Poha and Grad School Life

Green, yellow, brown, pink, red - this dish has them all! A great way to incorporate all the colors on your platter. Recent studies suggest we need to try and fill our plates with all the colors in the spectrum - VIBGYOR as a rule of thumb. Each colored vegetable has a different vital nutrient and since this is a nifty way to remember, the diet bulletins really canvass for the rainbow diet. A good method to make any dish healthy is to reduce the oil as much as you can, and replace the little oil added with extra-virgin olive oil. Rice flakes seem to be a raging favorite of many but this was not a staple at home in India for me. I got hooked when my good friend Chetna made it for us at Rolla during our grad school life together.

A little divagation here (as always) - IMHO, Indian graduate students in the U.S. simply have a ball of a time! Of course there is this constant worry of monetary troubles nibbling away at the back of your mind along with the more pressing problems of homework deadlines, project submissions, term papers, EXAMS, T.A. class preps and last but not the least, research papers to submit to journals or conferences ominously looming over your head. Phew! We had this week before the finals week called "dead" week in our school. No way I am kidding...even the professors used it. When I first heard it during my first sem at grad school, I didn't need an explanation from anyone because I knew I was going to be so dead that week any way. If you managed to catch at least 3 hours of shut-eye every day of dead week on an average, then you must be a super whiz kid or something to that equivalent. The place used to be filled with sleep-deprived, unshaven, disheveled, worried-looking, red-eyed zombies and just like in the movies, you could find them everywhere - in the labs, lounges, library, T.A rooms, vacant classrooms and restrooms too. Some cult that was! You survive dead week, only to find yourself hurled into the finals week. All those sleepless nights that lead to the next make your whining mind tell you no more of scurrying along is going to get you that A. Yet, you fight and suddenly you are all done! You can't believe it at first. OMG! What am I going to do with all this free time on my hands, you catch yourself lamenting to yourself at least once. After may be a week of partying and sleeping-like-a-log days, it dawns on you that life couldn't have been better. The glorious holidays are finally here and research at last gets the amount of respect it always deserved. And yeah, you get to make up for all those missed episodes of House and Everybody Loves Raymond too!

Chetna makes yummy poha and I for one, like her way of making it, the best. She used to whip it up in a jiffy on those memorable grad school days which were bound to turn into all-nighters. The key to making delicious poha is to keep the spice as less as possible. The grain itself is very light in texture and easily catches on to the flavoring. The first time I made it on my own after painstakingly jotting down the recipe from her, I ended up with a sticky dough-like pulpy fiasco. I was disgusted. A transcript of the phone call that followed after the niceties were exchanged-

me - Hey! I followed your recipe verbatim but I ended up with a less-than-desirable product. What the hell did I do wrong?

she - Aww! May be you soaked it for too long in too much water.

me - Whaaaattt? Weren't you the one that said the longer it soaked, the better it would fluff up?

she - That is true but you did soak it in a colander, didn't you?

me - What do you mean by "soaking in a colander"?? A colander obviously lets all the water run out, correct? That is not soaking by any means. How come you missed telling me this?

she - Arrrrey! You cook all these complicated dishes...I assumed you would know rey!

me (too petulant to reply) - (growl) You..you...(grunt)

she - LOL!

me (now embarrassed) - I had no clue, Chetna.

Here's her classic recipe (which I have been successfully making for the past 3 or so years now) -

Colorful Poha

Ingredients -
1) Rice Flakes (thick) - 1.5 cups
2) Mustard Seeds - 1 tspn
3) Cumin Seeds - 1/2 a tspn
4) Asafetida - a pinch
5) Roasted peanuts - 2 tbspns
6) Curry leaves - few, washed and squeezed
7) Green Chili - one (slit)
8) Onion - 1 finely cut
9) Tomatoes - 2 small or 1 large (chopped)
10) Frozen peas - 1/2 cup (thawed)
11) Frozen corn - 1/2 cup (thawed) (Substitute both frozen goodies with fresh if desired.)
12) Cilantro - few sprigs
13) Oil - 2 tspns
14) Red Chili Powder - 1/2 tspn (Increase if you like it spicy.)
15) Salt - to taste

Method -
1) Wash the rice flakes in a colander in running water. Shake it around so that all the flakes get wet. Hold under water for a minute.
2) Place the colander in a bigger vessel lest a particularly wet kitchen counter digs you. Cover and leave in the colander for 20 minutes.
3) Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan, add ingredients 2-7, one at a time after each turns crisp.
4) Throw in the onions and saute till the translucent stage is reached.
5) Tomatoes next! After they start losing shape, add the frozen veggies, salt and red chili powder too. Continue frying till most of the moisture is gone.
6) Reduce heat to a simmer and fluff up the "soaked-well-in-a-colander" rice flakes with a fork. Add the flakes slowly, stirring with a light hand the entire time.
7) Cover and leave on a low flame for 5 minutes until the marriage of the tastes happens.
8) Remove from flame and garnish with chopped cilantro.
9) Serve hot without any condiment.

