Holy Cow! Vegan Recipe

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) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:55:15 PST

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) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:50:18 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) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 14:18:48 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) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:29:08 PST

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!

Peanut Curry, Spiced Brown Rice, and Cabbage Subzi

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 12:30:58 PST

...Or Shengdanyachi Aamti, Phodanicha Bhaat ani Kobichi Bhaaji.

This is the kind of meal we cook and eat in our home most days. It's traditional Indian food at its wholesomest. The kind you won't find at an Indian restaurant, but is better than anything you could eat out.

To make this protein-packed meal I dug into my Marathi roots. My mom, a Maharashtrian, left in me a deep and lasting love for the food of this beautiful state on India's west coast. Although she passed away when I was a child, growing up in Bombay, Maharashtra's capital, meant I was never too far from the delicious flavors of Marathi cuisine.

At its very best, Maharashtrian food is simple yet complex. Its most brilliant dishes-- like varan (a dal dish), or the Shengdanyachi Amti (Peanut Curry) I have for you today-- need just a few ingredients, but they pack a powerful flavor punch. The peanut curry is typically eaten by Maharashtrians when they are fasting for religious reasons, usually with a "rice" made of varai, or samo seeds. Since samo seeds are not something I find at my local Indian store, I thought I'd make instead a healthy, lightly spiced brown rice dish, Phodanicha Bhaat, to go with it. And because a subzi (or bhaaji, as we'd call it in Marathi) is a must with any rice-curry combination, I made an easy but classic Cabbage Bhaaji that both Desi and I love.

If you're wondering why people would eat anything on a fast, here's a secret: In India nobody actually goes hungry on a fast. Instead, fasters find alternatives to the foods they regularly eat and consume those instead. So you can't eat rice, but you can eat a "rice" made with samo seeds or with sago (tapioca pearls). And you can't eat a dal made with lentils, but you can eat one made with peanuts. See? It's a common Indian joke that people usually come out of a fast weighing more than they did before.

I wouldn't fast if my life depended on it, but I do love this peanut curry just for everyday comfort eats. It packs tons of protein. And combined with the rice and bhaaji it is more delicious than any food you can imagine.

Here are the recipes. Enjoy, all!

Shengdanyachi Aamti (Peanut Stew or Curry)

(The meal would serve 6 people)

Ingredients:

1 cup peanuts, lightly roasted on a skillet (use peeled or unpeeled-- it doesn't really matter)

2 dry red chillies

1 1-inch ball of tamarind

4 cloves

1 1-inch stick of cinnamon

1 tsp cumin seeds

10 curry leaves (optional)

1 tbsp jaggery, grated or finely chopped

1 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Place the peanuts, red chillies and tamarind in a blender. Add about a cup of water and blend into a smooth paste. Add more water if the mixture is too thick.

Heat oil in a saucepan. Add the cumin seeds, and when they sputter add the cloves and cinnamon.

Pour in the peanut paste and add some water if it is too thick. Stir well together and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to simmer and let it cook another five minutes

Add the jaggery, stir it in, and then season with salt.

Serve hot.

Nutrition estimate per serving (for 6 servings): Calories 154, Total fat 12.8 grams, Cholesterol 0 mg, Potassium 166.4 mg, Dietary Fiber 2 grams, Sugar 1.6 grams, Protein 5.8 grams

Phodanicha Bhaat (Spiced Brown Rice)

Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice, cooked (I mix the brown rice with 3 cups of water in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, turn the heat down to low, slap on a lid, and let it cook, undisturbed, for 45 minutes. Let the rice stand, covered, for another 10 minutes before opening)

1 dry red chilli, broken into pieces

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 1-inch cinnamon stick

3 cloves

1 bay leaf

12-14 curry leaves

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tomato, finely diced

2 tsp garam masala or sambar powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Coriander for garnish

Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet and add the cumin seeds. When they sputter, add the cinnamon, cloves and bayleaf. Stir for 30 seconds.

Add the onions, curry leaves and a pinch of salt, and stir-fry for five minutes until the onions start to soften.

Add the tomato and sambar and turmeric powders. Stir together.

Add the rice and salt to taste and mix everything thoroughly. Let it all warm through, about five minutes.

Garnish with coriander.

Nutrition estimate per serving (for six servings): Calories 54, Total Fat: 1.1 grams, Cholesterol 0 mg, Potassium 88.3 mg, Dietary Fiber 1.1 grams, Sugar 0 grams, Protein 1.2 grams.

Cabbage Bhaji

Ingredients:

1/3rd of a large cabbage, cut into fine ribbons (about four cups)

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 tbsp black mustard seeds

1 tbsp udad dal (black gram dal)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

A generous pinch of asafoetida (hing)

8-10 curry leaves

2-3 green chillies, slit down the middle

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet. Add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard sputters, add the udad dal, stir fry for a minute until lightly golden-brown, then add turmeric powder, green chillies, and curry leaves.

Add the shredded cabbage and stir it all together very well. Add some salt. This will help the cabbage soften without having to add extra water.

Stir-fry for about 10 minutes or until the cabbage is tender but still has a bite to it. If you like your cabbage really tender, let it go for a few more minutes. Be sure to stir often so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

Garnish, if desired, with some shredded coconut and coriander leaves.

Nutrition estimate per serving (for 6 servings): Calories 22, Total fat 0.9 grams, Potassium 146 mg, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sugar 0 g, Dietary Fiber 1.4 grams, Protein 0.9 grams

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake With A Lemon Glaze

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:47:11 PST

A plump, golden Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with a Lemon Glaze is what I have for you today.

After all these years of baking vegan cakes and cupcakes, I am still amazed at how easy it is to eliminate animal products like butter, cream and egg and still get a perfectly moist, airy and beautiful result. All of it minus that awful egg odor. If you don't believe me, all you have to do is try this cake.

Lemon and poppy seed are a classic combination, and just one bite of this amazing cake will tell you why. I used Meyer lemons which have a distinctive flavor and are sweeter than your average lemon, but it's perfectly fine to use regular lemons instead. You could even try substituting other fruit juices.

This is a great base recipe to create cakes of all flavors. You could, for instance, substitute the lemon juice and zest with orange and get a great orange bundt cake. Or you might try another fruit juice. This cake is very much like a pound cake, with a buttery crumb and a melt-in-the-mouth texture. I also used unbleached cake flour to get a particularly light texture. Cake flour is very low in gluten, so you don't have to worry about your cake getting tough, the way it could with higher gluten flours like all-purpose flour. If you can't get cake flour, use all-purpose but replace two tablespoons in each cup with cornflour.

You could also use whole-wheat pastry flour to make this cake. It will be darker and the crumb will be thicker, but you'd still have a great cake (and one that's slightly healthier too).

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

Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze

(Makes 16 servings)

For cake:

2 2/3 cup unbleached cake flour (If you don't have cake flour, all-purpose would be okay but replace 5 tbsp of the all-purpose flour with cornflour. You can also make this with whole-wheat pastry flour but the crumb will be thicker.)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups vegan cane sugar or turbinado sugar

1 3/4 cup almond milk or soymilk mixed with 2 tsp vinegar. Set aside five minutes to curdle.

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup poppy seeds, lightly toasted in a skillet. Do this over medium heat and stir frequently. It should take no more than five minutes.

Zest of two lemons

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup (2 sticks) of vegan "butter" like Earth Balance, at room temperature

Cream together the sugar and "butter" in a stand mixer or hand mixer fitted with a wisk, until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bottom and sides of bowl a couple of times during the mixing.

Mix the lemon juice, zest, vanilla extract and almond milk.

Sift into a bowl the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder

Add the flour to the butter and sugar mixture in three batches, alternating with the almond milk mixture. Mix for 20 seconds after each addition, then scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything's integrated.

Add the poppy seeds and mix with a spatula to disperse them evenly through the batter.

Oil and flour a bundt cake pan. Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out dry. Let the cake stand in the bundt pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then unmold. This cake unmolds easily, but if you need help run a knife lightly and carefully around the edges.

With a toothpick, make a few holes in the warm cake and then paint on the lemon glaze (recipe follows) with a brush. Cool thoroughly.

For the lemon glaze

1/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

With a wisk, mix the lemon juice and sugar.

Paint the glaze onto the cake using a pastry brush. You can even just pour it on.

Decorate the cake with some lemon zest, for a pretty look.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 275, Total fat 12.8 grams, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 160.4 mg, Dietary Fiber 0.8 grams, Sugar 19.2 grams, Protein 2.5 grams

If you like citrusy cakes, have you tried my fail-safe Orange Cake?

***

Say No to Horse-Carriage Rides in New York City and Elsewhere

There have been a number of media articles in recent weeks about efforts by animal-rights activists to stop New York City's abhorrent horse-drawn carriages, after the deaths of two horses who literally dropped dead while ferrying passengers around the city's clogged streets.

If you've ever been to New York, you will not have missed these horse carriages (and hopefully you knew better than to ride in one). But if you haven't you would find it hard to imagine the sight of these poor animals, blinkers on, forced to walk around pulling hundreds of pounds for at least nine hours each day, seven days a week, ferrying passengers through the din, pollution, and unbearable hustle of New York's infamous traffic.

It is also hard to imagine that leaders of this, one of the world's greatest cities, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, still believe that they need this archaic display of animal cruelty to draw in tourists. If anything, it makes me never want to visit again.

To my mind, horses symbolize freedom. To condemn these beautiful creatures to a life of slavery and suffering is not just wrong, it should be a crime. Unfortunately, New York City is not alone. I wrote a few years back about Charleston's horrendous horse carriages which really ruined my visit to this otherwise beautiful town in South Carolina.

The horses pay a heavy price for our "entertainment." Many suffer respiratory ailments, not surprising given that they are inhaling noxious exhaust fumes all day, and some turn lame because of walking constantly on the hard pavement. At the end of a long, hard day the horses are returned to crowded stables where they are packed in, with no recourse to roam free for even a short time. They have no pastures where they can graze, or socialize with other animals. The next morning it's back to the streets and hard labor and on and on until they die an early death or are put down.

Animal rights activists in New York City, including the ASPCA, have been fighting to have the horse carriages banned and they have been making steady progress, but I wanted to share this with you too in the hope that you will contribute your own power as consumers. All you have to do is say no to horse rides that are common "tourist attractions" in cities around the world.

There's so much to see and do in New York City or in Charleston or in just about any place on earth. There is absolutely no need to sully your visit or vacation with a ride in a horse-drawn carriage, pulled by a sentient animal who will never know what it's like to be happy.

Picture from ASPCA

Tofu Makhani

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:54:08 PST

Here's a master recipe for a gravy you can use to make any kind of "makhani" dish.

If you've eaten at an Indian restaurant, you've likely come across Chicken Makhani, or Butter Chicken. The reason for Butter Chicken's immense popularity is its smooth, signature-orange gravy that wraps itself silkily around your tastebuds, and the fabulously buttery flavor that rounds off sparkling notes of spicy, sour, salty, bitter and sweet.

But Butter Chicken is also not, as the name suggests, a healthy dish. It usually includes cream, butter, and -- of course, chicken, with all of the accompanying fat and cholesterol. All of which makes it a no-no in my kitchen where the only creatures who wander in are there to eat, not be eaten.

A reader recently asked me for a vegan version of Butter Chicken, which spurred me to cook this delicious dish once more and share it with all of you. This gravy is exactly similar to the one typically used for Butter Chicken, with the exception, of course, that there is no butter or cream here. At least not real butter, but we do need a tablespoon of a good quality vegan "butter" like Earth Balance. It's really not much since this recipe would easily serve four people, so don't try to skimp on it because you won't end up with the desired smooth, rich result.

You can use this gravy with tofu, as I did, or even with meat substitutes and vegetables like mushrooms or eggplant. It is fabulous every which way. Adding tofu to this dish brings it closer to another popular Makhani dish, Paneer Makhani, where paneer, an Indian cheese, is added to the gravy. But tofu has healthy fats, unlike paneer, and it is bursting with good protein. Dal Makhani is a slightly different dish and you can find my recipe here, but you could easily adapt this recipe to make a dal makhani by simply adding boiled and tender lentils at the stage where the tofu gets added to the dish.

I marinate the tofu for extra flavor, and it really helps, so take the time to do it. If you are using veggies or meat substitutes, you can use the same marinade ingredients and brown the veggies or meat substitutes before adding them to the makhani gravy. Add the veggies or meat substitute at the same stage where you'd add the tofu.

Here's the recipe, then, for an incredibly super and versatile Tofu Makhani. Enjoy, all!

Tofu Makhani

(Makes 4 servings)

Prepare the tofu:

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 block extra-firm tofu. Swaddle the block of tofu in a paper napkin or cheesecloth, place it in a sieve, and place a heavy weight, like a pan, on top. Let the tofu stand for an hour at least so most of the water has drained out of it. Then cut it in half down the middle, and halve again crosswise so you have four slices.

1 tsp coriander powder

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

1/8 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients except the tofu. Now slather the marinade on the slices of tofu you've prepared and set aside for about half an hour.

Smear the oil evenly in a nonstick or cast-iron griddle. When it's hot, place the slices of tofu in the pan without crowding them. Cook until golden-brown on each side, about four minutes per side. Remove to a plate and, when cool, cut into 3/4-inch cubes. Set aside.

Prepare the Makhani gravy:

1 tsp oil

3 green cardamom pods

3 cloves

10 peppercorns

1-inch piece of cinnamon

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander powder

1/2 tbsp grated garlic

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 large tomato, finely chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

2 heaping tbsp kasoori methi (dry fenugreek leaves)

2 tsp grated jaggery or maple syrup (use sugar if you don't have these)

2 cups vegetable stock, or more (use water if you don't have this, but stock will add more flavor)

1/4 cup cashew nuts

1 tbsp vegan "butter"

1 tbsp lemon juice

Fresh green coriander for garnish

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the cumin seeds, and when they sputter add cardamom, cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon. Saute for a minute over medium-high heat.

