Chickpea-Spinach Medley

I rummaged in my fridge and found that I had a jar of chickpeas that have been calling out to me to be eaten, and a few beautiful, juicy tomatoes. I thought about the most obvious but not so easy option of making a chana dish, but for the lack of many key spices and ingredients including black tea, I had to keep thinking. I also fished out some frozen spinach from my freezer, and decided to add it to the mix. The following dish is what I came up with. It's heady flavors and spices warm up the soul, it's hearty and fully satisfying. You can have it with some cumin spiked rice or some chapatis (Indian flatbread). You could even pour it over some fluffy couscous.

Ingredients:

Note: I used frozen spinach since that's what I had lying around. I find that it's a good substitute for the fresh variety since it can be stored forever, it often comes in one-serving portions and it doesn't compromise on the flavor. However, if you have fresh spinach leaves, chop them coarsely and add them to this recipe. It will give a wonderful silky texture to the dish.

1 jar cooked chickpeas (or if using dried chickpeas, soak overnight and cook them until tender)
3 tomatoes, diced
1 cup tomato puree
400 grams frozen spinach (2 cups if using fresh spinach leaves, chopped)
3 garlic pods, minced
2 small or 1 medium sized onion, chopped finely
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp red chili powder or paprika powder
1 tsp garam masala (combination of various Indian spices, easily found in most grocery stores with an international spice aisle, or in specialty Asian stores)
2 tsp toasted and ground cumin
juice of half a lemon
2 tbps vegetable oil or sunflower oil
salt to taste

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a deep-rimmed pan. Add the cumin, and once it's roasted, add the garlic and the onions.
P.S. I think the smell of sauteing garlic and onions is one of the best smells in the world. It instantly makes me drool (which is not so great when I'm cooking!) but also elicits a "oh wow, what are you cooking remark from my husband?"

Mix the garam masala and red chili powder together in a small bowl and add 2 tablespoons of water to make it into a liquid paste. As soon as the onions begin to soften and turn translucent, add this mixture to the pan and stir in with the onions. This is a nifty trick I learned from my mother - adding some water to the spices before putting them in the hot oil prevents them from burning as soon as they touch the pan. You definitely don't want spices to burn since they smell acrid, make you cough and ofcourse make the food almost inedible.

Once the onion-spice mixture is cooked for a couple of minutes and is fragrant, add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato puree. The mixture of the two types of tomatoes gives it a hearty, sweet and rich flavor all at once. Add the chickpeas and the spinach in the sauce and flavor with the toasted and ground cumin, salt and the lemon juice. The toasted cumin gives it a heady, earthy flavor, which is what makes this dish.

Add some water if you think the dish is too thick, cover the pan and let it simmer on low heat for as long as you have patience. The more you simmer it, the more the flavors develop and the more taste the chickpeas can soak in. Keep stirring from time to time to check the consistency and the flavor. Add more of any spice if needed, and add more water if needed. You can keep it as thick or runny as you want.
Enjoy it heaped over rice or as an accompaniment to some hot, fluffy chapatis.

Garlic and Scallion Noodles

I love chowmein. Or at least the version of chowmein that is served in the hundreds of cheap, hole-in-the-wall "Chinese" restaurants in India. And in the Bengali Sweet Houses that now carry every conceivable cuisine of the world on their menu cards. Chinese, Continental (which is basically cheese toast and tomato soup), Mexican, Italian, Thai and even American (Potato Burger). The greasy, maxed-out-on soy-sauce, altogether too salty and highly addictive noodle dish is just what I craved for when I used to get out of school, or when I had an extra 50 Rupees in my pocket which I didn't have to account for. It was nothing special, far from anything gourmet or spectacularly tasty, but it was just something so dependable and different from home food, that it always hit the spot. And it always came with a dinky little 3-cup condiment tray with hot sauce, soy sauce and vinegar with bits of green chillies floating around. Ah yes.

This noodle dish is my go-to dish whenever I feel like I want to be a teenager in Delhi again, need a change of taste from Indian food or whenever I just need a quick, flavorful, delicious meal. And they go great with a side of those potatoes that I posted earlier.

