Korean Onion Bread (Yang PaBbang)

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Korean Onion Bread from Varada's Kitchen
The second bread that I really wanted to bake right away was Varada's 'Korean Onion Bread'. It looked so colorful and interesting with the onion, pepper and cheese filling and topping. I remember seeing something similar in the local Korean bakery, which was another reason for me try it at home.
I made it for my Mother's day lunch and the entire loaf was gone by the end of the day. It looked and tasted delicious with the cheesy center and topping.

Original recipe had ham in it and Varada used red peppers instead. I think that was a brilliant idea because red pepper gave the bread a beautiful color and makes it taste hearty & yummy!!

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Red Pepper & Almonds Pasta Sauce

Blogging Marathon# 50: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Different Pasta Sauces

Dish: Red Pepper & Almonds Pasta Sauce

I consider myself at least 5 years behind technology especially social media. The only one that I use is Facebook and that is mainly for the blog and sometimes to share pics of the family. I have no clue where to play and how to play on Facebook. So there you have it -- now you know there is no point in sending me that Farmville request because you got it -- I don't know how to play -- Thank you. But if I compare myself with my husband, I am at least 10 years ahead because he has no Facebook account and he thinks I'm snooping around and violating someone's privacy by reading their status update, hehehe :-)
I digress, coming back to the case in point. I recently started using Instagram, even though I've had the account for almost 2~3 years now. What I'm stumped is the hashtags used in Instagram. Most of the time I'm #totallystuck #havenoclue #howtousehashtags. Any tips, tricks and inputs into expanding my #hashtagknowledge would be highly #appreciated :-) Please leave them in the #comments section below. Thank you.

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Roasted Peppers Pistachio Pesto

Blogging Marathon# 34: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Cooking with Capsicum/ Peppers

Dish: Roasted Red Pepper & Pistachio Pesto with Cheese Ravioli

Its time to start this month's Blogging Marathon, BM# 34. My theme for this week is 'Cooking with Capsicum/ Pepper'. I use bell peppers a lot in my cooking either to make a curry or sambar or  add them to rice dishes. So when I saw the theme, I thought I should try making some new dishes with peppers.

For the first day, I'm using store-bought roasted red peppers from the jar. You could roast your peppers if you have the time, but store bought ones are just as good to make this dish. Recipe is from America's Test Kitchen. 

Here pesto is made with roasted red peppers, toasted pistachios and the usual pesto ingredients, parmesan, olive oil and garlic. This can be used as a pasta sauce or as a sandwich spread or even a dip for some crudites and bread.

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Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Homemade Cheesy Burger Buns

As I was thinking about the theme for this week, "Cooking with Appliance", one appliance I use a lot after my blender is my oven. Here in the US, ovens are standard in every house, even rental apartments come with a standard size oven. For today's recipes I've used the stand mixer and the oven to make a complete meal.

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Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables

This salad was part of my Middle-eastern themed dinner this past weekend (or 2 away. This recipe has been on my drafts for quite some time). Except for chopping the veggies, this dish needs less than 10 minutes of hands-on time and it can easily feed AND please a crowd. I made it about 4 hours before the party and all the flavors had enough time to mingle and make the dish super delish.

Here’s how I made it:
Ingredients:
Zucchini – 2 medium, sliced into ¼” half moons
Red peppers – 2, chopped into 1” pieces
Japanese Eggplant – 2, sliced into ¼” half moons
Red Onion – 1 medium, chopped into 1” pieces

Chickpeas - 1 cup, cooked
Balsamic vinegar – 3tbsp
Extra virgin Olive Oil – 2tbsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste
Herbe de Provence – 1tsp, crushed (or any other dried herbs)
Whole-wheat couscous – 2 cups

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Place the chopped veggies in a large bowl and add balsamic vinegar, oil, s&p & herbs. Mix well to coat the veggies with the marinade. Transfer to baking sheet (s) and bake for 30-35 minutes turning the veggies half-way through until roasted around the edges. Remove from oven and cool.
• In the meantime cook couscous: Boil 4 cups of water with 1tsp olive oil and salt, once the water comes to a rolling boil, add couscous and turn off the heat. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes. Fluff the grains with a fork and add 1tbsp balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
• Gently mix in the roasted veggies and cooked chickpeas; season with more vinegar or salt & pepper. Cover and set aside until ready to serve.
• Garnish with chopped parsley & coriander if desired. You can also add some feta cheese or queso fresco to make it a fancier and non-vegan.

