Twice every year, for a little over a week, we submit ourselves to a Vegetrocious diet of Vegetyrannical Vegeterribles.
In other words we go vegetarians as defined in India. Neither going to the extreme of vegans - who eschew all dairy, and nor being as liberal as European or American vegetarian tradition of eating eggs and fish as part of a vegetarian diet.
Before I was domesticated and roamed wild, I never observed this tradition and ate what I pleased and when I pleased. With extremely gentle persuasion and in fact mere hints and gestures, my better half got me to follow some traditions including this one. There was a fair bit of kicking and screaming on my part involved, especially when I was gently informed that during this period I may not supplement the blood that runs in my veins using the a certain red fluid that comes in green 750 ml bottles with a cork. With some drama I bid au revoir to those immensely considerate and beneficent friends.
It used to be that I would look upon the arrival of the Nav-ratri (literally: New Night), when vegetarianism infects us, with horror. The horror gradually mellowed to trepidation and finally into acceptance of the inevitable. Like taxes, but twice as frequent - its a certainty of life.
But this year, it was different. I can't say with a straight face that I actually looked forward to it, but the truth is (and I shudder to accept it) that I actually enjoyed myself (gasp!!). There! I said it, I enjoyed the tyranny of vegetative outgrowths of plants. And not even once did I miss a bite of a succulent steak or a juicy lamb-chop. Even the aforementioned red fluid didn't lure me to its lair in my liquor cabinet. I wondered more than once, if something was broken inside me, but then stopped thinking on those morose lines.
The household commandant of all things religious - aka the benevolent dictator of the household, being a bit more zealous in observance, eschews even cereal, legumes, beans, onion and garlic from her diet. Now a foodie may feel depressed at all these restrictions, but actually there are a plethora of choices to sustain and in fact even indulge yourself.
Here are some of the goodies that we feasted on:
- Pancakes made of dried and ground up water chestnuts. Simply mix the chestnut flour with some buttermilk, chopped ginger for some kick and season with salt and pepper and make pancakes on a hot skillet. Yummy!! :-)
- Soaked and sautéed tapioca with cumin and red pepper. The tapioca pearls are soaked in water, which is drained and they are then sautéed with cumin seeds. Salt and cayenne pepper added for seasoning.
- ... you say potato... : A very delicious soup of potatoes and tomato. This curry is called 'jhol' (literally: watery). Boil or m-wave potatoes, peel them and chop into small pieces. Fry some cumin seeds, ginger and whole red peppers in a sauce-pan and add a fair amount of chopped tomatoes. When the tomatoes are cooked well, add the potatoes - boil and simmer for a few minutes. Voila!!
- Mushrooms sautéed in butter with nothing but salt and pepper to season them. Mmmmmmm!
- Veggie soups with anything and everything available in the kitchen.
- Pan-grilled eggplant steaks ;-) : just season with salt, add some red pepper and dried mango powder or even some yogurt. Really delicious and satisfying.
And now for something really gourmet!!
On a hot skillet or tabletop grill, cook some sliced (1" thick) eggplant slices, zucchini sliced along its length, sliced red bell peppers, sliced mushrooms.
The sauce: While the above is cooking, chop some tomatoes and with a bit of chopped ginger for a kick, either m-wave them or cook them in a sauce pan with some water. To be extra fancy, remove the seeds and peel the tomatoes and when cooked thoroughly, mash them or blend them in the pan for a consistent sauce.
Assembly:
Take a round 1/2" slice of paneer (Indian farmer's cheese) or fresh mozzarella and sprinkle it with salt, pepper and some fresh parsley or dried parsley flakes. Coriander/cilantro can be used for more fragrance.
In a plate, put a slice of eggplant, stack a seasoned slice of mozzarella on it, add the assorted grilled veggies on top and finally pour a tablespoon of sauce on it.
Get creative and serve it as you please - my artistic abilities in food presentation are rather limited, hence the simple suggestion. :-)
Hope you like it.
p.s. The term vegeterribles was coined by a close friend who also gets credit for introducing me to some wonderful Vietnamese food.
p.s. The term vegeterribles was coined by a close friend who also gets credit for introducing me to some wonderful Vietnamese food.