Ingredients:

1 packet chinese egg noodles
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch ginger, finely grated or chopped
Quarter head of chinese cabbage or regular cabbage, finely sliced
2-3 scallions, white part julienned, green part cut in rounds
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
1 carrot, julienned (optional)
4 tbsp soy sauce
chili flakes or Asian hot sauce (to taste)
2 tsp rice vinegar

Handful of chopped cilantro (optional)

2 tbsp Sesame oil (or vegetable oil)

Preparation:

Boil the noodles as per the packet directions. Cool in a colander. In the meantime, heat the oil in a wok or a deep pan. Wait till it becomes hot and then add the ginger and garlic. Be careful to not let them burn. Add the white parts of the scallion, the green pepper, the cabbage and the carrot, if using. Keep stirring while letting the vegetables cook. You don't want them to be raw, but you do want a little bite in them, so they'd rather be a little less done than more. They can continue cooking with the noodles. When you think they are ready, toss the noodles in, making sure you separate them with your fingers as you drop them in the pan. Add the soy sauce, vinegar and the chilli peppers (or hot sauce). Mix the vegetables, the noodles and the sauces together to evenly coat all the surfaces. Taste a little bite and make sure that the seasonings are to your liking. Add salt if needed, or splash in some more hot sauce if you need more heat. Turn off the stove, and add the green parts of the scallions, since they don't need cooking and you want the vibrant green to shine through the dish.
Season with some sesame oil and cilantro just before serving.

Hindi-Chini Aloo

No, these are not sugary potatoes. Neither do they speak any particular language. This dish falls under the category of the whole new cuisine type that north India has managed to create - Indo-Chinese. My Chinese friends have gasped at the thought of Indian spices being used in a stir-fry, or a dish being called "Manchurian". But hey, if we can't be good neighbors - might as well steal their food and make it our own?

This is a great side dish with these noodles. And, I don't even need to use my hotplates for this one!

Hindi-Chini Aloo
Serves 4

Note: You can use any firm vegetables that hold up well to roasting and baking. I only had potatoes, onions, mushrooms and peppers on hand but I imagine that firm Japanese eggplants, little cauliflower florets or string beans might be good as well. Baby corn would work particularly nicely. I would have also loved to sprinkle this dish with some vibrant scallions (green onions) and cilantro.

Ingredients

6-7 small potatoes
1 large red onion
1 large red pepper
10 button mushrooms
2-3 large garlic cloves
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp red chili flakes (more or less according to spice preference)
1 tsp chaat masala (or lemon juice)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Wash all the vegetables and cut them in fairly large squares - about 2 or 3 inches wide. Mix them together in a large container with a lid. Crush the garlic with a press or your knife and put it in a small mixing bowl. Add the oil, sugar, ketchup, soy sauce, chili flakes and the chaat masala, one by one. Lick a little of the mixture to judge how spicy or sweet it is and add salt and pepper as desired. You can adjust any of the spices and sauces to your liking. Add two tablespoons of water to this so that it easily coats the vegetables. Now pour the sauce over the vegetables and close the lid of the container. Shake it around and have fun watching the sauce cover all the vegetables in its sweet and spicy goodness.
Slather some oil onto a baking sheet, parchment paper or a baking tray and lay out the vegetables in one layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 200C or until the potatoes are cooked and all the vegetables are crunchy and sizzling.
Feel free to add a little more chaat masala or lemon juice on top and sprinkle with finely cut scallions and cilantro.

Two hot plates

I find myself in France - arguably the culinary destination of the world, saddled with two sorry looking electric hotplates. One of which never switches off.
My visions of creating gourmet delights, trying out new cuisines, finding inspiration from the French and trying different culinary techniques at home seem all but evaporating.
The technicians at the apartment have promised me (2 weeks ago) a brand new set of two hotplates. But for the time being, I have to be content with one hotplate that's the size of my smallest pan and the other one on which it's impossible to cook anything without burning it.
A good start. I figure, things can only get better!

Since there are not many options for eating out, we are trying to eat most of our meals at home, and even calling some of our newly made friends over for wine-evenings-that-slowly-morph-into-dinner parties. (Those are the best kind!)

With limited ingredients and a very handicapped kitchen, I still aspire to cook fresh, healthy and innovative food. A lot of it is inspired by Indian cuisine, given my background and watching my mom in the kitchen, but I try to mix it up by combining it with something I saw on television or read in someone else's recipe or just adding my own twist to it.