Culinary Chemistry

When Coffee from My Khazana of Recipes announced International cuisine for the “Monthly Blog Patroling” event , I immediately thought of the Indian-Chinese Fusion dish:Vegetable Chow-Mein that I had made following the recipe from one of my favourite bloggers, Meena of Hooked on Heat. I lo—ve her blog and her mouth-watering pictures. Honestly they make me want to run to the kitchen and immediately try to replicate the delicious goodness there! That noodles are an all time favourite of both my hubby and I, was another major motivation to try this recipe. Anyway though I do say it myself, the result was pretty good especially since the proof of the chow-mein is in eating it which both of us did to our heart’s content.

Well, I didn’t have cabbage in my fridge that day and hence used green beans instead. The other veggies I used are yellow bell peppers, beans, mushrooms, scallions and onions.One more difference is the flat vegetarian noodles instead of egg noodles. Otherwise the method is the same and can be referred here.

Thanks to Meena for the wonderful recipe and of course to Coffee for motivating me to reproduce this in my blog for the “Monthly Blog Patroling” event.

When Hua, who rides the vanpool to work with me, said that though she loved looking at the colorful couscous recipe pictures in my blog, she didn’t know/use half the ingredients I used, my friend Pinal suggested this versatile couscous recipe with “American Friendly” ingredients!! It is a very simple and flavorful recipe, especially wonderful to cook if one is dieting, which btw we are supposed to be doing!!:-)).

I sort of adjusted Pinal’s recipe with whatever I had in my pantry. here goes the recipe:

Serves 4

1/4 cup onions sliced lengthwise

1/2 cup of frozen vegetable, I used Tuscan style veggies which had cauliflowers, bell peppers, mushrooms and celery

1/4 cup of broccoli (optional)

2cups couscous

2 cloves of garlic minced

1tsp olive oil

1/2tsp of dried oregano (can also use fresh/dried parsley,fresh/dried basil whichever you have in the pantry)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Cook the couscous according to the instructions in the packet. I used plain couscous, while Pinal used whole wheat couscous from Trader Joe’s. Fluff it up with a fork to prevent the grains from sticking.

To 1 tsp of oil taken in a wok throw in the onions,and the garlic. cook for a minute then add the frozen veggies. sautee in high for about 3 minutes taking care not to burn the garlic. Once the veggies are half cooked (the crunchiness should still be there), add the salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Mix the couscous with this and garnish with dried herbs. Serve with soup.

Our diet dinner:Couscous with Sweet corn soup

Yes, yes,when we first got the cable, we were guilty of being a slave to SunTV especially on Sundays; We used to be glued to the box starting at about 9:30a.m., and watch all the programs from movies to star interviews to other shows ,however gross/boring/junky they were. And the advertisements!! oh man I have to write about these. The ads are soooo colourful and vibrant that it was hard to take our eyes off the TV set even for a moment!!:-)) This went on for a couple of weeks until the novelty wore off and now except for the cookery show called sunday samaiyal (Sunday cooking!) which I still watch rain or shine!!!:-)) we have pretty much reduced watching Sun TV!!!. Anyway,the cooking show has four parts: A five star cooking which features a chef making fancy stuff, a village recipe by an old gutsy lady who is famous in tamil movies(More information about this section is given by Revathi of En Ulagum blog), a Healthy meal cooked by a dietician using low fat stuff for junta on diet or having diabetes etc. and a modern cooking section on the microwave by an actress who makes stove top recipes on the microwave. Some of the dishes are pretty nice and watching the show makes one realize how much globalization has impacted the cooking style in India!

Anyway last week after we returned from our Thanksgiving bash at L.A, we decided to go on a diet at least for a week to avoid the tyres of fat building up on our waists!!:-)) and viola this Sunday the dietician in Sunday Samaiyal made a veggie-sprout sandwich which was incredibly healthy, filling and most importantly low fat!!! It was as if she heard about our diet!!:-))So Below is the recipe.

Ingredients (for making 8 sandwiches)

1 loaf whole wheat bread

1 green/red/yellow bell pepper chopped fine

1 cup of mushroom chopped fine

1 cup onions chopped fine

1 cup sprouts cooked until soft

1/4 cup paneer cut into tinly pieces

1 green chilly chopped

1 tsp jeera

1 tsp vegetable/olive oil

1/2 tsp pav bhaji masala

1/4 tsp chat masala(optional)

1/4 tsp curry powder(optional)

salt to taste

Method

To the hot oil taken in a wok, add the jeera and once it sputters, add the green chilles. Fry the onions, then throw in the bell peppers and mushrooms. Once they are cooked, put the sprouts,paneer,Pav bhaji masala, chat masala,curry powder, salt and sautee for sometime. This is the stuffing for the sandwich.The rest is very simple. To one slice of the bread spoon in about 2 tblspoons of this veggie-sprout stuffing ,cover it with the other slice and cook in a sandwich maker greased with 1/4 tspoon of ghee. these can be served with ketchup or eaten by itself!They were tasty and filling.