Crusty French Bread

Baking bread is a reward in itself. A perfect bread is the perfect conclusion to a day's worth of patience. The kneading, the rising, the waiting, the re-kneading...this is definitely not something you can do on the run. But when the result is what you hoped for, it is hard not to feel just a little bit on top of the world.

Besides, all those cliches about the aroma of fresh-baked bread and the joy of biting into a still-warm crust? Well, they're all true.

I have written before of my love affair with baking, which pretty much dates back to my love affair with my sweet-toothed hubby, Desi. But baking bread by itself constitutes, in my book, a whole separate category of pleasure.

Now bread has gotten a pretty bad reputation in the past few years because of the low-carb craze, and I am just as worried as the next girl about gaining weight. But impossible as it is for me to give up bread, I do the next best thing: I make it healthy.

This past Saturday, with some time on my hands to kill, I decided to turn to one of my favorite cookbooks with a treasure-trove of bread recipes, CookWise by Shirley Corriher. Corriher is as interested in food as the science behind it, and her recipes usually are lengthy and involve some unusual ingredients. But the result is always, unerringly beautiful.

The crusty French bread I made contains, of course, no animal products, and it was quite easy to veganize this bread because the only time I should have used butter, according to the recipe, was to brush the top of the bread. I substituted with olive oil and the result was so good, I simply cannot believe that butter would have made it any better.

On that note, I must add here that veganizing breads that call for substantial quantities of milk and eggs is not difficult either, with the right substitutes.

While my baguettes were a little shorter and stouter than the ones you find in stores, blame that on the short baking sheet I have. The bread itself couldn't have been better: superbly crusty on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.

So here's the recipe for a Crusty French bread. Tomorrow I take off for a business trip to beautiful Nashville, Tennessee, but I'll be back over the weekend with an old Indian favorite that brings back memories of traveling as a teen in one of India's most beautiful and colorful regions. Any guesses? Here's a hint: it neighbors my home state of Maharashtra.


Crusty French Bread
Adapted from CookWise by Shirley Corriher

Ingredients:

1 package or 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 3/4 cups and 1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup durum wheat flour (semolina)

1 tbsp chickpea flour (besan)

1/4 of a 500 mg vitamin C tablet, crushed to a powder

1/3 cup crushed ice

1 tsp and 1/4 tsp sea salt (use regular salt if you don't have this)

1/2 tso vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the yeast, sugar and water. Let it stand for about 2-3 minutes until the yeast foams.

Add 1 3/4 cups of bread flour, the durum wheat flour and the chickpea flour. With the paddle blade, mix on medium-low speed for 4 minutes to beat air into the dough. Let this mixture sit for about 2 hours or at least 30 minutes.

Remove the paddle blade and insert the dough hook. Add the vitamin C, crushed ice, 1 tsp salt, vinegar, the remaining 1 cup of bread flour and whole wheat flour.

Knead for five minutes on medium-low speed. The dough will be soft and elastic. Add more flour or water if needed.

Place the dough in an oiled pan and turn over once to coat evenly with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for the dough to rise until it has doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn it on the counter and divide in half. Knead each half, shaping it into a smooth round. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for about 15 minutes.

To shape the baguette, place your thumbs in the front of the loaf and with your fingers push the sides of the loaf outward and then tuck them in at the bottom. Continue doing this along the length of the loaf until you have acquired the desired length.

Cover a baking sheet with tin foil and turn up the edges of the foil to catch any oil that might run during the baking. Oil the foil and place the loaves on the sheet.

Stir together the olive oil and salt. Brush the tops of the loaves with the mixture. Let the bread rise for another 2 hours until it has more than doubled.

Brush again with olive oil. With a sharp knife, make three quick diagonal cuts along the length of the loaf, taking care not to deflate it.

About 30 minutes before the bread is fully risen, place a baking stone, if you have one, in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. (I bought four unglazed ceramic tiles at the hardware store that I use instead of a baking stone/pizza stone with great success).

About five minutes before you actually place the bread in the oven, turn down the heat to 425 degrees and place a baking pan with about 1/2 inch of boiling water in it on the lowest shelf.

Bake the bread until well-browned, about 30-35 minutes. Cool on a rack before serving.
Breads

Fluffy Four-Grain Pancakes

Before I tell you all about these awesomely nutritious AND yummy pancakes, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a lovely gesture by the very talented Lavanya Raj at Home Cook's Recipes who gave me the Nice Matters Award. This is my first award as a blogger, Lavanya, and I am extremely honored.

My past three months as a food blogger have been rewarding in ways I never imagined. I cannot wait every day to log in and read what all of you cooked in your kitchens across the globe, and to share what I made in mine. It is quite a gift for someone used to working alone in her kitchen to be able to make this extraordinary connection with a vast community of gifted and generous cooks and writers, each with their own distinctive styles.

There are four amazing bloggers that I want to pass on this award to:

Priya of 365 Days of Pure Vegetarian whose delicious recipes and beautiful pictures make me want to run to the kitchen and start cooking!

Anke of Vegan Bounty who is one of the most amazing and creative cooks I have encountered.

The Budding Cook who never fails to inspire me with her innovative food and beautiful photographs.

Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook who writes and cooks beautifully.

Thanks again, Lavanya, and to all of you wonderful food bloggers out there for sharing your talents.

And now for those four-grain pancakes.

Breakfast on Sundays is usually just a little more special at our house. Desi and I are big believers in eating that first meal of the day, and on hurried weekdays it is a quick albeit elaborate concoction of cereal, fruits and nuts that Desi himself puts together. Sundays, however, offer up more time and therefore the occasion for some indulgence.

I have loved and made pancakes for almost as long as I've lived here, in the United States. Starting with the chalky boxed varieties, I soon graduated to making them from scratch once I realized it really wasn't that much more work. I then moved on to healthier versions by substituting whole-grain flours for the all-purpose flour that most recipes call for. And finally, as a vegan, came another challenge: finding substitutes for all those animal products like milk, butter and eggs that are common ingredients in most pancake recipes. But as you'll see in the recipe below, it really wasn't a huge challenge after all.

If you try these vegan four-grain flapjacks, I bet you will never want to go back to their lacto-ovo counterparts. They are far more nutritious and I swear they taste much better. And who can fault a pancake that's as good for the Earth and your fellow critters as it's good for you?

Fluffy Four-Grain Pancakes

Dry ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (can substitute with all-purpose)

1/3 cup stone-ground cornmeal

1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground

Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Set aside while you get the wet ingredients ready.

Wet ingredients:

1 1/2 cups soy milk (feel free to substitute with almond milk)

1/2 tsp vinegar

4 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

6 tbsp flax powder whisked together with 6 tbsp water

Mix together all the wet ingredients, then add all at once to the dry ingredients.

Mix quickly and in as few strokes as possible, until the dry ingredients are just moistened. The batter should be lumpy and not smooth. Overmixing the batter promotes the formation of gluten which would make the pancakes heavy and chewy as opposed to light and fluffy. The batter will be rather thick but spreadable.

On a hot griddle over medium heat, spread a thin film of canola or other vegetable oil.

Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into the center of the griddle. Give the batter a bit of a nudge with the cup, if needed, to spread it into an approximately four-inch round.

Wait until the sides start looking a little dry and bubbles appear in the center of the pancake.

Lift the edge carefully and if the underside is golden-brown, flip the pancake.

Cook for about a minute more on this side.

Serve hot with maple syrup or any other topping you love.

Temptress Tomato Dal

I am a sucker for quick yet nutritious recipes that need just a handful of ingredients and minimum prep. My Temptress Tomato Dal is a great example of the kinds of foods I tend to cook pretty often in my hurried kitchen.

Tomato Dal is one of those ubiquitous Indian dishes and there are, perhaps, as many recipes for it out there as there are cooks. My own version is something that's evolved over years of modifying the basic recipe to suit the tastes of my family.

I used tuvar dal in my recipe, although masoor or moong would substitute quite well, I think, in a pinch. I also add sambar powder to the dal for a bit of a kick.

I like using fresh tomatoes here, although you could substitute with canned. Keep in mind that canned tomatoes would contribute a higher degree of acidity to the dal.

Served with brown or plain rice, and a subzi, this dal is a total winner for any weekday evening.

Temptress Tomato Dal

Ingredients:

1 cup tuvar dal, cooked until tender with a pinch of turmeric and some salt

2 large tomatoes, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 tbsp ginger, grated

2-3 green chilies, chopped

1 sprig curry leaves

1 tbsp sambar powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

A pinch of asafetida (hing)

1 tbsp canola oil


Heat the canola oil in a saucepan.

Add the asafetida and cumin seeds. When the cumin sputters, add the curry leaves and onion and saute on a medium flame until the onions turn translucent.

Add the green chilies and ginger and stir for a minute.

Add the tomatoes and the sambar powder and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes turn mushy and start breaking down.

Now add the tuvar dal and salt to taste. Bring to a boil and then let it simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes until the flavors have merged. Add water if the dal gets too thick.

Garnish with cilantro, if desired, and serve piping hot!

Sambar Powder

No Tamil pantry is complete without a jar of homemade Sambar Powder. This spice mix is as integral to the cuisine of south India as garam masala is to the cuisine of the north.

When my mother-in-law was alive, we would return from trips to Chennai with armloads of this wonderful burnt-orange powder. It never failed to amaze me how it transformed the dullest lentils into the most flavorful broths I had ever tasted. Eventually, I learned to make my own. It's not at all a difficult job if you have a coffee grinder on hand.

While traditionally sambar and rasam powder were made with sun-roasted spices, most cooks now just roast the spices on a skillet. And while Sambar Powder recipes tend to be fiery-hot, I prefer mine milder because sometimes too much heat can steal the show from the other, equally deserving ingredients.

Sambar Powder

Ingredients:

1 tbsp chana dal or bengal gram

1 tbsp coriander seeds

2-3 red chilies, broken into pieces

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

A pinch of asafetida

Roast all the spices on a medium-low flame until they are lightly golden. Cool and powder in a coffee/spice grinder.

Store in an airtight container, preferably refrigerated.

Deliciously Healthy Bottle Gourd (Dudhi) Subzi

Today's recipe is for two wonderful friends - one gave me the recipe, and the other wants to cook it.

