Show Me The Sumac! Oven Baked Sweet Potato Sumac Fries With Chickpea and Spinach Hummus Dip, Perfect For Meatless Monday.

          
   It's been pretty crazy around here lately, perhaps a bit crazier than usual and there have been times when I've found myself with a whip and a chair in the center ring of the Crazy Circus. As I mentioned last post, I'm doing a mild chemo mixed with a targeted biologic to turn off my mutant gene which means I'll not be joining the rest of the X Men on their latest adventure. I am however back writing, running, and cooking Indian food. My schedule is pretty busy as I get my gene therapy once a week for the next 12 weeks so I'm busy looking for easy, fast, and healthy stuff I can throw at everybody. I also get bored eating the same old stuff which is one of the reasons I started cooking Indian food 25 years ago. This is one cuisine that never seems to come to an end. It's constantly growing and evolving and there's always something new to try. Of course what's new to me isn't always new to everybody else, and I learned that this week about Sumac. It seems I was behind the door when they handed out the sumac info, but I'm catching up and fast thanks to Whole Foods who contacted me last week and invited me to explore some of their new products and see what I could make of them, related to Indian food.
 
   I must confess that I cover most of our household food needs between the Organic Farmers Market we have here once a week in Sonoma, Whole Foods, and various farm and ranch stands. We're lucky to live here so close to good, fresh, organically grown stuff and boy I'm grateful for that. The Indian and Cambodian markets I shop at are a 50 mile round trip so that doesn't happen too often which is why I've put in the 7 raised growing beds at the new house. It makes getting my mitts on bitter melon, Chinese long beans and bottle gourd a lot easier. But, there's more to life than bitter melon and when I found out the sort of stuff I was going to be able to experiment with I was in! So, on Friday I was delighted to find a box of goodies from Whole Foods on my doorstep full of new stuff to play with. One of the first things that intrigued me was Sumac.

Now if you click on that link above, you'll see the origins of this lemony spice and read about how it's a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine. Sumac seems to be the little spice that can, it's a rub, it's a juice, it's versatile and delicious. It's lemony salty flavor makes it an excellent substitute for those ingredients in dishes, and in the Indian kitchen I'd compare it to tamarind.
  
   So I got some sumac.....now what? Friday was a busy day, running around, doing errands etc. What could I whip up fast as a snack to keep everybody happy? One "go to" thing around here are fries. Actually sweet potato fries. And to be more accurate not actually fried either but baked in the oven. So healthier fries. Anybody who comes into our kitchen gives me grief about all the potatoes and sweet potatoes and yams I've got. I guess I'm a bit of a collector but hell everybody should have a hobby!

   So I'd heard that sumac sprinkled on potatoes rock, so why not try that? But what to serve with those sweet potatoes to round things out? A dip, a sauce, a hummus???? Actually I settled on a blend of chickpeas (chola) and spinach (saag) from Manjula Jain 

 

This chickpea and spinach blend was light, easy to prepare, and delicious. All you need are some basic ingredients and a food processor or blender. It also worked like gangbusters with the sweet potato fries.

Oven Fried Sweet Potatoes With Sumac and Chickpea Spinach Hummus

Here's What You Need:
2 large sweet potatoes
2 Tbs vegetable oil or oliove oil
Salt to taste
 2 or 3 pinches of sumac
1 can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)  If you don't have time to soak and cook your own beans this is fast fast fast.
2 Tbs olive oil
1 cup of fresh spinach
2 Tbs toasted sesame seeds
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1 or 2 chopped serrano chilies (depends how hot you want this stuff)
2 Tbs lemon juice.

Here's What To Do:
Peel and cut your sweet potatoes into long strips (french fry or steak fry cut).
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
toss the potato strips in a bowl with the vegetable or olive oil and salt.

When they're coated, put them on a baking sheet and pop them into the oven for 15 minutes.

Have your sumac ready.

Turn the potatoes after 15 minutes and bake them another 15 minutes or until they're crispy and browned.

Meanwhile make your hummus.
Place the sesame seeds into a pan and dry toast them on top of the stove.

When they're lightly browned, they're done. Set them aside.
Rinse and drain a can of garbanzo beans.

Make sure the beans are well rinsed with cool water.
Drain them.

Place the beans in a food processor.

Add in the spinach...

...toasted sesame seeds...

...chopped serrano chilies...

...lemon juice...

...and salt.

Blend it all together.
Then add in the olive oil.

Blend it again to mix it well, and you're done.

When the fries are ready, take them out of the oven and sprinkle them with several pinches of sumac.

Serve them up.

Dip and enjoy.

There you go! That was totally easy, and good for everybody. Sumac is also a great spice to use on cooked, meats, fish you name it, but as this is Meatless Monday, what could be better than sweet potatoes?

