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.

Chutney Mary!

Well! Well! Well! Look what I found last week at the farmers market. I pretty much have now settled for the Pleasantville market. I see this interesting Chutney Stand, made by a lady who hails from, you guessed it -India.

I liked all her products, but this fiery mint concoction seemed really good. I picked this up at $7.50 with these lovely eggplants that were priced at $4.50 a quart. I also got a lovely bunch of green onions at and a fresh head of garlic and came home and paired this with some feta cheese and fresh tomatoes from my neighbours garden to make this lovely dish.

Minted Garlic Eggplant

Served 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 onion thinly chopped

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tomato sliced

4 small eggplants, sliced

1 tsp salt (optional)

2 tbsp mint chutney

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.

2. When this begins to sizzle, add the onion and garlic and saute briefly.

3. Add the tomato and eggplant and chutney and the salt if using and coat well.

4. Cover and cook on very low heat for 15-17 minutes till the eggplant is soft and fairly mushy.

5. Stir in the feta cheese and serve with some crusty bread.

Palak Ghia Paneer Kuchran - Spinach, Zuchini Puree with Garlic and fresh Cheese

Well, with a fridge-full of farmers market veggies, I have to find ways to cook my bounty. This is the first of my experiments. This a great variation on palak paneer, I wanted to get the impact and taste without killing the vegetables. This variation is very gentle on spice and cooks the vegetables very delicately so as to retain the nutrients.

Spinach, Zuchini Puree with Garlic and fresh Cheese

Serve 6

Ingredients

2-3 tbsp oil

1 tbsp fresh garlic, minced

1 onion cut into a fine dice

3 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin-coriander powder

1/2 cup fresh cream

2 heads fresh spinach

1 tsp ghee

1 tsp cumin seeds

3 zuchini grated with the skin on

1 cup grated paneer

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp red chili powder

Method of preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the garlic and onion and cook for 5 minutes stiring well.

2. Add the tomato puree, salt, and cumin-coriander powder and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

3. Cool and puree with the cream and spinach in a blender.

4. Heat the ghee and sizzle the cumin seeds and add the grated zuchini.

5. Saute for 5 minutes and add the spinach mixture with the paneer and mix well and cook for 3-5 minutes.

6. Stir in the remaining spices and let this sit for 1 hr.

7. Reheat and serve with rice or rotis.