Salt and Pepper

CSA Spring- Box 1

giniann — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:03:30 +0000

I have been waiting for my CSA subscription to land at my doorstep. It did and not just one bag but two. We gave the other to our neighbor.

Lots of greens to be used up.

Welcoming Spring: Watercress with roasted mushrooms and peas

giniann — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:39:17 +0000

This blog has been dormant for a long time. I tried to renew it last spring but couple of posts later things stalled. This is another attempt at revival.

This recipe is from Lucid Food by Louisa Shafia. It is full of inspiring recipes and this is the second recipe I tried from the book. The salad was delicious and I am in love with the miso- mirin dressing.

Ingredients:

Shelled green peas or use frozen sweet peas 2 cups

Soy sauce 1 tablespoon

Mirin 1 tbsp ( substitution: 1 tbsp honey with a drop of white wine)

Sweet white miso 2 tbsp

1/4 cup olive oil

7 ounces enoki mushrooms, roots trimmed ( I used maitake mushrooms)

3 tbsp rice vinegar

1 bunch watercress coarsely chopped

2 scallions , green and white parts julienned into 1 inch length.

How to :

Preheat oven to 425.

Quickly blanch the peas in salted water and set aside.

Whisk together soy sauce, mirin, miso and olive oil.

On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, spread the mushrooms. Put the peas on top and drizzle 3 tablespoons of marinade on top of it. Roast for 6min (if using enoki) or 10mins (for maitake mushrooms) till the mushrooms are done. Remove and cool.

To the remaining marinade add the vinegar . Whisk well to make a salad dressing.

Toss in scallions and watercress to the salad dressing. Fold in mushrooms and peas. Season with pepper. Serve immediately.

Bring some of the spring color inside.

Sexy little things

giniann — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:59:44 +0000

On a recent trip to Kerala, certain dishes from the kitchen tasted a lot better. On enquiry, these little beauties emerged as the taste boosters. They are hot and the heat they offer is unlike any other. It is something that makes a malayalee homesick. This is kaantari mulaku.

How to make kaanthari mulaku sammanthi- Learn from Inji

A very moving talk

giniann — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:31:53 +0000

First saw it here.

Purple for Flower Fest

giniann — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:08:05 +0000

Flower fest is back and this time the theme is purplicious. These are some orchid flowers from my mother’s garden. Over the last decade or so, orchids have grown to be quite popular among Kerala gardeners. This particular kind has palm like leaves and the flowers are at the end of long stalks. There are white and purple colours in her garden.

Scientific name: Spathoglottis Plicata

Sending this over for Flower Fest.

Need some blog protein

giniann — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:54:55 +0000

Blog fatigue has been prevalent. I can’t even remember the last time I regularly posted. I find that I hardly have the motivation to sit and type anything that I want to publish here. Taking photos of meals seems too much of a hassle. Yet I don’t want to give up on this space. As usual, I brought home with me a few vegetarian cookbooks from the library looking for inspiration. Hope it helps

As a household we want to include more veggies and fruits in our diet. We also try to get most of our weekly veggies and fruits from the local farmer’s market. Our local market is really small with few vendors but they have a decent selection.

Some pics from the market

Our local farmer's market

This week's purchase

Click- Bicolour

giniann — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:15:15 +0000

Bi colour is the theme for the click event at Jugalbandi for this month. Thanks Jai and Bee for the oppurtunity to be one of the judges for this month.

Finding a bicolour entry has been a challenge. After a long time, I have started to cook regularly but bicolour foods weren’t easy to come by or didn’t photograph well. I made palappams, a cherry clafouti, paneer curry but nothing photographed well.

I finally settled on this paneer. This is some home made paneer with black pepper added to it.

Whole milk paneer with crushed black pepper- White & Black entry for CLICK bicolour.

Some garden pics

giniann — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:05:12 +0000

The last two years seemed really long- first there was graduate school, then there was pregnancy and then came the baby. The full time job was present throughout. Not all pure delight! But I have now graduated and I am thinking of making cupcakes and roasting a chicken and making some kaalan.

Our garden has totally overgrown. Perennials have overtaken the whole garden. Weeds are flourishing. We are slowly reclaiming it. It’s not like we can go out an garden with abandon. The baby needs to be placed somewhere. We put him in the patio with his toys but can’t be left alone. Don’t get me wrong..it’s not like we were great gardeners before the baby, but we could garden at will. Even without any care, there are spectacular flowers on show. Imagine if they were cared for!!

My first attempt at a cupcake from here. Thanks Archana for the help.

If you have organic rose in your garden, make some gulkhand.

Pick of the evening: Salad Greens

giniann — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:00:06 +0000

Our first pick of the season from our little veggie patch.

Two types of lettuces, arugula and pea shoots.

Tossed it with some lemon vinaigrette. Arugula was my favorite.

Sending this over to the Grow Your Own (GYO) event at the Daily Tiffin.

Baby food: Ragi/Millet

giniann — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:05:47 +0000

These are soaked in water, drained and ready to be powdered.

It is recommended as a great food for infants. It is supposed high in calcium for the growing bones.

We brought back lots of ragi flour from India which finds its way into baby food and also puttu (like this). I know there are other ways to use this flour, but haven’t ventured to try any.

To make porridge for the baby, just mix the flour with water till runny. Cook over medium heat till it is cooked and thick. We don’t add any sugar. I save extras in single serve containers in the refrigerator.