Pad Thai for Thailand

Pad Thai

Again I go back to Wikipedia  which says that , “Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand. Balance, detail and variety are of paramount significance to Thai chefs. In his book The Principles of Thai Cookery, renowned celebrity chef, writer and authority on Thai cuisine McDang wrote

"What is Thai food? Every country in the world has its own food profile. It reflects its culture, environment, ingenuity and values. In the case of Thailand, these words come to mind: intricacy; attention to detail; texture; color; taste; and the use of ingredients with medicinal benefits, as well as good flavor.

We not only pay attention to how a dish tastes: we are also concerned about how it looks, how it smells, and how it fits in with the rest of the meal. We think of all parts of the meal as a whole - sum rap Thai (the way Thais eat), is the term we use for the unique components that make up a characteristically Thai meal."

Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. It is known for its complex interplay of at least three and up to four or five fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal: sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy. Australian chef David Thompson, a prolific chef and expert on Thai food, observed that unlike many other cuisines:

"Thai food ain't about simplicity. It's about the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish. Like a complex musical chord it's got to have a smooth surface but it doesn't matter what's happening underneath. Simplicity isn't the dictum here, at all. Some westerners think it's a jumble of flavours, but to a Thai that's important, it's the complexity they delight in.”

So this is my attempt at making Thai Food... I have in the past tried my hand at Veggie Thai Curry, A delicious rice in coconut milk( I realize now I have never got down to posting it) and some others that I have forgotten about!!

But this was totally different as I had guests at home my daughter’s friends, making this and the Blintzes taking pics and pouring rain things were in a chaos. Finally I did not get to taste any  of the Pad Thai as the kids had  loved it and finished it all.

My kids are thrilled about it. They keep reminding me that i have not eaten this awesome dish.etc etc.... Well I do want to  eat this instead of drooling over the pics.... This is my entry for Blogging Marathon were we are on a whirlwind tour around the World in 30 days!!

Pad Thai

Vegetarian Pad Thai

Recipe Source: here and here 

Ingredients:

• 1 ½   cups flat rice noodles
• 4 tbsp oil
• ½  tblspn garlic, chopped
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 cup cabbage, finely sliced
• 4-5 baby corn, sliced
• 3 tbsp peanuts roasted and roughly chopped
• ¾   cup paneer  cubes ( I did not use)
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 ½ tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• ¼  cup chopped spring onion greens

For The Garnish:

• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped
• 1 tbsp  spring onion greens, chopped
• 1 tbsp  coriander (dhania) , chopped

Method:

•  In large bowl soak rice noodles in warm water to cover until they are limp and white, about 45 minutes in my case. Please follow the instructions of your package.
• While noodles are soaking mix lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, chilli sauce and 1 tablespoon water in small bowl. Set aside.
•  In kadhai/wok  heat oil over high heat.
• Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry 30 seconds.
• Add the beans sprouts, then add carrot strips and green onions and stir-fry 1 minute.
• Add peanuts and baby corn, mix well and cook on a high flame for 2 to 3 minutes stirring continuously.
• Add lime juice mixture.
• Drain noodles and   add to kadhai/ wok along with the cabbage.
• Cook covered  until they soften and curl, about 1 minute.
• Divide mixture among serving plates, sprinkle with peanuts and garnish with a slice of lime and coriander.

Pad Thai

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

According to Wikipedia which I am quoting verbatim,

”Lebanese cuisine or "Levantine kitchen" includes an abundance of starches, whole grain, fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and seafood; animal fats are consumed sparingly. Poultry is eaten more often than red meat. When red meat is eaten it is usually lamb on the coast, and goat meat in the mountain regions. It also includes copious amounts of garlic and olive oil, often seasoned by lemon juice. olive oil, herbs, garlic and lemon are typical flavours found in the Lebanese diet.

Most often foods are either grilled, baked or sautéed in olive oil; butter or cream is rarely used other than in a few desserts. Vegetables are often eaten raw or pickled as well as cooked. Herbs and spices are used and the freshness of ingredients is important. Like most Mediterranean countries, much of what the Lebanese eat is dictated by the seasons.

In Lebanon, very rarely are drinks served without being accompanied by food.  Mezze is an array of small dishes placed before the guests creating an array of colours, flavours, textures and aromas. Mezze may be as simple as pickled vegetables or raw vegetables, hummus, baba ghanouj and bread, or it may become an entire meal consisting of grilled marinated seafood, skewered meats, a variety of cooked and raw salads and an arrangement of desserts.

