Sunday, May 31, 2015

Caju Pullao - Spiced Rice with Cashew Nuts

We've come to the final recipe in my Indian feast, though not the end of side challenge recipes from Madhur Jaffrey's Step-By-Step Cooking. And starting tomorrow, my dessert-making moratorium is over, so I'll be continuing the traditional Recipe Challenge as well, though I'll try to be far more careful about not eating half of the dessert myself.

I also am coming very close to pulling the trigger on a camera purchase. I'd like to be able to take pictures in Tanzania and my current camera is out of commission. Of course, I'll want to practice with it before I leave and what better way to practice than by adding pictures to the blog!?

Usually when we have Indian food, I just make plain basmati rice for convenience. However, when I have a bit more time, I enjoy a few more embellishments. This recipe is still easy, but feels a bit fancier.

Spiced Rice with Cashew Nuts
  • 2 c. long-grain rice or basmati
  • 1 med. onion
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 4 T vegetable oil
  • 2 T cashew nuts, split
  • 1 t grated fresh ginger
  • 1/2 t finely chopped fresh hot green chili, or pinch of cayenne pepper
  • 3/4 t garam masala
  • salt
  • 3 c hot vegetable stock or water
Put the rice in a bowl and add water to cover. Rub rice grains gently with your hands. When the water turns milky, pour it off. Repeat several times until the water runs clear. Drain and return to bowl. Cover with water and soak 30 minutes. Drain, leaving rice in the strainer.

Preheat oven to 325. Peel the onion, halve lengthwise, then slice very thinly. Peel and finely chop garlic.

Heat oil in a heavy ovenproof frying pan or flameproof casserole over medium heat. Add cashew nuts and fry for a few seconds, stirring all the time, until they turn golden brown. Remove with slotted spoon and leave on paper towels to drain.

Fry onion in oil remaining in pan for 2-3 minutes or until tinged brown at the edges. Add rice, garlic, ginger, green chile, garam masala and salt. Turn heat to medium-low. Fry, stirring, for 7 to 8 minutes or until the rice is translucent and well coated with the oil.

Pour in the hot stock and cook, stirring, on medium-low heat for another 5-6 minutes until the surface of the rice starts to look dry. Cover with a well-fitting lid and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the rice is ready.

Remove the rice pan from the oven and leave to stand, covered, in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, gently transfer the rice to a warmed serving platter, breaking up any lumps with the back of a spoon. Garnish with cashews and serve at once.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Chingri Jha - Shrimp with Crushed Mustard Seeds - Indian Feast Part Two

I don't cook shrimp anywhere near often enough. Their sweet flavor combined with speed of cooking makes for the perfect hot weather meal - especially on a busy weekend when you've been out kayaking, biking, sailing (or alternately, doing laundry, sweeping, mowing the lawn and washing dishes - sometimes when I blog, I tend to focus on all of my active activities, rather than the mundane ones which also fill my free hours).

For your dining pleasure - another recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's Step-By-Step Cooking without any hard-to-find ingredients (at least if you substitute regular vegetable oil for the mustard oil the way I did). This recipe also recommends serving it with the Fresh Cilantro and Yogurt Chutney.

Shrimp with Crushed Mustard Seeds
  • 1 lb. medium shrimp
  • 1 t black mustard seeds (mine were locally grown and purchased from the Farmer's Market)
  • 1/8 t ground turmeric
  • 2 t tomato paste
  • 4 T mustard oil, or other vegetable oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 2 think slices fresh ginger, peeled
  • 1 hot dried red chili
  • 3/4 t salt
  • large pinch of freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 T lemon or lime juice
Peel and devein shrimp. Rinse well, then pat dry.

Crush the mustard seeds, using a pestle and mortar or spice or coffee grinder. In a small bowl, mix the crushed mustard seeds, turmeric, and tomato paste, together with 3 T hot water. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium high heat. Add the garlic cloves, ginger slices, and dried chili and fry, stirring, for a few seconds until the mixture begins to darken, then add the shrimp. Fry, stirring, until the shrimp turn opaque.