Now I love most types of squash, but I had rarely ever cooked with the bottle gourd (dudhi or lauki), a delicious variety of squash that's very popular in Indian cooking. Even when I found an Asian supermarket in my area that sold it, I just wasn't motivated enough to pick it up, take it home, and cook it.

Enter Navami, my intrepid social worker friend who, while staying with us for a weekend, told me about the bottle gourd's amazing health properties. According to Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of holistic healing, bottle gourd is a diuretic, is great for your digestive system, and even has cholesterol-lowering properties. Being a sucker for anything that's supposed to be good for me (I know it sounds weird, but that's just me!) I dragged Navami to the Asian supermarket and, under her eagle eye, picked up a beautifully pale-green bottle gourd.

Next came the prep- Navami passed on to me her family's simple but delicious recipe, which I tweaked just slightly to suit my family's tastes. It was so tasty, I couldn't resist buying the bottle gourd each time I went to the Asian store.

This is where my other friend, Sharon, comes in. Sharon is a fearless reporter at a newspaper where I once worked myself. She travels regularly to Iraq and other parts of the world, digging up amazing stories. Sharon loves Goan food, and dreams of writing a cookbook about cuisine from that part of the world some day.

Anyway, Sharon and I went to the Indian store this past weekend, and I had a blast explaining to her the role of various spices, condiments and ingredients used in Indian cooking. Being a Sunday evening, we had slim pickings when it came to the fresh produce section, but Sharon seemed intrigued by the bottle gourd.

I promised at the time to send her the recipe, so here it is. It takes minutes to put together, and is utterly delicious eaten with some rice and lentils or just a chapati or two.

Dudhi or Bottle Gourd Subzi

Ingredients:

1 medium bottle gourd, chopped in a 1-cm dice

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp chana dal or bengal gram, soaked for about 30 minutes in warm water, then drained thoroughly

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp chili powder

Salt to taste

1/4 cup grated coconut, for garnish

1 tbsp grated jaggery (optional)

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the mustard and cumin seeds and wait until they sputter.

Add the chana dal and stir for a minute.

Add the turmeric and chili powder and stir quickly. (Make sure you ventilate the kitchen because the fumes from this this can cause some coughing and eye-watering)

Immediately add the chopped bottle gourd pieces and stir to coat with the oil and spices.

Add salt to taste and stir.

Add about 1/2 cup of water to the saucepan. Cover and let it cook, stirring occasionally, about 25-30 minutes or until the gourd is really tender.

Add the jaggery, if using, and stir in.

Garnish with coconut.

Serve hot!

Adai: Golden, Delicious Crepes

Adai was one of the first foods I tasted in my mom-in-law's kitchen. It became an instant favorite. Unlike its simpler but yummy counterpart, the plain old dosa, an Adai is a star, hiding complex flavors beneath its lovely, golden skin.

It is also, in my opinion, a little more fun to cook because it lets you play around quite a bit with the ingredients so you can make your own special version suited to your own special tastes. To my Golden Delicious Adai, I added ginger, curry leaves, onions and cabbage, and the results were amazing. Spinach or other leafy greens would also work very well here.

Now while a traditional adai tends to be thicker than a dosa, Desi doesn't really like it that way. He loves everything thin and crispy. So my Golden Delicious Adai tends to be thinner and crispier than usual- a crepe, rather than a pancake. I ground up the cabbage and onions along with the rice and dal, instead of just chopping them and mixing them into the batter at the tail end, to make it easier to spread the adai on the griddle in a super-thin layer.

So without further ado, here it is in all its mouthwatering glory, my Golden Delicious Adai. Enjoy!

Golden Delicious Adai

Ingredients

1 cup rice

1/4 cup chana dal or bengal gram

1/4 cup udad dal or black gram

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 cup chopped cabbage leaves

1 tbsp ginger, grated

About 10 curry leaves

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1-2 green chilies

A pinch of asafetida (hing)

Salt to taste

2 tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped

Soak the rice and the dals in water for at least 2 hours. Then grind to a fairly smooth paste in a blender. The consistency should be slightly grainy but not unlike that of a regular pancake batter, thin enough to spread on a hot griddle but thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Once the batter has acquired the right consistency, add to the blender the ginger, onion, cabbage, green chillies, curry leaves, chili powder, turmeric, salt. Process for about a minute or so until the cabbage and onion have broken down into small but still discernible bits. Remove the batter to a bowl and add the chopped cilantro.

Heat a griddle (cast-iron or non-stick) until drops of water spashed on it's face sputter away immediately. Smear evenly with a thin layer of oil.

Take about 1/2 cup of batter in a rounded ladle. Pour into the center of the hot griddle, then, with a quick, concentric motion, spread the batter into a round as thinly as you can. Don't worry if it leaves gaps. You can fill them in with drops of batter.

Pour a few drops of oil around the edges which will help crisp up the adai further.

When the underside turns golden-brown, flip the adai and cook the other side for about a minute.

Serve hot with coconut cilantro chutney or just a dollop of vegan spread. Either way, it's delicious!

