Left-over red wine: Braised Root Veggies and Pioneer Woman Tomato-Chicken

Happy new year to all! We had a quiet, home-made dinner and a DVD date (very sad the "Love Actually" type "New Year's Eve" movie that came out last year was not available cheaply on any of the streaming services or Redbox kiosks. They all wanted $10. Instead Lord of the Rings second movie.) This resulted in a headache the next morning and leftover red wine since only one of us was drinking.

What to do with the wine that would clearly not be sipped in a glass? I asked my trusty fellow recipe finding friend, who shot me not one but six recipes she thought might be worthy. I chose two of these. Given it's "cold" here in San Diego (reaching the 40s at night) I wanted to use the oven. The chicken tomato entree she had tried (and that one is here!) and other is a deeply flavored, vegan pleasing dish that just worked wonderfully with the bounty of winter root veggies in the CSA box. You pair the recipes with a grain or pasta to soak up the delicious sauces. I ate them together on the same plate with  rice.

You can use whatever root veggies you have or like. Just add it up to 2lbs (strongly recommend getting a scale if you don't have one, it helps give you flexibility when you interchange vegetables for same weight or in gluten free ratio baking... but I also tried to note number of vegetables I used in case you can't get your hands on one.)

WARNING: if making these dishes together, do on an afternoon or early evening when you have plenty of time.  All together with prep and cooking, I jammed in the kitchen for 2.5 hours. Once the chicken goes in, you'll be free for an hour. I opted for something silly to kill time, the Carrie Diaries. You might be able to do the prep faster if you have a helper of course! Anyways, it's not always practical to cook this long but if you want to indulge yourself or make something nice for guests, go for this!

Wine-Braised Root Veggie from Eating Well

2lbs root veggies: It still looks like 6-8 x 1 cup servings!

2 russet potatoes

1 fennel and stems (save leaves for later use, perhaps the chicken recipe)

4 x 6” carrots

2 watermelon (milder, not as spicy) radishes-they looked about billiard ball sized

¾ cup red wine (I tried Zinfandel)

4 oz dried mushroom (I used shiitake mushrooms (about 5 x 1” diameter dried))

8 oz white mushrooms (halved if large)

2 bay leaves

2 tbsp fresh oregano or 2 tsp dried herb* (original recipe was thyme)

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground pepper

2 cups broth (couldn’t find mushroom broth called for,so using veg bouillon cube)

Tools to get out: 13 x 9 pan. Cutting board. Small pot to heat up wine and dried mushrooms.

    Preheat oven to 350

Heat the wine until steaming in the small pot. Remove from heat and add dried mushrooms.

     The original recipe notes you can peel the root veggies. I didn’t bother as I use my organic CSA box, so I just scrub the veggies to remove dirt and leave the peels on. It cooks so long the vegetables are tender even with skins. For oblong root veggies cut into 3” pieces, for round roots cut into 1” wedges. Wash the mushrooms and place them along with the roots into the 9x13 pan. 

    Strain wine into a mixing bowl/measuring cup. Set mushroom aside to chop up and add with rest of veggies. To the wine mix in and whisk oregano or other herb, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Pour over veggies. Add broth, bay leaves and garlic cloves.

Cook covered with foil at 350 for 45 minutes. Then uncover and cook 1 hr more (see steps below if making with chicken)

Pioneer Woman's Tomato Chicken over Grains/Pasta

4- 6 servings

While your root veggies cook, start on the chicken. Only a few substitutions from Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I used more olive oil instead of butter and instead of canned tomato, used fresh tomato. If you want to see some drool worthy pictures go to her website, step by step!

