All Veggie Dinner

Last week, I decided to serve an all vegetable dinner - I was simply tired of carbs like rice and roti at every meal and needed a break. Luckily we had fabulous organic vegetables from the weekly farmer's market. Though there was dal and rice in case anyone was still hungry, it went untouched!

I'm not a big mushroom fan, I don't like their texture and watery taste. But one of the very few mushroom dishes I like is stuffed mushroom caps. It works best with large sized button mushrooms and is super easy to prepare. Plus well roasted, it avoids that watery taste that I abhor.

Leeks are a winter favourite and I always buy heaps. I love them simply roasted and slightly burnt at the ends, hot out of the oven, with nothing but a tiny pinch of salt. But for a more filling dish, a cheese, cream and leek bake hits the spot and tastes delicious to boot.

The salad portion was a simple Insalata Caprese, with cherry tomatoes. I think it could have used a touch of garlic or pesto and shall experiment with that next time.

Stuffed Mushrooms:

Ingredients
10 large button mushrooms
1 onion, chopped very fine
Handful of parsley leaves, chopped fine
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
2 slices of bread, turned into crumbs
2 glugs of oil

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C.

Remove the stems of the mushrooms and chop the stems very fine. Pour 1 glug of oil into a pan and heat. Toss in the garlic and onions and cook until soft. Add the mushroom pieces and cook. Mix the parsley and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix with the bread crumbs.

Coat the top of the mushroom cap with what's left of the oil and place onto the roasting tray. Fill the hollow on the upper side ( from where you took out the stems) with the mixture of breadcrumbs, mushroom stems etc.

Roast for 25 minutes. Serve hot - serves 5.

Baked Leeks:

Ingredients:
5 leeks - fat ones! Chop off the extreme end of the leafy side and then split vertically down the middle, after washing them thoroughly
200 grams cream
100 grams cheddar cheese, grated
2 slices of bread, crumbed

Heat oven to 150 degrees C.

Heat salted water to a boil. Toss in the leeks and cook for about 5-7 minutes until just soft. Remove and drain. Layer the leeks in a shallow, lightly greased baking pan. Mix the cream and cheese and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the leeks. Cover with breadcrumbs. Bake for 35 minutes or till brown on top. Serves 5

Insalata caprese:

Ingredients:
Cherry mozzarella - 10 small balls
Firm, ripe tomatoes  - 5, sliced
Handful of basil leaves, chiffonaded
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Arrange the cherry mozzarella on a plate. Sandwich between slices of tomatoes. Top with the basil leaves. pour over the olive oil, add salt and pepper. Leave for a couple of hours for the flavours to develop. Serve at room temperature. serves 5. You can add sliced olives, or dress with pesto sauce instead of plain olive oil, add a touch of garlic to the oil for a fancier touch.

Weekend Cooking

Since our cook/ housekeeper is away, I'm having to cook on a more regular basis, though my parents have been stars, supplying food unasked for weeks on end. Sunday morning we had an idli beakfast, idlis and coconut chutney by mom while I dished up my froend Monika's mother in law's peanut chutney recipe. I'm one of those people who finds peanuts totally addictive, especially in savoury form, so I have pretty much cleaned out what was left of the chutney, pairing is variously with butter-toasted pao at dinner last night, with crackers for a snack and then cold out of the fridge with hot idlis again this morning.Would highly recommend you make it a pantry staple!

Here's the recipe link: Kickass peanut chutney

For those too lazy to follow yet another link, here it is:

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup roasted peanuts ( I used packaged, pre-roasted and salted peanuts out of laziness)
2. 3-4 dry roasted dried red chillies
3. 2-3 cloves garlic
4. 1 small onion, chopped
5. 1 lime sized ball of tamarind, soaked in 1/2 cup warm water
6. 1/2 cup water

2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp hing
1 tbsp oil ( peanut oil for choice)

In a little oil, cook the garlic till its dark brown but not burnt. Remove from the oil and fry the onion in the same oil till soft.
Grind together the first six ingredients to the required consistency - you decide if you like chutney runnier or thicker. Add salt to taste.
Heat the remaining oil in a tadka kadhai. Add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the cumin, hing and lastly, washed curry leaves. Take off the heat and pour over the chutney. Bliss out!

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Then, for a late Sunday lunch as I just lost track of time, we had rajma by mom, with baked stuffed capsicum. The Capsicum could be a great meal by themselves, especially for anyone trying to go low-carb. I made the capsicum stuffings two ways. One was with a cabbage and potato stuffing from Monika's food blog. Another kind was a basic paneer bhurji, which actually worked out very well.

I love yellow and red capsicum but am not a big fan of the green ones, so this style of cooking actually made them delicious and the kids ate them up without a murmur. definitely going to repeat this...

Ingredients:
10 medium sized capsicums, cut into half each

Stuffing 1
1/2 small cabbage, cut into fine ribbons and soaked in water
2 potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 onion, julienned
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 inch ginger, crushed
2-3 green chillies, chopped fine
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp oil

Heat the oil. Add the garlic and ginger and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the spice powders and onion. Cook till the onion is translucent. Add the drained cabbage - the water clinging to the leaves will be enough to cook it, and stir to mix. Once the cabbage is cooked through, add the mashed potatoes and salt and mix well.

Stuffing 2
200 gms paneer, grated or crumbled
3 small tomatoes, chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2-3 green chillies, chopped fine
Handful coriander leaves, cut into fine shreds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric if you like

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds and toast for a minute. Add the chillies and onion and cook till translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Add the paneer and salt and cook for a couple more minutes. Turn off the heat, add the coriander leaves. If adding turmeric, add into the hot oil before putting in the cumin seeds.

For the Capsicum:
Prepare the capsicum by slicing each capsicum into half and clearing out the seeds. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C. Rub the oven roasting pan with a thin slick of oil ( about half tbsp).
Fill half the capsicum halves with Stuffing 1 and the other half with Stuffing 2. Bake for 25 minutes and let rest for 5.

Enjoy with rice and a bean dish, and dahi, with rotis or just by themselves with a salad on the side!

Kulle ki Chaat

A couple of years ago, I worked on one of the most fun projects of my career, for a client. It involved mapping the food landscape of India – as broad a brushstroke as you’ll ever see. Essentially it involved, among other things, mapping the history of India’s culinary evolution, understanding regional cuisines across the four regions, decoding the philosophy, medical beliefs and social developments that shape India’s food behavior and, most importantly for us, getting to go on foodwalks across many cities, eating at some of the most interesting and experimentative restaurants ( Indian Accent, for example) and getting paid for it!

One of the most memorable outings was a food walk in Old Delhi with Sohail Hashmi. He is a history buff who really knows his Purani Dilli backwards, from how it looked in the time of Shah Jahan to its streets, architecture, the life of people, legends and the many nooks and crannies that guard its delicious food secrets. Among the more exotic things we got to taste – fruit sandwiches invented for the traditionally vegetarian bania families that visited Old Delhi to go wedding trousseau shopping, which consist of white bread layered with various fruit, a thin layer of paneer and a special secret chutney/ masala that brings it all together. Mithai and chocolates in virtuoso shapes or flavor combinations, which are now sent out to invitees along with wedding cards. The most exquisite double-ka-meetha I have ever had, behind Matia Mahal – crisp on the surface, soft and spongy underneath and the perfect level of sweetness, laced with saffron. Freshly baked nan khatai biscuits sold on a cart. In fact, it’s really difficult to pace yourself so you have enough appetite for all the goodies that you come across, and both times I’ve been there, I’ve missed out on the famous dahi vadas as I was too full.

Kulle ki chaat is a special chaat made up primarily of stuffed veggies and involving no frying so at first we were skeptical – how good could it be? But one bite and we were converts. It’s really simple to put together, crisp and cooling and so delicious one thinks of health benefits only later!

Ingredients:
Base

Tomatoes - 2

Cucumber - 2

Potatoes - 2

Papaya - 1

Pineapple – 1 (Optional)

Filling

Boiled chickpeas - handful

Boiled potatoes – 2, cubed tiny
Half a cup of pomegranate seeds

Chaat masala to taste

Handful of coriander leaves, chopped fine

Juice of 1.5-2 limes

Cut the cucumber vertically into halves, then into 1.5 inch chunks, hollowing out the seeds. You can also try cutting it into cylinders and hollow out most of the seed core, leaving a thin layer at one end as a base. Tomatoes – chop off a slice from the top and then scoop out the inside. With potatoes – boil some mid-sized potatoes until just soft but not too soft. Chop in half and scoop out some of the boiled potato from the center, leaving a bowl to be filled. Chop the papaya and pineapple into 1 inch thick slabs.

Mix the cubed potatoes, boiled chickpeas, coriander leaves, pomegranate seeds, chaat masala and lime juice in a separate bowl. Spoon in to the hollow veggies/ onto the fruit slabs.

Serve immediately - as a snack, pre-meal salad or drinks accompaniment -

and bask in a healthy halo!

Spanish Salsa Verde...or the dip that goes with anything

We love dips. All I need to do to get my kids to eat kore desi chutneys is to rebrand them dips and I think we'll be going through a few bowls of them a week. Thus I'm always on the lookout for new recipes for dips. Last year while we were visiting my friend Suniti on holiday, she served us this amazing green dip that went well with everything on the table - roasted baby potatoes, grilled broccoli, toasties and grilled shrimp. She has had it when she travelled to Spain on her first solo holiday and loved it so much she got the recipe and reproduced it back home.

With my forgetfulness, I'm sure I don't have the original recipe anymore. But what I do make is delicious, fresh and goes well with anything. The other night, when we had friends over for dinner, we served this with assorted grilled veggies - baby carrots, broccoli, mushroom and zucchini, and pita chips and it went down a treat! I bet it'd work great as a salad dressing too. I have no photos because it gets inhaled as soon as it is served...but just imagine a bowl of green, aromatic deliciousness...

Ingredients:
1 bunch parsley
3-4 pods garlic, finely chopped - last week I had freshly grown garlic bulbs and leaves from the mandi so I used that instead
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Heat the olive oil but not to smoking point. As soon as it gets hot, switch off the stove and toss in the garlic and salt. Stir gently and ensure the garlic gets cooked till translucent and soft but not browned ( which will turn it bitter). Toss in the parsley and leave aside to cool. I also added chilli flakes and sometimes I toss in a spritz of lime...