Alasanda Vada (Black eyed Peas croquettes)

Blogging Marathon#64: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Mega BM Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Alasanda Vada from Suma 

Can't believe we are starting the last week of this month's blogging marathon today. May seemed to have zoomed right past us. My theme for this week is 'Bookmarked dishes from last month's mega marathon'. It is an impossible task to pick just 3 dishes to make from more than 600 delicious dishes (24 bloggers * 26 days), but we have to start somewhere, right??

So for the first day, I made these Alasanda vada aka blackeyed peas vada from Suma. I actually made it right after she posted it on her blog. I had some oil leftover from frying these nimki and so I decided to use it wisely and make these yummy vada.

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Mixed Vegetable Curry in Coconut milk gravy

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: No Tomato Gravies
Dish: Mixed Vegetable Curry in Coconut milk gravy

After yesterday's yogurt based curry, today I have a coconut milk based curry that is creamy and delicious. Coconut milk is a great vegan alternate and is much healthier than using heavy cream.

This recipe is from Mallika Bhadrinath's 100 gravy recipes cookbook. Along with coconut milk, a freshly ground spice paste gives this dish creaminess and a nice spicy kick.

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New Year's Black Eyed Peas and Greens

Here's wishing you all very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016!!
My first post for the year is this healthy Black eyed peas and greens recipe that is a take on Hoppin' John made in the American South.Eating legumes on New Year's day is a custom that many cultures around the world embrace. Lentils represent a wish for prosperity in Italy and Brazil. Black soybeans are on the menu for New Year's in Japan.Every culture has its own reason for the tradition, but it is a well known fact that beans are low in fat, cholesterol and calories, yet loaded with fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals.

In the south, black eyed peas are usually eaten on new year's. The peas represent coins, and are often eaten along side collard greens, which represent paper money. This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine and it uses kale instead of collard greens.

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Gongura Bobbarla Kura (Sorrel Spinach and Black eyed Peas curry)

Last weekend we visited my cousin's place and she has a lovely backyard garden filled with Indian greens and veggies. My mom and I were got very excited and brought home bags full of gongura (sorrel spinach), bachalakura (malabar spinach/ pohi) and some tomatoes.

Indian stores here sell gongura & bachalakura for lot of money. I'm never even tempted to buy these sorry looking greens -- they are almost wilted with absolutely no life left. This explains our excitement when we saw fresh, vibrant greens :-)

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Brazil -- Acarajé (Black Eyed Peas Fritters - Vegetarian recipe)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: B for Brazil
Dish: Acarajé (Black Eyed Peas Fritters)

Today we are going to northeast of Argentina, to the largest country in both South America and Latin American region, Brazil. Brazil is one of the countries that my husband frequently visits. It remained a Portuguese colony until 1808 and is now the largest Portuguese speaking country in the world.
My knowledge of Brazil is limited to the Amazon rainforest (about 60% of the rainforest in within Brazil and 13% in Peru), Rio de Janeiro (from watching lot of movies) and of course football.
Brazilian cuisine varies greatly by region, reflecting the varying mix of indigenous and immigrant populations. It has European and African influences. Root vegetables like cassava, yams, and fruit like acai, papaya, guava, passion fruit and pineapple are among the local ingredients used in cooking. The national beverage is Coffee. Brazil has been the world's largest producer of coffee for the past 150 years.

Todays' dish is an African cuisine inspired Brazilian dish called Acarajé. It is a deep fried fritter made from peeled black-eyed peas. It is found in Nigerian and Brazilian cuisines. It is traditionally made in the northeastern Brazil, especially in the cities of Salvador and Olinda, often sold as street food.

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Black eyed Peas Curry for New Years

In Southern United States, eating Black eyed peas on New Years day is considered to bring luck & prosperity. I knew this bit of information for years but come New Years day I would some how forget it. So this year I made sure to follow it through by eating black eyed peas on new years day. Though the dish is made in Indian style, I'm sure it's going to bring us luck & prosperity because it's healthy and health beats wealth in my book.
I love black eyed peas because they don't need pre-soaking and cook really fast. I always make sure that I have a bag of these in my pantry for quick meal solutions. They can be used to make curries or rice dishes and make great addition to salads and burgers as well.

As I was looking for recipes to make with black eyed peas, I found this flavorful curry recipe in 660 Curries cookbook by Raghavan Iyer. Here black eyed peas are flavored with ground coconut, onions and green chilies. Very simple preparation, yet very delicious.

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Black-eyed Peas Pulao (Pilaf)

For day 3 of BM, I have yet another protein packed rice dish and this time the protein happens to be black eyed peas (check out my Egg biryani and Pudina Paneer Pulao recipes). 

