One of most comforting soups I have ever come across is a coconut based broth with aromatics of Galangal, Lemon Grass and Thai basil- Yes you guessed it right – a thai curry.
I love the green and red curry during the monsoon months or while gazing through the window looking at each snow fall off the ground and stick.
I have the long version of recipe which involves making the curry paste from scratch but in this day of fast life -I found an excellent product which cuts down the prep time to less than 20 minutes and I am going to share the secret with you all.
Green Chili- 2 depending on spice level you may even skip
Preparation:
Place a pan over medium heat. Add 2 tsp of coconut oil. Transfer chopped garlic, green chilis and onions and saute for 5 min’s. Then add your chopped mixed assorted veggies and saute for about 10 minutes covered with 1/4 cup water. I throw in whatever I may find in my refrigerator so you can play with this dish a lot. Meat lovers can throw in chicken pieces too.
I sometimes like to add some tofu for protein. Now add my magic product Maesri red curry paste to the dish and mix well. Once all the veggies are coated with the paste, lower the flame and add in the can of coconut milk slowly and let it cook till it comes to a slow boil.
Garnish with Cilantro or thai basil. You may serve with brown or white rice or drink it up as a soup! Voila!
As Covid -19 strikes us, we all have to find ways to cope with stress and anxiety. I personally choose to keep myself informed but at the same time choose to channel my energy to cooking some delicious dishes for my family.
Last night we all were craving for some Indian Street Food otherwise famously known as “Pav bhaji” or Vegetarian Sloppy Joes . The best thing about this dish is that you can throw in so many veggies in it yet this dish turns out to be delicious and well loved by my kids which is a rarity.
Here goes the recipe:
Ingredients
Ginger- 1/2 an inch
Garlic- 6 cloves
Onion- 1 large
Tomatoes- 2 medium
Cayenne or Chilli powder- 2-3 tsp
Lemon- 1/2
Curry powder- 2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter- 1/4 stick
Coconut oil
1/2 head of cauliflower
Peas-1/4 cup
Potatoes- 1
Carrot-1
Preparation
Firstly chop up cauliflower, potato, carrot and sweet peas in a pressure cooker or instant pot and cook all your veggies separately with salt. Next, take a pan, add some butter and throw in cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, onions, salt to taste and saute for 5 minutes till onions turn golden brown. Now add chopped tomatoes. Mix well with curry powder or garam masala as well as cayenne powder (depending on each family s spice level tolerance) and keep covered till it turns into a nice onion tomato paste. Now take the cooked veggies and transfer it to the onion tomato paste and mash it well till it turns creamy.
For garnish I chop up some cilantro, chopped onions and Serrano chilies.
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:
Syrian Rice, Green bean sauté, Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Syrian Kale, Cuban black beans, Yucca, Yellow rice with Pigeon Peas and fried sweet Plantains.
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 !!
As you all know, I have been friends with Heather DeVita of Luminous Salon for a long time now. Luminous is the best spa in town in New Providence in New Jersey. Heather came up with this idea of book signing with Teresa Giudice where Teresa so graciously donated her time to help support ReBorn Foundation and all the proceeds from the book signing goes to this true noble cause. As this donation will be going to help Heather’s sister’s Tara Devita Wanis’s friend who just recently lost their 7 month old Grandson.
When Heather mentioned this to me, I offered her help in the form of catering some food for this event. Most or all of you know that I have a full time job, raising 2 kids, cooking and the list is endless for me as a mom…working 24/7 is tough.
I had to think of something simple and quick yet healthy and delicious for our special guest Teresa Giuidice. I am a bit embarassed to admit that I have never ever skipped even one episode of RHONJ and so love the show and so the pressure was on.
I finally decided to cook a healthy dish as I found out from Heather that Teresa eats super healthy food. This was a clear confirmation of what I was to make- I made a very healthy dish out of Steamed Organic chickpeas and some secret ingredients as Indian spices and freshly grated coconut garnished with cilantro.
Teresa loved it and commented how much she likes eating right and healthy? She grabbed my poster to say she loves Curryliciousme and the food we create:)
I feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful noble cause and also to have cooked for Teresa and most importantly have her like my dish:)
A huge thank you to Heather DeVita of LUMINOUS SALON and Reborn Foundation for this wonderful opportunity & Christen Simmons Snyder of RAY JAY PORTRAITS for the fantastic clicks!
On a cold sunday morning when I look out the window, its raining outside and the clouds are consumed by fog, my heart was seeking for a hot mug of coffee and some hot breakfast dish to go with it while I lay under the blanket:)
Suddenly a dish comes to my mind. A very dear friend had mentioned the dish and it stayed in my sub conscious for a while now….so quickly got up and turned on my coffee machine for a hot cup of coffee.
The steamed flattened rice in India, commonly known as Chura or Poha, is rice which is flattened into flat, light, dry flakes. This dish is very nutritious and is a great snack or great for breakfast/ brunch.
Meantime, for the STEAMED FLATTENED RICE DISH,
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of flattened rice
3-4 green chilies finely chopped
1 teaspoon of Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon of turmeric
4-5 curry leaves
1 inch of ginger finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves finely chopped
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/2 cup of peanuts (optional)
Cilantro for garnish
Preparation:
Firstly, take a sieve and add the flattened dry rice flakes to it. Take a nonstick pan and add some vegetable oil to it under medium flame. Once the pan gets warm, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and wait for it to splutter. Add finely chopped ginger, garlic,peanuts and onion to the pan and saute well. Add turmeric and salt to taste and mix well.
While that is cooking, let cold water run through the sieve with flattened rice flakes for about 3-4 minutes and make sure it is soaked completely. Transfer the wet flattened rice flakes to the pan with onions cooking and mix everything well. Now cover the pan with a lid for 5 minutes and let it cook. Remove the lid and let cook for 2 more minutes so all the water evaporates and gives a crunch to the rice flakes. Add lemon juice and mix well. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Serve with a mint cilantro chutney or eat it as is!!!!Enjoy!
