Natto on Cheese Toast

This recipe is going to shock most Japanese people. But it tastes great :). We shall use Natto, that most Japanese of all Japanese foods, after eating which, you can claim to have truly embraced Japanese culture.

First, we will start by lightly toasting whole wheat (or multi-grain) bread. Then, place a slice of swiss cheese on the toast and put it your oven to broil.

Keep it in the oven until the cheese just about starts to melt, as shown in the picture. Take it out of the oven and keep aside.

Open up your Natto box (this can be purchased in any Japanese store. I got mine from Nijiya Market, next to Chaat Paradise on El Camino).

Mix the sauce (usually soy and mustard) and make the natto really frothy using chopsticks (or a fork).

Finally, put the natto on your cheese toast as shown above. Serve with miso soup (and a poached egg). Yummy!

Broccoli Spinach Curry

After a long time, I cooked up a new dish and it turned out really well. So here goes..

Ingredients
1 large broccoli
1 packet Spinach
1/2 packet carrots
1 large white onion
1 tomato
Salt to taste
Cornflower (zero-cholesterol) oil
Cloves (3)
Cardamom (2)
Pepper balls (5 to 6)
Finely Chopped chillies (3)
Cumin (jeera)
Asafoetida

The Recipe
Heat the oil in a large non-stick cooking pan. The pan should be big enough to make curry. As the oil heats up, sprinkle a teaspoon of cumin seeds (jeera), along with cloves, cardamom and pepper balls. Add asafoetida and chillies. Then add finely chopped onions. After they've been sauteed for a bit, add finely chopped tomatoes, cover the pan and sautee some more.

Meanwhile, put a half cup of water in a blender and dump the spinach into it. You may not be able to fit all of it, so do it in iterations. Blend it to produce spinach puree.

Go back to the sauteeing onions and tomatoes, and dump in chopped broccoli and baby carrots. Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Cover and let it sautee. After 15 minutes, open the cover and add the spinach puree. Cover again and sautee for another 15 mintues.

A delicious curry will be waiting for you. Let me know how this turned out.

Mango Eggplant Curry

An experiment I tried today was a great success (certified by my roommate, a previous roommate and most importantly, my previous roommate's wife).

Summer is the right season for mangoes. Try to find big green mangoes (kaccha or unripe).

Ingredients
2 unripe mangoes
1 large eggplant (brinjal)
4 green chillies
fresh peeled baby carrots (available in packets at most stores)
2 tomatoes
Cashews (optional)
Salt
Onions
Olive Oil
Paanch Puran masala (ask the store attendant for this - alternative - garam masala)
Dried cardamom
Haldi (turmeric powder - you can get sprinkle bottles in the stores)

Start by slicing and dicing the eggplant. Put it into a pressure cooker. I had to use two cookers as the eggplant I had was huge. Fill it up with sufficient water (height of water = 2 x height of diced eggplant). Add two teaspoons of salt (to each cooker). Let the cooker heat up and wait for three whistles. Meanwhile, finely chop one large onion.

Turn off the heat and let the steam out. When you open it, you will be surprised to see how little eggplant there is - it's mostly shrunk. Do not worry. And do NOT throw away the water. This water is quite nutritious and we shall henceforth refer to it as "broth."

Strain the eggplant out, taking care to preserve all of the broth. In a large cooking vessel, heat some olive oil (medium heat). After a minute of heating, add a teaspoon of paanch puran masala. Give yourself 15 to 20 seconds, and drop in all of the onions. The timing is important or you will end up burning the masala. If that happens, clean up the pan and start again.

Sautee the onions until they are starting to turn brown. Add a sprinkling of haldi (turmeric powder). Drop the eggplant in and continue to sautee. Then, leave this alone and start chopping the green mangoes. Use a peeler if you have one, or else, a regular knife to chop the tops out. You will quickly learn how to extract as much of the fruit as possible. Dice it and toss it in and sautee together with the eggplant.

Throw in four chillies and a handful of cashew nuts. Cover the vessel with a lid and turn your attention to the broth. Transfer the broth into a blender. It should still be quite hot, so be careful. Put in two tomatoes and several baby peeled carrots (9 or 10). I did this in two steps as I had lots of broth. Blend nicely. Check to see that the sautee has advanced quite a bit - the color should begin to change. Drop in the broth - it is now a nutritious puree.


Turn the heat up a little and cover the lid. If the vessel is quite full, don't use a lid or the curry will come tumbling out. Although you added salt earlier, you may want to check that the taste is appropriate after 15 minutes of heating. If there is a lot of broth, all you need to do is to let it evaporate until you have the right quantity. That has the advantage of thickening the curry and concentrating the flavor.

You should end up with a delightful mango eggplant curry (see first picture). Let me know if you end up trying this.

Togurt Dip

Togurt - Tomato Yogurt Dip

Diced tomatoes, cloves, elaichi, salt, .25 sliced chilli
2 cups of yogurt
Optional: Almonds, mint leaves (pudina)

Put in blender and blend away. Then, lay thick dip over multigrain bread and devour. You can also use this dip along with baby carrots.

Happy Breakfast!

Eggstraordinary Dishes

This one's for egg-eaters, from memories created during my childhood that was spent experimenting with eggs (yes, I was experimenting with food that early..)

Sprouted Omelette

Ingredients: Sprouted Moong Beans, 2 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 1 chilli, blender, finely chopped onions and tomatoes

You want to ensure that you have a non-stick frying pan for this.

Drop the contents of the egss into the blender. Add the sprouted moong beans, salt and chilli. If you like, add some mint leaves as well. Blend.

Heat a little oil in a pan (2 tsp). When the oil is hot, fry finely chopped onions and tomatoes for 1 minute. As it continues to roast, pour the egg batter from the blender.

As your omelette takes shape, ensure that you keep rolling the frying pan so as to ensure consistency in the density of your omelette. This should happen for 2-3 minutes, after which you'll want to roll over on two edges (like a dosa) and drop it into your plate.

If you want to nullify all the nutrition in your omelette, have it with some ketchup.

Water Poach

Boil water in your frying pan. When the water is boiling (bubbles will rise up to the surface and burst), hold the egg up over the water. Holding it in your left hand, take an upside down spoon and hit the egg with the handle of the spoon, gently enough so the contents don't splash all over, but hard enough to crack it. When cracks have appeared over 1/4th of the egg surface, put your spoon aside and use your hands to split the egg and drop the contents gently into the frying pan.

This is the healthiest possible preparation of egg - zero oil. If you do it carefully enough, you will be able to lift the contents and put it onto your plate. Its alright if some water spills over to your plate - it will be nutritious. With the excess water, add salt and pepper and have it as a protein drink.

Please leave comments on the result of your experiments.

My friend's a chef...

So, here's my contribution to this masterpiece of a blog.
My friend Siu Kee is a master chef. I prompted him to start writing a blog for young student cooks who do not have the time/patience/skill to perfect what somik calls the zen of cooking (/seasoning!).

He calls is First Time Food Philosophy. It has a cute namesake: easiestgunk.

The Art of Cooking - I

Over the last few years, I've discovered many ways of cooking food that is nutritious, healthy and fast (or easy) to cook.

But please remember "faster, easier, better, choose any two". You can't have your cake and eat it too.

The First Principle of cooking:

"Cook in a pressure cooker wherever possible."

Here's why.

1. It cooks faster.
2. Retains aroma.
3. The food is more nutritious (usually) than its counterpart cooked in open utensils.

The Tao of Pressure Cooking:
1. When trying to cook food, let it heat up till the boiling point without the whistle on the vent. Put the whistle on the vent when the steam just starts to escape. (This creates an environment inside of water vapor, instead of air, and it cooks faster coz water vapor has a greater specific heat)
2. Most food items don't require 3-4 whistles. Heat only upto the point that the whistle might blow up. Switch it off, and let it cool down on its own. The steam trapped inside would cook the food over the next 10-12 minutes.

The Zen of seasoning:
1. Do not prepare seasoning after boiling lentils, and add to it. Do it at the time of boiling. Fry ingredients like jeera, chopped onions and diced tomatoes in the pressure cooker, then add the bulk of lentils, water and bring to boil. Add the spices, stir well, and close the lid.

In the "conventional" cooking, they boil lentils separately, and then add seasoning to it later. They create the seasoning by heating together ingredients like oil, jeera (cumin seeds), chopped onion, some spices and then add this to the boiled lentils later. They love the aroma this generates. However, the aroma in spices comes from "essential oils", which vaporize at relatively lower temperatures. When you expose them to an open environment and heat them, you have effectively vaporized the oils before adding the seasoning to the lentils. The place for the aroma is the food, not the kitchen.

I am going to put in more of my news, views, opinions and prejudices at http colon slash slash arbitrarymusings dot blogspot dot com.