Love of greens

I did some experimenting yesterday. Instead of trashing the gorgeous pink-veined leaves of the beetroot bunch, I chopped it up and tossed it into saag-ki-dal recipe. Believe me, these leaves taste awesome. I have also eaten the pink radish's leaves as part of a salad sometime and that is going into my next dal recipe! :)

Here is how i made it -

Toor dal - 1 cup cooked with one large tomato until mashed

Beetroot leaves - one generous bunch, chopped till the stalk gets too fibery

Onion - one cut lengthwise

For seasoning -

Mustard

Jeera

Amchur powder for 'Khatta', tangy twist

chilly powder, coriander powder.

Procedure -

Tadka the ingredients in seasoning, add the cut leaves. Let the raw smell disseminate. Add the tadka and salt to cooked dal. Add enough water and let boil for about 5 min. Once it cools, add about a tsp of lemon juice. serve Hot.

Goes great with rotis and curd.

So have you tried any new ingredient in your dishes? How did it turn out?

A dallop of avial

I am surprised that this is my first Kerala recipe on the blog. I was sure I would flood it with them! :P

So I decided to start with the easiest and most popular. I agree that kerala recipes are an acquired taste and do not appease everyone in one go. And I know it well, for N isnt an instant lover of any food in general and I have modified my traditional kerala cooking to suit a 'generic' taste bud!

If you are looking for a lot of nutrition, lots of veggies and a filling meal, there is nothing better than avial. Here is the list of veggies you can add to the authentic avial recipes. But feel free to add any veggie which you think might blend in -

1. Raw hard banana (green)

2. Carrots

3. Cucumber ( all kinds )

4, Melons ( all kinds)

5. yam (chennai kezangu)

6. Koorkai ( chinese potato )

7. Chakka kuru ( jackfruit seeds.. they are yum!)

8. Cashew fruit

9. Drumstick

10. Snake gourd

11. Raw mango

I usually make it quick and easy with cucumber, carrot and raw mango. If I get good drumsticks I pop them in.

Procedure  (this is going to be real easy!)

1. Cut the veggies lengthwise about half the size of your little finger

2. Allow the veggies except raw mango to boil in enough water just to immerse the veggies.

3. Sprinkle some haldi (turmeric) on top pf the sunk veggies.

4. Generously add a spoonful of coconut oil to this boiling mixture. Add salt to taste.

( I get the coconut oil from Hannaford; you can find it in any organic food store. These ones have great flavor, but do not emanate the smell which usually puts every non-mallu off from kerala food! Trust me, because N cannot stand coconut oil and he loves my avial! :) )

5. Throw in at least 7 to 8 curry leaves to this medley.

While the veggies cook,

6. In a mixer, add about a cup of shredded coconut, half teaspoon of jeera and 5 to 6 green chillies

7. Blend it without adding any water until it is smooth like a thick chutney like consistency.

8. When the veggies are half cooked, add the cut raw mango.

9. Once the veggies are cooked add the coconut mix.

10. Dribble another half spoon of coconut oil. Take the mixture off the stove after about five minutes.

Usually avial is thick like a lasagna consistency, but I make it a little gravy like by adding more water in the end, as you can see in the picture. It is my mother's recipe and it is foolproof !

Points to note:

1. Ensure you add one sour/bitter veggie ( raw mango fits the bill well ) Other options, which i know of, haven't tried are bitter gourd,tinda.
2. DONT even think of substituting coconut oil for any other oil. You will not end up with an avial end product
3. My mother makes it with beaten curds too, if you dont have the raw mango in hand. I will post that variation, once I watch her make.
4. Its a flavorful dish, but not a spicy chatpata one. So be warned.

Avial is best enjoyed with adai ( pesarattu). I love it with chapati too! N likes it with rice :)

Happy eating, let me know if you know a different recipe!

The soup that made itself!

The day was a perfect soup day, except for my mind-numbing drive back from work in the heavy snow! The snow is not so magical when you are behind the wheel and worse when all you have is AR Rahman for company! :(

But I managed to reach home safe and sound and make the soup that made a hearty dinner!
Let me call it the medley soup, for I used whatever I could find in the refrigerator, the snow having thwarted my grocery shopping plans!
So here goes...

Ingredients -
All the wonderful veggies you can find. I added -
1. Tomatoes - 5 to 6 small
2. one large onion
3. one yellow beet
4. handful shredded cabbage
5. Carrot - one large
6. Bell peppers - half
7. garlic - 4 to 5 flakes, cut finely
8. ginger - one inch cube, cut finely
9. one small cup - mixed lentils. I used black-eyed peas and kidney beans
10. A bunch of basil and handful cut cilantro
11. Parsley/oregano flakes
12. Red chilly flakes
13. Ground black pepper - 1 tsp
14. butter - 2 cm slice cuboid

Procedure

* Add the butter to the heavy bottom pressure pan.
* add 2 tsp of olive oil.
* once the oil-butter mix sizzles, dribble parsley, organo and red chilly flakes in comfortable quantity. You can feel the flavor from the strength of the aroma.
* to this add the cut garlic and ginger.
* Saute the onions until light golden brown
* Add all the veggies and lentils except tomato and cabbage
* Keep adding parsley or basil as required at this stage.
* Once the veggies are sufficiently smothered with the flakes, place tomatoes cut by four and spread the cabbage on top.
* Now drop the ground black pepper and remaining basil leaves
* Add enough water to just sink all the veggies.
* Add enough salt and pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles.

Tada... Serve hot with cut cilantro and lightly fried cut bread in olive oil.

The main ingredients are - parsley, basil, oregano and crushed black pepper!They give the aroma and flavor!

Enjoy!!!

This and Thats

It is wonderful to see a salad-soup-all things good explosion on the blog! Lets keep up the good word!

Eating to the yellow beet –

Following mithra’s mention of yellow beets, I fished it from the prolific, heavenly green smelling section of ‘whole foods’! Though it’s a little pricey, this colorful salad tastes awesome and I will consider it a delicacy for I cant find it in the local Market Basket and hits it heavy on the budget! It’s my mid-afternoon snack for the day!

The desi twist to salads –

I have taken it from my mother. Be it the carrot raita mithra mentioned, or a salad or grated roots, a dribble of tadka ( ½ tsp of oil, little mustards, broken red chilly ) over the salad makes it more devouring, especially raitas for biriyani.

Don’t be fooled by ma po tofu at PF Changs –

Yesterday, I ordered ma po tofu at PF changes. It read tofu in garlic, red chilly sauce with steamed broccoli. Though it tasted awesome, but it was deep fried tofu lined with steamed broccoli! For all the goodness of broccoli and side of brown rice, I couldn’t wolf down more than a few tofu pieces, for it filled by food pipe with grease! It was the healthy broccoli for dinner instead, not just from my share, but the veggies kept aside on sandhya’s plate too! Sigh!

Facial fix –

When you are bored of eating all the salads, just squeeze all the good carrot juice and apply it to your face for the orangey glow or crush the tomato like a scrub on your face to eliminate the sunburns!

Iphone app for farmers market –

I am glad, I can find a farmers market nearby from the Iphone now (Locavore 2.0)! Though I am sure, we North-easterners have to wait it out until spring to have any open. Now I know where I will spend most of my summer money! ☺

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why don’t we honor the ‘National soup month’ on our blog?? Let’s aim to make atleast one new soup from the website/cookery book/top of your head anything for the coming week and post the recipe and experience!

Let me know what you think!!

The austere life

Almost four years ago in Chennai, I had attended a course at Isha yoga foundation. It had comprised of a one month program of pranayams, meditations, good food habits and all things peaceful. I had totally enjoyed it and even put it into practice for almost six months afterwards. And then MS happened, US happened and like all Masters Students, I began to neglect the body and mind!

I had taken away a lot of good things from the course; to love yoga being one of them and I have since attended many yoga lessons at gym and the ‘backbay yoga studio’ lessons in Boston during my internship there. And I also make an honest effort to begin the day with yoga.

Now that I am trying to bring a much needed balance into my diet and exercise regime, I tried to evoke the flavors of the natural foods; I had a chance of eating during the course. The food was all vegetarian and made with natural ingredients and nothing processed. I am sure, I can’t adopt such eating habits for life until sans teeth and coddling grandchildren, but I sure did make it a point to supplement my dinner or lunch with some of these interesting recipes. Here are a few recipes, I recall from the top of my head. They make great salad recipes –

          • Grated beets(yes! I have become a fan!), lemon juice, green chillies, shredded pudina and cilantro,   salt, dry roasted peanuts.

          • Grated carrots, green gram sprouts, grated ginger, lemon, basil leaves, salt

         • Finely cut cucumber, finely cut tomato, neem leaves, fresh pepper corns, moosambi juice, salt 
          •  peeled oranges, fresh grated cabbage, walnuts, methi leaves, grated coconut, cut red chillies

They are all mostly a blend of – one or more fresh veggies + something sour or bitter + something spicy + something citrus + something with a strong flavor.

So mix and match them up, all those veggies and lentils you see around, lying in your kitchen shelf! If you do fix up a great combo, do share them!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a happy note, I have come to know that Sush and her better half are on a salad drive and on the path to achieving the 20LBs-less before march challenge!  And I am hoping its because of that, Sush hasnt posted any new yummy recipes! 

I have been on a sinusoidal curve --
Skipped 3 days workout due to winter indoor allergy, though I snow shoveled :)
Avoided eating rice. substituted dosa with wheat dosas.
Killed it all by having an all KFC dinner (it was wedding day and N used it to advantage for the unhealthy fix)
Trying to get back with salad addendum to dinners!

Hope everyone else is keeping up their goals too! :)

Happy eating and don’t forget to mail me your miles for the week!

Shocking pink, green and orange!

How often do we go overboard with buying  the mesmerizingly stacked veggies, which you can't cook within a week or two and toss it in the garbage with a heavy heart?

I used to do that often, until I learnt to buy in sufficient quantities, though even now, I somehow find one or two veggies in excess at the end of the week.

Here are a few plausible plans i have come up with ; Will be great if all of you can add your tips to it as well!

* A pack of 4 beets from Market Basket - toss the beets into veggie kurma, make stir fried beets for side to rasam rice; When more are left over ( which was my case..) - Use the extractor to beat beets and carrot into an awesome sugarless fresh juice which i have been having before morning work outs! The remaining smooth pulp, add it to chapati dough for shocking pink phulkas! :)

* I have been so happy with the juice idea, that I am planning on implementing it with green veggies as well.. And in prospection, I think its a great way to make kids eat veggies... Imagine presenting them with pink,green,orange chapatis! :)

* Raw mango which i often buy for avial. Since i don't use the whole of it, the remainder is great for -

sev puri toppings

Add it to dal tadka instead of tomato

Make mango pulihora (its a andhra dish)

* Excessive tomatoes - make tomato chutney for dosas; same with excessive onions.

For the patient ones soups.

* Cabbage - the giant that never seems to be done! I haven't found a great solution, but here is what i do -

cabbage/beans/carrot dry sabji for sambhar rice

cut it long for noodles

Cabbage + dal + coconut gravy for rice

.... and there is still cabbage left over! sigh!

Do post suggestions.. Will be great to know some new ways to eat different veggies and not be intimidated to pick them at the market!

Happy Healthy eating!!