Meatless Monday: Vegan Sushi

courtesy of Meatless Monday

I’m sitting in the chemistry lab right now. Not doing any chemistry, but that’s probably for the best.

I can’t really think, mainly because the Sri Lank-an kid asked me to play Indian music and so now my computer is blasting “Hindi filmi” songs. How am I supposed to think with Shah Rukh Khan music playing in the background?!

For anyone following the trend, today is Meatless Monday, which is the main reason I am posting.

Please excuse the incongruence of the post. Anyone who speaks two languages (or more) might understand the brain confusion that results from writing in one while listening to another. It’s all I can do to not writing in Hindi.

It’s ironic that today’s meatless (vegan and budget-friendly) recipe is from an entirely different country.

It's sushi time!

Easy Vegan Sushi (with and Indian twist)

makes about 6 rolls (depending on how you cut it)

• Nori sheets (available in some grocery stores and  most ethnic foods stores)
• Sushi rice, cooked (I cheated and used the sprouted brown sushi rice I had leftover from an Annie Chun’s meal)
• Baby corn
• Sliced mini bella mushrooms
• Vinegar (I went with a mix of apple cider and red wine)
• Dipping sauce

Dipping Sauce

• Soy sauce
• A few pinches garam masala
• Garlic powder or minced garlic cloves
• Ginger paste or, even better, fresh grated ginger

→Make the dipping sauce by mixing the ingredients and letting it sit, covered, for at least half an hour or, even better, overnight.

If you have time, marinate the mushrooms in the vinegar overnight. If not, “quick marinate” them by placing them in a bowl with the vinegar and microwaving for about a minute (covered).

Place the nori on a clean, dry surface rough side up. If you have a bamboo mat, that’s great, but I didn’t so I put mine on a cutting board.

Spread the sushi rice evenly over the nori sheet, leaving an inch or two at once end (this will be the “sealing” part). Place the baby corn and “marinated” mushrooms in a thin line across one side of the sushi (the side farthest from the side without rice).

Roll the sushi and slice it. I would try to explain the rolling process but it was my first time, so I’m not sure I’m qualified. For a step-by-step (with pictures!) on rolling sushi, check out Make My Sushi’s illustrated guide.

If you’re brave, attempt chopsticks. Or do it Indian-style and get your hands dirty.

Memories of food: Spaghetti Squash Seviyan

There are a million ways to spell this vermicelli-based indian dessert. I’m sure there are an equal number of ways to cook it, but I am only acquainted with one: you start with vermicelli noodles, saute/fry them in a bit of ghee (fresh butter), add milk/sugar, cook over low-medium heat, and add cardamom/rose water when you remove from the heat.

Consistencies vary from what I have heard, but I have only seen the soupy variety, which resembles a strand of string floating in a milky puddle. Why seen, you might wonder. The answer to that is simple: I have never eaten seviyan before now; only watched my mother standing over a pot stirring it diligently, preventing the milk from curdling yet ever mindful of the noodles’ consistency.

It is a strange thing, this memory. Unlike my other memories of foods, which are irreversibly bound to taste and texture, this memory is a fleeting image in my mind. A shadow of a pot over a bright orange flame, strings of noodles, thick billows of rose-infused steam.

That was the image flashed across my mind as I scraped the bottom of my spaghetti squash the other day. It’s subtle sweetness jumped out at me, so much so that it was all I could taste. Visions of tomato-drenched spaghetti covered in cheese fled from the strong taste, leaving an irrepressible desire to make something noodly and sweet at the same time. Something like….

Seviyan Kheer with Spaghetti Squash
servings variable

• Light butter
• Spaghetti squash, cooked
• Evaporated milk (or mix 2/3 c. milk powder with enough water to make one cup)
• Sweetener
• Ground cardamom
• Rose water

→Dry the spaghetti squash strands. If you have a dehydrator, now would be a great time to use it. Otherwise, lay the strands on a paper towel and microwave until dry (but be careful not to burn them).

