My First North-Indian Lunch

It's rare when I post twice a week on this blog, but I couldn't resist bragging about my first home-cooked North Indian lunch :) It took me just under an hour, but I did it! I haven't been cooking for awhile now and I'd forgotten how peaceful the process makes me feel. Links to recipes are below, if you want to give these dishes a go:

Kothu Paratha Recipe 
Palak Paneer Recipe
Coriander and Mint Raita Recipe 

Happy cooking (and of course, eating!)

Clockwise (from left): Palak paneer, kothu paratha and coriander and mint raita

Indian-themed Birthday Lunch

Tomato and Cashew Pilaf. Photo: Sharmila G.

Today is my mum's birthday so I tried my hand at making pilaf, with raita and sambal as sides. The main was tomato and cashew pilau:

Tomato and Cashew Pilau (from Quick and Easy Asian Vegetarian Recipes, published by Periplus)

Ingredients: 

2 tbsp ghee or oil
2 cinnamon sticks
5 cloves
5 cardamom pods
2 onions, finely sliced
3 green finger-length chillies, deseeded and slit lengthwise
2 tbsp ginger paste
2 tbsp garlic paste
3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
3 tbsp chopped mint leaves
2 1/2 cups basmati rice (washed and drained)
1 can (12 oz/350g) peeled chopped tomatoes
1 cup thick cocount milk
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/2 tsps salt
2 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup raisins
2/3 cup fried or roasted cashew nuts

Serves: 4-6

1. Heat the oil or ghee in a pan. Stir-fry cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, onion, green chillies, ginger and garlic paste until onion is golden brown.
2. Add the coriander and mint leaves. Stir in rice and mix well. Add remaining ingredients (except cashews and raisins) and mix thoroughly. (I did this in a rice cooker).
3. Cover rice cooker pot with lid and cook for 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked and the moisture has been absorbed.
4. Let rice cool once it is cooked. Stir in roasted cashews and raisins before serving.

Zucchini and Onion Raita

Zucchini and Onion Raita


Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups low fat yoghurt
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
2 zucchinis, thinly sliced
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
3 tbsps chopped daun pegaga
salt to taste


1. Add cumin and chili powders, as well as salt to the yoghurt. Pour into a salad bowl.
2. Stir in sliced zucchinis, onions and chopped pegaga leaves.
3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Tauhu Sambal

Tauhu Sambal (from Vegetarian Odyssey, published by ARK publications)

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried chillies, 4 cloves garlic and 1/2 cup sliced shallots (ground to a fine paste)
1 tbsp tamarind and 1/4 cup water (extract juice)
1 onion, cut into rings
2 pieces of fried firm white tofu
3 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp oil
salt to taste


1. Heat oil in a work and stir in chili paste. Keep stirring until oil bubbles up.
2. Stir in tamarind juice and bring to a boil.
3. Add onion, sugar and salt and let cook for about 3 minutes.
4. Stir in fried tofu and let it cook in the gravy for 2-3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Thai-Style Green Curry, Long Bean Salad and Mixed Vegetables

Clockwise (from left): Mixed vegetables, long bean salad, white rice and green curry. Photo: Sharmila G.



One of the more challenging aspects of giving up meat in your diet is that certain types of cuisine may appear to be off limits because they are largely meat-based. However, thanks to some creative cooks out there who've 'vegetarianised' meat-based dishes, that is not necessarily true.

Spicy Vegetarian Aglio Olio and Garlic Toast

Living in a small town has its benefits: fresh air and (almost) kind drivers on the road being two of them. Good quality Italian food, especially the vegetarian kind is one benefit I've been living too long without. Hence the menu for tonight's dinner: spicy vegetarian aglio olio with garlic toast on the side. I tweaked the aglio olio recipe a little to make it a little more Asian.

Spicy Vegetarian Aglio Olio (adapted from Rachael Ray's Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti Aglio Olio)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (4 turns around the pan in a light stream) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup fried vegetarian anchovies
• 6 to 8 large cloves garlic, crushed and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
• Coarse salt
• 1 pound spaghetti, cooked
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
• sesame oil (optional)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
  
  1. Fry anchovies in oil. Set aside.
  2. Fry garlic until slightly brown.
  3. Return pan to heat and reduce heat to medium low. Add 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. Add anchovies, garlic, and pepper flakes to oil. Add a few drops of sesame oil for extra flavour.
  4. Add red chillies to pan. Toss spaghetti in the pan with parsley and the garlic-infused olive oil, then season with a little coarse salt, to your taste. Add about a tablespoon of lemon juice for taste if desired.
  5. Serve hot. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese and chopped cooked vegetarian sausage if you like on the aglio olio when serving.

Here's a photo of the finished dish:

And the garlic toast:

Simple Garlic Toast


Ingredients:


Butter, wholemeal bread, 5 cloves garlic (minced), salt and pepper to taste 

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix butter with minced garlic. Spread on the slices of wholemeal bread. 

3. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper to taste (optional).
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until butter has melted and bread is lightly browned.
5. Serve with mushroom soup or enjoy on its own.

Open Faced Curried Potato Crust Pie

Open-faced Curried Potato-Crust Pie
Photo: G. Sharmila 

After a long hiatus from this blog, it's a relief to be blogging again. Blogging is a bit like riding a bicycle; once you get the hang of it, you never forget how to do it. The same goes for cooking, this time around I made an open-faced curried pie with a potato crust. There's a little story behind that: the dough I made for the original crust turned out too crumbly, so I froze it to make a crust for a fruit cobbler for later. In the dough's place, I boiled six potatoes to make the pie crust and let them cool before peeling them. Then I mashed the potatoes up (with salt, black pepper and butter mixed in) for the crust, and filled it in with the curried vegetable mixture once the crust was lightly browned.

Here's the original crust recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/broccoli-quiche-with-mashed-potato-crust/detail.aspx:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes; drain. Meanwhile, place broccoli in a steamer over 1 inch of boiling water, and cover. Cook until tender but still firm, about 2 to 6 minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. Mash the potatoes with milk and salt. Brush a deep 9 inch pie dish with olive oil and press the potatoes in. Brush with remaining olive oil. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Curried Vegetable Mixture (adapted from BBC Good Food's “Curried Vegetable Pie” recipe)

  2 tbsp canola oil

  1 onion, finely chopped

  2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp curry powder

1 ½ cups cauliflower florets

1 cup mixed frozen vegetable

¼ butter

4 tbsp yogurt

3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

4 cloves

half a stick of cinnamon

  4 cardamom seeds 

1. Heat oil in a large pan, then cook the onion, garlic and chilli for 2-3 mins until tender. Stir in the spices, turmeric and cumin, then cook for a further 2-3 mins.

2. Add mixed vegetables and cauliflower to the pan with 300ml/1/2pt water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 mins until the vegetables are almost tender. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid, then mix with the peas.

3. Melt butter in a small pan, stir in flour, then cook for 1 min. Add reserved vegetable cooking liquid, then cook, stirring, until it forms a thick sauce. Simmer for 3 mins, stirring, then remove from heat and stir in the yogurt, coriander, vegetables and seasoning. Leave to cool.4. Brush baked potato crust with vegetable oil. Fill in with curried vegetable mixture and return to oven. Baked for 35-40 minutes at 190 deg. Celsius or until crust is lightly browned.

7 Delectable Desserts For Valentine's Day

Vegan red velvet cake is the perfect dessert for Valentine's Day

Monday is set to be an interesting Valentine's Day now that spiritual leaders in Russia and Malaysia, as well as the Iranian regime have banned V-Day celebrations among their citizens. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ban, how the heck will the authorities differentiate people who are out celebrating the occasion from those who are just out for a meal with family, friends, or their significant others?

Fortunately, the ban in Malaysia only affects certain states and sections of society, which leaves the rest of us free to engage in culinary exploits and other ways of spoiling our loved ones. What better way to pamper the vegetarian(s) in your life than whipping up a decadent dessert? Here are some of my favourite Valentine Day dessert picks:

Guilt-Free Vegan 'Nasi Lemak'

Nasi lemak is one of many Malaysian favourites you can "veganise" easily.
Photo: SG

The secret of the best nasi lemak lies in its sambal (clockwise, top right). The boiled egg and chicken rendang are only extras---this creamy coconut rice is nothing without a fantastic sambal. I have fond memories of the makcik who ran a stall next to the neighbourhood watch headquarters (what we in Malaysia call rukun tetangga) in Seremban. She made simple, no-frills nasi lemak with a slice of hard-boiled egg, a few slices of cucumber and some fried anchovies to keep the rice and sambal company. The nasi lemak would always be sold out by lunch time, so my dad would be at her stall early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, queuing up with the other fans.

