Looking Back at Feburary'2014:The List

(The List is a new series on G&G where we summarize our month in a post - inspired by similar posts on One Hot Stove! Our month is full of so many little interesting moments and tidbits, many of which are too trivial to be blog-worthy on their own but combine all those small moments of amusements, happiness or discoveries and gift-wrap them with a nice little bow of "looking back at month", and there you have it, that's our list :)

I try to keep the list food related - afterall that's what you are here for! - but I also feature reading and watching lists; what's a month without a good book to dig your nose into, right?.. Hope you enjoy! )

On My Mind:

The ever elusive rain gods are finally smiling on the bay. After an unusually dry season this year, February turned out to be our first wet month of the season. Not a lot of rain or wintry weather still, but just enough to give those umbrellas a chance to peek out of closets and those beautiful hills surrounding the bay to sprout new green grass.

This has been the driest season on record here in California.

Image Credit: Saurabh Deoras @ California Naturescapes

Meanwhile this severe drought and water shortage has presented local almond growers some tough choices such as sell their almond fields at a discount price, let them dry up or chop all the trees. Drive through central valley and you can see various almond fields for sell signs....It's so sad it breaks my heart.

These are the same almond fields we visit every spring during almond bloom to take pictures (this is an image captured two years ago)

Living in cities we don't feel the effect of drought but it's harsh for the farm owners - read more about almond farms fate in California this season here.

Eating:

Lots and lots of citrus fruit! Oranges are in season - said it before and will say it again, grab them before they go :) So sweet and so many varieties - I am recently falling in love with meyer lemon all over again. Meyer lemon is a cross between lemon and mandarin orange. They are a lemonish looking fruit which has a super smooth bright yellow skin and a sweet flesh with lemonish tinge. So good! On my todo list is a meyer lemon butter this season..

Carrying over from last month, our Japanese food fever is still going strong. Sushi and soba noodles and noodle soup and tempuras are making their regular appearances at our dinner table. I am also getting better and better at making sushi - it's an art honestly.

Also in season are sweet potatoes or yams. Our favorite method includes roasting sweet potatoes at 375F for 40-45mins and then broiling for 5-10mins to get a charred skin. They are so good, you can eat them like candies - a perfect healthy no butter desert. If you have a sweet tooth but want to be tummy conscious - roasted yams are your friends!

Reading:

This month work turned an upward slope so it was back to only a comfort re-read in the night - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Image credit: goodreads.com

We added a new book to little one's library this month: How Does Baby Feel by Karen Katz. Where is Baby's Belly Button which is another of Katz' book is a major favorite with my little one, so we bought this book with a tunload of expectations and it did not disappoint us in the least!

A baby has so many emotions and there is a trigger for every emotion. A baby can be happy when someone tickles his tummy, sad when she breaks a toy, hungry when she is looking for milk and cookie and loved when family hugs and kisses him! That's what this book is all about. Simple concept adorn this lift the flap hit. Little ones can lift the flap to see what emotion baby is experiencing and you can see them act along. My daughter will pretend cry, laugh, do silly things all with hand motions and all while reading this book - it's so precious! I must say this book is another winner for us.

Watching:

I am watching Ted talks food matters series on Netflix and enjoying it immensely! The latest one we saw is Jamie Oliver's Teach Every Child About Food segment. As regular readers of G&G know, at our home it's all about simple quick cooking with fresh local sourced ingredients and avoiding preservative-laden processed ready-made food as much as possible. 

This program starts with outlining appalling state of school children's food habits today and goes into simple everyday measures we can take to make the most precious of our society members adopt better food habits. His advise is mostly common sense, but sadly in this highly corporate profit driven world, repeating common sense can go a long way.

There are so many exciting authors and topics in this Ted food series, I can't wait to watch them all!

Enjoying:

The rain! We are so happy it's raining back again in the bay this month! There is something very therapeutic watching rain steadily pounding on the windows with an occasional splash of lightening. That constancy it's almost rhythmic. It can beautify anything - including a simple ginger-lemongrass chai and some bhujia to go along-with it, don't you think? :)

Till next month, enjoy!

Grab them before they go - oranges are in season (citrus salad and orange marmalade)!

(Starting off a new series on G&G - "Grab them before they go". In this series we feature a seasonal produce or fruit our family is enjoying thoroughly these days. Infact it's so good that we think it deserves you opening another tab on your browser right now and finding out your nearest farmer's market to visit! 

We at G&G strongly believe in simple & quick recipes with local and seasonal produce and fruits; not only you will be enjoying fresh bounties of the nature without the preservatives and 100s of food miles, you will also be helping the local farmer's ecosystem and sustainable growing)

It's that time of the year again when citruses are everywhere in California. Farmer's markets are filled with rows and rows of navel oranges, satsumas & mandarins (peelable oranges), cara-cara oranges (rose color flesh), blood oranges, grapefruits and pamelos and meyer lemons too!

I have a detailed post here going over different citrus varieties and their taste differences.

We know it can be over-whelming at first to know that "orange" is not just "one variety", but fret not, it's as simple as trying out a piece of each and taste testing at home!

Oh, and while you are at it, try out this winter citrus salad.

It's so pretty, you can substitute this salad for a table centerpiece for the next gathering you host! A centerpiece which is so yummy you can eat it off the table, now that's something :)

Recipe is very simple and extremely adaptive. 

Recipe: Winter's bounty citrus salad

Ingredients:

1 navel orange

1 cara cara orange

2 blood oranges

1 meyer lemon (sweet lemon)

1 grapefruit

1/2Tbsp chopped mint

1/2Tbsp very finely chopped shallot or red onion

handful of toasted slivered almonds

2Tbsp olive oil

1tsp lemon juice

salt & pepper.

Recipe:

Salad dressing:

1. Zest one navel orange to get 1/2Tbsp orange zest.
2. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, orange zest, red onion, mint, salt & pepper. 
3. Mix well. Taste, add more lemon juice if not acidic enough; add more olive oil if too acidic. 
4. Set aside.

Assembling the salad:

1. Using a knife remove the tops and bottom parts of the citrus so they stand well.
2. Peel the orange using a knife. Cut as much of the white skin as possible.
3. Dice the citrus into equal thickness disks.
4. Arrange the various colored citrus disks.
5. drizzle the dressing on top.
6. Sprinkle some toasted slivered almonds and enjoy!

And while we are on the topic of oranges, I have got to tell you about this orange marmalade I made! I don't make it as often as I should now a days, but it's so wonderful to make a big batch - you and your family can enjoy spreading on a piece of toast, or as a marinade for chicken pieces or homemade marmalade makes great gifts too you know! Free up one of your Sunday afternoons and cook a big batch of these...

Anyway, however you like to enjoy your oranges, be sure to grab them before go out of season!

Easy Breezy Chicken Tandoori (v2)

This tandoori chicken recipe is a favorite one at our home! The reason it's named v2 is because I already have one tandoori chicken post on this blog - however I have been recently feeling that there is scope of improvement there. In particular chicken could be more moist while keeping the skin still crunchy.

The v1 was made when our oven did not have a broil function but now that we have a working broiler I thought I would give it a few tries and tada, there comes v2 - better and improved but still the same easy breezy!

After many attempts, this is the recipe I narrowed down on. The skin will be crispy with a slightly burnt taste (which I love so much!) while the inside is still very moist and juicy. I have had success with this recipe 3 times in a row, so I feel pretty confident calling this a blog-worthy recipe now :)

Do you enjoy Tandoori chicken at restaurants? Have you tried making tandoori chicken at home? If not but if you enjoy eating it out, I highly recommend giving it a try. Contrary to perceptions, it's a very straight-forward recipe with lowest run to run variation of most Indian recipes!

It's super easy to put together and once you get the formula down, making 2 or 10 or 20 take nearly the same amount of prep and cooking time - making it a perfect party or a large gathering dish. I made this for my little one's birthday we hosted at home this year and it was a smashing hit - everything gone within minutes and guests were still craving for more :)

This is also a good recipe if you are inviting spice sensitive friends for dinner. It's a good recipe to introduce someone to Indian food and it's spices without making it too hot so that tears run down their eyes while eating - we don't want anyone to cry eating this, do we? ;)

Another change I did in v2 is reduced the spice list and added pre-made spice mixes indtead. You can always buy tandoori mix sold at most Indian markets, but I find putting one together is quite easy and the variations are endless. This is another recipe which could greatly benefit from a good quality curry powder (such as Trader Joe's or Penzy's Maharaja blend) and garam masala powder.

So anyway, enough about the background, let's dig in!

Recipe:

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

5 pieces chicken drumsticks - skin on

1C yogurt

1Tbsp curry powder

1tsp garam masala

1tsp cumin powder

1/2tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp chilli powder (or to taste)

1Tbsp paprika (for color)

2Tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper

Recipe:

Beat yogurt lightly in a large pot. Add all the spices, 1Tbsp oil and salt & pepper to taste. Mix well.

Wash and clean the chicken pieces. Using a sharp knife, make deep gashes (3-4 a piece) to the chicken pieces and add the chicken to the yogurt pot and mix well making sure every piece is well coated with spiced yogurt.

Cover and leave in fridge for upto 2-4hrs to marinate. (this step is critical for a moist and a tasty tandoori taste)

When it's time to cook, take the chicken out. Preheat oven to 375F

Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and place chicken pieces gently. Drizzle remaining Tbsp olive oil over the pieces and sprinkle some salt & pepper.

Bake at 375F for 45-50mins until chicken is well cooked.

Then turn the broiler to high and broil for 5-10mins or until black-brown spots start to appear on the outside. Turn the heat off. Take off chicken from oven and cover with another foil and set aside for 15mins.

Serve with some sliced onion, lime wedges! Enjoy!

Soba Noodles with Stir-fried Vegetables

Do you cook with soba noodles? If not, I definitely recommend giving them a try! You won't be disappointed. Soba noodles are native Japanese noodles. They are made of buckwheat flour and are about as thick as spaghetti. Buckwheat is an ancient and a very healthy grain - but more importantly for me it just tastes awesome and cooks in 4 minutes! You can't beat that on a busy weeknight! These noodles when properly cooked have a really good bite to it and can withstand sharper flavors of soya, chili-garlic paste etc with commendable integrity :)

Buckwheat noodles can be served cold or hot - this preparation I am sharing with you today is best eaten while the noodles are hot.

This dish rotates almost every week at our home. The little one loves noodles and tofu and is always happy to munch along picking noodles one by one :) We try many ingredient variation from tofu, broccoli, carrots, yellow papers, mushrooms, babycorns, water chestnuts to chicken. I prefer extra firm tofu for this dish. If tofu is not your thing, feel free to skip it - dish tastes great just with vegetables too.

Recipe:

Serves hungry 3

Ingredients:

9.5 ounces Soba noodles (1 packet with 3 rolls of soba)

Quarter of red onion -sliced thinly

2 carrots - chopped

half of yellow paper - sliced thinly

2C mushrooms - chopped

1/2inch piece of ginger - grated

2 garlic cloves - grated/minced

2 green onions - thinly sliced

handful of cilantro leaves - minced (optional)

4Tbsp soy sauce

2Tbsp rice vinegar

dash of your favorite stir fry sauce (I used Trader Joe's) (optional)

2Tbsp canola oil

dash of sesame seed oil

pinch of crushed chili flakes

chili garlic paste as condiment

salt & pepper

First, start cooking the noodles per package instructions. Mine required 4 mins of cooking time in boiling hot water.

While water is heating, prep all the vegetables.

Then mince ginger and garlic and chop green onions & cilantro

Heat 2Tbsp canola oil in a large skillet till very hot (stir-fry temperature).

Add sliced onions and cook on high-heat for a few minutes. Then add ginger & garlic and cook another minute.

Then add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms have oozed out all the extra water

 Add rest of the vegetables:

and soy sauce, vinegar, stir-fry sauce (if using)

Turn the heat off.

