Full of Beans! Slow and Easy, Rancho Gordo Royal Coronas Go Masala.

   
   I love fresh beans. They're versatile, inexpensive, and they feed a whole passel of people easily. What I don't like about beans is whenever I want beans it requires planning... and by planning I mean a long soaking. Therefore, by the time I'm ready to eat beans, I'm too lazy to do all the prep work necessary.  Well, all that's out the window now that I've cooked Royal Corona Beans from Rancho Gordo in my slow cooker. I'd  bought a bag of Royal Coronas at the Rancho Gordo store a couple of months ago purely because of the way they looked. Royal Coronas are huge white beans, and as I discovered, they get even bigger after cooking. Three times bigger to be exact. Two cups of dried Royal Coronas can easily feed 6 people at one meal, or two people for two days.
    
   In planning how to prepare them, I decided to cook them the same way I do chole (garbanzo beans) as I thought the spices would be a great compliment to the creamy texture of these big beauties, but I was worried about timing.  I didn't want to spend an entire bean-centric day. Steve Sando owner and founder of Rancho Gordo told me that if dried beans are truly fresh (and his are), long pre-soaking is not a must. One can go right to the cooking phase which is what I did. Skeptically, I must  admit but as I discovered, Steve was right!

   Four hours in a slow cooker in some water, softened these babies up perfectly so that they were ready for the final phase. In this case the final phase took about 20 minutes which is pretty dang good and fast for a dried bean recipe. In fact I put the beans and their cooking water into the fridge overnight and finished the dish quickly for lunch  the next day using the spices from my trusty The Chaunk Box .So fire up your slow cooker for big juicy, creamy, Royal Coronas without a whole lot of preparation.

Royal Corona Masala

Here's What You Need:
2 Tbs vegetable oil (I use coconut oil )
2 cups of dried Rancho Gordo Royal Corona Beans
1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seed
4 tsps finely chopped fresh ginger
4 shallots chopped
2 serrano chilies minced
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup pomegranate molasses

Here's What To Do:
Place  2 cups of dried Royal Corona beans in a slow cooker with 6 cups of water.
Turn the slow cooker up to high and let them simmer for about 4 hours. They'll swell up  and get tender.
Drain the beans but save the water they've been cooked in as it contains a lot of the nutrients and you'll also be using it later in the recipe.
In a skillet or kadhai heat the vegetable oil.

When the oil is hot, add in the cumin seeds.

Once they start to sizzle (this is almost instantly) toss in the onion, shallot, ginger, salt, and green chilies.

Saute everything until the onion and shallot are cooked through and translucent.
Once the onions and shallot are soft, add in the garam masala, coriander, and turmeric.

Stir this mixture around for about 1 minute then add in the tomatoes

and the juice from the can.

add the cooked Royal Coronas also.

These are big suckers! Stir them around well and make sure everything is well mixed and add in 1/2 cup of the saved bean water.

Bring the mixture to a simmer, and let it cook like that for about 20 minutes. The sauce will have thickened and the flavors blended.

Check the salt for seasoning and you can serve this over plain Basmati rice or on its own.
Top with a dab of yogurt to cut the heat, and drizzle with a bit of pomegranate molasses to highlight the sweet meatiness of the beans.

 Top with a bit of chopped cilantro and that's it! 

   Letting the slow cooker do the work makes pulling this bean dish together quick and simple. Add a chapatti or dosa and that's all she wrote. I'm going to be cooking a lot more of these Royal Coronas as I think prepared in this manner they're a natural for Summer Cook outs.

  
   Now that I've converted to this easy way of cooking the beans I want, when I want them, I'm going to be doing a lot more Indian translations of New World beans. Coming up next Seasonal Indian cooking and something new for Summer from The Chaunk follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Eggplant, Peppers and Spinach Oh My! A Mock Meat Dish Made For Meatless Monday.