I am sending this as my entry to Weekend Breakfast Blogging: Healthy Eats, hosted this month by Suganya of Tasty Palettes. Thanks, Meera, for pointing me to it!

Monster Savory Scones Flecked With Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I love baked goodies, and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Okay, maybe a little. After all, baking is usually associated with sweets, and sweets are associated with calories, and ...you get the drift. And I certainly am not one of the lucky few born with genes that seem to just melt the calories away.

Going vegan has helped me maintain my weight, but my love for baking still has been my downfall. I cannot resist sneaking into the kitchen at the first available chance to whip up a sweet treat. And while my vegan sweets are usually far lower in calories than traditional versions, they are definitely not sugar-free nor calorie-free (oh, the dream!).

While Desi is the one who really loves sweets in our household, he has that awful self-control which means he can have one cookie or one cupcake and stop. Not me. I munch on the goodies morning, noon and night until they're all gone and it's time, well, to make some more.

One of the quickest sweet treats one can conjure up in the kitchen are scones. Now I love scones, both because of their flakily yummy texture but also because they are less sweeter than other sweet treats, which makes them just the tiniest bit better for you. But last night, at the very moment that the baking bug bit me, I had a flash of inspiration: savory scones.

There are lots of recipes for savory scones out there, but I have never made one before. I decided to modify my own recipe for Black Currant Scones Fit For A Queen, and the results were just fabulous. Healthy, even. For starters, I used- as I always do- whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour which in itself is a great start because it adds tons of proteins and fiber into the treat without compromising one bit on the taste.

I went foraging in the refrigerator to see what else I had on hand. It was my lucky day. I found a jar of grainy dijon mustard and some oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, both of which sounded like they would do very well ensconced within the flaky folds of a scone.

So here's the recipe for my Monster Savory Scones Flecked with Sun-dried Tomatoes. They're golden, light, crisply tender, but most of all, deliciously satisfying.

And you just cannot ask a treat for more than that.

Monster Savory Scones Flecked with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4- 1/2 tsp salt (I used a grainy sea-salt, but I think a finer salt would work better in this because the grains don't dissolve easily while baking)

Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl. Add:

3 tbsp zero-trans-fat vegetable shortening

Mix together gently until the pieces of shortening are no more than the size of peas and the mixture looks crumbly.
Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes (you might want to go slow on the salt in the first step depending on how salty the tomatoes you use are)

Whisk together and add:
1 tbsp flax seed powder mixed with 1 tbsp water
1 cup soy milk or almond milk
2 tbsp whole-grain dijon mustard
3 tbsp canola oil

Mix together quickly. This mixture will be pretty sticky and won't come together in a ball, although it will be thick enough to drop on a baking sheet.

With a spoon drop the batter in large lumps on an ungreased baking sheet, leaving at least two inches between each. I made seven giant scones that fitted on one sheet.

Shape the scones lightly into rounds with your fingers right on the baking sheet. (The scones will expand but won't change their shape much during baking, so if you leave the lumps of batter looking really messy, you'll get delicious but messy-looking scones)

Place the sheet in a 425-degree preheated oven.

Brush the tops of the scones with a mixture of 1 tsp soy milk and 1 tsp canola oil. This will give them a nice golden-brown glaze.

Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until the tops are browned lightly. Leave on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a rack.

You can serve them warm with vegan spread, although they taste pretty darned good by themselves.

Vegan Dal Makhani with Raisin and Nut Pilaf

February is always a busy travel month for me, and that's one reason I've failed to feed my blog these last few days.

Now I travel a lot- both for work and pleasure- and I truly enjoy it. But since I went vegan, travel has posed some new challenges. Being on the road is not always easy for a vegan, and particularly for one who won't just settle for salads and soups.

There are many stories of woe: I have struggled with French onion soup covered in a layer of thick cheese even after telling the room service repeatedly that I DON'T want any dairy in it. I have had tomato soup and pasta served up to me as "dairy-free" when it clearly contained cream or cheese. And I have been asked at meetings, after making a request for vegan food, if I would eat chicken or seafood?

Still, it is not impossible either. I almost always have managed to feed myself fairly well even while stuck in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes there are surprises along the way that make you just want to scream for joy!

Last year, for example, Desi and I took a road trip into parts of the deep south. You can imagine how nervous I was. And while I did eat more than a few salads, I found at least two restaurants that served truly memorable vegan meals- one in Huntsville, Alabama, and another in lovely Louisville, Kentucky. Both had a variety of sandwiches that were not just vegan but simply delicious and very very nutritious- always an important consideration when you're on the road.

In Mexico, on vacation, I found restaurants willing to substitute leche de soya for regular milk in my morning cereal. In Costa Rica's Monteverde, we stayed at a resort run by a Quaker couple that served the most delicious vegetarian and vegan-friendly dishes. And in New Orleans, known mainly for its seafood and meat dishes, we managed to track down a handful of restaurants that served many delicious vegan-friendly dishes.

Big cities like New York, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco and Boston are typically easier to find vegan food in, as is my hometown of Washington DC where there are some vegan restaurants and even a vegan bakery that whips up delicious treats.

