An early fall weekend...

The start of September this year, could not pronounce more loudly that Fall was here. It was almost like Mother Nature had come in with a big magic wand and waved it around us, “Ok folks, it’s back to school time and my favorite season fall is here!” Aadi started kindergarten this year, stealing the thunder a little from Deepta. His first day went well he is missing his old pre-school and friends. I shall miss it too! It has been a part of my life for almost seven years, since it included the daycare for Deepta. My son is a lot like me, he needs to ease into change but once settled he does well.

Read more »

Bengali Stir fried carrots and beans with caramelized onions

This past weekend was wonderful, we had friends over, sneaking in the last spurt of summer before school and the somewhat faster pace of things hit. What was especially fun was, that most of the food with the exception of some shrimp and tofu were all from the backyard. The menu was simple -fresh cucumber dip, a tomato eggplant and mushroom curry, lentils with spinach, grilled shrimp (in a chili mint marinade) and tofu (soy honey glaze and this stir fry. For whatever reason, I have not done a lot with beans, just not too sure why, but this year we seem to have a bean bonanza.

This simple saute is colorful and would complement almost all meals. What is nice is that people picked on it just by itself like a warm salad. This recipe is close to a weeknight dish that my mother often made, except she used potatoes instead of the turnips and cut the vegetables smaller. I have used a combination of the yellow wax beans and the green beans to offer a nice contrast of colors.

Stir fried carrots, turnips and beans with caramelized onions

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

3 tablespoons oil (mustard or olive)

1 teaspoon panch phoron (Bengali 5-spice mixture)

1 red onion, cut into a fine dice

2 pods garlic, minced

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

2 turnips, peels and cut lengthwise into 1-inch pieces

3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into length wise pieces

2 pounds green and yellow beans, trimmed and either left whole or cut into halves

(not the intent here is to have some symmetry between the vegetables in terms of sizes)

2 green finger chillies, trimmed and slit

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Method of preparation

1. Heat the oil and add in the panch-phoron and wait for the seeds to crackle.

2. Add in the onion, garlic and ginger and reduce the heat and cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring the mixture frequently. At this point the onions should wilt, soften and begin to turn softly golden in the edges.

3. Add in the turnips and the carrots and mix well and cover for 5 minutes.

4. Add in the beans, chillies, sugar and salt and mix well. Cover the mixture and cook on low for another 10 minutes, the vegetables should be reasonably soft but retain just a little crunch.

5. Check the seasonings and stir in the lemon juice and serve.

Chilled Carrot Soup

Weather and nature is often the mother of invention. I have generally shied away from cold soups, just for some unknown reason. Well, the NYT magazine last Sunday has a nice piece about a teenager who had launched her own CSA and a nice recipe for pink beet borcht. A nice and spicy departure from the classic recipe. This week, we ended up with 25-30 carrots in our yard, I had to adapt the recipe for carrots. Instinctively I felt that the sweet taste of the carrots would be a good substitute. I also made an interesting carrot salad that I shall post about. The carrot soup also ended up turning pale orange, I color that facinated by better half. I have to confess, this time of the year, I end up with so many fun recipes, I sometimes lose them because I do not have time to blog them. This soup actually would be nice and refreshing in the morning as well.

Chilled Carrot Soup

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Chilling Time: 3-4 hours (note this soup improves significantly in flavor the following day)
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion, coarsely chopped
2-3 pods of garlic, grated
1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger
10 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 cups of water
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup of drained low fat yogurt
1-2 teaspoons chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the onion, garlic and ginger and saute for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture is soft and very fragrant. Note, I do this in the base of a small pressure cooker.
2. Add in the carrots, salt, red chili powder, coriander seeds, black pepercorns, bay leaves, vinegar and water and cook under pressure for about 7 minutes.
3. Cool and remove the lid of the cooker. Discard the bay leaves.
4. Puree the mixture in a blender with the yogurt until smooth.
5. Chill for a couple of hours or overnight.
6. Serve with the cilantro.

Pulao with yogurt, peas and carrots

One of the problems we as parents have or maybe I should speak for myself and some others that I know, is that we like to take the simplicity out of kids lives particularly with food and then wonder why they do not eat what we cook for them.
When I first started cooking for my daughter, I used to go nuts, making elaborate stews, then blending them and going besides myself with disappointment when she did not like what I made for her. Over time, I learnt to relax, settle for a few essential stapples and building as the days passed. By and large, they like colors, they love yogurt, simple vegetables, dals and rice. Balanced, wholesome, sometimes a little boring but if they are happy and it is nutritious, why should I care?

This is a conversion of the essential matar pulao, into a complete meal by adding some more veggies, mung dal and buttermilk. It is absolutely comforting and actually rather good for lunch boxes on the go!

Garjar Matar Dahi Pulao - Rice with Carrots, Peas and Buttermilk

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
A few pieces bay leaves, cloves and cardamom
1 cup basmati rice, soaked for 30 minutes
1/2 cup split green mung dal
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup grated carrots
2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and ghee and add the cumin seeds.
2. Add the onion, bay leaves, cloves and cardamom and stir for a few seconds.
3. Add in the rice and dal and cook for 1 minutes.
4. Add the remaining ingredients with 1.5 cups water or broth.
5. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat and cover and cook for 22 minutes.
6. Remove the cover and stir well once.
7. Leave covered for 5-10 minutes and serve with additional yogurt if desired.



