Bibi's Krispy Balls, A Gluten Free Holiday Treat

   A couple of weeks ago after seeing Marocmama's amazing recipe for Indian Spiced Krispies, I decided to try my own twist on this classic recipe. Around that time I heard from my friend Bibi in Nepal. I love getting recipes from her because she whips up the coolest stuff, much of it gluten free! After seeing the recipes on Marocmamas site and here at The Colors of Indian Cooking, Bibi mentioned she had a couple more twists to the tale. She sent me her recipe for Holiday Balls. Yeah, I know, I know. Anyone who's seen Saturday Night Live over the past couple of decades is familiar with Holiday Balls



   But Schwetty Balls  and Alec Baldwin aside, I think Bibis' Krispy Balls have them beat by a mile. This recipe is something that Bibi makes for the Festival of Eid-ul-Fitr when the fasting of Ramadan is broken, and they're definitely the perfect sweet treat to celebrate any holiday with. My family is going to be seeing a lot of these balls come Halloween, Thanksgiving, Channuka and  Christmas. Did I also mention they're fast and easy to make and they're made with Rice Krispies, either regular or gluten free? Something new, and yet totally old school. So here, courtesy of Bibi, is the recipe.

Bibi's Krispy Balls

Here's What You Need:

2 eggs beaten

3 cups of Rice Krispies cereal, regular or Gluten Free

1 cup of finely chopped dates

1 Tbs of butter or ghee

1/2 tsp of ground cardamom

1 tsp of vanilla 

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of dried grated unsweetened coconut

waxed paper

Here's What To Do:

Pour the Rice Krispies into a heat-proof bowl and set them aside.

In a pot or skillet, melt the butter or ghee.

When it's warm, add in the chopped dates, sugar, vanilla, cardamom, and beaten eggs.

Stir continuously on a medium heat. You don't want this stuff to get too hot or over done as it will then stiffen and crumble.

What you're looking for is a smooth, thick, creamy texture.

Bring the mixture to a light boil and let it bubble for 3 minutes still stirring constantly.

After 3 minutes of cooking, pour the mixture into the Rice Krispies.

 Mix them together with either a wooden or Teflon spoon.

Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes, or until you are able to handle it comfortably.

Grease your hands lightly with butter (these little suckers are sticky) and scoop Tablesoon sized balls out of the mixture. Roll them between your hands.

Set them onto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper to cool further. 

When they've cooled, roll them in the dried coconut, and you're good to go.

   To store them, keep them in an airtight container, no need to refrigerate. Bibi says that they ought to keep fresh a couple of days, but they never last that long at her house and once you've tasted one you'll understand why.  I want to thank Bibi for sharing this wonderful recipe. She also sent me another for Gulab Jamun which ought to be coming up soon, pants permiitting.

 Coming up next, I've got a Holiday  Recipe Contest to share with you, and some new treats including a gluten free mango saffron cheesecake. Follow along on Twiitter @kathygori

Hot, Spicy, and Fast: Fish with Green Mango Curry

   One of the things I always seem to be looking for when cooking Indian food is the elusive perfectly ripe mango. They can be tricky to locate at certain times of the year. I'm always fondling the mango looking for the perfect combo of tender but not squishy. After years of doing this, I figure I have a pretty good hand and am extremely popular at the mango bin.

   So much for ripe mangoes. But all cooking doesn't involve ripe mangoes. Sometimes you want the unripe. You want the green mango. The Green Mango may sound like some kind of divey bar on Cahuenga Boulevard, but actually it's a staple of the Indian kitchen. Mangoes are full of good stuff, among them vitamin C, Vitamin A, beta carotene, I could go on.. but check this out and you'll see. Green mangoes have all that and a bit more. Being unripe they're chock full of anti-oxoidents and very alkaline, but in a  good for you way.

   Green mangos are also a hell of a lot easier to find than the ripe ones. Trust me on that one. So when you go to the market craving a nice mango and they're all hard as rocks, don't go away empty handed. Check out this simple fish curry with green mango.

Fish and Green Mango Curry

Here's What You'll Need:

1 lb of meaty mild fish, cut into pieces (I used red snapper)
1 tsp of salt
8 curry leaves (sub 1 Bay leaf)
4 cups of water
1 green mango, sliced into strips
1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds
1/2 cup sliced shallots
2 Tbs of vegetable oil ( I use coconut oil )
1 cup grated fresh or frozen coconut (sub dried unsweetened coconut )
1 Tbs of Kashmiri chili ( 1 and 1/2 Tbs of cayenne mixed with 1 and 1/2 Tbs of paprika)
1 tsp of turmeric
1 green serrano chili seeded and chopped
1 tsp chopped fresh peeled ginger
8 whole shallots or garlic cloves
1/2 cup of water


Here's What To Do:

Grind the coconut, Kashmiri chili, serrano chili, garlic or shallots, turmeric, ginger, and water
together in a blender or food processor until you have a smooth  paste.

Set the coconut paste aside.
Heat 2 Tbs of oil in a skillet or kadhai.
When the oil is hot, add in the 1/2 cup of sliced shallots and fry them until they're lightly browned.
Add in the fenugreek seeds, and curry leaves or bay leaf and stir them around for about 1minute.
Add the coconut paste.
Fry it until the oil seeps to the top and the mixture is cooked.
add in the 4 cups of water, the fish...

...mango and salt.

Simmer everything together over a low heat until the fish is cooked through.
This should take about 5 minutes or so.
Pour into bowls and serve. This recipe serves 2.

   This soupy curry is perfect served with rice and a vegetable side. I served it with  Eggplant Thoran. What I love about this dish from Kerala is it's a perfect meal for the cooler fall weather, a variation on the usual fish stews and chowders that are usually served, plus it looks like Halloween with all that great mango beta carotene!  If your'e using bay leaf instead of curry leaves remember, always remove bay leaves before serving.

   Another great thing, this dish makes up super fast which is a big deal for me lately with all the family stuff that needs tending to. My mother has moved on from toaster ovens to microwaves and I'm bringing one over this afternoon that I hope she can operate. I have turned into a small appliance chauffeur.

   Coming up next Bibi's Krispie Balls. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Watermelon Granita With Mesquite Smoked Salt

   This all started when I bought a watermelon for a Labor Day Barbeque at our house. I'd had so much fun making Watermelon Mousse that I decided what this house needs is more watermelon!! I was catching the tail end of the season here for good local watermelon but I secured one and decided that I'd make the watermelon mousse again for our Labor Day guests, but then I got lazy, one thing led to another and I decided on my crowdpleasereverybodysfiveagain desert for holiday cook outs, homemade vanilla ice cream and boxes of various types of cones. Make your own ice cream cone with sprinkles or... whatever. It always works and it's always fun to see people revert, and yet I had this watermelon just sitting there taking up space in the fridge. What to do?

   I decided to juice it. A bunch of friends have recently gotten themselves fancy juicers and blenders but I've still got my trusty old Oster. No fancy bells and whistles but it works. I chunked the watermelon into the blender and  juiced it. I mixed it with some iced green tea, fizzy water, a dash of lime juice and chia seeds. I figured that everybody would be hitting the beer and I'd be the only one drinking my watermelon concoction. Boy was I wrong. I barely got any. They liked it that much. I did what any other normal person would do. I bought more watermelon and juiced it. So there I was with a pitcher full of watermelon juice and nowhere to go. There had to be something else I could do with this stuff. Something like say.....granita?

   Granita, the perfect lazy individuals dessert. Pour stuff in the freezer and stir it with a fork every now and then. It does not get very much easier than that. Want this? Grab your watermelons and you can be enjoying this within a couple of hours.

Watermelon Granita

Here's What You Need:

1 seedless watermelon
a 13 x 12 glass baking dish..or smaller if you wish
1 Tbs of sugar

Here's What To Do:

Chunk the watermelon and blend it to juice in a blender or food processor.
Pour it into the baking dish.
Stir in 1 Tbs of sugar. I do this because I want to  keep the juice from freezing into a solid mass and sugar helps prevent that.
Rake the mixture with a fork after 30  minutes breaking the juice up into icy crystals. Keep doing this at 30 minute intervals for about 2 hours or until it's icy enough to scoop into a bowl.

   While I was waiting for my juice to freeze, I was wondering just what I could do to zip things up a bit. I figured that a lot of people (okay my family) has always sprinkled their watermelon with salt. But I didn't just want any salt. How about smoked salt? How about full on barbeque mesquite smoked salt?? Why not? Couldn't hurt. So I smoked some salt in a stove top smoker. It took 20 minutes.

  
   Light, refreshing, and above all easy, I dished up the combo of watermelon granita with a smokey dash of mesquite. Did it work? Yeah, it worked. For real.  I'll be passing along the directions for that in a day or so. Meanwhile, I've got a great fish curry to share and there's Bibi's treats coming up. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Eggplant Thoran. All Of The Chew, None Of The Moo.

    One thing I've found after cooking Indian food for 23 years is that there are people who love vegetables, people who like vegetables and people who think they don't like vegetables. The last is a tricky category. Often the people who think they don't like vegetables don't because the vegetables they've been exposed to are just not that likable. Most of the time this isn't the vegetables, but the way they've been prepared.

  I've known people (ahem, mostly men) who simply will not allow a vegetable on their plate, or at least any vegetable that isn't a potato or corn. I once had a dinner party in LA and was warned by one of the guests that another guest, his friend, had these sorts of dining habits. So, there I was trying to fix a balanced meal with no greens, no salads, no yellow vegetables. It was like painting a picture and only being allowed to use white paint. Never again.

 There are a lot of people who simply freak out if there's not a piece of meat or fish on their plate. According to them, it's not really a meal if it's just plants. It just doesn't feel right. Maybe this is related to  that high faluntin' term that food writers use, "mouth feel" or maybe just that they feel they're getting ripped off with out the "good stuff" on their plate, but there it is.

   There used to be an amazing Chinese Buddhist vegetarian restaurant in Los Angeles in the 1990's located in  Brentwood, just a couple of clicks away from my house in Santa Monica. They seemed to specialize in tough customers, people who thought they couldn't get through any meal without meat. Boy, did they succeed. They cooked a style of food that was traditionally cooked for the Chinese Emperors during religious fasting periods when no meat was consumed. If you're a cook in ancient China, you don't want to piss off the Emperor, especially if he's in a cranky "where's the beef?" mood. These guys had to be good, and they were! The interesting thing about the dishes they served at this place (the name escapes me but perhaps some LA person out there can remember) was not only they way they tasted, but the way they felt while eating them. Not to get all technical but to the untrained tooth it felt like one was actually chewing meat or fish.

   Which brings me to this particular Indian eggplant dish. It has the same thing going for it. The eggplant is soft but not slippery, and has a chewy texture similar to meat. It seemed a perfect dish to fix for a Meatless Monday meal. Also, since big organic eggplants were $1.99 at the market, why the heck not?

Eggplant Thoran

Here's What You Need:

1 eggplant cut into small cubes
2 dried red chilies
1/2 cup of grated coconut (fresh if you can get it)
6 large chopped shallots
1 Tbs of urad dal
1 tsp of mustard seeds
5 curry leaves, or 1 large bay leaf
2 seeded chopped serrano chilies
2 Tbs of coconut or vegetable oil
1/4 tsp of cumin seeds
2 tsps salt

Here's What To Do:

Cut the eggplant into cubes then rinse the cubes in water and dry them on a paper towel. You will need 2 and 1/2 cups of eggplant pieces.
Put the coconut, turmeric, chilies, cumin seeds,and shallots in a food processor or grinder.
Add in 3 Tbs of water and pule a couple of times.  The mixture should be coarsely  ground.

Heat the oil in a skillet or kadhai and when it's hot add in the mustard seeds.
When the mustard seeds start to pop, toss in the dried red chilies, urad dal, and curry leaves.

When the urad dal starts to darken a bit, add in the ground coconut mixture and 2 tsp of salt.
Turn the heat to medium so the coconut doesn't burn.
Saute it lightly until all the water in absorbed.
Add in the eggplant pieces.

Mix everything together well so the eggplant is coated with the coconut spice mixture, and pop a lid on the pan.
Cook this on a low medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir it half way through cooking to make sure it's not sticking.
Take the lid off the pan and cook for another 5 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated.
Check it for seasoning and serve it up.

   Serve it along with rice and a chapatti for a simple meal. This dish can also go along with a lot of other things either Western or Indian if you want to get fancy with it. It's fast cooking and the eggplant has a soft chewy texture with crunchy bits of dal scattered through the dish. I am a total sucker for eggplant so this is right up my alley, plus it takes about 30 minutes or less from  raw eggplant to table. Gotta love that.

   Coming up next a fish dish with mango, tasty treats from my friend Bibi in Nepal, and that dang dehydrator gets more interesting by the day. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Indian Spiced Krispies, An Old Favorite Grows Up

   Did you ever notice that when we were kids a lot of stuff that was considered cute and fun just all of a sudden wasn't anymore. When did running out into the living room in your underpants  and bursting into song when company was present suddenly become a "no no"? And picking your seat didn't just happen on airplanes? Cute gets old and kind of creepy fast.
We all know what happens to a lot of child stars, they go from this...

To this...



...in light speed.

   And what about favorite treats of childhood? Fizzies, Turkish Taffy, Chuckles, Spaghetti O's??? Tasting them today would not bring the same rush of pleasure. Trust me here, I've done this. There is however one thing that seems not to have changed a bit. One treat that makes me want to sort of quote Shakespeare:

   "Age cannot wither them, nor custom stale their infinite variety."

