate featured varan instead of dalitoy.

But our proximity to dad's family members who all lived within a mile's radius of our home also helped me become familiar, at an early age, with the delicious flavors of Konkani cuisine. Later in my childhood my Goan stepmom introduced me to Goan Konkani food which stands apart in a class of its own.

The Konkan region sweeps in a sandy, palm-dotted strip along the coastline of Maharashtra all the way past Goa to Karnataka, sandwiched on one side by the picturesque Western Ghats and on the other by the Arabian Sea. It plays host to a number of regional cuisines (Malvani, Goan, Mangalorean, Karwari, Saraswat, Kokanastha), each unique yet not without an overlap because of the common ingredients they use, like rice, coconut, red chillies, kokum (a sour fruit usually added as a flavoring), triphal (an interestingly delicious herb that looks like a large all-spice corn) and -- in non-vegetarian homes-- fish.

Because Indian restaurants around the world tend to focus heavily on just a handful of north Indian dishes (like your biryanis, paneer palaks, aloo gobis, samosas, and pakoras), the complex and vastly diverse regional foods of India, including those of the Konkan region, are not something you are likely to be able to order from a menu. But there is another way to step into this neverending adventure: by cooking these foods in your own kitchen.

To start with, I have for you today a low-fat, healthy version of a popular dish that was a staple at my Konkani family's weeknight dinners: Batate Humman.

A humman, in Konkani, means a curry, or a stew. Batate Humman is a potato stew infused with the sweetness of coconut, the puckering tang of tamarind, and the heat of dry red chillies. It is a really simple stew, but delicious beyond imagination.

For this healthy version, I use sweet potato instead of potato, and I cut down the coconut. There's no oil or fat added to the recipe, but it is not strictly fat-free because coconut does contain some fat-- albeit heart-healthy fat. Altogether, this extremely healthy recipe has just 115 calories per serving and only 6.5 grams of fat in each serving.

I don't peel my sweet potatoes because the skins of vegetables, and the portion directly under it, are usually nutrient-rich, and peeling skins off veggies can leave your food bereft of some of the benefits of eating these veggies (there are, of course, exceptions-- don't try eating the skin of an avocado, or a pumpkin). When the sweet potato skins stew in the curry they get quite soft and you won't even be able to tell they are there.

To go with the Sweet Potato Humman which is one of the easiest and quickest recipes you can possibly make, I made another Konkani classic: Papada Kismoor. Most Indian food aficionados are familiar with a papad or poppadum, the light lentil cracker that is sometimes offered up in Indian restaurants instead of a bread basket. Sometimes, when a Konkani cook is rushed but in the mood for something delicious to go with his/her rice and curry, he or she will roast a few papads on the open flame of a gas stove, crush it into small bits, add some chopped onions and spices, and voila! It's a sidedish as delicious and crunchy as you can imagine it to be.

Papada Kismoor does perfect justice to a plate of boiled rice drizzled with some Sweet Potato Humman, and it's as healthy as can be.

Enjoy the meal, all!

Sweet Potato Humman

(Serves four)

Ingredients:

2 medium sweet potatoes, washed clean. Dice the sweet potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes. I don't peel the skins. Put in a microwave-safe bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water, cover with a microwave-safe lid (I sometimes just use a ceramic plate) and microwave for 5-7 minutes until tender. If you prefer, you can also cook the sweet potatoes on the stovetop.

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 dry red chillies (use more or less per taste)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1/2-inch ball of tamarind. Remove seeds, if any.

1/4 cup chopped coriander

Salt to taste

Heat a skillet and dry-roast the red chillies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds until they are a couple of shades darker and smell aromatic.

Put the roasted spices in a blender along with the coconut milk. Add the coconut milk and tamarind and enough water to blend into a smooth paste.

Pour the coconut paste in a saucepan and add the sweet potatoes. Bring the mixture to a boil. If it's too thick, add more water.

Add salt to taste and let the curry simmer about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot over boiled rice.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 115, Total Fat 6.5 grams, Potassium 381 mg, Dietary Fiber 2.5 grams, Sugar 5.1 grams, Protein 2.1 grams, Vitamin A 69 percent of RDA

Papada Kismoor

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

6 papads, each about 6 inches in diameter (I use the Lijjat brand which is the most widely available here. If you use the smaller papads (appalams), use more

1/2 tsp red chilli powder (use more or less per taste)

1/2 cup finely diced coriander leaves

2 tbsp grated coconut (optional. I didn't use it because I wanted to keep the fat low, but add it for a more traditional flavor)

1/2 cup finely onion (shallots would be even better)

Roast the papads in the microwave. I stack them and let them go one minute, which is usually enough. If you have raw spots, you can let them go for a few seconds more, but watch them carefully. Alternately, if you know how to do this, roast the papads over the open flame of a gas stove.

