Vegetable Pad Thai

This is a dsih that I've longed to eat! I used to drool when all my friends ordered thai food during residency. I never ate coz I knew there is a hidden fish or oyster sauce in that dish.
I have looked around for a pad thai recipie and found a couple pure vegeterian one. I modified it a little and came up with this one.

Of course, my thai friends may totally poo poo this version. But it's always better to start somewhere huh..?

What I used:

Thai rice noodles 1 pack
red onion 1/2 sliced
3-4 green chillies sliced
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1/4 cup shredded cabbage. ( did not have chinese cabbage)
1/4 cup snap peas
1/4 cup bean sprouts
1 egg
2-3 sprigs of green onions/ scallions
lots of cilantro
1/3 cup unsalted roasted peanuts coarsely crushed
3 tbsp oil

Pad thai sauce

4 tbsp tamarind paste
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp chilli sauce
3 tbsp jaggery ( i did not have brown sugar)
3/4 cup water.

Method:

1. Cook noodles according to packet instructions ( I used 1/2 of the noodles)

2. drain water and keep noodles aside.

3. Heat oil on high in a wok, if you have one. I did not have a wok so used a large saucepan. add the onion, garlic and green chillies and saute till theyare shinyand a anice aroma comes.

4. add the cabbage, snap peas and bean sprouts andsaute. add only a little salt as the soy sauce has some salt in it.

5. cook till the veggies are done, but crunchy too.

6. Push the vegetables to the side of the sauce pan.

7. add oil to the same pan and crack an egg. scramble it in the same sauce pan.

8. add half of the pad thai sauceand rice noodles.

9. gently toss them all around, making sure not to break up all the noodles.

10. add the remaining pad thai sauce and mix.

11. turn off the fire.

12.transfer to a platter. garnish with coarsely crushed peanuts, green onions and cilantro and serve.

My notes:

you can increase the chillies or the tanginess depending on your taste. you could also add some shredded carrots if you wanto !

Let me know if you have any other recipie for the same. Please do not forget to leave some comments!
:))

Potato Rosemary Roast

Rosemary is not an herb that is used in Indian cooking. I 've heard about it a lot from all the cooking channels, but have never used it myself.
 Turns out, Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves. It is native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the mint family. It has a lot of antioxidants and protects from stroke and Alzhimer's.
If it's good, then I have to try it out. Lot of the recipies used rosemary with oven roasted potatoes. Not much was out there for skillet ot tava based.

This is my desi version of rosemary potato roast-- desi style.

Well, this is a standard potato roast with less oil done by my mom.

What I used

1 large Russet potato
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
Rosemary sprigs 2 , leaves torn apart and chopped roughly. ( you can use dried rosemary too)
oil 2 tbsp.

Method:

1. Wash and peel the potato. You can leave the skin if you want to it will taste good too.

2.Dice potato.

3. Add salt to your taste, curry powder or whatever powder you have except talcum powder!

4. let it sit on the counter for 20 to 30 mins. This step is important because it cuts down on the oil you use to roast the potato.

5. Heat oil in a pan ( non stick preferred remember less oil..:))) and splutter whatever tadka / thalippu you want to use.

6. Add the marinated potato with the water given off by the salt.

7.Reduce the flame and cover the pan. Cook for 5 mins.

8. Add the rosemary leaves. At this point you can add garlic powder or any other spices that you remember would be good to add.

9.Cover and cook till potatoes are soft.

10. Uncover  and let the potoes roast on low fire till crisp.

11. Keep your nose up in the air so you can sniff all the nice aroma let off by the rosemary.

I made this today for lunch with lemon rasam.

Can you see the crispy potatoes and the rosemary..It was truly good!
Enjoy and let me know your comments please!

Cilantro Celery Thogayal

I pretty much eat most vegetables. However, when it comes to celery, I keep my distance. I never buy it or try one from the huge veggie platters served at work parties.
My lovely neighbor who does not know about my love for celery gave me a bunch the other day. She says"I picked some from  farmers market and though you might like some".

You shud have seen the look on my face! But of course, I said" Oh, Thank you! How sweet of you.. blah.. blah..."

The poor old bunch was sitting in my fridge and stared at me like the money with googly eyes! Kept saying, pick me, pick me and use me! Of course my good friend Google helped me find this celery thokku from vegetable concoctions.
I was then inspired to make my celery thogayal.

People who stayed a mile away from Celery will be drawn to the wonderful taste of this thogayal. The spices made the taste of celery so subtle that I enjoyed it a lot.
I waanted to share this mouth watering recipie with you all.

As always the measurements can be modified according to your taste.

Cilantro Celery Thogayal.

Celery diced 1 cup
Cilantro chopped 1 cup
1 green chilli ( mine was a ripe one)
1 small piece of ginger
tamarind paste 2 tbsp
Hing a pinch

for tempering
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp Urad dal

Method:

1. Wash the celery pretty well. It is notorious to hide all that dirt inside

2. Heat oil in a pan. add the celery and cilantro and saute for 4- 5 mins. set aside.

3. In the same pan saute the green chilli and ginger for a few mins.

4. Grind the cilantro, celery, ginger, tamatind paste, hing and green chilli. add salt according to taste.

5. Heat oil in a pan. add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add the urad dal and fry till golden.

6. Add the ground mix and keep sauteing till the oil separates from the sides. This usually takes < 10 mins.

7. Why are you still reading this? Have a plate full of steaming rice, kootu and enjoy as I did!

Cauliflower in Yogurt sauce.. A twist from the routine

Aren't you bored of doing the same aloo, cauliflower and peas curry?

