Food For Mouth

Sri Lankan Bitter Gourd Salad (also known as bitter melon)

2011-12-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

This is a traditional Sri Lankan dish. Frying the bitter gourd (aka bitter melon in East Asia) takes away the bitter taste (but beware that the dish has a sophisticated bitter undertone - the lime and tomato help with that).

I have never seen bitter gourd in a regular supermarket in the US. I buy mine at my local Patel Brothers, and I'm sure any local Asian market will have them. This is what they look like, raw:

They are about the size of a skinny cucumber pickle.

Recipe:
5 small/medium bitter gourds
1 small red onion, sliced very thin
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
2 green chilis, thinly sliced
lime juice
white vinegar to taste
kosher salt (or whatever kind you have on hand)

Slice bitter gourd into very thin circles/rings.

Deep fry in vegetable oil till crisp and till the vegetables darken.

Place bitter gourd on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.

Put in bowl and toss with tomato, onion, chili, vinegar and lime juice to taste.

Serve! It is traditionally served with white rice and curry dishes.

Borders is closing

2011-07-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

I went to Borders on Saturday. I won’t give you the long and harrowing details of how I tried to go on Friday in 100*F heat in a car with no AC only to find the location I picked had already closed and the traffic resembled that at a Yankees game.

Anyway.

I went to the Rockaway Mall location, and it was a sad sight:

Borders at the Rockaway Town Square Mall, Rockaway, NJ

Currently, everything is 10% off unless otherwise noted. They are selling the furniture as well since it is a liquidation sale. The employees on Saturday were visibly stressed but nice, and most seemed to be accepting this as something they knew would happen eventually. They were treating it like Christmas rush.

I managed to snag a cook book called “The Soup Bible” by Debra Mayhew for under $6, which was quite a deal. Everything else really wasn’t worth it, and I know the prices will tip down more and more as September approaches. I am definitely going back come August end to check out the deep discounts – 10% is really not much of a discount at all. I’m definitely only going to hit the cookbook section, and perhaps see if I can get any good-condition Harry Potter books, although I’m sure the latter will sell out very fast. Cookbooks usually cost too much to warrant me purchasing them and other books, cds and dvds are accessible at a little place I like to call “the library” for free.

I just wanted to share with anyone who may read this blog that there will be deals to be had at Borders soon, and it’s going to be great to find some good deals on cook books.

Sri Lankan Pol Sambol (Sambal) recipe with fresh coconut

2011-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

Pol Sambol (or sambal) is a spicy coconut mixture that is unique to Sri Lankan cuisine. And it's absolutely delicious. The flavor is very sharp and clean, and if you've only ever had coconut dishes that are sweet, you have to try this savory treat.

I took great pleasure in making this dish. It was my first time, although I'd grown up eating it. Thought I was a novice, it turned out perfectly which means this dish is very, very easy to make as long as you have the correct ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 whole coconut
Red chile powder
1 small red onion, chopped
juice of 2 limes (more or less)
salt
dried fish flakes (maldive fish which can be bought here)
1 thinly sliced small green chile*
curry leaves

Now the first thing you have to do is crack open the coconut which is no easy task. Find a heavy knife, one that you can whack against the nut. Use the back of the knife to give it some good, sharp smacks. If you can get it cracked, you can slide the tip of the knife in to pry it open.

If you can capture the coconut water in a cup, drink up! It's very good for you.

Then, you have to scrape the flesh out. This picture gives a good idea of how this works, and you can buy a coconut scraper online or at your local Indian food store, if it's good.

The scraper screws onto the side of a table, and then you crank away.

Mix in the chile powder (as much/little as you want). To get a healthy orange color, you have to put in quite a bit, so get a milder powder if you don't like too much hotness.

Mix in the lime, more or less according to your taste. Traditionally, Sri Lankan food is quite limey.

Add the chopped onion.

Add the sliced green chile and maldive fish (these are optional).

You may fry the curry leaves a little bit before you add them in, but this is not necessary. The curry leaves can be optional, but to me they make the dish authentic. In Sri Lanka, curry leaves are known as karapincha.

Pol sambol can be eaten with plain bread, and it's delicious this way. In this picture, you see it with dal curry (red lentils) and some crusty white bread.

*The chile I mean is not usually found in American grocery stores. It is small, slim and short, very spicy, and can be found in Indian markets.

Black Forest Cake: Beauty is only skin deep

2011-01-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hello world! This post will be brief, because I have a backlog of posts that have been delayed by a semester (of awesomeness, I might add...3.9 GPA) and a lost camera.

Boyf and I made a Black Forest cake for my 24th birthday. The end result looked...ok in a picture, I suppose, but really not so great as a food item. The cake was dry, the filling was all wrong, and the icing was - I cringe to admit - plain old whipped cream with shaved dark chocolate. After making the cake and fixing and re-fixing the cherry filling, I was so over it that I just COULDN'T whip up real icing.

The filling was supposed to be sour pitted cherries. The novice that I am bought no sugar added cherry pie filling, thinking I could add sugar to my taste. When I got home, I realized "no sugar added" means "Surprise! we added Splenda instead." Gross. I cannot tell you how much I loathe Splenda. The after taste is one of the most vile flavors anyone can taste in their lifetime. So I went back out to the store and got normal cherry pie filling, but as I applied it to the cake I realized slowly that it was all wrong. I added frozen raspberries to make it more sour, but...the end result wasn't great. Well - lesson learned for next time.

The recipe I used was a generic Black Forest one I found online. It's been so long since my birthday, I can't remember where the recipe came from.

An Unnatural Obsession with Kitchen Appliances

2010-09-07T18:29:00.001-07:00

I excitedly made my way to Target with my $25 gift card in hand to buy a food processor. I had wanted one for a while, but hadn't really been able to justify buying one. I am also mostly broke. So, having received a gift card, I thought now was the time.

I walked the entire length and breadth of the store before realizing that the food processors were by the entrance where I had come in. This should have been my first indication of what kind of experience this would turn out to be.

I looked at all the models on display, and finally, after much thought (and little research which is unlike me), I selected the Ninja Master Prep. It reeked somewhat of infomercial (Magic Bullet anyone) and it wasn't a brand I recognized, but it looked promising and was on sale for $39.99. It had double blades, a pitcher and small container, and a top-loading motor. I made my way to the register.

It rang up for $45.99.

I stopped the cashier and explained to her the sticker said $39.99. She looked flummoxed for a bit, and I was holding up the line which I hate to do. Thank goodness a manager walked by. She said "just change it." I though, well gee, I could have said it was $10.00. But I didn't.

When I got home, I set it up and threw some cauliflower in to shred. WOW. It was amazing! The thing shredded beautifully, and I could pulse and control how small I wanted the pieces to be. When I threw some frozen fruit and ice into the smaller fixture, it pureed it to a perfect sorbet consistency within seconds. I was blown away. My old blender which couldn't even crush ice was demoted to the cupboard.

I immediately went to the interwebs to check reviews, which I usually do BEFORE I buy pretty much anything. The good reviews looked promising. I was a little nervous because there were a number of bad reviews which all said the same thing, and when the reviews match each other, it's usually a good bet that they are right. If the bad reviews are just a grab bag of different gripes, that indicates personal preferences not met. But in this case, most dissatisfied reviewers mentioned the gears stripping.

I went to sleep happy last night having shredded cabbage, cauliflower, and made sorbet.

Today, the gears stripped.

I was so upset. This machine could have been so great.

So...on my way to my first class of the semester, I stopped at Target, returned the Ninja, and because I got store credit, bought a blender that promised ice crushing ability. This Oster blender was also $39.99 and came in silver, black and red. I chose silver. While picking up the box, I noticed that the black blender box was bigger. I examined the boxes but found no difference in description, so off I went.

During the 2 hours I sat in class, ALL I could think about was whether the blender would work, and how upset I was that I didn't have a food processor for my cauliflower.

When I got home, I rushed to throw some ice in the thing and fire it up. It crushed my ice! When I threw in some frozen fruit - nothing. Just a regular, crappy, weak-ass blender. All the fruit sat on top while the blades spun.

When I went online, guess what I found? THE BLACK BLENDER COMES WITH A FREE FOOD PROCESSOR. AND IT'S THE SAME PRICE.

WHAT is going ON here? In what world did Oster think this gimmick up? It was the same on Amazon, Walmart and all other stores I checked. Randomly, the black model comes with the little processor thrown in.

So guess what I'm doing tomorrow? I will be on Target's doorstep at 8am to exchange the silver for the black.

This whole fracas has robbed sleep from me. Kitchen appliances and food preparation can consume my being so completely. Maybe it's because not having the necessary tools make me afraid I will have nothing to eat, which is irrational. But If I have nothing to eat I am one unhappy person.

UGH.

To my girlfriend

2010-04-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

I miss you. You were the first woman (girl; chick) I ever could call "friend" with such warmth in my heart. We have little in common but that one thing: and that one thing was the most important thing to me. I cried when I found that connection.

We drifted. I've written you secret letters, felt ignored, felt disturbingly like a jilted lover. I used to write about boys and true love. I was sixteen, eighteen, twenty. Now I'm twenty three and I've forgotten that kind of "love" and found this new one. It's deeper, more real and embarrassingly painful than that old pink goo ever was.

Where are you? You are in a throbbing metropolis, you are in a bakery, you are at a party, you are in a book. You are in a cloud of things that don't include me. It makes me sad.

I wish we were together again. I wish I was at your party.

Love always,
Niki

Some thoughts on food and the body

2010-04-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

It's 1:41 am so I'm not going to spell and grammar check this post after I write it, so I apologize beforehand.

As some of you may know, I have slowly left my vegetarian attempt. I FAILED. NO, well, it's not that dramatic, although I did feel like I failed in some respects. I adhere to what Michael Pollan recently put into so many great words: eat food, not too much, mostly plants. The fact is I always have eaten that way thanks to my mother. I love that I naturally stick to that mantra, and did so even before Pollan put it so well. I don't LIKE junk food. I LIKE veggies and fruit. I LIKE cooking from scratch, and have learned to do it well since living on my own. I see how this natural liking of what most people would consider "health" food makes me a very fortunate person.

My boyfriend is not like me. People think I'm exaggerating when I explain his diet, but I assure you I'm not. He eats:
Chicken fingers or nuggets.
French fries.
Mashed potatoes.
A traditional turkey dinner consisting of turkey, corn, gravy, stuffing and mashed potatoes.
plain pizza.
Chicken parm sandwiches.
Turkey sandwiches (turkey, bread. NOTHING else).
This is his entire list of what he will eat, excluding certain sweet treats. He will literally never eat anything that is not on this list. Nothing. No-thing.

However, his drinking habits are stellar. Lots and lots of water, with a diet iced tea thrown in here and there. This seems basic to me, who was brought up in a strictly water household. Soda was a treat, seriously. And besides, what else would one want to drink in a tropical country so hot and humid that people shower twice a day?

I am working very hard to improve my BF's diet for fear his health will deteriorate. Neither of us have health insurance, and either of us getting sick with diabetes, heart problems, etc, would be catastrophic in my opinion. This is a big failing in this country (no free health care/insurance). I see people I know all around me getting into (Again, I am not exaggerating) hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars of debt from illnesses, either their own or a dependent's, even with insurance. This sickens me to no end and puts incredible fear into me.

I try to better my Bf's food. I have succeeded greatly in hiding a good amount of mashed parsnip and cauliflower in his potatoes. I only use skim milk and margarine in his potatoes (not ideal but better) even though he insisted he could not eat them without whole milk and butter. Sometimes I keep it from him, sometimes I tell him. As much as he insists he can always tell the difference, I if I don't mention anything, he doesn't notice. By the way, he's 35. We're not talking about a child here - but here I am hiding veggies. Thankfully however, he does take a multivitamin every day.

As for myself, Let me let you in on a secret. I make less than 12,000 a year now that I work only part time and am back in grad school. I eat fresh, home cooked food 99% of the time. My bills are: rent, cell phone, car payment, car insurance. Miscellaneous includes gas, the rare piece of clothing, household stuff and groceries. However, at the top of my priority list is food, and I always make sure it's healthy and whole (not processed).

I am not a saint. My weaknesses:

Chocolate
salt and vinegar chips
buffalo wings
the very occasional craving for cola

and that's really it. My goal now is to completely cut out soda. I have succeeded in only very very occasionally succumbing to my craving when I get one (I'm talking less than once a month). the rest of it makes up the 1% of food intake that happens to be bad.

I am aware that a large (vaaaast) amount of the food/obesity/health problems here in the USA stem from the horrible, sickening place we are in with subsidized food. Bad food is cheaper, good food expensive. The way I see it, when processed and fast foods came out (relatively recently in historical terms), they were fast to get, ever so yummy, and new. poeple loved it. demand was high. therefore more was produced, and it was subsidized and made cheaper for the consumer. I won't even get into how this screws many farmers etc, and this is a very very basic representation of the problem, but what I really want to say here is eating healthy does not have to be expensive.

I have a system, and I got this system from my mum. I don't know if it's a sri lankan system, or just one that my mum made work because she grew up so poor. I have a box of spices. These are cheap, very cheap, if you buy them from an indian/asian/latino/whatever store. If not,buy the cheapest brands in your supermarket. They may seem expensive at first, but guess what? they last for literally months.

These spices open up a world of flavors. use them on their own, combine them creatively, a different way each time. Use what you like. You will always have interesting food.

Right - the food. This is my system and it works for me. I buy rice in bulk. I try to get brown rice. I but fresh veggies, but you can buy frozen (not canned) and stock up for longer. I buy meat and freeze it. My meal will consist of one veggie, one meat, and rice. Occasionally I'll add a salad of cukes, tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper, white vinegar and lime juice. No, don't cringe. look up the prices, I swear you will be surprised. a bottle of white vinegar lasts me most of a year.

The meat and veggie will be boiled with spices, lime juice and lite coconut milk (and salt of course). The coco milk comes in cans and I buy loads when they are on sale.

boiled. what sounds healthier than that? never fried, boiled.

now I vary this system with other methods and dishes of course once in a while, but this system works amazingly with my budget. NO fresh veggies are not expensive. I swear. Buy what's on sale.

Now. I've been watching Jamie Oliver's food revolution (look it up, I don't want to explain it all) and in a nutshell here's what I will say right now:

If your kid won't eat healthy foods, keep putting it in front of them. Eventually they will have to eat it, what are they gonna do, starve themselves? If I dictated to my mum what I wanted to eat or not eat, she would laugh in my face and say "how sad."

Pack their school lunches. Yes, This is HARD for working parents, but working parents in Canada do it, and so can we. Yes it is a great thing that the US provides school lunches for kids whose parents can't afford it. The school food system needs to change and this is a bigger problem (related to how we feed the poor, the students, and the armed forces crap). Some parents don't even know to give their kids breakfast, they just think it's unnecessary. These parents are sadly uneducated.

If you think they will just trade their food at school, well guess what, yes they will. But the more parents pack lunches, the less crap there is to trade for, so it's a combined effort people.

It starts at home home home. I didn't like certain veggies when I was little. I loved McD's (evil corporation). Yeah. But because of my mum's eating environment in the home, when I became old enough to decide on my own, I made the RIGHT decisions. I had to learn in a slightly harder way because when I came to America, I was exposed to foods I never had in sri lanka. My lack of education regarding these foods kindly gave me 30 + pounds of extra weight, but this was my wake up call. I now know that even seemingly innocuous foods like a chicken breast could actually have come out of a cardboard box pre processed and injected. This is what I got in my college cafeteria. However, I inherently knew when I came to the US that all this cheese and fake looking food was definitely bad. It took a little more experience to learn about the other normal-LOOKING foods. This is why I cook all my own food now.

