Little Gherkins (Ivy Gourd) Stir Fried with Cashews and Coconut

This one's a childhood favourite and a constant feature in lunch menus at many traditional weddings in my community - my grandparents moved from their villages in Southern India to Mumbai city. Although I loved the dish, I (or anyone assigned to chop it up) used to hate chopping this vegetable, and to make a sizable quantity one needed at least half a kilo (1 pound) of it. Cutting each little gherkin into stick-like pieces was quite a job and no one ever wanted to be saddled with it, especially if you had to make it for lunch and dinner for a family of four or more. Chopping a smaller quantity (for two) is not so bad and it was a very peaceful hour I spent in the kitchen, making this dish and a few sides for it - a curry of white beans in coconut milk and some plain, boiled rice.

Stir Fried Gherkins (Ivy Gourd) with Cashews and Coconut

Ivy Gourd Stir Fry with Cashews and Coconut

1/2 pound ivy gourd (little gherkins)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 dried red chilli
1 small pinch asafetida powder (optional)
3-4 fresh curry leaves
1/4 cup halved cashewnuts
2 tablespoons Olive oil (or coconut oil to make it more authentic to South Indian cuisine)
Salt
Water to cook the vegetables
3 tablespoons grated coconut
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Chopping up the gherkins - trim the ends of each little gherkin and slice it vertically into half. Slice each half vertically again into two pieces (this step is optional but the finer it is chopped, the less amount of time it takes to cook).

Add oil to a wok and heat it a little (dont smoke it). Add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. When that happens, add asafetida, dried red chilli and curry leaves and quickly cover the pan (the curry leaves contain water and can cause some drops of oil to splatter). You could skip the curry leaves if you want to avoid tempering them this way but they do add a great flavour to stir fried vegetables.

Add the chopped vegetables and cashews. Stir it to coat the veggies with the tempered oil. Add a little water (do not soak the vegetables in too much water as this is supposed to be a dry curry) enough to come up a couple of inches from the bottom of the wok. Cover it and cook on medium heat.

Cook it until veggies are soft (you can test by trying to cut a piece of the vegetable with a spoon; if it cuts easily, its done). Add salt, grated coconut and chopped cilantro and toss around to make sure it's well mixed.

My Veggie and Bean Bowl

Easy peasy. Great with rice and curry. Or you could eat it as is. It's really difficult to not pop in a cashew or two or three while you're tasting it.

Happy Holidays, everyone!



Avocado-Tomato Grilled Sandwiches with Ginger-Coconut Chutney

Avocado-Tomato Grilled Sandwiches with Ginger-Coconut Chutney

Inspired by the spinach, avocado, goat cheese grilled cheese sandwich - Green Goddess Grilled Cheese Sandwich - but without many of the ingredients I would need to make the pesto, I substituted the pesto spread with an Indian chutney - ginger, coconut, chillies and cumin ground to a paste with water. It worked just fine with the veggies and added a spicy, warm note to the grilled cheese.

Click the link above for the recipe on the original sandwich.

Below is the recipe for the ginger-coconut chutney. Makes about 1/2 cup chutney.

Ginger Chutney

1/4 cup shredded fresh coconut

3 green chillies (tiny ones - each chopped into two pieces)

2 tablespoons cilantro

1 tablespoon roughly chopped ginger (if you find the proportion of chillies and ginger too spicy, reduce the chillies but retain the ginger as it provides the basic flavour to the chutney)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin powder

Salt (I used herbal salt)

Water (to thin the mixture as it grinds into paste)

Put everything except the salt and water into a blender and grind it as finely as possible (add water little at a time to make it a slightly thick fluid - spreadable). When it's done, take it out of the blender and add salt.

When making the sandwich, I spread the chutney on the bread slices and added mozzarella. Then I added tomato and avocado slices on one side and covered it with the other bread slice (with the chutney and mozzarella). I heated some butter and olive oil in a pan and placed one side of the sandwich on it, keeping it there for a few minutes to fry a golden brown. After slightly pressing down on the sandwich, I flipped it over to fry on the other side.

This was a simple and incredibly tasty sandwich. Really enjoyed myself!

Tilapia Milanese

Tilapia Milanese with Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream

It was my first time cooking Tilapia so I chose a recipe from the Food Network's extensive online collection of recipes. Summer here is probably not a great time to heat up the stoves and the oven but this dish was so worth the effort. It took a mere 8 minutes to bake and the process was a little scary for a novice like me but worth every little harried moment.

Don't you agree? We paired this meal with a Chardonnay and I made a Lime-Cilantro Sour Cream sauce - very easy - to go with the fish instead of heavy tartar sauce. In the recipe, they just made a side of simple arugula salad and lemon wedges but my love of sour cream inspired me to try out this combination. It was great!

The dinner concluded with a summery desert - a bowl of chopped strawberries and bananas drizzled with honey and topped with whipped cream. A great ending to the weekend and a positive beginning for the new week that was to follow.

Go here for the recipes:

Tilapia Milanese

Cilantro-Lime Sour Cream Sauce

The Hundred Ways to eat a Baguette....

