Warm Brussels sprouts by way of Beirut

I've been refining this since last year. This year, I caramelized the Brussels sprouts in a hot wok, with olive oil, salt, and crushed red chilli pepper, then tossed them with halved green grapes, yogurt, and za'atar, and drizzled the whole thing with balsamic syrup and a few pomegranate seeds for garnish. I served this warm right after I made it.

Uppama

Uppama

Uppama is a South Indian breakfast dish that can be made with coarse semolina, pearl tapioca, rice flakes, or vermicelli. You can toss in all kinds of vegetables. At home my family makes it with diced carrots, peas, green beans, but I also like it with black-eyed peas, asparagus, soaked and chopped kokum ka phul, chopped kale... Really, choose your own adventure!

It goes well with chutney. My favorite chutney pairing for uppama is red bell pepper chutney or ginger chutney.

1 1/2 cups coarse semolina ("sooji"), rice flakes ("poha"), pearl tapioca ("sabudana") or vermicelli ("sev")
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons brown mustard seeds
1 stalk curry leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons cumin seeds
3/4 cup salted peanuts, coarsely crushed, or tuvar dal
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1 Serrano chili, minced
1 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped and peeled fresh ginger
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup sliced spinach (or other veggie)
3 tablespoons thinly shredded cilantro
1 lime, juiced
Salt

[If using tapioca, put the grain in a bowl and wash in several changes of cold water from the tap until the water loses its murkiness and remains clear and soak in fresh cold water to cover 8 hours. Drain in a sieve and spread on a tray laid with a paper towel. Refrigerate the drained tapioca at least 1 hour.]

Heat the oil in an 8-quart pot over moderately high heat until shimmering and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds being to pop, which will be almost immediately, add the curry leaves and cumin seeds and stir.

Add the peanuts/dal, shallots, serrano, ginger and increase the heat to high. Cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute.

Stir in the butter and when melted, add the grain and salt to taste. Cook until grain is heated through (3-4 minutes). Add the veggies and continue to cook until the grain turns transparent. Unless you're using the pre-soaked tapioca, pour 3/4 to 1 cup boiling water in, bring to boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and let the grain absorb the liquid and steam.

Just before serving, stir the lime and cilantro into the pilaf and season with salt.

Wasabi-chive cauliflower mash

Wasabi-chive cauliflower mash

Put a head of trimmed and roughly chopped cauliflower into the smallest pot it will entirely fit in and cover it with water. Salt generously. Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce to medium heat and cook until the cauliflower is so tender it is mash-able.

Drain away the water, add olive oil, 2 bunches chopped chives, salt, and a few tablespoons wasabi to taste, and mash together with the cauliflower using a potato masher.

Roasted peanut salad

Roasted peanut salad is a very easy, satisfying, high protein, vegetarian, tasty snack!

Finely dice a red onion into a large bowl, then squeeze the juice of 1 lime over the red onion. Top with 1/2 a bunch of finely chopped fresh cilantro.
Take 1 lb. raw Spanish peanuts and either pan roast them or roast them under your broiler until they darken and the peanut oils release and give your whole kitchen a peanut smell. Be careful not to burn them.
Toss the hot roasted peanuts with the red onion, lime juice, cilantro, and added salt and red chilli powder to taste.

Recipe by Miz Hummus: Grand Marnier candied pecans

Grand Marnier candied pecans

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.

2. Grate the rinds of 2 large oranges to create 7 tablespoons zest.

3. Melt together over low heat in a saucepan:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons salt
Zest

4. Let cool slightly

5. Add mixture to a mixing bowl and cover 5 cups pecans in mixture

6. Butter two cookie sheets

7. Spread pecans evenly on cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes

8. Let cool for 5 min and then sprinkle pecans with 1/8 cup Grand Marnier

9. Let cool completely and serve

Roasted Mushrooms

This was easy. We took about 2 lbs. of mixed mushrooms (shiitakes, creminis, oyster, etc.), tossed them with a handful of chopped rosemary, the zest of a lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil, then roasted them for 18 minutes in a 500°F oven.

*Delicious.*

Food Poem Fridays: John Engels' CRANBERRY-ORANGE RELISH

Cranberry-Orange Relish
by John Engels

A pound of ripe cranberries, for two days
macerate in a dark rum, then do not
treat them gently, but bruise,
mash, pulp, squash
with a wooden pestle
to an abundance of juices, in fact
until the juices seem on the verge

of overswelling the bowl, then drop in
two fistsful, maybe three, of fine-
chopped orange with rind, two golden
blobs of it, and crush
it in, and then add sugar, no thin
sprinkling, but a cupful dumped
and awakened with a wooden spoon

to a thick suffusion, drench of sourness, bite of color,
then for two days let conjoin
the lonely taste of cranberry,
the joyous orange, the rum, in some
warm corner of the kitchen, until
the bowl faintly becomes
audible, a scarce wash of sound, a tiny
bubbling, and then
in a glass bowl set it out
and let it be eaten last, to offset
gravied breast and thigh
of the heavy fowl, liverish
stuffing, the effete
potato, lethargy of pumpkins

gone leaden in their crusts, let it be eaten
so that our hearts may be together overrun
with comparable sweetnesses,
tart gratitudes, until finally,
dawdling and groaning, we bear them
to the various hungerings
of our beds, lightened
of their desolations.

________________________________

P.S. What do you think of poem-recipes?

Recipe by Miz SunDrop: Cornbread Dotted with Dried Cherries

We used Indian green chillies (just 2, finely sliced -- nowhere near the 1/2 cup the recipe calls for!) instead of the canned kind. Enjoy!

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup diced canned green chillies (or 2 finely sliced fresh Indian or Thai green chillies)

1 1/2 cups "creamed" corn (canned)
1/2 cup shredded jack or cheddar
1 cup flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 cup dried cherries

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. Spread into a greased 9"x9" pan (double recipe makes a 9"x13").

Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes.

Recipe: Spicy Lemony Carrot Tahini

Spicy Lemony Carrot Tahini

We had a whole bag of carrots just crying out to be eaten in some novel way, and so I made this spicy lemony carrot tahini to keep around as a spread for sandwiches, crackers, or to dip other vegetables into. I think could also be good to plate a lightly prepared filet of white flaky Mediterranean fish into. The sweetness of the carrots comes into play with the nutty astringency of the sesame tahini, and you're left with a bit of a kick of an aftertaste from the lemon juice and chilli / cayenne.

1 lb carrots

dash salt

juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp sesame tahini

red chilli powder / cayenne to taste
za'atar to taste

Peel and trim the carrots, rinse, and cut each in half. Put them in a pot with about two inches of water, cover, and bring to a boil, then let simmer and steam until the carrots are tender (about 10 minutes). Check on them to make sure caramelization isn't forming on the sides of the pot. When the carrots are tender, remove the pot from the heat, add the rest of the ingredients, and puree using a hand / stick blender (alternatively, you could move the carrots and cooking liquid into a blender and blend everything).

Recipe: Roasted Vegetables with Grapefruit "Zesto" and Fennel Grapefruit Salad

For New Year's eve, we were at a friend's place for dinner and toasting 2009.  They were serving mainly seafood - cracked crab claws and lobster with a spicy, citrus-y dipping sauce, oysters, shrimp cocktail, and sushi and sashimi.  So we brought two vegetarian dishes in the hopes of complementing the seafood with some citrus flavors.

Roasted Vegetables with Grapefruit “Zesto” for 8

I call it grapefruit “zesto” because it’s kind of like a pesto of grapefruit zest : ).

3 medium Japanese eggplants, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/2” pieces
3 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2”-thick rounds
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/2”-inch pieces1 large yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2”-inch pieces
1 large red onion, peeled, root end left intact, cut into 1/2”-thick wedges
1/4 Cup raw artichoke pate
1/4 Cup yuzu rice vinegar
1/4 Cup vegetable stock
1 bunch chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons minced grapefruit zest
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 475°F.  Place eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and onion in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper and toss well with raw artichoke pate and yuzu rice vinegar.  Arrange vegetables in a roasting pan and pour vegetable stock over.  Roast until tender, about 30 minutes.

In the large bowl you were using before, toss the now-roasted vegetables with the parsley, grapefruit zest, and garlic; if needed, season with additional salt and pepper.  You can either serve the vegetables in the large bowl or transfer them to a platter.

---

Fennel Grapefruit Salad for 8

Dressing:
2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Salad:
1 head Belgian endive, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1" thick strips
1 head treviso - save 8 leaves for decorating and then halve lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1" thick strips
1 head butter lettuce, leaves torn
1 cup fresh fennel bulb, tough bottom stem portion and upper green portions trimmed, cut lengthwise into 3-4 sections depending on width, then sliced thinly using a mandoline
3 small pink or 2 large ruby red grapefruits, sectioned

Whisk the dressing ingredients in a large bowl, then add all the salad ingredients except for the grapefruit sections and saved treviso leaves and toss to coat. Top with grapefruit sections. Stick the treviso leaves lengthwise around the edges of the salad.  Optional: top with one ounce shaved parmigiano reggiano.

Recipe: Grated Beet Salad

Yesterday, I had already used the food processor to grate some carrots for tossing into our main dish, and we had a few beets left over, so we had an extremely simple salad as an accompaniment to our meal that ended up being the most profoundly satisfying thing.

Grated Beet Salad

Take 4 beets, and peel, trim, and grate them, either manually or in a food processor. Stir them in a bowl with the juice from half a large lemon and 1-2 tablespoons of very high quality extra virgin olive oil. Optional: stir in some of your favorite green herb, minced, like parsley or basil or cilantro. I think chopped pistachios would also be great in this salad. Voilà!

~

Here's more nutritional information about The Amazing Beet!

Beets are superfoods and contain nutrient compounds that prevent heart disease, birth defects, and cancer. Betacyanin, which gives beets their deep ruby color, is a cancer-fighting agent. The fiber in beets is also healthy for your colon. Eating them grated or julienned is a wonderful way to get the maximum amount of active nutrients -- nutrient activity is diminished after heating.

The betaine found in beets (and also spinach) is anti-inflammatory (chronic inflammation is something to avoid, as it has been linked to heart disease, osteoporosis, cognitive decline, Alzheimer's, and type-2 diabetes). In fact, the choline found in egg yolks and soybeans works well together with the betaine found in beets, spinach, and whole wheat products to reduce inflammation -- so try a poached egg atop some wilted beet greens!

The B-vitamin folate is especially important for women to consume during pregnancy to prevent fetal neural tube defects. Just one cup of boiled beets provides 34% of the recommended daily intake of folate! (Raw beets may provide more.)

The only individuals who need worry about eating too many beets are people with kidney or gallbladder problems (beets have oxalates, which can form crystals in people with not entirely functioning kidneys or gallbladders).

% DV that 1 Cup (Boiled) Beets provides of:
folate 34%
manganese 27.5%
potassium 14.8%
dietary fiber 13.6%
vitamin C 10.2%
magnesium 9.8%
iron 7.4%
copper 6.5%
phosphorus 6.5%

Recipe: Cranberry Chutney

Thanksgiving is when the foodie side of my family gets together (about 8 families) and makes a massive Indo-fied autumnal meal with something for everyone (read: lots of vegetarians and pescatarians). I'll try to take lots of pictures this year and post as many recipes as I can. Cranberry chutney (my mother's adaptation) is perhaps the most enduring part of the tradition, so I'll start with that.

Cranberry Chutney
16 oz. fresh cranberries, rinsed
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest

1" piece ginger, peeled and minced

1-2 teaspoons red chilli powder (depending on how spicy yours is -- mine is very hot)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir well. Cook over medium heat until cranberries pop open (about 10 minutes). Skim and discard the surface foam. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate, covered. The chutney can keep for a while (in theory, but, at least with us, it's always finished in a few days).

Recipe: Warm, Crunchy Broccoli Salad

I love broccoli, but it's not really used in Indian cooking, so when I'm making Indian food for dinner and I have some in the fridge, I'm not always sure what to do with it.  Yesterday, we had a salad with a ginger-y dressing, dal with spinach, brown rice with saffron, tomato-cilantro-chaat masala raita, and diced yams with ginger and dried cherries, and I served this warm broccoli salad alongside.  This is not exactly an Indian recipe, but the flavors complemented the other dishes.

Warm, Crunchy Broccoli Salad for 4 as a side dish

3 small heads of broccoli, florets chopped into bite-sized pieces and stems peeled and chopped, and steamed until al dente

2 cloves garlic, minced

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 tbsp. almond butter

1 tbsp. olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider

freshly ground black pepper

salt

(I like to steam broccoli with a small amount of water in a covered microwavable dish.  It's quick and you lose fewer nutrients compared with blanching.)

In a saute pan, warm olive oil on medium heat and add garlic, and allow to warm until garlic is softened and olive oil is permeated with the garlic.  Put into a large bowl.  Put the apple cider into the saute pan and let it boil on high heat until it's reduced to a more syrupy consistency.  In the large bowl, combine the warm garlic and olive oil mixture, reduced cider, lemon juice, almond butter, and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, and toss with the still warm broccoli.

Recipe: Diced Yams with Ginger and Dried Cherries

It is officially fall, and yams abound.  I like everything to be spicy if it's going to be sweet, and sour to boot if I can help it.  So here is a quick and easy recipe for yams with sweet heat.