One-Dish Meals For New Veggies

A slice of curried vegetable pie is the perfect comfort food on a rainy Sunday.
Photo: SG

Today's post was inspired by an episode of Jamie's Food Revolution, a TLC programme that chronicles renowned UK chef Jamie Oliver's journey to different parts of America, helping people cook and eat healthy. This morning's episode saw Oliver go head to head with a stubborn radio deejay intent on thwarting Oliver's mission in the latter's West Virginia town. Oliver made a bet with the deejay that he would get 1000 people to participate in his cook-a-thon and not only did he achieve that, the same deejay happened to be the 1000th person!

Of course it helped that Oliver got the townsfolk to cook a one-dish-meal: stir-fried noodles with plenty of vegetables, which is far less off-putting than a five-course dinner. In fact, it was this dish that got me thinking: many people harbour a secret desire to go vegetarian or vegan, but they are 'forced' out of it by naysayers who tell them how inconvenient a new diet would be.

Exotic Dining: Marigolds

Marigolds add some 'kick' to desserts and salads. Photo: SG

Just the other day, I was watching TLC when they ran a commercial for "Dining With Death", a new reality series on 'exotic dining' the channel is promoting locally. Needless to say I went a bit white about the lips at some of the things people were popping into their mouths. But the commercial got me thinking, why is it that 'exotic foods' almost always refers to the slaughtering of some kind of animal? Why should vegetarians be relegated to boring meals because their diet is less glamorous in the media's eyes? 

Savoury Bread Pudding Casserole

Chopped red chilies and red peppers add some 'oomph'
to an otherwise blah bread pudding casserole.
Photo: SG

Although I consider myself somewhat of a 'rice person', on some days it is simply too hot to eat rice, curry and Indian-style vegetable dishes. All I want is lots of water to drink and salads at every meal. Today was especially hot, so my mum took over lunch- we had multi-grain rice, with steamed spinach and sesame tofu as side dishes. And since it was my turn to cook dinner, I took the easy route: a one-dish meal.

Creamy Lentil Soup With Lightly Toasted Pita Slices

Lentil soup tastes THAT much better when cooked in a clay pot. Photo by SG.

Some days I get tired of eating white rice for lunch, today was one of them. I had a pack of baked pita bread in the fridge and some leftover curried couscous from Monday, so I made an easy creamy lentil soup to keep them company. The veggie dish was taken care of by fresh lettuce leaves and cherry tomatoes. Total preparation time: less than an hour. This is my second time making this soup and it was smoother this time around and better, which I suspect had something to do with cooking it in a clay pot (or that extra teaspoon of butter I stirred in, but I'm going with the pot).

A "Summer" Lunch For Three

 

Baby Spinach Omelet (left) and Curried Couscous Pilaf. Photo by SG

My semester is finally over and I have a two month break before the new semester begins (yay!). After vegging out in front of the TV over the weekend (a good deal of that was spent watching the Asian Food Channel), I dusted off my recipe binder to make some lunch for the family. 

Vegan Moist Chocolate Pudding Cake with Orange Marmalade Sauce

How Chocolate Cake Was Meant To Be: Gooey On Top And Crumbly In The Middle. 

Photo by SG.

It poured tonight and I was all out of TV shows to watch, so I decided to tackle the chocolate pudding cake again. I used a vegan recipe from The Compassionate Cookbook (read the original recipe here). I pre-made an orange marmalade sauce to go with it yesterday, which is in the freezer. I let the cake cool for about half an hour and then placed it in the fridge for another half an hour to let the pudding sauce on the top thicken. I had a slice with a glass of cold milk--it tasted amazing, couldn't even tell that it was vegan! Am definitely trying this again, it's an easy dessert to bring to a party or potluck. Preparation and baking took me about two hours (baking about 55 minutes, because I wanted a thicker sauce).

Spicy Spinach-Red Pepper Quiche, Thai-style Green Apple Salad, Bhajis with Coriander Chutney

 Photo by Bavani D.

During my time away from this blog, I have been experimenting in the kitchen (thankfully my family and friends are willing food tasters) and had a whale of a time creating my own take on recipes I found in cookbooks and vegetarian/vegan websites.