All of the 3 rice dishes I posted this week involve 3 different cooking methods. For the biryani, rice is cooked ¾th of the way and then finished cooking “dum style” with the masala. For the pulao, I cooked the rice separately and then mixed it with the spiced vegetable mixture. For today’s pulao, I cooked the rice with the masala to make it a one-pot dish. 

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Curried Rice & Bean Salad

Coming from an Andhra family, all our meals almost always included rice in some form or the other. My mom gets very concerned when I tell her that I had salad for lunch, when in reality I ate a whole 8oz. bag of greens with another 1 cups of toppings added (I don’t eat tiny salads, my salads are huge—sometimes I feel embarrassed to even open my lunch box in the cafeteria, that I sneak lunch at my desk).

So growing up salad was rarely on our menu. It was the biggest cultural shock for me when I came to US. For international dinner on my graduate school orientation, in my very early days in the US, we were served salad and pasta (with meat of course). In those days I wouldn’t touch all that “Ghas Phoos” (rabbit food for non-Hindi speaking people) with a bargepole even if I had to die of hunger. But with time I’ve become more accepting and I actually enjoy salads once in a while (please don’t talk about serving sizes here).

My mom would be very happy with this salad, ‘cos it has rice in it. This is a Friday night clean up recipe that is wholesome, filling and super simple to put together. I’m not including any measures ‘cos I used whatever I had left-over in my fridge, so change the measures and ingredients depending on what you have.

Ingredients:
Brown & White basmatic rice – micro waved until just heated through or at room temperature
Black-Eye Peas – cooked
Shallots – chopped fine
Garlic – minced
Curry powder – I used madras curry powder
Cherry tomatoes – roughly chopped or left whole
Arugula – roughly chopped (any green leafy veggie would be good)
Lemon juice, Salt & Pepper – to taste


Method:

• Heat some oil in a pan, add shallots, garlic and black-eye peas and sauté until shallots turn translucent; about 5 minutes. Add curry powder and salt; mix well. Remove and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add arugula and chopped tomatoes; cook till the greens are just wilted; about 3 minutes. Season with salt and curry powder.
  
• To serve: layer the rice, beans and greens in the order of preference and enjoy with a squeeze of lemon juice.

This is my entry to this month’s No Croutons Required – Indian style Salads/Soups being hosted by Lisa’s Kitchen.

Black-eye Peas Burgers

I have been cooking from Totally Vegetarian cookbook by Toni Fiore a lot these days. One reason being it’s a borrowed book that I have to return in couple of weeks and the other reason is the recipes are very interesting with ingredients that I have in my pantry and so I cannot stop myself from making them right away.

I like to make burgers, you know the whole mixing the ingredients with hand and making them into patties is kind of therapeutic to me. I know it sounds weird, but that’s me. I watch Rachael Ray making her meat burgers and I’m thinking to myself, I wish I could smoosh and rub vegetarian burgers like that.

Recipe adapted from Totally Vegetarian.
Ingredients:
Black-eye Peas – 2 cups, cooked or 1 15.5 oz can, drained and rinsed
Cremini Mushrooms – 8 medium, chopped (recipe calls for 6 oz.)
Shallot – 1 medium, chopped fine
Scallion – 1, white & green parts chopped fine
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Toasted walnuts – ½ cup, chopped (Toast in a dry skillet on medium flame for about 5-6 minutes until you smell the nice toasty aroma of the nuts, don’t let them go too far or the nuts will burn)
Coriander leaves – 3 tbsp (or parsley)
AP flour – ¼ cup

Method:

• Mash the peas with the back of a fork in a mixing bowl. Add shallot, scallions, coriander, salt and pepper; mix well.
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet, add mushrooms and sauté on medium heat for 5 minutes.
• Add walnuts and garlic and cook until mushrooms are cooked through but not watery.
• Add mushrooms to the pea mixture. Mix well. The mixture at this point is crumbly, but can be easily made into patties.
• Heat 2tbsp oil in a skillet on medium heat; roll the patties in flour to coat and place them in the hot skillet.
• Cook for 5-6 minutes or until crust forms. Flip the burgers carefully and cook for another 5-6 minutes on the other side.

These burgers can be served with or without a bun. I served them on whole-grain sandwich bread with mayo, ketchup and arugula and mini-tomato clafoutis for a filling brunch. Yum.. Recipe makes 6-7 medium size burgers. I froze the leftover patties for later use.

This is my entry to this month’s My Legume Love Affair – 9th helping being hosted by Laurie @ MedCookingAlaska. MLLA is a monthly event started by Susan @ Well Seasoned Cook.

MBP-April: One Pot Wonders

Pressure Cooker is great to use for one pot meals. My entry is Creole Black eye Peas cooked entirely in pressure cooker from Susan’s Fat free Vegan. I didn’t have peppers or celery on hand, so I used frozen mixed vegetables (carrots/ beans/ peas and corn). I served it over brown rice.