Diced Yams with Ginger and Dried Cherries for 4 as a side dish

2 shallots, peeled and minced

1/2" piece ginger, peeled and minced

1/4 Cup dried cherries

4 medium to large sized yams, peeled and diced

2 tbsp. olive oil

salt to taste

splash of Applejack or apple cider

Heat olive oil in saute pan on medium high heat.  When hot, add shallots and ginger, and saute until fragrant.  Add dried cherries and saute until cherries have softened.  Add diced yams and salt to taste and toss to combine with shallot-ginger-cherry mixture.  Add a splash of Applejack or apple cider, cover, turn heat down to low, and let yams steam cook until tender, about 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of your dice).

Recipe: South Indian-style Red Cabbage

One of my favorite ways to prepare either cruciferous vegetables (like cabbage or brussels sprouts) or tough greens (like collards) is to stir-fry them with mustard seeds, curry leaves, turmeric, ginger, red chillies, salt, and lemon juice. Even people who swear they don't like brussels sprouts have told me they've enjoyed them prepared this way!

Last night we had a mix of red cabbage and collards prepared this way as an accompaniment to vegetable tikki sandwiches layered with avocado, peppadews, chutney, alfalfa and daikon sprouts, and spicy pickled okra on multigrain nut bread.

South Indian-style Red Cabbage (serves 4 as a side dish)

4 Cups shredded red cabbage*

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp mustard seeds

Curry leaves from 1 stalk (about 6-10)

1" piece ginger, peeled and minced

4-6 whole dried red chillies

salt to taste

1 Tbsp turmeric

Juice of 1 lemon

Great optional stir-ins: 1/4 Cup toasted shredded coconut, 1/4 Cup roasted Spanish peanuts

Heat oil in wok on medium-high heat until it swirls around the wok very thinly and easily (should take less than 45 seconds). Add mustard seeds; they will pop, so if you have a mesh lid/grate, cover the wok with that, or partially cover it with a lid. Add the curry leaves, ginger, and dried red chillies when the popping subsides. Stir fry until ginger is fragrant and curry leaves are coated with oil, but don't allow the ginger to brown.

Add the cabbage and turmeric in batches, stir-frying and adding appropriate amounts of salt with each batch, until all the cabbage is added and all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Assuming the cabbage is exuding a lot of its own water, turn down the heat to medium-low and cover, letting the cabbage steam-cook, uncovering every few minutes to stir. (If the cabbage is dry, you might need to add a little water before covering for the cabbage to steam.) Cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is al dente or soft, as you prefer (about 10 minutes).

Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice (optional: also stir in toasted coconut and/or peanuts).

*You could substitute quartered and partly cooked (by steaming in the microwave, for instance) brussels sprouts, or shredded green cabbage, collards, mustard greens, or kale, for example.

Recipe: Lemon Rice

Lemon rice is my favorite accompaniment for any Indian-style fish dish or South Indian-style dish. It's also a great way to jazz up leftover rice.

My South Indian nanny (who is now quite old, but until very, very recently could still shimmy up a coconut tree) used to make this a lot when she lived with us when I was 6 or 7, and she wrote out a whole notebook of South Indian recipes for us before she went back to Bangalore (where she still works with the blind). When I went to college, I copied out into my own recipe notebook a number of my favorites from hers, including this one.

Lemon Rice for 4

2 cups cooked brown Basmati rice (start with 1 cup uncooked rice)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3-4 curry leaves
2 chillies, either green chillies slit lengthwise or whole dried red chillies
1/4 cup roasted shredded coconut
1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup roasted or deep fried chana dal
1/2 tsp turmeric
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt to taste
Optional: a handful of minced fresh cilantro (not traditional, but I like how cilantro brightens everything)

Heat the oil in a small pan and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and chillies. Fry until the mustard seeds have all popped. Add the turmeric, remove from the heat, and toss into the cooked rice along with the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Recipe: Red Onion Salad

Red Onion Salad (to accompany Biryani)

1 large red (almost purple!) onion

ice and water

salt

Juice of 1 lime or lemon

optional: sliced green chillies, diced tomato, fresh cilantro leaves (minced or whole), red chilli powder, or chaat masala

Trim off the ends of the red onion and peel away the dry outer layer. Quarter the onion, then thinly slice along the "equator" to produce papery thin or just merely thin semicircles (as you prefer). Put water into a bowl, salt it, add the ice, then put the onion slices into the bowl and briefly toss/mix using fingers. Let the onion sit in the salted ice water for at least a few minutes for the sting to leech out - you can taste-test a slice every now and then to see how long you prefer the onion to sit (I like it after just a few minutes).

Drain and rinse the onion slices, place in a small serving dish, and toss with the lemon or lime juice (depending on which flavor you prefer).

Garnish/season as you prefer - some people like to top it with minced fresh cilantro or mix that in or add a bit of diced tomato, some like it hot with sliced green chillies or red chilli powder, some like to add chaat masala.