Add the onions and a little salt and saute until the onions start to brown, about five minutes. Add ginger and garlic pastes, kasoori methi, and cashew nuts and saute for another minute.

Add the tomatoes and tomato paste, powdered coriander, turmeric, and chilli powder.

Saute the mixture until the tomatoes turn really soft and melt into the saucepan. If the mixture starts to get too dry before the tomatoes are done, add some water or vegetable stock and continue cooking.

Once the tomatoes are really soft, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. Pour into a blender and add a cup of vegetable stock. Blend to a smooth paste. (Don't blend the mixture while it's still hot because it can be dangerous. If you have a hand blender, this is the time to use it.)

Pour the blended paste back into the saucepan, turn on the heat, add the remaining vegetable stock if the mixture is thick, and bring to a simmer. Now add the tofu cubes and stir them in. Add salt to taste. Let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the vegan butter and turn off the heat. Stir to melt the butter into the sauce.

Add the lemon juice and maple syrup, mix well, garnish with coriander leaves, and serve hot with some boiled rice or naan.

I've lapsed on adding nutrition estimates for the past few recipes because of time constraints, but I did calculate them for you this time. As you can see, this dish ends up being quite healthy.

Nutrition estimate per serving: Calories 251, Protein 14.7 grams, Total Fat 16.3 grams, Cholesterol 0 mg, Potassium 529 mg, Carbohydrates 16.1 grams, Dietary Fiber 2.5 grams, Sugar 5.4 grams, Vitamin A 10.9 percent, Vitamin C 18.7 percent, Iron 18.3 percent, Calcium 14.2 percent.

Butternut Squash Risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:38:45 PST

The cold chill of winter is not without its warm comforts: fuzzy slippers, the glow of the holidays, friends and family, cookies hot from the oven...and Butternut Squash Risotto infused with the woodsy fragrance of sage.

It is hard to ignore winter squash in the market this time of year. There they sit, yellow butternut, green acorn, orange pumpkin, showing off their cutely plump shapes and screaming: "Just buy me already! I promise not to spoil. And I'm delicious."

But their looks, resilience and addictive flavor are not the only thing that's wonderful about them. Winter squashes and their orange flesh pack in huge quantities of vitamins A, B and C, fiber, iron, and -- surprise-- omega 3 fatty acids, making them one of the healthiest veggies you can eat.

Even intrepid cooks sometimes get put off by winter squashes because of their hard skins. How do I peel a winter squash, is a question I often hear from readers. But there is really no need to be afraid of that skin. It's what keeps your squash fresh and well-preserved on the countertop even as your less armored veggies are spoiling by the minute inside the refrigerator. And while peeling winter squash is more labor-intensive than, say, peeling a banana, that doesn't mean it's difficult. Especially not with a sharp knife.

Here's what I do. I stab the squash a couple of times with the knife and nuke it for a couple of minutes. Stabbing the squash ensures that it won't blow up in the microwave, although a couple of minute is probably too short for it to do so anyway. Still, no harm in being cautious. And the nuking softens the skin just that little bit so your knife goes through it more readily.

Then I lop off the top and the bottom so the squash sits firmly on the chopping board. I run a knife down the middle to cut it into halves. I scoop out the seeds and then I halve each half again. Once I have manageable-sized pieces, I take my knife and run it as close to the skin as possible along the length of the squash to peel it. I've heard that serrated peelers do a good job of this too, but I don't have one so I don't know that for a fact.

Once I have peeled the squash, I cut it up into a dice or whatever shape I need in order to get cooking.

See? Easy.

Besides, it's really worth the trouble for a reward as gorgeous as this Butternut Squash Risotto.

Risotto is one of my favorite dishes from Italian cuisine and it goes down swimmingly in our rice-loving home. Butternut squash makes the risotto extra special, adding a deep, rich sweetness highlighted by the warm smokiness of the sage. Sage and squash are a perfect flavor pairing, in fact, and there's just no way to go wrong with this one.

Risotto is usually finished off with parmesan cheese for that signature creaminess and while this risotto, already richly flavored, doesn't need that extra touch, I did add some vegan cashew "cheese" to mine-- a delicious paste of some cashews, nutritional yeast and salt. It was quite amazing.

Here's the recipe. Hope everyone's staying nice and warm and cozy in this freezing weather.

Butternut Squash Risotto

(Makes 4 servings)

Ingredients:

1 cup arborio or other medium-grained rice (you need a starchy rice for risotto, unlike the long-grained basmati)

2 tsp olive oil

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into a 1/2-inch dice (mine yielded 4 cups of diced squash)

4-5 cups hot vegetable stock (you could use water, but a stock is far more preferable for better flavor)

1/2 cup white wine

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage or 1 tsp dried sage

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Cashew "cheese" made by blending together 1/4 cup cashews, 1 tsp nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup of water, and salt to taste (optional)

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the butternut squash, a pinch of salt, and some ground black pepper.

Saute over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes or until the squash starts to soften and caramelize.

Turn down the heat to medium. Add the rice and stir it with the squash until it begins to turn opaque, about 1 minute. Season again with salt and pepper.

Add the white wine and cook, stirring, until the wine's almost evaporated.

Add 1/2 cup of vegetable stock and stir it in. Once the stock has almost evaporated, add another 1/2 cup. Repeat until the rice is cooked. It took me about 35 minutes. Don't forget to season again with salt and pepper at the end. You might need more or less stock, and you basically want the rice to be tender yet slightly toothy, or al dente. In other words, you don't want mushy rice. You also don't want the rice to be dry and lumpy. It should be smooth and creamy.

Now add the cashew "cheese", if you're using it, and stir it in. Immediately add the sage and mix. Turn off the heat.

Eat it hot.
**

As winter falls upon us, please look through your closets for old towels and blankets to donate to your local animal shelter so they can help keep warm all those beautiful dogs and cats and other critters waiting behind bars for their forever homes.

Shelters are usually not well funded, and especially so in these bad economic times as cities shrink their budgets. A couple of used blankets and towels are great gifts and if you can give more the animals are always in need of food and treats and small toys. Over the holidays, shelter staff also bring food and treats to pets who are left tied and neglected in cold backyards by bad parents, and to animals who live with parents who love them but cannot afford to feed them because they have fallen on bad days.

Workplace donation drives are also a great way to help. People always have a blanket or towel at home that they are willing to give away, and you can volunteer to bring the items in to the shelter. In my office a couple of volunteers organize a collection each holiday season and everyone pitches in with toys, food and other goodies for the city shelter.

It's easy enough to do, and it goes a long way to brighten up the life of those wonderful animals.

Goan Feijoada

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:56:36 PST

My Goan stepmother is a talented and adventurous cook. The last time we were visiting with her and my dad in Goa, she pulled out some pink beans from her pantry and introduced them to us as "Portuguese beans."

