Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Coconut filled rice crepes, a Bengali delicacy
Pati Shaptar Pithe/Pitha or coconut filled rice crepes. Pati means a mat, and shapta means simple in Bengali.
Grate raw coconut (or get frozen unsweetened grated coconut and thaw), about two cups, add sugar to taste and stir fry until golden brown. If you wish, you can add a tablespoon of raisins and a tablespoon of toasted and chopped cashew nuts or slivered almonds.
Pitha comes in various shapes. These are the simplest. To prepare the crepe batter, to a cup of rice flour, add a pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of sugar. Add milk, 2% or full fat preferably, until the batter consistency is like crepe. Heat up a non-stick pan. If needed, you can wipe it down with a buttered cloth/brush. Follow cooking temperature regimen for a crepe.
 Pour about 1/4 cup of batter and roll it around on the hot pan to form a thin crepe. |
 As the crepe cooks, it starts to lift off the edges. |
 Add two tablespoons of filling. Optionally, form the filling in the palm of your hand in shape of a small spheroid. |
 Roll in form of a fat cigar. |
Keep aside while you prepare the rest. These can be eaten warm or at room temperature. To take them to the next level (i.e. not simple), you can bake them in condensed milk as well but they do become heavy. Drizzling some condensed milk on top while not traditional can be an excellent substitute.
During this trip to India, I am seeing some new sweets in Bengal including baked rasogolla (boiled cheese balls dunked in sugar syrup) , Kolkata’s famous sweet and chana pora (literal translation for roasted cheese), a dish very similar to cheese cake.
Homemade pomegranate seeds
Dried pomegranate seeds are excellent in salads or in soups or savory pancakes where the crunch from the seed or the sourness can be pleasing. The seeds can also be crushed and added to dishes to lend sourness.
On the right, in the picture above, are store bought seeds. They are sour but don’t have a whole lot of taste. The one on the left of the picture are dried at home in a food dryer per recommendation. It took what seemed like forever but the result is gorgeous. The seeds retain the lovely pomegranate color and are intensely flavorful. The seeds are crunchier as well and perhaps not as sour as the store bought variety.
I think I am going to additionally try my seeds as toppings on ice cream and homemade bars.
Mamey, another tropical fruit
Pouteria sapota, mamey sapote, is native to Central America, naturally ranging from southern Mexico to southern Costa Rica.
Wait for the fruit to get slightly soft to touch. Cut open, get rid of the fat black seed, scoop the flesh out an eat. In taste, this is like the chikoo fruit in India, but somewhat fibrous. These fruits are very expensive in Bay Area but if I get it again, I will try milkshake, which is apparently a Cuban favorite.
Prickly Pear jelly
These are from Mexico, and pretty expensive at the local market. On the plus side, they are cleaned of the larger prickly thorns.
To eat, cut open and scoop out the flesh and eat. The color can vary, deep orange, purple or watermelon and matches the color of the fruit on the outside. Flesh is not too sweet, is subtly flavored and juicy. There are lots of small seeds that make for a nice texture – mouthfeel is like eating raspberries.
A dear neighbor recently gave us a large pail of prickly pear. He has the deep orange variety. These of course had the thorns unlike the ones from the store. I held each fruit using a tong, gave it a quick rinse in the kitchen basin to get rid of cobwebs and spiders, cut the fruit in half with a sharp knife on a cutting board, scooped the flesh out with a butter spoon and dumped the rest in my compost bin – assembly line style. I got about 6 cups from ~20 fruits.
I cooked the resulting flesh for about 45 minutes to release the juices, added a cinnamon stick at the end and let cool. Strained the resulting mass through a steel strainer to get rid of the seeds – if you just let the liquid drip, you will get a clearer jel but I let the pulp through. Finally, followed a low sugar jelly following instructions on Pomona pectin package for strawberries.
Made exactly 3 mason jars worth of jelly. Two of these will go to my neighbor who has a lot of grandchildren to share fruits of his labor with.
Enjoy with some plain yogurt.
Pineapple guava, a tropical fruit
Pineapple guava at my local market, Sigona.
