Indian-spiced Carrot Salad

Ezra is still building up his spice tolerance, so when we make this carrot salad, we set aside his portion before we mix in the chiles.

Indian-spiced Carrot Salad
inspired by The Everything Indian Cookbook

5 carrots, peeled and grated
juice of 1 lemon
a few tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
20 curry leaves (optional)

1 jalapeno, seeds and veins removed, mincedSalt to taste

In a large bowl, mix the carrots and lemon juice.

In a small skillet, heat the oil.  Add the oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves.  When the mustard seeds begin to pop, pour the mixture over the carrots.  Add the minced jalapeno, stir and salt to taste.

South Indian Pancakes

We've been working on our recipe for dosas--savory fermented rice and dal pancakes--for years now. Sometimes the batter came out well, but we had trouble getting it to rise consistently. Our eureka moment about dosas happened in India last winter, watching the cooking instructor pour perfectly bubbly batter onto a hot griddle. It's hot in India! That's why the batter ferments so perfectly and gets so bubbly. So, if we could just get our dosa batter to India temperatures at home, we could make real Indian dosas that stay together and fold nicely. Success!

Making dosa batter takes a few tries to master, so don't bust this one out for that big first date until you've practiced a few times. You can also use dosa batter for uttapam, which thicker and sturdier, like a personal pizza. We've provided recipes for both here. If you want to make some of each, make the uttapam while the batter is still thick, then thin it down for dosas.

1 cup parboiled rice (boil 1 cup rice in a large pot of water for 5 minutes; drain.)
2 cups raw rice
1 cup urad dal
2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon salt

This works equally well with brown rice, white rice, or a combo.

Combine everything, except the salt, in a large bowl with enough lukewarm water to cover and allow to soak overnight. Drain, reserving the liquids. Blend until you have a consistency like thick pancake batter, adding only enough of the soaking water to lubricate your blender. Pour into a bowl that leaves room for the batter to double in size.

Cover with a towel and place somewhere warm. The batter likes to be 85-95 degrees Fahrenheit. In Kerala, that's just room temperature. Here in Berkeley, we use our dehydrator, which has adjustable temperature settings. We've heard of other creative solutions like leaving it in the oven on low, with the door propped open, or near a radiator. Within eight hours, the dough will double and fill with tiny bubbles. You should detect a pleasantly sour, yeasty smell. If your dough doesn't rise after the first eight hours, you don't have to give up! Try adjusting your heat source and give it another eight hours. Once your batter has risen, mix in the salt and proceed with one of the following recipes.

Uttapam

1 batch of batter, risen
coconut oil for frying (Coconut oil is solid in cold weather, but will quickly become liquid if you leave the bottle somewhere warm. Liquid oil is much easier to drizzle!)

Choice of toppings:
chopped red onion
finely minced green chili
chopped cilantro leaves
chopped tomato
chopped nuts
minced fresh herbs
cubed feta (not traditional, but quite delicious!)

Heat a well-seasoned cast iron or crepe pan over medium-high heat, and coat the pan lightly with oil. When the oil is as hot as possible without smoking, pour about a 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan. Quickly toss on some toppings, plus a little drizzle of oil around the edges.

When the pancake looks firm enough to flip (3-5 minutes), gently loosen it with a clean, greased metal spatula. Flip it over and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Carefully scrape away any bits that stuck to the pan and add a little more oil. When the oil is hot, begin your next pancake. Serve warm, with a selection of curries and chutneys.



Dosas

1 batch of batter, risen
coconut oil for frying

Stir a little water into your batter for a crepe-like consistency. Heat a well-seasoned cast iron or crepe pan over medium-high heat, and coat the pan lightly with coconut oil. When the oil is as hot as possible without smoking, pour about a 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan, spreading it around in a spiral pattern with the back of your ladle. It should be thin, with some lacy areas, but no large holes. Pour a fine drizzle of oil around the edges to help them get crispy.

Cook for about 3 minutes, or until the dosa easily lifts from the pan. If your dosa is nice and thin, you won't need to fry on both sides -- just transfer to a plate, fill with a thick curry and serve. If your dosa came out a little too thick, there's no harm in flipping it over to make sure it's cooked on both sides.