Although simple fresh fruits are often served towards the end of a Lebanese meal, there is also dessert, such as baklava and coffee. Although baklava is the most internationally known dessert, there is a great variety of Lebanese desserts.”

In spite of all kinds of delicacies jumping at me when I was researching for L one thing that kept on attracting me was this video. Finally I decided to make Falafel wraps! So today for the “Around the World in 30 days” let us eat Falafel wraps. A versatile dish where you can eat just the falafels or wrapped them up!! The wraps   can be tortillas or even our plain old chapatti or like me fulkas.

Falafels are Lebanese deep fried balls or patties made from Kabuli Chana/white chick peas and/or fava beans.

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

Falafel Wraps

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Recipe Source: Veg. Recipes of India ,Taste.com, Utube  

Serves: 6-7

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Kabuli Chana/white chick peas, soaked overnight
• 1 medium sized onion finely chopped or minced
• 2-3 garlic crushed
• 1 tsp dhania/ coriander powder
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder/jeera powder
• ½ tsp kali mirchi/ pepper corns crushed
• 2 tbsp atta /whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley
•  1 tsp coriander leaves
• Salt as required
• Oil for deep frying

Method:

• Cook the soaked Kabuli Chana in the pressure cooker with 2 cups of water for 2 whistles. Cool.
• In a mixer/ blender add the drained Chana and mash/ coarse grind.
• Add all the other ingredients except the oil and grind to get a paste.
• Transfer from the mixer to a bowl and mix everything well.
• With your hands form small or medium sized balls or patties.
• Deep fry in hot oil like you would do for pakoras/fritters.
• Flip over to the other side whilst frying to ensure that the falafels are evenly fried.
• Drain falafel on kitchen tissues to remove excess oil.
•  You can serve falafel hot with pita bread or serve as snack/starter with some sauce.
• But I served it like this fulkas, hummus, cheese slice, falafel and pickled cucumber and onion and dhania/ coriander leaves as garnish.
• Very very yum!!!

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Lihapulla /Meatballs (sans the meat )Finnish way

For alphabet F I choose Finland!! Somehow it’s always fascinated me. Why because Santa lives here officially, yes really I am not kidding check it here. The land of midnight sun, northern lights, and saunas. I wish can live there…

I knew almost immediately I was making meatballs!!

Aw! Come-on you are on a vegetarian site and I have to live up to my reputation at home of being a mad scientist! The Mad Scientist is getting seriously eroded… so here is what happened.

For Egypt, yeah alphabet E I made stock for the Koshari  as the mixture was merrily boiling away my daughters came to the bedroom where I was busy on the laptop asking me what I was making? 

“It’s delicious Mamma, my mouth is watering. “ they had already investigated and Apeksha, my elder one was  asking, yes the elder one!! will wonders never cease, asked me to make something out of the boiled vegetable. It’s delicious and healthy!!!   Yeah unbelievable!! I know that’s why I said will wonder never cease!!! 

Now I have in the past made  spaghetti and vegetable balls and wanted to make these meatballs different! My reading on street food in Finland indicated that meatballs are street food!

I found this site here and  I made Finnish meatballs.

Dhania Puri and Spicy Potato Vegetable ~ Baby Shower for Sapana

Life is meant to be cherished, embraced and enjoyed!  

Who demonstrates the philosophy better than a baby?

Who can resist the wobbly bundle of joy that makes all the household dance?

In fact you are happy that you are dancing to the small bundles tunes. Who cries and cries but coos and smiles the moment his needs are satisfied?

Wondering whets wrong with me?  My friend Sapana is having a baby and this is a virtual baby shower that we at Blogging Marathon group have organised for her.

Enjoy the party and feast on the delicious Dhania Puri and Spicy Potato Bhaji that I have made for the party from Sapana's space!! They were a part of my daughters tiffin .

Have a great time Sapana and share lots and lots of pics of the baby!

Dhania Puri

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup wheat flour
• 1 cup coriander leaves, chopped
• ½ cup onion, chopped
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp garam masala (I did not use)
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 tblspn oil
• Water as needed
•  Oil for frying

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, as it started popping add grated ginger and sauté for 1 minute.
• Add chopped chillies and onions and sauté for 2 minutes.
• Now add all spices and salt, mix well.
• Add chopped coriander leaves, cook or 5 minutes and set aside.
• Take wheat flour in a bowl, add coriander masala and knead to a smooth dough by adding   water as needed.
• Cover the dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• Make 8 small round balls from the dough.
• Apply some oil on chakla belan and roll one ball into the size of Puri.
• Heat oil in a kadhai/wok, slide one Puri at a time carefully and fry from both sides you should get slight brown specks on the puri and you are done.
•  Repeat with remaining balls.
• Serve hot with Spicy potato vegetable.

Ever on look out to reduce time spent in the kitchen? Or you have guests and you need a dish urgently? Then this one is for you!

A simple and delicious potatoes vegetable to enjoy with your lunch or dinner! Potatoes…so it has to taste awesome and it can be put together effortless!!

Sapna has used baby potatoes I used regular ones.

Spicy Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes
• 1 tsp kasuri methi(dry fenugreek leaves)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp amchur(dry mango powder )
• 1 tsp garam masala
• Salt to taste
• 2 tblspn oil

Method:

• Pressure cook the potatoes till cooked well.
• Peel and prick and cut in pieces.
• Heat oil in a kadhai/wok add cumin seeds and kasuri methi.
• As cumin seed crackle, add potatoes and let the cook on both side till a little golden in colour. Flip the potatoes gently to avoid breaking.
• Now add all spices powder and salt, mix gently to evenly coat the spices.
• You can add oil If potatoes start sticking to the pan. (I did not).
• Cook for 4-5 minutes, remove from heat and serve hot with Paratha or chapatti.
• I served it with Dhania/ coriander Puri.

This is a part of the Baby Shower that we at Blogging Marathon are having for Sapana !

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Vegetable Thupka ~ A Delicious Vegetarian Noodle Soup

Vegetable Thupka ~ A DeliciousVegetarian Noodle Soup

For the recent mega marathon, for the benefit of those who land here for the first time I have participated in 2 marathons. One is the Alphabet marathon the second was the Indian Food Odyssey where we have taken up the challenge of various Indian states and the food there. The NE states gave is a lot of problems not only there are very few documented online but most of the dishes are non vegetarian.

For Sikkim I was to make Momos and Thupka. I made them twice now but not together as my girls went gaga the first time and I had none left to take pictures. The second time they told me they want a Momos feast. Which translates as” nothing else acceptable” they will just eat Momos. By the time I made the mountain of Momos needed plus the regular cooking for the rest of the family members I was in no mood to make Thupka. My excuse was anyway no one will eat it.

Thukpa is a famous noodle soup recipe from the north-east region of India it was something that we enjoyed so I made it again.

This time I made one bowl of  soup on Saturday and took some pictures in the afternoon so in the evening when the hungry hordes descended I had absolutely no reservations of serving this delicious soup.

 

Thanks Valli for sharing this soup on the group id had it not been for you I would be trying to remake a non-veg recipe in veggie one. To make this soup I used my own adaptations. Some ingredients because they are not much appreciated I have left out.

Cheese Stuffed Rajma Cutlets

When I buy some ingredients for my pantry I get carried away. I know that there are some things that we read family will not eat but still I buy it, hoping that at least this time they will eat.  

I end up losing each time, one such ingredient is rajma or kidney beans. Not only they refuse to eat it not even consider it as a healthy option. Why I do not know but they just don’t like it. So last time I stuck the soaked & boiled rajma in the freezer and was wondering what to do with them.

Moong Daal And Black Pepper Sev

For July Magic Mingle Kalyani asked us to use yellow Moong daal and pepper common enough to be available in the kitchen but there was a dearth of ideas that I had.

Unfortunately Moong daal equals to khichidi in my mind.  First it used to be Moong Daal Kheer that Amma used to make but now Moong daal is just khichdi.

Naturally it insulted me as I could not think beyond khichidi. Arre I am food blogger I cannot be thinking in a box for heaven’s sake!!

Kimchi

One of the oldest Indo-Chinese restaurants in Panaji, called Goinchin serves a salad with their food as an accompaniment. And it was awesome so delicious that we asked for a second helping of it.

That is when I asked the Captain what it is called and how it is made. I was told it is called Kimchee and its just cabbage that they have used with vinegar and red chilli powder.

Today I made it.