Small fruits, smaller than your typical guava.
These are pineapple guavas from my tree. To eat, wait until they are a little soft to touch. They will continue to look green.
Although edible, the outside part is too tart to be fun. Inside is soft and sweet and a blast of flavor. When ripe, the inside portion starts to look translucent. I scoop the insides out using a spoon. Right now, the fruits are ripening and they fall from the tree making a nice “tup” sound on the patio wood.
These are the flowers of pineapple guava tree. Now that I am catching the tree in spring bloom, I see the squirrels wreak a havoc on these flowers. Hopefully the tree will end up with sufficient fruits this summer.
Making your own brand of bubblies
Combine Mastrad Purefizz Soda Maker and a cheapish bottle of wine. This was an awful Loire from Trader Joe’s but addition of bubbles made it more than drinkable.
Peethi ki Poori, lentil stuffed fried Indian bread
Peethi ki poori served with potato curry
No pain, no gain. This is one of the more complex of Indian breakfasts that is better left to special occasions.
Peethi: Soak 1 cup dry Urad lentil, whole or broken with no husk, overnight, grind in a food processor so it is not a complete paste with no additional water. Add 2 green chilis, 1 tsp salt, roasted and crushed black peppercorn. In a heavy pan, heat 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Add a pinch of asafoetida and 1 tsp cumin seeds. Cook for 30-45 seconds until fragrant and add the processed lentil. Cook until the mass becomes sticky dough like. Let cool. This can be made upto a couple days in advance.
Potato curry: Peel and chop one large Idaho potato, in 1.5 inch cubes. In 1/4 cup water, add 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 Tbsp sour yogurt and 2 Tbsp of tomato paste and make into a smooth paste. In a pressure cooker, heat 1 Tbsp oil. Add 2 whole red peppers, 1 tsp dry urad daal, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds until they splutter and add the tomato-turmeric paste. Stir until fried and add the potato pieces. Stir to coat, add 1 tsp salt and add 2 cups of water. Pressure cook at medium for 5 minutes after the pressure builds up. Switch off and wait for pressure to subside. You can keep like this this for upto two days. When ready to eat, warm up, crush some of the potatoes with the back of your spoon, adjust for salt and add 2 Tbsp of chopped coriander leaves.
Poori dough: Take 2 cups of whole wheat flour, add 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tsp salt and necessary water to make into smooth dough. Let rest until ready to use. Heat oil for deep frying and maintain temperature while you roll out the poori’s.
Now get ready to put together the meal.
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Nettles and eggs
Following recipe serves two. Start with 2 packed cups of greens. In principle you can use a variety of greens including spinach or arugula but I chose nettles because that is what I had at hand. Wash and spin dry.
In your favorite omelet pan on which eggs don’t stick, add 1Tbsp butter and nettles. Sprinkle a pinch of salt. Cook until barely wilted. Break open four eggs, gently.
In a separate saucepan, clarify 1Tbsp butter and fry a pinch of ground spices (seeds of one green cardamom, 4 whole black pepper kernels, 2 allspice kernels). Add this to the cooked eggs and serve.
Bengali fish fry and Kentucky bourbon
Batter fried small river fish
Kentucky bourbon in a Kolkata home
Fish fry continues to be part of Bengali “afternoon/low tea”. The type and style of fry depends really on the season and availability. Bigger pieces are typically fried lightly coated in turmeric and salt and served with a dash of lime. Smaller fish are dunked in a a spicy wheat flour or besan (can be substituted with garbanzo bean flour) batter before frying.
My father’s generation can perhaps tell the taste and texture difference between 30-50 different varieties of fish. Most of these varieties have now disappeared from the local markets. Now when I visit Kolkata, there is at least a once a week story about the good old days when fish were plentiful in the rivers.
To be honest, I like the ritual more than anything else. Family gathers at the table waiting for freshly fried fish to be served. My mother’s kitchen is only a few feet from the dinner table so we eagerly watch her as she heats up the mustard oil and fries for a good few minutes until the outside is fried crisp but the flesh is flaky. The pungent aroma of mustard oil mixed with the fresh fish oils is perhaps the best pick me up even on a muggy summer day.
