Shortcut Dal Makhani

One of my resolutions for this year is to actually use the cookbooks that are on my bookshelf instead of ignoring them and letting them collect dust. One of those books is Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries, which I received a few years ago but didn't have much luck with. However, after reading lots of reviews, I've decided to give it another shot. One of the recipes that I've been meaning to try - from this book or otherwise - is dal makhani, a creamy concotion comprised of lots of warming spices and black lentils.

There are a few common denominators to most recipes for this dish - black lentils (whole urad dal), a smidge of red kidney beans, cumin, chili powder, onions. But the numerous variations beyond that were clearly indicative of the many different ways this dish can be prepared. However, the main common denominator was one that made this dish something that I never made: soaking lentils and kidney beans overnight.

Fettucine with Leeks, White Beans, and Parsley

Part of our first CSA pickup was a bunch of beautiful leeks. The stalks were thick and creamy white, unlike the streaky, somewhat dried-up specimens in the supermarket. These particular leeks were even better than ones I’ve gotten at the farmers market – they were incredibly tender and amazingly grit free.

My CSA sends out an email on Mondays letting us know what’s in our pickup the next day, so I’ve taken to meal planning for the week based on what I’ll be getting the next day. I saw leeks on the list for that first week and I knew right away what to make with them.

Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)

I’ve been promising my mom that I would post this recipe and, after many weeks, here it is.

If I could eat only one cuisine for the rest of my life, I’m pretty sure it would be Thai food. The salty-tart-spicy-sweet flavors are so satisfying and there are so many vegetarian options that I would never get bored. Recently, instead of going out for Thai, I’ve been making it at home and with great success – it often comes out better than what you can get at most Thai restaurants (not including the amazing Sripraphai).

Creamy Polenta with Braised Greens and Pan-Roasted Mushrooms

I’ve been meaning to make this for weeks and finally got around to it Thursday night. In my mind, this is a perfect meal for a snowy winter night.



Interestingly, I’ve seen a version of this dish pop up on menus at a number of restaurants around the city, which confirms that I’m not the only one who thinks this is right for the season.

Luxe Mac and Cheese

I promised a friend that I’d post this last week, and, of course, I’m only getting around to it now….

I’ve always loved cheese (I have a hilarious/embarrassing childhood story about my love for cheese), so it naturally follows that I’ve always loved mac and cheese. I always looked forward to the one Saturday a month that mom made the Kraft stuff for me and my brother, and I continued to love it (and try to not eat the whole box) well into my early 20’s. But then one day I went to Artisanal (aka the temple of cheese) with my friends Elise and Kristen and we decided to be indulgent and order a side of their mac and cheese. It was amazing – light years better than the stuff made from powdered cheese, and even more satisfying. I have no idea what blend of cheeses they use, but it was perfect – pungent, creamy, rich, and perfectly seasoned.

Asparagus Flan with Mint-Pea Puree and Wilted Pea Shoots

I got to the JFX market a little late on Sunday, but I was still able to get my hands on some great spring produce (although they still don’t have too much of it – it’s mostly flowering plants and food vendors). In addition to a few pounds of asparagus (which I love), I picked up lots of mint and pea shoots, which I’ve never before seen at the market.

Pea shoots are the tops of pea plants, and they taste exactly like you would expect them to: like peas. They’re currently available at farmers markets, but you can also get them at Chinese markets (I’ve definitely seen them in Chinatown in Manhattan). Make sure the ones you buy are young; mature shoots are tough and stringy and are not fun to eat. About a third of the shoots I bought from the market were advanced in age and were barely eatable even after being cooked – they were that stringy.

Chana Saag (Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach) & Cookbook Giveaway

This is the first of three recipes that I'll be posting from 660 Curries. Don't forget to leave a comment by 9 pm on Sunday, May 18th to be entered into the drawing for first of three copies of the book (see this post for details).

----------

I had a ton of fresh spinach that I had gotten at the market earlier in the week, so a spinach recipe was in order. I was all set to search the index of the book for spinach recipes, but it so happened that when I opened the book, I landed on the page for this recipe. Since I had almost all the ingredients on hand, I decided to go for it.

Most of the ingredients for this recipe are either already in your house or easily available, but it does require one very special ingredient that is only available at Indian grocery stores: sambar powder. Sambar powder is a South Indian spice blend that is not only used for making sambar (as the name might imply), but also for flavoring vegetable curries. It's made by roasting spices and lentils and then grinding them to make a powdered spice blend. South Indians are apparently the only people in the world who roast lentils and use them as seasonings, either whole, as in this green bean dish, or ground as in this eggplant curry and tomato and lentil stew. Roasted lentils lend a nutty and almost sweet flavor to dishes, and the result is unlike any other seasoning I've ever had.

I followed this recipe almost exactly as written in order to be able to properly review and critique it. On the whole, I would give it a rating of 6 out of 10. I like the combination of chickpeas and spinach, and I’m a fan of using South Indian spices in dishes, but there was a striking lack of cohesion in this dish both texturally and flavor-wise. I wouldn’t specifically make this again unless I made the following changes:

• Reduce the amount of mustard seeds from 1 tsp to 1/2 tsp - the flavor of popped mustard seeds overwhelmed the dish.
• Omit the ginger and fried onion/shallot – onions, shallots, garlic, and other allium members are never used in South Indian cooking; ginger is rarely used, and, if so, never with sambar powder and popped mustard seeds (my mother’s jaw dropped when I told her that the recipe called for mustard seeds and sambar powder AND onions and ginger). I couldn't distinctly taste the ginger and shallots, but I would omit them nonetheless.
• Reduce the amount of water from 2 cups to 1 cup and increase the simmering time to at least 20 minutes (from 8-10) - the final product was really watery and not at all cohesive in terms of texture or flavor. Reducing the amount of water by ½ and increasing the cooking time would allow for more of the water to get absorbed by the chick peas, for the chick peas to give off some of their starch and thereby thicken the sauce, and for all the flavors to blend together.
  

I might also use frozen spinach instead of fresh, because the delicate fresh spinach flavor was totally drowned out by the seasonings.

That being said, I think this would be a great weeknight dinner - it's quick, easy to make, inexpensive, healthy, and, with the aforementioned changes, probably really tasty.

---------------

Chana Saag (Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach)
(serves 4)

2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or canola oil
1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon ginger paste
2 tablespoons fried onion paste (I used 2 tablespoons finely minced shallots)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons sambar powder
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
2 cups cooked chickpeas (I used a 15-ounce can)
2 cups water
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, well rinsed and finely chopped

***************

Heat the ghee in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover the pot, and cook until the seeds have stopped popping, about 30 seconds. Lower the heat to medium and add the ginger paste. Stir-fry until light brown, about 30 seconds. (Be careful with this step – the ghee will be very hot and the ginger will very likely splatter – I kept any splattering ghee and ginger out of my face by covering the pot and then pulling up the lid a bit to leave it ajar, then sticking a long wooden spoon into the pot to stir the ginger.)

Stir in the fried onion paste, tomato paste, sambar powder, salt, and chickpeas. Stir well to coat the chickpeas, then add the water. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Add the spinach and stir well to incorporate. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the mixture has thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Serve with rice.

Spring Onion and Potato Soup with Garlic-Parmesan Croutons

I’ve really become obsessed with buying everything at the farmers market – Michael Pollan would be proud of me. I haven’t been to the supermarket in weeks! (OK, that’s not entirely true – I’ve been there to buy yogurt and bananas. I suppose I could make my own yogurt, but growing bananas is totally out of the question.)

Spring onions are one of the things that are in season and abundant right now, so of course I had to buy a few bunches of them last weekend. Spring onions aren’t scallions (although they are frequently, and erroneously, labeled as such) – they’re young onions that are pulled before the onion bulb gets a chance to mature. They taste sort of like scallions, but they’re a little more pungent and onion-y (obviously, because they’re young onions!).

Fresh Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi

Because I am the kind of person who doesn’t easily accept failure, I set out again last weekend to make the spinach and ricotta gnocchi that I had first (and successfully) made for my friend in NYC last month and again a few weeks ago (which didn’t make it to the table for reasons that have been sworn to secrecy ;)

 
I’ve probably said this a million times already, but I think one of the basic rules of cooking is that dishes that require a few ingredients require that those ingredients be the absolute best you can get. It makes sense – if there are only 4 ingredients in something, you’re going to be able to taste each and every one of those ingredients. So, for example, if you use store brand ricotta cheese in these gnocchi, you will definitely taste it. And that won’t be a good thing, because store brand ricotta is grainy and tastes funny. I learned that lesson a few years ago, and never again will I be so cheap as to buy the store brand – I’ll at least spring for the Polly-O or something.

Spring Vegetable Soup

I’ve fallen back into my habit of weekly trips to the farmer’s market. I went to the market again this past Saturday to get:

• Milk, eggs, yogurt, and raw milk cheddar from South Mountain Creamery – because milk that isn’t ultrapasteurized, egg yolks that are practically orange, and raw milk cheeses are way tastier than what you can buy at the supermarket
• Spinach - to recreate the spinach and ricotta gnocchi that never came to fruition the previous Saturday
• Strawberries - which I learned need to be eaten either the same day or the next otherwise they’ll turn to mush
• Local asparagus – because it’s good to buy local and seasonal
• Yemisir Wat (spicy lentil stew) from Ethiopian Delights – because I love Ethiopian food and I ate the container I bought two weeks ago in one sitting…and then I did it again this past Saturday – apparently it’s my newest obsession

The larger Baltimore Farmer’s Market under the JFX is opening this Sunday – hooray! – and I think I’m going to have to abandon the Waverly market after my brief affair with it. Not only is the JFX market larger, but it’s much closer to my apartment than the Waverly market and therefore I can walk to it.

Herbed French Gnocchi (Gnocchi Parisienne)

“What makes these gnocchi French?” is the question that was asked when I served them. A very good question, indeed.

French gnocchi are made without semolina or potatoes that are used to make the more common Italian gnocchi. They are actually made from pâte à choux, that incredibly versatile dough that is used to make everything from gougères to éclairs. Pâte à choux is composed simply of butter, flour, eggs, and water (sometimes milk); the proportions of these ingredients vary depending on what the final product will be.

Mushroom and Taleggio Pizza with Gremolata

So, in case it hasn’t been apparent, I haven’t done much cooking for almost a week now. I was away for the weekend, and while I did make some good stuff for dinner for me and my partner-in-crime/bff on Saturday night (spinach and fresh ricotta gnocchi, key lime pie cupcakes), I didn’t have my camera with me, so neither of those things end up counting (because no one wants a recipe without a photo!). Also, the bf has been away for the past few days, so my dinners have consisted of what I like to call squirrel meals, by which I forage in my pantry and fridge for random things to eat that, together, can possibly constitute the bulk of a real meal. Maybe I should just call it “small plates” so that I don’t sound pathetic.

I rarely have the desire to cook a good meal for just myself. When it’s just me (and when I was living alone in NYC) I rarely made the kind of food that I have been making and posting on here for the past year. I only cooked like this once a week, when I would either have a friend over for dinner or when I would go over to my bff’s and cook dinner for the two of us. I really love cooking for people that I like, but I derive very little joy out of cooking for myself and I just don’t care enough to do it. I can’t be the only one with that mindset, right?

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

One of my early memories of helping out my mom in the kitchen is making eggplant parmesan once a month on Sunday evenings. As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to help in the kitchen. When I was really little, I was allowed to stir things (initially ones that weren’t on the stove, but as I got older, the stove was no longer off-limits) and I beat eggs on Sunday mornings for omelettes and stirred in seasonings, but I think that this dish was one of the first things with which she really let me get my hands dirty – both literally and figuratively. My mom would slice up the eggplant and prepare the bowl of dredging liquid (she used a thin batter made of chickpea flour and water), and she did all the frying. But I was completely in charge of everything else.

I loved dipping my hands (oh, and the eggplant slices, too) into the dredging solution and then coating them in breadcrumbs. My hands would always end up a huge, sticky, crumby mess after completing a few slices, but some vigorous scraping and washing was all I needed to get back to next batch. I always laid out the finished slices on a few plates so that my mom could get them into the hot oil and not have to wait too long between batches. While she was frying the slices, I made sure to have paper towel-lined plates ready for her on which the eggplant could drain. I always used to sneak a few slices – fried eggplant is so good, and you all know how I feel about eggplant, so how could I resist?

Spring Risotto: Risotto with Asparagus, Peas, Parsley, and Lemon

When my mom visits me (which she is currently doing), I love to cook meals for her that she would normally never make for herself. Being that it is supposedly spring (it was 50 degrees in Baltimore on Thursday despite the fact that it was 75 degrees on Tuesday…what is going on???), I decided to make a spring risotto.

I had bought a few pounds of asparagus a few days ago in a fit of spring fever, so some of it was definitely going into the risotto. (I bought way more asparagus than I needed for the meal I made a few days ago…sometimes I get carried away.) To further springify the risotto, I added a few things that I always have on hand but are springy nonetheless: peas, parsley, and lemon. Oh, and sauvignon blanc. There’s always New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in my fridge; I have a slight (read: major) obsession with it.

Butternut Squash, Leek, and Chickpea Stew with Lemon-Parsley Couscous

This past weekend was another one that found me away from Baltimore. The bf’s friend invited us to his parents’ cottage in PA to go skiing, and, seeing as how I had never been, we jumped at the offer. We drove to PA Friday night, skied in the morning and afternoon, drove to DC in the early evening to go to my brother’s place to help him celebrate his birthday (for which I made an awesome cake which will be posted here in a few days), and then back to Baltimore late Saturday night. Not only did I not cook this past weekend, but I ate horrible food on Saturday – a frozen personal pizza for lunch and trail mix and Combos for dinner. Gross, I know. I can’t wait to get back into the kitchen this week and make some food that is not only real, but also really good.

I made this stew a few weeks ago – it was inspired by this recipe that a friend of mine had made a few weeks back. I wanted my version to be more hearty and less gratin-like, so I decided to add chickpeas and lentils to it. 

South Indian Baby Eggplant Curry

Update (January 2011): Upon retiring his long-running Minimalist column, Mark Bittman selected his top 25 recipes and this was one of them.

Update (April 2008): Mark Bittman adapted this recipe and featured it in his Minimalist column in the New York Times.

I don’t think I need to reiterate my love for eggplant. My mom has been making this dish for many years, but I never bothered to learn how to make it.

When I was home this past weekend, I noticed some small eggplants in the fridge and my mom told me to take them with me and make this curry with them. I had never made it before, but she assured me it was incredibly easy to make. She was right – the whole thing took under 20 minutes to make, there was minimal cleanup (courtesy of microwave cooking), and the best part is that it tasted exactly like my mom’s version of it.

Linguini with Vegetarian Puttanesca Sauce

I had no idea that last post would generate such a strong reaction! Maybe I should just stick to posting recipes…

I was in NY this past weekend visiting my parents (and celebrating my brother’s birthday), which means that I came back to Baltimore with some of my mom’s awesome food, which also means that I’m not doing much cooking this week. So I’m posting something I made a week and a half ago and saved for a time just like this (i.e., when I’m not doing much cooking).

Bánh Mì Chay - Vegetarian Vietnamese Sandwich

One of my favorite places in NYC is Nicky’s Vietnamese Sandwiches. It’s a tiny storefront in the East Village and they only serve bánh mì, which are awesomely delicious Vietnamese sandwiches. Banh mi are traditionally made with pate and pork, but Nicky’s makes a few other versions using different meats, including a vegetarian version with marinated portobello mushrooms. I used to get one about once a month, sometimes eating it in the tiny store at one of the two small tables, sometimes taking it home with me to my apartment just a few blocks (and later, a few subway stops) away. They were so simple, but so so so so good – the combination of a crunchy baguette, pickled carrots, cilantro, and magically marinated mushrooms was divine.

Sadly, I haven’t had one in the year and a half I’ve lived in Baltimore – it isn’t quite the culinary mecca that NYC is (although I recently learned that Red Emma’s, which is just a block away from my building, has a vegetarian version made with lemongrass-marinated tofu).

Spicy Black Bean, Corn, and Potato Soup

This is totally one of my favorite soups – it’s insanely easy to make but stands on its own as a meal. I first made this for my parents a few years ago, and they both loved it. But I think the best testament to how good this soup is is the fact that my friend Rick, the world’s pickiest eater, likes it. ‘Nuff said.

Linguini with Mushroom Carbonara Sauce

I've never heard of or seen a vegetarian version of carbonara sauce, which is really strange to me - how hard is it to just leave out the bacon? I guess the bacon is the main element, but it seemed pretty obvious to me to replace it with mushrooms, which are frequently used as a substitute for meat. I first made this a few years ago as a little experiment and clearly it worked. And since I was desperately craving it last week, I decided to make it last night. I won't lie and say it's good for you, but it certainly does make you feel good when it's freezing cold in your apartment!