Dal makhani or dal makhni is a dish originating from the northern region of the Indian subcontinent. The primary ingredients are whole black lentil, red kidney beans, butter and cream. This dish is a one pot slow cooked dish which will taste better as you let it cook for longer. In India, we cook this for hours and sometimes overnight in a claypot in charcoal flame to get the perfect smoky well stewed Lentils or Dal.
I have substituted butter and cream with low fat milk and coconut oil. So mine is a healthier version of “Dal Makhani”.
The other ingredients used are ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes and special bunch of Indian spices used for this dish which is cooked for hours to attain the perfect smoky soupy consistency and taste.
One of my most favorite dishes in this world is Meditteranean- nothing like crunchy falafels with some home made tahini, creamy hummus and babaganoush!
Tahini sauce is nothing but roasted sesame along with Olive oil, lemon, salt and garlic. Its the most delicious dip ever. Hummus is also easy to make with chickpeas, garlic cloves, lemon, oilve oil, tahini and salt.
Tahini thick sauce ( I stick this in the fridge and dilute 1 spoon of this with 2 tsp of water every time I use)
Babaganoush is slightly tricky to make since it involves smoking the eggplant or aubergine in flame to cook and peel off the outer layers. I personally throw the chunks of eggplant after peeling the outer skin into my Vitamix with salt, olive oil, garlic cloves, freshly squeezed lemon and tahini paste. Finally garnish with parsley and mint.
Firstly, hope everyone is enjoying your holidays and a very Happy 2020 to all!
As you all know all my trips be it small or big is surrounded by nothing but Food, Food and Food 🙂
So we decided to take a short drive with fam to Lancaster, PA just to break from routine. During my drive to PA, I was browsing vegetarian places for food stops as always and to my surprise came across plenty of options. During my stay and later on with numerous conversations with restaurant owners I came to know that a huge population in that area was vegan/ vegetarian.
I decided to pick a few that seemed interesting to me. So here goes :
The first one we tried was on Christmas Day and happened to be the one that was open and was packed.
1) Oka Asian Fusion
Primarily Japanese cuisine, Oka’ s menu was packed with delicious Sushi/ Hand Rolls of various kinds. The interesting part of the menu was a vegetarian section which had a good number of vegetarian choices for sushi rolls.
We decided to try the Avocado Peanut Sushi roll. And trust me guys – I am not a huge fan of sushi at all. This one was delicious and I have to admit that I ordered another plate of it after wiping clean the first plate:))
The menu also offered some fusion dishes like the vegetarian pad thai and spicy basil with tofu that we also tried and was delicious as well.
2) Issei Noodle
A small warm and cozy restaurant which smells delicious as you walk in. Once again, one of popularly recommended places which had plenty vegetarian options since the menu has a vegetarian section.
This place is known for its exceptional Ramen bowls so we ordered
Spicy Tan Tan Ramen :
Although it was not on the vegetarian section of the menu the waitress gave us the option of customizing this dish minus meat and fish sauce and substituting with fried tofu and people when I tell you – how delicious this dish was – I inhaled the dish and it was gone.
So hearty and healthy !
Haru Warm Ramen : was the next dish we ordered which again the waitress offered to substitute the pork and shrimp with tofu and vegetables. This dish was equally delicious.
The kids love curry dishes so they ordered a Red Curry dish with rice which was made mild and was so hearty too.
Last but not the least we ordered dessert which were 3 flavors of house made Mochi – Coconut flavor, Mango and the Red Bean. It melts in your mouth and by far the best Mochi I have had.
3) Roots
This casual urban vegan joint was so refreshing. The owner Rob makes his own Seitan from scratch and food is delicious.
We ordered a butternut squash pizza with caramelized onions , vegan Banh Mi and buffalo cauliflower. I would say each dish tasted so fresh and I understand all the vegetables and mushrooms are sourced locally.
This place has no freezer or uses no microwave so the food is pretty much fresh and made to order.
For dessert we ordered a Vegan orange cake to be honest to which I had very low expectations. How can one be successful baking a cake without eggs, cream and butter ??? But my friends – it simply blew my mind off. The cake was delicious with fresh oranges when you slice through. A place worth visiting and giving a shot for sure.
4) Upohar
This global vegetarian Restaurant I cannot emphasize how much I loved visiting.
Owners Puerto Rican Chef Christina Maldonado and Kolkata descent Srirupa Dasgupta create a global vegetarian menu which features a variety of dishes not limited to:
Christina, when I mentioned Love for extreme spice levels got a small container out which had this sauce – made out of ghost peppers, green chili, habanero and star anise. Mind you we had to get 2 more of those small containers and wiped it clean and ordered a TO GO 🙂 – WARNING – It is extremely spicy!!! I grew up eating high level of spice so thoroughly enjoyed it.
Christina and Srirupa are not only extremely talented Chefs as you can tell the food is homely and super flavorful yet healthy and delicious. They are women who also wanted to give back to the community by training refugees and who bought in their household dishes to the table and giving them a new life.
In Bengali language “Upohar ” means a gift.
Upohar is truly such a gift to the community and I say this since I have eaten at so many traditional Indian fare buffet places – this one was truly exceptional and global bringing Cuisines from all over the world to the table and to top it all – VEGETARIAN !!
Last but not the least – ORDER the FLAN people. By far the best FLAN and yes I am not ashamed to say I had Christina pack a second order of flan to take back home along with my container of ghost pepper concoction ( wink wink)!!!
Thank you Christina for the awesome experience. And I look forward to coming back here more…..HIGHLY RECOMMEND !!
Until next time … lots of love and wishing you all a very happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year and most importantly a healthy 2020 !!
The Newcomers-Encore Club is a social club open to all residents of Short Hills and Millburn, no matter how long they’ve lived in the area. The Club organizes various fun events and activities through out the year for its members.
One of my good friends Neetu Salhotra approached me with an idea for offering a cooking class for the Newcomers group. I agreed and we both exchanged a few ideas and emails to come up with the following menu for the group.
Quinoa with roasted Cauliflower, Cranberries and Walnuts
Curried Brussel Sprouts with Paneer and Bell Pepper
Lentil pudding
I printed recipe cards and handed it to everyone. There was a lovely group of 10 wonderfully enthusiastic people ready to whip up these dishes. I split them into groups of 2 and they were so good at following the recipe and carrying out their tasks like chopping/ cooking/ seasoning/ garnishing-that we finished the class right on time for all of them to taste the dishes that they cooked as a team.
It was interesting that they all had one thing in common to tell me that they learnt a few new ingredients that they used in the class-
Freshly ground garam masala
Fresh coriander seeds
Fresh cardamom seeds for the pudding
“Jaggery” for the pudding- it is a healthier substitute for sugar
Dried Fenugreek leaves for brussel sprout dish
I think it is extremely gratifying to know that people have a nice take away from the class apart from learning to cook couple dishes -in this case- introduction to a set of new ingredients that they werent used to cooking with and now are willing to incorporate in their everyday cooking:)
I am very grateful to all of you and always appreciate the team effort that leads to such wonderful cooking experiences with beautiful people like you.
Recently I went to this restaurant which had some awesome Italian dishes of which their Roasted Fennel Soup blew me away! The soup was delicious and I made up my mind to recreate that dish excepting I did not want to use potatoes. The roasted fennel soup in the restaurant had potatoes which according to their Chef helps make the dish thicker in consistency and creamier.
I tried to recreate the same soup at home minus the potatoes 🙂 I would love to share this extremely delicious yet healthy dish with all of you today.
Ingredients
1 medium Fennel bulb with fronds
1 medium Onion4 garlic cloves
1 tsp lemon pepper powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cayenne
2 tablespoon milk
1/4 cup vegetable broth
salt to taste
Preparation:
1) Take a baking pan and cover it with aluminum foil to avoid messy clean ups:) The first step is to chop the fennel bulb.
How to chop the fennel bulb?
Chop the fronds or the tiny spikey leaves off the fennel bulb. DO NOT THROW away the fronds as it is very flavorful and can be used as a pretty garnish for the soup.
Take off the outer layer or leaf from the fennel bulb and then cut in half. Similar to onions, fennel also have a core at the bottom that has to be removed carefully using a knife. I usually cut a V shape around the core and dice it out.
Now wash the rest of the fennel and chop evenly into small uniform pieces. Transfer the chopped fennel pieces to the baking pan covered with foil.
2) Dice a medium Onion evenly and transfer to the pan with chopped fennel pieces.
3) Chop garlic finely and transfer to the pan with chopped onion and fennel pieces.
4) Drizzle olive oil along with salt, cayenne, lemon pepper and garlic powder and toss to mix well.
5) Stick the baking pan in the oven at 360 F for about 45 minutes.
6) Once done, take it out of the oven, let cool and transfer to a food processor or blender.
7) Blend the pieces of baked and chopped fennel, onion and garlic along with vegetable broth.
8) Transfer the blended mixture to a pot and check seasoning and add 2 tablespoon of milk (to add creaminess to the texture) and wait till it boils.
9) Your roasted fennel soup is ready and you may garnish it with the fennel fronds.
