Nutty Green Beans

If you throw peanuts, you will get monkeys!

Now, that is my version of the famous idiom. Except that mine is far more literal than profound.

I am famous for taking shortcuts wherever I can, except when I drive. Then I take the longest and safest route, sometimes even the wrong route. But never mind that. Peanuts find their place in everyday cooking in my home. I toss them in salads (gajjarachi koshimbir), in dals, in veggies. Some might say that I am smart and that I do it for the additional protein but the real reason is that we just like peanuts a lot! The added benefit is a bonus!

One such shortcut is dry-roasting of peanuts in the microwave. I put them on a large plate in a single layer and zap them for one minute. I let them cool a bit and then zap them again for another minute. I skin the peanuts once they have cooled completely. Well, I used to. Now, that the monkeys in the family smell the peanuts cooking, they arrive automagically in the kitchen; one perches on the stool to get a good vantage point, the other fills a glass of red wine in anticipation. They then address the peanuts and skin them for me. The first time I was very elated that I had voluntary help. But that soon turned to dismay when I realized that I was left with only a third of what I needed. For every peanut that was skinned and left for me, two were tucked away into the cheeks of the monkeys. So now I make three times as much as I need and everyone is happy!

Last week, I was at it again. By force of habit, I cooked three times as many. But only one monkey showed up. I substituted for the missing primate and we skinned the peanuts in silence, missing him. Me, even more, at the thought of the growing piles of snow and how I would have to go out to shovel again.

"What if he doesn't come back, Mumma?"

She has been a near wreck since he left on New Year's Day. Every evening we suffer through: Are the doors locked? What was that sound? Did you shut the garage? Is that gas I smell? It's almost like I don't count when it comes to physical security! I'm quite used to this and I make sure she feels safe, especially after dark. But this latest question took me by complete surprise.

"He loves us very much. We are his family and his home. He will come back. He told you a little while ago how much he misses you, so what makes you think he may not come back?"

After much shifting from one foot to another, she said: "Remember Mohan from Swades? He didn't come back. What if Daddy does not come back either?"

Ah! One more reason to hate SRK!

I held her close and explained the difference between Mohan in the movie and her beloved Daddy. Yes, he loves his India and has many ideas in his head about what he can do to give back; and, yes, we have strong family ties there, but no matter what happens, we are an integral part of him and he will be back soon. She sensed that I spoke from the heart with a lot of conviction and soon went back to filling her cheeks with peanuts. And after exchanging some more wonderful cuddly body-warmth, I went back to cooking my Nutty Green Beans, her favorite veggie dish for the moment.

Nutty Green Beans

This is a very quick and easy way to make beans. I prefer to use fresh beans but when fewer trucks come in with limited fresh produce, I use frozen beans. Chopped green beans always taste the best but when you’re in a rush, like I always am, french-cut beans seem better as they cook faster.

I use a very Maharashtrian masala in these beans called Kanda Lassun Masala (Onion Garlic masala), which evokes all the pleasant memories of Bombay. It's available in the Indian grocery stores from brands like Pravin Masalewale, Ke-Pra and recently, Ethnic Kitchens. I have a bias for the Ethnic Kitchens brand.

Lee, this post and recipe is especially for you!

• 1 lb fresh green beans, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 3-4 tbsp oil
• ¼ tsp mustard seeds
• Pinch asafetida
• ¼ cup raw peanuts
• 3-4 tsp Kanda Lassun masala (use less for less spicy)
• Dash of lemon juice
• Sea salt to taste

1. Dry roast the peanuts in the microwave as I do or in the oven or on a saucepan till cooked.
2. Pound these into a coarse powder using your mortar and pestle.
   
   
3. Heat oil in a kadhai on medium heat.
4. Add mustard seeds and when they pop and crackle, add asafetida.
5. Add the coarsely ground peanuts. The oil will start bubbling at this point. Don't worry, just stir it till it settles down.
   
   
6. Add the beans and stir.
7. Add the Kanda Lassun Masala and very little sea salt. Kanda Lassun Masala usually has salt, so it's better to go easy on the sea salt as it can be added later.
   
8. Turn the heat to high and stir-fry for a few minutes, making sure that every bean gets a nice coating of the spices.
9. Turn the heat down and let the beans cook some more but don’t overcook them. They should have some crunch to them.
10. Since these beans use more oil than I would like to use, I drain as much oil as possible by placing the kadhai at an angle on the stovetop and collecting the beans to one side. Use a paper-towel to absorb all the excess oil.
    
