All in a day's work

Now much as I liked the movie Julie and Julia, like everything else that tends to get attention, it also fosters stereotypes. The stereotype that I do not like, is that everyone who loves their blog has/hates their dead end day job.

Why does that have to be the case, food - loving, creating and living (OK obsessing for food) can be an amazing hobby just like anything else. True, we food bloggers tend to be a little more accessible to the public.

Well, I do not want to wax poetic about the veggies of the week, I just want to share another quick and blissful success. This week it was a fresh tender eggplant paired with a mild and sweet yellow bell pepper, tomatoes and a light touch of garlic and spices. Bliss and tenderness all in one.

Eggplant with bell peppers and tomatoes

Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time 15  minutes

Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

1/4 cup oil (olive or grape seed)
1 teaspoon roughly bruised cumin seeds
1 teaspoon grated ginger
5 pods of garlic, finely chopped
1 medium eggplant, (about 2 cups) cut into 2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 yellow bell peppers, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 ripe tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon freshly chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1, Heat the oil and add the the cumin, ginger and garlic and cook lightly until the garlic is very pale golden.
2. Add the eggplant and shake the turmeric over the eggplant and cook for about 8-9 minutes, stirring well. The eggplant lightly browns, softens and finally turns soft and moist.
2. Add in the pepper and tomatoes and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until the pepper softens and the tomato tums, soft and clings to the eggplant.
3. Mix in the salt and red pepper flakes and stir well and cook for a minute.
4. Stir in the cilantro and serve.

BTW, my secret dream might not be to be Julia Child, but I have my own dream, where my children are civilized and I have an unlimited budget to remodel my house. I would start with a dinnette for my kitchen. Yes, even before the dining room, the kitchen is my priority.

Sweet and Crunchy Eggplant

There is something interesting about playing around with everyday food, adding an ingredient or two. That is kind of what I did with this eggplant recipe that I made over the week. In essence, it is a nice and simple recipe full of the sweetness of plump raisins and addictive crunch of walnuts. I also added in some Feta cheese for good measure, and folded in some crisp garlic. All in all, it was a nice satisfying meatless dinner. I must be going through another degree of change. I am actually not missing meat when I do not cook it. I am not giving up meat or anything, I just think this is another step in appreciating the natural flavors of nature's bounty.

Anyhow, back to the eggplant.

Sweet and crunchy eggplant

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

1 medium sized eggplant
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive or grapeseed oil
6-7 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/3 coarsely crushed walnuts
1 teaspoon powdered coriander
1 teaspoon red chili pepper
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup large raisins
1 tablespoon thinly sliced black olives (optional)
1-2 teaspoons roughly torn mint leaves

Method of Preparation

1. Place the eggplant on the open flame of a gas-stove and cook turning occasionally until the eggplant is soft and the outer skin is nicely charred. Now, if you do not have a gas stove, the eggplant can be first baked and then broiled for a few minutes till the outer skin is burnt. The second method is less fussy, but it does take longer and produces a less intense smoky flavor. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

2. While the eggplant is cooking, in a cooking pan, place the oil and butter and cook till the butter is melted. Gently add in the sliced garlic and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally until the garlic gently turns golden.

3. Stir in the walnuts and cook for 1-2 minutes until they turn toasty. Gently remove the crisp garlic and walnuts from the oil and set aside and turn of the heat.

4. Carefully peel the outer skin of the eggplant and place the soft flesh in a bowl.

5. Turn the heat on, and in the remaining oil add in the powdered coriander and sizzle for 20-30 seconds. Add in the chili pepper and the eggplant and mash the eggplant coarsely with the spoon.

6. Stir in the feta cheese and the raisins and cook for 2-3 minutes, mixing well.

7. Stir in the olives (if using), and the reserved garlic and walnuts. Place in a serving dish and serve garnished with the mint leaves.

Alu Baigan - Golden potatoes and eggpants in a spicy tomato sauce

This melt in your mouth gently spiced concoction that simply melts in your mouth, did not start out with such delicious aspirations. In fact, it started out as a lone eggplant, occupying some space in the refrigerator. I asked my helper to cut it into wedges and keep this in a zip lock bag for me. This is something that she does on occasion, although her knife skills are really, really appalling, there is not too much damage one can do cubing a large eggplant.

Well, when I looked at the eggplant, I was quite disappointed, this time not because of the chopping, it happened to be a very seedy eggplant - letting me know rather gently it is not my season...

Well, I first thought of throwing it out, then I figured that I did need to make something. I then chopped a couple of potatoes and fried both the vegetables. Voila, the seedy not so pretty looking eggplant was transformed into a melting soft and luscious creation - testimony to the fact you cannot quite go wrong with some olive oil, eggplant and garlic.

Alu Baigan or potatoes with eggplants is quite a classic dish, there are several variations of this dish. I have for some reason never really tried it, but then as they say there is always a first time.

