Arusuvai - Guess The Secret Ingredients!

About a month ago, Pel of Elaichi Et Cetera was about to cook from his secret ingredient he received in Arusuvai Friendship Chain started by Lathamma of The Yum Blog. He asked us to guess which dish he had in mind. I guessed the "ma" part of it. This innocent "ma" won me a pack of wonderful goodies couple of weeks later. Since it was sent overseas, Pel had to reveal what the ingredients were. But, I thought- just because I know it doesn't mean that everyone else should know. So here is what I got, now GUESS:

1. A spice mix for coffee. Any ideas? And it is not chai masala, that´s for tea :-)

2. A wonderfully fragrant spice mix... Salt and pepper of Indian cooking...

3. Tiny little "deadly" smoked chilies. Any guesses on which type these are?

The fourth "secret" ingredient - smoked dried chipotles has been cooked from as the first.

When I received this beautiful parcel full of these spicy goodies, I went to Tompa:

- Baby, look. One of my blogging friends sent me these smoked chilies. Here smell em, they really stink! (I said pressing the bag of chilies right against his nose)
- (Jumping away). Geez! Toss them right away. They re not good. Moldy or something... (wiping his nose off)
- They re dried, I am sure they re fine (defending my treasure)
- You re not afraid about some strange people sending you something poisonous, are you? - Honeeeeey! I am sure they re fine. It s a part of this friendship chain.... - Yeah, some g-guy sending you presents (shaking his head, walking away, jealously)

(Sorry, Pel :-)...

Two hours later, I yell out of the kitchen, Tompaaaaaa, lunch is readyeeeee... He obediently walks in with a big smile on his face: "Wow, what s smelling so good, mama?"

(Thanks, Pel :-)...

Verdict: We ate it, we loved it and (most importantly) we survived ;-) Long Live Arusuvai!

SMOKED CHIPOTLE ADOBO SAUCE:

• 10 whole smoked Chipotle chilies
• 5 tbsp white vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
  
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp oregano
  
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together with 3 cups water in a pan, bring to boil, cover with a lid, lower the heat on minimum and let simmer for 2 hours or until reduced to 1 cup.
Set off the fire, transfer to a blender and process to a paste.

Serve with any cous-cous or rice dish or toss a generous spoonful of the sauce with stir-fried vegetables as in our lunch today:

I stir-fried some onions, garlic, added a handful of frozen peas, corn and broccoli, mixed together with black beans and some soy mince and finally added a huge tablespoon of adobo sauce. Mixed all well, garnished with chopped basil and ate on a bed of fresh green salad.

HAVE FUN GUESSING THE SECRET INGREDIENTS 1, 2 AND 3! I will come back with correct answers soon.

TRIED AND TASTED – An Event To Show How Tasty You Are!

Bookmarks and RSS readers are great. They keep your favourite recipes neatly organised. Yet regardless of which tag they bare, Sweet, Indian, Bread, Curry, Vegetarian,… you name it, I am quite positive that similarly to mine, they all fall into one general category: To-be-tried-SOON!

And I am pretty sure that this crosses your mind each time you hit the update button. Soon, however, never comes and when it does, it is fairly difficult to decide which one we should try.
Yesterday, I caught myself bookmarking more new wanna-tries again (sigh). I accidentally happened to browse all the “Starred items” I already piled up and the list was just unbelievably long. I cannot help it, I am curious to try em all!....

So here is when I thought to myself: All righty, this is not going anywhere. I need to start re-creating all these “ooh-aah” mouth drooling yummies. Slowly and systematically! And that was when I created a new folder “Tried and Tasted”… Cute folder, yet empty.

And so here it starts - Tried and Tasted (T&T) – a monthly event of appreciation of other blogs - an opportunity to thank your fellow bloggers for sharing their recipes by re-creating them. Peek into their kitchen to see what’s cooking and go for it! Take it, make it and say it!

Having your recipes lead somebody else’s kitchen is a divine feeling. Trust me, I know what I am writing about. Couple of weeks after posting my Raisin Stuffed Chili Pepper Pickle, I was extremely excited to read Joey of 80 Breakfasts writing about how she made them…

The aim of T&T is similar – to explore other foodies tastes, appreciate them and confirm that their recipes are worth it!

