Vada snack

The word vada might seem confusing to some, but this is a simple snack that can be done in about 10 minutes once the urad dal or the white lentil is soaked for a minimum of 2 hours. Did i tell you this is a Indian dish, especially made in south India.

This dish can be served with a chutney which is made of coconut(the base), small onion, green chilli, ginger and saute of mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilli (broken), urud dal.

The process of making this simple but tasty snack is by soaking the white lentil for about 2 hours.

Transfer the lentil to a blender with 3 small onions, 1/2 ea ginger, and blend it to a smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water.

Once the lentils have formed a fine paste, add in 2 green chilli finely chopped, and salt to taste, mix thoroughly.

Let rest for about 20 minutes.

In a cast iron pan heat about 2/3 oil or just enough to cover the mixture.

Shape vada with hand into rounds and leave a hole in the centre for even cooking.

When it turns golden brown remove from oil and pat dry of excess oil.

It is now ready to be served with the chutney(needs to prepared before making vada).

The process of making chutney is by grating fresh cocounut (can be done with dry coconut also by adding hot water), to this add onion, ginger and blend fine with minimal water.

In a saute pan add oil and once it is hot, add mustard seeds and let it crackle, add curry leaves, broken red chillis and urud dal let it cook for little while under low heat, (do not let the curry leaves to change colour). Add the blended coconut mixture to the pan and finish with salt to taste.

This would be a dish that you will always enjoy.

A legacy

I was reading a post on turulu which is a turkish interpretation of the ratatouille, and what a co-incedence this was just the moive that i watched with my nephew this afternoon (not that i have never seen this movie but just because he insisted on it). Coming back to the fact, turulu has been famous with the rest of turkey as is with the rest of france with ratatouille. Tomatoes can play different roles in turlu, depending on the proportion and form of tomatoes used. If you add relatively few tomatoes and leave them in fairly large pieces, you get a stew of diced vegetables. Use a high ratio of tomatoes, and the turlu becomes a vegetable medley in chunky tomato sauce. I can give you the recipe for turulu which i read, the exact same as the one that i had read.

EASY EGGPLANT, ZUCCHINI AND MUSHROOM TURLU
For this simple meatless version of Turkish turlu, I use canned tomatoes to save time. Mushrooms are not classic but they give the stew a terrific taste. Serve it as a vegetarian entree with pita, green salad or Israeli salad, and, if you like, with feta cheese, labaneh or yogurt.

350 gr. eggplant
225 gr. zucchini or pale-green squash (kishuim)
110 gr. large mushrooms
2 to 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3⁄4 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained
1⁄2 cup water, or more if needed
1 to 11⁄2 Tbsp. tomato paste

Cut eggplant in 2-cm. cubes, and zucchini in slightly smaller cubes than the eggplant. Halve mushrooms and cut in thick slices.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy saucepan. Add onion and sauté briefly over medium-low heat, then cover and cook, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes or until just beginning to brown.
Add eggplant, top with 1⁄4 cup diced tomatoes, then top with zucchini, followed by remaining tomatoes and 1⁄4 cup water. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Stir once to bring top ingredients to bottom of pan. Cover and cooked over medium-low heat for 7 minutes.
Add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Mix tomato paste with 2 to 3 tablespoons water and pour over vegetables. Cover and cook for 3 more minutes or until vegetables are tender; check, and add water by tablespoons if pan becomes dry. If you like, drizzle lightly with a little more olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Makes 4 servings.

Beef shashlik

It being the weekend, there is a natural tendency to be dragged into a treckking and some good food. It happened this weekend also, there was a good family reunion (lasted for only the saturday) and there was some good food also. It started off with my aunt making great tomato rice and curd rice for the lunch. It was just mouth watering, to taste them together. What i meant by tasting them together was, I took half spoon of each and eat it together (just heavenly). Today being a sunday decided on heading to a trail which is meant for families to hike with their kids, but unfortunately there was a influx of traffic heading to the NJ shores and this prompted us to head back home for some grilling frenzy. It was to sacrifice beef to the gourmet gods. It was the same marinade as i had done the last week but this time i eliminated the tamarind date paste and added some tahini paste to the marinade (make sure it is just enough to stimulate the taste as it can overpower). My brother who is a master griller, cooked it to perfection. It was a succulant meat and vegetables (onion and bell pepper).This was a superhit with my nephews and family. It left us craving for more.
There was another surprise that my sister-in-law, treated us to. It was simple but again heavenly. She cut the pineapple into rings and my brother grilled it to perfection and she topped it with some butter pecan ice cream. This was a weekend which was a total blast.

