a commonsense approach to eating well, living well and travelling
I feel mung beans are little pockets of goodness and feel so virtuous when I have a handful of homemade mung bean sprouts for breakfast. This is cooked but very satisfying and filling as a snack or part of a meal.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup mung beans
1 large onion thinly sliced
I tend to use a lot of alliums in my cooking, be it the humble brown onion or the very French of alliums – the leeks. I use everything in between as well. Coming to think of it, I use about ten different varieties of alliums!
I was tossing up whether I should include this recipe or not but decided to write as it is a no fuss recipe, few ingredients already available in the pantry and to top it off, it is so pretty on the plate.
INGREDIENTS
4 medium sized red onions
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste
METHOD
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Using a sharp knife, trim off half a centimetre on the top. Trim the root. Peel the onions and cut each onion into eighths, stopping about a centimetre from the bottom. Make sure you haven’t cut it through as you want the onions to hold and stay intact.
Lay four large squares of aluminium foil on your counter top. Place one onion root down on each foil piece. Drizzle the vinegar and oil, then season well and fold the foil, pinching the edges to seal. Repeat with the remaining onions.
Place the wrapped onions on an oven tray and roast for 30 minutes. Unwrap the onions and allow to cool slightly before transferring onto plates for serving. If the onions don’t bloom naturally after you open the foil, you can gently nudge and open the layers. Serves 4.
I am a great fan of vegetables and I am curious too. While people walk past vegetables they don’t recognize the nerd in me is always interested to know all the details of the said vegetables. Parsnip is one such thing – agreed it looks like a white carrot but tastes nutty and it is so versatile. I use it to make tray baked parsnip chips, in soups, in winter roast vegetables and in gratin. Do give it a try and you’d be glad you did. Anyway this is super quick and easy, and you can eat on its own or serve as an accompaniment to a roast meal or steak.
INGREDIENTS
600 grams parsnips, peeled
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
You ask any person from India and they will tell you that Indo Chinese cuisine is a thing. It is unique and every desi feels very nostalgic about Indo Chinese. This soup is inspired by those memories and this is easy to make a chicken or vegetarian version. Just need to have good homemade stock and spend time cutting your vegetables fine which I find very therapeutic.
Ingredients
100 grams green cabbage (an eighth of a cabbage) very finely chopped
100 grams celery (2-3 stalks) finely diced
150 grams (1 large) carrot finely diced
150 grams (1 large) onion finely chopped
The night market culture did not take off in India. However there are small eateries generally managed by three or four staff and serving fast food. Fast food ranges from samosas, frankies, pakodis, pani puri to dosas and vadas. The vendors do specialize in their offerings and there is no cross-over. The turnaround time and the efficiency is very interesting to observe.
Aloo bonda also called batata vada can be classed as fast food but I have elevated it to “fancy” by the way I serve it with a mint and coriander chutney and pickled radish.
Ingredients
600 grams potatoes boiled with skin on
1 onion finely chopped
India has a 7,500 kilometre coastline and so there are several variations of this recipe for spicy fried fish pieces. It depends not only on the type of fish available to the area but also the spices and oil used for frying. This is very popular and can be served up as a starter for a three course meal or possibly as part of a meal when accompanied with vegetables.
600 grams of any firm white fish (use cod or trevally) cut into 4-5 centimetre pieces
5 centimetre piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
Another South Indian delight. These are very tasty, fluffy pancakes most often served for breakfast. Having said that it is available as “tiffin” in eateries particularly in the Southern part of India. In my years of trying to replicate uttappam, I found that the temperature in Wellington isn’t warm enough for fermentation. You get softer uttappams when the batter ferments and that is why I add apple cider vinegar and soda and also warm the oven to 50 degrees!
¾ cup medium or short grain rice
¾ cup idli rawa (this is a coarse semolina like flour especially available in Indian stores)
1 plus ½ cup urad dhal
This is a quick and easy dinner – start to finish in half an hour. If you are wondering about the origins of kedgeree, yes it is a very Anglo Indian dish created in the 18th century for the British memsahibs.
INGREDIENTS
50 grams butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
500 grams smoked warehou fillet
3 cardamom pods
1 small cinnamon stick
2 fresh bay leaves
¼ teaspoon turmeric
250 grams Basmati rice
500 ml fish stock (preferably homemade)
Salt to taste
3 soft boiled eggs
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Lemon wedges and tomato relish or a fruit chutney to serve
METHOD
Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Stir in the cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and bay leaves, then cook for a minute. Add the onions and cook gently over medium heat for about five minutes until softened.
Add the turmeric and tip in the rice. Stir until all is well coated. Pour in the stock, add half a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid, reduce heat to low and leave to cook very gently for 10-12 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring some water to the boil in a large shallow pan. Add the smoked warehou and simmer for 3 minutes. Lift it out and leave until fish is cool enough to handle. Flake the fish, discarding any bones and skin. Boil the eggs, cool, peel and then chop.
Uncover the rice and gently stir in the fish, Cover with lid and allow to be heated through for a couple of minutes. Taste, adjust seasoning and grind some black pepper. Stir in the parsley and eggs. Garnish with the lemon wedges and serve hot with the relish on the side. Serves 4.
Whether eaten as a snack or a main, this tangy chick pea stew is invariably one of the more popular vegetarian dishes. Channa masala or chole as it is sometimes referred to, can be prepared with tinned chick peas for a quick meal or you can go the whole hog and make from scratch.
There are so many versions of this dish and personally I think you can create your own version using my recipe as a base.
INGREDIENTS
250 grams dried chick peas soaked overnight for a minimum of 8 hours or about 2 x 400 grams tins of chick peas drained
200 grams onions sliced
Squid is eaten in many cuisines. It is a good source of protein, low in fat, a great source of micronutrients and a good choice to eat. The rules for cooking squid are simple – they require either a short cooking time on a high heat (such as frying, deepfrying, grilling or BBQ’ing) or long slow cooking on low heat.
How to prepare the squid tubes?
I like to use frozen squid tubes. It is very easy to prepare them. Once thawed, I cut the tube in the centre and lay it out flat with the inside facing up. Wipe with paper towel and lightly score in a criss-cross pattern. Depending on the size of the tubes, you can then make into 5-6 centimetre long pieces.