Lots of Lentils, Chickpea Cutlets and A Pizza

I've really been doing some cooking the past several days. I enjoy cooking so much more when it isn't hot outside. I'd say we're full-on into fall at this point. Last Thursday, some friends invited us over for a big pot-luck party. I decided to take two dishes because I didn't know what vegan options would be available there. I decided on Carrie's sweet and savory lentils and some simple, mashed sweet-potatoes. The lentils were a HUGE hit. Talk about a good pot-luck dish! Easy to make and just perfect for this time of year.



Friday I decided to make some chickpea cutlets. They're a favorite around here for sure, and it had been quite a while since I'd made them. I wanted something a little different this time, so I made the Sweet Vidalia Onion Sauce, which is also in V-con. I also cooked some brown rice, and since I had a bunch of parsley from the CSA, I chopped it and added it to the cooked rice with some Earth Balance and salt. I steamed a bunch of kale and onions, which I seasoned with a dressing of red wine vinegar, sugar and a few drops of liquid smoke. The sweet onion sauce is soooo good. We used it for the cutlets and also to drizzle over the rice. What a fantastic dinner!



On Saturday, I made pizza because the kids just can't get enough of "Mama's homemade pizza". They're so sweet! Anyway, I made the kids their ususal cheese pizza. For Sleek and myself, I lightly sauteed a few cloves of minced garlic in some olive oil and brushed that over the dough. Then I added some Oliverio's Sweet Italian Peppers. (I can't believe they don't have a website!) They're kind of a local specialty item that Sleek grew up eating often and loving dearly. It was fantastic. There are really so many different things you can do with pizza to change it up and make it interesting.



I've been wanting to make some naan since I seem to make Indian food quite often. A while back, Carrie had posted aboutmaking naan. I swore I'd give it a try. Then I came across what I think is the same recipe via the forums over at The PPK. I decided to give it a try. I needed to find a good substitute for the yogurt, and we can't get plain soy yogurt around here. I decided to go with Better Than Sour Cream. I brushed it with Earth Balance after baking. It was phenomenal! I used my pizza stone as recommended, but I guess my "high" broiler setting is hotter than most because my stone ended up cracking and breaking. I'll have to be getting a new one ASAP! I set the broiler to low for the next batch (I was still able to use the stone to finish) and the naan came out much better. So, I look forward to making it often. It went perfectly with the Tamarind Lentils from V-con. They are so good and extemely easy to make. For a quick and easy dinner, it sure was delicious.

Happy Birthday, P!

Who is "P," you ask? "P" is what my husband (aka Sleekpelt, or Sleek) call each other. It's derived from sweet-pea. Over the years, we've shortened it to just "P." We pretty much exclusively call each other that. So, that's who "P" is, and yesterday was his 36th b-day. For his 35th I threw him a big party. This year I just made him a nice dinner.

I decided to go with Indian food, because he really liked the Indian veggie burgers and Roasted Manchurian Cauliflower. Both recipes are from Cooking Light. To go with the burgers, I made a spicy mango chutney mayo (using Vegenaise). I served them with pita, red onions and lettuce. So good. I decided to try something different since it was a special occasion. I made some homemade vegetable pakoras. I found this recipe, and used it for the flour/seasoning/water measurements. Then I added shredded carrot, chopped kale, minced onion and a chopped garlic scape to the batter. I can't remember the last time I deep-fried something, so I was a little nervous about that. They actually turned out great! I mean, really, really great. Wow! I'll definitely be making those again. I couldn't come up with a good dip for them. At the Indian restaurant, they have a spicy onion chutney and a tamarind sauce to dip them in. I tried making a tamarind sauce, but I only have tamarind concentrate. I couldn't get it mild enough and still retain a non-watery texture. I also played around with some ketchup and mango chutney, but I thought it still tasted to ketchup-y. So, we had them without dip. The recipe does use quite a bit of seasoning, so they were absolutely fine without the dip.



For dessert, I made a blueberry crisp. I kind of just winged this one, and let me tell you, it may have been the best crisp I've ever had. Seriously. It was crazy-good. Here's what I did (these are estimations. I didn't measure anything):

4-6 cups fresh blueberries
juice from half a lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 TBS cornstarch

Mix all of above ingredients in a reasonably large baking dish.