Murg Makhni

BUTTER CHICKEN

French cuisine has a large following that keeps it's secrets alive. Indian cuisine on the other hand is a combination of spices and essence of the ingredients that go into the preperation that makes it stand out among the rest of the gourmet experience.
I wanted to make a dish that i was so fascinated with it's taste that i had tried several times to get deep and understand the flavors that makes the difference. Finally yesterday my pallet could not resist the crave for this wonderful dish, and finally i decided to go ahead and do what my sensable pallet wanted.

• Cut the chicken into bite size pieces
• Apply ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, coriender powder and salt
• Heat a pan with 3 TB of oil and sear these chicken pieces
• Remove them set aside.
• In the same pan add cumin seeds, onions and ginger garlic paste and add little water just to release the fond.
• Put corriender powder, blanced almonds, red chilli powder, fenugreek powder.
• Once it is a little done, add diced tomatos.
• Cook until the tomatos are done.
• Puree this mixture to a fine paste.
• Now in the pan add butter with the juices from the chicken.
• Add the puree to the pan, then add the chicken to the sauce.
• Add salt and add little tomato ketchup to get the tangyness.
• Once it comes to a boil add cream.
• Finally add garam masala (Already posted)
• Let it simmer for another 5 minutes

This is surely going to be a great experience. Enjoy!

Hot spices

GARAM MASALA

Garam Masala means hot (Garam) spice (Masala) is not an spice in itself. It is a powder used throughout India and the rest of the world.

It solely depends on the region and personal tastes that people make this powder. It is unique to various cultures and this has a huge demand in the world market.

The basic ingredients are:

30 green cardamom pods

15 cloves

5 black cardamom pods

4 pieces cinnamon

5 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp coriander seeds (shown here in powder form)

1 tbsp fennel seeds (optional)

1 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (optional)

Preparation

Place all these spices in a hallow bottom pan or skillet and heat over a very low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as the aroma from the spices begins, remove the pan from the heat (make sure not to over brown them). This step is to release the aromatic oils from the spices.
Working with only a small quantity at a time, put the spices in an electric blender to grind it to a fine powder. Remove the cardamom pod skins. Allow to cool.
Store the Garam Masala in an air-tight container. As long as the container is tightly closed after each use, it should last for a long time.

Summer farewell

Summer is on us, Oh! no don't think i realised it too late. It is just that when it get hard on you that is when you try to get remedies out of books, internet, friends and other means to cool yourself down.
This is a typical smoothie, but the exception is that you may not find in any Mc Donald or KFC outlets. It is a simple drink but has a smooth and cooling effect on you and your family once you have tried it.

Recipe:

Watermelon - 1/4 ea
Kiwi - 4 ea
Ginger - 1ea
Fresh Mint - 15 leaves
Lemon Juice - 1ea
Crushed Ice - 1 cup


All you have to do is blend all this together and if you have a pallet that is craving for tanginess, and health concious it's good to have the drink without sugar as is mentioned in the recipe, but if like it sweet add 2 sugar cubes per glass. (It would be great if done fresh)
It can be garnished with either mint leaves, Lime wedge, watermelon chunks, Orange zest, Orange segment. (
Another great aspect about this drink is that, it is a great combination if you would like to try some alcholic beverage with this like vodka, gin etc.

Fusion my way

It is not very hard for a person to understand what are the basics of cooking. But the taste that carries the senses is something which can be found only in people who have truly understood the tastes of the masses. This is the reason that we have certain restaurants that have gone fusion cooking. This is an intersting subject to me and many others like me. There are restaurants in the city (New York) and other places like california that have restaurants that open for few hours for lunch and dinner but make a good business out of it. The reason why i wrote this topic was that i realised that i would not like to eat my food just with one accompliment but have a mixture of two or more dishes and to form one more eloberate taste that can tickle my senses.
The simple aspect of adding some tamarind and date paste gave the gobi manchurian and also the beef shashlik that i had prepared this weekend to taste something different to the people who indulged in this ritual of eating good food.
There are many spices in Indian cooking that can help bring out a different taste. There are dried spices like dried mango which can give a dish tanginess, it also depends on the amount that is being added to the dish to bring out a unique flavor. There is a recent trend of using duck fat to enhance the flavor of certain Indian dishes as beef and pork is considered religious to certain religious groups, this is again to enhance the experience and to tease the pallet. The gourmet world is heading to new sphere of taste perception that it has bought about personal chefs who cater to a elite few.

Freeding frenzy

It was a wonderful weekend which was filled with fun, and a time to experiment with new recipes. The saturday we (our family) headed to brooklyn, the time was perfect for me to try my recipe of gobi manchurian. My brother decided that i need to try my knowledge on the family gathered that afternoon. It was a unanimous decision to make gobi manchurian to go with the lunch. It was a simple recipe that i followed:

1 Head Cauliflower
1/2 Cup Corn starch
1/2 Cup Rice flour (instead of all-purpose flour)
1 TB soy sauce
2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 cup Ginger garilic paste
3TB Tomato ketchup
1 red onion medium dice
2 Bell pepper medium dice
1Tb Tamarind & date paste
1Tb Salt

This was a usual kind of recipe which is best for home prepearation, which had a few changes done to it. The main changes were the rice flour and the tamarind and date paste with no addition of green chilli these were the only definitive changes that i had made to the recipe and it turned out to be a super hit with the bowl licked clean (it was not licked but clean).

On Sunday morning before leaving for a recreation park in New jersey, my sister-in-law, told me that it was decided to have beef for lunch. I marinated the beef with fresh basil, worecestershire sauce, soy sauce, fresh crushed black pepper, Tamarind and date paste and english mustard. I cut the beef into chunks and marninated it until the afternoon. After we were back from the park i immediately cut 1 red onion, 2 bell pepper into large dice and marinated that with crushed pepper and lime juice and put the rest of the marniation of the beef to the vegetable and made some tasty shaslik. With some corn on the cob which was my brothers marination which just had some salt, curshed black pepper and lime juice. My brother just grilled it to perfection. It was a wonderful treat to the gourmet gods. They were so impressed by the taste that it rained mad.

Restaurant Drums

A fancy restaurant with some fancy rules, this is what i felt when i trailed at one of the restaurants in new york city. It was a restaurant (which i would not like to mention here) that has got a name with spanish speaking immigrants working long hours. It is hard to believe in this time and age when slavery has been a word of the past is clearly being carried on by having cheap labour.
As i walked into the restaurant i was asked to wear the uniform and was assigned a station (remember this was a trail to know the flow of the kitchen), I was being called at by every cooks in this restauarant to help them with their preparation. I was willing to work, but never expected it would turn out to be a bad experience after all. I walked into the kitchen at 10.30am and started to work. I was not informed of a lunch break that they had so that i could have lunch. The chef calls me for a interview into his office at 6.00pm, questions asked were what was my visa status, this was a question to judge if this person he was interviewing was for cheap labor or if he had to pay normal wages. As i am a international student (which he presumed i would be), i told him the fact as the government allows me to work on a OPT (optional practical training) status for a period of 1 year he just got his break. He tells me that i will be informed of the position that will be available via e-mail or will have the chef de cuisine inform me in the night. Once i was done with the interview i saw him walk upto the chef de cuisine and tells him something and walks away. At 8.00pm i told the chef-de-cuisine i need to leave, as i had no means of transporation and had been working straight without food for 9.5 hours, but guess what he tells me, if i needed a job i needed to wait until 10.00pm. At about 9.00pm i get the results of this gruelling day, he tells me that i will be offered a position of butcher and my wages would be 10.50 per hour. This caught me by surprise as this was direct exploitation of labour. As i had applied for a position of mid managerial level which would be a demi chef. Getting to know that i was being taken for a ride made me understand that there is no value for educated and experienced people. It just matters if you are a american you get the previledges that every american gets, and if you are a international candidate you are considered to be a payed slave.
PURE EXPLOITATION OF LABOUR IN A RESTAURANT THAT IS ZAGAT RATED.

Weekend Photo