I am on self-motivated exercise routine now, and have been for about a month. I swim a mile almost every day. I bike and walk a lot. I need to lose about 40 pounds to get to an ideal weight. It's sad that someone like me who has always eaten relatively well (and used to be on swim teams all her life till the end of high school) is now 40lbs overweight (gosh that sounds bad), but I have some biological set backs that I have only recently learned about. I have poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, which is by no means detrimental, but is certainly unfortunate. It makes me: gather weight around my stomach and waist, digest carbs straight to fat (yay for all that rice), and some other hormonal things that I wish I didn't have to deal with but that I do. I have a very bad back which causes me constant pain, which is probably my primary reason for wanting to lose weight. I hope losing weight will relieve some of that pain. however, in the interim, it makes even light impact exercise very painful. That's why I finally found my home in the water once again.

I no longer offer excuses. I am 100% focused on reaching my goal. I will get there.

This post has been a lot of thoughts at once. I hope anyone who reads it will find some tidbit of use or interest. In any case, thanks for reading. My blog posts will resume regularity after the semester is over.

By the way I still do not eat pork.

Baked Tilapia with olives, capers, tomatoes and lemon juice

2010-02-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

This is a yummy dish that was inspired by a dish I see all the time at the hotel I work in.

Simply place 4 tilapia fillets in a casserole dish, sprinkle with sliced black olives, chopped tomato chunks (2 tomatoes), a handful of capers, and the juice of one whole squeezed lemon. Salt and pepper the fillets liberally. I added some hot pepper flakes, but that's optional.

Bake fish at 450F until fish are cooked through.

Vegemite in the USA

2010-02-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

Heard of vegemite? It's Australian and very good for you. It's a bread spread, and I find it best on toast with margarine. You have to spread it very thin, because it has a very strong flavour. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't tasted it, like cola, but the best way I can come up with is this: it's salty, almost soy saucy, yet creamy at the same time.

It has lots of iron and Vit B12 in it, and folate too. I tried it on toast with an egg just to see how it would taste:

Dal curry

2010-02-02T12:17:00.001-08:00

Ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
chopped cilantro
1 chopped tomato
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 curry leaves
curry powder
salt
chillie powder optional
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 can coconut milk

Add oil to a saucepan, heat. Add mustard seeds and curry leaves and COVER POT (the seeds pop like popcorn). You will smell a roasting smell, which are the mustard seeds. Once these turn black, add tomato, onion and garlic. Cook this mixture down, so the flavors are concentrated (meaning cook the water out of it, until it's semi-dryish). Meanwhile in a separate pot, boil the red lentils in about 2 cups water, adding more water as needed. be careful as lentils tend to bubble over if not watched and stirred.

When lentils are cooked, add them to the cooking tomatoes/onions etc, and stir well. Add curry powder, coconut milk, and a little water if mixture is too thick (this dish is like a thick soup). Add salt to taste, and if you want it hot add chillie powder too. Add chopped cilantro at the end of cooking and let cook for no more than one minute.

Voila, dal curry. Serve with rice or naan.

Niki's notes: Red lentils are actually orange in the bag and yellow when cooked.
I made this dish simple without many chilies etc because I ate it with my biryani (see below) which was hot.

the tomatoes etc cooking:

Vegetable Biriyani with mint and cilantro raita

2010-01-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

Biriyani Ingredients
2 cups of basmati rice
8 pieces broccoli
8 pcs cauliflower,
1/2 cup peas,
1/2 cup chopped carrots,
1/4 cup corn,
1/2 chopped green beans,
2 tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
2 cups yogurt
chilli powder
curry powder
turmeric powder
cardamom powder
5 cloves
pinch mustard seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped mint
salt to taste
enough oil to coat bottom of large frying pan

Add all ingredients with oil except rice and yogurt. Meanwhile, boil rice.
simmer all vegetables till cooked in the spices. Then add yogurt and simmer for a couple more minutes. Add salt to taste, bearing in mind you are going to mix this in with rice.Once done, mix the rice in with the vegetable mixture (make sure rice has cooled down).

Raita ingredients
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup each of chopped mint and cilantro
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin

Stir all ingredients well.

serve rice with raita on the side.

I apologize for the spices not having amounts. I just cook by eyeballing everything, so just do that.

Vegetarian Pad Thai Egg Noodles

2010-01-25T14:58:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked egg noodles (skinny noodles)
1/2 cup sliced green beans
1/2 sliced bell pepper
2-3 basil leaves
1/4 cup crushed almonds (peanuts, cashews...your favorite)
1 small onion
1 tsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp olive/canola/vegetable oil
1 Tbsp chili oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp pad thai paste

Boil noodles for about 2 minutes (slightly undercook). Strain and keep aside. Add oil, chopped onion and garlic to frying pan, and saute for about a minute. Add the rest of the veggies and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes. Add noodles and stir, breaking the clumps up if they stick. If the noodles are sticking, add a little more oil to help break the clumps. Add the nuts, pad thai paste, lemon juice and soy sauce (soy sauce/lemon juice to taste, add more or less if you like). Toss and stir until all ingredients are completely and evenly combined.

Serve with hot sauce if you like that kind of thing (I do!).

The hot sauce I used is Cluck U brand (don't knock it) 911 sauce. It's made from habaneros, one of the hottest peppers you can find. SO GOOD!!

With the hot sauce:

Simple fruit and almond salad

2010-01-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

The soup was so rich, I needed a refreshing cleanse. So for dinner tonight I had chopped strawberries, kiwi and a cocktail grapefruit with whole roasted almonds. The fruit refreshed and the nuts were very satisfying and filling.

If you've never had a cocktail grapefruit, it's delicious. Only a hint of that grapefruit bitterness, and very juicy and sweet.

Vegan Dad's Leek, Onion and Potato Soup

2010-01-24T06:24:00.000-08:00

I tried this recipe out, and it was decent but not something I'd make again. Not that it was a bad recipe - It's great - but it just doesn't appeal to my taste, that's all.

It took over 2 hours to make. I finished at midnight, and I had worked that day and then went and spent an hour in a hot jacuzzi (not something I do often, my life is not one of leisure and luxury :) ), so cooking was taxing. But here it is:

INGREDIENTS
Serves 6
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp margarine
- 2 medium yellow onions, halved and sliced
- 5 leeks, white and light greens part, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups red wine
- 6 cups water or veggie stock
- 2 tsp sage
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- salt and pepper to taste (heavy on the pepper)
- 4 medium idaho potatoes, peeled, small dice
- 1 medium sweet potato, peeled, small dice
- 1 15 0z can white kidney beans, rinsed and drained

METHOD
1. Heat oil and margarine in a large pot over medium heat. Add in onions and and saute for a few mins until they begin to soften. Then add in leeks and garlic and mix well. Once things are sizzling along, reduce heat to med-lo and cook, uncovered, for 45-60 mins, until onions and leeks become a nice golden brown. Stir occasionally to keep from sticking.
2. Add wine to the pot and stir to deglaze. Add in water, spices, soy sauce, potatoes and beans. Bring to bubbling, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 30-45 mins, until potatoes are soft but not mushy. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

Niki's notes: This recipe is from Vegan Dad, whose blog link is to the right ===>
I changed it up a little. For instance, his called for oregano and marjoram, and I used bay leaves and thyme as I had none. See his recipe for the original. His picture is also better :)

For the record, this is how cluttered it gets when I cook:

And that's a good day.

Chocolate Chip Flat Breads

2010-01-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, I admit it. I tried to make cookies and they came out bread-like, so I christened them flat breads. But if you want chocolate chip flat breads, these are perfect!

Ingredients

* 1 cup butter
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 honey
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups milk or dark chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla .Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
*EDIT: Apparently they came out like cake because I used "I can't believe it's not butter" instead of real butter or shortening. LESSON LEARNED

I made my own chocolate chips by melting a chunk of callebaut dark chocolate in the microwave (careful, don't overheat. It doesn't look like it's melted when it actually is: take it out and stir to check).
Once melted, I used the wrong end of a fork (or spoon) to place little dollops of chocolate on a piece of wax paper laid on a tray:

I placed 3 trays (I used cutting boards too - flat surface) in the fridge and left them in there until the chips were completely cold (1/2 hour-1 hour depending on the variables):

Forgive the bad picture.

It was a fun project :)

Thai Tom Yum Mixed Vegetable Curry

2010-01-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today I made a mixed vegetable Thai Tom Yum curry. I went in search for Thai curry paste, either green or red, and couldn't find any anywhere. i could only find the pre made sauce, bottled, which is only good for one use. Not worth it. So I got a jar of tom yum soup paste, and used it to make a curry.

Ingredients:

3 tsp tom yum paste
1 can lite coconut milk
1/2 cup water
3-4 tsp thai peanut sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp chillie oil
a pinch of grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup spinach
8 snow peas
8-10 green beans, cut into thirds
1/3 bell pepper, any color
6 basil leaves
1/2 chinese eggplant, diced

Serves only 2, so double if needed.

In a saucepan, add tom yum paste , peanut sauce, soy sauce and chillie oil to coconut milk and combine with a whisk. Add water and heat. Add ginger and vegetables, bring to a boil, and simmer till sauce is desired thickness and veggies are done to your liking. Add soy sauce at the end to taste (instead of salt).

Serve over jasmine rice

SO EASY! And tasty.

I'm pretty sure it would be nice with any veggies you like (except maybe carrots and celery, they don't go well with Asian food). Add or subtract as desired.

San-J Peanut sauce:

Deer brand Tom Yum paste:

Bad food Day

2010-01-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

I'm too depressed to write a lot about this. Suffice it to say I spent a couple hours cooking a spinach curry and beet salad, and it turned out so bad that I had to throw everything out. This has never happened to me. What a waste of time and money. the spinach looked like Linda Blair's puke and the shallots I put in the beet salad were so old (I just bought them!) they ruined the whole salad.

Otherwise, the beet salad I make is usually very good. I will give you the recipe another, happier day.

Niki's pumkin and carrot curry soup infused with ginger

2010-01-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

Ok. This is by far the BEST pumpkin soup you will ever taste. I was wondering what I could make tonight with what I had in the house, aka I didn't want to spend any money. I had 15oz of pumpkin pulp (canned) left over from the pumpkin bars, and I decided to make pumpkin soup. I also had some baby carrots, ginger and celery, so voila: thus is born Niki's crazy pumpkin soup.

Ingredients:
15oz pumpkin pulp
7-8 baby carrots
2 plum tomatoes (or any kind you like)
1 celery heart (with leaves)
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 onion
1T butter
1t minced garlic
2t curry powder
1t sugar
1 bay leaf
1 curry leaf
1 pinch each of:
celery seed
cumin powder
coriander powder
turmeric
chillie flakes

1/2 can coconut milk
1 1/2 cup vegetable stock

Blend tomatoes, ginger, carrots, celery heart and onion. Heat butter in a saucepan, and once melted, add garlic. Saute until fragrant. Add tomato puree, stir well. Add curry powder, stir. Add pumpkin and the rest of the ingredients except the milk and stock. Stir well and heat through. Add stock and milk. Stir well, and let the soup simmer and cook down to desired thickness. Add more stock or milk if desired. Finally add salt to taste.

I had the soup with some Freihofer's hearty 12 grain bread, which positively melted in my mouth. It was divine.

Pea and Carrot Matar; Indian food, the salvation of vegetarians

2010-01-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

Indian food is delicious. There happen to be very many Indian vegetarian dishes in the cultural repertoire. Why? Because a lot of the country is vegetarian. Therefore, the Indian people had to make damn sure they knew how to whip up a mean veggie dish.

Today I made pea and carrot matar, which is peas and carrots simmered in a yummy spiced tomato sauce. everything is made from scratch, but it is very simple to make.

ingredients:
1 pinch mustard seeds
favorite kind of cooking oil
2 curry leaves
1/2 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, halved
2 green chillies
1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic
1 cup of frozed peas and carrots
1/3 can of coconut milk
1/2 cup of water

1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp each of:
curry powder
cumin powder
coriander powder
favorite chillie powder

Add oil to pot and heat. Add curry leaves, mustard seeds and 1/2 the onion (chopped). In a blender, combine chopped tomatoes, chillies, ginger, garlic, and half a chopped onion. Blend until smooth. Once the ingredients in the oil start getting fragrant, add tomato mixture. Add all spice powders, stir, and simmer for a while till flavors combine (4 mins approx). Add peas and carrots, coconut milk and water, stir to combine. Cover and simmer till sauce boils down and thickens (not too thick!). Add salt to taste.

Serve with white basmati rice.

The matar:

I added some cucumber salad to the dish, which is just chopped cukes, salt, pepper, vinegar and lemon/lime juice all to taste:

Applebee’s and work food

2010-01-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

I’ve started to realize I should be taking pictures of the food I eat in restaurants. I wish you could have seen the plate of meatless nachos I got at Chevy’s (yuck) or the spinach dip at Applebee’s that looked so beautiful but gave me stomach cramps. It didn’t help that halfway through my meal one of my dinner companions informed me they put mayonnaise into the dip. GROSS.

The thing is, I remember the spinach and artichoke dip to be so lovely. Clearly it makes a difference when the dip is my entire meal.

The dip is served in a hot bowl, with a generous amount of tortilla chips to dip. They include a small cup of salsa, too, to break up the flavor. I appreciated that. However: the chips were deep fried and some still dripped with oil. I KNOW. Disgusting. The dip was more creamy (mayo-y) than cheesy or spinachy-artichoky, and therefore had very little flavor. The ONLY other vegetarian option on the menu, besides the veggie burger, was a queso-blanco dip (of course full of cheese) and I suspect they put bacon in that anyway. I was going to get that just to try something new, but they had run out by 10:15pm, so no dice.

Gross gross gross.

That was on Thursday. On Friday I was back at work. They had salmon and I was tempted, as I haven’t decided whether to allow myself a pescatarian diet or just stick to a plain vegetarian one. I passed this time. So I piled my plate with some rice that had peas and carrots in it, some beets and some cauliflower. It was after I started eating that I could really taste how much butter they put in the rice. I almost puked and ended up eating some creamy tomato soup with some rice in it to mask the butter, and some caesar salad (wilted and soggy). I will have to bring my own food to work from now on.

Chevy's

2010-01-14T11:25:00.001-08:00

I went to Chevy's yesterday for a friends bday. Honestly....there are no options for vegetarians. My friend Steph is a veg too, and we have a plat of nachos sans the meat. It has some kidney beans, a tiny amount of guac and sour cream, some lettuce and pico de gallo. I'm going to Applebee's tonight, and I called them to see what their veg options were. "Um...we have a veggie burger?" That was it. They said they could make any dish and omit the meat. On their menu, a lot of their dishes contain a warning that says "may contain bacon." It's like they put bacon in everything. I don't know why I'm so surprised....I've always hated large unholy chains. They're so unoriginal.

I guess the East cast is so into meat that there aren't as many veg restaurant options as there are out West. It's pretty sad. I almost feel guilty that I was so unaware of this until I became a vegetarian. There are a lot of Hindu people in this area, and I know there are a lot (thank God) of Indian restaurants in the area that serve veg options because of it. But, if a group of friends go out to one of the pervasive chains, or if one has to go on an obligatory work dinner or a bday party, options are very limited. Oftentimes, restaurants like this have ONE vegetarian option at the MOST. I am sure that upon request, meat can be omitted from some dishes like at Applebee's, but the dish is not meant to be served that way and is subsequently inferior.

It's lucky I can cook and also that I love Indian food.

Mango Banana smoothies and hard times

2010-01-12T12:21:00.000-08:00

Today was really tough. Actually, last night and today. It's at night for some reason that I start thinking about how much I want meat. I didn't sleep very well. I almost gave up today (like yesterday) but I hung in there. BF and I moved some stuff into a friend's place to be stored, and they wanted pizza. I was about to get a spinach calzone or something, when I decided to get come veggie fried rice from Hunan Wok, my fave fave Chinese food place. I am a Chinese take-out expert, and no one makes it like they do. True, they've been shut down *ahem* THREE times for health code violations, and I HAVE found a band aid in my food once...just once...there, but hell...I'm still alive and their food is the shiznit.

So that's what I had for lunch. Chinese veggie fried rice with a ton of hot sauce (gotta have the hot sauce).

I think that if I satisfy my meat cravings with some other thing that I crave sometimes, like pizza or whatever, maybe my "crave" instinct will turn off. I have head of new vegetarians compensating with eating a lot of sweets, which of course is bad. I am consciously trying not to do that. In fact, I have noticed some cravings for sweets, but have ignored them specifically because I am sure they are related to my body trying to compensate. Today, I chose to avoid cheesy Italian food and went with the (oily, sigh) Chinese food. Avoiding to much dairy seems to be smarter as I'm not used to large volumes of it. I am more used to Chinese Food.

For an afternoon snack I had a mango banana smoothie. Just one mango, one banana, and some ice. That's it. It turned out well. My mango was overripe, so it was a good use for it.

Maeda-En Green Tea Ice Cream

2010-01-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

I searched high and low in NJ for Soy ice cream and green tea ice cream. For my future reference, Foodtown, Pathmark and Shoprite do not have soy ice cream (??) but Whole Foods does. Also, NONE of these stores have green tea ice cream, but the local Chinese food market does. I am seriously grateful to be in an area with so many ethnic food stores. I just wish some sort of African food store would open now. I really wanna try Harissa.

So I ventured into the Chinese store for the 2nd time in my life, bracing myself for the stares, but since it was midday, it was ok. I mean I can pull off Indian (I'm Sri Lankan) but not Chinese. I just look like a tourist or something.

I bought what they had, which was:

It was nice.

It had that distinctive tea leaf taste, stronger than in the ice cream I've had at Hibachi restaurants, and the creaminess reminded me of some homemade avocado ice cream I once had in Beruwala, Sri Lanka.

Veggie Lunch: Potato Masala curry and Eggplant curry

2010-01-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

Today was tough. I didn't think I could make it through. I was having severe meat cravings, but I forced myself to ignore them.

I bought veggies at Patel Bro.s food market (Parsippany NJ), and was amazed at how cheap it all was. I bought:

3 tomatoes
1 section of fresh ginger root
1 longish snakegourd
1 midsized eggplant
1 5lb bag of potatoes
1 sizeable jar of garam masala
1 jar of sweet lime pickle
6 green chillies
1 bag frozen lotus root

it came to $12 and change!!!!

And I cannot believe I found snakegourd and lotus root.

Anyway, I made potato and eggplant curry, and ate it with basmati rice and a dollop of the delicious Swad sweet lime pickle. It was YUMMY. That pickle was really really good, and really gave such pizazz to a lunch I was dreading. It was sweet, but tangy and hot. I sort of poured out the excess oil from the top of the jar. It has chilie seeds and lime rinds in it, which were great. So...no meat = no problem (for one more day).

Potatoes:

Eggplant:

Swad sweet lime pickle:

Pumpkin Bars

2010-01-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Hey all
I made Pumpkin Bars for the house, and with me subbing honey for sugar and adding nutmeg, they came out scrumptious:

Pumpkin Bars (recipe courtesy Patty Ronning, adapted by Paula Deen, and further adapted by Niki)

Ingredients
Bars:

* 4 eggs
* 1 cup of honey, add some sugar to taste
* 1 cup melted butter or oil
* 15-ounce can pumpkin
* 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 dash of fresh grated nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

* 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
* 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
* honey to texture and taste
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Thai Vegetable soup; Or, Becoming a Vegetarian

2010-01-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I got violently sick. I though it was from a homemade burger I had had that night for dinner. I felt so nauseous after eating. After a medicinal solution from the BF, I felt slightly better but got hungry again and housed some canned (ugh) chicken soup. Fast forward to the middle of the night and let’s just say it was coming out both ends. Ok that wasn’t so subtle…but it wasn’t pretty. I’m traumatized.

I made Veg soup the next day. Plain old veggies and broth, no noodles, rice or trimmings, soup. It lasted for a couple days, over which time I realized I had probably caught a bug (as opposed to food poisoning) as BF’s cousin had had the same thing a few days earlier.

I threw the burger patties I made out the window for the stray cats nonetheless, moved to waves of nausea every time I thought of meat. Talk about negative association.

I have now made the tentative decision, after a successful week of vegetarian subsistence, to try and become and actual vegetarian. Why? I feel healthier, my skin feels better, and I have lost 3 pounds. Nice, right?

I remade my veg soup after I ran out, and added extra lemon, cilantro and coconut milk for a Thai twist. I also threw in curry powder, cumin, coriander and ginger. Turned out quite well. A whole pot that lasts me days (BF is not a healthy eater) may have been a bit much, but still, I like it:

Recipe:
Around 12 cups of water (I usually use enough for whatever amount of veggies I have to cover, and adjust other ingredients accordingly. I never measure, I throw sh*t in).
Some bouillon cubes of your choice (or powder, or nothing)
Approx 1t of cumin, coriander, ginger and curry powder. Omit any of these you don’t like.
Veggies I had in the house:
Cabbage
Carrots
Potatoes
Onion
Green beans
(leeks are a great addition)
red lentils (adds amazing texture, I always add these to my Veg soup).
Tomatoes (2 or 3)
Salt and pepper
Half can of coconut milk
cilantro

Boil all ingredients, adding cilantro/coco milk towards the end. Boil till flavours are combined and veggies are cooked through. Salt through to taste.