Meanwhile rinse the cooked noodles with cold water

Add noodles to the skillet. Add dash of sesame oil, green onions and cilantro, salt & pepper and mix well.

Dinner is served! Provide chili-garlic sauce (commonly available in asian aisles of supermarkets) as condiment for a spicier version. Make yourself a hot cup of green tea or jasmine tea for the hard work (or not ;) ) and sip along and enjoy your dinner!

Mystery ingredient's mystery solved: Amaranth leaves sambhar!

I have this most weird habit of picking up a new vegetable or a new grain without any slightest idea of what I am going to do with it or how to use it. If I see something new, it peeks my interest and draws me like a magnet and the next thing I know its somehow sitting in my grocery cart! 

It was one level of craziness picking up things that are new but this time I crossed a line: I actually picked up something without even knowing its name. Okay, now I am not this crazy person who would feed anything to my family; I mean, the leaves were sitting next to the spinach, anything that sits next to spinach has to be eatable and tasty too, I bet!

So I picked up these most unique looking green leaves (size of small spinach leaves) with red veins running into them. I had no idea what they were, the store did not have a name-tag next to it. I called the store people and asked them what it was, they said they had no idea. I picked them up anyway, thinking I would google them.

I come home, try a lot of Google image search first (Green leaves with red veins), nothing that looks even remotely to what I have turns up. More Google search, nada. It gets to the point that I am thinking I would have to take a picture and send it to my mom in India for identification when I try the last search criteria "indian grocery green leaves red" and voila, there comes an entry from Mahanadi with a picture of the exact leaves that I have!! Score! So, today's mystery ingredient is amaranth leaves.

Not knowing how they taste, I made a quick hard-to-go-wrong sambhar (with store bought sambhar powder it's a jiffy -- sorry Sambhar police.. just didn't have the patience to start from scratch today, it happens, you know). The sambhar was yummy delicious with freshly made rice and a side of lemon pickle. 

So turns out my so-called weird habit of picking up mystery ingredients isn't too bad afterall!

Ingredients:

3C loosely packed washed and dried amarnth leaves

3/4C toor daal

5C water

1/2C tiny shallot onions

1 tomato - chopped

1tsp sambhar powder

1.5tsp tamarind paste

1/4tsp turmeric powder

salt & sugar to taste

For tempering:

vegetable oil (may be 2Tbsp)

1/2tsp mustard seeds

1/2tsp cumin seeds

pinch of asafoetida

1 large chopped garlic clove

Recipe:

1. In a large pot, add amarnath leaves, water, toor daal and salt. Cover and let cook until the daal turns mushy.
2. Add onions, tomato, tamarind paste and sambhar powder to the daal. Cook covered for 10more minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat oil for tempering in a small pot. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they start popping add cumin seeds; followed by garlic and asafortida.
4. Add the tarka to the toor daal. Mix well, adjust the seasonings and serve hot with rice!

Tilapia Fish Curry - Bengali Style

This is one of my favorite fish curry recipe. I have tried it before with Salmon and posted here. I have been meaning to try it with tilapia. Tilapia is a more delicate fish so I was worried whether it would stand up to the pan frying and then steaming with the curry gravy and also whether the kalonji and curry flavors of the recipe would overpower the delicate light fish. I am happy to report however that the fish curry was just the same tasty with tilapia as with salmon.

I also managed to take step by step photos this time and made the recipe slightly simple. Original version called for various spices, this time I substituted all the spices with curry powder instead. Result was equally delicious! The trick is to find a good quality curry powder if you don't make one at home. I generally use Trader Joe's curry powder and I am quite satisfied with it; it's a very mild version heat-wise but packs a lot of punch. Home-made has it's benefits but using a good quality store bought one is a very useful time saving arsenal of a busy mom. Another good one I like is Maharaja curry powder from Penzy's spices.

We devoured the fish curry with rice and lime wedges.

This photo is from the time I had made it previously - we were too busy eating our dinner this time to stage a good one :)

Recipe:

Serves 3

Ingredients:

3 tilapia fillets (preferably fresh)

quarter of a large onion - finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic - grated

1/2 in piece of ginger - grated

2 tomatoes - chopped

1 small potato - sliced

1/2tsp kalonji/nigella seeds (substitute with mustard seeds if you don't have kalonji - but try to use kalonji if possible, it gives it that Bengali taste!)

1tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp curry powder

2Tbsp yogurt

salt

juice of 1 lime

canola or vegetable oil

Recipe:

Clean wash and pat dry tilapia fillets and cut each fillet into 2 or 3 large pieces. Add juice of half a lime, 1/2tsp turmeric powder and salt to the fish pieces and mix well. Let marinate for half an hour or so.

Heat 2Tbsp vegetable oil in a non-stick pan or a cast iron pan just until the oil starts to smoke slightly. Then add fish pieces one by one in a single layer. Do not crowd. 

Let cook for 3-5 mins depending on size and then flip them over. Pieces should  be slightly browned but not charred which otherwise will give them a chewy consistency.

Flip them over carefully and let cook on the second side for 2minutes. Take them off heat and keep aside.

Heat 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in a pan and add kalonji/nigella seeds. When they start to splutter add chopped onions. Let cook until onions start to brown.

Then add grated ginger and garlic and cook a few more minutes. Then add 1/2tsp turmeric powder and curry powder. Cook for a minute.

Then add chopped tomatoes and cook on low flames until oil starts to separate (~5-7mins)

Then add sliced potato and let cook for a few more minutes

Keep adding 1C of water at a time and stirring until you reach your desired gravy consistency. Do not add more than 4-5C of water. Let it come to a boil and then simmer of medium low.

Then add 2Tbsp yogurt and mix well. Yogurt will give the curry a thicker consistency and also will bring sourness to it. Add salt to taste.

Add fish pieces back to the curry. Let everything simmer together for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle more lime juice and serve with rice!

Looking Back At January'2014: The List

I have been a regular reader of One Hot Stove's The List posts and I must say I am hooked on to them! As the month end approaches, I find myself looking out for Nupur's The List posts... needless to say I was so happy when she encouraged other bloggers to start posting their own lists :)

These posts are like a month in review posts. However just the idea of jotting down these otherwise ordinary moments of a month gives me enough motivation to spend my time doing meaningful and creative things. Anyway, that's the hope - or the hidden agenda I should say behind starting The List series here on Ginger & Garlic :)

So here goes - here is my first monthly List.

January was a busy month as usual. Work is always crazy in January after the winter break so it was a busy month work-wise. Rain Gods are not smiling over the bay this season, we have hardly had any rain. California is officially in drought but I am ashamed to admit that a part of me is really enjoying the mild spring like weather this winter season for all the outdoor activities!

Eating

This was a month dominated by Japanese food at our home. Did I tell you I have caught the sushi fever? We have been making veg sushi almost once every week along-with a noodle based side dish. My most successful attempt this month was a dinner of avocado sushi rolls and vegetarian noodle soup with tofu, broccoli and carrots - yumm!

We are also eating lots and lots of apples and grapes. This time of year California farmer's market are filled with super sweet apples and grapes and we are buying and enjoying bulk-load of fruits every week. Our apple farmer is worried of a short apple season this year due to lack of cold weather, that's another motivation for us to eat them while you got them!

Reading

Goodreads.com

I re-read a book this month which I had read and loved a long time back. It's Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It's a wonderful work of fiction set in Russia of late 1800s. This is one of the lighter books of Leo Tolstoy - this is a love story between a married high-class socialite and a raising count against a very inflexible social backdrop particularly towards women. Woven into the story is another parallel story of a Russian landowner who lives life simply with values and wants be fair to everyone. Book is rather long but it beautifully touches upon topics of morality, Russian politics, friendship and family values. If you generally love the 1800s classics, you will certainly like this.

Goodreads.com

I am also enjoying the Anjum's New Indian cookbook. I got a copy of this book from the publisher for review a few years back and came across it recently during winter cleaning. This is a great treasure of a book with different regional Indian recipes. I particularly like the seafood section and have jotted down a few recipes to try if I come across fresh fish in the market.

