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.

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.

Re-blog: 50 things to do with Sorrel

Lately there has been a good amount of French sorrel at the Union Square Greenmarket. I am a fan of its lemony, tart flavor (it's a rhubarb relative) and have been adding it to salads, using the leaves for wraps, adding it to dal, making it into pesto, etc.

Chocolate & Zucchini very usefully compiled suggestions from readers on Twitter for things to do with sorrel!

Sorrel pairings:

- Sorrel + fish (especially fatty fish, such as salmon -- seek out a sustainable source -- or mackerel)
- Sorrel + shellfish (especially scallops, same comment as for salmon)
- Sorrel + cream or butter
- Sorrel + bacon
- Sorrel + potatoes
- Sorrel + rice
- Sorrel + lentils
- Sorrel + celeriac
- Sorrel + leafy greens (spinach, Swiss chard, kale)
- Sorrel + eggs
- Sorrel + chicken or veal
- Sorrel + mustard
- Sorrel + goat cheese

Sorrel uses:

- Add to soups
- Make it into a sauce for fish
- Add to omelets and scrambled eggs
- Add to a stuffing for meat
- Shred sorrel and stuff it into fish
- Add to quiches
- Add to mashed potatoes
- Add to hummus
- Add to pasta
- Add to mixed-leaf and herb salads
- Add to chard and spinach anywhere you would use those
- Use as a filling for buckwheat crêpes
- Make it into a pesto, to use in pasta, on pizzas, or with grilled salmon

Recipe ideas:
- Salmon with sorrel, a legendary dish originally invented by the Troisgros brothers in Roanne in 1973
- Baked line-caught seabass with beurre blanc and sorrel
- Chop sorrell into a butter sauce to go with salmon fishcakes.
- Pair with salmon, mustard seeds and raspberries.
- Hot sorrel soup, with leeks, dill and sour cream
- Soup of fresh shelling beans and sorrel
- Green borscht
- Chilled sorrel soup with plain yogurt and lemon (a.k.a. schav in Yiddish)
- Lightly sauté in butter with shallots, deglaze with sherry, then mix all with goat cheese and use as an omelet filling.
- Chicken and sorrel sandwich with fresh mayonnaise
- Toss into mixed-leaf salads, with a relatively sweet dressing, and optional goat cheese crumbled on top.
- Chopped sorrel with black beans or lentils for a cold salad
- Warm potato and salmon salad with sorrel vinaigrette
- A salad of white peaches and sorrel
- Charlotte potato salad with wilted sorrel, yogurt and some freshly grated horseradish and chives
- Rice with sorrel and lemon, served as a side to fish
- Chop with an onion, garlic and mushrooms. Sauté lightly in butter and stuff a chicken.
- Pan sear with butter, and pair with a thin piece of veal in a port reduction, with a very light sprinkling of sumac.
- Fried beans with sorrel, feta and sumac from the second Ottolenghi book, Plenty
- Add to spanakopita.
- Sauté briefly in olive oil and mix with almond butter and salt, to accompany mushrooms (crisp bacon optional).
- Sorrel spinach pesto with pumpkin seeds
- Sprinkle sorrel, chiffonaded or gently melted into frying butter, on fresh pasta. Grate a little lemon zest on top.
- Toss some penne with sorrel, red onion, mint and garlic.

An Oscar Potluck

Two of my closest friends work in media/entertainment, and I've been left with a rather large television, so they and some others came over for some noshing, dishing, and Oscars-viewing.

We had so much food! laid out - not like an etherized patient, more like the antipasti table at a trattoria. Everything we ate last night was light, refreshing, tasty, simple but high quality, easy to prepare. The floral honey, bright green parsley flavor and crunch in the chickpea salad, and raspberries felt like harbingers of a much-awaited spring, while the depth in the blood oranges and dark, woodsy, berry tang of sumac felt like a poignant last look at winter.