  As a kid I was suspicious of anything mock. Mock was a big word in our house and not a popular one with me. There was mock apple pie made of Ritz Crackers..yeah I know. I had a mock Barbie Doll who sort of resembled Barbies' chunkier sister. She had some kind of fakey name but it sure as hell wasn't Barbie. There were mock turtleneck sweaters and "Pleather"and "I Can't Believe It's Not Suede".  Whatever. A whole world of not-quite-there There. This was of course, in the bad old days before Faux. Faux is modern. Faux is cool. Mock is just well....not.
   While I'm venting here, I may as well bring up another thing that's said frequently. "It tastes just like chicken!"
 To me this could mean one of two things. Either it has no taste or  it tastes nothing like chicken, and that's putting it mildly. Which brings me to Meatless Monday. For those gotta-be-carnivores, there is nothing that "tastes just like chicken" unless it's chicken. Or, unless it's eggplant.
    Eggplant is one of those wonderful vegetables that has all the mouth-feel (love that word) and texture of meat, and picks up flavors and sauces and spices crazy good. No wonder almost every cuisine is in love with eggplant.
  There are lots of great eggplant dishes in the Indian Kitchen. One of my particular favorites combines eggplant with yellow peppers, tomato and spinach and almost resembles an Indian ratatouille. It can be a side dish on a non meatless day, but on Meatless Monday this dish rules the table. Pair it with rice or dal and some naan bread or chapattis and you're golden.
   This dish was another little gem from Yamuna Devis book Vegetarian Table: India. Paula Wolfert gave me that book for my birthday and I'm loving it.
   This dish is made with eggplant, but I'd also suggest trying some other vegetable combos, mix and match, that's the secret. Here are the basics!
  There are two steps to this dish, neither of which involve much heavy lifting. The first is The Roast.
  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
   Peel 1 and 1/2 lbs of eggplant. In my case it was one big one.

Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch pieces.

  
 Cut and seed the yellow pepper trim it into strips and then into 1 inch pieces.

 
In a bowl mix together 1/4 cup of chickpea flour (gram flour) toss in:
1 Tbs of garam masala
1 tsp of turmeric
1 and 1/2 tsp of salt
 1 tbs of vegetable oil
1 cup of water.

 Then add in the chopped vegetables.

And mix it all together.
Spray a baking sheet with some non stick spray and spread the vegetables in a single layer. You may need  to use more than one baking sheet so all the vegetables are spread out evenly.
  Roast the vegetables  until they're nice and tender, about 25 minutes or so.

.

Then take them out and set them aside.
  Now for the second step. The Saute.
In a deep skillet or kadhai heat 1 Tbs of vegetable oil.
 When the oil is hot, toss in:
1 and 1/2 Tbs brown mustard seeds.

When the seeds start to pop, add in :
2 Tbs of finely minced fresh ginger
1 or 2 (it's your call) seeded finely chopped green chilies
1/2 tsp ground cardamom seeds
1 Tbs of  jaggery (palm sugar) or dark brown sugar

Stir it about for a bit then add in:
2 pounds of chopped seeded peeled Roma tomatoes. (Ok, here I've got to be honest. I didn't peel my tomatoes. Bad Kathy. Lazy Kathy. Wanna know something? It worked just fine anyway. )

Stir the tomatoes around and cook them down for about 5 minutes or so, then add:
1 lb of chopped (or not. lazy again) fresh spinach.

Put a lid on it. The skillet that is, and let it cook at a lower heat until the spinach is wilted but still nice and green.

Now is the time to add in the roasted eggplant and peppers. Stir it all together to warm up the roasted vegetables and add salt to taste.

This dish puts together really easily and is a true main dish centerpiece star. I love dishes like that. If there's anything left over, I can tell you it's also great the next day on a non-meat menu as a side dish. This may look like a mock meat main dish but there's sure enough nothing mock about the flavor!

A Tale of Two Neighbors Or How Italian Peppers Found their Way Into Indian Food

This isn't a very complicated story. It's mainly the tale of a small town (Sonoma). There are about 9,000 people in our town, pretty shocking when you've been living in LA for a loooooooong time, and were born and raised in San Francisco. Yes, quite a change. Everyone meets everyone sooner or later. I met Ron Mazetta of Mazetta Foods at our local hangout the Basque Boulangerie a number of years ago. We met while discussing food, mainly peperoncini, mainly his peperoncini which is the only brand I buy. He knows I cook Indian Food and I was explaining to him how many times I vamp on a vegetarian recipe cooking with whatever vegetables I find fresh at the Farmers Market. I wrote a post a few days ago where I made a squash and paneer cheese dish and substituted heirloom tomatoes for red bell peppers.
A couple of days later Ron handed me 2 bottles of his deli sliced roasted red peppers. "Try these," he said "next time you make that dish. Let me know how it works out."
So, I tried it. I made the dish again, this time leaving out the heirloom tomatoes and substituting Ron's roasted red deli sliced peppers for the red bell peppers.It worked like a charm, it was fast and flavorful.
I'd never tried it before, but it worked, and I'm going to be doing it again for sure. In fact I think I'll try it in a cauliflower dish this afternoon for lunch, swapping out the tomatoes for peppers.
Here's what I did with Rons' Peppers, without the paneer cheese
First:
I mixed
1.) 1/2 Tbs of ground coriander
2.) 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
3.) 1/4 tsp of turmeric
4.) 3/4 tsp of garam masala
5.)1/4 cup of dried shredded unsweetened coconut
6.) 1/2 cup of water
in a bowl and put it aside for later

Then, in a deep skillet or Karahi
7.) heat 3 Tbs. of oil.
When the oil is hot add in
8.) 1 dried red chili
9.) a 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger sliced into very thin rounds. Stir that up and fry it a bit, it'll start to darken in color..then
Toss in
10.) 4 small zucchini diced
11.) 2 or 3 small fingerling potatoes. Stir this around and cook it for about 10 minutes till the squash and potatoes are cooked through.
Then add:
12.) 1 1/4 tsp of salt
13.)the spice paste you set aside earlier and sliced deli roasted red peppers to taste, about 1/3 cup or so.
Stir it around and cook it up till the peppers are soft and the dish is nice and thick.
Finally, add:
14.) 3 Tbs of chopped cilantro and serve it up.

Frankly, it never would have occurred to me to try these peppers in an Indian dish if Ron hadn't suggested it, but it saved all the trouble of roasting and chopping peppers, especially since it would have meant another trip to the store for them since I didn't have any in the first place. They worked magnificently, and I'm definitely going to try them again in other dishes.

So, You've Got Your Paneer Cheese , Now What??

The other day I made my first batch of paneer cheese. It was easy, I was stoked but then what?? I had a whole pan of this stuff and wondered if there was life with paneer cheese beyond spinach.
Almost everyone who's eaten Indian food has had spinach and paneer cheese, it's a classic dish.
I looked in my fridge, there was no spinach but there was zucchini, this time of year there's always zucchini but what to do with it.
I remember one of the recipes I used to make from Lord Krishna's Cuisine. It was a dish that involved paneer cheese, summer squash and red bell pepper. Why, I thought couldn't I try making it with zucchini,paneer cheese and fresh heirloom tomatoes? Most Indian dishes are very forgiving, and open to improvisation, especially those involving vegetables. In other words, you work with what you've got.
So this is what I did with what I brought home from he farmers market.
I mixed
1.) 1/2 Tbs of ground coriander
2.) 1/2 tsp of ground cumin
3.) 1/4 tsp of turmeric
4.) 3/4 tsp of garam masala
5.)1/4 cup of dried shredded unsweetened coconut
6.) 1/2 cup of water
in a bowl and put it aside for later

In a karhai or heavy pan heat about 4 Tbs mixed vegetable oil and butter.When it's hot toss in about a cup of cubed paneer cheese. Note about this:
I you don't have a non stick pan ( I didn't but I'm for sure getting one now) the paneer cheee is going to stick and break up and crumble. Sorry.

