Our 5 Favorite Winter Vegetarian Soups

At our home winter means lots and lots of soups and stews. One of the best perks of braving cold and rainy winter days is you can look forward to coming back to warm home and dig in through a bowl of your favorite hot comforting soup right in your PJs! 

We make lots of soups and stews at our home, particularly in winter and mostly all vegetarian. And when we make soups, they are not starters or sides.. they get the place of the main dish! You can pair a hearty bowl of soup with nice crusty french bread broiled with olive oil and it can be a meal to remember. You can also pair with a protein or a salad if you wish, but I think bowl of hearty soup and bread can be a fine meal in it's own right.

Here are our top 5 favorite winter vegetarian soups which often make appearance on our table. They all use seasonal vegetables and almost all of them are quite forgiving and adaptable so feel free to experiment and suite to your taste.

One of the healthiest and most filling is this hearty lentil soup using green lentils, onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and herbs (basil, thyme). The beauty of this soup is that as long a you have lentils in the pantry, you can make this -- rest of the ingredients are very swappable. Use what you have at hand! 

I usually pair it with home made garlic bread. It does take about 30-40 minutes of low heat simmer but it's largely unattended cooking time you can wheel away sipping hot tea while you wait for dinner to be ready :) 

In the category of roasted soups, this roasted red pepper and tomato soup is like your everyday tomato soup but has a slightly complex flavor with red pepper in it which I love a lot more than pure tomato soup. It's a kids favorite and goes amazingly well with a side of grilled cheese. I don't like to put cream in my soup (just wired weirdly that way I guess :) ) but if you like creamy soups, by all means add a dash of cream at the end. An immersion blender makes this soup a breeze to make. 

Another very beloved fall roasted soup is this roasted butternut squash soup at our home. A small butternut squash makes a large pot of soup! It's super easy to roast the squash yourself. I have also made a non-roasted version with apple, where you cube the squash and cook it down with chopped apple and crushed ginger on stove and then immersion blend everything -- either method works well and takes about the same time. As for the seasoning, I add cinnamon, nutmeg and clove with the apple version and curry powder with the non-apple roasted version. Experiment away, it will taste amazing either way!

In terms of easiest soups of the lot and the one which truly needs nothing more than three very basic ingredients, look no further than this potato and leek soup. If you have never tasted this soup, I highly encourage you to try -- it's amazing how 5 simple ingredients butter, leek, potatoes, salt & pepper and 20 minutes can pull something so delicious! A go to winter soup for sure!

And finally the new year's day favorite

black eyed peas with kale soup which often makes appearance on the first day of the year at our home. Eating black eyed peas and greens on the first day is a tradition supposed to bring you good luck in the new year. But to be honest I would eat this soup just any regular day because it's just so much tasty! You can eat it as-is or with bread or top it with a dollop of yogurt, lemon juice and chopped onion - simply delicious!

Soups are the under-rated stars of the meals on cold days. And yes even vegetarian soups can be quite hearty and can make a meal on their own paired with a nice crusty bread. 

I hope for sunny warm spring days soon but until then I wish you and us lots of yummy soup filled warm meals! Enjoy!

Cracked Wheat Pilaf (Pulav)

Bulgar wheat or cracked wheat is packed with vitamins, minerals and lots of fiber and it's very delicious. It has a slightly crunchy and nutty taste which I love. Cracked wheat being a thick and more substantial grain has the advantage of standing up really well to spices.

As part of adding more different grains to our meals, I have been stocking up on cracked wheat, couscous, quinoa, wild rice and cornmeal - all of which make usual rotation appearances on the dinner table. Bob's red mills is generally a well trusted and readily available brand which carriers many different grains, but if not you can always find them online. 

This recipe is a healthy make-over of a beloved classic. It is also part of my fast 20-minutes or less weeknight dinner collection. It is very adaptable to different vegetables and herbs - feel free to use whatever you have at hand or tucked away in that forgotten corner of the fridge.

For every cup of dried cracked wheat, I try to pair it with atleast 2 cups of chopped veggies.. any combination works but we try to go seasonal as much as possible. Our favorite combo is sliced onions, sliced mushrooms, asparagus and chopped butternut squash (depending on season). 

Our favorite seasoning is a combo of curry powder and sambhar powder and a generously chopped handful of fresh mint leaves. But this dish is like a blank canvas so feel free to experiment with your favorite Indian spice blends and/or herbs :)

Recipe:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1C cracked wheat

2C water

olive oil

Vegetables:
6-7 button mushrooms (sliced)

quarter of a large onion (sliced)

1 carrot (chopped)

1C butternut squash cubes

Seasonings:
handful of mint leaves - chopped

few cilantro sprigs

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp sambhar powder

salt & pepper

Instructions: 

1. Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add onions and let them cook down for a few minutes.
2. Follow-up by adding all the veggies and cook for another few minutes.
3. Then add cracked wheat, water, spices, mint and season with salt & pepper.
4. Let it come to a boil then reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered for 10 minutes or as per package directions.
5. Remove from heat and fluff up using a fork. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot!

Enjoy!

