An Appreciation of Sprouts

Up until 2007 I thought Brussels Sprouts were nasty, smelly and not worth eating. When they were made in my family they were boiled until the smelled badly, were a uniform ugly greenish color, and mushy. Even when an effort was made to pick up a stalk of them fresh at a farm market the end result was the same. Occasionally I'd be coaxed to eat a few raw, but that was it.

Last year, after reading a recipe in Farmer John's "Real Dirt on Vegetables" cookbook and much encouragement from many people I talked with, I bought a stalk at the Pumpkin Patch and decided to try them out. The result was so amazingly delicious! I'm not sure why I didn't have any more last year, but during the summer I thought about them, looked forward to seeing them return to the farmer's markets.

The past several weeks there have been multiple meals with sprouts on a similar theme, braised until tender. Each time the result is eaten quickly, any lingering ones in the pan popped into our mouths as we cleaned up.

Here's my suggestions for enjoying these delicious and nutritious vegetables in season until early spring. Trim the ends of the sprouts and clean off a few of the outer leaves, revealing the bright green underneath. Cut the sprouts in half. Heat a pan with some olive oil and when the oil is hot place the largest sprouts first, cut-side down into the oil. Put as many of the sprouts cut-side down into the pan and let them saute, covered, until the start to sear and caramelize slightly.

Here's where you can go simple or more complex. After the sprouts have sauteed a bit, add some liquid to braise, covered, until they are just tender. Serve and enjoy! I have tried the following for my braising liquid with great results:

• Molasses, balsamic vinegar and a little water
• Just water & sea salt
• Water & sweet chili sauce (the kind you dip spring rolls into)

Pumpkin Quinoa

File under, "I love quinoa!"

This is so simple I hate to call it a recipe, but so yummy I wanted to share it! It really came out of some of the leftover stuffed pumpkin from Thanksgiving and my need for a quick-to-make lunch to take with me to yoga teacher training.

1 cup qunioa
2 cups broth
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 cup cooked, diced pumpkin (or other winter squash)

Bring broth to boil and add quinoa and lemon pepper. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is mostly absorbed, about 20 minutes. Add pumpkin, mix well into quinoa and continue to simmer until any remaining liquid is absorbed.

Serve immediately as a hot, nutritious side dish or chill then mix with chopped veggies, legumes and dressing for a protein-rich salad.

Quinoa & Carrot Salad

This salad has no pictures because I just threw this together out of what I found in the house one afternoon while foraging for lunch between conference calls. We had a bag of grated carrots from Trader Joe's that had been picked up for the veggie sushi and needed to be used up! I was kind of wanting a macaroni salad, but really wanted something with more protein. With those two things in mind I came up with something that was tasty, heartier than many salads as it uses high-protein quinoa in addition to legumes, and Andy & Devon both raved about how good it was as a wrap with some lettuce.

1 cup quinoa
2 cups broth
12 oz grated (large grate or julienned) carrots
1 15 oz. can red kidney beans
1 15 oz. can white kidney beans (cannellini)
1/2 sweet onion, small dice
2 large stalks celery, small dice
1 Tablespoon whole grain mustard
3 Tablespoons Vegenaise
2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

Cook quinoa in broth and set aside to cool while dicing vegetables. Drain and rinse kidney beans. Toss vegetables, beans, and quinoa with mustard, Vegenaise, and vinegar.

Sambar Pudi

A pudi, or "Powder" in Hindi, is part spice blend and part thickener used in many Indian dishes, especially soups or stews. Rather than breaking down all the spices, grains and legumes at the time of cooking a dish, like sambar, they are mixed together in a fine powder that can then be added when needed to a dish.

This particular pudi is used to thicken and richly flavor sambar, a lentil stew.

2 teaspoons chana dal
1 teaspoon red lentils
1 teaspoon brown lentils or yellow split peas
1/4 teaspoon peppercorns
2 Tablespoons coriander seeds
1 Tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 Tablespoon long-grain rice, raw
2-inches cinnamon stick
20 fresh kari leaves (or 1 teaspoon crushed, dried)
3 dried red chilies (stemmed, seeded, broken into pieces)

Preheat a large skillet, add all ingredients and toast over a medium heat until the mixture is very aromatic and the rice has toasted brown.

Cool mixture and grind into a fine powder*

Sambar pudi will keep in the refrigerator for up to 6 months in an airtight, glass jar. 3 months if kept unrefrigerated.

*I have found that a small, electric coffee grinder works nicely. Run a tablespoon or two of raw, white rice through first to clear out coffee residue. After grinding pudi run more raw rice to clean again.

Diwali Happiness 2 - Sambar

Still, no pictures. Really, I will get better about this. I also realize that it is December and Diwali is many weeks past now, but I am at least going to get my recipe for sambar posted!

Sambar, a lentil stew very popular in India, is one of my favorite dishes. Over the past few years I've been learning to make some of the foods I most enjoy. I try to read many recipes and if it is a dish I eat at a restaurant, I try to pay close attention to what I enjoy (or sometimes dislike) about the dish. After aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower, Indian style), sambar is high on my list of favorite Indian dishes.

The third part of my recipe, the oil and spices added at the end, is derived from the one in the Laxmi's Vegetarian Kitchen cookbook. I really find this flavor to be so nice that I haven't varied it much. In looking at other recipes this does seem to be pretty standard, a few differences here and there (more chilies, some other spices).

DO make the effort to get toor dal and fresh kari leaves (I like shopping for Desi items at India-4-U)! These particular details are part of what will make this dish taste like Indian home cooking. There are many steps to this dish and one step involves hot oil (very exciting), it is entirely worth the effort. I am very pleased to share that my sambar leaves my co-workers from Chennai smiling and happy!

This makes a huge amount of sambar -- I often make it for office potlucks (like the one for Diwali this year). It freezes quite nicely too!


Sambar
makes 4 quarts

Step One -- The Toor Dal

• 2 cups toor dal
• 5 cups water

Wash lentils and put into pot with water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until lentils are soft. The lentils will begin to break apart. If you are using a pressure cooker, the toor dal cook in 8 minutes.

The lentils are pre-cooked; half will be used immediately in the stew and will thicken it. The other half will be added at the end for more texture.

Step Two -- The Stew Base

• 5 cups water
• 1 cup carrot in 1/4" rounds
• 3 cup chopped cauliflower (Romanesco broccoli is also nice)
• 2 1/2 cups chopped, fresh tomatoes (yes, canned is OK, but if you have fresh, use them, it is worth the effort)
• 1 cup green beans, snapped into 1" pieces
• 3 Tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
• 2 teaspoon sea salt (more or less, to taste)
• 1 teaspoon cane sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Sambar Pudi
• 2 Tablespoons tamarind paste (e.g. Tamco Tamarind)
  

Add water and chopped vegetables to large stock pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat, add half the toor dal, half the fresh coriander, salt, sugar, sambar pudi, tamarind, and stir well. Simmer, covered until vegetables are tender.


Step Three -- The Exciting Part!

• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 4 dried, red chilies - stemmed, seeded and broken into 1" pieces (more or less of these to change the heat level of the stew)
• 30 fresh kari leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Heat oil in pan, add seeds and chilies and fry until spices are fragrant (mustard seeds may begin to pop). Add in turmeric and quickly incorporate. Add kari leaves in last (these will make quite a lot of noise as they fry in the hot oil, a splatter shield is useful). After leaves are frying scrape all spices into the pot of vegetables and lentils (again, there will be quite a lot of noise as the hot oil hits the stew).

Simmer the sambar for at least 15 minutes more to allow the spices, lentils and vegetables come together. Stir in the remaining toor dal & fresh coriander and allow to simmer again for 5 minutes before serving.

Garnish with additional fresh coriander. Serve with rice, cream of wheat pilafs, and pappadum.

Super Simple Quinoa-roni

This recipe is in the "easier than falling off a log" category, subcategory: OMFG.

Quinoa is apparently the proteiniest thing ever. Like protein in protein sauce on a bed of leafy proteins garnished with protein artfully shaped into an elaborate flower that looks suspiciously like a molecular diagram of a protein.

All I know is it's like nature's own couscous, and it's damned nummy.

I went looking for a simple rice-based dish that could be adapted to my new protein-rich friend. I was going to do a paella or a pilaf, but I wanted something that could be assembled super-quickly, thereby qualifying for the regular last-minute dinner rotation. Luckily, I found a five-star Rice-a-Roni (rtmcallrightsreservedpatentpending) knockoff with four, count 'em, four ingredients. I did a little math (yeah, I used Excel -- shut up!), threw the ingredients on the trusty and ironic Frigidaire stove, and took a bite. Then my tongue went all happy and licked me all over my face.

Here's my not-exactly-four-ingredient version of the recipe:

1 cup dry quinoa
1/2 cup vermicelli, spaghetti, or other thin pasta
14.5 ounces (just under 2 cups) flavored broth or water
(if using water, add a boullion cube or two)
a clove or two of minced garlic
1 TB Earth Balance or olive oil or some other tasty fat
optional - a few shakes of parsley flakes, salt, pepper, and/or anything else you might add to rice

1. Soak the quinoa in a bunch of water for 15 minutes or so, then rinse it really well.
2. Break the pasta into 1/2" pieces.
3. Throw the fat in a pot over medium-high heat.
4. Stir in the pasta and quinoa, coating them with the fat.
5. Stir frequently until the pasta browns a little. A few of the quinoa grains may pop and/or brown.
6. Stir in the liquid, garlic, and boullion, if using.
7. Bring it to a boil, then drop it down to simmer.
8. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. Take off heat.
10. Wait 5 minutes.
11. Serve with damned near anything.

Serves 4.

Diwali Happiness 1 - Besan Ladoo

I suck - again, no pictures! I will just have to make some of these again and photograph.

Two of my co-workers are here from India and they came up with the idea of having a big lunch to celebrate Diwali. This is a huge, multi-day festival celebrated across India; a time for big gatherings and lots of food. My co-workers missed this celebration working in Portland, Oregon, so decided to bring it to their American teammates.

When I started looking at recipes for desserts I noted that they all contained dairy products. This is pretty standard for Indian sweets, so I never have any now (oh, how I miss gulab jamun). The only way to ensure a sweet at a potluck, should I desire one, is to make them myself. Not being really familiar with any of the sweets in the recipes for Diwali I thought I'd try out the recipe for cashew cardamom cupcakes in Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I hadn't yet and have always thought it sounded tasty.

A couple of days before the potluck I stopped into my favorite Desi market, India-4-U, to pick up fresh kari leaves for making sambar. While purchasing these I was chatting with one of the owners, Alka, about my plans to make the cupcakes although I know they're not traditional.

She looked at me and said, "Oh, you should make besan ladoo!"

I know what besan is, but a ladoo?? Alka assured me it was easy, if time consuming, to cook the besan. She knows I'm vegan and that I have something I use where ghee is called for (hoaray, Earth Balance). She said that ghee was the only non-vegan thing in besan ladoo, so I should have an easy time of it. Besan ladoo, she insisted, we the best thing to make as a sweet for a Diwali party.

Right. Once home I stashed the kari leaves in the fridge for sambar making later and did a little research. After a few Google searches I found a recipe that sounded like the rough ingredient list Alka gave me: besan, ghee, sugar, cardamom, cashews and raisens. The only problem -- no pictures and the recipe directions ended with the notation to, "shape into ladoos".

Uhh... Google image search to the rescue! Moments later I discovered that "ladoo" meant "little ball".

As Alka had said, it was pretty easy if a little time consuming. I followed the recipe and directions exactly, substituting the amount of Earth Balance for the ghee, and after many minutes the kitchen was scented with the nutty aroma of the toasted flour. I added the sugar & cardamom and immediately found a problem.

I had a pan of toasted, cooled besan, a bunch of sugar, a fair bit of cardamom, some chopped raises & toasted cashews. It smelled wonderful, however, there was no way that it would be pressed into any kind of firm shape!

Since ghee is clarified and Earth Balance is a vegetable fat, something was lost in trying to do a direct substitution. What I've learned is that when substituting Earth Balance for ghee the amount should be doubled! This worked fine and the results delighted Indian co-workers who said I got them just right. They were thrilled to get a handmade sweet they associate with home.

The Recipe

Besan Ladoo -- Vegan Style!

1 cup Earth Balance
2 cups gram flour
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
1 teaspoon powdered cardamom
1/2 cup of chopped raisins and cashews

I toasted the raw cashews and set them aside. Once they were cool I chopped up these and some raisins for the 1/2 cup.

In a large frying pan melt 1/2 the Earth Balance over medium-low heat and add in the 2 cups gram flour. Keep stirring with a spoon, making sure there are no lumps, until flour has turned a rich, dark tan and smells very aromatic -- at least 10-15 minutes. Take off heat and let cool.

Once the besan has cooled add in the sugar, cardamom, cashews and raisins. Mix together so that all ingredients are well incorporated. Melt the other 1/2 of Earth Balance. Drizzle Earth Balance into other ingredients, keep mixing and adding Earth Balance until the dough can be pressed together in a small ball and retain shape when set down.

Form dough into small balls, ladoos, and plate. Should be kept refrigerated if not being served right away. Makes approximately 24 ladoos.


**Note: I am not sure at this time if I could have just toasted the gram in the full amount of Earth Balance. Since I discovered after all the other steps were done that I needed more Earth Balance, this is how the steps went. I will amend this if I discover I do not need to do the Earth Balance in two parts.