Tomato Fritters

No matter what the situation, we humans always find a reason to complain.  And nothing, in my mind, elicits more complaints from people everywhere (except maybe those lucky enough to be living in some paradise like Hawaii or San Diego) than the weather!  All winter long, we complain that it’s too cold, or that there’s too much rain or snow.  And then come summer, suddenly, it’s too hot, it’s too dry, there are too many mosquitoes – the list goes on and on.  Similarly, if you live in the Northwest (of the US) and fancy yourself to have a bit of a green thumb, every summer you complain from June to September about how your tomatoes are just not ripening fast enough.  And then, all of a sudden, at the end of September, the tomatoes start coming in all at once, and now you’re stuck with finding a way to consume all those plump, juicy, red (or yellow or orange) fruits, in larger-than-Costco quantities.

Some of my more domestic friends look forward to this task and whip out their canning equipment to make salsas and pasta sauces and other delicious things.  But by September, with all the jam that I’ve canned during berry season, I don’t want to see another boiling water bath until at least next year.  To my lazy bones, tomatoes in September are for immediate gratification – after all, I have waited all summer for them to ripen!

In the spirit of wholesale tomato consumption, I try to experiment with new recipes that incorporate these summer ripened fruits.  I recently came across a recipe for a Greek dish, called domatokeftehes, or tomato fritters, which seemed to be just the thing to accompany a Friday evening cup of tea with the hubby.  Of course, as I started making these, my Indian brain took over and turned these fritters into something that no Greek person would recognize, but I think they turned out rather nice.  Do you agree?

 Tomato fritters

1 large ripe tomato, diced

½ zucchini, diced

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 T chopped fresh herbs such as oregano or cilantro

½ C flour

½ tsp baking powder

Mix all ingredients together, adding the flour and baking powder last.

Add enough water to form a thickish batter

Heat oil in wok on high heat until a drop of batter dropped into oil rises immediately to surface

Reduce heat to medium and drop tablespoon-fulls of batter into oil

Allow to brown on all sides; remove from oil with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels

Serve hot with spiced tea.

Pedas for Ganesha: Indian Milk Fudge

Ganesha, the elephant-headed God, is perhaps the most famous from among the pantheon of Hindu deities.  Traditionally, Ganesha is considered the God of knowledge and is prayed to at the start of any new venture.  Every year, the birthday of Ganesha – termed Ganesh Chathurthi --  is celebrated with great pomp throughout India.  This was one of my very favorite times of the year as a child growing up in India.  The monsoons would have come to an end.  My birthday would be right around the corner.  We’d even have several days off from school.  On the morning of Ganesh Chathurthi, we would wake up early and head to the local clay artist who would have set aside a lovely clay Ganesha just for me.  We would bring home this colorful statue with great pomp – I even had a little parasol just for this occasion, so that I could hold it over Ganesha’s head as we walked him home under the scorching Indian sun.  This same ritual would be playing out all around us, as our friends and neighbors also brought home their own special Ganesha statues to install at home.  Traditionally, this would be followed by 3 to 10 days of prayer.  At the end of this period, the Ganesha statue would be taken to the local lake and allowed to dissolve.  As the clay sculpture of Ganesha dissolves, he is thought to melt away all the misfortunes of his loyal devotees.

In Bombay, in particular, Ganesh Chathurthi was celebrated with great fanfare.  In the months leading up to day, almost every temple would commission local artists to create humongous Ganesha statues – the larger the temple, the larger the statue and the more elaborate the display.  After months of seeing these temporary installations being secretively built behind burlap scaffolding, during the week of Ganesh Chathurthi, the drapes would finally be lifted and we would be allowed to wander, awestruck, through the ever-more elaborate sets.  This would all culminate with the city awarding prizes to the temples with the best displays.

Closer to home, other festivities would be brewing.  As is evident from his big belly, Ganesha is considered to be quite the gourmand, so one of the mainstays of this festival is the range of delicacies prepared by my mom and my friends' moms, alike.  

Even today, though I have moved far, far away from these scenes of my childhood, the memories of those celebrations are still fresh in my heart.  While I don’t necessarily have the time to prepare elaborate delicacies before heading out to work in the morning, I do still try to make something special in the kitchen to mark the occasion. A few months ago, I came across several recipes for microwavable Doodh peda, a type of dense Indian milk fudge.  I have since been able to adapt this recipe for just such an occasion.  So, although my ramblings about my childhood memories have been long, this recipe is anything but complicated or time-consuming.  It literally comes together in less than 10 minutes but tastes like you have been reducing milk over the stove for hours and hours.

So, in honor of today’s celebration of Ganesh Chathurthi, I give you this super simple Doodh peda or milk fudge recipe.  With its short, short ingredient list, and the ease of zapping it up in a microwave, I have a feeling that this recipe is going to make into my own fledgling list of kitchen traditions.

Microwaveable Doodh Peda or Milk Fudge (makes 2 dozen)

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

2 C non-fat dried milk

1 stick of unsalted butter

4 pods of green cardamom, peeled and finely ground

A pinch of saffron (optional)

Nuts (optional for garnish)

Place butter in a large microwavable bowl and microwave for about a minute, until butter is melted

Stir in dried milk and condensed milk until well mixed

Place bowl on a plate, and heat in microwave at full power for 4 minutes in 1 minute intervals

After each minute, remove from microwave and stir well

Watch carefully so that the mixture doesn't bubble over while heating (but in any case, that's what the plate beneath the bowl is for)

Once mixture is thickened to a fluffy ricotta-like consistency, add cardamom and saffron.

Mix well, and spread on plate to cool for about 2 minutes

Once it's cool enough to handle, make 1 inch balls and flatten out slightly to form a thick disk

Garnish top of disk with nuts or more saffron

Store for up to a week in the fridge

Vegetable Khichdi

They say that one always dreams in the language that one is most comfortable with -- their native language, so to say.  I've also heard it said that the language that one is most conversant is the one a person uses to do math and sums in their head.  I think a similar analogy applies to food.  A long while ago, I wrote a blog post for the American Society for Nutrition, entitled 'The Immigrant's Fridge."  Part of what I was saying in this article is that one of the last things to change in the assimilation process of an immigrant to a new culture is their diet.  For someone like me, who's had the privilege of having traveled widely and lived amidst various cultures, questions about self-identity can be hard to answer.  For instance, I cannot truly answer the question of which language is my native language, though I suspect that it is in fact English.  Certain other aspects -- such as what I consider to be an appropriate amount of personal space when speaking with someone -- are decidedly American.  But when it comes to food, perhaps my Indian identity has proved a bit more indelible.  Ultimately, on a rainy, cold, and grey day, when I start craving comfort food, the recipes that I most often resort to still tend to be Indian ones.  Familiar ingredients, cooked simply and quickly, with just a smattering of spice to satisfy my tastebuds.  As I sit here on such a cold, grey, and rainy day in Portland, I share with you one of my favorite comfort food recipes for you to try out.  I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Vegetable Khichdi 
(loosely translated as a vegetable porridge)

1 C cut vegetables, such as beans, carrots, peas, and corn
1 C short to medium grain rice, such as jasmine, washed
1/2 C moong daal*
Half a red onion, finely sliced
2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)*
1 tsp turmeric powder*
2 tsp cumin seeds *
1.5 T spice mixture
2 tsp salt

To make the spice mixture:

Grind equal amounts of cumin seeds and whole black pepper in a spice mill to a coarse consistency.  This spice mix is great on a variety of foods, including sliced cucumbers, tomato soup, and roasted potatoes.

To make Khichdi:

Pressure-cook vegetables, rice, and daal with 1.5 C water till rice and daal are very well cooked, usually about 6 whistles**
Allow cooker to cool completely
In the meantime, heat ghee, add cumin seeds and turmeric and sautee till seeds crackle
Add onions and sautee until they are translucent
Add rice/daal mixture and spice mixture
Mix well, sprinkling some water on top if needed to help spices mix into rice
Taste and adjust for salt

The final consistency of this dish should be like very thick oatmeal.  It is often served with either yogurt or an Indian style pickle*.  But it's most importantly always served piping hot!

Cook's Notes

* These are all available most easily at Indian grocery stores and sometimes at well-curated specialty markets.

**If you don't have a pressure cooker, a lot of Indian recipes are quite a bit more time-consuming.  In this case, I would suggest soaking the daal in hot water for about an hour, and then mixing it with the rice and veggies and cooking in a rice cooker or an open vessel until the daal is softened completely.  I also recommend investing in a good pressure cooker, as this is a great way to steam and cook foods quickly with minimal loss of nutrients.


To reheat, lightly sprinkle water and heat in microwave.  Alternatively, heat in a skillet, adding enough water to loosen up the rice and lentils.

Bread upma -- an Indian version of bread stuffing

There are so many things that I miss about living in Japan. High on the list is crustless sandwich bread. I know…how hard is it to cut crusts off bread, right? Not to sound spoilt, but really, there was something joyous about opening up a perfectly vacuum sealed package of delicate crustless bread, just begging for translucent discs of cucumber to be sandwiched between the slices. But since I no longer have the luxury of such laziness, I have be content with cutting the crusts off my bread for those occasions that just demand a crustless sandwich – like when the Queen is over for tea, for instance. To come to my point…what do you do with all the left over crusts from such an endeavor? If you don’t want to throw away perfectly good food and are up to trying a new recipe, here’s one that never disappoints in my house.

Upma is a savory dish made in Southern India, usually involving cream of wheat or cream of rice. This bread upma, which is best described as an Indian version of American stuffing, is usually made when we end up with several end pieces of bread accumulating in the fridge. It’s very easy to make and is generally eaten for breakfast in India. If a spicy or savory breakfast is just not your thing, you can certainly eat this for lunch or dinner or anytime in between. And of course, you don’t have to wait till you have a bunch of crusts before you make this – you can also cheat and just chop up perfectly whole slices of bread.

Bread upma*

Ingredients

1T canola oil

½ t turmeric powder

½ t mustard seeds

1 red onion, diced

2 yellow potatoes, diced

5 green chilis, julienned

1T red chili powder

Salt to taste

Juice of half a lemon

8 slices of bread, cut into 1” cubes

1T fresh or frozen coconut**

4 T finely minced cilantro

Heat oil in a pan and add turmeric and mustard.

When mustard seeds start popping, add onion and sautee till browned

Add potatoes, green and red chilies, and salt

Cook covered until potatoes are fork tender

Toss in bread and lemon juice and cook for about 5 minutes until bread is tender and has absorbed some of the spices from the potato mixture

Add coconut and cook a minute longer.

Take off heat, and garnish with cilantro and additional lemon juice, if desired.

*The consistency of this dish should be a little dryer than American stuffing. If bread starts to look too dry while cooking, sprinkle some water and allow bread to tenderize.

**If all you have is dessicated coconut, soak 1 T of this in some warm water for 5 minutes before adding to the upma. If all you have is sweetened coconut flakes, just throw it away, and don't ever buy it again!

Aloo Parathas - the breakfast of champions

New Year’s Resolutions vary based on the personality of the resolver, but they usually follow the same trend. They are ways in which we seek to improve ourselves, based on self-perceived flaws, whether real or imagined. But often times, I think they are aspirations to be better at something that one is already good at. This isn’t a completely thought out hypothesis, so it’s possible I’m off-base. But don’t you think it’s usually the well-organized 'Type A' personalities that resolve to be more organized next year; the globe-trotting 'living-it-up' folks who resolve to travel more in the upcoming year; the health-conscious 'eat-no-evil' types who promise to frequent the gym more?

So it follows that when you ask a foodie for a New Year’s Resolution, it often involves making and sharing some exotic new delicacies in the upcoming year. If you count yourself among this final bunch, I will aspire to provide you with inspiration for your forays into the kitchen with stories and pictures from my own experiments. In that spirit, here is a recipe that you can cook up for a novel breakfast (or lunch or dinner). It’s a slightly different take on a traditional Indian recipe for Aloo Parathas, which are often eaten as a special breakfast treat in India.

Aloo means potato in Hindi, and parathas are a type of flat bread that you may have seen on Indian restaurant menus. Aloo parathas are flat-breads stuffed with a mix of boiled potatoes, peas, and spices and cooked on a hot griddle. While not generally leavened, I made these recently with a yeasty dough that lent a very different flavor and texture to the dish. With a little planning and a little last-minute shopping, you too could be serving up this dish to rave reviews in your kitchen, as early as your first breakfast in the New Year.

Happy New Year, dear readers!

Aloo Parathas

Ingredients

For the dough

3 C unbleached all-purpose flour, or use half whole-wheat flour

2 C warm water

2 tsp yeast

1 T sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 T oil

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1 C warm (not hot) water, and set aside for 10 minutes

Mix other dry ingredients, and knead into a dough using yeast water and remaining 1 C warm water

Add more water by teaspoons, until dough comes together

Roll dough in 2T oil, and set aside in a covered bowl for 2 hours or until doubled in volume

For the filling

3 medium starch potatoes, like Yukon Gold

1 C peas, fresh or frozen

4 T chopped cilantro

2T roasted cumin powder

(You can make this by roasting cumin seeds on a dry griddle and then powdering them)

2T red chili powder (optional)

2T dried mango powder

(If you don’t have this, you can add the juice of ½ lemon for a slightly different taste)

Salt to taste

Boil or pressure cook 3 potatoes until tender. I prefer a medium-starch variety like Yukon Gold.

Steam or boil 1 C peas, until tender.

Mash potatoes in a large bowl, add peas, cilantro, spices, and salt to taste

To make the parathas

Split off dough into 8 equal pieces, and roll into 8 balls

Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand

Make 8 balls of the potato mixture and place in the center of each of the dough disks

Pinch dough closed around the potato mixture, so that you have a ball of dough with the potatoes encased inside

On a lightly floured surface, flatten out the balls again, and roll out to a circle of about 6-7 inches in diameter

Don’t worry about the potato mix coming out of the dough in places; these areas will be the tastiest parts!

Heat up a flat griddle with 1 tsp of oil

Add the paratha, and cook for about 2 minutes or until speckled with brown spots, over a medium flame

Flip and repeat

Serve hot with thick Greek yogurt and an Indian-style pickle.

Coriander chutney

Alternatively known as green chutney, this is a perennial favorite among Indians and Indian food lovers, alike, and needs no introduction.

For this staple recipe, I do the following, more or less. You can easily double the recipe and store the sauce in the refrigerator for weeks, without substantial loss in flavor.

You will need:

1/2 tsp cumin seed, roasted till fragrant in a dry pan
1 large bunch of coriander leaves
1/4 small onion roughly chopped
1/4 C unsweetened grated coconut (preferable fresh or frozen, not dried)
1/2″ piece of ginger roughly chopped
4 Serrano chilies (or less depending on how spicy you want this)
1 lemon juiced

A pinch of sugar
salt to taste

Blitz all ingredients in a blender (or as I do, in a coffee grinder), adding water to get a “chutney” consistency. Check and adjust salt.

Serve with samosas, sabudana vada, or in cucumber sandwiches.