Topping:

1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
6 TBS Earth Balance (in small-ish pieces)

Mix oats, flour and brown sugar in a bowl. With fingers, mix in Earth Balance until it's all crumbly.

Then, spread topping evenly over blueberries and bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes until it's golden brown and blueberries are bubbling at the edges.




We had the crisp with a big scoop of vanilla Rice Dream. We have decided to strictly limit our use of dairy products. The commercial dairy industry is absolutely horrible. We have no good local source for dairy (We can get few local cheeses, but not much variety. The kids are the big cheese-eaters, so it's mainly cheddar and mozzerella around here.), as West Virginia has very strict laws pertaining to that. We did find this group in Wisconsin, who sells cheeses online for very reasonable prices. The cows are treated humanely, and it's a co-op of farmers.

Highlights

I seem to be doing some serious slacking here at Chez Mama recently. I don't know what to blame, really. Okay, so I'll partially blame the Wii we got last Sunday. I've got a serious case of Wii elbow going on from playing so much tennis. For real! My arm is totally sore. It's so fun, though. So, since it's been a while since I last posted, I'm just going to do some highlights. A few things I made were old standards, like calzones/pizza and pasta pomodoro. I also made the Bean and Corn Lasagna with Avacado from ED&BV. It was really easy and tasty, but I didn't get a good photo of it.

Last Friday night, I decided to make some pancakes. Those are always a hit with the kids. I used Becky's recipe, which she had posted on her blog before. Here is her recipe:


1 egg (or egg substitute)
1 cup whole wheat flour (I like Hudson Cream... King Arthur is good.
You can cut it half-half with white flour if you want fluffier
pancakes)
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp applesauce
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Beat the egg, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix until
smooth. Ladle onto hot, nonstick griddle. Flip when pancakes aren't
shiny around the edges and top is covered with bubbles.

I added a little squirt of agave nectar to the batter to give it just a hint of sweetness. These were some really tasty pancakes, and the kids loved them. I can see it becoming my standard pancake recipe, except for the times when I need to just go all out and make Bisquick ones. LOL!


Monday night I made the best channa masala I've ever eaten. It was insane. I made it by adapting a recipe I'd found on vegweb. All the measurements listed are approximate. Here it is:

2 TBS oil
1 onion chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 tsp curry powder
2.5 tsp garam masala
3 TBS tomato paste
3.5 cups of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3/4 can of lite coconut milk
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp salt
cayenne pepper
2 TBS margarine (I used Earth Balance. Butter could be used as well.)

Heat oil in pan, and sautee onion until softened and lightly browned. Add garlic and sautee another minute. Add spices and tomato paste, and stir until well-mixed. Add coconut milk and chickpeas and simmer until chickpeas are nice and soft. Add lemon juice, salt, cayenne and margarine. Stir until margarine melts.

This was just out of control. I swear it's better than any channa masala I've had in an Indian restaurant. I could eat it every day!


This evening, I made some refried beans the usual way. I also made some mashed potatoes, and once again the jalepeno-corn gravy from V-con. This time, I happened to be out of lemons, so I substituted lime juice in the gravy. I also added a few splashes of hot sauce. WAY better than with lemon juice.



Sleek and I saw a really rockin' show last night here in Mo-town. Clutch. Kinda blues-funk-hard rock. We had been wanting to see them for at least a year. They've played Mo-town before, but it's been a pretty long time. I didn't really expect them to return, since they've really grown and become more mainstream. The show was at 123 Pleasant St., which is pretty much our only really good music venue. Last month, I was checking out the 123 website, and saw that Clutch was playing on May 21st. I instantly IMed Sleek at work to tell him. I believe his response was: "SHUT UP!" We had a good time, and the show completely rocked. I'll check them out again any time they're in town.

Veggie Burgers, Cauliflower and Stuffed Zucchini

Every issue of Cooking Light has a section called "Inspired Vegetarian". I've found some killer recipes there. In the April issue, that section was all Indian-inspired dishes. That pretty much rules as far as I'm concerned. Last night, I chose a couple of the recipes to try. One of them was for veggie burgers. The bulk of them is made up of chickpeas and potatoes. They also have carrots, onion, lots of cilantro and other spices. I knew they would need some sort of dressing, so I bought some hot mango chutney. I mixed the chutney with Vegenaise pretty much half and half. I spread some of that in a pita, stuffed in some baby romaine, the burger, and some red onions. So good. So freaking good. Best veggie burger I've had in a good while. (Oh, the recipe says to mix it all up and keep it in the fridge for at least 8 hours. Of course, I didn't notice that until I got the whole thing mixed up, and planned on eating dinner in an hour or so. I put it in the freezer for about an hour. I had no problems with the mixture holding together or anything.)

I also made some Roasted Manchurian Cauliflower from the same issue of CL. It was just out-of-control. No other way to describe it, really. I can't recommend it enough. Anyone reading this should plan on making it. Right now.

Tonight, I made some zucchini stuffed with millet, tomatoes, kalamata olives and capers. I came across the recipe in VWaV. Pretty simple, and pretty good. Not great, but good.



Sleek said that the veggie burger/cauliflower meal was the best meal he's had in a long time. So, I think I'll be making that one again in the next couple of weeks. It really was ridiculous. Oh, here's something cute...Yesterday, Julian came in the kitchen and got a handful of grapes. He headed for the back door and said he was going to make some "homemade raisins." A little while later, I look out on the deck and see this:

Potato-Kale Enchiladas, Tamarind Lentils, a Picnic and a Rant

Hey y'all. I've been MIA for the last few days. The power-cord to my computer broke, so I have very limited computer time until the new cord gets here. It's interesting, the things I can get done when I have no computer access. The laundry is done, the house is clean, and I'm left twiddling my thumbs wondering what the hell to do. We've had some good weather, so we've been able to play outside a lot. I got a new mountain bike, so I look forward to riding it often.

Anyway, I've done a good bit of cooking since my last post. Last week, I made the Potato-Kale enchiladas from V-con. I'd heard good things about these, and the didn't disappoint. However, the recipe made LOTS of enchiladas. So many that we had them leftover for dinner the next evening, and lunch for three days! They look a little funky in the photo, and I think my enchiladas turn out that way because I don't like them completely drowned in sauce. They were quite tasty, and for a new side-dish I made some re-fried black beans. I made them the same way I make re-frieds with pinto beans. Sleek says they're better than the pinto ones.



Saturday night, I made tamarind lentils (also from V-con). Wow! They were so good. They will certainly be a staple around here. They also take less than an hour including prep and cooking time. They were perfect over jasmine rice.



Sunday, we spent the day at Chestnut Ridge Park. The kids had been wanting to have a "real" picnic for a long, long time. ( "Real" means using the actual picnic basket, not just eating their meal out in the yard. LOL) So, we headed out to CRP, where we met moneytastesbad, who has posted here on Chez Mama and RTN too. We had met before, but didn't figure out who each other was until last week. He has a sweet little girl, and the kids all enjoyed playing and spending the day outdoors. Anyway, I made some "cold-slaw" (that's what Julian calls it), bought some hummus at the co-op, and a good loaf of bread from the bakery. We had sandwiches with the hummus, roasted red-peppers, cucumbers and red onions. They were quite tasty. Oh, and for the slaw, I just chopped up my cabbage and a little red onion. And peeled some carrots into it. For the dressing, I mixed up some "light" mayo, sugar, apple cider vinegar, water and a touch of cumin. I think I'm going to get some Vegenaise on my next trip to the store. I really just use mayo for dressings and such. Anyone here use Vegenaise? Think I'll like it?



Okay, now it's rant time...So, after a two-year hiatus, Cafe of India re-opened here in Mo-town. It used to be one of our favorite restaurants. We had decided we would go there for dinner this evening. Sleek and the kids got there at 5:30, and I joined them ten minutes later. The restaurant was crowded, but not every table was taken. We sat there...and sat there...and sat there some more. No acknowledgement, no drink order taken. Sleek went to the register at one point and asked if maybe we should just order some take-out since it was taking so long. The waiter said he'd be right over to take our order. He walked past us at least three times in the next 15 minutes. After sitting there for an hour with two young children (who behaved exceptionally) we got up and left. I mean, I get that they just opened the restaurant, but they operated the former Cafe of India for many years. I never had poor service there. I mean, when they seated us, they could've explained that it may be a while before someone could wait on us. They could've brought out some naan for the kids at least! Hell, they could've frisbee-thrown it out from the kitchen. I would've caught it! I promise! We finally decided to leave when Annelies started crying from hunger pains! So, at this point, I'm thinking I'll never set foot in that place again.

Spicy Chickpeas and More

Last night was another recipe from Vegetarian. Spicy chickpeas. They tasted very much like channa masala, but were less saucy, and maybe even better. They were spiced with tumeric, cumin, garam masala, fresh ginger, minced green chile, a couple cloves of minced garlic and tamarind concentrate. Really easy to make to. Just saute onion until soft. Add above ingredients and saute for a couple more minutes. Add a couple cups of chickpeas and a can of diced tomatoes and simmer for 45 minutes. That's it. I served it over jasmine rice, and made a side of steamed cauliflower and broccoli. To season the veggies, I toasted a few cumin seeds in about a tsp of oil, added a pinch of tumeric, and poured it over the veggies. The toasted cumin seeds gave it a nice little crunch.

Tonight I made a dinner that Sleek had requested. In the Vegetarian cookbook, he saw a recipe for asparagus with hollandaise sauce and another for asparagus and eggs. He wanted a combo of the two. Another really easy dinner. I roasted the asparagus, and poached the eggs in ramekins in a pot of boiling water. The hollandaise was really easy to make. I think it would have been a bit creamer and more "solidified" if I had used butter instead of Earth Balance. The flavor was really good, though, and definitely lighter than your traditional hollandaise. I don't eat eggs very often, but when I do at least I can get free-roaming, pasture-fed eggs from a farm right outside of M0-town. If I couldn't, I definitely wouldn't be eating them at all.



I kicked it old-school in the kitchen today with Beastie Boys License to Ill and Check Your Head. Sweet!

Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Yeah. You read that right. When Sleek spotted this recipe in V-con, we knew it was on. I love, love, love samosas. Of course, I don't get to eat them very often since we don't have an Indian restaurant within an hour of here. I was all over this recipe. It's quite easy too. The yellow color comes from tumeric. They also have mustard and corriander seeds, along with some sauteed onion, garlic, carrots and peas. These would just be out-of-control drizzled with a little tamarind sauce. I made the spinach and chickpea curry from VWaV to go with. YU-UM!

This evening, I made some simple veggie fried-rice and some broccoli and red peppers in a sweet-spicy sesame sauce. No recipes needed for these, I just wing it. I can't even tell you how good this fried rice is. Way better than what you would get at most Chinese restaurants. I only use 2 TBS of oil, so it isn't greasy at all. Plus, with long-grain brown rice and lots of veggies, it's actually healthy. I cook the rice in no-chicken broth instead of water. I think that extra bit of flavor really helps. After the rice is cooked and the veggies are softened, I just add the rice into the skillet with the veggies and add some soy sauce.

For the broccoli... I stir-fried it in just a smidge of oil, and when it was nearly done I added the red pepper. I had made up a simple sauce of brown sugar, water, soy sauce, garlic and Thai chili paste. I got the pan really hot, and poured the sauce over the veggies. I let it boil for just a couple of minutes, then took it off the heat. This is a really good meal if you're looking for a healthier alternative to Chinese take-out.


