Chickpea Curry with Caribbean Spices

I'm a little bean-obsessed.

My pantry is lined wall to wall, or rather shelf to shelf, with containers of beans of every color and shape. Yellow canary beans, canellini beans, lima beans, pink beans, pinto beans, red rajma beans, navy beans, black beans, blackeyed peas, garbanzo beans, fava beans...you name it, it's likely there.

And when I see a bean recipe that's different from the ones I already know, I devour it with unabashed gluttony.

So what's it about beans?

Let's just say this: you cannot get a better bang for your buck than these protein- and fiber-packed wonders.

A bean is not just another bean is not just any other bean. Each bean has its own character and its own unique flavor and texture. When you learn to appreciate beans, you open yourself up to a healthy, flavorful and delicious world of cooking and eating.

But much as a I love all kinds of beans, I must admit, I do have a favorite.

Garbanzo beans, or chickpeas. Come to think of it, they even stand apart from other beans because of the way they look: cute and chubby, instead of spare, smooth, and shiny, the way the other denizens of the beanworld are.

For a cook, chickpeas are also great because compared to most other beans, they cook up quite easily, although it's even easier if you take the time to soak them. They have a wonderful, hefty yet creamy texture that makes them ideal for both felafel and hummus. They taste great just boiled and tossed into a leafy salad or spiked with a few simple Indian spices and coconut to make a sundal. And they are unbelievably meaty and delicious in spicy hot curries ladled over rice.

Yum.

My recipe for today is for such a curry, but with a twist. The curry, based very loosely on a recipe from World Vegetarian, uses some Caribbean spices, which give it a uniquely spicy, smoky flavor that is mindblowingly delicous.

I served it with some chapatis and rice, but just one or the other would work as a great partner for this red-hot curry.

Enjoy, everyone, and have a great weekend!


Chickpea Curry with Caribbean Spices

Ingredients:

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked for 8 hours and then cooked until tender

1 onion, finely chopped

2 jalapeno chili peppers, finely minced

1 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium-sized potatoes, diced into 1/2-inch cubes

2 tsp dried thyme

1/4 cup chopped coriander or cilantro leaves

For the masala or spice powder:

Roast until just a couple of shades darker and then powder in a blender or spice-grinder:

2 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tsp black peppercorns

5 cloves

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp fennel seeds

2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

In a saucepan, heat the oil

Add the onion and fry until it starts to brown.

Add the jalapeno chilies, garlic, the thyme, and the powdered spices, and stir-fry for a minute.

Add the chickpeas and the potatoes along with about 2 cups of water (use up any water left over from cooking the chickpeas),

Add salt. Bring the curry to a boil, then turn the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Garnish with coriander and, if desired, some freshly diced onions and tomatoes.

Serve hot.

I am sending this chickpea curry recipe on to Sometime Foodie who's hosting JFI: Chickpeas. JFI, or Jihva for Ingredients, was started by Indira of Mahanandi.

This also goes to the seventh helping of Susan's My Legume Love Affair, hosted this month by Srivalli.

Thanks, all!

Banana Cake: Tender, Glorious

This banana cake was one of the easiest I've baked, and let me tell you, it's a keeper recipe.

I worked off a recipe I found in a newspaper, but I changed it quite a bit to veganize it. To replace the egg, I added an extra banana which gave the cake more yummy banana-ey flavor without the yucky eggy smell. I also substituted for the buttermilk in the recipe with a mixture of soy milk and balsamic vinegar which worked beautifully.

You don't need a fancy topping on this cake: a simple sprinkling of confectioners powdered sugar does the trick

So here is the recipe. Enjoy, everyone!

Vegan Banana Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup canola or other vegetable oil

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

2 small, very ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup soymilk + 1/4 tsp balsamic vinegar (set aside five minutes to curdle)

1 tbsp confectioners' sugar for dusting

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Beat together the oil and sugar with a handheld mixer for about two minutes.

Add the soymilk mixture and beat until just mixed.

Add the mashed bananas and beat in. Make sure there are no big lumps remaining.

Add the flour to the banana-soymilk-oil mixture in 2 batches, beating in after each addition until the mixture is smooth. Do not overbeat, though.

Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment or wax paper. Oil the paper.

Pour in the batter and bake 25-30 minutes in a 350-degree oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Place the cake on a rack to cool.

After about 10 minutes, lift out the cake by the parchment paper and place it on the rack to cool thoroughly.

Dust the confectioners' sugar over the cake. Cut into squares and devour!

Pappardelle Pasta with Green Peppers and Asparagus Frittata

Pappardelle can lift an ordinary pasta meal right up into the extraordinary.

These flat, broad ribbons are a wonderful base for holding on to chunky sauces, which, I thought, would make it a perfect fit for this dish. If you cannot find papardelle, use tagliatelle, which are also flat but less wide, or even plain old spaghetti.

My Pappardelle with Green Peppers and Asparagus Frittata was inspired by a non-vegan, eggy version I saw on television. But it's extremely easy to veganize, and, in the process, it gets healthier too.

Frittata is a thick Italian omelet filled with veggies, although in this case it serves as a sauce for the pasta. I substituted the eggs with silken tofu and some egg replacement powder. This worked really well because unlike with a regular frittata, I didn't need the egg substitutes to set into a firm omelet.

I used frozen asparagus spears for this dish, but go with fresh asparagus if you can find it. I also added a green pepper to the pasta, but needless to say any other colored pepper or green onions (scallions) or even spinach would be great in this.

I am sending this of course to my It's A Vegan World: Italian event. And still hoping that you creative cooks out there come up with your own veganized Italian dishes before Feb. 28, 2009.
This recipe also goes to Madhuram's Egg Replacement event, where her chosen ingredient this month is egg replacer powder.
Cheers, folks. And enjoy!



Whole-Wheat Pappardelle Pasta with Green Peppers and Asparagus Frittata

Ingredients:

1 pound whole-wheat pappardelle pasta (feel free to substitute with tagliatelle, fettuccine, or spaghetti)

1 cup silken tofu

2 tsp egg replacer powder like EnerG

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

4 cloves of garlic, crushed with a broad knife, and then sliced thinly (crushing the garlic helps the oils in the garlic flow, giving you more enhanced garlicky flavor. Delicious.)

1 large green pepper, cut into a small dice

1 pound asparagus spears, tough stems removed and cut in 1/2-inch pieces. If using frozen, thaw thoroughly, then cut.

2 tsp fresh-ground black pepper

Salt to taste

Bring water to boil in a large pot, with 2 tbsp of salt added to it.

Add the pasta and cook according to instructions until al dente.

Simultaneously, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onions and green peppers and toss in the oil.

Add half the black pepper and salt. Cook until barely tender, 3-4 minutes.

Add the pasta to the saucepan, stir together and keep on the lowest heat setting of your stove. You don't want the pasta to cook any further at this point, you just want to keep it warm.

In another saucepan, heat the other tbsp of olive oil.

Add the asparagus and remaining black pepper.

Cook, stirring, until the asparagus is fairly tender but still has a bite to it-- it should not get mushy.

In a bowl, place the tofu and egg replacer powder. Beat with a whisk to mix and smooth any lumps.

Add to the asparagus and allow it to settle for a minute. Then toss around for about two minutes.
Add the asparagus frittata to the pasta and toss to coat the noodles.

Serve hot with a salad and some crusty bread.

Cupcakes For My Cupcake

My husband, Desi, loves cupcakes. So last week, for his birthday, I surprised him with these Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with a Chocolate Ganache Frosting.

Given how delicious these are, it is almost surprising how easy they are to make. And they are, of course, completely vegan.

I thought these up also partly for Madhuram's creative egg replacement event. Her egg substitute for this month is egg replacer powder.

I usually use a small amount of cornstarch in my cupcakes to help bind them, but the egg replacer, which is basically a mixture of various kinds of starches, worked very well as a substitute. ( I just realized as I wrote this that the egg replacer here is a substitute for a substitute. Hilarious!)

Ok, time to stop the prattle and get on with the recipe. I am also sending this out to Alka for her thoughtful event, Just for You, because this cupcake was made for my most special guy.

Thanks, Madhuram and Alka, for hosting these lovely events.




Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp egg replacer powder

1 cup almond or soy milk

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup turbinado sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Mix together the almond or soy milk and vinegar and set aside for five minutes to curdle.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, egg replacer powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix the oil, sugar, almond/soy milk mixture and vanilla until the mixture is smooth.

Add the flour gradually, beating until it is thoroughly incorporated.

Line a muffin or cupcake pan with cupcake liners and fill each liner with the cupcake batter about 2/3rds full. I get about 10 cupcakes from this recipe.

Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Place on a rack to cool thoroughly before removing the cupcakes to frost.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Ingredients:

1/4 cup almond milk

1/2 cup unsweetened vegan chocolate chips

2 tbsp confectioners' sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

Heat the almond milk to a simmer, then take off the heat.

Add the chocolate chips and stir until you have a smooth ganache. Add the sugar and maple syrup and stir in thoroughly.

Allow the ganache to cool thoroughly before frosting the cupcakes.

The ganache will be gooey at the beginning, but it will firm up after a few minutes.

Enjoy!

Whole-Wheat Gnocchi with Sundried Tomato Pesto

We all love pasta, don't we? It's one of the easiest meals to fix on a hurried weeknight. Boil a box of pasta, whip up a quick tomato sauce, fix a salad, and you have a meal that's not only quite healthy but delicious and sure to please.

But fresh pasta is an even more sublime experience. The wonderful texture is to die for, and the taste absolutely incomparable.

I'd long been wanting to make some gnocchi, a small, handmade potato pasta, especially after I watched that wonderful chef Lidia Bastianich cook up some on her public-television show. But I finally only got around to it this week.

Gnocchi does require a little labor, because you have to hand-make the dumplings, but believe me, it is a labor of love and well worth it.

I used whole-wheat to make my gnocchi, and the taste was so delicious, I'm glad I did not follow other recipes which suggested all-purpose flour.

I made a very simple sundried tomato pesto sauce for my gnocchi that gave this dish a huge burst of flavor while letting the beautiful texture and taste of the gnocchi come through.

So here's the recipe. It's shaping up to be a busy weekend, and I gotta run. Wish you all a lovely, lovely weekend, and don't forget to come up with ideas and recipes for It's A Vegan World: Italian. In fact, that's where this gnocchi recipe's off to.



Gnocchi with Sundried Tomato Pesto

Ingredients:

2 cups white whole-wheat flour (can use regular whole-wheat or all-purpose)

2 large baking potatoes like russet potatoes, boiled or zapped in the microwave until a fork stuck in the middle sinks through. Peel and mash, making sure there are no lumps. I put mine through a potato ricer.

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

Mix the ingredients into a smooth dough. You won't need any water, I didn't, but if the dough refuses to come together for any reason, add a little water.

Take a couple of tablespoons of the dough and roll into a cylinder about 1/2 inch thick.

With a knife, cut the cylinder at 1/4-inch intervals.

Take each piece and lightly shape it into a cylindrical shape. Then, with your thumb, press the gnocchi into the tines of a fork, while making a dent in the back with your thumb at the same time.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add about 2 tbsp salt to it.

Put about a fourth of the gnocchi into the boiling water. It will sink first and rise as it cooks. Once the gnocchi has risen, remove to a plate. Each batch will take about 2 minutes each.

Add some sundried pesto sauce (recipe follows) or basil pesto and stir.

Serve with a salad.

Sundried Pesto Sauce
2/3 cup of oil-packed sundried tomatoes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

A handful (around 1/4 cup) of walnuts

1 tsp dried basil leaves

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp red chili powder, like cayenne

Salt to taste

Place all ingredients other than olive oil into a food processor.

With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil.

Once you have a granular but even paste, turn off the food processor. Check for salt.

Mix with gnocchi.

Enjoy!

Why this Bombay girl doesn't think Slumdog Millionaire is all that

All around me everyone's singing the praises of this breakout movie from Bombay, and I just can't stay silent anymore.

I saw Slumdog Millionaire soon after it was released. I had high hopes. It certainly sounded interesting, and two of my American colleagues who had seen it couldn't stop telling me how wonderful it was. Plus, most important, it is set in my former hometown, Bombay.There's no way I was going to let this one get by.

So I bought the ticket, and I watched it. I found it fairly engaging, and funny in parts, and I liked that it touched upon something most movies made in Bombay never do: the gritty lives of the huge population of slumdwellers who share the city and belong to it just as surely as the Ambanis and the Tatas (the city's super-rich families) do.

For the record, I absolutely do not agree with all the protests happening right now in Bombay by people who claim the movie needlessly exposes the city's underbelly. Those protests, I think, reflect elements of mistrust and anger over a foreigner, an Englishman no less, documenting the city's poverty and, worse, showing it to the rest of the world. After all, this is a country whose memory of colonial exploitation is not yet a very distant one, and where extremist religious movements are getting stronger by the day.

But is Slumdog Millionaire going into my list of great movies? Not a chance.

Why? Because it is nothing more than a slickly packaged Bollywood-style fairytale. A Hindu-Muslim romance, a boy who single-handed goes through every conceivable problem that every poverty-stricken child in India has ever had to go through, a breathless happy ending where the hero gets it all...it's got every element of a cheesy crowd-pleaser but it also falls terribly short on imagination. Just like any Bollywood movie.

At the same time, though, filmmaker Danny Boyle asks us to stretch our imaginations once too often. It is hard to believe in the glue that holds the movie together--why, for instance, does the protagonist knows the answers to the game-show questions that take us in and out of his past. I've known lots of kids from Bombay's slums in my years in the city, and while many of them are very smart and tough and gritty, to assume that they would know who's the person depicted on foreign currency, or who is the poet that wrote a song they belt out in the endless compartments of the city's buzzing local trains is downright stupid.

I know, I know, it's a movie and it doesn't all have to be all real. But then, Boyle is not selling this as a Forrest-Gumpian tale that requires you to believe in the impossible. Instead, he plays this as a hard-to-watch story of a young man who does good despite some of the most terrible circumstances anyone could live through.

So here it is in a nutshell: at its best, Slumdog Millionaire is a fairly absorbing movie, chiefly because it shows a side of India that you don't often see in the movies.

But for the rest, it's just an unimaginative, weakly-held-together narrative that lacks strong performances by the two lead characters-- in fact, it is the actors in smaller roles who do the best job, including Anil Kapoor (a heartthrob with lots of promise when I was a teen in Bombay) as the loutish game-show host.

As for all the awards buzz: since the Oscars are just a popularity contest, I wouldn't be surprised if Slumdog wins big. After all, it won't be the first mediocre movie to sweep the Oscars.

Update: My Tamil husband, on reading this post, was quick to remind me that A.R.Rahman does deserve his Oscar nominations for the music score :) I agree!

It's A Vegan World: A Food Event

Time was when kitchens were so traditional that women -- who always did the cooking-- rarely ventured to make anything that was not something their moms and grandmoms had made for decades.

Time was when people found foods they were not used to impossible to even contemplate, and therefore eat.

Time was when it was not at all easy to find and shop for ingredients exotic to the region one lived in, restricting even the most innovative cook.

Thank goodness we don't live in those times.

Today, our kitchens -- no matter where we live -- are infused with global flavors. Most of us have access to and can eat, cook, and rave about food from every corner of the world: Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Ethiopian, Moroccan, Greek, Lebanese, French, Mexican...there really is no stopping.

So why am I writing this? A few weeks back, the prolific Madhuram suggested that I host a vegan pizza or pasta event. I loved the idea, but I thought, why not run further with it? Why stop at Italian? Why not start a series that celebrates, one at a time, food from every corner of the world? Vegan, of course.

So here's the plan: every month, I'll feature a country or a region (feel free to make any suggestions) as part of this series which I will call It's a Vegan World. And each one of you amazing bloggers and non-blogger cooks is invited to participate with your recipes.

To make the kick-off a little easier on both you and me, I decided to go with one of the most popular cuisines of all: Italian. Who among us doesn't love Italian food, and there's so much to love: pastas, pizzas, risottos, fragrant herbs, delicious sauces, luscious desserts...pure joy, all of it.

Italian food we eat here in the United States often has globs of butter and cheese in it, but I'm hoping that when you're required to cook vegan, you'll come up with healthier alternatives. A win-win all around :).

You can cook anything: entree, appetizer, side-dish, dessert, a snack: your imagination's the only limit. It doesn't have to be a traditional recipe, but it should fit into the parameters of what is generally accepted as Italian food. Don't send me, say, semiya upma made with spaghetti.

Here are the guidelines:

The deadline for It's a Vegan World: Italian is Feb. 28, 2009.

These foods are no-nos in vegan cooking, so please leave them out: honey, butter, eggs, cheese, ghee, milk, yogurt (basically no milk-based products), gelatin, and, of course, no meats or fish. Vegan meat substitutes are fine.

The recipe should be cooked for this event, so please do not recycle old posts.

Link back to this announcement, and feel free to use the logo below.

Send me an email with your post to myveganworld[at]gmail.com. Include these details:

Your name

Blog name

Post url

I'll get the photograph from your post


That's it. I know this is a bit of a challenge, but I also know that most of you out there are up for it. So put on your aprons and get thinking: I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Pita Bread for Africa, and Inauguration Mania

The end of last year was a busy one for me, which meant some of the blog commitments I wanted to fulfill had to take a backseat. One of them was a tag from Uma to bake bread to feed Africa.

Well, not really: it's just symbolic :). This is part of a "blog action" campaign started by a charity that seeks to raise awareness about hunger and poverty in Africa, by asking food bloggers to post their bread recipes. It's a wonderful and worthy cause, and you can read more about it here.

Because this is a tag, I am required to tag other bloggers, but I think I'll just leave it up to you: if any of you is interested, just consider yourself tagged and bake away!

It seems a little weird to write about hunger in a blog that celebrates food, and yet, I also think it's rather appropriate. To me, veganism is not just a cause for saving the animals I love, but also a good way to start building a world where we become conscious of waste and needless consumption.

I strongly believe we have to share the resources our Earth provides us, with other people around the world, and with every creature that shares the Earth with us. I believe, as Gandhi once said, "The Earth provides enough for every man's need but not every man's greed."

Now think of this: it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce a single pound of meat. Very simply put, if more people eat a grain-based diet, more people can eat.

So a vegetarian diet can- and this is not an exaggeration by any means- fight world hunger. How cool is that?

Now on to the baking part of this post. I love baking bread and especially experimenting with veganizing versions of bread that use loads of butter or eggs. But baking -- while not exactly very time-consuming-- does take hours of planning and a few minutes of attention at different times throughout a day.

Not pita bread, though. While it does require two rises, the first is only about a couple of hours, and the second rise is 20 minutes and is not really a rise as much as an opportunity for the dough to kick back and relax before being plunged into a hot oven.

The resulting bread itself is so warm, pillowy, delicious and fragrant, you know it is worth the effort, instead of picking up a packet of days-old, plastic-packed pita bread from the supermarket.

I made my pita mostly whole-wheat, and I used some of the loaves the next day to make pita chips: which I absolutely adore and which are heaven with some guacamole or hummus.

I am going to move on to the recipe now, but don't forget to see pictures of the inauguration of President Barack Obama at the end of this post. It was one of most memorable days of my life.

Whole-wheat Pita Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups white whole-wheat flour (can substitute with regular whole wheat flour)

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp salt

4 tsp active dry yeast

Warm water (about 1 1/4 cups)

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together all the ingredients.

Knead into a smooth dough, and continue kneading by hand, or on low speed in a stand mixer, for about 10 minutes.

Place in a bowl coated with olive oil, turning over once so that the dough is coated with oil.

Keep in a warm place to rise, about 2 hours, until doubled in volume.

Now punch down the dough and divide into 8 pieces. Roll into balls, cover with a kitchen towel, and allow the balls to rest about 20 minutes.

Roll each ball into a dough around 7 inches in diameter. Try to roll evenly so the pita will rise in the oven, making a perfect pocket.

Place a pizza stone or unglazed ceramic tiles in an oven, and preheat to 450 degrees.

Spritz the pizza stone with water and, after 30 seconds, place as many pitas as you can on the stone without overlapping.

Leave alone for 3 minutes. The pitas should puff up.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. The pita should now deflate. If, for some reason, it doesn't, I find that putting it in a microwave for 30 seconds after it has cooled down softens the pita and does the trick.

Stuff with felafel and fresh veggies and enjoy!

I made some spinach felafel to go with the pita bread, but I baked them instead of frying. I wasn't too happy with the texture of the baked felafel: I should've just fought the healthy urge and gone with frying which is how felafel is usually made. But the felafel were tasty enough, although I'm going to wait until another time, when I've perfected it, to share the recipe.

Pita Chips:

To make pita chips the next day, cut the pita into eight wedges, like a pizza.

Put the wedges on a baking sheet in a single layer and drizzle some olive oil. Toss.

Place in a 350-degree preheated oven and bake about 3-5 minutes, flipping over once if needed.

Remove to a plate and serve with some hummus or guacamole.

***

I can imagine many of you have by now watched pictures and videos of the inauguration over and over. But since I was there freezing to death, I think I deserve to be able to post some of my own :)

I won't wax on about the inauguration itself, except to say it was colder, way colder than it was at the concert Sunday, and much more crowded. It's estimated around 2 million people made it to the inauguration ceremonies, which include the swearing-in, the parade, and the many balls. The National Mall was so packed, it might have been hard to slip a newspaper between two people! Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. You can see the pictures for yourself.

And now that all the festivities are over, it's time to get back to real life. Wish you all a wonderful week ahead, and here's hoping the weekend gets here very, very soon!

There I am, all bundled up but not about to let go of a photo op with PETA's mascots who we encountered on the way to the inauguration. Don't miss the "Yes we can go veg" signs!

This was the crowd on just one of the many streets leading out of the National Mall after the swearing-in of President Obama.

People gathered at just one of the jumbotrons that beamed the swearing-in.

Witnessing History: the Obama Inauguration Concert

These past few days have been exciting ones for America. But nowhere, I'm sure, is the fever as high as it is right now in my hometown, Washington DC.

I've lived in this softly explosive city (okay, in the suburbs, but less than a quarter mile from the border line) for 12 years now: the sum of my time in the United States. I consider myself a Washingtonian, just as surely as I consider myself a Bombayite. Two cities could not be more different. Bombay is often compared with New York, a bustling city of millions. Washington, with a population of half a million and with an area of just 68 square miles, is a quieter city, but one toward which the whole world's eyes are constantly riveted. (The Washington metropolitan area made up of the city's Maryland and Virginia suburbs adds up to a population of more than 5 million).


The city is filled with contrasts. As respected as Washington is for being the nation's capital, it is also often reviled for being a hotbed of murky politics. The city is home to the extremely rich and the extremely powerful, cossetted in mansions so large, you cannot see one in its entirity without a full sweep of your head. On the other hand you have the inner-city areas where crime is rampant and poverty lurks relentlessly.

The city is filled with museums that contain some of the most significant relics of the world's history and such well-photographed buildings as the White House and the Capitol. The museums, all run with an endowment from British scientist James Smithson, line the grounds of the National Mall.

The National Mall, to anyone not familiar with the city, is not, as an airheaded shopaholic relative once assumed, the nation's biggest string of department stores. It is a glorious strip of grass and reflecting pools on which stand the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, the World War II memorial, and the Vietnam Wall. From the Washington Monument, a tall obelisk piercing the sky, is a clear and magnificent view of the beautiful Capitol building where, of course, Congress meets.

Over the years, the National Mall has been witness to some of the greatest moments in our history. This is where Martin Luther King, Jr. made his famous "I have a dream" speech. Even today, important events happen here almost every week. As a rookie reporter for a city newspaper, I had the "mall beat" every weekend where I'd be sent off to cover some event or the other on the mall. There was always something going on.

On Veterans' Day, families of fallen Vietnam soliders converge at the Vietnam wall, inscribed with the names of every dead and missing soldier from that war, to remember their loved ones. On Memorial Day, Vietnam veterans roll into the city on their motorbikes in a parade, and collect on the Mall.

I have seen war-protestors converge here to protest the beginning of the war in Iraq. I watched President Clinton break the ground here for the World War II memorial, which has since been completed and opened.

Yesterday, not as a reporter but as a resident of this great country, I saw history being made at the "We are one" concert to kick off the inaugural celebrations for President-elect Obama's swearing-in.

It was a ball. Four-hundred-thousand people converged on the Mall - a fraction of the 2 million that will be there for the inauguration tomorrow. It was cold, so cold my feet felt like stumps of wood by the end of it all. All around, people tried to keep themselves warm by swilling hot chocolate -- bought after hour-long waits at the vending stalls-- and by stomping their feet. It was crowded, like being back in a local train in Bombay at rush hour. But it was also enthralling to be part of this throbbing, pulsing mass of humanity, each one uncontainably excited and hopeful about the future.

The concert itself was a star-studded event, featuring some of the greatest singers of our times: Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, and many, many others. But the loudest roar from the crowd draped in Obama blankets and sporting Obama hats, Obama T-shirts and Obama scarves, was reserved for the biggest star of them all. Each time the president-elect's face came up on the jumbotron, the crowd erupted. When he finally addressed the crowd, every word he said was lapped up with unabashed adulation and applause.

Desi and I were far, far from the dais, and we watched the concert mostly on the jumbotron. We almost froze to death and were nearly suffocated at times by the milling crowds. But it was all worth it, because we couldn't possibly have given up a chance to be part of the beginning of one of the most momentous eras of our times.

Cherry on the icing? Just a couple of arms-lengths from where I stood at the concert was a woman who sported a green button in her hat that said "Go Vegan."

In a country where it is estimated that only around 0.5 percent of the population is vegan, that was -- for this animal lover -- a great sign of hope and change. :)

Velvety Green Curry with Green Peas and Shiitake Mushrooms

Bill Maher, the intrepid comedian, once said that the reason he loves his dog so much is because when he gets home, his dog is the only one that greets him like he's the Beatles. As anyone that loves and has a dog knows, he's not joking.

Every evening, when I get home, I have a huge welcoming party waiting for me. Tails wag furiously, in fact so furiously that I wonder how they don't fall off! Opie kisses my face a hundred times, his whole body wagging. Lucy plants a quick kiss on my face and then runs in and out between my legs as if she were a train, rubbing against my knees and rolling over on her back for a tummy rub. Old Freddie, almost blind, a little overwhelmed by all the action and in fear of being unintentionally knocked over by the huge Lucy, stands a foot behind anyway and barks for attention, eager to tell me he's happy too.

Even the cats roll down the stairs and sit at a slight distance, a little disdainful of all this unbridled doggy excitement, but waiting for a chance to wind themselves around my ankles

The whole show is repeated, blow by blow, when Desi gets home. He usually gets in after me, and the moment the excitement over my return has died down, the dogs sit at the front door, waiting for Desi. Opie, who seems to have an implicit belief that I control when daddy gets home, will scratch my leg with his paw and make huge, appealing eyes at me, imploring me to make him come home immediately.

Animals react with such straightforward emotion to almost any situation. But they are not quite simple creatures. There is a lot I have learned from my animals just by being around them every day.

