Raw Spinach, Coconut, and Peanut Salad, A South Indian Side Dish.

   I wasn't doing a whole lot of cooking from January through mid April. Having chemo, and a lot of doctors visits didn't exactly put me in the mood for cooking and entertaining. I just didn't have the energy or the appetite. Now that I've been done with that for a month and a half, I have gotten my energy and my appetite back. Last weekend we decided to have a couple of very close friends over so that I could break out  my cooking skills again. Normally at our house we do a LOT of entertaining. There's always someone here to sample the latest thing I'm experimenting with, so it felt really weird getting back behind the stove again and cooking for a group. But you know what? Cooking is a lot like riding a bicycle or roller skating (a lot safer than roller skating) and once I was rattling my pots, pans, and clay again I found myself back in business.

   I decided to make the menu simple, and light for the holiday weekend. I made a selection of vegan dishes and then took Kheemah and shaped it into individual sausages for grilling. Sort of like hot dogs, but not. That way, I figured Alan could grill the final product while I concentrated on the vegetables. So, what I'm going to be featuring here are the various things I fixed for that meal. Fast, easy, and healthy, they fit into any sort of entertaining plans and are regularly served at our house, company or not.
 
   The easiest of these is an Indian raw spinach salad that's easily put together with any bag of pre-washed spinach in just a few minutes.

Raw Spinach, Coconut, and Peanut Salad,  aka Palak Koshimbar

Here's What you Need:
2 bags of  chopped prewashed spinach or 6 cups
2 Tbs coconut or vegetable oil
6 Tbs of fresh grated coconut, or dry unsweetened grated coconut moistened with a bit of water
4 Tbs of ground peanuts
1 tsp of cumin seed
a pinch of hing (asafoetida) (optional)
3 tsps lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt1/2 tsp sugar

Here's What to Do:
Wash and dry your spinach, then chop it.

Mix the spinach, coconut and peanut powder together in a large bowl.

In a small pan heat the coconut or other vegetable oil.

When the oil is hot, add in the cumin seeds.
Cook them until the cumin seeds darken a bit (just a few seconds actually).

Then add in your pinch of Hing if you are using it.
Pour the oil and spices over the spinach mixture in the bowl.

Stir everything together then add in the lemon juice...

Sugar and salt.

Mix again, and that's it you are done.

Pop it into the fridge to chill a bit and serve when you're ready.

   That's it! It couldn't be easier or more delicious. You see why I included this dish in my first big back in the kitchen day? It's an easy make ahead (a few hours ahead ) dish which always helps. Coming up next, a picnic ready Indian Potato Salad Sookhe Aloo. It's another make ahead dish, easy, vegan, and gluten free. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Fast, Healthy and Vegan. Chickpea, Mango, and Coconut Salad.

   Sometimes you just want something to be easy. Sometimes you just wanna say what the hell, I'll nuke something, or open a can, or whatever. This last week was one of those weeks for me. I'm nearly halfway through my chemo, still firing on all cylinders. In fact on Sunday I did three miles. The problem was Monday. Monday I felt lower than whale shit. The chemo side effects and I tangled for a couple of days, now I'm pretty much back to normal. Pretty much means I didn't want to do a whole lot of cooking. I wanted things that were nourishing and above all EASY! That's where this salad comes in.
 
   If one has the time and the inclination, one can soak ones garbanzos in tepid water for 24 hours, which sounds more suggestive than it is. Then comes the boiling and simmering and voila!  Salad ready chickpeas. Or, you can do what I did and open a can of organic chickpeas from Whole Foods and be done with it. If you do that, you can be dining on this salad in like 20 minutes. So here how to do exactly that.

Chickpea, Mango, and Coconut Salad

Here's What You Need:
1 16oz can of chickpeas
2 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 dried red chili pepper
1 tsp chopped curry leaves
2 Tbs grated fresh or dried unsweetened coconut
1 serrano chili minced
1/2 green mango peeled and cut into slices, plus more for julienning
1 handful of grapes
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbs chopped cilantro
1 pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1/4 cup of roast unsalted whole peanuts (optional)

Here's What To Do:
If you're using canned chickpeas, rinse them in cool water, and drain them. You may need to rinse them gently several times.
Heat the coconut oil in a saute pan or kadhai.
When the oil is hot add in the mustard seeds and urad dal.

