Thai Curried Noodles for #Food of the World

We are visiting Thailand for this month's Food of the World event. Thai cuisine is one of my favorite and I have tried and posted quite a few Thai dishes on the blog. I looked through my 'Buddha's Table' cookbook and found this Curried Noodles recipe.

This is a spicy and delicious dish that is perfect to serve on a chilly winter day. The list of ingredients is long but all of them are easily available in well stocked Asian grocery stores. I made a trip to my local Korean market to get the noodles and some other ingredients and I was set to make the dish.

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Green Bean & Corn Casserole (Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu Ideas)

We are only a few days away from Thanksgiving and this will be my last dish for this year's Thanksgiving recipes. This dish is a variation to the traditional Green bean casserole that is usually made using cream of mushroom soup and has a crispy fried onion topping. In this modified version, mushrooms and onions are cooked down and then a bechamel like sauce is made right in the pan -- then topped with crispy breadcrumb topping and baked off until hot and bubbly.

I loved the addition of corn and the crispy breadcrumb topping the most in this recipe. It is creamy and cheesy but not overly so. Give it a try if you are looking for a different green bean casserole recipe.

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Fuzian Stir Fry

BM# 34: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking from Sapana's blog
Dish: Fuzian Stir Fry

Week 4 of BM# 34 and the theme for this week is one of my favorite themes, 'Cooking from fellow BMer'. I love browsing through blogs, but these days I hardly get anytime to do that, so this week's theme is great to focus on just one blog, pick 3 dishes and post them.

Valli paired me with lovely Sapana who blogs at 'Cooking with Sapana'. Sapana has been blogging for about an year, but already has about 400 recipes on her blog. So you can imagine how tough it was to chose only 3 dishes for the week :-) I picked dishes based on the limited ingredients in my pantry, because this past week my husband was travelling and I didn't go grocery shopping.

Sapana has a variety of recipes to choose from, both Indian and International. So for the first day, I picked her 'Fuzian Fried Rice' recipe, but instead of making a fried rice I made just the veggie stir fry and served it with rice.

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Pasta with Mushrooms and Chipotle Cream Sauce

I have signed up for this month's Taste & Create event after a long time and I'm paired with Min @ The Bad Girl's Kitchen. There are a ton of dessert recipes that I looked awesome and I really wanted to try them from her blog, but it's just me and my 5 year old at home this week, so didn't feel like making a whole batch of anything. 

When I saw this penne pasta with chipotle cream sauce recipe, I knew I had to make it. It sounded delicious and I had all the ingredients at home. I made very few minor changes like using rotelle pasta instead of penne and I used frozen wild mushrooms instead of fresh. I reduced the amount of chipotle sauce since I'm not a big fan of smoky stuff.

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Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables

After posting sugary desserts for the past 4 days, I thought it was time for something healthy and definitely savory. Also May happens to be the 'National Month of Salad', so what's better than a healthy salad to kick start this month. I didn't know that there was such a thing as salad month, but I guess it's never too late to know about good things, right??

Today's salad is made with "Farro", an ancient grain believed to have sustained the Roman legions. I have heard about and have seen a number of bloggers cooking with it, so I bought some from Whole Foods recently. Since the weather is still a little chilly, I roasted some veggies in the oven and mixed them with cooked farro for a simple, filling and healthy salad.

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Cream of Mushroom Soup (Low Fat)

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Soups & Salads
Dish: Cream of Vegetable -- Cream of Mushroom Soup

For the 3rd day of blogging marathon with 'Cream of Vegetable' being the star ingredient, I made Cream of Mushroom soup. But the creamy consistency for the dish actually comes from pureed cauliflower. I thought  using  pureed cauliflower instead of cream or other thickening agents in a soup is a genius idea!! Don't you think?? It's not my idea though, I found this amazing vegan cream of mushroom soup here and absolutely loved the idea.

I added some fat free half-and-half that needed to be used up instead of non-dairy milk and hence this is not a vegan recipe. Also instead of cauliflower I used broccoliflower which is a hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli. Other than that I followed the recipe to the 'T' and this soup is super creamy and hearty, perfect for the chilly weather.

