Beautiful Roasted Carrots

So last week I celebrated a rather big birthday. I turned twenty-nine for the second time. To celebrate, we went on a little culinary walkabout around Los Angeles, and we ended up at Huckleberry, an establishment I adore.

As my husband and I were admiring their roasted carrot and avocado salad, I thought to myself, "I should try something like this." I used different spices, and I didn't use the avocado (because I didn't have any on hand), but here is what I did.

I took four carrots and introduced them to my mandoline slicer. This is what happened to them:

I put them straight into my casserole pan. Then I seasoned them with the following:

3 cloves of pressed garlic
2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of oregano
and some ground sea salt (to taste)

Oh, so pretty! (I love the color orange.) I popped them in the oven, which had been pre-heated to 400 degrees and kept my eye on them. Can I just say they made the whole house smell wonderful?

I think it was twenty-ish minutes or so before they looked like the carrots at the top of the post and the ones pictured here:

Enjoy!

How to Roti

No, that's not a typo. When I think about the artistry involved, I can only conclude that roti deserves to be a verb as well as a noun. I've added a "Roti" tab to the top of the blog, and I will be posting step-by-step instructions (with lots of pictures) of the roti making process. I'm teaching a group of fourteen and fifteen year-olds how to do it tonight. It should be fun!

Update: We came, we saw, we roti'd, and I've updated the results on the roti page.

Go-To Dal

This is straightforward, simple yellow dal. I must make it at least four times a week. Yellow split dal is my husband's favorite, and while I do change it up by putting other things in it sometimes (see my recipe for palak dal), sometimes unadulterated dal is just the way to go, especially when serving a dal as an accompaniment with an entre.

You start by cutting up a large yellow onion. I don't usually put any garlic in my dal, but you can do that, too (a couple of cloves in the garlic press usually does the trick).

Set your pressure cooker to saute and pour in 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Add in a teaspoon of black mustard seeds and a teaspoon of cumin seeds and wait a bit until they start to crackle.

Then add in the onion. Add a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of turmeric, a half teaspoon of cumin powder and a half teaspoon of red pepper and saute until the onions are translucent. Then add in one cup of dal and one tablespoon of coriander powder and toss a bit.

Cover the mixture with 2 and 3/4 cups of water, seal the cooker. Cook for 20 minutes on high.

Dal is most often eaten as a side, but I frequently make a light meal out of this dal, rice, and a salad.

Steel-Cut Oat and Raspberry Scones

If you're like me, you worry about your health. I was terrified, terrified after I watched that 60 Minutes piece on sugar being toxic. I am addicted to sugar. One of the things we love to eat of a morning are fresh, hot, yummy vegan muffins and scones. And what do you put in muffins and scones? Sugar! Brown sugar, white sugar (and I do get the vegan kind), maple sugar: sugar!

When my husband asked me, "Do you think you can make muffins without sugar?"

My answer was, "Um, no."

I take it back. This creation is a cross between a muffin and a scone (scuffin?) and contains no added sugar. I know that sounds gross, but it isn't. See, the bananas and raspberries contribute all the sweetness these muffins need. Here's what you do.

Cook 1/3 of a cup of steel-cut oats and a pinch of salt in 1 cup of water, preheat the oven to 375, then pour the hot oats over three ripe bananas and mash the mixture together.

Okay, next you're going to add

1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup of canola oil
2/3rds cup of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
and
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix the batter until everything is well-blended:



Then, go ahead and add your raspberries. I use just over a 1/2 cup. Spoon  mixture into well-greased muffin tins. I fill each tin a little over half full. This recipe will make a dozen scones.

Bake the scones in the oven at 375 for about twenty to twenty-five minutes. 



Sweet Potato Masala Chips (Baked!)

That, of course, is a sweet potato. It is also, in my opinion, proof there is a god who loves us. That something so delicious would be found growing in the dirt and prove to be good for us? Yep. God who loves us.

Above the sweet potato are the masalas I am about to enhance it with.

Now, this evil-looking thing is my mandoline slicer, and I freely admit to both loving and fearing it in a way that would make Niccolo Machiavelli himself deem it fit to rule a small principality.

This is some of what it did to my sweet potato in under two minutes (and it would have gone even faster if I weren't so scared of slicing myself open).

Of course, you don't need a mandoline slicer to do this to sweet potatoes. A sharp knife and prodigious chopping skills will suffice. I don't think my mother in-law has a mandoline slicer, but she does have two women who help her in the kitchen and, wow, can those women handle knives!

However you slice your sweet potato, and here I should probably mention that I leave the skin on, make sure you end up with thin, even slices and that you have preheated your oven to 375.

Now you'll want to combine

3 pressed cloves of garlic
1 generous teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoons of turmeric
and salt to taste (I like mine salty, so I use a teaspoon)

with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and toss the uncooked chips in this mixture

Then lay the chips on a baking sheet so that none of them overlap. Please note: Since there is turmeric in the marinade, you might want to use parchment paper. Also, you are going to have to turn them halfway through baking, too, so leave some room.

Bake each side until the chips are done. How long does that take? It depends on how thick your slices are and how hot your oven really is. These needed about eight minutes on each side.

Oh, are they good...and pretty...and reasonably healthy:

Pickled Radishes

Do you grow radishes? I do. They make me feel like I have some talent in the garden. They are miraculous. You plant them one minute, and the next they're up and ready. All at once. Tough radishes are disgusting, so you really do need to pull and eat them all in a matter of days. I would end up with dozens of radishes and no place to put them. I mean, there are only so many radishes you can put in a salad.

But then I put my Indian housewife thinking cap on. See, before I was married, I thought pickling was only for cucumbers. Not so! Radishes make DELICIOUS pickles. This one is ridiculously easy. I pulse the radishes in the food processor first, but you can pickle them whole, too.

Get yourself a clean, dry canning jar (jars). I use the little ones so I can give 'em away as gifts.

Put the washed and dried radishes (diced or not) into the canning jar.

Boil some apple cider vinegar, and pour it over the radishes, leaving a little bit of room at the top of the jar.

Then, you can either follow good canning practices (you know, the whole boiling water, turn upsidedown, flip, make sure the jar goes "ping" thing), or store them in the fridge (which is what I do). The pickled radish pieces taste great and look colorful sprinkled over dal, or as a side with most Indian entres. I've even put them on my veggie burgers. Yum!

Vegan Blueberry Flaxseed Waffles

We have had a lot of requests for blueberries and flaxseeds over here. They are, I know, very healthy. Still, I promise to change things up. I make no pretense that waffles are in any way Indian. My Indian husband eats them and loves them, and they are delicious, so I thought I'd share.

Add to a bix mixing bowl:
2 bananas
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of flaxseed meal
1 tablespoon of broan sugar
1/2 tablepoon of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder

and 1/2 cup olive oil (Yes, olive oil. Trust me.)

Mash everything together. I like to use a potato masher for this part.

Next, add 1 and 1/2 cups almond milk and mix until smooth.

Gently mix in about 3/4 of a cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Spray your wafflemaker with nonstick spray (this is important as these guys tend to stick).

Cook until the wafflemaker tells you it's done. I like to leave mine in just a minute or so longer. I serve mine with powdered sugar, blanched almonds and extra blueberries. My husband likes maple syrup on his.