When they start to sizzle and pop, toss in the dried red chili.and curry leaves.

Stir everything around for a minute or so, then add in your drained chickpeas...

...1/2 tsp of salt, and a pinch of hing.

Saute everything together for about 3 minutes then take the pan off the heat.
Add in the coconut...

...Mango julienne...

Chopped red grapes...

And finally the zest...

...and juice of 1 lemon...

...and finally the peanuts.

Stir everything together well.
Then peel and thinly slice your mango.

Arrange the peeled slices fan like on a plate.
Add the chickpea coconut salad mixture to the top of that.
Sprinkle with a bit of chopped fresh cilantro and serve it up.

   It's that simple, that fast, and a perfectly tropical relaxing treat for when life seems to be kicking you ass. Coming up next, more very easy dishes that can be made quickly, without too much muss and fuss. Follow along on Twitter at @kathygori

The Wonderful World of Color: Red Corn And Radish Sprout Salad With Peanut Chili Dressing

    
   When I was a kid I used to love watching Disney's Wonderful World of Color.



   It didn't matter that we never had a color TV, we used our imaginations, that and a piece of cellophane that fitted over the TV screen, the top part blue, the middle pink, and a strip of green along the bottom. Who were we fooling?

   My other experience of color had to do with painting at midnight with my mom. That's usually when she was "inspired" and it often involved  a can of lavender paint, and a spray can of gold. We'd get roused out of bed at 1 a.m. and  armed with brushes, paint, and clear plastic pop beads to help make the dining room chandelier "fancier" we'd attempt to turn our humble row house into Versailles. In the morning, I'd get up and don my navy and white Catholic school uniform and go off till  3 'o'clock when I'd return to Fran's Wonderful World of Color, which always ended with my father's big statue of Jesus in the back yard being spray-painted gold. And then white again. And then gold. I grew up hating bright colors. My answer to every painting question as an adult has bee, "paint it white." Until now that is. We've been renovating the house we just bought and we are now God help us, at the painting stage.

   I never knew there were so many paint colors! Every paint company has different names for the same colors, and not only are there a zillion names, there are also sheens. Who knew about sheens? Flat, matte, eggshell, satin, and so on and so forth. I always said that this house I was gonna take a chance with decor, this house I was gonna go big, go bold, take chances. That is until I got into a few paint stores. Immediately I was intimidated, battered into submission by the difference between Simply White, and Swiss Coffee, which by the way is a different color depending on who's making it. Oh yeah. Paint.  Who names this stuff anyway?  You think I like walking into a store and asking for a gallon of Kitten Whiskers and a pint of Inner Balance? It's too zen. By the way, Zen is also a color. Actually any random word salad is probably a color. Paranoid Pelican, Pond Scum, yeah those are probably colors too, I'll have to check my color wheel (not) which weighs about 5 pounds. With all the color madness surrounding me it's no wonder I was attracted to the red corn I found at the farmers market. Those delicate tones of pale eggshell, blended with the lightest cream, and just a touch of Kitten Whiskers. It was calling to me and so I bought some.

   I thought I'd use this colorful corn to try a variation of the roasted pepper salad I'd made a couple of weeks before. I'm trying to compile a group of easy recipes for back yard get-togethers  this summer, plus I've been pretty lazy with all the color picking, and I wondered if I could make this work. Let me tell you, it worked like a charm. It worked so well, there was a battle over the left overs. Plus, fast and easy is always a winner. The corn, mixed with the spicy radish sprouts, the crunch of the peanuts, and heat from the chilies is a great combo. This recipe will work with any color corn, but if you should run across red corn grab some up,  toss a few ears on the grill and get cooking.

Red Corn And Radish Sprout Salad With Peanut, Chili Dressing

 

Here's What You Need:

4 ears of corn
1  and 1/2 Tbs olive oil plus a bit extra to rub on the corn
1/2 cup of roasted unsalted ground peanuts
3 Tbs chopped fresh chervil
salt to taste
2 cups radish sprouts
1 1/2  tsp dried red chili flakes
2 Tbs lemon juice

Here's What To Do: 

Shuck and clean 4 ears of corn.

Rub the cleaned ears with a bit of olive oil.

Just lightly cover them.

Place the ears of corn on the grill and cook them until they are lightly roasted.