While Indian cuisine is rich in all sorts of beans and legumes, pink beans are not something I had ever encountered before in India (although I always have them in my pantry here in the United States). No wonder my stepmother was proud of her find. She used them that afternoon to cook up a delicious, coconut-based curry very much like this Feijoada I have for you today-- a dish Goa adopted and adapted from its Portuguese colonizers.

Half a century after the Portuguese left Goa, their memory lingers on. You can hear it in the names of Goans and in their language, see it in the beautiful churches and buildings that dot the landscape, and taste it in Goan cuisine which includes dishes like Xacuti, Balchao, and Vindaloo.

The food of former colonies like Goa offers an interesting study in how occupiers cross-pollinated culinary traditions across the distant lands they held. Those food legacies were readily embraced by the natives and they persisted long after the occupiers left, as opposed to other colonial legacies that were unwelcome and are deliberately erased or lost over time. The names of cities, for instance, are easily changed back to what they used to be, and political forces even attempt to rewrite history books to put a spin on events. But connections forged through food linger and are embedded unshakably within cultures, impossible to erase. In fact, who would want to?

People here in the United States might recognize Feijoada as a meat-and-sausage stew that is often referred to as Brazil's national dish--yes, the Portuguese took it there too. But the Goans added to their version the signature ingredients of their own cuisine, like coconut, tamarind, and warm, fragrant spices. The result was a delicious stew that's easy to veganize without losing an iota of flavor.

My stepmom's version is entirely vegan, although I added some vegan sausage to my translation for two reasons: the traditional Goan Feijoada, cooked usually by the state's Christian population, does contain pork sausage. Second, I just wanted more protein in my curry. You could leave out the sausage if you wish and the stew would be no less delicious.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Goan Feijoada

(Makes four servings)

Ingredients

1 cup pink beans or pinto beans (red beans are fine too). Soak the beans overnight and cook them until tender but not mushy. Alternately, use two cups of canned beans, rinsed thoroughly.

2 vegan sausage links (optional). Chop lengthwise into 1/2-inch rounds

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 red chilies (use less if you're sensitive to heat)

4 cloves garlic, crushed

10 cloves

10 peppercorns

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp tamarind pulp. Alternately, soak a 1-inch ball of tamarind in 1/4 cup warm water for 30 minutes and extract the pulp by crushing the tamarind between your fingers. Discard the solids.

1 cup shredded or grated coconut (use 1 cup coconut milk if you don't have this)

Salt to taste

Chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Heat a saucepan. Add the red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns, and cloves. Dry-roast the ingredients for five minutes over medium-low heat until fragrant and a couple of shades darker.

Remove the ingredients to a blender. In the same pan, dry-roast the garlic until golden-brown spots appear. Add to the blender. Then roast the grated coconut over low heat, stirring constantly, until lightly golden. Add to the blender along with 1 cup water. If you are using coconut milk just skip the roasting step and add the coconut milk directly to the blender.

Blend the masala until you get a smooth paste.

Add oil to the same saucepan.

Add the chopped onions and saute, stirring frequently, until they start to turn golden-brown.

Add the sausages, if using, and saute until they start to get a crust.

Add the tamarind paste and the ground masala paste. Stir well to mix and allow the mixture to come to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about five minutes.

Add the beans along with a cup of water or cooking liquid. If your curry is already water, add less liquid. Add salt to taste.

Let the curry come to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes so all the flavors mix together.

Garnish with coriander leaves, and serve hot with some rice or a crusty bread.

Indian Grocery Shopping List

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:41:10 PST

Some of you have asked for a basic Indian grocery shopping list, and here it is.

One of the challenges of living here in the United States but cooking Indian food in my kitchen most days is that I need to be pretty organized when I go grocery shopping for ingredients I can only find at an Indian store. That's because the Indian grocery store nearest me is more than 10 miles away, so it's not like I can just pop out to the shop around the corner for that missing ingredient while I'm putting dinner together in the midst of a busy work week.

The grocery list below is a master list for pantry items that won't spoil on you for months or even years. If you are an Indian food enthusiast, I'd recommend keeping all of these handy. But if you cook Indian just once in a way, you might want to get only the items I've highlighted in bold type. I've deliberately not included Indian vegetables, because I wanted to focus on items that you can keep in your pantry without worrying about cooking them the next day. That said, I do have some fresh herbs on the list that are essentials in Indian cooking. Some, like coriander and mint leaves, you will find at any grocery store here. Others, like curry leaves, are harder to come by. If you buy more curry leaves than you will use up immediately, divide them up in an ice tray, fill with water, and freeze. Thaw the ice cubes and the curry leaves when you're ready to use.Always store your spices -- whole and powdered-- in airtight jars in cool temperatures.

Wherever possible, I've tried to give short explanations or link to recipes so you will know what these ingredients are for. And if you believe I've missed something or have questions, let me know. I've also added this list to the pages above under the title "Indian Vegan Pantry", so you can find it easily when you want it.

GRAINS:

Basmati Rice
Brown Basmati Rice
Cracked Wheat
Flattened Rice (Poha)
Puffed Rice (Kurmura)
Rava (Cream of Wheat, Sooji)
Whole-Wheat Durum Flour (for chapatis, pooris and other Indian flatbreads)
Millet Flour
Bajra Flour
Besan or Chickpea Flour

LEGUMES:

Tuvar Dal (pigeon peas)
Chana Dal
Urad Dal
Moong Dal
Masoor Dal
Rajma (red kidney beans)
Chickpeas or chole or garbanzo beans
Matki (tiny little brown beans)
Whole Moong Beans
Chawli (Black-eyed Peas)
Whole Masoor
Peanuts

SPICES:

Red Chili Powder
Paprika
Turmeric Powder
Black Mustard Seeds
Cumin Seeds
Coriander Seeds
Fennel Seeds (saunf)
Ajwain or Carom Seeds
Kalonji or Onion Seeds
Poppy Seeds
Fenugreek Seeds
Sesame Seeds
Saffron
Cardamom pods (green)
Cardamom pods (brown)
Cloves
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Mace
Black Pepper
Bay Leaves
Whole Red Chillies
Asafoetida or Hing (Not strictly a spice, but it gets clubbed in here because it's used like one)

READYMADE POWDERED SPICES:

Garam Masala
Biryani Masala
Pav Bhaji Masala
Sambar Powder
Rasam Powder
Chaat Masala
Amchur Powder
Goda Masala
Tava Masala

OILS:

Unflavored vegetable oil, like canola or peanut oil
Sesame oil
Coconut oil
Mustard oil

MISC.:

Jaggery (an unrefined Indian sugar that's perfect for Indian sweets)
Tamarind, pulp or pods
Poppadums or papads (rice or lentil crackers that can be zapped in a microwave in an instant to provide a crackly, delicious accompaniment for meals)
Golden raisins
Cashews
Pistachios
Coconut milk
Alphonso Mango Pulp
Kasoori Methi (dry methi leaves)

FRESH AND FROZEN ITEMS:

Curry Leaves
Coriander Leaves
Mint Leaves
Shredded Coconut
Green Chillies

Sablé, Or French Shortbread

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:46:46 PST

I am a sucker for shortbread, but then who isn't? Especially when it's elegant French shortbread, buttery and crumbly with just a hint of sugar. A Sablé.

