Southwest Scrambled Tofu

I aspire to be a morning person. Every morning, I attempt to wake up around 6 am, very groggily fix myself a cup of Joe that I drink while catching up on the morning news and weather outlook. With that relatively calm beginining, the hum-drum of the day commences. I will admit I do not do justice to breakfast - the supposed most important meal of the day! However, I am usually big on balanced meals. If breakfast consisted of junk, I try to ensure lunch or dinner fare better!

Being the unabashed tofu fan that I am, most weekend brunches involve tofu put together with the contents of the fridge - different veggies: peppers, spinach, accompaniments: ketchup, soy cheese and warm toasted bread. Here is a Tex-mex variation of tofu scramble with chipotle chillis. These are smoked jalapeno peppers that come in a jar all soaked in Mexican Adobo sauce. The Adobo seasonings include garlic, tomato paste and onion. So, thats all you need for the flavorings. When I run out of the usual green chilis I used for daily fare, I substitute these chipotle chilis.

Here is how I went about making the Southwest Scrambled Tofu. Use firm or extra firm tofu, cut off desired amount from the block, slice thin and squeeze out excess liquid from the tofu crumbling it in the process.

Southwest Tofu Scramble
1 tsp peanut oil 1 cup crumbled tofu (liquid squeezed out) 2 chipotle chilis (or less for a milder flavor), chopped 1 tsp of adobo sauce from chipotle chili jar .25 tsp turmerica pinch of salt (or more to taste)	Heat the oil in a pan (omlette pan works well). Add the tofu, chili, turmeric and the sauce. Add salt if necessary - the Adobo sauce is seasoned. Cook for 2-3 minutes till tofu is dry and resembles scrambled eggs
2 tbsp cooked black beans	Add the black beans to the tofu, heat through. Serve with heartly whole wheat bread

Add a glass of freshly squeezed orange-grapefruit juice, and you have given your metabolism an early morning boost!

On most weekdays I do the cereal routine. If you are like me and flee at the mention of milk, try adding cereal or granola to some greek styled yogurt. Greek yogurt is strained thick yogurt that comes low fat and is readily available in most regular well stocked supermarkets! I like Kashi's Go Lean Crunch cereal. It is delicious and each 1 cup serving has 9 gms of protein, 8g fiber and Omega 3 fatty acids.

This balanced breakfast is my entry to this month's Weekend Breakfast Blogging (WBB), concieved by Nandita of Saffron Trail, hosted this month by Mansi. Thanks for choosing the theme of 'balanced breakfast meals'!

Urban Dal Dhokli Under Pressure (Indian stew)

It is 9:30 pm on a Wednesday. You have just walked into your house tired from the day's turmoil. On the way home, you got cut off on the highway by a jerk talking on his cell phone. You kick off your shoes and examine your mail. Bill. Bill. Pre approved credit card notice. You add this to the rest of the week's mail that must be sorted at some future auspicious time. Coupon for pizza. "I had pizza for lunch", you think to yourself. Something healthy would be good for a change. But what.? You come into the kitchen and open and close the pantry and refrigerator doors as if expecting the contents to change magically each time. You consider ordering take out... Where are all those junk menus when you actually want to find them?

Necessity is the mother of invention. One Pot meals are the unsung heroes of weekday chaos! Pretentious recipes with a long list of ingredients and the saute these first set of ingredients, grind them and set aside type instructions are completely over-rated! They have their place in the food chain of course and some of them are worth most of the effort. But the pure satisfaction of had made a good meal within minutes gives me that heady high feeling of accomplishment.

One such is this 'instant' Dal Dhokli. This Gujarati dish has been chronicled beautifully by our resident regional food connoisseur, Nupur. Traditional preparations require you to knead a spiced up dough and roll it out into thin strips and gently boil it in a soupy dal mixture. The resulting dish is an Indian version of soup / pasta and is a great one dish wonder. I decided to shop for thin spinach fettucine to substitue for the fresh dough as a time saver. And work it does, readers. I was lucky to find good spinach fettucine and - red chili flavored pasta at my grocery store.

