St. Louis, Branson and Mutter Paneer

Branson was our destination for the July 4th weekend. It's about 540 miles from home - a very pleasant 8-9 hour drive. We stopped in St. Louis to get a claustrophobic tram ride 630 feet up in the famous Gateway Arch. I captured panoramic views of St. Louis, much better than these from the viewing gallery as I tried to hold the contents of my stomach in me. It's rather unnerving to know that you are not in an aircraft but in a structure so tall and be able to look down and feel like there is nothing holding you up.

The windows are cut in at an angle so that you can look down all the way to the base of the Arch. You can also see each leg of the Arch. There are staircases in the Arch that were used to get to the top before the trams were installed. It takes about 4 hours to climb to the top using them; it takes 4 minutes in the tram. The stairs are now used for maintenance of the trams and as emergency exits. I would have gloated more about the shots I captured if I had not done pressed the wrong menu option and deleted all 150 digital images. Perhaps I would be better off if I just did not mention it. Sigh! I guess it means we need to make another trip to St. Louis soon!

Branson was a ton of fun, despite it not being my kind of place to holiday in. Lots of kid-friendly shows, beautiful Ozark mountains... I got to ride in a dome train which was one of the two highlights of the trip. The other being that I got to spend 3 quality hours with a very wonderful online friend, who as luck would have it, lives in the Ozarks! He has a woodwork shop that makes exquisite handcrafted wood spice racks.

A surprise party for a couple celebrating their silver wedding anniversary kept me busy the following weekend. I made Mutter Paneer and Spicy Mushroom Appetizers. I don't have the proportions for the Mushroom Appetizers as I was on auto-pilot by then. We were cooking for 60 people and any semblance of knowing what proportions should be had long deserted me. I am still in a fair amount of shock that everyone loved the mushrooms. The Mutter Paneer was a hit, too. I just made it in the largest pot I had. It was too little cos it was just too good! Usually when the level in the serving pan starts dropping, folks tend to avoid the dish. But in this case, the pan was literally wiped clean. I wish I'd taken a couple of photographs but I was just too frazzled to even think about it. And, as usual, I was on IST instead of CDT!! Late!

Mutter Paneer
Another Indian Food Rocks original recipe

• 1 large white onion, diced fine
  
• 1 can Contadina tomato paste
• 2 cups of water, less for a thicker sauce
  
• 2 in. by 1 in. piece of ginger, grated
  
• 2 medium flakes of garlic, grated
  
• 1-1/2 tsp of garam masala
• 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (optional)
  
• 2 lbs frozen peas
• 2 blocks of Nanak paneer (400g each), diced into 1 in. by 1/2 in. pieces
  
• 8 oz of fat free sour cream
• 1/4 cup oil to sauté the onions
• Oil, as needed to shallow fry the paneer
  
• salt to taste
  

1. Heat the oil in a large kadhai.
2. Sauté the onion in the oil on medium heat until it is translucent and almost pink. About 10-15 minutes.
3. While you are doing this, start shallow frying the paneer in a small frying pan. Drain on paper towels.
   
4. Pause to add the tomato paste, ginger, garlic, garam masala, red chilli powder to the onions and sauté for another 5-7 minutes or until the oil starts to separate out from the mixture.
5. Return to the paneer
   
6. Cool the mixture. If you are like me - late and always in a hurry - drop a couple of ice cubes into it to help the process. Too many ice cubes will make the sauce more runny so take care when you do this!
7. Using a hand-held blender, purée the mixture so that it is a little more homogeneous. I usually place the kadhai in the kitchen sink so that the sauce does not splatter onto the walls and all over my cooktop.
   
8. Fold in the sour cream and then return the kadhai to the stove.
9. Add water, peas and the fried paneer. Add more water if you want the sauce to be more runny. Keep on low heat until the peas are cooked and the paneer has absorbed some of the flavor from the sauce.
   
10. Add salt according to your taste. (I've been making real salty food lately so start with a smaller amount, taste, adjust, add more if necessary, taste, adjust...you know the drill!)

This is great as one of the entrées for a party of 20-25 people. Or make it and freeze it in 16-20 oz containers.

The garam masala used for this recipe should be flavorful but not overpoweringly so. The ginger and garlic impart the most flavor in this recipe. The sour cream is a substitute for the heavy cream that is usually added to this dish in restaurants.

May-June hiatus and a Zesty Party Snack

May was a busy month. The last month of the school year. Everything is packed into those 4 weeks. April saw us at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago every weekend. And this time the idlis from the canteen were not the main course. It was to practice "Yeh Tara Woh Tara" for graduation from the Hindi Language Class of the Sunday School organized by the Temple. Soon followed the Spring Recital at school. Then came the various types of testing. (Eat breakfast! Eat a good breakfast!) Then came School Olympics. Followed by more testing. (Please eat your breakfast!) Followed by piano recitals.