*Popcorn tossed with Sumac

*Queso de Murci Curado, a six months' aged raw goat's milk cheese from Murcia in Southeastern Spain (with unspeakably delicious raw Manoir des Abeilles honey mixed with freshly ground black pepper poured over it)

*Red Kardoula Peppers stuffed with Feta and marinated in olive oil, garlic, and basil

*Green-and-black Olive Tapenade (with pita chips): Simply, pitted green and black olives food processed with fresh parsley and thyme, red chilli powder, a small amount of capers, and a slice of preserved lemon.

*Stuffed Grape Leaves

7-layer Bean Dip

Steak Sandwiches a la Ina Garten courtesy of Miz SunDrop

*The Ratatouille from "Ratatouille"

*Blood Orange and Treviso Salad: I sliced two heads of treviso on the bias and laid supremed blood orange slices over that on a platter, scattered some sliced scallions on top, and dressed the salad with a vinaigrette of blood orange juice, pomegranate molasses, cider vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

*Roasted Chickpea Salad: I tossed cooked chickpeas with olive oil, salt, sumac, red chilli powder, and cumin, and roasted them spread out on a baking pan for 45 minutes in a 350-degree oven, then tossed them with shredded red cabbage, lots of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley, and a simple vinaigrette of lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Farmers Market Quiche

*Raspberries with Honeyed Greek Yogurt

*Moroccan Mint Tea

* = organic

Fish tikkis and imli chutney, dal with hot lime pickle, and salad

During the week, putting together motley things I had completely or half-prepared on a Sunday:
- a salad made with arugula, cucumbers, and bell peppers, with a cranberry vinaigrette I have in the fridge that I made when the cranberry preserves were almost over and it was easier to get the last bits by swirling them with vinegar and making a dressing;
- moong dal made chunky-style with mustard greens, topped with hot lime pickle; and
- fish tikkis topped with imli chutney.

Citrus-Fennel Salmon

I swear, this dish took all of 15 minutes to prepare. We coated the salmon with citrus-fennel salt and freshly ground black pepper, and seared it. I sliced a few endives and a bulb of fennel, reserving the fronds, and sauteed them in olive oil, citrus-fennel salt, and freshly ground black pepper. When the fennel softened, I turned off the heat and tossed in a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice. We served the salmon over the sauteed vegetables and squeezed lemon juice over the whole dish, and topped it with the fennel fronds.

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: Avgolemono

Avgolemono is a Greek egg-lemon-rice soup, a comfort food, which we had last night alongside a simple bread stuffing with apples, dried cranberries, celery, leeks, carrots and herbs, with cranberry chutney (which I always find myself craving a second round of shortly after Thanksgiving). Since the oven was hot, I also popped in some gingerbread.

Avgolemono might be an acquired taste, be forewarned.

Avgolemono for 4
1 quart vegetable stock
1 Cup uncooked brown basmati rice (that's what I used, because it's what I have, but any brown or white rice would do)
1/3 Cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 egg
a celery heart, including the leafy parts, chopped; or chopped fresh parsley, to taste; or dill, torn into bits, to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Put the rice and stock into a soup pot. Bring to boil over high heat, then turn heat to low, cover, and let simmer until the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. While the rice is cooking, chop the celery heart or parsley or tear the dill into bits and divide it among four bowls. Beat the egg and lemon juice together in a small bowl. When the rice is done, turn off the heat, whisk a big ladleful of hot -- not boiling -- stock into the egg and lemon juice. Stir the egg-lemon-juice-stock mixture into the rice-stock mixture in the soup pot and continue stirring, for up to three minutes.* Season with salt and pepper to taste and ladle the soup into the bowls over the celery/parsley.

*If you are serving this to a small child or pregnant woman and concerned about properly pasteurizing the eggs, use a thermometer and make sure the egg mixture remains at 160 degrees Fahrenheit for three minutes, or use store-bought pasteurized eggs.

Ideas for Using Liquid Whey

Finishing up this mini-series on homemade dairy products, here are some ideas for what to do with the liquid whey you reserve when making paneer (the curds or solids from milk).