Pasta used for dal dhokli - red chili pasta with beetroot and spinach taliatelli

A pressure cooker is an ideal one pot for this version of dal dhokli

Dal Dhokli - quick, under pressure!

"Instant" Dal Dhokli
1 tsp peanut oil a handful of raw peanuts 0.25 tsp cumin seeds 2-3 cloves 0.5 cups toor dal (yellow split peas) .25 tsp asafetida .25 tsp turmeric powder 1.5 tsp salt (or to taste) 3.5 cups of water	Heat the oil in a pressure cooker, add the cumin seeds and cloves. When the cloves puff up, add the peanuts. Add the dal, salt and water. Close the lid the cooker and cook according to the instructions for your pressure cooker for lentils
2 cups flavored pasta of your choosing	Add the pasta to the cooked soupy dal, reduce heat to medium, close the lid (without pressure) and cook for about 15 minutes. Check occasionally to ensure there is enough liquid. The mixture will thicken from the starch of the pasta. Add more water if you would like a more soupy dal.
1 tsp butter or ghee (optional)	Once the pasta is good to desired tenderness - (well past the al dente stage!), add butter or ghee to add richness. Enjoy piping hot.

I also tried putting in the pasta with the uncooked dal with a larger quantity of water. I thought the resulting stew was a little too mushy - but really good anyway. It cut down 10 more minutes of prep time. All in all, this dish will be featuring on my table every so often. Comfort... no sweat!

This humble impromptu meal is worthy of mingling with other unassuming one pot nourishers at Meeta's Monthly Mingle.

Doodh Peda (Milk Fudge) : 6 Minute Guilty Pleasure

When it comes to enjoying Indian sweets, I find Milk Pedas absolutely *irresistible*. Next in the sweet hit list would be all kinds of milk based desserts - likes of Gulab Jamun, Ras Malai, Kala Jamun. At the tail end of the list are all dry fruit based sweets. Kaju Katli (Cashewnut fudge), in my humble opinion is nauseating. Just thinking of it makes my stomach churn uncomfortably. How some people I know (take Hubbie for instance) can down them 4-5 at a time is alarming.

But all good things in life are difficult to come by. Agree? Traditionally to make pedas you must painstakingly boil the milk for hours *without* burning it. However, with the magic of processed foods and invention of appliances for busy people you can enjoy pedas in not 9 minutes, not even 8 minutes, but just 7 minutes and 59 seconds. However, if you were to follow the recipe properly you can cut 2 full minutes of prep time. Hopefully I have made you googly eyed just like those attractive infomercials on TV this time of year :-)

All you need for this recipe is a nice big microwave safe glass bowl (with a wide mouth), a can of sweetened condensed milk, a stick of butter and 1/2 cup of non fat dry milk. I don't regularly endorse brands, but Carnation brand dry milk works best - other brands I have tried have given less than optimal results.

Doodh Peda
1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter	Place butter in a large glass bowl and microwave for 30 seconds or more so as to melt it.
one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk 3.2 ounces or 1/2 cup of non-fat dry milk	Mix in the condensed milk and dry milk powder and microwave for a minute. Stir vigorously to combine. Repeat the microwaving for a minute and stirring 4-5 times until the texture and color of the mixture resembles cooked oatmeal.
2-3 cardamom pods a healthy pinch of saffron	Grind the black seeds inside the cardamom pods and the saffron into a powder and mix in with the peda mixture. Let the mixture cool until it can be handled by hand. Shaped into small balls and flatten to form pedas. Alternatively spread on a greased sheet and cut into shapes when cooled completely. Decorate with slivered almond or pistachios

Only seriously insanely obsessive picky eaters will be able to tell you have not slaved over the stove for hours. For the rest of us - this tastes as authentic as it gets. There are many variations to this basic peda recipe - but this one has turned out perfectly multiple times and is what I call a keeper recipe. Thanks to my dear cousin who made these pedas specially on my birthday!

All in one solitary meal: Tofu Spinach Roti

I can tell that it has been too long since my last visit to the grocery store because I am all out of junk food. Yes, been a slacker lately - no excuses. Plenty of theories for my lack of motivation to cook (besides the hackneyed too busy at work) -we'll go over them another day.

