Saturday, June 30, 2018

Farm to Plate - Currant Jelly

I have seen currants on a lot of European blogs. They looked kind of pretty and when I had the chance to grow them in my farm, I planted a couple of baby currant bushes. The first three years the plant grew vigorously and I was reluctant to trim it. The berries were hard to reach and the few that ripened were hidden in a mass of leaves. Last year I started reading about pruning and figured out how to prune the bushes. Pruned them in early spring as recommended. This summer we have an abundance of fruit but the problem now seems to be how to harvest them. The 3 lbs of fruit that we harvested was made into jelly.

The fruit are not that great was eating like other berries. They have seeds and are tart. But they are perfect for making jelly. I used the recipe from Martha Stewart for the measurement of sugar and fruit. I had a little over 3 lbs of currants. Using a recipe that calls for fruit but uses the juice is always tricky because the given measurement of fruit does not give the required amount of juice or pulp. Adjust the sugar quantity of the juice the fruit eventually produces. The recipe from Martha Stewart said 4 cups of juice for 3 lbs of currants. I got about 3 cups of juice for the same quantity.



If you want a plant that regularly produces fruit for a jelly but you don't want to do too much work, currant bushes are the plants for you. If planting and then harvesting fruit seems like something you don't want to do, look for them in farmer's market or see if a friend grows them ;)



The jelly making process is pretty easy. Making jelly at home means you can control the amount of sugar and the ingredients that go into it. Here it is just 2. What more can you ask?



Wash and drain the currants and add to a thick bottomed vessel with about 1/3 cups of water.
Cook the currants till they are soft and mushy. Use a hand blender or a back of a laddle to break them down further.
Strain the currants through a mesh strainer to get the juice.
Add the sugar to the juice and let it come to a boil.
Cook for about 20 - 25 minutes till a drop placed in a plate of water does not dissolve.
Transfer to sterilized jars.

With some bread toasted with butter or ghee morning breakfast is fun and delicious.







Currant Jelly
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
  1. 3 1/2 lbs of currant which yielded 3 cups of juice
  2. 2 1/4 cups of sugar

Method
  1. Wash the currant and remove the stems. Take them in a thick bottomed pan with about 1/3 cup of water. Let it come to a boil and become soft about 8-10 minutes.
  2. You can use the laddle to mash the fruit. I use the hand blender to further break down the fruit.
  3. Use a fine mesh strainer to strain the skin and seeds to get the juice.
  4. Take the juice and the sugar in a heavy bottomed pot. Let it cook for about 20 - 25 minutes till a drop poured on a plate with water does not dissolve in the water.
  5. Transfer to sterilized jars.

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Thursday, June 21, 2018

Cilantro Lime Quinoa in an Instant Pot

I have heard a lot about the electric pressure cooker, did not pay it much mind as I was perfectly happy with my regular pressure cooker. On the other hand, I have this crusty old electric rice cooker with a non stick insert which is starting to peel off. I have been looking for an electric rice cooker with a stainless steel insert instead of a non stick one but have not been very successful in finding one. The ones I found on Amazon (where else) were either too expensive or a brand I have never heard of.

As I continued searching I chanced upon the Instant Pot brand electric pressure cooker with a stainless steel insert. Not just a rice cooker but as luck would have it a full fledged pressure cooker. I found lots of glowing reviews and a pretty ardent following for it and there was no dearth of information. Slightly more than what I wanted to spend for rice cooker but at under $80 for a 6 quart a pretty good buy for me.

Was I glad or what? Nothing against my crusty old pressure cooker but with none of the leaking and the mess associated with not controlling the heat or pouring a little extra water. I am not saying the Instant Pot won't leak but it is very rare.

Cooking lentils, rice, beans is done in no time at all and of course with none of the mess which is a big deal for me. Since the time can be controlled much better I can easily control how much I need the beans cooked and that is a big deal for me. While the Instant Pot itself can be used for sauteing and cooking in it I still prefer my stove top for sauteing purposes. Guys this is not a paid promotion but me gushing about my favorite toy in the kitchen.






I would like to eat more of Quinoa but cooking it has always been a hit or miss if I am not careful with the amount of water and the timing. Can't eat mushy quinoa. When I am in a rush and doing too many things this is not something i want to spend time on. This is where the Instant Pot becomes a life saver. Just a minute of cooking time and perfect quinoa is ready.

Add the quinoa, water, cilantro leaves, squeeze in the lime juice, add salt and let cook in the Instant Pot in manual mode for a minute.
Once cooked fluff up the rice.


I wanted to go a bit fancy and add some cilantro, lime and make it a cilantro lime quinoa for a quinoa bowl with cauliflower.

All of us enjoy eating burrito bowl. Cilantro lime rice is what we usually have but occasionally to mix it up and to avoid the rice trap. Anything tastes good in these bowls. Quinoa when cooked correctly gives the bowl an extra dimension.

How to cook quinoa in an Instant Pot from this blog article.



Cilantro Lime Quinoa
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
  1. 2 cups of Quinoa (I used red)
  2. 2 cups of water
  3. 1/2 of a lime
  4. 1/2 cup of loosely packed chopped cilantro or coriander leaves
  5. 1/2 - 1 tbsp of butter (use olive oil for a vegan version)
  6. 2 tsp of salt
Method
  1. Wash the quinoa in several changes of water till the water runs clear.
  2. Add 2 cups of water (quinoa water ratio 1:1)
  3. Squeeze in the lime juice.
  4. Add in the butter, coriander leaves and salt.
  5. Put the weight on the top in sealed position and in manual mode set it cook for 1 minute. This should cook the quinoa under high pressure for a minute.
  6. Once the cooking is complete let the pressure naturally and let it sit for at least 10-15 minutes before opening the lid.
  7. Once opened fluff up the quinoa.


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Monday, June 18, 2018

Minced Goat Meat with Eggplant - Kothukariyum kathrikkayum

For the life of me I am not sure how I am going to deal with this moronic President and his voice and face for another 2 1/2 and god forbid another 4 years after that with my severe news addiction. More infuriating are his family members one more tone deaf than the other and clueless about how entitled they are. Where on earth does it say that is OK to separate children from their parents? Oh yeah the party of family values cares only about certain kind of families? Everyone who is a parent has to shudder at the thought of what is happening in the name of law and order. I am tired and sick of being outraged all the time.

I will for now talk about this recipe as talking about something without doing something about it is not really very productive.

When cooking with minced goat meat or kheema and using a pressure cooker there is always a chance it might go dry as it finishes cooking. Adding water takes away from the taste. So my aunt for instance adds cabbage. I had some eggplants and added that to the kheema. The eggplants provides the moisture for the cooking and the almost mashed eggplants once they are cooked gives a nice smooth and moist texture to the kheema.

Goat meat can be substituted with minced lamb, turkey or chicken. Minced goat can be purchased from halal stores, some Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi grocery stores. A very good quality chicken or meat masala powder is good to be used for this recipe. Also for those of you who are not familiar with these masalas these powders are used for meat/poultry dishes but they by themselves do not have any meat or poultry in them. They are vegan by themselves. The reason for this explanation - one blogger a while ago questioned if these masala powders were vegetarian or not. Really!









Here is the recipe in pictures.

Heat the oil, add the seasonings, add the onions, garlic and ginger saute followed by the tomatoes .
Add the chopped eggplants, cook for a few minutes. Then add the kheema and the spice powders and mix them well.
Add salt and coriander leaves, put the lid and weigh on and let cook for 3 whistles. When cool open the lid and cook for 6 minutes more till most of moisture is evaporated.

We had them with home made corn tortillas.




Minced Goat with Eggplant
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
  1. 1 1/2 lbs of minced goat meat
  2. 1 cup of chopped red onion
  3. 4-6 cloves of garlic chopped
  4. 1 tbsp of grated ginger
  5. 1 tomato finely chopped (optional)
  6. 6-10 green chilies minced or slit in half (the number depends on how hot the chilies are)
  7. 2 cups of finely diced eggplant
  8. a handful of chopped coriander leaves
  9. 2 tsp of turmeric powder
  10. 1 tbsp of meat or chicken masala powder
  11. salt to taste
  12. 1/2 tbsp of oil
  13. seasoning - 1 tsp of fennel seeds, 1 tsp of cumin seeds

Method
  1. In a pressure cooker heat oil, when hot add the seasonings followed by the finely chopped onions and the green chilies.
  2. Saute the onions till they are nice and brown. Add in the garlic and ginger and saute for a couple of minutes.
  3. Add the minced tomatoes and saute till the tomatoes start to fall apart.
  4. Add in the eggplant and saute for a couple minutes more.
  5. Add in the minced meat, the meat masala powder, turmeric powder and chili powder if using. Mix well. Add salt and the coriander leaves.
  6. Close the pressure cooker, put the weigh on and let cook for 4 whistles and turn off the heat. (for poultry just 2 whistles should be enough)
  7. Open the lid and if there too much moisture cook on open heat for about 6-8 minutes.
  8. Serve with rice or Indian bread of any kind.




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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Maravalli Kizhangu poriyal - Tapioca Root Stir Fry

What is your definition of happiness? I am not sure what makes me happy but striving for happiness has become a life goal for a lot of people these days apparently. For some people the idea of happiness iwhatever they want and for a few others it is being able to eat whatever they please.

Will you be surprised if this striving for all this happiness is actually making people unhappy? I read this opinion piece in 'The Washington Post'- The quest for happiness may be killing us. The attitude that being sad is a condition that needs to be treated rather than something to overcome and expecting that buying or having more things will make you happy is a futile exercise. This paragraph from the article is what stuck with me written by British therapist and philosopher James Davies who wrote “The Importance of Suffering,” and follow-up bestseller, “Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good".

Davies argues that we have created a culture that assumes happiness to be the normal, healthy human condition. Deviations from the blissful path - sadness, anxiety, disappointment - are thus treated as illnesses in search of a cure. This “harmful cultural belief that much of our everyday suffering is a damaging encumbrance best swiftly removed” gets in the way of a more robust response, he writes: namely, approaching unpleasant emotions as “potentially productive experiences to be engaged with and learnt from."

Last week brought some really sad new news - the deaths of Kate Spade - though I don't own any of her eponymous articles of fashion I still knew her and then Anthony Bourdain - him I knew and enjoyed immensely watching his show Parts Unknown. Several thoughts of success and happiness were sloshing around in my head and this article was timely I thought. All of us have this unattainable notion of happiness which clearly seems to be affecting and bothering us more than we want to admit.

Working with the animals, the land and doing things that I like - watching TV, reading a mystery novel, are some ways I choose to get out of the doldrums. What is your coping mechanism? Please get the help you want if you feel you are not able to cope.

As for this recipe,it is proof that food does not have to be elaborate to please the taste buds. Simple dishes with very few ingredients that bring out the natural taste of the vegetables are the best dishes to make and enjoy. On our last visit to India DH's sister in law had made this. I usually make this like a dry roast which is delicious in its own right but this one is just simple and perfect as a side dish for sambhar or rasam.




The recipe in pictures. Can't be any easier.

Peel and chop the tapioca. It takes longer to peel than to actually cook.
Boil the chopped tapioca root till it is soft.
In a wide mouthed pan, add the seasonings, green chilies and onions and saute till the onions are translucent. Add in the cooked tapioca root and salt. Saute for a few more minutes.
Add the grated fresh coconut and turn off the heat.



Maravalli Kizhangu poriyal - Tapioca Root Stir Fry
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
  1. 2 Tapioca roots, peeled and cut into cubes
  2. 1/2 cup of finely chopped red onions or shallots
  3. 6-8 slit green chilies
  4. 1/4 cup of grated fresh or frozen coconut
  5. seasonings: curry leaves, cumin, mustard seeds, split urad dal
  6. 2 tsp oil
  7. salt to taste

Method
  1. Peel the tapioca roots, chop into 1 inch cubes and in a pot of water cook till soft. Drain right away and set aside. Takes about 8-12 minutes.
  2. In a wide mouthed pan (kadai) add oil, when hot add the split urad dal and saute till it starts to turn color, add the mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard starts to pop add the curry leaves.
  3. Now add in the chopped onions and split green chilies and saute till the onion starts to brown.
  4. Now add the drained cooked root and mix it in. Add salt and saute for another 4-5 minutes and turn off the heat.



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