Make it a Spicy 2010!

Happy 2010! Hope this year you're able to do everything you always planned on--take a trip, get that degree, earn millions, be healthy, stay healthy, eat at the restaurant you always wanted to, laugh a lot, laugh everyday, write that book, be patient, sing that song, cook for friends, make new friends, keep old friends, be nice everyday, fight nice when you need to...you know all the things you wanted to do and be but life and time got in the way...yes, those things.

     We took this break to hang out in San Diego and decided to go to our favorite soup haunt. It's a Mongolian hotpot restaurant. No, don't groan. It isn't a large cast-iron skillet noisy joint with all-you-can-eat veggies and meat. That's a Mongolian all-you-can-eat place. (Just because you heard Mongolian, huh? Shame on you!) This is soup and fun stuff like that, cooked on a burner right at your table, and you get to choose your own soup broth (vegetarian, beef, half and half, pretty neat). The restaurant is called Little Sheep Hot Pot and I'll wait till you stop laughing. We did the same when we heard of this place. What does little sheep have to do with soup unless they're in it (yikes!)? And we're dealing with a vegetarian spouse here, so, that wouldn't have worked. But Little Sheep has a wonderfully flavorful all vegetarian soup broth as well as non-vegetarian options. It's apparently quite popular in China, and there's reason why. The spices are so interesting--gojiberries, galangal, chinese ginger, star anise, four types of pepper, a hundred berries I don't have a clue what they are, mushrooms, I mean...it's really fun if it's slightly cold and you're in the mood for soup.

     Little Sheep in San Diego's located in a strip mall in Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, and you could easily miss it. But inside, the restaurant is impressively huge, and mostly and usually filled with families who are serious about soup. Man, no one even looks up from their plates, it's that good.

     So we went. Sanjay, who was fighting a cold, and being the manly man that he is, told the server, "We would like extra spices in our vegetarian soup broth". The server nodded, no expression. I should have known. (You know where this is going, right?). Anyway, here's how our soup looked when it showed up:

     You have to admit, it's pretty. Look at the spring onions, the mushrooms, the berries...and we were planning on adding tofu, watercress and more mushrooms to this. It was supposed to be fun. Well, we then fished out the red chilies that Sanjay obviously had expressly requested. This is the proof:

     And we fished out even more as the soup boiled in chilies slowly releasing their chiliness (that's a new word you learned in 2010). At least a hundred fiery red chilies waving hello at us. Oy.

     Chicken that I am, I tried one bowl and gave up. And believe me, it's my favorite soup place! But I don't give up that easily, so I moved to their salad, an order that I placed (no spiciness requests were allowed this time!).

     They have a very interesting wood fungus salad that's infused with seasme oil, tons of garlic (yeah, maybe not a first date kind of salad if that's what you're worried about, but garlic's good for you!). It goes really well with soup, especially the 'non-spicy' kind.

     I had two orders of the same while Sanjay, the manly man, had the soup to himself (maybe that was his plan all along...hmmm, didn't think of it that way!).

     Anyway, here's Little Sheep HotPot's salad:

The celery and baked tofu along with the wood fungus is really flavorful and a fun dish with their green tea.

     I've made my own twisted version of the same. So, here it is:

Twisted Wood Fungus Salad

Ingredients

1 packet dried wood fungus

Tofu (half a packet, cubed, optional)

4 large garlic cloves, grated

4 tbsp spring onions, chopped

1/2 cup diced carrots (optional)

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp chili hot oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

salt to taste

Recipe

Boil the wood fungus for about 5 minutes in salt water, drain, cool

Mix the wood fungus with garlic, tofu, spring onions
Toss in more tofu, carrots if need be
Add chili and sesame oil and mix the salad
Add salt to taste
Squirt lemon juice and mix again
Chill for about an hour in the fridge (not you, the salad, silly!)
Serve with soup or as an appetizer

     See, it's simple, isn't it? All you need to do is go to any Vietnamese or Chinese store and ask them for the dried fungus. You can even get dried shitake mushrooms that you could soak in water for about an hour or so and toss that in too. This is what mine looked like:

     So that was our greatly spicy start, and hope you enjoy the new year with new, exciting and fun foods, good health, and fun times!

     More in a bit, till then, enjoy!

Halloween Desi Style or Olan

Of course we have no Halloween. But we've been here for over a decade and a half, so, really, I'm not sure what 'we' have or what 'we' are. So last year, finally, I gave into the Halloween spirit--no I didn't dress up as Jason or the Scream guy, I carved my first pumpkin. It was quite an event since I had no idea how labor-intensive the process is. This is what the grinning guy looked like:

I know, quite pathetic. But besides that, I'm all for cooking pumpkin, desi style. In the eastern states, pumpkins are sauteed with kaala jeera (काला जीरा) and purple onions as a dry curry with dried red chilies. In southern India, pumpkins are dunked in sambhar or vettal kozhumba quite often. In this country, however, pumpkins are used primarily to scare people and in desserts (interesting combination, huh?)
So, in the holiday spirit, I decided to share a pumpkin recipe, that's neither scary, nor pathetic. Olan--It's from Kerala, a southern state (with a 100% literacy rate--which means, everyone is educated. Now why I had to tell you that, I'm not sure, but I'm filled with facts and info that really have nothing to do with food, and I had to share that with you). Anyway, here it is:
Kerala Olan
Ingredients
3 cups chopped pumpkin, (cubes)
1/2 cup black eyed beans, cooked (or soaked overnight)
1 cup coconut milk
1 large green chilie chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp coconut oil
7-8 curry leaves
1 dry red chilie, for tempering
salt to taste
grapeseed oil for tempering
Recipe

• Pressure cook the pumpkin cubes with the green chilie, and a little coconut oil with salt
• Add the beans to the cooked pumpkins, let the water evaporate
• Add half the coconut milk and simmer
• In another pan, heat the rest of the coconut oil with grapeseed oil and add the mustard seeds, red chilie, curry leaves
• Once the mustard seeds start popping add the pumpkin/bean mixture to the oil and cook for 2-4 minutes
• Adjust the liquid in the olan by reducing the water and adding more coconut milk if need be (the dish should be slightly liquid, like a thick (very thick) soup)
• Add a dash of coconut oil before serving
• Serve hot with rice

     The first time I had olan, it was like magic. It's a very simple dish, and yet, tastes fantastic. If you have the energy to chop pumpkins into cubes, you should try to make this dish. It's that good. Really. Till then, happy Halloween, and enjoy!

Moong dal with Ginger (Lentils)

This week, a fellow foodie and scientist who's also a brilliant chef, Sylvia, asked for a lentil recipe from moi, मुझसे (mujhsey), aamakey! Oh, my, was I flattered. But besides being flattered, I had to give her a recipe she could try without running to the Indian grocery store and spend hours in a dazed state of mind for Indian spices can be confusing, especially if you're unused to the desi labels. Anyway, so, here's my recipe, Indian style, followed by a twisted one. Let me know how yours turns out. Would love to see some photos too.
Ingredients
1 cup moong dal (mung bean lentils)
2 tbsp ginger
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili powder (optional)
1 tsp cumin powder
1-2 medium chilies (Thai), sliced
1/2 cup purple onions, chopped
1 tbsp clarified butter/ grapeseed oil 
Half a lemon
Salt to taste

• Boil the moong dal with the chilies and salt. I prefer a pressure cooker since it takes less than 15 minutes, but you could boil it in a pot too. Set aside.
• Saute onions with ginger, coriander leaves, cumin seeds and powder in a flat-bottomed pan in oil or ghee (if you're super skinny and/or don't care if your heart complains). Add chili powder if you're feeling adventurous. When the onions have wilted, and the color changed to translucent/white, add the dal.
• Be careful, the lentils may splatter! Add about 1 cup of water, and let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes. Add more water if you want the lentils less thick.
• Garnish with a few coriander leaves, and a dash of lime juice. Eat with basmati rice. Enjoy!

Alternate recipe:

• Boil the dal with carrots (2-3 medium), potatoes (1 medium) and chiles.
• Saute the onions with coriander leaves, ginger, cumin seeds and powder.
• Add the dal with the vegetables to it. Boil or let simmer on medium-heat.
• Instead of water, add vegetable broth or chicken broth to make the lentils less dense. Simmer some more.
• Add a splash of lime juice, garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve hot with basmati rice, or drink it as a soup with bread.
• Enjoy!