Variation - You can subsitute corn with boiled, cooled, peeled and cut potatoes.

10-minute Coconut Rice Noodles and a summer chiller!

When you are having one of those lazy Saturdays when you are not up for cooking something elaborate for "brunch" but would rather like to keep it low-key and quick, this is exactly the dish for you. On weekends, I'm a person that begs to differ; differ from what I feed myself over the week for breakfast. Our Saturdays in the basil household, begin a little late with a rigorous circuit and core strengthening workout class at the gym. The class itself lasts for an hour and a half but its unrelenting effects last for a day and a half, absolutely in the literal sense. Sunday is a no-workout day or in other words a "rest" day in my exercise schedule but I always intend to do some yoga at home. Though that's never seemed to materialize simply because Saturday kind of exhausts me and there's always the abyss-like pit of "to-dos" that I end up falling into. Rice noodles come in two varieties broadly - Thai variety and the Indian variety. This savory flavoring works well for both but I enjoy the Indian version better because the gooey-ness is absent here. If you were to ask a "maami" (auntie) from Chennai, she would very well launch into a lengthy discourse on how the noodle (sevai) is to be made. In South India, they actually make the rice noodle from rice flour using a noodle-maker (achu). Evolution is necessary if you want to stay afloat in turbid seas filled with the tantalizing, blood-thirsty jaws of to-do lists. x-(

Here's the 10-minute version with the instant rice noodles. We lapped it up in a jiffy and I made a healthy watermelon-grape chiller to wash it down with!

Coconut Sevai

Ingredients -

1) Instant rice noodles - 2-3 cups cooked and drained as per instructions on package.

2) Mustard - 1 tspn

3) Red Chilies - 2

4) Bengal gram dal - 1 tbspns

5) Black gram dal - 1 tspn

6) Curry leaves - a few (washed)

7) Asafetida - 3 pinches

8) Coconut - 3 tbspns (grated)

9) Oil - 2 tspns

10) Salt - to taste

Method -

1) Let the rice noodles cool well. Fluff with a fork.

2) In a pan, heat oil and add the seasonings from 2-7 in that order making sure each is crisp but not charred before tossing in the next one.

3) Stir in the coconut and add salt. Continue sauteing for a minute.

4) Dunk the cooled noodles and mix together on a low flame for 5 minutes until the salt and the flavors have all blended together.

5) Serve as is or with whatever accompaniment you'd like - sambar, tomato chutney - anything pairs up well!

Watermelon-Grape Punch -

No fuss here! Blend together, some watermelon chunks and red seedless grapes. Strain to get a clear juice or go the healthy way and drink it up with the pulp like we did! A mint leaf on the top makes a cute picture and a nice excuse to nibble on it. :)

Game Nite Rasmalai!

We had this Game Nite last weekend and since it was a post-dinner affair, I was left with no choice but to make some dessert. I sound like I am cribbing because I am supposed to be on a diet for heaven's sakes! As a consolation, the other dish I served the guests was a healthy one - mildly spiced popcorn. The rasmalai itself turned out pretty good I thought, given that I was only making it for the second time. This happens to be a dessert I learnt from one of my friends in grad school - Smitha. The first time I made it, it took ages since I was a novice to baking and kind of overestimated the amount I'd need for a party. The result was almost two huge pans of leftover rasmalai....not that my roommates complained though. ;) This time around, I was careful about the quantity so as not to compromise the quality. We served this when everyone was in the midst of an action-packed round of Pictionary and they were quite nonplussed to be served home-made rasmalai and cube-shaped ones at that. I was fine with their bewilderment as long as there was none who screamed sacrilege! Next day, the poor rasmalai managed to pass the ultimate acid test and that too with an A+. How? Well! Appa remarked that it tasted better than the conventional way in which it was made 'coz he felt the malai part never really has a lot of flavor while this modified way seemed to produce malai's which were bursting with taste. The only sad part of this whole affair is the fact that since the past three days, the leftover rasmalai has been sitting in our refrigerator and it feels like an anathema by all means. Vee and I are on a crash 7-day diet plan, you see...

Chilled Rasmalai

Ingredients -

1) Ricotta Cheese - 1 lb tub

2) Sugar - 1.5 cups or lesser

3) Cardamom - 1/2 a tspn (powdered)

4) Whole Milk - 5-6 cups

5) Almonds - a handful (sliced or pounded)

6) Pistachio nuts - a handful (pounded)

7) Saffron - a few strands soaked in a few tspns of milk.

8) Rose Water - a few drops

Method -

1) In a bowl, whisk together the ricotta cheese, half of the 1.5 cups of sugar and a generous pinch of cardamom powder. You can use a hand blender to get a silky consistency. (If you don't have one, the good old fork will do the trick too.) The sugar can be adjusted according to taste, but remember the milk in which the malai will be dunked into, will be sweet too. You don't want to end up making it cloyingly sweet!

2) Grease a baking pan and pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

3) Pour the sweet cheese mixture into the pan (or pans) and spread it out evenly. The amount you pour, should not be more than 1-1.5 inches thicker. This simple check ensures the cheese doesn't take too long to bake. Reach for a second smaller pan if you think the mixture is already laid out thick in the first one.

4) Bake at 300 degrees F for about an hour and leave on broil for 5-6 minutes until the top gets some hazel colored specks. Wait until the knife test yields a neat pass and the cheese springs back from the pan. Importantly, do not expect the cheese to solidify to a hard cake. It will feel slightly soft but when you leave it to cool down, it firms up quite a bit.

5) Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan. After it has cooled for three quarters of an hour, cut it up in diamonds or squares.

6) As and when the baking happens, you can set the milk boiling in a heavy-bottomed dish.

7) Once it reaches boiling point, add the remaining sugar and simmer. Be sure to stir often so that it doesn't spill over. The cardamom powder, saffron stands, rose water and all the pounded nuts also go in at this stage.

8) Continue simmering until the milk syrup has reduced in quantity but is not too thick like a basundi by any means. Too thick is not good because the malai cubes will refuse to soak well.

9) Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes before adding the cut up sweet cheese cubes. Assembling in a wide mouthed basin helps in avoiding traffic among the pretty cubes.

10) Cover and refrigerate for 4-5 hours before serving. And...let the party begin!

Low-fat Caulifower Soup

I return from work to find that I am late yet again. The rain drops I battled with my windshield wipers lash around unobtrusively on my window sill. It has been cool and wet all day long and now in the late evening, nature seems to be doing its garish little dance with rain and clouds. Folks at home are in a drowsy mood and I start thinking of something that would fire up the atmosphere. Natural choice is hot bhajjis as I am so used to fantasizing from my Chennai days. No, I tell myself....find something healthy! Weighing a lot of options, I tactfully start making trade-offs between taste and time. Choices range from masala bhel, spicy popcorn, ragi roti to hot soups. And the winner is - S-O-U-P. I start ravaging my veggie-tray in the refrigerator and find this small cauliflower hiding in a corner - it is your turn tonight, sweetie - I say to its forlorn looking face! Within minutes, I have it washed and scrubbed clean. There are at least 3 different ways in which I make this soup and I decide which one of those to use. This one takes about a half hour to make from the time you pick the veggie to spooning the soup into bowls. Thirty minutes later, I lay out the table and start summoning everyone for dinner. "Whatz for dinner, honey?", asks Vee without looking away from his laptop. I refrain from replying so that he would be forced to check for himself. After deliberating for a little bit, he finally hops over to the table and what he sees, brightens his face. The guy loves soup of any kind. Amma and Appa prefer soups any day to the mundane salads that I so often serve them for dinner. The soup is still piping hot and as everyone savors it one spoonful at a time, all the sleepiness is driven away. They are as pepped up as they could ever get!

Here's the recipe which is my own adaptation from Mrs. Mallika's "100 Refreshing Soups and Stews" cookbook.

Steaming bowl of cauliflower soup

Ingredients -

1) Cauliflower - 1 (quickly separated into large florets)

2) Garlic - 2 small cloves (If you'd rather prefer ginger, go with a 1" piece of it!)

3) Onion - 1 small (roughly chopped up)

4) Green Chilies - 2

5) Milk - 1.5 cups (I used 1%-low fat.)

6) Whole Wheat Flour - 1 tbspn

7) Oil - 1 tspn (I use Extra Virgin Olive Oil.)

8) Softened butter or ghee - two drops

9) Salt - to taste

10) Black Pepper - a few corns

Method -

1) Heat the oil and butter in a pressure cooker or pan and saute the garlic cloves and green chilies until the raw smell of garlic is all gone.

2) Throw in the onions and continue sauteing for a few minutes until they turn translucent.

3) Next go in, the cauliflower florets. Fry some more.

