cook something new every week

In a flurry of late-night, rather-inebriated Amazon-ing, I bought six or seven slightly-used vegetarian cookbooks, including a couple of different Moosewoods. So I’m very excited about trying a million new things.

Last night I made Mixed Vegetable Curry and Dhall out of a Moosewood, though I’m slow to trust anyone other than the venerable Madhur Jaffrey with my Indian foods. The curry turned out rather spectacularly, though! I credit that partially to the fact that I didn’t have any ground fennel or cardamom, so I finally decided to grind my own spices after lightly toasting them. And it really did make for amazing-tasting spices. It was a little cardamom-heavy, since I’m always pretty generously imprecise in my measurements, but that was actually sort of nice, since store-bought curry powders tend to be heavy on the cumin and coriander as they’re less expensive. Anyway, it was fantastic and I’ll definitely make it again.

The Dhall wasn’t that great, in my opinion. It was sort of bland and the coconut milk made it way too sweet and too soupy. With some extra cayenne and salt, it was definitely edible, but I’m still in search of perfect dal recipes. Especially since it’s so expensive these days.

i have been remiss at posting on this website, but I have indeed been cook-cook-cooking all the time, even despite the heat wave.

For example, I made some lovely Jerk Tofu. The marinade took a long time to assemble, though, and despite the delicious result, I’m fairly certain I won’t take the trouble to make it again. Sadness.

On the other hand, I roasted portabellos for the first time (gently bathed in garlic and oil) and my God! what a sandwich they made! especially since i made a little sauce out of chipotle chilis, lime juice and mayo. Stack portabellos, a slice of Muenster, red onion, tomato, lettuce and sauce on toasted French bread….magnificent! I had no idea I could make sandwiches like that at home.

Also, I have made sweet potato pancakes, breaded tofu sticks, a rather terrible red curry, and kidney beans cooked in a Punjabi style (“Indian chili?” – Gautham “Um….yes, I suppose.” – Me). Oh, and cucumber raita for a change. Has that been enough things for all this time? Since I’ve probably forgotten a handful of things, I’ll let myself slide by.

so i spent an entire week obsessing over the Moosewood Cookbook i borrowed from my roommate and making a big list of things that caught my interest. last night i made Moroccan Roasted Veggies over Curried Quinoa (a box of quinoa has been sitting in my cupboard for literally months, intimidating me with its strangeness) from recipes in the book.

oh man, was it delicious! and the recipes were really easy and pretty fast. even forty minutes of roasting didn’t seem to take that long. the flavors of the roasting spices were really warm and sweet. after pony and i ate half of it, geutham and kevin stopped by and ate the rest and even kevin said it made him “reconsider ethnic food” (he’s a bit xenophobic). so a success all around!

holy hell, i made homemade seitan! The Post Punk Kitchen (a public access vegetarian cooking show) had a recipe for it, so i tried it out. it was really easy even though it took a long time and it made a ton! next time i’ll use water instead of broth for the simmering liquid, but all in all, it was an awesome discovery! i’m so pleased! now i can have it in my curries all the time! right now i’m eating a a sandwich with a thick slice lightly fried and lettuce, tomatoes, onion, and mustard. it’s delicious!!!

gautham always used to make the sambar in this house, but now that he’s in the grim city of chicago, someone has to try. and that someone is me. i called him for his recipe, but he called back too late, so i muddled on alone. it seemed to be going really terribly wrong for a very long time. in the end, it was really quite tasty, but not very much like the sambar i remember so fondly. oh well. try, try again, i suppose. at least i got to use some of my giant jar of fenugreek seeds.