Potato-Edamame wraps

If you’re like me, you hate having to brave the lunch crowds at the cafeteria at work, only to find yourself shelling out muchos dolares for some insipid fare. But some days, it’s just too much of an effort to prepare a lunch ahead of time. Over the years of graduate student scrounging, I have amassed an arsenal of recipes to combat just such a situation. Dishes that can be put together quickly, packaged neatly, store well at room temperature for several hours, and will still taste good a day later. Here’s one such easy recipe that combines spiced boiled potatoes and my favorite protein source, steamed edamame. The following recipe is the bare-bones version, but if you’re feeling more creative, you can always add other flavorings such as fresh chopped cilantro or roasted coriander.

Potato Edamame Wrap

Tomato, jalapeno, or whole wheat wraps ~10 inches in diameter

2 T mayo (I really like the kind with olive oil; it tastes less eggy)

2 T Sriracha (This hot sauce is a staple at my house, but if you don’t have it, any other hot sauce such as a few drops of Tabasco, will suffice)

2 medium potatoes, boiled until soft, but not mashed

2 small or 1 medium zucchini, diced

2 T olive oil

2 T cumin seeds

2 T cumin powder

1 C edamame, cooked (I use frozen edamame and steam them in the microwave for a few minutes)

Salt to taste

Dice boiled potatoes.

Heat oil in a pan and sauté cumin seeds and powder

Add potatoes and sauté for a minute

Add zucchini and sauté for 2 minutes

Add edamame and salt to taste, and sauté for another minute

Grill wrap on a hot griddle

Once slightly browned on both sides, remove and spread hot sauce and mayo in a line in center of wrap

Add potato-edamame mixture

Roll neatly, and wrap in aluminum foil.

Store in a fridge for upto a day; can be eaten cold.

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.

Sabudana Vada aka. Tapioca arancini

Growing up in Bombay as a child of two working parents, I practically grew up in my neighbor’s house. My neighbors were an elderly couple, who lived with three of their grown kids. I used to call the woman of the house 'paati', which means grandma in my language. But some of the neighborhood kids used to refer to her as 'ajji', which is grandma in Marathi, the local language. So after much discussion and contention, we all agreed to call her 'paati-ajji' one day, and the name just stuck. I still like to think of this as a victory on my part, since 'paati' precedes 'ajji' in the final name, but who's keeping count, right! The real victory, as anyone who knew her would agree, were the delicacies that her kitchen would churn out, especially during festive seasons. Looking back, I realize that a lot of my food preferences have been influenced by the time I spent with “paati-ajji”. Whether it was the dried dates that I used to reportedly steal from her pantry, or the sweet modaks that I would selectively eat during festival seasons, I have so many memories of lazy weekday afternoons spent dunking dry rusks into weak tea at her house, while I waited for my parents to return home.

One of 'paati-ajji’s' specialties was Sabudana Vada. These were small fritters made with tapioca or sago pearls with potatoes, cumin, and peanuts and were commonly consumed during “fasting” periods. To me, these delicacies generally signal a feast, rather than a fast, but apparently, the ingredients that form this dish are all “allowed” foods during a fast, as per Hindu tradition -- and I, personally, am not one to argue with tradition.

I recently decided to give this recipe a try during the festive season of Diwali. They were surprisingly easy to make and absolutely delectable. I fried them up in small bite-sized pieces rather than the traditional larger patty shape, and served them with good ol’ fashioned tomato ketchup (Heinz, of course). They remind me of Italian arancini, but in my opinion, they are far tastier with their predictably crisp exterior, and soft flavorful centers. So go ahead and try this recipe, the next time you want to impress for less.

Sabudana Vada

11/2 C Sago/Tapioca pearls (sabudana) , available at Indian grocery stores

3 potatoes such as Yukon Gold, boiled and mashed

1 C roasted peanuts, coarsely ground

3-6 hot green chilies such as Serrano, chopped

4 T fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

2 T cumin seeds

2 T lemon juice

Salt to taste

Vegetable/Canola oil for deep frying

Soak the sabudana, in enough water to cover for two hours. Drain off excess water and squeeze dry.

Mix all ingredients together, add salt to taste, and shape either into flattened discs of ~1.5” diameter or into popcorn-sized bites, as pictured here.

Heat oil until a small piece of this sabudana mixture, when dropped into the oil, floats up immediately.

Deep fry the bites, turning, until golden brown.

Drain on paper and serve hot with ketchup or coriander chutney.

These did remain crispy for several hours, so you could make these ahead of time for a party. The unfried mix also stores well in the fridge for a few days.

Apple Cake

Fall is here. Despite my daily hopes for a late resurgence of summer, the dazzling coppers and golds on tree tops and the hypnotic morning fogs have been hard to ignore. But no matter. As much as I live for the summer, I absolutely love fall. Once you get past the return of the rains, there are so many magical things about this season – the smell of a neighbor’s wood burning stove, snuggling under a fluffy down comforter (after having hit the snooze button for the third time), steaming hot bowls of soup for lunch and for dinner (more on this later), and long weekend drives for some leaf-peeping. On these excursions, one invariably encounters several enticing “Apples, here” signs around every bend, and I personally find these signs very hard to bypass. So naturally, come fall, I find myself with a large surplus of apples, and no horse to feed them to. While I suppose I could feed them to my neighbor’s horse, I’ve instead been working on using them in some human-friendly recipes. On that note, I present to you my recipe for an apple spice cake, adapted from so many versions that are abundant on the web.
This version is considerably less sweet than most recipes I’ve come across, and I also love the combination of the almond flavor with the 'cinnamonized' apples. (*In fact, I may try to substitute some of the flour with almond meal, the next time I bake this.) The cake comes together quite easily and is just as delicious as a breakfast treat as an afternoon sugar fix. If you can bear to keep your hands off it for that long, the cake also keeps well, covered at room temperature, for up to three days.

Apple Cake

For the apple ‘filling’

8 apples, I prefer Gala, peeled, cored, and chopped into large-ish chunks
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2T sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Toss these together, and set aside while preparing the cake batter.

For the cake batter

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour*
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon almond extract

4 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans and golden raisin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x11 glass pan.

Stir dry ingredients together. Whisk together wet ingredients, except for eggs, and add dry ingredients to this mixture.

Add the eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition.

Spread 2/3 of batter evenly on bottom of pan. Evenly spread apples and nut/raisin mix, and top off with remaining batter.

Bake for about 1 hour, or until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean.