a side of food

Parrappu Vadai: did I really deep fry something?

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:48:00 +0000

Deep frying, I’ve mixed feelings about this cooking technique. While I thoroughly enjoy the results, I’m pretty terrified of deep frying. Growing up watching numerous women in my family make everything from murrukku to appalam, I’m all too familiar with the painful consequences of not being careful when deep frying. Hot oil and skin equal instantaneous second degree burns, blisters and all. Not to mention the possibility of fire. And given my knack for already burning myself with hot pots and oven doors, I had written off deep frying as something I should never do. Given all the other negative health consequences, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t deep fry on a regular basis anyway.

Unfortunately, writing this technique off also meant that I had essentially put a whole class of comfort Indian snack foods out my reach. I am talking about vadai, pakora, bhajji, murukku, seedai, and kara sev. And these are just my favorites. The names might be unfamiliar to you, but the common denominator here is that these are all deep fried.

So finding these instructions from Chef in You for baking parrappu vadai was super exciting. Even more exciting was realizing that I had the ingredients (sort of) handy to make these for a potluck that night. When I made these, however, the baking didn’t really work. I had diligently sprayed my cookie sheet with baking spray, and yet these stuck to the tray. Moreover, although, I flattened the vadai to avoid uneven cooking and drying out, they were still drying out. It wasn’t that I had left it in there too long, because I took them out early. It wasn’t a lack of fat either. In addition to that film of baking spray on the bottom, I generously brushed them with oil as well.

In the middle of making these, I decided to overcome my fear of deep frying and make these the traditional way. I really didn’t want to show up empty handed to the potluck or with something store bought. As someone who considers myself good enough to blog about my food, I feel that I am expected to show up to these potlucks with good home made food or face constant judgement. Sure I really shouldn’t care what other people think and all that good stuff, but come on, who wants to be judged? The pressure to deliver definitely made me overlook my fears. You really should have seen me as I was putting the patties into the oil. I was petrified and jumped every time there was even a threat of oil splatter. So I most definitely did not overcome my fears. I just somehow managed to overlook them to preserve my pride.

Before I go into the recipe, let me backtrack a bit and tell you about vadai. For those who prefer Wikipedia, here’s the link. Otherwise, here it goes.

Vadai is a delicacy that originates in southern India. While there are many different kinds of vadai, the major ones most people think about are the medhu/ullundhu vadai and the parappu/masala vadai.

A medhu vadai is shaped like a donut and is considered an essential part of the traditional Tamil breakfast. It’s also the vadai you find in dishes like sambhar vadai or dahi vada. The medhu vadai is soft on the inside and very amenable to soaking up the flavors of the sambhar and dahi (Indian, homemade yogurt). Traditionally, medhu vadai is served with coconut chutney.

Parappu vadai, also known as masala vadai, is more discoid in shape. It is also sometimes a part of the Tamil breakfast. In my experience, however, this is the vadai that’s served as an afternoon/evening snack. It’s crispy, crunchy and soft all at the same time. It has spices blended in and can be served with a variety of savory sauces from coconut chutney to ketchup.

My mom loves medhu vadai. I’m a staunch proponent of parappu vadai. I think most kids like the latter.

Parappu vadai is also easier to make. There’s some art to shaping the medhu vadai and slipping it into the oil. Different households have different tricks that work for them. Parappu vadai, on the other hand, requires no such skill. Just take the mixture, shape it into a disc, and slip into oil. The hardest part is slipping it into the oil without splashing yourself. It’s an important concern. Remember, hot oil plus skin equal blisters. So be careful!

Parappu Vadai

Adapted from my mom

What you’ll need:

1 cup chana dal (see note in directions)

2 red chillies

2 tsp fennel seeds

3-5 green chillies, chopped

1 cup chopped yellow or red onion, about 1 large

salt, to taste

a pinch of asafetida

oil for deep frying, either canola or vegetable

What you do:

The first thing you will want to do is soak the dal. You just want them to get soft enough to grind in a food processor. A quick survey of online recipes indicates soaking the chana dal for at least 2 hours.

A quick note here: Due to my inability to distinguish between dals, I inadvertently used toor dal instead of chana dal. I still enjoyed the taste of the vadai and couldn’t really tell that anything was different than when my mom makes them. Maybe my mom uses toor dal as well, or maybe I’ll be able to tell the difference if I tried both at the same time. The point is, that if you don’t have chana dal, toor dal will work in a pinch. I soaked the toor dal for 3-4 hours, though less would have been fine. Again, you just want them to be soft enough to grind.

Once the dal has soaked long enough, drain the dal in a colander. Try to get as much of the water out as possible. Set aside 3 tbsp of the dal, and pulse the rest in a food processor or a blender without adding any additional water. You might have to stop in between to scrape the sides down with a spatula. You want to end up with a grainy paste (see picture). Since I have a smaller kitchen aid chopper, I just did mine in batches. Place the ground dal in a large mixing bowl and add the remaining 3 tbsp that you set aside earlier. These whole pieces add an element of texture to the fritters, and you can decide to add more or less based on your taste.

Next add in the chopped onions, green chillies, and fennel seeds. Crush the red chillies in a food processor before adding. Add the pinch of asafetida and fold in these additions into the dal mixture. Finally, salt to taste. The amounts of these ingredients are all variable. The quantities I listed will give you a product with a spicy kick, at least for most western palettes. So adjust accordingly. The onions, fennel and asafetida are probably the most crucial to the taste of these vadai. If you want to go overboard on the onions and fennel like me, you should be ok. But you can also cut back, if you are not a fan of either. Be careful with the asafetida. From my experience, you always want to use just a pinch.

Now you are ready for the deep frying. Begin by heating oil in a pan suitable for deep frying. Remember, the bigger the pan, the more oil you are likely to need. So try to stick with a smaller pan that would be deep enough to cover a few fritters. Also, remember to put to oil in the pan and then start heating. You don’t really want to light the oil on fire. Trust me, this has happened to me. Hot pan and oil are not good. Finally, remember to always just leave the oil on medium heat or so and only start heating right when you are about to use the oil. You don’t want to risk over heating the oil. Just be careful!

For the oil itself, I prefer Canola. It’s a healthier than vegetable oil, without the distinct taste of olive oil. I would really advise against using olive oil here. It has a strong flavor, and in my experience, most Indian food doesn’t really pair well with olive oil.

To test if your oil is hot enough, carefully slip a little ball of the batter into the oil. If it floats up, you are good to go. To make the vadai, take a small scoop of the batter and roll into a ball. Then press down on the ball to flatten them into patties. Carefully slip the patties into the hot oil and cook until the fritter turns golden brown. When done, use a spoon with a strainer so you can drain the excess oil and place on a plate covered with paper towels. The paper towels works to absorb any excess oil. Again, remember you are cooking at about medium heat. These should cook up pretty quickly!

The size and thickness of the patties are really up to you. Some people make thin flat disks, while others make them thicker. I am not really good at consistency when it comes to shaping foods, so I had an array of shapes and sizes. How you cook them doesn’t really change with shape. You do want to try to stick to an about average size. Making them too big will increase cooking time, and the size will affect how many you can cook at a time.

This recipe gave me a little over 24 vadai. Serve these warm. At home my mom serves these with a variety of condiments, depending on what’s available. Some options include coconut chutney, mint chutney, tamarind chutney, and ketchup (or Maggi’s tomato sauce). I served mine with ketchup, well, because I didn’t have anything else.

It’s really a good thing I made these for a potluck. They would have most definitely tempted me to cheat and go over my daily calorie allotment. But instead, I only had two! And if you are serving a large group, you will definitely want to double this recipe. People will want more than one of these!

Vaish

Happy Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:34:00 +0000

My mom is definitely a SUPERMOM!

Wishing her and all moms out there a Happy Mother's Day! Thank you for everything you do for us and for always standing by us!

Vaish

Champagne Cupcakes : adding a touch of class to a clichéd affair

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Sat, 11 May 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Many events have passed by since my last post: Valentine’s Day, my birthday, a trip back home, the arrival (and end) of spring, and St. Patrick’s Day. And yes, there was a lot of cooking. Unfortunately, I’ve been pretty busy with work (and celebrating) that I haven’t had a chance to update. I decided to make time this morning and bring to you a dessert I made for Valentine’s Day.

I am huge cheese ball when it comes to Valentines Day. Well I’m a huge cheese ball when it comes to love. Just ask my numerous friends whom I have unintentionally embarrassed at the start of their relationships. So naturally, I’m a huge cheese ball about February 14^th, it being the day of love and all.

I know how it’s a mass consumer holiday where people just buy flowers, balloons, and other unnecessary goods. But I buy into it a all. I am huge fan of these flowers, balloons, and other consumer items. When I see someone receiving flowers, it tells me that person is loved. When I see these balloons, I know love is in the air. Cliché, I know. But what’s so wrong with being a bit cliché about love? At least I’m not jaded?!? Well, the last part might not be entirely true, but nevertheless, I decided to celebrate this wondrous affair with a Valentine’s Day potluck.

I had grand plans for this potluck. I planned the following menu:

Figs with Gorgonzola and Walnuts

Ricotta and Asparagus Crostini

Penne Fresca Salad

Champagne Cupckaes

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

And I only ended up making three: figs with gorgonzola and walnuts, penne fresca salad, and champagne cupcakes. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get around to making the strawberries, but I guess there’s always next year!

The main even of the dinner, of course, was the dessert. I chose champagne cupcakes for a reason. A couple of days before V-day, I had purchased a few cupcakes from the Sweet Divine truck parked outside my school. I was good and gave all of them but one away. The one I tried happened to be the Champagne Cupcake. I was really excited to try it, but unfortunately was thoroughly disappointed. The cake was super dense, not something I’d expect when I think of champagne. And the frosting wasn’t remarkable. So, I decided the internet probably had a better version. And lo and behold I found the following recipe replicated numerous times.

And the cupcake is phenomenal. The cake is moist and not too sweet, the frosting just the right amount of sweet. And the best part of the cupcake is the champagne cream filling.

This cupcake is the first (and only) cupcake I’ve made that required so many steps. The steps themselves are pretty easy and the recipe is quite foolproof, but keeping track of everything can be a hassle. For example, I avoided disaster almost until the end, when I forgot to read the part that told me to reduce the champagne before making the frosting. Instead I just added in the whole quantity before reducing it and wondered for quite a while why my frosting was not whipping up from a liquid state. So read and plan carefully! Don’t be the powdered sugar mess that I was in front of my dinner guests!

Another piece of advice I’ll give you is to double the frosting recipe. I initially tried to pipe the cupcakes with frosting, but ran out half way through. To salvage the cupcakes, we decided to screw the piping and to distribute the frosting. So if you want to pipe the frosting for a beautiful cupcake, you should consider doubling the recipe.

Now that you’ve read through my story, here is the recipe. As usual, I have included all of my tips and modifications in the directions. Hope you enjoy these delicious cupcakes!

Champagne Cupcakes

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

Cake

What you’ll need:

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ cup sour cream

½ cup champagne, prosecco, or sparkling wine

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cupcake pan with liners. Be sure to pick one with a delicate color-maybe a rose or even just a plain white. A bright color would take away from the elegance of this cupcake.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and champagne/ prosecco/ sparkling wine. The mixture should fizz, so don’t worry!

Next, cream the butter and sugar together until you have a fluffly mixture. Beat in both eggs one at a time. Finally, add the vanilla and mix well. To this mixture, add the flour and champagne mixtures, alternating between the two. I split up the flour into 4 batches and the champagne into three. Once mixed, you should have a pretty thick batter.

Fill cupcake liners with ¼ cup of batter each. Bake for 18-22 minutes. Mine took about 20 minutes. Check with a toothpick periodically to see if they are done. Set aside to cool, once baked.

Champagne Crème Filling:

What you’ll need:

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup champagne/prosecco/sparkling wine

2 tbsp cornstarch

5 tbsp granulated sugar

1 whole egg

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

What you do:

Begin by whisking the cornstarch in ¼cup of heavy cream.

In a saucepan, combine together the remaining heavy cream (1/4 cup), sugar, and champagne and bring to a gentle boil. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from heat and set aide.

Beat the egg yolks and whole egg into the cornstarch/cream mixture. Pour 1/3 of the boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture. Make sure to whisk constantly so that the eggs don’t cook.

Return the remaining champagne mixture to the heat and bring to a boil again. Pour in the hot egg mixture into the champagne mixture and whisk until it thickens. Once the crème thickens, beat in the vanilla and butter.

The cornstarch will make the crème thicken pretty quickly, so you don’t want to let this sit on the stove. Keep whisking or you’ll burn it. I burnt the crème the first time around. So, be diligent!

To fill the cupcakes, cut out a small hole in the cupcake. I was a bit hesitant in cutting into the cupcake and my divots were pretty shallow. So don’t be meek. You’ll want to make a bigger divot than I did, so you can fill the cupcake with more pastry crème.

Once you make the divots, spoon the crème mixture to fill the cupcakes. Trim the cut out portions to be flat to make a lid and cover the filled divot.

Champagne Buttercream Frosting:

What you’ll need:

1 cup + 1 tbsp champagne/prosecco/sparkling wine

2 sticks butter, softened

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

What you do:

Begin by reducing 1 cup of champagne/prosecco/sparkling wine over medium heat until you have about 2 tbsp worth. This step is important! Don’t put the whole cup into the frosting mixture like I did the first time around. I repeat, remember to REDUCE!

Once champagne has reduced, let it cool. In the mean time, cream together the softened butter and powdered sugar until its smooth and fluffy. If you are having difficulties getting the frosting started, add just a little bit of the reduced champagne in. I find that a little bit of liquid helps me get my frosting started, especially when I haven’t been diligent enough to ensure that the butter is actually soft.

Once you have achieved something that resembles frosting consistency, mix in the rest of the reduced champagne with 1 tbsp of unreduced champagne. Pipe your filled cupcakes, and they are ready!

Remember, I ran out of frosting when I started piping. Maybe my piping skills are terrible, and the frosting will be enough for you. Most likely though, you’ll want to double the frosting recipe to ensure you have enough to make your cupcakes look gorgeous. Maybe you can even add a few those decorative edible pearls for a touch of elegance.

Now I know it’s well past valentine’s day, but I’m sure you’ll find a reason to make these cupcakes. Throw a cocktail party! Or just sit in your PJ’s and enjoy this classy dessert. Make sure to get an extra run in or something!

