The Rich Vegetarian

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Category: Recipes (page 7 of 10)

May 10, 2012 / 0 Comments

Simplest and Prettiest Turmeric Pickles

Turmeric is a member of the ginger family, an antiseptic, and a staple in Indian cooking. During winter, fresh turmeric is harvested, dried and powdered into a vibrant yellow powder, also called haldi in Hindi. I add a teaspoon or so of turmeric powder to almost every Indian dish I cook. It adds such a pretty color to dals and curries (and I use the word ‘curry’ in the Indian context – you knew that already, didn’t you?) and renders them utterly fragrant. The antiseptic/digestive properties don’t hurt either!

Mom makes turmeric pickles in winter. She makes them using white and yellow turmeric. These are possibly the simplest AND prettiest pickles you can ever find, believe me! I found a stack of both turmeric varieties at the local Indian store last week and got some home. Soaked them in water for a couple of hours, peeled them, cut into tiny slivers. Actually, I took the photographs and Dad did all the dirty work!

 

So pretty right? Dad is a master vegetable chopper, so skilled and graceful in his work. That’s what I call a real engineer… 🙂

Squeeze a liberal dose of lemon juice, add salt, mix well. You can also use lime juice if that’s your preference. Last year, when Mom made these pickles, she threw in some fresh green peppercorns as well. This year, she is captivated by the pink peppercorns, and so they’re part of the recipe.

Store the pickles in a glass container. They can be stored in the refrigerator indefinitely. If they appear too dry, add some lemon/lime juice, mix well.

These are pleasantly tangy pickles, not spicy or overly acidic. They go splendidly with rice dishes, pilafs, curries and other vegetable dishes. Go make a batch today… 🙂

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April 19, 2012 / 4 Comments

Mom’s Multigrain Adai Pancakes

Ada Dosa (also known as Adai in Tamil Nadu) is essentially a multigrain pancake containing white rice, urad dal, chana dal and toor dal combined with dried red chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves. A deliciously healthy and savory snack that is hearty enough to be served at breakfast, Ada Dosa goes famously well with your choice of side. Tangy lime pickle? Yes. Spicy mango relish? Oh yes. Sweet peach jam? Absolutely. Mint-cilantro-coconut chutney? Lovely! Good old tomato ketchup? Nice. Or my personal favorite, a good chunk of jaggery. Oh, a blob of salted butter hits the spot too!

The rice and dals are soaked in water for a few hours beforehand. This softens them and facilitates the grinding process. Red chillies are also soaked along with the dal-rice mixture.

Soaked Dal-Rice-Chillies

I know that looks like a LOT of red chillies (Mummy just threw them in there) but be assured, I took most of them out… 🙂

I asked Mom about the proportions she used for the dals and rice. Now she is an experienced home cook, intuitive and spontaneous (exasperatingly random at times!) in her approach to cooking (and life, in a larger context). Naturally, she didn’t recall the quantities she used. But she thought a little and told me – 1 cup white rice (uncooked), 1 cup combined of toor dal, chana dal, urad dal.

After soaking the rice-dals-chillies for a few hours, I ground them all up in my good old mixer/grinder. Such a sturdy appliance this is… I could’t recommend it enough. Makes me bless the day P and I decided to buy it from the little appliance store in Bombay and lug it back to Atlanta.

Good old Mixer/Grinder

You can see the little steel bowl (top) with red chillies. Those are the ones I took out. Pretty much, most of them, that is… 🙂

This is a naturally coarse batter but make sure that you grind it as fine as your mixer/grinder allows. Add sufficient water so the batter is light and flowing, and of a spreadable consistency but not excessively liquid-ey or watery.

Almost done!

Add the curry leaves towards the end. Add asafoetida and salt to taste.

Bring a cast iron skillet (or a non-stick pan) to heat, pour a ladleful of the batter, spread thinly to make a medium-sized pancake. Add a teaspoon (or less) of oil over the pancake and around it. When the edges begin to brown, use a spatula to flip the pancake over. Let it cook on the other side. When done, take it off the skillet. You can make it thin and crispy (use less batter and spread wide and thin) or thick and chunky.

Serve piping hot with your favorite side of pickle, relish, ketchup… anything!

Ada Dosa and Sweet Mango Relish

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January 13, 2012 / 0 Comments

Quinoa with Carrots, Onions and Pine Nuts

I seem to have gotten into the unfortunate habit of adding toasted pine nuts to everything I cook. Ok, that is an exaggeration, as you probably guessed already. Not everything I cook, certainly. But many dishes, yes. Yesterday’s lunch was another one of those random occasions.

