Oh how I miss thee ...

Oh how I miss thee...

the hurried kiss goodbye while one rushes to work early or the other;

'delivering' your coffee or lunch forgotten at home;

hanging out in the kitchen to catch up on the day;

All that seems in the distant past.

But now there's more to miss you in the here and now-

Where is the ginger that I need to slice and add to the cumin, now going from golden to black-ish in the pan. In its stead I find half a onion. It won't be a night of potato-jhol (tomato n potato soup with ginger, cumin and whole red chilli-peppers) - a cold nights' favorite.

Instead, it'll have to be a curry. Gotta think fast - cumins sizzle as does my heart for you :)

Now where would YOU put that knife - definitely not where it had lain before. Or the cutting board? It too felt lost in a corner.

Onions douse some of the ardor in the pan, saving the cumins, and thinking ahead like you would, I frantically look for tomatoes. Next to those I find the, hitherto elusive, ginger root - with some chagrin. If only I'd thought like you a tad earlier. Did I mention I miss you?

Onions and cumin won't hold out for long. Life in there needs some color to contrast with the monotone of reality. In goes turmeric and sizzles a bit, followed by chilli-powder, coriander and salt. And now some ginger and garlic with a dash of water. It's all rather tempestuous and colorful and the mind wanders back to similar times :) 

Salt? where is the salt - ah! its status has been raised one level to hobnob with the coffee and sugar.

On the other hand, newly added dainty spoons make short work of guess-work in the spice rack.

Oh! the mood in the pan is darkening again and it needs zest and a more sanguine outlook. In go the tomato paste from a half used can sitting forlorn in the fridge - missing you I suppose.

Peas are predictably in the freezer - cold and unemotional on their own. Potatoes by contrast are seething in the microwave. In go the peas to chill things a bit followed closely by cut up microwaved potatoes. It all needed some water to help mix things along and the lid to help simmer for a bit.

As I frantically hunt for the plate to dole out some of the concoction for tasting, I feel once again hapless and helpless, kinda like I always feel when head-over-heels in your love. They're discovered in a shelf which is a third cousin, twice removed of their original abode. But now the concoction lacks something ... what would that be - yes Garam Masala!! That hasn't wandered away.

Of course, what I miss most is how thoroughly you've made in forget the way to the kitchen....

We're Jammin'

Minnesota summers usually last 3 days, and sometimes when we're lucky, those days are warm too. Here is a normal schedule for the summer days:
Day-1: Pack winter clothes away. Wear shorter/fewer clothes and try your best to sweat it out under the sun, which may be behind cloud-cover.
Day-2: pick strawberries if not destroyed by hail/rain. Dip a toe in the pool.
Day-3: Quickly complain about the heat before unpacking winter clothes again.

This year, El Sol - the only real star in our vicinity - showed up only intermittently at our spring coming-out parties. It wouldn't have mattered except he was supposed to bring crucial ingredients for spring - warmth and sunshine. Without these, everything got pushed back a bit - including planting and growing of our staple foods - delicious berries.

But finally, on Fathers' Day, our local strawberry patch opened up for picking. We joined the throngs of parents desperate to show their kids that strawberries grow on plants and without any plastic container around them. The growers had been kind enough to arrange for tractor trolleys for hauling us from the parking, through manure scented slushy dirt road to the patch. There was some jostling and rushing to get on the trolley before people's decency trumped their desire to meet the strawberries and they stood back with the smug realization
"this isn't the last trolley leaving for the patch .... Or is it?!!!"

Despite superb organization by two young ladies who assigned rows to pickers, there was some confusion- due to the few people who were in a real rush to get through it, fill a basket and then probably post from the comfort of their cars about the experience in great detail not exceeding 140 characters. While cutting across rows, picking randomly they yelled out "We're done!", "Timmy, pose for a picture - great!", "We're leaving". One got the general idea that they weren't exactly too much into it.

Our picking by contrast lasted long enough for our kids to complain about the sun on their backs, an education on how "thistles don't grow strawberries" from a gentleman picking next to us, some pictures, a basket full of delicious juicy strawberries and a larger amount already ingested until we couldn't possibly eat another.

The berries we had picked (or had they picked us?) beamed and gave us rather inviting looks all the way to the car and during the drive home. By evening however, all their ardor was gone and they just wanted to rest in a cool, dark place - the refrigerator. Little did they know that their destiny involved a longer shelf life - in other words they were about to get into a real jam (pun intended).

As per the wise-fool we all know - the interweb - strawberry jam is simple enough - mix strawberries+sugar+lemon juice, apply heat and um, stir occasionally. We picked a simple recipe by the venerable Ina Garten of Food Network. But wiser and curioser souls than us had already traveled that path and raised questions about 'setting the jam' and 'amount of sugar', use pectin or ask the berries to BYO. And to say nothing about the arcane art of canning the final product so that it stays safe for posterity ... at least until the next week.
Instead of letting these concerns deter us, we decided to soldier on. Tweaking the original recipe (1.5 pint berries+2 cups sugar+1 lemon + 30 min of your life)
To
1.5 cups of sugar
2 pints (=4 cups) crushed strawberries (all their hopes dashed)
Juice of 1.5 lemons
We started by mixing the sweet (sugar) with the sour (lemon juice) and showing it some warmth on the stove for a few minutes. Add the crushed berries and brought it close to a boil on medium heat then lowering the heat let it simmer for a while. The berries in the pan often let their emotions bubble up, but then who likes to get out of the sun and into a pan. At this point I would like to warn the reader - when a recipe promises to be done in 30 minutes - it might be taking liberties with the truth to some degree. About 90 minutes later the contents of the pan looked something that vaguely resembled the third cousin, twice-removed of a strawberry jam.
By now, our food critics had retired for the night. So, next morning, with some trepidation we presented the finished product on two slices of bread to our two critics and waited with bated breath. Our joy knew no bounds when we got two thumbs up!!

Word in the fridge is, the berries in their new avatar aren't entirely disappointed either.

A delectable Ponzi Scheme!!

We all know of Ponzi schemes run by unprincipled charlatans or Governments. Recently we were willing participants in such a scheme, that asks nothing more than a few kitchen ingredients and promises wonderful taste - The Amish Friendship Bread.

As you would soon learn, its neither Amish, nor a plain bread. It is a sweet Quickbread more like a cake. But its middle name - Friendship - is definitely an important part.

So, about a dozen nights ago, someone handed a cup of 'starter' in a gallon bag, accompanied with a recipe cum instructions to my spouse. She and I decided to share the task. The instructions spanned a 10 day duration, with most days requiring me to follow the instructions verbatim - 'Do Nothing'. The remaining 2 or 3 days had incomprehensible (to me) instructions written in an ancient and secret script that only those familiar with the arcane and forbidden art of Baking could decipher.

The instruction cum recipe sheet sounded rather ominous - "Nobody except the Amish know the secret of the 'Starter'".
It added to the mystique by informing us that if we destroyed or lost the starter, then we could only wait for someone to give us another starter. That bag looked as valuable as a ticket to enter a secret society that is by invitation only. Needless to say I decided to stay as far away from it as possible, lest my expertise at being a rather dexterous kind of klutz did quick work of this mysterious and magical ticket, leaving us at the mercy of another invitation, and further leaving me at the mercy of the sovereign that rules over me.

The thing in that gallon bag soon seemed to acquire a life of its own as every now and then the bag bloated up and had to be relieved of the gaseous buildup. The tiny microbes in it seemed to be belching out green-house gases more than the cows that are now being accused of flatulently heating up the planet. (Has anyone looked into the role of yeast in global warming?)

The previous night was chosen as an auspicious one by my spouse to bake a sweet cinnamon bread with it. And what a wonderful delight it turned out to be. Great with tea, even better with coffee.

On our part, we too passed the starter on to other friends who might enjoy it.

But now the adventure - our brief sojourn into the mysterious world of delights will soon be over. And we will then be waiting for the next magic ticket - the starter - to have another go.

P.s. What gave away the part about it not being Amish was '1 packet vanilla pudding' among the ingredients :-)

A Wednesday ...

(No, we're not talking about the recent Bollywood thriller.)

It was a Wednesday, a few weeks ago when I was asked by the First Lady of the household to drive over to River Market in Stillwater and pickup the first bounty of nature produced and packed exclusively in our name by our favorite CSA - Little Flower Farm.

Honestly enough I wasn't very excited by the idea -
(The following statement will give you a glimpse into the workings of my mind)
either they would send too little produce that won't suffice the week, or too much and it would spoil. To say nothing about how exactly we would go about planning our meals around it. Who would I talk to - about it - at the pickup site etc etc. Big Questions gnawing at my little mind.

Yet again, I am glad to be working under the tutelage of the head chef of our domestic kitchen, aka the benevolent Dictator of the household, who set about systematically proving me wrong, as soon as the prized box was delivered in her hands. I looked gingerly on (pun intended) as she sorted through, what looked like a scary, leafy green monster into lettuce, Swiss Chard and an assortment of aromatic herbs.
At the same time her other 2 hands had put a pan on the stove, drizzled some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), chopped garlic and started sauteeing it. By now her first set of two hands had chopped up the Swiss Chard into less intimidating pieces and was selecting the herbs to go with. Dizzied by the dexterity of so many hands flying around, I needed a drink and headed to the table - where I was served with a delectable concoction entitled - "swiss chard sauteed with garlic and parsley, served with pappardelle pasta, seasoned with lemon-pepper and garnished with parmesan cheese" by the head-chef herself. A title that contains the recipe as well.

Thanks to our CSA, a mundane midweek day has been transformed into a celebration of gastronomical delights - so much so that it has begun to rival the king of the week - Friday. And another unmentionable fact is that it is taking me - a carnivore of convictions - another step closer to total herbivorism. In this age of globalization, it is somewhat comforting to know that on at least few days - the food we eat was grown on a 2 acre farm 25.6 miles away from our kitchen. Call it our own way of going local.

Of Sandwiches and control

What might buying a sandwich have to do with control issues one might wonder!
A lot, especially if you pay attention.

On one end of the spectrum is Jimmy John's where you in effect, cede all control over how your sandwich turns out. About 120-130 seconds after you uncertainly utter the number of the sandwich you want, and while you were still thinking of the veggies you might request or dressing you might want to hold, to assuage your guilt, the sandwich wrapped up is in your hands. If you start getting proactive and start rattling off your preferences right after choosing the sandwich number, you might as well be talking to the wind. The friendly order taker patiently waits through, what apparently she thinks is your "yadda yadda ... blah blah ...", until you pause to catch a breath, when she yells only your number to the production crew.
It makes you wonder though, somebody must have sat down to decide how much lettuce or mayo should go or not in a sandwich. From the taste of the finished product, that somebody seems less likely to be a chef and more likely a corporate head honcho.
See now what I meant about control? For your lunch, you in effect ceded control to a corporate suit to decide its specifics. I am sure it makes you feel so much better :-)

If it bothers you though, there is the other end of the spectrum in - Subway where the preparer is an artist of a very liberal predisposition and in effect refuses to accept the certainty of anything on her canvas - your sandwich, even bread. So you make choices over every little detail - salad/sandwich/wrap, bread (6 kinds), cheese (no,yes,double out of 5 kinds), toasted or not, meat selection and quantity, veggies out of a dozen choices and finally dressing - out of yet another dozen choices.
You cannot just point to a sandwich off the board and hope to escape the decision-tree that ensues. At the end of which, you have lost all interest in food and just want to pay and escape their clutches. No guarantee of taste here either, but at least it was you in the driver's seat.

If either extreme isn't for you, there is a middle of the road at Potbelly's where you have either choice. Pick a number and let them do it all, or pick a number and customize. They achieved this nirvana by limiting your choices to a handful (again that head honcho, but at least not a micro-manager). But if this were it life would be too simple. I have been there many times, but somewhere they manage to sneak in, what seems like a pint of olive oil into the sandwich, which drips to the wrapper, smears on your fingers and seems to stay with you for at least a week.

Any better suggestions? All I want is a decent sandwich.

Natural healing through spices

The spice-rack of an Indian food lover is usually a chaotic assortment of a large number of spices with wide ranging tastes, smells and flavors. From sweet-smelling cinnamon to vile tasting fenugreek, from earthy cumin to sharp cloves there are many individual flavors and smells to choose from and an almost unlimited number of combinations. Besides being excellent additions to food, these spices are also said to hold medicinal properties.
Many of us have suffered natural remedies for everyday ailments at the hands of our mothers or grandmas. Here's a list of recommendations for medicinal usage of Indian spices. Now before you read any further, let me warn you not to depend on these remedies as your fallback option in case 'healthcare reform' begins to suck big time. The author a.k.a. I offer no express guarantees for the efficacy of any of these remedies. Heck! I don't even think many of them would taste good either. Now that the standard disclaimers have been dispensed with, here goes:

COMMON COLD: Mix a gram of cinnamon powder with a tsp of honey to Cure cold.
Prepare tea adding ginger, clove, bay Leaf and black pepper. Drink twice a day.
Ginger tea is very good to cure cold. Preparation of tea: cut ginger into small pieces and boil it with water, boil it a few times and then add sugar to sweeten and milk to taste, and drink it hot.
DRY COUGHS.
Add a gram of turmeric (haldi) powder to a tsp of honey to cure dry cough.
Chew on a whole cardamom.
BLOCKED NOSE: Tbsp of crushed carom seeds (ajwain) and tie it in a cloth and inhale it.
SORE THROAT: 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) + few small pieces of dry Ginger to a glass of boiling water. Simmer it for a few minutes, and Then let it cool. Drink it twice daily. This will cure cold & sore throat.
Boil carom seeds (ajwain) in water and inhale the steam.
BACKACHE: Rub ginger paste on the back to get relief.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: Chew 1-2 garlic cloves first thing in the morning with water.
(Nobody may come near you all day leading to a relaxed mind ;-)

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: 1 tbsp ginger (adrak) juice+1 tbsp ground cumin seeds (jeera) twice a day.
MIGRAINE: Boil 1 tbsp pepper powder + a pinch of turmeric in a cup of milk, and drink for a few days.
TURMERIC: Apply turmeric powder to injuries to stop the bleeding. It also works as an antiseptic.

HEADACHES.
-Use 5 almonds with hot milk in your daily diet.
-1 gram black pepper + honey or milk, twice or thrice a day.
-Apply almond paste (or raw almond butter) to forehead.
-Eat an apple with a little salt on an empty stomach everyday.
-For headaches caused due to cold winds, apply paste of cinnamon in water to forehead.
TURMERIC
-Turmeric can be used in treating arthritis due to its Anti-inflammatory property. Add 1 tsp turmeric powder to a Cup of warm milk every day. Apply paste locally to affected areas.
-Turmeric lower cholesterol prevents formation of internal blood clots, improves circulation and prevents heart disease and stroke.
HICCUPS: Take a warm slice of lemon and sprinkle salt, sugar and black pepper
On it. Suck on it until hiccups stop.
HIGH CHOLESTEROL
-To 1 glass water, add 2 tbsp coriander(dhania) seeds and bring to a boil. Let the decoction cool for some time and then strain. Drink this mixture twice a day.
-Sunflower seeds are extremely beneficial, as they contain linoleic acid that helps in reducing the cholesterol deposits on the walls of arteries.
SINUSITIS
-Mango serves as an effective home remedy for preventing the frequent attacks of sinus, as it is packed with loads of vitamin A.
-In cup of water, boil 1 tsp of Fenugreek seeds and reduce it to half. This will help you to perspire,
dispel toxicity and reduce the fever period. OR Tie a tsp of black cumin seeds in a thin cotton cloth and inhale.
TONSILLITIS
-Squeeze a lemon in a glass of water + 4 tsp honey + 1/2 tsp salt. Sip it.
-To 1 glass boiled milk, add a pinch of turmeric powder and pepper. Drink for 3 nights.

Call of the Orient...

Last Friday, like every weekend my sleek Aussie temptress beckoned me for yet another tryst. Not being very strong willed to resist her charms, I answered her call. It just so happened that we were both longing for the pleasures of the far East and an idea occurred to me - 'Honey'.

To be precise - 'Honey mustard grilled chicken'. I am drawing a blank for a better, more imaginative name for the dish we concocted. If after reading, and hopefully trying the recipe, you are struck by a sudden inspiration for a name, please let us know.

In our quest for Asian inspired grilled fare, we have had several follies, few accidental discoveries and even fewer moments of true genius. Described here is the distillate of all those experiences. Without further ado, here is the recipe:

The bird:
2.5 - 3 lbs chicken in grill-able size pieces. (too large and you have to discount for the inevitable charcoal crust. Too tiny and frequently it becomes all charcoal)

The marinade:
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp mustard preferably the kind with coarse ground seeds.
1 tbsp horseradish sauce (or a couple packets of Arby's Horsey sauce ;-)
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste. Easily substituted by a tablespoon of each - finely chopped up.
1 tbsp ground black pepper
salt to taste
optional- for an extra kick - add some hot red chilli-pepper.

Whisk it all together and apply generously on the skinned and patted dry chicken.
Leave it in the fridge overnight or at least for 3-4 hours.

Our sizzling Aussie gave the chicken thigh pieces a beautiful caramelized glaze in about 5-6 minutes each side. Needless to say, you gotta consult your own grill on this one.

Heavenlicious - may be an incorrect adjective as per British or American English, but then as we say out in the far East - communication is only partly via language. (totally made up!)

Hope you like it.

Marshmallow roasting - novices, experts and ...

What would be summer without camping, camping without campfires or campfires without marshmallows?
Frankly we don't wanna know!

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to secure a beautiful wooded spot in our favorite campground and so, went camping Friday night. Adding to all the evident pleasures of camping - the outdoors, open skies, stars and closeness to nature, is the practical utility of doing it on a Friday - its still only Saturday afternoon when you return home after a night in the woods. You are still buffered by a Sunday from the gloom and doom of Monday. (To understand my perspective better - read this)

Anyway, back to the topic of the day - Marshmallows. I mean of course we had other delectable goodies - mostly supplied by Trader Joe's - Curry flavored Naans and Pollo Asado for grilling. But the show stealer were Marshmallows as we witnessed the emergence of expertise in roasting them, as also the continued bungling on parts of others - but I jump ahead of myself.

As soon as we arrived at the campsite, we set about furiously trying to confuse each other - in other words began setting up the tent. My new rule for tents is - anything that's not pegged to the ground will confound you sooner or later. The kids watched amused as their parents unintentionally played buffoons.
Finally it was accomplished and I started our camp-fire which eventually got going. And that was when my better half decided to open the bag of marshmallows and went hunting in the woods for the right twigs for the job and we started toasting them.

The first few could best be described as charcoal encrusted marshmallow bits. And here's where my better-half began to justify the adjective- better. She methodically set about experimenting with distance from flame and position in the fire pit etc and finally figured out the perfect combination of getting toasted crispy exterior with a nearly melted interior. While the kids and I looked on in amazement. Needless to say, I tortured a couple more in a fruitless pursuit of improvement and quickly gave up. While my know-it-all older daughter quickly asserted that mom's were just like hers implying that mom had learned fast and well from her.

So, toasted Marshmallows started out as appetizers and continued on to the dessert course.
Meanwhile the main-course of Grilled Pollo Asado (Chicken marinated in Mexican Asado spices) and curry flavored Naan - also grilled briefly to warm it up, had to be content with being mere side-kicks to the 'Mallows.

For several long moments afterward we sat in the prairie looking at the stars in a quiet, moon-less night uninterrupted by any sounds and lights of civilization. At the moment, life was indeed good!!

Foodie Jaunt involving Turkey & Iran

No, We didn't visit Europe lately, nor Central Asia.
The farthest we made it to was to the new (to us) Whole Foods of St.Paul.

Now one might wonder why it took us - fervent adherents of the religion foodism, so long to get to Whole Foods. The short answer is - Trader Joe's of Woodbury.

Trader Joe's satisfies our cravings for exotic & organic fare, without burning a hole in the wallet. So, we kept making plans for a visit to Whole Foods, but then kept putting it off. Finally a couple weeks ago we visited Whole Foods of St Paul and fell in love with the store. Before I go completely off on a tangent and forget the original topic, let me just say that we found quite a few delicacies - including a curry chicken salad from the deli, yummy pastries, delicious sausages and much more.

My better-half also picked up some ground Turkey - evoking an inward groan from me. "We will have to endure some 'healthy' burgers pretty soon" was the thought that ran through my head. Well, for once, I am glad to admit that I was wrong. :-)

Following an Iranian recipe, we made some oven baked Turkey Kebabs with a few simple ingredients:
1 lbs ground Turkey
1/2 an onion chopped up
salt and black pepper to taste
1 tsp sumac (a Middle Eastern Spice with a very interesting flavor)
If you wish to spice it up some more, add a quarter tsp of Garam Masala.

Mix it well and in a baking dish flatten the mixture in an even layer about 1/2 inch thick. Even though I forgot to mention it before, you might want to spray the dish with some oil or cooking spray.
That is it! Bake it in an oven preheated to 375 deg F for about 25 minutes.
Now take 3-4 vine ripened, quartered tomatoes and place them on top of the kebab and put dish back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so.

It tastes best with some plain basmati rice cooked with a teaspoon of butter. Baked tomatoes eaten with the kebab and rice add a wonderful taste to it.

A glass of Jacob's Creek Merlot (2007) paired nicely with the meal.

As you can see, one doesn't need to spend a fortune in airfare to enjoy a Turkey Kebab a la Persia.

Vegetyranny of Vegeterribles

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.

Wonders of Vietnamese cuisine

If there wasn't a risk of running afoul 1.3 billion Chinese, I would claim that Vietnamese food is more sublimely delicious and in certain ways better Chinese food, but since it's impossible to avoid national prides in this day and age, I would not make the claim and rather keep the thought to myself.
After all, why try and reduce a nation's cuisine by comparing it to that of a neighbor's?

Usually we seek out and try new cuisines, but in this case, the credit goes to two good Vietnamese friends, who introduced me to the mouth-watering delicacies on offer. We have tried several Vietnamese restaurants around town and each has its own distinctive dishes that we love.

When most people think of Vietnamese foods, they picture mouth-watering Pho (soup). But there is much more to it than just soups.

Oyster wings: (Que-Viet village house) Now don't try to be cute! Oysters, like buffaloes have no wings. We have tried it in several other places, but nobody even comes within the same galaxy as the ones done by Que-Viet. Perfect balance of spice, heat and oyster sauce. Heaven on wings!!

Egg-Roll Salad: Meaty and spicy eggrolls are cut up into bite-sized pieces and mixed with sprouts, cucumber and some greens over chilled plain rice noodles. Served with fish-sauce. For an added kick, mix some hot chili-sauce into the fish sauce before pouring it over your salad. Mmmmm Mmmmm! Good!! This dish is one of the staples that we survive on.
Que Viet , Bona and Mai Village tie on having the best egg-roll salad. Though Duc's of St. Paul runs a close second.

Beef Appetizers: Here Bona takes the cake. Their Bona Beef skewers and the La-Lot Beef (marinated beef wrapped in Hawaiian La Lot leaves and fried) are superbly scrumptious.

Beef Salad: Que-Viet has virtually no competition on this one. Marinated and grilled beef served on the salad in place of egg-rolls. Very very flavorful and juicy.

I have only listed the highlights of these restaurants here. They have many more offerings on their menu that are mouth-watering. Definitely worth a try.

J.K.Kebab House (Chicago) - an epitaph

Chicago, the famously windy city has many a famous landmark. One of the lesser known landmarks is Devon Avenue, ironically famous as Little India (or Little Pakistan if you will). Parts of Devon Avenue bear names of the respective Fathers of India and Pakistan - Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Devon Avenue boasts of the largest conglomeration of shops featuring Asian Indian grocery, jewelry, clothes, books and of course Indian restaurants.
To complete the look and feel of a bustling Indian market(see picture of Aminabad Market in Lucknow), it also has all the necessary ingredients - crowds (on weekends), trash littering the streets, paan (betel) stains and cars honking horns with impunity.

The best part about Devon Avenue is the multitude of Indian/Pakistani restaurants serving delectable and close to authentic Indian fare - Southern Indian food, Mughlai food, Gujju food - you name it. Over time we have tried many of the joints and developed likes and dislikes.

One such joint was J.K.Kabab House. When I first saw it, back in 2003, it was a nondescript small eatery. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion from a fellow foodie to drag me there. But once I tucked into their succulent (and I mean really succulent) lamb boti kabab, I was hooked. The seekh-kabab (shish kebab to the unsophisticated) was excellent too and so was their chilli chicken.
These were served with an oily paratha or tandoori roti (both flat-breads) and rice. Raw onion was also available to munch with the meat.

To say that J.K.K.H. was our favourite meatery would be an understatement. We hogged there till we were full, then we carried out some more to munch on the boring drive back from Chicago. In fact after a couple of fiascos in trying to find good Tandoori fare around New Delhi, I had almost formed the opinion that we now had a joint to match fare with the best in India.
But..... that was then.

We all have learnt the hard way that every good thing comes to an end at some point.

Oh! don't get me wrong. The Kabab House still exists and they have much the same items on their menu that they used to, but it's kitchen - the core of any restaurant, has changed, and this change is definitely not for the good. To be fair, their dishes are still better than the run-of-the-mill fare of shops around them, but the 'wow factor', the 'its-too-good-to-be-true' feel is all gone. We suspect that the original chef has developed amnesia, lost his/her recipe book, or moved to another restaurant altogether. Choose the conspiracy Theory that piques your fancy, but the end result is that it doesnt remain the star it used to be.

So, what's a foodie to do? Until another such gem is discovered, either we stop hankering for the delectable goodies (Not possible!!) or we try and re-create the taste. No points for guessing the option we chose, and here's what we did:

We started out with New Zealand lamb chops. Why New Zealand lamb? Its more tender and juicier than Australian lamb. And frankly, either of these is better than American lamb :-)

Marinade: We threw everything and the kitchen sink into it (to borrow a phrase from the venerable Gawdess of anything-goes-cooking Rachel Ray).
1/4 cup red wine
2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2 green chillies crushed (remove seeds to reduce heat)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp crushed black peppers
1/2 tsp garam masala (Dont tell me you dont have any)
salt to taste
1 tsp Olive Oil or any other oil.
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar

Mix it all up and putting the chops in a plastic zipper bag add the marinade mix and mix well. Heck! if you wanna get your hands dirty - go for it - adds to the flavour by giving it the personal touch :-)

The chops thus annointed, sat pretty in the fridge for a day or so and then things began to heat up!! Our sleek and pretty grill was turned on high - both burners going for about 5 minutes and then brushing the grill with a piece of paper towel soaked in oil, we put the chops on and let them cook for 6 minutes each side, turning only once. After turning, the heat was reduced a tad.

Served with parathas, a la J.K.K.H. and of course raw onions.

We cannot muster the requisite level of conceit to claim - Mission Accomplished. At the same time, we aren't into self effacing modesty either - so the results, though having fallen short of the original target, were superior to the currently available fare.

And that is a direct challenge to J.K.K.H. to improve their Lamb Kababs (... please!!!!).

Shami-kebab meets Hamburger

One of the most cherished memories I have from my school-days involves lounging on the stone benches under the huge shady tree in front of our school canteen. The canteen looked dank and decrepit but man! they made the best hamburgers in town and a bargain even two decades ago, at Rupees 2 each (25c at the time).
Theirs was a slight variation on the hamburger, the meat patty being used was actually a shami-kebab squished between buttered and skilleted buns.

For the un-initiated, shami-kebabs are a refined form of hamburger meat. Traditionally the meat wasn't ground in a meat grinder, but your friendly neighborhood butcher minced the meat using a heavy meat cleaver on a wooden block cut out of a tamarind tree trunk. It is a laborious process, particularly for kebabs, as the meat needs to be minced finer. This then is seasoned with salt and a bevy of aromatic spices and boiled until cooked thoroughly. Still sticking to tradition- the boiled mixture is ground on stone by hand. Finally, after adding chopped onion and coriander leaves it is made into patties and sauteed on an oiled skillet or flat pan until browned evenly on both sides. The finished product can proudly look any hamburger in the eye and make it wilt.

Yesterday, I craved shami-kebabs but lacked all energy to go through the entire process, even with all the mechanical kitchen aids. So, I decided upon a compromise with a small variation. Take all the flavours and none of the hard work of a shami-kebab.

1 lbs ground meat (of your choice; it should have about 15% fat)
3-4 garlic cloves chopped / minced.
1 small onion chopped finely
a sprig of coriander/cilantro chopped finely
1 jalapeno pepper / green chilly chopped (ONLY if you like the heat)
salt to taste
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 cloves ground or broken into small pieces.
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
and finally the surprise ingredient (drumroll): 1-2 chipotle peppers out of a can and chopped up. This added a very nice smoky flavour to the meat.

Optional: If the meat is very lean - add a tbsp of EVOO or butter (no points for guessing which of the two actually tastes better).

Add everything to the meat and using the long hi-tech penta-digital twin-tools always available with you - aka your hands - make a uniform mixture. Now make patties out of this mix using the aforementioned hi-tech gadget or you can go with some poor substitute like a burger-press (yeah! I know! - sounds like a food chewer) and grill them 6-8 minutes each side.

Swift and immutable addiction is guaranteed. In a rare euphoric moment - you might live a few moments of my happy and lazy school days :-)

Finally a worthy contender

On your guard Tea House! A formidable adversary has just been spotted prowling the arena - Little Szechuan of St. Paul MN.

Regular perusers of this page would remember that we Gushed Over Tea House, rather unabashedly a while ago, and while we still stand by all those proclamations of love-at-first-taste, our hearts went aflutter at the overtures of this new contender for best-Chinese-food-in-town. The food is great and immensely flavorful, the portion sizes are decent, and especially the lunch specials offer all that you would want in an a la carte meal for a very puny sum.

Shalini had been to the restaurant with some co-workers of hers earlier and her high recommendations sold me as well. So, a few days ago, we made it a lunch date there. From outside, the restaurant looks like a warehouse with a nondescript entrance, but don't let this self-deprecating reticence fool you. The dining room is spacious and the decor while not very outstanding is still trendy and smart.

Our server presented us with the menu cards and looking at the dinner menu, I was swamped with the plethora of choices available. Lamb and beef dishes alongwith tantalizing seafood and chicken delicacies. Fortunately, the limited choice lunch menu saved me from the trance induced by indecision.
We decided to order Chicken Lo-mein and Beef Kung Pao and as is usual with us, we share each other's food :-)

The appetizers were - an egg-roll and egg-drop soup. Both were wonderful. The soup being surprisingly hot and the egg-roll meaty.

I took a Pinot Noir to accompany the food and it turned out to be a great choice - rather dry with a medium body and mild spicy notes. The wine went very well with the beef.

Beef Kung Pao was served with a bowl of steamed rice and oh! what succulent and delicious a dish it was. Dominant flavour of smoky blackbean with the heat of dried red chilli-peppers. The meat was cooked just right - tender and suffused with taste.
"Thish ish good ...." Shalini managed to mumble with a mouthful of the beef while I was attacking the chicken lo-mein with gusto. Needless to say that we both had our forks across the table in the other's plate :-)

They offer desserts as well, but mostly of the European kind. We tried the Tiramisu and it was good. But likely sourced from an outside bakery.

Delightful company, Great food, good ambience and a nice wine made it a beautiful date indeed!

And now for recommendations: ***** (yeah five big fat sparklers)

We're Back - A story of love, loss and happy endings..

She is Australian, a sizzler and a sleek one at that!!!!

We met last summer, one thing led to another and a passionate affair ensued. A mere touch of my finger-tips was enough to turn her on. Each episode was torrid and steamy. At such times being even in her near vicinity was like being enveloped in the hot breeze of a sirocco.

But alas! it was not meant to last for very long. One day I discovered that my fingers had lost the magic to turn her on. But we soon learned to our dismay that she had a diseased valve. Soon she retreated into her own self, ignoring me completely as I desperately looked for cures. Then winter descended and the mood was grim as all attempts at helping her seemed to be failing, but I kept up hope!!! She brooded away in dark and gloomy corners.

Finally last week, we found a blessed donor and a minor procedure brought her back to her usual self. And now we are back with the same passion - as if nothing had happened.

Of course I had to clean her of all the dust and grime that had collected upon her while she sat in the corner of the garage, being unused. Yeah, I was talking about my Aussie Grill.
What were you thinking?!!

No sooner than it had been fixed, after a brief clean-up we took it for a spin, with some Tandoori marinated lamb chops, EVOO'd portobello caps and sweet peppers. 8 minutes a side at medium-high and we had medium-well done chops - cooked through yet succulent and tender. The show stealer though was the side act of the grilled sweet peppers - with the flavors enhanced with the infused smoke. A small salad to accompany and a glass of Sutter Home Zinfandel (inexpensive and under-appreciated - good taste) and even a Sunday night, usually gloomy with prospects of a Monday looming ahead, turned lively.

No man worth his tongs and flippers should ever have to be without his grill - not even for one weekend.

Ras-Malai in 20 minutes

Ras-Malai (literally: syrup+cream) stands out as one of the most heavenly delectable confections among the plethora of Indian sweet-meats. A bowl of chilled ras-malai can trigger the happiest of chemicals in your brain, enhancing the feeling of euphoria that had previously been induced by a lip-smacking Indian meal :-)

Skeptics might be excused for disbelieving that the required ingredients that go into a ras-malai are nothing but milk and sugar. But don't worry, we won't send you to the cow with a milk bucket just yet.
Frankly, I have no idea how the halwais (sweetmakers) go about making Ras-malai, the traditional way. Suffice it to say that the end product belies a lot of toil in front of a fire invoking sweat and tears.

If I have scared and tempted you in equal amounts for this treat, what would you say, if I were to claim that a total novice, with a microwave and a few ingredients can produce a ras-malai rivalling that of the best of India's halwais ? I am sure you would think I was pulling your leg. So, without further ado here is the recipe:

Inputs:

1 can of Rasgolla (or Roso-golla, Rosho-Golla) or Raj-Bhog available from your Indian grocer.
For the un-initiated, Rasgolla is balls made of farmer's cheese in sugar syrup.




2 cans of evaporated milk. Regular milk can be used as well, but requires more thickening.
1/2 tsp of ground cardamom seeds
1/2 tsp of saffron
2 tbsp of slivered almonds/pistachio for garnish

Experiment:
Pour the evaporated milk from the cans into a microwave safe bowl about twice the capacity of the total milk. Add the ground cardamom seeds and saffron and put it in the microwave for about 15 minutes.
Note: After about 10 minutes, keep a closer eye on the milk lest it boils over. Cleaning of the microwave after such a mishap is not included in the original time estimate :-)

While the passions of the milk are being simmered to an arousal, un-can the Rasgollas. Resist the temptation to chomp down more than a couple of the Rasgollas. I know, it's tough, but bear with me, the finished product will justify this sacrifice.
Depending on your level of hygiene consciousness, use your hand or a couple of spoons and taking the Rasgollas one at a time, squeeze as much as possible of the juice from them, without breaking them. This part requires care and patience. I have yet to find a quick-fix for this, and believe me, I am not a patient person.
Lay all the Rasgollas - squeezed nearly dry of the syrup out on a plate. Right about now, they are probably feeling drained of all life and purpose, victims of some vicious sugar-syrup dracula, but they will see the saviour in you, before we are through.

Turn your attention to the milk in the microwave. At the end of 15 minutes, it should be boiling. be careful and tend to it only as required, with a long handled spoon to avoid getting scalded. If you see a milk rising in a rebellion in the form of a giant bubble, burst it gently and let the milk subside before continuing on.

After the milk has seethed and raged for 15 minutes, carefully vent it of all revolt and take the bowl carefully out of the microwave. Now add the balls to the liquid gently and carefully to avoid the splash-and-scald guerilla attack of dissident milk colonies.
As you are adding the balls, carefully squeeze and release each one of them in the milk, at least once to ensure that they have absorbed the new fluid. After this put the bowl back in the microwave for another 5 minutes and let the milk and the Rasgollas get friendly and happy while heat is applied using, well, microwaves.

Take it out, add the almonds/pistachio etc to garnish. Chill it and serve.

By now you probably agree that 'slice of heaven' was not an overstatement at all.

Sweet Peppers - an Oxymoron?

When most of us think of Chilli-peppers, the image that usually comes up in our mind involves a torrid inferno in the mouth burning up large swaths of taste-buds. Teary eyed and with a runny nose, as we looked around for cold water, we are probably contemplating whether the tongue would be able to tell any subtle tastes after this torture?
But lovers of Indian (or Mexican, Thai, Chinese...) cuisine have palates masochistic enough to go back for the delicious pain again and again.

So, when you hear the name - sweet peppers, doesn't it sound rather like an oxymoron? Probably does. But these are delicacies that are worth a try. They have plenty of the bold flavor of chilli-peppers and none of the fabled heat. The absence of heat probably taken to be a sign of sweetness, hence the name. I agree, the bar was set rather low for sweetness

The possibilities are endless: slice 'em up and toss 'em in salads, on pizzas, on burgers and sandwiches, oven-roasted and topped on crackers with cheese, or just munched raw with the food.

Without going over-board shall we say, the results are adequately satisfying. :-)

Italian meatballs made with .... chicken?????!!!

Yes! Italian meatballs made with chicken as the principal ingredient.
Sounds like tofu-turkey Or veggie burgers doesn't it?

But bear with me and try it. You will agree that this meat substitution doesn' t deserve to be attached with the stigma of 'health-food' though healthier it is, if compared to it's beefy cousin.

We are on a quest to clean out our freezer and pantry of food items procured on a passing fancy, but sitting there since. In that spirit, I discovered a pound of ground chicken sitting in the freezer, that I had purchased a while ago for some dish I now have no recollection of. Our first-born Saumya is a huge meatball afficionado. So, I decided to experiment....

1 lbs ground chicken
2 tbsp ricotta cheese
1 egg (as binder)
salt to taste
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp crushed pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp rosemary

Pre-heat the oven to 400 deg F (~200 deg C).

Mix it all together. If the mix appears too wet, add some breadcrumbs to soak up the moisture.
Cover a cookie-sheet with some aluminium foil and spray with an oil of your choice.
With the help of an ice-cream scoop, make the meatballs and lay them about an inch apart from each other on the cookie sheet.

Put the cookie sheet in and bake it for 30-40 min until the meatballs are brown on the inside.

Voila! you have Italian food visiting your kitchen.

You can now eat them as a snack (on a stick), smothered with pasta sauce with spaghetti, or in a sandwich.

Let me know how it turned out. Suggestions for improvement are always welcome.

Chinese Schezuan Food par excellence

Being consummate foodies, Shalini and I are always on the lookout for new and exciting restaurants in and around the twin-cities. For a while, her favorite cuisines were Chinese and Thai and mine were Italian and Mexican. We used to find common ground on Vietnamese. But the preferences have shifted around, until all of the above and many more are loved by both of us.

So, it was to our great delight, when a Chinese co-worker of hers recommended Tea-House to us. "Ethnic Chinese love to dine there." was her proclamation. This sounded too good to be true!! So we went to check it out and fell in a deep love-at-first-taste that still endures.
At the time, Tea-House was a family owned and operated restaurant in a nondescript strip mall in Plymouth MN. While it still exists in that location, they have opened up another on the Eastern side of St.Paul MN.
Tea-House has two kinds of menus: a menu serving American-style (milder and sweeter) Chinese food, that most people expect and an authentic Schezuan menu to cater to more adventurous foodies. This latter menu and the justice done to the dishes listed on it, is what makes Tea-House the special place that it is.

I must warn you though - that your run of the mill Chinese fast-food restaurant (Leann Chin, Panda Express) it is NOT.

The food is loaded with flavours of sesame, ginger, garlic, black beans and red chillies. If you ask for extra spicy, you could be mistaken for a fire-breathing dragon after the meal. But not all dishes are fiery hot to be delicious. Stir-fried catfish in black-bean sauce and eggplant in garlic sauce immediately come to mind.
Their Chung-king spicy chicken has been our most favourite. But from their recently enhanced and expanded menu, we are still discovering new favorites - Cumin Lamb is one and whole tilapia stir-fried in black-bean sauce is the other. The lamb was very savory with earthy cumin flavors and stir-fried to perfection, it was the fish that stole the show.
A whole tilapia is stir-fried in the most delicious mix of spices and cooked to a flaky perfection, yet it somehow remains entirely intact. Anybody who has ever attempted to pan-fry or pan-grill a fish fillet will tell you how difficult it is to avoid crumbling up a cooked fish. And then there are the myriad flavors in the sauce. The untrained palate could be forgiven for mistaking it as the Bengali Machher-Jhol (fish curry). Hats off to the chef!!

In all folks, until we visit China and actually sample some local food there, we are happy with Tea-House and recommend it heartily.

Once you get over the wow factor of the food, you might even begin to notice the exquisite decor with delicately carved wood art and paper lanterns etc.

Five Stars *****

Tandoori Chicken done right

Tandoor: is a clay oven used to sear meats and bake flat-breads.


Tandoori chicken refers to chicken marinated in bold spices and grilled in a tandoor.
If all tandoori chicken were to be grilled only in a tandoor, then it would be a rare and priceless commodity in the league of caviar, truffles and gold. (OK maybe not THAT rare!)

Fortunately, grills do a good enough job of searing the meat.

A few Sundays ago, me and my small table-top gas grill set out in the quest for that perfect tandoori chicken - marinated in the perfect mix of spices and flavors that are infused to the bone, seared to a crisp crust outside and juicy tender meat inside. Cooked just right that is.

The perfect marinade:
Here we took the help of Rajah Tandoori Masala as a starting point. Couple of tablespoons of it were mixed with a cup of yogurt, two tbsp of ginger+garlic paste, a tbsp red chilli powder, salt, a tsp of toasted cumin powder, 1/2 a tsp garam-masala and crushed black pepper. It was whisked to an even mixture. Voila!, a tandoori marinade that would be the envy of an Indian chef. This was for about 5 lbs of chicken.

The bird:
The cut chosen for this perfect union was chicken thigh pieces with bone-in and outer skin removed. Needless to say - most of the visible fat was trimmed off.


Dressing it up:
Here it gets interesting as we begin the union of the meat and the spice. The marinade mix was liberally smeared all over individual pieces of the chicken, getting it in all the nooks and crannies and generally all over the meat. The pieces were stacked together in a mixing bowl with the remaining marinade mix poured on top.
The two are given 4 hours to chill out in a secluded corner of the fridge.


Burning it just right:
The burners set to medium, and the grill pre-heated for 5 minutes (as its small), the chicken pieces were places on the grill a couple inches apart from each other and cooked for 7 minutes each side.


Dish it out:
Drizzled with lime juice and served with sliced onions.

For a while the only sounds emanating in the room were "scrunch-scrunch", "hmmm gnosh-gnosh" and so on. I accepted these accolades with a gentle bow ... over my own plate.