Crumble the papad into small pieces in a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. I don't add salt because the papads are fairly salty.

Tomato Dal With Phulkas: Fat-Free Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:15:02 PST

Sauteing in water instead of oil might sound strange and even a little yuck to someone who loves delicious food. In fact, right now I can imagine some of you shaking your heads going, oh, come on! But trust me when I say that it makes almost no difference to the flavor of many Indian foods, like curries and dals. And it can be your waistline's best friend.

Most Indian recipes start out with a "tadka" or "phodani" of oil, where you heat some oil then add spices like mustard, cumin, chillies, and asafoetida. The oil extracts the flavor of the spices, helping it mingle with the foods.

Most of my Indian recipes start this way too, except -- having always been health conscious-- I usually cut down the oil to just about a teaspoon or, at most, a tablespoon, which then gets split into several servings. But recently a great deal of research has emerged that shows cutting added fats from your diet altogether (yes, even that teaspoon) can be extremely beneficial to health. Bill Clinton, the first name in veganism today, says he's done it, and his cardiovascular health has never been better. He's also lost a lot of weight.

Now I know that some fat is essential in your diet, but many foods already contain fats-- even those you wouldn't imagine would. For instance, there are small amounts of fats in lentils, beans, grains, and most veggies and fruits, and fairly large amounts in nuts and some veggies like avocados and olives. Soymilk has fats, and so does tofu. So cutting out added fats -- even the good ones like olive oil which contain the same amount of calories as the unhealthy fats-- is not going to leave you missing an essential nutrient.

Still, I was one of the skeptics until I actually got started with fat-free Indian cooking, mostly after hearing about it from my good friend, Dr. Nandita Shah of the nonprofit Sharan, who travels around India with her Peas vs. Pills workshops. Nandita starts many of her recipes by sauteing in water or stock. So I decided to give it a go, and over the months I've made --on and off-- several Indian recipes without any added fat that I've absolutely loved.

There are some things to keep in mind when you take oil out of the equation while making Indian food, and the chief among these is that you do not-- absolutely do not-- add raw whole or powdered spices to water. Spices already contain some oil, so if you even toast them on a dry skillet before you powder them, or before you add the water, you won't go wrong. Garlic and ginger, on the other hand, will do fine when sauteed in water or on a dry skillet. You can even sputter your mustard seeds and cumin seeds in a dry skillet.

As the new year bears down on us, I am trying to find ways to make my diet even healthier than it already is because with each passing year the pounds get harder to shake off. Today, I want to share with you my recipe for a very simple but utterly flavorful dal made with absolutely no fat, but so delicious that no one would know. I like mixing this with some cooked cracked wheat (a delicious, low-glycemic alternative to rice), or just slurping it up like a soup.

This time, I served it up with some Phulkas. Phulkas are fat-free versions of that popular Indian bread, the chapati. Phulkas are rolled slightly thicker, cooked partly on a hot griddle, and finished off directly on the gas burner where they puff up into a ball. Think skinny pitas, but softer.

I didn't have a chance to photograph my phulkas puffing up on the burner because my photographer, Desi, was not available when I made them and I couldn't do both jobs-- roasting the phulkas and photographing-- at once, but I promise to get him to take some pictures over the next couple of days and post them here so you'll know how they should look. I will also be posting more fat-free and very low-fat recipes over the next few weeks, so if you're interested in learning more about healthy ways to cook Indian-- and other-- food, keep an eye out.

Now tell me, what is your new year's resolution?

Fat-Free Tomato Dal

(Makes six servings)

Ingredients:

1 cup tuvar dal (pigeon peas), boiled until really tender and mushy, preferably in a pressure cooker

2 large tomatoes, finely diced

1 large onion, finely diced

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 cup coriander leaves, chopped

1 tbsp sambar powder (since sambar powder is usually pre-roasted, you don't need to roast this first)

1/4 tsp turmeric

Heat a skillet and add the turmeric to it. Roast it for just about 30 seconds, stirring, and then add 1/4 cup of water or vegetable stock.

When the water simmers, add the onion, ginger, and half the coriander leaves. Add a pinch of salt.

Saute the onions until they begin to turn translucent and get soft. Now add the tomatoes and the sambar powder and stir them well to mix. Cook, stirring, until the tomato's completely broken down. Add a tiny bit of water if necessary to help it along.