I listened to one of my all-time favorite albums this evening. Say Anything...Is a Real Boy. I probably hadn't listened to it for a year or so, but I feel like it may be in regular rotation once again. It is so good. It's really hard to describe, but I'd call it alternative rock with a punk-ish influence? The music itself is more complex than you'd find in your standard modern punk-pop, and the lyrics are intelligent and hilarious at times. Definitely a different sound. Sleek and I saw them in Pittsburgh about a year and a half ago. They rocked the house. They were touring with Dashboard Confessional, and I think Sleek and I were the oldest people there. Well, besides all the parents who took their adolescents and young teens to see the show. LOL

Fish Masala

I've been wanting to make fish masala for a long time. I used to order it occasionally at our now-closed local Indian restaurant. My first-ever blog post was channa masala, and I've wanted to make it with fish ever since. I used cod, since that was what I happened to have in the freezer. Any mild, white fish would work, though. I made the sauce using the same recipe as the channa masala. Instead of adding the chickpeas, I put in some cauliflower, peas and the fish. I pan-seared the fish first, then added it to the sauce. I let it simmer for a while (1/2 hour, maybe?), then turned the heat completely off. We ate it a half-an-hour later. The fish had gotten really tender and kind of fell into chunks. We had it over jasmine rice. I thought it was very good, and Sleek thought it was out-of-control good. So, I consider it a success.

I finally got Radiohead's In Rainbows album on my iPod. I've been listening to it like crazy. It's so damn good. You can link to download the album from their myspace page. (You know, you can pay whatever you want for it.) They also have quite a few songs from the album available for play on their myspace page.

Be prepared for some heavy posting on Chez Mama. Between now and Christmas I'm doing a "12 Days of Goodies" segment. I hope I'm not overly-ambitious!

Chickpea and Spinach Curry

As I've mentioned before, Sleek and I really dig Indian food. We haven't had it too often recently because our local Indian joint closed. So, I've been searching for easy Indian-inspired dishes to make. Tonight's choice was the Chickpea and Spinach Curry from VWaV. Since it is a weekend, Sleek was home to give me a hand in the kitchen, which mostly means keeping the kids occupied. He did manage to get my garlic and ginger minced, though. This recipe was extremely quick and easy. I couldn't find cardamom pods at Kroger, and didn't feel like going all the way downtown to look for some. I used just a pinch of ground cardamom instead. I don't think it made any difference. If anything, it was better. It makes me ill when I bite into a cardamom pod hidden in Indian food. Seriously, I almost threw up once when it happened. So, I think I'll just stick with ground. It turned out so well we just couldn't believe it. Sleek went on and on about how good it was. He liked it better than the Channa Masala. The only thing that could possibly make it better would be scooping it up with some naan. I served it over a bed of jasmine rice. I'm sure from now on, jasmine rice will be that standard for Indian dishes around here.

I also made a batch of pie crust today. Sleek requested a sweet-onion quiche for our Sunday morning breakfast. It came out much better than my last attempt. The dough was much easier to work with, and I didn't feel the need to chug down a beer after I was finished. I'll most more on the quiche tomorrow. The onions are cooking right now, and they smell so good!

Well, today I didn't listen to a single bit of music. Actually, that's not true. We were playing "Name That Tune" in the car today. The kids really like that. They love to hum songs and have us guess what they are. They're pretty cool little creatures, they are. We did watch the Mountaineers kick Rutgers' ass this afternoon. That ruled.

Channa Masala

Sleek and I love, love, love Indian food. Unfortunately, our local Indian restaurant closed a little over a year ago. (I'm not supposed to be eating at restaurants anyway. One of the whole points of this blog!). Anytime we travel, we're looking for a good Indian joint to ease the pain and longing. We finally decided that it was high time (heh!) to learn to make some good, simple Indian food at home. I've made the basic lentil/vegetable curry, but I was looking for something with more complex flavor. So, I came across this little number on the web, and it looked very easy with easily attainable ingredients. I got it started at about noon, so the flavors would have plenty of time to meld before dinner at 6 p.m. I did add slightly more garam masala and curry powder than the recipe called for. Sleek wanted me to give it a try with Jasmine rice, so even though it is stripped of all nutritional value, I made it. (I ususally stick with brown basmati. It's my fave, even though it takes four times as long to cook). The masala and the rice both came out beautifully! Now that I know how to make a good masala sauce, the possibilities are endless. I'm thinking next it will be a fish (Halibut or Cod) masala with some cauliflower, potatoes and peas. If only I had a Tandoori oven to bake some naan to go with it!