But, today I was possessed with the will to cook something good. I was surveying the pantry when it came to me - the mother of all one dish meals - the paratha (Indian flat bread). I gathered all elements of the USDA food pyramid - whole wheat flour, tofu, frozen spinach, vegetable stock cube, water and oil. And got to work. Also, in my life when it rains, it pours. So in true overachiever behaviorial pattern, I also launched another unit of processing - laundry. I kneaded the dough for the parathas and put the clothes in the washer as the dough rested. The whole cooking, cleaning and eating process was done before the end of the dryer cycle. Of course, I was eating as I was cooking. Here goes the recipe for the parathas/rotis

Tofu Spinach Roti/Paratha
0.5 cups frozen spinach 1/2 a vegetable stock cube	Place spinach and half a stock cube in a microwave safe bowl (big enough to knead the dough in) and nuke for 1 min to defrost the spinach
1.5 cups whole wheat flour 2-3 tbsp crumbled tofu (no need to drain) 1 tsp chili pow Not more than 1/2 cup water	Add the flour, tofu and chili pow (and salt if needed, the stock cube will have seasonings). Use your hands to incorporate all the ingredients. Add water little by little and knead into a smooth dough. Keep aside for a few minutes if you can spare.
	Divide dough into 10 parts, Roll into balls and flatten to form discs. Using a rolling pin, roll out into discs of about 6in diameter. Shape has no effect on the taste and nutrition. Heat a griddle/shallow frying pan till hot. Slap on a rolled out disc, flip after cooking ~30 sec on each side. Now drizzle some oil if desired and toast both sides applying slight pressure till brown spots appear on both sides.

Eat by itself or with plain yogurt. A proper meal, two loads of laundry and a blog post all in one week night - tonight is going to be hard to beat. If only I can now muster up motivation to put away that laundry!

Peanut Coconut Curry Sauce - So easy even the Geico Caveman can do it

I love PF Changs - the Chinese Bistro. But have you tried getting a table at the restaurant lately? Reservation or not - you need advance notice to plan for a fun evening at PF Changs - the place is notoriously full by 6:30 pm on most week nights! I haven't been there as many times as I would like because most of our plans tend to be spontaneous and regrettably last minute - so I am left salivating on thoughts of Tofu lettuce wraps, Coconut curry vegetables and some fresh brewed tea!


I came across a recipe for a Simple Coconut based peanut sauce (vegetarian-ized version of Sandra Lee's recipe) - once all the ingredients are at hand, it took less than 10 mins to put together. Reminded me of PF Chang's Coconut Curry sauce - one of my favorites. My kind of a meal - definitely one that would please many others. And I hereby confer on this recipe the Geico Caveman approval seal. Here is the recipe that will comfortably serve 2 as the main meal with rice

Vegetables in Peanut Coconut Curry Sauce
1/2 block of tofu cut into cubes (of desired size) 1 tbsp oil a splash of soy sauce	Heat oil in a pan. When oil is HOT, add the cubes of tofu and pan fry till a nice brown crust is formed. Add a splash of soy sauce and allow the tofu to absorb the liquid.
2 cups of chopped vegetables of your choice (green beans, peppers, broccoli, snap peas etc) salt to taste	Add veggies and salt to the pan, cook till vegetables are tender crisp. Around 3-5 minutes
1 12 oz can light coconut milk 1/2 cup vegetable broth 1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter 2 tbsp brown sugar 1 tbsp red chili paste 1 tsp tamarind extract (or a few bits of tamarind soaked in the stock)	Whisk together ingredients on the left into a smooth sauce. Add to the pan of simmering veggies. Taste for salt since the broth/peanut butter are seasoned. Simmer and let sauce thicken for about 6-8 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with steamed brown or white rice

Change is good And Healthful modifications

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine

I read that quote on an email signature and laughed out aloud. If the last time I had updated this blog some one had told me how much my life would change in just one year - I wouldn't have believed them. Life today has taken unbelievable twists leaving the future murky and uncertain. We don't know whats in store for us but at least we have the option of making it what we want it to be. Change is good. Change is good, indeed. Change is certainly difficult to get accustomed to. But here we are facing refreshingly new challenges, cleaning out the cobwebs in our heads - change is good indeed.