Add the cooked dal and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and let it cook about 10 minutes. Add water if the dal is too thick.

Turn off the heat and garnish with the remaining coriander leaves.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 82.1, Total fat 0.4 grams, Dietary fiber 3 grams, Protein 4.3 grams, Sugar 0.1 grams

Phulkas (Puffy, Fat-Free Chapatis)

(Makes 6 servings of 3 phulkas each)

Ingredients:

2 cups whole-wheat chapati flour or regular whole-wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt (use powdered salt, not granular)

Water for kneading

Add the salt to the flour and mix well. Add water, a little at your time, and knead the dough to a firm but pliable consistency. You don't want a sticky dough because it will be hard to handle and the phulkas won't puff up.

Divide the dough into 18 portions, and roll each into a circle, about 4 inches in diameter. You don't want to roll your phulkas too thin because they won't puff up if you do, and you want to roll them as evenly as you possibly can-- which means they should not be thin in some places and thick in others.

Heat a cast-iron or nonstick griddle on the stove, and keep another burner free to finish the phulkas. If you have an electric stove, you can buy a steel grill (it looks like a small cooling rack) at some Indian grocery stores that you can place on top of the stove grill so your phulkas won't come in direct contact with the coils and burn.

Once the griddle is very hot, place one phulka on it and when bubbles start to appear, flip it over and let it go for about 15 seconds.

Light the other burner and using a pair of tongs (preferably something that won't pierce through the phulka) place the phulka directly on the flames. It should start to puff up immediately.

As soon as it puffs up, turn it over and let the other side cook for 15 seconds. Be quick and watchful because you don't want your phulka to turn to cinder. That said, this is all very easy once you've gotten the hang of it.

Store the prepared phulkas while you make the rest by stacking and wrapping them in a kitchen towel. Don't put them in a closed box because they'll sweat.

Eat them fresh and hot. They are really soft fresh but will harden as they stand. To refresh them, zap them in the microwave for a few seconds, but they do taste best just off the stove.

Nutrition estimate per serving of three phulkas: Calories 217.4, Total fat 1.2 grams, Potassium 204.2 mg, Dietary fiber 7.9 grams, Sugar 0.1 grams
**

I haven't posted pictures of my little ones for a while, so I'll leave you with some very cute shots of Opie, Pie and Lucy enjoying their Christmas treats.

Pappardelle Pasta With Roasted Tomato Chipotle Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:09:49 PST

It's Christmas Eve and the neighborhood is looking really pretty. Yards are draped with multicolored lights and inside windows you can catch glimpses of ornamented Christmas trees. It's all quite picture-perfect except at the malls, I'm sure, where it's a mad rush and you won't catch me within a mile of those during this season (or most times, for that matter).

I was planning to post some more cookie recipes for you last week, but my oven went on the fritz and will remain quite useless until next week when the repair service arrives. Everything works a little slower around the holidays, but how could anyone be mad about that?

It's probably a good thing too, because I had been on a bit of a sugar high these past few weeks with all that cake- and cookie-baking. Having to rely solely on my cooktop and my tiny toaster oven for all my cooking, I've gotten a little ahead of myself and started coming up with healthy recipes in anticipation of that inevitable New Year resolution: weight loss.

You know I like to cook healthy most times, but I am not one of those people who can stomach bland albeit wholesome food. I love food, and I like it to be delicious: a luxurious treat for my tastebuds. My Pappardelle Pasta with Roasted Tomato Chipotle Sauce proves food does not have to be high-calorie to be rich, nor dripping with grease to taste great.

I combined ingredients from two strong yet diverse cuisines for this recipe: Mexican and Italian. The Roasted Tomato Chipotle sauce is a Mexican classic, made -- as the name suggests-- with roasted tomatoes and chipotle chilies, and it is a spicy, versatile sauce you can serve with enchiladas, tacos, burritos, or even as a chip dip.

To adapt this sauce for pasta I stuck with the traditional recipe and then, at the very end, I added some cashew cream to mellow out the spicy sting. It was perfect. Keeping up with the roasted veggie theme and to balance the spice, I roasted a trio of sweet, multicolored bell peppers and added them to the pasta along with some sweet basil.

This is an easy and quick recipe, and the only time you need to make it is to roast the veggies and boil the pasta, but most of that does not require constant monitoring. There's also almost no added fat in here, except the 1/2 tsp olive oil in the recipe and some healthy fat from the cashews. But no one would ever be able to tell, because the flavors are so bold and rich.

