Pisto Manchego and my first prize at a blog event!

It is already a very old story now, but I must share it with you. More so to thank Ivy of Kopiaste.

So, the story goes like this: I had taken part in an event (the Round up) at her blog where she also had a giveaway, a Tupperware® Chef's knife. Well, do I need to tell you that I actually won the prize through lucky draw! She sent me the knife, with registered post. I waited excitedly. Well .....we waited and waited and waited, but the knife never came, I contacted her once but we thougt that it might be taking longer, especially the registered ones do.
One day she emailed me saying that the knife had been returned back to her and was puzzled. I was not totally surprised but very irritated as it was the second packet which had been returned that very month. I even went to the local branch office and talked to them but as you know I knew nothing could really be done. I also felt sad for Ivy as she had put enough money and efforts to send it and asked her to let it be. But, she refused and was determined to send me a gift again and asked if we try with soemthig else as we both were a bit unsure if it was not for the fact that it was knife that it was returned. I agreed as she offered to send me a book. And yes, I got it! I was nervous the whole time I waited for it!

Thank you so much, Ivy!

The reasons it took me so long to post about this are manyfold. But one was that I wanted to cook something from it before posting about it and I got the book shortly before I took a break from blogging so it never came to that. So, here it is finally!

The two things I have tried from the book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Tapas : Pisto Manchego which we ate together with Tortilla de patatas, also from the book.

Pisto Manchego (Spanish)

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Pisto Manchego or simply Pisto is a spanish dish made with seasonal vegetables, especially zucchini or eggplants combined with tomatoes, onion and bell peppers. The whole thing is prepared in olive oil and resembles ratatouile in some ways.

Ingredients:

1 large Zucchini (450 g), finely cubed
1 yellow white onion (80-100g), finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 green bell pepper, cut into squares
1/2 orange bell pepper, very finely cut into squares (both peppers together 250 g)
6 medium ripe tomatoes (~600g), chopped
a few small sprigs oregano, the leaves and tender stem parts only, chopped
1 pinch dried thyme
red chilli or cayenne pepper, to taste
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
1 large, grillled and peeled long red bell pepper (sweet pepperoncini) from the jar, chopped (optional)
olive oil
flat parsely for garnishing, chopped

Method:

• prepare vegetables as given above
• in a large sauté pan or fry pan, heat two tbsp olive oil on high heat and sauté zucchini in it for a few minutes, reduce heat to medium high and add onion and garlic, sauté further
• add bell peppers and sauté for a few minutes
  
• add chopped tomatoes, and herbs, cook on medium heat, stirring in between, till they become tender (about 10 minutes)
• reduce heat to medium low, stir in tomato paste, the red bell pepper, salt and spices
• keep cooking, stirring and mashing in between till the whole thing becomes tender and thick
• garnish with chopped parsely and serve warm with fried eggs or tortilla de patate (Tortilla Espanõla)
  

Tip: The pisto can also be eaten cold and tastes even better the next day.

Typically Pisto is served with fried eggs, but I saw a picture in the book where the pisto was served together with tortilla de patatas and I liked the idea and thought of trying that combination out.


Tortilla de Patatas (Tortilla Espanõla)

Tortilla de patate or Tortilla Espanõla, as called in Spain, is a spanish omelett and is a typical and well known spanish potato dish prepared all over Spain. The main ingredients are poatoes and eggs and optionally yellow onion. All kinds variants with peppers, ham, chorizo etc also exist and every region and household has its own way of preparing the omlette. To differenciate it from the typical french omelett the french omlette is called Tortilla francesa. When served as a tapas it is sometimes called pincho de tortilla when cut up into small cubes and served with cocktail sticks. (source Wikipedia)

I prepared it without onion because sunny boy doesn't like onion and the way I have eaten long time back, prepared by a Spanish classmate in our German class, it was without onion too.
Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:
about 1 kg potatoes, peeled and sliced or cubed (after peeling and being cut: 900 g)
1 cup olive oil
4-6 medium eggs, slightly beaten with salt to taste

Method:

• heat oil in a fry pan and add all the potato slices so they are more or less covered in oil and fry till that they get cooked but not turn crisp or brown
• take them out and drain the potatoes over kitchen roll, dab them with the paper roll if neccesary
• remove oil from the pan, but don't clean it or wipe it, heat it on medium high heat
  
• put back the potatoes and the beaten eggs and cook covered on medium heat till the egg is no more fluid. Take a large flat plate and place over the pan so it covers the pan completely.
• turn the pan upside down holding the plate against it, so the omlette comes out onto the plate
• place back the pan on heat and slide the omelett back into the to fry the other side as well, till done.
• serve warm with pisto or as a part of tapas, cut into mouth sized cubes

Note: Do not add too many eggs into the dish. The proportion of potato to eggs should be such that the potatoes should be mainly coated with eggs.


The meal was lovely! And very filling too. I liked the combination a lot and would surely try it again. I was too lazy to peel the skin of tomatoes but might actually do it next time. Despite that I found the pisto so full of flavours being full of fresh red ripe summer tomatoes, especially since the zucchini was from my own garden *wink*. Sunny boy didn't wish to eat the pisto, though. Too many veggies together, especially those without any clear shape and form are not very welcome on his plate right now. But he enjoyed the tortilla, of course!
The next day I ate the pisto cold with some toasted bread, it was heavenly! I added the remaining pisto into a casserole I made with potatoes in the evening which gave the casserole a wonderful and peppery flavour too.

My Carribean adventure

This is how I feel like calling it and it took me some time to have enough confidence to try out these Carribean recipes. Like always I wanted to make things more complicated and wanted to get a feel of what Carribean food is all about before trying out something. Until I realised that the best way do it was to 'try out' the recipes than to just keep reading them all.
Initially I had no time at all and at the end I had just about a couple of days time left. Then came the problem of finding sources which I felt were reliable enough, but this post of Meeta at WFLH helped solve both the problems. Even now, I just about managed to cook these recipes I had choosen, to my utter happiness.

To make sure I got the 'Carribean' feeling just right I tried to buy all the ingredients I could get hold of yesterday. As I also happened to go to the city centre, I went to the Chinese shop there for cilantro and bought dried 'American' black beans (according to the packet) - not canned - and ground allspice from the local supermarket. I haven't used alllspice in this form so far and, infact, the last time I had bought whole allspice was more than 10 years ago and while cleaning up the kitchen on our move few years ago the remaining packet was discarded and I, somehow, never required to buy it again. But, things will change now that I have taken up this challenge! *smiling big*

These are the recipes I decided upon and took help of, after going through the links given by Meeta:

Carribean Rice and Carribean Vegetables (Sweet potato and Zucchini)

I tried to make them as true to the recipes as possible as this was my very first trial at cooking or, for that matter, eating Carribean food. However, I changed the first recipe slightly as I felt that a combination with sweet potato made the use of sqash unnecessary and because I just could not get this recipe of a Cuban Salsa Verde out of my mind and at the very end decided to add it as well to the rice and, despite my fears, it was fantastic!
Since I have modified the recipe of the Rice dish, I will write down the recipe here:

Caribbean Coconut Rice with Cuban Salsa Verde

Recipes by PG of My Kitchen Stories

A combination of two recipes of Caribbean Rice and Rice with Cuban Salsa Verde

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups chicken broth (I used vegetable broth)
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup parboiled rice (I used regular Basmati rice)
2 tbsp olive oil (EVOO)
1 cup red onion, finely chopped
1-3/4 cups (1/4-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (I left this out)
1 tsp chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (I used dried thyme)
1/8 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp black pepper from the mill
2 handfuls of black beans, soaked for 6-8 hours, rinsed and drained 3x in between
4 tbsp Cuban Salsa Verde*

Method:

• cook the black beans in a pressure cooker or a deep saucepan till very tender
  
• Bring the vegetable broth and coconut milk to a boil in a saucepan over high heat untill it starts to boil, add rice.
  
• Cover with a lid, reduce heat to minimum and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and uncover lid.
• In the meantime, heat 2 tbsp oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, add chopped onion, sauté for a few miutes till golden brown.
• Reduce heat to medium and add squash, if using, and cook until done, stirring occasionally.
  
• Stir in thyme and remaining spices, stir for a minute and add the black beans.
• 
  
• Add rice to beans mixture, stirring gently and not too much to combine but not to break the rice too much.
• prepare the salsa verde by grinding all the ingredients together and cooking in the microwave for 2 mintes at 900 W (optionally for 5 minutes on stovetop) until it starts to throw bubbles
  
• eat warm or cold combined with a salad
  

Cuban Salsa Verde*

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups fresh cilantro leaves, washed throughly and chopped coarsely
2 green onions, cleaned and chopped
1 tbsp lime juice (I used lemon juice)
1 tbsp olive oil (EVOO)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 tsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper (I used black pepper and a pinch of red chilli powder)

Method:
Grind all the ingredients in a food processor or with a hand mixer until smooth.

oh! What a lovely combination did it make! So flavourful. We all loved the spices in the sweet potato, even sunny boy, who initially was abit hesitant , but after persueing hin to tr it again, he finally was of the opinion that 'it tastes good'. I have a small portion of it left for me to enjoy tomorrow.
It feels good to send these entries, though almost last minute, to Carribean Cooking, this month's Monthly Mingle at Meeta's What's For Lunch Honey.

And it feels so good to be back blogging after a long break!

Red Beans and Yellow Pepper stirfry

I was initially planning to just post this quick fix but extremely delicious beans stirfry at Healthy and Tasty, a blog by a group of working/at home mommies wanting to exchange ideas for easy meals for babies and kids. But I feel this is something I haven't made like this before and it tasted so good that I felt like sharing this rather simple recipe with you.

Kidney beans or red beans (scientifically Phaseolus vulgaris) are supposed to have many different good qualities as food. They are high in protein and fibers which apparently help lower or control cholesterol levels and prevent a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. They are also packed with a number of healthful trace elements (minerals), a notable one being molybdenum. Molybdenum is a part of a number of enzymes which are required for a healthy metabolism of the body.

I combined this quick and easy beans stirfry with a little more time-consuming but healthy Indian flatbreads - Rotis- made without using any wheat flour. No, it wasn't glutenfree as I used barley in it. Their recipe will have to wait for now. I'm still trying to perfect the recipe of a wheat or spelt-free roti. Why, when it is not gluten free, I'll tell you soon (you can surely guess where I'm pointing towards).

So, here comes the recipe:

Red Beans and Yellow Pepper stirfry

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:

3/4 can of red / kidney beans, washed and letting excess water drip off
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic, peeled and sliced
3-4 dried tomato halves, chopped
1 pinch red chilli powder
a few dashes black pepper, fresh from the mill
a few small sprigs rosemary, broken coarsely
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into bite sized pieces

Method:

• heat 2 tbsp oil in a fry pan on medium high
• add the beans and garlic and stir, reduce heat to medium
• after a few minutes add the dried tomatoes, rosemary and the spices
• add one more tbsp oil, if required
• keep stirring in between, for about 10 minutes
• once you get a nice smell coming from the beans and they look nicely roasted add the yellow bell pepper
  
• increase heat and fry for a few minutes on medium high, stirring in between
  
• serve warm with bread, roti or steamed rice
  

I loved the aroma which was coming from the beans being roasted in the pan. Sunny boy ate the beans willingly and since he believes that he 'only' likes yellow bell peppers (he at least keeps saying so), he was happy to have it on his plate along with roti (Indian flatbread) and also ate everything except for - you have three guesses. Grrrr! When will he learn to eat the so-full-of-health, vitamins rich, blah blah blah peppers?! :(
But, despite all that I love the way he says "Umm, .... umm, so lecker (so tasty)!"

I had been seeing the beautiful logo of MLLA-8th Helping everywhere and had been wanting to send a recipe too. I also had one, but then time constraints were preventing me from posting it. But, then I made this and decided upon this one for this month's event.