Add to it the anxiety caused by the bypass surgery of a close friend. He was supposed to go in for an angiography and come out with a diagnosis of a stent. Instead, he got the verdict of a triple bypass. When he actually went in for the surgery, they bypassed 5 major arteries. Medicine, despite not being an exact science, is truly amazing. This guy is doing cardiac rehab where he's walking the treadmill and bicycling at rates that I can only dream of. And, he's 58.

This flurry of activity led to a serious backlog of work, which invariably results in eating bad food. Yep, those tires are no longer on the car. They're on me!

Genetically modified food, foie gras feuds and chickens on anti-biotics freaked me out further. So off we went to Trader Joe's to de-stress. I bought free range organic chicken. Organic pink lemonade. Organic Red Pepper Spread with eggplant and garlic. And that led to this really super zesty party snack...

Zesty Party Snack

• A roll of Sesame Toasteds
• Trader Joe's Red Pepper Spread
• El Yucateco Green Habanero Salsa

1. Arrange the Toasteds (or any other cracker that you like. Bretons will be great, too!) on a large serving platter
2. Put a dollop of TJ's Red Pepper & Eggplant spread on each cracker
3. Put a nice large drop of El Yucateco Green Habanero Salsa on top
4. Serve with a fruity sangria (Sam's Club has a great stock of Sangria currently - deliciously fruity) or any wine that goes well with spicy food. Make sure that you have lots of paper napkins and Kleenex on hand. Cos once you start popping these into your mouth, you just can't stop despite the sniffing!

TJ's spread was a super find. The eggplant gives it fantastic body while the red pepper gives it a wonderful flavor and the garlic packs in a small little punch. It has a bit of sugar in it - which I would have preferred not to have had - but this has been about the best thing I've discovered lately and so had to share!!

Note for Shreya: My Khara Bhath source has taken off to Bangalore for the summer. So I have nothing yet! Will post here as soon as I do!

Dental Eggplants and Faux Chicken Tikka

My daughter wanted to know how to get an eggplant. I told her that all we needed to do was to get hold of an egg and plant it. I was immediately treated to one of those looks so I decided to tell her the truth this time: "Eggplant is a vegetable that farmers grow. They sell it to the grocery stores and we buy it from there." Uh-uh. That was not what she meant. She wanted to know about "the eggplant that Daddy got in his mouth." She meant implant.

Dentists, dental surgeons and dental surgery has consumed us lately. A few years ago, a not-so-scrupulous dentist who shares our last name drilled into my husband's jaw bone while doing a routine root canal procedure. Despite the last name bond, he didn't share this information even though my husband was in a lot of pain. He proceeded to fill it with a material that should not have been used. Two years later, the tooth is lost and we're lucky that there is no serious infection of the jaw bone or grave bone loss. The tooth had to be replaced by a titanium implant in a very expensive process spread over a good 6-9 months. First the titanium screw is fitted into the empty socket; then after about 3 months or so, a peg or abuttment is fitted on the implant; and finally, the crown is fitted on the peg. We're in the middle stage. The current dental surgeon is simply amazing. Thank God for that!

Because of the dental surgery, we were all eating soup and soft foods in complete sympathy with what my poor husband was enduring. Once he was back to solids, we couldn't wait to treat our taste buds to some extra spicy chicken tikka.

Faux Chicken Tikka
Spice Level: High!

• 4 boneless chicken breasts
• 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 1 large flake of garlic, grated
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 2-3 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 3-4 teaspoons Shan Chicken Tikka masala powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 3-4 tablespoons oil

1. Mix grated ginger, grated garlic, Shan Chicken Tikka masala powder, yogurt and lemon juice in a bowl.
2. Put the boneless chicken breasts in this mixture and marinate for about half an hour. An hour or longer, in the refrigerator is better.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan and drop the cumin seeds into it when warm.
4. Put the chicken breasts and all the yummy smelling sauce in the pan and cook over medium to low heat.
5. Turn the chicken over from time to time and allow all the sauce to thicken.
6. This really spicy dish is ready when all the sauce has dried up and the chicken cooked thoroughly.

If you don't have Shan Chicken Tikka masala, you can use some other garam masala. Shan's spice mixes can be found in most Indian and Pakistani grocery stores.

Never Stop Running and Fish Pakodas

Sigh. I made the mistake of allowing my 6 year old to watch the 18th Kids' Choice Awards on Nickelodeon against my better judgement. Even deeper sigh. We were up till 2 a.m. last night because my daughter's calves and ankles hurt. We are not a pill-popping family so we did the entire regimen: sit up and massage your own legs, hot water bottle (well, hot gel-pack), Ben-Gay, some more massage, Reiki. I was very close to reaching out for Tylenol when she blurted out that she didn't stop running because she wanted to defeat the "little person in her head who kept telling her to stop running." Huh? But, since Will Smith told all kids to "keep running" on Nick's annual show, she thought she would be giving up when things got tough and kept on running...I desperately want to throw something at Will Smith. It's bad enough that we lost an hour on Saturday night due to Daylight Saving Time; I was up through most of Sunday night, too.