On a hectic week such as the one that just went by, meals such as these tend to be major lifesavers.


I shall be sending this recipe to Preety's Kitchen, who is the host of this months cooking for kids, an event very close to my heart, started by Sharmi.

I think I can!

Gosh, I have been meaning to get back and blog but it just has been one thing after another. The last week has been awful since I have been down with the flu. It is supposed to be my turn to host WHB, an event I have not even been able to participate in for the past several weeks. Well, I had actually cooked this really lovely smooth textured soup last week, with overtones of cumin and ginger laced with mint. Seeing all the wonderful entries that are filling my mailbox, I finally got inspired to write this up.

Carrot Pumpkin Soup with Ginger and Mint

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp processed ginger chunks (I use trader joes)

2 leeks peeled and thinly sliced

2 lbs carrots peeled and cut into pieces

1 lb fresh pumpkin peeled and cut into pieces

1 parsnip peeled and cut into pieces

3 cups chicken broth

Salt to taste

1/2 cup fresh cream

2-3 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves

Method of Preparation

1. In a pressure cooker, heat the oil and pop the cumin and pepper.

2. Add the ginger and leeks and saute for 15 minutes till very soft.

3. Add in the carrots, pumpkin and parsnip and mix lightly.

4. Mix in the broth and bring to a simmer.

5. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes.

6. Cool and blend into a puree with the cream.

7. Check seasonings.

8. Heat but do not bring to a boil prior to serving and serve garnished with mint.

Carrot and Carrot Greens

Have been so busy lately. Will be having a party for the kids, that can be quite a chore. The invites, getting gifts for the other kids, of course the food etc. That and switching jobs can keep a girl more than gainfully occupied.

Anyhow, I got this bunch of carrots with these beautiful greens. I have used beet greens before but never actually tried carrot greens, so I gave it a shot. Threw it together with some whole wheat spagetti, sun-dried tomatoes in oils, edamame bean, corn and grated carrots.

Essentially, I heated a 1 tbsp olive oil, sizzled some garlic and cumin seeds and then cooked the vegetables for about 10 minutes on low with a cover and then added the pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and a little salt and pepper. Added the chopped greens right at the end, the result was a pretty quick and tasty weeknight supper, fairly healthy too for that matter.

I spent a little time looking up carrot greens and realized that it is no novelty to be eating these greens anyhow I was glad that I had discovered a use for these wonderful leaves and I think they will feature anytime I get them in our regular cooking. Will sent this off to Sher at What did you eat? who is hosting WHB.

Gajar Halwa - Simple but takes so .......Long!

Relationships like everything else in life are full of surprises. My husband takes this day pretty seriously, well I do not necessarily get 101 roses, but I do feel appreciated and special and he does do something nice ( last year he gave me a collection of movies by my favorite director, which took some time to find, things like that). The reason I find this surprising is not because he is generally not appreciative, but he generally is not especially a fan of what we call Hallmark pressure.

Anyhow, I am the dessert person in this house and unfortunately it shows. My husband does have a couple of favorites - good gulab jamuns and gajar halwa. He likes the former the way my MIL makes it but the later my way. I do this with a few basic ingredients and other than the time, it is fairly simple.

Gajar Halwa - Carrot Fudge

Makes 35 servings

Ingredients

4 lbs carrots
3/4 gallon whole milk
4 green cardamoms
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp ghee
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped nuts

Method of Preparation

1. Peel the carrots and process them in a food processor or grate them.
2. In a heavy bottom pot, bring the milk to a boil and add the carrots cardamoms.
3. Turn the heat to very low and keep cooking stirring occasionally till fairly dry, this process takes 3-4 hours.
4. Add in the sugar and let the mixture turn fairly dry and shiny orange.
5. This takes about 40 minutes and it needs to be stirred frequently at this point.
6. Add in the ghee and raisins and nuts and cook stirring well for 10 minutes.
7. Cool slightly and serve warm. I like this with ice-cream.

Meeta is keeping us dishing out suggary treats with the sweet love theme.

Gajrella - Indian Carrot Pudding

Gajrella (Indian Carrot Pudding)

Unfortunately, we do not get the truly red carrots as found in India. You can cheat on the color by adding ¼ of a beet. Although, this might make the color a little too red at times.


Ingredients

1 can evaporated milk
1 cup half and half
5 lbs of carrots
1 cup sugar
½ stick butter
1 tsp cardamom seeds powdered.
¼ cup sliced almonds
¼ cup golden Indian raisins.

Directions

In a heavy based pan, combine the milk with the half and half and boil till reduced by ¼. This needs to be done on low heat.
In the meantime peel and grate the carrots. It is very efficient to use a food processor for this.
Add the carrots to the milk mixture. Cook on low heat till the milk evaporates.
Add the sugar, cardamom, nuts and raisins and cooks till dry.
Finally, add the butter and cook till the mixture is smooth and browning.Serve warm or at room temperature.