What I Want Now: Madras Mashed Cauliflower

Love the look of this mashed cauliflower and potato along with madras curry powder.

Recipe and photo courtesy The Veggie Test Kitchen:

Onion, Cinnamon, and Dry Fruit Pilaf

This is a really nice comforting rice dish with caramelized onions, a ton of cinnamon, and made richer with cashews, raisins, and green grapes. I made mine using red rice, which is notorious for having a really long cooking time (40 minutes!).

Parsi Ras Chawal (Spicy Tomato Gravy with Rice)

I usually have one meal a week with my family, with me taking a break from making my own meals or ordering takeout. I do ask my mom to either make a vegetarian Parsi dish or to make my portion seperately and then add the meat to their portions later on. This time, its a dish called ras chawal, which would translate to spicy tomato gravy with rice. It's quite unknown compared to other Parsi specialities and I can't find a single recipe of it online.

We usually add mutton to this dish, or serve it with boiled eggs. But this one's all vegan with just potatoes and drumsticks. You're supposed to suck the flesh inside the drum stick, not eat the chewy fiberous outside. The recipe is a rough gist I got from my mom.

5-Minute Veggie Stir Fry

An absolutely yummy and lightning quick stiry fry using hoisin sauce as the base, and an assortment of vegetables. Adding a few slices of pine apple just pushed the dish into one of my all-time favorites I have ever had.

5-Minute Stir Fry with Mushrooms, Peppers, Pineapple, Tomatoes, and Cabbage

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
• Approx 10-12 button mushrooms
• 1 green pepper
• 1/2 tomato
• 1/2 onion
• 1 cup cabbage
• 1/2 cup pineapple
• 1 teaspoon oil

To make:

• Chop your vegetables into fairly even chunks.
• In a pan, heat the oil and saute the onions for a minute.
• Add the hoisin sauce and ginger garlic paste and let it come to a boil (2 minutes).
• Add the remaining ingredients and coat them in the sauce.
• Turn off the gas after a minute and serve immediately.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Thai Eggplant and Lentil Curry

I use the term 'curry' loosely - It's more of a lentil stew, or dal, with curry powder in it.

The suprising thing about lentils is, how little you have to use to make a cheap and healthy meal. I used just half a cup of yellow lentils.

I had a small packet of Thai brinjal (eggplant/aubergines) that was starting to wilt. And since I'd never tastes these tiny brinjals - and the packet did warn me they'd be "surprisingly pungent and bitter", what better way to try out a new ingredient than using it up in a familiar curry dish?!

These brinjals are ridiculously small - more like green peas. But if you cut one open, you see the same innards as a full sized brinjal. (Yes, that is the blade of my knife - they really are that small)

But if you don't find them, you can use your regular brinjal, or even peas! These little babies are suprisingly spicy with a really bitter aftertaste. Good thing I refrained from adding an additional green chilli to my curry, as was previously planned. Would I try them again? Well, let's just say they were different.

Thai Brinjal and Lentil Curry

Ingredients

• 1 cup thai brinjal
• 1/2 cup yellow lentils
• 1/2 onion
• 1/2 tomato
• 2-3 stalks of fresh garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• Teaspoon of sugar
• Handful of coriander
• Half a lime

To make:

Chop your tomatoes, onion, and garlic finely.

Cook the lentils in 3 cups of water and a pinch of salt and the curry powder for about 15-20 minutes. If you have the time, presoak the lentils for a couple of hours before cooking.

Add the brinjal, onion, and garlic to the lentils. Add more water in case it's getting too dry. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the chilli flakes and the sugar. Finally, add the tomatoes, and coriander before turning off the gas.

Squeeze the lime juice and serve with plain rice or with chapatis (as I did).

What I Want Now: Sautéed Spinach With Silken Tofu

Evan from The Wannabe Chef made a sautéed spinach with silken tofu dish, that just looks so inviting and wholesome! Finally, some good use for my remaining tub of silken tofu. His secret ingredients are nutmeg and cinnamon.