It was the thought of delicious fish pakodas that kept me going through today. Fish pakodas? Yes! That, too, with yogurt. There is a belief in some parts of India that fish and yogurt don't go well together and is a recipe for a stomach upset. I pooh-pooh the thought because I stand testimony to the fact that no stomach upset occurs. While growing up, Sunday lunch used to be spicy kingfish curry, which I would tone down with home-made yogurt. No stomach upset ever ensued; just bliss!!

Fish Pakodas
An IFR original recipe

• 3 fillets of catfish (or tilapia)
• 1 cup of besan
• 1/2 cup of yogurt
• 1 egg-white
• 1 tbsp lemon juice, preferably fresh
• pinch of ajwain^optional
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 2 medium cloves of garlic, grated
• salt to taste
• oil for shallow frying

1. Cut the fish fillets into nugget size bites
2. Mix the besan, yogurt, egg-white, lemon juice, ajwain, chilli powder, ginger, garlic and salt into a thick batter
3. Marinate the fish in this batter for about half an hour, preferably in the fridge
4. Heat the oil in a shallow frying pan; make sure it is not too hot or smoking
5. Gently put the fish nuggets, coated generously with the batter, into the oil and fry each side until golden brown, approximately about 3-4 minutes each side on medium heat. Less if the fillets are on the thinner side.
6. Drain as much oil off the fish pakoda by placing them on a paper towels
7. If you have chaat masala, sprinkle some on the pakodas and for the best flavor, eat while the pakodas are hot!!

We loved these fish pakodas which were inspired by 100% vegetarian grated onion pakodas - no egg or fish. I usually have a fair amount of batter left after the fish is done, so I add grated onion to this mixture - about half an onion or so. Since the onions are usually juicy and release their own juices, I add about 1/4 cup more of besan to prevent the batter from becoming too runny. Drop small quantities of this mixture into the oil and fry till golden brown. The ajwain gives it a delicious aroma and the chaat masala adds a tang to the overall excellent spicy taste flavor.

Indian Dolls and Making your Herbs Last Longer

My sister has the unenviable task of finding an Indian doll. Not just any Indian doll. A doll who is just like Shanti from Jungle Book 2. My daughter wants one. Apparently the Barbie invasion has been successful. Whenever she’s asked for an Indian doll, she’s been shown the Indian likeness of Barbie. Need I mention that my sister lives in Bombay, India?!

I know I promised more Handy Tips, so here is the next one that has saved me a lot of heart-ache.

Handy Tip #2: Keeping your herbs fresh longer

Ever since I moved to the US, I’ve always choked on the prices of herbs. A measly bunch of limp cilantro for 79 cents or about 15 sprigs of mint for over $2.50. To make matters worse, the herbs didn’t last very long. I thought Devon Street was my answer. I got 4 plump bunches of cilantro for a dollar. I got three times as much mint for half the price. But guess what, it didn’t last too long either. A trip to Devon was not such a frequent occurrence either. As I fretted, a vase of rich pink gladioli caught my eye. These glads which were a product of my feeble attempts at gardening lasted over 3-4 weeks in a vase. Yup. You got it.

Put those babies in a tall container or glass that is half-filled with water, throw a grocery bag loosely over the leaves and tie it around the container and refrigerate. Every time you pull it out to use some of those fresh luscious leaves, make it a point to change the water.

I now have fresh cilantro and fresh mint in my refrigerator for weeks!

Update: I decided to research a little bit on Keeping Herbs Fresh and came up with the following documents:

Caring for Fresh Herbs

The exception is fresh basil, which may blacken in the refrigerator; instead, store it in the same way, but do not refrigerate.

Herb Helper has a great alternative: Wrap in a barely damp paper towel and place in a baggie. What I loved in this article was:

The best way to have a steady supply of fresh herbs is, of course, to grow them yourself.

Cleaning and Storing Fresh Herbs has some neat tips on how to wash your herbs although the author does not think it's a great idea to stand them in water and refrigerate.

Herbs

How long can you expect to keep those fresh herbs
fresh? Basil will last on the counter top for up to
31 days. In the refrigerator, chervil stays fresh for
8 days, chives for 9, cilantro up to 14, dill for 9,
parsley up to 21, and tarragon for up to 17 days.

I've had my mint going for over 3 weeks now with no loss of flavor. I pluck the leaves at the first sign of any blackening and change the water as soon as the color changes. I use cilantro and mint at least every other day so it's not a big deal to clean it up before it goes back into the refrigerator. I've had cilantro last for over 4 weeks. I use fairly stable wide-based plastic containers - like the large Country Crock tubs or the 32oz Dannon containers. I usually store mint in smaller containers. I have never had a spill thus far and it's rare for my refrigerator to be anywhere near empty.

Update: I made Spicy Jeera Chicken yesterday with chicken tenders. It was delicious. I’ve updated my Spicy Jeera Chicken page with a picture of it.