From an erstwhile eggplant hater to making so many dishes with eggplant is quite a progress for me. I think eggplant is quite an adult taste and the smoky taste of roasted eggplant, even more so. I hardly know anyone who liked eggplant as a kid. Both S and me LURVE anything to do with a char grilled eggplant, and I can list at least 10 recipes in my regulars that start with this step. One of them is a caponata.
Though traditionally, it doesn't call for roasting the vegetable, I like using a mix of one roasted eggplant and one chopped as it is. I usually use this as a filling inside a hot dog roll to make a sub-like sandwich - along with either tomatoes or pickled jalapenos and cheese if I'm feeling very generous. If I don't have bread on hand, I like to toss this with penne and that tastes quite good too.
Here's my version of eggplant caponata, which is somewhat different from the original recipes, but it tastes good all the same.
Time taken - Under 30 minutes Makes enough for 12-14 sandwiches or in pasta for 8 people You may halve the recipe, but leftovers will stay in the fridge for around a week and you can have quick fix meals with this on hand.
Ingredients
2 large eggplants
3 tbsp olive oil
5 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup chopped whites and greens of spring onions (scallions)
3 large tomatoes chopped
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chilli flakes
4-5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
Handful of fresh basil
Directions
Place on eggplant on the flame of a gas stove directly. Keep turning the sides until the skin is charred all over. Do not overdo this because we want to chop the flesh later and not mash it - so the eggplant should still be able to keep its shape somewhat. Once this cools, peel off the skin and roughly chop this into cubes. Keep aside. This will be used towards the end as it needs no further cooking.
Chop the other eggplant into small cubes with the skin on. Keep aside.
In a large pot, heat olive oil and throw in the minced garlic. After a few seconds, add the chopped spring onions. Saute for 3-4 minutes, until wilted.
Add the chopped raw eggplant first, sprinkle salt and saute along with the garlic and greens. After 3-4 minutes, keep this covered for 5 minutes or so until the vegetable is almost cooked. Add the tomatoes, herbs, chilli flakes balsamic vinegar and on a medium flame let this cook till tomatoes soften down and the vegetables come together.
Add remaining salt, chopped roasted eggplant and fresh basil. Toss well and check for salt and chilli, adding some more if you prefer so.
To assemble the sub, slice the hot dog roll in the middle, but keeping the two slices attached. Spoon a generous quantity of caponata between the two, stuffing it tightly. Also stuff in a couple of slices of tomato or pickled jalapeno and some bits of sliced cheese and grill on a hot buttered skillet or in a hot oven till crispy outside.
You can even have this as a cold sandwich. Makes for a good couch dinner and leftovers make a filling breakfast.
[if you are wondering what took me so long to come back on my blog, please read post below :)]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Eggplant Caponata - My version
Pee Poo Pee
That is not me trying to blow my own trumpet :) but it's what I've been busy cleaning over almost the last 3 months.
I've got news to share with all the readers of Saffron Trail that we've been blessed with a baby boy - Atri. He was born on 4th December, 2008 and he's almost close to completing his third month and our lives are falling into some sort of a routine - which is why I feel I can slowly resume blogging. I've also neglected the baby blog for a while, and have gotten to doing some posts there in the last few days.
I owe this news to all my blog friends and my kind readers who've been mailing me as to why I've not been blogging in a long while. Here's a pic of Atri taken a week ago.
While I've been having fun with baby, I've been missing out on all the fun, happenings and goss in the blogging world - even unable to chat on gtalk with the few friends I used to catch up with often. But I hope to resume blogging in all earnest, even if it means sleeping for 30 minutes less on the days I want to. Fellow food bloggers, do point out the fun stuff to me in comments. Also please post links of any interesting food blogs that have started off in the last few months. I've missed the browsing bit too - reading mostly parenting and baby blogs so that I can get some guidance on doing things right as a new mom.
Those interested in reading baby stuff can come over to the baby blog to see what we're up to.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The Great Indian Vegetable Biryani
There are some recipes that escape even a voracious cook - and for me Biryani has been one of them. In most friends' house parties this is one dish that unfailingly features as the main course - a pot of vegetable biryani for the non meat eaters and a mutton biryani for the others. Besides it is commonly ordered in our favourite Punjabi restaurant Urban Tadka (UT) which you must have heard from me pretty often on this blog. In UT, the biryani is made in individual clay pots sealed with dough and baked in the tandoor - and in all my biryani encounters, I can easily rate theirs as the best. One evening when DH suggested vegetable biryani with raita for dinner - it struck me that this is one dish that has eluded me all these years and why not try my hand at it.
Of all the recipes I found on food blogs and general food websites, I found this video by Vah Chef Sanjay Thumma very educative. Only problem with his video that he doesn't mention how much of each ingredient to use. So here's my version of his recipe.
Since there quite a lot of ingredients, I will include them along with the directions.
Special apparatus
A large pot along with a wide pan or pot in which the first one will sit comfortably in case you plan to finish off the final stage on stove stop, or else you can bake it off in the oven.
Preparation
- Wash 2 cups long grained basmati rice gently and soak for an hour in a large bowl.
- Slice 4 medium onions very finely, separate. You can either deep fry these or bake them in the oven till brown or shallow fry them on a non stick pan coated with oil on a very low flame (around 15 minutes or so)
- Vegetables for the biryani - 1 small cauliflower broken into large florets
2 medium carrots, scraped and cut into large pieces
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large wedges
1/2 - 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
2 large capsicums, deseeded cut into large squares - Fry 3 tbsp cashews and then 2 tbsp of raisins in hot ghee on a low flame, drain and keep aside.
- Chop roughly 1/2 cup mint leaves and 1/2 cup coriander leaves. Keep aside.
- Soak a large pinch of saffron strands in 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside.
Directions
- Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a large non stick pot.
- Add to the hot ghee, 3 bay leaves, 3 sticks of cinnamon 1" each, 2 black cardamoms, 2 green cardamoms, 4 cloves, 2 tsp cumin seeds and toss on a low flame.
- Next, add 2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute till cooked.
- Throw in all the chopped vegetables, 2 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of red chilli powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tbsp of coriander powder, 1 tbsp cumin powder, 2 tsp garam masala powder, 3 slit green chillies, handful of mint leaves and saute well to coat all the vegetable chunks evenly. On a low flame let the vegetables cook till they are 60-70% done, sprinkling some water at intervals if necessary. To this finally add 200 grams paneer cut into large cubes and toss well.
- Once the vegetables are in the nearly done stage, add 3 cups of thick homemade / Greek yoghurt and stir on a low flame till the veggies are well coated with the spicy yoghurt sauce. Check for salt and adjust as per taste. Keep this aside.
- Meanwhile bring to a boil around 3-4 Litres of water in a large pot - add around a tsp of salt, 2 bay leaves and 1 tbsp ghee / oil and add the drained soaked rice grains. Let this boil for around 5-7 minutes and check if nearly done. At the 75% done stage drain the rice out in a colander. Turn this onto a large plate, spread it out gently with forks and let it cool.
- In the large pot (that fits inside of another pan), first layer the half the rice. Add half of the vegetable-paneer-yogurt mix. Top with half of the browned onions, fried nuts-raisins and chopped herbs.
- Add a cup of beaten yogurt on top of this.
- Top with rest of the rice and repeat the remaining onion-nuts-herbs layer over the rice.
- Cover the pot with 2-3 layers of thick aluminium foil. Cover with a fitting lid.
- Place 2-3 cups of water in the larger pan. Keep over high heat. Place the covered pot with biryani in this pan and let the water simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pot from the pan and keep aside for 30 minutes or so for the flavours to develop fully before serving.
- Serve with any vegetable / fruit raita that is chilled.
For those of you who would like to bake off in the final stage, layer as above in a oven proof deep pan and seal well with foil. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve as above.
Although this was not as good as my favourite restaurant's biryani, this is mighty good for a first attempt and I would give all credit to Chef Sanjay's video, which you might check out for a quick recap. I hope the quantified ingredients here make it a tad simpler for those of you wanting to try out the Great Indian Vegetable Biryani.
This recipe serves around 6-8 people for a main course along with raita made from 1 Litre yogurt.
I understand that the list of ingredients runs pretty long, but really you'll find most of the stuff in your pantry. The paneer is optional here, but it adds a nice variation to the texture of vegetables. You could also try boiled chickpeas as a protein addition instead of paneer.
(all ingredients for this recipe are marked in bold in the various stages of description)
Wacky Banana Cake
There are some blogs I follow because I know their tried and tested recipes will come to my rescue each time I'm facing a dilemma as to what to cook! Then there are some other blogs which I visit purely for reading pleasure - either because I cannot procure most of the ingredients they use or they write predominantly about meat based recipes. Home Sick Texan is one of them. It gives such a view of Texans whose culture, food and general way of life seems so different from the regular American life. I love to read the stories accompanying each recipe and these are more interesting for me that the recipe itself. But this one time, I found a recipe that made me say ' I must try this RIGHT now'. It was her granny's Wacky Cake recipe. The name itself is so appealing, so cute and so retro, and it is indeed a blast from the past. And what's more - no butter, no eggs, no mixing bowl required. Can baking ever get better than this?
If you ever want to bake with your kids, I can only imagine what a deterrent breaking eggs in front of them is - an invitation to gooey mess and not to mention the fear of salmonella from raw eggs, especially in India where the local panwalla who sells them loose (betel leaf vendor) is the nearest source for eggs in a hurry. This is also the best possible cake to bake in the morning for a breakfast for friends who've stayed over. Waking up to the aromas of fresh home baking will make it an unforgettable morning for them. Also, this is the perfect one if you're calling your girl pals over for tea - considerably low cal, ready in a jiffy and just the perfect sweetness to go with tea / coffee.
I have just wiped my hands off after tasting the first piece and it was soft enough to melt in my mouth (even without butter!!!) and then I had to break my prolonged silence here by posting about it. We're having this for our pre-Diwali breakfast and it makes me very very happy and indebted to Home Sick Texan for sharing this recipe - I finally found a vegan recipe for a lovely cake for DH, who's gotten off eggs for a couple of years now and he strictly abides by his no egg policy even when faced with some delicious desserts in the best of places.
Home Sick Texan's Wacky Cake and Wacky Apple Cake Recipes here
I've used a chopped banana in the apple cake recipe along with a part whole wheat flour replacement, and walnuts instead of pecans. Here's my version.
Wacky Banana Cake
Serves 6 atleast
Time to table - 45 minutes
Adapted from here
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour (I used Ashirwad Atta)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup of sugar - run for a short while in the mixer
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
5 tablespoons of sunflower or any unflavoured cooking oil
1 cup cold water (not iced)
1 large banana finely diced
1/3rd cup crushed walnuts
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C
2. Combine dry ingredients in flour sifter and sift into an ungreased 8x8 square or a 9-inch round baking pan. You can also use a 9-inch cast-iron skillet.
3. Poke three holes into the flour mixture. In the first hole, pour the vinegar. In the second hole, pour the vanilla. In the third hole, pour the oil.
4. Then pour one cup of water into the pan and mix very well.
5. Stir in the diced banana and nuts - shake pan to level off and sprinkle some powdered cinnamon.
6. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or till done.
7. Cut in squares and serve warm.
You'll find all the ingredients for the plain wacky cake in your pantry, so what are you waiting for??
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Back with Poha Idlis for WBB- Grains in my breakfast
If I told you that this tambram girl has never been able to make fluffy idlis from the scratch, would you believe me? Well it was the case until I tried out Sanjeev Kapoor's Poha Idlis that featured the Healthy Breakfast episode in the near past.
They turned out white, soft, fluffy - and these are perfect for people like me - from whom the perfect idlis have been largely elusive.
I followed the recipe to the T. And there's no reason why these should make perfect dosas or Uthapams. I can swear I downloaded the pics from the camera and its odd how I can't seem to find them in my quite empty formatted notebook.
The picture will be updated the next time I make them, which I promise will be soon.
The recipe is from Sanjeev Kapoor's website, where each week's episode recipes are displayed for two weeks and I copied them down before they vanished. The recipe yields about a dozen medium idlis, and you can easily double the recipe to make dosas the next day.
POHA IDLI
Recipe Source : Sanjeev Kapoor / Khana Khazana
Preparation Time : 10 hours
Cooking Time : 30 minutes
Ingredients
1/4 cup Pressed Rice (poha)
1 cup Rice rawa (idli rawa)
1/4 cup Split black gram skinless (dhuli urad dal)
Salt to taste
Oil for greasing
Method
Soak idli rawa and poha in water for two hours.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Carrot - Alfalfa Sprouts salad sandwich
This month Latha is hosting WBB with combi breakfasts as the theme. Thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of my fellow bloggers who have kept the event going despite my prolonged absence from the blogging scene. If Latha is ok with a salad in a sandwich as a combi thing, then this is my entry for her.
31st Aug is the last date for sending her entries.
