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 ?

Weekend Funnies - 3

Dear foodies,

These are somefairly new Ads, really funny ones. I hope you guys have enjoyed these videos. Do you have any more like these that you can share here ??

And we will be back to cooking from tomorrow! Hope you had enough laughs to take you through till the next weekend :D

Weekend Funnies - 2

Dear foodies,



Here's another one for today

How do these guys come up with such ideas, and continue to execute them ? :))

Weekend Funnies -TGIF

Dear foodies,

The weekend has begun and so I leave you with a few smiles to carry over the next few days. I present to you some weekend funnies, not to be confused with frolic :P

If you cannot watch the above video, Click Here, its really good (especially in the context of US elections), you don't want to miss it :)

Manisha, we are still friends right, even more so.... now ?? ;)

Sundal - Happy Dasara!

Dear foodies,

A very Happy Dasara to all of you!

I could not go through Dasara and not make sundal, that would be blasphemous! I used to look forward to this festival so I can go around hogging on sundal, not just made my mom but everyone in the neighbor hood :P (now don't you bring this up!) So here goes this year's quota,

Ingredients:

• 1 can - Chickpeas, or dry beans, soaked overnight and pressure cooked until tender but still holding shape.
• 1 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp - Chana dal
• 1 tsp - finely chopped Green chillies
• 1 nos -Red chili
• 5-6 nos - Curry leaves
• a pinch of Asafoetida/hing
  
• 2 Tbsp - grated, fresh Coconut
• 2 tsp - Oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat a suate pan with oil on medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, when they start splutering add the dal. As they start turning a deep orange add the chopped green chilli, saute for a minute, then the broken red chili and curry leaves with a pinch of asafoetida.
2. Next add the chickpeas, salt and saute for 3-4 mins. Since they are pre-cooked, we only need to get them coated well with the seasonings. Before turning off the heat add the grated coconut and saute for an additional minute, cover and let it rest for a sometime so the flavors blend together.

Thats it, you are all done. You can add chopped green mango to this recipe in the last step like I did here. I seem to have done much better in the cooking department when I was still in school! hmph!!

My mother would make sundal with a different legume/bean every day for Navratri. I've only tried it with chickpeas and lima beans until now. Peanuts, chana dal, moong dal, kala chana, dry green/white peas, blackeyed peas can all be used. I am sure I've left out a few more options but you get the idea right ? :)

Enjoy your day :)

Lost and Found

Dear foodies,

I present to you...

the Fall'en treasures of a lost season
(No! not this season!!)

I am still waiting to see the trees covered with the deep red leaves, most are still yellow and a few have already shed their leaves.

and ...

I found the missing dum aloo photos!

I don't know how this happened! I had looked through all the folders on my laptop, the external hard drive, my office computer and did not find them. And y'day I was lazily scrolling through the photos on Picasa and there they are, staring at me, right there! It took me a few seconds to even realize these were the missing photos! So this post is updated now, phew! :)

Roasted cherry tomatoes with pasta

Dear foodies,

How do you like your pasta ? For me most times its just whats lying in my veggie crisper. I just throw things together, add some spices and toss in the pasta. Or its in a soup, and sometimes baked. But for the most part I do not follow a recipe. In the summer I bought a lot of fresh produce from the local organic store like, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, beans, peppers, snow peas and made quite a few pasta lunches and dinners out of them, either lightly stir frying them or roasted in the oven. Summer does put a dash of freshness in everything it brings to life.

I am still seeing tiny baskets loaded with the cherry tomatoes in the market. A few weeks back I bought yet another bunch of these home, they are a thing of beauty, bursting with juices and a little coaxing with some heat results in a sweet and tangy flavor explosion. I've roasted them in the oven quite a few times and more often than not they get eaten in the tasting stage itself before turning into a relish or pasta sauce :)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - Cherry tomatoes
• 2 nos - Garlic cloves
• 1 Tbsp - Olive oil
• 2 tsp - dried Basil - substitute with fresh when available
• 1 tsp - Red chili lakes
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cup - cooked pasta of your choice - any short size pasta/spaghetti/angel hair will work
• Grated cheese for serving - optional

