Citrus Blossoms!

Have you ever smelled an orange blossom? If not, I urge you to visit any of the orange farms or the many home grown citrus trees which are blossoming with the heavely smelling white flowers all around California, and perhaps other parts of the country, at this time! 

Blood Orange Blossom

To me, it's the most refreshing, invigorating and pure smell that has even been invented! Better than any flowers, way better than any artificial fragrances!

My earliest memories of citrus blossom are returning home from a fun day at mountains in San Diego. The winding road takes you through many citrus farms.. just roll down the car windows and the enjoy the blossoms, so peaceful!

Lemon Blossom

Now I am fortunate to live in a house with various citrus trees in our backyard - a bloooming meyer lemon tree, a bustling kumquats (the tiny orange like fruits where the peel is sweeter than the flesh and supposed to be eaten whole) and many variety of oranges which are flowering all around showing their promise for the season.

Meyer Lemons!

Leaving you with a few photos of citrus blossoms and a link to my simple but tasty citrus salad recipe - dance of colors on the plate!

Enjoy the spring while it lasts!! :)

Kumquats!

A simple citrus salad!

Lo Mein Noodles with Lots of Vegetables

We love our noodle fix at our house! Noodles make a weeknight dinner appearance atleast once every other week for us. 

I load them up with lots of vegetables for a heart healthy dinner and they cook so fast - what's not there to love about this weeknight dinner!

This is another one of my busy working mom's 20minutes or less dinners. The trick, as always, is a well stocked fridge and pantry. Can't emphasize this enough. Spend that hour on Saturday to make it a priority to visit farmer's markets (if in your area) or any fresh local grocer/CSA and your tummy will thank you for it for the whole week to come!

My two favorite noodles to cook with are Soba and Lo Mein. I love them both. Soba tends get slightly stickier if you overcook them even for a minute -- Lo Mein have the advantage of being more unforgiving when it comes to texture. I buy them at Whole Foods but they are available at any asian grocery stores.

I have this trick to keep vegetables in a noodle dish crunchy. You just stir fry them one at a time and remove from heat. Then add everything together at the end - easy!

I hope you will try this another 20minute weeknight dinner.. you can add meats or tofu if you want or vary the vegetables - variations are endless!

Recipe:

Serves 3

Ingredients:

1 packet Lo Mein noodles - usually has 3 bundles

few Tbsp vegetable oil (don't use olive oil for stir-frying)

quarter of a large onion - sliced length wise into thin slices

1 red pepper - sliced length wise into thin slices

2 carrots - chopped

1C broccoli florets

7-8 mushrooms - sliced thinly

1tsp grated ginger

handful of chopped green onions

handful of chopped cilantro

3-4Tbsp soy sauce, low sodium

2Tbsp rice wine vinegar

dash of hot sauce (per taste)

salt & pepper

Recipe:

Heat water in a large pot.  While water is heating, prepare all the veggies. Prep ahead is really beneficial for stir fry dishes which cook in a jiffy!

When water is hot, add Lo Mein and cook per package directions (usually 4-6 minutes), Then drain noodles and rinse with cold water thoroughly to stop cooking. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wok or a large surface area pan on medium high heat. When hot, stir fry onions, peppers, broccoli and carrots quickly one at a time - each taking a minute or two and then remove each vegetable with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Then add ginger and mushrooms to the pan. Cook stirring for 3-4 minutes until mushrooms are slightly softened. Add soy sauce, vinegar and mix well.

Turn the heat off. Add noodles, add all the veggies back, add salt & pepper to taste (go easy on salt as soy sauce often makes dish salty). 

Garnish with hot sauce, green onions and cilantro and mix well.

Serve hot with a hot cup of your favorite green tea to sip along! 

Rustic Apple Tart

This rustic apple tart is perfect for those crazy days when you have friends or family coming over for dinner but have no time left for a home-made dessert - just use a store bought pie crust. Or it's even perfect for those days when you are in the mood for making a pie crust from scratch and have a couple of apples waiting to be used in the fridge. 

Either way, whether you use store bought crust or make one home at home, no-one needs to know as a wam slice of this tart with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream is perfection in every bite irrespective!

And psst.. another thing no-one need know: when you call something rustic, by definition you make room for imperfections. Imperfections even add to the rustic-ness of the pie, you could say :). So don't let the fear of not being able to roll a perfect round pie crust stop you from a delectable home-made deessert!

Rustic Apple Tart

Recipe: Rustic Apple Tart

Serves 4 large slices

Ingredients:

1 9" pie crust - store bought or home-made

2 granny smith apples (I used Fuji this time)

2Tbsp brown sugar

2Tbsp melted butter

1/2tsp pumpkin spice (or 1/4tsp cardamom powder, 1/4tsp cinnamon powder, pinch of nutmeg and pinch of all-spice)

juice of half a lemon

dash of salt

Recipe:

If using frozen pie-crust, defrost on counter or fridge as per package direction. If making crust at home, experiment with different shapes! Apple tart looks great as a rectangle or a half-circle too!

Pre-heat oven to 400F

Slice apples thinly and evenly, add to a large bowl. To the apples, add all the spices, melted butter, sugar, lemon juice and salt and mix well.

Roll the pie crust on a pachment paper lined baking sheet. Add the apples, you can arrange them in a single layer facing one way (like the picture above) or just add them in a mound and then spread evenly - leave a little border on all the sides to be able to roll. Then using your hands lightly roll the border or tuck in the tart.

Add a little more crumbled butter and sugar specs on top (optional).

Bake for 35-40mins until the crust turns brown at places and apples look cooked. Remove from oven, let rest for a couple of mins. Cut into slices and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. 

5 Foodie Things For the Rainy Days..

It has been raining a lot this winter. Rain is good. Particularly for California this year.

One such rainy morning I was sitting next to a window overlooking the early spring flowers and leaves getting a nice good soaking while listening to the steady pounding of rain on our windows, and I found myself deliciously reminiscing of my favorite foodies things for rainy days over the years. And that's how this compilation was born :)

I hope the next time rainy gloomy weather strikes, you can add just a bit of sunshine and spice to your days with these rain friendly yet healthy foods! (notice no deep frying or sugar laden recipes below)

1) A steaming hot cup of your favorite beverage with spice!

First things first, one thing rain de-facto needs is a steaming hot cup of your favorite beverage just a little spiced. For us it is spiced mulled apple cider and spiced coffee or spiced chai.

Both are really simple. For spiced apple cider, I warm regular apple cider. Add to it a cinnamon stick, a couple whole peppers and cloves, a star anise, few cardmom pods, 2 slices of lemon and orange and some lemon juice. Warm on low heat for 20-30mins until the spices have thoroughly flavored the apple cider. Strain if serving to kids. And serve warm! 

Spiced chai/coffee is made by adding clove, cinnamon, cardamom (some or all of these) in boiling water and then make tea/coffee as usual. Strain before drinking.

Steaming hot cup of pumpkin spice coffee!

2) Hot bowl of soup with crusty garlic bread

Rains and soups are a match made in heaven - don't you think! My favorite rainy day lunch is a bowl of hot soup with some crusty garlic bread to dip in - like the hearty lentil soup or roasted red pepper and tomato soup or leek and potato soup or noodle bowl. And I have a great trick to turn any regular bread into garlic bread!

Roasted red pepper & tomato soup, hearty lentil soup, (bottom) curried butternut squash soup & leek and potato soup

3) How about some snacks to go with that tea/coffee?!

A good cup of chai/coffee on a rainy day can also use some of rain's favorite snacks! Our rule of thumb is to not deep fry at home, so we stay away from fritters/bhujias... but that doesn't mean we have any the less fun! Baked samosa puffs, baked sweet potato fries, kande pohe or pinwheels are all great options which are great for your belly too!

Sweet potato fries, baked samosa puffs, kande pohe & paav bhaji

4) Baking! 

There is something so therapeutic about baking.. the warm aromas drifting off of the oven or watching the joys of a bread rising - baking is a food for the tummy and the soul. And if you are stuck at home while it's pouring outside, who wouldn't like a slice of freshly baked quick banana bread or pumpkin cranberry muffins or the apple crisp to go along-with it!

Banana nut bread, banana muffins & apple crisp

5) Chocolate covered strawberries!

Now if you have a daughter to entertain on rainy afternoons, then a great idea is to make some chocolate covered strawberries together! 

You can either just drizzle chocolate to create pretty effects or go all out and spend an hour trying yourr hands at Mr. & Mrs. Berry! Get your creative juices flowing! They are really not as complex as you would think. Read about them here.

Mr. & Mrs. Berry!
Dark & white chocolate strawberries

I hope next time the rain strikes, other than the cozy blanket and the movies, you will try out one of your favorite rainy day foods too!

Lentil Avocado Pita Pockets with Yogurt Mint Sauce

Ever since I saw this Mark Bittman's sloppy joe pita recipe in Cooking Light I have been itching to try it out. Honestly, what's not there to love when you have warm toasted pitas stuffed with spicy lentil stuffing, some cool mint yogurt sauce and crunchy fresh cucumber! This is a perfect early spring meal. Seems very California too :)

Have I told you that a well stocked pantry and fridge is the most well kept secret of eating more healthy meals at home? It really is. I always have a pack of Trader Joe's whole wheat pitas at hand and some dried or cooked lentils ready to go at a moment's notice.

One of these weekends we came home late from morning chores. The weather is unseasonably warm and turning spring, so I was craving lighter meals like salads, soups and sandwiches.

Quickly chopped some onions, tomatoes and garlic and put the lentils to cook (hardly 10min prep time). The lentil cooking time of around half an hour was largely unattended in which I made myself a hot cup of coffee with a slice of bread spread with fig butter as a side :)

Once the lentils were ready, the whole assembly took another 15mins and thats it, meal is served! I substituted fresh avocado slices for the cucumber slices and finished with a tangy sweet jalapeno sauce that I found at a local Afghan grocer for some extra kick.

You can eat them on their own but preferrable pairing is to serve with a warm light soup of your choice - my favorite combos are leek and potato soup or the roasted red pepper and tomato soup. Or as the guys will say, beer is a perfect pairing too :)

Recipe:

Source: Mark Bittman's sloppy joe pitas in Cooking Light

Ingredients:

For the lentil filling:

3/4C French lentils (or brown lentils or masoor)

2C water (or per the lentil cooking instructions)

1 medium onion - chopped

3 cloves of garlic - smashed

2 tomatoes - chopped

handful of fresh thyme chopped (or dried thyme)

1.5tsp cumin powder

1Tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper

For Yogurt Saucee:

1/2C non-fat or low-fat yogurt

handful of chopped fresh mint

dash of red wine vinegar

pinch of crushed red chili flakes

salt

For vegetables in the filling:

1 fresh avocado - sliced

OR 1 cucumber - chopped

some fresh mint

For assembly:

4 whole wheat pitas

hot sauce of your choice (I used an Afghan bolani jalapeno sauce)

Recipe:

Prepare the lentil filling:

Saute chopped onions and garlic in a Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. When the onions start to tender, add cumin powder and roast for a minute or two. Follow up with some chopped tomatoes, lentils, water and enough salt. Let the mixture come to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer and simmer covered for 30mins or so or until the lentils have cooked through (but not turned mushy). Add more water if you need it during the cooking process. When the lentils have cooked through turn the heat off, add thyme and black pepper. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Prepare the raita:

Assemble all the raita ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasonings per taste.

Assemble:

Toast the whole wheat pitas and then cut them into halves diametrically. Using your fingers or a knife open the pitas up. Spread the raita on one side. Add few Tbsp of lentil mixture into the pita. Add a few avocado or cucumber slices, some chopped mint and finish with a dash of hot sauce.

Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake

I wanted to bake something special to bring to a new year's party we were invited to. Baking for a large gathering is always fun, because you can confidently add the sugar and the butter without worrying about the horrific outcome of you finishing all of it alone! (been there, done that, repented by hours on trademill :) ) 

So I was looking for something more elaborate and this chocolate swiss roll cake recipe which appeared on PW blog recently seemed perfect.

I skipped the chocolate ganache because I realized last minute I didn't have enough chocolate in the fridge but the cake was great even without it (though presentation would have been much better with ganache, going to try that next time!)

There were two mistakes I made while making this and both ended up with the same root cause of not whipping the batter long enough. Egg and sugar batter had not come to the ribbon stage, though likely a few more minutes would have done it. And the cream cheese filling could have used a few more minutees of beating too. I have a new hand mixer and there is still some getting used I need... particularly the high speeds. I tend to stick with lower speeds and the filling definitely needed high speed in retrospect.

But all said and done, it was a very tasty cake which finished off within minutes of opening. Next time I'll focus on getting the filling right consistency and also the ganache I skipped!

Happy baking!

Tilapia Fish Curry - Bengali Style (v2)

Some recipes never seem to grow old no matter how many times you make them. They only age better with time and their v2, v3 and v4s are born. This is one such recipe for me - I have tried endless tweaks on this fish curry and tried perfecting it a little more every single time.

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.

I own a small bottle of mustard oil and all my Bengali recipes now start with mustard oil instead which I feel is great way to add flavor.

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

2Tbsp mustard oil

Fajita Fridays

We love Mexican food at our home and fajita Fridays are one of our favorites! The fajitas below look like a spread but once you make them a couple of times and get the hang of recipe, there are lots of opportunities for process improvement and parallelizing making this a very convenient Friday or any weeeknight 30minute dinner too.

When we lived in San Diego there was this place in Old Town called Cafe Coyote which we used to visit every Friday. They have a roadside stall where they serve fresh off the stove tortialla with butter and salsa just 50c each -- which was a steal for my student days! Most Fridays we ate roadside tortiallas but on special occasions we went inside for a more sit down dinner and that was always their fajitas for me..

After years of hopelessly searching for a Cafe Coyote alternative in south bay I started making fajitas at home instead and that's how our fajita fridays were born.

I have a set of Mexican spice blends I ordered from Penzey's spices which has been a great investment. Now I can get that authentic Mexican flavor to even the simplest of home-cooked meals which is great inceentive to eat more at home. If you like tacos and fajitas a lot, I definitely recommend investing in good mexican spice blends.

So here is how I make it:

Spanish Rice:

1C rice

2Tbsp chopped onion (or less)

2 cloves of garlic - crushed

2 small or 1 large tomato - chopped

1 tsp tomato paste

1Tbsp olive oil

1 3/4C water

salt, pepper, pinch of dried oregano

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Then add tomato paste and chopped tomatoes and saute for a couple of minutes.

Add rinsed rice and saute again for a couple of minutes. Add water, salt, pepper, oregano and transfer to rice cooker. Rice will be ready in about 20minutes (or as long as rice cooker takes)

Black beans:

1 can of rinsed black beans

1Tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove - crushed

1/4C water

salt

Saute garlic in olive oil. Then add black beans, water, salt to taste (go low salt for canned beans) and cook on low-medium for 5-10minutes or until all the water is absorbed.

Guacamole:

2 ripe avocados

1Tbsp finely chopped red onion

handful of cilantro leaves - chopped

juice of half a large lemon

salt & pepper

Mash avocados roughly (not a smooth paste). Add the rest of ingredienets. Mix. Taste and adjust for taste

Pico de Gallos (basic salsa):

2 small tomatoes - finely chopped

1 Tbsp finely chopped onion

1 green chilli

handful of cilantro leaves  - finely chopped

juice of half a lemon

1/4tsp of salsa seasoning

salt & pepper - to taste

Mix everything. Taste and adjust for taste. Set aside for about 15-20mins before serving.

Fajitas:

thinly sliced veggies (I used onions, red pepper, mushrooms, carrots), optionally can add thinly sliced chicken pieces.

Juice of a lemon

2tsp fajita mix (or to taste)

2Tbsp vegetable oil

salt & pepper

Mix all the veggies with 1Tbsp olive oil, juice of half a lemon, fajita mix, salt & pepper. Set aside to marinate for as long as you can. When ready to cook, heat a large non stick skillet, when very hot add 1Tbsp oil and veggies. Stir-fry on high heat for just a few minutes stirring in between until the veggies start to char. Remove from hear - sprinkle with remaining juice of half a lemon. Serve immediately with warm tortiallas.

Time optimization tips:

• Start with rice first. Once rice starts to cook, then start on other things in parallel. Rice cooking I find is the main time gate.
• After rice is on it's own, I usually marinate veggies for fajitas and put the salsa together so they both get most time to marinate.
• Then I cook beans
• And lastly guaco.
• If you have additional help in terms of kids or husband, guaco and salsa are great to delegate!
• At last right when you are ready to eat, then stir fry veggies/chicken and then wipe the same non-stick pan with a paper towel and warm tortiallas.
• Dinner is served!