I've been away too long (and Myyyyyy zucchini plant)

It could get too long to explain to you why I had to take leave from blogging. It was unexpected but the reasons are gone now, unfortunately. That was another reason why I didn't feel like coming back as I was in no mood to do anything. Since last month I have been thinking of coming back, but somehow during my absence here a lot new happenend and I also realised that I had been neglecting a lot of other important things.
So, today I want to show you what all I have been up to in the last few months. I started working in my tiny kitchen garden a bit late this year but just about managed to plant some plantlets and just about managed to start the tomato seeds, but I don't know if it won't be too late by the time the tomatoes come. Though this time the sun had the mercy of showing up more often this summers than last year so, they almost seem to have made up for their small size. I hope i get atleast one round of tomatoes.
This time I even planted potatoes for the first time with hubbys help. They have been growing like wild. I have planted one zucchini plant and one Hokaido pumpkin which I bought from a local small groccery shop. They have come out very nicely. Now I have sown carrot seeds, a bit late, I feel, but lets see. And also seeds of radishes and a lettuce called 'pflucksalat' which are salads from which you can pluck just the leaves and new ones keep coming.
The Zucchini plant has been producing zucchini endlessly, but so far we haven't gotten bored of eating them.



I have made very many different things with it. Here are a few examples:
You see I wanted to post about it last month but I'm getting the time now. Sunny boy actually ate Zucchini. Yes! the biggest wonder of this year happpened on the day I served this dish , Zucchini with chickpeas. These were his words: "this is the best zucchini of the world". He was as happy and proud of the zucchini from his own garden as me.
But, don't worry, his enthusiasm went as soon as it came! :(




My zucchini plant, still going strong....
Although hubby loved all the things I prepared so far, but this was his favorite, Gobi manchurian a la PG, with zucchini and a lot of other veggies. The basic recipe came from the awesome blog of Sailu's Kitchen.

So that you know I will be writing but it will only be every now and then. Time has made me change priorities. I loved each and every moment of food blogging and I have been wanting to post so often but to no avail. I still keep taking pictures hoping to post about it. :D Maybe one day I will have more time for this hobby of mine.
I'm sorry for not replying to your emails and querries immediately. And thank you so much for your concern! I hope to post a couple of more posts soon.

Roasted bell peppers salad

A German friend of mine is an "India"-freak, if I may say so. She is a vegetarian, loves Indian food (she had lived in England for a year), and has fullfilled her dream of seeing India on a trip with me and wishes to go again. Last year she even tried a class called "Bollywood dancing" with another colleague of hers. The first time I heard about it I had to laugh. Though I did not want to be mean to her tried to resist it not to make fun of it. But, with time I realised that I am the one not up to date, as it looks like, it is a serious business now. I was recently reading in the online New York Times an article and my eyes fell on this article heading in the sidebar on Bollywood Excersise (note: not Hollywood, just in case you didn't know about it) in Health blog column "Well" at NYT.
Bollywood is big in coming here, so much so that they now show Indian movies, as always translated in German, on German TV channels like RTL. And I have heard from a French friend of mine who is now living there, that there also they get to see these translated movies on TV. And from what I know they produce Bollywood films now keeping the 'global' viewers in mind with the third generation of 'Indians' growing up outside India and globalisation showing its impacts on Indian culture as well.

Now coming back to the lovely roasted bell peppers. I had been wanting to eat them like this since a while until I finally took out the book and checked the ingredients, got some nice fresh bell peppers and the anchovies in salt and brine I required for it and got going that very day.

Roasted mediterranian bell peppers

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Based on a recipe from the book Le Cordon Bleu 'Vegetables'

Ingredients:
1 red belll pepper, washed, cleaned, stem and seeds removed, and cut into stips lengthwise
1 yellow bell pepper, (same as above)
1 green bell pepper, (same as above) - I substituted it with red bell peppers
1 red onion, halved vertically and then thinly sliced
olive oil to brush on bell peppers while roasting/grilling
2-3 tbsp capers, optionally with a few tsp of the brine (if using capers in salt, soak in warm water and use the water)
4-5 anchovies, finely chopped
3 -4 tbsp fresh basil leaves, washed and chiffonaded
2-3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
1 garlic, finely chopped
5 tbsp olive oil (EVOO)
1-2 tsp lemon juice, as per taste


fresh green lettuce leaves like Roma
some Italian bread (like Ciabatta), sliced

Method:

• wash the salad leaves and set aside
  
• Clean and cut the peppers into 6-8 long strips each and brush the skin with olive oil
• spread the sliced onions in a small flat baking dish
  
• place the bell peppers on a baking try with the cut skin showing upwards along with the onion and grill in a preheated oven for 20 minutes till the skin gets charred and the peppers have turned soft
• set the onion aside to cool down
• place the bell peppers in a freezer bag, close it for a few minutes till the peppers cool down a bit
  
• remove the peppers from the bag and peel the skin
• In the mean time chop anchovies, herbs, capers and garlic and mix with the olive oil and lemon juice
  
• add the peeled bell peppers along with the onions to it and refrigerate for a few hours to let them take up flavour
• serve with some Italian bread slices and fresh salad leaves

NOTE: I for got to add the onion while taking the first picture, but you see it in the next one, which i just about remembered to take. :)

In addition to the salad and the bread I had also boiled some potatoes and to make them a little more flavourful I mashed the potatoes and fried a small onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in a fry pan till golden and added the potatoes on top of it and pressed it down and cooked for another two minutes to have a 'sort of' rösti.
We all enjoyed our meal fully. I had put a bit too much of olive oil at the very end before serving. But, no one of us minded that. :D I think I'll have to do some dieting soon, I've been eating so uncontrolled lately :I
Recently we got to know of sunny boy's allergies, right now we know that he is allergic, though mildly, to wheat, rye and spelt. Haven't tested it with other things like barley and he seems to be doing fime with oats, though I'm not 100% sure. The doctor says the important thing is to see how his body reacts to the food than the tests. But since we don't use barley as such much I don't care. Luckily he is only mildly allergic and we can live with it. Luckily his Kindergarten can offer gluten free food so I don't need to worry in that regard.
So, I always have to have an option for sunny boy which he can eat. Here it was potatoes, or we would have simply eaten bread, toasted or plain withthe peppers.

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. :)

Potato patty and Pita bread sandwich

I have been a bit lackadaisical in posting. There were too many things, in my mind and otherwise, which needed attention. Now, I felt, it is high time I posted at least a couple of more posts. The next few weeks will again be busy, but I will try to post at least one or two more. After all, I don't want to miss Sunshinemom's FIC (Food in colour) event being held at Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen this time and the colour being orange. I even know what I want to make for it. Just hope I get time for it.
Now to this sandwich. I made these sandwiches last year on two following days as a midday snack and ate them all on my own and how I enjoyed it. I still remember it clearly. (OK, I also made them for my family but don't rememebr much about it. LOL!). So, on seeing Bay Leaf's Bread Mania I serched though my pictures collection that it has become and found these sandwiches and here they are:


Ingredients:
1/2 Pita bread
2 potato patties*
2 slices of tomato
a few arugula leaves, or any other sald leaf of choice - washed and pat dried
a few tbsp coconut-groundnut chutney
salt and black pepper (or chilli pepper) to taste

Method:

• prepare the patties* and other ingredients
• cut the pita bread into half and loosen both sides by inserting a knife in the middle carefully
• brush with very little olive oil (or butter) on the both the outer sides and toast on a cast iron pan till they get nice brown spots on each sides
• arrange the sandwitch and eat with the chutney in the sandwich or separately, like I did
• Bon Appetit!

*To make potato patties I mashed boiled potatoes with sesame seeds, finely chopped onions, grated ginger and spices like roasted cumin powder, ground coriander seeds, black salt, salt and chilli powder. I made good sized round balls, flattened them down to make round shaped patties and roasted them in a frypan in little oil till both the sides were browned.

I would ideally like to give a more precise recipe, but this is all I can do right now and post my recipe finally.
So, here it comes, Sindhura, my Pita sandwich just for you! :)
Check the event details here at her blog Bayleaf.

Ginger and Cranberry Cookies

It was in the middle of the month January and it was freezing cold outside. Late in the evening before I sat down in front of the TV I felt like getting some cookies. I went to the kitchen, opened the cookie tin in the cupboard and was shocked to see just two cookies left. my thoughts were "Two cookies only! Goodness! I need to bake cookieeeeees!..." .
I used the first opportunity I got two days later and baked what I had in mind already. I had bought a box of candied ginger slices at the Asian shop and wanted to use it in cookies. Since I had liked my last batch of almond oats cookies so much and felt that ginger would go well with it I tried it. I used half the dough with currents like the last time for sunny boy and for us - me and hubby, added candied ginger to make ginger oats cookies.
They turned out fantastic! Hubby loved them, as I expected. But, somehow I felt the cookies weren't perfect, there was still something missing. Today I baked another round. While going through the box of nuts and dried fruits in the fridge I saw this packet of leftover dried cranberries. I took a small piece and put it in my mouth and immediately felt that these would go well with the candied ginger. And now these cookies are indeed perfect!
Hubby who went, on smelling the cookies in the kitchen, tried them and also said that these are even better than the last batch. I've packing half of these for my FIL, who likes ginger in food.