   I'm going to be announcing the winner of the GitaDini idili molds in a couple of days so if you want in on that, just leave a comment here. Meanwhile, more new tastes are coming courtesy of Whole Foods and a few interesting take on Indian cooking. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Pumpkin Koftas, Meatless Meatballs For Meatless Monday

   Halloween has always been one of my favorite Holidays. I used to love the cold and foggy dark of San Francisco nights where I could barely see my candy bag in front of my face. Halloween as a kid meant the rare thrill of being out after dark, and the ability to run wild with a gang of neighborhood kids for a few magic hours.  It meant flickering candles in the mouths of shrieking jack o' lanterns, the sighing of the fog horns, the running slap of tennis shoes on the damp sidewalks and the barking of the seals on nearby Seal Rocks. Anything might happen on a night like that.

   Of course forgetting the costume and free candy part, that was what most nights in the Sunset district of San Francisco (otherwise known as The Outside Lands) were like. It was a sort of Bronte growing up, and it left me with a permanent soft spot for dark, dank nights when the clock falls back, lying in bed listening to the bark of seals, Halloween, and Jack O' Lanterns in the raw, aka Pumpkins. Yes, I'm a pumpkin freak. I admit it. The fruit/vegetable that can be sweet, savory and also scary? Dude, that's what I call versatile! I'm talking Justin Timberlake-acting-dancing-singing versatile. Except Justin Timberlake isn't vegan cause he, like the rest of us is technically made of meat.

   Well, we're smack in the middle of pumpkin season and there are a lot of things that can be done besides going all Nip and Tuck on them, Jack O' Lantern style. Now I happen to have a few (make that a buttload of) pumpkins around. I'd planned on carving and candeling them for Halloween but got too lazy, and so when Halloween rolled around, it was just Alan and me and Patsy the Husky and Johnny Depp (the neighbors cat) and nothing got done.

   So something had to be done with these pumpkins, and fast. Last year I'd had a similar intention and decided to store my extra pumpkins in the garage. Well, one thing led to another and I located one of the pumpkins sometime in the spring. Okay, I didn't exactly locate it. You couldn't miss it. Only it wasn't quite a pumpkin anymore. It was more like a pumpkinish  bathmat, all orange and fuzzy.

   This year I was determined that wasn't going to happen again. I had no excuses for neglecting my gourds because pumpkins aren't just for carving anymore. There are a whole raft of other  things  that one can do with them besides let them rot in the garage. One can make pies, and pasta sauces, breads and cookies, purees and gnocchi. One can also make  meatballs. Well, not really meatballs, more like meatless-balls otherwise known as koftas.

   Koftas are delicious, little puffy bites. Koftas can be made of anything, spinach, flour, bread, potatoes, yams, you name it. The ingredients are mixed with chilies and spices and a bit of garbanzo flour (besan). Usually they're deep fried, but in the name of holiday sanity and health,  I decided to saute/fry mine in a smaller amount of vegetable oil. Serve koftas in a sauce, or on a platter as finger food with a spicy dipping sauce. They're easy to make and perfect for the holiday season ahead.

Pumpkin Koftas

Here's what you'll need:
  1 small sugar pie pumpkin (about 1 and 1/2 lbs or 4 cups) peeled and grated
  2  fresh green serrano chilies seeded and stemmed and finely chopped
  1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
  1 tsp of salt
  1 Tbs of fresh lime juice
  2/3 cup of chickpea (garbanzo flour)

Here's What To Do:
 Peel and grate the pumpkin in a food processor and set it aside.
 In a bowl, combine the pumpkin with everything else.

  Pour in the lime juice for moisting.

  Get your hands in it and mix it all around. Massage that pumpkin.

  Roll it into little 1 inch balls.

  Cute.

  Heat some vegetable oil in a kadhai or wok. I used enough to come halfway up the little koftas but not enough to cover or deep fry them.
 When the oil is very very hot, add in the koftas.

  Roll them around until they brown and crisp up. Then take them out with a slotted spoon and set them on a plate with a paper towel to let them drain.

   These should be served with a sauce, either for dipping or poured over the koftas. The sauce I  used for the pumpkin koftas was a spicy spinach sauce. Since pumpkin is mild, this sauce hots them up and makes the flavors pop. And since the koftas must be served and eaten hot, the best thing is to make the sauce ahead of time, and this spinach sauce can be made a day ahead. Keep it in the fridge and heat it up before using.

 Here's What's In It:
  1 bag of fresh  baby spinach
  4 Tbs of vegetable oil
  A  2 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and chopped
  2 fresh green serrano chilies slit up the mmiddle
  1 bunch of fresh mint
  1 and 1/2 cups of water
  1 tsp of salt

 Here's What To Do:
  In a skillet or wok or kadhai heat the oil.
  When the oil is hot, toss in the chopped ginger and chilies. Stir all that around and saute it a bit, then add in:
  The spinach

  The mint.