I used Pappardelle, a broad ribbon that is one of my favorite pastas, but fettucini would also be great for this sauce.

A quick note about toaster ovens: I rarely use mine to make toast, and more often to roast, heat and brown foods-- stuff I don't need precise temperature control for, like I would for baking a bread or cake. It turns out to be more energy efficient too because toaster ovens are much smaller than regular ovens and heat up much faster.

I'll leave you with all of my best wishes for a lovely, lovely holiday and a very merry Christmas. May all be well with the world.

Pappardelle Pasta with Roasted Tomato Chipotle Sauce

(Makes four servings)

Ingredients:

1 8-oz package pappardelle pasta. Cook until al dente per package instructions.

2 large ripe tomatoes.

2 jalapeno peppers (use one or skip altogether if you want a milder sauce)

1/2 chipotle chili in adobo sauce

5 cloves garlic, skins on

1/2 tsp olive oil

Salt to taste

1/4 cup cashews, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes, then ground into a fine, very smooth paste.

10-12 leaves of Italian basil, torn

Heat a heavy skillet and then place the whole tomatoes on it. If your skillet is large enough, place the jalapenos and the garlic cloves with skins on in the skillet too. If not, roast these one at a time.

Roast the tomatoes until the skin starts to char and brown spots appear. Turn them around and let them cook on all sides until the skin is fairly browned. Do the same for the jalepenos and the garlic.

Remove everything to a plate. I like to roast the tomatoes further in an oven to intensify the sweetness. So cut the tomatoes in half and put them in an oven-safe dish, cut side up, and place in a 500-degree preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Once the tomatoes cool, place them in a blender along with the jalapeno peppers (deseed them if you are sensitive to heat) and the chipotle chili. Peel the garlic and add it to the blender too.

Blend the tomatoes into a puree. You don't need to add more water-- there's enough liquid in the tomatoes to help you along.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the tomato-chipotle mixture to the skillet and cook until it is reduced to the consistency of tomato paste and has become darker, about 8-10 minutes.

Add the cashew cream and mix well.

Add salt to taste. You can also add some ground black pepper for more flavor, but I find that there is already enough heat in the sauce.

Add the cooked pasta, basil, and strips of roasted bell peppers (instructions below) and toss.

Roasted bell peppers:

3 medium bell peppers (use any color. I used one red, one green, and one yellow)

Place the bell peppers in an oven-safe dish with deep sides (don't use a flat plate because some juices might run from the peppers).

Preheat an oven to 500 degrees. Place the peppers in the oven and let them roast, turning them occasionally, until the skin is evenly brown and charred.

Cool the peppers and then peel off the skin and remove seeds. Cut into thin strips and add to the pasta.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 368, Total fat 8.6 grams, Dietary fiber 4.9 grams, Sugar 2 grams, Protein 12.6 grams

Vadakari

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:20:10 PST

Desi's the kind of guy who usually just eats whatever I cook, but sometimes -- to my delight-- he will come up with a special request. Usually it's a taste from his childhood in Madras. This past weekend it was a request for Vadakari (also sometimes called Vada Kari or Vadai Curry), a spicy dish he and his brothers would sometimes order at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Chromepet, a suburb of Madras where he grew up.

I have been cooking Tamil food for so long now I could pass for a native, but I must confess Vadakari is not something I'd ever heard of before. So I set about trying to find a recipe and landed at this one which sounded really good. I adapted it a little, and voila! I had a wonderful new recipe that not only any vegan would love, but one that would satisfy any carnivore's chewy tooth. Now that's a find.

Vadakari is exactly what it sounds like (well, at least to a Tamilian). It is a curry, or a spicy gravy of tomatoes and onions with tiny little lentil dumplings, or vadai. The vadai are deep-fried, then broken into little pieces and added to the gravy, which gives them a really great chewy texture.

Desi told me that Vadakari is served with pooris, puffy little Indian breads, probably just as a ploy to get me to make some (did I ever tell you he's nuts about pooris?). But this curry would also be gorgeous with some chapatis or any Indian flatbread, like a naan.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Vadakari

Ingredients for the vadai:

1 cup chana dal (bengal gram dal)

1/4 cup brown rice flour

2 red chillies

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Soak the chana dal for 3 hours or if you don't have the time do what I did and cheat-- put the chana dal in a microwave-safe bowl, add enough water to top the dal by at least an inch, and zap for three minutes. Then drain.

Grind the chana dal with the rest of the ingredients. If the processor or blender blades refuse to turn because the mixture is too dry, add just a tiny bit of water, a tablespoon at a time. You want a coarse paste that clumps together, but it should not be too watery or you won't be able to form your vadas.