Lucy, for instance, has taught me the importance of trust, and loyalty to those you love. She is fiercely protective about her family. Sure, as the alpha among the dogs, she will bully Opie and Freddie relentlessly around the house. But she will not let any other dog do that. Once, as we were hiking on a trail, Opie crossed a fairly deep trench filled with water, jumping over it in excitement as he chased a squirrel. The excitement over, he wanted to come back and join us, but this time he wasn't sure how to get back across the trench. Suddenly, a bigger dog appeared from one of the homes backing to the trail, and stood threateningly and territorially in front of Opie who is as peace-loving as they come and never, ever gets into a fight.

Lucy, who had wandered ahead of us, ran back, and planted herself right in between Opie and the other dog, who suddenly didn't look so big. The other dog retreated, and Lucy helped Opie return to the rest of the family by navigating him through a shallower part of the trench.

From Opie, I've learned the importance of enjoying the world, just as it is. He has an indescribable enthusiasm for just about anything, and to him each walk or each ride or each treat is something to be enjoyed with all his heart. He will greet other dogs he meets on walks with a happy playfulness, and he will chase every squirrel he ever sees with gusto even when he has never managed to get close to one, and never will because he's just too slow.

From Freddie, I've learned to stay young at heart. At 16, which is only 80 in dog years, he's the most spry old man I've ever seen. Sure, he has bad days, but he bounces right back up and gets back to life as usual. And he never, ever complains.

From Pie, my black cat, I've learned the lesson of persistence. Once Pie sets her mind to something, it's hard to get her off it, and usually she gets her way. If she's hungry, she'll lobby you relentlessly for food or a treat. If she wants her catnip, she won't leave you alone until she gets it. And with those huge eyes and beautiful face, she knows she is hard to refuse.

From Pubm, my calico cat, I've learned the most important lesson of all: to not let fear control me (although, I'll admit, there are still times when I have to work on it).

When Pubm -- along with Pie -- was new to our home, she was obviously not used to dogs and fearful of them, which wasn't helped by the fact that both Opie and Lucy love chasing small and furry things and were unbearably excited to have two new ones right in the house. Pubm endured a lot of chasing in her early days, and was initially very timid, hiding away for hours after an encounter with Opie or Lucy. But she decided, after a while, that she wouldn't let them keep her from going around and exploring the house as she wanted to do. So she began to fight back, with a few bats of her paw and a well-timed meow. It was remarkable to watch her, because at 12 pounds, she is less than one-seventh of Lucy's weight. Soon, the dogs got used to her and started leaving her alone. Now, you can often find her sharing a couch with Opie or Lucy, and sometimes even stealing their treats right under their nose. They, in turn, treat her just like one of them.

Okay, now that I've waxed on about my kids, let me turn to my recipe for the day, one of my favorites and a fairly easy one to make.

I got the base recipe for this out of World Vegetarian, although I made quite a few changes, and also replaced the cream with a paste of pistachio nuts, which made it much healthier.

This Green Curry with Peas and Shiitake Mushrooms is deliciously smooth and velvety, and it goes beautifully with some rotis or parathas. The spices in it are fairly mild, so it would be a great one to try if you're sensitive to spicy food.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, everyone!

Green Curry with Peas and Shiitake Mushrooms

Ingredients:

2 cups shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and stemmed and cut into strips (you can use white or even criminis)

3 cups green peas

1 tbsp grated ginger

5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup coriander leaves

2 green chillies

2/3 cup pistachio nuts, soaked for a few minutes in warm water, then ground to a paste.

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Place the green chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander leaves in a blender and puree with just enough water to make a smooth paste.

Remove the paste to a bowl.

Place a cup of the green peas in the blender and using enough water, blend into a puree.

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the cumin seeds and, when they sputter, add the mushrooms.

Stir the mushrooms in the oil for a minute. Then remove them and set aside.

To the saucepan, add the green-chilli-ginger-garlic paste and saute for two or three minutes.

Add the mushrooms back to the pan along with the 2 cups of green peas, the green-pea puree, and some salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and add the pistachio paste.

Add enough water for a slightly loose but not watery consistency.

Let the curry simmer on low heat about five minutes.

Season with salt to taste.

Serve hot with rotis or chapatis or any flatbread.

It's Whole-Wheat, It's Vegan, It's Carrot Cake!

You might have noticed that I haven't posted many cake recipes on my blog, save a few cupcakes and a pumpkin cheescake I made over Thanksgiving.

Well, the reason's not because I don't like cakes: I do, in fact a little too much. There was a time years ago, when I was still in grad school, and my favorite show on public television was one where Debbi Fields, the woman who owns Mrs. Fields' Cookies, would bake all sorts of yummy cakes and other goodies.

At the time I was new to the United States and also a new baker. And the cakes I'd had in India (always store-bought) were usually white slabs with thick, hard, sugary icing on top in all kinds of psychedelic colors that tasted very sweet but nothing else. In fact, even in the mid '90s, when I left Bombay, the only passably decent cake one could buy was a heart-shaped chocolate cake at a store called Croissants opposite Churchgate station. Of course, things have changed dramatically since then, and now the easier availability of ingredients, equipment and know-how means even home bakers can turn out amazing great baked goods.

Anyway, so fascinated was I with baking when I first moved here, that on the days when I didn't have any classes, I'd get up in the morning all excited about the idea of plonking myself in front of the television and learning something new from Debbie Fields that I could then replicate in my kitchen.

Many cakes and several inches on both our waistlines later, Desi told me it was time I got rid of my addiction to cake-baking. Now although I try not to listen to anything he tells me to do, it was I that had the lion's share of the extra inches. So I tried to cut down my cake-making by quite a bit, limiting myself mostly to cupcakes where it is easier to control portion size.

Of course, if there was any potential to include a healthy ingredient in the cake, the baking gloves would go right back on. As with banana nut bread, or pumpkin bread. And, of course, carrot cake.

With an unbelievably moist texture, that rich-sweet carrot flavor and topped with a cream-cheese icing, the mighty carrot cake is easy to love. And the fact that it has plenty of carrots in it makes it an easy sell to even conscientious dieters.

I make my carrot cake even healthier by using in it only unrefined ingredients: whole-wheat pastry flour and turbinado sugar. Then there are the carrots, the walnuts and the applesauce: yummy goodness all around.

The cherries on top of the cake have nothing to do, by the way, with what's in it. I just needed some color on the cake, and they were around, so on they went in the interests of making a pretty picture.

Here's the recipe. Enjoy, everyone!


I-Can't-Believe-It's-Healthy Carrot Cake

Sift into a bowl:

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 cups turbinado sugar

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

In another bowl mix together:

1 cup canola oil

2 cups applesauce

2 cups grated carrots

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Add the flour mixture to the oil-applesauce-carrot mixture, stirring to blend evenly.

Add:

1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted, then coarsely chopped.

Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper, if posibble because this makes it far easier to unmold the cake. Oil the parchment paper as well.

Now divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Place the cake pans on a rack for 15 minutes. Then unmold the cakes gently and allow them to cool thoroughly on the rack.

For the cream cheese icing:

Beat together until smooth:

1 cup vegan cream cheese like Tofutti

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Place one of the cooled cakes on a cake stand or plate. Smear the top with some icing.

Carefully place the other cake on top of the first one. Cover the cake with the remaining icing using a spatula.

A Time to Eat ... Pongal!

As a kid, I loved festivals and celebrations because they meant great food.

Now, I love festivals and celebrations because...well, because they mean great food.

Let's admit it: most of the fun in any event really lies in the food, doesn't it? Celebrations around the world center around food, and we Indians are no different. Every festival in India has dishes uniquely associated with it, and on festival days, I remember, the women of our family would spend hours in the kitchen turning out lip-smacking goodies.

They would make luscious Shrikhand -Puri for Gudi Padva (the Maharashtrian new year) and whisper-soft Puran Polis for Holi, a raucous festival where everyone douses everyone else with colored water and powders. Diwali, the festival of lights and the mother of all Hindu celebrations, was a smorgasboard of so many sweet and savory treats, it makes my head spin and my stomach growl just to think of them. Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of Ganesha, the beloved elephant-headed god of Hindus, was about five days of feasting on the most delicious food imaginable.

After marrying a Tamilian, I inherited more festivals and therefore more occasions for great food. Of these, Pongal is just about my favorite.

Pongal is a day for the people of Tamil Nadu to elebrate prosperity, and it is a day to cook two of the most amazing dishes I've ever tasted: Venn Pongal and Sakkarai Pongal.

Both dishes start out with a similar base of rice and mung lentils, but one is mixed with jaggery, an unrefined sugar, to make the sweet or Sakkarai Pongal, while the other is flavored with a few simple spices like pepper, ginger and cumin seeds to make the savory version, or Venn Pongal.

Today, to go with my Venn Pongal, I made some Aviyal. a South Indian stew made with coconut milk and vegetables, and flavored with coconut oil.

I had already posted a recipe for Venn Pongal in the past, so I am not going to repeat it here, other than to give you the link. But here are my recipes for Sakkarai Pongal and Aviyal.

One quick note: both Pongals use ghee liberally, and ghee, or clarified butter, as you know, is a no-no in my kitchen. For the Sakkarai Pongal I used canola oil and almond milk and stirred in some vegan butter (Earth Balance) at the end. It was creamy and delicious.

Sakkarai Pongal is great with some pachchai karpooram, or edible camphor, which gives it a unique flavor. I've never been able to find any at my Indian grocery store, so I went without, but add a pinch if you can find it.

Happy Pongal, everyone! And, for my Tamil readers, Pongal Vazhthukkal (Desi had to write that for me) :-)


Sakkarai Pongal

3/4 cup rice

1/4 cup mung lentils or mung dal

Boil the rice and mung dal together, preferably in a pressure cooker, until really soft. I added about 3 cups of water to the pressure cooker, which gave me the right consistency.

Add 1 cup almond milk to the rice-mung mixture and set it on a low flame.

Add 3/4 to 1 cup grated jaggery and stir well.

Cook on a low flame until the raw jaggery smell has dissipated. This took about half an hour for me. The pongal should not be dry, but creamy and slightly fluid. If it gets too dry, add some more almond milk.

Heat 1 tbsp canola oil

Add 1 tsp powdered cardamom seeds

10-15 cashew nuts, broken into pieces

1/4 cup raisins (I used the dark ones, but golden raisins are better)

Toss until the nuts are lightly browned. Add to the rice.

Stir well. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Aviyal

4 cups of mixed veggies (I used potatoes, green beans and pumpkin, but you can add sweet potatoes, carrots, colocasia, plantain, eggplant, green peas...most veggies would be great in this)

1 cup coconut milk

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 red chillies

2 tbsp bengal gram dal

2 tbsp grated ginger

1 tsp canola oil

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 sprig curry leaves

Heat the canola oil and add the bengal gram dal. Stir until lightly browned, add red chillies and stir for another minute.

Put the bengal gram dal in a blender along with the ginger, coconut milk and cumin seeds. Blend to a smooth paste.

Cook the vegetables with some water until almost tender.

Place the vegetables in a saucepan with 1 cup water, the ground coconut-cumin paste, salt and turmeric.

Bring to a boil, lower heat and cook for another five minutes until the vegetables are quite tender.

Heat the coconut oil in a separate pan.

Add the curry leaves, stir for a minute, then pour into the aviyal.

Stir in and turn off the heat. Check salt and add more if needed.

Serve hot with venn pongal or even plain boiled rice.

Enjoy!

Beets Infused with Garlic and Olive Oil

Middle Eastern food never fails to amaze me with its vibrant flavors and simplicity and ease of preparation. Its popularity is obvious from the fact that foods like hummus, felafel, pita and tabbouleh have melded effortlessly into our food vocabulary today.

I am lucky because one of my oldest and best friends, Margo, is an Armenian who was born and raised in Lebanon. I often pick up great tips for wonderful Middle Eastern dishes from her, and from eating at her home.

This super-simple recipe for beets, one of my favorite veggies, is one I got from her. When I first ate these beets at her home, I was speechless when she told me just how easy to make they are, and how tiny the ingredient list is, because the flavor was so incredibly and spectacularly vivid.

I make this dish often in my kitchen now, and it takes minutes to put together. It goes beautifully as a side dish with just about anything. Try it: you won't be disappointed.

Beets Infused with Garlic and Olive Oil

4 medium beets, scrubbed clean, then covered with water and boiled on a stovetop or zapped in a microwave until a fork stuck in the middle slides in effortlessly. (I don't skin my beets). Slice the beets thinly and cut each slice into quarters, then eighths.

In a small bowl, mix together:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed, preferably with a garlic press, or minced really fine.

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt to taste

Pour the oil-garlic-lemon mixture over the beets and toss well.

Set aside for about half an hour for the flavors to infuse. Serve at room temperature.

Delicious.

***

I have long been intimidated by the thought of entering Jugalbandi's gorgeous Click event because of the amazing quality of the photographs they get, but heck, you only live once! So this time I'm throwing my hat in the ring. Thanks, Happy, for the suggestion!

I am also sending on this super-simple recipe to Ramki's event for minimalists, Recipes for the Rest of Us. Thanks, Ramki!

Kudos, President-Elect Obama!

Here's some great news for dog lovers: the Obamas are getting closer to adopting a dog, AND they will be getting one from a shelter, after all.

In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulous Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said that his family has narrowed down their choice of the first-dog-to-be to a labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog, both breeds known to be less likely to cause allergies because they don't shed as much hair or dander. One of the Obama daughters has allergies, and for a while some of us were a little worried that the need to get a hypoallergenic, purebred dog might send the Obamas shopping from breeders, even though they'd acknowledged that they would prefer to adopt from a shelter.

But Obama told Stephanopoulous that their next step will be to look at shelters to see when one of the dog breeds they have narrowed their choice to might come up.

My heart's singing: by adopting from a shelter, the president-elect will set a wonderful, wonderful example for the country and for the rest of the world about the importance of adopting instead of buying a pet. Each year millions of dogs, cats and other unwanted animals enter shelters, for no fault of their own. Millions are put to sleep because there are not enough homes to take them in. Meanwhile, many so-called animal lovers buy puppies and kittens from breeders who irresponsibly breed more of them.

For some reason, despite all the information and awareness out there, these people still believe that animals in shelters are somehow not good enough, or that they tend to have behavioral problems. Many also want to get home a puppy rather than an adult dog.

As someone who's adopted dogs both as puppies and adults, I can vouch that by bringing home an adult dog, you not only get all the joys of dog-parenting, but you also most often don't have to deal with the headaches of potty training. And yes, there's nothing as beautiful as a puppy or a kitten, but they grow up pretty fast: you'll be surprised how fast. By six months, most dogs and cats start looking pretty much as they will in their adult lives.

It just makes more sense to adopt from shelters because most dogs in shelters are checked for behavioral issues: something no breeder does. In fact, dogs and cats abandoned in shelters are rarely abandoned for behavioral problems: most are left behind by people who are moving, or just don't want to be bothered with taking care of a pet anymore, or find out they have allergies. The recent economic downturn has also led to many more pets being abandoned at shelters.

Besides, even dogs with issues can be trained to change, as we are finding out through the work of amazing groups like the Best Friends Animal Society which works, among other things, to rehabilitate dogs with behavioral problems.

It is so fitting that the president we hope will make our world a better place in the years to come is also sending out a message of hope and change for the world's voiceless animals. Kudos, President Obama: there are many tails wagging their thanks to you right now!

Tomatillo Masial: A Weeknight Favorite

When I have even a little time on my hands, I enjoy experimenting with ingredients to come up with new recipes. But most days are a blind rush to get home from work, get any errands out of the way, dash into the kitchen, and get dinner on the table.

On days like these, faced with the prospect of cooking something I've cooked often before, I - ironically - feel at a loss for ideas. That's when I turn to Desi and ask him what he'd like for dinner, even though I well know by now that his answer will be a cool, "Anything will do."

Now as you can imagine, that's one frustrating response when you're banking on someone for inspiration. Still, there are rare occasions when Desi will request an old favorite, making my life a little easier. And Green Tomato Masial is at the top of his list.

Here, I don't find green tomatoes in the market, so the only times I am able to make this delicious dish is when I can grow my own tomatoes in the summer. But in the days before I grew tomatoes, I learned to substitute for the tomatoes with a lookalike that has a similar-sounding name: tomatillo.

Tomatillos come all dressed up in a papery robe that you peel off to expose a deliciously tangy, gem-like green fruit. They are shoulder-shrugging sour, and used quite a lot in Mexican cuisine. They are also quite easily available at the supermarkets here.

The masial is easy to put together, and I used sambar powder that my sister-in-law brought for me when she visited, which is beyond delicious. Store-bought sambar powder would do very well too.

So here's an easy and quick, and traditional (almost) Tamil recipe that's a lifesaver and a timesaver on busy weeknights. I served it with hot, boiled rice, some roasted potatoes and papad or poppadum for a delicious and near-effortless meal.

Enjoy, everyone!

Tomatillo Masial

Ingredients:

5-6 tomatillos, outer covers peeled, washed, and chopped into a 1/2-inch dice and zapped in the microwave with 2-3 tbsp of water for about 2-3 minutes until quite tender.

1/2 cup tuvar dal (small yellow split lentils), covered with water and boiled until tender. Reserve with all liquid.

2-3 green chillies. Run a knife along the length to split them into halves

1 heaping tablespoon sambar powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

A generous pinch of asafetida (hing)

1 sprig curry leaves

1/3 cup coconut shreds

1 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

Heat the oil in a saucepan

Add the mustard seeds and when they sputter, add the asafetida

Add the green chilies and curry leaves and stir.

Add the sambar powder and turmeric and stir, then add the cooked dal and tomatillos.

Allow the masial to come to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer on a low flame for about 5 minutes.

If the masial is too thick, add water. If it's too thin, mix 1 tbsp of rice flour in a quarter cup of water and add to the masial.

Add salt to taste. Add coconut shreds and turn off the heat.

Serve hot with boiled rice.

Bitter Gourd Subzi

Ah, the bitter gourd.

It's ugly, it's bitter, it plays hard-to-get here in the U.S., and yet...it's so delicious, it drives me to poetry.

Well, not really, but it does make me a happier cook.

I've posted a couple of bitter gourd (karela or pagarkai) recipes before, but as you can see, I am in love with this healthful veggie, which makes me pounce on it anytime I spot a fresh bunch at my Indian grocery store which, unfortunately, is not all that often. I also keep trying to find new ways to cook it up. And the simpler the recipe, the happier I am.

This Karela Subzi is so simple and so delicious, it's a treat for a busy weeknight. The caramelized onions give the subzi a richness and depth, and the sugar and peanuts contrast beautifully with the bitterness of the gourd, toning it down while not disguising it completely, which would be a pity.

I used storebought Tava Masala in this subzi: I love fresh-ground spices, but on a weeknight time's hard to find and it never hurts to take some help from the readymade-masala gods.

Now for the subzi. Try it, even if you don't love the bitter gourd, and who knows? You might start writing odes to it too!

Bitter Gourd Subzi

Ingredients:

5 small bitter gourd melons, washed thoroughly and cut crosswise into thin rings, about 2 mm thick. Remove any hard seeds embedded in the white flesh.

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp Tava masala (available at Indian grocery stores)

1/4 cup peanuts, coarsely powdered

1 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet.

Add the onions and stir to coat with oil. Add the sugar and stir in.

On medium heat, cook the onions, stirring frequently, until they start to brown.

Add the bitter gourd rings and salt.

Toss thoroughly with the onions, then add the tava masala, chilli powder and turmeric and stir together.

Turn the heat to low, put a lid on the skillet, and cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes or so, until the onions and the bitter gourd caramelize and the bitter gourd is tender.

Add the peanut powder and stir into the subzi.

Check salt. Turn off heat.

Serve hot with chapatis or as a side-dish with rice and dal.

Other Bitter Gourd recipes from Holy Cow!

Karela Rajma

Bitter Gourd Pitlai

Update: An alert reader, Mita, pointed me to the fact that I had not included the Tava Masala in the recipe method. I've added it now. Sorry about that, and thanks, Mita!

Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry

These are the days of snuggling under the covers with a hot cup of tea as the world outside shivers and shakes and freezes up into a block of solid gray.

The days of slapping the snooze button on the alarm clock, again, and again, and again, and again.

The days of dreaming about spring, when the leaves and the grass and the flowers will burst out of the earth in a dizzying flurry of colors, bright in longed-for sunshine.

I have a love-hate relationship with all the seasons, but my feelings about winter are so strong, they are in a league of their own

Sure, I dream about colder days when the sun blazes down on Washington in the summer months, sapping every drop of liquid in your body. I long for the good-hair days of winter when the humidity turns my head into a frizzball. And I cannot wait each year for the first snow to collect on the branches of trees and the rooftops of houses, so pristine in its beauty

And yet winter here also means days so bitterly cold, I don't think I could have ever imagined the blood-freezing intensity of it when I lived in Bombay. The sub-freezing temperatures, sometimes accompanied by even stronger wind-chills, turn my fingers into little popsicles every time I step out, even for the short walk to my car. There are times when the cold has brought me to tears, and I kid you not.

Desi, of course, is surprisingly resilient. Winter's his favorite season, and you wouldn't guess that he was born and brought up in the cauldron of Madras. Me, I haven't outgrown my sultry Bombay blood

So no surprises then that in winter, like many others, I'm sure, I make every excuse in the book to stay indoors as much as possible. When that time can be spent at home, all the better.

It is on days like these that I pull out my favorite cookbooks and browse through them for a meal that I know will warm me to the core. This Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian is one such dish.

The recipe uses your everyday Indian spices: cumin, coriander, cinnamon and mustard. But with some deft variations, Jaffrey combines them into a dish so vibrant, it has to be tasted for its flavor to be believed.

Eggplant is one of my favorite veggies- it wouldn't be a stretch to say that it's comfort food to me- so all the better.

I would have followed the recipe to the letter, except that I didn't have the curry leaves the recipe required, so I improvised instead with some kasoori methi this time. The kasoori methi changes the taste but the end result is just as delicious.

Ok, it's time for me to snuggle back under the covers, and I'm off. Enjoy, everyone!

This Sri Lankan Curry goes off to Sunshinemom (what a wonderful name that is, and sounds so good right now in this wintry post!) for her brilliant Food in Colors event. This month she's inviting dishes that are yellow. Thanks, Harini!


Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry

(Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian)

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder like cayenne or paprika

1 tsp coriander seeds, powdered

1 tsp cumin seeds, powdered

1/2 tsp fennel seeds, powdered

Juice of 1/2 lime or lemon

2 tbsp canola oil or other vegetable oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 handful (about 1/2 cup) of kasoori methi (you can use 2 sprigs of curry leaves instead. The original recipe suggests basil for an interesting variation

2 tsp mustard seeds, powdered

1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves

Slather the eggplant slices with salt, pepper and oil, and place on a baking sheet.

Place the baking sheet under the broiler and cook for four minutes until the slices are reddish-brown on top.

Flip over and cook the other side for another 2-3 minutes.

Cut the eggplant slices into quarters, add the turmeric, lemon juice, and chilli, fennel, coriander and cumin powders and mix well.

Heat the other tbsp of oil in a saucepan.

Add the onion and fry until lightly brown.Add the kasoori methi (or curry leaves) and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the eggplant and cook, stirring, for about five minutes.

Add the coconut milk and warm through. Add the mustard powder and mix well. Add salt if needed.

Turn off the heat. Garnish with coriander leaves.

This tastes wonderful with some hot rotis, but it'd also be great with plain boiled rice.

St. Waffles: Whole-wheat Breakfast Goodness

I know, I know, it's a weird name for waffles. But, trust me, these are so crammed with delicious goodness, they really do deserve to be sainted AND given an extra-bright halo.

My waffle and pancake recipes are always healthy because I make them with wholegrain flours. These too were made with whole wheat pastry flour, but I also added a good bit of wheat germ and flax meal to the batter, boosting the fiber and healthy-fats content (I do love those healthy fats because they're great for your brain and your skin. How good is that?)

Then, to boost the protein, I added a few dollops of tofu.

I love using tofu in dishes where no one can detect it. While both Desi and I like tofu, I know some people would rather kill than eat it. But tofu offers immense nutritional benefits and a complete, healthy vegetable protein, so it's a shame to leave it out of any diet, vegan or not.

These waffles are really crispy and taste best right off the waffle iron (they do tend to harden up if left standing for too long, although they are still delicious).

If you don't have a waffle iron, you might try adding more soymilk to the batter to make it thinner, and then make pancakes with it. In fact, I do this all the time: use waffle batter to make pancakes and vice-versa.

Serve these waffles with maple syrup and berries or bananas or with just a dusting of powdered sugar, if you have a less-than-sweet tooth. No matter how you eat them, these waffles will likely make you feel a little saintly yourself!

Flax-and-Wheat-Germ Waffles

Mix together:

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup wheat germ, toasted lightly

1/4 cup flax meal

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

In another bowl, mix together:

1 cup silken tofu, beaten

2-4 tbsp canola oil

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Add the tofu-soy milk mixture to the flour mixture and gently, with a spatula, mix until the dry ingredients are just moistened.

If the mixture is too dry, add some more soy milk so you have a thick but spreadable batter.

Heat a waffle iron and bake waffles according to instructions. My stone-age waffle-maker takes about 1/4 cup of batter for each waffle and has a little green light that goes on when the waffle is ready to be removed and devoured mindlessly.

Creamy Canary Beans Curry

As much as I cook with beans and lentils, and love them, I had never before tried canary beans, although I'd seen them often enough at the grocery store.

Canary beans, I'm guessing, are so called because of their lovely yellow color. I used these to make a curry, Maharashtrian style, with coconut milk.

I must say I loved these beans. They hold their shape beautifully when cooked, but dissolve creamily in your mouth. They were perfect in this curry, but doubtlessly I will be looking for more recipes to make with these in the future.



I've been having a busy weekend, so I'm just going to get on with the recipe. Sometimes, I guess, you deserve a break from my babble. Enjoy the last few hours of the weekend, everyone!
This curry is off to the wonderful Legume Love Affair event started by Susan and hosted this month by Srivalli. Thanks, ladies!


Canary Bean Curry

Ingredients:

1 cup Canary beans, soaked and boiled until tender

1 tbsp canola oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 tbsp coriander seeds, powdered

1 tsp cumin seeds, powdered

1/2 tsp turmeric

5 cloves garlic, minced

1-inch piece of ginger, chopped.

2-3 green chillies

2 tbsp jaggery (available in Indian stores. You can substitute with 2 tbsp sugar)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup minced coriander leaves

1/2 cup coconut milk (I use canned)

Heat the oil in a saucepan.

Add the onions and saute until translucent, about five minutes on medium heat.

Grind together the ginger, garlic, green chilies and the coriander and cumin powders into a fairly smooth paste.

Add the paste to the onions and saute until the mixture is rather dry and does not smell raw, about 5 minutes.

Add the beans and turmeric. Add salt to taste and bring to a boil.

Simmer on low heat about 5 minutes.

Add the coconut milk, jaggery and lemon juice and heat through.

Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice.