Quinoa "Pie"- not just for the diabetic!

I mentioned in my last post that my parents are now into low Glycemic Index (GI) foods. That basically means that my mom's pantry is now devoid of any rice, or wheat, for that matter. Instead, her grocery list consists of foxtail millet (called "navane" in Kannada), wire-cut oats etc. These are the "ancient" grains with carbohydrates that take a longer time to break down, thereby releasing sugar into the blood at a slower rate as compared to "modern" grains such as rice, especially white rice, that spike up blood sugar levels at a rapid rate, and the latter is not a good thing, especially for diabetics. And that, my friends, is a pretty long sentence! So anyway, low GI foods are supposedly healthy foods. And with all this talk about healthy living and healthy eating, grains such as millet, oats, buckwheat and quinoa are being re-discovered by people. Well, if not people, definitely by my parents!

The other day I had made quinoa to go along with some baked salmon and grilled veggies, and some of the quinoa was leftover. The next day we had something else and the quinoa just stayed in the fridge. Finally, a couple days later, on a Saturday morning, I decided to use my mom's innovative recipe and converted the quinoa into a beautiful quinoa "pie." It turned out to be pretty darn delicious!

The Making, Ingredients and all:

1. Leftover cooked quinoa. Err, doesn't necessarily have to be leftover-- you could always make some fresh quinoa (cooks just like white rice)! I used roughly about 1.5 cups, maybe. (If you are aware, I follow the eye-ball technique when it comes to cooking......)

Cooked quinoa

2. I had some leftover grated carrot salad from the previous night. Decided to just throw that in as well. Hey, you can make it as healthy as you want! The salad already had salt and some coarse peanut powder.

Grated Carrot salad (with coarsely ground peanuts)

3. Chickpea flour (specifically black chickpea flour, called "kala chana besan" in hindi)- another diabetic friendly ingredient- about 3-4 tablespoons. This acts as the binding agent.

The binding agent- chickpea flour

4. I chopped up a small onion and a couple thai green chillies. And mixed up all of this. I added a few teaspoons of water, just to get a bit of a sticky consistency, to make it easier to spread it out in a baking pan.

Qunoa "pie" mixture

5. I then sprayed a baking pan with some Pam (regular oil will work too, and if you don't care, butter would be great!). I transferred the quinoa "pie" mixture into the pan and spread it out with my palm/fingers. You gotta be quick while doing so, else the mixture can start sticking to your palm and fingers and just get all messy.

Ready to bake!

6. Before sticking it into the oven, that I pre-heated at 400 deg F, I remembered that my mom, when she made the same thing with millet, added some pats of butter on the top and then let it all bake. Yep, butter makes everything, even low GI foods, better! So after placing a few pats of butter on top, I put it away in the oven and let it bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. At the end of it, the butter was all melted and the "pie" was all nice and browned up and best of all was the aroma! So inviting!

Quinoa "pie" all baked and ready!

Delightful Quinoa "pie"

7. I cut up the "pie" into slices, like pizza slices really, and served it with my sun dried tomato pachadi. Mm, mm, delicious! It tasted nutty and chewy and the ends were nice and crisp. In fact, like my daughter pointed out, it tasted like a veggie burger, one of those whole grain bocca patties-- simply outstanding, and super filling too!

Quinoa "pie" with sun dried tomato pachadi

Afterthought:

I realized that this awesome quinoa "pie" will make a great pizza base! I mean, if you are diabetic and you can't find diabetic-friendly pizza anywhere, or if you just want to do something super healthy for yourself, you just make this in the form of a pizza base (pat and spread it out nice and thin), bake it,  and then top it with veggies of your choice (or meat- but believe me, that will be extremely, as in EXTREMELY, heavy!!). And there, you'll have made yourself a real good, out-of-this-world-healthy, pizza!

Likewise, you can incorporate cooked millet or buckwheat or any grain, really, and create some unconventional deliciousness. Go ahead, try it today!

Tomato Pachadi

The parents came, stayed, and left. I was pretty much out of the kitchen, as the mother completely took over. The first couple days I was needed- you know, to show her around the kitchen, etc. But thereon, she completely took over. Oh wait, I said that already.

The highlight of this time's visit was my introduction to various ancient grains, that my parents have incorporated into their diet, thanks to diabetes. Rice and wheat are now banned, because of their high GI values, and it is all about millets, oats, the proper kind, not the ooey-gooey instant kind, buckwheat, quinoa, etc. They got introduced to quinoa here, and they simply loved it. In their shopping this time, guess what they took back? I learned some pretty neat recipes from my mom, that I shall be trying out in the following weeks. We all had a wonderful time, and as with all holidays, this one came to an end exactly a week ago- last Sunday, to be precise. After a bit of moping, now it is back to square one!

Sun Dried Tomato Pachadi:

"Pachadi" is a very telugu preparation, that can be made with pretty much any vegetable, all spiced up and pounded up. OK, as much as I tell myself not to do it, I did in fact end up looking for "pachadi" on Wiki. So, dear ardent reader(s), if you don't already know what pachadi is, please don't hesitate to look it up on good old Wikipedia.

Now, speaking of tomato pachadi- traditionally the preparation of tomato pachadi is quite tedious and time consuming. I mean, first you gotta buy a good amount of tomatoes, wash them, dry them, salt them, spice them, and dry them again, this time in the sun. And then you pound the sun-dried tomatoes into pulp. Then you heat up sesame oil, as in smoke it, literally. Then you cool this oil overnight. And finally you pour this smoked and cooled sesame oil into the pounded sun-dried tomatoes, mix it all up, keep it away for a few days. Finally when it is time to eat it, you probably would have forgotten all about it!

Now, I have the time (yes!), but hey, I lack the patience needed for such time-consuming food preparation. And besides, I barely get any sunshine in this wonderful place (please note the sarcasm), so the whole dry-the-tomatoes-in-the-sun thing ain't gonna work for me!

Therefore, one fine afternoon, my mom suggested why not try making this awesome pachadi with sun dried tomatoes? Good idea! So off we went to the store, bought a couple small packets of sun dried tomatoes and tried it out. The result was quite a success, except that the final texture was a bit on the dry side. No problem! The next time, that was just a couple days ago, I bought sun dried tomatoes soaked in extra virgin olive oil. The result: Perfect Tomato Pachadi, that I shall be making regularly henceforth.

Ingredients: 

1.  A jar of sun-dried tomatoes soaked in EVOO

The main ingredient (don't worry about the herbs- they are quite undetectable in the end product)

2. 1-1.5 teaspoons of Fenugreek Seeds, roasted

Fenugreek Seeds (aka Methi seeds)

3. 1-2 teaspoons of mustard seeds

Mustard Seeds

4. Salt to taste

5. Red Chilli powder (per tolerance)

Red Chilli Powder (this one's extra hot!)

6. 2-3 tablespoons of tamarind pulp (if it is tamarind concentrate, I would use just about a teaspoonful)

Tamarind Pulp (if concentrate, the color will be darker)

7. Sesame oil- you can get this at any Indian or Asian store.

Method: 

1. I take my nifty little spice-grinder (originally coffee-grinder) and grind up fenugreek and mustard seeds into a lovely powder, leaving it just a tad bit coarse. If you prefer, you could grind it into a fine powder.

Fenugreek+Mustard Seeds Powder

2. I then transfer the sun-dried tomatoes (in EVOO) into my food processor, add salt to taste, red chilli powder to taste as well as the tamarind pulp. I also add the freshly ground fenugreek and mustard seeds powder.

3. And finally a few pulses in the food processor, and the tomato pachadi is almost ready!

4. I smoke some sesame oil in  my sweet little "kadhai" (I have mentioned it in one of my previous posts: http://yetanotherfoodie.blogspot.com/2010/05/grab-some-mint.html) and also splutter some mustard seeds and set it aside to cool off. The cooling happens quite quickly, in less than 30 minutes, if you keep it on the counter or near an open window.

P.S.: Do make sure that your smoke alarm is disabled, just to avoid all the noise and confusion it may cause in the household! My mom set off the smoke alarm while cooking one day, and got all freaked out. Yes, we ultimately had to disable it, since she was in-charge of the kitchen!

5. Finally, I pour this cooled sesame oil with mustard seeds into the pachadi (step 3) and mix it all up. I give it a quick taste (very important for a chef to taste his/her creation, before serving it to others, you see!) and add any additional salt/chilli powder/tamarind if required. That's it! Sun Dried Tomato Pachadi is ready!

Sun Dried Tomato Pachadi

I store this very beautiful pachadi in a bottle/jar (hey, could most certainly re-use the jar that the sun-dried tomatoes came in!) in a cool, dark place (one of my kitchen cabinets). The spicy-tangy sun dried tomato pachadi is quite versatile. Spread some on a slice of bread (enriched bleached white bread would be really good!), or eat with rotis/chapatis, dosas, or best is the good old way of mixing it up with some steaming hot white rice, with a little bit of ghee (clarified butter) and just eat away, enjoying every bit of it......... mm mm!

Now let me see what the time is- aah, 6:40 am in Bangalore. Time to sign off- gotta call up my folks!  

Hello again!

You know how you lose touch with a friend, for no particular reason, in that "just-happened" sort of way? And then when you finally do meet up, you are a bit quiet in the beginning, because you don't know what to say? (And somehow that inner poet in you also awakens!) That is exactly how I feel right now. It has been some time since I posted anything here. Life suddenly got a bit tumultuous. A lot of change, a lot happening......... and, so, amidst all that, I just did not have that urge to write anything. Oh, did I just hit that little curiosity button in you?!

Well, it is time to get back to doing things that make me happy, and so, hello again! 

About a month ago, we visited my brother and sister-in-law, and as ever, had a wonderful time. All we did was eat, laugh, eat (that's right, my next book, and movie!). A made some excellent Salmon Chettinad and Y made this wonderfully delicious veggie biryani. I watched them cook, and I must say that I was quite impressed with their team-work, and of course, by their culinary skills.

Salmon Chettinad:

My brother had marinated some beautiful salmon filets in olive oil and some "secret" spices the previous night.

Salmon filets, marinating in olive oil & "secret" spices

He prepared the masala/curry base by using a gazillion different spices, roasted them and then ground them up in the blender, along with some grated coconut. The end result was this delightfully spicy and fragrant chutney. Now I did watch while he cooked, but unfortunately, I do not recollect the exact list of spices he used. So, brother, if you happen to comment, I sure would appreciate it if you jot down those spices for me. Thank you very much!

He then pan-fried the fish filets, just enough to brown them up on both sides.

Pan-fried salmon filets

And then, he took a pan, poured in some cooking oil, threw in some chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste and chopped tomatoes. He sauteed it all, until the onions were translucent. And then into this, he poured in that spicy, fragrant chettinad curry/sauce and brought it to a boil. At this point, he had his sous-chef (my SIL!) pour in some tamarind juice into the curry. And finally he folded in the pan-fried salmon filets into the chettinad curry and let it all simmer for a few minutes. Mm, mm!

Chettinad curry/sauce into the onions+tomatoes+ginger-garlic

Sous-chef adding tamarind juice

Folding in the salmon filet(s)

Salmon chettinad, simmering away....... mm, mm!

Meanwhile, the sous-chef, my sister-in-law, was busy working on her veggie biryani. She first got all her vegetables ready. Look at the picture, and you will get the idea:

Veggies for the biryani

She also had some basmati rice going on the stove. The rice was to be just partly cooked. Once partly cooked, she drained away all the water.

She also chopped up a bunch of mint.

Mint leaves

And she soaked a few strands of saffron in some water.

Saffron

She took a nice huge pot, and poured in some oil and got the heat going. Then she added a few whole spices, such as bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom, etc. The delightful aroma was already in the air.

Whole spices

She then added the veggies one by one into this pot, fried them, added salt and a special spice mix, and also added a cup of yogurt.

Veggies+spice mix+yogurt

And then she began the layering. She first added a layer of the cooked veggies, followed by a layer of the partly cooked rice, and then a thin layer of the mint leaves. She did this, very patiently, I must add, until all the rice and the veggies and the mint was used up; and err, the pot was quite full! She finished off by drizzling that saffron water.

Layer of veggies over rice

Layer of veggies spread out over the rice

One more layer of rice

Final layer of rice spread out evenly

Finishing touch- saffron

After all the layering was complete, she closed off the pot with the lid and allowed this to simmer away on the stove for a good 15-30 minutes. The yogurt in the mixture allowed the partly cooked rice to get completely cooked. In the end, when she opened that lid, that aroma and the look was insanely appealing and I just couldn't wait to eat dinner!!

Vegetable biryani waiting to be eaten!

Perfect Layers

The flavorful veggie biryani and the hot and spicy, as well as tangy Salmon Chettinad were just fabulously delicious.

Salmon Chettinad over a bed of Vegetable Biryani

Thanks, A and Y, for that amazing dinner. It truly was superb. The lovely little song we came up with, was/is also truly genius. "Tinta irbeku, tinta irbeku, tinalla andre nammage ishta illa!"

Cheers to that, and can't wait for our next eat, laugh, eat rendezvous!

Cooking and Serving with a Purpose

YouthCare, is an organization that serves Seattle's homeless youth, by providing them with food, shelter, counseling, education, and employment training. Last Thursday, January 26th, they had organized an event, wherein volunteers cooked and served a wonderful meal to homeless youth. Guess who the lucky participant was? No, not me, but my husband! The team comprised of 3, including my husband, and they cooked this wonderful spread for 70 homeless youth, and served it to them.

The 3 of them cooked chili, corn bread muffins, and vegetable lasagna, and they made a fresh green salad. They also had juice boxes and chips on the side that they handed over to everybody. The kitchen scene apparently was like one of those Dinner Impossible episodes! But they managed to get everything ready in 2 hours and served a delicious meal to every kid there.

Chili simmering away in 3 HUGE pots!

Going into the oven

Corn bread muffins all baked and ready to be served!

Juice boxes

Chips

What a wonderful way to give! So proud of you, A, and your team! :) Thanks to the people at YouthCare for all their amazing work! I hope to be able to help in the future.......

Note to my readers: I am terrible at expressing my deep emotional thoughts into words (I can't say it, nor can I pen it). But I do realize that each day, I must count my blessings and be thankful for everything I have been given- food, shelter, and most importantly, loving family and friends.

P.S.: The chili and corn bread muffins were pretty dang good; thanks A, for bringing me back a sample to taste!

Basil Pesto Tilapia

On one of my recent trips to Costco, they were giving out samples of this new item- basil pesto tilapia, and it sure smelled good. It was a Thursday, and so I refrained from tasting it, even though it was very tempting. Now Thursdays are supposedly "pure vegetarian" days in our household. I don't remember why we started doing this in the first place. I mean, for starters, we don't even eat meat everyday. In fact, we are pretty timid meat eaters and moreover, we are more vegetarian than meat-eaters. So it is really not a big deal at all..... but anyway, that's just something we do every Thursday. So coming back to that basil pesto tilapia- I almost picked up a packet from the frozen section, however, I decided not to. I mean, why buy frozen stuff when I can re-create it at home, all nice and fresh, right? It seemed pretty darn simple anyways.

I took:

1. 4 tilapia filets, marinated for 30 minutes with lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and black pepper

2. Pesto sauce from a bottle. I usually have Costco's basil pesto- a great thing to have in your refrigerator for anytime use; though making pesto is a breeze. All you need is some fresh basil, pine nuts and olive oil. A couple pulses in the food processor and there, you got yourself some great, fresh pesto! If you don't have pine nuts, no problem- a great substitute would be almonds.

Costco's Awesome Pesto!

Um, yeah, that's pretty much my ingredient list for this preparation!

Method:
 
1. I took my pan, put in a teaspoon of oil. You could just spray some Pam, if you'd like. Then got the heat going.

2. I placed each filet onto the pan with the hot oil. While the first side was cooking, I spooned in a little bit of pesto onto each filet and spread it out.

3. After about a couple to 3 minutes, I flipped each filet and cooked the side with the pesto. And then I spooned in a tad bit more of that pesto onto the already cooked side. A couple more minutes and it was done and looked gorgeous! And the taste couldn't go wrong with that delicious pesto in the lemony background- fabulous!

Basil Pesto Tilapia

I served this beautiful basil pesto tilapia with brown basmati, jazzed up with pesto as well, and some carrot and cucumber salad. I also made a lovely dill and chive bud sauce to go with the fish and the rice. Mm, mm, mm- a very delectable meal indeed!

Simple carrot and cucumber salad

Fresh, not frozen stuff!

Dino Kale Stir-Fry

I took my kids to PCC yesterday to buy vegetables. You know me- I LOVE vegetables. Gotta eat those vegetables! Yes, I often nag my family with this sentence and I am certain if not now, they will thank me later in life. So, going to back to our little veggie-shopping trip to PCC- in the greens section, I saw this interesting looking really dark green kale. Now I use kale, swiss chard, collard greens, and spinach of course, on a regular basis. But never bought this particular type of kale. The name sounded very interesting as well- "Dino Kale." And yes indeed- if you look at the leaves, they look all bumpy and reptile-like. My son got excited at the "dino" part of it and so we picked it up. The idea was to make a quick stir-fry with the kale. Apparently the other name for this kale is Lacinato Kale, also known as black cabbage, Tuscan kale and cavalo nero. And it is widely used in Tuscan cooking. (This is from the little info tag that comes along with the veggie).

"Dino" Kale

Ingredients:

1. 1 small onion, finely chopped. A shallot or two would be just fine.
2. Salt, some black pepper powder
3. A pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
4. 3-4 teaspoons of cooking oil
5. And oh, don't forget the dino (or regular) kale! Chop it up (I read somewhere that the thick stem needs to be discarded. But I just chopped up everything- it was pretty tender. Besides, I am still alive and kicking, so guess it is not bad for ya!)

Method: 

Again, like most of my cooking, this is an extremely easy recipe and takes max 10 minutes.

1. Take a pan, pour in 3-4 teaspoons of cooking oil and get the heat going.
2. Add some freshly ground pepper/black pepper powder, followed by the finely chopped onion and some salt to taste.
3. Let the onion sweat a bit- for about 5 minutes, until translucent. This would be on medium flame.
4. Then throw in the chopped dino kale and stir-fry it all (higher than medium flame) until the leaves start to wilt. At this point, you could add a pinch of cayenne pepper if you'd like. Give it a quick taste. Depending on how much bite you like in your veggies, the kale stir-fry should be ready in approximately 3 to 5 minutes.

Stir-frying the dino kale

Dino Kale Stir-Fry

Kale itself is a delicious vegetable. Dino Kale is one notch more delicious- I think, mostly because of its name and appearance. It is a bit sweeter than regular kale, that tends to have this hint of bitterness in it.

A tip: At the end, add a dab of butter. It'll kick up the flavor by quite a bit! ;) 

Dino Kale has made it to my son's "favorite vegetable list."  I mean, I was literally shocked to see his plate totally devoid of any green at the end of the meal! Am guessing it was the "Dino" that did it!

Here's to 2012!

Every New Year we like to reminisce about events from the previous year. So I thought, for my first post of the year 2012, I shall quickly jot down some notable good eats from the year 2011 (as much as my little brain can recollect), starting with the most recent one:

1. The chorizo tacos, chicken fajitas, Camarones a la Diabla and chips and salsa at Taqueria La Venedita in Issaquah. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures.

2. The Currywurst at Leavenworth.

Currywurst with jalapenos, hot jalapeno mustard and sauerkraut

3. Fish Molee at Sadya Palace. Again, no pictures.

4. Pizza made by our dear daughter- she made it from scratch! In fact, I must post her recipe one of these days. She made it for our wedding anniversary. It was truly superb!

Nani's Pizza!

5. Mongolian "Beef" and veggies made by my brother.

Hot and spicy Mongolian "Beef" & Veggies

6. Chantarelle stir-fry made by my brother.

Buttery Chantarelle

7. Of course the Benne Masala Dosa at CTR and the gobi manchuri at RSI that I had when I visited my folks in September. No pictures again! 

I am sure there were plenty other good eats in 2011, and I sure am not going to try and remember every single one of them. But overall, 2011 was good and here's wishing everybody a Very Healthy and Happy 2012!

P.S.: Don't make too many of those resolutions....... I know I am not! ;)