Pressure Cooker Risotto

My sister is flying in for a vacation from Bangalore, India in just three weeks and I am giddy with excitement. My head is spinning with mental lists of all the things I want to cook for her and all the places I want to take her- we will be meeting after 5 whole years. By the way, for those familiar with food stores in Bangalore, are there any foodie must-haves I should request her to bring along? She's been asking me if I would like anything from Bangalore and my favorite gifts are always of the food variety.

In preparation for her visit, I am eating down the pantry so I can restock it properly. I especially want to finish off the ingredients that I think of as "winter" ones and also use up obscure ingredients that are taking up precious pantry space. Yesterday, I found a package of arborio rice with a little over a cup of rice in it. I also found some nutritional yeast, an impulse purchase that I never got around to using. Pairing these pantry finds with some butternut squash and inspired by this recipe for pressure cooker risotto, I was able to make a creamy and comforting one dish meal in about 10 minutes of active cooking time. The nutritional yeast adds a complex cheesy flavor (perfect because I had no parmesan cheese on hand) and this dish happens to be vegan.

Around this time last year, I visited my friend Cathy in Maryland and she cooked me dinner after fabulous dinner. One evening she made a delicate butternut squash risotto perfumed with fresh ginger and garlic. With that taste memory resurfacing, I added fresh ginger and garlic to this dish with wonderful results.

Butternut Squash Risotto in the Pressure Cooker

(Adapted from this recipe, serves 3-4)

1. Heat the pressure cooker with 2 to 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil. 
2. Add 1 medium minced onion and 1 tbsp. each minced fresh ginger and garlic. Saute for a few minutes until the onions are fragrant and translucent.
3. Add 1 cup (I had a little over 1 cup) arborio rice and toast it for a couple of minutes.
4. Add 2 to 3 cups butternut squash, cut in small cubes. Stir in 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, 3 cups vegetable stock, salt (only if needed) and pepper to taste. 
5. Snap on the lid and pressure cook. Garnish with fresh herbs if you have some on hand.

This hands-off risotto is just as good as the one made with the stir-until-your-arms-fall-off variety. It might have been a tad overcooked mostly because my pressure cooker is sometimes too efficient for its own good. Next time, I'll rush to shut off the heat at the hint of the first whistle.

We filled up on creamy risotto and then went off to see the opening night of a hilarious musical put up by a talented group of medical school students. This week it feels like all the fun of Spring and Summer is finally kicking off.

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The National Food Blogger Bake Sale is scheduled a few weeks from now, on May 14^th 2011. With every brownie and lemon bar and slice of pie, this bake sale seeks to raise awareness and funds to end childhood hunger in the US. If you are interested in baking for this event, or just want to go snag a few treats for yourself, check this list to see if there are bake sales planned in your state and city.

Stef of the Cupcake Project is one of the hosts of the St. Louis edition of the bake sale. If you are in St. Louis, check her post to see how you can participate. I am planning to bake a couple of items- both with an Indian touch. More on that later. 

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

Recyled Rice

It is 5 AM this Saturday morning and V is busy watching the India- Sri Lanka cricket world cup finals. I am glancing every now and then at the score as I sip my tea, but I thought I would quickly share a very humble recipe that I made this week- a stir fry of vegetables and leftover rice.

A version of this recipe made a frequent appearance on the family table when I was growing up, called phodnicha bhaat in Marathi, which translates as tempered rice. Boiled rice was a staple at almost every meal and invariably there would be some left over. Throwing away this rice was an absolute no-no. A little ghee or oil and a smattering of fragrant spices (mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida) is all is takes to transform old rice into a tastier avatar. One version of phodnicha bhaat has lots of curry leaves; another version has a heady aroma with lots of minced garlic added to the tempering.

I love to make my version with thick slices of vegetables, cooked briefly so they stay crunchy and juicy. Pav bhaji masala, a store-bought mix of spices, is a quick way to add lots of savory flavor. I used vegetable juice (of which the V8 brand is best known but every store has its own, I used the Trader Joe's version) to add flavor and to wake up the dry rice.

The vegetables can be whatever you have lurking around. Onions, peppers and peas are always good. I had partial boxes of mushrooms and cherry tomatoes this time. These were offerings from Neighbor Girl. She drops in for dinner all the time, and usually brings something from her kitchen "to contribute to the dinner". It does not matter that the offerings have nothing whatsoever to do with that night's menu. I try and use them the following day! I find it very funny and touching that after dining with us on a regular basis for several months, Miss All-American Neighbor Girl craves dal and subzi and dahi for dinner.

Masala Fried Rice

(2 to 3 servings)

Ingredients:
2 cups cold cooked rice (white or brown, your choice)
2 tsp. oil
¹⁄₂ cup vegetable juice (like V8) or equal parts tomato puree and water
Plenty of minced cilantro for garnish

Vegetables:
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
¹⁄₂ green pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced
Handful cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful frozen peas (optional)

Spices:
¹⁄₂ tsp. ginger garlic paste
¹⁄₂ tsp. turmeric powder
¹⁄₂ tsp. red chilli powder
1-2 tsp. pav bhaji masala (I love Everest brand)
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil and saute the onion until translucent. Add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry on medium high heat for a few minutes.
2. Add all the ingredients listed under spices. Stir fry for a minute.
3. Add the cooked rice and vegetable juice and mix well. If the rice you are using is quite dry, you may need more vegetable juice. Cover and let the rice heat through until it is steaming- 8 to 10 minutes. The rice at the bottom of the pan should get slightly crisp and browned.
4. Garnish with minced cilantro.

I love serving this fried rice with a scoop of chilled plain yogurt, and it gets even better if you pile on some kettle cooked potato chips on your plate, for that utterly crave-able combination of spicy rice and vegetables, cool, creamy yogurt and the satisfying crunch of chips. With the very first bite, you will forget that you're eating leftovers.

Is it just me, or are these quick and humble dinners a hundred times more soul-satisfying than any elaborate party dish you could be served?

On The Bookshelf

Lately, the winter funk has been my excuse to indulge in all kinds of comfort reading in the form of non-cerebral cozy mysteries. I love me a good murder mystery but it is not always easy to find authors who strike the right balance between high quality writing and a fast paced, juicy story line.

I need to thank Niranjana of Brown Paper for introducing me to Patricia Wentworth- I managed to find a couple of her books in the library and I agree with everything Niranjana says in her terrific review.

A Ravelry friend introduced me to a website called Cozy Mystery designed for devotees of the genre. And from the lists there, I managed to find two authors that I've really enjoyed reading.

The first is Susan Hill- her detective is the brooding Simon Serrailer.

My very favorite find has been Caroline Graham and her Inspector Barnaby. I love her style of creating a world of interesting characters and I have a feeling I'll be reading one of her books every week until the weather gets nicer or until my two libraries run out of her works, whichever comes first. It is lovely to know that cozy mystery reading does not begin and end with Agatha Christie and that there are plenty more whodunits out there waiting to be read.

What are you reading these days? Have a lovely weekend!

Portable Chaat and Doctored Ice Cream

Hello again! What started as a brief blog break somehow turned into several weeks of hibernation. We've had the kind of wet, cold, miserable weather that made me want to snuggle on the couch with a pile of good books, and I gave in and did exactly that.

Then yesterday the sun came out and I could feel the warmth soaking into me and infusing me with a burst of energy, so here I am with a couple of non-recipes, simple little things I made this weekend.

Chaat (the name given to a variety of Indian street food) is generally a gloriously messy affair. I've never thought of chaat as a particularly portable treat because of the dripping sticky chutneys, the fact that most chaats have a dozen components and that these components are often held at different temperatures and best assembled right before eating. But this past Saturday I wanted to take a snack for my trivia team and the chickpeas and potatoes in the pantry and the date tamarind chutney in the fridge persistently suggested that I should make some aloo tikki chana chaat. I've already posted the recipes for the components here. This was an experiment to see if I can convert this chaat into a portable format. It worked very well. The chaat was in good shape even after a car ride and 2 hours after I assembled it, every last one had been devoured without any mess at all.

This is how I assembled it right before we left home: in a 9 x 13 baking dish (a Pyrex or ceramic dish would be the prettiest choice but I used my battered metal one because it has a snap-on cover), start by arranging the shallow-fried tikkis (potato patties). Some breadcrumbs in the tikki mixture really helped to give them a crisp coating. Next comes a scoop of chana, where the chana is made a little drier than usual and where you try and get the chana to fit onto the tikki. Then a dollop of thick date tamarind chutney, followed by thick yogurt whipped with salt and paprika, and minced fresh cilantro. Cover the tray and you are set. The sev goes in a separate container to be sprinkled on generously right before everyone dives in.

* * *

Among the books I've reading lately were two by Marsha Mehran; they tell the story of three sisters who flee violence in their home country of Iran and seek refuge in a small town in Ireland where they open a cafe. I first heard of these books when Lavanya mentioned them in a comment on this post. 

The books are worth reading for the luscious food writing and unusual Iranian recipes. I enjoyed the story line in the first book, Pomegranate Soup but thought the plot in the second novel Rosewater and Soda Bread was weak and utterly unsatisfying. But this second book did have a scene in which the younger sister assembles a dessert called rosetachio ice cream. She simply scoops vanilla ice cream into a bowl and tops it with a drizzle of rosewater and a sprinkle of chopped pistachios. As she is doing this, she has an intense conversation with her oldest sister. I could not focus on the conversation because I was busy thinking, boy, this ice cream sounds so good. 

    

Luckily, I had half a carton of vanilla ice cream in the freezer and made this 2 minute dessert on Sunday night. It is a great way to doctor up some plain vanilla and transport yourself to more exotic (warmer!) lands with every spoonful. 

• Soften good quality vanilla ice cream by leaving it out on the counter for 20 minutes or so. 
• Stir in a splash of rosewater and a handful of chopped toasted pistachios. 
• Freeze again, then serve.

Dale's Tales

Dale had an exciting new experience last month- he got to be a food critic- a taste tester for some local dog treats. My friend Deborah and her pup stopped by one morning with two local dog treats, and Dale got a chance to taste them and offer his expert opinion. If you'd like to read the article, here it is.

Now that the food critic gig is over, Dale is back to his regular full time job as chief daybed tester.

Dinner in 20 Minutes, and a Blog Birthday

I make dinner in 20 minutes- that is what I claimed in this post. I got several comments and e-mails asking me- Really? How? Is it true or am I exaggerating?

Dinner prep in my home starts at 6 PM and we eat at 7 PM. 20 minutes is my average hands-on time in the kitchen when the burners are turned on and there is a hum of chopping and stirring; by 6:20 I am out of the kitchen, flipping through magazines on the couch or browsing through my favorite blogs. The stove or oven is off sometime between then and 6:45. The food rests for 15 minutes and then we eat.

These are some of my favorite tips for putting a quick meal together. There are no surprises here but these little things do matter:

1. The need for speed. I work very fast in the kitchen. Some of it has to do with practice- I have been cooking quick dinners on a daily basis for almost 10 years. A lot of it has to do with my innate personality- I am not a perfectionist but I tend to do almost everything very fast. If you tend to be overly slow and methodical, it might be worthwhile to practice your chopping skills by using cooking classes or videos, or to invest in a better knife. Chopping tends to be the most time consuming step in a recipe.
2. Controlled multi-tasking. I multi-task to some extent. There's no time to measure and lay out all the ingredients in little bowls. So the pan is already heating with oil as I start chopping onions and garlic. As a dish is simmering, I am already putting away things and cleaning the counters.
3. Simplicity. We eat simple meals with one or two dishes. There are no multi-course dinners in my home- all I can promise is that everything will be fresh and tasty. 
4. Plan the menu. As my tea brews in the morning (a full 12 hours before dinner prep), I look through the fridge, freezer and pantry and decide what to make for dinner that night. This is because my creativity is at an all-time low in the evenings. I can also soak lentils/beans, thaw something in the refrigerator if required, and cut down on cooking time in the evening. 
5. Don't overcook food. I never bother with long simmering for weekday meals. Rather, I tend to cook with fairly high heat, then turn the heat off and let the food rest for a few minutes to bring the flavors together. Crunchy vegetables taste much better in any case. 
6. Set the stage for a peaceful cooking session. I set the stage for the evening cooking event by doing the breakfast dishes and wiping down the counters before I leave for work in the morning. It only takes 10 minutes at most but it is soothing to walk into a beautifully tidy and clean kitchen in the evening. In the same way, it pays to toss out all the clutter from the kitchen and only keep what is really necessary to cook efficiently. 
7. Use time-saving appliances. Like most Indian cooks, I cannot live without my pressure cooker- a magical appliance when it comes to speedy cooking. I bought a rice cooker earlier this year and again, it has been saving us time on a daily basis. I also use my immersion blender for quick soups and curries, food processor for quick shredding and dough kneading and the microwave for quickly thawing food and cooking certain vegetables like winter squash.
8. Accept help from family members. Although you are hearing the word "I" a lot in this list, the fact is that V is an equal partner in making dinner. We love to cook together as we chat about the day. Dinner prep can be quality family time and not a chore.
9. Make extra dinner and pack lunches. I think of time spent making dinner as an investment and it makes sense to get two meals out of it. We make 4 portions of each dish for dinner, then pack lunches for the next day. Cooking once a day is far less exhausting than if every meal has to be cooked at separate times. 
10. Be kind to yourself. Every few days, we take a planned break from the cooking routine and order take-out from our favorite Thai restaurant or Chinese restaurant or pizza place. It is hard to cook when you are hungry and tired. I always treat myself to a cup of tea and a snack before cooking dinner. 

Over the years, I have come up with a long list of dishes that V and I (and visiting friends and family) enjoy eating for dinner. The general strategy is to mix and match: Usually I pick one thing from the list of main dishes and another from the list of sides. When you do the math, the possibilities are truly endless. 

Main dishes, with a few examples from each category:

1. Dal: We have dozens of dal recipes in the dinner rotation, from the amtis, usal and pithale that I grew up with to regional specialties from other parts of India. Many of the dals I make already contain vegetables, like this radish dal.

2. Curry: This includes bean-based curries like chana masala and rajma, yogurt-based kadhi, Thai inspired curries with a peanut or coconut base, and other curry dishes like mock kheema. I sometimes serve curries with bread instead of rice as a variation. Pav bhaji is quick enough to be a weeknight meal. Stews like chilis are yet another version of curries. 

3. Sandwiches: Vegetable cheese sandwiches are a perennial favorite in my home.

4. Pulao, khichdi and fried rice: These are easy way to combine all kinds of ingredients into one dish.

5. Pasta and noodles: In winter, it is often pasta with cheese sauces, and in summer, pesto pasta salad and pad thai. Every few months, we enjoy maggi with vegetables.

6. Tortilla-based dishes: These include kidney bean wraps, burritos and quesadillas. We also eat whole wheat tortillas with subzi as a quick Indian meal. 

7. Egg dishes: Egg curry, burji, and egg pulao all come together in less than 20 minutes. 

8. Idli and dosa: Breakfast for dinner is very popular in my home. Every two weeks, I make a big batch of dosa batter. When there's no batter on hand, there are always instant dosas like rawa dosa and tomato omelet.

Sides:


1. Subzi (bhaaji in Marathi): Indian-style spiced stir-fried vegetables; there are a million variations of these, either using a single vegetable in the subzi or combinations of vegetables. Subzis work equally well as a side to dal-rice or yogurt-rice and as a stuffing for tortillas or sandwiches.

2. Roasted vegetables: A great option for chopping vegetables into chunks, tossing with olive oil and seasonings, and letting them roast unsupervised in the oven. We love sweet potato fries, roasted cauliflower and roasted green beans. 

3. Soup: If the main dish contains legumes or eggs, I often make a vegetable soup. If the main dish does not have a lot of protein, I tend to make soups with beans or dairy, like broccoli-cheese or black bean pumpkin. Rasam is a wonderful soup for winter.

4. Salads: This is a general term for all kinds of dishes with raw vegetables, whether it is salad greens from the store or shredded vegetables like cabbage, cucumber, carrots, beets, simply dressed with peanut powder and lemon juice or yogurt.

None of these dishes I have mentioned take me longer than 15 to 20 minutes of active prep time or 30 to 45 minutes of total time. By keeping a well-stocked kitchen, borrowing heavily from all cuisines and rotating the dishes we enjoy eating, dinner time is something we look forward to every night.

Do you agree with my list? If you any tips or ideas to add, please leave a comment. We could all use some fresh ideas for putting delicious dinners on the table. 

* * *

One Hot Stove turns 6 years old this week! This blog has given me so much: a platform to hone my cooking skills and writing skills, real life opportunities and friends from all over the world. Most of all, it has taught me a very important life lesson, that if you have a passion for something and work on it just a little bit every day, over the years it can build into quite a large body of work.

This birthday celebration calls for some cake. Here is a bundt cake I made last weekend to share with my soup swapping friends. The recipe is Lemon Bliss Cake from the King Arthur blog and website. It makes a huge cake as you can see but by the end of the evening, there were only a few crumbs left on this cake stand- it is absolutely delicious in a classic timeless way. This is a cake that I will make again and again, especially since I splurged and bought the lemon oil that the recipe calls for.

Going forward with One Hot Stove, I intend to keep writing new posts as often as I can, but without stressing out about how frequently I post. The blog is a hobby and a joy and not a second job, and I intend to keep it that way. When I have something to say, when there is an exciting new recipe to be shared, I will certainly share it. But my goal for this new blog year is to focus on quality rather than quantity.

After all, the poor blog has to compete with a dozen other things that I also enjoy doing in my free time- reading and knitting and dancing, and now, a new toy that came home with me last week:

To everyone who takes the time to read my blog: Thank you for being a cherished part of my life, and for letting me and One Hot Stove be a tiny part of yours.

Cookbook Review: One Big Table

Like many cooking enthusiasts, I read cookbooks the way other people read novels. Some cookbooks are really fun to read this way, and one I especially remember was the New York Cookbook by Molly O'Neill which provided me with hours of entertainment back when I lived in NYC, although I never did cook anything from it.

When someone from the publishers Simon & Schuster e-mailed me a couple of months ago about reviewing Molly O'Neill's newest cookbook, I happily agreed. They kindly let me download a free e-book version of this book to review.

Molly O'Neill's One Big Table was everything I hoped it would be- over the holidays, I spent many many happy hours reading this book, and here are 10 things I loved about this book.

1. It appeals to my penchant for armchair travel. In the introduction, O'Neill talks about how she packed up and traveled around the US searching for "motley crews of food obsessives" as she puts it. With this cookbook, I experienced all the fun of stumbling across wonderful food all over the United States without dealing with airport pat-downs.

2. I love regional food and this food cross-crosses the country discovering local favorites and regional flavors. I am determined to make the Southern pimento cheese; I have now heard so much about it and the recipe in this book has won awards at Pimento Cheese events (!)

3. The cookbook is illustrated with very interesting pictures. It calls itself "a portrait of American cooking" and the book is full of sweet candid photos of home cooks smiling from kitchen tables, proudly holding their dishes and participating in community events. There are also dozens of historical pictures and vintage posters about food and cooking.

4. This is a cookbook without borders. People from almost every culture in the world make their home in the United States, and their recipes are represented in this book in large numbers. Among recipes from home cooks who have roots in India, there is a recipe for rawa dosa using cream of wheat, and another for saag paneer using broccolini and collard greens, and many more.

5. Each recipe tells the story of the cook who shared it. It is immensely entertaining to come across the personalities of these home cooks- passionate, funny, warm people all- and it is easy to identify with them. For instance, the woman who shared a recipe for ranch dressing has this to say about the first time she tasted ranch dressing: "Smack me with a lettuce leaf, those are the flavors I want in my mouth". I hear ya!

6. There is a big dose of history in this book. I learned that the pop-up toaster was invented before sliced bread was widely available, and that the invention of an appliance that would make perfect toast without burning bread was an engineering dilemma that stumped many inventors. There are bits of interesting trivia about the invention of American icons such as Ball Jars, Philadelphia cream cheese and Green Bean Casserole.

7. There are plenty of knock-off recipes, and you know how much I love those. For instance, Campbell's Tomato Soup and Onion Soup Mix both sound like intriguing recipes I would like to try.

8. It contains 600 recipes- there really is something for everyone. Although the book as a whole is very heavy on meat, poultry and seafood, just as contemporary American cooking is, I've still managed to bookmark many recipes, including Jeni's Awesome Dirt Road Ice cream from the famous Jeni's of Ohio.

9. It is available in e-book form as well as the traditional paper form, and I love the option of having a digital paperless cookbook with a search function to quickly look up recipes.

10. I found a new recipe for classic American macaroni and cheese that I will make again and again; see below.

Just last week, V dropped a casual hint that I haven't made mac and cheese in a while so this seemed to be the right recipe to try on him.

I normally make a very non-traditional version of macaroni and cheese (I've posted it 5 years ago!) with a white sauce base. This recipe suits me because I like cheese to play a subtle background role in dishes. My constant dinner companions, V and Neighbor Girl, love cheese to play the main role and to be used in vast quantities. The following recipe is for people like them rather than people like me.

As with all recipes in this cookbook, Molly O'Neill interviews the home cook whose recipe this is. This lady explains that she cannot imagine a gathering without macaroni and cheese and that she likes this dish to be plain and pure. She mentions watching cook-offs on Food Network where people tried to glam up mac and cheese by adding artichokes or whatever, and says, "I don't know anyone who would do a thing like that". I'm shaking my head in agreement- why fix what isn't broken?

The construction of this dish was very unusual for me, but very easy to put together with minimal stovetop cooking. Elbow macaroni is cooked until just tender, then macaroni and tiny cubes of cheese are layered in the baking dish. A custard of eggs and milk is poured over it and with a quick topping, the dish is baked. How beautifully simple!

Mac and Cheese

Adapted from "Helen Griffin Williams' Macaroni and Cheese" from the cookbook One Big Table by Molly O'Neill

1. Mac: Heat a pot of salted water and boil two cups elbow macaroni (8 oz. or half of the standard package) until barely tender. Drain the macaroni and rinse in cold water to prevent the pasta from overcooking.

2. Cheese: Meanwhile, use 1/2 lb. mild cheddar and 1/2 lb. sharp cheddar and chop each block of cheese into small cubes. Mix the cheese cubes and set aside.

3. Sauce: In a bowl, whisk together

• 2 eggs
• 2.5 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. mustard (powder or paste)
• 1 tsp. pepper (I used black pepper but white pepper is recommended)

4. Prep: Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray an 8 x 8 baking dish with oil.

5. Layer: In the baking dish, add one-third of the pasta and spread in an even layer. Top with one-third of the cheese, again sprinkled evenly. Repeat two more times to use up pasta and cheese in even layers. Pour the seasoned milk mixture evenly. Jiggle the pan to distribute the milk sauce.

6. Top and Bake: Top with breadcrumbs and paprika. Bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and until the crust is browned. Let the mac and cheese rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

If you love cheese, this is THE mac and cheese for you. V and Neighbor Girl just about swooned over the taste. There is a very high ratio of cheese to pasta which is what makes it so rich and delicious. I served the mac and cheese with a beet and arugula salad, and chickpea cutlets for a complete dinner.

I'm hosting a Soup Swap this weekend- and I've bullied several of my friends into signing up. If you live in the St. Louis area and would like to participate, write me an e-mail. I have a few spots left.

On Freezing Indian Food

A reader e-mailed me with this question,

"Do you know how to freeze homemade Indian food for future use? Till now, I have been making fresh meals but now at times I feel the need to have something ready and hate to go to restaurants."

To freeze or not to freeze?
I don't have much experience with freezing Indian meals. It is because my weeknight meals take barely 20 minutes of hands-on time to make. Cooking every evening from scratch fits in well in my schedule. But it is certainly worthwhile to know what Indian (and other) meals freeze well. It comes in handy in various situations when you simply don't have the time to shop or cook but need the comfort of a meal at home. Freezer-ready meals are also a thoughtful gift for friends and neighbors who are dealing with a new baby, recovering from surgery etc.

Freezing ready-to-eat Indian dishes

• Idlis freeze beautifully. Popping them in the microwave results in soft idlis that are as good as new.
• Curries containing beans and with a tomato-onion base freeze well, like chana masala (chhole) and rajma.

Freezing for faster meal prep:

• Meera has an excellent post on freezing sprouts so that nutritious usals, sprout pulaos and curries can be made without planning ahead.
• I sometimes soak and pressure-cook 2 or 3 times the amount of toor dal I need for one meal. Then I freeze the rest in small containers. This is especially useful when making vegetable-heavy sambar or thin rasams where only a modest amount of toor dal is needed for one batch. 
• Making curries is a snap if you have the frozen curry base or masala paste on hand. 
• Anita writes about freezing vegetables, and about freezing steamed koftas for almost instant kofta curry. 

Do share your own experience with freezing Indian food. Any successes or cautionary tales we could benefit from?

Apart from Indian food, I like to freeze

• Rolls of cookie dough, ready to slice and bake
• Egg whites
• Over-ripe bananas
• Whole wheat tortillas (which double as rotis in my home)
• Nuts and flours, especially in the summer when these can get rancid quickly in the St. Louis heat

Freezer-friendly links, a baker's dozen:

Large batch of pancakes for the freezer, Bulk freezer breakfast burritos, Easy chickpea freezer patties, Freezer burritos, Stock your freezer: tips and tricks, How to host a soup swap to stock your freezer with a delicious variety of soups, Single portion vegetarian frozen meals, Freezer jam, Freezer pickles, Tomato sauce for the freezer, Homemade bouillon for the freezer, Revelations of the kitchen freezer, Fill the freezer menu.

Know Thy Freezer (or the contents thereof, anyhow)
There's no point stocking the freezer if we forget what's in there- so keeping a well-organized freezer is essential. In fact, writing this post is making me run to my own freezer and clean it out and restock it. An empty freezer is not such a great thing either- freezers are most efficient when they are at least two-thirds full. Needless to say, overstuffing the freezer does nothing for efficiency.

Dale's Tales

Speaking of freezing...

A farewell to 2010, with mini quiches

It has been a good year for One Hot Stove. Here are a few highlights:

1. The summer of 2010 had me moving into a new kitchen and sharing a few pics of my new playground. Two new appliances found their way into my kitchen- an ice cream maker which kept us happy all summer (and my peeps decided that the peanut butter chocolate was their favorite flavor of all the ones I tried), and a rice cooker that I use on a daily basis, making me wonder why I lived without it for so long.

2. I discovered two brownie recipes that I absolutely love, fudgy cocoa brownies and cheesecake brownies, and I hereby declare that my brownie needs have been met (each of these recipes has been made multiple times this year) and I won't be chasing after new brownie recipes in 2011. Maybe.

3. In keeping with my goal of making basic staples at home whenever possible, I continued to make yogurt at home this year and got much better with practice. And I haven't posted it on the blog, but this year I started making ghee at home, inspired by the Back to Basics event. Taking a cue from PJ, I have been adding a curry leaf to my home-made ghee and the resulting ghee is the most wonderful thing.

4. We enjoyed local food tremendously this year, buying produce from local farmers through Summer and Fall and enjoying them in dishes such as this roasted tomato chutney with dosa.

5. I am thrilled that I finally started composting my kitchen scraps on a regular basis. I also resolved to minimize food waste, and I hope to further streamline my cooking life in 2011.

6. I had been missing the Monthly Blog Patrol event and so launched a similar event, Blog Bites in February- it has been fun (the next round will be in February- I'm taking Jan off from the event to spend some time updating the recipe index and other blog housekeeping). My favorite was this round where we used up items lurking in the pantry and fridge.

7. Thanks to the Of Chalks and Chopsticks event, I wrote two stories and have a new-found respect for fiction writers! It is fun to try something new even if you do risk making a fool of yourself in quite a public way.

8. On a whim, I live-blogged a few hours of my Thanksgiving cooking marathon and enjoyed the experience of a cozy day cooking at home while the first snow of the season silently cloaked the world outside.

9. I've said it before and I'll say it again- my favorite recipes come from other food bloggers, not from cookbooks or TV shows or any other sites. Here are just three of the recipes that I discovered this year that are part of my life now: Kanchan's soy kheema, Richa's Punjabi dal and Arundati's tomato saalan. I love you, all the wonderful bloggers out there, thank you for sharing and being my teachers.

10. Finally, I practiced the art of making pie crust at home and made this chocolate pecan pie twice this holiday season. It was probably our favorite dessert in a year of many great desserts.

Pie crust (although that time it was a store bought one) was the basis for our favorite appetizer of the year, samosa crostata, which took the familiar flavors of samosa and converted it into an easy no-fry crowd-pleaser of a recipe.

With my new-found confidence in pie crust, I made mini quiches for a lunch potluck with my knitting group last weekend. I often make crust-less quiches, but on this occasion, I wanted the works- the flaky buttery crust and the delicate savory filling.

We love caramelized onions in my home, and the recipe that inspired these quiches is here. This appetizer certainly is time-intensive and a labor of love, but the taste is terrific- the mini quiches disappeared in no time.

Caramelized Onion Mini Quiches

Step 1. I started by making the full recipe of pie crust (but only ended up using 3/4 of it, so cutting down on the amount of pie crust would be OK).

Step 2. While the pie crust was chilling in the fridge, I caramelized onions. Thinly slice 3 large red onions and saute them in 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil with a sprinkling of salt. Caramelize 30-40 minutes on medium-low heat. In the last minute of cooking, add 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar.

Step 3. Pre-bake the crusts. You need muffin pans for this recipe- I used 18 muffin cups in all (one large 12 cup pan and one 6-cup pan). Heat the oven to 350 F. Roll out pie crust, then use a cookie cutter (or a katori with an edge like I did) to cut out rounds. I then rolled each round some more into a thinner circle and eased each circle into a muffin cup. Prick the pastry all over with a fork and bake for 15-20 minutes until very slightly brown.

Step 4. While the crusts are baking, finish making the filling. Stir the following into the caramelized onions and mix well:

• 1/2 cup light cream/ heavy cream/ half and half
• 3 eggs (I used 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar (or other hard cheese)
• 1 tsp. paprika
• Large handful minced cilantro/ parsley/ chives
• Salt and pepper to taste

Step 5. Spoon the filling into the par-baked crusts. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 F until the filling is puffy and golden brown.

Happy New Year- 2011, here we come!

I hope 2011 brings each of you a bustling kitchen filled with the aromas of home cooking, the comfort that only a warm and full stomach can bring and friends and family who share the joy of good food.

What was your favorite food moment of 2010? Do share- I'd love to know.

Blog Bites: The Holiday Buffets

Welcome to the Blog Bites: Holiday buffet edition. We have two spreads for you- one for brunch and the other for dinner, for a whole day of festive eats. Each of these wonderful dishes has been inspired by a post on another blog in a gesture of sharing and friendship across the globe.

A brunch buffet

Janet is the queen of decadent breakfast treats and you can get your day to a fabulous start with her protein-rich quinoa porridge with sauteed pears, baked pumpkin cranberry oatmeal breakfast pudding which showcases the best flavors of the season, or fluffy oatmeal pancakes served with juicy berries. If you prefer fruit embedded inside your pancake so you can taste some in every bite, try some strawberry pancakes brought over by Megha. Or perhaps you want some toast spread with fresh butternut squash butter made by the Radioactive Vegan.

If a savory breakfast is more your thing, PJ has made a couple of dosa options- Chettinad dosai which is spiked with a dozen fragrant spices and soybean dosa, a delicious way to use up legumes from the pantry. Dip the crisp dosas into some spicy lentil spice powder.

To round off the brunch, enjoy a cup of your favorite hot beverage- coffee, chai or cocoa- with a thick slice of Tahemeem's mocha banana cake or a handful of Usha's savory onion crackers.

Now that you have eaten your fill, you have a few hours to go off and read a book, do some shopping, go for a walk in the snow or catch your favorite movie on TV. By 6 PM, we're getting hungry again and the table is set for the festive evening holiday buffet.

Dinner buffet

Herb-cheese rolls form a Christmas tree; I made these for the holidays inspired by this post from Sweetnicks.

Many of us (I won't name names) could happily live on snacks alone and I dare you to resist the appetizer options we have here. Grab a mug of mulled cider and and munch on Veena's stuffed crescent rolls, hot pakodis from Masala Magic, deep fried eggplant balls (!) from the Radioactive Vegan, irresistible paneer tikka shared by Kanchan or Preeti's Kutchi dabeli.

If you really want to warm up from the inside out, you need a bowl of PJ's bonda soup,  with lentil dumplings soaking in spicy rasam.

On the other table is the main course, starting with plenty of fresh baked breads: Supriya's stuffed braided bread could be a meal in itself. Denny shows her love for garlic (I understand; I love garlic too!) with garlic rolls and garlic naan. Use the warm breads to sop up any or all of these curries and stews: Turkish cranberry beans from Taste Space, PJ's soybean kurma, Su's palak paneer or Krithi's paneer tawa masala.

If you like rice, you have a choice of Tahemeem's capsicum masala rice and Denny's sprouts bell pepper pulao, with a side of any of these wonderful vegetables: eggplant in tomato sauce by Miri, PJ's stir-fried yardlong beans, Tahemeem's bottle gourd pachadi and PJ's gobi kasuri.


Radhika showcases seasonal produce with her roasted butternut squash. For a special winter treat, dig into Aqua's casserole of baked vegetables in white sauce.

From Asan Khana, we have a wonderful combination: Kerala egg curry with aloo palak paratha. For the pasta lovers among us, Su has a platter of kale mushroom spaghetti.

You'll be wishing that you saved plenty of room for dessert. If bite size desserts are your thing, choose from besan ladoos by Indosungod or another version of besan ladoos from SS, and Sonia's rava ladoos. PJ brought along a few simple sweets- banana nut cake, custard powder snack cake and maida burfi. SS also made Hello Dolly bars, a cute name for a tasty treat.


Monika made a beautiful marbled brownie cheesecake and Tanvi made red velvet cupcake with a rich frosting. Bong Mom made chocolate cupcakes that she says are better than anything, and I believe it. Bala brought two lovely mango desserts- mango ricotta cookies and white chocolate mango pie adorned with delicate snowflakes.

Sarah tried her hand (and succeeded!) at a classic Indian dessert, rasmalai. Soma made a show-stopper of a dessert with these gorgeous spiced poached pears with chocolate sauce. Finally, try a slice of my warm chocolate espresso pecan pie.

Pavani made a whole buffet of her own, with everything from granola as holiday gifts, mini-quiches and dip, a generations-old recipe of stuffed bitter melon and decadent desserts of tiramisu and fruit cake.

Thanks to all who carried beautiful platters of food to this potluck buffet- and here's hoping that in the new year we continue to see inspiring posts on our favorite food blogs, new recipes to bookmark, new techniques to learn and new ideas to share. Cheers, and thanks and hugs to my fellow food bloggers!

Butternut Squash Lentil Soup

We hosted a small dinner last night and the menu was an easy and satisfying one.

• Soup- With sweet seasonal butternut squash and hearty lentils, with a touch of curry
• Salad- Fresh greens with a choice of balsamic and ranch dressing
• Bread- Cheesy bread straight out of the oven
• Dessert- Warm brownies with coffee ice cream

The soup was something I made up on the fly, and even with the simple everyday ingredients, the taste was special enough to warrant a post here. This soup would be equally at home if it was served as a dal, with fresh rice and crunchy papads.

Kitchen King masala, that versatile spice mix, is what gives this soup an unexpected taste that has guests asking, "So what did you put in here"? If you don't have this masala, use your own favorite one.

Before starting with this recipe, you will need to cook butternut squash- either oven roasted (takes longer but is more flavorful) or cooked in the microwave.

Butternut Squash Lentil Soup

1. Rinse 1 cup brown lentils (whole masoor) and soak for a few hours if time permits.

2. In a large pot, heat 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil. Saute 1 medium chopped onion and 2-3 cloves minced garlic until translucent.

3. Add 3-4 cups cubed cooked butternut squash, soaked lentils, 2 tsp. paprika, 2 tsp. Kitchen King masala and 4 cups water or vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until the lentils are tender.

4. Taste for salt and seasoning. Add salt if required (you will if you used water in the previous step).

5. Garnish with fresh lemon juice and lots of minced herbs- either parsley or cilantro.

This cup of soup goes to Susan's My Legume Love Affair hosted this month by Priya at Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes.

To dunk into the soup, I wanted to make a pan of fresh bread and spotted the no knead garlic cheese flatbread in my bookmarks, from the Baker's Banter blog. I made the dough in my food processor and it came together in just a few minutes. Then I let it rise in the fridge for a few hours while I was at work, then transferred to an oiled pan and let it rise again for a bit while the oven preheated. The fresh bread was wonderful. Today I sliced up the leftovers and made crunchy breadsticks that you see in the picture.

The bread is going to Blog Bites: The Holiday Buffet.

It has been a while since I shared a knitting/crochet project on the blog. This is a little Christmas tree ornament I made for a swap partner, celebrating her first holiday as a knitter (she has been knitting for only a few months).

Finally, we got a plate of cookies artistically made by a little elementary-school-age friend. Isn't this reindeer cookie the cutest thing ever? I can't bear to eat him.

She also wrote me a very sweet card thanking me for the goodies and saying she "epeshely liked the hevanly rugula" awww- the baking was so worth it.

See you on Sunday evening with the Blog Bites Holiday Buffet. Sunday early morning is the deadline so if you have any last minute entries, please rush them to me. Enjoy this holiday weekend, everyone!

Season's Eatings

I spent a snowy Sunday baking up treats for the holidays. It is utter luxury to take a day off from weekend chores and social events and instead to chop chocolate, whip eggs, sprinkle spices, roll dough and fill the kitchen with the aroma of home baking. All while basking in the soft glow of a warm home while snow piles up outside the windows. 

This is the resulting gift box of festive eats, and the photo is my submission to No Croutons Required: The Festive Photos Edition. On the right is rugelach, a filled pastry, in the middle are little cups of sweet-spicy roasted nuts, and on the left are Dorie Greenspan's famous world peace cookies. 

I've written a post about the world peace cookies before, here. My baking skills have improved a tad in the 3 years since I wrote that post, because I was a little better this time around at chopping chocolate, getting the dough together and baking nicer looking cookies. This is one delicious cookie, with a touch of salt highlighting the chocolate flavor.  They are eggless, short-bread like and simply melt in the mouth. 

If you want to make cookie dough in advance and keep it on hand for last-minute baking, this recipe is perfect. I kept one roll of dough in the freezer and it came in very handy this week when I wanted to take cookies to a friend whose baby was in the hospital- we love you, baby Henry!

The second cookie was rugelach, a traditional Jewish cookie that I have wanted to make for a long time. The question is- which recipe to use? Dorie Greenspan has a recipe for rugelach with a chocolate filling but I wanted a more traditional nuts and cinnamon filling instead. The King Arthur blog wrote a very tempting post on rugelach last month and I decided to try that recipe instead. But baking day dawned and I had no sour cream on hand, so in the end I went with Ina Garten's recipe. 

The recipe is well-written and was a joy to make. The cream cheese dough rolls out beautifully. I used orange marmalade instead of the apricot preserves, and there is simply no need to puree this in the food processor as the recipe suggests. Instead you can nuke it for a few seconds if needed to make the jam easier to spread. I skipped the sugar-cinnamon topping after the egg wash but otherwise followed the recipe closely. 

Here are the rugelach- not bad for a first attempt. They taste fantastic- a rich flaky dough encasing a sweet nutty filling, and they are small enough that one or two make a satisfying accompaniment to a cup of tea.

You have to be careful to tuck in the ends securely when you roll the pastries; I had a couple of them open up while baking and it resulted in these little pizza slice-like cookies. 

I sent some of the rugelach over for V to share with his colleagues. One of them is a Jewish lady from Russia (which means rugelach are part of her tradition) and she wrote me a sweet e-mail telling me she loved them and could she have the recipe. An Indian woman living in St. Louis making rugelach for an Eastern European friend- I got a kick out of that.

Finally, the glazed roasted nuts- I participate in swaps on Ravelry where knitters send gifts to each other, and in one of these wonderful packages, a knitter named Linda sent me a bag of these nuts along with a recipe card. They are addictive little snacks and we enjoyed them, so I made a mental note to try the recipes around the holidays. The recipe calls for pecans but I used equal parts pecans and walnuts.

Spicy-Sweet Pecans & Walnuts

(adapted from a recipe by Linda on Ravelry)

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.

2. Line a large (11 x 17 inch) rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. In a small bowl, mix together

• 1 tbsp. kosher salt
• 2 tsp. cayenne pepper (or more or less to taste)
• 1 tbsp. paprika
• 1/3 cup sugar

4. In a bowl, whip 2 large egg whites until foamy. I did this by hand with a whisk.

5. Gently stir in the spices and 5 cups total of raw pecan and walnut halves. Be careful that the egg whites stay as foamy as possible while mixing. 

6. Spread the nuts in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

7. Turn the oven down to 250 F. Rotate the sheet and continue baking for 15 more minutes. 

8. Let the nuts cool completely. Store in an airtight container. 

Here is the box of festive cheer, ready to be delivered.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. Wishing everyone Happy Holidays during this last fortnight of 2010.

The Leaning Tower of Stickiness

V's birthday cake is something of a tradition in our home because this guy loves his sweets. As opposed to me. You could pour potato chips into a bowl and stick a candle in it and I'd be quite giddy with happiness.

Anyway, I spent the last month poring over blogs to look for this year's birthday cake for V. One baking book was mentioned a lot- Sky High irresistible triple-layer cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne (a niece and uncle team). I requested the book from the library and suddenly had so many options for the birthday boy to choose from.

Flipping through the book, I was eyeing a chocolate-hazelnut beauty and a dulce de leche cake but instantly knew THE one: triple-decker Boston cream pie. In our years in NYC, V has enjoyed many (and I really don't want to make an estimate here) Boston cream doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts. He loved that rich vanilla pastry cream encased in crisp fried dough. This doughnut is a take on a classic American dessert called Boston Cream Pie.

Boston Cream Pie contains no cream whatsoever and is not a pie. It does have a connection to Boston, having been invented by a pastry chef there. It is an airy vanilla cake filled with a rich vanilla filling and topped with a bittersweet chocolate glaze- full of simple and classic flavors.

I won't post the triple decker Boston Cream Pie recipe here because the recipe from the book has been posted in its entirety on two blogs, one for a 60th birthday celebration, and another for a 14th birthday party. It looks like people of all ages enjoy this flavor! Get the recipe from this blog if you'd like to try it.

The authors explain that cakes come in different varieties (I definitely learned something new here): butter cakes are the most familiar kind with butter and sugar creamed together and baking powder or baking soda to help them rise. Then there are the foam cakes like sponge cakes and angel food cakes where whipped egg whites give the rising action. Finally, chiffon cakes are a combination, containing both eggs and baking powder, plus some fat, usually oil instead of butter.

Their Boston cream pie is a chiffon cake, it uses 8 eggs- separated- where the whites are beaten to frothy ribbons with sugar before folding in yolks and oil and flour and baking powder. The batter is unbelievably light and airy and bakes into spongy golden cakes.

Meanwhile, I made the rich vanilla custard with egg yolks and some cornstarch and milk. Their directions were so detailed and precise that making the custard was a gratifying experience. In making this cake, it really helps to have two people working together because there's lots of whisking and stirring involved.

My only problem was that I used 8 inch cake pans instead of 9 inch ones as the book called for, resulting in taller cakes. Add to that the thick custard and sticky glaze and the result was an unsteady tower that did not look anything close to picture perfect. Next time, I will bake this in a sheet pan. Never mind sky high!

Here's the finished cake in its utterly sloppy but delectable glory-

The important thing is, the cake tasted fantastic. Even with 14 eggs (!!!) there was not a hint of eggy smell, just the glorious taste of vanilla and chocolate and a light and tender crumb soaking in the custard. Here's to another wonderful year for my wonderful guy!

Thanks for everyone who left thoughtful and inspiring comments on my last post; I've added some of your tips at the end of that post for all to read.