Mushrooms and Peas | Khumbe Matar

One of the classic dishes of India is mushrooms and peas in a tomato gravy.

I often make it with a range of mushrooms – brown mushrooms, baby mushrooms, sliced king oyster mushrooms and even shimeji mushrooms. It gives a mix of textures and flavours.

Here I have also topped the dish with finely sliced snow peas. It adds crunch and freshness to the dish without confusing the “pea” taste.

Andrew Coletti wrote quite a nice newsletter from Atlas Obscura about Indian pasta (yes it is a thing, but nothing like Italian pasta). I can't find an online version of it to share, but he explores the boiled or simmered doughs of India.

He also writes this, which is SO true of Indian food, but also true of any cuisine not your own.

"The more I try to impose my own categories or classifications onto Indian food, the more I realise that this is not a productive exercise. The best way to understand another cuisine is to approach it from within its original context, with an awareness of the culinary grammar rules that govern it."

Cookbook browsing today....

The cookbooks that have really good recipes for my #NaturopathPrescribedDiet are all Ayurvedic cookbooks with simple, Indian dishes.

This one is included. Not all recipes are Ayurvedic in this book (she does have one focused solely on Ayurveda). And not all are Indian-style recipes. But they are all simple and good. And vegetarian.

Living Ahimsa Diet: Nourishing Love & Life, by Maya Tiwari

A good one to browse today and refocus life.

Great news! We finally have an Indian restaurant in our area!

How to up your (North Indian) dal game - good advice here.

https://dutthouse.substack.com/p/why-your-dal-doesnt-taste-like-your

Fried Upma with Ricotta

Upma is a delicious breakfast dish and snack from South India, made from rava. Rava (also called Rawa, Sooji, Suji or Upma grain) is a semolina product that is cooked with spices and sometimes finely chopped vegetables for a stunningly delicious dish.

#Ottolenghi, in his book #PlentyMore takes his version of Upma and allows it to set before pan frying wedges. It is a delicious way to use Upma and a great use of left-overs. Rather than use his recipe, I cook Upma in a more traditional South Indian way, using his method to pan fry it, then serve it with either seasoned yoghurt or ricotta.

Rava, like semolina, is a granulated wheat flour that has a grainy texture to it. There are two types available, a fine-grained version and a coarser-grained one that is better for making Upma. In general, sooji will have a finer grain than rava.

I cook Upma until it is thick and holds shape. One variation has a looser consistency but if making the fried upma, it is best to cook it until quite thick.

As an aside and just for your information if you are interested: There are many different types of rava, perhaps thousands of regional variations. Some of the variations are because different wheats are used. Eg Bansi Rava, also known as samba wheat, is a very fine powdered flour unlike the more coarsely granulated Rava. It is made from a variety of wheat called samba godumai that has a long body and slightly sharp edges on both sides.

Another famous Rava is Bombay Rava which has a very coarse texture that is a little bigger than regular Rava. It is made from whole wheat grains of mottai godumai wheat.

There is another type, chamba rava, which is a by-product of wheat flour. Semolina, on the other hand, is always made from Duram wheat.

Matki and Gotu Kola Salad with Coconut

Gotu Kola aka Pennywort is a bit of a super food with amazing properties - also some side effects so do your research before using. Occasionally I can find bunches at the local Asia grocery – a joy because it is used across Sri Lanka and India. In Sri Lanka a sambal is made, but this dish is a step further, a salad with a base of Moth Beans (Matki).

It is very easy to make and matki takes under 30 mins to cook, so you can make the salad in the morning while you are pottering around getting ready for work, and then it is ready to have with dinner when you get home.

Recently I found a gotu kola plant and now have it growing at home - it does well in a dampish, partly shaded environment.

I have also made this dish with nasturtium leaves, parsley or coriander in place of the gotu kola. Other ingredients include onion, green chilli, lemon zest, grated coconut, and lime juice.

Cookbook browsing today....

Indian Vegetarian Cooking, by Devagi Sanmugam

I love the range of mini Indian cookbooks that are available in lots of places in SE Asia and India. The recipes are always well tested and easy to make. This booklet has 36 recipes and I have cooked ⅓ of them. My annotations against the recipes are along the lines of "Delicious!", "Divine".

Kuzhambu is made daily in Tamil households, and has hundreds, if not thousands, of varieties. It is basically a spicy broth that can but might not include vegetables and it is spooned or poured over rice as it is eaten.

This Kuzhambu (pic) is one that is tamarind based and is strongly flavoured with curry leaves. There are many different recipes for this dish – you can search for them as 'curry leaf kuzhambu' or as 'Karuveppilai Kuzhambu'. This one looks good: https://rakskitchen.net/karuveppilai-kuzhambu-recipe-curry-leaves-kuzhambu/ I use the recipe from #Dakshin - it is a little simpler than the one at the link. You might like to check it out if you have that book.

There are some lovely looking Indian cookbooks coming out this year.

Here are some that caught my eye - there are a lot more.

Mitahara looks very special - named after the 9th yama. Can't wait.

Amaranth Leaves are the leaves of the varieties of edible amaranth plants. They are very easy to grow, and come up year after year, so keen gardeners are never without this vegetable in their gardens. The leaves can vary from green to red, and you will often see bunches in Asian green groceries.

The leaves and the grain are exceptionally high in protein as well as amino acids, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper, and zinc - a vegetarian's dream plant.

I cook them in Indian dishes, as the leaves are quite common in India so there is a great variety of recipes. Amaranth varieties are used in Asian cooking too. Known as Chinese Sinach or Een choi, it is often sold as whole plants with roots.

Pea Eggplants (also called Turkey Berry and Sundakkai) are very common across S.E. Asia and India. They are used fresh in S.E. Asia and more commonly used dried (Sundakkai Vathal) in South India. They are very delicious and incredibly nutritious. Fresh pea eggplants can be found in Asia groceries and the dried ones in Indian groceries.

Dinner! Tofu & Chickpea Makhani with Cucumbers and Tomatoes in a Lime Vinaigrette & Garlic Naan. #dinner #food #foodie #wednesday #indianfood

#Tamarind is one of my favourite flavours, and it is a regret that we don’t often get fresh tamarind pods here. There is a difference between using fresh young but ripe tamarind and the dried blocks of older tamarind that we use. Some recipes are great with the younger tamarind, some pair better with the older and/or dried tamarind.

Occasionally we can pick up raw tamarind, and I love to make a sweet-sour molasses/syrup with it to capture the wonderful mouth puckering green taste.

Here I roasted Brussels Sprouts with my tamarind molasses.

You can make your own from raw or ripe tamarind pods. But in some parts of the world it is easy to purchase a tamarind syrup – this can be used as well if the sweetness doesn’t override the tartness. It needs a balance of sweet and tart.

We are in Olympia, Washington, for 15 minutes.

I love that I got recommended a ‘butter chicken burrito’ restaurant.

I would eat that and enjoy it greatly.

Butter chicken taco on cheese stuffed Naan??

1) This looks fucking delicious & genius.

2) white folks can stop with the diarrhea jokes about Indian food. If it had that effect on everyone then it wouldn't be like it is, go talk to your doctor about it.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2fmc5L2/