I've shared with you before many shortbread recipes, including one for the classic Scottish Shortbread, and one of the chief differences between the two versions is that the French recipe usually includes egg. I subbed with some vegan cream cheese, which really helped with the wonderful texture of the cookies. I think the French version is also easier to make, especially with a foolproof recipe like this one which I adapted heavily from one I watched on America's Test Kitchen.

It's December and cookies are on everyone's mind. To make your holiday cookie-making a little easier I've compiled a list of some of the cookie recipes that have featured here at Holy Cow! in years past. You can find them here, or by clicking on the page "Cookies for Christmas" just under the Holy Cow! masthead.

I have to run now, but hope everyone's had a great start to their week. Also, I want to direct you all to the lovely blog Reduce Footprints that is running a guest post from me today on my Overstuffed Aloo Parathas.

Au revoir, all! And enjoy the cookies.

Sablés

(Makes 24 cookies)

Ingredients

1 stick Earth Balance "butter", softened to room temperature

2 tbsp vegetable shortening (really helps with the great, crumbly texture so important in shortbread. If you'd rather not, just add 2 more tbsp of the Earth Balance

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp vegan cream cheese, like Tofutti

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt (you can even skip this because the Earth Balance is already quite salty)

1/2 cup very cold soymilk or almond milk

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

4 tsp sugar for sprinkling on the cookies

With a handheld mixer or in a stand mixer with the paddle attached, cream together the "butter", shortening, sugar and cream cheese until light and fluffy, around 2-3 minutes. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides a few times in between to ensure everything is evenly mixed.

Add the vanilla extract and mix in.

Take the bowl off the stand mixer, and add the flour and 2 tbsp of soy or nondairy milk.

Using a fork, mix, adding a tiny bit of soymilk as necessary, until you have a cohesive ball of dough. Don't overwork the dough -- stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together. I needed almost the entire 1/2 cup of soymilk because I was making these on a very cold, dry day, but how much soymilk you add will vary depending on your weather. In a very moist kitchen you might not need any soymilk at all.

Divide the dough into two halves. Using the palms of your hands, roll each half into a smooth log, about six inches in length and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap a piece of parchment paper around each log and twist the ends tightly, like a piece of candy.

Refrigerate both logs for at least an hour so they firm up. Mine never firmed up where I could cut them easily with a knife into rounds, so I'd advise even freezing them in the last 15 minutes of chilling so you can cut perfectly round cookies.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Take the chilled log of dough and using a very sharp knife slice into 12 round cookies. Repeat with the second log.

Place the cookies about 1-inch apart on a baking sheet (you can spray lightly with some oil, if you like, but I found these cookies don't stick because of their high fat content). Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with some granulated sugar.

Bake, one sheet at a time, until the cookies are lightly golden brown around the edges. It took me nearly 25 minutes in my oven, but because ovens are highly quirky gadgets with minds of their own, start checking 15 minutes after baking. If the cookies are turning color around the edges, take them out. You don't want highly colored cookies because they will be too tough which shortbread should never, ever be.

Transfer the cookies to a rack with a spatula and cool thoroughly before eating.

What Would Thoreau Eat? This Kale And Potato Subzi, Perhaps?

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 06:38:10 PST

Simplify, simplify!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Desi and I were at a place as far removed as can be from the rapacious frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We were in Thoreau’s Walden, visiting the rich world of a visionary who lived nearly two centuries ago but whose ideas of simple living, self-sufficiency and coexistence with the non-human creatures of our planet are relevant as ever.

Thoreau needs no introduction-- he is an inspiration to philosophers, environmentalists and simple living advocates the world over. Indians know him as the man whose essay on civil disobedience inspired Gandhi’s own movement of satyagraha, or peaceful resistance. With his two-year experiment of living in harmony with nature on Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, chronicled in his masterpiece, Walden, Thoreau showed the world how a frugal life pared down to the barest of essentials can be rich and rewarding-- perhaps far more so than a life crammed with meaningless “stuff.”

Walden Woods, now a state reservation, is an ethereal place. Even on a cool, gray November day dozens of chattering children, tourists with cameras and swimmers in unitards converge on Walden Pond, a vast, beautiful expanse of still water that forms the centerpiece of these woods. Despite the hubub it is not hard to imagine a thoughtful, bearded Thoreau ranging through these woods, content in his solitude and pondering life as he looked across the pond. In a corner of the woods, a railroad thunders with a passing train-- just like it did when Thoreau lived here, sometimes disturbing his thoughts.

Although the one-room cabin Thoreau built is long gone (taken down before its historical value became apparent), a replica sits close to the entrance to the park. It was easy to reproduce, a sign tells you, because of how thoroughly Thoreau described it in his writings. Inside the tiny room are a small bed, three wooden chairs (“One for solitude, two for company, three for society.”), a writing desk, and a fireplace to keep out the icy chill of the severe Massachusetts winter.

“Daddy, where did he go to the bathroom?” a little girl asks her father who’s signing the guest book in the cabin. The father looks around, shrugs, and spreads his hands to signal the woods around. “Anywhere he wanted to, I guess.” (Fortunately for the rest of us they do have eco-friendly restrooms at Walden now that use no water.)

It doesn’t take long to remember that outside this well-preserved microcosm, our times are vastly different. In our world, simplifying is not defined by paring down but by adding things that are supposed to make our lives simpler-- smartphones with a million apps that can make calls, store music, tell you the time, what you should be doing, where you are or how you can get there. Humongous cars that thoughtlessly spew toxins into the atmosphere. Food processors that can chop, slice, dice, julienne and whip in seconds.

And to get these-- as we’ve been finding out one Black Friday after another-- we are willing to sacrifice our most meaningful holidays and time with those we love, wade into debt, trample on people, literally, and pepper-spray them too.

I am cognizant of the environment and the difference between wants and needs, but I am no Thoreauvian. I have a smartphone, many kitchen gadgets, and I cram in what's going on with the world by letting the TV run in the background as I cook, clean or even write. I juggle a full-time job with a family and many other responsibilities and hobbies, including this blog, and I need all the help I can get to keep my time under control.

But visiting Thoreau’s home, so long after I first read about it and was inspired by it, motivates me once again to keep taking those small steps toward the ideals of simplicity and self-sufficiency and toward the day when I can live unshackled by stuff. And -- most importantly-- it inspires me to stay on the vegan path that embraces at once Thoreau’s ideals of coexistence and preserving the planet for those who will follow us, human or not.

Some argue Thoreau was never a strict vegetarian, although accounts are that he was mostly vegetarian later in life. At Walden, he he ate lots of rice, beans which he grew himself, and produce like potatoes, peas, corn, and turnips. But vegetarian or not, his writings reflect a deep love for animals, and for the belief that it was mankind’s destiny to stop eating them. There are few quotes about vegetarianism as astute as these words from Thoreau:

“One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make the bones with;" and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying himself with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.”

So what would Thoreau eat, had he lived today? I like to think that it might have been something like this utterly simple and nutritious Kale and Potato Subzi.

Thoreau was an Indophile (“It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India”.) He described himself as a “Yogi,” and had studied Indian scriptures, including the Gita and the Upanishads. While I don’t know if he ever had a chance to taste Indian food in those times, there is no doubt he would have loved it if he had-- especially something as simple and nutritious as this subzi.

Kale is a popular vegetable among vegans, and not surprisingly so because of its exceptional nutritional value. It is rich in calcium, vitamins A and C, fiber, and many more nutrients. Because it belongs to the cruciferous family of vegetables, which includes cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts, it is said to have anti-cancer properties. Pretty much an all-round winner.

But when I order kale at vegan restaurants I am usually disappointed because most people tend to undercook it or even leave it raw. Kale is a tough vegetable (as opposed to tender leafies like spinach or lettuce which are delicious raw), and to my mind undercooked kale is almost impossible to love, or eat.

For this subzi, I force the kale into tenderness with half an hour on a stove, but this is not labor-intensive cooking. You can add a little water, slap on a lid, and let it steam away. You just need to check in occasionally to ensure the water has not evaporated. If it has, just add some more.

This is a dish Thoreau could have easily made in the single frying pan he kept in his homestead for cooking. All you need to prep is a knife and a chopping board. And it would go great with rice and beans.

Enjoy, all! And thanks to Desi, as always, for the lovely food pictures and the photographs of Walden Pond.

Kale and Potato Subzi

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale (about 12-15 leaves). Wash the kale, then strip the leaves off the tough stems and chop them finely.

1 tsp oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed and chopped

1 tsp mustard seeds

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

1 tsp soy sauce (I know this is a weird ingredient here, but kale and soy sauce have great chemistry)

1 tsp hot sauce like Sriracha (use chilli powder if you don't have this)

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a saucepan or wok over medium-high heat.

Add the mustard seeds and when they sputter, turn down the heat to medium and add the potatoes and garlic.

Saute the potatoes, stirring occasionally, until they begin to take on a golden hue.

Add the chopped kale, stir until it starts to wilt. Add the soy sauce and hot sauce, stir well, and add a couple of tablespoons of water. Slap on a tight-fitting lid and let the kale steam. If the water evaporates, add a couple more tablespoons and repeat until the kale is quite tender, about 30 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice and salt, if required. Turn off the heat and serve hot.

Caramelized Onion Tart With Olives

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:10:08 PST

Holy Cow! is four -- a grand old lady in Internet years-- and to celebrate I have for you a savory, elegant treat: this golden Caramelized Onion Tart.

But first I want to say a big thank you to all of you-- my wonderful, intelligent, passionate readers -- who have stuck with Holy Cow! through the good food times and also through the slumps, pet illnesses, and cook's block (there is such a thing, trust me.)

It has been a fun and educating journey-- I've learned from you, shared with you, and told you stuff as if you were my closest friends.

You have tried my recipes, written to tell me when you loved them (or not), or you have just written to tell me that you love the blog. You have helped us keep going.

So thank you for becoming part of Holy Cow! and my world. You make it happen!

This Caramelized Onion Tart is just the kind of light, good-for-you food to treat yourself and your family to after all those Thanksgiving excesses. It's a tarted-up pizza, so kids should love it too.

I make the crust part-whole-wheat and it is golden with crispy edges and a slightly more bready and delicious middle. If you want a super-crispy crust, go with an all-purpose-flour-only crust. You can also use storebought pizza dough.

There is some labor involved in this dish-- you need to caramelize the onions to the point where they are golden and really, really sweet-- almost like jam. It took me about 40 minutes, but they were totally worth it. And once the caramelizing is done, all you need is to assemble some stuff.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Caramelized Onion Tart with Olives

(Adapted from this recipe at Everyday Food)

Ingredients:

1 portion pizza dough (half of this recipe)

1 tbsp olive oil

3 medium-sized sweet yellow onions, sliced fairly thin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup pitted olives, like Kalamata

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced, then dunked into 1 tbsp olive oil (this keeps them from burning)

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet.

Add the onions and saute for about five minutes on medium-high heat. Add the salt and continue to saute until the onions begin to turn golden-brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Add the sugar, turn the heat down to medium, and continue to saute until the onions are deeply golden and very sweet. This should take about 20 more minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Roll out the pizza dough, about 11 inches long and 8 inches wide. Sprinkle cornmeal on a cookie sheet and place the dough on it.

Spread the caramelized onions in a thin layer on top of the pizza dough, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides.

Sprinkle the garlic on top, and use the remaining oil to brush the edges of the tart.

Sprinkle on some salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in a preheated 500-degree oven for 11-12 minutes or until the sides are golden and the tart comes easily off the cookie sheet with a spatula.

Cut and serve hot.

Maple And Wheat Germ Waffles

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 06:00:12 PST

Around here, the very word "waffles" brings a sparkle to Desi's eyes. Rivaled only by the word "pancakes." Which explains why I have so many pancake and waffle recipes plastered around this blog.

This waffle recipe I have for you today is perfect for the morning after Thanksgiving. You are beginning to get hungry again (and never mind last night when you swore you'd never eat another bite as long as you lived). You want to eat something that makes you feel great. Something healthy. Something delicious.

And what's more healthy than wheat germ, flax meal and whole-wheat flour? What's more delicious than maple syrup?

These waffles are by themselves very sweet because of the maple syrup, and they are extraordinarily crispy, which is how I love them. The batter is thinner than what you'd get with a typical waffle recipe. If you want to make the waffles less crispy, reduce the nondairy milk by 1/4 cup so you don't end up cooking them for as long in the waffle iron. You don't even need to pour more maple syrup or any other syrup over these waffles because they are sweet enough, but feel free if you want to (Desi does).

I have to run now, but keep your eyes peeled for a very special recipe tomorrow to celebrate a very special milestone for Holy Cow!

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Enjoy, all!

Maple and Wheat Germ Waffles

(Makes 8 regular-sized square waffles)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup wheat germ (use bran for a variation)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups nondairy milk, like soy or almond. Mix it with 1 tsp vinegar and let it stand to curdle for a couple of minutes. (If you want softer, less crispy waffles, reduce the nondairy milk by 1/4 cup)

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

2 tbsp flaxmeal (powdered flax seeds) mixed with 6 tbsp water

Whisk the dry ingredients -- the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, and the salt-- in a bowl.

Whisk together the wet ingredients-- the nondairy milk, maple syrup, oil, and flaxmeal.

Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until the batter is evenly wet, but don't try to whisk out any lumps. Overmixing batter promotes the development of gluten which can give you a chewy waffle-- not what you want.

Bake in a waffle iron according to instructions. If you follow the directions for a crispier waffle, the waffle will take a longer time to cook.

Serve hot.

Khasta Paratha/Parotta

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:25:16 PST

Khasta Paratha, which translates to a flaky flatbread, is a unique treat that just begs to be torn apart with your fingers, dunked into a spicy curry, then popped into your mouth.

I've seen as many versions of this dish as there are cooks. Some recipes are rather straightforward and not unlike those for other flatbreads like rotis. The problem is, they end up looking and tasting no different than rotis. Others, modeled along the south Indian parotta, require tons of technique -- enough to make you throw up your hands and call in for chow mein.

My recipe produces a result that's not just crispy and layered and flaky and uber-delicious (exactly what a Khasta Paratha should be), but it's also easy enough that a child could make it. Really. I do away with all the complicated rolling instructions and instead use a technique not unlike that used for puff pastry (a trick I learned from watching Sanjeev Kapoor, one of my favorite Indian TV chefs). All you need is some time, and that's not dedicated time because you don't have to stand over a stove slaving away or anything like that.

My Khasta Paratha also does away with ghee, which is traditionally used in this dish and which, of course, is a cholesterol-packed animal product. Instead, I use heart-healthy canola oil. Use any flavorless vegetable oil you have on hand.

I made these parathas this past weekend and we had them with My Dad's Not-Mutton Mushroom Curry-- one of my most cherished recipes from this blog. Trust me, I wouldn't just pair it with just any old bread.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, all!

Khasta Paratha/Parotta

(Makes 10 parathas)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil + more for smearing on the paratha

Water

Place the flour, salt and oil in a bowl and mix until the oil has dispersed through the flour.

Add enough water to make a stiff but pliable dough. Set the dough aside for at least 30 minutes so it can relax and roll out easily.

Roll the dough on a floured surface into a rectangle, about 10 X 7 inches.

Brush the entire top surface lightly with some oil, then dust lightly with a little flour.

Lift the sides of the rectangle and fold them one over the other horizontally, so you have three layers.

Place the rectangle of dough in the refrigerator on a flat surface, like a cookie sheet.

After half an hour, pull out the dough, roll it again into a rectangle about 10 X 7 inches, brush with oil, dust with flour, and fold again to get three more layers. Put it back in the refrigerator.

Repeat the entire process two more times.

After you've folded and refrigerated the dough four times, roll it again into a rectangle and brush it with oil. This time, roll the dough horizontally the way you would a jelly roll.

When you have a cylinder, tuck the seam under and, using a knife, cut it into 10 equal portions.

Take one roll, flatten it, and then roll it into a circle, about 6 inches in diameter. Don't make the paratha too think, or you will end up flattening the layers. Use some flour to help you roll, if the dough sticks. Repeat for all the remaining 9 portions.

Heat a griddle until it's piping hot. Lower the heat to medium-high, place a paratha on the griddle, and wait until bubbles appear.

Flip over the paratha and lightly brush some oil on the surface. When the underside is cooked and golden-brown spots appear, flip over once more and cook for a few more seconds or until golden spots appear.

Serve rightaway.

For a part-whole-wheat version made with a more tradiitonal technique, try my South Indian Parotta.

Strawberry Pie. Red. Delicious.

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:09:51 PST

Because everyone deserves pie for Thanksgiving, I have for you today this gorgeous Strawberry Pie.

In our house, the berry is the king. Desi loves blueberries, I love raspberries, and we both adore strawberries. We blitz them into smoothies, add them to our breakfast oatmeal, and brown-bag them to work for a great after-lunch treat.

But despite our deep love for berries-- and for fruit pies-- I had never before baked up a berry pie (unless you count this Peach and Berry Cobbler). This weekend, with Thanksgiving just days away, I decided to remedy that.

My recipe for Strawberry Pie is a very simple one. I don't fuss around with mashing and macerating the berries first, as some recipes do, or with cooking all or some of the berries separately, as most recipes do. Instead, the procedure I follow is not unlike the one I use when I make my Apple Pie where I just put the fruit in the crust and bake it all up.

A few readers have recently asked me about using just Earth Balance or just shortening in pie crust recipes, instead of the 50-50 mix I usually use, and the answer is, yes, you can use only one or the other.

But do keep a few things in mind when you make an all-Earth Balance pie crust. The reason shortening is added to crusts is because it remains solid at room temperature even as you break it into small pieces and mix and disperse it within the dough. When you cook the crust in the oven, the small bits of shortening melt, creating air pockets in the dough that give you a flaky crust.

Butter substitutes like Earth Balance add great flavor to a crust but they melt at room temperature, so unless you work really fast and at really cold temperatures, the butter can melt into your dough as you are kneading it, not allowing for those little air pockets. There are some ways you can avoid this from happening: make sure you keep the butter substitute really, really cold all the way up until you add it to the flour. I cut up the sticks into small pieces and refrigerate them for about 15 minutes before adding them to the flour.

Also be sure to allow the dough to sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour before baking so the butter substitute has a chance to resolidify. Try to keep all your work surfaces as cold as possible, including the rolling pin (if you own a marble pin and had no idea what to do with it, this is the time to put it to work, because marble remains really cool).

If you happen to use Earth Balance, also remember not to add any more salt to the crust, because the Earth Balance sticks tend to be rather salty.

The crust for today's pie is made entirely with Earth Balance and as you can see it is very flaky and quite beautiful. Use any butter substitute you can find that has a butter-like consistency. Because I like a spice in my pie, I added some cardamom to this Strawberry Pie. Cardamom goes beautifully with the tart-sweetness of strawberries, and it rounds out the flavor of this pie really nicely without being too heavy.

I made the crust rather decorative by cutting little star shapes with a cookie cutter and arranging them on top of the strawberries. This is a fun crust to make and you can even customize it to your favorite shapes or for the seasons or, if you have kids, you can cut it into their favorite animal shapes. If you'd rather not, just roll out the dough, place it over the strawberries and crimp the edges. Remember to cut some slits on the upper crust before you bake it.

Or make a lattice top, like this Apple Tart.

Enjoy, all!

Strawberry Pie

For the crust:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 sticks (16 tbsp) Earth Balance, cut into 1/4-inch cubes and refrigerated, about 15 minutes.

2 tbsp powdered sugar

Ice-cold water

Place all the ingredients except the water in a glass or steel bowl. Using a fork, mix the ingredients.

Then slowly drizzle the cold water, a tablespoon at a time, over the flour, mixing with the fork quickly until the dough starts to clear the sides of the bowl and comes together.

Divide the dough into half and place each half in cling wrap, shaping into a disc as you wrap.

Place both dough discs in the refrigerator for an hour at least or longer.

For the strawberry filling:

4 cups frozen strawberries (it's hard to measure strawberries into cups because of their shapes, but I'd say you should have about 9 medium-large strawberries in each cup)

1/4 cup sugar (use more if your strawberries are very tart, or if you like a sweeter pie)

1/2 tsp powdered green cardamom

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp lemon juice

Let the strawberries thaw to the point where they are no longer icy but can be cut into halves.

