Last minute Brown Rice Bisibelebath with mixed beans for Susan

Lately, my follower count on the blog has been going up and down by a couple, or in other words, stayed constant. I welcome new followers and wonder about the ones who are unfollowing (leaving). Maybe it is because I haven’t been very regular with my posts for almost a year now. There is also the contentious issue of not visiting a bunch of other blogs and leaving comments, which, let’s face it, generates traffic.

I have been for a long time ambivalent about blogging because I simply can’t bring myself to blog-hop all the time. It drains away a lot of my time and energy not to mention distracts me from family matters. I still visit my friend’s blogs, not only for the content and writing but also to catch up with them. There are times when I visit an often-visited-in-the-past but not forgotten blog because I see a link on fb and it sounds interesting.

Siri’s roundup of Wholesome Whole Grain – Brown Rice was one such event that got a quick click on the link. I have never been much of a brown rice eater but her bisibelebath made with brown rice, lentils and loads of veggies screamed, “Cook me”. So I did, with much success. I fed it to my Tamilian friends and they loved it. I have since made it a bunch of times and it tastes good every time. The secret of course is the spice powder that I roasted and grinded based on Siri’s recipe.

I have professed my inability to follow a recipe to a T on this blog before. However, this one time, I did not waver from the original version except for the quantity, which I cut in half. Not only was this an easy one pot meal, it was filling and nutritious and hit the spot just right every time I made it.

Of course, it is human nature, or may be my nature, to fix something that isn’t broken. So the fourth time I made bisibelebath, I decided to make it even more nutritious by adding whole beans instead of just toor dal (split pigeon peas). It turned out pretty good but the spouse and I both agreed the original tasted better. I am listing just the changes that I made to the recipe. Click on Siri’s Bisibelebath to see the original recipe.

Ingredients I changed:
Mixed lentils and beans: 3/4 cup (I used a combination of black eyed peas, whole masoor dal, whole mung beans and toor dal)

Vegetables I used:
Vegetables: 2 cups (a mix of sweet potato, celery, onions, carrots and spinach)

Spice Powder:
Since I roughly halved the recipe, I used about 2 tbsp of the spice powder

This delicious and nutritious bisibelebath goes to Susan who is celebrating and hosting the third anniversary of her popular event MLLA- 37 . Thank you, Susan for accepting my very late entry. This post also goes to Jacqueline's Bookmarked Recipes event created by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

Is there a recipe from this blog that has become your personal favorite or a recipe you have tweaked to your liking? Let me know.

And if you haven't liked my fb page yet, click on Desisoccermom and do it.

Chole Palak, not an authentic Punjabi recipe

This is an old post, that almost got lost in the archives of my word documents. It was written in response to Supriya's query if I had the recipe for chole palak on the blog. The chole palak in question were the pairing for the Tibetan bread that he had made. This then, is the old write up with some new reference added in for freshness.

What kind of chole masala do you use? If it is the store bought, then what brand do you prefer? I prefer Sanjeev Kapoor’s Chole Masala. It doesn’t have too much salt and the spices smell fresh. If you make your chole masala at home by roasting and grinding spices, then please share and send it to Aqua, who is hosting this month’s B2B for me. Interested to host it, email me here.

In the past, my attempts at making authentic Punjabi chole, the kind that are immersed in thick, black gravy and the garbanzo beans so soft you could break them with the touch of your tooth, have failed miserably. Before you ask or venture, yes, I have tried Anita’s recipe and mine didn’t even come close to what hers looked like and I am pretty sure they didn’t taste like hers either. I will chalk it to my inability to follow a recipe to a T or the lack of patience with the bhunoeing of the spices.

Recently, Manisha wondered here why the chole gravy needed to be black?  I have not the faintest clue. For me, it brings back memories of lunches I have had as a teenager at Pujabi friend’s homes. The chole were almost always served with white bread and I have to admit the combination was awesome. To this day, if I am eating chole by myself, I toast two pieces of thick sourdough bread to eat with it.

But I digress. A few months ago, in an attempt to finish off a bunch of spinach leaves in danger of wilting in the fridge, I added them to the boiling chole gravy. To my delight, the pinkish/ yellowish gravy started turning black and by the time the spinach was cooked through I had the chole of my dreams or at least the color I desired. Though they did not taste like the authentic version, they looked every bit as good. And since then, I make sure I have spinach on hand before I soak garbanzo beans.

A few weeks ago, with no spinach or any other green to turn my chole black, I resorted to the original tea leaves method. Lurking in an overlooked corner of the kitchen I had found a half empty box of tea bags. I popped one in the cooker with the soaked chana and eight whistles later the beans were all black and soft and ready to eat as is.

Encouraged, I followed Anita’s tip and roasted the onions and ginger garlic paste with the chole masala (store-bought) till everything was a luscious black color. Added some fresh tomato puree which did nothing to change the color of the gravy and then added the darkened chana to it. The result was exactly what I wanted and it looked and felt like what Anita would have made, I think. We had it again with the Tibetan bread and it was good to the last bite.

Here’s my Indian pairing for his Tibetan bread.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 can garbanzo beans or 1/2 cup of dry beans soaked in plenty of water overnight
1 tea bag (black tea)
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 small tomato, chopped or pureed
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chole masala/ garam masala
1/2 tsp dhana jeera powder (cumin-coriander powder)
1/2 red chili powder
1 bunch of chopped spinach (optional)

Method:
Pressure cook the garbanzo beans with the tea bag for 6-8 whistles or whatever it takes for your cooker to get them cooked through.

Heat a tablespoon of oil. Add the onions and sauté till almost brown and fragrant.

Mix in the ginger garlic paste and the dry spices (chana masala, dhana jeera and red chili powder).

Cook on medium low heat till the raw smell of ginger garlic and the dry spices turns fragrant. Continue cooking till everything starts looking dark and mysterious.

Add the chopped/ pureed tomato and cook for another five minutes. Do not under any duress add canned tomato puree. It is way too tomatoey and will change the color of your gravy from a dark black to a muddy pink.

Mash a couple of tablespoons of chickpeas in the cooking mix and stir. Add the cooked chana and the liquid it was cooking in to the onion-tomato mix and boil on medium till the gravy turns thick, about 20 minutes more.

If using spinach, add at this point. They will turn the gravy even darker. Serve with roti, naan, bread or rice.

Manisha made Rest of the World Chhole.

The chole palak go to Simona of Briciole who is hosting Susan's MLLA #26. 

Before I leave, here's a shout out to Sra, who is there for me via email when I need to bitch about another blogger trend I am not happy with. Check out her blog for some "humor" and some amazing fiction, if you are feeling down and low.

Another shout out to Jacqueline who has started The Food Blog Diary to chronicle the numerous events and giveaways happening in the blogosphere. She graciously put both my events on the blog within hours of receiving my email.

Of quiet husbands and risotto surprises

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction (except for the recipe) and may or may not have some resemblence to persons living.

“You are going to be late for class,” he said as she dunked her toast and sipped her tea at a leisurely pace.

“Don’t worry, I have plenty of time. It takes 25 minutes to reach school, 35 max if there is traffic,” she replied in her nonchalant way.

He just shrugged and went back to reading his book. He knew it wouldn’t do any good to point out that the traffic increased at this time of the day.

She had always been like this, relaxed and completely out of sync with time; he sometimes wondered how she got anything done at all.

Earlier in their marriage, he used to get exasperated. “I am so glad you are not a doctor. Your patients would have died waiting for you on the operating table.” She would just laugh and walk away.

In time, he had learnt to relax around her laid back attitude but there were times when he still bristled when she went about her business as if time was infinite. Most of the time, he just shrugged and let go. It was easier that way, less stressful.

“Ok, I am ready. How do I look?” she asked with that twinkle in her eyes he had grown to love so much.

“Good,” he said. He wasn’t the loquacious one in this union. She pecked him on his cheek, got into the car and sped off.

“I hope she reaches school in time,” he muttered under his breath as he headed back into the house.

He was glad she was finally doing something with her life. The ten years they had been married he had stood by her as she squandered away her life on trivial pursuits instead of doing something productive with her talent.

“At least she woke up before she turned 50,” he thought as he went back to the book he was reading. He had picked it up at a garage sale for a dollar. It was called Risotto, Polenta and Pasta, a Taste of Italy.

He decided he would try his hand at making risotto. He knew she didn’t like him cooking without her present.

“You make too much mess and you are not very efficient with the chopping and the pots and pans. Let me help you,” she would insist.

He hated being told how to cook or her interfering “help”. He had his own ideas and even if he was wrong, he wanted to find it out for himself.

Today was the perfect chance. She won’t be back for another four hours. He can drive down to the grocery store for the supplies; cook to his heart’s content and even clean up the kitchen decently before she came home.

He set about in his meticulous way writing down the ingredients he needed for the risotto. The list was a big point of contention between the two. He believed in them, she didn’t. Today, he gets to do things his own way.

Something old, something borrowed, something green

Palak Paneer (Cottage cheese in Spinach curry)

How do you come back after more than a month of hiatus? First order of business: Update 359 Days of DSM, which had been gathering cobwebs since I decided to hang up my blogging gloves and pick up US Government and History books. DSM is almost updated. It took almost two weeks to update a month and a half of clicks. As of today, only three days remain to be uploaded. Fruits of procrastination are not sweet, believe me!
Next, to figure out blogger in draft and revamp DSM to look all spiffy and hi-tech like, err... the other spiffy and hi-tech blogs.
While in the midst of updating a daily blog (yes, I am aware it is an oxymoron) and revamping the original blog, I decided to do a quick Google search for Kothimbir Vadi (roughly translated, steamed cilantro pudding?) and landed on Nupur’s One Hot Stove and almost sizzled with excitement over her The Adaptation Edition. A perfect come back for yours truly who has a hard time following a recipe to a T.
Besides, the way I look at it, Indian cooking is versatile enough to substitute chole masala instead of garam masala and add cream cheese instead of heavy cream in a restaurant-style curry. The result is unpredictable but rarely, if ever, undesirable.

Take note all those Nay-Sayers who think Indian cooking is too involved. Most of the time, a teaspoon or two of garam masala, some turmeric, red chili and mustard and/or cumin seeds is all you need in your pantry to cook up Indian food.

Tibetan bread in a skillet

This and the posts that will follow have been a long time coming. Call it blog fatigue or my tendency to bite more than I can chew, DSM took a back seat to other chores equally important, like going to school and trying to stay updated on my other blog, 359 Days of DSM. So, to all those who wondered and expressed concern at the absence of activity on this blog, Thank You. I appreciate the love and support of my virtual friends, which I find sometimes lacking in my real life friends.

A couple of weeks ago imprisoned in our own house by 6 inches of snow and too thin blooded to go out and play, we turned to culinary games. Fortunately for us, the day before the white flurries descended on our Tx homeland, I had scored a couple of cookbooks from our library, one of which was his favorite chef Jacques Pepin’s More Fast Food My Way. If you thought French cooks were snooty just watch Jacques in action and you will think your favorite uncle was showing you magic tricks with food. He can be found with his culinary magic tricks here or on PBS every Sunday.

As with all things, he is never happy with a first attempt and the long internment gave him ample time to
experiment till he came up with something he liked. It goes without saying that unlike me, he perfected the original recipe first, which is as simple as bread cooked in a skillet can get.
The original calls for flour, salt, baking powder, water, a few tablespoons of oil and a 12 inch skillet. It does, like all things instant, need to be consumed within a couple of hours, preferably right out of the skillet. The modified version is also easy, fast and tastes best right out of the skillet but you can use the leftovers next day. If you are watching your carb intake, this recipe is not for you. Go eat some moong dal dosas, recipe can be found here.

Unlike regular breads, this is a wait-till-the-last-minute to make a bread kind of recipe. So, plan and keep ready the rest of the meal before you make this. I made chole-palak (garbanzo beans and spinach curry) to go with it. Pair it with your choice of spicy curry.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
1 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour
1/3 Tsp salt
1 Tsp baking powder
1 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
1 cup water, plus about 2 tbsp more for steaming the bread

His additions: (also see note)
1 Tsp ajwain/ carom seeds
1/4 cups finely chopped cilantro

Method:
Whisk all the dry ingredients together and add water to make a thick, gooey batter. It should be thinner than a dosa batter but thicker than buttermilk.
Spread the oil in a 12 inch skillet, preferably non-stick and add a swirl of olive oil to it. Pour the batter in the skillet and spread it evenly on the floor of the skillet with the back of a spatula.
Add some water along the edges and cover with a tight fitting lid and get the bread cooking. Place on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. The water steams the bread and helps it cook. At the end of 10 minutes the water should be gone and the dough frying.
Reduce the heat and, using a fork, flip the bread. Cook the other side, covered, for another five minutes. Turn off the heat, uncover and cool a little in the skillet before cutting it into wedges. Serve with chole palak or curry of your choice.

Note: We have tried this with a 1:2 combination of APF and whole wheat flour too. I liked it, he didn’t. So try the original version first and then experiment with the flour combination.

You can use any combination or assortment of herbs to make the batter.

Rustic three lentils vegetable soup

I am a creature of habit when it comes to ordering food at tried and tested restaurants. So when I stumbled into Corner Bakery the other day I surprised myself by ordering their three lentils vegetable soup instead of my regular roasted red tomato soup.
In retrospect, I am inclined to believe my decision was a result of half a day of fasting for my annual physical and having finished the last of my big pot of gingered tomato carrot soup the previous day.

I was surprised to find that the three lentil soup was a happy combination of lentils, carrots, spinach and corn. It warmed up a famished girl on a cool, breezy day while catching up with her gal pal, Erin.
I am usually happy to leave the making of a restaurant soup to a restaurant but there was something about this soup that tickled my taste buds and made me want another bowl the very next day. Since I had no plans to drive 10 miles to the bakery and pay $3 for a bowl of soup, I decided to make my own.