4) After about 5 minutes, sprinkle the wheat flour and stir around till everything is well coated.

5) Add 1 cup of milk and about 1/2 a cup of water and salt to taste.

6) Pressure cook in a low flame for 10 minutes or until one whistle sounds.

7) Wait till all the pressure is released and leave the cooker open for some time for the contents to cool thoroughly.

8) Take all the solid particles you can find (in the cooker) in a blender and pulse a few times to get a paste-like consistency. It is important to not pour in all the contents with the liquid into the blender as that will result in a not-so-smooth texture.

9) Transfer the soup paste into the cooker again and mix with the liquid portion. Add in the remaining milk and stir well.

10) Simmer until the soup starts boiling and if the soup is too thick for your taste, you can pour a cup of water and wait till it boils through.

11) Spoon into bowls and pulverize some peppercorns over them. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro!

A chef and an obsession...

Baking is an art form in reality. In most other styles of cooking, it is easy to undo human error. Undoing in totality might prove to be difficult may be, but surely the dish can be salvaged by using tips from experts. Digressing a little, Mrs. Mallika Badrinath - rendered a top chef in Tamil Nadu - offers a bunch of SoS tips in almost all her books. I have the whole series of her books sitting on my book shelf. It is interesting that I never purchased even one of them. That is not to be mistaken that I did not intend to buy them, but what I meant is even before I heard of her fame and glory, I got gifted a couple of her books by her son who happens to be a good friend of mine. I started experimenting recipes from her books and within weeks I was hooked! Peps (as we call him) must have realized how much I adored them 'coz he gave me the entire series as a wedding gift. Her recipes are tried and tested ones but what makes them valuable is, they are described in a surprisingly simple way with ingredients right off the kitchen shelf. There is indeed something in them that makes you want to start making them, the moment you set your eyes on them. Three cheers to her!

So baking, I reiterate can turn into a gruesome nightmare if some of its vital ingredients were omitted or forgotten or a pre-processing step skipped. There are some "cool" and handy recipes which fall under the failsafe category while some others can prove to be very finicky. When we lived in IIT Delhi, we had this family living in the apartment above ours, who had returned back to India after living a few years in London. Uncle was a professor in IIT and auntie was a homemaker. After living a few years in India, they decided to go back to London again and that's when they decided to get rid of all the stuff that they couldn't possibly take back with them. We, who were pretty good friends with them started to become proud owners of a lot of "Made in England" stuff. Assorted things started becoming new members in our household which included travel guides on London, some very adorable dolls, a sandwich maker, pens, knife-sharpener (which lived true to its name until its disappearance some twenty years later) and an electric cake oven. One of the dolls that I christened "Goldilocks" still lives in my home in Chennai though she only has her head attached to the torso now. Her hair was and is a point of fascination to me to this day. You'd probably mistake me for being slightly soft in the head if I revealed the things I've done with her hair like shampooing and using the drier to style it. She's lived through it all - the pretty Miss. GL. My mom was an epitome of experimentation. She never ceased to try out new stuff - be it picking up a new art form like doll-making, knitting, crocheting or trying out new foods, collecting new recipes, stitching new patterns of dresses from fashion magazines, learning new beauty treatment techniques or baking new cakes! The oven that we inherited from our neighbors easily became her obsession. We are looking at the early 80's here before the times of food blogs and the internet. She didn't have a recipe book on baking or cakes either. She just followed her instincts to start trying out different combinations of flour, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, butter and flavoring essences to come up with some truly delectable cakes. I was a kid and to me, her cakes looked and tasted very different from the ones we got from the bakery in neighboring Hauz Khas. I loved them for their freshness and ambrosial flavor. Many years later, some time in 2001, I baked my first pseudo-cake. Pseudo because it was from an instant packaged mix but the experience was gratifying. I was a grad student and I didn't have a baking pan back then. Following my friend Anu's suggestion, I ended up baking it in a heavy- bottomed pressure pan and it still turned out great. A series of instant cakes followed but it was not until the fall of 2003 that I tried baking a cake from scratch (again acting on Anu's recipe that she had gotten from her cousin in Dallas). The difference was instantly obvious and the flavor reminded me of the home-made cakes my mom used to bake. That triggered a saga of obsession with baking ONLY from scratch! I wonder sometimes if I inherited the crazy-about-baking gene from my mom 'cuz today if I go without baking something (anything!) for a couple weeks in a row, I start getting panic attacks. x-( Baking being a very healthy substitute to frying gives me that extra bit of adrenaline rush.

When I started writing this post, I wanted to follow it with a cake or muffin recipe but for fear of having to post something ridiculously long, I stop here.