Rigatoni with Vegan Sausages & Peppers

Thank you all for your kind words on my Blog Anniversary.

I have never tasted a real sausage, but I love love love vegan sausages. If the real sausage tastes anything like their vegan counterpart, I’m sure I’ll love them too. But come to think of it, I guess I like the texture of seitan more than the taste, so I don’t know if I would like the real sausage. Well we’ll never know and I prefer to keep it that way.
I made this dish with Julie Hasson’s Italian sausages that I froze and store-bought pasta sauce for a quick weeknight dinner, the result was amazing that even my son was slurping down the sauce.

Ingredients: (Makes 6 servings)
Rigatoni – 16 oz.
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Vegan sausages – 2, sliced into half moons
Banana peppers – 2 large, sliced
Pasta sauce – 1 16oz. bottle (I used Bertolli’s Vidalia Onion pasta sauce)
Salt & pepper – to taste
Pecorino cheese – ¼ cup
Dried or fresh basil

Method:

• Cook pasta as per package directions.
• While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce; heat 1tbsp olive oil in a large skillet. When hot, add onions and garlic, sauté till translucent; add peppers, cover and cook till they turn tender.
• Add seitan and sauté for couple of minutes.
• Now add the pasta sauce and simmer for 8-10 minutes.
• If the sauce is too thick, add pasta water to thin it out. Season with salt & pepper.
• To serve I like to add little sauce to pasta along with couple of teaspoons of cheese and then add more sauce in individual plates with some more cheese on top. Enjoy warm.

We are off on a 1 week vacation to Sweden and I'll be back for Memorial Day. I've few posts from my drafts scheduled to post while I'm gone, so I don't get too too old. I'll be back with pics and new posts end of this month. Oh and also my entries to all the events that I've cooked for so far.

Slow Cooker Sambar

Update: My Computer is fixed.. I've updated the post with the pics.

I wanted to use my slow cooker that’s been collecting dust for quite sometime now. So I decided to make sambar in it and it came out pretty good, can’t complain for the minimum amount of work I had to put in.

Ingredients:
Toor dal – 1 cup
Moong dal – ¼ cup
Onion – 1 large, thinly sliced
Green pepper – 1 small, thinly sliced
Yellow squash – 1 medium, thinly sliced

Tomatoes – 2-3 medium, chopped (I used 1 small tomato chopped and 1/3 cup crushed tomato) Tamarind paste – 3 tbsp

Sambar Powder – 2-3 tbsp, homemade or store-bought (I used Ambika brand that I brought from India)
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste

Popu Ingredients:
Urad dal – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Dry Red chilies – 2
Hing – ¼ tsp

Method:

• I combined dal and veggies along with 5-6 cups water, ½ tsp turmeric, sambar powder, chili powder and salt in the slow cooker. Cooked on Low for about 6 hours (or on High for 4hrs).
• So by the time we came home, dal & veggies were done, then I added tamarind extract and adjusted the seasonings. Cooked for another 30 minutes on High.
• When there was about 10 minutes left for cooking, I made the tadka in 2tbsp oil, added it to slow cooker and let it cook.

Serve with rice, idli, dosa, roti, practically anything can be eaten with sambar. With the leftovers I made Sambar Semya which is nothing but vermicelli mixed with sambar.

