Pesto Pasta and Gajar ka Halwa or What I made with the goodies I got from the Fresh and Local Radio show
Wow! That has to be the longest title yet to any blog post I’ve written so far.
2 weeks ago I was invited to the Fresh & Local radio show to talk about Indian cooking. The recording ended with a bag of farm-fresh sweet-smelling carrots, and packets of Dehn’s Garden herbs. I came back home certain about what I’d make with the carrots, but unsure of what I’d do with the fresh Basil and Rosemary in the goody bag. After some quick searching online and within my bookmarked recipes, I made 3 delicious dishes, all of which were a first for me.
Gajar ka Halwa, a popular North-Indian carrot dessert
Gajar ka Halwa
I used the fresh, sweet carrots to make this creamy, decadent dessert that is a big part of many an Indian’s childhood. Gajar ka Halwa typically takes hours to make as it involves cooking grated carrot with milk, until the milk completely reduces. I used this shortcut method I came across on ShowMeTheCurry.com. I made the whole thing in about an hour in the microwave. No kidding. See the recipe here.
Pesto pasta
I used this really simple recipe for making the Basic Basil Pesto from WhippedtheBlog. Then, I prepared the dish like so:
- While you cook the penne, in a large pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and cook about a quarter of an onion, roughly chopped, on medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent. Turn off heat and keep aside.
- Once the onions are a little cool, spoon in 3-4 large spoonfuls of the pesto sauce. I like more pesto in my pasta so I use a lot.
- Once the pasta is cooked, before draining, add about 2 ladle-fuls of the starchy water into the onion + pesto pan. Drain pasta and add into the pan. Immediately, mix really well. Add more pesto if you feel like it.
- Serve immediately and garnish with some fresh Parmesan cheese
With the Rosemary, I made some simple Garlic Rosemary chicken, à la Rachael Ray. No pictures here!
I still have a lot of the Rosemary still left. Any ideas on what I can do with it?
In other news, I just got featured as a Savvy Seven woman in Savvy.mn‘s October issue. Here’s a chance for you to learn some crazy trivia about me 🙂
Falling in Love with Indian Food
This week, Michelle Collins, author of the blog TheEconomicalEater guest-blogs on OneLifeToEat. Michelle contacted me when I invited guest posts from bloggers on Twitter and I was humbled that a professional writer would want to guest-blog at OLTE. Michelle shares a truly romantic and really sweet account of how she fell in love with Indian Food. This is one post I am sure a lot of you may relate to.
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Naan Wraps with Tzatziki - an India-influenced dish the author makes often
My introduction to Indian food came at a turning point in my life. Years before that first meal, I went through some serious phases of growing up – and had just made a silent pact with myself to better my life, for me. Part of this “new beginning” welcomed new experiences – as well as a new relationship that was completely unplanned, yet perfectly timed.
Growing up, my family of six ate affordable, army-sized American and Irish meals. Indian food was completely foreign to our family – and the thought of it, even in my early twenties, freaked me out a little bit. I thought Indian cuisine meant nothing but goat brains and lamb guts.
But then I met Zach. Although I’m an omnivorous food writer, I still managed to fall in love with a vegetarian – who just so happened to have studied abroad in India during college. Soon after we met, I was handed an assignment for my local newspaper to review a new Indian restaurant downtown – and Zach and I dined there on our first date.
Zach was and still is incredibly knowledgeable about Indian cuisine, and described just about every flavor, origin and texture of each dish on the menu. I was in foodie paradise, and all of my initial fears of Indian food quickly melted away. We ordered a variety of dishes that night, the most memorable being warm, airy Naan with several spicy chutneys, as well as lamb curry (for me), which also happened to be the first time I tried lamb. I immediately fell in love with the juicy, moist, rich lamb mixed with the smoky, back-of-your-throat spicy curry – not realizing I was also falling in love with the guy across the table.
Our meals were delicious that evening, despite the sickly sweet gulab jamun we split for dessert – a dish that I will never take a liking to, thanks to my nonexistent sweet tooth. However, I will never forget that first Indian meal I ate. The flavors, aromas, and seasonings made me want to kick myself for waiting so long to try them. That first Indian meal was also how Zach and I first got to know one another, which is why eating and cooking Indian food now compels me to reminisce about our first date – and the start of my new beginning.
Michelle Collins is a freelance food writer based out of Arlington, Massachusetts. She has her own money conscious food blog called The Economical Eater, and is also the Boston Budget Wine Examiner for Examiner.com. Michelle’s work has also been featured in The Boston Globe, The Nashua Telegraph, Edible White Mountains Magazine, and Local in Season.
A Cooking Class and Indian Street Food Treats
A week ago, I had the pleasure of teaching a friend of a friend how to make a few Indian dishes. I was introduced to Kara by Jenn Sutherland of The Whole Kitchen and after months of exchanging tweets and emails, Kara thought we should finally meet IRL and she asked me to plan an individual cooking class for her where she’d learn how to make a few basic Indian dishes.
This was the first time I taught a student how to make not one, but two Indian street food dishes – Sev Puri and Samosa Chat. The former, is a wheat cracker (puri), that is topped with assorted vegetables and a variety of tangy, spicy chutneys. The final finish, fine gramflour sev is added on top for a taste-bud popping morsel of deliciousness.
Sev Puri
You’ll find a Sev Puri vendor on almost every other street corner of Mumbai and every vendor will have his own method of making it. My favorite Sev Puri vendor usually has his little stand right outside a pharmacy in Tardeo, Mumbai. I really hope he’s still around when I visit home next!
Samosa Chat
Samosa Chat is a very popular North Indian street food. Samosas are India’s answer to puff pastries. They are flour triangular pastries stuffed traditionally with spiced potatoes and peas. They can also be stuffed with cooked dry lentils and mince meat to name a few varieties. Samosa Chat, comprises of a samosa, topped with a spicy, tangy curry made with chickpeas.
In this post, I’ll share the recipe to make both Samosa Chat and Sev Puri with you. Read on to learn how to make the 2 easiest Indian dishes. Serve it at your next party at home and you’ll look like a Food Network rockstar 🙂
Recipe for Sev Puri – Printable version
Ingredients:
- Flat wheat puris from the Indian grocery store. If you can’t find these easily, specifically ask the store manager for crispy puris for making sev puri (as a soft version of the puri is also available).
- Nylon Sev (fried crispy chickpea batter) from the Indian store. Only buy Nylon (fine) sev
- Potatoes – 2-3 medium, boiled until cooked but not mushy
- Cilantro – finely chopped
- 2-3 tomatoes, finely chopped
- Red onions or shallots – finely chopped
- Tamarind chutney (available at the Indian store)
- Cilantro chutney (available at the Indian store)
- Chat Masala
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Lemon juice
- Plain yogurt, optional
Method:
- Peel and Chop the boiled potatoes and place in a bowl. Season with salt, pepper and juice of ¼ lemon juice. Mix well and keep aside.
- In a small bowl, place 3-4 spoonfuls of the Tamarind chutney and dilute with about 2-3 tbsp of water till it is thin but not watery. Repeat the same with the Cilantro chutney.
- Arrange the flat puris in one layer on a large serving plate
- Start by place a small quantity of the potato mixture on each puri. Follow this by tomatoes, onions and cilantro
- Now add a small quantity each of cilantro and tamarind chutneys. Follow with a light sprinkle of the chat masala
- Finally, top with sev. Be liberal or sparing here based on personal preference
- End with a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve immediately.
A few tips and variations
- A variation of the sev puri is the dahi sev puri or sev puri with yogurt. Before sprinkling the sev, place a small dollop of whipped plain yogurt on each puri. Some vendors also garnish with roasted peanuts and lentils
- This is very important – you MUST pop the whole puri in your mouth in one go. This is the way it has to be eaten. For extra measure, place a plate below your mouth to avoid any spills.
- You can make this a fusion dish by placing the same toppings in a phyllo dough canapé.
Recipe for Samosa Chat – Printable version
This one is really easy to make. Just prepare the chickpea curry beforehand, buy store-bought frozen Indian samosas, and assemble when you’re ready to eat.
Ingredients:
- 1 packet of Frozen Potato & Peas samosas
- Indian Chickpea curry
- Chopped Onion for garnishing
- Chopped Coriander or Cilantro leaves and lemon wedges for garnishing
To assemble the Samosa Chat:
- Place 2 heated samosas in a bowl or plate
- Top with a ladle-ful of the Chickpea curry
- Garnish with chopped red onions, lemon juice and more chopped cilantro
- Eat immediately (why would you want to wait?!)
Extra tips:
I have seen Samosa Chat prepared in different ways at different restaurants in North India. Some places also top the samosas and chickpea curry with and sweet/sour tamarind chutney. Some others garnish with chopped green chilies.
One Life to Eat 