Late one Sunday after a weekend away, we came home to an empty fridge with a strong craving for Indian food.  I was wishing for an Indian version of Ina Garten who would load up my fridge with a proper Indian meal before my return.  If there’s anyone out there interested in filling that role, I live in a lovely building in Dumbo and can tell you more about it.

I dove into the freezer and resurfaced with a box of peas. I scrounged up some mushrooms, a tomato and an onion.  Within 15 or 20 minutes, I cobbled together a simple dish of curried mushrooms and peas with frozen naan.  It reminded me that fresh, healthy and Indian doesn’t mean hours spent slaving over the stove.  It also doesn’t require a spice cabinet stacked three rows deep (all of the spices used here are on my top ten list of Indian spices).

Curried Mushrooms and Peas

I sometimes make a “wet” version of this curry which is more time consuming.  This version is more like the weeknight version.  It’s tasty without all of the fuss of slow cooking the masala.

1-2 cups button mushrooms, sliced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 beefsteak tomato, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 cup yogurt, whisked

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan.  Add the mushrooms and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are soft and glossy looking.  In a wide skillet, cook the onions for about 10 minutes until see through then add the tomatoes and spices.  Cook for about another 5 minutes until the tomatoes have wilted.  Add the peas and mushrooms.  Cover and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.  Turn off the heat and stir in the yogurt.  Serve warm with roti or naan and rice.

Farmers markets really get me excited.  Rajat thinks it’s because they remind me of vegetable markets in India.  I think it’s because I associate farmers markets with warm weather and fresh, green vegetables that require sunshine and warmth (two things New York has been sadly lacking until the last few days).  An even more plausible explanation is that it reminds me of weekend trips to the farmers market and international grocery store with my parents.  

My search for a good market has gotten a little out of hand.  Last weekend I dragged Rajat to two farmers markets on a dreary, gray, about to rain Saturday.  We got to each market late and most of the stalls were packing up.  Yesterday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to Fulton Stall Markets, which turned out to have more artisinal cheese and fresh bread stalls than any produce.  Thank god for the Brooklyn Fairway where I managed to find some bright green leafy spinach and beautiful green and ruby red swiss chard last weekend.  

Spinach and Swiss Chard Curry with Shitake Mushrooms and Sweet Peas turned out to be a great way to ring in the warm weather that we’re finally getting.  I tossed some earthy, hearty shitake mushrooms and sweet peas into a mix of mild pureed spinach with sharper red swiss chard.  A tomato based masala added spicy heat balanced out with creaminess from whipped yogurt and milk.  I may not have found good farmers market produce but still – hearty food of the earth!

Of course, the farmers market hunt continues.  Anyone else out there who gets excited by farmers markets?  Or should I just save my time and go to the grocery store?

This year we invited R’s North Indian family and my South Indian family, which isn’t so so South Indian since it now includes my Gujurati brother-in-law and sister-in-law, to Brooklyn.  Our menu ended up being a little North, a little South, a little Guju and a teeny bit Brooklyn.

People always wonder what a vegetarian, desi family eats for Thanksgiving.  I can’t fault their curiosity.  Truth be told, we’re not exactly sure WHAT we’re supposed to eat either.  Tofurkey gets no love in our house – it’s too bready, dry and bland.  Some years we’ve just had a normal dinner, which is slightly less than festive.  Without a real tradition and no official guidance about what should grace our dinner table, we tend to overload on our favorite desi foods.  Not such a bad alternative.

To start off the evening, R made bhel puri using Swad brand chaat in a box.  Chaat, (pronounced like “chaaat” rhymes with “rot”) an Indian “roadside” snack, is a mixture of crunchy and soft, sweet, tangy tamarind chutney, spicy green chili and garlic chutneys all coated with a variety of masalas – amchoor, lal mirch, coriander and cumin (the picture above is pre-chutney).  Swad’s chaat kit is surprisingly good and not just good as in “good for chaat out of a box” or “good for $2.99 a box.”  It’s good good.  The puffed rice, sev and puris are always crunchy and fresh tasting, you can add as little or much chutney as you want it spicy and you simply add chopped boiled potatoes, diced onions and fresh cilantro.  Plus, everything comes in these shiny gold and silver foil bags that look very Willy Wonka-ish.  R made this about an hour before family arrived and then added the chutneys right before we expected everyone. 