So, to take my mind off how different things are, I decided to come back here to my familiar spot in the blog world. Thanks to the people who have cared to ask how I am doing. The last year has been one enjoyable roller-coaster ride - failures and successes. Finally, both hubby and I are pursuing what we have wanted to. In the midst of all that action - this blog has suffered my lack of attention. But I am back at least for now.

The last I mentioned here was a wonderful book that I had come to own - a book on healthy eating. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I really wanted to get one recipe that I have made time and again out on this blog - Cracked Wheat Idli

If you like Rava idli (steamed dumplings made of semolina flour), you can make a simple modification of substituting some or all of the Rava with cracked wheat for an equally delicious, yet more nutritious idli.

Cracked Wheat Idli
1 cup cracked wheat (fine)	Dry roast in a pan the raw flour smell is gone (just before it turns brown)
1 cup yogurt salt to taste water to dilute	To the roasted wheat add yogurt and salt. Mix to combine. Add water (tablespoons at a time) to make the dough into a pouring consistency of idli batter. Not more than 1/2 cup water. Allow this mixture to rest for at least 15 minutes
1/4 cup grated carrot 2 tbsp grated coconut 1 in piece of ginger grated 1 tbsp finely chopped coriander	Add grated carrots, ginger, coriander and coconut to the mixture. Pour ladle-fulls of the mixture into idli moulds and steam cook for 15 minutes. Serve with coconut chutney.

You can add any vegetable to this idli just be careful about the water content. For instance if you are going to add grated bottle gourd, cut down on the water in the recipe accordingly. Need to settle down into my blog yet again. So much has changed here as well. Need to find out whats new with the Google blogger. Until then, it feels GREAT to be back!

What I have learnt from MIL

I mostly learnt to cook by trial and error and parental phone guidance. I wish I had paid more attention at home when my mother had taken care of the food side of things :) But, whoever gained anything from crying over spilt milk, right? As some of you have noticed my absence from the scene, it was because we were trying to spend as much time as possible with my parents-in-law who were visiting us.

MIL too is an ardent cook ... she loves to cook not just for herself, but for sharing with everyone. And I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog that she enjoys food discussion and description! So, needless to say, I got to learn a lot many new recipes with her around. Infact she brought with her a cookbook in Hindi which I greedily grabbed. It has been such a long time (10 years to be specific) since I have properly read any form of Hindi. I used to be prolific reader of the language during my school days. Now, I will get a chance to rebuild my Hindi skills along with healthy cooking ideas. The book is titled (Translated for every one's benefit) - Health Reviving Dishes - Vegetarian Related. I also have a fresh supply of family recipes, which ofcourse I will try to share with you all in due course :)

Some other important cooking lessons that MIL has imparted on me

• Reduce Wastage - This one is a biggie. In my daily rush to get done with dinner, I usually throw in what I find in the fridge. No proper planning into whats been there for how long or how leftovers can be used. With MIL here for these past months, I just cannot remember throwing out any edible item just because it went bad before it could be used. She had a plan of what to do with a vegetable or produce item when we bought it at the store. Also left overs were planned for accordingly. For example, today's leftover dal or cooked rice would be made into muthiya's for the next day's breakfast. Wastage also was not only in food items - I tend to be prolific in my use of plastic ziploc bags, paper towels etc. Since my habit is an easier and quicker option, it might be difficult to change. But I will certainly be concious about other alternatives before I lunge to grab another bag or paper towel :)
• Importance of Breakfast - This is something I knew all along... that a good breakfast is a great start to the day. But, somehow never incorporated it in my lifestyle. Cooking up a hot breakfast means adding planning time, cooking time and extra washing time to the morning drill. So, I have usually avoided it in the past. When MIL was here, she would make it a point that we didn't leave without a hearty breakfast. She would make us hot jowar/bajra rotis. Just one at 8 in the morning would fill me up good until 12 or 1 in the afternoon. We have gone back to our cold cereal routine for now, but maybe I can practice speed-breakfast skills on weekends.