Stir in the mustard seed paste and turn the heat to medium-low. Add teh salt, pepper, and lemon or lime juice. Fry, stirring, for another two minutes.

Transfer to a warm serving dish. Serve with a rice dish, one or two vegetable side dishes and a yogurt relish, such as Fresh Cilantro and Yogurt Chutney.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Side Challenge Continues - Indian Feast Part 1 - Spicy Vegetable Fritters and Cilantro Chutney

I so enjoyed trying out new recipes in the side challenge (as I continue to avoid making desserts until June, which has drastically cut my dessert consumption) that I decided go through the rest of my cookbooks in a similar manner. Next up is Madhur Jaffrey's Step-By-Step Cooking, which I previously had salivated over the pages and marked them, but never actually made any of the recipes. I'm not entirely sure why. While some of the ingredients are specialty ones, there are plenty that are readily available. I may just have been intimidated.

On our last gloomy weekend day (which has been a couple of weeks now), I spent four hours prepping, cooking and eating four out of the five recipes necessary to complete a side challenge.

Pakoras are a special favorite of mine when dining out at an Indian restaurant, so I was excited, yet trepidatious to try out the preparation on my own. I have a mild fear of hot grease, probably more due to the potential for grease spots on my clothing than to fear of burns. This was probably the most difficult and lengthy recipe to prepare (I don't know why I prepared a full recipe when it claims to serve 6 to 8 and there were only two of us). I suggest making a smaller batch, so that you don't end up frying potatoes for 1.5-2 hours like I did. They were delicious once I figured out that a longer fry time was needed.

Spice Vegetable Fritters (Pakoris)
Batter

  • 1 c chickpea flour
  • 1/4 t. salt
  • 1/4 t. ground turmeric
  • 1/4 t. ground cumin
  • 1/4 t. baking soda
  • 1/8 t. freshly ground pepper
Filling
  • 3 medium all-purpose potatoes, peeled (other vegetables such as onion rings, bell pepper quarters or cauliflower florets are also supposed to be good)
  • Vegetable oil for deep-frying
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
Serve with Cilantro Chutney (recipe below)

To make the batter, sift chickpea flour into a bowl. Gradually mix in 3/4 to 1 c. flour until you have a fairly thick batter - thick enough to coat the vegetables. Add the other batter ingredients and mix well.

Cut potatoes into thin rounds, 1/16 inch thick, and immerse them in a bowl of cold water.

Pour sufficient oil into a wok or other deep-frying pan to give a 2 1/2 to 3 inch depth in the middle. Place over low heat until hot but not smoking.

Take a few potato slices at a time, wipe them dry, and dip them in the batter. Now drop them into the oil in a single layer. Fry slowly for 7 to 10 minutes on each side, until they are golden brown and cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and keep hot, while cooking the rest in the same way.

Serve crisp and hot with the fresh chutney as a dip.

Fresh Cilantro and Yogurt Chutney (Hari Chutney)
  • 1 packed c chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1 fresh hot green chili, sliced or 1/4 t. cayenne (optional)
  • 10 oz. (1 1/4 c) yogurt
  • 1 T lemon juice
  • 1/2 t salt, or to taste
  • large pinch of freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 t roasted, ground cumin seeds
Put the chopped cilantro leaves and chili into a blender with 3 T water. Blend to a smooth paste (I had trouble with this in my blender).

In a non-metallic bowl, combine the yogurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cumin, and paste from the blender. Stir well to mix, then cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

While the note in the recipe says this ¨needs to be eaten on the day it is made¨, my leftover chutney still was perfect two days later with the remaining leftovers.