Cut into halves and place in a bowl. Mix in all the other ingredients and stir thoroughly.

Set aside for 15 minutes.

Putting your pie together:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Take one of the discs of dough and roll it out to about 12 inches, using as much flour as you need to keep it from sticking to the surface. Keep moving the dough as you roll it to ensure it does not stick.

Fold into half and lift into a 9-inch pie pan (regular, not deep-dish).

Unfold the dough and fit it into the pie pan. Fold any overhanging dough under itself so you have a neat-looking crust.

Pour the filling into the crust. Place the pie pan into the refrigerator while you prepare the top crust using the second disc of dough.

If you are making just a regular, covered pie, roll the disc out so it is slightly bigger than the diameter of the dish. Place on top of the pie dish and with your fingers or with a fork crimp the edges to seal them. Cut four slits at the top of the pie, preferably in a cross pattern.

If you are making a lattice crust, cut the dough into strips and then weave them into a lattice top following these instructions.

If you want to make a crust like the one I did, use a small cookie cutter in any shape (you can even use fun animal shapes if you have kids) to cut out little pieces of the dough. Keep them on a cold baking sheet while you cut out the others. Gather the scraps, roll out the dough, and cut more shapes until you have exhausted the dough.

Arrange the shapes on top of the strawberries in a decorative pattern-- I arranged them in concentric circles.

Sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar on the crust. This gives some additional sweetness and helps the crust brown.

Place the pie pan on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Then lower the heat to 400 degrees and bake another 30 minutes. Once more lower the heat to 350 degrees and cook 20 more minutes or until the juices have thickened and are bubbling.

Remove the pie pan to a rack and cool thoroughly before cutting and serving. Because of the tartness of the strawberries, this pie would be great with some vegan whipped cream.

All-Whole-Wheat Sourdough Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Vaishali) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:14:06 PST

My sourdough starter has been bubbling and maturing for a few weeks now, just begging me to bake some bread. And because it is so darn special and smells so damn good, I've been working hard to come up with ideas that'll do it justice and more.

I first made this all-whole-wheat sourdough bread recipe a couple of weeks back by riffing off my whole-wheat sandwich bread recipe, but after the bread had baked up I realized I had made a mistake: I didn't score the bread. While there is no need to score my regular whole-wheat sandwich bread, sourdough is different because the bacteria in the starter produce tons of gases and alcohol. When the bread bakes in the oven the gases need an escape hatch. Ideally that should be out through a cut or score you make on the top of the loaf.

My unscored bread, baked in loaf pans, did rise quite nicely and had great texture, but it formed this huge, domed skin on top where all those gases got trapped with nowhere to go. Poor things.

The bread still tasted great, though, so I decided to try again, and this time I did score the bread. And because I was feeling particularly kitchen-goddess-like, what with baking with sourdough and all, I thought I'd go a step ahead and bake it up in a cast-iron skillet. Just like those superwomen of the past did.

The loaf was brilliant: it was easily the best sandwich bread I've ever made or had, with a light, perfectly airy texture-- nothing like those dense, oversweet whole-wheat sandwich breads sold at supermarkets. The cup of sourdough starter I used in the recipe was just enough to give the bread extraordinary flavor without making it too sour, which is how both Desi and I like it.

This is a very versatile bread to bake, shape-wise. You can divide it into two and bake it up in loaf pans for a more conventional look. Or you can form it into a round boule and bake it on a baking sheet and it would look cute as a button. Or do as I did and bake it up in a cast-iron pan.

The recipe follows. Enjoy, all!

All-Whole-Wheat Sourdough Bread

(Makes one large boule or two regular-sized loaves)

Ingredients:

Mix in a large bowl and set aside for five minutes until it begins to froth:

2 tsp active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

Then add to the bowl:

1 cup sourdough starter (Read this for instructions on how to get a starter going)

1 cup warm soymilk

1 cup warm water

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp maple syrup (use sugar if you'd rather)

1 tbsp salt

2 cups white whole-wheat flour (use regular whole-wheat flour if you can't find this)

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten flour

Mix together by hand or at low speed in a stand mixer until everything is well-mixed. Then, add a little at a time until the dough is no longer sticky:

1 to 2 cups of white whole-wheat flour (add more flour if the dough's still sticky).

Continue kneading for another 10 minutes. You should have a pliable dough that looks slightly sticky but doesn't stick to the sides of the bowl or your hand.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, turning once so the top of the dough is coated with oil.

Cover with a kitchen towel and allow it to rise in a warm place (like a cold oven with the pilot light on) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in volume.

Now punch down the dough, and put it back in the bowl to rise for another hour.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet or a 10-inch cast iron skillet or two standard (6-cup) loaf pans. Sprinkle with some cornmeal or coarse semolina (rava or sooji).

Now punch the dough down again. If you are going to bake in a cast-iron pan or on a baking sheet, shape the dough into a round boule, tucking the seams underneath, and place it in the pan or the sheet. If you are using a baking sheet, you can also divide the dough into two and shape it into two smaller boules.

If you are baking in loaf pans, divide the dough into half. Shape each half into an oval, tucking the seams underneath. Place each oval into a loaf pan.

Sift some flour on top of the bread and cover loosely with a kitchen towel. Set aside to rise for 90 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using a sharp knife or blade, score the top of the loaf or loaves. If you are baking a boule, you can cut in a cross-hatch pattern, as I did. If you are baking a loaf, make two long, parallel, slightly diagonal cuts in the top of each loaf.

Bake the bread for 60 minutes or until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes, then remove the loaf from the pan and continue cooling on the rack. If you are using cast iron, be extremely careful and use mitts when removing the loaf because the iron gets very hot and doesn't cool down as fast as regular bakeware does.
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Fall is the perfect time to bake some bread -- the kitchen is at just the right temperature to get the oven going, and it's not so cold that the yeast plays hard to rise. Besides, the smell of bread baking makes you feel all cozy and comfy and warm inside.

If you are someone who's never baked bread before, I hope this will be the weekend you will try your hand at it. Sure, it's easy to buy great artisan breads now at bakeries and even supermarkets, but trust me there is nothing quite so delicious as the bread you bake yourself. It's also a great way to show those you cook for how much you care. Don't be daunted by all those stories about how hard bread-making can be. You might not get perfect results the first time, but you will get better with practice.

I've posted tons of bread recipes over the last four years on Holy Cow!, including some with detailed guides on basic bread-making: feel free to browse through them. But the best piece of advice I can give you it is to follow recipes to the letter and not try to substitute a little bit here and there, especially if you are new at this. In bread-making -- or almost any kind of baking-- small changes can lead to big disasters. Once you get more experienced at making breads, you will be able to come up with your own recipes because you'll have a better understanding of how the ingredients work together.

Now go, bake some bread!

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This recipe goes to YeastSpotting, hosted this week by Hefe und mehr.