• 8 pieces Chicken Legs Or Thighs
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 3-4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 3 lbs fresh tomato (about 6 reg round tomatoes)
• 2 Tablespoons (Heaping) Tomato Paste
• Fresh herbs: gave fennel leaves a try!
• 8 cloves Garlic
• Cooked pasta (16oz) or rice or quinoa to soak up the tomato sauce
• Grated Parmesan Cheese, For Serving (optional)
• 1/2 cup White Wine (or Red Wine)

Tools: dutch oven or stir-fry pan + 2 glass baking dishes, tongs to turn chicken, 

     If you have an oven proof pan or dutch oven use this, if not grab your stir-fry sized pan and heat oil in it. I had to do my chicken in two batches so use half the oil in each batch if this is your situation too. Salt and Pepper your chicken. I had leftover Paula Deene seasoning* so I used this instead. 

   Turn on your stove top fan. While waiting for the oil to heat, peel the skin off the cloves of garlic. Begin chopping tomatoes if using fresh.

  On med-high brown the chicken on all sides (about 2 minutes). 

   While the chicken browns (btwn flips), you can continue chopping the tomatoes. Measure out your wine also.

 If not an oven proof dish, move your browned chicken into baking pans. I used 2 9x11 inch pans.

 You’re going to make the sauce now. Keep the heat on, add the wine to the pan used to brown the chicken to get the tasty scrapings. Then add the tomato paste and tomatoes to that pan. Bring to a boil

While waiting for the sauce to boil, chop up your herbs & start doing some of your dishes unless you’re lucky enough to have a helper!

 Remove tomato-wine sauce from heat. Then add to the pans of chicken. Cover with foil. 

 If making with the wine-root veggies, uncover the wine-root veggies at their 45 minute mark and kick the oven up to 400F.  Add the chicken drumsticks and bake for 1 hour. Continue to stir the root veggies periodically during the cooking.

Paula Deene seasoning:

1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

What kind of food/health goals do you have this year? I would like to do a 5-10 post theme, pair trying a new restaurant with looking for cool local shops and give HIIT a try to refresh my exercise routine. Dave would like to give up sugar for a year but I asked him to wait until after his birthday. Not that I HAVE to join him, but it'd be helpful to break my sweet tooth for awhile (feeling sluggish even after enough sleep). I'd have to modify and keep honey/coconut sugar/maple syrup in for my oatmeal.

No-Dairy, No-Nut, No-soy Nacho Sauce and No-soy Tofu

Never one to turn down free food, I accepted a cheery red bell pepper from my friend after she and her husband treated me and Dave to a home-cooked meal (I get to dog sit for her next weekend.) She said she wouldn't be able to use it in time. Months ago I saw a nacho sauce recipe that claimed having bell pepper was a key ingredient. Naturally I was so excited, I forgot to book mark it and now can't remember which one it was.

I found a few versions online, some used cashews to make it rich (I tried No Meat Athlete's Vegan Mac N' Cheese but found I had to add lots of sriracha to make it to my liking), but like one blogger pointed out if you like to lay it on thick, a cashew based sauce may be a wee bit too high in calories for a recipe to be used more often than special occasions. The nutless ones I came across used miso...which interestingly one blogger claimed as being soy-free. Well, maybe she found the one made from chickpeas. Any way, I'm not ready to re-introduce soy into my diet to test my reaction yet and don't have time to wait to order chickpea miso or make calls trying to locate it locally. So substitution recipe for miso searching was needed. A few boards suggested using tahini or a tomato-paste/soy sauce substitution. I happened to have coconut aminos from my local Whole Foods to use instead of soy sauce/Braggs liquid amino-it's not as satisfying on my mochi and nori as soy sauce but it could just work for this recipe.I always keep a can of tomato paste in the pantry.

I'm not going to say the recipe really tastes anything like the cans of neon orange cheese, but by golly, I sure felt it was tasty and rich. I spent from about 6:40p-7:40p in the kitchen. A little prep work was done over the weekend (pepper roasting, soak beans).  I modified the recipe I found at Fo Reals Life to make it soy-free. And also tried making a soy-free tofu to put into this nacho "cheese" recipe (tofu not made from soy sounds contradictory, no? Apparently you can make tofu from other kinds of beans. And if you only have 45 minutes and chickpea flour, you're ready! I had no idea about any of this until I read this blog Triumph of the Lentil. If you enjoy legumes, I think this lady's blog is worth a gander. I hope to find some other recipes to try...maybe doing a test vegan body building month WOULD be possible without soy after all).

Here's the modifed ingredients and instruction:

NO DAIRY, NO NUT, NO SOY NACHO SAUCE

1/4 c. roasted red pepper (if making from scratch, just brush with oil, and roast at ~400F for 20 minutes, rotating 2-3 times if leaving whole so all sides get some charring. Place in a brown paper bag after for about 10 minutes to make the skin easier to peel off and pull out the seeds)
1/2 c. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 TBSP.sesame seeds
1 TBSP. tomato paste + 1 tbsp coconut aminos
1/4 c rice. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz of chickpea tofu (recipe below)-this was probably a cup of strips if you don't have a scale.
1 c.plain hemp milk
1/2 c. water

Stick all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Cook over medium-high heat until nice and thick. Stir constantly to avoid a burnt bottom.

Serve it with your favorite nacho fixings. My dinner consisted of toasting some corn tortillas until crisp and piling it high with arugula, chopped olives and some kidney beans.

NO SOY TOFU
I made a half recipe of what was on the original blog since my chickpea flour reserves are low and I still have half an 8x8 pan left to make an additional 2-3 meals this week-score!

1.25 cups chickpea flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups cold water

Mix together dry ingredients, breaking up lumps.

Put dry ingredients into a pan or saucepan. Adding water a bit at a time and breaking up lumps.

Turn on the heat to medium and keep stirring until the batter thickens (my half recipe took about 4 minutes on a gas stove, the original chef says her full batch was 7 minutes on electric). 

Grease the pan and then spread the batter evenly. Allow to cool/firm up on the counter 20-30 minutes before attempting to cut. Reminds me of polenta but so much faster (no hand cramps)! And more protein!

And to think this all started with getting a free bell pepper.

What was the last free/good deal you got without knowing what you were going to do with it? What did you end up making?

Rosemary Returns: Dry your own herbs, lemon-coconut cookies & Jamba "pizza" bread

I looked at great little potted herb, lettuce and pepper arrangements online at Better Homes and Gardens a month or two back. However, the airplant from my sister, a poinsettia from my work's Christmas party and a shrimp plant at my desk is all that's going on. I could use some outdoor time but what's holding me back? I don't know.

I did see a commercial for Home Depots Black Friday sale, 5 plants for $10...tempting! Maybe if I try starting my seedlings at work they will do better than last year. My other plants are thriving in the window there.


Even without herbs readily available on my patio, my box has started supplying again.  I set out the rosemary to dry on a cookie sheet since I can't get through all of it in two weeks. Here's a nice article on drying your own herbs and you don't need any fancy tools!

 With a cookie contest coming up at work and the lemons beaming at me from the window, it was inspiration for a twist on the super easy macaroon recipe I found during the holidays (hmm, this post will also feature a recipe with tomato paste like my one in December).

LEMON-ROSEMARY MACAROONS adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

• 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut (Try stores that carry items sold in bulk bins or, Fresh & Easy near me carries Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 tbsp flour of choice (I went with white rice flour)
• 1/2 cup lite canned coconut milk (or full-fat)--if you use full fat can save the rest for coconut milk whipped cream or dump 1/4 cup in with a frozen banana, some water and protein powder.
• 2-3 tbsp honey or other liquid sweetener (2 tbsp if you really want the rosemary to shine)
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• tiny bit over 1/16 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 tbsp lemon juice.

1. If using the regular oven pre-heat to 350. I use my toaster oven since this makes a small batch of about 16-1 tbsp sized cookies.