Goodreads.com

We also added a new favorite to the little one's book collection this month. It's a book called Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins. This one came with a glowing recommendation from the store owner who herself is a mom of 5 so I knew I was on the right track! Ever since I bought it for little one we have been reading this book every day atleast twice a day. It is quickly climbing her favorite list! Wish I had found it earlier :)

Watching

Bloomberg's Inside Chipotle series on Netflix. I came upon this program quite accidentally but I am glad I did. I love eating at Chipotle so it was nice to know the history of Chipotle and values it's founder chef believes in. I had heard about McDonalds being primary stakeholder in Chipotle which had raised some doubts of how Chipotle sources their ingredients and their philosophy to food, but I am glad to see Steve Elle's focus on local, free range meats and vegetables. 

Another show we are watching quite often this month is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on Netflix. This is a PBS kids show for the littlest ones - preschoolers. Every show emphasizes a simple value to kids such as "grown-ups always come back to their little ones", "sharing is good", "go to potty as soon as you know you have to" etc. :) This series came highly recommended by a dear friend and our little one is surely enjoying it a lot. As she turned 2, we started allowing her 15mins of TV most weekdays and one segment of this show fits very nicely in there!

Enjoying

This has been an unseasonably warm and dry winter here. The bald hills surrounding the bay which usually turn deep green by this time are dry and yellow and everyone is awaiting the much-needed rain. However, like me, many of Californians must be ashamed to admit that a part of us is actually enjoying the sunny days and mild spring like weather through December and January. Instead of enjoying our usual winter pursuits of hot soup, blanket and a book, this year we spent January enjoying local zoo, picnics at local parks, many visits to playgrounds and hikes through the nearby trails. Spring flowers are starting to pop up everywhere and the little one is having a lot of fun running around picking flowers of different colors!

It has been a busy yet wonderful January at our end - how has your January been?

Vegetarian Sushi Rolls!

We love Sushi (our toddler also enjoys veg sushi rolls!). On many weekend afternoons we hang out at our favorite downtown sushi restaurant enjoying delicious sushi rolls & sashimi, sipping miso soup & hot tea with a side of tempura noodles.

So it was only natural that the sushi bug would bite me at home too. I have been attempting sushi rolls at home for a few weeks now. I am not yet brave enough to handle raw fish so my attempts have been limited to vegetarian sushi rolls or imitation crab.

My sushi rolls are not as good as our favorite restaurant yet, but they are definitely good enough for a weeknight sushi craving :)

Sushi is simple yet complex. You only need handful of ingredients but there is still an endless art to bringing out the best from your ingredients for a perfect sushi rolls.

So as much as within your means, go for the freshest or best quality ingredients. You can find them at your nearby Asian grocery store. What you will need to get started is:

1. Nori sheets (the seaweed wrapper in which to roll sushi)
2. Wooden sushi mat
3. Sushi rice - a small grain sticky rice variety
4. Filling - thinly sliced blocks of avocado, imitation crab or roasted butternut squash
5. Pantry staples - a good quality rice vinegar, sugar, salt
6. Wasabi paste and soysauce as sushi roll dipping

Cook sushi rice per package directions. Our requires 1C rice with 1.25C of water and ~20 mins in rice cooker. Once rice is ready, remove from cooker and let it cool slightly.

Mix 2Tbsp vinegar with 1tsp salt and 1tsp sugar. Warm the mixture in microwave for a few seconds. Mix with the rice - mix well with hands. Taste the rice; adjust to your taste.

Cover the sushi mat in a plastic wrap. This prevents rice from sticking to the mat when you are rolling sushi.

 

Break the nori sheet into two halves. Spread one half over the sushi matt. Take 1/2C cooked rice and spread over the nori sheet leaving a slight empty space on the side away from you to seal the rolls. Tip: dip your hands in cold water before handling the rice - it will prevent rice sticking to your hands.

Then add the filling like so. Do not overfill.

Roll the suhi roll with the help of matt like this. Press slightly to seal.