Remember you can add ANY veggies you like. To make regular veggie soup, omit cilantro, coco milk, coriander, cumin and ginger. I like to keep the curry powder in, it adds a nice depth of flavour.
The pics are my thai veg soup both:

Regular

and blended

New Year's Eve Spaghetti/baked chicken/Asian salad dressing

2008-12-31T17:59:00.000-08:00

I chose Bobby Flay's recipe from Food Network (dot com). It turned out awesomely. However, I must point out that the cooking time of a mythical 1 hour is actually 4 HOURS...thanks Bobby...thanks a lot.

I must include at this juncture the explanation of my boyfriend having a complete repertoire of chicken, turkey and for veggies corn and potatoes in his diet. So I always have to make something different for him (when I do make food for him that is, which I must grant is not often since he is good about making his own :) )

For him, I baked a chicken breast the way he likes it. If it were for me or sister of course it would be much more exciting but hey sometimes simple things can be great too.

i.e.
Sprinkle breast with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and poultry seasoning. I make sure to lift the skin gently and season slightly under there too, and don't forget to turn the breast over and get the underside too. I place it in any old baking pan I have around, making sure to cover the bottom of the pan with foil. I also cover the entire pan with foil while the chicken bakes to keep the moisture in. Bake at 400F for a little over an hour, and make sure to cut into the breast to the bone to make sure there's no pink before you serve.

For my spags, here follows Bobby Flay's recipe. I have pointed out where I deviated from the recipe as I tend to do:

Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 large Spanish onion, finely chopped
* 4 cloves garlic, smashed with some kosher salt to make a paste
* 2 (28-ounce) cans plum tomatoes and their juices, pureed in a blender
* 1 (16-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
* 1 small can tomato paste
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 small bunch Italian parsley
* 1 Cubano chile pepper, chopped (I used half a habanero pepper, gives it a better kick)
* Salt and freshly ground pepper
* 1 recipe Meatballs, recipe follows
* 1 recipe Spaghetti, recipe follows
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Directions

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add pureed tomatoes with their juices, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 cup water, (I used BEER instead it gave it the most deep flavour, yum) bay leaf, parsley, Cubano pepper, and bring to a boil. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Reduce heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes. Add meatballs and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and meatballs are tender. Remove the bay leaf.

Add enough sauce to the drained pasta (that has been returned to the pot) to coat and continue cooking briefly, just until pasta is well combined with sauce. Serve pasta with meatballs on top and garnished with fresh basil.
Meatballs:

* 1/2 pound ground pork
* 1/2 pound ground veal
* 1/2 pound ground beef
* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten (I used 3 eggs for mois-cha)
* 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
* 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped and sauteed
* 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
* 1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley leaves
* 1 cup pure olive oil
* Salt and freshly ground pepper
* I added a finely chopped onion into the mix.

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl, except olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roll the mixture into 1 1/2-inch balls. Heat the oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, fry meatballs, in batches as needed, until golden brown, but not cooked through completely. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels.
Spaghetti:

* 12 cups water
* Salt
* 1 pound #8 or #9 spaghetti
* Freshly grated Parmesan

Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain well in a colander, return to pot, and toss with sauce. Serve with meatballs and Parmesan on top.

It turned out scrumptious. I used dry parsley flakes because those were all I had and they actually gave the meatballs that cool green-specked "interesting" look. Dry Parsley keeps its colour and doesn't shrink, like most fresh leafies, in the heat.

I also made that Japanese ginger dressing you get in Hibachi restaurants. It was ok, I followed a recipe I found online and most will work. It just was the wrong salad for an Italian meal.

The pic's kind of blurry, but seriously it's all for the better.

Crepes

2008-12-31T17:45:00.000-08:00

Cripes!

I watched Senior Skip Day last night and in this theatrical masterpiece there was a scene involving crepes. The wonder pancake that goes with anything, it’s music to my ears. I’ve never made them before so I decided to go to my life instruction website (i.e. the Food Network) and look up an easy looking recipe. I found one, and it goes as follows:

CREPE BATTER:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
* 1/2 cup milk
* 3 large eggs
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a blender of food processor blend the flour, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, the milk, the eggs, the butter, and the salt for 5 seconds. Turn off the motor, with a rubber spatula scrape down the sides of the container, and blend the batter for 20 seconds more. Transfer the batter to a bowl and let it stand, covered, for 1 hour. (The batter may be made up to 1 day in advance and kept covered and chilled)

Yield: Enough batter for about 20 crepes

TO MAKE CREPES: Melted unsalted butter for brushing the pan Crepe batter (recipe above)

Heat a crepe pan or non-stick skillet measuring 6 to 7 inches across the bottom over moderate heat until it is hot. Brush the pan lightly with the butter, heat the pan until it is hot but now smoking, and remove it from the heat. Stir the batter, half fill a 1/4 cup measure with it, and pour the batter into the pan. Tilt and rotate the pan quickly to cover the bottom with a thin layer of batter and then turn the pan to the heat, loosen the edge of the crepe until the underside is browned lightly. Turn the crepe, brown the other side lightly and transfer the crepe to a plate. Make crepes with remaining batter in the same manner, brushing with butter as necessary. (The crepes may be made in advance, stacked, wrapped in plastic wrap, and chilled for up to 3 days or frozen.)

I’m off to make them, and I will update you with what they look like. Hopefully they turn out something like above.

Thin, light and fluffy but crisp at the edges.

mm.