Meanwhile, place the cleaned radish sprouts in a bowl and set them aside.

Add the 1/2 cup of ground up roasted unsalted peanuts  to a small bowl.
Mix in 2 Tbs of lemon juice
1 and 1/2 Tbs of olive oil
Salt to taste
Add in the torn up 3 Tbs of chervil.

Add in 1 and 1/2 tsp of red chili flakes.

Mix everything together well. Set it aside.
Take the kernels off the ears of roasted corn.

Add the roasted corn kernels to the bowl of radish sprouts.

Mix everything together well.

 
Whisk in the peanut chili dressing.

Give it a good stir so that everything is covered, and serve it up!

   This salad can be served hot of cold. It's great as part of a vegetarian menu and also works well with any sort of grilled meat. I'm actually thinking of using this dish as a base for a salmon salad. Give it a whirl, if your family likes peanuts, and corn this could be a keeper. Coming up next, Avocados, and CocoaPlanet  Deep Dark Truffle Chocolate hook up for a Summer romance. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori


  

A Keeper For Summer Weekends, Roasted Pepper Salad With Peanut Dressing.

      

   We're still in the midst of our house renovation here in Sonoma, target date for completion is mid July, and I'm nearing the tipping point. Most days finds me Googling plumbing and lighting info or working in the garden getting things ready to set up the growing beds and readying space for fruit trees. I think the chickens may be part of phase two as I don't think I could do more research into poultry housing, I'm having enough trouble with my own. I'll be so glad when all this is over and we can get back to our real work which contrary to how things may appear in real life is not LED experts, but writers. I also am eager to get into my new kitchen and get back to a regular schedule of cooking with all my tools close at hand and not scattered amongst boxes marked "Fragile". So I'm still cooking in my borrowed kitchen and so as not to get too messy, I'm leaning toward Indian dishes that are fresh, fast, and above all easy. Enter the late great Indian chef Tarla Dalal and her Roasted Pepper Salad with Peanut Dressing.

Roasted Pepper Salad With Peanut Dressing

Here's What You Need:

1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper

1  and 1/2 Tbs olive oil plus a bit extra to rub the peppers
1/2 cup of roasted unsalted ground peanuts
3 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste
2 cups arugula
1 tsp dried red chili flakes
2 Tbs lemon juice

Here's What To Do:

Most people seem to like roasted peppers, and rather than buying them canned or out of a bottle, it's easy to make them at home whether one uses a gas flame, barbecue, or the broiler of the oven.  Lightly rub the peppers with vegetable oil and either place them on a baking sheet under the broiler, or on the grill or as I did on a low gas flame on top of the oven.

Keep the flame low, and keep turning the peppers till they start to char.

When each peppers skin is blackened, drop it into a brown paper bag and seal it tightly. Keep the pepper in the sealed paper bag for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes take the pepper out and rinse it under cool running water, while rubbing the charred skin off.

When the blackened skin is gone, pat the pepper dry and seed it.

Chop the pepper into strips and then squares.

Add the arugula on top of the roasted peppers.

Now, a note about the arugula. 

Tarla Dalal in her original recipe uses alfalfa sprouts. I didn't see any that morning, so I decided to use some fresh baby arugula. Another good possibility might be pea shoots. Actually whatever green appeals to you as peppers go with nearly everything.

  

Put the 1/2 cup of peanuts into a grinder and crush them up.

Put them into a bowl and add the olive oil...

The chopped fresh cilantro, lemon juice, and the red peppers.

Mix everything together well.

Then mix the Peanut Dressing into the greens and peppers.

Blend everything together well.

If you need to add a bit more olive oil it's perfectly ok.
When it's all blended together well serve it up and enjoy.

This salad can be made ahead and served at room temperature, but actually for better flavor, it's best to serve it right away.

  

   

   So that's it. Anything that's that fast, cheap and easy shouldn't be and usually isn't legal, but this is. It's a dish you can have on the table in under an hour and for Summer cooking that's a bonus.. It's great with grilled meat or fish, which is how we served it. A great Indian rice dish would also make a perfect accompaniment, no meat or fish necessary, so it's great for vegan or vegetarian meals, plus it's gluten free.  Coming up next, I ran across something that's new to me, red corn. Can't wait to give it a while. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori