Happy (vegetarian) Thanksgiving!!

Squash filled with dried cranberry and chick pea couscous, Garlic mash potatoes and asparagus with green beans.

Blueberry apple pie 

North and east India :)

Makki-di-Roti

This dish is very delicious and perfect to dip with or to pile chutney on top! The corn flour gives it a very nice twist (it is important you use corn flour and not any other type of flour). The dough is a perfect consistency to cut shapes into if you want to get creative! This is a very nice addition to any meal.

Recipe from "Surf India" online

 Ingredients (Makes: 5-6 rotis)

2 cups: Maize flour

1 fistful: Plain flour

1 tsp: Oil

Salt to taste

Water to knead

Method

1. Mix maize flour, oil and salt.  

2. Knead in a soft pliable dough, adding very little water at a time.

3. When the dough is very smooth and soft, bread a lump.
4. Shape into a ball, flatten and pat with palm, to make a thin roti.
5. Use dry plain flour to help. Or roll with a rolling pin.
6. Take care to dust with flour and lift and turn to avoid sticking.
7. Place on a heavy iron or earthen griddle and roast till crisp.
8. Repeat on both sides. Repeat for all rotis.
9. Cover and line with napkins to keep warm.
10. Drizzle with ghee or butter if desired.
11. Serve hot with Sarson ka saag and slice of onion and lime.

Navratan-Korma

Extremely memorable! This dish caught our eyes because of the fruit that was in it, and it certainly tasted just as good as it sounded! The apples, pineapple and banana give a very unique taste to the dish without overpowering it or making it too sweet. The cumin makes the whole kitchen smell wonderful the entire time you are cooking the dish. This is definitely something we'll be making again! If you cant get vurd at your local grocery store, I added a simple recipe to make it at home!

Ingredients

• 2 cups: Boiled Peas
• 1big: Chopped and Boiled Carrot
• ½ cup: Tomato Sauce
• 1 tsp: Sweet Lime
• 1 small: Apple
• 1 medium size: Banana
• ¼ quantity: Pineapple
• 10-15: Cashew nuts
• 18-20: Raisins
• ¼ cup: Curd
• ¼ cup: Cream
• 1 tbs: Ghee
• 3 tbs: Butter
• Salt to taste

For Dry Masala

• 1 tsp: Cumin seeds
• 2 tsp: Poppy seeds (Khus Khus)

For Wet Masala

• 1 big: Onion
• 1 tsp: Cardamoms
• ¼ cup: Shredded Coconut
• 3-4: Green Chillies

For Decoration

• Chopped Cherries
• Grated Cheese
• Chopped Coriander leaves

Making Curd:

Ingredients

• 1 litre of milk
• 1/8-1/4 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice (use more if you need to)
• Cheese cloth

Instructions

1. Heat milk on high until it is just about to boil (starts to foam and bubble slightly)
2. Take off of heat for a minute
3. Add vinegar and stir constantly until it separates
4. Pour into a colander with cheese cloth lining it.

Gobhi Manchurian

As delicious as this is, it is hard to make so you need to make sure you keep an eye on it!! Ours burnt a little bit and it really affected the overall flavour. However, even with the slight burnt taste, this dish was very good. The cauliflower really absorbs all the different flavours and gives it a fantastic texture. 

Gobhi Manchurian Ingredients

• 1 pcs: Cauliflower (medium, clean and broken into big florettes)
• 1/4 cup: Plain flour
• 3 tsp: Cornflour
• 1 small bunch: Spring onion (finely chopped)
• 2 tsp: Ginger (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp: Garlic (finely chopped)
• 1/4 tsp: Red chilli powder
• 2 no: Red chillies (dry)
• 1 tsp: Milk
• 3 tsp: Oil
• 1-1/2 cup: Water

Gobhi Manchurian Method

1. Boil the florettes for 3-4 minutes in plenty of water, to which a tsp. of milk has been added. Drain and pat dry on a clean cloth.
2. Make thin batter out of flour and 2 tsp cornflour, adding 1/4 tsp. each of ginger and garlic and red chilli powder and salt to taste.
3. Dip the florettes in the batter one by one and deep fry in hot oil. Keep aside.
4. In the remaining oil, add remaining ginger, garlic and crushed red chilli and fry for a minute. Add the salt and spring onions. Stir fry for a minute. Add 1-1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Add 1 tsp. cornflour to 1/4 cup water and dissolve well. Gradually add to the gravy and stir continuously till it resumes boiling. Boil till the gravy becomes transparent.
5. Add florettes and soya sauce. Boil for two more minutes and remove.
6. Serve hot with noodles or rice.
7. Variations:
   1. Dry Manchurian can be made by omitting the gravy.
   2. Make florettes as above and instead of adding water as above, add fried florettes, spring onions and soya sauce at this stage.
   3. Sprinkle 1 tsp. cornflour on the florettes and stir fry for 2 minutes.
   4. Serve piping hot with toothpicks or mini forks and chilli-garlic sauce or tomato sauce.
   5. Same procedure for veg. Manchurian (with gravy or dry), but instead of using only cauliflower, use finely chopped minced vegetables and bind with some cornflour or bread crumbs and make small lumps the size of a ping-pong ball. Fry as above and proceed as above.

    

Thailand!

                                  Tofu Pad Thai and Autumn Rolls


     This dish makes a great meal for any day of the week! It's one of our personal favorites; and a blast to cook. The fresh autumn rolls turned out fantastic, though they were a challenge to keep together. We recommend you spend some time getting used to the rolling process involved with making these! It's quite skill oriented.
     Given the simplicity of this dish, it really doesn't take that much time to cook up and prepare-- especially when you decide to cook it with a store-bought Pad Thai Sauce. Just be sure to read the label on any sauces you purchase from the store, as they may contain a type of fish-oil or oyster sauce.
    This specific recipe was without a doubt THE best Pad Thai we've ever tried!

Pad Thai Ingredients:
1 (14-Ounce) package Pad Thai noodles
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil (try peanut or sesame oil if possible)
1 (14-Ounce) package extra-firm tofu
1 bottle or home-made batch of Pad Thai sauce (recipe for vegetarian/vegan pad thai sauce posted below)
1 cup minced onion
3 large cloves of garlic
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
½ cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1-2 cups of your choice of veggies (we used baby corn, carrots, broccoli and green beans)
1 Lime (optional)

Pad Thai Sauce Ingredients:

¼ cup lime juice (for best results, get it freshly squeezed!)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon of lime zest
2 tablespoons peanut or sesame oil
1 tablespoon agave nectar or organic sugar
2 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon tamarind paste (optional)
2 teaspoons Sriracha hot sauce OR ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes to taste
¼ cup arame (kelp)
2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons sea salt

Pad Thai Sauce Instructions:

1. Place the arame in a bowl and cover with hot water; let soak for 15 minutes. Transfer arame, 2 cups of hot water, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar and 2 teaspoons of sea salt to a blender. Blend well.
2. Pour the mixture through a strainer and set aside.
3. Combine ¼ cup lime juice, 1 teaspoon lime zest, 2 tablespoons peanut or sesame oil, 1 tablespoon agave nectar or organic sugar, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 clove minced garlic, 2 tablespoons Sriracha or ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes with the arame mixture (steps 1. and 2.) in a bowl. Be sure the whisk the mixture well.

Pad Thai Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Cook noodles according to interactions on package, strain and set aside.
3. Place soya sauce and one table spoon of the oil on a small baking sheet. Slice tofu into ½ inch cutlets. Slice each cutlet into 2 inch by half inch strips. Flip tofu to ensure even coating. Place in oven, bake for fifteen minutes.
4. Prepare pad thai sauce.
5. Place 2 tablespoons of the oil in a pan/wok over med-high heat, add garlic cook for 3 minutes stirring constantly. Lower heat to low.
5. Add noodles and pad thai sauce and stir well.
6. Add tofu and your choice of vegetables.
7. Let simmer for a few minutes until ready to serve. Top with green onion, cilantro, and peanuts or the lime if you choose.

Autumn Rolls Ingredients:

2 ounces dried rice vermicelli noodles
12 8 inch round rice wrappers
¼ cup peanut sauce
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup grated cucumber
2 Avacados
⅓  cup of shredded cilantro
⅓ shredded mint leaves
½ brick of extra firm tofu (use extra tofu from pad thai if you made it)

Autumn Rolls Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Place noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand for ten-twelve minutes, until softened.
2. Rinse with cold water in a colander, transfer to a bowl
3. Prepare baking sheet with oil. Slice tofu into ½ inch cutlets. Slice each cutlet into 2 inch by half inch strips.  Flip tofu to ensure even coating. Place in oven, bake for fifteen minutes.
4. Place each wrapper in a shallow bowl of warm water and let them soak for 30 seconds. Place the now soft wrapper on a damp towel.
5. Assemble the rolls placing a small amount of the noodles, carrot, cucumber, avocado, cilantro, mint leaves and tofu in the wrapper and rolling them up.

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Bon Appétit! Or, as the Thai would say.... กินดี! 

MEXICO!!

Okay, so I guess we lied.

Mexico will be our first entry!

Guacamole!

Don't have an exact recipe for this one... Just threw together some avocados, cilantro, jalapenos, tomatoes and lime juice!! Super delicious, but very spicy (the jalapeno we got was ridiculous!)

Bean stuffed banana balls!

Ingredients

6 plátanos machos (ripe plantain)
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons brown cugar
1 cup black beans (cooked and blended) 

Instructions

1 Wash the bananas and cut each into 3 pieces. Place th pieces in a pot and let them boil. (Don't peel the skin)
2 Once the bananas are cooked, drain and peel them. Mash them adding half of the grated cheese and half of the cinnamon. It must feel like a soft dough.
3 Fry the beans and let them dry. Add the rest of the cinnamon, cheese and sugar.
4 Make small tortillas with the banana dough (using your hands) and stuff them with a spoon of the fried beans. Mold the dough into egg shaped balls, letting the beans as a stuffing and fry them in hot oil.

These were pretty easy to make. However, you want to make sure you cook the plantains really well (boil for AT LEAST 15 minutes!) we added a little bit of flour before tossing them in the oil.

They turned out very good. The plantains give it a unique taste both sweet and savory. These make a very good appetizer. They would be wonderful with a chipotle sauce to dip in, but other than that, super good!

Enchiladas verdes! 

For Enchiladas:

-6 whole grain tortillas

-About 3 cups lightly steamed veggies of your choice; I used broccoli and yellow squash (chopped small) You might also like to try Spinach and Mushrooms. 

-1 can Black Beans heated with a dash of curry powder, cumin, garlic powder (optional for flavor)

Preheat oven to 350º While oven is preheating warm up the tortillas for a few minutes until they are soft. In baking dish spread a bit of the salsa verde on the bottom so that tortillas will not stick afterwards.

                           We bought a container of salsa verdes for this recipe (feel free to make your own though if you try this out). For the vegetables we used spinach, corn and mushrooms and we added refried beans as well as the black beans. We also sprinkled shredded asiago cheese on the top. Keep in mind, the time in the oven is so short just to warm them up and give them a little crisp, not to cook them.

Turned out very good! Wonderful combination of flavors and textures, I would certainly recommend this recipe to anyone!

Updating soon!

We will be posting our first country's recipes and review very soon!
We tried out the lovely Thailand, fresh (Autumn ) rolls and pad thai!