I was feeling too lazy to cook anything but lunch had to be made. I rummaged in the fridge and found a bright bunch of carrots (picked up from Decatur Farmers Market) and remnants of an onion. Pine nuts? Yes, please.

Measured out half a cup of quinoa into a pan. Boiled water in my electric tea kettle, measured out one cup, added it to the quinoa, threw in some salt, turned up the heat.

Sliced the onion and chopped the carrots.

Toasted the pine nuts in a little metal (iron?) bowl, then sauteed the vegetables in the same bowl afterward. By this time, all water had been absorbed and the quinoa was cooked. Turned off the heat, added in the sauteed vegetables and toasted pine nuts.

Made a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil, ginger oil, chili oil. Poured it over the quinoa and vegetables, tossed it all well together. Oh, I also added some Braggs liquid aminos, just a little bit.

How did it turn out? Pretty good, I thought. I shouldn’t have added the chili oil, it made the quinoa a tad too spicy. As I took the picture above, I remember thinking that I should have sauteed some greens and added them as well. Would have made a prettier picture!

And the toasted pine nuts? Added just the perfect crunch. As expensive as these lovely nuts are, it’s nice to have them in the freezer, if only for an occasional treat. I thought I had done a job cleaning up the table and the sides of the bowl but that one grain of quinoa managed to get away…

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January 2, 2012 / 5 Comments

Zucchini Tofu Almond Koftas

I obsessed about baking a host of goodies and sweet treats this holiday season. Christmas came, went. I planned everything well in advance, pored over the recipes a million times, checked the Internet for variations, blah blah blah… basically expended a whole lot of mental energy simply thinking about my holiday bake extravaganza.

Sigh. If I had spent even half that energy in the kitchen, I would have been less tired. Long story short, I learned some valuable (life) lessons this December. Stop obsessing, get cooking. You cannot ruminate endlessly on a plan; you have got to start moving eventually, take the first step. Profound stuff, huh!

This evening was a whole different story. We had a dinner invitation, so I had nothing to do, really. As far as cooking dinner was concerned, I mean. Started leafing through Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. This is a gift from a dear friend, a long time ago. I haven’t cooked much from this book but I love reading it. It covers cuisines from China, Italy, Eastern Europe, India and other countries. Each section has a little bit of history, a personal story, anecdotes. I came across a recipe for Zucchini Tofu Koftas in the section on Indian cuisine. It is a simple recipe with a short list of ingredients. I realized that I had most of them at home. Hmmm, should make this one some time. Well, why not now? Talk about learning from last week’s endless obsessing!

I got permission from the nice folks at Moosewood to pass on the recipe here.

Zucchini Tofu Koftas

Ingredients:
2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
6 large garlic cloves, pressed or minced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground fennel seeds
4 teaspoons ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon dried mint (1 tablespoon fresh)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
2 blocks tofu, pressed
2 tablespoons unbleached white flour
1/2 cup chopped cashews, walnuts or pistachios

In a heavy skillet, saute the zucchini and garlic in the oil, stirring often, until most of the moisture has evaporated, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the spices and cook for one more minute. stirring constantly. Place in a bowl. Crumble in the tofu, add the flour and nuts, and mix well.

Form the mix into walnut-sized balls. Place on an oiled baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until firm, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Reprinted with permission by the Moosewood Collective from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, Copyright, 1990, Moosewood, Inc.; Simon and Schuster, publishers.

Zucchini Tofu Almond Koftas

I must admit, I tweaked the recipe a little. I was not sure if I could handle six large cloves of garlic, so I used three. I should have tasted the dough for salt/spice before baking it. Well, it was low on salt and I could have upped the spice levels, added some additional spices too. Also, I had sliced almonds at hand, so I used them instead of cashews, walnuts or pistachios. I skipped the mint as well.

All that being said, this is one delicious kofta! Tofu is so light in texture and taste, so you can eat a whole bunch of these koftas without feeling weighed down. Flour (2 tablespoons) is required as a binder but I am guessing there should be a gluten-free way to bind the dough. This is a vegan recipe also, yay! Next time, I will probably give the garlic a miss, add shredded ginger, chopped cilantro, garam masala, maybe some raisins.

So glad that I acted fast when the thought of making these koftas came to me… Else this would have been another one in the list of ‘MUST MAKE’ recipes.

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