Paneer, Bottle Gourd and Mint Parathas-Working Lunch Thali

When Valli was floating her idea of Indian Thali Mela I was quiet. 

That is quite unlike me. Usually I like to be in the thick of things if not doing anything else at least making a noise.

You may wonder why I was quiet. Well there is a reason no three reasons

1. Will I be able to cook an entire festive thali all by myself? I do not know why I wanted one festive thali but I wanted it. I still want to make one but

 2. Will I have eaters? For my family is one are very fussy eaters so I did not want my hard work go down the drain.

3. The most important reason is I do not know how to click it. The pictures suck.  

So I decided to let the festival go by. But I hate failures or giving up before I try so I decided to try. I would love to see your comments on improving my pics.

Pumpkin Stir Fry

What do you do when you have no veggies but pumpkin?

In my place no one eats pumpkin, especially the red one. I just do not know why. I have tried all sorts of way making this veggie in sambhar, a veggie. No sir… they all turn up their noses at it and the poor gourd has become quite upset.

So coming back to the original question what to cook? I have only pumpkin.

Oats Bisi Baali Huli Anna

Oats the wonder grain is a new addition to our diet. The most easily available (read I have not checked) form being the rolled oats that I try making on a regular basis. The girls refuse to do anything with it claiming all sorts of reasons from downright stinks to tastes yucky. We have heard them all.

So how do I get them in them? Well I sneak them in like today’s Sunday special being Bisi Baali Huli Anna. Their favourite!!

I generally do not make the masala that Amma used to make for making this rice so special.  I promise I will post the authentic recipe soon. In fact I am surprised that I have not posted the recipe as yet.   No wonder so many of you have commented that I have Goan style cooking featured in my space. Maybe because cooking Karnataka style food is comfort cooking.

Jal Jeera

Imagine this scene it’s Saturday, about 1.35pm and the Sun is very pleased that that finally he has caught you,  when you  have forgotten your cap and sun coat at home in the morning.

He turns his on his devilish smile and grins just at you!!

 To add to it you are sweating (you cannot escape that in Goa). All the way the down from Office to home, a mere 5 kilometers turns in a nightmare, for I am allergic to the sun’s rays.

Palak Pulao

How super excited I am for I am a part of BloggingMarathon #13  and today is Day#1

I have chosen my theme as Rice.

Cool, yes well it is, till you try to feed your kids everyday rice, which does not happen in my place, but wait it has to be kid friendly and needs to ready in 20 minutes flat. And I am bombarded with suggestions. So there are lovely inputs that I have.

 Let’s begin at the very beginning

 1.I had made this spinach and garlic onion stir fry as a stuffing for lasagne. It did not happen poor thing was lying in the fridge quite lonesome.

2. Then I don’t know why I made a big batch of rice.

 3. Thanks to Raksha's post that I read here and this is how the idea cascaded into this lovely dish.

And was it appreciated? Serve it with paneer Manchurian and be labelled as the “besttest Mamma”!  

So we here it is   Palak Pulao as our entry for the first day of blogging marathon.

Yorkshire Parkin(?)/Cake

Why the question mark after the Parkin you may ask?

 Well I did not know what Parkin is till this moment and what I have baked is definitely not parkin.  Parkins are North English form of ginger bread. I left out the most important ingredient ginger not because I don’t have it my people do not like ginger much. So it is more of a cake than a parkin.

The whole story began When Susan of a The Well-Seasoned Cook put up this beautiful picture of Yorkshire Parkin I flipped.

 I had to make it!

Cauliflower Rava Fry

CAULIFLOWER RAVA FRY

I woke up late today and was in a fix as to what I should send for Akanksha's breakfast. I wanted something filling and vegetable that went down without complaint.


 It was then that  I  remembered  the last of the cauliflower that I had washed by mistake and hence salted, added chilli powder and haldi . Since I had done it yesterday morning I kenew it was well marinated and so will taste better. I rolled it in rava and shallow fried them.


This is something done traditionally in Goa. We have batata che kapa, Suran or Elephant's foot kapa, madi che kapa,karati or bitter gourd che kapa, bhindi kapa.


Tasty and filling. No complaints snack, side dish which we all enjoy. I am posting the cauliflower kapa picture  today maybe some day I will post some pictures of the rest of the kapas I have listed!!


I am linking this to Bookmarked Recipes here this place I always wanted to send my recipe but in th eGoan Susegad manner am always late.