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Vegetarian Vindaloo with Eggplant & Mushroom

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Goan Cuisine
Dish: Eggplant & Mushroom Vindaloo

For Day 2 under "Goan Cuisine" for BM# 26, I made Vindaloo with Eggplant, mushrooms and red pepper. A little bit of Wiki gyan (knowledge) about Vindaloo -- "Vindaloo is derived from a Portuguese dish named "Carne de Vinha d' Alhos" which is usually made with pork, red wine and garlic.The Goans modified the dish by using vinegar for the red wine and kashmiri chilies and additional spices."

When I saw this recipe Eggplant and Mushroom Vindaloo on Vaishali's blog, I wanted to try it myself to see how it tastes. This recipe uses balsamic vinegar instead of white vinegar and that sounded delicious to me. Balsamic vinegar gives the dish a mildly sweet tangy flavor that goes great with the veggies. I add balsamic to my roasted veggies, so I know it tastes amazing. I wasn't disappointed at all. When I tasted the dish, there was a party of flavors in my mouth. Its tangy, spicy, sour, sweet, all at the same time.

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Chicken & Spinach Curry

If you are confused from the title, rest assured this is still a vegetarian blog. Today's recipe is made of meat-free 'Chicken' (I used Gardein brand) and meaty mushrooms in a creamy and rich green spinach gravy. Even with meaty, creamy and rich in the description of the dish, this happens to be a Vegan dish that tastes amazing.

I've been meaning to make this dish from Vaishali's (Holycow Vegan) blog for a long time now. "Cooking with Greens" theme for BM and choosing a combo with a gravy dish, finally made that happen. 

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Indian Style Mushroom Bruschetta

We have a love-hate relation with mushrooms in my home. I love mushrooms and my husband hates them with a passion. I don’t cook mushrooms when he’s around. So now you know what features on my menu when he’s travelling!!! But the past weekend we had a BBQ at our place and I saw this Indianized version of Bruschetta in Cooking Light way to Cooking Vegetarian cookbook.

This bruschetta is a thick tomato based curry that was wonderful as bread topper. (I ended up making Italian style eggplant bruschetta for my husband.) Ingredient list is quite long compared to the simple Italian bruschetta, but my Indian palate really enjoyed the different flavors in the dish – it’s spicy, tangy and delicious. 

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Tried & Tasted: Lisa’s Kitchen

Lisa’s blog Food and Spice is filled with so many yummy looking recipes that I was totally stumped on where to begin and where to end. I had way too many recipes bookmarked to try in so little time, so these are the ones that I tried for Aparna’s Tried & Tasted – Lisa’s Kitchen (Zlamushka of Burntmouth is the brain behind T&T). But I’m sure I’m going to go back and try all those that I bookmarked later.

Mushroom Pulao: My husband’s away for the past 10 days and I’m enjoying mushrooms like there’s no tomorrow. He doesn’t like mushrooms at all and I seem to like them, so I end up cooking mushrooms when he’s not around. Lisa’s pilaf is for mushroom lovers like me.

Black Bean & Corn bake: Weather’s been a little up and down last couple of days. It was in the upper 80s with A/C on cool for 4 days and suddenly plummeted to upper 50s. So turning the oven on for this dish made the home smell wonderful and warm. Simple and delicious recipe that I’ll be making many many times.

Vegetarian Jap Chae

This is my entry to A.W.E.D – Korea, being guest hosted by PJ @ Seduce your Taste buds. A.W.E.D (A World Epicurean Delight) is the brain child of talented DK @ Culinary Bazaar. I am lucky to have a very good Korean market not too far from us that we visit at least once a month for the fresh produce and good deals on tofu and fruit.

During my recent visit I bought some gochujang, Korean hot pepper paste to try. I already had half a package of sweet potato noodles, dang myun, that I had bought a while back. Jap Chae is stir-fried noodles with vegetables and meat. Here’s my recipe for Jap Chae.

Ingredients:

Sweet Potato Noodles – 2 bunches

Peppers – 2, I used 1 red & ½ green

Onion – 1 large, thinly sliced

Mushrooms – 1 cup, chopped

Carrots – 1 medium, chopped into matchsticks

Chinese Broccoli – ½ cup, chopped (you can use spinach)

Garlic – 2 cloves, minced

Gochujang – 2 tsp

Soy sauce – 4tbsp (I use low-sodium)

Rice Vinegar – 2tsp

Sesame Oil – 1tbsp

Sugar – 2tsp

Salt & pepper – to taste

Eggs – 3

Method:

• Cook noodles according to package directions and set aside. Sweet potato noodles are very long and hard to handle, so when cool enough to handle, cut noodles into 6" pieces.
  
• Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat; add 1tbsp peanut oil, when hot and sizzling, add garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds or until lightly browned and fragrant (not burnt). Add onions, carrots and peppers; sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add mushrooms and Chinese broccoli and sauté until all the veggies are crisp but tender, another 4-5 minutes.
  
• Add gochu jang, soy sauce, rice vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar. Cook for couple of minutes. Add cooked noodles and stir fry for 2 minutes. Check the seasonings and adjust accordingly.
  
• In the meantime, make an omelet with the eggs, cut them into strips and serve them over the stir fried noodles.

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.

Pizza with Ricotta & Fontina:

I wanted to make this pizza crust for a very very long time. Finally I made it this weekend and it was so good. It is very quick and easy pizza crust recipe. Dump all the ingredients in the food processor, pulse till it comes together, let it rise for just 1 hour, roll, top, bake and enjoy. The whole pizza comes together in less than 2 hours that’s including the rising time. I’m so impressed that this will be my go-to pizza recipe.

Another important thing to note about this crust is that it is full of Whole grain goodness and there is no oil.. none at all. So there is no need to dab each slice with 2-3 tissues to soak up the extra oil.. Wow.. I’m so so impressed. I followed the recipe to the T, please find it here. Thanks Jai & Bee.

Tomato sauce & Topping recipe is from Vegetarian cookbook. My husband does not eat mushrooms, so I made zucchini topping for him. This is one of the simplest tomato sauce recipes ever and is also going to be my new go-to recipe.

Ingredients:

For tomato sauce:

Canned chopped tomatoes – 14.5 oz. can
Passata – 2/3 cup (I used crushed tomatoes instead)
Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed Dried Oregano – 1 tsp
Red chili flakes – ¼ tsp
Bay leaf – 1 (fresh or dry)
Salt& Pepper – to taste

For topping:

Mushrooms – 4 cups
Garlic – 1 clove, minced Oregano – 1 tsp (I used ½ tsp dry instead)
Summer squash – 2 medium, cut into thin rounds (I used green and yellow)
Ricotta cheese – 1 cup
Fontina cheese – 8 oz. grated

Method:

• Preheat oven to 500°F and place your pizza stone to pre-heat as well.
• To make the tomato sauce, combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan, cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and simmer on medium-low flame for 20 minutes.
• To make the topping, heat 2 tbsp oil in a large sauté pan, add garlic and mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Keep aside.
• Repeat the process for the squash rounds as well.
  
• When the pizza dough has puffed up for 1 hour, roll it out into a fairly thin crust. Spread 3-4 tbsp sauce leaving 1” area around the edge. Top with the toppings, cheeses, oregano, and chili flakes (optional). Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cheeses are all oozy and delicious. Enjoy..

Check out DK's @ Culinary Bazaar Ricotta & Fontina Pizza here.

Golden Bowl

This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. I usually keep at least two varieties of frozen mixed vegetables in my freezer. Very handy when there is no time to clean, peel and chop the veggies. Simply thaw and use them in pulao or mixed vegetable curry or upma or anything for that matter.

(Recipe adapted from Vegetarian times)
Ingredients:
Extra firm Tofu – 1 15 oz. package
Onion –1 cup, finely chopped
Frozen mixed vegetables - 2 cups (I used Italian style blend that has broccoli, beans, squash etc)
Mushrooms – 1 cup, sliced
Cabbage - 1/2 cup, shredded
Carrots - 1/2 cup grated
Low-Sodium Soy sauce – 2 tsp plus more to taste
Nutritional Yeast – 2 tbsp, or more to taste
Salt and Pepper – to taste
Brown Rice – 2 cups, cooked


Method:

• Heat 1tbsp vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add tofu and saute 10 and 15 minutes, until light brown all over. Sprinkle with soy sauce, and saute 2-3 minutes more to further brown tofu. Transfer tofu to paper-towel-lined plate.
• Drain and rinse skillet, and wipe dry.
• Heat 1tbsp oil over high heat. Add tofu and all vegetables. Saute 5-7 minutes, or until tofu is browned and vegetables are tender, tossing constantly with spatula. Sprinkle with soy sauce to taste. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast over tofu to coat. Saute a few seconds more. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Serve over brown rice.

This is my second entry to Protein Rich monthly event hosted by Sangeeth @ letusallcook.

Spaghetti With Spinach and Mushrooms

This recipe is from Vegetarian Times magazine. Very simple preparation and toasting spaghetti gives it a nutty flavor.

Ingredients:
Spaghetti - 8oz. broken into thirds
Low-sodium vegetable broth - 1 15 oz. can
Tomato paste - 2 tbsp
Harissa or red pepper flakes - 1 tbsp
Mushrooms - 1 lb. quartered
Garlic - 1 clove, minced
Spinach - 1 lb. coarsely chopped
Chickpeas - 1 15 oz. can, rinsed and drained


Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F. Place pasta on baking sheet and coat with cooking spray. Bake 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden, shaking the pan once or twice to brown evenly.
• Bring vegetable broth, 2 ½ cups water, tomato paste, harissa and saffron to a simmer in saucepan. Reduce heat to low and keep warm.
• Heat a large pan over medium high heat, and add 2tsp olive oil. Add mushrooms, and cook until browned, about 7-8 minutes.
• Stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute.
• Reduce heat to medium, and stir in pasta and 2 cups of hot broth.Cook 4-5 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently.
• Add spinach, chickpeas and remaining broth. Simmer 5-7 minutes more, or until noodles are tender and most of broth is absorbed.Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.
  

Nupur (@ One Hot Stove) has taken up a project of compiling easy recipes made from the food that is most commonly found in our pantry. I think this recipe can be easily modified to be made with canned mushrooms and spinach and the proportions can be changed accordingly.

Hope you like the recipe Nupur and can use it in Campus Kitchen.

Potato and Mushroom Hash – WBB# 4

According to Wikipedia; “Hash is a mixture of beef (often leftover), onions, potatoes and spices that are mashed together into a coarse, chunky paste and then cooked alone or with other ingredients.”
So there you go, yet another “leftover”, or in my world; “clean up your fridge” recipe. Hash is another very versatile (and forgiving); you can add as many or as few ingredients you have on hand. It is quick and easy to make can be served for Breakfast, lunch or dinner. This is my entry to Weekend Breakfast Blogging# 4.

Ingredients:
Yukon gold potatoes – 2 medium, peeled and diced
Mushrooms – 6, cleaned and sliced
Onions – 1 medium, thinly sliced
Eggs - 2
Red pepper flakes – a pinch
Thyme – ½ tsp dried or 1tsp fresh
Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan; add onions, potatoes and mushrooms. Sauté the veggies on medium heat till they soften and are lightly browned.
• Add dried thyme, salt & pepper; mix well and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and keep aside.
• Heat 1tsp of oil in the same pan; crack the egg directly into the pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook till your desired consistency. Serve hot over the cooked veggies.
  

We had our hash with toasted muffin and green salad. You can add any vegetables you have on hand (spinach, green and red peppers, zucchini would be great)

Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Panini

Paninis are Italian grilled sandwiches and they are very versatile, you can make them with absolutely anything (great for cleaning up the fridge). Here is a Desi-style panini recipe.
This weekend I decided to clean out my fridge and use up all the produce that I had, so I can stock up again ;-) I found onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, whole wheat pita bread and a bar of pepper jack cheese. So what can you make all these?? A lot.. but ended up making paninis. Here's my recipe.

Ingredients (makes 1 sandwich):
Whole wheat pita bread - 2
Red onion - 1 medium, thinly sliced
Mushrooms - 5-6, thinly sliced
Tomato - 1 small, cut into thin circles
Pepper jack cheese - 2 slices
Mozzarella cheese - 3 tbsp grated (I used Kraft fat-free grated moz.)
Salt and Pepper - to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a pan, add onions and saute till golden and slightly caramelized, takes about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add mushrooms and saute till done. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and keep aside.
• Spray, the grill pan with non-stick cooking spray, toast the pita bread on one side. Add the jack cheese, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, moz. cheese and place the second pita on top.

• Put some kind of weight (I used a foil covered brick.. bought it for a buck in Home depot) and grill for about 2 minutes each side.

Enjoy!!!

Guys.. just a friendly remainder for WBB# 4, deadline to send in your entries is August 31st. Email me at cookshideout@gmail.com. Check out the updates here and here.
Hope to see you all in the round up.