We also made stuffed mushrooms, which don’t fit into a north-south-guju-brooklyn menu but taste really good.  R’s aunty makes these for turkey day in Chatham, NJ and they’re always a hit.  So we went with it.  There were certain culprits in the kitchen sneaking mushrooms before it was officially time to dig in.

These are simple to make – remove and set aside the stems from large, white mushrooms.*  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Pour about 2 tbspn. olive oil into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle in ~1/2 tspn. sea salt and a 1/4 tspn. lal mirch.  Toss the mushroom caps into the mixing bowl and use your hands to toss them around until well coated.  You can cover the mixing bowl with a plate and shake it good too.  Spread the caps, cavity side down, on a cookie tray covered in aluminum foil and bake on the lower rack until liquid runs off from the caps and dries up and the caps are well browned (see picture where I turned the caps cavity side up after baking).  Meanwhile, saute half a diced onion until translucent along with 3 cloves diced garlic.  Dice half of the mushroom stems and add to the onion/garlic mixture cooking until browned.  Add 1 1/2 packages frozen, chopped spinach and cook covered on medium-heat for about 10-12 minutes.  Add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese and cook uncovered for about 5 more minutes.  After it cools, spoon the mix into the mushroom cavities.  Top each mushroom with a sprinkle of parmesan.  Bake again on 350 degrees on the lower rack until the cheese on top melts or for about 8-10 minutes.  Serve hot. *To destem the mushrooms, hold the cap in your left palm and gently twist the stem up and out with your right hand.  You can use a small teaspoon if the base of the stem gets stuck too. 

The North Indian half of our dinner included mattar paneer, shahi aloo gobi and dhal makhani (courtesy of R’s mom from NJ).  My brother made Gujurati style kadhi with stuffed patra, a real treat since patra (taro root leaves) is considered a delicacy that’s hard to find and harder to cook.  We also catered a few South Indian dishes from the canteen at the Ganesh Temple in Flushing.  The temple’s canteen is usually some of the best South Indian food available in NY.  Everything we’ve ever eaten there has been mouth watering, finger licking goodness.  I’m not sure if they had the B-team chefs cooking on Thanksgiving or what but the catered food wasn’t very impressive.

I make mattar paneer using the same recipe as mattar mushroom but since this was for a “fancy” dinner, I substitute the same amount of light cream (or heavy if you dare) for the yogurt.  It gives the curry a richer, creamier flavor that’s a little too unhealthy for everyday dinner but completely justified on Thanksgiving.  I used to pan fry paneer (some people, probably those same ones who use heavy cream, deep fry it), but now in effort to be healthier, I grill it on a Cuisinart Griddler using the flat top grill plates so there’s no grill lines.  Here’s how to grill paneer:

1.  Preheat the Griddler to high.  Quarter the block of paneer so you have four square pieces.

2. Spray each side of the griddle with olive oil cooking spray.  Place the paneer on the griddle, close and grill until the paneer is golden on both sides being careful not to let it burn.  Allow the paneer to cool, then cut it into bite size pieces.  You could try a hot skillet if you don’t own a Griddler.

3. Bring a pot of water with a 1/4-1/2 tspn. turmeric to a boil.  Drop in the paneer and let it boil for ~ 15 minutes.  This little secret softens the paneer and makes it chewy (MIL tip which R will probably hate that I gave away!).

For dessert, we treated ourselves to a fresh ginger pumpkin pie and a pecan pie from Sweet Melissa Patisserie on 7th Ave in Park Slope.  I’m not up to date on the price of pie nowadays, but I’m pretty sure Sweet Melissa’s is on the pricey side.  It’s locally owned though and was able to verify a few minutes shy of our allotted pickup time that they only used vegetable shortening (in all of the planning, I totally forgot to ask about animal shortening until the day of!) – not to mention the pies were delicios-o (pronounced “dee-lish-eee-ooo-soo” – my neices, M&M, word for delicious which I think they learned from Dora).

Keep an eye out for my shahi aloo gobi recipe and for my brother’s Gujurati kadhi with patra (who was so kind as to take some of the pictures above while I slaving away over the stove!).

R first introduced me to sushi was four years ago in Lake Tahoe.  I loved the combo of rice and fresh veggies, rice and fried sweet potatoes, rice and tempura.  Sushi at non-vegetarian restaurants gives me the heebee jeebees though…I picture fish juice contaminating my veggie sushi (sounds crazy but is it really?).  Once, I even told a waitress that I was allergic to fish so to please make my sushi carefully away from the seafood (okay, that is a little crazy).

During our Boston years, R would tote home sushi from Franchia, a vegetarian, Korean tea house, when visiting New York for work.  During a weekend visit, my brother and his wife brought over Brigid Treloar’s sushi how to cookbook, Vegetarian Sushi – we discovered making sushi wasn’t so hard and was actually sort of fun. Treloar’s cookbook is helpful in terms of the pictures, step-by-step instructions and ideas for elaborate, beautiful rolls. For basic rolls though, you can do without the cookbook and just leave the fillings to your imagination as inspired by the leftover veggies in your fridge.

So this Monday, Columbus Day, after a morning volunteering at the headquarters of a certain presidential candidate, I made veggie sushi, miso soup and chili/garlic edamame.

Sushi Rice: Make ~3 cups sushi rice according to the package. After the rice cooks, spread ~1/4 cup of sushi vinegar over the rice and mix it in using a rice paddle. Keep the rice covered with a damp dish towel or paper towel to keep the rice from drying out while you make the sushi.

Teriyaki Tofu Rolls: Cut tofu lengthwise into 1/4 inch matchsticks. Put in a sandwich bag with enough teriyaki sauce to coat the tofu and let marinate for at least 30 minutes. Pan fry tofu and let it cool before making sushi rolls.

Crispy Unchicken: Pan fry vegetarian chicken pieces until well browned. After allowing to cool, slice the unchicken lengthwise. *Veat makes a good unchicken product, Gourmet Bites, that is 100% vegetarian and unseasoned. It does look a little meaty but it absorbs sauces and spices really well and cooks quickly. I haven’t been able to find these anywhere in awhile but I did recently stock up on a similar soy protein, Vegetarian Chicken Bites, at May Wah in Chinatown, a vegetarian grocery store which will even ship items to you.  May Wah’s Vegetarian Chicken Bites are similarly unseasoned.  Both of these products are loaded with protein.

Bellpepper Tempura: Heat enough oil to shallow fry. Gently beat 1 egg yolk with 1/2 cup cold water. Mix in 1/2 cup all purpose flour. Dip bellpepper pieces in flour batter and coat. Allow excess batter to drip off before placing bellpepper in oil. Fry until golden 4-5 minutes turning as needed.

Garden Rolls: Thinly slice peeled cucumbers, red bellpeppers and yellow bellpeppers into matchsticks. Combine all three fresh veggies for a crunchy garden roll.

Get creative – you can combine the tofu and tempura, unchikn and tempura and use the tempura alone. You can also combine fresh red bellpeppers with the tofu and unchikn.

Method:

1. Before you start, place a small bowl of water next to your work area – this is to make sure the sushi rice doesn’t stick to your fingers, which it will stick to like glue. (interesting tidbit – in India, mashed rice is used as a glue agent to seal envelopes.)
2. Position the sushi mat in front of you with the short side closest to you – the white threads along the mat should be vertical. Place the nori sheet on the mat leaving a few slats between the sheet and the edge of the mat closest to you.  The creases on the nori should be vertical and the creased side facing up.
3. Use the rice paddle to scoop rice onto the nori keeping in mind that the 1/2 inch strip of nori furthest from you should be left uncoated. Dip your fingers into the water bowl then gently rake the rice with your fingers across the sheet spreading it out evenly.
4. Place the fillings in a row horizontally along the side closest to you. Don’t get greedy and overfill!  Use your left hand to hold the fillings in place and pick up the edge of the mat closest to you. Roll the mat forward tightly pausing to gently press down on the roll. Continue rolling until you get to the end of the mat and then gently push down again to reinforce the seal.
5. After you have two sushi rolls, place them next to each other and using a sharp knife (carefully) slice through both rolls at the same time. Cut the sushi into about 1/2 inch thick pieces. Between each cut, wipe the edge of the knife with a wet paper towel.

I wanted to make one of our favorites for dinner tonight – mattar paneer – since R came home after a week of traveling and is about to set off on another week of traveling.  Unfortunately, paneer is hard to come by in Brooklyn so I made mattar mushroom instead using shitake mushrooms.  I rarely follow any recipe to a tee and believe that almost any recipe can be altered or varied depending on what ingredients that you do or don’t have – so today, mushrooms filled in for paneer.

The chewy, earthy taste of shitakes, while completely different from creamy, rich paneer is still quite delicious with sweet peas and the tangy, spicy tomato curry.