I am! I googled and found out dahiwale cauliflower by mriganayani. Her recipie looked awesome, but looked too spicy to my taste buds.

I know you may be thinking " enna! cauliflower morkozhamba?. but trust me if you spike it it tastes awesome."

So I modified it to my taste and came up with this.

It was not out of the extraordinary, but definitely one that I will make again!

What you need: ( an estimate, you can add or subtract what you want)

1/2 cauliflower cut into florets of your wish
2 cups yogurt
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 tomato chopped
2 inch ginger chopped
2 green chillies  cut in length( mine looked red)
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Hing 1/4 tsp

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

salt to taste

Method

1. Wash the cauli florets. Boil water and dunk the florets in them. cover with lid. turn off the stove. let it stand for few minutes and drain the water.

2. In a bowl take the yogurt and add, coriander, cumin, turmeric, hing and garam masal powder, green chillies and ginger. mix well, add salt to taste.

3. In a pan heat oil. splutter mustard seeds and jeera.

4. Add the onions and fry till tender.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute till mushy.

6. Add the yougurt mix , reduce the heat and simmer till the oil separates.

7. Add the cauliflower and a little water.

8. Cook covered for a few mins till the sauce thickens. Garnish with cilantro if you have. I didm't have it:((

9. Serve hot with chappathis.

Note: You can do the same with potatoes and peas too. I didn't know that dahiwale aloo was such a famous comfort food in the north!

Enjoy this weekend!

Veggie Nuggets.. Leave the chicken alone!

Evening snack should be a easy one to make and not taking your whole time between, tennis lessons, nap times etc etc. This is a very easy and no brainer recipie for veggie nuggets.

Why should all the vegeterian kids look dazed when their friend are always gobbling chicken nuggets.
I am sure you don't even want to look at the oil in which they are fried in most of the fast food restaraunts.

You can get a much better tasting nugget at home with less oil.

You can basically add any vegetable you want in this recipie. No fuss about measurements! It all depends on your taste.

This is what I used.:

1/2 Russet potato
2 handfull of frozen mixed vegetables ( peas, corn, carrot and some beans)

1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp Coriander powder
Textured vegetable protein a hand full
salt to taste


For the batter:

5 tsp cornfloour
2 tsp all purpose flour
water to consistency
alt to taste

Corn flakes Coarsely  Powdered.

Method:

1. Wash the potato and cut into chunks. Nuke it ina bowl of water till soft. Drain water, let the potatoes cool and peel them. nash them well with a fork.

2. Cook all the frozen vegetables separately. soak the vegetable protein in hot water and drain the water after 15 mins. squeeze all the water again by pressing in your palm.

3.add them to the potato and mash lightly.

4.Add all the spices and salt to taste.

5. Mix cornflour, APF with water to thick batter thickness adding water little by little.

6. add salt to taste to the batter., Keep it ina bowl

7. Take the powdered corn flakes ina bowl.

8. Make small balls from the potato mixture and shape into a nugget or whatever shape you want.

9. Dunk them in the batter and then roll them in the corn flakes.

10. Keep them on a plate and place in the fridge for 30 mins. This helps them to keep their shape when fried.

11. After 30 mins take the nuggis out.

12. Heat oil in a skillet and shallow fry the nuggets till golden brown on both sides.

13. Serve hot with Ketchup.

Your little ones and of course you will love this.

I made 25 nuggets and I had more potato mixture left. I saved it so i can make potato sandwich for lunch box the next day.
It tasted like aloo tikki with vegetables.

Caramel Crispy Crunch

What a busy week this one was! My parents are here from India and my MIL left for India.
We also had project night at school and I was one proud mom!

So I made this as a special treat to my son. I ate this at work place when a co worker made for staff appreciation day. the original recipie is f rom ricekrispie treat website.

It's so quick and kidz would love it...

very easy to make with these

1 bag Kraft caramels, wrapper removed
2 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp water
6 cups cocoa puffs cereal
1 cup cashews
1 cup white chocolate chips and butterscotch chips ( equally divided )

Method

1.Add the caramel , water and margarine in a large microwave safe bowl. Control yourself or just give in to pop couple of caramels, choco chips etc etc inside your gullet! You know what i did, right?

2. Nuke for 3 mins, checking every minute till the caramel melts.

3.Mix the cocoa puffs, cashews and half of the choc chips in a bowl.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the molten caramel mixture.

5. Spread the mixture into a 9 x13 greased pan. Let it stand for about 2 mins. Sprinkle the remaining choc chip mixture over this and press evenly into the pan.

Doesn't it look gorgeous!

6. Cut into 2" squares when cool.

7. What are you waiting for, do enjoy this tasty treat!

Enjoy this weekend!