But no matter where we are, Desi and I look forward with great excitement to eating, as often as we can, at Indian restaurants: we have often walked miles and miles, be it Paris or Amsterdam or Mexico City, to track down a restaurant we had heard of. He because he loves Indian food. I because I not only love Indian food, but as a vegan I know I can find something that's safe for me to eat as well as hearty and delicious.

It's not always that simple, though. India's long tradition of lacto-vegetarianism encompasses kindness to animals, but Indians also consider milk and other dairy products gifts of the cow who, as everyone knows, is revered by Hindus. Veganism is rarely practiced among Indians, although Mahatma Gandhi came pretty close to it many decades ago (he did return to drinking goat's milk, he said, for health reasons). Of course, Indian cattle suffer the same cruel treatment that cattle bred for dairy or meat anywhere in the world suffer, but that's another story for another day.

Anyway, the result of this love for milk, of course, means that even Indian vegetarian food is not always animal-product-free. And finding out what is free of ghee or butter or cream is not always easy.

While I often have to shun my old restaurant favorites like Dal Makhani and Palak Paneer, I have found ways to veganize these recipes in my own kitchen. The results almost always have been good beyond belief. A big advantage is, veganizing the recipes also ends up making them more nutritious.

Today I am sharing my recipe for Dal "Makhani," a popular lentil dish from North India that's often found on restaurant menus. Of course, there is no "makhan," or butter, in this dish which I substituted instead with vegan sour cream. If you don't have any on hand, coconut milk- although not a typical ingredient of North Indian food- would give equally delicious results.

To go with the dal, I made a pretty easy but delicious nut-and-raisin pilaf.

Hope you enjoy this vegan version of a classic Indian dish!

Dairy-Free Dal "Makhani"

Ingredients:

1 cup udad dal or black gram

1/4 cup red beans or rajma

Soak the gram and the rajma for at least four hours or preferably overnight, then cook until tender with a little salt.

1/4 cup vegan sour cream (like Tofutti's Better-than-sour-cream, available at Whole Foods)

1 tbsp oil

1 large red onion, chopped

1 large tomato or 2 medium tomatoes, chopped (can substitute with a 14-oz can of diced tomatoes)

1 tbsp ginger, grated

1 tbsp garlic, chopped into a very fine mince or grated

2 tbsp sugar

2 heaping teaspoons of garam masala

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

Heat the oil in a large saucepan (you can also use a mix of vegan "butter" like Earth Balance and oil)

Add the onion and saute for a few minutes until it becomes translucent. Add the sugar and continue to saute until the onion starts to brown.

Add the ginger and garlic and stir for a minute.

Add the tomatoes, chili powder, turmeric and garam masala. Stir and cook until the tomato starts breaking down and the juices thicken.

Add the cooked lentils and beans. Let the dal come to a boil, then turn the heat to low and let it simmer gently for about 10 minutes until all the flavors come together.

Add the lemon juice and stir in.

Add the vegan sour cream, turn off the heat, and stir to mix the sour cream into the dal. Check seasoning and add more salt if needed.

Garnish with fresh coriander (I didn't have any, so I used some kasoori methi which I added to the dal in the final few minutes of cooking.)

Raisin and Nut Pilaf

Ingredients:

2 cups basmati rice

4 cups water

1 tbsp cumin seeds (jeera)

1/2 cup peas

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup chopped cashew and/or pistachio nuts

Salt to taste

1 tbsp canola oil

Heat the canola oil in a large saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and oven-safe handles.

Add the cumin seeds and stir until they sputter, flavoring the oil.

Add the rice and stir until the grains start to turn opaque.

Now add the water and salt and let it come to a boil.

Turn the heat to low and add the peas.

Cover the saucepan with tinfoil and place the lid over it, to ensure a tight seal.

Place the saucepan in a preheated 350-degree oven.

Remove from the oven after 20 minutes. Be very careful because the handles will be screaming hot. Do not open for at least 10 more minutes because the rice is continuing to cook in its steam at this point.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat 1 tsp of canola oil. Add the nuts and toss them about until they start to turn golden. Add the raisins, stir for about 30 seconds, and turn off the heat.

Pour the nuts and raisins into the rice pilaf and with a fork, fluff gently to mix.

Serve hot with the Dal.

Penne Rigate with Creamy Edamame Pesto

Two foods I long ago fell in love with - irrevocably- are pesto and hummus. I play around a lot with each, and usually just a slight tweak of ingredients throws up new and delightful flavors.

And then there is edamame. The crunchy soybean is so delicious, so versatile and so pretty, I am always trying to find new ways to cook it.

Now I am a big fan of edamame hummus, and it is something I whip up almost weekly in my kitchen. The decadent, creamy taste makes it easy to forget that this snack is actually really good for you.

This week I was craving edamame hummus, but I only had time to make a simple pasta dinner that I could also pack in my and Desi's lunchboxes the next day. I also knew I had a limited number of veggies on hand: half a bunch of watercress being among them.

Then it hit me - edamame pesto!

It couldn't have been easier to make, with just a few tweaks to the hummus recipe, and the result was beyond delicious. The grooves in the penne soak up the creaminess of the tofu and the sunny flavor of cumin, olive oil and capers. I also mix in crunchy walnuts at the very end to give this dish even more complexity, nutrition and flavor.

Perfect.

Penne Rigate with Creamy Edamame Pesto

Ingredients:

1 cup edamame (shelled), microwaved for a couple of minutes with a few tablespoons of water until just tender.

1/2 cup watercress leaves, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 cup silken soft tofu

2 tsp cumin seeds, powdered

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup capers, drained

1 cup walnuts, toasted lightly and chopped coarsely

1 13.5-oz box of Penne Rigate Pasta (I used whole-wheat, although this would work as well with regular pasta)

Salt the pasta water and cook the pasta per package directions until al dente.

To a food processor, add the edamame, tofu, garlic, watercress, cumin powder and red pepper flakes. Add salt to taste.

With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil until the pesto comes together in a smooth, creamy sauce with a lovely pale green color.

Remove the cooked pasta to a bowl and add the pesto sauce, capers and walnuts.

Toss to coat the pasta evenly with the sauce.

You can also add some pre-roasted veggies like bell peppers and zucchini or even some sliced avocados for a delicious and healthy meal in minutes!

Pearly Vegan Mushroom-Barley Risotto

Risotto is a labor of love. Cooking rice, in my kitchen, usually means bunging it into a pressure cooker or a saucepan with liquid and letting it steam away all by itself for a few minutes until it emerges all cooked and ready to eat.

But a risotto, while not really difficult, can take an hour to make, sometimes more, and requires some intensive kitchen labor. You need to stand by it for almost as long as it takes to cook, carefully adding a few tablespoons of water or stock at a time and stirring, until the grain has acquired just the right consistency.

Needless to say, I rarely make it. When I get home from work, I usually have 30 minutes to an hour to make dinner and get it on our plates and into our tummies. And standing over a hot stove for an hour is certainly not appealing!

But this past weekend I wanted to indulge myself and Desi, and a risotto seemed just the perfect dish for a winter evening.

I decided to go with barley instead of rice, because I love this robust, healthful grain loaded with protein and fiber. Of course, it took longer to cook than rice would, but, oh well, it was a Sunday. And the results were well worth it!

I also added some vegan sour cream at the tail-end, to enhance the creamy consistency that's one of the best things about risotto (and is usually acquired by adding cheese). It was my first time using this product, and although it was a little saltier than regular sour cream, it was amazingly similar in taste otherwise.

The finished risotto looked perfect- the barley is beautiful and luminous when cooked- and this would be the perfect dish to impress someone, if you can invest the time.

This dish is great paired with a spicy Indian curry, like My Dad's "Not Mutton" Mushroom Curry, or just by itself.

Pearly Vegan Mushroom-Barley Risotto

Ingredients:

2 cups pearl barley

8-10 cups hot vegetable stock or hot water

3 cups of mushrooms, chopped (I used crimini and shiitake)

1 cup white wine

1 large onion, minced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried basil leaves

1 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2 heaping tbsp vegan sour cream

2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Heat the canola oil in a saucepan.

Add the onions and garlic and saute on a low heat until the onions turn translucent.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add the dried basil.

Add the mushrooms and saute for a minute.

Now add the barley and stir for a minute until all the grains are coated with oil.

Add the wine and simmer on a low heat, stirring, until the wine has almost evaporated.

Add the water or stock, 1/2 cup at a time, to the risotto, stirring after each addition. Wait until most of the stock has been absorbed before you add the next 1/2 cup. Do this until the barley is quite tender but has a slight bite to it. This should take about an hour.

Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

Add the sour cream and stir around to spread evenly through the risotto.

Turn off heat and mix in the parsley.

Serve.

Life-Changing Lucy

My dog Lucy is a traffic-stopper.

Almost every day, when I walk her, someone stops to exclaim just how beautiful she is. Of course, most say it from a distance. Lucy, a German Shepherd, inspires awe and admiration but also more than a little fear in people not used to her because she looks, like all dogs of that breed, quite ferocious.

She is anything but.

Sweet and shy but immensely intelligent, Lucy is our first-born. Meaning, of course, that she's the first dog we adopted, from the Washington Humane Society. But I saved Lucy's story for the last because she is, to both Desi and me, immensely special. In many ways, she is a life-changer.

Some of you might already be familiar with the stories of my other rescues, Freddie, Opie, Pubm and Pie, who I've blogged about before. In Lucy's case, there isn't much to tell in terms of her history except that she was a year old when we adopted her. The shelter didn't know anything about her past, and that was that.

When we went to the shelter that first time in 2002, we didn't expect to adopt a German Shepherd. We wanted a smaller dog, someone we could take long, peaceful walks with. We put in an application for a cocker spaniel mix, Sheba, who looked perfect.

But the shelter asked us to state a second, third and fourth preference as well, in case someone had already put in an application for Sheba, and Lucy (then named Goldie) made it to our fourth preference.

When we first saw Lucy, she was sitting, quiet and dignified, in a corner of the run. She didn't look terribly happy or interested in us. When we asked a volunteer to bring her out, she ran gorgeously and elegantly all the way to the fence, happy just to be outside her small run. She didn't so much as acknowledge the two people who were desperately trying to get her attention.

