Cooking Indian at home, attempt #2

Tonight I had big plans for an Indian feast.  This Vegetable & Tofu Korma dish, followed by "Ram's Cilantro Potato & Carrots."  I only made it as far as the first dish, so I'm saving Ram's for tomorrow's dinner.  It should work out well since there wasn't much in the way of leftovers from the Korma.

I got the Korma recipe from my favorite food blog, 101 Cookbooks.  Heidi Swanson creates her own vegetarian recipes tweaked from her favorite cookbooks.  The dishes always take advantage of fresh, local ingredients or interesting spices or both - all very simply.  While some of the ingredients may seem exotic, the techniques are always easy and straightforward.  And not only are the recipes delicious to read, the photographs are mouth-watering.  If you haven't seen the blog before, check it out now!

Because I didn't have all of the exact ingredients, I had to substitute a few things.  Last week I went grocery shopping and I know I bought a hunk of ginger.  Could I find it tonight?  Of course not!  So, I used powdered instead.  I also used cardamom seeds (toasted and ground) instead of ground cardamom.  For the veggies, I used potato, summer squash and carrots.  Since I neglected to pick up tofu at the grocery store, we went without that.

Everything smelled so delicious simmering on the stove.  All the spices are so warm and aromatic.  Next time I'll use less crushed red pepper flakes; they were a little too much for me.  Thankfully my husband had stopped at the Indian restaurant down the street to pick up some naan (flat bread) and raita (yogurt sauce.)  In the recipe there is a yogurt sauce, but the legit raita is something special - a sweet yet tangy and cooling sauce - that really made this dish. 

I served the Korma on top of tri-colored couscous, since it takes only a few minutes to cook, as opposed to rice.  Coincidentally, the couscous was the same color as as the veggies.  Topped with fresh cilantro, this veggie Korma was a great, warm, easy to cook, one-dish meal.  I suggest you give it a try.  It's yumtastic.

Today's smoothie

I was in a sales training class the last two days for my day job.  I don't want to get into details, but I would have rather gotten actual work done.  You know how it goes, I'm sure.  Thankfully I did learn a little bit about a new product offering - it involves social networking!  There really is no escape from it.  I'll admit I'm happy to jump on the wagon with this blog.  It's been fun so far. 

Anywho, onto something more interesting!  Like smoothies.

The one I made for lunch today included frozen blueberries, mangoes and peaches.  I also threw in some vanilla yogurt and carrot juice.  All I can tell you is that it's delicious.

Tonight for dinner I'm going to try a new recipe from my cooking friend, Ram.  I'll be sure to share all of that with you.  It's another vegetarian dish, but I'm not sure if it's Indian or Chinese.... I'm guessing Indian.  You be the judge!  I hope I have you curious. 

PS - If you haven't noticed, I'm still trying to figure out how to space these photos so don't look so awkwardly placed!

Smoothie of the Day

Maybe the title of this post is a bit of a misnomer; I don't make smoothies every day.  I should, since eating healthier is one of my 2011 resolutions.  Smoothies are such an easy way to have a couple servings of fruit and veggies all at once.  A girlfriend of mine told me she uses kale in her fruit smoothies, which sounded totally nasty to me.  But she assured me you could barely even notice the kale taste and it adds the supposedly important anti-oxidants and other "vital" nutrients. 

Orange was the theme this morning.  Looking in our freezer, I noticed the frozen mango chunks were starting to show signs of frost.  While I usually toss frost-bitten foods, I figured the other ingredients would mask any weird flavor.  Is that gross?  (Thankfully my assumption was correct!)  The bag of frozen peach slices was nearly empty so I grabbed that, too.  Unfortunately my husband chucked the last over-ripe banana.  (Over-ripe bananas add a nice extra sweetness to smoothies, I find.)

To the mango and peaches, I added carrot juice, almond milk, non-fat vanilla yogurt, milled flax seeds and some ground cinnamon.  After a few minutes in my amazingly sturdy Cuisinart blender, I enjoyed a delicious, frothy, fruity, orange treat.

I couldn't really discern the specific fruits, but the almond milk and cinnamon combo added an interesting but subtle, spicy warmth.

Perhaps I will shoot for a smoothie a day.  I guess that means a trip to the grocery in the morning before storm #57 hits tomorrow afternoon.  I'd better stock up on more frozen fruits - and maybe I'll give that kale a try.  I'll certainly let you know if I do.