Yet another aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes)

Yet another aloo gobi

You might think me addicted to cauliflower, but there’s something about this combination that is just too delicious.

Although cauliflower is a pale food, the anthocyanins are upped by the turmeric.  Instead of my usual lime juice, I've relied on tomato.  This time around we have no coconut to be seen, but more paneer than usual.  Here goes :

1 tablespoon grape seed oil
½ teaspoon dark mustard seed
½ teaspoon cumin seed
½ teaspoon fennel seed
1 red onion, diced
1 x 1 inch ginger, julienned
1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter bought in an Indian grocery)
3 tablespoons favourite masala
5 mini potatoes, halved and quartered, depending on size
4 fresh garlic cloves, chopped
2 Thai chilies, chopped finely
½ large cauliflower, broken into bitesize florets
½ cup paneer (I use frozen)
1 tomato, chopped
¼ cup frozen peas

Under a large, non-stick pan, put the heat on medium high.  Once it’s hot, add the oil, and when that's hot, add a few mustard seeds.  When they sizzle and turn white, add the cumin seed, then the fennel seed.  Let these sizzle, then add the onion and ginger, stir, and turn heat down to medium.  Cook till the onions are somewhat softened, and a bit caramelised.  Add the ghee, and masala, and let cook for a minute or so.  Add the potatoes, cut surface down, and let caramelise.  After they show deliciously golden sides, add the garlic and chilies, then stir and let cook a minute or two.  By now, the potatoes should be almost soft.  If they are, add the cauliflower, put the lid on the pan, and let cook about ten minutes.  Check to see if it’s nearing tender.  If it is, add the tomato and paneer, and put the lid back on the pan.  Once the cauliflower is tender, (but not silly mushy), add the peas, stir and turn off the heat.  Within a few minutes they should be thawed and warmed through.  Serve over basmati rice, or quinoa.

I don't know.  If you say the words 'aloo gobi' too many times in a row, don't you sound a little crazy?  Perhaps you've seen my recipe  Curried Oxymorons in the past, but how on earth do you curry onomatopoeia?  Suggestions anyone?

Exotic Chocolate and Cherry Cake with Sauce

Is it a cake or a pudding?  It's exotic, chocolate and cherry!

Exotic Chocolate and Cherry Cake with Sauce

Well, it's Valentine's Day, and I got to thinking about my 'emotional' cake, based on a novel.  (Listed earlier this week.)  Something about Valentine's Day makes me think of my childhood, and I suddenly remembered a cake, or perhaps it was a pudding, that was very common when I was a child.  It was usually chocolate, but sometimes it was butterscotch or lemon.  The top part was cake, but there was a pudding sauce down at the bottom of the dish. My recipe is based on that childhood favourite, but in keeping with my Indian and healthy theme, I’m using these ingredients:

Cake

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons coco powder

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon coarse salt

½ cup raw sugar cane crystals

¼ cup skim milk powder

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 slightly beaten egg

2 tablespoons Amaretto or other almond liqueur

1 teaspoon rosewater

milk up to the ½ cup mark 

2 cups pitted cherries 

Sauce

2/3 cup raw sugar cane crystals

2 tablespoons coco powder

1 ½ cups boiling water

Grease a deep oven proof baking dish.  Mix the first eight dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Melt the butter in the microwave in a smaller bowl, then pour the liqueur and rosewater into a measuring cup.  Fill the cup with milk up to the ½ cup mark, and pour into the melted butter.  This should cool the butter enough that you can add the beaten egg at this point.  Stir well, then slowly add to dry ingredients, stirring the batter which will be quite thick. 

Put the cherries into the baking dish and spoon the batter over them.  Smooth the batter carefully once it’s all in.  To start the sauce, simply sprinkle the coco powder and sugar cane crystals over the batter.  Very gently pour the boiling water over the coco, sugar and batter.  This may feel weird, and you may wonder if this will work, but take a deep breath and trust in the goddess. 

 Bake for an hour at 350 F.  You’ll know it’s done when it springs back if pressed in the centre.  This recipe is healthy and simple to make, and the sauce that makes itself is downright magical!

Pink Salmon and Purple Pakoras

Pink Salmon and Purple Pakoras with chutney

Purple Pakoras

Faith and begora, it’s a purple pakora.  I have no idea why I think that’s so funny.  Maybe because way back in the first days of search engines, even before the WWW existed, almost any term entered into a search engine seemed to bring up a document on the Ayurvedic Invasion into Ireland.  It was a curious document, but I never did have time to investigate it.

In the meantime, here we have a fast, healthy and easy recipe for red cabbage pakoras.  You don’t have to confine yourself to red cabbage, although it’s among the healthiest foods there are; you can also use red pepper, red onions, carrots, whatever you like as long as it can be cut into strips, and will cook fairly quickly.  For this dish, I also made little chunks of salmon, but you could keep the meal vegetarian and use paneer.

1 heaping tablespoon of a prepared spicy masala powder

2 cups channa flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup cold water (more or less)

1 tablespoon oil

I’d make a masala from scratch, except my idea here is to keep this simple and fast.  If your masala has enough salt, fine, otherwise add more to taste.  Mix the first three ingredients in a bowl, then slowly add the water and stir.  You want a fairly thick batter.  Make the batter spicy and salty, as it covers the vegetables, fish or paneer in a thin layer, and you want it tasty. 

Red cabbage, finely sliced

(or red pepper, red onion, carrot, potato, doesn't matter, as long as it's finely sliced)

 Mix the sliced vegetables into the batter.  Put your non-stick griddle on medium heat.  Once it’s hot enough, brush a skiff of oil over it, and spoon appetizer sized amounts of batter and vegetable onto the griddle.  Flip when the batter has set, and the vegetables are soft, about seven minutes.  Watch the heat and adjust as needed.  Cook about another seven minutes.  You will be at the griddle for about twenty minutes, starting new pakoras and removing them as they’re done.  Be sure to brush a new skiff of oil over the griddle for every batch, as the hot oil seems to seal the batter very nicely.

If you  are doing protein with this meal, use 1 x ½ inch bits of salmon or paneer.  Cooking times are about the same.

Serve with a cilantro mint chutney.  Wouldn’t these be just fantastic on Saint Patrick’s Day?  Can’t you just hear it?  Faith and begorra, it’s a purple pakora…