I decided to start with split and whole red lentils (masoor) since they cook quickly. I added some solitary green lentils sitting in my pantry to complete the trio. Some onion, kale, carrots, corn, mushrooms and tomatoes later, I had my big pot of three lentils soup with vegetables.
A friend’s visiting Dutch in-laws tasted the soup and said it was a “meal soup” because it was so hearty and filling. This is a free for all soup, so feel free to add any veggies or greens of your choice. I have added spinach instead of kale on occasions as well as cooked garbanzo beans and it still tastes great.

I have also made it using just two lentils (split and whole masoor) and it still tastes great. Here’s my version of Corner Bakery’s Three Lentil Soup.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup split red lentils (masoor)
1/3 cup whole red lentils (masoor)
1/3 cup whole green lentils (optional)
1 big onion, chopped roughly
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 big tomato, chopped
1-2 carrots, peeled and diced small
½ cup of mushrooms, chopped (any kind)
1/2 bunch of spinach or 2-3 big leaves of kale, chopped fine
1/4 cup of corn kernels
2-4 cups of vegetable/ chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Combine and wash all the lentils and keep aside.
In a big pot, heat some olive oil and sauté the chopped onions, carrots and garlic till the onions turn translucent.
Add the mushrooms and some salt. Sauté the mushrooms till they get soft, a few minutes, before adding the tomatoes. Cover and let them get mushy. Add the lentils, spinach, corn and broth.
Adjust the salt and pepper and bring to a rapid boil.
        
Lower the heat and simmer till the carrots are tender and the lentils, spinach and corn are cooked through, about 30 minutes. I like my soup thick so I keep simmering it at medium heat till the split lentils are first mushy and then completely disintegrate.

Note: Add water in the absence of broth.
This hearty, filling soup goes to MLLA 18, hosted by Srivalli and the brainchild of Susan.

Treading Deep Waters

The month of June has been exciting and exhausting. As I get more involved with my blog and explore the wonderful world of food blogging, I am getting deeper and deeper into entering various events hosted by gracious blog hosts. It is exciting to find out about an event whose theme excites and inspires you to create new recipes and improve the ones in your repertoire. Blogs like Meena’s Hooked on Heat make me realize how far I still have to go towards building a great blog. It has inspired me to pay more attention to the little details in writing my recipes and try to take better food pictures.

It is exciting to see my post getting accepted in an event and appear on the host blog (so far just one – My entry to the CLICKS event). But it is also exhausting to keep track of different themes, deadlines and photo specifications. I have also realized that it takes more time to write, photograph, upload and link a recipe than it does to make the food, eat it and load the dishwasher.
So, for my second entry for Tried and Tested: Hooked on Heat event hosted by Kits Chow , I picked the Sauted spinach with potatoes recipe which is not only easy to cook and delicious to taste but is also nutritious and takes very little time to make or to write. Also, I had some leftover baby spinach in the fridge begging to cook it with potatoes.

Aloo Palak (Potato Spinach) stir fry



Ingredients:

6 cups of spinach, washed and chopped roughly
2 medium potatoes, sliced thin
1 small onion, diced fine
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped or mashed fine
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander powder (dhania powder)
1 tsp red chili powder
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp oil and add mustard seeds. As they start to crackle, add cumin seeds, turmeric, onions and garlic. Sauté on medium heat till onions turn translucent and garlic starts giving off its aroma.
Slide in the potatoes and cook covered till almost tender. Add salt and spinach and cook till the potatoes are done and the spinach is wilted.
Serve warm with rotis and dal.

Easy Breezy Palak Paneer

After a lot of trials and error, I find this is the easiest way to make delicious Palak Paneer. I use a lot of garlic cloves but trust me, it will not overpower the dish.

Ingredients:

1 Onion chopped
1 large tomato or ¼ cup tomato puree from a can
10-12 garlic cloves, mashed
2 tsp ginger, grated
12-16 oz packet of frozen spinach
4 tsp Garam masala powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
½ slab of frozen paneer, chopped into cubes
Cumin seeds for tempering

Sauté the chopped onions in oil and add the ginger and garlic once the onions start to soften. Cook the ginger and garlic till the raw smell goes away.
Add the garam masala at this point and roast it with the onions for a few seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes or the puree.
Cover and put the heat on med-low for 5 min. If you have added the puree, it will start to release oil. The chopped tomatoes will take a little longer to soften and cook through.
At this point add the frozen spinach and again cover the pot. The spinach will begin to thaw and wilt in the steam. It’ll take about 15 min to cook through. Once the spinach has wilted, cook it with the onion-tomato mixture for another 5 min and then turn the heat off. Once the mix has cooled a little, grind it all in the blender to a smooth paste.
Transfer to the pan and add the salt and check for spice. Heat oil in a little wok and add cumin seeds to it. At this point you can add more masala or chili powder if the palak is not spicy enough. Add the paneer cubes and heat the palak through till the paneer is soft.
Palak Paneer is ready to eat with rotis, parathas or rice.