93 posts tagged “cooking”
I'm trying to quit apologizing for my Vox absences; things are the way they are. Instead, I want to share our brunch recipe for this weekend. Its easy, nutritious, and delicious.
This dish is best made with fresh cottage cheese or paneer. Store brought paneer, fresh Mexican cheese (the kind that does not melt) and tofu will work, but do try it with fresh paneer. Its delicious!
To make about 2 cups of paneer, you will need:
A large 2 quart microwave safe glass bowl/jug
2 quarts 2% milk
1/4 cup white vinegar (Different people use different curdling agents. Using yogurt will give you a milder tasting paneer. My mother always uses fresh lime juice as a curdling agent. It gives a fresher-tasting paneer.)
A large fine-mesh sieve, or a colander lined with muslin/layered cheesecloth
Heat the milk in the microwave until it comes to a boil. In my microwave, this takes about 14 minutes. Alternatively, you can boil the milk on the stove. When it comes to a rolling boil, stir in the vinegar. You'll see the milk start to separate.
Continue heating for another couple of minutes or until the greenish whey completely separates from the curds. Drain this mixture through the sieve, using your spoon to press out the whey.
You can save the whey and use it in other recipes-remember, its a little sweet. I like to use it to make rice and smoothies.
There it is, fresh paneer. Try tasting it with a little seasoned salt or sugar. You can also add salt, pepper and herbs to the curd-whey mixture before draining it to get seasoned paneer.
Other ingredients for the stir fry:
6 cups fresh spinach, chopped
2 cups chard, chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp powdered coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 green chillies, chopped
one clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
Melt the butter in a large skillet.
Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, and stir until the cumin seeds pop.
Then add the green chillies, garlic. Saute for a few seconds, and add the paneer.
Crumble the paneer with the back of your spoon and saute until nicely browned.
Add the greens and saute until they are just wilted.
Season with salt and pepper and serve hot with naan/garlic toast/rice. Enjoy!
Perfect for the cold rainy-gray weather we've been having.
Adapted from this recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound russet potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 1 tbsp tahini
- 1 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- salt and pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp sumac (optional)
- 3/4 pounds kale, stems and ribs discarded and leaves thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in upper third.
Toss potatoes with oil, salt, pepper and paprika and spread evenly on a baking sheet. Roast for twenty minutes or until golden brown. Spread
cheese and kale on top of potatoes and roast for another couple of minutes until the kale is wilted.
Beat together tahini, water, lemon juice, minced garlic and sumac until smooth.
Toss kale and potatoes with tahini sauce and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Vegetable sizzlers are a family favorite- vegetables and potato patties in tomato sauce spread on a hot cast iron tray, drizzled with a butter-vinegar mixture for that special sizzle.
Enter the I Diet. This is week 5 of the 8 week plan, and I have lost 8 lbs. The diet is great in terms of nutrition, satiety and all that, but it leaves much to be desired in its vegetarian menu plans. I've been tweaking most of the recipes to make them more taste bud friendly. Thus, the spicy tofu stir fry morphs into the quasi-familiar Indo-Chinese sizzler.
You do need some kind of cast iron tray for this. A fajita tray, sizzler tray, or even a cast iron griddle will do, as long as you have a server that you can safely put under it.
Ingredients-
1 package (14 oz) firm tofu, pressed for 30 minutes, cubed
1 lb broccoli, stems and florets trimmed and chopped
1 lb green peppers, chopped into bite size pieces
6 oz carrots, cubed
6 oz mushrooms, sliced thick
1 tsp canola oil
4 leaves cabbage (important- do not omit)
3 tsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chilli garlic paste
1- 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp or more cilantro, chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
- Parboil the carrots and broccoli until they are cooked through but still firm. I microwave them on high for 2 minutes with a few drops of water, then quickly dunk them in cold water to stop cooking. Drain.
- Saute the mushrooms in a non-stick pan until they release water. (I didn't use oil.) Then add the peppers and saute some more. Finally add the carrots and broccoli along with 1 tbsp soy sauce. Stir around for a minute or so.
- Remove the vegetables.
- There should be some broth left over in the pan. I added the tofu cubes to this broth and let them steep in it until they absorbed the flavor. You could do that, or cook the tofu your favorite way- pan fry, steam or broil.
- Toss the vegetables and tofu together with the ginger and cilantro.
- Stir together the remaining soy sauce, hoisin sauce and chilli parlic paste. You can add any broth left over in your veggie pan to this, as well as a tbsp or two of dry sherry/water.
Now comes the fun part.
Heat the cast iron pan on the stove. Brush the oil over the pan with a silicone brush/ crumpled up towel. Wait until the oil barely starts to smoke. Lay down the cabbage leaves over the tray, covering the whole surface with a single layer of leaves. Heap the vegetable tofu mixture on top. You should start to hear the sizzle. Make sure your family and friends are at the table before you drizzle the sauce over. Voila..smoke and sizzle!
Carefully transfer the hot tray to the server. Be careful while serving/eating from the tray- hot cast iron is not friendly to the skin. Serve some rice on the side and enjoy!
I wonder who came up with the idea of clover leaf rolls? A playful young hausfrau, rolling little balls of dough and dropping them into muffin tins? A busy baker, snipping off a roll of dough with scissors? No matter how they came by, clover leaf rolls are as fun to make as they are to eat!
Adapted from this fabulous recipe over at Jugalbandi. You can make this recipe without a sourdough starter, too. I skipped the garlic and the sundried tomatoes, and added a generous handful of fresh chopped sage and oregano from my tiny herb garden. Half the recipe makes 6 average sized rolls.
Herbed sourdough rolls go to the Wild Yeast blog for the weekly YeastSpotting.
A peasant salad from Tuscany, made with stale leftover bread. Add tomatoes, basil, olive oil, let the flavors seep in to the bread, and devour. Simple food at its best.
Recipe adapted from that bacon lovin' geek, Alton Brown. :)
Ingredients:
- 4 cups bread, left out overnight, cut into cubes (try to use a dense bread that won't turn to mush when it touches liquid- sourdoughs work well)
- 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes
- 2 cups chopped cucumber (peel and remove seeds if using big fat ones)
- 1 tbsp finely minced red onion
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
- a handful of torn basil leaves
Toast the bread lightly on a griddle. Sear the halved grape tomatoes in 1 tablespoon of oil, cut side down, until caramelized.
Combine red wine vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl, slowly whisk in 2 tbsp olive oil in a thin stream until emulsified.
Combine all tomatoes, bread, onion and cucumber and dress with vinaigrette, toss well, garnish with basil and serve.
The best part in this salad is undoubtedly the bread- it soaks up all the sweet-sour-tomato flavor and becomes juicy and luscious and fabulous. My last advice- use lots of bread. :D
A twitter friend, who just happens to be a fabulous quilter, sent me a lovely quilted tablecloth recently. The quilt smells and looks and feels so good, I've been using it as a throw instead, keeping my feet warm when I do my couch potato impersonations.
I want to send her something I made, but I have no idea what she likes. This is where online friendships suck. You may know a lot about one aspect of someone's life and nothing about the other.
Playing it safe, I decided to make these spring saffron shortbread cookies which I found on Mango Power Girl's blog. The cookies are lightly flavored with saffron, cardamom and nuts, making them Indian enough to satisfy me and American enough to please her (I hope!).
I mostly followed the original recipe, cutting back the butter to 1.5 sticks and skipping the icing, adding the cardamom to the cookie dough itself. I also used walnuts instead of pistachios coz I love them in cookies!
Only after making the cookies did I think about packaging. How do you mail crumbly shortbread cookies? After much trolling of the local megamart, I settled for a tin of peanuts, emptied, washed and re-papered. The packing took much more time than the actual making of cookies- there is a lesson in here somewhere. :)
Adapted from the wonderfully named CheapHealthyGood blog, who adapted it from Nick at Serious Eats who adapted it from Epicurious.
Yeah, its that good.
What you need:
1 cup nonfat evaporated milk
3 cups light vegetable stock
1 cup polenta
1 teaspoon oil
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
- Add the evaporated milk, stock, polenta, salt and pepper to a large pot over medium heat. (Be careful with the salt, the stock and the parmesan will both have salt as well.) Bring to a simmer, whisking constantly, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick and creamy.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for a minute or so. Add the kale, garlic, and saute until the kale turns bright green and wilts. Turn off the heat and add the thyme and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Add the butter and parmesan to the pot with the polenta. Stir until combined. Spoon some of the polenta onto a plate and then top with the mushroom and kale. Serve warm.
Even though we made it on a Saturday, this is a great weeknight recipe. Easy and soul satisfying. The writers at CheapHealthyGood even wrote an ode to the recipe. Go read. :)
(And we are officially, truly, back in the cooking business.)
The weekend bread baking ritual starts like this.
Friday evening, I settle on the couch with a bread book and a cup of tea. This is the best part, deciding which bread to bake. Something new or old? Sourdough or not? The rest of the weekend is planned around the bread.
Start the soaker and biga after brunch on Saturday. Clean house before, shop for groceries after.
Sunday morning, mix the dough and start the first proof.
Run to the farmer's market for lunch and icecream. Run back.
Shape the loaf. Pre-heat the oven. Practice patience.
Finally! Bread-baking time. The house smells yummy.
An hour later, dinner is served.
Peter Reinhart's recipe for whole grain Struan, a Scottish Harvest bread made with a little bit of all the harvest grains thrown in. That is the true genius of the Struan; you can make it with whatever grains you have on hand. I had barley, steel cut oats and flax seeds.
Served with an Italian chickpea-mushroom soup.
1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup canned crushed concentrated tomatoes (or 2 large fresh tomatoes, chopped)
a handful of fresh basil and oregano
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and black pepper
1/4 cup sour cream
parmesan shavings
- If using dried beans, soak them in 4 cups water the night before. Pressure- cook the beans the next day until softened.
- Soak the porcini mushrooms in 1 cup hot water. When softened, chop roughly. Pass the soaking liquid through a fine sieve and reserve.
- Heat the oil in a dutch oven. Add the onion, garlic, cumin and sweat the onions until translucent.
- Add the chickpeas with their liquid, tomatoes, mushrooms and their liquid, herbs, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for forty minutes.
- Puree the soup in a blender and return to the pot. Simmer for another ten minutes.
- Stir in the sour cream before serving and top each bowl with parmesan shavings. Serve with crusty bread.
Singing Horse has been making all these amazing, irresistible quiches. The temptation got to the point where I abandoned my weekend bread-baking plans and decided to make a quiche instead. This recipe is a mixture of her recipe and Bryanna Clark Grogan's. The end result was truly phenomenal- the eggless, flourless quiche set beautifully, and A finally declared himself a quiche convert.
For one ten inch pie, process together in a blender:
- 1 block (14 oz) firm tofu
- 1/4 cup milk (soy is fine)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp dried herbs of choice (I used basil and thyme)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp agar powder
- a pinch of turmeric (for color)
- 1 tbsp vegetable stock concentrate/1 stock cube ( I use Better than Bouillon veggie base)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Now comes the vegetable mixture. I used aspargus, peppers, carrots, peas and sundried tomatoes, but you can use any veggies you like, as long as the final mixture is not too wet. Reserve some vegetables for the top, if you like.
In a frying pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil. Saute together for five minutes-
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 3 cups mixed, chopped vegetables of choice ( I left the sundried tomatoes as they were, and they soaked up the liquid from other vegetables.)
- Season with herbs, salt and pepper.
Mix in half of the tofu mixture with the vegetables. Spread the vegetables in a 9-10" pie/cake pan and top with the remaining tofu mixture. I added some shredded parmeggiano on top along with the reserved asparagus spears.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Let it rest for at least one, preferably two hours before serving.
I have a love-hate relationship with chilli peppers. One bite out of a hot red chilli pepper, my taste buds are on fire, and who knows what the food tastes like. Yet the flavor is so addictive that I keep on trying. I fry them, add them in cooking water, deseed them, pickle them, anything in order to coax out the flavor and get rid of the heat.
Home made harissa is the fruit of such a labor.
I used a mixture of New Mexico chillies (mild) and Indian red chillies (hot). The recipe is simple and flexible. Crush in a mortar/grind in a wet spice grinder:
4 mild and 4 hot dried red chillies, soaked in hot water, then deseeded and destemmed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp caraway seeds, all dry roasted
1/2 tsp salt
1 green cardamom and 1 clove
Taste and adjust spices and heat. Store in an airtight container in the fridge/freezer. Stir in yogurt, stocks, stews, or spread on toasted pita/naan.
We mixed ours with yogurt to make a Moroccan style vegetable stew with harissa yogurt sauce. Recipe here.
Again, I messed with the recipe until it was barely recognizable. Here's my version.
Yogurt sauce:
- 1 cup Greek yogurt (I used Indian)
- 1 tablespoon harissa
- Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable stew:
- 1 pound carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 turnip, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2-3 cups stock (I used cooking liquid from the chickpeas)
For yogurt sauce:
Whisk all ingredients
in a bowl. Cover and chill.
For vegetable stew:
Melt oil in heavy large pot. Add carrots and turnips. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until veggies are soft, stirring often. Stir in flour. Add beans, spinach and stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer; cook until vegetables are heated through and the flavors meld, adding more cooking liquid if desired. Season stew to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
Serve with yogurt sauce over couscous or rice.