Christmas Baking & Beach-side Cooking

At our home we don't have many traditions, but one tradition which we love to follow year over year every year is our mother & daughter Christmas baking day. Every year we set aside a whole afternoon to bake and decorate many batches of cookies and share with teachers, household help and family friends. It's a wonderful time doing what we love and cherishing the time together making holiday memories.

This year I had big plans to attempt some new cookies - mainly my eyes were on a particular chocolate chip mint thins with candy cane crunch from nytimes.com and a recipe I found online for gingerbread swirl fudge which simply looked delicious. We couldn't quite make the time to bake chocolate dipped mint thins; but we did put together gingerbread swirl fudge which was very easy to put together and looked great but we found it too sweet and didn't enjoy as much.

So we stuck with our usuals - which in our house is this trusted recipe of sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies and a big batch of almond biscotti flavored with peppermint extract (not in the recipe). 

They were all fantastic - and best of all, as my daughter gets older she was fully in-charge of decorating the cookies this time, leaving me to focus on churning out the new batches while she did a great job decorating them with some abstract patterns. 

All in all, a great time we had baking and decorating and everyone enjoyed the cookies we shared! 

Can't wait for next year's holiday baking again :)  

We also took a beach vacation this holiday which is always fun! As we do every beach vacation, we get an oceanfront studio with fully equipped kitchenette. It's usually pricey being oceanfront and all, but has the best advantage of stepping out of your patio to get to the beach and watching many sunsets and sunrises right from your balcony! And offsets the extra price tag if you cook & eat all breakfasts and dinners at home. 

One of my personal highlights of the vacation is always the candle-light dinners we cook and eat on our patio overlooking the beautiful Pacific. We buy simple groceries once we land in the city and pack a few staples with us in our airline check-in bag. I find it so challenging but also rewarding to cook without the usual crutches of spices and herbs! 

I have learnt to season most of our dishes just with olive oil, garlic, lemon and a good quality sea salt and pepper. It's amazing the flavor miracles this simple seasoning combos can pull! 

We pack and carry a couple of ziplocks with meal sized dry uncooked rice, lentils for soup, turmeric seasoned uncooked lentils for daal, pasta and then cook in the kitchenette. This vacation we made many happy means blending our staples with the fresh produce from a visit to local farmer's market. 

Here was our 5 day dinner menu: 1) Rice and green lentil bowl topped with avocados 2) lentil soup w/ sourdough bread 3) simply seasoned angel hair pasta with garlic and tomatoes 4) potato curry w/ corn tortilla and 5) stir fried local veggies w/ rice.

Few lessons learnt: 1) food can be equally delicious without any spices or herbs, yes even Indian recipes 2) just make sure the basic seasonings (olive oil, salt, pepper) and the produce used is the best quality and freshest that you have access to! and 3) pair with some in-season fresh local vegetables or fruits from local markets - and you have a meal to remember!

Hope you all had a happy and relaxing holiday break.

My 2019 Reading List

I love to read. Fiction, non-fiction, history, memoir, tech books.. as long as a book is put in front of me, I read! It's like the Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter series -- I totally get her reading addiction and empathize with it too :)

Unfortunately I don't get as much time as I would like to read now a days what with work and daily grind, but my insomnia ensures at least 20-30 mins of quiet reading baked into the day before turning off the lights. It's like a silver lining to my nightly sleeping ritual.

2019, I am happy to report, was an excellent year when it came to bedside reading. I was able to work in a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. By the end of the year as December rolled in, all I wanted were light beach fiction reads to put me in the mood for holidays and our warm beach vacation - and that's just how I ended the year, with some feel good easy to read fiction!

Non-fiction:

Image Source: goodreads.com

In the non-fiction category, one of the best reads of the year was Becoming by Michelle Obama which I absolutely loved. I have always looked up to Michelle Obama, but reading the book made me appreciate her even more and also made her more human. It was truly delightful to read and recognize the potential she has and the hardships she endured to get to where she is against all the odds. Full of small life lessons everywhere. I highly recommend it!

Image Source: goodreads.com

The second book equally loved was Hit Refresh by the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. As a leader I have always appreciated the hard task of changing the culture of an old behemoth that Microsoft was, how challenging it can be to hit refresh so to speak for such a large ship and how he maneuvered it so effectively, being a lifelong insider but also being an effective voice for the new era of the company. Along with his leadership of Microsoft a second theme woven into the book is his family life and challenges of raising a child with disabilities - how those personal struggles taught him what he considers his signature leadership trait - empathy.

Image Credit: goodreads.com

Leading Matters: Lessons from My Journey is a crash course of 10 essential leadership traits written in a very engaging way with multiple personal anecdotes by former Stanford president John Hennessy. It is a delightful and thought provoking read.

Image Credit: goodreads.com

I love to read historical books - so Daisy Goodwin's Victoria was a beloved read this year chronicling the first few years of the new 18 year old queen's reign on the British throne, how she struggled to get the respect being a young woman at throne in a largely male dominated society and how much support of just one person, her Prime Minister, meant to her at the time and perhaps how critical it was for her to have confidence and mentoring of that one person at that critical juncture of her reign.

Fiction:

Asian American Fiction:

Image Credit: goodreads.com

It was not planned for but somehow or other I ended up reading a lot of high quality Asian American fiction this year. First of which was a great graphic novel Pashmina - which was an accidental discovery when finding YA books for my daughter in the kids section of the library. It's a tale of a teenager of Indian origin in US - it is as much a book of her navigating her way through the teenage years as it is about women's empowering - a delightful graphics read!

Image Credit: goodreads.com

Sophia of Silicon Valley is by a local valley author - while not a memoir it is widely understood to be loosely based on life experiences of the author as tech executive in two big valley companies. Perhaps it's a novel that will appeal more to the tech women in the valley than general audience, but it has my recommendation for all women neverthless.

Image credit: goodreads.com

I also enjoyed reading Unlikely Adventure of Shergill Sisters and Memoirs of a Geisha - both wonderful books focused on lead women characters. The former in particular I picked up thinking it would be a light read but it turned out to be filled with complex well drawn characters. The later is a wonderful portrait of a Geisha life in Japan many years ago pre world war II.

Image Credit: goodreads.com

Other book in this category I read and enjoyed is The Milk Lady of Banglore - based on an expat's experiences settling back into Banglore after years of NYC life.

Image Credit: goodreads.com

General Fiction:

I love to do light reading particular when going through stressful work cycles - this year's light reads were a delightful mix of the Only Woman In the Room, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, Angel Falls, Winter Garden, A Bend in The Road and Little Fires Everywhere.

I am thinking about and planning my 2020 reads now! The first book I am waiting on hold at our local library is the Alpha Girls and may go for another Daisy Goodwin historical book too. Here is to hoping the new year is filled with delightful adventures reading and exploring as many books as we can!! Have a very happy and prosperous new year!

Foil Baked Salmon w/ Lemon & Garlic

This is one of the super healthy, super quick recipes which we often cook for weekday dinners but never posted. I think it's because we make it mostly on days when we are starving and dinner is over within minutes of being out of oven leaving no time for photos! Whatever may be the reason the recipe is a sure keeper!

It allows for endless variations. I recommend keeping the lemon slices and juice, but switch it up with herbs (rosemary, thyme, mint, even Indian cilantro-mint chutney works excellently as top coat!). The fish will be moist and super juicy and it's a true delight to eat. We serve it with a green salad or a Mediterranean salad on the side. Enjoy!

Source: adapted from this wellplated recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized piece of boneless salmon filet
• 1 lemon (half thinly sliced; half juiced)
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic - thinly chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1/2 tsp herbs de Provence - crushed
• few springs of fresh rosemary
• crushed chili flakes

Recipe:

• Pre-heat oven to 375.
• Line a large baking sheet with large piece of aluminium foil
• place a few lemon slices and a spring of rosemary at the bottom. 
• Place fish on the lemon slices. Drizzle olive oil, add salt & pepper and rub into the fish
• Then add garlic, herbs de Provence, chili flakes, springs of rosemary and remaining lemon slices on top.
• Pour lemon juice over the fish evenly.
• Seal the foil over the fish leaving no open pockets
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Remove from oven, careful unwrap the foil and broil for 2 minutes.
• Remove from oven; serve warm!

Celery Root Soup

(recipe enhanced from this original post back in 2010!)

Do you cook with a celery root (also called celeriac)? It's in season right about now.. along with other root vegetables like parsnip and rutbaga and it's divine! It has a unique mild lemony celery-ish taste. I find it to be an amazing starch to be working with in fall and quite fancy compared to the same old potatoes or parsnips.

It can be quite daunting, and to be frank - unappealing, the very first time you are faced with picking one up... in it's unprocessed form it resembles a misshapen turnip with beards growing here and there. But once you get past the unfamiliarity of a new intimidating vegetable, it's actually quite a pleasure to cook with and very easy! 

Just peel the outer skin using a knife and chop into bite sized pieces and then you can use it wherever you would use a potato or parsnip. I like this soup in particular because it let's the subtle taste of celery root shine, enhancing it's lemony flavor and at the same time not inviting a direct comparison to the popular cousin - potatoes!

The recipe is very simple: heat olive oil in a large pot. When warm, add 1 leek (chopped), 2 celery sticks (chopped) and 1 celery root (chopped into bite sized pieces). Saute, season with salt & pepper. After a few minutes, add enough water (about 6C to start with and add more as needed depending on the consistency of the soup you prefer). Cover and let cook for ~30 minutes. Remove from heat. Using immersion blender puree the soup. Season with a dash of cream and few red chili flakes for added heat! Enjoy :) 

A very happy Thanksgiving to all of you! May this weekend and the holidays be filled with happy times with friends and family and lots and lots of delicious food!

(celeriac)

Thai Vegetable Stir Fry

In the world of weeknight dinners, when you are trying to balance speed, healthy meal and fresh home cooked one, nothing takes the prize like the stir-frys! They are fast, healthy and are ready within a jiffy if you have all the ingredients at hand.

This is one of our house favorite stir-fry version. Most of the ingredients can be scavenged from the fridge and the recipe is very amenable to any seasonal veggies and proteins. The one thing I wouldn't swap out, as much as possible, is the Thai basil - which really brings out a fresh vibrant and slightly lemony basily taste to it. But if you don't have handy, you can try Italian basil or just sprinkle dried basil.