Each month, one of YOU will be Tried and Tasted and after the final verdict given this lovely stamp to prove that your recipes ARE worth it!

The rules are simple:

1. Cook any recipe(s) from the blog of the month and post about it. Stay as true to the original recipe(s) as possible. Therefore, there is no need for re-posting it, simply link to the original post :-)
   
1. There is no time-frame for the original recipe. It can be as old as my grand-mother or as fresh as a mung bean sprout.
2. Link your post to HERE (feel free to use the logo) and to the original post. Please always link to both sites, so both blogs are given credit and you are avoiding copyright fuss.
   
3. Send me an e-mail with your name, your post URL as well as the original URL and a picture (any size).
4. Deadline is the last day of the month and the round up will be posted within a week.
   

Non-bloggers are more than welcome to participate (after all, our posts are mainly being written for them). Simply e-mail me with your experience of what you cooked and please include a picture.

TELL US HOW WE COOK!

Do any of you bloggers out there want to be cooked from? If so, e-mail me or submit your comments here. The question you need to answer for yourself first is: “Do you dare being tasted?”

We already have May, June, July taken....

Don´t forget to check back May 1^st to see who’s in the spotlight.

Kimchi - Korean Pickled Cabbage

I have been trying to make my own kimchi for years now. Every recipe I googled or saw in cookbooks just went wrong. Four times over the last year I tried again, leaving the kitchen with a nasty rotten bubbly cabbage smell.
This time, I set my mind on pushing this experiment to perfection. I went to our library and looked for the oldest possible traditional Korean cookbook - found one called Growing Up In A Korean Kitchen (by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstal) - a collection of memories and recipes passed on from one generation to another. Immediately I fell in love with it, but what more, I knew with this cookbook; I ll make my kimchi the way I always wished for. I mean this girl makes her own gochujang paste and soy sauce!

So what is kimchi, anyway? High in protein, vitamins A and B and low in calories with fibrous texture and lactic acid content.

Korean kitchens create more than one hundred kinds of kimchi, using everything from cabbage to watrermelon skins and even pumpkin blossoms in summer. Each family´s kimchi has its own unique flavor, but the basic process is to salt the vegetable, firming it up by extracting its liquid, locking in the original flavor. A mixture of spices is then introduced and the vegetable is fermented, creating its distinctive character. .... (p. 95)

And just as I believed, her recipe was an ultimate success. Finally, here it is, just the way I like it:

TRADITIONAL KOREAN PICKLED CABBAGE:
(Tong Baechu Kimchi - 백추 김치)

• 1 kg Chinese cabbage, cleaned*
• 1/2 cup coarse sea salt + 1 tbsp more
  
• 1 tbsp sweet rice flour (I used plain wheat flour)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 cup hot red pepper powder
• 200g white radish (daikon)
• 1 hot red fresh pepper
• 1 spring onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 walnut halves
• 1/2 tbsp squeezed ginger juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

* Note: To clean the cabbage, wash it once and drain. remove tough outer leaves and reserve for later use. Cut out the hard cabbage end leaving just enough to hold the cabbage together.

Cut the cabbage lengthwise into halves or quarters. Wash once more, but do not drain. Place the cabbage cut sides up onto layered outer leaves and other leaves that have separated. Sprinkle 1/2 cup salt in between the leaves and on top. Dissolve the tablespoon of salt in half cup lukewarm water and pour over the cabbage. Let sit for three hours, shifting the cabbage around every hour.
Rice several times in a colander and drain well.

Meantime, cut the radish into matchsticks, de seed the chilli and slice finely, cut the spring onion (green part into 5cm pieces, white part into thin diagonal slices). , crush the garlic and chop finely, and chop the walnuts.

To make the stuffing, in a small saucepan, dissolve the flour in 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil, lower the heat and boil for 2 minutes or until thickened. Let cool. In a large pan, combine the flour paste with fish sauce and red pepper powder. Mix well and add the rest of ingredients.

Wearing rubber gloves, start rubbing the paste generously onto each cabbage leaf and in between the whole cabbage piece. Start from the outer leaves and work inwards.
Once done, summon the whole cabbage halves (or quarters) and press in a roll to hold together. Take a few single leaves and wrap then around the whole cabbage piece.
Place the cabbage rolls next to each other in an air-tight container and fill the space in between with the loose leaves. Add a little water into the bowl where the stuffing was to mix with the remaining bits and pour this spicy water over the cabbage. Press the cabbage down to remove all the trapped air bubbles.
All the cabbage leaves must be immersed in liquid, so add more water, if needed. Be sure to leave about 2 inches space at the top of the jar.

Close the container tightly (you can use any type of container, but it has to have a tight, non-metallic lid). Double wrap the container in plastic bags and secure the lid with a rubber band. Leave at room temperature for 20 hours. Unwrap and open the container, laddle some juice out and adjust the salt or sugar. Cover up, double wrap and let sit in room temperature for another 2 - 3 days. Transfer to the fridge for another day or so to stop the fermentation process and to develop its characteristic spicy carbonated tang.

When ready to be eaten, cut the cabbage into 2 inch slices and serve. This kimchi will stay fresh for a month, but will become gradually more sour, but still, extremely HOT! Just like Tompa...

We had ours with plain brown rice, some fresh green leaves and Korean Seasoned Eggplant.

Semolina Dosai

After my success with Green Gram Dosai, my confidence and enthusiasm grew bigger and stronger. So strong, that not only have re-created the recipe several times, but I threw myself into the world of dosai experimentations. On my dosai exploration quest, I am still, however, faithful to my sweet little Dakshin cookbook - gosh! I am never tired of this one:



It features around 15 completely different dosai recipes (and other snacks). Most of dosai recipes need to stay fermented overnight, which is why I never made them. I always forget to make the batter.
This one though is not the same. Two hours of quick set-aside will do it. Here it is, soft and chewy:

SEMOLINA DOSAI:
(Rava Dosai)

Makes: 15 dosais
prep time: 2 hours and 40 minutes

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup semolina
• 1 cup rice flour
• salt
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 3 green chilies
• 1 cup (soy) yoghurt
• a few curry leaves
• fresh coriander leaves
• oil for frying

Mix the flour, semolina and rice flour. Add the salt and cumin, chopped chillies, yoghurt and the chopped coriander leaves. Add enough water to form a stiff dough. Let sit for at least two hours. Add enough water to make thin batter.
Heat the tawa griddle or cast iron wok. When smoking hot, start pouring the batter, from outside inwards, in circular motions to create pancake. Even its surface with the back of the ladle to remove lumps. Pour a teaspoon of oil around the edges. Cook from both sides until soft and crispy.

This is for you Srivalli and your beautiful event Celebrate Dosai. I am looking forward to the round-up and more inspiration.

Panch Phoron

Panch Phoron (Bengali 5-spice) is a very simple spice mix of an equal amount of dry whole spices and has nothing to do with the traditional Chinese Five-Spice. These ingredients are neither roasted, nor ground. Panch Phoron has gained its popularity by its diverse color (from yellow, through green to black) and shapes (from small round balls to irregular squares).

Generally, (similarly to tadka, baghar or popu) there are two ways to use Panch Phoron, :

1. Roast in hot oil, until a strong aroma of each spice is released, and use the fragrant oil as a base to cook dal, meats or vegetables.
2. Roast in butter or ghee and add as seasoning to different dals or thick curries.

To make your own batch, simply mix together:

BENGALI FIVE SPICE:
(Panch Phoron)

prep time: 5 minutes

• 1 quantity whole cumin seeds
• 1 quantity whole fennel seeds
• 1 quantity whole yellow mustard seeds
• 1 quantity whole fenugreek seeds
• 1 quantity whole nigella (kalonji) seeds

Mix all the seeds together, enjoy the lovely color and store in air-tight container away from direct sunlight.

Now, there are tons of recipes that feature Panch Phoron. I have made several of them, yet the one that really caught my attention (and Tompa´s appetite) was the one of Susan from Fat Free Vegan. She made Cauliflower Dal Panch Phoran, which was utterly amazing. I didn't have cauliflower on hand. so used a mixture of root veggies. Here is her recipe, which I have adjusted only slightly to this, just for my reference:

VEGGIE DAL WITH PANCH PHORON:

• 1 1/2 cups red lentils
• 1 tsp turmeric
• salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp panch phoran
• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped root vegetables (potatoes, parsnip, root beet...)
  

Pick over and rinse the lentils and add them to a pot with 4 cups water and turmeric. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the dal is tender, about 20 to 35 minutes. When done, add salt and set aside.

While the dal is cooking, prepare the vegetables. Heat a large, deep skillet, preferably non-stick. When hot, add the oil and shake it to spread it around. Add the panch phoran and stir. When the first seed pops, immediately add the diced onion, minced garlic, pepper flakes, and ginger. Stir and cook until the onion softens, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, chopped veggies and 1/2 cup water, and stir. Cover and cook until the veggies are just tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the dal to the veggie mixture. Stir well, and check seasoning, adding more salt if needed. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Right before serving, heat some oil in a pan and add dried chillies, sliced garlic, cumin seeds, a pinch of asafoetida and a few curry leaves to make the tadka seasoning.

Pour over the dal and enjoy with plain rice or (like me - below) with pohe.

This is my contribution to RCI: Bengal hosted by Sandeepa of Bong Mom´s Cookbook. This is the only Bengali recipe I know, so I am very excited to see the round-up.

Monday Christmas Cookie (15) - Egg Nog

Even though the weather here is still kind of Christmasy (except that is only cold and not snowy), it is the time to end the Monday Christmas Cookie series. For all these three months, I have been really enjoying writing about traditional Slovakian Christmas, yet I have to admit, I grew a bit bored of all that sugar that heaped on our table during that time. I am quite excited to have this over, so I can fully focus on what I truly adore...... Spicy Food !

Meantime, do enjoy my easy home-made:

CHRISTMAS EGG-NOG:
(vaječný likér)

• 6 egg yolks
• 1 can sweet condensed milk
• 200g powdered sugar
• 500 ml rum
  

Whip up the yolks together with the sugar, add the condensed milk and mix well. Add the rum and pour into sterilised bottles.

Cheers!

Smooth(ie) Seduction

Learning to fall in love with smoothies as deserts have been fairly easy for several reasons: one, they are sweet, refreshing and energy pumping, two they are easy to make and take no time at all, three they can be so diverse that you just never get tired of them.

After New Year, me and Tompa decided to go back on track and loose some extra Christmas kilos. It was him who introduced me to smoothies. It was me, though who ended up pressing the blender button and coordinating the ingredients. "Let´s try this. Throw in some of that! Here, let me just do it" I took over :-)
Now making Sunday Smoothies is entirely my thing. I call it "Blending Stuff".

There is no general recipe on how to make a smoothie. Basically, anything that blends can be blended. Generally, for the sweet ones, consider: fruit (fresh or dried), nuts, seeds, milk, yoghurt, ice cream, oats, chocolate chips, sugar, honey, cream, coffee, herbs (honey mint, mint), spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise...), cooked rice or other grains, marmalade or peanut butter.

As for the savory ones, try: Vegetables, herbs and spices, yoghurt, milk, seeds, nuts, seaweed, yeast pate (really!), cooked rice, other grains or peanut butter.

Here are two of our favorite:

BANANA SHAKE:

• banana
• almonds
• soy milk
  

Peel the banana, break in three, place together with almonds and soy milk and press the button!

STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE:

• banana
• frozen strawberries
• honey
• soy milk
• lemon juice

Peel the banana, break in three, place together with the rest and press the button!

Aaahhh, this is so much fun! The Strawberry one is on its way to seduce Mike for hosting Strawberry Seduction event.

Now that I think about it, crab, I should have these more often instead of all the chocolate and cookies I stuff into my greedy .... pockets. My weight is slowly increasing........ again :-S