  Cook everything until the spinach and mint start to wilt, then turn down the heat and add in the water and salt.

  Turn down the heat, put a lid on things and let it all simmmer for about 15 minutes.
  Take it off the heat.
   Put everything into a food processor and blend it up into a puree.

  Serve it when it's done with the koftas, or pop it in the fridge to use later. Use a little or use a lot.

   I love these pumpkin koftas, vegan, gluten free, vegetarian, perfect for meatless Monday feasting. It ticks all the boxes no matter how you eat. Even carnivores love 'em. I'm not talking about Patsy or Johnny Depp the cat, but the other major carnivore around here, Alan.

   I'll be making more of these koftas over the holiday season using a variety of vegetables. I think they'll be perfect on party platters. In fact coming up next  the traditional holiday sweet potatoes get an Indian tune up. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

A Major Fail, And Green Beans Save The Day!

    This was how this post was originally supposed to go. The beauty of  shrimp wrapped in banana leaf, the fresh shrimp glistening, the marination process. Note  the show-offy intricate tying of the banana leaf with actual strips of banana fiber. Wow, ain't I smart. I had everyone in the kitchen gathered around watching me perform on the night of this dinner party. I was a regular Julia Child... only Indian style. I had two pounds of fresh shrimp, a packet of banana leaves and I was rockin'. Everything looked great, smelled great. Aren't those the famous last words though..."Well...it smelled okay... how was I to know......."

   As I brought my steaming packets of shrimp to the dining room table, the guests clustered around the platter waiting me to cut the banana fiber ribbon. Shrimp cooked to perfection. Another culinary triumph. People were piling them on their thalis. For one fleeting moment I worried that perhaps I hadn't made enough. Then they tasted it.

   What is the opposite of "Winning!" ?

  That was me. I was Julia Child if the flipping omelet had flown out the window. Charlie Sheen stripped of his goddesses. I won't say that people were spitting them out onto their plates... but hell yeah they were. I had had a major fail and I don't say that lightly. It gets pretty drastic when your main course is inedible. Especially when it looks so beautiful and has the added value of being  inedible.

  Growing up, I experienced plenty of these moments. The exploding canned tamale that my mother forgot to take the lid off of before boiling. The blackened fish sticks waaaaay before the Big Easy turned America on to Cajun cooking. These weren't spiced, they were Gortons and just blackened. The flattened angle food cakes and the early "discovery" of volcano cake when my mother forgot to put her cupcakes into a preheated oven. So I had plenty of experience with "When Good Recipes Go Bad"  and I made a vow when I started cooking..."Not on my watch!"

  Of course everyone has their "little weaknesses." Mine continues to be cream puffs, but that's neither hear nor there. I pride myself on giving my guests a good meal when they come here to eat. And since I write about what I cook and how I cooked it, and I've also been cooking this cuisine for 21 years, so I figured I was sort of bullet proof. Boy was I wrong! 

  I'm still not sure what exactly was my fail point. I was using a recipe that contained some spices that I've never run across in Indian cooking. Actually, that was what intrigued me, and yes I know, there's one born every minute. Needless to say I will not stick my paw in that beehive again.

  But what to do when one's guest are ptooey-ing your entree onto their plates. Admit it, I guess. I had to. There was no getting around it. The dish was wretched. It was Superbad. In most cases this would mean death to the dinner party and we'd all be going out looking for pizza somewhere. But this was an Indian meal and that was what made me glad that this is the cuisine I've chosen to make my cooking life's work.

  In ordinary circumstances, when the fish burns, or the meat is overcooked, all that's left is a boring veg or two and maybe some potatoes or plain rice. Not so with an Indian feast where meat/fish is never the be-all and end-all. Besides the shrimp in banana leaf I was also serving 7 other dishes and 2 desserts! Needless to say my guests may have gone home disappointed that they didn't get to enjoy a very pretty looking shrimp dish, but they didn't go home hungry. 

   One of the big hits of the evening was a very simple and easily made ahead (a great reason to serve it) green bean dish.

   This recipe is usually made with Chinese long beans, coconut and peanut powder, but regular old string beans work just as well. It's the sort of dish that makes all the green bean haters at the table relent and finally give that vegetable some props. Plus it's easily put together and travels like a dream. It saved my ass the night of that dinner and goes a long way toward proving the point to carnivores that a perfectly delicious meal can be made without any meat or fish in sight.

Indian Green Beans

Here's what to do:

 Cut about 3/4 of a pound of string beans into small 1/2 inch pieces.
 In a skillet or kadhai heat:
  2 tbs of vegetable oil
 When the oil is hot toss in:
  1/2 tsp of brown mustard seeds
 When the mustard seeds start to pop, add in the green beans.

Give them a stir, pop a lid on them and cook them for about 8 minutes or so. You want to make sure the beans stay nice and green, (something I never knew existed growing up, I always thought they should have been called grey beans.) Take the lid off and let the beans come to room temperature.
 Then add in:
  1 tsp of seeded chopped fresh serrano chili
  1/2 tsp of salt
  1/2 tsp of sugar

 Sprinkle in:
  1/4 cup of peanut powder ( to make peanut powder at home, dry roast plain peanuts and then grind them in a blender or spice grinder)
  1/2 cup of grated unsweetened coconut.

 And you're done.
 Serve it up at room temperature.

  So there it is, easy simple, fast. I love this dish. Serve it up as a side dish or do as I did (without screwing up the shrimp) and make it one of the stars of a totally meatless meal... on purpose.
  Coming up next, a mixture of vegetables and rice that looks like a mosaic in the making. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

When You Can't Always Get What You Want... Get Zucchini

   When I lived in Los Angeles, anything for my Indian kitchen was practically steps away. Bitter melon? Got it. Bottle gourd? Check. Fresh turmeric root and ridged gourd? Fuggedaboutit! There was no recipe that I couldn't tackle, no ingredient I couldn't find. Then we changed our base of operation to Sonoma's Wine Country and LA became the temporary residence. Now I am up to my ass in 14 different kinds of sage, fresh gourmet olive oils (I have my own tree) every wine and cheese under the sun, artisanal breads and a wealth of fresh (luckily inexpensive) organic fruit and vegetables. But when I want the exotic stuff I have to send away for it, or hit the road for a 50 mile round trip. Or pick it up when I'm in LA on business.
   Since I try to be a good little locavore, the task before me (should I choose to accept it) is cooking Indian with what grows around me. Fortunately many of the same vegetables grown in India are also grown here. But every now and then I want that smack of bitter melon or long beans and I'm s**t outta luck as my dad says. So when I can't always get what I want, I get what I need and usually that involves zucchini.

  Zucchini, like my husband's old college buddy Harry, always seems to be around and isn't always welcome. People say that when the world ends they'll be only two things left. Styrofoam and cockroaches. I'd like to nominate a third. Zucchini.
  Zucchini are tricky. They're everywhere this time of year and nearly all times of year, and they're cheap. Cheap I cannot resist. When I market it's the siren song that rings in my ears. "Yo, Gori, I got your 99 cents deal right here!" It's always zucchini and I always take it home with me. Sort of like last call on a Saturday night at the Roxy... but no. That was the 70's, this is now and zucchini is in the house. So, what to do with it?! Cook it like the vegetable I do not have, that's what. Cook it like ridged gourd.
  This, is Ridge Gourd.

It is not zucchini. Nothing is quite like ridge gourd but it's sort of close in a pinch. Both are squash, but if you let a Ridge Gourd go, it turns into this. Otherwise known as a Loofa. One can exfoliate with it.

If you let a zucchini go, it turns into something dark and liquidy in the bottom of the fridge. Trust me, I know. You do not want to exfoliate with it.
   But a zucchini when ripe can stand in for a Ridge Gourd aka Luffa. It won't taste exactly the same, Zucchini is more watery and the Ridge Gourd is sweeter, but if you are bored with the usual zucchini dishes, this works like a charm. Here's my adaptation of a Ridge Gourd recipe done with Zuccs. There are minimal ingredients so it's ready pretty darn fast.

Zucchini Curry

Here's what to do:
 Soak 2 Tbs of white poppy seeds in 1/2 cup of water for about 30 minutes, then drain them.
Grind them in a spice grinder or blender along with:
 3 green chilies seeded and chopped
 1/2 tsp of salt
Grind it to paste and set it aside.
Chop 1 lb of zucchini into cubes, and set them aside
In a large skillet or kadhai heat 2 Tbs of vegetable oil
When the oil is hot toss in:
 2 whole cloves and
 3 chopped red onions.

Cook the onions until they're a bit browned, about 5 minutes or so.
Add in the chopped zucchini and saute for another 5 minutes or so

 Add in 1/2 tsp of turneric and mix it up well

 Add the poppy seed paste mix

check for seasoning and add a bit more salt if needed.
Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or so, until the zucchini is tender. Serve it up.

  There it is, another way of doing something with all that wonderful zucchini we're all treated to this time of year. If on your travels to any Asian or Indian market in your area you discover Ridge Gourd, do try this as it's intended, and no, soaking your loofa won't do.
  Coming up next, more veg and more friends go gluten free. Eat Indian say I! Plus a visit to small town America. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori