Caramelized onions & mushroom gravy with crispy polenta

Dear foodies,

The past few weeks, every time I land on Food network while surfing through channels, all I see is one of the chefs taking apart a turkey or cooking squash or baking a green bean casserole or potato gratin or well, discussing stuffings and dressings these days! Should it be corn bread or sour dough or muffins they ask ? The first few times I watched them to get to know the traditional fare, but now I simply change channels, its too boring now. But you guys don't have that option here as I share this recipe for a mushroom gravy adorning my new found fav, polenta!

I used to eat mushrooms quite often, my mom cooked them at home in Hyd too. When I got here most places that carry vegetarian options use mushrooms as a meat substitute. But somewhere along the line I developed an allergy of sorts. I would get a really bad stomach ache whenever I had mushrooms. I did not know which kind was causing it and did not want to experiment either. 'No meat, no eggs' then became, 'no meat, no eggs, no mushrooms', you can imagine how weird that gets when I have to order!! And I like mushrooms, so it was even more difficult to avoid them. So now I've finally started doing tiny trials, I buy a small batch of mushrooms and cook them at home to on a Friday or Sat night (so I have time to recuperate :D) Button mushrooms and baby bellas are now off the list, yayy! And this is one of the dishes I made,

Ingredients:

• 10-12 - baby portabellos (or any assortment of mushrooms shud work)
• 1/2 cup - sliced Onions
• 1/8 tsp - dried Rosemary
• 1/8 tsp - dried Thyme
• 2 tsp - Olive oil
• 1 tsp - butter
• 1 tsp - all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup - milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan on medium heat and add the sliced onions. Sprinkle some salt over them and let the soften and caramelize gently.
2. Add the dried herbs and sliced mushrooms next and spread them in a even layer, trying to get all of them to be in contact with the pan's surface. Cook for 2-3mins, turn them around and cook for an additional 2-3 mins so they brown evenly on both sides. Salt them at this stage, adding salt beforehand brings out the water and ends up steaming them instead of browning them.
3. In the meantime warm the milk in a microwave. Move the browned mushrooms and onions to a corner of the pan, add butter and, as it melts sprinkle the flour and stir well. Cook for a minute until the flour gives out a nutty aroma and slightly changes color.
4. Slowly add the warm milk, stirring continuously to avoid lumps and blend with the veggies. You do not have to use up the entire amount of milk, stop when it reaches a consistency you like. Grind some pepper and check for salt. Simmer the gravy for a 1-2mins allowing it to thicken and transfer it to a serving bowl (it will continue to thicken in the residual heat in the pan otherwise)
5. Spoon it over some pan-crisped polenta and enjoy!

The extent to which you allow the flour to brown will effect the flavor and color of your gravy. Don't go too far for this one, a slight browning will do, the gravy gets it final dark color from the onions and mushrooms.


Doesn't that look elegant ? And it took me about 15-20mins tops! The earthiness of the sauteed mushrooms accentuated by rosemary and thyme was fantastic. And the slight sweetness from the caramelized onions is delicious. I am sure you are going to finish some off right from the pan. I reserved some of the onions and mushrooms mix before making the gravy and used them as a pizza topping, yummy! You could also use it along with the gravy as a white sauce base. Paired with the crisp polenta though, this mushroom gravy was a perfect meal, filling and extremely flavorful.

For the polenta, bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil in a deep bottomed saucepan since the polenta has a tendency to bubble violently as it cooks, so be extremely cautious. Salt the water and add spices/herbs if you choose, I used red chilli flakes. Gradually add 1 cup corn meal/polenta and stir continuously, cooking on medium heat. As it cooks and thickens add 1/2 cup of warm milk to make it extra creamy, you could also add a pat of butter or drizzle some olive oil at this stage, but stirring all the time. When the polenta starts to move away from the sides of the pan, its your hint that its done. The cornmeal should be soft to touch without a raw interior. Transfer it onto a plate and spread evenly. When cooled it will firm up and you should be able to easily slice it. This gives me a 10" dia, 1/2" thick round of polenta. For creamy polenta, add a little extra milk/cream/water and cook for the same amount of time.

To serve crisp, add a few drops of oil to a saute pan, and crisp the polenta slices on both sides, about 3mins each side. I tried broiling the pieces instead but did not like the end product. You can store the unused polenta in the fridge wrapped in foil or in the air tight container for a few days.

Stir fried veggies & brown rice

Dear foodies,

Weeknights are usually for quick meals. I don't indulge in anything that involves a lot of prep time or needs constant attention. More often I cook so I can take a boxed lunch and look for dishes that are easy to carry. I like dishes that are all-in-one where I don't have to carry multiple boxes to work, and this fried rice fits the bill perfectly. This summer I indulged in the bounty fresh snow peas in the market. They are good to go with hardly any cooking, and a perfect snack or a salad with a few extra flavorings added to it. One of my favorite ways of eating them was in this burger, the other way is to blanch them in salted water for just a few minutes and then saute them in some oil with chopped garlic. This was my dinner for quite a few nights the past months and a very good one at that.

I still do find snow peas in the stores but they are not as tender as they used to be and have a tough string around them that needs to be removed. I find that a little cumbersome when I am dealing with a whole bag of these, but the fresh taste of the beans makes it worth all the time spent. I end up eating most of the beans once they are done blanching and the rest goes into the saute. This time I added some fresh crunchy carrots to the mix, few more of my favorite flavors and came up with a lunch I was waiting to have..

Ingredients:

• 2 handfuls - snow peas
• 2-3 medium carrots
• 1 cup - Arugula or baby bok choy
• 1 Tbsp - Tamari/soy sauce, adjusted to taste
• 1 Tbsp - sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp - garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 tsp - Red chili flakes
• 1 tsp - Oil
• Salt to taste
  

• 2 cups - brown rice, cooked
  
• 1/2 Tbsp - tamari/soy sauce
• 1/2 -1 tsp - freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Wash and de-string the beans if required. Boil some water in a saucepan and salt it. Add the snow peas and blanch for no more than 5 mins. They must still be crunchy and a bright green when you take them out. I usually drop them into cold water or place them under the running tap water at this point so they stop cooking.
2. Wash & peel the carrots, cut them first into 2 inch pieces and then slice them thin, length wise. Similarly cut the snow peas about the same size as the carrots, roughly into thirds.
   
3. Heat a pan with the oil and add the garlic and red chili flakes while the oil is still cold. As the oil heats up it will absorb their flavors. On medium-high heat, toss in the sesame seeds and carrots, saute for 3-4 mins , next add the snow peas, arugula and tamari ( or soy sauce). Saute on high heat for a few more minutes until the veggies are well coated with the flavorings and the arugula wilts down.
4. Transfer this to a bowl and add the brown rice to the pan. Add some more soy sauce and black pepper to taste, mix well. Cook for 1-2 mins, turn off the heat, add the veggies, stir and let it rest for a few minutes before serving.

This was really good fried rice. I ate quite a bit of it right from the pan under the excuse of tasting and checking for seasonings. The veggies are still crunchy and the sesame seeds just make it better. Garlic and red chilli flakes give it the kick but don't overpower the dish with spices. The brown rice is a perfect pair for these veggies with its nutty texture making it a component of the dish and not just a filler base. For me black pepper in fried rice reminds me of Indo-chinese fried rice and I absolutely love its flavor. All in all it was a wonderful meal and I was looking forward to lunch all morning :)


Looks like this will be perfect for Srivalli, the mela queen's Rice Mela, perfect timing I say. I wish I had even a tiny share of the enthusiasm she has for holding events!

Lentil makeover

Dear Foodies,


I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend, I sure enjoyed mine. The weather was perfect all through with bright, sunny blue skies and the colors of the fall finally taking over, and friends to complete the picture. If only this weather stays on forever :) Today's recipe came from a disaster recovery effort, it was an ingredient that went completely wrong but then turned out to be perfect for another recipe. Has that happened to you ? Usually when I am cooking with an ingredient for the first time or making a dish I've never had before, I don't know what to expect. How long does it need to cook ? Is the texture right, does it look/taste like its supposed too ? What order do I cook things in ? There are just way too many questions, and its only after a couple of trial n error chances and some guesswork I arrive at something I like.

A few weeks back, I brought home a fresh tomato salsa and a lentil salad from the deli section of my local organic store here. I liked both of them and I read through the ingredients list for the lentil salad. Most were simple everyday ingredients. I've never cooked with yellow/green lentils before and so bought a pack to experiment with the salad recipe. I did not check to see if there were any cooking instructions on the package before emptying the lentils into a jar and tossing it out. I read a few recipes online and stove top or pressure cooking were used. I was too lazy to go the stove top way, waiting by the counter for 20-30 mins and so decided to pressure cook them. Two whistles from the cooker later I was left with a mush of lentils unsuitable for any kind of salad!! I was totally disappointed and chucked the idea of a salad and made do with a sandwich that night. But, .....but, the smell of lentil mush reminded me of another dish, dal makhni ...,

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups - Brown lentils, accidentally cooked to a near mush, yes a few still had some life in them.
  
• 1/2 cup - thinly sliced Onions
• 2 nos - medium Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp - chopped, Ginger
• Whole spices: 1" stick of cinnamon, 1 -badi elaichi/cardamom, 1 tsp - Shahi jeera/cumin, 2 - laung/cloves
• 1 tsp- Chili powder (adjusted to taste)
• 1 Tbsp - Oil/butter
• 3.5 + 0.5 cups - Water
  
• Salt to taste
• Cilantro and lemon wedges for garnish

Method:

1. Sift through the lentils to remove any stones and wash them thoroughly. Add 4 cups of water, salt it and cook in a pressure cooker for 1 whistle, or cook them over the stove top until they are completely tender but retain a little of their shape. (for salads, they need to have some bite left)
2. In a pan, heat the oil (or use butter), add the whole spices and let them sizzle for a while, next add the onions, ginger and saute until the onions turn translucent and slightly brown.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for 6-8 mins until they loose shape and the oil slightly starts to separate around the edges. Add chili powder (and garam masala, optional), cook for a minute and add the lentils with 1/2 cup of water.
4. Since salt was added to the lentils, taste to check for more salt. Cover and cook for an additional 6-8mins on low heat. Garnish with coriander leaves/cilantro, a slice of butter and serve with rice (jeera rice/pulao) or roti along with a wedge of lemon on the side.

