Green Plantain Oven Fries

Green Plantain, a member of the Banana family, is one of my favorites, although I cannot handle much of it thanks to its high starchiness and its tendency to cause digestive discomfort. Plantains are not usually eaten raw, they need to be cooked.

Botanically Banana plant is an herb, its fruit is considered a berry. Which is a fun trivia I never tire of sharing. Every part of banana plant is used in India, including its pseudo stem which can grow over 20 feet tall. Banana leaf is used as a dinner plate and a food wrapper; stem can be used to make a savory dish, called Koottu, with lentils; banana flower can be made into an incredibly delicious banana flower paruppusili; and of course, the berry/fruit itself can be cooked up in many ways, either raw green or ripe.

Plantain cooks up much like potatoes in many Indian dishes and is enjoyed as chips in many parts of south India. Riper plantains, not the raw green ones, are much relished in dessert form with a touch of brown sugar.

Green plantain fries in this recipe is baked in the oven at 400 °F for about 30 minutes or till desired crispness.

Skin and cut the plantain into thin sticks, toss with some olive oil and salt, and bake, stirring once or twice to get all the sides evenly crisped.

To keep up the Indian theme, I served it with some mint chutney for the adults, but the kdis prefer it with the ubiquitous ketchup.

Baked Spaghetti Squash

Not a top favorite among the winter squashes, Spaghetti squash gets its turn in my kitchen a few times during fall/winter months.

Brush with olive oil, sprinkle some salt and pepper, maybe a touch of paprika, and bake in a 375 °F oven for about an hour.

Once baked and ready, however, the strings of spaghetti squash are handy for making other dishes, like this Spaghetti Squash Thai Curry/Soup.

Apricot Strawberry Blackberry Jam Cookies

Sugar. Butter. Flour.

Just three basic ingredients and umpteen variations to make yummy goodies.

This time, I went with Flax Oil Omega Butter Light, with a combination of Splenda and demerera and granulated white sugar, regular all purpose flour, plus egg yolks, of course. The texture came out more or less like shortbread cookies.

Jam filling is the fun part. Jars of homemade home-canned jams made from fresh u-pick berries were sitting in the pantry.

I don't have a consistent standardized recipe for these jam cookies, but it's hard to go wrong with these basic ingredients as long as we keep an eye on the consistency and proportions. I prefer to chill the dough before shaping and baking.

Ingredients
3/4 cup Smart Balance ™ Omega Butter Light
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp demerera sugar
2 Tbsp Splenda
1½ cups all purpose flour, plus or minus to make the dough not too sticky
2 egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks; then fold in the flour till it comes together and forms a dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes till the edges turn brown.

Pumpkin Walnut Bread

'Tis the season... for baking...

A lot of standard soups and stews and casseroles and breads and rolls come about this time of the year, with not many new recipes to share. I resort to comfort foods and sail through the winters without much fanfare. Except around the holidays in December, when quite a bit of baked goodies come about just to make the kids happy.

This Pumpkin Bread, much like the Zucchini bread and Apple Walnut bread and Rhubarb Banana bread and Sweet Potato bread and others that I've shared here already, is a simple no-fuss bread.

For the most part, it is a fairly standard recipe, only, I am not into adding a lot of sugar and butter. However, without the right amount of fats and sugars, baking can fail miserably... unless, I manage to substitute with the right kind of ingredients that work and that I can feel comfortable incorporating in copious amounts that is required to make it work.

Ingredients
1 can (15 ounces) pureed pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie mix)
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup combination of flax meal and wheat bran
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For Icing:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
a few teaspoons of water as needed (or maple syrup, if preferred)

Some raw green hulled pumpkin seeds for topping

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F; grease the bottoms of two standard loaf pans
2. Beat together the wet ingredients: pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs
3. Mix the dry ingredients: flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, walnuts
4. Fold in the dry ingredients mix to the wet ingredients to form a thick batter
5. Pour into the greased loaf pans and bake in the 350°F oven for about an hour, checking for doneness when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
6. Cool on a wire rack and add on the icing and sprinkle some pumpkin seeds on top
7. Icing (optional): Stir a few drops of water to the icing sugar and stir till desired consistency, spread over the bread

French-Fried Onions-Breaded Rockfish with Mint Sauce

Rockfish filet was thawed and ready - caught and brought from Alaska by the other adult this summer. Breaded pan-fried is the easiest but this time, rather than traditional breading, I went with chickpea flour plus French-fried onions.

Simply rub some chickpea flour and seasoning on the fish, pan cook with a touch of oil, on both sides, till slightly crisp on the outside and cooked through. Top with a sprinkling of French-fried onions and broil in the oven for a few minutes. Drizzle with some mint sauce and serve warm, or serve the sauce on the side.

Mint Sauce: I saved the last of the mint and spring onions in the home garden. Just a handful of mint leaves, plus some green chilies and roasted peanuts come together with a splash of apple cider vinegar and lemon juice, salt to taste, for this minty sauce.

Rockfish with Peppers, Kale, and Tofu

Some of the fresh-caught Alaskan rockfish that came home frozen this summer was ready to be cooked after thawing overnight in the fridge.

Some sauteed colorful bell peppers, ancho chilies, kale, and onions make the cozy bed on which the bite-sized chunks of rockfish is served.

Rockfish itself was cooked on a pan with a dash of apple cider vinegar, a generous drop of Zenjiang vinegar, and a splash of Braggs Liquid Aminos.

The tofu is my favorite part. Some Kolhapuri Thecha from my previous venture combined with some BBQ sauce plus some Braggs Liq. Aminos forms the flavor sauce. Toss the extra firm tofu cubes with this sauce and bake in a 450 ° F oven for about 25 minutes.

Serve with a side of rice, if preferred.

Roasted Squash, Arugula, Hemp Hearts Salad

Hemp hearts is a treasure, a fairly pricey treasure, which I indulge in small doses as a special treat. A jar of shelled hemp seeds usually waits in the fridge patiently until called to enhance salads, oatmeal, yogurt and anything else that could use a boost from this nutrient-rich garnish.

Roast squash is a quick addition to winter salads. When cut into thin slices and tossed with olive oil winter squashes like acorn squash roast up in no time at all - say, 10 to 15 minutes in a 400 ° F oven.

Hearty arugula forms the base layer for this salad, topped with roast acorn squash, caramelized red onions, feta, and hemp hearts. Raspberry+balsamic vinaigrette with a touch of agave nectar is what I prefer to drizzle on this salad, sparingly.

Baked BBQ-flavored Halibut with Charred Eggplant and Steamed Asparagus

I had some Kolhapuri Thecha leftover from my previous venture. To balance its heat, it seemed like sweetish BBQ Sauce would be ideal. So, I slathered both these flavorings on the halibut filet and baked in a 400° F oven for about 25-30 minutes till done. Simple, no fuss dish.

The pristine Alaskan fish caught over summer and brought home by the other half feels like a precious resource, fast dwindling...

Some steamed asparagus plus some char-broiled eggplant slices round out this sumptuous weeknight meal. The asparagus sat in the steamer a bit longer than I intended, but, it was still fine.

Four Delectable Wheat Meat Dishes

Gluten has strongly polarized the current generation of food-loving folks. Depending on who we talk to, either gluten is the root cause of all evil and ailment, to be censured and possibly banned from diets; or, gluten is quite an essential part of a nutritionally-balanced meal that includes optimal whole grains which provide a rich array of vitamins and minerals.

Celiac disease is very real. Research connecting diabetes and gluten is well published. And, many seem to have high sensitivity to gluten in their diet, even if not diagnosed with Celiac disease.

Over the past few years, after staying gluten-free months at a time, switching to quinoa, millet, amaranth, brown rice for weeks a stretch, it seems to make no significant difference to the folks at home. So, I've made peace with gluten for now, promising to revisit the issue in a year or so. 

I am not a nutritionist, but, I do believe in consuming as much natural, primarily-vegetarian foods as possible with minimal processing -- leaning towards fresher,  homemade options than conveniently packaged heavily processed foods. As to going grain-free? I am still researching and experimenting.

Anyway, all that is to segue into these 4 vegetarian recipes for using homemade wheat meat. 

Every once in a while, I make a batch of  wheat meat with variations in flavor and cooking methods just to see if this is still tolerated by our digestive systems. Since it stores well in the fridge and freezer, I can use a little at a time incorporating it in a variety of dishes.


I. Wheat Meat Bulgogi with pickled ginger

Nothing much to it. Instead of beef, which we don't eat, simply slice the wheat meat and toss with other ingredients like, pickled ginger strips, pickled carrots and beets, julienned summer squash and cucumbers, thinly sliced onions soaked in vinegar,



II. Wheat Meat Crumble Burritos

Cut up the wheat meat chunks into smaller pieces and run it in a food processor to make a coarse crumble. Saute some onions, bell peppers, tomatoes along with the crumble, add some Taco seasoning and there you have it.

III. Wheat Meat Fajitas

Similar principle as above, but just thinly cut them to strips along with peppers and onions.

Homemade corn tortillas fresh off the griddle makes this interesting.

IV. Wheat Meat Meatballs

Since wheat meat is already cooked and ready to go, simply crumble it in a blender, then add egg and wet slice of bread for binding. Either bake or pan cook till it has a crusty outside and firm enough that it can hold its shape well in the sauce.

Other wheat meat dishes shared earlier:

Wheat Meat Pot Roast

Wheat Meat Philly Cheesesteak