And to all my friends who have been patiently waiting for this recipe: I’m really sorry for the delay. Fortunately for you, I finally reached the limits of my procrastination, at least when it comes to my blog. School is a whole different matter. In any case, hope you’ll get a chance to make these post finals or in the summer.

Vaish

Avocado Linguine: a quick meal to help you power through the week

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 02:54:00 +0000

Those of you familiar with my blog know of my love affair with avocados. There used to be a time when I would buy a four pack of avocados at Trader Joe’s every week. Now that I think about it, my love was probably a very unhealthy, one-sided relationship. It could even be called obsession.

It’s a good thing that I’ve settled for just picking up one or two on sale since then. In fact, before this week, it had probably been a few months since I picked one up at the store. But I was itching to pick one up.

You see, I wanted to make avocado pasta. I had thought about putting these two ingredients together before. The thought usually occurred when I didn’t have an appropriate carbohydrate to pair with an avocado I had. I usually just ate avocados with southwestern type of food. Pasta, in my mind, was strictly Italian. So for most of last year this thought was pretty transient. That was until I saw this creamy avocado pasta.

Since then, as I said, I’ve been itching to buy avocados. I finally found them on sale last weekend and got around to making linguine in a creamy avocado “sauce”. I then went on to make this meal three more times to help me power through my ridiculously busy (and yet, AMAZING!) week.

This meal is really simple. It’s also quick, healthy, and filling. Best of all, the clean up is nonexistent. Who doesn’t love not having to wash a full set of pots and pans?

I will definitely be making avocado pasta frequently. And guess who just picked up a few more avocados at the farmers market this weekend? I’m going to have to pace myself though. I wouldn’t want to get too attached yet again!

Anyways, I got this simple recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod. I modified the recipe to make just one serving. Finding recipes for just one person is so hard! I also used garlic powder, instead of raw garlic, to avoid every single girl’s nightmare: rancid garlic breath. Finally, I added a dash of hot sauce, well, just because.

Avocado Linguine

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

What you’ll need:

2 oz whole wheat linguine (or any pasta of your choice)

½ large avocado

4-5 springs cilantro, chopped

½ tsp garlic powder

1-2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp hot sauce

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

What you do:

Begin by cooking your pasta as per the instructions on your box. Be sure to salt the water, as it will be your only chance to season the pasta itself. Rachel Ray drilled this step into me! So salt your water guys!

While the pasta is cooking, cut your avocado in half and scoop out the flesh into your food processor. Follow that up by adding the garlic powder, cilantro, lime juice, and hot sauce. Give the mixture a couple of buzzes until its smooth. If you want a few chunks (like me), just blend less. Since the portions here are small and most food processors are large, you will most likely have to scrape down the sides. Silicone spatulas work great for that! When done, add salt and pepper to taste.

Don’t have a food processor? Don’t fret! You can still make this sauce. I only used my food processor the first time around. I was too lazy the rest of the times. I just put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mashed away with a fork. This method creates even fewer dishes and lets you better control the texture of your sauce. You can also use a blender, if you prefer that.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain well and mix the warm pasta with the sauce. And that’s it! You are ready to eat.

I absolutely loved this dish! It’s so rich and creamy without any additional fats. I decided to put this recipe into myfitnesspal to generate a nutrition label. Here it is! Not bad eh?

This avocado pasta is definitely going to make it into my list of foods I make for myself on a regular basis. It’s such a versatile recipe. It can be the main course or be a complement to healthy protein like fish. You can also easily double/triple/quadruple the recipe to feed more mouths. But if you are single like me and only need to cook for one person, well it works for that too! Pretty much the only downside I can see is that you can’t make it ahead of time. You have to make it right before you eat it. Although, with such a simple recipe, I don’t think that’s going to be a huge problem.

By the way, wondering what to do with the left over avocado half? Here’s a tip to store it! I actually tried it, and it definitely works. I didn’t even use an opaque container. I just left the pit in and placed the half cut side down on a bed of onions! Pretty neat huh?

And the next day you can make more of the pasta again (like I did) or be more creative and try another recipe! Maybe you can make this guacamole or an eggvocado to snack on!

So try it out and let me know what you think of this pairing!

Vaish

Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop that carries my new favorite brownie

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:17:00 +0000

This past Friday, as I was lazing around post work, a friend randomly stated that she wanted to try a local bakeshop owned by her former high school teacher and his wife. I’m not sure if she was even planning on inviting me, but I quickly returned her message with a gracious offer to accompany her. I think at that point she was obligated to take me. So the next day, a little bit after noon, we set off to Whisk: A Sustainable Bake Shop.

Whisk is located in a part of town I had never been to before. According to my friend, a St. Louis native, the bakeshop is located on a part of Cherokee Street known as Antique Row. Nested between adorable antique stores, Whisk is a quaint bakeshop that opened its doors in November of 2012. A quick glance at their website reveals their secret: local, fresh, and homemade with love.

And I was sold. The minute I walked in, my new year’s resolutions went out their large, beautiful windows. The display case was laden with deliciousness: poptarts, brownies, cookies, cupcakes, scones, and more wonderful creations from Kaylen Wissinger! I’m not sure how my friend decided on the salted caramel cupcake so quickly! I was so incredibly indecisive. Luckily for me, the nice man behind the counter, who I now know is Pete Wissinger, helped me make my choices. Although I couldn’t take him up on a bakery staple, the bacon chocolate chip cookie, I chose the following: a brownie, a raspberry lemon pop tart, and a vegan chocolate chip muffie. I’m proud to say that I showed great restraint.

Armed with these four desserts, we sat down, determined not to eat them all right then and there. The single most important thing about all of these pastries that really struck me was the following: these desserts were decadent and yet, not uber sweet.

The first dessert I tasted was the brownie. It’s unlike any brownie I have ever eaten: more butter and less sugar/chocolate. And for some reason I loved it. I remember telling my friend, “if every brownie tasted this rich, I’d never be tempted to eat a whole pan of brownies.” As odd as it sounds, this bakeshop might be the cure to my dessert binges and the answer to my weight loss prayers. One decadent brownie and I had satisfied my brownie craving (yes, I have those), without eating a pan of them. And yes, I have many a times, eaten a pan of brownies straight out of the oven. Sometimes, I share. But if these were my go to brownies, I’d always share.

Let me back up for a minute. Whisk is by no means a low fat bakery. All of their goodies are made from locally sourced, full fat dairy products (not including the vegan ones). So, I’m sure their brownie packs a calorie punch. But stopping at one and being utterly satisfied? Now that’s the weight loss miracle!

The raspberry lemon pop tart was truly unique in my eyes. I had never had a home made pop tart, and this one was a HUGE step up from those ones you get at the store. I never understood why people ate them. They taste like their packaging: cardboard (gross!). Here, however, the dough was flaky and light, and the raspberry - lemon filling even found a fan in me, someone with a huge distaste for tart flavors. Were home made pop tarts ubiquitous at one point before they were replaced by the pre-packaged kind? Did I miss out on a huge history of pop tarts? Someone, please educate me!

Following my rediscovery of the pop tart was the vegan chocolate chip muffie. I’ll be honest with you. This muffie was my very first venture into vegan sweets and also my very first muffie. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I figured a muffie would be like a muffin, and vegan meant it would taste worse. I couldn’t be that far off right? The muffie tasted great. It was just different from what I expected. The muffie was lot denser than a muffin. Moreover, this muffie did not seem as decadent as the rest of the three things we ate. I’d probably choose this treat over the first two on a more regular basis, so as to not overload on butter. Also, is it just me or do vegan chocolate chips have a texture very distinct from normal chocolate chips? Am I just imagining this? I’m like 90% percent confident they’re different. But, I might just have to eat another muffie to double check.

Finally, my last and probably least favorite bite was the salted caramel cupcake. It was a good cupcake: perfectly moist. I found the frosting to be too heavy though, and it didn’t taste much like salted caramel. I went into this cupcake expecting it to taste something like one of the many salted caramel drinks I imbibed at Starbucks this holiday season. That was definitely not this cupcake. Or maybe, Starbucks just has me fooled on what salted caramel as flavor actually means.

But never mind that. I still really liked this place. I loved the quaint décor, the open windows, and the couch. It’d be a great place to bring a book, meet with friends, or even work on a blog post. Their price just sweetens the deal. I think the most expensive thing on their menu was maybe $4. Our four pastries only added up to a little over $11, far less that I would expect to pay at an artisanal bakery. I didn’t even realize they carried coffee until we were leaving. I’m sure this coffee addict definitely missed out on a treat.

Overall, I’d say this is a place I’d frequent. I only wish they were a little closer to me! I am definitely looking forward to going back, even if it’s just to get more of that brownie! It’s my new favorite brownie. Any chance you’d be willing to part with the recipe Kaylen? I’ll also have to plan a trip for when the weather is warmer to try their famous ice pops! Who’s in?

Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop is located at:

2201 Cherokee St.,

St. Louis, MO 63118

They are open:

Wednesday-Friday 9am-6pm

Saturday-Sunday 9am-4pm.

I’d definitely recommend going early to avoid risking them being sold out of your favorite treat.

In addition to Kaylen’s creations, Whisk also carries homemade Macaron’s from Mila, Sweets. Mila, Sweets is owned by Amrita, the accomplished author of The Sweet Art (a new blog favorite of mine!).

My St. Louis friends: I hope this review will inspire you to check out this addition to the St. Louis dessert scene. It’s a great place to be when you are craving that something sweet. And if you go, please do take me with you.

-Vaish

Southwest Burrito Salad: who needs Chipotle when one has Pinspiration?

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 04:36:00 +0000

This year, to set myself up for success when it comes to meeting my New Year’s resolutions, I am filling my life with inspiration.

My new year’s resolutions fall into four major categories: productivity, relationships, fitness, and food.

Productivity:

As I start 2013, I have a few huge deadlines coming up. I need to finish my research projects by May 15^th, the end of my MA program. I will be starting my third year clerkships on June 15^th. In the midst of all of this work, I will be teaching a couple MCAT classes, sitting in on a few of the medical school classes as refreshers, trying to relearn second year of medical school before clerkships start,cooking, blogging, volunteering, going to India, and of course taking care of myself. Accomplishing all of this and more will need all of my time management and planning skills.

My Vera Bradley planner and matching accessories inspire me to plan out my days, while making my life just a tad bit prettier.

Relationships:

As I’m sure is the case for many of you, I find myself losing touch with people who used to be a big part of life. In 2013, I am hoping to make a more conscious effort to make new connections and reconnect with old friends.

In this area, I’m drawing inspiration from my friends. I saw the following post from one of my friends in my Facebook newsfeed today.

While I was too late to get in on the gift receiving (darn it!), I decided this would be a fun project to continue and decided to repost this message on my Facebook wall. I’m so excited to plan gifts for my friends.

In addition to doing this project with my Facebook friends, I think it would be fun to do something similar for my readers as well! So, here it is: three randomly chosen individuals who comment on this post will receive a small gift in the mail from me! Most likely it will be baked goodies! So leave me a comment. I’ll announce who the lucky three individuals are by Friday January 11, 2013. The gifts will arrive at random times so as to be surprises.

Fitness:

Fitness has always been a touchy subject with me. I have always vied to be that token athletic person who always has a spring in their step and loves to do everything outdoors. The fact of the matter is I am just not that person. Even when I was at my smallest and playing ultimate twice a week, I was still the worst person on said team. Or at least I always felt that way. So, this year I’m setting my sights on more manageable achievements.

I’d like to run a couple of races this year (knee and ankle permitting). I want to start with a 5K sometime in spring and progress to a 10K by winter. To inspire me in these goals I have the following goodies in my arsenal:

I am using the Couch to 5K app to get me started on running. I started Week 1 Day 1 last night. Wish me luck!

The Nike Training Club app gives me fun 30-45 minute circuit training workouts. I have done a few of these workouts and absolutely love them. It makes working out more fun!

My Polar FT7 Heart Rate Monitor lets me track my calories burned and motivates me to push myself harder each time.

And finally, my new Brooks Pure Flow running shoes are helping me get closer to my natural stride. I am no running shoe expert, but I love the lower 4mm heel to toe drop in this shoe and other similar shoes. I would like to thank the loving owners of Missouri Running Company for fitting me with such an awesome shoe! If you are in St. Louis and looking for new running shoes, definitely check them out.

Food:

I’ve already mentioned a few of my goals regarding food in my last post. Just to summarize, my goals are to make nutritious foods at home, watch my portion sizes, and reduce my food expenses.

Here are my food inspirations:

My trusty Biggest Loser Food Scale not only lets me measure accurately when baking, but also lets me measure out appropriate portion sizes.

The myfitnesspal app helps me keep track of what I’m eating. It also lets me enter recipes and estimate nutrition information for dishes I make at home.

And of course there’s Pinterest! It is my most single most important inspiration for food and food recipes this year. Here is a screen shot of my Food board on there. I have so many recipes pinned. 2013 is looking like a great food year!

Pinterest is also where I got my inspiration for last night’s dinner (and today's lunch) recipe: the Southwest Burrito Salad. This salad is my home made Chipotle mimic that's good for both my financial and calorie budget.

Full disclosure: this recipe is not meant to be a replica of every ingredient on the Chipotle menu. No, I do not have the secret behind their red salsa. Or any other salsa for that matter. This recipe is simply a Southwest Burrito Salad that makes me feel like I’m eating Chipotle for a lot less money and a lot fewer calories.

I was inspired to make this salad by the following salad on Fitness Magazine (which I found through Pinterest). Instead of using plain brown rice and raw vegetables, I decided to try to replicate Chipotle’s cilantro lime rice and fajita vegetables. I also topped the salad with a simple and fresh tomato salsa. Here’s what I did.

Southwest Burrito Salad

Adapted from Fitness Magazine

What you’ll need:

2 cups low sodium chicken (or vegetable) broth

¾ cup uncooked brown basmati rice (or any brown rice you like)

1, 15oz can low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed

6 cups romaine lettuce, shredded

1 tsp canola oil

2/3 cup frozen corn

2 cups southwest blend frozen vegetables (onions and pepper blend)

1 medium roma tomato or vine tomato or ½ sandwich tomato

5-6 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped

1/3 tsp garlic period

1 ½ tbsps lime juice

½ tsp hot sauce

salt

fresh ground pepper

What you do:

The first and longest step in this recipe is cooking the rice. I used my trusty rice cooker and let it cook while I was at the gym. I’m sure you could do this on the stove or in the microwave, but I have yet to master the art of stovetop or microwave rice. To flavor the rice, use 2 cups of chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you prefer) and 1 tbsp of lime juice. I used the concentrated kind in a bottle. I’m sure fresh lime juice would be even better. Once the rice is done cooking, fold in about 4 sprigs of cilantro, chopped.

The next step is to make the fajita vegetables and corn. I used a southwest blend of frozen vegetables made up of onions and red and green bell peppers. I definitely thick fresh, thickly sliced peppers and onions would have been better. So if you have that, I would go ahead and use those. I didn’t, so I stuck to my frozen vegetables.

To make the vegetables, begin by heating a teaspoon of canola in a saucepan. Once the oil is hot, add in the vegetables and corn. Cook until the vegetables are soft and start develop a bit of char. A bigger pan works better for this step. The bigger pan allows the water to evaporate quickly and lets the vegetables cook without getting too soft. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.

The final step for this salad is to make the simple fresh salsa and assemble the salad. To make the salad, dice the tomato and add in the garlic powder and 1 tbsp of lime juice. Next, add in a handful of chopped cilantro, about ½ tsp hot sauce, and mix well.

Now you are ready to assemble the salad. Begin by layering 2 cups of chopped romaine lettuce. Then layer about ¾ cups of cooked rice, about ½ cup of the drained black beans, and 1/3^rd of the fajita vegetable mixture. Top with about a third of the salsa. Add more hot sauce if desired.

I know I plated this on a salad plate, but you might want to make this in a bowl. This salad is piled so high with such great, nutritious ingredients that its difficult to eat unless in a bowl. Chipotle had the right idea when they decided on a burrito bowl rather than a plate.

The recipe above makes three servings, at about 400kcals/serving. Here’s the nutrition label for those interested!

This salad can be zested up even more with some guacamole or slices of avocado. You can find my guacamole recipe here. If you need more dressing, a store bought green or red salsa would go really well here. For those of you who must have meat, you can top with chicken, steak, or pork. And of course, one can always add in sour cream and cheese to make this a richer meal. Just keep in mind that any of these additions will change the nutritional value and calorie count!

This recipe is also vegan and vegetarian friendly. Just switch out the chicken broth for vegetable broth and you have a completely vegetarian meal. I only used chicken broth because I already had a carton open.

I hope this Southwest Burrito Salad will get you started on your new resolutions! It certainly helped me with two of mine: eating healthy and saving money by making a restaurant look alike!

What are your resolutions in this new year? What inspires you to keep going and achieve them? Leave me a comment! I'd love to hear what you are doing in this new year. Remember, you could get a package from me in the mail!

-Vaish

P.S. The views on products mentioned in this post are my own. I did not receive any compensation for featuring these products in my blog.

Lemon-Thyme Chicken and Roasted Vegetables: a reflection on the past year and a vision for the future

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:22:00 +0000

Dear readers,

I hope you are still out there! Happy New Year!

With the advent of the New Year, I have finally ended my sabbatical from blogging/cooking. It initially began as a self-imposed sabbatical so I could focus on taking the first of my medical boards. I am so glad to say that boards are done!

But boards were done on Halloween (Yes…I really did take the test on Halloween). I really have no excuse for the months of November and December. I just haven’t cooked anything I wanted to blog about. In fact, I just wasn’t inspired by the thought entering my kitchen and whipping up something delicious.

Now, this has to sound odd for a self-proclaimed food blogger. And it was for me as well. Amidst this abyss of culinary block, I took part in some much-needed self-appraisal and evaluation when I made the following observations:

First, every time I thought about getting back in the kitchen, I envisioned my frantic attempts in the kitchen that mostly left me tired and with a mess. In my attempts to make everything from scratch for dinner parties and blog worthy food, I had forgotten everything about cooking for myself. The idea behind the blog was to learn to cook for both the everyday and the party day. Somewhere in the midst of creating and writing this blog, I skipped over the everyday. I stopped considering everyday food blog worthy. Instead, blog worthy food was, in my mind, messy and labor intensive.

Second, whether I’d like to admit it or not, this past year was a monumental challenge for me to get through. I am so proud to have made it to 2013 mostly sane. Unfortunately, however, I cannot say the same for my waistline. I think I have pretty much doubled in size over 2012. As I was gaining weight during most of 2012, I faced a lot of pressure to quit the blogging and focus on weight loss.

Both of these pressures influenced me to start cooking less and eat more processed, pre-packaged foods. My meals started consisting of microwave dinners, canned soups, and other things that really shouldn’t be considered food. And more often than not, I would often cave and binge on my trusty friend: New York Super Fudge Chunk.

As you can imagine, this approach really didn’t lend itself to weight loss. Nor did it lend itself to good nutrition. All that processed food just made me feel sluggish. My love-hate relationship with food began to feel much more like just mutual hatred.

So, as 2013 arrived, I knew I needed a new way to tackle my culinary block.

I have decided to focus on sharing with you the healthy and nutritious meals I make for myself. I am also going to shift my focus on learning the easiest and healthiest way to make something rather than the “proper” way.

This latter decision was rather hard. I recently sent this picture of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking to a good friend, lamenting about how much I wanted to buy said copy and learn all about poaching eggs, making sauces, etc. Luckily for my waistline, good sense prevailed. I don’t have to be a masterfully trained chef to cook for myself. All I need is a good palette and some willingness to experiment in the kitchen.

Don’t worry my dear friends, I’ll still be entertaining, and you can still come over for dinner whenever! I love my friends and can’t imagine giving up an excuse to see them. So you’ll still see those recipes you can entertain with. The blog will still remain a D.I.Y. Culinary School, where I recount my tales of learning to cook for both the everyday and the party day. But instead of just hearing about the party day, you will also be hearing more about the everyday.

Ok, enough. I’m sure by now you’re tired of all this self-reflection and are ready for some food. So let’s talk food!

I know I just spent all this time talking about cooking for myself, but the recipe I’m going to share with you today is for a roast chicken I made for a Christmas potluck.

This year life handed me the unfortunate (or maybe fortunate) card of spending my winter break working a 1000 miles away from home. I decided to invite a few of my friends who were also stranded for the holidays over for a Christmas potluck. Based on my minimal experience with such potlucks, I, as the host, took on the responsibility for the centerpiece of the meal: the protein. More specifically, I chose to make a roast chicken.

Never having cooked a whole chicken before, I really needed a lot of help. Julia Child might have been useful right about then, I guess. Luckily for me, I found a recipe by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, titled the Perfect Roast Chicken on the internet. Ok, that’s a pretty grand proclamation. The recipe was so simple. Just stuff a chicken with some lemon, garlic, and thyme, brush with butter, and voila perfect chicken. Could it really be that perfect? The reviewers thought so.

And after having made this, I think I have to agree! Don’t take my word for it? Ask my guests. Don’t trust them? Then you need to try it for yourself. It would be easy enough.

Not only is this Lemon-Thyme Chicken perfect in taste, it is also perfect in ease of preparation. Prep took me all of 20 minutes start to finish. I just popped it in the oven, and 1.5 hours later I had a meal of deliciously juicy chicken and roasted vegetables. The recipe is virtually foolproof. In fact, I didn’t check on the chicken even once while it was cooking. So for your next party, set aside your basting brushes and meat thermometers and get ready to spend quality time with your guests away from the kitchen! I know I certainly did!

I adapted the recipe a bit. The store ran out of fennel, so I substituted a few large red potatoes and some celery. I also added ¼ cup of white wine and ¼ cup of chicken stock to prevent the vegetables and chicken from getting too dry, as was suggested by some reviewers. Here’s my version of the recipe:

Lemon-Thyme Chicken and Roasted Vegetables

Adapted from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa

What you’ll need:

1 roasting chicken (5-6 lbs)

Salt

Ground black pepper

1 large bunch of fresh thyme

1 lemon, quartered

1 head garlic, peeled

4 tablespoons butter

2 large yellow onions, thickly sliced

1 lb carrots cut into 2-inch chunks

2 large red potatoes cut into chunks

5 stalks celery cut into 2-inch chunks

1/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup low sodium chicken stock

Olive Oil

What you do:

Begin by preheating the oven to 425°F.

To avoid cross-contamination, I began with the vegetables first. In your roasting pan, toss together onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add in about 20 sprigs of thyme from your bunch. Set your roasting pan aside for now.

Now you are ready to deal with the chicken. I found Ina Garten’s video demonstration rather helpful for this portion of the prep work. So be sure to check out her video.

Begin my prepping what you need to season the chicken. You will need to cut your lemon into quarters, peel your garlic, wash (and pat dry) your thyme, and melt about 2 tbsp of butter. I also put some salt and pepper into small bowls so as to not contaminate my original dispensers.

Once you are ready, remove the chicken giblets and rinse the chicken well (both inside and out). Next, pat the outside dry with some paper towels. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Next, stuff the chicken with the lemon, thyme, and garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the melted butter and liberally salt and pepper the outside. I would really emphasize being liberal with your salt and pepper. It really helps ensure you get a well-seasoned product. Another tip would be to make sure you butter and season the breast of the chicken under the skin. The skin should easily lift up for you to be able to do this. This step makes for a very flavorful chicken breast.

Once the chicken is seasoned, use some kitchen string to tie the legs together and attempt to tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. The latter didn’t really work for me, despite Ina Garten’s very helpful video demonstration. It didn’t end up making much of a difference either.

Now place the chicken on top of the vegetables in your roasting pan. Add in your white wine and chicken stock. I used some left over Moscato. I’m sure you can skip it and just use a little bit more chicken stock. I also had plenty of liquid left on the bottom, so you could also just use 1/4^th cup of liquid. To ensure that the skin would be extra crispy, I put a few chunks (about 2tbsp) of softened butter on the chicken breast and legs.

Roast the chicken for 1.5 hours. Then remove the chicken and cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil for about 20-30 minutes. And voila your chicken is ready to serve.

As I said before, I had plenty of liquid left in the bottom that doubled as a gravy/sauce for the meat. The roasted vegetables were delectable. I have never eaten potatoes and carrots jam packed with such intense flavors. In fact, one of my friends told me that I had changed her opinion of cooked carrots! I’m telling you, these vegetables were really good!

Thanks Ina Garten, for such an amazing recipe. It was, in fact, the “perfect” roast chicken.

Thanks for reading guys! I hope you’ll come back for more recipes and stories. I look forward to blogging in 2012.

Once again, Happy New Year! I hope this year holds much happiness and success for you (and me)!

-Vaish

This post was linked at following sites:

Pineapple Upside Down Cake: because I bought a pineapple

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:10:00 +0000

I bought a pineapple, a WHOLE pineapple. Yes, a whole one. Now I just had to figure out how to cut it up properly, and then eat it all in a timely fashion. I don’t know about you, but this task was daunting to me, especially the eating it all in a timely fashion. I am notorious for forgetting about the fresh produce is in my fridge.

So, I decided I would bake with pineapple. Never having really done anything with a pineapple before, the only thing that came to mind was a pineapple upside down cake.

I grew up eating pineapple upside down cake. My aunt makes a mean one. Such a good one in fact that she is often asked to make one for some gathering or the other. Unfortunately, however, I couldn’t ask her for a recipe. Why you ask?

Well my aunt is one of those talented bakers who never follows recipes. She just throws things together and makes amazing baked concoctions. It doesn’t matter whether its muffins or cheesecake, the recipes are just in her head. She doesn’t even own measuring cups and spoons. She literally just eyeballs everything. Yeah, I know!

Maybe one day I can get that good at baking. Wouldn’t it be great to have such in depth understanding of baking that you could just eyeball everything?

Until then, I will have to just settle for following recipes. Lucky for me, one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, had just the recipe I was looking for.

This recipe is very different from my aunt’s. For one, my aunt definitely does not use rum to glaze the cake. She also definitely does not use a brown sugar caramel. Nevertheless, the cake was delicious. Actually, it was more than delicious. It was phenomenal.

The cake was perfectly moist and airy, and not at all dense. The fresh pineapple is so much better than the canned kind. And lets not forget the beauty of the final product. I mean, how can you not love something that looks so pretty?

Yes fine, the pictures on Smitten Kitchen are way better that mine. But hey, my cake was pretty too.

Anyways, here’s a recipe for you, for the next time you happen to find yourself with a fresh pineapple.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

What you’ll need:

For topping:

½ medium pineapple, peeled, cored, and quartered

¾ stick unsalted butter

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

For cake:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsps baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¾ stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp dark rum

½ cup pineapple juice (I used juice from canned pineapple as it was cheaper)

2 tbsps dark rum to sprinkle on top of cake

What you do:

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 °F.

I made the batter first. To make the batter, begin by stirring together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set this mixture aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is light and fluffy. Then, beat in the granulated sugar, followed by the egg. Be sure to add the eggs one at a time. Next, add the vanilla and the rum. Finally, alternate adding the flour mixture and pineapple juice, mixing until just blended. Note that the batter might appear slightly curdled at this point. That’s okay!

Next it was time to make the topping. As I didn’t have a cast iron skillet, I made the topping on the stove and spooned it into an 8-inch cake pan. Begin by melting the butter in a saucepan. Add in the brown sugar and stir on low heat for approximately 4 minutes.

Next, scrape this mixture onto the bottom of your cake pan. Finish off by layering the pineapple pieces such that you form a uniform layer on the bottom. If you did a great job cutting up the pineapple (which I definitely didn’t), then you could do concentric circle. Obviously how you layer the pineapple doesn’t affect the taste, but it sure does affect how pretty it looks. So cut that pineapple up carefully!

Anyways, once you are done layering the pineapple, pour the batter on top of the topping. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and your toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes or so, before inverting it onto your serving plate. Finally, sprinkle the 2 tbsps of rum over the cake and serve either warm or cold.

I chose to serve my cake warm during a going away dinner for a friend. It tastes just as good cold, maybe even better. Whether you choose to serve this warm or cold, I think you will impress.

So, get to the store, buy that pineapple, and start baking!

-Vaish

Chocolate Chip Cookies: the cookies that vanish

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:41:00 +0000

Today’s post is for my friend Leena, one the sweetest girls I have ever had the pleasure to get to know. A little less than a year ago, it was Leena’s birthday, and we were doing a dessert potluck. I figured they would already be plenty of cake. Especially ice cream cake, since that’s her favorite.

So, I settled on some chocolate chip cookies. More specifically, I settled on my favorite chocolate chip recipe from Kim at Lovin’from the Oven.

Ever since her birthday, Leena has been asking me about these cookies every so often. I finally got around to making these again. So, here you go Leena. This post is for you!

But before we get to the recipe, here’s a little bit about these cookies to help you understand why Leena keeps asking about these cookies.

These cookies are everything you want from a chocolate chip cookie. They are soft and chewy, with the right ratio of chocolate chips to dough. And best of all, they have the ability to vanish.

You read that right. These cookies pull a vanishing act.

I brought about three dozen of these beauties to Leena’s birthday, and within minutes they disappeared.

I made these cookies again for a class I teach. And there too, the cookies just vanished.

Don’t believe me? Make these for your friends, and witness this vanishing act yourself.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Lovin’ From The Oven

What you’ll need:

2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

I cup light-brown sugar

1tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

What you do:

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 °F.

In a small bowl stir together the flour and baking soda. Set this mixture aside for later.

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar and white sugar. Beat on a medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then turn the speed to low and add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed.

Once the wet ingredients are ready, add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Finally fold in the chocolate chips.

Drop ice cream scoop sized balls of dough on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. You can line the baking sheet with parchment paper if you would like.

I baked the cookies for about 9 minutes and then let them cool on the baking sheet for 2 more minutes before letting them cool completely on a wire rack.

And voila, your cookies are ready. How simple is that?

Try these and let me know what you think! I think the secret behind the awesomeness of this cookie is the brown sugar. You can also jazz these cookies up by adding a ½ cup of walnuts, like Kim does from Lovin’ fromthe Oven does. I have tried this version as well, and those too are capable of vanishing.

Finally, Leena: good luck making these. I totally expect to eat some of these the next time you make them! Sorry it took me so long to get you this recipe.

-Vaish

It's a Keeper Thursday's: I'm a co host!

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:30:00 +0000

Hey guys!

So, I have a couple of announcements for you!

1. I am super super super sorry about the lack of posts the past couple of weeks. I have been having computer issues, and I'm in the process of moving. But do not fret! I have a couple of posts up my sleeve that will be out in the next couple of days!

2. I recently got an opportunity to co-host a linky party! I have participated in so many of them but never hosted, so I'm super excited for today. I am co-hosting the "It's a Keeper Thursday" Linky Party with Christine from It's a Keeper! I love her linky party, as I have found incredible recipes that I can't wait to try. And what's more, it's not just a party to share recipes, but also D.I.Y craft ideas. So head on over to check out some of her previous linky parties and link your recipe and/or craft ideas to the linky party here or there!

Here are some rules for the linky party:

Follow It's a Keeper and me via email, Facebook, and/or Twitter.
Your link should be a food or craft/project related item. Link up as many as you would like!
Add my button and the It's a Keeper button to your sidebar or blog post- help spread the word!
Be sure to check out some of the awesome posts that others have linked up! Let them know that DIY Culinary School and It's a Keeper sent you!

Link away!

-Vaish

Chicken Kuzhambu: how I use short cuts when I cook Indian food

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Chicken Kuzhambu (pronounced ku-lam-bu), or South Indian chicken curry, can be intimidating. When my mom does it right, she begins by toasting an array of spices, and then grinding them to make something called the chicken masala. It’s a blend of coriander seeds, dried red chillies, turmeric, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, salt, cloves, cinnamon, cardomom pods, garlic, ginger, onion, fenugreek, and mustard. Whew….that was a mouthful!

To be honest, I don’t have all of these ingredients, nor do I know exactly what proportions to use them in. And most of the time I would probably be too lazy to toast the spices every time I wanted to make this dish. So, when I make chicken kuzhambu, I use store bought chicken masala.

Now some of you avid cooks out there might be infuriated at such a notion. Used to be that store bought chicken masala could never even compare to what one could make at home. But now days, they have gotten so good that even my uber picky mom will reach for one these packets when she needs to whip some up quickly. Honestly, I’ve never even noticed the difference.

Truth be told, when cooking at home, most Indians will reach for store bought masalas all the time, no matter what they are cooking. Why? It’s just easier and faster. I mean who has the time to grind up the spices every time? Don’t be put off by the use of store bought spices. They can really make your life easier when cooking Indian food and the results are just as fantastic.

So, on a weeknight, when my friends were coming over for an authentic South Indian meal, I did not even hesitate to pull out my trusted stash of chicken masala. My guests loved the meal, and I am proud to say that it reminded me of chicken kuzhambu I had eaten at home.

Sure one day I’ll have to learn how to make this from scratch, and I will the next time I go home. But for now, here’s the recipe with the short cut.

Chicken Kuzhambu

Adapted from a recipe from my mom

What you’ll need:

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken, cubed (I use thighs)

2 medium yellow onions diced

6 tbsp chicken masala powder

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

½ cup water

2 tbsp canola oil

2-3 I inch pieces of fresh or frozen coconut

1 bay leaf

cilantro leaves to garnish

salt to taste

What you do:

Start by marinating your chicken in 3 tbsps of chicken masala for at least thirty minutes. I marinated mine for an hour. This step makes the chicken much more flavorful.

While the chicken is marinating, use a food processor or a small blender to shred the coconut. Add in some water to essentially make a paste.

Once ready, begin by heating the oil in a deep pot. Once the oil is heated, add the onions and sauté until translucent. I tend to do this step on low heat so I don’t burn the onions. Next, add in the ginger garlic paste and bay leaf and toast for 1-2 minutes.

Next, add in the chicken and the rest of the chicken masala. Sauté for about 10 minutes. Then add in the water and the coconut paste. Mix everything well and let the curry simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked. You should have a pretty thick gravy when you are done.

And voila, your chicken kuzhambu is ready! How easy was that?

You can add more or less of the chicken masala as you are cooking depending on how spicy you want your curry to be. If I was cooking for my family, I probably would have added more. But as I was cooking for some friends, I used less.

I served the chicken kuzhambu with some basmati rice and parota, a type of south Indian bread. I also made some pachadi, which is a yoghurt sauce with red onions and cucumbers.

Ok, so I’m still sure that some of you are not convinced about using store bought spices or not sure what brand to buy. I would suggest visiting your local Indian grocery store and getting a MTR, Aachi, or Sakthi brand of chicken masala. If buying MTR, make sure the masala says something like south Indian chicken curry masala. You definitely want to buy a South Indian masala.

I am also going to give a couple of you a packet of the spice mix I use at home: Aachi or Sakthi Chicken Masala. Just enter before July 28^th, and two lucky winners (chosen by lottery) will receive a packet of chicken masala!

1. You can enter by leaving me a comment on this post, joining the blog on google friend connect, liking the blog page on facebook, or pinning this recipe to pinterest. You can also receive multiple entries by doing more than one of these things.

2. You have to be a U.S. Resident to enter. Sorry, I cannot ship internationally.

Good luck! And I really hope you will try this recipe at home! If you love spicy Indian food, you will love this chicken kuzhambu!

-Vaish

Walnut Blondies: discovering the brownie's cousin

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:03:00 +0000

I absolutely love brownies…like make-a-batch-just-to-eat-by-myself love. So it’s surprising that it was only four days ago that I discovered the brownie’s cousin: the blondie. I saw these bars all time in the shelves of various coffee shops around town, sitting next to their rich chocolatey cousins. And yet, I had never felt the urge to try one. I suppose given my love for chocolate and brownies, it was hard to pay attention to this demure dessert sitting close by. Brownies always looked so much inviting. Moreover, as far as I was concerned, why would I eat a brownie without chocolate when I could just eat one with it? I thought the blondie was for those who had the terrible misfortune of not being able to eat chocolate. Not for a chocoholic like me. Boy was I wrong.

My views of the blondie changed completely when I recently visited a restaurant named Blondies for dessert. Lucky for us, the desserts were BOGO on this Thursday night (yay!) and we got two desserts. I decided to get a bread pudding, whereas my friend chose to order the namesake of the restaurant: the blondie.

They brought out two decadent blondies dressed with scoops of vanilla ice cream. They were perfection. I never realized how much I would love the blonde cousin of my favorite brownies. I was sold. I needed to learn how to make these, I decided, even before I left the restaurant.

My online blogosphere search led me to a trusted basic recipe from Deb of Smitten Kitchen. This classic recipe was just what I needed to learn how to make these decadent bars. So, on Sunday night, as I sat around procrastinating on a proposal, I whipped up a batch. I decided to jazz them up with walnuts as Deb suggested.

This recipe is stellar. The blondies were as delicious as I expected. And although I wanted to keep them all to myself, I was good and shared! Given the rave reviews that my friends gave these bars, I’m confident that you too will love them!

So here is the recipe. Try it out. Remember to be a good friend and share some too!

Walnut Blondies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

What you’ll need:

1 stick butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

½ cup chopped walnuts

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 350°F

Butter an 8-inch round pan or a 8X8 square pan. I chose a round pan so I could make cute wedges like the restaurant had.

In a glass measuring cup or a bowl melt the butter in the microwave. Once melted, mix the melted butter with brown sugar until smooth. Once the mixture is cooled, beat in the vanilla extract and the egg.

Next just add salt and stir in the flour until everything is well combined. Finally fold in the chopped walnuts.

Spread the mixture evenly in your buttered pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until it is firm in the center. I always err on the side of baking a little bit less because I would rather have my blondies be gooey. Just keep and eye on it and get them out when the center is firm.

Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes or so, then invert on a plate to get them out of the pan. You should now be able to cut these up into bars or wedges, as you desire.

As Deb suggested you can definitely modify this recipe. Some of her suggestions include adding nuts (as I did), chocolate chips, or peanut butter to these bars. One of my friends, Leena, suggested I add white chocolate chips to make them like ones she remembered eating at Applebee’s and loved. I’ll definitely have to try out these variations on this basic recipe. I can’t wait to make another batch of these soon!

-Vaish

Linky Parties:

Butter Chicken: Bollywood classics and a give away

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Bollywood…I’m obsessed with it. Especially the classics from the 90s and early 2000s: Dilwale Dulhania LeJayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal Ho Na Ho, Hum Tum, Parineeta, should I go on? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed some of the recent movies like Fashion, Dostana, and Don 2, but there’s just something about the wholesome classic Bollywood movies. Those were the movies you could watch with your mom without her complaining about violence or lack of family values. Those were the movies where the hero overcomes obstacles and wins the heroine. Those were the movies that defined an Indian girl’s picture of romance. No one can forget Kajol and Shahrukh running across a field to be with each other in DDLJ, or Saif breaking down a wall in Parineeta. That has to be true love right?

So, when a newly met friend, Tarek, claimed that he had seen a Bollywood classic, I was naturally curious. It’s very rare to see a boy openly admitting to watching a Bollywood movie, much less enjoying it. I was, however, appalled, when he cited Om Shanti Om as a classic. As much as I loved watching Shahrukh in Dard-E-Disco (girls you know what I’m talking about), Om Shanti Om is most definitely not a classic. I just had to change this poor boy’s perception of classic Bollywood. He gladly accepted the challenge and agreed to let me introduce him to classic Bollywood.

To sweeten the deal, I offered to cook him and his roommate (and it turned out another friend of his), an Indian meal. On the menu, Butter Chicken, also known as Chicken Makhani. Neither my mom nor I had ever made Butter Chicken before. So, I borrowed a recipe from Sukaina from Lick My Spoon. I have to say, her marinade made for some pretty delicious chicken! I’m still on the fence about the gravy though. It might be because I didn’t have some of the ingredients at hand. Here’s the recipe! Try it out and let me know if this reminds you of the Butter Chicken you have had at Indian restaurants.

Butter Chicken/Chicken Makhani

Adapted from Lick My Spoon through Rasamalaysia

What you’ll need:

2 lbs boneless chicken, cut into 1-inch cubes

juice of 2 limes

salt to taste

4 tbsp red chilli powder

2 cups plain yogurt

3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

3 tbsp tandoori masala

6 tbsp butter

4 cardamoms

2 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

8 medium ripe tomatoes, blended

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp garam masala

250 ml heavy whipping cream

What you do:

This dish definitely takes advanced preparation. I would suggest you marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours. I did 4 hours, but overnight is probably best. To make the marinate, whisk together the lime juice, salt, 2 tbsp red chilli powder, garlic-garlic ginger paste, yogurt, and tandoori powder. You can find tandoori powder at any local Indian/Pakistani or international store. Place the chicken cubes in the marinade and coat well. Marinate the chicken for as long as you can.

When ready to cook, you can either grill or bake the chicken. We used a charcoal grill, and I think that turned out to be a great idea. We found it easiest to grill the chicken by making skewers and grilling them like kabobs. If you are grilling them, grill until the chicken is just starting to get a char.

As I said, you can also bake the chicken. Just bake until the chicken is cooked. Be careful not to over bake. You want to chicken to remain moist.

Regardless of what method you choose, prepare your chicken and set aside.

Next, it’s time to prepare the gravy. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and toast the cardamom, cinnamon sticks, and cloves. Toast for a couple of minutes and then add the blended tomatoes and tomato paste. Let this simmer on low to medium heat for about 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are cooked through. You’ll know when it’s ready when the gravy thickens and the oil starts to separate from the gravy.

Once the tomatoes and cooked through, add in the garam masala, rest of the chilli powder, and the cream. Also add in the chicken you had previously cooked. Let this simmer before another 20 minutes before serving.

You can serve butter chicken with naan or basmati rice. As I forgot to bring the naan I had bought for the occasion, Josh, Tarek’s roommate, graciously made us some saffron basmati rice. That man definitely carries himself well in the kitchen.

As I mentioned earlier, I was a big fan of the marinade and how the chicken turned out. As for the gravy, I thought it was too creamy and not spicy enough. My dinner guests, however, found it to be the perfect level of spiciness. So I guess, it depends on one’s tastes. Overall, I would say the meal was a success.

Bollywood night, on the other hand, never happened. Alas, the boys decided watching Game 3 of the NBA finals was just a tad bit more important than getting a proper introduction to Bollywood classics. Sigh. Boys will be boys. What can you do?

Now for the part you have been waiting for: the give away! I decided that I would give one of you the opportunity to have your very own Bollywood night! You could win a copy of my favorite Bollywood classics: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Moreover, you will also receive a recipe card with the recipe for butter chicken, along with premixed spice packets containing the spices you need to create this meal at home. All you would have to do is purchase the perishable ingredients that can’t be shipped! Does that sound awesome or what?

Now you must be wondering, how you can enter to get a chance to win such an awesome prize. Well here are the guidelines:

1. Leave a comment, follow my blog, post this recipe on pinterest, or follow me on twitter between now and July 20, 2012. The more of these you do, the more times you’ll be entered to win.

2. You must be a resident of the U.S. to win. I can’t ship overseas. Sorry!

Now how easy is that? Good luck and I look forward to seeing who gets to have their very own Bollywood night!

-Vaish

Linky Parties:

Chocolate Almond Biscotti: inspiration from an engagement

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 21:41:00 +0000

It was Nick and Mary Beth’s engagement party. The location: Villa Antonio Winery, just a little bit south of St. Louis. It was such a wonderful day: a beautiful place, good company and an adorable couple (see picture…so cute right?).

However, despite the major cuteness of the couple, the best part of the day, hands down, was the complimentary homemade biscotti that were served by the winery. They were just absolutely AMAZING. They had an intense almond flavor that I absolutely loved.

And it wasn’t just me! Two of my friends there, Lenny and Chelsea, were secretly plotting how to steal the whole bowl of biscotti. Alas, we never actually built up the courage to swipe the biscotti. Nevertheless, our obsession with their biscotti did inspire me to try to make some of my own at home.

To be perfectly honest, the biscotti recipe initially intimidated me. It wanted me to make a log, bake it, then slice it, and bake it again? That was just too confusing for me to handle. And the lack of pictures just added to the confusion. Luckily, I found a video that went along with a different biscotti recipe and was able to finally comprehend what they meant when they said make a log. And other than a small mishap concerning me slicing into the log before it was completely cool, I managed to successfully make home made biscotti.

Lucky for you, not only am I going to share the link to that video, I also took pictures through the intermediate steps.

Hopefully, these two resources will make this recipe less intimidating and inspire you to try making these at home!

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Adapted from Joy of Baking

What you’ll need:

¾ cup whole almonds

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

4 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped into bite sized chunks

What you do:

We will first begin by toasting the almonds. This step can be done ahead of time. So if you want to make this process shorter, just toast the almonds the day before. To toast the almonds, preheat the oven to 350 °F and toast the almonds for 8-10 minutes until they are lightly browned. Let the almonds cool and then chop them coarsely.

Take a baking sheet and either line it with parchment paper or grease it generously with butter.

In a large bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the sugar and eggs on high speed until they turn thick, pale, and fluffy. You’ll know it when it’s ready. I had never beaten eggs to this point before, but when I was there, I knew it. Here’s a picture to help.

Once the eggs are thick, pale, and fluffy, beat in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat together until combined. Next, fold in the chopped almonds and the chopped chocolate.

Now it’s time to make the log. Transfer the dough to a well-floured counter. Then roll into a log shape as in picture. The dough will be sticky. So flour your hands as well. Now place the log on the baking sheet, press down, and bake for 25 minutes.

Once the log is firm, take it out of the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Next cut the log at an angle into biscotti pieces. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes. Then turn to the other side, and bake for 8 more minutes.

Voila, your biscotti are ready! You can store these in an airtight container and enjoy them with your coffee. I certainly did, and so did my friends. Now that I have made biscotti once, I will most definitely be making more varieties. The only thing that disappointed me about these biscotti was that the almond flavor was too subtle for my tastes. I think next time it might be nice to put some almond extract into the mix as well.

Nevertheless, these were still delicious and became my coffee’s perfect partner in crime. Hope you enjoy these as much as my friends and I did!

-Vaish

Cabbage Poriyal: my second take on south Indian cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Every time I talk to someone about my blog, they immediately ask for more Indian recipes. This past week I realized that it had been a ridiculously long time since I had tried cooking something from home. So I decided to have my girl friends Christine and Kirsi over as an excuse to cook one of my mom’s dishes: cabbage poriyal.

Like the cauliflower fry I wrote about earlier, this cabbage poriyal is a staple at our dinner table. It is a simple South Indian side made by stir-frying cabbage. There are many variations of this dish. You can make it with or with out coconut. You can add turmeric or choose to leave it out. Or you can make it the way my mom makes it: without coconut or turmeric, but with some moong dal. Moong dal is essentially mung beans that have been skinned and split, so they are yellow and flat as below. They are one of the faster cooking lentils used in Indian cooking and add an element of protein to this already healthy side dish.

As always, I called up my mom, who then gave me the following instructions: just stir-fry the cabbage with some onions, green chillies, and some cooked moong dal. I really should have seen this coming. In all fairness though, she did give me all the instructions I needed. This recipe is just that simple. Even with just those minimal instructions I was able to replicate her recipe and document it for the blog. So here it is! I hope you will try it and make this dish a staple in your home as well!

Cabbage Poriyal

Adapted from my mom’s recipe

What you’ll need:

1 large fresh cabbage, chopped

1-2 tbsp canola oil (or vegetable oil)

¼ tsp black mustard seeds

¼ tsp split urad dal

1 cup moong dal

1tsp red chilli powder

4-5 green chillies, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

Salt to taste

What you do:

Begin by heating the moong daal along with some water in a pot and cooking the moong dal until you can easily break the dal with you fingers. You want to the cook the daal just long enough such that you still have individual pieces. It took me about 15 minutes on a medium-high heat. They should now look like the picture below. Once the dal is cooked, drain the water and set the dal aside.

In another pan, add enough canola oil (you could also use vegetable or olive oil) to coat the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot, add in the black mustard seeds and urad dal. When the mustard seeds start popping and the urad daal is toasted, add in the onions and green chillies. Sauté the onions until they are translucent.

Once the onions are cooked through, add the cabbage and the red chilli powder and just sauté until the cabbage is coated with the oil and spices. Add some salt, cover with a lid, and let cook for 5 minutes or so. Then, add in the cooked moong dal and just continue to sauté until the cabbage is cooked through. You know the cabbage is cooked when it starts to soften and no longer has a crunch to it. Finally, just adjust the salt as needed.

I decided to serve the cabbage poriyal with some white basmati rice and some pappu keerai (literally translates to spinach and dal). Recipe for that will come soon, as soon as I plan ahead and document the preparation process! You can also serve it with just some plain yogurt or any other curry you like. It goes really well with a south Indian spiced tamarind soup called rasam, if you can get your hands on some. I have some frozen from my mom and will definitely be eating the leftovers with some rasam!

I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of south Indian cooking from my mom’s kitchen. As I said in my first post on south Indian cooking, you can experiment a bit with the recipes. In the case of the cabbage poriyal, you can increase of reduce the amount of chilli powder and the number of green chillies to suit your tastes. So experiment away, adapt the recipe to make it your own, and let me know how it turns out!

-Vaish

Spinach, Tomato and Chicken Flatbread: a new way to eat a familiar bread

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 21:05:00 +0000

On Saturday, I was staring at my fridge deciding what I wanted to eat for lunch. I didn’t want leftovers. I didn’t want a salad. I didn’t want a cold sandwich. You see, I was in a lunch rut. I had been eating cold sandwiches, leftovers, and salads for lunch for the past two weeks. I was really getting tired of them. I wanted something new and exciting, yet simple and light.

Just then, I remembered the naan I had stashed away in my freezer for the sole purpose of making this dish: Naan Flatbreads.

The idea was inspired by a friend, Deb, who served me these delicious flatbreads topped with tomatoes and spinach. Her secret ingredient was naan. Yes, you got that right: she used naan as the base for her flatbreads.

For those of you not familiar with naan, naan is a type of leavened Indian bread that is baked in a special oven known as a tandoor. It is usually made in the northern regions of India, but is often served in most Indian restaurants all over the country and in the world.

Being Indian, I have eaten a lot of naan in my life. I have eaten it alone smothered with a lot of ghee. I have eaten garlic naan, onion naan, and cheese naan. I have even eaten naan stuffed with meat. But I had never even considered using it as something other than as bread for curries. Naan as the base for flatbreads: what an ingenious idea right?

As soon as Deb shared her secret, I knew I was going to be stealing her idea and making my own version of this delicious dish.

So this past Saturday, in an attempt to create a novel lunch, I experimented with making these naan flatbreads. I used toppings available in my fridge: spinach, grape tomatoes, chicken and Parmesan cheese. I can, however, totally see myself making modifications with different proteins, sauces, and cheeses. Maybe a pesto chicken? Or tomato and basil? Hmmm….sounds so yummy. Yup, I will definitely be making variations on this flatbread for lunch.

These naan flatbreads make for a really simple and quick lunch or dinner, especially when you don’t feel like pulling out the pots and pans for one person. These would also work great as an appetizer for parties, or something to take to a potluck.

Here’s the super easy recipe!

Spinach, Tomato and Chicken Flatbread

Adapted from a recipe from Deb

What you need:

1 piece frozen plain naan

Baby spinach

Grape tomatoes, halved

Olive oil

Baked chicken, cubed

Parmesan cheese

Salt/pepper to taste

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Place the naan on a cookie sheet. Layer the naan with the spinach, grape tomatoes, and baked chicken, Sprinkle some parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Finally, drizzle some olive oil.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the naan is crispy and the spinach and tomatoes have cooked a little.

Cut into slices and enjoy!

How simple was that? I am definitely making more naan flatbreads for lunch. Who knew naan would make such a versatile base for so many different toppings? I feel like I could make endless variations of this delectable meal and never be bored for lunch again! And if you have any cool ideas for toppings that I could use for my next lunch, please share!

-Vaish

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies: and a quick FYI on baking powder and baking soda

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Wed, 30 May 2012 00:27:00 +0000

About a year ago, one of my friends introduced me to a recipe that involved cream of tartar. I mean seriously? I didn’t even know where I could find cream of tartar. I figured I had baking soda and baking powder. I could substitute right? The question now was how? So I set about trying to learn. In the process I realized just how little I knew about the ingredients I used everyday in my baking: baking powder and baking soda. So I figured a blog post about it would be perfect. I’m sure there are a few of you who have never even given these ingredients a second thought.

So let’s start with the basics. Why do we even use these ingredients? Well the main reason behind using baking soda and/or baking powder is to quickly leaven the bread-basically causing the bread to rise by causing a quick release of carbon dioxide.

How does this occur? Baking soda is a base called sodium bicarbonate, which when combined with an acid in a liquid phase releases carbon dioxide. In some cases, such as pancakes, the acid comes from buttermilk. But in other cases, such as in cookies, cream of tartar is used as the acid. When cream of tartar is combined with baking soda, there is a quick release of carbon dioxide.

Baking powder was created as a one-stop shop for both the acid and the base. It is two parts cream of tartar, one part baking soda, and one part cornstarch. With the advent of baking powder, pastry chefs could just use one ingredient that could act as the leavening agent.

Now that I knew baking powder could be used to substitute for the cream of tartar in the recipe I inherited from my friend, it was time to do some math. The recipe called for 1 tsp cream of tartar and ½ tsp baking soda. Based on the composition of baking powder I mentioned above (2/4 cream of tartar, ¼ baking soda, ¼ cornstarch), I substituted the baking soda and cream of tartar with 2 tsp of baking powder.

Hope this short fyi on baking powder and baking soda has helped! Here is the recipe for these delectable cinnamon sugar cookies!

Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Adapted from a recipe from Niall P.

What you need:

4oz butter, softened

¾ cup + 1 ½ tbsp sugar

1 large egg

1 1/3 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

What you do:

Begin by preheating the oven to 350 °F.

In a small bowl stir together the flour, salt and baking powder. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and ¾ cup of sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until smooth.

Next, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.

In a small bowl, mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Form the dough into small one-inch balls. Roll them in the cinnamon sugar until coated. Then, place them on the cookie sheet. With two fingers, press down on the dough ball until flat on the cookie sheet.

Make sure to place the cookies several inches apart on the baking sheet. These cookies will spread out and bake to be larger!

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. Then let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 to 10 more minutes before removing them to a plate.

These cookies are perfectly soft right out of the oven. And for those who love crispy cookies, these will be crispy the next day. Just don’t forget about them, as I did with one batch. Oops. When done correctly, this recipe should give you two-dozen cookies!

I hope you enjoy these as much as my colleagues in training in Atlanta did. They provided us with the sugar rush we needed to get us through the long days of training!

-Vaish

SURFing in D.C.: a reunion long time in the making

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Three years ago, a group of ninety or so college sophomores and juniors from around the country arrived in Rochester, MN. We were the SURFers: participants of Mayo Clinic’s summer research program. For that summer, we worked, played and lived together. We took vacations, ate at restaurants, went to concerts, and laughed at random things. In short, we just had a blast. And something must have been in the air that summer, for we SURFers forged friendships that have withstood the test of distance and time.

I hadn’t seen Alex in three years. And yet, I talked to her everyday. My day wasn’t complete without a text conversation with Alex, whether it was about our blogs or just something random. So, when second year of medical school ended, I decided it was time to pay one of my best friends a visit. I packed my bags and headed to D.C., finally making it there (minus a few missed flights, lol). It just so happened that four other SURFers were also in D.C. for work: Sunny, Danny, Mia, and Diane. It was an epic SURF reunion.

In true SURF fashion there was a party, lots of laughter, and of course tons of food. Here is my chronicle of my time in DC through food!

MCAT Party

We are SURFers and of course, we are nerds. Sunny and her roommate Deb had just finished their MCATs my first day there. Thus, came about the MCAT party. The running joke of the night was that “40 would work.” Here’s the story: Alex, my gracious host, went to Party City to find decorations for the MCAT party. She was looking for a 45 birthday balloon. When they didn’t have any, she told the guys at the store that “40 would work,” earning her rather puzzled looks. Sunny and Deb: I hope we didn’t sell you short! 40 is a pretty kick ass score though!

Although the party’s beverages were supposed to be the stars of the night, I have to say that the food won out.

First on the menu were these delicious fig and olive toast crackers from Whole Foods. I have never had a better cracker: a perfect union of savory and sweet. I loved these crackers so much that I singlehandedly polished off half the package. I didn’t even touch the cheese. Great choice Alex!

In addition to buying a bunch of snacks, Alex also made a few delicious goodies. First up, her peanut butter bars, which became famous during our SURF days. I learned on my trip that she uses condensed milk to give the peanut butter filling an even creamier texture. I am going to have to bug her for the recipe and try making these myself, especially when I am missing my SURF friends. She also made her sweet potato fries. You can find a recipe for those on her blog!

Sunny and Deb were also foodies in their own right. Sunny made these prosciutto, spinach, and feta pastries. The recipe sounded simple: just take some filo dough, add the filling, and pinch together the ends before baking. The only complicated part was remembering how to cut the filo dough. I’ll have to try making these to give you guys a more detailed recipe. Unfortunately, I was unable to taste these beauties because I do not eat pork. They looked delicious though, and the other party guests absolutely loved them!

Deb contributed with these yummy flat breads. There were two kinds: prosciuitto and vine ripened tomato. Those too were delicious, and I could actually eat one of them. The coolest part was the Deb uses naan as the base for these flat breads!

I am totally trying these recipes when I get back to St. Louis. Watch out for more detailed recipes for these two dishes! Thanks ladies for these yummy recipe ideas!

My introduction to Phở from Phở & Grill

Believe it or not, until my time in D.C., I had never had Phở. I was always scared that they would use beef or pork broth, and the idea of eating a noodle soup just wasn’t that appealing. But I made myself a promise that I would try new things. So, I joined Sunny, Danny, and Alex at their favorite Phở restaurant, Phở & Grill in Gaithersburg MD. And am I glad I did. I think Phở is something I will be seeking out more often as I explore Vietnamese cuisine in St. Louis and elsewhere!

For those who are new to Phở like me, here’s the wiki link on Phở. In short, it is a Vietnamese noodle soup where rice noodles are served with either beef or chicken broth, depending on whether you get a beef Phở or a chicken Phở respectively. A special blend of spices is added to the broth to give the broth a delicate flavor. The noodle soup is served with a plate of mint leaves, bean sprouts, limes, and jalapenos. To eat, you add the toppings, maybe a bit of siracha and this mystery dark colored sauce and slurp away. There is no right way to eat it. Just do what fits your palate the best, making it as a spicy as you desire. You know you are doing it right if you are making a mess!

I have never had Phở before this one time, so I can’t really compare this restaurant to other places. However, I can describe the place for what it is. It is a no nonsense lunch counter, where the focus is on the food, rather than the atmosphere. You just go up to a counter and place your order, and someone promptly brings out the food to your table. The service was impeccable for us, and I even noticed how gracious they were to another host who asked for extra broth and extra noodles! The food was delicious and well worth the price. For $7.50 you get a large portion that will fill up even biggest eaters. Overall, if I lived in D.C., it would be a place I frequented often. And my friends do just that!

Gourmet Burgers at BGR, The Burger Joint

On Monday night, Alex and I just wanted to be lazy. It had been a rainy day, and so instead of exercising Alex and I decided to get burgers from BGR, The Burger Joint in downtown Bethesda. This joint felt like a diner, which I thought was odd for a gourmet burger place. I am so used to gourmet burger places being dressed up that seeing a little hole in the wall diner serving them was odd. But it worked for them. They served the burgers on a pizza round over parchment paper. I ordered their Greek burger: think leg of lamb, tzatziki sauce and feta cheese. The burger was not bad. But neither was it terrific. It was cooked well and to my liking, but it could have been seasoned a bit better. I didn’t really get any hint of the cumin, mint, or garlic that were supposed to be used in the patty. Alex, on the other hand, really enjoyed her southwestern burger. The burger place also partakes in one of my pet peeves of not serving fries with their burgers. And to top it off, this fact wasn’t well advertised on their menu. I had to go back and order more fries later on when I realized they didn’t come with the burger.

The burgers were a bit pricey. My lamb burger set me back about $12 bucks and the fries $3 more. I feel like I have had better lamb burgers for less than that elsewhere. The service, however, was great and quick. Although the place has counter style service, when I ordered my fries, they were more than happy to bring those out to me.

Overall, I think my experience there was moderate. I enjoyed the food, but it was not a burger that I would go back for. However, because Alex enjoyed hers so much, I would probably try a different one from there.

Pies at Matchbox

To commemorate six SURFers being in D.C. three years post Mayo, we went out to dinner at this fancy pizza bistro called Matchbox in Rockville, MD. Matchbox was different from the other two places we went to. It was a sit down place where one could order fancy cocktails, if one desired. We, of course, desired, and the choices on the table included their ginger snap and mango-mango, both of which were yummy and very girlie. They also serve beer, if that’s more down your alley. The prices for the drinks ranged from $6 to $9, which I am told is not bad for D.C.

The highlight, of course, was their pizza. Between the seven of us, we split 4 large pies. The crusts on these pies were thin and absolutely fantastic. We ordered the Fire and Smoke, Spicy Meatball, Chicken Pesto, and Prosciutto and Black Mission Fig. The Prosciutto and Black Mission Fig was the most popular and the Chicken Pesto the least. According to my friend Diane, the former was the perfect blend of savory and sweet. I really enjoyed the Fire and Smoke. It had a great tomato base and just the right fiery kick. That had to be the second popular one. The Spicy Meatball didn’t garner many comments other than immature meatball jokes we had to partake in. Deb was particularly great at keeping a straight face through them! What a blast this dinner was!

The pies were a bit on the pricey side. The pies average around $20 each for the large. In this case, I thought the price was definitely worthy of the food. The service was mostly impeccable, minus a mishap with them not accepting a valid Hawaii ID. The servers let us just sit there and talk for as long as we wanted, and the hostess even took a picture of us at the end!

Overall, I would definitely go back to this place to try more of their pies. Their Veggie and Q Special are on my radar.

Alright, I have rambled on enough. Hopefully this makes up for the lack of posts as I was finishing up second year of medical school and taking my vacation. I am home in Orlando mow, and so will be trying to post Indian recipes from my mom as I learn to cook from her. Watch out for those! And if you are from D.C. area/planning to go to D.C., check out these three restaurants and tell me what you think of them!

-Vaish

Edit 01/07/2013: The wonderful owners of Phở & Grill, Eric and Van, kindly informed me that the "dark sauce" is hoisin sauce, a regular condiment in Vietnemese Pho. Now I knew what hoisin sauce was, but I guess I didn't put that together then. Thanks Eric and Van! Also, in case you were wondering, both location of Phở & Grill are family owned. So go ahead and support this wonderful family owned business!

Black Bean Chili and Honey Corn Bread Muffins: life of a double agent

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:39:00 +0000

The first time I made this Black Bean Chili was on a day I count as one of my best. It was one of the first few times it had snowed in St. Louis during my first year. My friend and I decided to play hooky. We played in the snow: it was my first time making snow angels! Fun in the snow was followed by a cozy night in with some warm chili, hot cocoa, and a movie. Does that sound perfect or what? Since then, this chili has been a go to easy meal for when I just want a warm bowl for a cozy night in.

However, this chili wasn’t ready to be resigned to a life of coziness. It wanted a double life as a party snack! I happened to make this chili was on a night my roommate and I were hosting a party as part of an Around the World event at our apartment building. Our country was Cuba and the drink the Mojito. Of course, being the gracious hosts that we were, we decided to have some chips and salsa as well, just in case our guests wanted to nosh on something. We, however, didn’t predict how hungry our guests would be, and somehow when the guests ate up the chips and salsa, we were bringing out the chili and corn bread from dinner earlier that night. Our guests just sat around our tiny little coffee table and polished it off. And just like that the chili morphed from a hearty meal into a popular party treat. The chili even won us the best apartment award for the night!

So here is the recipe. Whether you choose to make it for a cozy night in or a crazy party, this double agent is sure to be a party pleaser.

Black Bean Chili

Adapted from a recipe from Niall P.

What you need:

¼ cup olive oil

2 cups chopped red onions (yellow should work as well)

2 medium bell peppers, chopped (I used a red and a yellow one)

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp red chili powder

2 tsp dried oregano

1 ½ tsp ground cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 16oz cans of black beans, drained, 1 can bean liquid reserved

1 16oz can tomato sauce

What you do:

Begin by heating the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot (test with some onions), add in the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Sauté until the onions soften and turn translucent. That should take about ten minutes.

Once the onions are cooked through, add in the chili powder, oregano, cumin, and cayenne. Stir for 2 minutes to toast the spices.

Next add in the beans. Be sure to drain and wash the beans. I also reserved approximately 1 can worth of bean liquid to add to the chili. So add in the beans and the liquid from 1 can of beans. Also add in the tomato sauce. Stir those together and bring the chili to a boil, stirring often. Once the chili is at a boil, simmer and just let the flavors meld together. Simmer for at least 15 minutes. I tend to let the chili simmer as I make the corn bread.

I served this chili with honey corn bread muffins from Patrick and Gina Neely at the Food Network. The chili is a bit on the spicy end, so the honey corn bread with its sweetness makes the perfect sidekick for this double-agent chili.

Honey Corn Bread

Adapted from Patrick and Gina Neely

What you need:

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup 1% milk

2 large eggs

½ stick butter, melted

1/3 cup honey

What you do:

Begin by preheating your oven to 400°F and lining the muffin pan with paper liners.

In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, melted butter and honey. Make sure the butter is cool enough so that you don’t make scrambled eggs. You might also need to warm up the honey a little to make sure it whisks in. I would mix together the milk, butter, and honey first. Then once those are mixed and the mixture is cooled, I would whisk in the eggs.

Now fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and be careful not to over mix. Once ready, divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake liners and bake for 15 minutes or so until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you like your cornbread sweet like me, then you’ll fall in love with this recipe. The only thing I might do next time is add in a few fresh kernels of corn!

As I mentioned before, the sweetness of the honey corn bread is the perfect complement to the spiciness of the chili. Alternatively, you could also serve this chili with some rice or just some plain wheat bread. But I highly suggest you try it with the corn bread. I mean who doesn’t love some sweet corn bread? Or maybe that’s just the southern gal in me coming out.

Anyways, let me know what you think of this double agent! Do you think this chili can be a party pleaser in addition to being a cozy friend?

-Vaish

Sundried Tomato and Feta Turkey Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, and Nutella Brownies: turning your kitchen to an upscale burger joint

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:21:00 +0000


© A Side of Food


© A Side of Food

Sometimes, I just want a burger. I just want to bite into the perfect succulent combination of meat and bun, dressed with the right accoutrements.

Of course, when I state this desire, my friends just laugh. Why you ask?

I don’t eat beef. So the idea that I’m craving a burger without ever having eaten one made out of beef seems comical to some of my friends. But there’s just something to be said about the gourmet alternative burgers, the kind you get at overpriced fancy burger joints. Think lamb burgers with goat cheese or salmon burgers with dill aioli. Yum right?

No matter how much my friends make fun of me for it, I will never stop asserting my cravings for these delectable morsels.

And of course, lets not forget the fries! Crinkle cut, matchstick, sweet potato, whichever you prefer, one must always have fries with a burger. Speaking of fries, what were some restaurants thinking when they made fries a separate side dish? If I’m going to pay $10-$12 for a burger, I want my fries to come with them.

Forget going to fancy burger joints. Here is a recipe that will turn your kitchen into one for a fraction of the cost. I discovered this recipe for a Sundried Tomato and Feta Turkey Burger about a year ago, when I wanted to make my friend a birthday dinner. Of course, on the day, I find out that he didn’t really like feta or sundried tomatoes. The burgers ended up just being plain old turkey burgers. Lame right?

So, I convinced some friends (didn’t take too much work) to come over for dinner to enjoy these delicious burgers, just so I could make them the right way. I served them with oven baked sweet potato fries. I even made a gourmet burger joint-esque dessert of nutella brownies.

Next time you crave a burger, try this sundried tomato and feta turkey burger and turn your kitchen into an upscale burger joint!

Sundried Tomato and Feta Turkey Burgers

Adapted from Picky Palate

What you need:

6 tbsp olive oil

3 lbs ground turkey

1 ½ cup crumbled feta cheese

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 8oz package of sundried tomatoes, soaked in olive oil and chopped

1 cup fresh spinach leaves, chopped

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups mayonnaise

pinch of cayenne

10- 12 whole wheat hamburger buns, split and warmed

fresh greens or spinach, to dress the burgers

What you do:

For this recipe, it would be ideal to have sundried tomatoes packed in oil. But the only thing I could find at my grocery store in the Midwest was a bag of sundried tomato by themselves, not in any sort of liquid. So before I started, I decided to soak the sundried tomatoes in olive oil for 3-4 hours to soften them up a little. If you find sundried tomatoes in olive oil, perfect! Otherwise, this technique should work as well.

Once your sundried tomatoes are softened up, it’s time to make the burgers! In a large mixing bowl, place your meat. Begin by chopping the spinach and about ¾ of your sundried tomatoes. Add those to your meat. Then add in the crumbled feta, diced garlic, salt, and pepper. Finally add in a beaten egg. Now it’s time to get your hands dirty. Just go in with your clean hands, and mix up the meat and all the add-ons.

Once adequately mixed, form ½ pound patties and set them aside on a place till ready to cook. This recipe makes 10-12 patties, depending on how generous you are. You could also make little sliders and serve these as appetizers!

Once you have all the patties made, heat up a large skillet. Pour some olive oil to coat the bottom so that the burgers don’t stick, and then cook the burgers, making sure you are not over crowding the pan. I had a huge pan, and it still took me 3 batches to cook them all. Begin by searing both sides really quickly and then just letting them cook for a while. Depending on whether you flattened the patties or not, it could take more or less time. Flattening the patties will make them cook faster. Of course, check one or two of the patties to make sure there are no pink spots. Also, don’t press down on the patties with your spatula. That will just make the juices run out of the burger, and you’ll be left with dry meat. Finally, make sure you are being sanitary when it comes to handling raw meat: always wash your hands after handling raw meat and have separate spatulas for handling the raw and cooked patties.

In the mean time, as the burgers are cooking, let’s make the sundried tomato aioli. Chop the remaining 1/4^thof the sundried tomatoes. Add those to the mayonnaise with some cayenne and just mix it in. Voila, your aioli is ready!

To serve the burgers, just layer your warmed up buns with some fresh greens, the aioli, and the cooked patties. Your gourmet burgers are now ready!

As I said before, no burger is complete without fries. Here is a recipe for sweet potato fries from Paula Deen. And they are baked! So much healthier for you than traditional fries!

Sweet Potato Fries

Adapted from Paula Deen

What you need:

Olive oil, for tossing

10 sweet potatoes

salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper to taste

What you do:

Begin by preheating your oven to 450°F.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into fry shaped slices. If you are like me and are not really sure how to do this, here is a youtube video that will walk you through the process.

Once your fries are cut, in a large bowl toss the sweet potatoes with just enough olive oil to coat. Sprinkle them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne. Then spread the sweet potatoes onto a baking sheet or two, making sure that you are not over crowding them. I had to cook them in 4 batches. Then bake until they are tender and golden brown. Mine took about 20 minutes. Finally, just let them cool a little and serve with ketchup!

What made these sweet potato fries a hit was the cayenne. It jazzed them up just the right amount. I made two huge mixing bowl’s worth, and between 10 people, the fries were all gone immediately! As I said, who doesn’t love fries? Sweet potato ones at that? So trust me, these will be a hit!

Finally, for dessert I made brownies and served them with vanilla ice cream. Of course, this being a gourmet joint, they weren’t just plain brownies. Being the nutella junkie that I am, I made fudgy nutella brownies! I had been meaning to use nutella in baking for a long time! And this first attempt was definitely a success. I also learned a lot about how nutella bakes. Nutella just melts in the oven, it doesn’t really bake. So it’s important to not be too heavy handed with the nutella, or you’ll end up with pudding brownies. That’s sort of what happened with me here, so I modified the recipe for you. These brownies are also better when they cool and set, such that the only gooey parts in them are from the nutella. Regardless of the textures, the flavor here is remarkable. Despite being utterly full, we all demolished these brownies. Here is the recipe. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Nutella Brownies

Adapted from Averie Cooks

What you need:

4 oz (4 squares) of semi sweet bakers chocolate

1 ½ sticks butter

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp espresso

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup nutella

What you do:

Begin by preheating your oven to 350°F.

Then, using a double boiler method (check out this post for a detailed description), melt the butter and chocolate together. Stir in the sugar and let cool for a bit. Then stir in the eggs, vanilla and coffee. Finally, stir in the flour until just mixed.

Pour the batter into a 9inch pan. Now comes the delicious part of this dessert, nutella. Just drizzle the nutella to the top of the brownie mixture. Do not stir it in. You want the nutella to be in clumps and not evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Once ready, bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Then let cool and serve these warm, fudgy brownies with vanilla ice cream!

Does that look delicious or what?

I think after having this meal, my friend’s can’t make fun of me for craving burgers. These burgers were amazing, and I think beef or not, utterly crave-able. What do you think? Try them out and let me know! Hopefully, you’ll turn your kitchen into a gourmet burger joint one of these days as well and join me in craving gourmet non-beef burgers!

-Vaish

This post is linked at the following blogs:

Ghiradelli Grand Fudge Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: and a few tips to make a better layer cake

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:12:00 +0000

It was Matty B’s birthday. You see, he’s from Texas, born and raised. He likes to think that the things that define him as Texan are his dashing good looks and impeccable manners. While he might possess those two qualities, to me he is the epitome of Texas because of the following: he’s a republican, he owns guns, and he’s not afraid to share his opinion on both those topics. I’m sure somewhere in his closet, he even has a pair of cowboy boots. I could definitely see him fitting into one of those old world saloons!

All jokes aside, Matty B. is a GREAT friend with a big heart. And such a big-hearted guy deserves a birthday cake with big flavor. So, I chose to make him a Ghiradelli grand fudge cake with a Ghiradelli chocolate buttercream frosting. Sounds AMAZING right? And it was! Matty B. described it as the moistest cake (aka the best, right?) he has ever had. This cake was most definitely BIG on taste. But of course, my first attempt at making a cake from scratch was also BIG on mishaps.

I have made layer cakes before, beautiful ones at that. But they have all come from boxes. Matty B’s birthday was special enough for me to try and make a cake from scratch. Of course, this was the time I decided it would be ok to let the cakes cool in the pan overnight. That meant that the next morning the cake and the pan did not want to part ways. When I finally managed to get the cake to come out, it fell apart into pieces. I tried to salvage the cake and use the frosting to put the cake together. It seemed to work, until I cut into the cake. Then, it was just all crumbs. Every time I cut into the cake for a slice, the cake just fell apart even more. It was sad.

Fortunately for me (and the birthday boy), the cake was huge on flavor. Even though Matty B. and my classmates essentially only got crumbs for cake, they enjoyed every last bit of it. And at the end of the day, it’s the thought and good intentions that really count right?

Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ll agree that a cake that doesn’t crumble would have made for a much better birthday cake. So, here’s the recipe with some tips (that I should have followed) to make for a beautiful layer cake.

Ghiradelli Grand Fudge Cake

Adapted from Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa powder package

What you need:

¾ cup Ghiradelli Unsweetened Cocoa

2 cups all purpose flour

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp butter

2 sticks (1 cup) butter

1 1/3 cup milk

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

What you do:

Begin by preheating the oven to 350ºF. Then, grease and lightly flour two 8 or 9 inch round pans. This step is crucial to making sure your cakes come out in one piece.

In a small bowl, combine together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then add in the vanilla and eggs.

Once the eggs and vanilla are mixed, add in the milk and flour in batches. I added the milk in three batches and the flour in four. Just be sure to scrape down the sides between each addition. Mix until the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. My cakes took about 33 minutes.

Now comes the tricky part of letting the cakes cool and taking them out of the pan. A trick that I learned from a baker at Publix and one that has always worked for me in the past is to stick the cakes into the freezer for 2 hours. Then, flip the cakes onto a flat plate. Sticking the cakes in the freezer not only cools them faster, but also results in fewer crumbs as you frost the cake later.

This time around, however, I wanted to get to bed and didn’t want to wait around for two more hours. So, I just let the cakes cool in the pans over night. Whatever you decide to do, DO NOT leave the cakes in the pan for over 2 hours. After that point, it just becomes significantly harder to get the cake out of the pan. And you’ll end up with a cake in pieces, like I did.

Good luck with getting the cake out!

Ghiradelli Chocolate Buttercream

Adapted from Ghiradelli unsweetened cocoa powder package

What you need:

6 tbsp butter, softened

1 16oz package of powdered sugar

½ cup Ghiradelli Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1/3 cup milk

½ tsp vanilla

What you do:

This frosting recipe is super simple. Begin by whipping the butter until it is fluffy. In a separate bowl, stir together the cocoa powder and the powdered sugar. Then add the cocoa powder/sugar mixture and milk to the butter, whisking until smooth. You’ll have to do this is batches. Finally add in the vanilla, and give it one last stir to evenly mix the vanilla.

Now it’s time to assemble the layer cake. Begin with the first layer, placing the cake such that the flat part faces up. Then drop a generous dollop of the frosting and spread evenly. Next, place the second layer on top, with the flat side facing down. Essentially you want the two flat sides facing each other. Now just spread the frosting to coat the top and the sides.

If you are feeling adventurous, you could use an icing pen and try to decorate the cake even further. As you know from my previous posts, I’m terrible at cake decorating. I’m a ‘slap the frosting on the cake’ kind of gal. I’m sure it tastes the same whether you make it pretty or not. Nevertheless, I did attempt to write something on the cake. And now you can all see just how terrible I am at decorating cakes.

I hope you have better luck with both the cake and the decorations! I think you’ll find that this cake is definitely worthy of your best friends!

XOXO,
Vaish

Chilli Lime Tofu, Garlic Parmesan Green Beans, and Vanilla Lime Roasted Pears: a party of limes

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:20:00 +0000

The inspiration for this dinner party really comes from my friends and favorite couple Kirsi and Andrew. A few months ago, they mentioned wanting to learn how to cook tofu. Their concern: how to get the delicious crust on tofu. You know what I am talking about. Restaurant tofu has this undeniably delicious texture. I am not sure how they get it. Do they buy special tofu with the skin already on it? If so, where could I buy such tofu? Or is there a particular method to frying them that gives them that texture? I had no answers for them then. And I still don’t.

And though these questions still remain unanswered, I found a dry fry that gives tofu an amazing texture. In fact, one of my dinner party guests, Monica, was surprised when she realized she was eating tofu! Yeah seriously! She was really tired, but her comment attests to how much the dry fry method transforms the texture of tofu from crumbly and soft to something that’s more akin to tempeh. The method comes from Lauren of VeganYumYum, and it’s probably of the best food blog discoveries I have ever made.

This recipe could easily make for a quick weeknight vegetarian meal, but it can impress guests at a dinner party just the same. This recipe is also very versatile. I used a chilli lime glaze, as Lauren from VeganYumYum did, but I can definitely see myself using other sauces as a glaze. Told you: one of the best food blog discoveries ever!

I decided to serve the dish with cardamom and cinnamon spiced rice and garlic parmesan green beans, which turned out to be a great accompaniment for the incredibly flavorful tofu. The flavors were subtle enough that the tofu remained the star of the main course.

Of course no dinner party is complete without dessert! The dessert was the highlight of this meal, in my opinion. Then again I love dessert and the dessert is where I got the most creative for this meal. I got the basic idea from Deb of Smitten Kitchen, but then free styled to make the dessert fit the theme of the dinner party. I made vanilla and lime roasted pears, which I served with some vanilla ice cream, the lime sugar cookie I made the day before, and a delectable vanilla lime caramel sauce. The warm pear and caramel sauce melted with the ice cream making for a light, yet satisfying dessert. The lime zest in the caramel sauce just wakes up the dessert and ends the meal on a refreshing note.

Oh, before I forget, I also served my guacamole as an appetizer to tide over the guests as we made dinner. As usual, it was a hit.

Here are the recipes for all the dishes. I hope you’ll use them, and maybe even together for a dinner party. Next time you purchase a sack of limes at the grocery store, this menu could be a great way to put all those limes to use.

Party of Limes

Appetizer

Guacamole with tortilla chips

Main Course

Chilli lime tofu

Cardamom and cinnamon spiced rice

Garlic parmesan green beans

Dessert

Vanilla and lime roasted pear, served with vanilla ice cream, vanilla lime caramel sauce, and a lime sugar cookie

Guacamole

You can find the recipe for my guacamole here.

Chilli Lime Tofu

Adapted from VeganYumYum

What you need:

2 blocks Tofu, extra firm

6 tbs sugar

6 tbs soy sauce

3 ½ tbs fresh lime juice

zest of 1 lime

3 tsp red chilli flakes

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried mint

What you do:

Begin by whisking together the ingredients for the chilli lime glaze. Those are essentially everything, but the tofu. Whisk until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Doing this first lets the ingredients meld together.

Next comes the exciting part of dry frying the tofu. Lauren from VeganYumYum is really into tofu geometry, and she cut up her tofu into triangles. As did I, but I think cubes should work too. Just pick a shape you like! Having thinner pieces works best for this method. Also, make sure you pat out some, but not all of the water from the tofu. You’ll want the tofu to retain a little bit of water for the dry frying process.

Once you have cut up all the tofu, heat up a pan on medium high heat and place the tofu in a single layer. You might have to cook the tofu in batches, depending on the size of your pan. I also found a nonstick pan to work best for this. Anyways, once you have the tofu on the pan, use your spatula to gently press the water out of the tofu. As the water is pressed out, it steams and the heat creates this amazing crust on the tofu. As you press more of the water out, the harder the tofu gets and the better texture it obtains. To avoid breaking the tofu, start by pressing gently and then increase the pressure as the tofu firms up.

Do this for about 5 minutes on one side, then flip the tofu and do the same with the other side.

Once you are done frying all of the tofu, add them back in the pan together and turn the head to high. Then pour in the glaze and just stir the tofu until all of the pieces are coated and the liquid has evaporated. The sugar in the glaze should caramelize onto the tofu and help the flavors stick.

As soon as the liquid has evaporated, remove from heat. Then garnish with some wedges of lime and some cilantro.

Cardamom and Cinnamon spiced rice

Adapted from VeganYumYum

What you need:

2 cups white basmati or jasmine rice

1 cinnamon stick

2 cardamom pods

zest of ½ lime

4 cups water

What you do:

You should start by making the rice first, since it will take the longest to cook. Making the rice is super simple. Just use whatever method of cooking rice that you choose, either stovetop or in a rice cooker. Add water to the rice in a 2:1 ratio of water: rice. Then just add in the cinnamon, lime zest and cardamom pods. Make sure to break the pods up to release the seeds. And then just cook as you would normally cook rice. I use a rice cooker, and it’s the best invention ever. Rice almost always turns out exactly the way you want it! If you don’t have a rice cooker, stovetop should work the same way, although I’m not too sure about cooking times for the stovetop.

Once the rice is ready, serve with the chilli lime tofu. Garnish with limes and cilantro.

Garlic Parmesan Green Beans

Adapted from $5 Dinners

What you need:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 lb green beans, washed and trimmed

3 gloves garlic, minced

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

shredded parmesan cheese, as much or little as desired.

What you do:

First preheat the oven to 425°F. In a bowl, toss together the olive oil, green beans, garlic, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Then spread the green beans out onto a baking sheet and roast for 8 -10 minutes. Be sure to periodically stir every 4-5 minutes. And voila, your beans are ready!

As you can see, this side dish is super simple and easy to prepare as you are making the other more complicated aspects of this dinner. You can prepare this before your guests arrive and stick in the oven just as dinner is about to be served. The only caveat is that this dish cools really quickly. So you do want to make sure that you cook the beans right before dinner will be served.

Vanilla Lime Roasted Pears with Vanilla Lime Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

What you need:

4 small pears

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Juice of 1 lime

zest of 2 limes

¼ cup sugar

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp butter

What you do:

First preheat the oven to 375°F.

Peel and cut the pears in ½. Then core the pears just enough to remove the seeds. Arrange the pears with the core side facing up in a baking dish. On each pear, place a small cube of butter. Divide the 2 tbsp of butter about evenly among the different pieces. Then sprinkle the pears with the vanilla extract, lime juice, ground cinnamon, and approximately ½ the sugar and ½ the lime zest. Add the water to the dish and roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes. You’ll know that the pears are done when you can use a knife to cut through the thickest part of a pear without any resistance.

While the pears are roasting, baste them with the pan juices about every 10 minutes or so. Also, after 15 minutes, turn the pears over and continue roasting for the rest of the time.

For the vanilla lime caramel sauce, drain the drippings from the roasted pears to a small saucepan. To it, add the rest of the sugar and lime zest. Then just simmer on low for 5-10 minutes until the sauce thickens.

I served the warm pears with two scoop of vanilla ice cream, a liberal dose of the caramel sauce, and a lime sugar cookie that I had made previously. Doesn’t that look yummy?

That’s it folks. This post was a long one, but there’s a bunch of recipes for you to try. Let me know what you think of them! Oh and before I forget, here’s a picture of the mojitos that Kirsi and Andrew made to go with out lime themed dinner party!


© A Side of Food

-Vaish

This post is linked here:

Lime Sugar Cookies: a cookie to brighten up your day

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:48:00 +0000

This week was just a gloomy week. First, I had two tests to take. In true medical student procrastinator fashion, I spent all of my time holing myself up in my room cramming. I barely managed to even maintain personal hygiene, much less have any human contact. To top it off, this week, St. Louis decided to bring back a wet winter. Just having been in Florida this past week, this icky, rainy, cold weather just wasn’t something I was ready to deal with. Thus, by the time Thursday rolled around, my life was in desperate need of brightening up. I needed some human contact and conversation. I needed something to remind me of Florida and the sun. Most of all, I needed to get back in my kitchen and make something.

And so, on Thursday morning, I decided to pick up my phone and give my girlfriend Kirsi a call: an invite to make these lime sugar cookies I had been meaning to make since I bought a sack of limes at Trader Joe’s this past weekend. And what a good idea that was! Nothing brightens up my day like some tea, catching up with a close girlfriend, and some bake therapy. What a perfect day this Thursday ended up being! Thanks Kirsi!

The cookies were amazing too. The very little bit of lime and vanilla that go into the recipe really just transform these cookies from a basic sugar cookie to something much different. It’s not too sweet either. And best of all, the little bits of lime zest in there give these cookie a spicy kick! I am in love with these cookies. They are light, but have just enough kick in them to wake you up. Not to brag and all, but these might actually be some of the best sugar cookies I have EVER had. Yeah, they are that good.

I borrowed the recipe from Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen, but I halved the recipe and made some substitutions. Here is my version!

Lime Sugar Cookies

Adapted from Technicolor Kitchen

What you need:

1 cup granulated sugar

zest of about 1 ½ limes, grated

½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)

1 large egg

½ tsp vanilla

juice of 1 lime

1 ¼ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Begin my creaming together ¾ cup of sugar and the butter. You can use a stand mixer or do it with a fork. I tried using a hand mixer, but it didn’t seem to work for me. I obviously wasn’t doing something right. Once the butter/sugar mixture is ready, beat in the egg, vanilla, and lime juice. Save 1tsp of lime zest, and add the rest of the lime zest to this mixture as well.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients you just made. Do this a little bit at a time. The dough you make will be a lot stickier than most cookie doughs you are used to. I was worried when that happened, but somehow it ended up making such delicious cookies. So don’t question it. Just know that the dough will be sticky.

Now, you can refrigerate the dough as Patricia suggests. But if you are impatient like me, it also works if you just go right ahead with the next step. It’s a bit sticky this way, but who doesn’t like to get messy in the kitchen once in a while?

So the next step is making the lime sugar that we will coat the cookies with. To make the lime sugar, stir together ¼ cup sugar with the 1 tsp of lime zest you reserved earlier. Stir it well. You want lime zest to be evenly distributed. Once you are ready to bake, use an ice cream scoop to measure out the dough. Roll the dough into a ball (a little bit of flour on your hands can help with the sticking). Then, roll in the lime sugar until coated well. Finally, place the dough ball on the cookie sheet and press down with your fingers. By pressing down you make sure you get round, even cookies that are the perfect thickness!

Once you are done, bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are browned on the bottom. Mine took about 10 minutes. This recipe makes about 18 medium-large sized cookies.

As I said earlier, these cookies are some of the best I have ever had. They definitely brightened up my day and got me in the mood for my dinner party tonight. They will actually go really well with my lime themed menu! I can’t wait to see what my guests think of them. I am confident that these cookies will be a bright start to their weekend, and maybe yours too!

-Vaish

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Banana Walnut Bread: an adventure in ripening bananas

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:47:00 +0000

My adorable little cousin volunteered to bring in banana bread to his class. I’m not really sure why his class needs banana bread, but he came in yesterday telling his mom that he signed up to bring banana bread. Being the budding culinary student that I am, I proudly showed off my last chocolate chip walnut banana bread post and volunteered my banana bread making skills. In hindsight, I’m not too sure that was the greatest idea.

To begin with, we didn’t have most of the ingredients around. No flour, no loaf pan, no walnuts, and most importantly no ripe bananas. So, I set out shopping today for the ingredients. The first three ingredients were, of course, easy to obtain. The last one, however, turned out to be impossible. I went to two grocery stores, hoping that they might have some over ripe ones in the back they hadn’t thrown out yet. I had no such luck. Eventually I settled on picking six of the ripest bananas I could find, thinking to myself that I’ll try to substitute for the flavor and sweetness with some brown sugar or something. I was preparing myself to improvise.

Lucky for me though, I found an awesome tip from Amanda about roasting bananas at 350°F for 15 minutes or so to sort of bring out more of the sugars in the bananas. I like to think of it as letting the sugars in the banana carmelize and develop their flavors. Doesn’t that sound yummy? Anyways, as Amanda said, my bananas came out skin black, but brown and sweet on the inside. Perfect! Obstacle solved!

Then I set about making the rest of the bread, getting together the dry ingredients, only to find out that my aunt had neither baking powder nor measuring spoons. I decided that because in this case the baking soda and baking powder were acting as rising agents, I would just baking soda for baking powder. I hope I was correct. I’ll have to research baking powder and baking soda and do a My Pantry post on them. Learn the science and all!

The measuring spoons, on the other hand, stumped me. My aunt just urged me to use a regular teaspoon to measure out the ingredients. I did it, but begrudgingly. I swear my Aunt was probably annoyed by the amount of grumbling coming out of my mouth. In my defense, I’m new to baking and I like my measuring spoons!

To top it off, the kitchen was filled with 4 people, talking loudly, and making dinner. One person was even commentating on what we were making.

Suffice to say, I CAN’T WAIT till I get back to my kitchen. It’s not as well equipped as I would like, but at least I know what I have. And I do have measuring spoons!

Nevertheless, despite these stumbles, the banana bread came out great! I used a recipe from Joy of Baking. And it’s yummy. The toasted walnuts in the bread are amazing! And roasting the bananas actually worked! Yay for experiments that work!

Such a neat trick! Definitely adding this to my bag of tricks! And you should as well. Now you can make banana bread without having to pre plan. Of course, you could also skip the hassle and just freeze any overripe bananas that you have lying around. Then, you can just thaw them out as needed. Those work beautifully as well. But life can sometime throw you for a loop, and Amanda’s trick made the impossible possible for me today. Thanks Amanda!

Here’s the recipe for you to try, with instructions for Amanda’s trick added in. I doubled the recipe so I could make two loaves: one for my cousin’s school and one for home. So, the following recipe makes two 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaves.

Banana Walnut Bread

Adapted from Joy of Baking

What you need:

1 8oz package chopped walnuts (1cup)

3½ cups all-purpose flour

1½ cups granulated sugar

2½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2 sticks unsalted butter

6 large bananas, ripe (but not yet banana bread ready)

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Begin by melting the butter and letting it come to room temperature. You’ll be adding eggs to the butter, and you don’t want scrambled eggs with your butter do you? So do it now, and give it enough time to adequately cool.

Once the oven is preheated, spread the chopped walnuts on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes. I put mine in for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes or so, move the walnuts to a small bowl and just let them cool.

Now comes the exciting part of roasting the bananas. Just place the bananas whole and unpeeled on a cookie sheet. Let them roast in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes. When you take the bananas out, you’ll notice that their skin is black. Don’t worry, the insides of the banana are brown and sweet. Be careful, the bananas are hot. Slowly and carefully peel the bananas and mash them in a large bowl.

To this large bowl add in the cooled butter. That should help cool down the banana mixture. In a separate small bowl, lightly beat the four large eggs. Once you think the banana/butter mixture is cool enough, add in the eggs and the vanilla extract. Mix all together.

In a separate bowl add in all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir the dry ingredients together so they are well mixed and then fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Be sure that you are folding and not beating. You do not want to over mix, as that would result in a rubbery bread. Finally, fold in the toasted walnuts and scrape the batter into two 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf pans. Bake the loaves in a 350°F oven for 45-55 minutes. Mine took around 50 minutes. I started checking with a toothpick at around 40 minutes. As usual, you are waiting for the toothpick to come out clean.

The verdict: It was fantastically moist, thankfully! So just using baking soda did work. The only flaw: it wasn’t as sweet as the lastbanana bread I made. I think I might have made a mistake and not added as much sugar as I was supposed to. Oops! I guess now it’s a healthy banana bread? Minus the butter that went in there…haha. FYI, the amount of sugar in the recipe above is how much I should have put in. Instead, I put in ½ that amount (3/4 cup).

Nevertheless, it’s not at all bad. It’s actually deliciously moist. It was a good level of sweetness for my family. And it just got my picky cousin’s seal of approval! Success!

-Vaish

P.S. Check out my post and other sweet treats at the following linky parties this Thursday!
Delicious Dishes
Sweet Temptations
Sweet Treat Thursdays

Zucchini, Tomato, and Parmesan Pasta Salad: a medley to clean out the fridge

noreply@blogger.com (Vaish P.) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:36:00 +0000

Spring break was two days away. I was heading away to Florida: to bathe in the sun, relax with family, and eat my mom’s delicious cooking. But before I could do so, I desperately needed to clean out my fridge. What produce did I have in my fridge?

Answer: three zucchini’s and a package of grape tomatoes. Random right?

I had originally bought the zucchini with the eggplant, intending to make Julia Child’s eggplant and zucchini gratin. Silly me, however, didn’t look at the recipe before I went to the store. Of course I was missing ingredients, two major ones at that: tomatoes and bread crumbs. So I settled on making the Baingan Ka Bhurta with the eggplant and just forgot about the zucchini.

The grape tomatoes I bought for 2 reasons: 1) they were on sale; 2) I thought of making mini caprese salad bites for a get together. Of course, I ate the mozzarella long before I got around hosting anyone. And so the package of grape tomatoes was also just sitting around.

Now back to cleaning out my fridge. I had never actually made anything with zucchini before. The idea behind buying the eggplant and the zucchini was to learn to cook with new ingredients. FAIL on the zucchini. So, staring at the fridge, I really had no idea what to make.

Then came the interwebs to my rescue. A quick google search landed me on this recipe for a pasta salad with zucchini, grape tomatoes and feta cheese. I decided that I could substitute parmesan for the feta and rotini for the bowties, only because those were what I had on hand. The other change I made was that I decided to pan fry the zucchini and the grape tomatoes. Frying the zucchini was a fantastic idea; the grape tomatoes, not so much. I really didn’t enjoy eating warm, but barely cooked tomatoes. In hindsight, I would have just put them in at the end without putting them on the heat. I guess I learned something! Isn’t that what this is all about: us learning from our mistakes? Well, mostly my mistakes. Nevertheless, when you make this at home, don’t cook the grape tomatoes.

Despite the warm tomatoes debacle, this easy recipe hit the spot. It was light, yet satisfying: a nice change from the heavily cooked food I had been eating recently. I LOVED the crunch of the zucchini and the taste of the pasta lighted coated with freshly grated parmesan! I ate this as an entrée, but it could definitely double as a side dish for large dinner party. I had tons of leftovers! It’s also an easy recipe to add some freshness to a meal. And it’s super healthy! So next time you are looking for something light and healthy, or just something to brighten up your meal, try making this pasta salad. You won’t regret it.

Zucchini, Tomato, and Parmesan Pasta Salad

Adapted from ThePioneer Woman

What you need:

2 tbsp olive oil

3 medium sized zucchinis

1 package grape tomatoes

freshly grated parmesan cheese, as much as desired

salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

1 package whole wheat rotini or bowtie pasta

What you do:

As you can see, this recipe really doesn’t require much. First, begin by cooking your pasta, as indicated by the package. Be sure to salt the water. This is your chance to flavor the pasta itself.

Here’s an interesting chemistry question for you? Does salting the water really increase the temperature at which the water boils and make the pasta cook faster?

The answer: yes and no. Technically, yes, adding salt to water does increase the boiling point of the water. This phenomenon comes from a colligative property known as boiling point elevation that occurs when you add a solute (the salt) into a solvent (the water). However, for practical purposes, the elevation in boiling point from adding the amount of salt we use in cooking is so miniscule that it doesn’t really alter the temperature or the cooking time. So next time someone tells you that adding salt to pasta water will make it cook faster, politely correct them. But do add salt to your pasta water! You’ll definitely want to season the pasta.

Now back to the cooking. Once you have got the pasta going, tackle the zucchini. Begin by rinsing and drying the zucchini well. It’s important to get as much of the excess water out to get a nice sear on the pan. Once washed, cut the zucchini into wedges. For instructions on how to cut zucchini into wedges, visit the original recipe page at Pioneer Woman’s blog. She does a great job explaining it and even has pictures! Just be sure to stop once you have sticks. Don’t dice them! I suppose you could also dice them. I just chose to take the long sticks and cut those in half to give me two smaller sticks. I really hope that made sense. Otherwise, just go ahead and dice them up like Pioneer Woman says.

Then, in a sauté pan, heat up about a 1½ tbsp of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the zucchini and sauté on high until you see the zucchini browning. At this point, your kitchen should smell heavenly. The smell of vegetables pan-frying vegetables in olive oil is just so delectable, isn’t it? You could also grill the zucchini outside or on a grill top. My girl friend Alex did that for her zucchini tacos. Grilling would give them those nice little black grill marks. I, unfortunately, do not have a grill or a grill top. So I decided to just sauté them. Either way you choose, once the zucchini has gotten copious amounts of brown/black marks on them, remove them from the heat and place in a medium sized mixing bowl. As I mentioned earlier, I added in the grape tomatoes for a couple of minutes, before I took the vegetables off the stove. I definitely regretted that decision. If you like warm, but still raw tomatoes, then go for it. Add them in before you remove the veggies off the heat. But if you aren’t a huge fan like me, just wait and add them later.

Drain your pasta (when it’s done cooking to al dente), and add to the zucchini. Then add the grape tomatoes. Finally, grate the parmesan cheese over the salad, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, add the remaining olive oil, and give it a nice toss. Your pasta salad is now ready!

Hope you get a chance to enjoy this light treat and the refreshing spring weather. Both of these are really a must, in my opinion.

Finally, check out other delish treats in this week's Delicious Dishes Blog Party! I'm on there!

-Vaish