Alu-Methi Bhonda

I had not caught up with friends in a while, just has been so hectic the past few months. Also, with everyone's children growing up it is a challenge to find a time that works. Well, yesterday I came up with the idea of doing an open house style event. Now this idea is a keeper, I realized other than stretching out the time commitment a little bit on our schedule it was not too bad - I did not have the stress of serving up food at a fixed time. In general, I think things worked pretty well. Shall blog some of the other recipes later, I was quite please about these simple little potatoe cakes, comforting, crowd pleasings made with good, fresh and flavorful farmers market potatoes.

Alu-Methi Bhondas - Potato-Fenugreek Balls

Makes 20

Ingredients

6-8 large russet potatoes, cooked in their jackets
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly crushed black pepper
1 small onion diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
1 tsp ground cumin powder
1 tsp mango or amchur powder
1 cup urad or moong dal flour
Oil for frying

Method of preparation

1. Peel the potatoes and mash well with the salt into a fairly smooth consistency.
2. Mix in the onion, garlic, dried fenugreek, cumin, amchur, and the dal flour.
3. Let this sit for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
4. Heat the oil.
5. Shape the potato mixture into walnut-sized balls and fry on medium low heat till golden brown.
6. Great with tea and your favorite chutney.

Potatoes with Swiss Chard

What a crazy week, we have been so glued to the TV watching in delighted disbelief the great american ritual called the presidential election! Shall talk about that more later, want to commence the weekend with a simple comforting recipe that I had cooked a couple of weeks back in class.

I refined this somewhat and made this for our meal with these very crisp and satisfying rawa tomatoe dosa. Nothing like comfort food for our couch potato instincts.

Potatoes with Swiss Chard

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp asafetida
2 cloves minced garlic
4 potatoes peeled and cut into eights
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tomatoes chopped
2 cups swiss chard finely chopped
1 tsp garam masala powder

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the cumin, asafetida and garlic.
2. Saute for about 2-3 minutes and add the potatoes and cook on medium low heat stirring frequently, till the potatoes begin to turn golden brown.
3. Add the turmeric, salt and tomatoes and cook for 3-4 minutes.
4. Stir in the chard and cover and cook on low for 5 minutes.
5. Remove the cover and stir well, the vegetables should be soft uniformly mixed.
6. Stir in the garam masala.

Rawa-Ragi Tomato Dosas

Makes 15 mid-sized dosas

Ingredients

1/2 cup rawa
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup ragi flour
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
8-10 curry leaves
3 tomatoes processed in the food processor
4 tbsp chopped cilantro
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion finely chopped
Oil for frying the dosas

Method of preparation

1. Mix the flours, salt, buttermilk, curry leaves, tomatoes, cilantro, green chillies, cumin and onion into a thick batter and set aside for at least 2 hours.
2. Stir well and add additional water to thin the dough into a pouring thin pancake consistency.
3. Heat a tawa or griddle and pour about 1.5 ladlefuls of the batter and spread out, the batter should bubble and spread with some small holes (sort of lacy consistency),
4. Pour a little oil around the dosa and cook on low for about 6-7 minutes.
5. Remove carefully and turn. This should be crisp and brown.
6. Cook lightly on the other side and serve hot.

Lentil and Potato Salad, er chaat!

Once upon a time, I would have never thought of pairing these two unusual creatures and once upon a time I would have missed out a good very satifying gastromical experience!

In general, I have actually been watching more TV than I have in a while. Well, I cannot resist this great American soap opera that we call elections. There is the economic crisis, the first so-called African american candidate, and of course the "hockey mom" who is perfectly comfortable raising her little baby, through some remote control, since she seems to be anywhere but with the baby. Well, down to more earthy issues, here is a lentil and potato salad a la indiene - Alu-Massur Chaat

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 russet potatoes

1 cup cooked brown lentils (sabut masur)

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tbsp chaat masala

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup sour cream

2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro

1 lime

Method of Preparation

1. Cook and peel the potatoes, coarsely chop into medium-sized pieces.

2. Mix in all the remaining ingredients except the lime and chill for 2 hours.

3. Squeeze the lime over the salad and eat with any think else that is interesting.

2. Place in a mixing bowl and add the lentils and onions.

Dim Sum, It is!

How often, does one get the opportunity to introduce a young twenty-something to something quite new (in terms of culinary tastes) in the burbs. Ok, I do it in my classes every week! But, people take classes to learn, so it does not count.

Anju, my husbands summer intern wanted to do brunch with us to wrap summer and head back to college. As always, I suggested Dim Sum, we went to Central Seafood, located yes, on Central Park Ave in Hartdale.

It turns out this was Anju's first experience with Dim Sum. Central Seafood is actually a great place to start, we spent about over an hour trying an assortment of small plates -the most noteworthy were, a lovely scallop and greens dumplings, leek chive dumplings, lovely flavorful sticky rice, of course the good basics like siu mai, shrimp dumplings, noodles, I could go on.

Overall, this is a nice spacious restaurant and offers a great assortment of Chinese favorites both the traditional and beyond. Very family friendly as well!

Roasted Corn and Spicy Chicken Stew

The farmers markets are still going strong at least in in Pleasantville.

This summer one of the events that I had gotten interest in was a local contest called, "locally grown." Possibly my greatest delight was actually that through this and other general awareness, I have gotten increasingly aware of how nice and relatively simple it is to work with local produce. In general I get a break from the mundane when I shop for things that clearly look much nicer than most supermarkets.

The past week, I picked up tomatillos, jallepenos, chicken, onions, parsely and cilantro among other things. I made this a mid-week stew in a flash in the pressure cooker.

Welcoming Fall!

Blackberry Chutney, originally uploaded by brinku11.

For several reasons this has been a difficult summer for me. I am looking forward to Fall. I love the season, the beauty, the crisp fall air and everything else. One can see little vestiges of color peeking out of the green.

Yesterday, I picked a decent handful of the fading black berries in my garden. On a whim I cooked them very lightly in a bengali style chutney, just wonderful!. I tried them on lightly poached salmon and I think a star is born.

Blackberry Chutney

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

1 tbsp mustard oil
1/2 tsp panch phoron (bengali 5-spice powder)
2 crushed dried red chillies
1 cup fresh blackberries
4 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 lemon

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the panch phoron and the red chillies.
2. When the spices crackle add the blackberries and stir in well.
3. Add the sugar salt and squeeze in the juice of the lemon.
4. Let the juice flow from the berries and simmer lightly. Cook for 3-4 minutes till the sugar is disolved but the berries are still somewhat whole.

Weekend, New Restaurant, etc

What a crazy week, Deepta started Kindergarten. Was not sure what to do about Mr. Daddy's birthday (yes, this is what the kids have taken to calling him!). Initially, I thought I would try to spend sometime at the beach and try Seaside Johnny's, well when I went for a haircut yesterday Rose told me that we would have thunderstorms, so I thought of plan B. An Indian buffet with some South Indian options works well, we tried Jaipore today.

My standards for Indian food, I hope are a little more discerning than some, I have to confess I was very pleasantly pleased. I have tried the restaurant before and have always liked the ambience, it is reminicent of the old colonial style construction found in Indian cities like Kolkatta.

They had a great variety of appetizers. In partcular, they had done a very good job with the Alu tikkies - Indian potato patties. This had an interestingly crispy outside, which I think I shall have to play around with to get. The phuchka's, little puffed crisps that are usually filled with potatoes and tangy broth and popped into the mouth whole, were a little stale. Otherwise the menu of great, with an interesting variety the food was not spoilt by an inordinate amount of grease and cream that seem to mark so many Indian restaurants. The tandoori chicken was well marinated and flavorful and moist. A surprising entree was pongal that is Indian comfort food at its best.

The desserts were not cloyingly sweet overall a much appreciated dining experience.