Melt a bit of light butter in a medium saucepan. Add the spaghetti squash and “fry” it in the butter over medium-high heat.

Add the milk and turn the heat down to low. I always seem to have issues with curdling, so I like to keep the heat really low. Let it cook for a few minutes and taste a spoon. The spaghetti squash will most likely release some of its sweetness into the milk. Add sweetener to taste.

Once the kheer (pudding) is the consistency you like, remove it from the heat and add the cardamom and rose water. Stir well.

Serve with some crushed pistachios.

A healthy, multicultural stir-fry with zing, zest and zip! In 10 minutes!

It’s late, you’re hungry, you want Chinese, but that’s just so bad for you. You open the fridge, tap your fingers on the top, searching for something sweet but salty, chewy but with a crunch, meaty but light at the same time. It may seem like a lot for one dish to live up to, but you’re confident and relentless; you will find a way to make it happen.

Wait, you’re also hungry though, so it’s going to have to happen quick. Very quick.

You start poking around in the fridge. Hmmmm….there’s quinoa, some broccoli….there’s peppers/onions in the freezer…oh! And veggie meat. You take everything out and cook it up really quick in a frying pan.

Now what?

Now we add sauce. Sweet, but sour. Didn’t you make a sweet and sour sauce awhile ago. Ok, so now we have a sauce. You should taste it, though before you put it on all this stuff you just cooked……..*taste*

It needs something. Something chatpata. With zing. Like vinegar, but a little sweeter. Something that makes all the molecules on your tongue dance around a little because of all the extra saliva being produced, something like…..

Chat masala!

*taste* Mmmmmm….perfect.

Best pick I could get with my shaking hands

Super-quick Pseudo Chinese-Indian Stir Fry with Quinoa
makes 1 plate

• Cooked quinoa
• 2 Morningstar Farms Original Sausage Patties (feel free to substitute with any other veggie meat (or non-veggie if you go that way))
• 3 pepper onion blend
• Broccoli
• Sweet and sour sauce

→Spray a frying pan with non-stick cooking spray. “Saute” the 3 pepper onion blend and broccoli until the onion is brown on this pan (I steamed the broccoli a little first to make it go faster).

Cook the veggie meat according to package directions.

Make THIS sweet and sour sauce. Add a couple good pinches of chat masala  to it (depending on how much you make). Mix it all together and enjoy.

Boondi ka Raita (Boondi Yogurt)

Well, here we are again. The wounds of times gone by cut open once more, the words that should never have been said already in the air…

Yes, here we are again, with only some cool yogurt to salve our hurts. Don’t fear, it won’t make you fat…all the oil is squeezed out of the boondi. But don’t eat more than a bite, just to be sure. And make sure to spit the boondi out.

Don’t worry. I won’t let you hurt anymore, I’ll help you be thin….

It was always just you and me. We’re better off without them anyway.

Boondi ka Raita (with cucumbers)

makes 1 bowl

• Plain yogurt, fat-free
• Water (or skimmed milk)
• Boondi (available at an Indian foods market)
• chopped cucumbers (and chopped tomatoes, which I happen to be out of at the moment)
• salt and pepper to taste

→Soak the boondi in some hot water for awhile to make it soft.

In the meantime, take a bowl and add some yogurt to it. Stir the yogurt to make it smooth. Add enough water (or milk) to make the yogurt drip off of a spoon when you pick the spoon up (that’s the best way I can describe it).

Squeeze the water out of the boondi. You can just use your hand. Add it to the yogurt in the bowl and stir.

Add chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, salt and pepper and stir well. Serve with some fresh roti and sabzi of choice.

Curried Lentil Loaf with Chatpata Butternut Sabzi

It’s been so long since I’ve written. I wish I could say it’s because I haven’t felt much like cooking; because I haven’t been able to find the words; because I’m lost in other (more fascinating) endeavors. If only that were the case.

If only…

I actually made this loaf awhile ago but its posting has been overcome by the myriad of cookie recipes I am so in love with. In some sense, I am glad I waited for this particular recipe takes the contradictions I hate about myself and makes it delicious. The comforting heaviness of the lentils, the plain-ness of the tomatoes, and the sweetness of the squash are all perfectly complimented by the bite of chat masala, the fire of garam masala and the wit of meyer lemon.

If only such qualities were appreciated in a person as well as in a food.

Indian-Spiced Lentil Loaf
makes 1 loaf

• 3/4 c. mashed Fiber One Original Bran (mash it till it has the consistency of breadcrumbs)
• 1/4 c. toasted wheat germ (or bran, if you prefer)
• 2 c. cooked lentils
• 1/4 c. egg or egg substitute
• 1-15 oz. can of tomato sauce
• 2 T. light butter, melted
• spoonful of minced (or chopped) garlic
• handful of frozen chopped onion (or fresh, doesn’t matter)
• a few pinches of the following: turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, cinnamon
• a small pinch or two garam masala
• salt and pepper to taste

→Preheat the oven to 350*F. Grease a standard loaf pan.

Mash the lentils with a spoon. You can puree them if you want but I decided to leave some chunks. Mix in the fiber one, wheat germ and egg. Add the tomatoes. (See note for a vegan option)

Saute the onion and garlic in some cooking spray until they are fragrant and onion is lightly browned. Add to the lentil mix.

Add in spices and mix well. At this point, mine looked something like this:

Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours, checking with a toothpick for doneness. This loaf comes out a little wet at first but, after a day in the fridge, it REALLY firms up to normal meatloaf consistency.

NOTE: For a vegan twist, leave out the butter (or swap it with any mild-flavored oil) and swap the eggs with 3T. lentils + 2t. baking powder + a little water.

Sweet, Sour and Spicy Butternut Squash Sabzi
makes as much as you want

• Butternut squash (I used the bag I had left from the freezer clean-out)
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 1/2 bag frozen 3 pepper and onion blend
• a teaspoonful of minced/chopped/mashed garlic
• 1/2 teaspoonful grated ginger
• 1-3 packets sugar or sugar substitute
• Juice of 1-1.5 meyer lemons
• a few good pinches of the following: turmeric, garam masala
• a small pinch or two of: cumin and cinnamon
• 1-2 palmfuls (or large pinches) chat masala, which lends this sabzi its tangy punch
• salt and pepper to taste

→Saute the frozen pepper and onion blend, garlic and ginger in some cooking spray. You can do it in the same pot you mixed the lentil loaf in.

Add butternut squash, tomato and spices. Stir well.

Cook until squash is soft, stirring continuously (or almost continuously). Mash the squash till it’s almost a paste.

Cover and leave on low-medium heat so the sabzi can absorb the spices. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn. It should take about 10 minutes for the spices to meld together.

Serve with loaf.

If you’re careful, you can do the entire thing using only one pot. You’ll have to use a few bowls/other dishes to hold the lentil mix while you’re sauteing, etc but it’ll still only be one pot.

Baked Gulab Jamun Made with Besan

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Roti (aka chapati): the magic of the “poof”

There is nothing like a chapati. It’s so simple (a mixture of atta, i.e. whole wheat flour, and water), yet so complicated.

A roti’s magic is in whether or not it poofs (as shown in the pictures). Every time I go to my parents house, my mother will ask me, “Roti bana du?” Translated roughly, that means, “Should I make you a roti?”

My first response is always no (carbs are evil, right?) but then she lures me in even more…”Choti si, thin si, phuli vi”. Her promise of a small, thin, puffy roti gets the best of me every time.

I simply cannot say no to this bread that seems to rise without leavening or yeast, as if to say, I’m above your petty science tricks. I can do it all on my own.

Rolling the dough

A little cooked...but you have to wait for the poof

My dear mom (who will most likely kill me for posting this picture), flipping the roti so it won't burn

Starting to poof up a little....

Perfect!

The soft and steamy inside

Presenting her masterpiece, my beautiful mother

Indian-Spiced Quinoa Edamame Cutlets (and some ramblings on life)

I went and saw my advisor today. I think I was hoping for him to give me the answers–tell me what to do with the rest of my life. The bureaucratic nightmare that was the posting of my transfer credits is finally over, which means I did indeed graduate this past semester. Yay, yipee, right? Not so much.

What I didn’t realize is that graduating from one degree meant picking another. When my advisor told me that I needed to pick another major, it was like he was telling me to pick the rest of my life.

“What should I choose?” I asked him.

“Well, for med school, you could go human bio or physiology or something along those lines. Most people go with human bio.”

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I got my 3.5 in anatomy but, as I was sitting there studying for the final, I realized it didn’t even really matter. I didn’t even care about medicine. How am I supposed to be a doctor if, even now, as an undergraduate, I know deep down I’m only studying because getting good grades gives me a modicum of self esteem?”

It was like I had thrown him a curve ball. Hell! I threw myself one! I didn’t even realize until I said it that, even today, after everything I’ve been through during AND after high school, I have absolutely NO clue what to do with the rest of my life.

As far as my advisor goes, he asked the obvious questions after that: Well what do you want to do? What interests you?….the expected. I mean, he’s an academic advisor–that’s his job. What’s more important is that I couldn’t answer any of those. What do I WANT to do? Since when has that mattered?

I WANT to spend my days cooking and eating or writing a book full of novel and altogether fascinating concepts or creating beautiful pieces of art for the whole world to see. But, as I am constantly reminded, those things aren’t real…they’re dreams and, like every other dream of mine, they only exist when there are stars in the sky.

Not everyone can be J.K. Rowling.

I’ve been surrounded by people that have known what they wanted to do since they were in the womb. I mean, I’m indian, right? Be a doctor or an engineer…that’s what indian people do, right? That’s probably the only reason I ever even considered going to med school.

I guess, if I sat down and thought about it, I could TOLERATE being a doctor: given the many perks the job comes with (huge paycheck anyone?), I would be able to find plenty of ways to distract myself enough to make it through the next 50 years or whatever. I think some part of me keeps hoping though that, maybe, one day, I’ll actually be able to have MORE than just a distraction…I’ll be able to be happy.

I won’t have to fake it anymore.

But then the stars go away and I wake up. And I go to my anatomy class and I get my perfect grades and I come home, pet my cat and turn on the TV (or eat myself into a food coma) until it’s dark outside. Then, every night, no matter how bitter the cold is or how sodden the grass, I go outside and look for a star. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to find one through the clouds…

And then I close my eyes and make a wish– the same wish–the only wish I’ve ever had.

And then I go inside and close my eyes and wait for the rays of the sun to burn through my dreams once again.

Sadly, Michigan winters beautiful pictures do not make

Chatpata Quinoa and Soybean Cutlets
makes 16 patties

• 1.25 c. cooked edamame (measured after cooking)
• 1.5 c. cooked quinoa (measured after cooking)
• 1/4c. wheat bran (feel free to sub with oat bran or other floury stuff of choice)
• about 1/2c.-1c. frozen 3 pepper and onion blend
• 1-2 tsp. minced garlic
• 3/4 large egg (or equivalent egg substitute)
• juice of 1/2 a small lemon (I used a new breed of lemon my mom sent me called Meyer lemons)
• salt and pepper to taste
• chat masala (a spice available at most ethnic food stores)

→Process the edamame in a food processor/blender (or just mash it by hand) until it looks like this:

edamame

Then, mix in the quinoa and the wheat bran.

Spray a medium to large size pan with cooking spray (or use oil if you’re not calorie-phobic) and saute the 3 pepper/onion blend with the garlic until onions are lightly browned and garlic is fragrant. Process this in the food processor/blender until it looks like this:

3 pepper and onion blend

Then, add it to the quinoa/edamame mixture, followed by the egg, the lemon juice and the salt/pepper.

