Mexican style Macaroni & Cheese

Macaroni and cheese is a very classic American dish. According to Wiki knowledge, macaroni and cheese was invented by Thomas Jefferson, who, in the variant told by Alton Brown of Good Eats, upon failing to receive an Italian pasta-making machine, designed his own machine, made the macaroni, and had the cook put liberal quantities of York cheddar and bake it as a casserole.

I had my first macaroni and cheese five years ago (during the initial days of getting to know US food), when one of my friend’s aunt sent boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese to make at home. I liked the concept of making a meal from a box and also the convenience of getting 2 boxes for 99 cents.

For a while I was under the impression that macaroni and cheese can be made only out of the box (silly me). That’s when I watched Rachel Ray making mac & cheese from scratch and I realized that I have been eating chemicals all these days. Since then, I have been making mac & cheese at home and this is one of the variations I learnt from Queen of 30 minutes, Rachel Ray.

Ingredients:
Elbow macaroni – 8oz
Monterey Jack cheese – 1 cup grated
Onion – 1 medium chopped
Green pepper – 1 medium chopped
Red pepper – 1 small chopped
Crushed tomatoes – ½ 16oz can
Chipotle in adobo sauce – 2 chopped
All purpose flour – 3tbsp
Vegetable broth – 1 cup
1% Low fat milk – 1 cup
Chili powder – 1tsp
Butter – 1tbsp
Olive oil –
Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:

• Cook macaroni according to package directions.
  
• While the pasta is cooking, make the two sauces:
  
• In a large sauté pan, heat 1tbsp olive oil and add onion, green pepper, red pepper and sauté till cooked. Add the chopped chipotle peppers with a little bit of sauce and tomatoes and cover cook for about 5-7 minutes on medium. Season with chili powder, salt and pepper, mix well. Turn off the heat and keep aside.
  
• In a separate medium size sauce pan, add butter and 2tbsp olive oil, when hot add the flour and sauté till the flour doesn’t smell raw anymore. Add broth and milk whisk well and bring it to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add grated cheese and let it melt. Remove from heat.
  
• Finally combine cooked pasta, veggies and cheese sauce, mix well and serve hot.
  

Note: The sauce is not as creamy and thick as it would be when you use whole milk or heavy cream or half and half.
You can add more veggies like broccoli, peas, zucchini etc.
Omit chipotle pepper and make it Indian style by adding a teaspoon of curry powder or garam masala.
Give it a smoky flavor by adding cumin powder and smoked cheddar cheese.

Kabuli & Kala Chana Rice

You might be thinking that I am obsessed with beans. But it is just a coincidence that I have been cooking with beans more frequently now than ever. I soaked chana (both kabuli and kala) for Varalakshmi vratam last friday and distributed some to friends. With the remaining chana, I wanted to make Tarla Dalal’s Kabuli Chana Biryani, but it looked too much work for me, so I ended up modifying the recipe and made a quicker version. This is my entry to this week's ARF/ 5-A-day tuesday.

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice – 1 ½ cup cooked
Kabuli & Kala Chana (either one or both) – 1 cup boiled
Onion – 1 medium chopped
Potato – 1 medium, boiled, peeled and diced
Tomato – 2 medium chopped
Green chilies – 3
Ginger garlic paste – ½ tsp
Curd – 2 tbsp
Red chili powder – 1tsp
Amchoor powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Salt – to taste
Coriander – for garnish

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp of oil in a large pan, add onions and fry till they turn pink. Add ginger, garlic paste and sauté till it does not smell raw anymore.
• Add the powders, curd, diced potatoes and mix well.
• Add tomatoes to the onion mixture; cover and cook till soft.
• Add cooked chickpeas and salt; mix well and cook for another 5 minutes on medium flame, or till the mixture is not too watery.

• Add the chickpea gravy to rice, mix well (but try not to break the rice), check seasoning and serve hot with onion raita (finely chopped onions mixed in yogurt with salt).

Note: Tarla Dalal’s recipe involves, layering the chana gravy with rice in a greased casserole and baking it (covered with tin foil) for 20 minutes in a 350ºF oven.

Meat without Murder

I read this article in the recent "Vegetarian times" magazine and wanted to share it with all of you. The article is about how modern technology that can 'produce the world's entire supply of meat without every killing a single animal'. The technique involves removing muscle cells from a live animal and then letting the cells divide in a giant petri dish - a vat that is kept at the same temperature as the animal's body. After a few weeks of growing, this synthetically made meat can be used as any other meat.

Vat-grown meat is said to be more safer and more healthful than today's meat. With tissue culture, scientists can reduce the high saturated fat content or even replace it with a healthier fat.

Will it sell?? is the million dollar question, since a lot of research is being done in making this synthetic meat (by scientists in Univ. of Maryland, Univ. of Utretcht in Holland and many more around the world). Some people argue that it will sell becaus we've already accepted plenty of bioengineered foods, such as wine, cheese and tofu. None of them are found in nature. But not sure how well this concept will be accepted by meat eaters.

I support the idea of muderless meat as it removes the suffering of billions of animals and still gives people the opportunity to eat what they want, minus the cruelty. As a life long vegetarian, I've tried and liked soy meat and chicken, but I would'nt want to eat synthetic meat myself.

I would like to know what all of you vegetarians and meat-eaters think about this man-made meat. Let me know.

Soybean Kura (Sauteed Soybeans)

As I mentioned earlier in one of my posts, I love my beans. I like the nutty flavor and soft texture of all the beans. In India, my bean database was limited to garbanzo (Chick peas) and kidney beans. But after coming to the U.S, my database expanded with black, pinto,navy, lima, adzuki(havent tried this yet), cannellini and last, but definitely no where near least soybeans. Find more about beans here.

So coming to Soybeans, I was always under the impression that they cannot be eaten as regular beans (don't ask me why!!!) May be because so many other things are made of them, I never thought that they can also be eaten as is.

My mom actually started using them for quite a while now. She adds them to her idli batter (soaks a handful of them along w/ Urad dal), wheat flour (gets them milled along with wheat) and also makes gravy curries.

Thats when I bought Soybean flour and started adding it to chapathis, cakes (just a little bit to the flour) and breads. Get more information on Soybeans here.

This is the first curry I made with soybeans and I was pleasantly surprised with the delicate taste and texture of soybeans.

Ingredients:
Soybeans - 1 cup (soaked for at least 4hrs)
Onions - 2 chopped
Green Chilies - 3
Kasuri Methi - 2 tbsp
Chili powder - 1tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook the soy beans until done.
• Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan, saute onions till lightly browned.
• Add green chilies, soybeans and saute on medium flame until the beans start to turn light brown for about 10-12 minutes.
• Add kasoori methi, chili powder and salt and mix well. Sprinkle some water if you feel the mixture is too dry.
• Cook for another 5minutes and serve hot.