Here’s how I made it:
Bring 6cups of water to a rolling boil, add 1tsp salt and 1 cup semya (vermicelli like bambino or MTR brand); cook for 3-4 minutes or until semya is cooked through. Drain the water and set aside to cool. Heat 1tbsp oil in a large sauté pan, add 1tsp each of urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds & cumin seeds, 2-3 dry red chilies, ¼ cup toasted peanuts. Add 2-3 cups of sambar and bring to a simmer. Stir in cooked semya, mix well; taste and add salt, sambar powder as needed. Simmer for 2 minutes and enjoy hot for a quick BLD (Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner).

Sambar goes to EC @ Simple Indian Food for her WYF-Side Dish event.
Sambar Semya goes to Sahaja @ Spicy Rasam for her Single Serving Recipes event.

Note: My laptop has gone cuckoo and is probably infected by the conflicker virus. So couldn't upload pics, I will update the post once everything is fixed.

Penang Curry & Parippu Vada

Zlamushka of Burnt Mouth has chosen Jai and Bee's Jugalbandi for this month's Tried and Tested event. Thanks Zlamushka for accepting my late entry.. I made two recipes from Jugalbandi.

• Penang Curry: Followed the recipe to the T, except that I used red and green peppers instead of yellow pepper. I religiously followed the advise and doubled the recipe for the curry paste and froze it.

• Parippu Vada: Again followed recipe to the T, except I used curry leaves and coriander leaves as suggested by Bee. Yummy.. yummy.. yummy.. is what I can say.. We had our vada with tomato chutney.

Grilled Tempeh with Broccoli Rabe and Red Peppers

Tempeh is made from fermented soybeans and has higher content of protein, vitamins and dietary fiber compared to tofu. It also has a different texture and a very strong flavor (slightly bitter). My favorite way of cooking tempeh would be baking it in a marinade and made into a sandwich. Grilling it would be my second favorite; grilling makes it juicy and yummy.

I used broccoli rabe for the first time in this recipe. I have to admit that I didn’t like it. I thought I would because I like Karela (bitter gourd), but this was way too much bitter for my palate. Next time, I’m going to make this with either broccoli or broccolini (never had this before and is on my must-try list; now that broccoli rabe is out of it).

Recipe adapted from here.
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
Low-Sodium Tamari – 4 tsp
Olive oil – 4 tsp
Balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp
Garlic, minced – 1 tbsp
Dijon mustard – 1 tsp
Dried basil – 1 tsp
Dried Oregano – 1 tsp
Onion powder – ½ tsp
Paprika – ½ tsp
Red pepper flakes – ½ tsp
Salt and Pepper – to taste

For Tempeh:
Tempeh – 1 8oz. pkg any variety (I used veggie style tempeh)
Red Onion – 1 medium, diced
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Broccoli Rabe – 1 bunch, roughly chopped
Red pepper – 1 medium, diced
Garlic – 1 tbsp, minced
Nutritional Yeast – 4 tsp
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Method:

• First prepare the tempeh for marinating. In a medium sauce pot bring some water to a boil. Cut tempeh into quarters and add them to the water. Let the simmer covered for 10 minutes.
  
• In the meantime whisk all the marinade ingredients together in a dish that’s big enough to place tempeh.
  
• After 10 minutes, remove tempeh from water and immediately place in the marinade. Cover and marinate for at least 1 hour.
  
• Preheat grill pan on medium-high heat. Grill tempeh for 5 minutes on each side.
  
• Reserve the marinade. Keep grilled tempeh warm in a warm oven until ready to serve.
  
• Then prepare broccoli rabe and red-pepper. To remove the bitterness of broccoli rabe, bring some water to a boil in a large skillet, cover and cook it for 5 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
  
• Wipe the skillet clean and add oil; when hot, add onions and sauté for 5-8 minutes until onions are soft and golden. Add garlic and red pepper. Sauté until peppers are tender. Then add cooked broccoli rabe, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Cook for another 3-5 minutes. Serve along with grilled tempeh and rice.
  

