10-minute Salvation Cabbage

This recipe gets done in less time than it takes me to write about it, expecially considering it took me two attempts to actually upload the picture. It is really  my salvation on some weeknights when I need a vegetable to balance out the meal. In fact, these days I actually keep chopped cabbage handy in the fridge. It would actually take away the essense of the recipe to write a long post around it.

10 minute Salvation Cabbage

Prep Time: 5-7 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

2 teaspoons freshly grated

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/8 teaspoon asafetida

2-3 green chilies chopped

1 teaspoon turmeric

10 curry leaves

3 cups finely chopped cabbage

1 teaspoon salt

Cilantro to garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the ginger and cumin and saute lightly for 30-40 seconds.

2. Add in the asafetida and the green chilies and the turmeric and the curry leaves.

3. Mix in the cabbage and the salt.

4. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until the cabbage wilts but is still tender crisp.

5. Remove the cover, garnish with cilantro and serve.

Ps. Have had some crazy days, the indifferent weather does not help. If I had a home bar with adjustable bar stools, I would raise mine stool, pour myself a tall glass of wine and watch while this was cooking, but instead we just drank ours with dinner.

Kalbi House - Korean in White Plains

Trying a new ethnic restaurant can be interesting for a variety of reasons – it of course offers us a new place to try and of course if the food is good, it adds one more place to the family dining collection. If you have little ones like us, a new style of food can also afford an opportunity to talk about the Geography and other cultural snippets of the cuisine that we are trying.  It was mostly a combination of proximity and adventure that drew us to Kalbi House, actually a while back and we have been back a couple of times since. Actually, we even tried little Korea in NYC and I shall tell you at some other about that experience.

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Panch Misali Chorchori - Bengali Mixed Vegetable Medley

Our Sunday lunches are usually both simple and complex at the same time. I try to do something closer to homey food. Something either I have grown up with or probably something closer to the MIL's cooking. Winter has been really hard this year and this weekend we wanted something simple and satisfying. I cooked a light Dal, some fish and then this chorchori. A chorchori is the Bengali word for a mishmash or medley of vegetables, both frugal and healthy at the same time.

The general concept with these dishes is to get a balanced palate of recipes. There really are no rules with Panch (5) mishali (mixed) medley. So I made mine with what I had available and added some boris (dried lentil nuggets) that my aunt had brought with her this time round from Kolkatta. These work much like croutons and add crunch to a recipe but are much more nutritious. I also added about 1 cup of cauliflower stems and tender leaves along with the cauliflower and was very pleased to see the results.

The kids are growing up, every time I stop and focus they surprise me with their latest milestone. Aadi is learning about money in school and informed me looking at a nickel that the picture was Jefferson's who lived in Monticello. Even when he makes such pronouncements, it sometimes is rather hard for us to keep a straight face. He also has been trying to play hangiman with us (this is his version of Hangman) learnt of course in an attempt to keep up with big sis!

Panch Mishali Chorchori - Bengali Mixed Vegetable Medley

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

6 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon panch phoron (Bengali 5-spice mix)

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 medium sized eggplant, cut into small pieces (skin on)

3 taros (arbi or kochu), peeled and diced

1 cup chopped cauliflower

1 cup of tender cauliflower, stalks and leaves

1/2 cup green peas (frozen)

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

2-3 dried red chilies

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup oil (this is used for frying the boris, not used completely)

1/2 cup boris

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the mustard oil and add the panchphoron and wait till the seeds crackle. Add the ginger and the eggplants and cover and cook for 5 minutes.

2. Remove the cover, at this point the eggplants should be sweaty and fairly soft.

3. Add in the taro and cover and cook for three minutes.

4. Add in the cauliflower, cauliflower stalks, green peas, turmeric, salt and the red chili powder and stir well.

5. Mix in the dried red chilies and the water and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.

6. In the meantime heat the plain oil and add the boris and fry till crisp.

7. Stir in the boris and the cilantro if using and mix well.

Waldy's Pizza - New York City

I first visited this small and quaint neighbourbood kind of joint this summer. I realize that there are probably so many such places, but then again a place that has brought me back ever so often at lunchtime, a place along with its very good pizza, has a self full of fresh herbs that you can snip off yourself to actually season your fired Pizza with does deserve a mention. Without the little touches it would be just another neighborhood place that offers good pizza, but then food and life is always about the small touches, it is the accents that make a difference. The menu consists of thin crust crisp well spiced pizza options and a smaller selections of pasta (penne to be specific!) and fresh salads. Oh! I forgot to mention that the wall of fresh herbs also has olive and fresh parmasan and their staff are very pleasant and efficient.

The pizza topping range from the basic tomato basil to interesting and novel concepts like arugula, garlic and sunny side eggs and then everything in between. Yesterday, I ate their chicken, bacon and chipotle pizza. The pizza's come in three sizes and their small is a nice generous size for about $8 you get the pizza and a drink. They carry a small but interesting selection of Pepsi products. The do have wine and beer options should you want to have them. So if you are in that neck of the woods and want to give the place a try, you should.

The low down on Waldy's is,

Waldys Wood Fired Pizza & Penne

800 6TH AVE
New York City, New York 10001

(212) 213-5042

http://www.waldyspizza.com/



A slow simmer kind of day...

On a day like today, it probably was not a bad day to be indoors, if the icy weather was the only issue that was impacting the state of my universe. The kids had no school, so I was at home trying to get some work done. It is actually a treat for both them and me to squeeze in that extra time. However, this was more going on and not all good, the car refused to start yesterday when I got back from the train, possibly a result of my doing so that needed to be dealt with and it looks like I have managed to loose a flash drive that had all kinds of stuff and despite my best intentions this stuff was not backed up and then there was more.

The husband was not feeling well, actually neither was the little one. So it was just the kind of day to do something relaxed and comforting. What I ended up with was a seriously thick, rich tomato and vegetable soup. There was not much done to the soup to coax its flavors just left on the stove for a slow simmer and really what a perfect day to do this. This soup is rather like the Anglo Indian style soups we find in some hotels in India, just that this one was thicker.
The kids generally were rather excited about the whole concept of ground hogs day, yes thanks to this,


Well, in general on an icy slushy day, not too many folks were convinced about the early spring prediction, but we shall wait and see.

Slow Simmered Tomato, Carrot and Pepper Bisque

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 pod garlic
1 white onion, cut into a dice
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 large can organic diced tomatoes (if you have fresh tomatoes, naturally it is best, but not really something I have this time of the year)
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 cups water
1 small can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Place the olive oil and the butter in the pan and add the garlic through a garlic press.
2. Add in the bell peppers and the onions and saute for about 5 minutes, the onions should soften and turn transluscent at this point.
3. Add in the tomatoes, carrots, salt and water and bring the mixture to a simmer. Continue cooking the mixture on low heat stirring occasionally for about 1 hour.
4. Cool slightly.
5. Place in a blender in batches with the evaporated milk and process until well blended, my soup retained a little texture from the carrots which we actually liked.
6. Stir in the cilantro and add fresh pepper if desired.
7. Serve immediately while it is still hot.

Creamy Lemon Thai Inspired Noodles

Some weeknights, you feel totally wiped just because it is the end of the week. All things considered it was not a bad week as things go. The weekend is not quite measuring up, the dad and the son are rather sick which does not make for fun.
The end of my weekend was a rather fascinating and unusual train encounter.

When you are a regular commuter you do learn to make the train your own space. I do this too, in fact there are certain things that I actually look forward to doing in the train, on most days it is a calm 35-40 minutes of uninterrupted time that I do not usually get other times of the day.
Anyhow this Friday evening, the train was exceptionally crowded, it was a smaller train and here I encounter a gentleman who was ready to unwind for the weekend on the front four seat booth. He was seated in one of the seats and had his book and bag on the seat that was right across him and had perched two cans of bear on the seat adjacent to him and was reading peacefully oblivious to the train beginning to fill up. Well, daunting as the thought was I moved in and informed him that I would be sitting on the fourth unoccupied seat. His look of welcome (not) was not going to make me travel stand on this lone Friday evening.
I returned amidst all the slush and wetness and after changing and my evening cup of tea, I faced my usual ritual of fixing dinner and scoping out the possibilities with the odds and ends in the refrigerator. This dish that I made to accompany the fish curry that I had waiting in the refrigerator was a winner. Rich, quick simple and comforting how can you go wrong?

Creamy Coconut Lemon Thai Inspired Noodles

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4 people

Ingredients

4 cups of water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoons butter
4 cloves of garlic
2-3 green chilies, minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sweet Thai soy sauce
1 teaspoon Sriracha (chili garlic sauce)
3/4 cup light coconut milk
1 package fresh fettuccine pasta (the fresh does make a difference, I used basic Buitoni though)

1/2 cup finely chopped Bok Choi
1 lemon
1/2 cup minced cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Place the water and the salt to boil, while this is happening you can actually proceed with the chopping and prepping of ingredients.
2. Lightly roast the peanuts coarsely chop in a food processor or grinder and set aside.
3. Heat the oil and the butter and add the minced garlic using a garlic press. Working very quickly stir the garlic to brown lightly.
4. Add in the chilies and stir for 20 seconds.
5. Mix the fish sauce, sriracha and the sweet soy sauce together and add the the chili garlic mixture and cook for about a minutes.
6. Add in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer on low heat.
7. While the sauce is cooking add the pasta to the water and cook for about 3 minutes.
8. Drain the pasta and add to the coconut mixture and stir the Bok Choi.
9. Cut the lemon, remove the seeds and squeeze in the juice and mix well. Add in the cilantro and the crushed peanuts and serve immediately.

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Peanuts

Jade Garden - A potentially viable Dim Sum option

Before we discovered Aberdeen and Central Ave Seafood, there was a restaurant we used to go to called David's Jade Garden. The place closed down they had something else in there and looks like they are back to being a Chinese and Dim Sum joint.
I am not sure about the management just commenting on the nature of the restaurant. There is something comforting about small plates, irrespective of the cuisine, something that sort spells relaxed and experimental without being overwhelming.
The place is very spacious and as our local Dim Sum restaurants go, pretty decent in terms of decor. The colors are lighter and brighter. The general think that we really liked was that despite being reasonably crowed, we did not feel crowded in.

As we waited the kids had fun with the place mats, trying to figure out what animal each one of us on the table were. So who says math cannot be fun, one just needs to thing outside the traditional concept of sitting and crunching numbers on a piece of paper.

So down to the food, they had several of the usual suspects but what was new to me was that they had a couple of roll options in bean curd wrappers, they had a really interesting vegetable dumpling that seemed to primarily be filled with peanuts and shitake mushrooms. I really liked the diversity of their dumpling wrappers lighter ones for the seafood variations and heavier ones for the meaty options.

Their sticky rice had a nice fragrant lotus leaf wrapper, in that the wrapper actually smelt good when you unwrapped it. Their prices were actually a little better than the other restaurants that I have seen in the area. Now, their service while very friendly was a little on the disorganized side, they seemed to get a little confused on occasion and sometimes slow on the uptake. So, I think it is good that Dim Sum is usually a relaxed meal. To make up for some of their blunders, they brought us double rounds of fortune cookies. The kids now get a real kick out of figuring out the fortunes, so this actually did help them redeem themselves!
In addition, the husbands fortune read something to the effect that the stars had blessed him with a wonderful wife, so you know I am generally pleased with all of this. We shall be back there! (actually have been back since the first visit just try not to do it on a very busy day).

The Geographical Lowdown.

156 South Central Avenue,
Hartsdale, NY 10530


(914) 288-0081