Paprika, Green Bean and Potato Stew

Phoebe was a pretty picky eater as a kid, but always made an exception for her mom's paprika-flavored potato stew. The recipe, which originally included chunks of hot dog or sausage, was passed on to Phoebe's mom by a Hungarian girl back in the 70's and Phoebe's mom started using green beans instead of hot dog chunks. Phoebe's family always called this dish paprikash, but a little wikipedia research revealed that paprikash is a chicken and sour cream sauce over noodles, while this dish is actually called paprikás krumpli.

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons paprika
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
4 cups green beans, chopped into 1" pieces
4 cups Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1" cubes
2 cups canned tomatoes (diced or pureed)
3/4 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, then saute the onions until softened. Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the paprika and cayenne. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover the vegetables. Return to the heat and simmer until the potatoes and green beans are cooked, but still tender.

Syrian Orange Salad

It's still citrus season in Berkeley, which means we can't get enough of the mandarins, pomelos and sweet limes overflowing at the farmers' market. Alongside these more exotic offerings, we're adoring the navel oranges and wanted to share this simple preparation we've been enjoying for years. It can be breakfast, dessert, a snack or a palate cleanser. What we love about this dish is how easily it transforms a plain old fruit snack into something special; we even used to make this in our dining hall in college with nothing but an orange, a knife, a bowl and some honey. But if you have or can seek out the orange blossom water (you can find it in Middle Eastern grocery stores), the extra citrus perfume elevates the entire experience to something pretty heavenly.

We've blathered about the elegant potential of supreming citrus before, and once again refer you to this helpful tutorial if you need a visual to go with our instructions.

Per person:
1 navel orange (the slightly reddish one pictured above is a cara cara)
Honey or agave nectar to taste, depending on how sweet the orange is
A pinch of cinnamon
A few drops of orange blossom water (optional)

Slice off the top and bottom of each orange. Carve off the peel from the sides and then cut out the orange sections over a bowl, leaving the membranes behind. Squeeze the extra juice from the membranes into the bowl with the oranges. Stir in honey or agave, cinnamon and optional orange blossom water.

Home-Fermented Sauerkraut

Why the multiple sauerkraut-employing recipes lately? Oh, because we have a bumper crop of homemade sauerkraut! Fermenting sauerkraut is totally easy and will make you feel like an old-timey kitchen rock star.

1 large green cabbage
Kosher salt

First, a note on salt: Sandor Katz's guideline for salt is three tablespoons per five pounds of cabbage. You don't need to worry about hitting that exact amount, though. Just add salt one teaspoon at a time; keep going until it tastes pleasantly salty, like french fries. (If you end up with too-salty kraut, rinse it off before eating.)

Trim away any brown or wilted parts of the cabbage. Slice the leaves and core into fine ribbons. In a large, non-reactive container, sprinkle the cabbage with kosher salt and massage it vigorously. Keep massaging and adding salt until the cabbage has given off a lot of water.

Pack the cabbage and cabbage juice into quart jars (two or more, as needed). Smash down the cabbage well, so that you have at least 1/2 inch of liquid on top. Fill a smaller jar with water and use it to weigh down the cabbage so that no cabbage rises to the surface. Some sauerkraut-makers put all of their cabbage in a large crock and use a plate to weigh down the top. We like the dual jar method because it makes it easy to minimize the surface area and you can see through the glass to tell whether you've got your cabbage fully submerged. Fermentation happens underwater, while mold formation happens on the surface. Therefore, less surface area equals less mold.

Cover the jars with a cloth and place in a dark corner. Once a day, take out the small jar, remove any mold that may have formed on the surface (but don't worry about it too much) and smash down the cabbage as much as you can. (Keep those potentially reactive metal utensils away! Wood or plastic are fine.) Rinse off the small jar and return to its original position.

Depending on the season--summer heat means quicker fermentation--your cabbage will show signs of fermentation in one to three days. You may see tiny bubbles forming or hear a fizzing noise. The kraut will begin to smell sour. Keep giving it daily attention and tasting.

Once it's been bubbling and tasting sour for a whole week, put a lid on the kraut and transfer to the refrigerator. In Ye Olden Times, people left their kraut in the root cellar for months or years, but we like to get ours into the refrigerator while it's young--the kraut stays crunchier that way, and is also a bit less sour.

You can begin to eat the kraut now, or wait for it to get a little more sour. The kraut will keep for a very long time in the fridge.

Black Pepper Vinaigrette

The vinaigrette recipe in the September issue of Cook's Illustrated (thanks for the gift subscription, Sarah!) has totally revolutionized our home salad dressing preparation. Having discovered the optimal balance of oil and vinegar, we took advantage of our stash from Kerala and, instead of grinding in a few shakes of black pepper, used a whole tablespoon. One of the major lessons we picked up in India is that black pepper doesn't have to be the afterthought it often becomes in Western cooking--it's an amazing spice that deserves to occasionally be celebrated on its own. For maximum impact, your pepper should be freshly and coarsely ground. Here, we served it with a baby spinach and arugula mix topped with cubed Parmesan and pepitas.

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard

Combine all ingredients in a squeeze bottle. Shake well to emulsify and pour over your salad of choice!

Warm Beet Salad with Potatoes and Sauerkraut

We'd hate to call this a potato salad because of the slimy mayonnaise memories "potato salad" evokes. So let's just call this Russian dish, inspired by a version we devoured at Sadko, a beet salad with potatoes. You can still serve it cold in situations that normally call for potato salad, like summertime picnics, but when served warm, it can keep your blood from freezing during those long Siberian winters.

3 large waxy potatoes (with or without skin)
3 large beets
1 1/2 cups sauerkraut, chopped
3 tablespoons dill, minced
3 scallion, chopped
1 tablespoon white vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil (plus more for roasting)
salt

Peel the beets and chop them into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss with a little olive oil and salt on a baking tray. Roast at 350 until fork-tender (about 40-50 minutes).

Meanwhile, chop the potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Boil in water until tender, then drain and rinse in cold water.

Toss together all of the ingredients and taste for salt. Serve slightly warm or cold.

Golden Beet Soup with Cinnamon

A colorful, warming soup for cold winter evenings, this recipe is decadently creamy without the presence of actual cream (thanks, coconut milk!). Try to use small, fresh beets that are still juicy. The tablespoon of applesauce at the end really brings the warm spiced forward, but you can skip it if you don't want to crack open a whole jar just for this one recipe.


6 yellow beets (4 cups)
1 sweet potato (2 cups)
2 tablespoons butter (or olive oil)
olive oil
pinch of allspice
pinch of nutmeg
1 clove
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon plain applesauce

Chop the sweet potatoes and beets into 1/2 inch cubes. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan, then add yams and beets. Cover and saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. (There should be enough liquid to keep the vegetables from sticking and burning. If your beets and yams don't give off enough liquid, add a few tablespoons of water.)

Stir in a little olive oil, turn the heat up to medium-high, and stir frequently, until the beets and yams are browned. Sprinkle in the spices and stir for a minute. Add the coconut milk, salt, applesauce and enough water to cover the vegetables. Simmer for 5 minutes, then puree well, adding more water as needed.

Roasted Potatoes and Tokyo Turnips with Crispy Rosemary

These roasted root vegetables have a rich, juicy sauce, which makes them a nice change from the usual browned, crispy texture of roasted root vegetables. (We suspect you CSA subscribers might be starting to tire of the same old root vegetable treatments!) Tokyo turnips are everywhere here now, and while they're much-loved for their unique turnip ability to be eaten raw or lightly cooked, roasting always makes everything more delicious.

4 cups diced Yukon gold potatoes (about 4 potatoes)
1 and 1/2 cups diced Tokyo turnips (about 10 turnips)
10 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons fresh thyme (stems removed)
salt
pepper
3/4 cup stock
2/3 cup red wine

Preheat oven to 375. Chop the Tokyo turnips and potatoes into 3/4 inch chunks. Combine potatoes, turnips, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper in a 9" x 13" casserole dish. Roast for 30 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender. Add stock and red wine. Stir to coat, then return to the oven for another 10-15 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by two thirds.

Warm Lentil Salad with Spiced Kabocha

Another recipe from Hannah's sister, this dish is a great way to pack your entire meal into a salad. It can be served by itself or on a bed of arugula, and is good hot or room temperature, making it an excellent choice for packed lunches--this batch was for a cross-country plane trip! The spicy roasted kabocha cubes are absolutely addictive and worth making by themselves if any of you CSA subscribers are looking for a nice winter squash showcase.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups peeled and diced kabocha squash (1 small squash)
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 cup brown lentils
1 and 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Optional finishing touches:
Arugula for plating
Crumbled goat cheese, for garnish

Stir together 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, paprika, cumin, cayenne and salt. Toss the spiced oil with the kabocha cubes and spread out on a cookie sheet. Loosely cover with foil and bake at 375 for about 25 minutes, until squash is fork-tender, and then uncover and bake about 10 minutes more, until squash starts to develop browned edges.

While the squash is baking, heat remaining olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Fry the onions over 7-10 minutes, until browned, then add the lentils, water and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer 25-30 minutes, until lentils are tender and water is absorbed.

If you're serving this on a bed of greens, arrange some arugula on a serving plate. Top with lentils, kabocha cubes and optional goat cheese and enjoy!

Braised Brussels Sprouts with Rosemary and Lemon

We love Brussels sprouts roasted and stir-fried, but we wanted to experiment a little and decided that since cabbage is delicious braised, why not see if Brussels sprouts would be amenable to the same treatment?

And oh, are they ever.

olive oil
2-3 cups Brussels sprouts
6 cloves garlic
1-2 cups stock
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary (stems removed)
juice of 1 lemon
salt

Trim the bottoms of the sprouts and slice in half lengthwise. Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add the garlic and only as many sprouts as will fit in a single layer. Saute for a minute or two, until the sprouts are bright green and glistening. Add enough stock to cover the Brussels a little more than halfway. Add rosemary and salt (keep in mind how much salt your stock may already have). Turn the heat up to medium-high and cook, uncovered, until the liquid has completely evaporated.

Add some olive oil and flip the sprouts so that they are all cut-side-down. Fry until the bottoms of the Brussels are well-browned. Remove the sprouts, garlic and rosemary to a serving dish. Return the saucepan to low heat and add the lemon juice. Deglaze, scraping the pan to get all of the delicious browned bits, then simmer just a minute or so, to reduce the lemon juice. Pour sauce over Brussels and serve.

Chai-Spiced Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Bring a little bit of India to your Thanksgiving table with these spicy sweet potatoes--we've taken the components of a steaming cup of masala chai and applied them to sweet potatoes for a nice change of pace from that tired old marshmallow-and-canned-pineapple routine. This may seem like a lot of ginger, but we've found that any less doesn't really do much.

Sweet potatoes have such vast size variation that we've listed the amount you'll need in cups of chopped sweet potato rather than in number of potatoes. For us, this was one gigantic sweet potato.

1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
3 cups chopped sweet potatoes, in 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium-sized bowl, toss ingredients together. Spread in a single layer on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

Rachel's Roasted Asian Pear and Fennel Soup

It's time to start planning exciting veggie side dishes to go with that big, boring Thanksgiving turkey. To jump-start your menu planning, we're blogging hearty, seasonal, late-autumn fare from now until the big day. And check out our Thanksgiving tag for inspiration from years past.

Our first Thanksgiving submission is another genius recipe from Hannah's sister! This soup combines the crisp, delicate flavors of two November favorites--Asian pears and fennel--roasted to bring out their rich, creamy potential. The result is a lovely blend of sweet and savory, an excellent first course if you're serving anything sharply-flavored like arugula. Although there are a lot of concurrent activities here, most of this recipe is inactive: you're basically just waiting around for half an hour or so while the pears and fennel roast, the stock simmers and the onions caramelize.

3 medium-sized Asian pears, diced (save the cores for stock)
1 bulb fennel, diced (save the stalks for stock and the fronds for garnish)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
1 onion, sliced into rings (save skins and trimmings for stock)
1/4 cup whole peppercorns
1/2 cup apple cider

For garnish:
Plain yogurt (optional if you want to make it vegan)
Fennel fronds

Preheat oven to 375. In a 9 x 13 inch pan, toss the fennel and pears with two tablespoons of the olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 40-45 minutes, until very soft.

Meanwhile, combine pear cores, fennel stalks, onion skins & trimmings and peppercorns in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer while everything else cooks, about half an hour, then strain out solids.

While the stock is simmering and the pears and fennel are roasting, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and saute, stirring occasionally, until the onions are browned and soft.

Now, put it all together: combine the roasted pears, fennel, 3 cups of stock, caramelized onions and cider in a blender and blend until very smooth. (We also passed ours through a food mill to remove any grainy pieces of Asian pear peel and get the texture extra-velvety.) Add salt and pepper to taste and then serve with a swirl of yogurt and some chopped fennel fronds.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Leeks and Thyme

Homey and comforting, this creamy soup contains no cream or dairy products of any kind--just vegetables, herbs and stock. Even without cream, it's still very rich, so plan to serve this as a small first course rather than a meal in itself.

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small head cauliflower, broken into small florets
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
5 cups vegetable stock (you can use the green part of the leek, thyme stems and leftover garlic or onion skins to make a quick stock)

Preheat oven to 350. Toss 2 tablespoons of the olive oil with the cauliflower and sea salt in a 9 x 13 inch pan and roast for 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally, until browned in places and tender.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet. Add the leeks and saute, stirring frequently, for 10-20 minutes, until wilted and starting to color. Remove from heat.

When cauliflower is done, combine cauliflower, leeks, thyme and stock in the blender and puree until very smooth. Pass through a food mill to remove any twiggy bits of thyme and get the texture ultra-silky.

Mashed Potato Pancakes

Mashed potato pancakes are an excellent way to turn leftover mashed potatoes into a whole new meal with minimal effort. If you're truly lazy and can't even work up enough energy to fry your potato pancakes, we've discovered that baking works just as well.

2 scallions
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
2 eggs
4 cups leftover mashed potatoes
Canola oil

Mix together all of the ingredients except the canola oil.

Choose your cooking method: baking or frying.

The Easy Way: Grease a cookie sheet and dot with tablespoons of batter, pressing each mound down to flatten it. Bake at 450 until the bottoms of the pancakes are golden and crispy. Flip the pancakes over, return the tray to the oven and bake until the undersides are golden. It should take about 10 minutes on each side.

The Hard But Deliciously Fatty Way: Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet, medium-high. Drop 1 tablespoon of the batter into the pan. Flatten the mound of batter slightly with the back of a spoon. Add as several more mounds, then fry for about 5 minutes on each side, until the bottom is golden and crispy. Transfer to paper towels to blot the oil.

Serve with ketchup.

Cumin Rice with Cashews and Raisins

More than six months after our return from Kerala, we still can't stop making this aromatic, earthy rice we discovered in cooking school. It's fantastic with curries or thoren! The only modifications we've made are to use shallots instead of onions and to substitute cooked brown rice for more traditional white basmati rice. The cashews and raisins are an easy way to turn an otherwise humble rice dish into something impressive.

One of our biggest take-aways from learning to cook South Indian food is the value of black pepper as a centerpiece spice rather than a finishing touch. Resist the temptation to just grind in a few shakes of black pepper and call it a day--measuring out the full 1/2 teaspoon, you'll see how much more it is, and using that much black pepper really makes a difference for the final product.

3 cups long-grain brown rice or brown basmati rice, cooked
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal (optional)
1 cup very thinly sliced shallots
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
a pinch of turmeric
1 tablespoon butter or coconut oil
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup raisins

Heat the olive oil in a large wok over medium-high heat. Add the cumin and urad dal and stir until dal is brown, then add the shallots and saute until starting to brown. Now add the pepper and turmeric, stir to coat the shallots, and fold in the cooked rice. Stir well, ensuring that the shallots and spices get mixed in well. Salt to taste and set aside.

In a small skillet, heat the butter or coconut oil and saute the cashews until just barely starting to color. Add the raisins and continue stirring for about a minute longer, until raisins are puffy. Remove from heat, sprinkle raisins and cashews on the rice and serve.

Okra and Coconut Saute

Remember how we want to gush more about okra? Here you go! This thoren is a great way to use okra. In addition to the usual grated coconut, we tried drizzling a little leftover coconut milk on top -- we're going to start doing that all the time!

You can find grated frozen coconut in Indian grocery stores, or you can grate your own from a fresh coconut. The curry leaves are also available in Indian grocery stores--optional if you don't have access to them, delicious if you do!

1 tablespoon coconut oil (mmm!) or canola oil (mmm, accessible!)
1 1/2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
10 fresh or frozen curry leaves
20 okra pods, halved lengthwise
1/4 cup grated fresh or frozen coconut
Coconut milk for drizzling

Place a wok over medium-high heat. When it's hot, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and pop for 30 seconds. Throw in the curry leaves, stir a few times, and then add the okra. Stir constantly for 7-10 minutes, until the okra starts to brown. Add grated coconut and stir 2 more minutes, then remove from heat and serve, with a drizzle of coconut milk on top.

Sambhar with Okra

Do we spend enough time talking about how much we love okra? Probably not. We'd start another blog called I Heart Okra, but we're assuming there's a limited market for I Heart [Green Thing] blogs. Here's another way to showcase our favorite mucilaginous vegetable. This sambhar--inspired by versions we had in Kerala and adapted from Savoring the Spice Coast of India--is like an Indian answer to gumbo: thick, satisfying, spicy, and okra-licious.

1 and 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup yellow split peas, rinsed

3 tablespoons coconut oil
1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 cup pureed tomato
2 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
1 cup minced onion
1 jalapeno chile, sliced lengthwise (you can scoop the seeds out if you want less spice)
12 branches cilantro: stems and leaves minced separately
4 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida*
Salt
1 teaspoon tamarind paste

1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 dried red chile
1 sprig curry leaves, stemmed (optional, if you can find them)
1/2 lb. okra, ends trimmed, sliced lengthwise

Combine water and dal in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 30-40 minutes, until dal is soft.

In a large saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of the coconut oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the fenugreek seeds and stir for 3o second or so, just until they brown. Add 2 cups water, potatoes, tomato, onion, jalapeno, cilantro stems, spices, salt and tamarind. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are fork-tender.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil in a wok. (Yes, we're making you dirty three separate pans! It's worth it, though). Add the mustard seeds, and when they pop, add the curry leaves and chiles and stir quickly. Throw in the okra and fry until it starts to brown, about 10 minutes or so, stirring constantly.

Now put it all together: pour the peas and okra into the large saucepan with the veggies and taste for salt. Top with the minced cilantro leaves and serve.

*ETA: Apparently asafoetida is not gluten-free, so please leave it out if you're cooking for anyone who is! Don't worry, the sambhar will still be okra-tastic and yummy.

Lentils with Red Wine

We have a bit of an alcohol problem in our house...by which I mean, people bring booze when they come over for dinner, and the leftover wine sits, neglected, in the fridge for about a month. We just kind of forget to drink wine unless we have company, and that means we end up with a lot of half-drunk bottles of wine slowly turning to vinegar. This particular recipe came about because we threw the remaining 1/2 cup of Shiraz from our Seder into Hannah's breakfast lentils, immediately elevating them to lunch lentils!

Twenty cloves of garlic may seem like a lot, but browning them whole and them simmering them with the lentils really softens them up, leaving you with a sweeter taste and no garlic breath!

2 tablespoons olive oil, butter or a combination
20 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
2 cups green lentils
4 cups water
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
Za'atar and/or yogurt for topping

Heat oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add garlic and stir for 5-10 minutes, until it starts to color a bit. Add the cumin and stir for 30 seconds to temper. Pour in lentils, water and pepper, bring to a boil, and simmer until tender, about 20-30 minutes. Add wine and salt, stir, and cook 5 minutes more. Remove from heat, sprinkle in the chopped mint, and top individual portions with yogurt and/or za'atar.

South Indian Asparagus

It's springtime again, and that means another season of asparagus dishes! This year, it's found a home in our South Indian repertoire, brought to life by the usual suspects of mustard seeds, shallots, turmeric and chiles. Once again, if you can't find curry leaves or urad dal, just leave them out.

1 tablespoon oil or ghee
1 teaspo0n mustard seeds
2 shallots, sliced into rings
1 tablespoon urad dal
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 dried red chile, broken into three pieces
1 sprig curry leaves
1 bunch asparagus (about 30 stalks), cut into 1.5 inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a wok over medium high-heat. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds and the urad dal. Stand back and allow them to fruy until the dal takes on a toasted color, about two minutes. Add the shallots and stir for another minute or two, only until the shallots are no longer raw. Stir in the turmeric, chile and curry leaves. As soon as the curry leaves begin to crackle, toss in the asparagus, salt and a tablespoon of water. Stir continuously, still over medium-high heat, adding a few more sprinkles of water if the asparagus gets dry. Once the asparagus is tender-crisp (5-10 minutes), remove from heat and serve immediately.