I forgot about the salt in the lentils since I was using them after a few days in the fridge and oversalted the dish a little :( I cubed a small potatoe and tossed it in with some water to absorb the salt :D The curry tasted good despite all the mess up's during the cooking, I actually liked the potatoes in them too. The lentils have a very earthy taste and combined with the whole spices, the dish was rich in flavor. The reason I never tried the original dal makhani because I never buy the whole urad (black lentils) and don't know other recipes using it. The brown lentils seemed to be a more flexible and convenient choice for me, and there are more recipes coming up.

I had it with jeera rice, a pretty simple recipe that I fmake often. Heat some oil, toss in loads of jeera/shah jeera, a stick of cinnamon, a few cloves, some sliced garlic. Once they sizzle, add some finely sliced onions if you aren't too lazy. Then add the washed rice, saute till it its coated with the oil and spices (1-2mins), transfer to a rice cooker with salt n water and its done :)

I was lucky in averting this disaster, how do you deal with yours, any good ones ?

Undrallu/Steamed Rice cakes

Dear foodies,

This year on Vinakaya chavithi all of you got together and schemed against me by talking about the festivites and your delicious offerings to the elephant Lord. I had not planned on making anything special, a quick sugar candy/dry fruits neivedyam in the morning and I was out of the house. I changed my status message on the messenger, wished everyone I could find online, put a nice blog post wishing all of you, and then started going around ...that was the mistake. Each one of you had a solid plan chalked out on how you were making the day special, hmph! 

And all the foodie photos got me hungry for some authentic festive food too :( I am not a sweet lover, I think I've mentioned that enough in this space, no mood for frying things up either. As I was composing that post I tried looking for a post of undrallu on my blog, I had made them the last two years for Ganesh chathurthi and was so sure I had blogged about them, atleast I thought so. Not finding the post though confirmed by dinner plans :) Undrallu it was, with the condiment made specially for it, a yet another awesome traditional combo, puli-inji/allam-chinthapandu pachadi. Here's my version...

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup - Rice
  
 * Use 1 1/2 cup idli rava if you want to save time

• 1/4 cup - Moong/chana/toor dal 
  
 * I used a combo of the later two, while the first is the traditional choice

• 3/4 tsp - whole Peppercorns  
  
• 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp - Cumin seeds/jeera
  
• 1/2 Tbsp - Ghee/oil
  
• 5-6 - Curry leaves
  
• 1 - dried Red chilli
  
• Salt to taste
  
• 1 Tbsp - grated/bite sized coconut for added flavor (thanks anon!)

Method:

The upma stage
1. Soak the rice in water for about 30-40 mins. Drain and spread them on kitchen towels to dry. Once most of the moisture is lost, blend them to a coarse powder along with the dal,  pepper and 1/2 tsp jeera. I got approximately 2 cups of the coarse powder/rava from this.
   
2. Microwave 1 1/2 cups of water. Heat ghee in a sauce pan, add the 1/4tsp of the jeera, next add the curry leaves and broken red chilli. Once they splutter, carefully add all the water to the pan with salt. 
   
3. Stirring continuously, add the rice-dal rava (and coconut) , try to avoid any lumps. Cover and place on medium-low heat for a 5-8mins. Since the rice was soaked and then ground, it does not take long to cook. Turn off heat when done, but keep covered for a few more minutes. Drizzle a little more ghee if you want now.
   
The idli stage
4. In the meantime, place a pressure cooker with a few inches of water to heat. lightly grease a pan that fits inside the cooker. When the rice-dal upma is cool enough to handle, form into into oval shape balls, moisten your hands if needed, so the mixture does not stick to them. Arrange them on the greased pan, close with the lid and steam them for 8-10mins, or until you get a steady stream of steam coming out of the cooker for about 5 mins. Serve hot with some puli-inji or kara podi/idli podi or sambar
   

I got about 8 of these, I steamed 4 in the cooker and 4 in the microwave. The batch in the microwave was slightly yellowish and not steamed through as well as the cooker batch. But I am sure you can use the microwave in a pinch. 

I'll add the recipe to the puli-inji and karapodi in the next few posts :) Until then, if you are looking to add sweet potatoes to your meal but are bored of the baked potato like I am, but still want to enjoy them,  try these two wonderful recipes: Baked fries and Thai stew.