Fry your paneer cheese about 5 minutes till it gets sort of toasty brown. Take it out and set it aside.
Add to the hot oil
7.) 1 dried red chili
8.) a 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger sliced into very thin rounds. Stir thatup and fry it a bit, it'll start to darken in color..then
Toss in
9.) 4 small zucchini diced
10.) 2 small crook neck yellow squash..in short, whatever you have. Eyeball it to the amount you're going to need. stir this around and cook it for about 10 minutes till the squash is cooked through.

Then add:
11.) 1 1/4 tsp of salt
12.)the spice paste you set aside earlier,the paneer cheese cubes you browned and 2 small tomatoes or one medium tomato chopped up.
Stir it around and cook it up till the tomatoes are soft and the dish is nice and thick.



Add:
13.) 3 Tbs of chopped cilantro and serve it up.

This is a great dish that cooks up fast, and can be made with virtually any squash you might have around, heck you could even add in small diced potatoes, eggplant, just allow for the vegetables cooking time. Also, I have to say it's delicious!

How Dry I am

Yesterday I posted a recipe that is considered a "wet" Vegetarian dish. So if the cauliflower is considered wet than what might you ask is "dry"? Dry is anything that has less of a liquid sauce, more of a thick sauce that clings to the vegetables, or many times spices and seasonings that roast onto them.
I still had eggplants in the fridge from the Farmers Market and also some of those cunning little potatoes that are so tiny they can't possibly have any calories. So I decided to whip up a nice eggplant and potato dish in a yogurt coconut cream. At first blush this doesn't sound very dry, but the sauce thickens and clings to the vegetables forming a "dry " dish. Either way when it was finally on the plate we found we didn't even want or need the chicken I'd also prepared. One or two of these vegetable dishes and a chapatti or two, a bowl of rice or dal and that's all she wrote.
I'll give you my adaptation of this traditional temple dish from Yamuna Devi.

Start with:
1.) 1 small eggplant chop it into 1 inch cubes


2.) Steam the eggplant about 15 minutes
While it is steaming
In a food processor or blender mix together
3.) 2 long serrano chilies seeded and cut in pieces
4.) 1/3 cup of plain yogurt
5.) a 1 inch piece of peeled chopped fresh ginger
6.) 1/4 cup of dried unsweetened coconut
Grind it all up.


Cut 3 or 4 little unpeeled fingerling potatoes into thin rounds.


In a skillet or karhai heat 2 Tbs of unsalted butter or ghee and 2 Tbs of vegetable oil.
When the oil is hot toss in
6.) 1 tsp of brown mustard seeds
7.) 1/2 Tbs of cumin seeds
8.) 8 or 10 fresh curry leaves if you don't have any

When the seeds start to sizzle and pop add in your potato rounds, stir fry them for about 4 minutes.

8.) add in your yogurt mixture
9.) 1 Tbs of ground coriander
10.) 1 tsp of turmeric
11.) 1 1/4 tsp. of salt.
12.) 2 Tbs of finely chopped fresh cilantro
13.) and the steamed eggplant

Stir it all up, the sauce will thicken and cling to the potatoes and eggplant, cook it for about another 5 to 10 minutes, till the potatoes are soft.
14.) add in 2 Tbs of lemon juice and another 2 Tbs of fresh chopped cilantro and serve.
When done it almost resembles a thick warm Indian style eggplant potato salad.

As I said earlier this dish is amazing and quite the scene stealer all on it's own. Sitting in the dining tent on our deck with the warm wind coming in off the vineyard my husband said it really reminded him of eating similar dishes traveling in India years ago. What better compliment for a hot Indian summer afternoon in Wine Country.