Form 1-inch vadas by pulling off a piece of the dough, rolling it into a ball, and then flattening it between your palms. I got about 16 vadas.

Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan. Deep-fry the vadas until they are golden-brown. Don't let them brown too quickly or they'll stay raw inside. Drain onto a paper towel. Once the vadais are cool enough to handle, break them up into small pieces.

Ingredients for the curry:

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced or crushed with a garlic press

10-12 curry leaves

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 large tomato, finely chopped

1/2 tsp chilli powder, like cayenne

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

A generous pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1 tsp vegetable or canola oil

1 cup coconut milk

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the seeds sputter, add the onions and curry leaves.

Saute until the onions start to turn transparent. Add the ginger and garlic and stir well, about a minute. Add the tomatoes.

Add the turmeric, chilli powder, and garam masala powder. Mix them in and saute the mixture until the tomatoes are all crushed into a paste and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add a cup of water, bring it to a boil, then add the pieces of vadai. Once the vadai absorb most of the water, add coconut milk and salt to taste.

Stir well, bring the curry to a boil, and let it simmer another five minutes. Turn off the heat and add chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:02:23 PDT

New Year's resolutions about eating skinny are for the new year. For now I give you this scrumptious Chocolate Oreo Cake.

Early on in a new vegan's journey comes the delicious discovery that Oreo cookies-- yes, those gorgeous little black-and-white nuggets of chocolaty goodness-- are vegan. And life is never quite the same again.

We all can agree that Oreos aren't health food, but it would have to be a true killjoy who does not enjoy eating one every now and then. And the holidays are a perfect excuse. My Chocolate Oreo Cake is two layers of moist, velvety, soft-as-a-cloud chocolate cake sandwiching a layer of white vanilla buttercream. On top goes an icing of chocolate buttercream and some Oreo cookies. Can you imagine more deliciousness in one place?

I had been wanting to share a vegan chocolate cake recipe for a long time but the recipes I've tried before (with my favorite, for flavor, being the one from the Candle Cafe Cookbook) tend to be too delicate and the cake almost always ends up falling apart while unmolding. For this Oreo cake I modified my chocolate cupcake recipe and it was perfect. The cake was tender but not too fragile, and it tasted better than any chocolate cake I've ever had.

The chocolate buttercream is a must-try: besides tasting divine, it looks really pretty too. I used mini Oreos as a topping and I left them whole, but you could always just use the regular-sized ones, crumble them up, and scatter them on top of the cake. Or you could leave out the Oreos altogether.

Here's the recipe.

Chocolate Oreo Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups almond milk (can use soy)

2 tsp vinegar

1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar (can use regular sugar)

2/3 cup canola or other flavorless vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp instant coffee powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand-held mixer, beat the sugar, vanilla extract and oil until fluffy, about two minutes.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, coffee, cocoa powder and salt.

Add the cocoa-flour mixture to the wet ingredients in three batches, alternating with the almond milk-vinegar mixture, beating 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl after each addition to ensure everything is mixed together. Don't overbeat.

Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper at the bottom, and oil and flour the bottom and sides. Divided the cake batter evenly between the two pans.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center of each cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake pans on a rack for 15 minutes. Then run a knife along the edges of the cake pans and unmold the cakes by putting a plate over the mouth of the pan and flipping it. Peel off the parchment paper.

Place the unmolded cakes on the rack to cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting (Chocolate and Vanilla)

Ingredients:

8 tbsp (1/2 cup) vegetable shortening

8 tbsp (1/2 cup) vegan "butter" like Earth Balance

2 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp instant coffee powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Have your butter and shortening at room temperature. Place them in a bowl and with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer with a whisk attached, beat until you have a fluffy mixture, about a minute.

Add the confectioners' sugar in batches of 1/4 cup at a time, beating about 20 seconds after each addition. As with the batter, scraped down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition to ensure everything is evenly mixed.

Remove 1/3rd of the frosting to another bowl. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Set aside. This is your vanilla buttercream frosting.

Add the cocoa powder and instant coffee powder to the remaining buttercream and mix well. This is your chocolate buttercream frosting.

Place one cake on a cake stand or a plate and top with the vanilla buttercream. Using a table knife or a spatula, spread the frosting evenly on top of the cake.

Place the second cake on top of the first one. Top with the chocolate buttercream and spread it evenly on top of the cake and on the sides.

Decorate with mini Oreos, as I did, or crumble some Oreo cookies and scatter them on top of the cake.

Enjoy, all!