Tomatillo Cilantro Peanut chutney

Whenever I propose Upma for dinner, V invariably asks me "What are you making to go with it?". Growing up, upma was generally eaten with "oorugaai" (pickle) so I am never sure how to answer this question. When we were visiting my parents recently, amma had just made some fresh delicious "thakkali thokku" (tomato chutney) and we ate it with everything including upma at breakfast.

So yesterday, since I had some tomatillos at hand, I decided to make some chutney with it, also using one of V's favorite ingredients - peanuts! So here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

5 medium sized tomatilloes - dehusked, washed & chopped
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 inch pc ginger chopped
2-3 green chillies chopped
1 cup of chopped cilantro (including stem is fine)
1 tsp Jeeragam (Cumin seeds)
1 Tbsp kadalai paruppu (chana daal)
1 Tbsp canola oil
salt to taste

For tempering:
1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch perungaayam (asafoetida)

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan
2. Add the jeeragam and kadalai paruppu
3. When golden, add the peanuts and roast for 5 mins
4. Add the green chilies and ginger
5. After one minute, add the tomatilloes, and salt, and cook for 5-10 mins till the raw smell of the tomatilloes is gone
6. Let cool, place in blender along with chopped cilantro and make in to a smooth chutney and scoop out into a serving dish
7. Heat oil, add the tempering ingredients, and pour on top of the chutney

This chutney is a little sour because of the tomatilloes but it paired the upma beautifully. More importantly, V gave it a thumbs up.

I submitted this recipe to the "Let's go Nuts" event hosted at "Served with Love".

More Squash love - Recipe for Stuffed Baked Acorn Squash

V and I had friends staying with us this weekend and since they had already been driving for a while to get to our place, I decided to put together a nice dinner for them when they arrived so that we wouldn't have to go out. When it is cold and rainy outside, I just need an excuse to turn on the oven.

The acorn squashes I got from the market were called "White Acorn Squash" and were actually yellow in color as opposed to the green-golden ones I usually get. Somehow I found them to be quite bland and would go back to the regular ones. I had made Acorn Squash bread earlier this season with the green - gold ones and the aroma was more "squash-like".



I cooked the squash exactly the way I did for the bread, and stuffed it with a nutty rice filling and baked it in the oven. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash
Cooked brown rice - 1 cup
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
2-3 celery stalks, diced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
2-3 stalks of green onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 tbsp olive oil or butter
1/2 cup roasted pecans or walnuts

Method:

To prepare acorn squash:

1. Wash and microwave the acorn squash whole for 1 min
2. Cut into 2 halves and remove the seeds. Slice off the end a bit to make them stand.
3. Lay cut side down in a microwavable dish with 1/4" of water
4. Microwave on high for 8 - 10 mins, the pulp should be soft now.

To prepare filling:

1. Heat the oil / butter in a wok.


2. Roast the nuts if needed and set aside


3. Then add the cumin seeds and cinnamon


4. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic


5. When the onion is translucent and cooked, add the carrots and celery. Sprinkle some water, close and let cook


6. Add brown rice, salt and pepper and mix and heat through


7. Switch off the heat and mix in the green onion & roasted nuts

Finishing touches:
Scoop the nutty rice mixture in to the acorn squash shells
Set in a baking pan and pop into a oven pre-heated to 350C for 10 mins just before serving

I served this with a side of "Spinach - Roasted beet salad" and entire meal was very filling. V and K's husband ate the acorn squash skin too and thought it was just fine, but K and I were very lady-like and peeled off the skin with our fork and knife before eating. We finished the evening with some Scottish cookies, a hot cup of chai and a great movie!

This recipe goes to Sunshine Mom's blog for the Food in Color - Yellow event and the Festival of Rice event.

San Francisco Chronicle's Best of Baylist

Vote for the best vegetarian place here:
http://baylist.sfgate.com/contests/best-of-the-baylist/3957/great-meals/vegetarian

Super Kyo-po market in Santa Clara

V and I love to explore new cuisines, not only in restaurants, but we also love to do it in our own kitchen.  So living in multi-cultural California is really a boon.  There are 3 Korean supermarkets in the valley and according to the Korean chef at work, the newest one, Super Kyo-po on Homestead in Santa Clara is the best as far as value for money goes.  

 

 

So last Sunday V and I wandered in there and tried to figure out what is what.  I wish I could do a comprehensive review, but that would take someone who eats meat and fish.  The fresh vegetable and fruit section was great - we got some wonderful pears, and satsuma mandarin oranges.  From there we wandered into the tea aisle.  Wow!  What an array of teas.  We picked up our favorite genmai cha (brown rice tea with matcha powder). 

In the frozen section, they had Azuki bean (red bean) icecream (Japanese not Korean) and I had to tear myself away.  In the soju section, they had Chum Churrum, the only soju I recognize from Korea.  Ofcourse they had kimchi galore by the tubs and trays and packages, but kimchi usually contains fish sauce - so it's not for us.   In the final section, we picked up some refrigerated lotus root which I will add to a vegetable stir-fry.   Next time, I plan to get Korean seaweed (miyuk) to make soup.  I beleive this is a traditional soup which is made on birthdays.  

Butternut Squash - Lentil curry

V and I are welcoming this new year as always with old & new resolutions about health and food. One of them is a good old one of cooking seasonally as much as possible. In that vein, we picked up a large Butternut Squash from the friendly neighborhood farmer's market a couple of Saturdays back. Butternut squash keeps well if stored like sweet potatoes and potatoes in a cool place). I used half of it to make a lentil curry to go with rotis (could be used with rice too) based on an idea I got from another butternut squash lover at Zaayeka blog. The other half, I will bake and add to a roasted vegetable salad. So here's the recipe for my version of the butternut squash - lentil curry.

Ingredients:

Half of a large butternut squash - peeled, and cubed
1 cup of lentils - I used a mixture of toor dal, moong dal and chana dal. Chana dal adds more of a bite to it, and the other dals make the gravy
1 pinch turmeric
1/2 inch piece ginger grated
4-5 green chilies slit in the middle (more if you want it to be more spicy)
3 cloves garlic minced
salt to taste
1 tsp garam masala
chopped cilantro for garnish

For tempering:
One tablespoon of vegetable oil
cumin seeds (jeeragam) - 1 tsp
carom seeds (omam/ajwain) - 1/2 tsp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajwain - aids in digestion)
fennel seeds (sombu / sonph) - 1/2 tsp
2 red chilies broken

Method:
1. Cook the lentils, preferably in a pressure cooker with a pinch of turmeric until very soft and mushy

2. In a wok, heat the oil and add the ingredients for tempering

3. When golden, add the green chilies and garlic

4. Within few seconds, add the butternut squash cubes and grated ginger. Sprinkle some water on the squash and reduce the heat. Close the lid and let the squash cook.

5. After the squash has cooked, add the cooked lentils, salt, and garam masala and heat through.

6. Switch off the heat and add the chopped cilantro

I am submitting this recipe to "My Legume Love Affair" hosted at "Cooking 4 All Seasons". The love affair began at "The Well-Seasoned Cook", where there is an astonishing round up of recipes!