   That's Enobarbus talking about Cleopatra, and how Anthony will forever be her stallker in Anthony and Cleopatra.  But... it could just have easily been written about Rice Krispies Treats. No matter how old we get these things just continue to taste so damn good!

   The first time my mother made Rice Krispies treats I thought she'd gotten some  kind of magic power. They were so above and beyond anything my little 7 year old mouth had tasted before, I loved them. And then, time passed and I didn't eat them anymore. When I grew up I never made them. They were just a sweet memory, a forgotten piece of childhood food fetishism. Farewell Rice Krispies Treats, you were great while you lasted. Until last week.

   What happened last week? My friend and fellow food writer Marocmama created a wonderful post about making Rice Krispies Treats for her kids. She called them  Indian Spice Krispies. I was immediately intrigued and sent her a Tweet letting her know just how knocked out I was and  how I couldn't wait to try making them myself. My mind immediately started racing, thinking of all the varied spices I might try, and since I wasn't going to be making these for kids, I decided to try more adult flavors. Hot, salty, spicy, sweet, How can you beat that. I decided to take my Basic Chaat Recipe and go from there. Which is what I did.

Indian Spiced Krispies

Here's What You Need:

One bag of marshmallows (I used the minis, as they're easier to melt)
5 and 1/2 cups of puffed rice cereal
1/2 tsp of turmeric
1/2 Tbs of finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp of cardamom powder
4 Tbs of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of frozen peas
1 tsp of kashmiri chili
1/2 tsp of garam masala
3/4 tsp of cinnamon
a pinch of cumin
1/2 cup of raw unsalted peanuts
1/3 cup of chopped pistachios
1/2 cup of toasted cashew pieces
1 tsp of salt or to taste

Here's What To Do:

Lightly grease an 11 by 7 inch baking pan with butter.
Melt 2 Tbs of butter in a skillet.
Saute each batch of nuts until they brown lightly set them on a paper towel to drain.
Melt the other two Tbs of butter, if you need to add a bit more butter that's ok.
when the butter is completely melted add in the ginger, chili, and spices.
Saute the spices for a few minutes.
Add in the frozen defrosted peas.
Stir them around for a minute or two.
Turn down the heat a bit and add in the marshmallows.
Stir them around until they melt.
Check the marshmallow spice sauce for flavor. If it needs more of anything add it to your taste.
Stir  the puffed rice into the melted spiced marshmallows with a rubber spatula
Add the sauteed nuts.
Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan.
Smooth it with the spatula.
Press some waxed paper firmly down on top of the mixture to flatten the surface.
Let it cool for at least an hour.
Cut it up into pieces and serve.

There they are, salty and sweet with a hit of chili, a great adult version of everybody's childhood favorite.

   I was worried at first about the marshmallows being too sweet for these spices but no way that was true. The combination of spices and sweet was just right. We really enjoyed these and the thing I like most about this recipe is that it can be adapted to whatever your family likes. There are no rules here. Marocmama added in raisins and saffron and her kids loved them. Whatever you've got a taste for, toss it in. These are definitely going on my short list for winter movie watching nights at our house. Another good part, they're gluten free.

   As to everything else, I'm still a dehydrating fool, working on my second batch of tomatoes and I've got big plans for a very special jerky. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

"Sun Dried" Tomatoes. Fun With The Dehydrator

   What to do when someone gives you scads of produce from her tomato infested garden? Accept naturally, and then try and figure out what to do with it. I am never one to look any gift produce in the mouth, pit seed or cob. I get my boxes and bags and I go and collect. Time, family, work and too many tomatoes caused me to finally do something that I'd been talking about for years. I bought a dehydrator.

   Why I never bought one of these before I'll never know since it was always one of those devices I'd always thought about owning. Many times late at night, my finger would linger on the one click purchase button at any number of sites and then I'd get distracted "Look cows!" and move on. Well, finally I clicked. Maybe it was the hour, maybe it was all those gorgeous tomatoes, I am now the owner of a dehydrator. As it turned out, my first time with my new kitchen tool  turned out to be easier than I thought. And what better product to start drying was some delicious home grown local tomatoes picked at the perfect time.

Sun Dried Tomatoes

Here's What You Need: 

2 lbs of washed and dried ripe tomatoes
A dehydrator

Here's What To Do:

Wash and dry the tomatoes and slice them into 3/8 inch slices.
Place the tomato slices on the trays.

Stack all the tomato trays on top of each other.

 Put the top on the dehydrator and turn it on.

The dehydrator manual said that it might take from 10 to 14 hours to process the tomatoes according to the thickness.
For me, the whole process took about 6 or 7 hours for perfect sun dried tomatoes.
Vacuum seal them as soon as they're done, and store them in a cool dry place.

It's that simple.

   Before I use them, I'm planning on taking them out and soaking them in some olive oil and spices. I may be giving some little bottles as Christmas gifts. The next thing to go into this machine is going to be chilied mango slices, and since our manager suggested beef jerky, I have an idea for a very special sort of surprise for him.

   Coming up next, I take a classic childhood favorite turned on it's head by @marocmamaa and give it my own spin.
Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

All the Cream, None of the Moo. Green Beans in Cashew Cream

   The other day I was looking for an easy vegetable to fix for lunch. Lunch is a big deal at our house, the main meal of the day. Breakfast is usually fruit and green tea, diner is some fresh raw vegetables and cheeses, but lunch? Lunch is where the real cooking happens. Except on company dinner nights and weekends, otherrulesmayapply. I sound like one of those denier ads that come with that air mattress you bought that was available ONLY ON TV! Okay, the air mattress I bought. Never mind, because I don't want to talk about it. Lunch is usually some form of protein and at least two vegetables which doesn't sound terribly romantic or interesting, except when one considers that those vegetables are usually prepared Indian style.

   When I visit the market I've always got my eyes open for something, new and interesting or something old and familiar that can be prepared in a new and interesting way. For every Western way of fixing a vegetable the Indian kitchen has about 5 variations. One favorite vegetable is Chinese Long Beans. Long beans look like the Jolly Green Giant's shoe laces if he was wearing high tops. They're easily found at any Asian market and they are one of my favorite things to eat. However, I'm not in LA anymore where I could throw a rock and hit a pile of Chinese Long Beans. I'm in Sonoma Wine Country where finding long beans means a 50 mile round trip, and in the name of carbon footprints and fuel economy not to mention time, I don't do the long bean thing too often. Which is sad. The silver lining to this story is that any long bean recipe works great with plain old string beans, which can be found  everywhere.
  
   Last week there was a sale on fresh local green beans so I picked up a pound of them to fix for lunch. Note: About green beans, these don't do so well stored in the fridge and should be eaten within two days of purchase as opposed to say, cauliflower which the older it gets the better it gets.  When you think cauliflower, think cougars. If you don't believe me, listen to my friend Nisha Katona over in the UK.



   But, back to the green beans. I was looking for a way to prepare them that would be different and jazz them up a bit. I thought about doing a sauce made of white poppy seeds (which I thought I had in the pantry) but I had't any. What I did have however was cashews, and cashews can be turned in to a delicious creamy sauce that works perfectly with string beans. I mentioned that this is cream without the moo, meaning non-dairy. I prepared the sauce using yogurt as a binder but one can just as easily use soy yogurt and turn the dish from simple vegetarian to vegan.

Green Beans In Cashew Cream

Here's What You Need:

1 lb of fresh string beans
1 fresh serrano chili
1/2 inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
3 Tbs raw, unsalted chopped cashews
6 curry leaves or 1/2 a bay leaf
3/4 cup of yogurt or soy yogurt for a vegan dish
1 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
3 Tbs of vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Here's What To Do:

Wash, drain and chop the string beans into 1 inch pieces.
Steam them gently for about 8 minutes, until they're cooked but not soft, you want them al dente.

Set them aside.
In a blender or grinder or food processor mix together the cashews, yogurt,chili,cumin seeds, ginger, and half of the chopped cilantro.
Blend them altogether until you have a smooth cream.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet, or kadhai.
When the oil is hot, add in the curry leaves or the bay leaf and stir things around for about 30 seconds.
Add in the steamed green beans...

...and Yogurt sauce, salt and nutmeg.

Stir things around on a medium heat and cook until the sauce starts to thicken, about 10 minutes.

Take it off the heat, sprinkle with the rest of the chopped cilantro and serve it up.

 This can be served hot, or you can make it ahead and serve it at room temperature.

   Okay, so how was it? we loved it, and that got me thinking about trying this recipe with other sorts of nuts. Pistachio, or walnuts come to mind since I always have those in the house.  This dish took no time to make. The most involved part of the whole thing was chopping those green beans, but you can always do what I do and chop them up the night before, wrap them tight and store them in the fridge. Either way, this is something that can be on the table in 30 minutes, and some days that's exactly what's needed.

  Coming up next more experimenting, and my dehydrator sits staring at me like some sort of guilt carousel that's begging me to feed it jerked salmon and chili rubbed mango slices. Meanwhile I feel  like I'm getting my Girl Scout  pharmacist's badge sorting out my mom's pill case. The most often asked question is, can I have a cocktail with that??? Follow along on Twitter @kathygori