Photo and recipe courtesy of The Wannabe Chef:

Basil Walnut Pesto Pasta with Peppers and Olives

When you make a fresh batch of pesto, its always best to use it as soon as possible. I made a quick sauce out of mine to go with my whole wheat fusili pasta. I'm a bit iffy about boiled flour-based dishes (noodles, pasta etc), and almost never have them. But since I got a pack of pasta at a discount, why not?!

Basil Walnut Pesto Pasta with Peppers and Olives

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fusili pasta (or any other of your choice)
• 3 tablespoons of basil and walnut pesto
• 1 green pepper
• Handful of black olives
• 1/2 cup water
• Teaspoon of olive oil
• Salt, to taste

To make:

• Heat a pot of water along with the salt.
• When the water comes to a boil, add the pasta.
• Cook for 7 minutes, or as per instructions on the pack.
• Drain the pasta, retaining about 1/2 cup of water to make your sauce.
• In a pan, add the pesto and 1/2 cup pasta water, to make a sauce.
• Add the pasta back in the sauce, along with the peppers and olives.
• Cook for an additional minute and turn off the gas.
• Drizzle the olive oil on top when you serve.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Vegan Pizza Margherita

David Rocco's Dolce Vita is a new find for me. I loved the episode on pizzas. I just wonder when I will find a guy who feeds me freshly made pizzas?!

So, when I saw there was fresh basil available at Nature's Basket, thats when I decided to buy a couple of ready-made pizza bread from there as well. I don't have a really good  oven - everything takes at least twice as long to bake as is prescribed in a recipe, despite the fact that the oven is at its highest setting. David Rocco baked his pizzas in a wood burning oven for 10 minutes. If you're lucky to have one, bake it for 10 minutes. Else, just go with your gut. I baked mine for approximately 45 minutes at 250 degrees celcius.

I've used silken tofu - the softest variety you can get. Mush it up with your fingers to get a cottage cheese like texture. The tofu  - or any manner of vegan cheese - isn't going to melt and go all gooey like cheese. No one said being vegan was without its sacrifices. :)

Vegan Pizza Margherita
Ingredients

• 1 tomato
• Handful of silken tofu
• 4-5 fresh basil leaves
• 1 pizza crust
• Tablespoon of olive oil
• Salt, per taste

To make:

• Pre-heat the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes so its nice and hot.
• Slice the tomato finely and lay over the pizza crust.
• Spread the tofu on top.
• Season with salt.
• Lay the basil leaves on top.
• Top off with olive oil.
• Bake until slightly brown on top.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Curious about Curry

Ok, I am a curry virgin! I've had plenty to eat - how can you not, in curry-heaven India. But never attempted to make it myself. It just seems like an arduous process of grinding up spices and waiting on a pot to simmer and boil.

But I had some coconut cream left over from yesterday's ice cream, and had some starting-to-wilt pak choi that I wanted to finish off. So, a spicy coconut curry it is!

The green chutney used is just coriander, a little chilli and some coconut all ground up. The chilli paste, on the other hand is just blistering hot green chillies ground up.

Coconut Curry with Pak Choi, Peppers and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 tomato
• 1 green pepper
• 2-3 cups of pak choi
• 1/2 an onion
• 2 tablespoons chilli paste
• 2 tablespoons green chutney
• 1-2 teaspoons of sugar
• Teaspoon of coconut oil
• 1 cup water

To make:

• Chop up the tomatoes, pak choi, onion, and peppers into bite sized portions.
• In a wok, heat the oil and saute the onions.
• Add the chilli paste and green chutney paste.
• Add the coconut cream and the water after a couple of minutes and see that no lumps are formed.
• Let it simmer away for 15-20 minutes.
• Have a taste test - if its too hot, add sugar to temper it down.
• Add the chopped veggies and turn off the gas.
• Let the veggies soak in the curry for 5-10 minutes.
• Serve with plain boiled rice.