I have developed a fondness for Kentucky bourbon and I think it goes really well with family and fried fish. And my family agrees one hundred percent.
The fish disappears rapidly leaving behind folks licking fingers. A few fish bones on the plate and aroma of fish and bourbon is all that is left behind.
Makke ki Roti – the way mom makes it
You have surely heard stories of chefs stirring sauces with their hands. My story involves my mother-in-law shaping old-fashioned corn rotis on the hot griddle with her hands. I am presenting a story here and not a recipe. I can’t follow this recipe and I won’t recommend you try.
She estimates amount of corn flour she will need based on how hungry the family is. Adds appropriate amount of grated radish, chopped radish leaves, salt, dry mango powder, hot paprika and water. Kneads to form a pliable dough.
She puts the griddle to heat on medium-high, and keeps following things handy - a bowl of water convenient to dip her fingers in, a tablespoon and a cup of vegetable oil. She shapes tennis ball sized dough in her hands and flattens each into a fat roti with her palms.
She oils the pan lightly, places the roti on the hot griddle, dips her hand in cold water and flattens the fat roti into a thinner one. Then she ladles oil along the edges so the oil slides underneath and cooks the underside of the roti.
These rotis take a few minutes per side to cook. She flips only when the underside is done and repeats the oil treatment. The flipping is done gently as the corn rotis break relatively easily due to lack of gluten.
Voila! They are ready to serve. The rotis are crisp on the outside, melt-y polenta-like inside. Traditionally served with mustard greens that has been cooked for hours into a buttery smooth piquant sauce.
Eggs and toast – never had it this good …
Eggs and toast
Following serves 2:
Soft boil couple of eggs, preferably from organically fed and farm raised hens.
Cut up two slices of fresh sourdough bread into thick cut french fry style pieces. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil on a pan and saute these bread slices until golden and crackle-y.
Crack open the top of your soft boiled egg, add some fleur de sel and freshly ground black pepper, dip the fried bread sticks in the yolk and enjoy.
Cup of espresso at the end with a slice of pannetoni is nice but not absolutely essential for a great start to the day.
Pimientos de Padrón with a touch of sesame oil and flower peppers
Padrón peppers tossed with smoked salt and sichuan peppers
These Spanish peppers have caught on in San Francisco Bay Area. Last few years they were expensive and scarce at the farmer’s market, a small basket for $5. This year, our neighborhood Asian market has a large bag of these for $5. Last year, I fried these peppers in oil until blistery. This year, I got lazy and decided to push these under the broiler. Surprisingly enough, they came out at least as good as fried if not better.
Yet another Delhi street food
This is one of the great street foods of Delhi – daal pakodas (fried lentil balls) served with grated radish and carrot and topped with chutneys. Like a small plate of chaat, this is a multi-dimensional exploration of tastes and textures. The pakodas are crunchy and the lentil is tangy. The pakodas are neither too dense nor too fluffy and provides a nice bite. Grated radish and carrot adds a refreshing crispness. Horseradish overtones and bitterness of radish and sweetness of carrots adds to the dimensions of taste. Coriander/mint chutneys are savory, tart, and gingery. Tamarind chutneys bring the taste of molasses, and dates.
 Home grown radishes |
 Frying lentil balls |
 Fried lentill pakodas |
 Add grated carrots and radishes |
Desi style Okra fritters
Following recipe serves two –
- Start with a dozen tender okra. Wash and dry thoroughly.
- Slit open with a paring knife and stuff a pinch of the following spice mixture – 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp amchoor (dry mango powder), 1 tsp anardana (dry pomegranate seeds), 1 tsp toasted and crushed cumin, 1 tsp red pepper powder
- Prepare a thin cake like batter by mixing 1 cup of besan (bengal gram flour) or chickpea flour with sufficient water, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp cracked pepper, 1/2 tsp anardana, 1/2 tsp crushed coriander seeds, 1/2 tsp nigella seeds, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp of red pepper powder/flakes
- Prepare a mustard oil bath for frying – 1-2 cups depending on your fryer.
- Heat mustard oil to smoking.
- Coat the okra in batter, a few at a time, and fry until golden.
- Drain on a paper towel and serve with chutney.
Stuffing Okra with spices
Chilke ki roti – Vintage punjabi cuisine
Chilke (husk) ki roti
This recipe is from my grandmother’s generation that believed in the motto “waste not want not” and uses the husk of lentils to lighten up the traditional roti. Following recipe serves two.
Preparing the lentil: Take a cup of green mung bean (split or whole). Rinse the beans and soak overnight. If using whole beans, prepare for the beans to sprout and let the bean sprout for a day or so which eases removal of husk. When the beans are ready, place the lentils in a large container and fill with water. Gently rub the lentils to loosen the skin. Collect up the skin that floats to the top. Squeeze the skin to drain all water and set aside. If making daal from the washed and de-skinned lentil, click here for one particular recipe. The sprouts can be served as a simple salad when mixed with salt, pepper and lime juice.
Vin d’Orange
Homemade Vin d'Orange
Found a DIY Vin d’Orange recipe on NYT. Substituted rosé with white, used ceylon cinnamon instead and skipped the vanilla bean – ended up with something that is nevertheless wonderful. For a recipe as simple as this, quality of ingredients is definitely critical including the quality of rum. Best time to make this is when the oranges are tree ripened. Our version is made with Cara Cara oranges. It is a delightful summer drink when mixed with carbonated water.
This summer in India, we found a variety of refreshing summer drinks. Oh Calcutta in Kolkata served a thinned buttermilk and Keffir lime mocktail, and a roasted green mango vodka cocktail.Visit to friends gave an opportunity to try out FabIndia‘s sweet and salty drinks – lemon ginger, aloe vera, amla (gooseberry), and fruit punch. Keep an eye out for my experiments with buttermilk and Keffir lime.
“Shorshe Ilish” aka Mustard sauce Hilsa fish
 Hilsa rubbed with turmeric and salt |
 Mustard paste |
 Add Hilsa to wok |
 Toss the fish in the wok |
Since this dish is being cooked on day one of my visit to homeland, clearly this one is among my favorites. Between “posto” and “shorshe ilish“, it is hard to argue which one is the more quintessential expression of bangla soul. If you are thinking that being vegetarian or not produces a clear choice, stop right there ’cause Bengalis consider fish to be the vegetable of the sea. So there.
The key to this dish is the quality of the mustard paste. Poorly ground mustard paste will result in a bitter dish. So pay particular attention to the quality of mustard and how you grind it. Typically, hilsa fish is used for the dish but for those of you who don’t live in the vicinity of Ganges delta, weep and then feel free to improvise.
Ridge gourd “posto”
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Writing from the Kolkata land. My mother is busy in the kitchen making some of my favorite foods. Posto is the Bangla term of a vegetable curry made with white poppy seed paste. One can use a variety of vegetables including potatoes, eggplant, or okra but my favorite uses ridge gourd.
Following recipe from my mother’s kitchen serves 6-8 people. One key feature of my mother’s cooking is use of mustard oil. The pungency of the oil does wonders to the flavor of the dish. Start with some fresh and young ridge gourd, about 1.2 kgs or so. Rinse, peel and chop (1/4 inch semicircular rounds) to make about 1 kg of gourd. Peel and chop 2 medium potatoes in 1/4 inch dice.
Black rice pudding
Black rice pudding with coconut milk and garnished with tapioca pearls, Green Goddess, New Orleans
Yesterday, an energetic re-organization of my pantry reminded me that I have been aging Burmese black rice for at least an year. The rice itself was bought from a local branch of Whole Foods. I had also snagged myself Steen’s Cane Syrup during a recent trip to New Orleans. The two came together in a quick lactose free pudding last evening.
Pressure cook on low 1/4 cup of black rice, a pinch of salt with 2 cups of milk (2% lactose free or almond milk) for 1 hour. Add more milk to achieve desired consistency, add cane syrup to taste, perhaps a few spoonfuls of raisins and nuts and serve at room temperature.
Samosa sandwich
Samosa sandwich – hot crisp samosa sandwiched between sliced white bread with some mint or coriander chutney. Conceptually, this is not far from chip butty.
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In a pinch, ketchup can be substituted for chutney. Or Sriracha. In a pinch, wheat bread can be substituted for white. And by the time, you have substituted Trader Joe’s frozen samosa for the real ones, the purists will cringe. But it will satisfy the Punjabi-ness of your being.
Open faced toasted sardine sandwich aka sardine tartine
Sardine tartine
This sandwich is an inspiration from our trip to Paris. Our neighborhood boasted of a wonderful restaurant that served various tartines for lunch. Buttered and toasted open faced Poilâne bread with sardine paste hasn’t been forgotten yet.
Orzo pudding – three decades apart
Orzo pudding
A memory from the first decade of my life – a winter afternoon in a small town in India, sitting in the verandah underneath a warm sun, mother patiently creating rice shaped little grains of dough. For a child, perhaps tiny objects are fascinating. I may have helped her make 50 of those grains. She made 500 more or perhaps a 1000 more. She sun dried the grains for a day or two and then made a pudding, like rice pudding. My mother is a master pudding maker, she usually cooks a handful of rice in a large pot of milk and adds crushed cardamoms and jaggery. Although the grains cook in milk for hours, they are always perfectly melted, never pasty. The jaggery enriched condensed milk tastes like melted butterscotch icecream. There was extra excitement over the grains of dough pudding but the memory of the taste is lost among hundred other perfect puddings.
Time shift a few decades later. Now I make this quick orzo pudding, a few times a year. Sometimes to honor that lazy afternoon and sometimes to satisfy an immediate craving for a dessert.
Achari Chicken Pizza
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 Achari chicken pizza |
 Achari chicken pizza with Mizuna leaves |
I am trying out a week of dining on pizza alone. Interesting ideas are popping out of the oven e.g.,harissa sauce and marinated eggplant or roasted garlic and pan fried padrone peppers. One of the most remarkable ones at the dinner table this week has been a curried chicken pizza that uses my favorite chicken recipe, achari chicken.
Achari means pickled. Chicken is not pickled here, this name is derived from the spice mix common to Indian pickles. This is one of the simplest chicken recipes and yet the result is highly consistent and extremely flavorful.
One thousand and one nights: Lentil soup recipe
Chana daal
Why 1001 nights? I reckon there are at least that many lentil soup recipes. I am adding mine to the mix.
Why is this special? Aside from the fact that I am not an impartial judge, this one has a variety of textures and flavors that are noticeably distinct but combine to form a wonderfully aromatic and light soup.
Key ingredients? Fresh pickled ginger, finely chopped pickled lime, slow roasted garlic, …
A slice of lemon on your pizza?
Lemon, salami, roasted heirloom tomatoes, arugula pesto and goat cheese
After years of trying out all sorts of techniques, I have converged on a few basic aspects in pizza making – a) a soft and stretchy dough that is not a rubber mat but has sufficient elasticity to be hand stretched into a thin base, b) a 500-600F oven, and c) minimal but flavorful topping. Result is a chewy crust with a crisp bottom and rich flavors in every bite.
Some say that we should always eat whole grains. I agree, whole heartedly. I have gladly swapped out white bread for wheat bread – thanks to Acme. There is no better chappati than whole wheat one. I adore whole wheat or buckwheat parathas and puris. I have cheerfully replaced white flour with whole wheat pastry flour in cookies and cakes. I have even grudgingly swapped out regular pasta and white rice for whole wheat pasta and brown rice. But no whole wheat pizza for me. I have tried to swap out regular flour with white whole wheat, part whole wheat, part whole wheat pastry flour and I have failed to like them. So, my compromise – I don’t make pizza often and when I do, I don’t eat too much of it. If, however, you have to have whole wheat pizza, then give Heidi’s recipe a try.
Locomotoring 