Farmer’s Market Corn Salad

salad

I live in the desert.
So, there aren’t any really great farmer’s markets around Phoenix. There are some that “claim” to be farmer’s markets, but they aren’t anything when compared to the great places that we have in Wisconsin.

So I pretend.

Last week, I felt like imagining…what IF there were a fabulous late-summer Farmer’s Market around here, and what IF I had bought fresh corn-on-the-cob and tomatoes early in the morning?

Imagination is powerful.

So I went to the grocery store, bought the necessary ingredients, and made a salad and quiche from my “fake” farmer’s market ingredients.

Here’s the salad.
The recipe for the quiche will follow.

The finished product

Summer Corn and spinach salad

Ingredients
3 ears of corn
2 handfuls of spinach or arugala
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

For dressing:
3 tbps. olive oil
splash of apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper
2 tbsp. chopped cilantro

First the corn: Bring water to a boil and drop the corn cobs in for 4 minutes. Take out of the water and immediately place in a large bowl full of ICE WATER to shock them. Let cool.
Meanwhile, mix up the dressing.
When the corn cools, shave off with a knife very close to the cob. It will fall into small clumps. Mix with the greens and the thin onions. Now, coat with the dressing and let sit, in the refrigerator, for about 15-20 minutes before serving.
Simple and delicious!

Tomato Onion Koshimbir (salad)

Koshimber Salad

When most Americans think of “Indian Food,” they think about the typical dishes from the ubiquitous Indian lunch  — Thick creamy curries like malai kofta,  creamy spinach and cheese, butter chicken, etc.

But most of those foods, while eaten throughout India, are actually from the northern part of the country. India really has a wide diversity of food, just like the United States does — we just rarely, as Americans, get to taste the other types.

My husband hails from Maharashtra, a coastal state in the western part of the country (home to Mumbai). The food his family makes is so completely different than the *typical* Indian food I’ve tasted before.

Maharashtrians use a lot of grains that I’ve never heard of before. They also use a lot of peanut powder in their food, which gives everything a great, unexpected flavor. Some of their dishes also use coconut, since they’re close to the ocean.

Here

 

The other night, we were talking about Maharashtrian food and I mentioned to him that it  seems, to me, very high in carbs and fried things, and that I was surprised people didn’t eat more raw veggies, salads, etc.

He mentioned this type of salad, koshimbir, to prove me wrong. I vaguely remembered eating it when we were at our Indian wedding, and so I looked up some recipes online and created my own version.

I altered it just a bit, according to my tastes.

Now, for your introduction to  Maharashtrian cooking, I’m posting this quick and easy recipe for you.  And, for all my friends on your vegan diets, you should try this (just leave the yogurt out)!

Koshimber salad

Tomato Onion Koshimbir

Ingredients

*2 tomatoes, finely chopped

*1 onion ( I didn’t use the whole thing because raw onions tend to give me heartburn, so adjust according to your tastes) finely chopped

*cilantro, finely chopped

*2 green chilis, finely chopped

* 1 Tbsp. roasted peanuts (try to remove the papery outing that covers them)

* 1/2 tsp. asofoetida

* 1 tsp. mustard seeds

*1 tsp. sugar (optional)

* salt, to taste

* 1/4 cup coconut flakes (you can get the Goya brand, frozen, in a LatinAmerican grocery)

* 2 tbsp. yogurt (optional)

Place peanuts in a food processor and grind them until it is very fine.

Next, in a bowl, mix the chopped tomatoes, onion, coconut, peanut powder, salt and sugar. 

Then, in a small frying pan, heat 1 tsp of oil. When hot, add mustard seeds, asafoetida, and chilis. Heat until mustard seeds start “dancing” and then turn off the flame. Pour the oil and spices into the salad.  Mix in the yogurt (which is optional) and garnish with the cilantro (I used about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup).

Serve chilled and, if you want, with roti.

*As a side note, this makes an excellent lunch wrap. Just get a tortilla and fill it with chickpeas. Heat it in the microwave and then add the chilled koshimir in it. Roll and eat. Yum!

Paneer-Tikka Chutney Pizza

Indian tikka style pizza

Pizza originated in Italy in the 1800s, but since then it’s spread to nearly every country on earth, with many adding their own culinary twists.

No where, perhaps,  is this more apparent than in India, where, aside from the typical pizza toppings, stores serve pies topped with chutneys, paneer, cilantro, tandoori chicken, etc.

For example? Papa John’s pizza, which is apparently the world’s third-largest pizza chain, has scores of outlets in India, serving up things like paneer & veggie pizza.

And Pizza Hut in India even has a special promotion advertised on its Web site called “Full Punjabi,” (complete with an animated logo with hands moving up and down in a bhangra dance motion) and promises  “a tempting range of EXTRA LOADED Punjabi Pizzas!”

And, in whatI think is now my favorite example of Globalization Gone Wild: Pizza Hut also offers The Paneer El Rancho pizza, a “Mexican speciality cajun spiced paneer, black olives, corn, capsicum, onion & cheese”

Mexican, Cajun, American, Italian, Indian..All righty.

This recipe I recently tried is a little less complicated, but probably tastier. Paneer, creamy sauce, spices like dried fenugreek, which provide a soft, sweet aroma – all topped off with some mozzarella cheese and cilantro.

It’s definitely time-consuming – but you can always shorten it up by buying a paneer tikka masala as take-out from an Indian restaurant and just making the pizza yourself.

The finished pizza

So, the two recipes are as follows:

Paneer-Tikka Masala Pizza

Ingredients:
*1 premade pizza crust (preferably Boboli, thought the pillsbury kind is OK)
*Mango chutney
*Tomato sauce
*Paneer Tikka Masala (recipe follows)
*1/4 cup cilantro
*Shredded mozarella cheese

To assemble the pizza: Lay out the dough. Spread a very thin layer of mango chutney on the dough. If you want, place some onion slices on top. Then, spread a couple large spoonfuls of tomato puree on top of it. Now, take your paneer tikka masala and gently spoon it on the pizza, spreading it with a large spoon or spatula.
Sprinkle with mozarella cheese, and bake according to the instructions on the pizza dough. When it comes out, sprinkle with chopped cilantro  and enjoy!

A close up

Paneer Tikka Masala

Ingredients for marinade:

* 2 cups paneer, cut into small cubes
* 1 green bell pepper
* 1 onion, sliced
* 1/4 tsp. cumin
* 1 tsp. dried fenugreek
* 1/2 tsp garam masala
* 2 tsp. red chili powder
* 1 tsp. tandoori masala
* sprinkling of salt
* 1/4 cup yogurt

Prepare the mixture by mixing yogurt with all the spices listed above. Dump the paneer, onion slices and pepper into the mixture and mix it around until it’s all coated.
Scoop it all onto a lined cookie sheet and spread it out. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then set aside. (If  you want, you can marinate this mixture for several hours, or overnight, before baking it).

The Sauce

Ingredients
*1 cup tomato puree
*1/4 or 1/2 onion
*1 tomato, chopped
*2 tbsp. butter
*1/2 cup cream
*1/4 tsp. nutmeg
*1 tsp. red chili powder
*1 tsp. tandoori masala
* 1 tsp. dried fenugreek leaves
*1 tsp. cumin
*1 tsp. turmeric
*juice of one lime or half a lemon
*2 green chilis, chopped small
*1 tsp. garlic paste
*1 1/2 tsp. ginger

In a wok, melt the butter and add the onions and garlic. Sautee for 4 minutes. Add the green chilies and ginger and sautee for a minute. Add tomato. Then, add the tomato puree and cook for about 5 minutes on medium flame. Next, add all the spices: cumin powder, turmeric, fenugreek, nutmeg, salt, tandoori masala, red chili powder.
Now, add the cream. Note: I used SLIGHTLY less than 1/2 cup cream and thought that worked well.
Turn down heat, and add veggies and paneer. Heat through. Garnish with cilantro.

 

Lotus root chips

Lotus roots? Neverheardathem.

That was me two years ago.

Until my mom, my husband and I were in Mumbai, and chose to eat lunch at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel during a sightseeing tour . We chose a restaurant that had upscale, Indian cuisine and I saw a lotus root curry on the menu. I ordered it and was amazed.

Aside from the great flavor, the lotus roots were beautiful – their delicate designs looked like snowflakes – and they had a great crunch to them that reminded me of a water chestnut.

Here in Phoenix, we’ve found bags of frozen lotus at the Indian grocery store. But on a trip to Lee Lee’s, a huge Asian grocery store near our apartment, I saw the real thing in the produce section.

Inside of a raw lotus root

They’re ugly! Huge bulbous tubes interconnected to each other, slightly slimy… but I gave it a shot. 

Some Internet research unveiled a few different recipes for cooking them, as well as some information about the nutritional content of these things. Apparently, they are very high in fiber and vitamin C, low in sugars, and fat free.

 

I used a knife to scrape off the tough outer peel, then sliced them into 1/8 inch pieces and made lotus chips out of them. Then:

Soak them in water with several tbsp. of lemon juice, to keep them from discoloring.

Then, boil them in salted water for about 5 minutes. Take out of the water and pat them dry.

Now, on a baking sheet lined with tin foil, mix up the following:

* 4-6 Tbsp. oil

* 2 Tbsp. chili powder

* 2 Tbsp. anise

* 2 Tbsp. ground cumin

* 2 Tbsp. garam masala

* 1 tsp. nutmeg

The Oil and Spice mixture

Mix it up and add the lotus pieces, coating them and flipping them over. Sprinkle with salt.

Now, bake it in a oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes, flipping them over halfway in between.

Lotus root slices

Orange-blossom lemonade

It’s Arizona. It’s August. It’s been over 100 degrees for… weeks? months? Suffice it to say: it’s hot.

So what’s one of the most refreshing drinks to cool off with on a hot Saturday afternoon? Lemonade. With orange blossom water.

No, I didn’t squeeze the lemons – I just bought some grocery-store lemonade (Note to Paul Newman: You’re “all natural” lemonade contains high fructose corn syrup. Where is that consideed “natural”???).

Then, just add a half-capful of orange blossom water, which can be bought at any middle-eastern grocery store. Add some ice, and it’s delicious.

Orange-blossom lemonade

Orange blossom water, or “ma’zaher,” in Arabic, is a distillate of bitter orange trees. It is used in many Arabic and Persian pastries, and also put in tea and coffee, or even just served with boiling water. In the past, I’ve even put it in my hot cocoa and marshmallows!

I started making my lemonade this way after tasting it at a small Iraqi restaurant in Tempe called “Sahara.” Wow, that place was amazing, and the lemonade was just the start… unfortunately, Sahara closed about a year ago to make way for yet another CVS pharmacy (there wasn’t one within two blocks, apparently, so they needed to build another). Where’s Joni Mitchell when you need her?

Hearts-of-palm red lentil soup

As a thundering Arizona monsoon storm rolled in tonight, I had a craving for a hearty, spicy soup. I had a bag of red lentils sitting around, and decided to try something new, which is how I created this soup.

I’ve had a fondness for red lentil stews ever since my husband and I went to India for several weeks in 2006. We were looking for a way to use up all our food, so it didn’t go bad while we were gone. As a way to use up spinach and yogurt, I threw it together with some red lentils — and we loved it. Unfortunately, I lost the recipe!

Oh well. This one is even better. And, even more,  it uses one of my favorite Latin American foods — hearts of palm.

A bowl of the lentil soup

 

Hearts-of-palm Red Lentil Soup

1 1/2 cups red lentils, washed

5 cups vegetable stock

1 can hearts-of-palm

1 can tomato puree

olive oil

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 large vidalia onion

2 serrano peppers (deseeded, if you want less spice)

2 square inches of fresh ginger root

1/2 tsp. tumeric

2 tbsp. crushed anise

1 tbsp. cumin seed

1 1/2 tbsp. garam masala

1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

salt, pepper, to taste

Chop up onion and ginger in a food processor.

In a large soup pan, heat oil and fry cumin seeds and anise until it begins to brown. Add garlic and onion/ginger mixture, and serranos, and fry for a couple minutes. Now, add remaining spices, and more oil, if necessary. Add roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of the hearts of palm, and cook.

After three minutes, add tomoto puree and wait until it begins to bubble. Now, add lentils and vegetable stock. Cover and bring to a boil. Then, turn heat down and keep a simmer going. Cook until much of the water is evaporated and lentils are very soft, about 20 minutes. Stir it occasionally.

Now, take most of the mixture and process in food processor; make smooth. Put it back into the pan, with the remaining lentil mixture, and stir. Add remaining hearts of palm, fresh cilantro, and heat for a few minutes.

Serve, garnishing with more cilantro, if you want.