2. Chop rosemary leaves finely or pulse in your food processor.

3. Place all ingredients into a medium microwavable bowl and mix until evenly combined. Microwave for 3 minutes

4. Use a tablespoon (can press the batter into the scoop with your fingers to give the cookie better shape). and scoop out onto a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

5. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes (check earlier to see browning, seems like with lemon juice added it browns fast, you can see from the picture!)

 It reminds me of lemon bars without so much sugar-just that amount of tartness.

PIZZA BREAD adapted from Gluten Free Goddess

The next recipe is not perfect with the substitutions I tried (I think it may I may be using flax seeds instead of eggs and chickpea flour being quite dense. I also accidentally forgot to add the oil) but for some reason I still like this bread's flavor with the rosemary and tomato paste. I was happy that it did rise. It also kept me feeling full for a long time. From my hazy memories of high school hang outs, I thought of the pizza protein sticks from Jamba Juice. I was really happy doing the lemon-jam muffins earlier this year with ratio baking, so next need to gluten-free ratio for bread making which does the ingredients by weight. Or get a weight on the original ingredients (the oat flour) Though the portion may or may not work with my size bread machine.

Again, I used the bread machine recipe from Gluten Free Goddess, with a few changes:
.
DRY INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)
1/2 cup chickpea flour (maybe since it's so dense...the loaf baked weird)
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/ 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 packet rapid dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup finely chopped rosemary

WET INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups warm water (at 110 to 115ºF) 
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey- or raw agave nectar to keep it vegan 
1/2 teaspoon mild rice vinegar or lemon juice
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp ground flax seed with 8 TBSP hot water-mix and cover to let sit separately (or 2 eggs)

Add the ingredients in the order suggested by your bread machine (mine is dry, make a hole, add yeast, then add wet ingredients on top. Use the quick bread setting was a great tip from Gluten Free Goddess. And don't let the bread sit in the machine too long after it finishes baking (keep the crust from getting soggy).

My machine beeps when you can add in nuts or cheese, chocolate chips, etc. So I take that time to use a spatula to help things mix if they are looking a bit uneven.

Do you have an award winning recipe you're willing to share? If you haven't competed, what kind of contest would you want to enter?

Work-out Kale-Ginger-Apple "Biscuits"

The last three days the sleep in my eyes could not be dislodged easily. Getting up for oatmeal again wasn't encouraging. In tracking my protein intake, been doing a standard mix of 1/3 cup oats + 1/2 cup coconut milk (milk alternative) + 1/4 cup raisins + 5 g coconut sugar (low glycemic index) and cinnamon + 1 scoop Brown Rice protein powder. Tired of oatmeal means TIME FOR PANCAKES!!! But wait...I need more protein not just carbs for energy during these tiring circuit workouts...hmmm...

I know a few yoga friends have mentioned doing 3 day-juicing cleanses this month. I got inspired by that and I had some leftover pulp from my one-time (not ready for even a full day liquid cleanse yet) kale-ginger-orange-apple juicing snack last weekend (saved the pulp in a ziplock bag in the freezer). My mouth did a recoil from the amount of spiciness, the recipe called for 5 oz of ginger, I only did 2 oz. I do have to admit that it made me feel very alert. You know what else made me alert? Vitamin B-12. Dave let me have a little of his stash today after the lazy afternoon of watching The Croods (cute prehistoric animals, silly, brilliant/crystal clear visuals-go see it. I could be biased for liking Emma Stone). But back to the topic at hand, a hearty breakfast to fuel you in doing a work-out!

I decided to shake it up with another variation on the reliable gluten-free pancakes recipe and make a dent in my juicer pulp; however, I failed to consider that my new Sun Warrior Blend Protein Powder (Pea, Hemp and Cranberry protein) is very dense as is chickpea flour. My pancakes were a blobby-wobbly mess on the stove, so my second batch was thrown into the toaster oven on parchment paper. Which solved the doughy-center (raw chickpea flour makes my tongue cringe). There's a little touch savory flavor from the kale and ginger and some sweetness from the coconut sugar so I ate these without any sauces. I could see it being tasty with a sour cream (or dairy free nut "sour cream") or with jam if you have a sweet tooth. I also thought if the sugar was left out and  more herbs added it could be a great gluten-free topping for a pot pie (and includes protein if you're not doing a tofu or chicken pot pie)

 

INGREDIENTS for 10 biscuits

1.5 scoops of Sun Warrior Protein Blend (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBSP ground flax seed
2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
1/4 cup of leftover juicer pieces puree (I had kale-apple-ginger 1/2 cup blended with a few tbsp water)
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1 3/4 cup coconut milk (refrigerated milk alternative kind)



If using a regular oven, preheat to 400F.

1. Make your juicer puree.

2. Mix the ingredients starting at vanilla extract together in one bowl and allow to sit.

3. Mix the rest of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until uniformly mixed.

5. Place parchment paper on the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through if one side browns more than the other.

NUTRITION per biscuit :

128 calories; 6.0 g protein; 20.8 g carbs; 2.3 g fat;
10% Calcium
4% Vitamin A
1% Vitamin C
6% Iron
High in Manganese...whatever that is good for.

Are you working on getting healthy as the weather is growing nicer? And what changes are you making?

Sunshine in a Peel: Lemon Muffins and long-term Saving Juice

More than 3 or 4 years ago, an old roommate of mine told me about a book called Ratio. This book shared the magic of being able to substitute any flours, oils and liquids as long as they were in the proper ratio to consistently make delicious baked goods. Before I could try this out with my baking, I learned from doing a month long food allergy detox that wheat made me break out with acne. If I were going wheat free, would the ratio would still work? You'd think after I'd had my share of coming out with gluten-free but rock hard bread and never setting muffins, I would really want to figure this out. But life happens and I never got around to getting my hands on the book or trying to test it otherwise. Lucky me, a Gluten Free Ratio Rally was done in 2011 and a community of food bloggers did the experimenting and reported on the successes.

Because my co-workers generously shared their lemon tree harvest this month, I chose to try out one recipe that didn't make waste of the any of the fruit used lemon peel AND 1/2 a cup of juice (and then I toss the rest of the lemon in the garbage disposal or to run with a load of dishes) and got a tip on how to store the rest of the fruits!

BAKED GOOD:
 Meyer Lemon Muffins from Eat The Love, tastes like sunshine and includes a dollop of jam. (while I didn't get to try making the author's strawberry basalmic jam, I had success with my September homemade freezer jam-followed the recipe for fruit on the pectin label as well as with store bought rapsberry jam.)

Notes on the results: My muffins don't have a fancy candied lemon. I was not sure they would stick without the frosting. The muffins don't have to have the frosting to taste good in my opinion but they are a nice flourish, especially since he did a charitable bake sale. Isn't his photography scrumptious? I thought the texture was cake-like (kind that makes crumbs when you bite it, maybe this is from using flax instead of eggs).  Someone else's blog that using cornflour makes a nice light bite but can have a chalky taste. I noticed that a little so I might try reducing the amount of cornflour next time, and pair with another starch like potato (makes denser, another blog tip) or tapioca.

Here is his recipe for the muffin with my ALCAT detox ingredient tweaks noted in blue. I made two versions. Any tweaks you make should also work as long as you keep the ratios of flour, starch (tapioca, corn, potato), liquids and fats! Easily adaptable recipes that avoid big shopping trips make my day.

100 g (1 cup + 1 tablespoon) oat flour [I made my own grinding Quaker oats in the magic bullet]
100 g (I forgot to measure non-metric equivalent) white rice flour and brown rice flour 50/50 blend
50 g (again forgot to measure non-metric) buckwheat flour or brown rice protein powder for extra nutrtition.
60 g (1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) cornstarch
zest of 2 meyer lemons, finely grated
170 g (3/4 cup) white granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar (lower glycemic index)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
6 oz (170 g or 3/4 cup) of coconut milk (carton kind you drink like cow's milk) or hemp milk
2 oz (57 g or 1/4 cup) of meyer lemon juice
2 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp hot water (this is an egg replacer)
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
113 g (1 stick or 1/2 cup) of melted coconut oil or canola oil


1. Make your flax "eggs". Put flax in a mug, add hot water and cover with a plate for 10 minutes to allow it time to gel.

2. Preheat the oven to 350F.

3. Mix dry ingredients (includes lemon zest) together in a medium bowl.

4. Mix wet ingredients in a larger bowl.

5.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to incorporate.

4.  Line your muffin tin (I found parchment paper liners at Sprouts!) and fill the liners with about 2tbsp of batter. Add 1/2-1 tbsp of jam. Top with another tbsp of batter. Your liners should be 2/3-3/4 full. Adjust amount of batter depending on size of your tins.

5. Bake 18-20 minutes or until muffin tops are golden/browned lightly and stick in a knife tip or tooth pick to come out clean.


PRESERVING JUICE:
Co-worker recommended a great way to avoid waste when you have a trove of lemons. She boils the juice and skims off any foam. Then puts it into a very clean container (perhaps dip a glass jar and it's lid separately, in boiling water with tongs...that is what I end up doing for freezer jam). She reports that the juice will keep for months this way. I plan to try this out this weekend with my remaining fruits and will report back if I notice anything growing (if I don't use it up first...lemon bars are still tempting me!) *UPDATE: won't get to report on this afterall, Dave made some fresh squeezed lemonade for Super Bowl.*

What is your must have eats for the Super Bowl?

Here fishy, fishy! (45 minute-baked whole trout with herbs with 3 sides ideas)

I tend to purchase my fish so that it does not resemble the animal. But the seasonal Idaho trout (fresh, not frozen), already gutted and cleaned from the farmer's market said "take me home" through its bitty pointed teeth. If you can get past the eyeballs and all, this makes a nice low maintenance weekday meal. The vendor suggested that some lemon slices and fresh herbs tucked into the fish would be an easy, healthy meal. Just place in a baking pan, wrapped up in parchment paper at 350 F for 30-35 minutes until the fish flakes easily.

Fresh dill and lime slices flavored my fish. After it was done baking, it got seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Be careful of the bones...especially trout, such delicate little things.

So, I am not aware of how to serve a whole fish elegantly. (too lazy and hungry to find an instructional video) Some day soon I should make myself an artful dish.

First serving I ate with green beans with a bragg's amino, honey, garlic and olive oil marinade leftover from my london broil earlier in the week.

Second and third serving were eaten with some diced tomatoes that were cooked about 10 minutes with onions, fresh herbs, a bit of salt and sugar to taste and some pan steamed lemon-juice sesame seed chopped frisee.


The last serving, I ate with shredded butternut squash pancakes from Food Wishes' blog  and carrot top pesto (a dairy free concoction in a blender: carrot greens saving stems for another recipe as they are too woody to blend, 1/2 cup toasted pinenuts done at low 300F for 3 minutes in the toaster oven-easy to burn so watch them nuts!, 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 1/4 cup olive oil and enough water to make pesto to desired thickness, add salt if desired to taste)

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With the bones, head and tail, I threw in a pot with some onion, carrot and kale stems and herbs to simmer for an hour in a small pot and made 3 cups worth of stock. I should have bundled it all in cheesecloth (which can be really hard to find if it's not near Thanksgiving. I better go stock up now since the only store very convenient to me that I could find it in closed down [Ralph's]) but I just used a mesh strainer for now. Later in the week, I made a corn-beet greens chowder with the trout broth with nutritional yeast and topped with cut up scallops. Added 1 tsp of cumin and 1/2 tsp of tumeric for flavor and cheery color.

The joys/challenges of cooking for 1...trying to keep something interesting when it makes 4 or more servings. Different sauces and the freezer are allies in these efforts.

Speaking of things that swim, my co-worker R recalled the days when Sea World had trainers in the shows in the water, being tossed up by the animals. He said but now the "big ol' fish" can't do anything like that. To which R squared replied, that is a  "lactating fish, brotha!" Gotta love biologists. What live entertainment show has changed/gone away that you miss?

Indian Culture & Vegan Snack-Lighter Pakora's

Ate at Bawarchi Dosas in Miramar area with Kristina this month. I just love Southern Indian for offering Chinese dishes on the menu as well as having some bread-like items that are often made from lentil, chickpea or rice flour (I will always miss naan but this makes up for it).

 Kristina kept getting distracted by the odd dance videos playing on the TV screen behind me. The man mainly gave Zoo-lander-esque looks as he pauses from his Ricky Martin type dancing the in rain routine at a club. The woman sadly stares at him from across the room and a glistening tear rolls down her cheek. Her hair whips around in the wind.   He steps down and walks ever so slowly towards her while putting on his sunglasses (in the club). The other thing that we noticed is that the man and woman in each video never actually kissed. Cultural value? I did a little reading on BBC.

 Aside from having bouts of laughter, we were adventurous and tried Masala Papad (note: order yummy yogurt based mango lassi drink to go with this mouth numbing crispy lentil-based appetizer.)  I have seen papads at Fresh and Easy (or am sure the Indian market near this restaurant carries them) that you can just fry up at home, or apparently you can microwave them if you are trying to be healthier.

Speaking of trying to be healthier, I tested out a baked pakora recipe I found on Irreverent Vegan's blog over the weekend. I wish I hadn't run out of parchment paper-trying to butter up foil did not cut it...but at least stuck on there is better than having to soak and scrub the cookie sheets.  I chopped up beet greens to use instead of spinach and also just add grated zuchini as that is what I had on hand. Personally, I was a bit put off by the chutney that went with the recipe. I think I am used to/prefer the more vinegar-based chutneys and it was a bit much on the ginger for my liking (and I do like ginger-pickled with sushi, in candy form, for upset tummy as a tea). I've copied the pakora recipe below with my modifications. I think next time I might try decreasing the salt. I would make this again-very tasty even without a sauce. Just be ready to heat up your home-500 F bake temp! Nice winter recipe, no? Save on your heating bill! We're just starting to have drizzly, light jacket weather here.

Baked Pakora (chickpea battered veggies)

• three handfuls of chopped leafy greens (beet greens today)
• one zucchini grated-this one was probably about 1" diameter and 7" long
• 2 cups chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour-I got Bob's Redmill brand, starting to see this available at even regular chain grocery stores now, but again go for Indian market if you want it cheaper. I liked the taste of the Redmill flour though.
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp red pepper (optional)
• 1 1/2 tsp dried coriander (cilantro)
• 1 1/2 cups water

Tools needed: spatula safe for oven flipping, cookie sheets, parchment paper, 1 large bowl

Pre-heat the oven to 500 F.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add water a bit at a time, until you make it a bit thicker-than-muffin batter type consistency. Add your rinsed, chopped/grated veggies (you can be creative here use what you have on hand) and mix until covered with batter.

 Spoon batter onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. The lumps should hold their form (not keep spreading) The size lumps I  made yielded about 12 pakora. Make bigger or smaller-just adjust the cooking time (also depends on your oven, I had to take mine out early). 

The original recipe has you bake on one side 8 minutes and then flip the pakora on the other side for 10 to get the crunchy crust. Mine only needed 8 minutes on the second side, luckily I stayed in the kitchen because they brown fast!

 

What recipe have you health-ified and loved? (or hated?)  What's your take on PDA's in public?