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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Eggplant Slices with Crunchy French Fried Onions

Eggplant Slices with Crunchy French Fried Onions


'Tis the season... for the crunchy french fried onions in casseroles and anything else I can think of.

A hot batch of Green Bean Casserole is a comfort food around this time, especially for my daughter and myself-- the others at home can take it or leave it. And, for us, the french fried onions is the main attraction.

This time, the love of eggplant and the love of french fried onions managed to come together for this delicious dish. Any eggplant would be fine of course, cooking time might vary based on size and thickness of slices...

Ingredients
2 Chinese or Japanese long eggplants, sliced to about ½ inch thick
2 to 3 tablespoons Sambal oelek
½ cup french fried onions
¼ to ½ cup grated cheddar or Colby jack
salt to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preparation

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 425°F
  2. Salt the eggplant slices and allow to rest to draw out the water; drain on a paper towel
  3. Brush some olive oil on both sides of the eggplant slices, arrange in a roasting pan and roast in a 425°F oven for about 15 minutes, flipping the slices over part-way
  4. Spread some Sambal oelek, grated cheese and top with french fried onions on each of the roasted egggplant slices and put it back in the 425°F oven for another 4 minutes till cheese melts and the french fried onions are crispy
  5. Serve warm as an accompaniment to a steaming bowl of soup for a cold winter meal.



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Friday, November 22, 2013

Indian Style Winged Beans and Okra with Curry Leaves

South Indian Style Winged Beans Okra Curry Leaves


Winged beans has become an obsession of sorts lately. It'll pass. I'm sure I'll grow out of it soon. But until then, it is fun to cook it up in ways that is particularly appealing to the cook.

Okra and winged beans come together for a mildly spicy South Indian style dish with tempering and curry leaves for flavoring and garnish.

While the beans and okra are cooking in the microwave (about 5 minutes each), I get the masala paste ready and start sautéing it; this way, when the masala paste is good and ready, I can throw in the cooked veggies into the same pan and finish cooking quickly. I prefer to cook the veggies with some salt for seasoning.

Ingredients
1 cup Winged Beans, chopped
1 cup frozen cut Okra
½ medium red onion, diced
¼ cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
2 Tbsp curry leaf masala paste*
salt to taste
tempering: 1 teaspoon sesame oil, ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds, ½ teaspoon split urad dal, 3 or 4 curry leaves

*Curry Leaf Masala Paste
¼ cup packed curry leaves
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
1-inch piece of Indian cinnamon bark
2 tablespoon unsweetened dry grated coconut
2 Tablespoon gingelly/sesame oil

Preparation

  1. Curry Leaf Masala Paste: Dry roast the ingredients (except oil) and grind them to a fine paste drizzling olive oil as needed while grinding
  2. Cook the winged beans with some salt in microwave, drain, and rinse. Microwave power varies-- I cook the chopped winged beans for about 5 minutes in mine, with enough water to immerse the beans
  3. Cook the frozen cut okra with some salt per package directions, drain, rinse in cold water
  4. Tempering: Heat oil in a pan, add the urad dal first, when it turns golden brown add the mustard seeds, when it splutters add the curry leaves
  5. Then, add the masala paste, onions, crushed diced tomatoes, a tablespoon of oil and saute till aromatic and the onions and tomatoes are cooked and the masala paste is thick and intensely flavorful
  6. Add the cooked okra and winged beans to the pan, cover and cook till combined. 
  7. Garnish with some cilantro and chopped curry leaves. Serve warm with hot basmati rice

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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Roasted Acorn Squash, Jewel Yams, Brussel Sprouts with Kasha

Roasted Acorn Squash, Jewel Yams, Brussel Sprouts with Kasha


Now that the cold weather is taking over, the cobwebs are cleared out of the oven, and the broken safety thermostat is fixed. Quite a bit of baking and roasting has been going on-- casseroles, roasted vegetables, dampers and rolls and breads of all sorts.

One stormy afternoon, it felt like a roast vegetables kind of day. The jewel yams and acorn squash bought in a fit of Autumn frenzy were waiting to be cooked.

Brussel Sprouts seems to be the new Mac-n-cheese for the older child who used to snarf the said Mac-n-cheese by the potful not too long ago.

In they all went, with some olive oil, diced red onions, and whatever herbs and spices I could find. And, out came this aromatic, sizzling, delicious plate of goodness.

Kasha was cooked with some broth in the rice cooker while the vegetables were roasting.


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Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Winged Beans Curry

winged


Until recently, I had never seen Winged Beans aka Goa Beans aka Sirahu Avarai (Sirahu = Wing, Avarai = Lab Lab Beans, in Tamil) in the local Asian markets. Now, they're everywhere! And, am glad. I love its flavor and texture and even its appearance.

I went with a very simple curry this time, served with some quinoa.

winged lab-lab beans siragu avarai


Ingredients
Winged beans, chopped into chunks
2 Tomatoes, diced
½ medium red onion, diced
4 mini colorful peppers, chopped
4 green chilies, chopped
cilantro for garnish

Flavoring Masala Paste:
1 Tbsp grated ginger
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp Nihari masala powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder
1 Tbsp oil

Preparation

  1. Combine the masala paste ingredients. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan. Add the masala paste and saute till aromatic
  2. Meanwhile par-cook the winged beans in the microwave with a dash of salt, drain and keep handy
  3. Saute the onions, tomatoes, and mini peppers along with the masala paste, adding a pinch of salt
  4. when onions are soft and translucent, add the par-cooked winged beans, cover and cook till curry comes together and flavors meld; garnish with cilantro and chopped spring onions if preferred
  5. Serve warm with brown basmati rice or quinoa, or even simple roti or naan or paratha

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Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Home-made Arisi Vadaam (Crunchy Rice Discs)



Ready-made chips and packaged crunchy munchies were not handy back in the days... but, the love for such tidbits was always there. So, of course, there were so many ways to make fried chips and snacks at home, perfected and polished over a few centuries.

Vadaam and Appalam are two typical South Indian crunchy accompaniments to meals, so much so that many would consider a meal incomplete without these. Of these two, my favorite has always been Vadaams of various kinds.

Both Vadaam and Appalam can be made with rice or urad flours, maybe sago/tapioca sometimes. I remember my mom explaining the main difference between the two: Vadaam is when the batter is cooked, shaped, and then dried, whereas Appalam is when the dough is shaped and dried without cooking. Appalam is otherwise known as Pappadum or Pappad.

In blazing hot tropical summer days of my youth, my mom used to assign me the task of spreading spoonfuls of tapioca concoction spiced with lime and chilies on large plastic sheets laid out on the terrace floor. Scoops of steaming, gooey batter flattened into 2 or 3 inch circles bask under the sun for 2 or 3 days until they are bone-dry and ready to be stacked and stored in an airtight container.

When the mood called for it, we would take out a few of these stored dry discs and deep fry in oil to have  scrumptious vadaams either for snack or as a meal side.

Adding flavors for these concoctions used to be a favorite experiment for my mom-- chilies and lime, of course, perhaps some crushed tomatoes, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, crushed black peppercorn... they were all so good.

The fun thing about vadaam is that they don't have to be flat discs, they can be star-shaped, even small balls as long as the batter can hold the shape and dry completely.

Anyway, of all of these, the simplest is the Arisi Vadaam - made out of rice flour. (Arisi = Rice), whereas the most relished is the Javvarisi vadaam made out of tapioca.

I recently got a brand new Vadaam Stand as a birthday present and was thrilled to use it to make my own vadaams!




Vadam Stand is one of those brilliant devices, like the Electrical Idlee Steamer that has made life so much easier for lazy cooks like me. Not to mention demystifying the process and allowing me to bring my childhood favorites to my children, one small batch at a time. And, this one folds down to be stowed away neatly, no fuss.




Soak a cup of brown rice overnight and grind to a fine thick scoop-able batter adding very little water (can always thin the batter to required consistency as needed). Of course, white rice should be fine as well.



Get the steamer ready - a large pot with a tight-fitting lid into which the Vadaam Stand can fit easily. And start some water boiling in it.

Thin the batter with water, just enough to be able to spread it, almost like crepe batter. Add flavoring ingredients -- cumin seeds, chili paste, sesame seeds, salt to taste.

Spread the batter in a thin layer, on each of the plates of the vadaam stand apparatus. Stack them up carefully and assemble for steaming.



Steam for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Lay out the plates to cool just a bit.

Peel each cooked rice batter rounds carefully and lay on a plastic sheet under the sun to dry completely.

Repeat the process in batches till all the batter is used up. 1 cup raw rice made into batter yields about 30 vadaams roughly 3 inches in diameter.

Since we don't get much sun around these parts, I laid them out on cookie sheets and left them in a 190°F oven for about 30 to 45 minutes or until they seemed completely dry. The time and temperature will need to be experimented with. And if left for too long they curl up and crumble easily.

Store them in an airtight container until ready to fry.

Of course, being allergic to deep frying, I "fry" the vadaams in the microwave -- i.e., heat it up till it cooks through. Again, depending on power settings of microwave and size of vadaam, it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute to "fry" up a small batch of 5 or 6 vadaams at a time, no oil needed.

I'll have to work on better pictures next time... poor natural lighting is my excuse for being sloppy with the pics this time.




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