Ginger and Cranberry cookies

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

based on the previous recipe of Almonds, Currents and Oats Cookies

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes
Temperaure: 150°C (convection: 120°C)
Makes: 20-25 pieces (if rolled thin, around 30 pieces)

Ingredients:
150 g whole rolled oats (or oat flour)- I used 130 g whole rolled oats and 50 g rice flakes
100 g slivered almonds, divided (80g almonds ground + 20 g crushed lightly)
5 tbsp butter or margarine
5 tbsp level sugar
50g raw marzipan ( marzipan rohmasse, with no additional sugar)
100 g candied ginger slices, chopped finely
30 g dried cranberries*, chopped finely

Method:

• grease 1 baking sheet, lay them on a baking tray and set aside
• grind the flakes in a coffee mill or dry grinder
• combine all ingredients together except for currrents with your hands or using a mixer
  
• add currents and combine with your hands to make one large ball
• either
  
• make small balls out of it and press down with the palms to flatten
• or, roll out with a rolling pin and cut out cookies using cookie cutters
• place on the greased baking sheet
• bake for 25 minutes
  
• let them cool down before picking up the cookies, to avoid crumbling

*dried currents can also be used instead of cranberries or just leave it out completely.

candied ginger slices

Other Ginger cookies:
Ginger Snap Cookies at Jude's Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté
Ginger shortbread at Meeta's What's For Lunch Honey

Turnip 'subzi' and the recipe for Blogger Aid Cookbook

I have been lagging badly in posting my recipes in the last few weeks. But, I know you all know such situations. Now, I have a long list of things to post about and so little time. Let's see when I manage it all. In a couple of weeks sunnyboy's birthday is coming and I'll again get busy planning about how and what to oraganise for the party which I want to do at home, at least this year, he's going to be four now. How time flies.
So, coming to the vegetable of the day: Turnips! Yes, I dared to buy them. *grin* Turnips are called weiße Rüben or also Speiserüben here. In all these years of living in Germany I never ever thought of buying them. I never liked turnips in India. When my mom did cook them (she didn't do it so often 'cause none of us, my dad included, liked it! LOL!) I did eat it, but it was always a "horrible" experience. :D But, they had a much stronger flavour in India.
Turnip is a very seasonal thing here and actually you don't come aross them in the supermarkets here, but either in small grocery shops or the farmers market. I had seen them a number of times before but knew for sure that I didn't want to try it. I had felt the urge to try making an Indian pickle with them when I saw them this year, though, but the lack of sun has never given me enough confidence to try it until now. But, it is on my list of things to do. Maybe next summers. I just have to remember it in time.

Turnip greens Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 20 kcal 80 kJ
Carbohydrates 4.4 g - Dietary fibre 3.5 g Fat 0.2 g Protein 1.1 g Vitamin A equiv. 381 μg 42% Folate (Vit. B9) 118 μg 30% Vitamin C 27 mg 45% Vitamin K 368 μg 350% Calcium 137 mg 14%
cooked, boiled, drained, without salt Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient database

But, after having tried this very new turnip variety recently I had never seen before, I got to realise that I must try turnips atleast once too and see how they really taste. And my hunch was right: they did taste quite different than the ones I had eaten before. Infact, these tasted wonderful! I almost feel stupid for not having tried them before.
Here is some information from Wikipedia (source) on the nutritional value of turnips:


Turnip subzi

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Ingredients:
1 bunch turnip greens, thick stems removed, washed throughly and chopped finely
1 large turnip (DE: weiße Rüben), peeled and cubed
1 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated (I used 1/4 tsp dry ginger powder, as I didn't have any)
1 heaped tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1-1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
1/8 tsp red chilli powder (or to taste)
2 tbsp rapeseed oil for frying
salt to taste

Method:

• heat oil in a pan and splutter ajwain
  
• add ginger, turmeric, ground coriander seeds and red chili powder, and stir shortly
  
• add turnip cubes, mix everything
  
• keep cooking covered on medium heat
• once the turnips are almost done, add the turnip greens
  
• cook covered for a few minutes till the greens turn slightly darker and shrivel (the volume will reduce a lot)
  
• serve with hot rotis or rice along with some daal.

For me this was a wonderful replacement for "Muli ki bhujiya" (stirfried radish greens) which I love, they tasted almost the same. I always cried that I don't get radish greens. These are again a seasonal thing and you have to go to the farmer's market for that. But, now I know that I can fullfill my wish to have this comfort food by simply buying the "weiße Rüben" now which are much easier to find than radish greens. Happy, Happy, Happy! That's what I am.

And now one more thing. I have been thinking for long now what to send to the Blogger Aid Cookbook.

After I made this dish (see below) and reliased that it is my very own version of a potato salad which I have learnt to make (and perfected :) ) after experimenting in the last few years, I felt this to be a good choice and here it is, another of our family favorite and one recipe for which I always get appreciation from family and friends on get-togethers. Especially in our barbecue parties this salad is never missing, though with small changes where I leave out the vegetables in it and add some cheese variety instead.