Bhapaa Aloo

 Still missing Payel in her world travels, I made bhapaa aloo for Julie Lay's holiday potluck. It actually was a huge hit and was completely eaten. I had to take a lot of liberties because of ingredients, but I think I hit the spirit of the thing, and once again, stayed true at least to the name "bhapaa aloo," which just means preboiled potatoes. 

Skin 3 potatoes and cut them up into big chunks. 

Then put them in a pot of salted, boiling water. Boil for about 8 minutes, until a fork goes through the potatoes, but there is still some resistance. Then take out the potatoes and put them in a large bowl.

In a pan, briefly cook cumin, anise seed, some dried chilis, and stone ground mustard (or mustard seeds if you have them) in oil. Then scoop out the mixture into the potato bowl.

Next in another bowl, I combined some yogurt, coconut milk, turmeric, chilli powder, and salt. I think this was much thicker than most bhapaa aloo marinades, but it was quite good. After mixing it up, I poured it on the potatoes and mixed everything together gently.

Then cook the potatoes in a generous amount of oil to finish cooking an make them nice and crispy. I also added some truffle oil to the cooking, which tastes really nice, but probably isn't necessary. After they're ready, add salt and lime to taste (and more chilli powder for Payel). 

Urad dumplings

These taste like a delightful cross between Indian idlis and Chinese dumplings. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, mix urad flour with enough water to make a goopy dough. Mix with any spices you want (I used rasam powder), and salt. When water is at a rolling boil, drop in one goop of the urad flour mixture at a time. Let it boil vigorously for about 20 min. After that, take out dumplings, chop into thick slices. Mix with soy sauce, fish sauce, fresh chilles, a squeeze of lime, and fresh chopped herbs (spring onions and cilantro are both great). Serve :) Symplax original. 

Roasted beet noodles

These are our favorite vegetable noodles so far. Amazing!!
Preheat oven to 425F. Spiralize beets on fat noodle setting. Four small/medium beets makes generous portion for two. In a bowl, toss beet noodles with generous minced garlic (this is key) a little salt, a spoonful of ghee (for high smoke point). Spread out on baking be sheet and bake 20 min, stir once maybe. Beets should be tender. Texture and taste is amazing. Can serve with minced green onion.

A sambar occasion

Put 6 tbsp of toor daal (washed) in a pot with enough water to cover it well. Cook uncovered around 20 min. Add in veggies (long green beans, peas, spinach, radish, chopped carrots...). Grind 2 tbsp sambar powder with 1.5 tbsp coconut. Put that in as well. Put in a spoon of tamarind concentrate (aamchur if you don't have), turmeric and salt. Add water as needed. In separate pan, fry mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves. Put into daal.

For instant pot version: add 1 washed cup toor daal, veggies, 4 cups water, sambar powder, turmeric, (and coconut if desired), salt to instant pot. Pressure cook for 8 min. Natural release for 15-20 min. Add tempered curry leaves, hing and mustard seeds. Top with cilantro.

Baked tofu

I like to use extra firm pressed tofu. Cut it into even slabs (1 lb block, ish), marinate with: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup cooking sherry, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp vinegar (rice vinegar, white, whatever you fancy), a couple of crushed garlic cloves, some grated ginger, dash of thyme or oregano. Marinate in this mixture a few hours, then bake at 400F for 20 min. Flip slabs, cook 15-20 min more. 

If you cut the slabs thin, they get pretty crispy. If you leave them a little thicker (preferred) it gets a little hard on the outside, but soft on the inside. Can roast veggies with it, pour extra marinade over them.

Sweet potato pancake

In a bowl, mix a cooked and skinned sweet potato with some egg white powder (3-4 tbsp for a big sweet potato, really helps bind pancake together), a little salt. Can add any other spices for variations. Once it's a soft puree, heat a flat pan, put in some olive oil, put a big dollop of the batter in the hot pan and flatten it a bit with a spoon. After a couple of min, flip and flatten a bit more. Should be done in 5 min ish. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh cilantro, green onion maybe. Dollop of sour cream also goes well.
Pro tip: put the whole sweet potato in the crock pot ahead of time and cook on low 8 hours ish, potato will be cooked quite soft, perfect for this.

Sweet potato noodles

Wash a sweet potato well. Start heating a wok with some olive oil. Spiralize the potato on a noodle setting (thick noodle setting in picture below). Sautee in hot olive oil for a couple of min. Then add a splash of water to the pan and cover. Cook for maybe 5-6 min more. Potato noodles should be tender. Can spice with garlic powder, a little more olive oil and salt, or anything you please. Lots of spice combos would go with this dish. When mixing in spices, toss pan around to coat instead of stirring them in, as noodles might break apart. Can serve alone as a side or as main course mixed with fish and veggies.
Delicious quick way to cook a sweet potato! Goes really well with a little spiced sour cream.

Tofu salad

Start with extra firm pressed tofu. Put the whole block into a steamer, or a pan with a little water. Cover and steam for 10 min ish. Once done, cut into cubes. Payel likes to put it into the fridge after this and use later, so salad is served cold. But hot would be fine too. Toss with anything you like.

Favorite combos so far are:
1. red pepper and eggplant spread with dollop of sour cream and cilantro garnish
2. pesto with lime and dollop of sour cream

Bit of sour cream goes really well with this as it really compliments the texture of the tofu.

Stove-top popcorn

We find our big wok works best for this. Heat the pan, med/med high heat.

For buttery popcorn: put in a little butter, once it melts, put in popcorn kernels (should be in a single layer in pan). Cover with lid cracked just a little. Can agitate pan a bit to get even heat on kernels. Season with fine popcorn salt.