So, here it goes to Susan's My Legume Love Affair - Eighth Helping and with the hope of winning the copy of Cynthia's brand new book. :)

Baked Potatoes Wedges with Kräuter-Quark

Sunny boy is in bed sleeping, finally, after my third attempt after he got up and came out of the room everytime, I have hung the last round of clothes on the clothes horse, and now I'm sitting with the laptop on my knees. Hubby, after giving up on TV and going through some of our old CDs has put a CD of Sade in the player and I just can't stop moving my shoulders to the rhythm of it. LOL!
I knew that it was going to be a potato day, or should I say, a potato evening. I had bought a new packet of floury potatoes though I had not finished off my previous batch of (waxy) potatoes. So, I knew before I forget it and have to throw away these organic potatoes, better make something. I was going through this cookbook on potatoes (I always drool at the pictures in this one) this weekend when I came across this picture of Creole potatoes wedges and I realised that I haven't made baked potatoes since quite a while now.
So, when the time came to start preparing food in the evening sunny boy came asking to help me. I was happy as he had not been showing much interest lately with helping me prepare food like before. Cutting potatoes is one of his hobbys. :) But, unfortunately he has had two bad experiences with cutting up his finger with the potato peeler, so he didn't want to do that part. I think, at three I don't really expect him to be an expert, but he does a wonderful job at cutting the potatoes with a (comparatively-) sharp table knife. The only problem is to prevent him from keep cutting the vegetable into smaller and smaller pieces. LOL!

I wanted to make a simple dish with only very few spices but still, it had to be flavourful. To achieve this I just choose to add rosemary and used olive oil and the problem was solved. Simple, don't you agree?
I also chose to make a "Kräuter-Quark" with it. Typically Kräuter-quark is eaten with "Pellkartoffeln" (potatoes boiled with skin) as a complete main course dish here. But I feel it goes well with all types of potato dishes. It is simple to make, a quick fix and healthy at that.

Here are a few points I wished to put down here ( simple, dry facts) on potatoes:
Potatoes are high in carbohydrates which is mainly present in the form of starch. These tubers are the storage organs of the plants which are produced in response to decreasing day lengths. Starch is a typical form of carbohydrate energy reserves of plants and is composed of two main molecules: amylose and amylopectin. Both in turn are composed of one monomer sugar molecule - glucose. Amylose is a straight chain of glucose molecules while amylopectin branched. Depending on the ratio of amylose and amylopectin the potatoes are classified as floury or waxy or somewhere in between like I come across some varieties which are classified as "vorwiegend" ( predominantly) waxy here. Higher the amylopectin(branched) the more waxy the potato is, i.e., it does not fall apart while cooking and keeps its shape unlike the floury variety.
Personally I like floury potatoes a lot because of their floury texture once cooked through. Since they aren't as easily available as the waxy ones everywhere I'm always happy when I have them.
So, here comes the recipe:

Baked potatoes with Kräuter-Quark

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories


Ingredients:

Baked Potatoes:
10-12 small to medium potatoes*, washed, scrubbed or peeled and cut into 4-6 long wedges
1 large organic red bell pepper, washed, seeded and cut into large pieces
200 g small crimini mushrooms (brown), cleaned, and if required, halved or quartered
2 medium red onion, peeled and cut into thick wedges
4-5 small / thin garlic cloves, sliced into thick long pieces
5-6 sprigs rosemary, coarsely broken into large pieces
salt and pepper (optionally chilli pepper) to taste
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (I used it mixed with cold pressed rapeseed oil this time)

Kräuter-Quark:
250 g Quark
50 g yoghurt (optional)
50 g heavy cream
a few tbsp parsely, chopped (or herbs of choice; I used frozen parsely)
salt and pepper (optionally chilli pepper) to taste

Method:

• In a good sized baking dish mix all the ingredients for the baked potatoes together and bake in a preheatedoven at 210°C (190°C convection) till done
• for the first 30 to 40 minutes of baking cover with a baking sheet
• mix everything once in between
• bake further uncovered for another 15 to 20 minutes or until done
• for the Kräuter-Quark mix all the ingredients together with a small whisk untill a smooth and creamy texture appears and store in the fridge until served
  
• serve the potatoes withthe quark and maybe a warm bread to accompany it

*I had used in addition to the waxy potatoes a couple of the floury potatoes I mentioned in the beginning of this postand found that both the varieties tasted good in this combination.

By the time the potatoes were done, the kitchen was filled with the wonderful aroma of baked potatoes. We were hungry but nowhere near like my son this time. I have honestly never seen my son eat so much in one go. He ate three servings and didn't leave anything behind (except for onion and bell peppers, of course!). And I know this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't liked it. It really was delicious. I was more than satisfied with the results. All three of us enjoyed the meal.
I'm two days too late in posting this as I didn't get the time to post the pictures. Now that I'm done, I'm sending this to Meeta's Monthly Mingle at WFLH which is being guest hosted by Michelle at her What's Cooking Blog. I think this qualifies well for a Healthy Family Dinner.
Just in time!

Daal : My comfort food

I don't remember anymore how I came upon it but we were sitting at the table having dinner and talking when we started talking about the taste and flavours in food and i suddenly remembere that there was this fifth "taste" which was discovered much later than the others like sweet, salty, sour and bitter. I was trying to think hard, but the only letter of the word that I remembered was 'U'. The word is comleted as Umami. I don't know exactly if we weren't tought about it in school or we were but I couldn't understand it so didn't remember. :D This is the information I collected:
Taste is one of the five senses of our body and from the biological point of view a chemoreception where a chemical stimulus is recognised by a sensory recepetor in our body - in this case a receptor found in our taste buds or "gustatory calyculi" that transmits the sensation of taste to our brain. Taste is a sensation which takes place on our tongue whereas flavour invloves the sensation of smell as well.
There are five basic tastes (taste sensations) :
Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter and the comparitively newest (1907) - Umami. There are two more taste bud recepetors which have been identified which sense fatty acids (in fats and oils) and calcium respectively. NOTE: Hot or Spicy is not a taste in the same sense, since hotness is sensed in a different way (through somatosensory fibers sensing pain and temperature on the tongue).