Alfalfa sprouts are one the most delicate sprouts you will find in a supermarket. I don't usually find them in mine, so when I do find them, I like to bring them home. These are nutritional powerhouses belonging to the pea family. More info here. In short they are very rich in most vitamins, protein and calcium and is a commonly used tonic in homeopathic medicine.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Traditional Lunch Series - Day 6 (Mor Kozhambu, Vazhakkai Curry)
Sorry for the two day break in series...not that i did not cook, but the weather has been too glorious to sit and blog. I have been lingering around in the balcony watching from the heights as the monsoons sweep over the landscape, clicking photos of the grey clouds with silver linings, and generally lazing around in the pleasant turn in the weather scene. It was so hot and sultry beginning June that I was fervently praying for an early monsoon - and it has started in full force from the middle of last week. The plants in my balcony are enjoying it and so am I :) Here's the pending two days account one after the other. I also have a wonderful bread coming up for you, called the Tassajara bread that we baked yesterday. Will find some time to sneak the baking notes somewhere in the middle of the traditional lunch series.
Day 6 Menu - Mor Kozhambu & Vazhakkai curry
Mor Kozhambu is a buttermilk based Tamil 'kadhi', which can have fried or sauteed okra pieces, chunks of cooked white pumpkin, or fried colocassia pieces. Even plain, it is delicious, very easy to make with the minimum of ingredients. It is also a delicious accompaniment to dosas and idlis which no hotel will ever serve you. There are two varieties of this buttermilk based kozhambu, one made with green chillies, which is pale green in colour and one made with red chillies, which is a pale pink in colour. The recipe varies in the masala that is ground for each.
Mor Kozhambu along with onion uthappam is truly mouth watering. When had with rice, it is usually accompanied by a vegetable-paruppu usili which is cooked veggies like beans / tendli mixed with crumbled steamed lentil paste, so that the proteins from the lentil usili make up for the lack of dal in the mor kozhambu. However, I made this with a simple plantain saute, which is also an equally superb combination.
Recipe for Mor Kozhambu (Pink variety)
Serves 4
Ingredients
3 cups thick buttermilk, slightly sour is better
1 cup water
To saute: 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, 1 tbsp raw rice grains, 3 dried red chillies
1/4 cup fresh coconut
1 tsp salt
Tempering: 1 tsp oil, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 sprig curry leaves, 1 dried red chilli
Directions
1. Whisk the buttermilk and water in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. In a wok, heat 1/2 tsp oil, saute the fenugreek seeds, raw rice and dried chillies till the seeds turn darker (not brown though), and the rice becomes opaque. Remove, cool and grind with the coconut into a fine paste, using upto 1/4 cup water.
3. Add this paste to the buttermilk. Season with salt.
4. Place this mix on low heat, stirring all the while . This is the most important step, as even a minute of leaving this on the gas will make the buttermilk separate into whey and curd, which will render this dish useless.
5. Gentle heat and constant stirring until this comes to a simmer, will cook the paste keeping the buttermilk intact.
6. In the wok, heat a tsp of oil. Temper with the ingredients given and transfer it over the mor kozhambu. Keep covered until ready to serve.
Note
If adding vegetables, chunks of cooked white pumpkin, or boiled, sliced and fried colocassia slices, or fried okra slices can be added to the kozhambu during step.5 (simmering stage)
Recipe for Vazhakkai curry
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
4 medium sized slim plantains (do not choose the short thick variety for this recipe)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
Directions
1. Tail and top the plantains. Lightly peel them. Cut through vertically into two and then slice to get semi circular slices of medium thickness. This is the only effort involved in this recipe.
2. Heat the oil in the wok. Splutter mustard and cumin seeds, add the plantain slices.
3. Add the turmeric, red chilli powder, salt, stir to mix well.
4. Sprinkle water, cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring around 1-2 times in between until the plantain is soft and cooked.
5. If you want a crisper curry, add a tbsp of oil at this stage and let the curry crisp on a low flame without stirring for up to 5 minutes.
Lunch Series so far
Day 1 - Vengaya Sambar, Vendakkai curry, Potato Roast
Day 2 - Peerkangai thuvaiyal, Red Chauli
Day 3 - Keerai Milagoottal, Cabbage Curry
Day 4 - Capsicum Baath, Pumpkin pachidi, Thair saadam
Day 5 - Carrot Sambar, Avaraikkai Curry
Day 6 - Mor Kozhambu, Vazhakkai Curry