Slices Spread with Butter and Chutney

I bought a bread loaf from the French bakery - La Petite France - in West Hartford on a rare afternoon shopping expedition in Barnes and Noble. I got off closer to the French bakery and bought two pear tarts and a loaf of French bread. I have until tomorrow to finish it and my husband finds it a bit too tough to chew so it's going to be a solo effort.

Only it stops being an effort the minute I butter a slice and bite into it. I can taste a medley of grain flavours - it is made from different grains including rye - and it reminds me of moist Bombay mornings with a cup of tea and a slice of brun pav which is a rough, multigrain bun of a bread - not sweet, and not soft either - my father's favourite. He could eat it every morning without the pat of butter and wash it all down at the end with a cup of strong tea. I spent most of my life at home dedicating breakfast to the softer, refined sliced bread. It's almost always adulthood when you appreciate the things you had easy access to when you were younger. And I'm glad I got this baguette home and breakfast is now much more exciting while still being nourishing.

I'm on a baguette binge for today so I hope the loaf doesn't last until tomorrow. I'm thinking of all the ways I can eat this baguette - maybe toast it and spread a mixture of roasted peppers and tomatoes on it for lunch or cut into bits which I could pan fry and stir into a soup, or even boil an egg and make a baguette sandwich.

How would you like to eat a baguette? I'm thinking of doing a live blog and putting up a numbered list here. Let me know your favourite way(s) to eat this bread and I'll add it to my list.

1. For breakfast - sliced and topped with a little butter or a spoonful of green coriander coconut chutney.

2. For lunch - dipped in a potato soup to soak and eat as breadsticks.

3. For dinner - slices topped with some chutney and then topped with sliced tomato, (boiled) potato and onion.
4. Can one make dessert out of a baguette? For example, bread pudding? I wonder....

5. Angry Asian's way - toast topped with soy margarine and pickled beets (sounds so yum) but her favourite way is to have the centre scooped out and paired with sweetened milk (read comments for the whole story).
Let me know! I'm also going to look for suggestions on food and recipe blogs and will let y'all know.

Coriander Coconut Chutney



Coriander Coconut Chutney

 I made this for a snack for lunch - my all time favourite - boiled egg sandwiches with coriander coconut chutney. They remind me of childhood picnics with my mother, father and sis. Especially one where we included a Danish guest - Yanne - and our trip to the Elephanta Caves, a ferry ride from the Gateway of India, Bombay. It was a beautiful trip which ended in our indulging in these chutney egg sandwiches in her room at the YMCA - we hadn't been able to find a good picnic spot anywhere on our trip.

Here's to chutney egg sandwiches which will eventually be chutney tomato-cucumber sandwiches when the eggs run out.

Ingredients
1/2 cup coriander leaves
3/4 cup shredded coconut (fresh/dry and non-sweet/frozen)
A piece of ginger about 1 1/2 inches long
2 green chillies (reduce to 1 if you find it too spicy)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Water
Salt

Some recommend adding a garlic pod to this mix. I skipped it to give it a more simple flavour.

Method
Chop the ginger and chillies into big pieces (roughly chopped is ok since we're blending the ingredients. Mix the coconut, coriander, ginger and green chillies in a blender and add very little water to grind the mixture to a wet paste consistency. When you're satisfied about the thickness, take it out of a blender into a container (you can directly put it into a serving dip dish or in a storage container - needs to be kept in a fridge).

Add salt and the lemon juice to it. Mix. The chutney slightly hardens and thickens even more when in a fridge so when you take it out the next time you might have to dilute it a little.

Spread it on your favourite slice of bread or use it as a dressing for potato salad or even spoon it over rice to mix and eat. I love to slather some on bread to make a great tasting boiled egg sandwich.

The proportion of coconut can be reduced if you want a darker shade of green and a burst of coriander flavour. Add 1/4 cup of coconut to 3/4 cup of coriander and see what happens.

Use the chutney within a week. Of course, its hard to resist because of its versatility.

Cooking for One Instead of Table for One

When I'm not drooling over the food pics in Eric Gower's cookbook, I'm reading Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant - an anthology of one-person cooking articles from really creative people (writers, filmmakers, teachers, foodies) in diverse fields. I'm not too surprised to find comfort food - in different forms - ranging from recipes with canned black beans to poached eggs over asparagus, scrambled eggs on toast topped with truffle oil, polenta to a layered salmon, shallots and lentils dish. It's not just an amazing recipe book, it's a great comfort read - something to read in bed with a bowl of ice cream.

My comfort food was the Macaroni stir fry recipe - even if it happens that I'm missing a few ingredients, eggs, onions and pasta are always available along with my spice rack. In fact, eggs are very personal to me and my first choice when cooking a meal for myself. They're super easy and fun to eat, try scrambling them with rice or pasta or just over toast, they're very comforting and uncomplicated. I've even eaten boiled egg sandwiches with mustard and thousand island dressing for dinner alone, which prompted my husband to look in the fridge to see if everything in there rotted beyond recognition.

I love that these writers are all emphasizing on the simple things that are very self-indulgent, you'd make them because you want to pig out and not share. They're just as pampering if not more than the meals we make for dinner parties or for special weekends alone with your sweetie. I love that this book exists to take away the depressive air around 'Meals for One'.

Book: Alone In The Kitchen With An Eggplant - Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone

Edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

Written by a lot of talented, creative people who love themselves