Every Saturday we shop for vegetables and fruits at our local farmer's market. Summer is a special treat because there is an abundance of choices, so feel free to mix it up a bit!

Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry:

Ingredients:

• 1 small packet of extra firm tofu - cubed
• 4 button mushrooms - sliced
• 2 carrots - sliced
• 2 zucchini - sliced
• quarter of a large onion or one small onion - cut into chunks
• 4-5 bok choy - greens chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic - minced
• 1 tsp grated ginger or galangal (Thai ginger)
• 4-5 springs of fresh Thai Basil leaves chopped - about 1/2C chopped
• 2 Tbsp vegetable or sesame oil
• handful of chopped peanuts
• pinch of salt

For Sauce:

• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Recipe:

• Prep all the veggies and tofu and keep ready. 
• Heat oil in a wok or a large frying pan on high heat.
• When hot, sizzle with ginger and garlic. Within a minute, add thicker veggies like carrots, zucchini and tofu. Stir fry for a minute or two.
• Follow with thinner quicker cooking veggies like mushrooms, bok choy and onion. Stir fry for another minute or two.
• Add sauce, pinch of salt and stir fry for another minute. (the sauce has good amount of salt with soy sauce and oyster sauce, so please go easy on additional salt - you can even skip the additional salt)
• Finish with Thai basil leaves and chopped peanuts and take off heat.
• Serve with freshly made jasmine rice - enjoy!

15-Minute Snacks - Puff Pasty Rolls w/ Pesto

If you need a fresh hot home-made snack for those last minute guests, neighborhood get-together or playdates, look no further than these puff pastry rolls with pesto. They are super tasty and every single time I whipped up a plate, not a single one was left behind!

You can whip them out of oven and serve on a platter with a side of chopped fruits and tea/coffee, and it seems a mid-day meal fit for a king! No-one needs to know that all it took was 15 minutes of assembly, prep and bake time :)

Trader Joe's carries these amazing frozen puff pasty rolls. Each packet contains 2 sheets for $3.99. One sheet makes 18 puff pasty rolls (shown in the picture below) which is plenty to snack on for 4 people (or 2 very hungry folks!). Our nearby store does not carry puff pasty the whole year but only in the fall during holidays - so I always make it a point to stock up a few when I see them in the frozen aisle.

Other than frozen puff pasty sheets, the only other thing this recipe needs is pesto. Store bought is just fine but home-made is better if you have some at hand!

Other than that "recipe" is not really a recipe but an assembly and prep. Thaw one sheet of frozen puff pastry roll in the fridge overnight or on the counter for 30-mins. Pre-heat oven to 400F. Unroll the puff pastry on a large cutting board (to contain any mess or spills) and then spread a thin layer of pesto evenly all over leaving a little border on each side aside to avoid overfills.

If you can't fully unroll the sheet, it means you need some more time thawing. Give it another 10mins and try it again. 

Once the pesto is evenly spread, roll the sheet back like it was. Using using fingers try to seal the final edge. Then using a sharp knife, cut the roll into small disks - you will get about 18 disks per sheet. Puff pastry will puff up while baking, so smaller disks are just fine.

Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and add the pastry disks leaving space between each to puff. Bake for 10-12mins until the outside is golden brown and inside is cooked through. Remove from oven and serve hot! Enjoy!

Preserved Lemons & A Springy Beginning

When life gives you lemons.... and I mean, a tree loaded with high quality juicy and orangy Meyer lemons.... the kind which sell for $1 each at farmer's markets... you got to be more creative than making lemonades! We use these Meyer lemons in everyday cooking, we freeze the juice in as many ice-boxes as we can, gift them to neighbors and still be leftover with a large bunch to use. 

We don't enjoy lemon curd as much and while we devour lemon bars, it seems more butter and sugar than lemons - and predictably guilt ensues :)  So this year I decided to try preserving some lemons and wow, am I glad we tried that!

Preserving is very simple. All it takes is 15-20mins of prep time and then a few seconds of work each for next 5-6 days and that's that! You put the container in fridge and enjoy homemade preserved lemons for a few months to come! 

My favorite way to use preserved lemons is to rinse them (to get rid of excess salt) and chop them fine and add as flavoring to any number of tagines or pasta salads, couscous with preserved lemons, olive oil and mint is exceptional, add on top of roasted fish or chicken or just toss on salads for an extra salty slightly tart crunch. 

Preserving is easy, even for novice jam-makers like me. All you need is lemons (preferably organic), salt and a fully clean and dry canning glass jar. I followed this easy step by step tutorial with photos. Added a couple of whole peppercorns, bay leaf and a few cloves as seasonings and the process took just over 15 minutes.

It is important to ensure the lemons are covered in their juices before you can them. If needed, please add more lemon juice on top. Add more salt on top, and that's it, close the jar tight and leave it on counter top for 5-6 days, lightly shaking every day so salt and juice redistributes evenly. I transferred my jar to fridge after the 5th day and we have been enjoying preserved lemons since then.

A Springy Beginning:

Can you feel the spring in the air? Just as the weather is warming up and days are getting longer, our neighborhood is filled with spring blossoms and our evening walks are just that much more pleasurable. 

Due to the heavy rain this year, wild flowers are popping everywhere in California and they are so beautiful! We had one in our own front yard - it looks like white painted jewels and it popping up in between the landscaping of our front yard.

We also have a new visitor in our front yard this spring. It's a little bunny who visits every morning right around when kids are about to start for school. The bunny spotting has been our favorite morning ritual for few weeks. Here is he with a friendly squirrel who is trying to figure out just who this new one is?!

Enjoy the scenes of spring!

Green Onions Zunka (A Rural Maharashtrian Farmland Recipe)

They say every recipe has a story to tell. The older the recipe, the better is that story as generations of home cooks give a part of their times and lives to that story; making the story more and more richer, along with the recipe.

This is one such recipe. It's a well loved recipe native to the vast farmlands of central India - close to my homeland. Farmer's life is a hard life in that region subjected to the many whims of weather and landlords. This recipe originated in one such farmland out of necessity. 

As the story goes, a poor farmer's wife was looking to put together a lunch for her family working in the unusually strong heat of the mid-day farmland. The crop that year had been ruined and all she had to go with were onions - green onions. 

She was driven by the necessities but was very creative, so she picked up few large bunches of green onions, separated the whites from greens and chopped both very very fine. Then she made a simple saute with toasted gram flour (besan) and seasoned with cumin powder - and she called this a zunka, simple preparation of toasted gram flour with seasonal vegetable at hand. 

In her basket which she delicately balanced over her head, was this zunka, a handful of freshly made bread and a pickle. But the zunka was so tasty and creative, her family and even other farmer's working nearby devoured it to the last bit and so hence forth zunka and bhakar became the farmer's rich meal, a farmland staple - and took an unmistakable place in the vast array of Maharashtrian cuisine.

Fortunately I wasn't under any such duress but I also came up with only two bunches of green onions from farmer's market yesterday :). This has been an unseasonal wet spring delaying the onset of usual vegetables of this time and leaving us with mere basics. So I did just what the farmer's wife had done - I made a simple zunka which was well loved by everyone.

The recipe is super simple. Toast 1C gram flour or besan taking care to not burn and set aside. Then add oil to a preferably non-stick pot. When hot, temper with 1/2tsp mustard seeds and chopped green chili. 

Add finely chopped onion whites and let them caramelize stirring often. Then add 4 cloves of chopped garlic, saute until fragrant. Follow up with the finely chopped onion greens and the toasted gram flour. Mix well. Add salt 1/2tsp cumin powder and mix well. If too dry, sprinkle a bit of water. The consistency should be crumbly. Remove from heat - serve hot with roti, a slice of raw onion and a pickle or peanut-garlic relish. Enjoy! 

Sauteed Broccolini (Spring Broccoli) w/ Garlic and Noodles

Just as the weather starts warming up, our local California farmer's market welcomes the onset of spring with baskets and baskets full of broccolini. 

For a long time I thought broccolini was the young broccoli, just as spring onions are the young onions. Turns out not so per our farmer's market vendor lady who is as knowledgeable about her vegetables as wikipedia, truly, and on top will be more than happy to give you tried and tasted recipes from her kitchen - just in case you need that extra push trying out something unfamiliar.

And she is quite right of-course; broccolini is similar to broccoli but with smaller florets and very thin and long stocks. Wiki pronounces it as a hybrid. It also has a slightly stronger punch than regular broccoli so you may find it slightly bitter if you cook it without steaming first. Steaming takes the edge off of it and it's just delightful steamed and sauteed and finished with a good quality finishing salt.

My favorite way to enjoy broccolini is as a simple side for stir-fried noodles with lots of vegetables. You can use any noodles at hand and even spaghetti works just fine if that's what you have.

To prepare broccolini, I use my instant pot for steaming. Add 1C water to the instant pot in saute mode. Meanwhile prep broccolini - there is not much to prep, but I usually look at the ends and snip off any tough ends and wash broccolini well in water. Add the instant pot steamer insert and add broccolini to instant pot, close lid, change to steam mode with 0 minutes of steam time. While the broccolini is cooking, you can chop the vegetables for the stir-fry and get that going.

With 0 minutes of cooking time, instant pot will stop right when steam builds up - which is just enough steaming for these tender vegetables. Quick pressure release, and drain them well in a colander. 

Heat olive oil in a saute pan, add 2 chopped garlic cloves and a pinch of crushed ref peppers and saute in low heat so the oil is infused with garlic flavor but taking care to not burn the garlic. Add steamed broccolini, use the best finishing salt at hand (my go-to is a Himalayan pink salt), mix well and serve immediately!

One of the beauty of seasonal eating is that you associate a season with the seasonal bounties that it provides. And I bet once you try these fresh broccolini at the best of their season, there will be one more reason for you to look forward to spring - always!

Almond Biscotti

It was one of those perfect Saturday mornings when you wake up to the pounding of an unceasing rain on the window panes and you silently say a prayer for the little pleasures of life: for this day being a weekend - to be able to sleep in late and to avoid a rainy messy bay area commute that otherwise would have been the morning.

Instead I woke up to a steamy hot cup of coffee and spent the next hour enjoying an elaborate breakfast flipping through the news and recipes on nytimes - my favorite weekend boot me ups.

As one thing leads to other, daughter and I decided that this morning called for baking! I truly find baking therapeutic - there is something about the act of mixing the dough and then waiting for the baked goodies to be ready while your entire kitchen wafts with an aroma that is so reminiscent of your favorite bakery or your coffee shop - just acts as a very positive, rejuvenating force for me, signalling the start of the weekend, the start of winding down and of that quality family time.

Anyhow, we had a half used package of slivered almonds in the fridge which needed using up, and so I chose this almond biscotti. The recipe from Joy Of Baking is pretty much fool proof even for new or casual bakers. 

And best of all the batch turns out just fine by hand mixing and does not need a stand mixer (which I have resisted owning so far).

I like my biscotti a little chewy and not super crunchy. So I can dunk them in my coffee but I can enjoy them just by themselves as well. To make them chewy I stay with the lower end of the cooking times - 11min when it says 10-15mins for example.

It's a relatively long process but largely hands free.

To make them extra special, you can also make chocolate dipped biscotti by dipping them into melted chocolate at the end. 

I am hoping this batch gets us through he next few rainy weeks on the horizon until spring gets here! Enjoy the biscotti with your favorite hot cup of coffee or tea!

Creamy Polenta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Truffle Oil

This polenta dish is my new go-to weeknight favorite. It is an ultimate comfort meal but also looks and tastes quite sophisticated to deserve a place at a sit-down dinner! 

Polenta serves as a departure from the usual noodles and pastas that attend the weeknight last minute meals. Sometimes varierty is all your need to keep weeknight dinner rotations interesting!

The Creamy Polenta:

I use Bob's Red Mill's polenta corn grits. The regular corn meal might work as well, but this one is specially made for polenta and it cooks up really quickly. I use the ratio 1:5 for a ceamy polenta - ie, add 1C corn grits to 5C of hot water gradually stirring constantly. Then drizzle in some olive oil, add salt to taste and let it cook away partially covered for about 20-25 minutes stirring every few mins. 

I use a large pot to cook polenta because it sputters a lot and can sting your hands while stirring, so be careful!

Mushroom and Tomato Sauce:

While the polenta is cooking, I start the sauce. While any mushrooms will work, I must say I am absolutely in love with the fresh shiitake mushrooms our farmer's market carries, particularly in the rainy season, they are just a delight to cook with and devour! I highly recommend you to try buying freshly picked Shiitake if you can, but if not any regular supermarket mushrooms will do.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add 2 cloves of crushed garlic, pinch of chilli flakes and saute for a minute or two until oil is fragrant with garlic and chillis. Then add handful of chopped mushrooms, season with salt & pepper and cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms have released all their juices. Then add 2 large tomatoes chopped, season with fresh or dried basil and cook for 5 more minutes until tomatoes have softened. If tomatoes aren't very juicy, please feel free to add 1/4C water along-with tomatoes to create "sauce". 

Finishing Touches:

To serve: add creamy polenta to a small pan or bowl. Then laddle some sauce and drizzle with a good quality truffle oil (or just regular olive oil if no truffle oil at hand) and finish with some finely chopped basil. 

Eat while warm and enjoy!  

Happy Holidays - Holiday Baking!

It is that time of the year again - when homes everywhere are adorning beautiful Christmas trees dazzling with twinkling lights, cherishing family memories over the years as pretty ornaments. Love and laughter of friends and family is everywhere. And the tiny kitchens and ovens become stars of the homes churning out wonderful dishes and wafting beautiful baking aromas that are so reminiscent of the holidays!

When my daughter turned two, we started an annual Christmas Eve cookie baking tradition - we don't have many traditions in our house, but we have that one and we have been on it year after year. As a toddler, all she could do was lick the dough and be the eager taster - but now, she helps select recipes, makes dough and takes charge of decorating half the batch. 

Life gets soo busy and stressful year around that I have really come to cherish these small pleasures and tiny moments of baking together on Christmas Eve!

We rarely bake cookies otherwise in the whole year, so it's something we both eager look forward to just as December rolls in.

This year we made 3 cookies:

1. Simple sugar cookies which we decorated with icing. 
2. Gingerbread cookies
3. For grown-ups of the house, a fresh batch of almond biscotti to dip into afternoon tea or coffee.

Of the three biscotti's were my favorite. I skipped almond liquor but instead added almond extract. It came out wonderful. At baking times of 35-10-15 mins, the biscotti were not super hard - a pleasure to dunk in but also could it on it's own too. I'll definitely be making these again and again!

I made only one change to the gingerbread cookies recipe. I really avoid to buy large portion of an ingredient, when only a little bit is used in a year - so in the spirit of limiting waste, I substituted molasses with dark honey we bought from farmer's market the day before. It turned out just fine.

This year we also experimented a lot with icing decorations - specially using unique patterns by mixing colors using toothpicks. A cookie then becomes only but an empty canvas to express yourself with colors - as my daughter called it, it's just like painting!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my friends and readers! 

Everyday Granola

Do you make granola at home? If not, I'll highly recommend giving it a try. It's super simple - no recipe needed and highly customizable to your taste! Just mix the dry and wet ingredients together and bake at low temp while stirring every 10 minutes. 

Organic pre-made granola can get pricey and besides you can make endless variations to suit your taste buds when you make it at home. As an added benefit, home is filled with cinnamon and nutmeg baking aromas for hours afterwards - just as I like it. 

There is no recipe as such but these are some very general guidelines I follow: 3C rolled oats + 1C nuts & seeds to 3/4C wet (sweeteners + oil) to 1C dried fruits (raisins, cranberries, dried cherries, dried coconut flakes) and finally the flavorings - my favorite combo is cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg powder or just substitute pie spice if you have at hand. Granola bakes at a low temp - like 300F for a long time (40 minutes) - all you need to do is keep stirring every 10-15 minutes.

We enjoy granola as a snack to munch on, with milk as cereal or topped on Greek yogurt as dessert. One thing is for sure, once you make it at home, it's going to be difficult to go back to store bought one :)

Recipe:

Makes ~5C

Ingredients:

3C rolled oats (not quick cooking or instant)

1C chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios)

2Tbsp seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)

1C chopped dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, strawberries etc)

2Tbsp packed brown sugar

1/2C maple, agave syrup, honey or molasses

2Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2tsp cinnamon powder

1/2tsp ginger powder

pinch of nutmeg powder

1tsp vanilla extract

1/2tsp salt

Recipe:

• Pre-heat oven to 300F
• Mix all dry ingredients except dry fruits and coconut flakes.
• Mix all the wet ingredients (syrup, oil, vanilla extract)
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well to quote thoroughly.
• Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Spread the granola mixture in a thin layer on sheet pan.
• Bake for 40 minutes until granola turns golden brown. Spread around with a spoon every 10-15 minutes during baking.
• Remove from oven. Immediately add dried fruit. Mix well.
• Let cool. Once cold, store in an airtight container.
• Serve as a cereal with milk, or on top of yogurt or just munch on their own.

Black Bean and Sweet Corn Enchilada

We love Mexican food at our place. Enchilada in particular is a crowd favorite - served hot, bubbling with freshly baked melting cheese, it's quite a treat! And much less messier to eat for the little ones compared to tacos or burritos.

The only hindrance to making Mexican feasts often is time, or the lack of it. It takes a while to put together Spanish rice, black beans, guacamole, salsas and for enchilada, the enchilada sauces and baking is additional time on top of it. It just doesn't fit my dinner time budget - which on most days is no more than 20-30 minutes. 

But that's where this new line of Mexican sauces and condiments I found from chef Rick Bayless comes in so handy! We have tried their red chili enchilada sauce, green chili enchilada sauce and roasted tomatillo and poblano sauce - and all were great! None of that pre-cooked and packaged taste but instead brimming with fresh flavors and no-one could tell sauces were not home made. I bought ours from Whole Foods but I believe many other grocery chains like Target carries the brand.

I use the roasted tomatillo and poblano sauce to make green salsa or spoon over as a cooking sauce. To make green salsa from this sauce just add some freshly chopped onion, coriander and season with salt & lemon juice per taste. I also find heating the sauce once and then letting it cool brings more umpf in the sauce.

The red chili enchilada sauce is a personal favorite - it's perfectly mild making it good for kids but at the same time rich in flavors. I have tried many enchilada sauces but with this one, I don't miss making sauce at home. It's just as good or may be better.

So this was our dinner on a lazy Saturday when we skipped doing groceries and fridge was looking bare.

Photos are not great, but that's only because we couldn't wait to dig in!

Spanish rice: 1.5C rice, 1Tbsp olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic minced, 2 small tomatoes chopped, 1tsp tomato paste, 1/4tsp oregano dried, salt & pepper, 2.5C water. Recipe here.

Enchilada filling: 1 small can black beans - rinsed, kernels of one white corn, handful of edamame, 2Tbsp of roasted tomatillo and poblano sauce, Mexican shredded cheese per taste (we put just a little bit), salt & some salsa seasoning (optional). Mix together, using the back of your spatula crush some black beans so the filling holds together better. And set aside. 

Green salsa: roasted tomatillo and poblano sauce, finely chopped onion, coriander, salt & lemon juice (per taste).

Guacamole: 3 small avocados, finely chopped 2Tbsp green onion, chopped coriander, salt, lemon juice. Recipe here.

Assembly: pre-heat oven to 375F. Brush an oven-safe large casserole dish with oil. Warm up 8 corn tortillas in microwave or on a skillet. Fill 1Tbsp filling in each tortilla in the middle, roll, add it to the casserole pan. Keep adding until the tortillas are snuggled to each other. Then drizzle red enchilada sauce over the tortillas. Sneak in any remaining filling. Add some shredded Mexican cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes on a middle rack until cheese is bubbly and sides of enchilada look cooked well.

Remove and serve with Spanish rice, guacamole and green salsa. Enjoy! 

Steamed Vegetarian Dumplings

For a long time I was not enthusiastic to eat at a dumpling place. I love dumplings but having strong vegetarian preferences, I rarely found entrees I could enjoy - vegetarian menu options always seemed like an after-thought at dumpling places I visited. But that changed the first time I ate at Din Tai Fung - it's the best dumpling place I have come across and hands-down awesome for vegetarians dumpling fans!

So it was only a natural next-step that I ventured on a quest to make the Din Tai Fung style vegetarian dumpling at home :) I don't think I have gotten 100% there yet, but close enough and it's a version we devour at home so that's good enough for me!

These are steamed dumplings - not pan fried. I prefer the steamed version but you could pan fry and then steam by adding a cup of water to hot pan and put the lid on.

(photo isn't great - we could hardly wait to dig in!)

Making dumplings can bring the whole family together. Rolling the dough disks, filling them and then locking them into a dumpling is a process ripe for parallelism and more than one pair of hands. To little ones, it's also a time to unleash her creativity and make different shaped dumplings! 

And to be sure it is a slow process, takes time, but the results are very rewarding; and if you have good enjoyable company, what's not there to love making dumplings as family bonding cooking activity!

You can make your own dough and wrappers; but to save time you can also buy pre-made gyoza or wonton wrappers from your local supermarket Asian refrigerated section, which is what I do. They are quite cheap - $3 for 52 wrappers or so.

This is how I made the dumpling filling:

Serves very hungry 3, or moderately hungry 4 (made about 32 dumplings)

Ingredients:

• 1 block of extra firm tofu (extra firm is important)
• 1C finely chopped mushrooms (shitake would be great, but I used regular brown mushrooms and they work well too)
• 2 carrots - grated
• 1 bok choy (finely chopped)
• 1Tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1-2 spring or green onions (finely chopped)
• 1C finely shredded cabbage
• few mint leaves - chopped (optional)
• handful of thin rice noodles
• 1Tbsp soy sauce
• salt to taste (go low as soy sauce has salt)
• 2Tbsp vegetable oil

Vegetables - prepped

Recipe:

• Prep all the ingredients before starting.
• Try to drain as much water from tofu as you can - pressing it between two paper towels. Then break into small pieces.
• Heat oil in a wok or large bottom pan.
• When hot, add ginger and saute a minute until oil is fragrant.
• Then add tofu and mushroom. Add a little salt to release mushroom juices. Saute until mixture looks dry.
• Then add rest of the veggies, mint and saute until mixture looks dry.
• Add say sauce, mix, taste - season more salt if needed.
• Remove from heat. Spread the mixture in a large plate and let it cool completely.
• Meanwhile soak rice noodles in hot water in a covered pan to cook the noodles for 10 minutes. Remove, check for done-ness. Chop into small bites and add to the filling mixture. Mix well.

Dumpling vegetarian filling

Assembly is very straight forward once you get the hang of it. Take a dumpling wrapper. Wet the edge of the wrapper using wet fingers dipped in water. Add filling in the middle (I add about 1Tbsp per dumpling). Fold the dumpling and press and pinch the edges together to make a half moon. 

Then make a sliding folding pattern on the edge to lock in the edges using your thumb and index finger (optional for that distinguishing decorated dumpling edges). Set them on a plate with seam side up. Steam in a steamer for 10 minutes. It's great if you have the special bamboo steamers - but regular vegetable steamer works well too.

Serve hot with dipping sauce (= soy sauce + very thinly sliced ginger)

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Star Bread

Recently New York Times ran an article about procrastibaking - have you heard the term? "Procrastibaking — the practice of baking something completely unnecessary, with the intention of avoiding “real” work — is a surprisingly common habit that has only recently acquired a name." says the Times article. Rings a bell, anyone? :)

As the article goes on it explains that people procrastibake for many reasons, from avoiding the particular bit of work you are dreading, to using baking as a creative time to get your creative juices flowing for work that requires creativity. Whatever may be the reasons, procrastibaking sounds fun and something I could quickly get into - given the condition of working from home regularly.

This cinnamon star bread is not a result of procrastibaking per say. I had long since bookmarked this recipe when I saw it run in King Arthur baking blog. I just got around to trying it out now.

Your first instinct looking at it might be that it's a recipe that will take a really really long time with lots of artsy decorative twists more fit for a pastry artist than a humble home-cook - but let me tell you, it's so easy! Beyond baking basics there is nothing more complicated in it and it is a breathtaking starter bread to put out at your next party and wow your guests with what they might think as the baking Goddess within you!

Or perhaps you can make it next time you are procrastibaking, whatever, when it comes to baking there is no judgement here :)

I followed the recipe pretty much as is. My only subtraction was vanilla extract (ran out of it!) and reducing quantity of cinnamon sugar brushed on the bread. As a tip, before you make filling, leave a little bit of beaten egg aside for top coat - I didn't need the full large egg for cinnamon sugar filling and had to crack open a second egg just for the top coat (top coat is just egg brushing, not cinnamon sugar + egg brushing). Hate to waste perfectly edible things away!

Cinnamon star bread - before baking

It came out just as I was expecting it to be. 

Recipe: King Arthur Flour

My daughter also helped along by brushing the cinnamon sugar filling over the bread layers and helping me twist the two "petals" together. That's the most fun pat of baking for me - baking with the little one! We share stories - mostly of my childhood which she is always super interested in or about some small tidbits of her school world. It's a time I cherish.

That is exactly as how baking should be - utterly relaxing and enjoyable - happy time spent together kneading dough, rolling with a pin and expectantly looking at the clock wondering when it's time to open the oven or atleast have a peek!   

Cinnamon star bread - after baking

Happy baking (or procrastibaking) this long weekend everyone!