Umami flavour is also described as savoury sometimes. It is very often found in fermented foods, and often produced through compounds like glutamate (one of the 24 amino acid) which bind to the taste bud receptors which recognise this stimulus. It comes much more often in Asian food or also Eurpoean than in Indian.I think. Though I could be wrong, as we also have many different fermented foods in all the different Indian cultures. So, I went to check about it in Wiki and found it, of course. When I heard this for the first time I was quit facinated and knew why all these additives like monosodium glutamate (MSG or Ajinomoto) and the likes were being added in all kinds of savoury products, you know now for sure, - to stimulate our taste buds! But, I don't like this overdose of umami at all. I rather go for flavours present naturally in food where there is a balance between the different flavours.

Here is some information on the discovery of the taste Umami and monosodium glutamate:
glutamate.org
Wikipedia

Now I will come to my comfort food: daal. Earlier it was always kitchdi, but since I so rarely have mung daal at home now, with whichI make kichdi, I have found that a plate of rice with hot daal gives me the feeling of "home" and comfort and there are days where I do miss it. I wonder how much of umami is present in daal (lentils).

Urd ki daal

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:

1 cup skinned black gram, soaked for a couple of hours
same quantity of water for cooking in a pressure cooker
salt, to taste
3/4 tsp turmeric
Tadka (Chaunk):
1 heaped tbsp ghee or 2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 pinch asafoetida, crushed or powdered
1 small red onion (or yellow), thinky sliced
1-2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced - I left it out this time
1/2 inch ginger, thinly sliced or grated
1/4 tsp chili powder
1-2 tsp coriander seeds, ground

2nd Tadka / Mirchi ka Chaunk (optional)* - or call it chilli oil
1 tbsp ghee or oil
1/4 tsp cumin (optional)
1/4 tsp coriander seeds, ground (optional)
1/4 tsp red chilli powder

Method:

• soak daal in water and change water a couple of times in between
  
• Cook daal in the pressure cooker with turmeric and salt as per instructions till the lentils are tender
• in the meantime cut onion, tomatoes and other spices
• once daal is done, prepare tadka :
• heat oil or ghee in a frypan and add cumin and let it splutter
• add asafoetida and stir once
• add the onion garlic and ginger, stir
• add the remaining dry spices
  
• keep stirring and fry till onion is golden brown
  
• add the ready tadka to the daal
  
• preprae second tadka in the same way and serve in a separate bowl along with the daal,
• daal is usually eaten with steamed rice or rotis or both and sukhi subzi(s) (dry stirfried vegetables) of choice
  

*The second tadka serves the purpose of increasing het in your food by adding the chilli oil to the food, usually daal

Another one...

Arhar ki Daal (Toor lentils)

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Special equipment: pressure cooker (if not available, then soak for longer and cook in a covered pan for 1 hour or more)

serves 4

Ingredients:

150 - 200 g arhar / toor daal (lentil), washed and soaked for at least 2 hours or overnight
1 -1/2 cups water for cooking
salt to taste (first add 1/2 tsp and adjust accordingly later)
1/2 tsp turmeric

Tadka / Chaunk
1 tbsp ghee or any cooking oil (if using onion 2 tbsp may be required)
1 tsp (heaped) cumin
1/8 tsp asafoetida, finely ground (for beginners - use 1 pinch)
1 pinch (generous) ground fenugreek seeds
6-8 curry leaves (optional)
2 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1/8 tsp red chilli powder -or to taste (optional) - you can also use fresh green chillies, if available

1 garlic, finely chopped or thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated or chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1 medium tomato, chopped into large cubes or small, as per liking

2nd Tadka / Mirchi ka Chaunk (optional)* - or call it chilli oil
1 tbsp ghee or oil
1/4 tsp cumin (optional)
1/4 tsp coriander seeds, ground (optional)
1/4 tsp red chilli powder

Method:

• soak daal in water and change water a couple of times in between
  
• Cook daal in the pressure cooker with turmeric and salt as per instructions till the lentils are tender
• in the meantime cut onion, tomatoes and other spices
• once daal is done, prepare tadka :
• heat oil or ghee in a frypan and add cumin and let it splutter
• add asafoetida and curry leaves, stir once
• add the onion and garlic, stir
• add the remaining dry spices
• fry till onion is golden yellow
• add tomatoes nd fry till tender
  
• add the ready tadka to the daal
  
• preprae second tadka in the same way and serve in a separate bowl along with the daal,
• daal is usually eaten with steamed rice or rotis or both and sukhi subzi(s) (dry stirfried vegetables) of choice

*The second tadka serves the purpose of increasing heat in your food by adding the chilli oil to the food, usually daal

Daal is a staple in Indian food in almost all the regions of India as we majorly eat vegetarian diet. In many regions fish and in some other either or meat in addition is also eaten, but still it is more a delicacy made on some special occasions or on special days than being a regular at the table. I have to say here that I'm writing this based on my impression of all the Indian cultures from the different regions of India. I always consider the variety in culture and so also foods of India at par, if not more, with the continent Europe. So, it is almost impossible for me to know everything. But, having lived in the capital city of India and some other regions of India, and as my father worked for the cenral govermnent we lived together in a "colony" with friends from many different regions of India whose parents were also central goverment "servants". My mother exchanged foods with neighbours whose origins were different than ours and so had different food than ours. It was always such a delight to get a bowl of hot daals or a curry from the neighbour. Yes, those were the days...

Now I actually wanted to write somethig else, but how my thoughts drift :D.
Daal is prepared differently in different regions of India. What make the daal different is the tadka or "chaunk", as we call it, and there are man others word for it, but my knowledge if it is very bad. And these recipes are the tadkas I saw my mom make, partly adapted from her neighbours, so to say.

So, off it goes to Sunshinemom's FIC : Yellow at Tongueticklers!

And I would like to send this entry to this month's MLLA started by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook being hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons.

Homemade Thai Tofu curry

I was forwarded this interesting article by my BIL and found it very interesting. It is about how to give your kitchen a fresh start this new year, as the author says. And I feel there are quite many good tips which I have always followed, but some which I feel I need to do. There are some things which are easy if you make it a habit, which is initially difficult, but once you are into it and you don't need to give it a thought, it just happens on its own. Things which may appear too long and cumbersome, but aren't really so. I always believe, that it is all in our minds, this cumbersomeness. I remember during my times at the Botanical Institute where I worked and sometimes heard students say the same about all the experiments which had to be done and this was always my answer, it is all in your mind. You just need to get the feel of it and get used to it. Don't you think so too?
Things like preparing the vegetable broth at home by just cooking up some carrots and celery on the side isn't so time consuming or cumbersome if we just plan it ahead. Once we get used to it, we wouldn't find it impossible. I can so easily prepare a day before and use it the next day, for example. And this is one thing I want to start this year, making my own vegetable broth.

Now coming to the recipe, I was inspiered by the Thai curries made by Bee and Jai at Jugalbandi to finally make my own as well and not just keep "thinking" about it. So, this is a rough estimate of how I made it. I just used the amounts I felt appropriate at that moment. And my curry is my own modified version from different recipes to suit our family taste :

Tofu in Thai curry

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:

300 g firm Tofu (I used organic tofu from my local store), cubed
2 small carrots, peeled and cut into thin slices
1/2 large red bell peppers, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 small Italian aubergine, cut into small pieces (optional)
1 zucchini, cut into thick slices
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into pieces
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped or grated
1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
4-5 keffir lime leaves, slit on both sides of the midveins without breaking into smaller pieces
1 lemon grass, green cut intolarge pieces and the white part crushed
2/3 can coconut milk, shaken before opening
a few dashes fish sauce (optional)
salt to taste
oil for frying
3-4 tbsp Thai curry paste of choice (I used home made*)
1/2 a bunch of Thai basil, leaves only
a handful of corianer leaves (cilantro), chopped

Method:

• In a large sauté pan heat some oil and fry the tofu pieces turning carefully only once till golden in colour on both sides. take out and set side
  
• Clean the pan and in some oil fry the onion, garlic and ginger along with coriander- and turmeric powders
  
• Add the aubergine, fry for a few minutes on medium heat
  
• Then add carrots, fry for another few minutes and add bell pepper and fry further covered, add little salt. Once the aubergine is almost done, remove from pan and set aside
  
• Fry zucchini for short till it gets a golden brown surface (optional) or add it directly to the curry later
• Heat oil or coconut milk in the same pan or a small frypan and fry the curry paste on medium heat till it gets golden brown. Add some coconut milk in between so that it doesn't burn
  
• In the sauté pan put back all the vegetables and tofu and add salt, fish sauce and coconut milk along with the fried currry paste. Mix and cook on medium low -it should be bubbling slowly for about 10 minutes covered till the curry looks done.
  
• Add water, if required, in between
  
• Add the Thai basil leaves and cover lid again for a couple of minutes
• Before serving garnish with the cilantro leaves and serve along with steamed rice

* My recipe of Thai curry paste:

Ingredients:

Roast separately and grind together:
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds

1 lemon - organic or unsprayed, the zest and its juice
1" piece ginger, peeled and grated finely
1" piece galangal, peeled and grated finely
4 large garlic cloves, chopped finely or grated
2 small red onion or shallots, chopped - (I left it out)
4-6 keffir lime leaves, chopped
2 lemon grass, the white part only, chopped
a few dashes fish sauce (optional)
1/4 tsp turmric powder (or use fresh turmeric, peeled and grated)
1/4 tsp shrimp paste (optional)
1 green chilli, seeded and chopped -(increase quantity to taste)

Method:

• roast the dry spices and let cool down before grinding
• prepare the wet ingredients and mix with dry ground spices and grind everything to a paste
• use fresh or freeze in portions of 2-4 tbsp, as required
  

NOTE: the shrimp paste and fish sauce cn be left out or replaced with fermented bean pastes, if you prefer it that way or just leave it out.

I have been too lazy to make this again, but this was a wonderful thing to do as I could use as much of the paste as I wanted without worrying about its hotness, so sunny boy could eat it easily. I don't think I need to tell any of you who eat Thai food, how delicious such curries are and so was this one too. I loved the richness of flavours in Thai curries and even though I felt that it was somehow different from the packaged ones, I was happy with the results. I love Thai basil, it's aroma, and I even had coriander leaves which made the dish perfect for me.

I'm sending this recipe to DK's a very interesting event series AWED: the theme this time being Thailand at DK's Culinary Bazaar.


Other similar recipes from other bloggers:

Thai Yellow Curry with Seafood at Rasa Malasia
Thai Red Curry (Gaeng Daeng) at Jugalbandi

My Oregon Pink Shrimp stories and Teach A Man to Fish 2008

Well, these are actually more recipes and less stories, but then doesn't each recipe tell a story?

Now, before I begin I would like all of you who eat fish to take your time out to go and visit the Roundup of this wonderful event Teach A Man to Fish 2008 started by Jaqueline Church, a wonderful writer (a lawyer) and very actively involved in increasing awareness about Susutainable Seafood, as you will see. You will see how easy it is to cook up some good food by making a good choice using sustainable sea food.

Now, what's so special about these Oregon pink shrimps. Well, I think, almost everything. Thanks to Jaqueline Church andTeach A Man to Fish I got to know of a very good source of information (Montary Bay Aquarium) on which shrimp- / prawn varieties are classified as stainable seafood. The ones I could get locally by then were only the Northern cold water shrimps (Pandalus borealis), which was not the best choice but a good alternative, so to say and was also recommended by German Greenpeace as the best alternative available here. But, thanks to Penny Markt (Now, if you are from Germany, you might wonder, "what! , of all the places Penny!". But, yes, Penny and only Penny - here at least) has recently started selling these Oregon pink shrimps here in Hamburg instead of the Northern cold water shrimps, which they were offering earlier. I don't know for how long they will continue it, but I find it wonderful. In the last couple of years and especially in the last few months I have seen almost all the supermarket chains offering sustainable seafood in the form of MSC certified products more and more, which of course doe not mean that they do not offer other fish which are on the RED List . But, at least I can make a choice. It looks as if there has been some realisation that the demand for sustainable seafood exists which is good.
Pandalus jordani is the Latin name of these pink shrimps. They are one of the varieties of cold water shrimps (called Tiefseegarnelen in German -the equivalent for cold water shrimps- and belong to the family Pandalidae). These are smaller in size than the warm water or tropical shrimps and for that reason usually sold as already peeled, individually frozen seafood. Pink shrimps are caught in the states of Oregon sand Washington, USA by trawl and for pink shrimps bycatch reduction devices have brought the bycatch levels to very low. Fishing methods for Oregon pink shrimps have been certified as sustainable by Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).


Following are some of the recipes I made with them :

1) Fried Rice : I just added two handfulls of frozen peeled shrimps to the usual ingredients with the left over rice I had. Depending on the quantity of the rice and preference one could vary all the ingredients. I think all of you are experts in making fried rice that I really don't need to give you any recipe, or just ask me.
2) Bok choy with shrimps, the same as I made the last time. We ate it with steamed rice. This is a real quick fix, just like fried rice.

3) Thai green curry with lots of veggies and the shrimps:

Brussels sprouts with kidney beans

Brussels sprouts is in season and is growing in plenty here. I have been making Brussels sprouts practically the same way since I tried it the first time, using a recipe from a German book, by cooking it with carrots, onion and garlic slices and a can of tomatoes and at the very end adding some parsley and after switching off the heat topping it with about 50 g of Gouda until it melted. I make some modifications sometimes by leaving out Gouda and making it a bit Indian by adding cumin, turmeric and ground coriander seeds to it in the very beginning. A few days ago I felt that I need to make a proper Indian curry with it and was surprised at the thought that in all these years I never tried it.
The next day I bought Brussels sprouts and also found a nice looking fresh coconut and again couldn't resist buying it, even though I have had bad experiences with it the last two times I bought it and had to practically throw them away. This time luckily after I opened it, it was all OK and looked very good. The water was so tasty that I even gave it to sunny boy to drink and he happily drank it all away.
So, I knew I would like to use coconut in the gravy and started thinking of how it would look like and got going that afternoon and was very pleasantly surprised by the wonderful results.

Brussels sprouts with kidney beans

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:
350 g Brussels sprouts, outermost leaves peeled and the stems (the base) cut off, and halved if desired
3 medium potatoes, peeled, and cubed about the same size as the Brussels sprouts
1 can kidney beans (250 g), rinsed in water and drained - use more if desired
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rings (optional, I left it out this time)
1 small can (300 g) tomatoes, chopped coarsely
2 tbsp rapeseed oil or olive oil
salt to taste

Spices:
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 large pinch asafoetida, crushed
2 red chillies (optional) - I kept them separate as sunny boy doesn't eat hot food much yet
10 peppercorns
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp sambhar powder - home made (use 1 tsp if not using garam masala)
1/2 tsp garam masala (use 1 tsp if not using sambhar powder)
a few curry leaves (I used dried leaves)

Onion-coconut paste (grind with a blender):
1 yellow onion, chopped coarsely
1-2 large garlic, chopped coarsely
1 " ginger, peeled and chopped coarsely
3 square inch piece of fresh coconut, grated

Method:

• clean and cut the vegetables, prepare the onion paste
• heat oil in a large saute pan, reduce heat if required and add the mustard seeds when the oil is just about hot so that they splutter
• to check if the oil is hot enough, add one or two seeds first and see if they splutter, if yes, then proceed, but keep the vegetables handy so that the spices don't get burnt
• after adding the mustard, while it is spluttering, add the cumin and let both splutter for a few seconds and add the asafoetida, peppercorns and turmeric, mix once
  
• immediately add the onion paste, fry on medium heat till it gets a nice light brown colour
  
• add potatoes and stir everything to mix and cook for about 5 minutes covered, stirring in between
  
• add Brussels sprouts and carrots and stir
  
• add the sambhar powder, garam masala and the curry leaves, stir
• add 1 cup water and cook further till the vegetables are almost done, stirring in between
• add the kidney beans and cook for another 5 minutes
• serve warm with steamed rice

We ate the beans and Brussels sprouts with steamed rice. Honestly, none of us in my family is a big fan of Brussels sprouts, but we try to cook it at home as it is a seasonal vegetable and I believe that seasonal vegetables should always be coming on our plates, even if not too often. So, I always try to make them in some or the other way. But, this is the first time that I heard from hubby that he liked it and I also felt that it had turned out so good. All the ingredients blend so well with each other.
Apart from the coconut, what made this dish so special was the use of the kidney beans. They made the dish perfect and wholesome. I was very happy to have had this idea of adding the kidney beans. To me it was important that I add some legume, as without the legumes, if you want to keep the dish vegetarian, the meal is not so wholesome because of it being quite low and imbalanced in amino acids - the protein building blocks, especially when you also have a child at home.
Back home in India, I grew up with eating a legume dish every day as a vegetarian. My mom made it a point that we eat every day at least one katori (a small bowl) of Dal, which is any of the legumes, skinned or with skin, but split into the two halves -the cotyledons of the seed - a bean here). In India vegetarianism is a way of life, since ages. But, in a vegetarian diet it is very very important that one uses different sources of proteins to cover the complete variety of the 24 amino acids which our body requires to grow (for children) and maintain our body healthy. That is why I always try to cook legumes at least 2 times weekly, even though I do cook fish and chicken every now and then.
Now, I actually had planned to submit another dish, a daal, for the MLLA event, but after I made this dish I knew it had to be this one. So, here is my entry to this month's My legume Love Affair created by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and being hosted this time by Suganya of The Tasty Palette (I know her mainly through a number of her wonderful shots in the CLICK events of Jugalbandi).

Nürnberger Elisenlebkuchen

Nürnberger lebkuchen is a speciality made during Christmas time and originating from Nürnberg in the state of Bavaria, Germany. It is now a protected name and can only be used for Lebkuchen actually originating from there, when sold. A comparatively newer variant of this lebkuchen is the Nürnberger Elisenlebkuchen, which are baked without any flour. And this is one fact which makes them so interesting for me. Need I mention why? They are gluten free!
But, another reason for this is that I don't like the lebkuchen found in the markets usually. They taste too much of cinnamon and you might know that I prefer it with only little cinnamon. So, that means I have to bake them myself.
And going through this book I got as a gift from a friend of mine, I found this lovely recipe of these exquisite Nürnberger Elisenlenbkuchen. The recipe couldn't have been more perfect for me. After having baked my first round of cookies already, I felt confident enough to try these myself as well.

Nünberger Elisen-Lebkuchen

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Based on the Book: Dr. Oetker's Weihnachts Bäckerei (Dr. Oetker Verlag)

Preparation time: 20-25 minutes
Baking Temperature: 130-150°C (convection oven: 120°C) ; gas - position 1
Baking time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients:

75 -100 g candied orange and lemon peel, finely chopped
125 g almonds meal
2 eggs
200g fine crystal sugar
1 pack vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch ground clove or cinnamon (I only used cinnamon)
a few drops rum flavouring or 2 tbsp rum
1 tbsp lemon peel or a few drops lemon flavouring
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
75-125 g ground hazelnuts (depending on the size)
30 small paper thin round wafers* ( communion wafers / host, called Oblate in German), to place the batter on
or
spread ground nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) on the baking sheet (almond or hazelnut)

Icing:

white:
150 g powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
1-2 tbsp warm water or lemon juice or a mixture

Chocolate:
75 g dark chocolate icing
or
75 g dark chocolate
10 g coconut fat

Method:

• mix together finely chopped candied orange and lemon peel with almonds and set aside
• beat the eggs in a deep bowl at highest speed to get a fluffy and creamy mixture
• add vanilla extract or sugar and slowly sprinkle the sugar into the mixture while beating, which takes about a minute
• fold in the aromas, cinnamon and lemon peel
• add baking powder to the almond mixture and fold it slowly into the egg mixture (you can use the egg beater at the lowest speed)
• fold in so much ground hazelnuts so that the batter is still easily spreadable
• spread baking sheets over baking trays and grease them
• if using hosts/wafers then place them on these sheets
• if using ground nuts then sprinkle slightly on the sheet to have a thin layer to prevent the cookies from sticking to the sheet
  
• using two spoons place spoonfuls of the cookie mixture on each of the wafers or on simply on the sheet to make around 30 cookies
  
• bake in preheated oven (requires about 5-10 minutes) at 150°C (convection oven: 120°C) for 25-30 minutes
• for the white sugar icing mix so much water or lemon juice with the sugar to make a thick paste and
  
• for the chocolate icing melt the ingredients in a double boiler / water bath and stir
  
• spread the icings on the still hot cookies, by dipping the cookies in the icing or by pouring it on the cookies with a spoon

*NOTE: the wafers are not always gluten free, so one needs to either make the without the wafers or use wafers made with a substitute like rice flour. I made the majority of these without the wafers and only a small part with the wafers.

As you can see here, these haven't turned out perfect. I have no clue as to why these got wrinkled on top or when. It did not affect the flavour or the taste, as they taste fantastic. I made both the coatings for them, sugar and chocolate. But, hubby didn't want any, so I also left a part of the cookies plain. And they actually taste wonderful! But, again each one of us has found his favorite, while sunny boy always chooses the ones with sugar coating (surprisingly, as chocolate in general is his favorite) and I like the ones with chocolate and hubby plain. I'll be making another round soon and let me see if I can figure out why the surface got wrinkled, maybe the oven wasn't hot enough or I had opened it once. Or that I used the mixer at lowest speed to fold in the almond meal.
But, it was utter pleasure to bite into these chewy and flavourful orange and lemony cookies or to be precise, lebkuchen, as these are a special type of cookies made for Christmas. And I'm so happy to have tried these and I will surely make them again.

These cookies go to Susan's Eat Christmas Cookies (part 2) at Food Blogga , the round up is here.

Jingle bells! Jingle bells!...yum yum...yum yum yum!!

...Oh what fun it is to munch on lovely christmas yums.... :D
Christmas time is time for cookies. Do you agree or do you agree?
Yes, you do. Of course, you do!
So, here are two recipes which I had selected which were gluten and dairy free too and still so perfect for Christmas! Sunny boy's favorite is the almond cinnamon stars and mine coconut macaroons, and hubby's BOTH! I just hope they last till Christmas. maybe I need to make another round of cookies. I already have two more cookie recipes to post about, though.

Before I give you the recipes let me tell you why I choose these two recipes, apart from the reasons of their being gluten and dairy free. I love coconut in any form. Although, I know about this recipe of coconut macaroons since long, I had not tried making them until now. So, now with Christmas coming I had to hurry up with my Christmas baking. Here are two recipe I chose to start with. One is, as already mentioned, the coconut macaroons and the other is a very popular Christmas cookie here and is practically a must at Christmas time and children and adults alike love these "Zimtsterne".
These are two gluten and diary free recipes and the best thing about it is that I didn't have to make any substitutions as these neither require flours nor any milk products. Although there are many different recipes for"Zimtsterne" available, so I was very happy with this one. But, in these recipes you couldn't do without eggs, I would think. But, hey, who knows maybe you expert bakers out there know about that too. I would love to hear it, if you know something more than me.

So, here are the recipes....

Zimtsterne (Almond cinnamon stars)

Based on the Book: Dr. Oetker's Weihnachts Bäckerei (Dr. Oetker Verlag)

Ingredients:

4 egg whites (make sure that no traces of egg yolk are there, otherwise the egg white will not become stiff)
250 g powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
50-100 g sugar for rolling the dough
1 packet vanilla sugar (or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
3 drops bitter almond aroma (I left it out)
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
350 - 400 g almond meal (ground with skin) - depends on the size of the eggs (I required 400 g for medium sized eggs)

Method:

• beat egg whites in a deep clean and fat-free bowl until a knife cuts in the stiff froth remain visible (another test: invert the bowl and the stiff froth will not fall off)
• slowly add powdered sugar to the egg white while beating (1 spoon at a time, once it is incorporated, add more)
• !! remove about 3-4 tablespoons of meringue in a clean fat free bowl, for coating the tops later
• add vanilla essence to the remaining and fold in spoonfuls of almond meal into the meringue until it is not sticky anymore and makes a nice ball
• place the ball on a clean surface sprinkled generously with powdered sugar
• roll it out with a rolling pin, using some powdered sugar on top in between
• cut out stars or any desired shape with cookie cutters
• place baking paper sheets on two baking trays and place the cookies on them
• coat each cookie with little meringue using a spoon
• bake in oven for 20-30 minutes at:
• 130-150°C (preheated)
• convection: 120°C (preheated)
• gas: position 1 (preheated)

• the cookies will still be soft at the base when you take them out of the oven

Coconut macaroons

Recipe from Huettenhilfe.de

Ingredients:
4 egg whites, free from any traces of egg yolks
200 g sugar, fine grained (or use confectioners sugar)
200 g grated dessicated coconut
45-50 round paper thin (rice) wafers*, about 1" in diameter (communion wafers, called Oblate in German)

Method:

• beat egg whites in a deep clean and fat-free bowl until a knife cut in the stiff froth remain visible (another test: invert the bowl and the stiff froth will not fall off)
• slowly add sugar to the egg white while beating (1 spoon at a time, once it is incorporated, add more)
• fold in grated coconut into the meringue with a spatula
• place baking paper sheets on two baking trays and place the rice wafers on them
• take about one spoonful of the meringue and carefully from a round or oval shape with two spoons
• place on one wafer with a spoon, pressing it down gently to spread it over the wafer
• repeat for all the wafers or till the meringue is used up
• bake in oven for 20-30 minutes at:
• 130-150°C (preheated)
• convection: 120°C (preheated)
• gas: position 1 (preheated)

* TIP: use a well greased baking paper sheet or simply grease the baking tray properly as these are very sticky, if no such communion wafers are available.

Since I feel these fit so well to this months theme of Food In Colours : White, an event started by Sunshinemom of Tongueticklers and being hosted this time by Lubna Karim at Yummy Food, I'm sending these yummy cookies over to Lubna.
And these also go to Vandana's event Baking for Beginners at her blog Cooking up Something Nice.

Similar recipes:
Cinnamon stars at Meeta's WFLH

Black Olive and Sage pesto

This was a very spontaneous idea to make something quick and easy for dinner. And then there is this event going on, which came to my mind and doubled the fun factor to experiment. :)
And I was surprised at how good it turned out. Blogging surely gives these creative spurts to you...uhhh...me. :) So, what about you?


Black olive and Sage Pesto

Ingredients:
80-100 g stoned black olives
a handful of sage leaves, chopped coarsely (from the garden)
2 large garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
1/2 handful of walnuts (optional -I left them out)
1 dried red chili, broken into pieces, seeds removed*
2 tbsp lemon juice
30 ml olive oil (roughly)

Method:
Grind everything together with a hand stick blender and season with salt to taste.
Use it on Italian bread slices to bake in the oven for a few minutes
or
as a pesto for pasta dish, like we did here:Pasta with black olive pesto

Ingredients:
1/4 to 1/3 packet of pasta (penne, tagliatelle or others)
1 large red onion, halved and cut into thin slices or chopped into smaller pieces
1 large garlic, chopped finely or crushed with a garlic press
8 medium mushrooms, quartered
1/2 zucchini, cut into 5 mm rings and then each ring into 4 thin stripes
4 large dried red tomatoes (Italian)
1 /3 cup stoned black olives, halved
5-6 large sage leaves, chopped
4 tbsp black olive pesto (see above)
3 tbsp red pesto - I used store bought one this time
olive oil
salt to taste
Parmesan to garnish (optional)- I left it out

Method:

• Cook pasta till al dente with salt in enough water
• Fry the garlic and onion for a minute in olive oil on high heat
• reduce heat to medium high and add mushrooms and dried tomatoes, fry till done
• add zucchini and sage and fry till cooked but still crispy
• add the pesto and fry for short
• serve warm

*Remove the seeds of the chili to reduce the hotness, or use them along, and you can adjust the amount of chili to your taste

We enjoyed eating this pasta a lot. I was a bit irritated that I had not taken care and the pasta had turned a bit too soft. Sonny boy was driving me crazy at that time and I was so busy trying to calm down - myself............:D!
But, then I tried to wash it with cold water once and save the pasta and it was just about OK. Hubby liked it and said very sportively that it doesn't matter and sat down at the table with enthusiasm, but like usual mentioned at the end that he doesn't like black olives. He can alwaaaa...ays find something to complain about. Grrrrrrrr........!
I loved the combination of sage and black olives and I purposefully left out the walnuts which I could have added to it, as I did not want to mix up too many flavours. And I licked away all the left overs of the pesto with my fingers from the bowl I used to prepare it :). A wonderful taste as it was.
So, this ones goes to the event Food in Colours (FIC): Purple and Black held at Sunshinemom's Tongueticklers
And I would like to send this entry to Andrea's Grow Your Own being hosted this time by Rachel of The Crispy Cook, another gluten free food blogger, I'm happy to discover.

In case you are curious to know what I did with the beetle. No, I didn't grind the poor soul with the leaves, but let it fly away on my terrace. It had come along with the sage leaves I had brought from my garden. Now that winter is coming, I had to finally cut them up and use a part and freeze another larger part for later use.