But there was something special about her, and we put her on our shortlist.

A couple of days later the shelter called us to say Sheba had been adopted by another family, and did we want one of our other choices?

Desi, in an inspired moment, asked her if the other dogs had applications on them. All of them did, the shelter staffer informed him, except Goldie.

So we brought Goldie home and renamed her Lucy after our favorite sitcom star, because Lucy, uncharacteristic of regular German Shepherds, had the most gorgeous golden-brown coat and a red head.

That first day, this dog who had refused to acknowledge us at the shelter followed us everywhere we went. She slept a lot, happy, perhaps, to finally be home.

But when we went to work, she was riddled with separation anxiety. She chewed up anything in sight, and once even ripped apart a cushion from our brand new couch.

It was a phase, though, and it passed. As the days went by Lucy grew more and more settled in her new house and fixed herself to Desi who was, clearly, her favorite person. When we brought home Opie, she was so happy, she wouldn't leave him alone for a moment.

I wanted to tell the exact story of how Lucy came to be adopted by us because she laid to rest many myths people have about adopting dogs. Some believe the dog has to form an instant connection with them, or it is not for them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Of all the dogs I have adopted and fostered, maybe just one or two showed any real interest in us the first time we met them. But each one invariably was deeply in love with us- and we with them- within hours of coming home. In the unnatural and even impersonal atmosphere of a shelter, it is not easy for a dog to form loving connections with each and every person that peers at them through the bars of the run. But give them a chance, and they'll give you their whole heart.

Lucy also changed my life in other ways. She opened our eyes to the cruel fate that millions of homeless dogs and cats suffer - more than 3 million cats and dogs are euthanized each year in shelters for lack of homes. While dog and cat breeders had never been our favorite people, we realized even more after becoming the parents of our shelter dogs and cats, just how cruel a practice it is to create more and more puppies and kittens when so many others have to die homeless in shelters.

This realization would lead to our adopting more dogs and cats, and fostering several others, most of whom we placed in loving homes.

Lucy is also, ultimately, the reason why this blog exists. I had been a meat-eater all my life, but loving her made me realize that in the end, there really is not much of a difference between a dog and a cat and a lamb and a cow or even a chicken. They care for their lives just as we do, and protect it as fiercely. We really have no right to take it away from them when we don't need to.

Lucy has now been with us more than five years, and she's as happy as a dog can be. Her self-assigned job - every Shepherd needs a job or they give themselves one - is to keep the other dogs safe and in check. She protects her canine siblings fiercely if they get into trouble with other dogs, and bullies them around the house where she is, clearly, the alpha dog.

When I look at Lucy now I cannot believe that she was not our first choice when we applied for a dog that first time. She has given us more love and inspiration than we ever could imagine. And because of that, she will always be our most special girl.

Screaming-Hot Garlic and Lemon Rasam

Rasam and sambar are two of the most basic dishes cooked in every Tamilian kitchen. They are usually made at the same meal, in fact at almost every meal, and are a wonderful example of the resourceful creativity of the Indian housewife: when cooked, the thick lentils sit at the bottom of the pan while the flavor-infused water used to cook the lentils floats at the top. The lentils, when cooked with spices and veggies, become the sambar, while the lentil-flavored water, after being flavored with tamarind and tomatoes, turns into the tangy, spicy rasam.

Rasam was one of the first dishes I learned to cook. In fact, my rasam would often earn the praise of even the Tamil side of my family. I love it so much, I usually drink it all by itself, like a watery soup.

I usually make my own rasam powder, but you can also use store-bought for this recipe. I used lemon in this rasam instead of the more traditional tamarind for the tangy flavor, and added garlic to introduce a different kind of heat into the rasam. Although I call this a "screaming-hot" rasam, it is more by my fairly wimpy standards of spiciness. You can easily control the heat by using more or less rasam powder or garlic.

Screaming-Hot Garlic and Lemon Rasam

Ingredients:

1/4 cup split peas cooked with enough water so you have about 2 cups of liquid remaining after cooking

1 tbsp rasam powder

2 green chillies, sliced

1 sprig curry leaves

8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 large tomato, diced

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

A pinch of asafetida (hing)

2 tbsp cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Heat the oil in a saucepan.

Add the hing and mustard seeds.

When the mustard sputters, add the garlic.

Stir the garlic around for a minute or until it turns a light golden-brown. Do not allow it to get too dark as it will turn bitter.

Add curry leaves, green chillies, and tomato.

Cook until the tomato begins to break down.

Add the rasam powder and cook for a minute.

Add the lentils and the cooking liquid.

Add salt and allow the rasam to come to a boil.

Lower the heat and simmer on a low flame about 10 minutes.

Add the lemon juice.

Check salt and turn off heat. Garnish with cilantro.

Serve hot with rice or just by itself, like a soup.

Pistachio-Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

There are some food flavors that stay with us all our lives, and haunt us when we haven't met them in a while. The flavor of these Crumbly Pistachio-Cardamom Shortbread cookies is, for my hubby Desi, something like that.

Growing up in India, one of the fanciest cookies you could buy was a Nankhatai, a shortbread-textured cookie with an incredibly soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture and hints of cardamom and nuts. I loved these cookies, as did Desi who has a sweet tooth to beat all others.

For days now, he had been asking me to make him a cookie flavored with cardamom and pistachios, but I held back. While I have, in my pre-vegan days, made Nankhatai using ghee, I was not sure how it would turn out with vegan ingredients.

Yesterday, I decided to throw my fear to the winds. Drawing upon my own recipe for No-Butter Almond Shortbread Cookies, which have the same crumbly texture as Nankhatai, I substituted with pistachios instead of almonds and added a teaspoonful of cardamom.

A few small changes of ingredients, and the cookies turned out perfect! The pistachio gives these cookies a lovely, barely-green color and the flavor is to die for.

Desi loved them, but I too couldn't keep my hand out of the cookie jar!


Crumbly Pistachio-Cardamom Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients:

2 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp cardamom powder

1/4 cup (4 tbsp) zero-trans-fat vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (8 tbsp) canola oil

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp of cornstarch mixed well with 2 tbsp water

1/3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pistachio nuts, powdered fine in a food processor or spice grinder, and a few whole ones

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the shortening, canola oil and sugar together until light and white and fluffy

Add the cornstarch-water mixture, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract and blend well until mixture is smooth.

Add flour, cardamom powder and pistachio powder and mix.

Roll into small balls, about 1-inch in diameter, and place on a greased cookie sheet, one inch apart. Press down slightly to form discs. Press a pistachio, whole or half, into the center of each cookie.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 11-12 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the baking. Remove when the cookies have a hint of golden-brown color on top.

Place the baking sheet on a rack and let the cookies cool completely before removing them gently with a ladle.

My Dad's "Not-Mutton" Mushroom Curry

I grew up in a meat-eating household and one of our family's long-standing traditions was a mutton curry that my dad prepared each Sunday.

My dad, who was very handy around the kitchen unlike many men of his generation in India, would do most of the work, right from buying the meat in the morning to actually cooking it, as well as supervising everyone in the household who had some role to play in the actual preparation. My job was peeling a whole bulb of garlic and grating two kinds of coconut, fresh and dry. I hated both jobs: the juices from the garlic set my fingernails on fire, and I don't remember a time when I didn't grate my hand along with the coconut!

But I did love that curry. I can close my eyes and still see my dad standing over a two-burner stove in our Bombay kitchen, carefully roasting the spices and then grinding them to perfection in a little blender. He loved making that curry, just as much as we loved eating it.

After turning vegetarian, I sometimes would crave the spices in my dad's mutton curry. But neither Desi nor I are fans of meat substitutes. Enter the mushroom. This wonderful veggie is like a blank palate and a better-than-meat substitute because it absorbs the flavors of the myriad spices beautifully while retaining its robust texture.

To recreate my dad's curry without the central ingredient, mutton (goat's meat), I used two kinds of mushrooms, crimini and shiitake. My version, which I'm calling My Dad's "Not-Mutton" Mushroom Curry, doesn't take as long and I can skip all the steps that involve marinating and tenderizing the meat (ah, the many joys of being vegan!)

The dish is quite delicious, and I swear I have never missed the meat in it. I am certain even meat-eaters would love its robust flavors.

The curry is perfect either with brown or white rice or with any kind of Indian bread. A perfect accompaniment would be a simple avocado-tomato-onion salsa with some cilantro and a spritz of lemon juice.

Mmmm.

I cannot wait to make this for my dad next time I see him!

My Dad's "Not-Mutton" Mushroom Curry

Ingredients:

3 cups of assorted mushrooms, cleaned and sliced into chunky strips (I used crimini and shiitake, but you could use portabella or even button mushrooms)

2 medium potatoes, cubed and microwaved with some water for about 5 minutes until they are barely tender.

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 red chillies

5 cloves

5 pods of green cardamom

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cup shredded coconut (I use a packaged kind I buy from Whole Foods)

1-inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced

6 large garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes or 2 medium tomatoes, diced

Heat 1/2 tbsp of the oil in a skillet. Add the coriander, cumin, chillies. cardamom, cloves and peppercorns and roast until they start changing color and become fragrant. Remove and reserve.

Heat another 1/2 tbsp of oil stir fry half the sliced onion, garlic and ginger until they are golden brown. Reserve.

Without adding any more oil, roast the coconut shreds for just a few seconds until they start turning golden-brown. Remove immediately. Be vigilant because coconut can burn easily.

Put the spices, onion, garlic, ginger and coconut in a blender and using 1/2 to 1 cup of water, grind to a smooth paste.

In the same skillet used for toasting the spices and onions, heat the remaining 1 tbsp of oil.

Add the remaining onion and cook until the onion starts turning golden-brown.

Add the diced tomatoes and turmeric. Cook until the tomatoes start to break down.

Add the sliced mushrooms and stir to coat with the spices. Add the potatoes.

Cover and let cook until the veggies turn quite tender.

Now add the ground spice-onion mixture. Stir thoroughly.

Cover and let it cook another 10 minutes for the flavors to meld together.

Garnish with some cilantro or, like I did, add about 1/2 cup watercress in the last few minutes of cooking.

Serve hot!