For dry popcorn: (pictured below) keep the pan a little hotter (high), put in kernels and agitate every few seconds. Season with popcorn salt.

Bhindi masala

Cook okra by itself first for a few min. Meanwhile, in a food processor, blend a couple of tomatoes, generous garlic and ginger, chilli powder, salt, garam masala, turmeric, fresh green chilles. When okra is pretty much cooked and a little browned, take out of pan. In same pan, heat a little oil and cook cumin seeds, mustard seeds generous chopped green onion until spices splatter. Now put in okra and spiced tomato puree. Cook (can cover if it's dry, or add a little water) for 5-6 min more until really yummily fragrant.

Hing-y spinach

This recipe is really easy, but one of our favorite ways to eat spinach. In a pan, put in frozen block of spinach, add a splash of water and cover. Meanwhile, shred some cheese (really sharp cheddar is great). Once spinach is hot, turn down heat, add in shredded cheese, chilli powder, salt and LOTs of hing. Fantastic savory side dish, quite unique because of the distinctive hing taste.

Crispy baked tempeh strips

Thinly slice tempeh, marinate with a mix of soy sauce, chilli flakes, dash of sesame oil and splash of vinegar (rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar are both good). Alternatively, flavor with olive oil and spices (Italian and Indian style spices both work really well). Can marinate for a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge, or just go right to baking. I put tempeh strips in a container with a lid, add spices etc and give the container a good shake to get all strips coated on both sides.

Preheat oven to 350F. Lay tempeh strips in single layer on baking tray. Bake 20 min, flip tempeh strips, bake 15 more min. They turn out flavorful, a bit crispy, and nutty tasting. Wonderful! Eat as a snack, or put on salad.

Alternatively, flavor with olive oil and spices (Italian and Indian style spices both work really well).

Moong flatbread

Makes a wonderful quick symplax breakfast, or wrap. Two methods.

1. Soak whole or split moong daal overnight. Blend with some water.

2. Use moong flour (this is preferred if it is available). Blend with water.

Add any spices you think will go with it. Sambar powder and keffir lime leaves is a super good combination. Tempered mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves is awesome too. Chilli powder is always good, in whatever combo. Texture should be like thick pancake batter.

Pour into a hot skillet, cook 5-6 min, flip, cook 5-6 min. Note, cook times are less if you're starting with moong flour, only a couple of min on each side.

Crock pot squash

Did you know you can put a whole squash in the crock pot? No cutting, no piercing, just put it in there! Wash a squash of your choice, put it in the crock pot overnight on low. In the morning, it will be super soft and perfect. Cut a slice, top with coconut cream, cinnamon, salt and pepper. We love eating it skin on (so wash skin well). Payel loves the seeds too, kind of like seedy bread. It has a nice bite to it. Wonderful easy breakfast.

5 min home made bread (100% whole wheat)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsp baking powder, some salt, 3/4 cup water, 1/8 cup olive oil. Mix, make into a loaf shape. Put on a pan lined with parchment paper. Score a light X onto the top of the dough with a knife. Sprinkle coarse salt and oregano on top (or whatever toppings you please). Bake at 400 degrees for 40 min. Delicious bread, tastes a little like a biscuit. Especially good sliced and toasted.

Cauliflower rice

Wash some chunks of cauliflower, put it in a food processor and pulse a bit until it looks like couscous. Only takes a few seconds. Heat a little olive oil in a pan, put in the cauliflower rice, stir it around a bit, then add a splash of water or broth etc, cover for 10 min ish on low/med heat. Add seasonings and serve. Pictured below: symplax rice and beans.

Green tahini dip

This creamy and rich dip is kind of like spinach artichoke dip, but yummier in my opinion :) In a colander, put 2 packed cups of baby spinach. Pour boiling water over the spinach. Then pour cold water over it so it's cold enough to handle. Squeeze the water out of the spinach and put into a food processor. Add 1/3 cup of fresh herb (cilantro, mint, whatever you please) a couple of big cloves of garlic, juice of a big lime, 1/2 cup of tahini and salt. Puree, adding a splash or two of cold water until the dip is the desired texture. After you chill it, it has a texture like goat cheese.

Credit: Dinner, Changing the Game

Carrot coconutty salad

Steam baby carrots and cut into bite sized pieces. Add spoonful of coconut butter to hot carrots. Add a little crystalized honey and coarse salt. Taste is creamy, rich, a little sweet. A little like a less starchy version of sweet potatoes.

Spicy roasted nuts

One of the best Einbildungskraft street foods. Preheat oven to 300F. Mix up a bunch of the nut or seed that you want to use with a bit of brown mustard, chilli powder, salt, and mysterious hing based curry powder, and a tiny bit of honey. Spread on some foil on a baking sheet and pop it in. Stir at 15 min. Take out at 30. Wait 5 min to eat. 

Awesome marinated tofu

Drain tofu well. Cut a block of extra firm tofu into strips. In a big dry pan (no oil), put strips down in a single layer, heat on medium, squeeze down with a spatula to get out some water. leave it for a few min, flip when one side is brown and a little crispy looking. When both sides look like that, put in a box with your marinade. I love a marinade of soy sauce, fish sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and lime juice. Give the box a good shake to get your marinade all over the tofu strips, and leave in the fridge for an hour at least (few days is fine). I like putting this cold on salads, so yummy! But it's also great in stir fry, or just as a snack.

The dry heating method gets a lot of moisture out of the tofu, which lets it absorb a lot of the marinade, making it soak up a lot of flavor. Also, the crispy brown texture is delightful, and you don't even have to deep fry it.