Now would probably be a good time to fire up the oven/toaster oven to 395* F. (Why 395? I thought it was set to 400* but realized later that it actually said 395. I doubt it matters though.)

Spray a foil-lined baking pan with nonstick spray (or oil it).

Form the mixture into patties and bake for 20-30 min, flipping patties over half way and rotating the pan. (I stayed in the kitchen after about 15 minutes had passed and started checking them every 5 minutes or so. Some heat was probably lost during this process).

When patties are lightly browned on both sides, take them out of the oven, top them with a liberal helping of chat masala (to taste) and serve with some sweetened yogurt (or, if you have it, mango chutney + yogurt would be even better).

Do dishes and wash pan.

My lovely taste tester, Emma, who found the patties quite delicious

 

 

Indian Style Green Beans

I’m sure there’s an Indian name for this one. I just can’t think of it at the moment.

This particular sabzi has always been a go-to recipes, mainly because it starts with a bag of frozen vegetables. When I first started college (again), I was forced to go to my parents’ every weekend (just being out of the hospital and all). Every weekend, my mom would ask me “ki khana hai?” which basically means, “what do you want to eat?” I would start naming vegetables: “gobi (cauliflower)?….”eggplant?”….”pav bhaji?”. To each she would respond that she didn’t have that vegetable and that she didn’t want to go to the store. Eventually, I would give up and just say, “Then make green beans”.

It’s not that I didn’t LIKE green beans but more that they always seemed a little plain to me. After all, there’s no haldi (turmeric) in this one. I’d survive, though, and, in the end, I’m sure they tasted far better than the protein bars I’ve been bingeing on lately.

Indian Italian-style Green Beans makes roughly 2 portions

• 1 4-serving bag frozen italian style green beans, defrosted
• A tablespoon or two tomato paste (I usually end up using about 1/4-1/2 of a 6oz can)
• a small amount garlic, optional (normally this doesn’t have garlic in it, but sometimes I’ll add it….add with caution though because, if you aren’t in love with garlic like me, you probably won’t like the garlic in this)
• a teaspoon or two garam masala (a.k.a. curry powder)
• about a teaspoon each of coriander and cumin powder
• salt and pepper
• lemon juice, optional

→NOTE: As with most of my Indian recipes, all the measurements are approximate. I didn’t measure when I made this, just played it by ear.
Heat a small amount of oil in a medium saucepan and saute the garlic (if you chose to add it) and spices until fragrant.
Add beans and tomato paste. Stir well, coating the beans in the spices and tomatoes. You might have to add a little water at this point if it’s too dry.
Cover and cook the beans have absorbed the flavor, stirring occasionally.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Add lemon juice to taste.
Enjoy

October Ordeals

I despise change to the point of loathing. Every month, when it’s time to change the calendar, I pretend to forget for at least a week. I realize this leaves me a week behind the rest of the world, but, honestly, who cares?

It’s funny. I say I hate change but, the moment something changes, I want it to change back to the way it was before. I guess that’s not changing so much as reverting, which is an entirely different story.

October is always a month of change. Colors, smells, tastes, temperatures, even produce-everything seems to change in October. In some vague, resolute gesture, I attempt to continue to buy berries; all the while stuffing highly caloric substances down my throat, attempting to ignore the faint sense that the world has betrayed my trust yet again. I guess it’s part of the cosmic irony that I must be tortured twice a year. Specifically, tortured more than normal.

Chali

Chali (Indian corn on the cob) serves 1

• 1 ear of corn, husk removed
• fresh lemon
• chat masala (available at an ethnic food store)

→Turn on grill or gas stove to medium-high. Grill corn over an open flame until blackened (not burnt though).
Rub corn with lemon. Sprinkle generously with chat masala.
Eat.
And remember the swiftly dying days of summer.