Nutrella Cutlets

I have tried over the years to work with meatless sources of protein. I just feel, once in a while it is good to have options. The latest in my quest is Nutrella or soy nuggets.

I also recently picked up a package of these soy grains that look a lot like cous-cous in the local store. I made these cutlets using a combination of these grains and let me tell you these were good! I used them as veggie burgers and they went down very well with the home crowd.

Nutrella Cutlets - TVP cutlets

Makes about 12 medium sized cutlets

Ingredients

For the cutlets

1 large sweet potato (cooked and peeled)

1 regular potato (cooked and peeled)

1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 cup prepared TVP ( this is soaked in hot water and then the excess water is squeezed out

1 cup frozen peas

2 green chillies, finely minced

2 tbsp cilantro, finely minced

2 tsp chat masala

1 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garam masala

For the batter and breading

1 egg

3-4 tbsp all purpose flour

water as needed

1 tsp salt

1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs (whole wheat panko works well)

Oil for frying.

Method of preparation

1. Mash all the ingredients for the cutlet together into a firm mixture, since a fair amount of frozen vegetables are used, if needed add a little chick pea flour for tightness

2. Shape into hamburger sized patties.

3. Beat the egg with flour, water and salt to form a thick batter.

4. Dip the cutlets into the batter and coat well with the breadcrumbs.

5. Place in the fride for 1 hour.

6. Heat the oil and fry well on both sides.

7. Serve with ketchup or as veggie burgers in buns.

Dal Makhani and Dahi Methi Bhindi

I had blogged earlier about the bhindi recipe, but nothing like simple good creamy dal Makhani. I recently made this to teach Aeisha how to make this.

She is an interesting person who has made her way to my culinary studio. She is a second generation American-Pakistani who ideally would love someone to teach her Pakistani cooking but will settle for Indian, as long as the spices are not too different. As I tell her, the spices are almost the same but their use is sometime not the same across the different parts of the sub-continent or even the country we call India. Anyhow, good food is a universal thing.

Dal Makhani - Creamy Urad Dal and Red Kidney Beans

Serves 6

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole urad dal (mapte beans)
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp finely grated ginger
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 can red kidney beans
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp red chili powder
1/3 cup cream
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation
1. Pressure cook the dal with 2 cups water and salt for 15 minutes.
2. Heat the oil and add the cumin followed by the onion and ginger after a few seconds.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the dal and drained kidney beans, chili powder and simmer for 30 minutes.
5 . Stir in the remaining ingredients and serve with rice or roti.

Why Yellow?

I was out of town for about a week, this past week, just before leaving I read about this cause - Clicking Yellow for Bri in a blog I enjoy reading a lot.

The original Click Event being hosted at Jugalbandi, that hosts a monthly food photography event. Maybe, this was on my mind since all through Tampa Bay, Fl. Possibly, it was the general upset, I have to tell you it seems almost every other person that I know, ends up falling prey to this disease.

The corn and pepper came later, the other yellow was just on my mind.

Dearest Bri,

please keep the spirits up. People like me hope and pray that tomorrow will be better.

Ever felt that there was a connection and you could not tell why? This outbreak had troubled me just because....As I was about to submit this, I read further and realized that Bri was the daughter-in-law of Cynthia and Bill,

they had attended my son's rice ceremony by chance (She was with someone we knew and wanted to see this event) and Cynthia had taken some of the best pictures on my son at this event.

Here is the recipe that was created from the Corn and Pepper

Roasted Corn and Pepper Chowder

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 ears of corn on the cob

2 yellow bell peppers

2 tbsp butter

2 shallots finely chopped

2 pods of garlic

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 16-oz container of chicken broth or 4 cups homemade broth

1 tbsp black pepper

Additional salt if needed

1 lemon

2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Method of preparation

1. Roast the corn and bell peppers on the open flame. The corn needs to start turning black at spots and the bell peppers are charred completed outside.

2. Set the corn aside to cool, and place the bell pepper on ice to rub the blackened skin off.

3. Heat the butter and add the shallots and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes.

4. Add the sweet potatoes and chicken broth with salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Chop the roasted pepper and mix in.

6. Cool and puree in a food processor.

7. Remove the roasted corn from the cob.

8. Bring the puree back to simmer add in the corn, squeeze the juice of the lemon and stirr in the cilantro and serve hot.

Am so thrilled!

I was so thrilled by a comment on my blog left weeks back by Sangeeth. It just had been a few crazy weeks, summer is wonderful, but sometimes just has a life of its own, leaving very little time for this little space called my blog. Still, it is a little space where some of the creations of my favorite passion cooking are displayed. I cannot help feeling happy when someone aknowledges this effort.

It is difficult to narrow this to three blogs, especially since there are so many lovely blogs around. Some of my other favorite blogs have recieved this award already so, these are the three that come to my head today which I think may not have yet been awarded this,

Cooking for All Seasons

Jugalbandi

What's for Lunch Honey

Thank you again!

Thin Noodles - Desi Style

Nothing like ending a usual busy, crazy week with Indian style noodles. In a nutshell, Indian style noodles are pretty simple, toss noodles with your favorite combination of vegetables and eggs and some meat if so desired. Through in any variety of spices, chinese and Indian and there you have it a wonderfully simple and flavorful one dish meal. So ok, you wonder why on earth waste good space on a blog writing about it. Well, you see a lot of these tossed together ingredients have interesting nuances, tonight the combination incoporated a hint of lime and cumin, just amazing how lovely the flavors were.

Garlic-Lime Noodles with Cumin

Serves 4

Ingredients

1.5 cups thin fresh chinese noodles

3 tbsp oil

2 eggs

1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions

1 tsp hot sesame oil

2 pods garlic, grated

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 green chilli, finely minced

3 carrots grated

1/2 bell pepper thinly sliced

2-3 slices ham, julliened

2 tsp soy sauce

1 large lime

2 tbsp cilantro, minced

Method of Preparation

1. Bring the water to a boil and cook the noodles for 4 minutes and drain.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil and scramble the eggs and set aside.

3. Heat the oil and add the sesame oil and cumin seeds.

4. Add the garlic and saute lightly, mix in the scallions.

5. Add the chili and carrots and bell pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes.

6. Add the ham with the noodles.

7. Add in the soy sauce and stir in the eggs.

8. Squeeze the lime and add the cilantro and mix well.

9. Enjoy!

Sabudana Dosa with Sambhar

It is probably an extremely rare, make that practically never day, when I think of trying to do any prepping prior to leaving for work. Well, my dear Aadi, has just been asked to get of the bottle all of 2-months back. My life has not been the same since then, I spend about 30 minutes every morning wrestling with him to drink from these silly colorful cups that I have bought him. Well, since I am pretty much stuck in the kitchen, a couple of day back, I was fussing around. I had some extra tapioca and my friend Vasu informed me this could be used for dosa.
I did not exactly remember a recipe, but this is broadly what I did.

For the dosas

I soaked

1/2 cup tapioca
1/2 cup chire (rice flakes)
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
1 cup water

I mixed the above ingredients and left for work, I came back and found a pretty thick concoccotion. I ground this with some more water in the blender.

Then I mixed in some chopped onion, sweet potatoes, cilantro and the half granny smith apple that I had in the fridge with half the batter. I heated the tawa, added oil and spread the batter, it took a good 12 minutes and then I turned and cooked briefly, the result was a nice and really crisp dosa. The kids loved this.

Once, they were done I made some sambhar using frozen sambhar vegetables. This was a pre-mixed pack that I bought from our Indian store, I have to confess I was pleasantly surprised by the quality.

In the remainder of the batter, I added some finely chopped chillies for us. A nice fun meal!

Dressing up the Taro

There are some bloggers who present with such beauty and specificity that you want jump right out of the blog and into their kitchens. One such blog is the saffron trail, where recently Nandita featured Arbi ke Tikkey, a lovely way to dress up the humble Taro.

I followed her recipe pretty closely, with tiny tweaks, could not leave out my beloved chat masala now, could I?

Arbi Ke Tikkey - Spicy Taro Cakes

Makes 8

Ingredients

8 medium sized taro

2 limes

1 tsp cumin-coriander powder

1/2 tsp crushed carom seeds

1 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp chat masala

1 tsp black salt

1 tsp salt

Oil for frying

To garnish

Onion rings

Cilantro

Additional Chat masala

Freshly ground black pepper

Method of Preparation

1. Cook the taro for 10 minutes, till parcooked. Cool and remove the skin.

2. Squeeze the juice of 1.5 limes on the taro, and add the remaining spices to the taro. Let this sit for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

3. In a shallow skillet, add the taro in a single layer and cook on medium-low heat for about 6 minutes on each side. This should allow a thick golden crust to form on each side.

4. Remove from the oil and let this cool slightly.

5. Squeeze with the remaining lime, add the chat masala and pepper.

6. Garnish with onions and cilantro and serve with a chutney if desired.

This dish would make a great side dish for any other fish or chicken dish.