Meal Plan - Week of 6/30

Last week was very chaotic, just has no time for planning, among other things our dishwasher was out of order should be fixed this week.

Deepta starts camp this week, and I now have to do 8 weeks of lunches, this is traumatic, nothing I put in her lunchbox works. I am not sure how she does with her school lunches, but is not quite so personal. Anyhow so I now plan, our dinners, her lunches and anything else that I can think of.

Monday - Deepta's Lunch - Chicken Salad Sandwich with butter letuce and cucumber spread

Chicken Curry as Prepared over the weekend with Brown Rice

Tuesday - Deepta's Lunch - Assuming the Chicken salad sandwich worked we repeat this.

Remaining Chicken Curry, lentils and Brown Rice

Wednesday - Deepta's Lunch -Fresh Tomato Pasta

Pan Seared Fish

Garlic Scapes and Tomato Parathas

Thurday: Deepta's Lunch - White Bean and Eggplant Spread Sandwiches

White Bean and Eggplant spread

Spiced Garlic Bread

Friday: Deepta's Lunch - Chicken Salad Sandwich

Leftovers

Saturday: South Indian Rice Noodles

Sunday: Rice and Karhi

Elmsford Farmer's Market

The past couple of year's the only market that fit my timing and geography was the Pleasantville Farmers Market. Driving by yesterday on the corner of Tarrytown Road and Rte 119, I was rather surprised to see signs saying Farmers Market.

Actually, much like Alice in Wonderland, I stumbled into a really nice outdoor market. The produce and flowers were just so extensive. I will tell you, that this place carried some unusual items like mangoes, but over all had lovely produce. My son picknicked on the grape tomatoes a la fresco, but overall take a look...

Murg Makhani au Vin

It has been a week of sorts at both personal and global levels. I spent a fair amount of time at the doctors office dealing with a procedure of sorts. That is always annoying to me. My cousin and uncle are supposed to visit this weekend, but they are flipflopping between tomorrow and Sunday, well...

The whole Iran election has touched an unknown chord with me. Not sure why?

Added to that the Michael Jackson new has also saddened me in an unexpected way. If you are in the vicinity of the 40 number, you have grown up to his music, and it really troubles me to head of someone dying so alone. I wanted to do something to feel a little better and had to cook something company worthy as they say. I could not help remembering this New York Magazine article that I husband had pointed out. It was about this Indian guy in Paris with an Indo-French recipe. I liked the article but thought it was especially thoughtful of my husband (non-cook him) to save the recipe for me. Well, the thought of the recipe lingered although I had no article. I came up with something along the lines. I have to tell you if I have something along the lines of a signature spice, it is tandoori masala. So I came up with this chicken dish, which I have to tell you was pretty good.

Murg Makhani au Vin

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 -inch piece peeled ginger

4 pods peeled garlic

4 fresh green seranno chilies

3 lbs chicken on the bone, (skinned and cut into small pieces)

2 tablespoons tandoor masala (a commercial blend works fine)

1 teaspoon salt

1 large lemon

1/4 cup butter

2 onions, sliced into 3/4 cm rounds

3 pieces star anise

2 cups chardonay

1 cup sliced mushrooms

3/4 cup sliced grape tomatoes

For the garnish

2-3 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

Method of Preparation

1. Grind the ginger, garlic and green chillies into a paste.

2. Mix into the chicken with the tandoori masala and salt.

3. Squeeze the lemon juice and set aside for 30 minutes.

4. Heat the butter and add the onions and star anise and cook for 3-4 minutes.

5. Add the chicken and cook till the water is evaporated and the butter resurfaces. This takes a good 15 minutes. Stir the chicken for another 3-4 minutes, until lightly browned.

6. Add in the wine and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and tomatoes and cook for another 15 minutes. By now a thick sauce should and formed and the chicken should be very soft.

7. Turn off the heat and stir in the cilantro and black pepper.

While this was cooking I did take some time to scope out the original article that inspired this dish. Ok so I did not even use the right wine, but this was a nice article and I think you will like my chicken.

Monsoon Cake

This was yet again one of those chance forays with baking, that surprised me. A few weeks back we were visiting these dear friends of ours - the Brushes and I was all set to make a chocolate cake since that was high on the popularity rating, my resolve began to change one I realized how much tropical fruit I had (bits and pieces) sitting around. I had a rather juicy clementine, some pineapple and of course the bananas that had reached that level of fragrant ripeness, where you were reminded of their presence every time you stepped into the kitchen.