Method:

1. Pre-heat the over to 400F. Wash and pat dry the cherry tomatoes, spread them over a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil along with the two cloves of garlic. Coat them well with 2 tsp of olive oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, and basil. Roast in the oven for 15-20 mins, until they start to pop and get a slight char on the skins.
2. In the meanwhile bring water to a boil in a saucepan, add salt and cook the pasta to al dente. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of cooking liquid.
3. Once the tomatoes are ready, heat a shallow pan with the remaining 1tsp of oil over medium heat. Add the red chilli flakes so it flavors the oil, give it about 1/2 -1 min without burning. Squeeze out the garlic cloves into the pan and add about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. The garlic will eventually melt into the water.
4. Add the tomatoes next and stir, crushing a few of them with the back of your spoon. Simmer for a minute, check for seasonings. Toss in the pasta to coat well with the sauce, turn off the heat and serve warm with some garlic bread on the side. Top it with grated cheese if you like.
   

This was one of my weekend lunches. I had some white bread that I made a few days back. I cut a couple of slices and toasted them in the oven after the tomatoes were done. Once they turned golden I took them out and rubbed a raw garlic clove against them making a simple garlic toast to go with the pasta, yumm! I love tangy flavors and this pasta was really good with the concentrated tomatoes and the tiny char bits in it. I added some fresh mint leaves for garnish but totally hated it, it was way to strong for the tomatoes.

Now leaving you with the memory of another beautiful evening...

Seven days, seven posts, and I am a happy girl already :) Lets see how far I take it...

Beans & Greens - Ribollita

Dear foodies,

I've been whining about the weather here a little too much in the last two posts and I think I got heard :) Yesterday was beautiful! It wasn't exactly warm, but good enough for me to walk around with a light jacket. So armed with my camera I went around taking photos of the vibrant blue skies spotted by the fluffy clouds. Everything just seemed so much more beautiful and I bet ppl who saw me on the road thought I must be crazy trying to photograph fallen leaves and pine cones and playing hide n seek with a squirrel :))

This is when he saw me, and then he kept circling the tree a little faster than I could and when he had gotten me pretty confused as to where he was, he ran down to the foot of the tree, dug up a tiny hole, buried his nut a.k.a Ice Age., and scurried off into the parking lot behind :))

Onto the recipe, I was in the mood for having soup a few weeknights back and saw that I had a can of cannelleni beans and some arugula in the fridge to use up. Last year on one of my 'kill-time' visits to Tjmaxx I picked up two cookbooks dedicated to soups (it was winter :D), the photos were soo tempting that I could not resist them. So I picked up one of the them and started flipping through the pages until I found one using cannellini beans for which surprisingly, I had most of the ingredients, even the ciabatta bread! The soup is called Ribollita, and I learnt from a search of the name that, it comes from the Tuscan region of Italy. Its uses fresh vegetables and bread, country style cooking all the way. The word actually means 'reboiled' and is another perfect example of how cooks have always tried to use up leftovers. This soup actually starts off as a Minestrone, gets eaten with bread the next day and is then reboiled the third day to end up as Ribollita! Somebody totally miscalculated and made a whole lot more soup than they needed! hehe

Ingredients:

• 1 can - Cannellini beans
• 3 nos - medium sized ripe Tomatoes, diced
  
• 1/2 cup - carrots, diced
  
• 1/2 cup - Onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup - green peppers/capsicum, chopped
  
• 1 tsp - Garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 tsp - Thyme leaves
  
• 2 tsp - Vegetable base + 2 1/2 cups water or veggie stock
  
• couple of handfuls of Greens - I used arugula.
  Recommended options: Tuscan kale or savoy cabbage, increase the cook time to 5 mins if using these
  
• 2-3 thick slices of day old Ciabatta bread, torn into smaller pieces
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 11/2 Tbsp - Extra virgin olive oil + for serving
  

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook the onions, green peppers and carrots for 5-6 mins stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, thyme, salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste and continue to cook for 3-5 more mins until the veggies caramelize lightly.
   
2. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 min so they soften. Now add the drained & washed cannellini beans, water, veggie base and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-12 more mins until the flavors come together.
   
3. A few minutes before turning off the heat, add the washed greens, cover and cook. I switched the heat off as soon as I added the arugula as they are tender enough to get cooked in the residual heat.
4. If serving immediately, stir in the bread pieces next and add more water if needed to have a thick consistency. Check for seasonings and serve with a drizzle of olive oil. Since I was having it for lunch the next day, I skipped the bread step to avoid a really thick soup.
   

Notes: The recipe starts off with the trinity - onion, carrots and celery. I did not have the last one and used a little chopped green peppers instead, I also skipped the garnish of parsley, not a huge fan of it.

The soup was really yummy, the thyme was the star. If you notice they aren't any extra spices used, the ingredients used shine through and give the soup all its flavor. I liked the arugula in this too, since I did not overcook them and also left them whole with no chopping, they had some texture left and remained a bright green. I had the soup with some toasted ciabatta bread with olive oil for lunch the next two days, aboslutely loved it! This is one hearty and satisfying soup, and its surely going to give me company many more times this winter.

holding on...

Dear Foodies,

to summer, cos winter is here, ALREADY! I think Fall flew past us overnight when we were asleep. The temperatures have dropped by 20 degrees and the trees are already shedding their leaves before changing colors...aah :(, very unfair! I am going to miss all those lovely bright hues of orange and pink that took over the skies every evening for the last 6 months. My patio faces the west and so every evening as I get back from work I get to watch a play of lights and shadows in my living room, and I sit right next to the window absorbing the warmth of the sun filtering through the glass sipping my coffee/tea, hmmm...I am going to deeply miss it.

I've been keeping myself warm by staying in the kitchen, baking :) I've gotten tired of having cereals in the morning and it got to the extent where I was skipping breakfast, bad, very bad. I told you how my body does not approve of it on the weekdays in my previous post that . So I switched to eating bread instead, and that allowed me to try my hand at baking too. The first few attempts were a huge success while the last one was not...more about that later though.

So the last two weekends I baked a white bread and a whole wheat+spelt one trying to capture the warmth from the sun in them. I used them in many ways through out the week for breakfast, evening snack and even dinner with a warm bowl of soup. Yes, winter is here :(( :(( The added advantage though of having bread for breakfast is, tossing the slices in the oven takes only a few seconds, and then I just need to add a dollop pf jam and I can head out with my 'to-go' breakfast :) So I can sleep a extra 3-5 mins in the morning that would have been spent eating cereals, every extra minute in bed is precious you see :) The recipes for these breads coming up :D along with the snack time ideas could you throw in your breakfast choices too ?

Slump time

Dear Foodies,

...at 3'o and its surprisingly regular. I have lunch at 12 on the dot on weekdays and its usually light, I don't want to fall asleep on my keyboard at the office and hurt myself, the table isn't comfortable either! So right around 3'o clock I get hit by a snack attack, I feel like munching on something which is also fun to eat. Sometimes even a cup of coffee or tea will do the trick, but the key is getting my hands on something, and yaa, they shouldn't be noisy to eat :D

My choices so far have been assorted dry fruits, raisins and prunes. I bought a pack of pepperidge farm assorted cookies once but that's way too much fat to casually munch on. Weekends are totally different in terms of routine for me, I sleep late, very late, eat breakfast when it should be lunch, following my mood and nothing else. There are no body clocks interfering but the weekdays see a totally different person. I need to eat something in the morning, by 12 I am waiting for lunch, 3'o is snack time, I get back home and have my cup of coffee/tea and some light dinner later. Any change in routine will warrant a grumble from the tummy :D Surprising how well the body prepares itself!

I made these baked muthia's last weekend after seeing Aparna's post. I stuck to Ashwini's recipe for the most part and they were yummy though a lot thinner than the originals. I had a them with some home-made yogurt topped with coriander leaves and some aloo bhujia and it was part of my brunch :P

What are your go-to's for snack time ? Any healthy, low-cal options that you've tried and liked ?