Stir Fried Veggies over Farfalle

A dish I made in Dec 2008 and shared in Orkut. At last, I got the time to port it to my blog. Back then, I had not refined my Italian cuisine. So this turned out to be an Indo-Italian-Chinese fusion food. Having said that, it wasn't bad.

Ingredients:

1. Farfalle (any kind of pasta, noodles or even rice would do as alternative)
2. Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower florets, carrots, onions, mushrooms, capsicum, beans, corn, peas, whatever in the freezer. Spare the okra and radishes though.)
3. Margarine or oil or butter
4. Soy sauce
5. Tomato ketchup
6. Cumin seeds (Jeera)
7. Red chilly flakes
8. Turmeric powder
9. Salt

Method

1. Boil and cook the pasta / noodles / rice (the starch / base) and keep it ready.
2. On a large frying pan, heat oil / butter and season with cumin and red chillies. 
3. Add the vegetables and stir fry them till slightly roasted. 
4. Add turmeric powder and salt. 
5. Then add the ketchup and soy sauce to the vegetables. Keep stirring them under low heat. 
6. You may add the water from cooked pasta to get a little sauce like consistency.
7. Cover the vegetables and cook for 5 minutes. 
8. Transfer the pasta / noodles / rice to a serving plate and add the stir fried vegetables over it. 
9. Add finely chopped coriander leaves to garnish.

A Vegan Dhal "Makhani"

Dhal Makhani is a signature Punjabi dish. It is nutritious given that rich in proteins from the lentils. This is my vegan version of the same.

Ingredients

1. Black gram (ulundu) -  1/2 cup
2. Red kidney beans (rajma) - 1/4 cup, preferably canned 
3. Jeera / cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
4. Oil - 1 tablespoon
5. Tomatoe puree - 1 cup (or made from 2 tomatoes)
6. Ginger paste - 1 tablespoon
7. Turmeric - a pinch
8. Corriander powder - 1 teaspoon
9. Chilli powder - 1 tablespoon
10. Garam masala powder - 1 teaspoon
11. Coconut milk - 1/4 cup
12. Chopped coriander
13. Salt to taste

Method

1. Soak the lentils in water for about 4 hours. Or alternatively cook the dhal in a very low flame or heat for about 30 - 40 minutes
2. Heat the oil and season the jeera seeds
3. Add ginger paste and fry
4. Add tomato puree and cook covered for 3 minutes
5. Mix the spices, salt and heat
6. Pour the lentils and beans and cook covered for 5-6 minutes
7. Add coconut milk  and let it simmer for a minute. 
8. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Lazy man's Bisi Bele Bath

Bisi Bele Bath (henceforth referred as BBB) is the quintessential Karnataka breakfast or a quick lunch dish. To the initiated it is a kind of Sambar rice, though this definition will not do justice to the aromatic BBB.

An authentic BBB calls for grinding of spices and some elaborate steps. However this being a lazy man's BBB, there are a lot of approximations. Nevertheless I assure you that this does stand up to an authentic Kannada Bisi Bele Bath.

I

Ingredients (serves 2)

Rice - 1/2 cup
Thuvaram Paruppu / pigeon pea - 1/4 cup
Vegetables - chopped into 1cm long/cube pieces - 1/2 cup

• Beans
• Carrots
• Potatoes 
• Cauliflower
• Green peas

Tamarind - 1 lemon size
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Ulundu / Black gram - 1 teaspoon
Venthayam / Fenugreek - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chillies 3-4
Curry leaves - if available
Corriander leaves to garnish

Masala
Sambar powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon (this is the difference between an authentic and my version)
Elakkai / Cardamom - 2-3 skin removed and crushed or ground

Procedure

1. Soak the lentils in water for about 15 minutes while you prepare the vegetables and other ingredients
2. Parallel, soak the tamarind in another bowl of warm water
3. Heat oil in a vessel and season with mustards, black gram, fenugreek seeds and finally curry leaves and red chillies
4. Stir fry the vegetables for about two minutes
5. Add the soaked lentils and rice. 
6. Bring the ingredients to a rolling boil
7. Add the masalas, turmeric and about a spoon of salt.
8. Add the tamarind water. Make sure that there is about 1 cm of water above the ingredients - not more not less
9. Bring the heat down to simmer or the lowest setting and cover the vessel
10. Let it simmer for some 15 minutes as the water is absorbed
11. Check if all the water is absorbed, if not open the lid and let some water evaporate. The final recipe should be slightly watery - neither be soupy nor firm like pulav.
12. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve after about 5 minutes

Buttersquash / Pumpkin pudding

This is a fairly simple recipe. I had a fairly large butter squash in my fridge which would not get exhausted inspite of my repeated sambars and pachchadis. So, sick of the usual spicy dishes, I tried out making a dessert.

Ingredients

1. Grated or finely chopped butter squash or pumkin - 1 cup
2. Soya milk or Almond milk - 1 cup
3. Sugar - 2 table spoons
4. Roasted cashews and raisins
5. Ground cardamon 1/2 spoon
6. Ground Cinnamon 1/4 spoon

Procedure

Bring the milk to boil.
Add the butter squash and sugar and bring it to medium to low heat.

Cook for 5 minutes or until the butter squash is finely blended with the milk.
Add the cardamon and cinnamon and stir well.
Garnish with roasted cashews and raisins

Chill and serve :-)

Spaghetti Venkatano

This is roughly how I make pasta most of the time. Being a vegan, I can't use cheese and I am not a big fan of olive oil. However I like the variety of colours and flavours vegetables can offer. So here I go..

Ingredients

Spaghetti - 15-20 long sticks

Oil - 1 tablespoon

A variety of vegetables - 1 cup

(in the above pictured one I used chopped capsicum, zucchini, beans, corn, carrots, broccoli)

Cumin powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Oregano - 1 teaspoon

Chopped tomatoes / tomato sauce - half cup

Salt - to taste

Procedure

1. Boil water in a wide bottomed pan, add pasta and half teaspoon salt and cook till it is al dente.
(It will be a sin if I don't use that jargon in a pasta recipe :-) Basically it means the pasta is cooked but still firm with a small raw core)

2. On another pan, add oil and heat it.

3. Fry the veggies with the seasonings in the oil.

4. Retain some water from the pasta and drain the rest.

5. Add a little water to the vegetables and cook covered for 2 minutes.

6. Add the tomatoes / tomato sauce and simmer for sometime

7. Serve the sauce over the spaghetti and serve.

Vegan Patties

I usually stock all the ingredients needed for a veggie sandwich and it is an usual breakfast menu when I am in North America. But a good burger eluded me since I did not know how to make a veggie patty.

I recollected the ingredients of an instant patty mix, I used a year and half back and tried to recollect it.

The result is what you see in the picture. Luckily, the result came out very well.

Ingredients
(makes 4 patties)

Potatoes (finely minced / grated) - 1
Broccoli - (finely minced) - 4-5 florets
Carrot - (grated) - 1
Green peas - 1/4 cup

Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Maida / wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Margarine / butter / oil for roasting.

Procedure

Heat a tablespoon margarine / butter / oil in a wide skillet. Fry the green peas for a minute, add the vegetables and roast them on a heat for 2 minutes. Sprinkle a little water and keep the skillet covered till the vegetables become tender.

Transfer the above mix to a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and chilli powder. Add little water and make into a thick dough.

Make 4 equally sized balls and pat into about 4-5 cm diameter and 1/2 cm thick patties.

Roast them over oil / margarine on a medium flame. Turn over both sides till you get a dark brown crust.

Assemble it in a burger and relish. :-)