The ingredients were whizzed together in my food processor and cooked on low heat and cooled overnight. The cake does bring a lot of complexity of flavors, so you want to let it settle down nicely before serving. I think the overnight did it for me.

Monsoon Cake

Wet Ingredients

Juice of one Clementine (about 1/4 cup)

3 very ripe bananas (peeled and mashed)

4 eggs

3/4 cup ricotta cheese (1 used part skim)

1/2 cup low fat sour cream

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dry Ingredients

1 cup white all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1/2 cup powdered unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

For the topping

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup butter

1 cup thinly sliced pineapple

1/2 cup almonds

Method of Preparation

1. Prepare a cake pan, I used a 10 inch spring form pan, by greasing it lightly.

2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

3. Place the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl (I used the food processor) and mix until well mixed.

4. Place all the dry ingredients except the cranberries and stir well. Mix in batches into the wet mixture until very well mixed. Stir in the cranberries.

5. Line the base of the cake pan with the pineapples and almonds.

6. Cook the molasses, butter and water until just mixed through and pour over the pineapples.

7. Pour the cake batter over the pineapple topping. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes.

8. Cool overnight and then remove.

9. Enjoy with your favorite cup of tea.

Week of 6/15/09 Meal Plan

I generally like this idea, the key for me to try to do this week, was to do some of the pre-prepping today as I planned my menu, I generally do my shopping on Saturdays.

Monday - Palak Paneer Pulao, Curried Kidney beans and Mixed green salad

Tuesday - Green Salmon Saute, lentils and brown rice

Wednesday - Chicken koftas, baked eggplant, with bright potato salad

Thursdays - Leftover Potato salad and quick pizza (we have too much cheese at home)!

Friday - Spagetti and Thick tomato sauce

Saturday - There usually is leftovers by now.

Sunday - need to cook for fathers day!

Chicken Cutlets - trying home ground chicken

I was pretty excited to find the pack of salad greens in the local store and was feeling rather please with myself. The husband pointed out that they were not organic, etc, etc. Well they tasted pretty good and I did wash them several time.

No one in the house like any meat other than chicken, there a lot of ground meat recipes that I think are quite convienient and actually like with something like ground lamb, unfortunately they do not turn out right with ground chicken. Well, I tried something simple just to see how this would turn out - grinding the chicken at home. I used skinless chicken thighs and actually the chicken was nice and moist. I made these flavorful chicken cutlets and served them with a side of salad and a Trader Joe raspberry dressing.

Generally happy, I shall be making chicken meatballs and spagetti this week.

Chicken Cutlets

Prep Time - 45 minutes

Cook Time - 25 minutes

Makes 10 medium sized cutlets

Ingredients

3/4 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (excess fat trimmed)

1 large piece peeled ginger (about 1 - inch)

3 green chillies (seranno or jalepenos)

3-4 pods garlic

1 red onion, peeled and cut into 4 pieces

2 teaspoons cumin-coriander powder

1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 egg

3/4 plain breadcrumbs

Oil for shallow frying

Method of Preparation

1. Place the chicken, ginger, chillies, garlic, onion, cumin-coriander into the bowl of a large food processore and process for 5 minutes, until the mixture in a ground coarse puree. The mixture I made retained some texture but was still fine enough to qualify as ground.

2. Remove the mixture into a mixing bowl and chop the cilantro and mix in.

3. Beat the egg and mix into the chicken. Shape into oval cutlets.

4. Cover lightly with breadcrumbs and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.

5. Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the cutlets till golden brown on one side (takes about 5-6 minutes) and turn and cook till browned.

6. Drain and serve.

Staples, a frequent lunch spot and weekend

Cedar Street in Dobbs Ferry is like a mini-restaurant row - there is a lot of variety in a little strip that has at least 6 - 8 restarants of varing ethinic cuisines - Japanese, Bistro, Greek, Chinese, Pizza/Italian and then Mexican. These restaurants have been my lunchtime mainstay the past two years, let me begin my telling you about Tomatillo
I first was introduced to Tomatillo, by Peter Roth, a former colleague. Peter likes healthy and easy on the wallet. I think by now, I have tried most of the menu. The food is interesting a little light on spice, but a lovely stop on a relaxed day. They use local organic products, and have lunch specials, sunday brunch specials and a regular highly affordable menu. The food is offered with optional sauces range from creamy cilatro pesto to chipotle salsa.
Items worth mentioning is a breakfast burritto, made with stone barns eggs and chorizo, fish tacos - really fresh tasting cornmeal coated fish, an avocado and chorizo salad.

The sangria is very fruity but packs a punch and they offer two desserts a dense and rich flan and a chocolate mint cake. Do try the place while picking up a quick bite, it is a fun exercise.

Much like tomatillo, my cumin yellow rice with peas is a stapple, very basic and simple - 1 teaspoon oil, 1 teaspoon ghee, small chopped onion, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 cup peas, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 cup basmati rice and 2 cups water.

Heat, mix other stuff, add rice and water, cook for 20 minutes, enjoy!

CFK - Tomato Round Up

Life has been moving on at its usual crazy pace. Deepta finished a successful first performance and is really thrilled about the whole thing. I completely forgot about the CFK round-up until a gentle nudge from Sharmi - the creator of Cooking for Kids.

The first entry is from Pooja at- My experience with cooking. This is a lovely tomato mushroom soup with wonderful summer flavors using tomatoes, mushrooms and fresh herbs and tells us about the importance of choosing the right appetizer for a meal.

The next entry is from EC at

Simple Indian Food. This recipe for

Paneer Stuffed Dosa

is bound to be a hit with my kids, it is definitely on my list of must -try recipes.

Priyasuresh at Priya's Easy and Tasty Recipes sent this wonderful recipe for Rajma and Tomato Rice, the easy flavors and comforting tones make this a great hit with kids and actually a quick balanced one dish meal.

Vidhas from Appetizing Recipes took time from her vacation in Delhi to send us this recipe for tomato pasta soup.
The soup uses dhal for body and this lends a nice comforting flavor to the dish.




















I made this tripple tomato pasta which really
turned out well. This consise list gives everyone some
options in time for summer tomatoes.

Meal Plan Monday

It took me some thought and general internal resistance to give this organizing idea a try. I like cooking and actually enjoy a little spontaneity after a long days work. This being said, I have to confess I sometime get very carried away and we end up having a great dinner very late.

The next few months promise to be challenging, so I want to see what sticking to a schedule ok, make that trying to stick to a schedule will do for me.

Monday - Rice and Class leftovers ( the saag paneer will be left over from class and I shall invent the white beans recipe)

Tuesday - Homemade chicken samosas and salad ( I know this sounds weird, but we are expecting a late night visitor, who I am sure will be expecting an Indian treat!).

Wednesday - Baked Lemon Pasta - this recipe looks interesting.

Thursday- Moon Dal, Rice, and Five Spice Cauliflower.

Friday - Leftovers and Egg Curry

Saturday- Balsamic Maple Chicken with rice

Sunday - Eat out!

Even as I do this, it looks like grocery shopping tomorrow is going to be very compact. Let me see what maiden week turns out to be. This is my first attempt at trying this with Org Junkie's

Meal plan idea.

I would love to see how this turns out. I have to say, shopping was a little less scattered after I had planned all this out!.

A little flexibility

I have been having this odd shoulder pain, that is undefined by the doctors. This is most frustrating to me, not to mention my dear precise husband, who quizzes me on how I am comunicating the issue to the doctors.

I was like - I am in pain, this I can tell them. The reality is though I do not like fuss and details, this is very much reflected in my cooking. Probably why I am not much of a baker.

This recipe made me try, though! The term anything was a good sell, I pretty much followed the recipe, used whole wheat flour, raw brown sugar and lots of blueberries! No sugar lemon drizzle either. Verdict from the kids! Oh like blueberry muffin, I suppose they had a point.

Lime Coconut Blueberry loaf

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil (1 used canolla and 3 tablespoons cocconut)

1 cup plain yogurt (1used homemade 2%)

3 eggs

3/4 cup raw turbinado sugar

Zest of two limes

Juice of two limes

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon wholewheat pastry flour.

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Method of Preparation

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and prepare a loaf pan.

2. In the bowl of a large food processor, place the oil, yougurt, eggs, sugar, lime zest and lime and pulse till blended.

3. Sift together the dry ingredients (except 1 tablespoon flour) and add in two batches to the wet ingredients.

4. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl.

5. Toss the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour, and stir into the batter.

6. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, the cake is well browned and an inserted toothpick comes out dry from the center.

7. Cook throughly and slice and serve.