Powdered whey protein is sold in many health foods and GNC-type stores. It has a long shelf-life and can be added to smoothies, baked goods, almost anything. But liquid whey should be used within a day or two (or frozen immediately for later use). It's very thin and watery, very high in protein, and extremely low in fat (and has zero saturated fat).

My favorite thing to do with whey is to make whey curry.

To make whey curry, see what vegetables you have on hand. Almost anything will do, but green beans and carrots are my favorites for whey curry.

Prep the veggies (e.g., wash, trim and diagonally slice green beans and peel, wash, and julienne or diagonally slice carrots). In a soup pot, pop a couple of tablespoons of black mustard seeds in a couple of tablespoons of hot olive oil. Add a few curry leaves and stir-fry until they're soaked through with oil. Add a tablespoon of either sambar powder or rasam powder.* Stir-fry until fragrant. Add the veggies, salt to taste, and, if you like, some julienned fresh ginger. Also optional: add a few tablespoons of either tomato paste or tamarind pulp and stir. When the vegetables are coated with the other ingredients, add the whey and stir. Salt to taste. Allow this soup to come to a boil and then simmer until the vegetables are tender or al dente, as you prefer. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and serve over hot rice.

*Sambar powder is a mixture of about 1 cup chana dal, 3/4 cup coriander seeds, 10 large dried red chillies, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek, and a pinch of asafoetida, which have been fried together in a teaspoon of oil on low heat and then ground into a fine powder. Rasam powder is a powdered mixture of about 1 cup coriander seeds, 1/2 cup cumin seeds, and 1/2 cup whole black peppercorns. Recipes vary locally. You can buy sambar powder and rasam powder in Indian grocery stores.

You could also make a thin tomato soup with whey: combine 1 1/2 cup strained tomato juice from fresh tomatoes with 2 whole cloves in a soup pot and bring them to a boil, then simmer 5 minutes. The add 1 1/2 cup whey, stir, and strain the mixture. Return the strained mixture to the pot and add a dash of pepper and a 1/4 teaspoon of celery salt. Reheat. Garnish with 1 tablespoon plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, and sprinkle some paprika over the yogurt garnish.

You can also use whey in baked goods: here's a Devil's Food Cake recipe featuring whey.

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup whey

In a large mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, butter and eggs. Add vanilla; beat well. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add alternately with whey to the egg mixture. Pour batter into two greased 9" round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Continue to cool.

Making Paneer at Home

Continuing the mini-series on homemade dairy products, let's make paneer.

Paneer is made by separating milk solids, or curds, from whey (milk liquid), and then pressing out all of the watery whey from the curds. The paneer, which is basically a block of fresh cheese, can then be frozen for later use, kept in the fridge for use in a couple of days, and/or chopped into cubes and pan-fried or deep-fried if it's going to be used in a recipe that requires it to maintain that cubed shape (such as mattar paneer - peas with paneer). (If the paneer is going to be used in a recipe that requires it to be crumbly, such as paneer naan - crumbled paneer stuffed into a baked flatbread - then it can just be used fresh.)

A lot of people make paneer just when their milk is about to become spoiled anyway. The first sign of milk spoilage is curdling - the separation of the curds from the whey. It's actually much easier to make paneer from milk that's on the cusp of spoiling. A great use for your one or two day's old milk!

Paneer (essentially, fresh ricotta*)

1 gallon organic, whole milk

A few tablespoons of white vinegar or lime juice

Rinse a pot and then heat the milk in it on medium high heat. When the milk just begins to boil - when you begin to see tiny bubbles on the edges and a bit of scalding begins to happen - stir in a tablespoon of acid (either white vinegar or lime juice) and turn the heat to medium. If the milk separates, continuing stirring to promote that separating until the liquid part of the milk, the whey, looks pretty clear and all of the curds have become separated from it.

(If the milk does not separate, stir in another tablespoon of acid, and perhaps one more, until it does.)

When the milk has separated, turn off the heat.

Line a sieve with muslin or cheesecloth and place it over a clean pot. Slowly pour the curds-and-whey mixture through the muslin, collecting the whey in the pot below. Gather the ends of the muslin and twist them tied to squeeze all the remaining water out of the paneer.

At this point, if what you need the paneer for is something soft, like sandesh (rolled, sweetened balls of soft paneer), then let the paneer continue to drain unassisted for several hours. If what you need the paneer for is something hard, like mattar paneer (peas and paneer), then place a heavy weight on top of the muslin to assist the drainage for several hours.

Come back in a few hours to unwrap the paneer package. Reserve the whey for use in whey curry or other recipes requiring whey. Whey can also be frozen, and is very high in protein and very low in fat.

*There isn't much of a difference between fresh ricotta and paneer in terms of the initial preparation steps. But people use fresh ricotta while it's still quite wet, i.e., without draining off all the watery whey, and they need it to taste very mild, so they make it without using any acid. Here's a fresh ricotta recipe from 101cookbooks - notice how similar it is to making home-made paneer Indian-style, until you get to the drainage step.

Homemade Ricotta Recipe from 101cookbooks.com

1 gallon good-quality whole milk

1 quart good-quality buttermilk

Combine both milks into a large nonreactive saucepan over medium high heat, preferably a thick-bottomed pan if you have one. You will need to stir occasionally, scraping the pan bottom, to avoid scorching. Once the milk is hot, stop stirring. You will start to see curds rise and come to the surface. Run a spoon or spatula along the bottom of the pan occasionally to free up any stuck curds.

While the milk is heating, select a sieve or colander with a wide surface area. This will help your curds cook more quickly. Line the colander with a large piece of cheesecloth that has been folded numerous times - until you have about 5 or six layers. Place the lined colander over a large bowl or sink.

When the mixture reaches about 175F degrees, you will see the curds and whey seperate. The curds are the clumpy white mass. Now, remove the pan from heat, and gently begin to ladle curds into the prepared sieve. Pull up on the sides of the cheesecloth to drain off any extra liquid, but resist pressing on the curds. Gather the edges of the cloth, tie or fasten them into a knot and allow them to drain for another 15 minutes minimum. Move to an airtight container and refrigerate if you aren't going to use it immediately. Try to use or eat it within a few days, it really is best that way.

Makes about 4 cups.

Making Yogurt at Home

I love requests! I just got one to do a post on how to make yogurt at home, which reminded me that someone else had previously asked about making paneer, which leads into the question of what to do with whey after you've separated the milk solids from it to make cheese (paneer).

So, one at a time, in this mini-series on homemade dairy products : ).

Yogurt

The basic concept behind yogurt is to allow certain helpful strains of bacteria* to culture and ferment milk.

• Yogurt is digestible by people who are lactose intolerant, because the bacteria that culture the milk break down the lactose in it - they "eat" some of it, and leave lactic acid as a by-product - hence that "tang" that yogurt has.


• Yogurt is incredibly nutritious and satisfying, being rich in protein, calcium, riboflavin, vitamins B6 and B12, and delivering to our gastrointestinal tracts an inoculation of "good bacteria." Our guts are all about population dynamics - imagine a war between good and bad bacteria: the more good bacteria, the less of a chance bad bacteria has.

I usually start with about a half gallon of whole, organic milk (I like Organic Valley or Ronnybrook). I take a pot, rinse it with water, pour the milk in, and scald the milk over medium heat.

[This does two things: 1) kills whatever else might be in the milk, so that later, when I "inoculate" the milk with the yogurt bacteria culture, it can spread like wildfire throughout the milk without competition; and 2) heats the milk, since ultimately I'm going to need the milk to be warmer than human body temperature for the yogurt bacteria to thrive.]

After scalding the milk, I let it cool away from the stove to a little warmer than human body temperature: 45 degrees Celsius or about 113 degrees Fahrenheit. [You can use a thermometer, or just taste test the milk, to figure out when it's ready: when it feels pleasantly warm and drinkable to you, like the temperature of a nice warm but not too hot shower, or a cup of tea that's cooled down just enough to become easily drinkable, it's ready. A hotter temperature would kill the bacteria.]

While the milk is cooling down, I preheat the oven to its lowest temperature (170 degrees Fahrenheit).

When the milk is that perfect, warm temperature, you stir in either live yogurt starter culture, following the directions for that (nowadays, freeze-dried starter cultures are sold in grocery stores like Whole Foods; Yogourmet is one brand), or a small amount of previously made yogurt (I like Erivan, and I add about half a cup's worth to a half gallon of milk; once you've started making your own yogurt, just save the last half cup to get the next batch started).

You have to then keep the mixture at that nice, perfect, warm temperature for 6-12 hours. I make yogurt at night, and leave it overnight, covered, in the warm, 170-degree Fahrenheit oven. (After it's reached 170 degrees and I've put the yogurt in, I actually turn the oven off when I go to bed, and the yogurt stays warm enough just being in that insulated place.) Other people keep it in a good thermos overnight.

In the morning, voila, you have home-made yogurt, just in time for your smoothie or yogurt-and-granola!

*Some yogurt-making strains of bacteria include Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, L. casei, and Bifidobacteria.

Recipe: Moroccan Mint Tea

I just returned from a trip to Casablanca, Morocco; Matemwe and Stone Town, Zanzibar; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In Casablanca everyone seems to be drinking thé à la menthe marocain all day. It's wonderful, and I could easily drink it all day, too. I saw shopkeepers making cups of it for other neighboring shopkeepers in the middle of the afternoon, and it was available everywhere and every time I had a meal.

Moroccan Mint Tea (Thé à la Menthe Marocain)

1 big bunch fresh mint leaves (remove from stems)

3 tsp green tea leaves (they seemed to be using Chinese gunpowder tea)

3 tbsp sweetener (I've been making it with raw turbinado sugar; Whole Foods makes it with agave syrup; in Morocco they were using white cane sugar)

~4 C water

Boil water. Add some hot water to the empty teapot and swish a few times to warm the teapot, then pour out the warming water. Put the mint leaves - reserving 4 for garnishing later - and the tea into the teapot, add the sweetener, pour the rest of the hot water over the leaves and sweetener, and muddle a little bit. Brew, covered, stirring once or twice, for 5 minutes. Pour the tea (through a strainer if necessary) into tea glasses to serve. Garnish with remaining mint leaves.

Recipe: Lemon Almond Buttermilk Loaf

Lemon Almond Buttermilk Loaf for 3 to 4

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/6 teaspoon salt

1/6 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup raw turbinado sugar
1/4 cup (2/3 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/12 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup ground almonds/almond meal/almond flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest*
2 2/3 tbsp. agave syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour loaf pan. (I used three mini loaf pans.) Sift flour, salt and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat 2/3 cup sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Add egg, beating well. Mix in almond extract. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk to egg mixture, beating until well blended after each addition. Add ground almonds and lemon peel and beat 1 minute. Transfer batter to prepared pan (or pans, if you're using mini loaf pans). Bake cake until deep golden brown and cracked on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean (should be about 1 hour 25 minutes in a regular loaf pan; my mini-loaves took less than 40 minutes, I think). Cool cake in pan on rack.

Stir agave syrup and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in small bowl until dissolved together. Turn loaves out and right side up. Using skewer or toothpick, poke holes all over cake. Brush top and sides of cake with lemon glaze, allowing it to soak into the cake. Cool completely.

*I have to make a shout-out here: zesting citrus used to take me forever. This zesting tool has changed my life, and now I find myself routinely adding citrus zest to vinaigrettes, frozen goodies, veggies, seafood - pretty much anything I'm putting citrus juice into. Because the flavor imparted by zest comes from the oil in the citrus peel, it does not evaporate (that's why so many baking recipes call for zest). And the zesting tool does not peel away too much, so you don't get any of the bitter white pith.


Adapted from lemon-almond buttermilk loaf with balsamic strawberries recipe in Bon Appetit, April 1999.

Recipe: Matcha Yogurt Panna Cotta

I'm having a tea party for two with a close friend and am remembering the tea jellies I had when I visited Japan several years ago. I tried recreating one to serve at my little tea party and came up with this take on yogurt panna cotta, which is not so much jelly-like as custard-y. (I think it will go over better; I think I'm somewhat unusual in enjoying the creamy jellies you get in Asia.) I'm still experimenting with a milky black tea jelly. I'll keep you posted.

Because it's vegetarian, I use agar (which growing up was known to me as "china grass") instead of gelatin. Agar (also called "agar agar") is a flavorless seaweed that gels and melts at slightly higher temperatures than gelatin. Just like gelatin, you have to soak it, dissolve it in a hot liquid (up to boiling), and then cool. Acid and the enzymes in tropical fruits like papaya and pineapple break agar down, so use more agar if you're making a citrus or other acidic jelly, and cook tropical fruits and juices before mixing them with agar. You can substitute one teaspoon of agar powder for a teaspoon of powdered gelatin, or 1 1/2 tablespoons of agar flakes.

Matcha Yogurt Panna Cotta for 4

2 Tbsp. water

2 tablespoons agar flakes (or 1 1/4 teaspoons powdered agar)

1/2 cup whipping cream

2-4 tbsp. sweet matcha* (depending on how sweet you like it)

1 cup plain yogurt (use a mild yogurt, without too much of a tang)

Pour water into small bowl and sprinkle the agar flakes into it. Let soak 10 minutes.

Bring cream and sweet matcha to simmer in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sweet matcha dissolves. Add agar mixture and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat. Whisk in yogurt.

Divide mixture among ramekins. Cover and chill overnight.

Optional (if you don't want to serve in the ramekins): Slip a knife around the edges of each panna cotta to loosen. Set each ramekin in a shallow bowl of hot water for 10 seconds. Immediately invert onto a plate.

*You could also just use unsweetened matcha and add your choice of sweetener to taste.

P.S. I have to make a plug for the cute custard spoons I picked up in Japan from Muji. Everywhere I went, these were given to me to use when I was served yogurt or custard, and the family we stayed with also used these, so finally I had to get them, too. Looks like they now have something similar at Sur La Table.

Recipe: Whole grain penne with parsley-lemon pesto, diced fresh tomatoes, and chickpeas

Yesterday, I had left over parsley, tomatoes, lemons, and chickpeas. So I picked up some wild ocean perch filets and dredged them in a mix of ground flax, salt, and sambar powder, a masala used in the South Indian dish sambar. It contains roasted coriander seeds, chilli, lentils, and other spices. I use one that my uncle's South Indian mother-in-law makes at home, but MTR brand sambar powder, which you can buy in Indian grocery stores, is pretty good. I lightly pan-fried the fish, and we had it drizzled with a bit of the parsley-lemon pesto that I used to make this whole grain pasta, which we had on the side.

You may be asking - Miz Masala, why no traditional Indian dishes so far? Answer: most of the Indian dishes I make are to be eaten hot, and it's summer, and it's hot - 95°F, so we've been eating light, vaguely Mediterranean or Asian uncooked or partially uncooked dishes that can be served cold or lukewarm - lots of salads, supplemented sometimes with fish/seafood.

But I'll try to make some sprouted mung bean salad or bhel puri or fruit chaat soon, and post those recipes : ). I won't be craving anything like dal, however, until it cools down a bit outside!

Whole grain penne with parsley-lemon pesto, diced fresh tomatoes, and chickpeas (serves 6 as a side dish)

1 bunch parsley, trimmed, washed, and coarsely chopped

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 2 lemons

1 shallot, peeled, quartered

3 tbsp. olive oil

5 tomatoes, washed, seeded, and diced

1.5 Cups cooked chickpeas

8 oz. organic whole grain penne rigate (I used Bionaturae)

salt and freshly ground pepper

Blend or food process until smooth the parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, shallot, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Depending on your blender/processor you might need more olive oil.

Cook the penne in boiling, salted water for about 9 or 10 minutes, drain, and, while hot, toss with the parsley-lemon pesto. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, and additional salt and pepper, and toss.