Ginger Almond Pâté

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I was inspired by Ani Phyo's Ginger Almond Pate, and came up with this recipe with just a little tweak:

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight (change water after 6 hours)
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tablespoon grated ginger
3 inch piece carrot, grated
1 lemon, juice
3 inch piece green onion, chopped
1/4 cup water
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste

Method:

Run all ingredients together through a food processor, and it's ready. :)

The best way I can describe the flavor of the pate is that it tastes like a ginger lemon spread, perhaps like a cream cheese. You would never guess it's made of almonds. The flavor is such a tasty complement as a dip for vegetables or spread over crackers.

Coconut Green Beans

Way back in the day, my friend, Rany, made an Indian dinner for a few friends...Perhaps it was my first Indian dinner, now that I think of it. I distinctively remember the coconut green beans...What struck me is that they were s w e e t , subtly hot & crunchy. The combination of flavors and textures was surprising.

Coconut green beans have become one of my favorite little side dishes over the years!

Ingredients:

6 oz. raw / freshly cut / green beans
2 tablespoons shredded sweetened coconut
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/3 long green chili, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon oil

Method:

Heat the oil on med-low heat in a skillet. Add the mustard seeds, and swirl them around in the pan.

Once the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the green chillies & green beans.

Stir fry on med heat for a few minutes. I added about 1/4 teaspoon of water, and covered the pan for one of those minutes.

Stir in the coconut & serve!

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By the way, if you're curious how wonderful and good for you green beans are, they're an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese.

Lemon Rice

Today I made lemon rice after coming across a recipe for it on India Express. I ended up learning a bit about one of the ingredients. The recipe called for fenugreek seeds. I didn't think I had them, but the funny thing is not only did I have them, they were what I thought was dal that I had in a jar in the cupboard which would have gone into the rice in nearly the same portion since the recipe called for two kinds of dal and fenugreek seeds! The recipe called for chana dal and black gram dal. I was just going to use whichever two dals I had and skip the fenugreek seeds. At the last minute I decided to bring up a google image of fenugreek, just out of curiosity. To my surprise, it was exactly what I had in a jar already! I don't remember buying them, but somehow they were in my cupboard. So, finally, I used fenugreek seeds and split black gram (urad dal), but not the chana dal since I did not have that one. Now in all seriousness, I would have realized upon closer inspection when I opened the jar that those little thingies were certainly not dal! :) Fenugreek seeds, I see, tend to have a strange asymmetrical jagged shape...

Fenugreek has been used in alternative medicine as a way to manage diabetes.
According to wiki, but backed up by actual scientific research, "Several human intervention trials demonstrated that the antidiabetic effects of fenugreek seeds ameliorate most metabolic symptoms associated with type-1 and type-2 diabetes in both humans and relevant animal models by reducing serum glucose and improving glucose tolerance."
That's pretty fascinating!

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Back to the lemon rice...

Ingredients:

1 cup rice
salt to taste
1 tablespoon oil
2 dried red chillies, each halved
1 teaspoon split black gram
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 cup peanuts
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
10 curry leaves
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:

Prepare rice as usual and set aside.

Heat oil in a skillet, and add the chillies, dal & fenugreek seeds.

Cook until the dal is slightly browned.

Add peanuts and mustard seeds, and stir.

Add curry leaves once the mustard seeds begin to crackle.

Stir in turmeric powder.


Then, stir in rice and lemon juice.

It's ready to serve!

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The picture of the overall dish includes coconut green beans, dal fry, and raita. The dal fry was RTE; I cheated! The green beans are a side dish that a friend of mine back in college used to make. I'll post that recipe, too, very soon. The whole dish turned out pretty good. I'll be making the lemon rice often now that I know how to make it. Next I'd like to learn to make tamarind rice. Now, vegetable biryani is the Godfather of rices (well besides my Iranian counterpart favorite, "zereshk polow"). It's nice to mix it up!

Do you have a favorite rice or do you stick with plain rice?

Coconut Concoction

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Ingredients:

1 banana
1 navel orange
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 cup coconut water

(makes 2 servings)

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Eat Your Veggies!

My personal diet guidelines include eating 4 cups of veggies per day...R A W. Vegetable rolls are one of my favorite ways of eating my 'salads' because, well, you'd be surprised how much of raw veggies you can tuck & roll into a nori sheet! There's something about the bulk of the roll and the layered crunch that seems to make this more filling than a regular salad on a plate. If you like the flavor of nori, ditch your forks with me, and roll up some veggies. It's really very simple. :) Oh, and for extra nutritional goodness, I add chia seeds and sunflower seeds.

Cardamom Banana Bread with Pistachios

I came across this recipe for Cardamom Banana Bread with Pistachios in Cooking Light. It makes for a unique banana bread around the holidays, and any other time of year, too. :)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (double the amount suggested in CL)
1/3 cup finely chopped pistachios

Method:

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in one bowl.

Separately beat sugars and softened butter until well blended.
Continue to beat in the eggs. Add in the banana, sour cream, and cardamom.

Now, add the flour mixture, and beat all until moist.

Stir in pistachios.

Pour batter into a greased 9x5 loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Let cool slightly, and serve with a cup of t e a !

Capsicum Masala Rice

Capsicum Masala Rice is a little bit of heaven in the form of fluffy rice dazzled with peppers, peanuts and more... Mmmm! I saw a how-to video by Sanjay of VahRehVah, and set out to make this spicy dish today... It was lots of f u n !

Ingredients:

5 dried red chili peppers
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon dal
(I didn't catch which kind of dal he used,
but I happened to have one that looked similarly white in color.)
1/3 cup raw peanuts
6 curry leaves

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1 1/2 bell pepper (I used red and green), chopped
1 tbsp butter

1 cup rice, cooked

Method:

Dry roast red chili peppers, seeds, dal and peanuts...
Swirl the ingreds around in a med-hot *dry* skillet for 1 or so minutes as they darken up.
Add curry leaves, and swirl around another 30 seconds.

Pour contents into a food processor.
Grind until it's just coarse.
(I like it a little more crunchy.)
Add the garam masala powder,
and pulse one more time.




Saute the bell pepper and butter for a few minutes on med-heat.
Add a pinch of salt.


Pour the masala mix into the skillet with the bell peppers,
and stir.
Turn off heat.



Stir in rice.

Garnish with cilantro if you prefer.

It's ready to serve!



I hope you enjoy !