Vegetarian Laksa Lemak

In my opinion, if there's one thing that anyone who's lived in Singapore misses once they leave the place, its the food. Although there are some pretty good Thai and Malaysian restaurants in Atlanta, getting authentic Singapore fare is almost impossible.

Some of the best food in Singapore is not available in restaurants, but in hawker centers or food courts. For those unfamiliar with the concept, these are open air complexes, with numerous varieties of food stalls by independent vendors. Here is a picture of Newton Hawker Center in Singapore at 2am! Yes, that's another speciality of Singapore....the city never sleeps and people never stop feeling hungry.

Back when we were undergrads cramming the last week before our exams, we'd just walk down to Fong Seng, a popular NUS hangout on Pasir Panjang Road sometime around 2 or 3 am. Here's a pic of the place I found!! The place gets crowded only wayyy after midnight with everyone turning up for their supper. *Sigh* the good 'ol days!!!












Sorry for the digression, and back to my story. When I started working, I frequented this excellent vegetarian stall in Alexandra village. Every Thursday, the guy sold Laksa - not just any laksa, but one of the best I've had ever (the other was in Orchard Emerald, but sadly its closed down!). Traditionally Laksa Lemak or Curry Laksa contains shrimp, fish ball and chicken (among other things non-vegetarian), but the vendor used to substitute it with mock meat (not just the seitan kind) of everything.

Ever since I've come to Atlanta, I've looked hard for some quality mock meat, but only had moderate success at the Chamblee Farmers Market. Recently we went to this veg restaurant on Monroe called Green Sprouts and I mustered up courage to ask the guy where they got their mock meat from! Yea ...I do things like this and sometimes embarass K...but hey...it was definitely worth it! We found all that we wanted and could ask for at Ranch Market on Buford Highway (there...the secret is out!). K also got a stone mortar and pestle that he's been eyeing for a long time!! Well...the bargain was, he'd make Laksa for me...he kept his side of the bargain and that too very well! Here's K's own creation... Laksa Lemak!

Ingredients

Rempah (for the recipe...click here)
Sambal bajak to taste
3 cups veg stock
3 cups coconut milk (use a combi of normal and lite)
Mock chicken, fishballs and prawns
Deep fried tofu (cut in half to absorb the sauce…yum!)
Hard-boiled eggs - 2
Laksa leaves (aka Vietnamese mint – very important and crucial otherwise you don't get the flavor!)
Rice noodles
Bean spouts (not in the pic)
Salt and sugar to taste

Method

• In some oil, fry the rempah paste until fragrant, oil separates and color deepens.
• Add stock and bring to boil
• Add coconut milk and simmer (The longer the better! )
• Now add the mock chicken, fishballs, shrimp, fried tofu puffs, salt and sugar.
• Bean sprouts should be put in 1 min before serving.
• In a separate saucepan, bring water to boil and blanch the rice noodles until cooked and serve in serving bowl with a bit of sambal bajak. (if you cut the noodles into small spoon-able pieces, its called Katong Laksa)
  
• Pour the laksa lemak over the noodles.
• Garnish with finely chopped laksa leaves and halved boiled egg.
• There you go....sedap di makan! (good to eat)

Appa's Mixture Bhel

A twist to appa's original recipe!

My dad prides himself on being a very 'unconventional cook'. At least thats what he calls himself when he makes beetroot sambhar, choco panchamrutham, and the best of them all - mixture bhel!

Bhel puri as it is called, is typical Bombay or Mumbai street snack. It mainly consists of puffed rice, sev, papdi (fried little puris), tomatoes, onions, boiled potatoes, chilies and some sweet (date) and sour (tamarind) sauces.

This recipe of appa's contains the south indian mixture as the base for the bhel. The mixture contains sev(called omapodi), boondhi, peanuts, ribbon pakoda (flat papdi-like muruku) and puffed rice crispies all tossed together with some salt, chilli powder and lots of asafoetida (which is what gives it the distinct south indian flavor). The base is more or less the same as bhel, but the flavor is uniquely south indian. My take on how appa came up with this is that getting Bhel ingredients was not all that easy in Trivandrum in the early ninties and since we all loved bhel, appa came up with the next best. Surprisingly, I love this version much more than the actual bombay bhel itself!

True to being an appa-ponnu I try to recreate the easy mixture bhel snack as often as possible. K too is hooked on to it these days. So....without further ado...here it goes!

What you need:
1 cup of madras mixture (available at indian stores)
½ cup of chopped red onions
1 tbsp boiled lightly mashed potatoes (optional)
1½ tsp chilli sauce (hot and sweet is good)
½ tsp lemon juice
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 tbsp chopped raw mango

Add all the ingredients to a big bowl, and mix just before serving! A piping hot masala chai or filter coffee makes a perfect complement to this tasty snack!

Sweet beginnings - Ada Pradhaman

அனைவருக்கும் என் மனம்கனிந்த தமிழ்ப்புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

നവ വര്ഷ ആശംസഗള്

Hearty Tamil New Year and Vishu wishes to all of you


Tamil and Malayalam New Year was celebrated over the weekend. Most people mistake me for being from Palakkad (a city bordering Kerala and Tamil Nadu) - let me clear that misconception right away. I was born in Chennai, but grew up in Trivandrum, so in that sense I'm what people would call - a 'pseudo-mallu'. My love for all things Mallu and Kerala include but are not limited to - the land, the people, the language, the music, movies and the aviyal :P

On Saturday, a few of the Malayalee students at Tech got together for a Vishu celebration - with an elaborate sadhya (special meal) and an adipoli movie. Here's what was on the menu - parippu, sambhar, aviyal, erisheri, pulisheri, kootukari, kichadi, 2 types of thoran, 4 types of payasams (paal payasam, parippu payasam, semiya payasam and ada pradhaman), complete with boiled rosematta rice (kuthari), pappadam, upperi and pazham! You can imagine what a heavy meal it must've been. The only thing missing was the banana leaf!

I generally do not cook much of the typical mallu fare at home, with the exception of aviyal (I could just eat bowls of aviyal by itself for all meals of the day all week....u get the point!!). So for a potluck, the safe bet would have to be a payasam - yet I wanted to try something different. Hence the highhhhh calorie ada pradhaman (you can make exceptions on festive occassions)

Here's how I prepared the exotic, yet simple Ada Pradhaman (to serve 20 ppl)

1. Make a trip to the nearest mallu grocery - India Bazaar some 14 miles away to get ada (not all indian groceries carry the ready to cook ada), 750 gm of jaggery and a couple of cans of coconut milk - thick milk and light.
2. Get ready other ingredients - broken cashews (20 pcs), small bite size chunks of coconut, ghee, powdered cardamom, 2 tsp of rice flour.
3. Cook the ada in a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes. Be sure to stir, so that the ada do not stick to each other. The ada is nothing but dried thick rice sheets cut into small squares. There are recipes online explaining the process of making ada from scratch, but if available, the ready to cook ones make life much easier.
4. Once cooked, drain the ada and run under cold water, to prevent sticking together.
5. In a separate saucepan, melt the jaggery under low heat by adding a tablespoon of water. Once melted, take care to leave the heavy residue from the jaggery behind or strain it before adding it to a heavy bottom pan with the cooked ada. Stir till well combined.
6. Now add ½tsp of cardamom powder to the mixture, followed by a can of thick coconut milk.
7. Add rice flour to the can of light coconut milk till well combined. This is the thickening agent for the pradhaman. Add this mixture 5 minutes after adding the thick coconut milk.
8. Now garnish with cashews and small coconut chunks fried in ghee. Be liberal with the ghee ;o) and add it to the payasam after using it to fry.
9. The payasam should be a semi-liquid consistency and ready to be devoured! *slurp

Oh yes... when the ada is cooking, make a quick call to amma to double confirm the recipe and get some lifesaver tips - like adding the rice flour to the coconut milk and adding coconut chunks! The payasam was pretty good and I was left with just a cupful for the blog photos. Every single dish that afternoon was perfect - maybe I should've taken some pictures. Oh well....there's always Onam!

Stir-fried Bok Choy with Cashews

There's a reason I've not been posting much over the past few months - I've hardly been cooking. K's not in town, and I don't really enjoy cooking for one! I've been surviving on quick sandwiches, veggie burgers and even cereal quite a few evenings :P
K on the other hand has been cooking a lot where he is, and even claims he's become the stir-fry expert - thanks to some good training from his new friend Hon.

Here's one stir-fry trick we've learnt from Hon - to add the flavoring sauces when the oil is hot before adding the veggies - your dish gets as close to the chinese takeouts as possible without the gazillion calories* (Read this CNN article if you haven't seen it already!)

Here's an easy recipe I created for a perfect one person meal. This is my entry for 'Jihva for Ingredients'' - JFI-WBB: Greens hosted by Indira of Mahanandi.

STIR FRIED BOK CHOY WITH CASHEWS

Ingredients:

Bok Choy - 3-4 stems
Button Mushroom - 2 sliced
Onion - ¼ sliced
Garlic - 2 pods chopped
Cashews - 10 pieces
Soya sauce - 1-2 tsp
Oyster flavored sauce*/hoisin sauce - 1 tsp
Red Chili paste/ Sambal Bajak
Sugar - ½ tsp
Sesame oil 1½ tsp
Sesame seeds for garnishing
Corn starch - ½-¾ tsp

*Made from oyster mushrooms

Method:
1) Seperate the leaflets of the Bok Choy and wash thoroughly.
2) Add sesame oil to a hot wok and once it starts smoking, add the garlic and the onions
3) Now add the soya sauce, oyster flavored sauce and the chili paste.
Add sugar to this and let it caramelize the onions
4) Add the bok choy and sliced mushrooms and stir-fry to coat and cook down
5) Now add the cashews and sprinkle ¼ of water mixed with corn starch to get the glazed consistency.
6) Garnish with sesame seeds and enjoy with steamed white rice!






















Bok choy stir-fry served with white rice

Spring's here - so am I

After what seems like an eternally long winter, finally its spring time. After almost 2 months of hibernation, I'm back! Thanks to all of you who've continued to visit the site and give me your feeback and support.

* I LOVE SPRING*

To some of my friends who ask me - what seasons do you have in Singapore - I often reply we have two seasons - HOT and humid and very hot and very humid! Naturally the change of seasons is something that I find very festive. Like most people, spring's got to be my most favorite of the seasons. I'm facinated by the way everything and everyone comes alive during spring. The chirping of the birds, the droplets of dew floating on the fresh green leaves early in the morning, the cool spring breeze, the longer daytime...I could go on! In short, I'm just visibly happier in Spring What do you like most about spring? - I'd love to hear from you guys.


Atlanta's at its prettiest in Spring followed closely by Fall. A few photographs of the Gatech campus in early spring. Enjoy~

Try a new vegetable - Kai-lan (Chinese Broccoli)

Greens are good for you! Just google 'benefits of eating greens' and you'll have numerous sites listing everything from reducing risk of heart diseases, stroke, some cancers, ..... to its antioxidant properties.

Kai-lan stir-fried in an mushroom flavored sauce.




Stir-fried Kai-lan, Achar and Tofu Sambal with Rice - A wholesome meal!

Happy Pongal / Sankranthi

Warmest Pongal and Sankranthi wishes to all of you!!



















இந்த இனிய தைத் திருநாள் அன்று உங்கள் இல்லங்களில் பால் பொங்குவது போலவே உங்கள் உள்ளங்களிலும் எல்லா செல்வங்களும் சந்தோஷங்களும் பொங்கி வழியட்டும்!!!

(On this auspicious day of Thai month, as the milk spills over, may you be blessed with all prosperity and happiness bounty)

Guess what's cooking - Karela/Bittergourd chips

Inspired by mydhaba, I'm posting a couple of simple guess whats...
The first one might be relatively easy!



















Thanks to all for your interesting and some amusing guesses! Annu and Archana turned out to be right - I am frying bittergourd or karela for chips.

Back in our Trivandrum days, our neighbor aunty used to make awesome 'pavaikka' chips and would send some over every time she made it, cos she knew Naveen loved it! Till date, we always remember Prasanna aunty, everytime amma or I make these chips. Although I never liked bittergourd pitlai or any other bittergourd dish, this one was always an exception.
I remember the first time I mentioned pavakka chips to Kartik, he was quite eager to try out, and understandably he's been hooked to it ever since he took his first bite!

Since food in the past two weeks has been predominantly - Naveen's favorites, this HAD to be in the menu. Even if you don't like bittergourd, try it with the less intense variety(the chinese bittergourd) and I'll assure you, its a great way to get acquainted with a very interesting vegetable.

Ingredients

Bittergourd, salt, turmeric, red chili powder


















Method:

Marinate for 20-30 mts



















Deep fry in hot oil, until dark brown.

Corn and Red pepper curry

My trip to the grocery store has been a couple of days overdue. I've depleted almost everything in the fridge except carrots, a ½ used red pepper, cilantro and green chilies. Made egg curry last night for dinner, and thats when I cleaned out the tomatoes! Since Naveen left last night, and I've been down with a cold/cough for a couple of days now, I'm in no mood to go grocery shopping.

I usually stock some vegetables in the freezer but this time around, even these didn't come to my rescue!! How on earth did I get the fridge so 'dry'??? :S

After rummaging through the coffee beans, and the cartloads of sambhar powder that my mum gave me almost 3 years back, I finally spotted a lonely packet of corn staring me in the eye from the back of the freezer. Ah....one battle won...another begins??

Now, how do you combine corn, red bell pepper, cilantro and green chilies in the same recipe and that too within ½hr ??(K decided to join me for lunch today!! ) Here's my concoction - with some basic help from various corn recipes obtained from the internet. Presenting *drumroll......*

CORN AND RED BELL PEPPER IN A GREEN CURRY....

Ingredients:
Corn - 1½ cups
Red pepper (diced) - ½ cup
Onion powder - 2 tbsp (if using fresh onions, chop and grind ½ a big onion with paste ingredients)
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Green Cardamom - 2
Kashmiri red chili powder- ½ tsp
Lite coconut milk - ½ can
Salt - ¾-1 tsp flat
Oil/ Ghee - 2 tsp

To make paste:
Garlic - 3-4 pods
Ginger - ½ inch
Green chilies - 4
Cilantro/coriander leaves - a fistful
Coconut - 1 tbsp grated
Khus khus or poppy seeds - 2 tsp
Cashews (optional) - 3-4 pieces

Method:

Heat some oil/ghee in a pan and add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.

Add onion powder (if available). Let it cook for a minute.

Add the green spice paste now and cook till the oil separates.

Now add the corn (yellow preferably - for the aesthetic aspect) and red bell pepper.

Add salt and cook covered for 4-5 minutes and add the kashmiri chili powder and a tsp of garam masala if needed.

Now add the coconut milk and let it cook on low flame for another 5 minutes.

Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with hot chapatis, parathas or rice.

Myriad of colors - yellow corn and red pepper in a green curry

Happy New Year

As you usher in the New Year 2007, we wish you and everyone in your family a year full of great health, happiness and celebrations!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007!!!!