Fun Fat Free Falafel that turned out to be more like Chick Pea Kababs!

My parents are usually eat home made North Indian vegetarian food. However with my recent intrusion in their lives they are subject to all my experimentation in the kitchen. With Jai gone to his gaon (village), a ritual that takes place in the month of May and June, I find myself experimenting more and more in the kitchen and cooking my parents some interesting meals. They have been totally cool about trying out the stuff I make.
Funny story about the falafels I made tonight- I'm finding that many of the foreign herbs such as parsley, chives etc. are not as easily available in Thane. I asked my dad to buy some parsley for the falafels. The poor man was sold basil instead of parsley (since he had never seen parsley before). I also bought some  mushroom, garlic hummus, which was a first for them to try. As with anything that they enjoy eating,  I had to plan for my falafels to be spicy and tangy vs. herb infused, warm, simple flavors of tahini, chickpeas and parsley (remember I don't have any parsley at this point).
So ofcourse as my sister says- improvisation is any cook's best friend. The falafel adventure turned more into a spicy kabab dinner. Instead of the traditional parsley I used cilantro (corriander leaves), green chilies and papa's magic masala was introduced to the falafel mix to increase the heat factor. The pita was replaced by parathas and the salad was a nice tangy, limey and spicy mix of onions, tomatoes and green chilies. I made my own version of tatziki sauce and probably the hummus was the only authentic middle eastern item on my dinner menu.

Ingredients for spicy falafels
Chick Peas (2-3 cups)
1/4 bunch Cilantro
Green chilies- according to taste
A thumb size piece of ginger
6-7 cloves of garlic
2 tspn Powdered Cumin
2 tspn Cilantro powder
red chili powder (according to taste)
salt
1/2 cup flour (acts as a binder)
1 tspn baking soda

Soak the chick peas over night.
Par boil them for 10 minutes- they should be soft but crunchy- (skip this step if you are deep frying them)
Blend the chickpeas in small batches in a blender to a bread crumb consistency.

Now blend the cilantro, ginger, green chilies and garlic.

Mix the blended herb mixture, spices, flour and baking soda in the bred crumb like mixture of the chickpeas.

Make small 3 inch diameter patties with the mixture and place them on a hot non-stick skillet with a little olive oil.

Place as many chick pea patties on the skillet and let them cook on low heat (15-20 minutes). This step can be hastened by deep frying- but you know the consequences!

After 15 minutes flip all the falafel on the skillet. They should have a gentle brown skin on them. Cook the other side for 15-20 minutes as well on low heat.

Now the falafel are ready to serve.

For the tatziki sauce:
Drain yogurt in a strainer for a couple of hours till you are left with a soft cheesy consistency. Add minces garlic, cucumber, salt and pepper ( pssst...I added some green chilies as well.

Decorate the store bought hummus with chick peas and olive oil and some paprika

Now for the finish:
Serve these falafel babies with parathas and fresh salad (onions, tomato, chilies, lime and papa's magic masala)

Spread the tatziki and hummus on the paratha. Place two pieces of falafel. Squeeze some lime on the falafel. Place as much salad on the falafel. Roll and enjoy.

P.S. Make extra falafels- they make excellent leftovers. Great as a burger in whole wheat buns and garlicy tatziki. Mmmmmm!

Sunday Morning Brunches...

Something about a lovely lazy Sunday morning brunch.  I think lazy weekend brunching is a phenomena of our generation. After an intense work week spend Sunday with friends at a local brunch place with eggs, potatoes and lots of coffee followed by a Bloody Mary. Aaah brunches. I love to cook my Sunday brunches- French toasts, scrambled eggs, Alton Brown style omelets (the perfect omelet recipe), pancakes, bacon, sausages, potatoes done in a variety of ways, an array of cheeses, fresh salsa, bread, muffins.... Oh it goes on. Slightly hungover from drinking on a Saturday night, Sunday brunches have much to promise. Its a reminder the rest of the day is slow and easy till Sunday night when you sigh and say- I hate Mondays.
Below is brunch that I made at Rick and Shagun's place in New York City. A full menu- Spanish omelet, bacon, plantains, fruit salad, toast, coffee and mimosas.

For Spanish Omelet:
5-6 eggs beaten well (serves 4-5, depending on how much they eat)
1 Onions chopped
1 Green Chilies
20 Mushrooms roughly chopped
1 potato diced
Minced garlic
Thin slices of tomato
Cheese of your choice- mine was sharp cheddar
Spices: Coriander powder, turmeric pwd, red chili pwd, chat masala, salt
Oven friendly pan or skillet

Add some olive oil in the skillet and warm it on the stove top. In the meantime warm the over to 400 degrees. Stir in the garlic, onions and green chilies.

Let the Onions sweat, add the potatoes and mushrooms and stir.

Add the spices and mix well

Let the onions, potatoes and mushrooms cook for 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

Spread the mix evenly in the pan. Now slowly pour the beaten eggs evenly in the skillet.

Grate in the cheese. Do not stir or mix. Turn the heat to low.

Now place the pan in the oven and let it cook for 20 minutes.

As the eggs begin to cook, place the slices of tomatoes on the top and let them brown in the oven.

In the meantime prep the bacon and place them on a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the over and let the bacon cook till it is a perfect reddish brown.

For the Plantains:
Ingredients:
Minced garlic
1 green chili
2-3 plantains thinkly sliced
Salt pepper and chili flakes according to taste

Warm Olive Oil in a pan. Throw in the green chilis, garlic and let it splutter for a few second. Add the plantains in a single layer.

Flip the pieces as the brown up. Careful not to stir the plantains or they become mushy.

Add salt and pepper and mix.

For fruit salad. Cut fresh fruits (bite size). Stir in a tablespoon of condensed milk.

So for the finish:

Almost eaten!

Oh! That with several cups of coffee and glasses of Mimosas.
Love Sunday brunches!!!

Check out this delicious French Omelete recipe on Foodista.com
French Omelet

Khatta- Meetha (Sweet & Sour) Summer Salad!

Mostly testing new camera...
Very simple:
Mango
Pineapple
Cucumber
Onion
Green Chili
Tomato
Corn
Papa's Masala
Lemon/ Lime/ Nimbu

Dice, mix, stir and eat!
Happy Earth Day!

Cooking adventures with Meghna, Austin Dec 2009

Oh! And did we have some cravings. One really successful middle of the night experiment.

Things we used -
Puff Pastry sheets
6-7 Apples chopped
Walnuts
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Butter
Lemon Zest
Orange Zest
Juice of half an orange and lemon
egg white for wash
And some imagination....

For the Apple Filling:
In a pan start with heating some butter.Throw in the chopped apples. Add some brown sugar and cinnamon. Toss in the walnuts- cook on low heat.
When the apples are softened sprinkle the zest and stir in the juice (not too much)

In a square 9"x 9" baking pan lay the first pastry sheet. Cut off the excess that spills over the edge of the an.

Place the apple filling mix on the pastry sheet and cover the filling with the second sheet and trim the excess pastry sheet.

Use the excess trimmings to create decoration. Brush on the egg white and cook in the oven
450 degrees for 20 minutes or till it looks crispy and brown.

Goes perfect with a bottle of wine!

And we sadly did cut our happy guy...

 And while we waited for this delicious treat to be ready my gracious hosts Megs and Rahul played on their respective video games.

For other puff pastry recipes check out Foodista.com
Chocolate Puff Pastry Squares

The Best Parathas East of the Missippi

And they are! If you are in the North American continent make a trek to Alfred NY to eat these delicious babies. Of course it would also mean that you would need an invitation to my aunt and uncle's house but that could be worked out. I had the pleasure of enjoying various kinds of parathas while I stayed with my aunt and uncle, Varshneyas while recovering from my broken foot. What a treat- the Aloo Paratha, Gobi Paratha, Mooli Paratha are all wonderful. I documented the step by step preparation of the Aloo paratha. Give it a shot or just try to make a trip to Alfred NY!

Ingredients:

To prepare the dough:

3 cups of flour (whole wheat)

water (atleast a cup rest you can eyeball the consistency of the dough)

pinch of salt

Filling:

4-5 Boiled potatoes

1 large onion, finely diced

1 green chili

handful of cilantro finely diced

dry spices: corriander powder, cumen powder, salt, red chili, turmeric, rock salt

Oil to cook with

Salt according to taste.

To knead the dough:

Gosh I wish I could describe this. I have attempted many a complex recipes but I dont think I have ever got my dough to the right consistency.  All I know it takes a whole lot of upper body strength to roll the dough. Take the flour in a big bowl. Add some salt. Start by adding water and mixing it in - like making clay. Keep adding water and gathering the flour into a ball of dough.

For the stuffing:
Even though any different types of vegetables and meat can be stuffed in the paratha, the most popular stuffing is potato or Aloo.
Boil the potato and peal them. Mash the potato using a masher or your hands (freshly boiled potatoes are very hot so be careful).
Add the green chili, fresh cilantro and spices such as coriander, cumin and red chili powder. Also toss in the finely chopped onions in the mashed potato mixture.
Yup and the best way to make the mix is to get your hands in there and mash it to the right consistency. Any large chunks of potato will be hard to roll into the paratha.

To make an aloo (potato) ka paratha:

1. Take a palm full piece of the dough and roll it into a ball.
2. Flatten the ball into a palm-sized circle.

3. Take some the coriander pwd, cumin pwd, red chili, rocksalt, salt and oil and apply it on the flattened piece of dough.

4. Place a generous helping of the potato mix and place it on the center of the dough.

5. Now carefully enclose the potato by folding and pulling the dough over it creating a big ball of dough stuffed with potatoes.

6. Time to roll out the paratha. Dip the ball in flour and gently flatten it with your hands. As you flatten it pull along the edges so that the size is increasing.

 That by the way is beautiful to get it to look like that. Almost impossible task!

 

7. Dust some flour on a flat surface and place the dough on the surface and start to roll the dough into a flat plane evenly.

8. When the paratha is around 1/4 of inch thick. Place it on a flat pan (tawa) and spoon the oil evenly along its edges. The oil seeps below the paratha slowly cooking it. Make sure the tawa is hot before placing the paratha on it. Also keep the heat low to cook slowly.

9. Flip the paratha and allow cooking on the other side at least 3-4 minutes. Apply oil on the partially cooked top surface before you flip the paratha again. Press with a spatula so that the surface is evenly cooking. Repeat till both sides are cooked to a lovely golden brown.

10. Serve the paratha with fresh plain yogurt and a variety of pickles - mango, chili, lime, sweet pickle. Cut the paratha in half to allow steam to escape and enjoy this delicious treat!

More Paratha recipes at Foodista.com

Aloo Paratha

Sushi Night!

So this post has been long overdue. Infact many have been. But I have been traveling a whole lot and was unable to get myself to complete these. So now I am home and completely jet lagged and unable to sleep so I thought I would catch up on some writing.
Sushi night at Janu and Christian's place in Salt Lake City. I heard these were quite famous and involved copious amounts of Sushi and wine. Needless to say I was very excited. Christian, Janu and I were joined by their friends Kian, Krista and Cyrus. Kian is the sushi expert and it was definitely a blast to watch him roll the sushi. All in all it is not very hard to roll sushi at home, however many ingredients are needed to make Sushi night work.

Im not sure if I captured the recipe precisely as this was my first time rolling sushi at home. But Sushi rolling, followed by several rounds of Saboteur (an excellent strategy card game), followed by a very special Persian Tea ceremony with seemingly endless glasses of wine did make for an excellent night.

Im going to attempt to list all the ingredients:
1. Sushi grade rice
2. Rice vinegar
3. Salt
4. Sugar
5 Wasabi- hot
6. Siriacha
7. Eel Sauce
8. Pickled ginger
9. Japanese mayonaisse
10. Assorted vegetables such as sprouts, cucumber, peppers, mango, spring onions, carrots, avacado
11. Dried seaweed sheets
12. Seseame seeds
13. Fresh Sushi grade fish- salmon, tuna, eel. (Kian bought fresh sushi fish from the aquarium)
14. Soya Sauce

Equipment:
15. Bamboo Sushi Mat
16. Paddle for rice
17. Rice cooker
18. A clean cutting board

The prep:

Above is the slice of fresh sushi grade tuna and spicy tuna- made with siriacha sauce and mayonnaise mixed with the raw tuna. Delicious!

To make the Sushi rice:
This is the part I missed on but found a nice recipe online to follow:
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-sushi-rice
Keep in mind- Sushi fish should be fresh and sushi rice should be sticky and not the other way around. Kian has prepped the rice for us and he is about to roll the sushi rolls. Can't wait!

To roll a Sushi Roll:
1. Lay the bamboo mat flat on a cutting board. Place a sheet of seaweed on the bamboo mat. Place a generous scoop of sushi prepped rice on the seaweed.

 
2. Press the rice down on 2/3 of the sea weed and spread the rice as evenly possible on that area.

3. Now place the ingredients in single rows evenly on half the rice. Including the slivers of fresh fish.

4. Start by rolling with the bamboo mat and press into a circular tubular form. Make sure that it is a tight fold and all the ingredients are held together.

5. As the roll is about to be complete use apply some water along the edge of the seaweed and close the roll completely.

6. Cut into 1.5" slices and serve on a platter. Sprinkle sesame seeds, squeeze some eel sauce and serve with soya sauce, wasabi and ginger.

Some more expert sushi rolling. I think this is called the outside roll. I was very impressed with Kian's skill to roll these professional rolls. It involved plastic wrap.

Followed by some crazy Persian wedding dance! Vigorously performed by Cyrus and Kian.

Watch the video right here.

For other Sushi recipes check out Foodista:

Tuna Sushi Roll

For the Love of Karela (Bitter Gourd? Melon)

I love karela. And I think the love of Karela runs in the family. My sis loves karela, my mum and dad love karela, my extended family love karela. I think you get my point. You can only have a 'love-hate' relationship with karela. Believe me its not a vegetable that you are ambivalent towards. It has a really bitter taste and either you can deal with it or not. Karela, like many bitter vegetables is good for health. In particular, karela helps with indigestion and it has a lectin of some sort that is like insulin and regular consumption of karela can help curb the onset of diabetes. So there it is good for you. And fresh karelas smell green.

Karela is mostly eaten in Asia and seems like the most common way of preparing it is by deep frying it. Of course anything deep fried should taste good right! Not these suckers- their seeds are very very bitter. Add some salt, squeeze some lime- now that sounds better. However in my household we stuff our Karela with a delicious mix of spices and saute them. These stuffed karelas are insanely delicious.

Here is a confession: I haven't ever really cooked a Karela but have consumed it almost on a daily basis when I lived at home. Believe me my mum makes an amazing Karela.
I had the pleasure of documenting my aunt, Darshana in Alfred, NY make her Karela. Its different from my mom's Karela recipe but just as yummy. OMG!

Ingredients:

1/2 dozen Karelas (Bitter Melons) peeled
Fennel seeds crushed or powdered
Coriander Powder
Cumin
Salt
Red Chili powder
Turmeric
Onions cut in 8's and separated
Oil to cook

1. Peel the karelas and slit them in the center length wise. Be careful not to cut them in half.

2. In a bowl mix all the dry spices. Add the red chili powder and salt according to taste.

3. Take generous helpings of the spice mix and stuff the karelas with the masala. Place the karelas in a plate till they are ready to cook

4. Heat oil in a pan and place the karela in the hot oil in a single layer.

5. Allow the karela to cook before you stir or else all the spices will fall in the oil and eventually burn. The total cooking time is approximately an hour, however toss the karela gently every 10 minutes. Cook until their green skin turn brown and they look well sauteed.

6. Take the onions cut them in eights (half them, quarter them and then further eight them). Separate the leaves of the onions so that they are all in a single layer. Toss any of the remaining spices in the bowl on the onions so that they are basically spiced.

7. Add the onions to the pan of karelas and stire gently.

8. Cover and let the onions saute with the karela.

So here we go delicious Karela. Oh so yummy with roti and some plain yogurt on the side.

I have always been curious about what the Karela looks like on the tree. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the rough, bulbous, unpleasant texture of the skin actually blooms into this beautiful flower.

I saw this in an Asian grocery store in Chicago and for all the love of Karela I dont think I could drink this. Karela Pop - Really??

For more recipes on bitter gourd check out Foodista
Stuffed Karelas

Bitter Gourd