sides

Kale and Cranberry Toss

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Deepa

It’s been an indulgent couple of months largely owing to a cavalcade of Hindu festivals. Starting with Ganesh Chathurthi, then Navrathri and the ultimate excuse for overeating, Diwali. Dotted between them were birthdays, dinners out, a trip to a food bloggers conference where of course there was no shortage of incredible food, and Halloween. In the middle of it all, I’ve found myself actually craving greens. The timing couldn’t be better when I was sent the latest cookbook by accomplished chef and author Annabel Langbein, titled Through the Seasons (ABC Books) after her TV series.

As the title suggests, this is a collection of fresh, delicious ways to use seasonal produce, real food at its best. It is divided by the seasons with each section progressing from starters and salads, to mains and sides, ending as all good things should, with desserts. There are also useful ‘how to’s’ such as making yoghurt and growing things from seed. After my few months of excess, I for one have my eye on the Beachside Ceviche, Cucumber Salad with Dan’s Secret Sauce and the Baked Eggplant with Kasundi. My sweet tooth won’t be able to resist trying the Chocolate Orange creams and Mexican Hot Chocolate. The recipes are complimented by stunning photography that creates the mood for each season.

For now, we have a Kale and Cranberry Toss, a simple green side dish whose recipe I halved and slightly modified according the ingredients I had on hand. What you end up with is orange scented, slightly softened kale dotted with tangy cranberries and the crunch of pepitas. Kale is insanely good for you, and for those of you who haven’t quite been able to embrace it yet, this is a good way to start. Also, I’m sure this one at least partially erases the over-indulgences of festivals gone by.

Just in time for the excesses of Christmas.

*Through the Seasons was a gift from ABC Books and Harper Collins. As always, words and opinions are my own.

Kale and Cranberry Toss

Serves 3-4 as a side dish

Slightly modified from Through the Seasons by Annabel Langbein

Get:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot or small eschalot, thinly sliced.
1 small clove garlic, finely sliced
12-16 kale leaves
Finely grated zest of 1/3-1/2 and orange
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 heaped tbsp dried cranberries
2 tbsp pepitas, toasted
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Make:

Heat oil in a large frypan or pot and cook shallots or eschalots and garlic until soft, about 2 mins. Tear kale leaves off stems and roughly chop. Add the chopped leaves to the pan with orange zest and water. Cook on medium heat, tossing, for 2-3 minutes. Add orange juice, vinegar and cranberries and cook covered for 1-2 minutes until kale is slightly softened and cranberries are plumped. Uncover and cook for another minute or so until all the liquid has evaporated. Turn off the heat and toss through a generous pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Taste and add a little more seasoning if needed. Serve with toasted pepitas sprinkled over the top.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Garam Masala and Coconut

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Deepa

An airport meal is a ritual of mine every time I embark on an international trip. I look forward to that time, after all charms and pleas are unleashed on the person behind the check-in desk to let those extra three kilos through without charge. After that, toiletries in plastic snap-lock bags are placed in trays, boots and belts are removed, then awkwardly pulled on again, carry-ons are hauled onto security belts and the whole juggling act is carried out whilst waving the passport and boarding card at officials every step of the way. Finally, when documents are put away carefully and bags are reassembled, there is a simple pleasure in sitting down, catching one’s breath and either hashing out a plan for the trip to come or reflecting on the adventure that was.

I am aware that when it comes to culinary let-downs, airport food is a close second to that on the flying machines themselves. Food in that in-between land is always overpriced, limited in variety and invariably disappointing. Bread that is slightly stale after spending the day in an overly air-conditioned environment. Muffins that are similarly cold and dry. Slices of ham that are dehydrated around the edges. Scrambled eggs that can be lifted en masse from the plate. Sandwiches whose cost might feed a small African nation for a day.

I know all this, yet I always try and make time, between that madness of the security gates and the departure gates, to sit, reflect and have a meal at the airport. On the way to Florence, I sat at Sydney airport and nutted out that feeling I always have when I am starting on a trip. That niggle, like a tiny stone in a shoe, that I have forgotten something. So I sat, stared at the ascending planes, gathered my thoughts, and dissected the niggle. I sipped my medicinal coffee and chewed on my grilled (plastic) cheese sandwich, remembered what I had forgotten and realised with relief that it was something I could live without. Just like that, I tipped the stone out of my shoe.

It’s been a few days of pizza and pasta now, and this at about the point when I begin to crave something of home. To me, Italian food comes only second to Indian food. I love its simplicity- a toothsome pizza base, a well simmered sauce and a handful of basil, and it is at its best. But after a few days, I do crave a vegetable or two, preferably home-cooked in Indian spices. Green beans, stir-fried the South-Indian way or in this simple curry would do just fine. Or this ivy gourd and coconut stir fry. Or these brussel sprouts, rubbed with garam masala and coconut oil, then roasted until they are slightly sweet. Tender but still offering some resistance against eager teeth. Interspersed with chewier coconut. These sprouts would do very well against my current carb overload, but would also make an amazing side dish, or a main meal with a couple of poached eggs on top.

Roasted Garam Masala Brussel Sprouts

Feeds 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side dish

Based on Ina Garten’s recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

Get:

600g brussel sprouts
1/2 cup shaved coconut (use shredded if you can’t find this)
4 tbsp coconut oil, melted
3 tsp garam masala
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 lime

Make:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Cut the stems off the brussel sprouts and cut them in half lengthwise.

In a large roasting pan, toss all the ingredients using your (clean) hands, rubbing the spices into the cut surfaces of the sprouts.

Roast for 35-45 minutes, tossing in the pan every 10 mins, until the sprouts are crisp-edged, tender inside, but still holding together and a little chewy.

Squeeze lime juice generously over it before serving.

Quick Mango Pickle

Posted on February 7, 2014June 20, 2018 by Deepa

“It’s a bit industrial”

My Irish friend said, spoon in one hand, plate piled high with rice, rasam and pickle in the other.

“But I like it!”

The first taste of Indian pickle to the unaccustomed palate must be akin to the initial experience of India to the first time visitor. A little too much of everything, all at once. Pungent. Industrial. A cacophony of noise, each note seemingly competing with the other. Car horns and auto-rickshaw toots. The cries of hawkers, beggars and babies. Bollywood music and giggling school girls. Smells……the hunger inducing ones like fresh pakoras fried at a roadside stand mingling with that of diesel fumes from passing trucks and dung from more slowly passing cows. Dust clinging to skin with the cloying humidity. The sun’s unrelenting blaze reflected from every metallic surface.

It is the saltiness that registers first, which goes some way to balance the tartness that follows. The spices sing their soprano notes and for a moment the tongue is seized up with the too muchness of it all. A soft, yielding flesh made so by its’ weeks to months of steeping in acidic juices. The liquid gold gravy with its’ many-layered flavours coats the tongue and finally electrifies the back of the throat with a flash of heat.

An assault to the senses and chaos to a first-timer, but one where everything, somehow, just works.

This is a cheat’s mango pickle, but one that delivers all of the palate stimulation that properly pickled pickles do. A chop and stir fry later, you have in your hands a spicy, sour condiment that can be eaten traditionally with rice, spread onto a sandwich or relished however you please.

Quick Mango Pickle

Makes about a cup

Get:

2 raw green mangoes, flesh diced into 1-1 1/2 cm pieces
3 tbsp vegetable, sunflower or canola oil
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida
2 1/2 tsp rasam powder
1 tsp chilli powder
2-3 tsp salt

Make:

In a large, non-stick fry pan, heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds and reduce the heat to low. Once they have popped, add all the other spices except for the salt. Stir gently and fry on low heat for about 1 to 2 mins.

Add the diced mangoes, then 2 tsp salt and toss to coat the mango pieces in the spices. Cook on medium heat for 1 minute. Taste and add a little more salt if the pickle is still very tart. Toss and cook for another few seconds or until the mango pieces are tender, but not falling apart.

Store in clean, dry, airtight jars and refrigerate for up to a month.

Notes:
Raw green mangoes and the spices, including rasam mix are available at Indian grocers. The more green and tart the mangoes are, the better.
You could probably use coconut oil if you wish, but that will impart its own flavour to the pickle.

Green Beans and Fire

Posted on October 25, 2013October 29, 2013 by Deepa

For most of us, the warmer months are something we await eagerly. As soon as the central heating of the nation is turned up, we dust off our beach towels, ditch the scarves and plan holidays, picnics, barbeques and the like.

But for those in some parts of Australia the anticipation of Spring and Summer is not so positive. The Australian heat brings with it a natural disaster that is devastating and uncontrollable. Every year like clockwork, fires rage through the Australian countryside, fueled by the dry vegetation that is typical of a nation that is in drought more often than it is not. The fires originate when they are lit either by accident or by pranksters who surely have no concept of the level of devastation they cause with the act.

Families evacuate on advice of the authorities, scooping up pets, food supplies and valuables. Inevitably hundreds of homes are lost and with them, all that their previous inhabitants owned and loved. So far in my state of NSW, the lives of two people as well as countless animals, including pets and wildlife, have succumbed.
For me, the bushfires are something that we hear about daily as hour by hour, more and more homes are engulfed despite the courageous efforts of the Rural Fire Service. Whilst close to home, we must be deeply grateful that we are not the ones who stand to lose everything to something that is beyond our control. And in our gratitude, we should try to provide whatever support we can to help the families get through yet another season of destruction.

If you would like to donate to the bushfire appeal, try here or here or to donate to help affected animals, try here. I’m sure if you choose to, it will come back to you one day a million times over.

On a slightly brighter and simpler note, here is a simple green beans dish that is the perfect combination of low effort and high yield, a welcome thing in the heat. Freshness of the beans is paramount and it also helps if the tomatoes are a little over-ripe. For the most part, you can chop everything up and throw it in a pan after tempering the spices, then cover and forget about it for a good twenty minutes or so. Serve with your favourite Indian flat bread, in a wrap or as a side for meat dishes.

Simple Green Beans Curry

Serves 3-4 as a side dish

Get:
500g fresh green beans, topped and tailed
2 over-ripe tomatoes, diced small
1 medium white or brown onion, finely chopped
2 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder, according to taste
2cm ginger, finely grated
Salt
Water
Small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Make:
Chop or break the beans into roughly 4-5 cm lengths. In a large non-stick fry pan, heat the oil and temper the cumin seeds. Reduce to a low-moderate heat and add the spice powders and fry for about 2 minutes. Add the ginger and onions and saute until the onion is a little tender. Then, in go the tomatoes, 1 tsp salt and about 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on a low-moderate heat for 7-10 minutes, until the tomatoes yield easily when pressed.

Throw in the beans, stir through and add another cup of water. Cover and cook until the beans are tender with some bite (about 20 minutes). At this point if the mixture is still quite watery, uncover and cook on low heat until most of the water has evaporated. When the mixture has almost completely reduced, taste and add more salt or chilli powder if desired, then stir through. Stop cooking when the water has evaporated such that the tomatoes and onions cling onto the beans.

Before serving, garnish with the fresh coriander.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: