Black Bean 'n Corn Salad

I'm always amazed when something very tasty is also equally healthy. It's like a dream come true for me. And this, my friends, is one of those things.

Black beans are one of the healthiest things you can eat. I was trying to find a good recipe with black beans that is easy enough and tasty enough that I can include it in my weeknight meal rotation. I stumbled upon this and fell in love immediately. Apart from being tasty and healthy it looks like a carnival in a bowl!

Purple onion is perfect for this salad as it adds to the color, although any onion will do. I use purple onion only when it is to be eaten raw. Cooking it makes it a weird grey-green color.

Here's my version of the recipe... only slightly modified.
Recipe based on this one.

Serves 4 as a side. Though S and I devour the whole thing as a main.

You will need -

1 14-ounce can of black beans
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped (optional)

For the dressing -
juice of 1 lime or lemon
1 tbsp hot sauce such as tabasco
1/2 tsp or less of the following - red chilly powder, salt and pepper

Method -

1. Drain the can of black beans. I like the sludge at the bottom of the can. It keeps the salad moist.
2. Be sure to modify the spice level to your taste. Mix everything in a large bowl.

That's it. That's the recipe. I recently made this by doubling all the quantities and took it to a potluck. At first people were wary of it because it looked too healthy, but once they tried it they totally loved it.

Hummus, Chicken and Paneer Skewers & Shahi Tukra

I made a middle-eastern lunch today for some friends. This is what the menu looked like:

Pita bread and homemade hummus for the appetizer, accompanied by a shiraz.

Chicken hariyali kabab and vegetarian kabab skewers, cucumber raita and saffron rice.

And my favorite shahi tukra for dessert. Love it!

Some changes I made to the recipes...

Hummus:

Followed Ina Garten's recipe linked above for the most part.

Out of sheer laziness, I did not roast the sesame seeds for the tahini. Nor did I make the tahini beforehand. I just added everything together in the blender and the result was great. Though the amount of lemon juice in the recipe would make it too sour IMHO so I reduced it. I substituted the hot sauce with red chilly flakes and garnished with red chilly flakes and a splash of olive oil.

I'd make hummus at home again. It is easy to make and cheaper than store-bought hummus.

Kababs:

I always found making chicken kababs for a party daunting, mainly because the chicken can get really dry in the oven in the process of reheating to serve them warm or trying to char them a bit for that great flavor. But a friend recently enlightened me on the magic of brining chicken. And boy, have I become a fan!
I thought kababs are a great candidate for brining to work its magic. So I tried that today and the result was fabulous. Brining gives you a lot more margin for error, so that 5 more minutes in the oven to reheat the kababs won't dry them out. They stay nice 'n juicy. One drawback is that they released a LOT of water which I had to throw out twice.

To brine the chicken, add 1/4 cup salt and  a tbsp of sugar to 5 cups of water and stir until it is dissolved completely. Then place the whole chicken breasts in the water so that they are fully submerged and refrigerate them for an hour. If needed, increase the amount of water and salt while maintaining their ratio until the chicken is submerged.
After that I followed the ecurry recipe linked above. The recipe is great. Such a nice change from the usual tandoori kabab.

The ideal time for cooking these kababs in the oven would be:

400 deg F for 15 mins, flip them over halfway. Then broil for 7-8 mins at 500 deg F.

Shahi Tukra:

Do not try to make this healthy by using whole wheat bread. It tastes much better with white bread.

Anyway, I didn't have ghee so I just spread butter on both sides of the slices and roasted them in a pan. Then mixed sweetened condensed milk with 2% milk, heated it until it reduced a bit, added saffron and cardamom and poured on top of the browned slices of bread. Turned out to be pretty good. Next time I'll try using unsweetened evaporated milk because I'd like a thicker sauce and want to be able to control the sweetness.

Corn Patties

These corn patties make a great snack or side. They are, in one word, irresistible. Quite similar to the ones that everybody makes a beeline for when they go to Mahabaleshwar. They have a thin cover of semolina over a layer of spiced mashed potatoes, gently enveloping a flavorful filling of corn and coconut.
Along with that there was Indian style alyacha gawati chaha (ginger lemongrass tea).

The recipe -

Makes 12 patties

For the outer shell -
potatoes         3 large or 5 small
cornflour        3 tbsp
bread             3 slices
chilly powder roughly 3/4th tsp
semolina        1/2 cup

For the filling -
corn from 2 cobs
fresh or frozen and thawed coconut roughly 1/3rd cup
onion, finely chopped 1/2 cup
curry leaves, thinly julienned
chilly powder roughly 1/2 tsp

Method -

1. Cook the potatoes (err on the side of overcooking) and mash them really well. There should be no lumps as this will make it hard to shape the potatoes into a cup to hold the filling.
2. Roughly tear the bread slices into a few big pieces and then put them in the blender to make fine breadcrumbs resembling sawdust.
3. Mix the mashed potatoes, breadcrumbs, cornflour, chilly powder and salt to taste.
4. Now for the filling. Saute chopped onion in a pan. Once it is translucent, add the corn, curry leaves, chilly powder and salt to the pan, mix well. And a little bit of sugar, say 1 or 2 tsp. Then add the coconut, saute for a few mins and turn off heat.
5. To assemble the patties, roll the mashed potato mixture into little balls with your hands. They should be slightly bigger than a golf ball.
6. Shape a ball into a cup shape with your hands, add a heaped tablespoon of the filling in the cup and gently close the cover over the filling. This may be frustrating at first. It took a few mangled patties for me to get a hang of it. But believe me, it is a matter of practice.
You can adjust the sizes of the potato ball and the filling to make it easier for you to shape them into patties.
7. Spread the semolina in a plate. Dab the patties in the plate to cover them with semolina on both sides.
8. Shallow fry the patties until browned from both sides.
Serve with ketchup.

Delicious Kale Salad

This salad is so good, I could eat it for dessert. And I love desserts dearly. To add to that, kale is a superfood with loads of vitamin K and anti-cancer and cholesterol-lowering properties.

Here's the recipe.

Serves 4

You will need -

a small bunch kale (roughly 5-7 preferably young leaves)
2 avocados, chopped
1 apple, chopped (substitutes: other sweetish fruits such as pears, grapes)
a small handful broken candied walnuts (substitutes: pecans, almonds)
quarter onion chopped length-wise (optional)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (you can try substituting other vinegars or lemon juice though I haven't tried it)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper
2 tsp sugar

Method -

1. Remove the thick veins of the kale leaves by folding the leaf and cutting the vein off. Then chop up the kale into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle salt over it and crumple the leaves in your hands and release. Repeat this several times. Massaging the kale this way makes it more palatable.
2. Add chopped avocado, chopped apple, walnuts, onion, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, sugar.
3. Add salt and pepper to suit your taste.
4. Toss the salad well. I try to make sure I don't completely turn the avocado into pulp because I like it when I encounter yummy avocado chunks in my salad. For that you may chop the avocados into bigger pieces.

My new love - Greek Yogurt

Have you wondered what all the buzz is about greek yogurt?

I was wondering the same so I tried it a few times and loved its creaminess. But the best part about greek yogurt as I found out eventually is that since it is made by removing water from regular yogurt it is more densely packed with nutrients - which means lots of protein per serving! AND lots of fat. Which is why it is all the more important that you choose non-fat greek yogurt.

In 226g of this creamy goodness there is 23g of protein (daily requirement for women is 40-50g) which is twice that of regular yogurt. There, you have a healthy and great tasting vegetarian protein source.

Now I almost always buy greek yogurt instead of regular.

It is very versatile and can be used in dips and instead of sour cream as a topping. Even as a creamy dessert. Stay tuned for more recipes with greek yogurt!

Warm Swiss Chard with Mushrooms

This Saturday morning we went out for brunch and were pleasantly surprised to see that it’s farmers market season already! It is just January, and while the majority of the country is covered in snow, I am so glad to be living in "feels like spring all year round" Bay Area. I have to admit, it wasn't particularly warm, but it surely was sunny and pleasantly cold - good enough to shop at a farmers market!

Anyway, in my excitement of shopping fresh, locally sourced produce, I picked Swiss Rainbow Chard from one of the stalls. In the past I have made some yummy chard salads using yogurt. This time, I decided to try cooking it.

Chard is like any other greens, delicate, has an earthy flavor and generally seems like a veggie that will get along with any other fellow vegetables.  Again, I spent less than 30 min cooking this start to finish, so I’ll categorize this one as a quick fix too. However, this can’t be your main entree. 

 

Ingredients:

- 1 bunch swiss rainbow chard, cleaned chopped

- 8-9 cremini mushrooms, diced

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- half cup onion, minced

- 2 tsp EVOO

- 3 tsp balsamic vinegar

- salt pepper to taste

How To:

Heat 1 tsp EVOO on medium low heat and add garlic. Cook until fragrant. Add swiss chard and cook until wilted. I used some chard stalks too, so i let it cook a little longer until the hard stalks were soft, but you can cook it as you like. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat 1 tsp EVOO on medium heat. Add onion and mushroom, and let cook until onions are translucent. Add balsamic vinegar and cook until it is reduced. (4-5 mins). Pour over the swiss chard. Add salt and pepper. 

Serve warm or cold.

Hearty Veggie Soup

I like soup for dinner on foggy cold week nights – like this week. And hearty vegetable soups can especially be comforting on busy weeknights.  My mom made all sorts of soups when I was growing up and I have grown to love them.

I liked this soup because it took me only 30 minutes to make it from start to finish, the recipe consisted of cooking veggies by steaming them - a healthier way to eat them, and plus it made an awesome leftover.

Here goes the recipe –

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots cut into cubes
• 2 ripe tomatoes cut into cubes
• 1 onion cut into cubes
• 1 medium sized potato, peeled, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp butter
• Salt, pepper, red chili powder, sugar per taste
• 1/4^th cup 1% fat milk (optional)
• Cilantro, minced

Direction:

Pressure cook all veggies till tender. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can also cook all the veggies in a pan by adding water till they’re just covered. Puree cooked veggies. Heat butter in a stockpot and add pureed veggies. Add milk, salt, pepper, red chili powder, sugar per taste. Mix well. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.

A and I like our soup with toasted bread with light ghee spread. I added red chilli powder as a garnish for some extra heat.

I am going to try this recipe with ghee instead of butter. Ghee doesn’t burn as fast as butter as it has a higher smoke point than butter.