Thursday, May 28, 2015

Thursday Thought

Wake up every morning and feel excited for what you'll be doing, who you'll be meeting, and who you're becoming.
#Happiness Planner (brandmentalist.com)

The sunshine has made me giddy and when I read over this quote, I think ¨this is me¨ (never mind that on cloudy days it is MUCH harder to get moving). My morning routine sets the tone for the rest of the day and with such a glorious bike to work month, I'm even looking forward to my commute. It helps that work feels meaningful - I offered my last STARS class (where childcare providers get continuing education credit) on storytimes. Nineteen providers attended a program on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, which is incredible. I've also become inspired by an article on Five Simple Emails, leading me to be more excited about who I'm meeting. I haven't sent each type of the suggested messages, but I've been making plans, checking in with weak-ties and getting in touch with mentors.


Thursday, May 21, 2015

Thursday Thought

Gretchen Rubin

Habana haba hujaza kibaba
mutilated Swahili phrase meaning something like ¨little by little fills the drum¨

I'm constantly amazed by both how fast and how slow life is passing. One single day can seem endless (in either a languid, relaxed ¨no worries¨ kind of day or a ¨will this day ever end¨ kind of way), but I have no idea how it is that it's already the end of May and that I've been in my new job for five months.

It's also exciting how little things add up. Gretchen Rubin also talks about the paradox of one coin, which the Swahili phrase reminds me of. If we build a foundation, just a little bit at a time, we'll be amazed by what we accomplish. I'm hoping this is true with language learning. My trip to Tanzania is in two months. While we fully expect that most of the people we meet will speak English well, I would like to learn a few Swahili phrases. So I've started using Mango Languages through the library. I'm just about to start the fourth lesson and am learning such useful phrases as ¨Jina langu ni Kristin¨ (bet you can guess what that means). At this point, I'm still pretty terrible, but I'm hoping that little by little the drum that is my brain will be filled with knowledge.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Thursday Thought

¨It is an important part of one's personal choices to decide to widen the circle of one's acquaintances whenever one can.¨
You Learn by Living by Eleanor Roosevelt

When I first sat down to blog about this quote, my thoughts turned to the importance of friendship - somewhat along the lines of ¨make new friends, but keep the old¨ and avoiding the Seattle ¨freeze¨. But as I turned things over in my brain a little more, I started to think of the power of acquaintances - of weak ties and ¨who are the people in your neighborhood

One of the reasons I moved from a wonderful job in library administration back to a branch library is because I believe in strengthening community ties. I enjoy getting to know the little quirks of our library patrons/customers that I may never be actual friends with. They enrich my life (certainly Trent agrees that my work stories have gotten more interesting again) and I hope that I do the same for them as well.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Are You In or Out? Side Challenge Results plus two Bonus Recipes

So the verdict is in - I will be holding on to Food to Live By and parting with the Moosewood Low-Fat cookbook (would anyone like it?). After cooking 6 recipes from Moosewood, I just wasn't excited about cooking any of them again. Nor was I chomping at the bit to cook any additional recipes.

Food to Live By is another story. After I decided to postpone the shrimp cakes with lemon-caper aioli, I perused the book only to find a number of other recipes that I was eager to begin. In fact, I just finished putting away leftovers from two of them.

Farm Stand Meatballs
  • olive oil for greasing the foil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 c. whole milk
  • 1 T minced garlic
  • 1 T dried oregano
  • 2 T chopped fresh basil or 2 t dried
  • 1 t dried thyme
  • 2 t salt
  • 1 t freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 t dried red pepper flakes
  • 1 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
  • 1 c. unseasoned dry bread crumbs
  • 1 lb lean ground pork
  • 1 lb lean ground beef
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 400. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper for easier clean up. Lightly oil the foil or paper liner. Set the baking sheet aside.

Place eggs, milk, garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the cheese and bread crumbs and stir to mix.

Using your hands, break the meat into small chunks and add them to the bowl. Blend with your hands until just combined, working the mixture as little as possible.

Gently form the meat mixture into 2-inch meatballs and arrange them on the prepared baking sheet so they do not touch each other. 

Bake until 160 degrees, 25 to 30.

