Masyachi Aamti (Fish Curry) July 26, 2008

This a dish which is made most often on mom’s side of the family. It is made with any kind of fish, I prefer it with shrimps. It is one of the rare dishes with which I love to eat rice.  

Ingredients:

-  Shrimp (Prawns)

- Medium Sized Onion – 1

- Wet scraped coconut – 4 heaped tbls

- Tomatoes – 3 small

- Peppercorns – 5

- Chilli Powder – 1/2 tsp

- Coriander Seeds – 1 tsp

- Turmeric

- Salt

- Oil – 2 tsps

Method:

1. Wash the shrimp, and marinate with salt and turmeric

2. Grind half the onion, tomatoes, coconut, peppercorns, coriander seeds, and chili powder into a puree

3. Chop the remaining half of the onion into small pieces

4. Heat a vessel on medium heat, with oil. Add asefotida, mustard seeds and jeera seeds for tempering. Once the seeds start crackling, add the chopped onion.

5. Once the onions turn translucent, add the marinated shrimp, and cook till the shrimp turns translucent.

6. Finally add the puree, cover the vessel and cook for 20 mins.

Enjoy this delicious aamti with hot rice. Delicious, traditional diet from the costal parts of India!

Food Trivia – About Ciabatta Bread and Hydroponics July 21, 2008

Ciabatta Bread

A few months back, the mister and I discovered Ciabatta bread, in Good Food co-ops. We instantly loved the firm crust and the soft interior. We sliced the bread into half, smothered one side with chutney, topped it with cucumber and tomato slices, and a lettuce leaf ….. mmmmm …. was delicious.

Yesterday, got a fresh Ciabatta loaf from Whole Foods market, and had it with tea, this morning. The taste reminded me of warm freshly baked bread from our local Indian bakery; hence an attempt to learn few facts about the bread.

1. An Italian bread
2. Named so, since ciabatta means slipper; the shape of the bread roughly resembles a slipper.
3. Most common usage is for sandwiches. Also served toasted with olive oil and herbs, since the crumb absorbs liquids very well.

You will see a variation in the porous nature of the bread. I think I like the one with medium density.  

Hydroponics

We got these hydroponic tomatoes one day, with instructions not to refrigerate them. Since then, I have been wondering what are hydroponics.

Per Wikipedia, Hydroponics (from the Greek words hydro (water) and ponos (labour) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, or mineral wool.

Hydroponics also saves an incredible amount of water; it uses as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food

Hydroponics have been used to enhance vegetables to provide more nutritional value. Example – a hydroponic farmer in Virginia has developed a calcium and potassium enriched head of lettuce.

That’s all for today! Need to get my act together to blog about the two delicious traditional seafood recipes that I made yesterday.

References:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-ciabatta-bread.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics

Ciabatta bread image from BBC News

Chopsuey July 7, 2008

Often referred as ‘American Chopsuey’ in Indian restaurants. I don’t have a clue why they call it American, because I haven’t eaten a dish with remote resemblance to the ‘American Chopsuey’ here.

Anyways, I learnt this recipe from mom. Like I have mentioned before, mom is the experimenting kind. She loves to cook foods of all kinds. And acheives results to perfection.

Ingredients:

- Noodles  (1 packet per serving)
- Tomatoes (2 medium sized tomatoes, per packet)

The ingredients listed below are based on 4 servings [My husband and I love to eat. So 4 servings work great for us. We have a few leftovers, but no one is complaining! ]

- Vinegar (Half Cup)
- Sugar (Half Cup)
- Soy Sauce (3 tbls)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Corn flour (2 tbls)
- Onions (2 medium sized – sliced longitudinal)
- Beans (1 cup – French cut)
- Carrots (2 – shredded)
- Capsicum (1 big – julienne)
- Cabbage (1/4 of a big cabbage – sliced longitudinal)
- Scallions (6 – 8 – finely shredded – keep the slices of onion bulbs separate from the leaves)
- Ajinomoto

Method:

For the sauce:
1. Boil the tomatoes (whole) in water, until you can easily poke a knife through them
2. Allow the tomatoes to cool
3. Blend the tomatoes to form a smooth gravy (Note: Do not add any water)
4. Mix the corn flour with water, and stir well
5. Heat a vessel, add tomato gravy, vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, salt and pepper
6. When the liquid is hot, add the corn flour  liquid
7. Thicken the sauce and take it off the stove top

For the noodles:
8. Cook half of the noodles, as instructed in boiling water
9. Fry the other half of the noodles (For a healthier version, serve 3 parts – boiled noodles, 1 part – fried noodles. Even though I am a health freak, I try not to avoid the fried noodles. The crunch just tastes fantastic in the Chopsuey.)

Cooking the vegetables:
10.  Heat oil in a wide pan (sufficient to stir fry all the vegetables)
11. Start with the onions (cook on high for 2 mins)
12. Load the wide pan with chopped scallion bulbs (1 min), beans (1 min), carrots (1 min), capsicum (1 min), cabbage (1 min) and finally the scallion leaves.
Note: The idea is to load the vegetables in the pan, in the order of the time required to cook the vegetable – from the maximum time to the least time. Do not remove the older veggies, as you add the new ones. Allow the new addition to cook only for a minute. This will help retain the crispness of the vegetables.
13. Add salt, pepper and ajinomoto

The volume of vegetables is equal, if not more than the noodles. This makes for a very health dish. 

Assembly:
14. Assemble the chopsuey prior to eating
15. Mix the vegetables and the tomato sauce, and heat till it warms through
16. Add boiled noodles and mix thoroughly
17. Add fried noodles to the base of the serving platter and load with the chopsuey on top. (Or just add the crunchy goodness on the top of the chopsuey.)

Mmmm … delicious! 

If you eat eggs, do not forget to serve an egg – sunny side up on top of the serving platter. 

Another non-vegetarian touch would be to add fried/baked shrimp or chicken pieces to the mix. Note to self: Need to try this at home sometime.  

And I will end on this note~

Red Pepper Pasta July 1, 2008

Got it from the Sanjeev Kapoor website. Tastes fantastic! The mister and I love this not-so-tedious recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1 Big Red  Pepper (Capsicum) (or 2 Medium Sized)
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Onion
- 2 Cloves of Garlic
- ½ tsps Red Pepper flakes
- 2 tbls Cream
- Pasta
- Black Pepper
- Salt to taste

Method:
1. Roughly slice the onion, carrot and red pepper
2. Pre-heat the oven at 425 F
3. Spread out the cut vegetable pieces on a baking sheet. Add olive oil, salt, pepper and small pieces of one garlic clove.
4. Bake the vegetables for 15 minutes
5. Grind the vegetables to a smooth paste
6. In the mean time, boil water, salt it generously and cook pasta for specified time
7. Heat some olive oil in a vessel.
8. Add pieces of the second garlic clove, till the oil is flavored. (Make sure that the garlic does not turn brown)
9. Add the vegetable paste and allow it to heat
10. Stir in the 2 tbls of cream when it is hot (This is optional; avoid if you want a low-fat recipe. Just the flavor of the vegetables is great too.)
11. Add the pasta, and the red pepper flakes, and some black pepper
12. The dish is ready when everything is uniformly heated. Add cheese for more yummy flavor.