Here is how I did it,

Alu Baigan - Eggplant and Potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Serves Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

1 large purple eggplant, cut into wedges

2 idaho or russet potatoes, cut into wedges to match the eggplant

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/8 teaspoon asafetida

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1-2 pods of garlic, minced

3 tomatoes, very finely processed in the food processor

2 teaspoons freshly powdered coriander

1 teaspoon powdered cumin

1 teaspoon or more red chili powder

1-2 tablespoon chopped cilantro to garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Rub the potatoes and eggplants with half the salt and turmeric and set aside separate.

2. Heat half the oil and fry the eggplants, this can be done in batches, it takes about 4-5 minutes for the eggplants to brown and become comfortingly soft.

3. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to drain (note this is very important since the eggplant does indeed absorb a generous amount of oil.

4. Fry the potatoes in the remaining oil (adding more as needed, all except 1-2 tablespoons), till the potatoes are nice and golden.

5. Remove and add the potatoes to the fried eggplants. The entire process for frying takes about 15 minutes.

6. Note, at this point, you should have oil left in the cooking wok, in this oil, add cumin seeds and wait for them to sizzle, about 20 seconds.

7. Add in the asafetida, ginger and garlic and cook for about 1minute.

8. Mix in the tomatoes, cumin, coriander, red chili powder and the remaining salt and cook for 5-9. minutes on low heat until the tomatoes are well cooked and the oil re-appears.

10. Mix in the eggplants and potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes, till the ingredients are well mixed.

11. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Around the world

Well, the kids have recently been show how to use the globe. Deepta gets it and Aadi sort of, kind of gets it! Well if you make a child a foodie, you have to be prepared, everything will be about food, you shall tell him about a country, he shall try to spell, when he tries to spell it, he shall ask you all about it and when he asks you about it, you shall tell him about the food, and when you tell him about the food he might want to heat it and chances are he shall ask you to cook it - if you make a child a foodie..

Well that was my attempt at the if you give a moose a muffin series, but we have decided to try to do an A-z series of food. It has so far been going well (we are upto "C" but there is always a lag in blogging, so A was Algeria.

I came across this blog - that is called Algerian Creole Cuisine and I made the egg tangine recipe which essentially is a nice baked egg stata - hard to go wrong with eggs, the kids ate the eggplants, this recipe essentially layers one ingredient on top of another and bakes them till done.

Egg tangine - Baked egg casserole

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour (mostly baking)

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 chopped green pepper

3-4 egg plant slices

1/2 cup olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic

1 cup sliced mushrooms

6 eggs

1 cup half and half

Salt to taste

Lots of black pepper

2-3 tablespoons cheese

Cilantro to sprinke

4 slices, sliced baguette

Method of Preparation

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and line a casserole dish.

3. Line the baking dish with tomatoes.

4. Add in the peppers.

5. Cook the eggplant in oil until brown and cover the tomatoes.

6. Cook the garlic and onions and mushrooms until soft.

7. Cover the tomatoes with this mixtures.

8. Beat the eggs and the half and halt with salt, pepper and the cilantro.

9. Cover the layered vegetables with this mixture.

10. Add the bread slices and bake for 1 hour until set.

The kids loved it and it makes a great plan ahead brunch recipe!

Zucchini and Eggplant Bharit - From the turmeric trail

I made this nice variation in baigan bhartha from a book that I end up reading a lot for the prose almost more than the recipes. This is not because the recipes are not good, just find the authors narration catchy. The book is such an interesting read in that the authors memories do focus on some dark aspects of his childhood but with an exceedingly light touch - sort of like adding chillies to a rich makhani sauce, it does infuse the bite, gently with a very subtle impact.

Well ever so often I go back and forth with cookbooks in my collection and passed through the mentioned book. I loved the idea of the classic pureered eggplant with some crunch from peanuts. Well I varied this a little partly to use up a zucchini in the fride and partly to add certain spices I thought worked well with the recipe. So this is how I did it.

Zuchini and Eggplant Bharit - Zuchini with Pureed eggplants and crushed peanuts

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 medium sized eggplant

1 zuchini

2-3 tbsp oil

3/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp cumin

1 medium onion diced

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tomato, cut into a dice

1/3 cup, roasted coarsely ground peanuts

2 green chillies, minced

8-20 curry leaves

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Roast the eggplant on a grill or open gas flame till the outer skin is completely charred and the eggplant is cooked through. The process takes about 10-12 minutes. Cool and peel the skin off.

2. Grate the zucchini with the skin on and set aside.

3. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and cumin and wait till the mustard begins to pop.

4. Stir the onion, turmeric and tomato and cook for 1-2 minutes.

5. Mix in the roasted eggplant and zucchini and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring well to mix and soften the eggplant.

6. Mix in all the remaining ingredients and cook for 3-4 minutes. Enjoy!