This is my entry to this month’s JFI-Soy hosted by Lovely Sia @ Monsoon Spice. (JFI is the brain child of Indira @ Mahanandi)

General Pav's Seitan for A.W.E.D-Chinese

I usually make Chinese food at least once a week; be it Indo-Chinese, American Chinese or even Pavani Chinese(this is where I get extremely creative and add soy sauce and sesame oil in almost everything to make it Chinese). But I wanted to make something authentic Chinese for A.W.E.D-Chinese event (brain child of DK @ Culinary Buzaar)

So I searched online for General Tso’s Chicken (Seitan) recipe and found them here and here. I adapted both the recipes to make my own General Pav’s Seitan. I have to say it didn’t taste bad at all and it also had the same glazed look that General Tso’s dish does. I’m going to make it again.

Ingredients:
Seitan – 1 cup, homemade or store-bought (I used home-made Seitan)
Peppers – 2, I used one green, one red pepper
Carrots – 2 medium, thinly sliced
Chinese Broccoli – 1 bunch, chopped
Green Onions – 1 bunch, chopped
Ginger – ½” piece
Garlic – 2 cloves, crushed
All-purpose flour – 2tbsp
Cayenne Pepper – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Garlic powder – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Red Pepper flakes – ½ tsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste

For the Sauce:
Sherry (or Rice Wine) – 2 tbsp
Rice Wine vinegar – 1½ tbsp
Honey (or sugar) – 1½ tbsp
Corn Starch – 2 tbsp
Soy Sauce – 3tbsp


Method:

• Whisk AP flour, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt in a bowl. Drop seitan and toss around to coat with the flour.
  
• Heat 1 tbsp peanut oil in a pan and sauté seitan on medium-high heat till lightly browned on all sides. Remove and keep aside.
  
• Rinse and wipe the same pan clean; add 1 tbsp peanut oil, sauté on medium-high heat green onions, carrots and peppers along with ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes till tender and browned around the edges, about 8-10 minutes. Keep stirring occasionally to avoid burning.
  
• Now add Chinese broccoli, cover and let the leaves wilt.
  
• In the mean time mix all the ingredients for the sauce to make smooth slurry. Add some water to help mixing.
  
• Slowly stir in the sauce and sautéed seitan into the veggies and cook on medium flame until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve over brown rice or noodles.

South Indian style Pepper-Seitan Curry

As I mentioned in my previous posts here and here, I have started venturing into making and cooking mock meat. I tasted mock meat for the first time at Veggie Heaven. It’s an all vegetarian Chinese restaurant that serves great mock meat dishes along with all-vegetable stir fries, noodles and rice dishes. Their menu looks like a regular Chinese restaurant menu with Taro chicken a la king, beef with broccoli, baby shrimp with chili sauce and so on. But they are 100% vegetarian and also vegan friendly dishes.

I loved their curry chicken and General Tso’s chicken. So after a little research and information from my colleague, I decided to make my own seitan at home. I bought the ingredients seen here and made my first baked seitan. It was really good. I boiled seitan the second time I made it. I thought it was better than my first try. It makes a whole lot of fake meat. I refrigerated half of it in the broth and froze the other half. I used half of the refrigerated to make this pepper-seitan curry.

Ingredients:
Peppers – 2 medium, chopped into big bite size pieces
Seitan – ½ cup, chopped
Onions – 1 medium, chopped into big bite size pieces
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped
Curry powder – 2tsp (I used Priya Madras curry powder)
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a heavy bottom pan; when the oil starts to shimmer add onions and peppers. Cook on medium high flame, till the veggies start browning on the edges.
• Move the veggies to one side of the pan; add seitan to the other side and sauté till they are slightly browned all over.
  
• Once that is done, mix everything in the pan, lower the heat to medium; cover and cook till the onions and peppers are tender, about 6-8 minutes.
  
• Add the tomatoes, cover and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add salt, chili powder, curry powder and ½ cup water. Cook for another 5 minutes till all the flavors come together.

Serve with rice or roti.



This is my entry to JFI & VoW-Bell Peppers event, being hosted by lovely Pooja.

Mexican Vegetable Lasagna

This is a very nutritious and filling dish. I adapted Rachael Ray's Mexican lasagna to suit our taste. I used almost all the different variety of veggies I had in the fridge.

Ingredients:
For the Filling:
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
Zucchini - 1 medium, chopped
Red Pepper - 3 medium, chopped ( I actually used 1 each of red, green and orange)
Spinach - 3 cups, roughly chopped
Red Kidney beans - 1 15 oz. can, drained and rinsed
Chopped Tomatoes - 1 15 oz. can ( or as required)
Cumin powder - 2 tbsp
Chili powder - 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper - to taste

Other Ingredients:
Tortillas - 3 ( I used large flour tortillas, you can substitute corn tortillas)
Sharp Cheddar cheese - 1 cup, grated
Pepper Jack cheese - 1 cup, grated
Green onions - 2, for garnish

Method:

• In a large pot, heat 2 tbsp oil on medium flame. Add garlic and saute till light brown. Add onions, peppers, zucchini and saute for about 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper; cover and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the veggies are just tender.
  
• Add chopped spinach and kidney beans. Cook till the spinach wilts, about 3 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes ( make sure that the filling is not too wet), cumin powder, chili powder. Cook for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and keep aside.

Assembling the Lasagna:

• In a baking dish (I used a square baking dish), spread just a little filling (about 2tbsp)in the bottom.
  
• Halve the tortillas and layer the filling with 2 tortilla half moons (with the cut side facing outward).
• Spread 1/3 of the filling and cheese over the tortillas. Place another layer of tortillas.
• Repeat the layers with filling and cheese.
• Top most layer should be cheese (add more cheese for a gooey top).
• Bake in pre-heated 425F oven for 10-15 minutes or till the cheese is melted and slightly browned.
• Garnish with chopped green onions and enjoy with a simple salad for a complete meal.
  

* Left over filling is great with rice (white or brown).
* Lasagna can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days; reheats well and is great for lunch
the next day.
* Any veggie or beans can be added like mushrooms, black beans, pinto beans, broccoli.

Spanish rice with Pinto Beans

I just love all kinds of beans and I try to keep my pantry full with both canned and dried beans (ya.. I agree I go a little over board and buy more stuff than I need. It’s always better to have them when you don’t need them, but not have them when you need them doesn’t feel right).

I had of bag of pinto beans (bought a while back), that I finally decided to cook. Dried beans need planning, time and energy to cook(all of these are missing in me on a weekday) , but I decided to finish this bag and swore not to buy anymore dried in the near future.

I soaked about 2 cups of beans and used one cup each in 2 recipes; Spanish rice and Chimichangas.

Ingredients:
Dried pinto beans – 1 cup (or 1 can)
Brown rice – 1 cup
Bay leaves – 2
Onion – 1 large, chopped fine
Green peppers – 2, medium (you can use any color peppers)
Jalapeños – 2 , chopped
Garlic cloves – 3, minced
Tomatoes – 2 medium
Tomato paste – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 1tbsp
Cumin powder – 1tsp
Chili powder – 1tsp
Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:

• Sort through the beans, soak overnight. Rinse and cook along with brown rice in a pressure cooker with bay leaves. (Beans cook faster in pressure cooker. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, then cook rice and beans separately. Pinto beans take almost 1 – 1½ hours to cook.)
• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large pan; sauté minced garlic and onions till onions turn transparent and pink, about 6-8 minutes.
• Add peppers, jalapeños; cover and cook till veggies are tender.
• Add tomato puree and chopped tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper; cover and cook for 5 minutes.(If using canned pinto beans, add rinsed and drained beans to the veggie mixture at this stage, let them heat through, then rice to this mixture.)
• Add the cooked rice and beans to this mixture. Squeeze lemon juice; mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Garnish with green onions and serve hot with guacamole, cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack or pepper jack cheeses would taste awesome) and sour cream.

Mixed Vegetable Pasta

What do I do when I have to cook for myself and all that I have in the fridge is some left over pasta and some lonely veggies. The best part about cooking for myself is I don’t have to worry if my DH is going to like it or not. So I went with my whim and I made myself a big bowl of mixed vegetable pasta.

Ingredients:
Cooked pasta – 1 cup (I used whole wheat penne rigate)
Onion – 1 medium
Carrot – 1 large
Green pepper – 1 medium
Zucchini – 2 medium
Corn kernels – ½ cup (I used frozen corn)
Tomato – 1 medium
Lemon juice – 1tbsp
Red pepper flakes – 1tsp
Garlic powder – ½ tsp
Herbe de provence (or Italian seasoning) – 1 tsp
Salt & Pepper – to taste
Method:

• Dice all the veggies to approximately the same size.
  
• Heat 2tsp olive oil in a large pan on medium heat, add onions, carrots and green peppers and sauté for 8-10 minutes or until the veggies are slightly tender.
  
• Add zucchini and corn and cook for another 5 minutes.
  
• Add tomatoes, red pepper flakes, garlic powder and herbs. Cover and cook until tomatoes are tender but not mushy, about 3 minutes.
• Toss pasta with the veggies, season with salt and pepper and let the pasta heat through for 5 more minutes.
  
• Remove from heat, add lemon juice, mix well and serve hot with generous sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
  

You can also add/ substitute broccoli, asparagus, green beans, yellow squash, peas etc. to this dish. (These are the veggies I can think of from the top of my head right now). Also this makes lot of food for one person.

Ratatouille: WCC - Stew

As I was looking for a “Stew recipe” for this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge (WCC), I saw this colorful, full of veggies stew in my “Best Ever Vegetarian Cookbook” (edited by Nicola Graimes). Name of the dish sounded a little funny, Ratatouille, so I decided to do a little digging and this is what I found out from wikipedia.

The name of the dish appears to have derived from the French verb touiller, to stir, although the root of the first element "rat-" is a slang from the French Army meaning chunky stew. The word ratatouille has also come to be used in non-culinary contexts in English to refer to a (generally colourful) mixture of any kind. Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish which can be served as a meal on its own (accompanied by rice, potatoes, or simply French bread), or as a side dish.
There is a also a animated movie being made with the same name. More info and story here.

Ingredients:
Eggplant – 1, roughly chopped
Zucchini – 2, roughly chopped
Onions – 2, sliced
Green pepper – 1, chopped
Red pepper – 1, chopped
Chopped tomatoes – 1 15 oz. can
Garlic cloves – 2
Red pepper flakes – 1 tsp (or to taste)
Fresh thyme – 1 sprig (I used dried thyme)
Fresh rosemary – 1 sprig (I used dried)
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp, crushed
Basil leaves - 8, torn
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:

• Sprinkle eggplant and zucchini pieces with salt, then put them in a colander with a plate and a weight on top to extract the bitter juices. Leave for about 30 minutes.
  
• Heat 4tbsp olive oil (recipe called for 2/3 cups oil, I reduced it to 4tbsp, you may want to use even less oil) in a large saucepan, saute onions for 6-7 minutes or until just softened, add garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
• Rinse the eggplant and zucchini pieces and pat dry with a clean dish towel. Add these to the pan along with the peppers, increase the heat and saute until the peppers are just turning brown, about 8-10 minutes.
• Add the herbs and coriander seeds, cover and cook gently for about 20-30 minutes.
  
• Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook gently for a further 10 minutes, until the veggies are soft but not mushy.
• Remove the sprigs of rosemary and thyme herbs. Stir in the torn basil leaves and check the seasoning. Leave to cool slightly and serve warm or cold.

This recipe is adapted from The Greatest Ever Vegetarian Cookbook, Edited by Nicola Graimes.

Onion-Green Pepper Sambar

I googled the word “Sambar” and was really surprised to see the number of results displayed (around 75,000 of them). I knew sambar is a very versatile dish, but I didn’t realize that each household in south India have their own way of making it. When you think of sambar, you think of (idlis, of course.. but that’s not what I’m thinking here J) spicy lentil-tamarind based soup with veggies. But the different ways in which all these ingredients come together, gives rise to a plethora of sambar recipes.

Doesn't that book look wicked?? This is the book that I carried with me to write down recipes from my mom, my mother-in-law and the TV (there are like 4 different cooking shows on 4 different telugu channels in the span of 2 hours in India and I made sure that I didn’t miss out anything interesting on any of the shows). I have some authentic Andhra dishes and some fancy (can I use that word for food???) dishes in the book that I have to try. Will post about them soon.

For now, here is my mom’s way of making sambar. I used potatoes, green peppers and onions for this.

Ingredients:
Toor dal – 1 cup
Onions – 1 large, thinly sliced
Green pepper – 1 medium, sliced thin
Potatoes – 2 medium, sliced thin
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped fine
Tamarind paste – 2 tbsp
Salt – to taste

For Sambar paste:
Chana dal – 2 tbsp
Urad dal – 2 tbsp
Red chilies – 6
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Pepper cloves – ½ tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Grated coconut (fresh or dry) – 4 tbsp

For Tadka:
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6

Rice with Goruchikkudukaya kura, Sambar, Gongura pachadi & onions

Method:

• To make the paste, fry all ingredients except for coconut in 1 tsp ghee. Cool and grind into a smooth paste along with grated coconut. Keep aside.
  
• Pressure cook dal until very very smooth (I usually wait for atleast half a dozen whistles in my cooker). Boil the veggies in just enough water till tender.
  
• Add chopped tomatoes, cover and cook tomatoes turn mushy.
  
• Add the cooked dal (mash it a little bit for smoother texture), tamarind paste, ground paste, salt and 2 cups of water.
  
• Bring it to a slow simmer and cook till you get the desired consistency. Add water if you like your sambar on the liquidy side.
• Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan, add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves. After the seeds splutter add it to sambar. Mix well.

I always end up making a whole big pot of sambar that lasts for atleast 3-4 meals and I don’t mind that because the taste just keeps getting better the next day. Enjoy with idli or rice.

Check out Sailu's, Trupti's, Mythreyee's, Revathi's and Indira's sambar recipes.

Less than 30minutes One-pot dinner

Its been raining steadily since morning here. Traffic in New Jersey is bad everyday, but when it rains it becomes worse. I sat in traffic for almost 45minutes each way today. I shouldn’t complain since my poor husband spent double that time (each way) in traffic watching rain and snail-paced traffic. What I don’t understand is the reason for slow moving traffic, no accident, and no detours. This is like a big mystery to me.

Anyway I came home late and wanted to make something quick. We bought this big box of frozen pierogies from BJ’s sometime back and I wanted to use them up. Pierogies are semicircular dumplings and are usually filled with finely chopped meat or vegetables.

I had my first pierogie almost 2years ago. My ex-colleague, a really nice Polish lady, had brought some pierogies (sautéed in butter with onions) that she made to work. They were sooo good that they melt in your mouth. According to her frozen pierogies is no match to the homemade ones. But I neither have the skill nor the patience to make them at home; so frozen ones are a good substitute.

I sautéed the pierogies (with potatoes and cheddar cheese) in little butter and olive oil with three different peppers.

Ingredients:

Frozen pierogies – 5-6 (per person)
Green pepper – 1
Red pepper - 1
Yellow pepper – 1
Onion – 1
Red pepper flakes – ½ tsp
Butter – 1tsp
Olive oil – 1tsp
Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat butter & oil in a pan. Add red pepper flakes, pierogies and all the veggies (thinly sliced).
• Sauté until the pierogies are golden brown on both sides. Takes about 8-10minutes.
• Add salt and pepper to taste. This dish is very easy and filling too.
  

PS: I didnt notice until my husband was about to take the picture that the picture on the box was exacty what I made. What a coincidence!!!!!