Farm Stand Marinara
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1 small carrot, coarsely chopped
  • 1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
  • 3 T olive oil
  • 1/3 c. dry red wine
  • 2 cans (28 oz. each) crushed tomatoes, with their juice
  • 1/4 c. chopped fresh basil, or 2 t dried
  • 1 T fresh oregano or 2 t dried
  • 1 T fresh thyme leaves or 1 t dried
  • 1 t coarse salt
  • 1/2 t freshly ground black pepper or 1/2 t dried red pepper flakes
  • 1-2 t sugar (optional - I opted out)
Place garlic and carrot in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the onion and continue to pulse until mixed scraping the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally (I did this by hand instead).

Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add vegetable mixture and cook, stirring frequently, until soft, but not browned, about 11 minutes. Add the wine and stir well, loosening any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Briong to a simmer and cook until reduced slightly, about 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes and their juices to the pot. Add basil, oregano and thyme and let simmer gently until the flavors are concentrated, 35-45 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Taste for sweetness and, if the sauce takes too acidic, add sugar.

We ate this over angel hair noodles, but they also suggest making meatball sandwiches, which also sounded quite yummy.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Thursday Thought

How Perfectly
How perfectly
and neatly
opens the pink rose

this bright morning,
the sun warm
on my shoulders,

its heat 
on the opening petals.
Possibly

it is the smallest,
the least important event
at this moment

in the whole world.
Yet I stand there,
utterly happy.

From Swan by Mary Oliver

Spring in Seattle is so glorious. The flowers, the sun... each small moment outside in the warmth makes me utterly happy. May is Bike to Work Month and while I haven't ridden every commute trip, I have journeyed along the Interurban a number of times. It feels utterly luxurious to be able to bike in the morning before I start my work day, birds chirping and buds blossoming.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Seared Tuna with a Fennel-Coriander - Side Challenge #11

Initially I chose shrimp cakes with lemon-caper aioli to be my final side challenge recipe from Food to Live By. However, as my self-imposed April 30th loomed large and I looked at the directions again to determine that I would need to chill everything overnight, I shifted gears to something quick and easy and new to me. While I frequently eat tuna at sushi restaurants or from a can, I rarely purchase it myself. However, the speed of the recipe couldn't be beat and it looked fab-u-lous, so off to PCC I went to purchase some albacore. I halved the recipe, as it serves 4 and tuna is not the most frugal choice. However, it was the perfect end to a sunshiny day...

Seared Tuna with a Fennel-Coriander Crust
  • 1/4 c. fennel seeds
  • 3 T. coriander seeds
  • 2 T. whole white or black peppercorns
  • Coarse (kosher) salt
  • 4 tuna steaks (about 3/4 inch thick and 6 ounces)
  • 2 T. olive oil
Place the spices in a spice mill or clean coffee grinder and grind it to a fine powder. Spread the spice mixture on a plate.

Sprinkle salt on both sides of the tuna steaks. Dip each tuna steak in the spice mixture, lightly coating it all over.

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tuna and cook, turning once, until cooked to taste, about 2 minutes per side for medium-rare. Serve warm.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Thursday Thought (on Friday)

¨Outer order contributes to inner calm.¨

One of my good friends has discovered the Kon-Mari method from The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Starting with her clothing and textiles, she is going through every item methodically, asking ¨does this spark joy?¨ and saying thank you and good bye if it does not. I read the book a few months ago, but did not go through the exercises myself. Listening to her joy and enthusiasm bubble through as she describes how much she enjoys her wardrobe now that it contains only the things that she absolutely loves has inspired me to go through my closet and books once again to curate my collection and then display it in a pleasing manner (going so far as to organize my sock and underwear drawers, which thrill me each time I look at them).

I firmly believe that outer order does contribute to inner calm. In fact, I find that when life seems the most chaotic, I gravitate towards simplifying and time management blogs. A sink empty of dishes lightens my heart, as does my newly organized basket of knitted shrugs and scarves.