    
    If you're comfortable with the amount of oil in the dish, you can skip this step. It's just something I do.
11. Add a dash of lemon juice, garnish with some chopped cilantro if you have on hand and serve hot with rotis.

Some tips:

• Avoid using Planters peanuts or any other ready-to-eat peanuts in Indian cooking. They are usually salted and also have an odor that takes away from the intrinsic flavors of the dish.
• You could use your spice grinder / blender / food processor to powder the peanuts. Ensure that you do not make a fine powder. These beans need a coarse powder with some large pieces of peanuts; it makes the texture of this dish more interesting.
• French cut beans cook faster. Chopped beans taste better! Take your pick.
• To make it kid-friendly, I usually add 2 tsp of Kanda Lassun Masala instead of 3-4 tsp. I finish cooking the beans and take some out for Medha in a small bowl and then add a couple more teaspoons of the masala to give it that zing that we like so much!
• I also use a lot of lemon juice as it balances the heat of the Kanda Lassun Masala very well!
• If you don't have Kanda Lassun Masala, you could use 1 large clove of finely chopped garlic and 2-3 tsp of any garam masala you have on hand. If your garam masala is mild, you could add some red chilli powder to up the heat.
• Kanda Lassun Masala from Ethnic Kitchens has the following ingredients: dried red chilli, onion, coriander, garlic, ginger, edible oil, turmeric and salt.

Try it and let me know if you enjoy it as much as we do!

To everyone who asked about us through these last couple of storms: Thank you! We are fine! Before he left for India, my husband got up on a very icy roof and wrapped tarp around the defunct chimney that had snow blown into it. It was awful watching him do that! But that fixed the problem of the leaky roof. Since then, Louisville has picked up between 10-11 inches in the first week of January itself. There was a ground blizzard soon thereafter due to high winds. It was very difficult to walk even a few yards in that storm and the snow that was flung in our faces really hurt. The fourth storm which started this past Thursday hasn't brought much precipitation but it has been really really cold. It was 0F with windchills in the teens below when I dropped Medha off at school on Friday morning. It has warmed up considerably and we are currently at 18F with another inch of snow on the ground. We are very lucky to be in a neighborhood where we can rely on our neighbors for help at any time of the day or night! I make sure I have enough food to last us a while and that the cars are fuelled up, too. It helps to have a gas stove and a water heater that has no electrical connections. So when there is a power outage, I can still cook and have warm water. Having a gas furnace doesn't help much as an electric motor pushes the hot air through the ducts - that's when I miss having a fireplace!

To those of you in the states affected by the ice storm: Keep candles, matches, and flashlights handy. Make sure your blankets and warm clothes are easily accessible. Dress in layers and please move to a shelter instead of attempting to brave it out against the elements! Stay warm and stay safe through this rough weather!

Inspired: Orange Walnut Quick Bread

Inspired by Ashwini.

I followed her recipe except that I used

• two egg-whites instead of one egg
• 3/4 tsp baking soda, as an altitude adjustment
• 1/4 cup orange juice, also as an altitude adjustment
• 2 cups all purpose flour, cos I was too lazy to sift two different types of flour
• 4 oz cranberry-orange yogurt and 4 oz orange creme yogurt. Why? Because the cranberry orange yogurt was so delicious that I finished half the cup before I knew it!
• 1/2 cup walnuts, cos I am crazy about them and as of these holidays, slightly allergic to them, too! The sides of my tongue hurt and I feel the need to bite down on that area and hurt it even more. According to the best neurologist in the NY-NJ area, it's a mild allergic reaction.
• I skipped the dessicated coconut in the bread but sprinkled some unsweetened coconut powder on top in deference to taste buds that are only 8 years young.

Verdict: A big huge YUM! Easy to make. Next time, I will make it with just one egg-white.

More pictures of the Quick Orange Walnut Bread to drool over.

Thank you, Ashwini!

Tags: Orange walnut quick bread, Orange bread, inspired

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

We were hit by a blizzard last week which dumped 2 feet of snow on us. We dug many cars out of the street and helped them home, safe onto their driveways. We don't have much of a driveway but we seemed to be shovelling forever! Only the main arterial roads are plowed in our city, making it very difficult to get out of our neighborhood. And the steep slopes don't help much! A defunct chimney on the roof decided to spring a leak, so that was another worry. Because of this, we didn't get a live tree as planned. Instead, the picture above is of my blue spruce, lit up while being buried under a ton of snow!

But we did make the most of it: whenever we got a chance, we went sledding on a slope close-by.

My pre-lit fibre optic tree came up as did Medha's little pink Princess tree. I wonder how may more years she will put up with its pink-ness!

I hope I am finally able to bake Archana's fabulous fruitcake today. It needs to be ready, along with a bunch of other things, before my sister and her family get here on Tuesday. It's been a long time since we celebrated Christmas with family and nothing could be better than a wonderful holiday week in Colorado!

I'll leave you with my favorite picture of this season: a bare tree up on the sledding slope, with Longs Peak in the distance. Longs Peak is Rocky Mountain National Park's only fourteener.


Have a wonderful season! And I hope the New Year brings new joys to you all!

'Tis the Season...for Comfort Food

Christmas carols would fill the corners of my home all year long if I would allow it, and if Medha's piano teacher would allow it. I hide the Christmas CDs as soon as possible. It's bad enough that some stores like The Great Ignore were dressed for 'The Holidays' in September itself and that the only station we are allowed to tune into is Denver's KOSI 101.1 FM, which plays Christmas music all day long. The same songs over and over and over again. But no matter how much I complain, I love Christmas carols and it brings back memories of school and singing in our school's beautiful chapel.

And yes, we are not Christians but we call it Christmas. And, we have a Christmas tree. And, we put up Christmas lights and Christmas decorations.

Every year as the houses start lighting up in early December, Secret Santa comes into town. One of the Moms in the neighborhood takes the responsibility of assigning each child the task of being the Secret Santa for another child in the neighborhood. Two homemade items must be delivered secretly anytime during the week, followed by a party on the day school ends. A final gift, worth not more than $10, is given in person at the party, revealing just who the Secret Santa was! The kids have a blast trying to figure out who is who's Secret Santa. There are sure-fire giveaways: same wrapping paper or the same craft is delivered by siblings. Some kids even hang around by the door, hoping to catch their Secret Santa!

Last year Medha made penguin ornaments. I helped her draw the various parts on sticky foam; she then cut them and pasted it all together. She painted some parts and used glitter glue on others. She then slipped over to the neighbors with a black Hallowe'en mask covering her face and an extra large sweatshirt, rang their doorbell, left the gift at their door and ran in the direction opposite to that of our house. My husband was waiting for her around the corner in the car and they sped off in the wrong direction, made a full circle around the block before returning home. The car was too far away and gone by the time it could be seen! Medha stumbled back into the house, rolling with laughter at her escapade.

It's Secret Santa time again. We started making the first gift this evening, a nameplate wall hanging made of clay. No, neither she nor I are that creative to come up with it on our own. We did refer to Craft Fun (Art & Activities for Kids), an amazing book with over 90 projects for kids from ages 6 to 11. Medha designed the nameplate and so far, this is what we have:


It has since been taken apart carefully and each piece is now drying. Tomorrow we will paint each piece first as it is easier to paint each piece separately than to paint it as a whole. Then we will slip and score an area of each piece and pray to the Santa in the North Pole to make it stick to the plate. If they don't stick, I guess we will have to call on Super-Glue for help.

I thank God for the wonderful neighborhood we moved into a year ago. Most of the families go back at least a couple of decades. They have shared the joy of new births as well as grave illnesses where children from the affected home were taken in by several families, while others kept vigil at the hospital. It can be quite daunting to move into an extended family such as this, but they have only welcomed us with open arms. They keep the warmth alive by the things they do for one another. Especially when Old Man Winter decides to blow. But when he blows like he did last week, there is one more thing that I long for. Comfort food. From that place within me that I cannot define. My roots, perhaps.

So last week, when one of my readers left me a comment with a recipe for one such food that fits the bill perfectly - for a cold and wet evening - I decided to give in to the urge and it was by the far the quickest and the simplest dinner we have had in a long time, and also the most fulfilling.

Pithla Bhath

• 1/2 cup besan (chickpea flour or gram flour)
• 4 cups buttermilk
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• a pinch of hing
• 1 dried red chilli (use more if you like it hot!)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 cup red onion, diced
• frozen drumsticks (not the chicken kind! But the veggie saragawa kind), about 9-10 pieces
• salt to taste
• chopped cilantro for garnish

1. Put the drumsticks in a pot with enough water so that they are covered completely. Add some salt to the water and cook on medium-high until the tender. Usually about 10-15 minutes, depending on the quality of the drumsticks. Drain when cooked.
2. Mix besan with buttermilk to make a paste that is the consistency of pancake batter. Use your hands to mix it as that is the best way to ensure that there are no lumps.
3. Add turmeric powder to this paste
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan
5. Add mustard seeds and when they start popping, add hing
6. Break the red chilli into two pieces, shake out as many seeds as you can and discard them, and then add the red chilli pieces to the oil, taking care that neither the mustard seeds nor the red chilli burns. If the oil gets too hot, simply turn off the flame and move the pan off the stove.
7. Add chopped onions to the oil and sautée until they are pink in color. About 5 minutes, if you have done a good job chopping it fine!
8. Turn the heat down and slowly add the besan-buttermilk paste to the pan. It tends to splatter at this point so be careful.
9. Add the cooked drumsticks and salt to taste
10. Cook on medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring every so often, until the mixture thickens into a yummilicious pithla. The consistency is very similar to that of thick slip that you would use to glue clay together. (Perhaps I am not helping much with that analogy but the common thread here is clay!)
11. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve over hot steamed rice (bhath) and enjoy to your heart's content.

There are several variations of Pithla. Many of which are mentioned in the comment that led to this meal.

Nupur of One Hot Stove has her own take on pithla. And, there are more recipes on Mumbai-Masala's Maharashtrian food.

And then there is the drier version of pithla: zunka, which Ashwini made me drool over recently.

Pithla is just so quintessentially Maharashtrian and earthy that it brings to mind the smell that goes with cooking on a coal stove in the ground.


Some tips:

1. If you don't have buttermilk on hand, whip some yogurt and add water to make a buttermilk substitute
2. Save the water that the drumsticks cooked in. If your pithla thickens too much, you can add this water slowly to the pan, stirring it in as you add it
3. An important point to note is that a little bit of besan goes a long way in this dish. I used 1/2 cup of besan and made enough to feed the three of us. We could have fed a couple more but since everyone was over-eating that night, there were no leftovers. So don't go overboard with the quantity of besan. You might be eating it for days!

Wish us luck with the nameplate. I'll post an update with a picture of what it looks like once we are done with it. And, Shhh! Don't tell Jessie!

Update: We finished and delivered the nameplate late Tuesday evening. separating all the individual elements seemed like a good idea at the time, it really was not because they warped as they dried. So we had to remake most of them and speed-dry them with a hair-dryer. It was easier for Medha to paint them though. Putting it back together and then touching it up was not easy! But we did a rather decent job, I think!

Here's another picture just before it was wrapped in bubble-wrap and delivered in heavy disguise.

Medha got her first delivery, too. The door almost came down in her effort to catch her Secret Santa in the act but she failed. She got some really delicious Puppy Chow that I can't stop reaching out for!

Medha made the bowl it's in!

Have a wonderful Holiday season! And if you have kids in the neighborhood, it's still not too late to start playing Secret Santa!

Comfort food, pithla, pithla bhath, pithale, Maharashtrian food, Secret Santa

Ridiculous!

My Technorati links for Indian Food Rocks showed a new link:

Hmm! That copyright statement looks very familiar but where is the link?

I clicked through to this sad blog:

When she copied my copyright statement, she edited the text but did not edit the underlying HTML. Go on, visit her site, hover over the URL or better still click on it and come right back to my blog!

Even when she copies she can't do it right! Go take a look before she edits it to make it look like her own. Like she did with my Aloo Gobi recipe from 1999 that she copied off AllRecipes.com!

And while you're on that other sad blog, scroll down to see the copyright statement on that blog, too, and hover over the link. And her third blog, too. What a freaking joke. Some people just don't get it!

Why the fuss over a copied copyright statement? Because this takes the cake for being simply ridiculous. Run the recipes on any of her three blogs through Copyscape, you'll know what I am talking about.

Tags: plagiarism, copyrights, content theft