"Mmm. Food." tries Vegan!

I'm a big believer in chocolate and butter and sugar. That's how the world goes around.

But my favourite type of thing to eat? Grilled chicken breast on top of a hearty fattoush salad. Broiled teppanyaki-type fish with wilted greens and rice. Nutella.

I absolutely love light, healthy food, cooked with the freshest of ingredients and minimal cooking techniques. I abstain from posting these from the blog, because my Stats-meter always shows heavy leanings toward Falooda and Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

Even then, if the dish is good enough, I will break my own rules and post it for the world to see. Case in point: Oven Roasted Chickpeas, Muhammara and Garden Pesto Pasta.

My family is another whole story... they don't go a day without eating poultry, meat, fish or worst-case scenario, eggs. And I go rogue. I make Vegan food.

You heard me. Vegan. No meat. No eggs. No dairy. No honey, even!

The sister-in-law said even "poor" people didn't eat this way... and that she wasn't brought up eating "this type of food". The brother said he was 99.99% sure that it was unlawful to shun all that God made rightful (Muslim men love bringing up religion when it suits them). On a side note, annoyingly-ignorant match made in heaven. I told them that I wouldn't be offended if they didn't taste, and that I'd make enough only for me and my health-freak of a mother.

So for today, I give you a savoury dish and a dessert... the tiniest steps you can take into Vegan-dom. There are plenty of amazing, exclusively Vegan food blogs like Chocolate-Covered Katie (from where both recipes du jour have been adapted from) and Oh She Glows. However, if you're hesitant about starting with Chia seeds and Virgin coconut oil, these two dishes could be your happy crutches into the land of all things Vegan.

The first is my excuse for Nutella. I'm a Nutella-holic. I make my own from peanuts. I buy bottles of the stuff from a whole-sale retailer. No lie.

The second is an Italian spin on Hummus. Pizza hummus! I had to add Parmesan cheese and de-Veganise it, but that's just me.

Chocolate-Banana-Peanut butter fudge:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut butter (can substitute with extra peanut butter)
80 g over-ripe banana
a pinch of salt

Method:

If you want to make your own coconut butter, just whiz around 3 tbsp of freshly grated coconut in the mixie/food processor until it forms a smooth buttery/chutney-like mix.

Add the peanut butter, salt and cocoa powder, and blend some more.

Add in the overripe banana, and give it a final blitz.

Taste the mix, to see if you'd like a teensy bit of brown or white sugar.

Pour it out into a bowl and freeze until firm. You can also refrigerate and eat it like frosting/Nutella.

Pizza Hummus:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup garbanzo beans, drained (chickpeas that have been soaked and pressure-cooked)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (sub with nutritional yeast to keep it Vegan)
1 cup cherry tomatoes (or regular)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 an onion (un-chopped)
1/4 tsp dried basil
2 tsps tomato paste/ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Microwave or boil the tomatoes until the skin bursts.

 If you're microwaving, poking all over with a fork prevents them from splattering out.

In a medium sauce, heat the olive oil. Add the peeled, deseeded tomatoes, half an onion (unchopped) and the garlic with some fresh basil (if available).

Let it stew on medium heat for around 15 minutes.

Once this has cooled down, remove the onion. Blitz the rest of it in a mixie/food processor, along with the ketchup. Add in the chickpeas/garbanzo and blend will until no chunks remain.

Add in the dried basil and the cheese and give one final whirl. Taste it.

Add more olive oil for richness, extra salt, pepper and ketchup to taste. You might need more of the "pizza sauce" if the consistency isn't that of hummus.

Serve with crackers or veggie sticks.

My sister-in-law, the veggie-hater, ate the whole bowl, albeit with plenty of extra shaved parmesan.

My brother nearly cut his hands trying to get the last bits of the Chocolate-PB fudge out of the mixie cup.

I'd be more smug about the whole thing if they had bothered to save me some.

Garden Pasta Salad, hold the guilt... hey, Pesto!

Why does everything have to come with guilt?

I wish they could make an official guilt-free day. Just one day, every two months or so. Where:

a)I don't feel guilty about leaving patients even though my shift finished 2 hours back and I haven't sat down or breathed normally in God-knows-how-long.

b)I can spend a quarter of my pay check on a good meal and not care about how I'm wasting money.

c)I can be the first person to leave the library without giving a flying *beep* about the rest of the homogeneous medico-nerds plodding away at 3000-page texts, oblivious of a world where people breathe and eat and excrete (even though that covers half of Physiology).

d)I can skip gym and watch two back-to-back movies (a chick-flick and depressing, film-noir). Two desserts in one day. One chocolate, one caramel/mint/coffee with chocolate. Back to back, even. Without feeling like ten types of crap.

Is that too much to ask for?

Experience (lousy teacher that she is) clearly agrees. Boring sayings like good things-are-good-only-in moderation and all of that have been proved true.

 Since I've been OD-ing on the cholesterol lately, I thought I'd give you a recipe that is delightful and quite easy to rustle up for one of those weekdays when you've overindulged to the point where you can no longer live in denial.

It's green. And not mint-chocolate chip ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

After a week of Iced mochas and Nutella-from-the-jar, this meal makes me smile extra wide. It's got all my favourite things in it; zucchini, basil, Parmesan, peas, lemon and wholewheat pasta. You can't screw this up even if you tried. Heck, I can't screw it up even if I left the kitchen to watch Bones.

If your family can be picky and complain of the lack of any meat to bite into, you've got tofu here! Don't substitute with paneer, just this once. Not for our collective arteries' states, but tofu works wonders here. Love how it goes from sour beancurd to baked little golden morsel robed in a luscious, creamy pesto and other similar Nigella-isms.

Garden Pasta Salad with Pesto Vinaigrette:

For the Vinaigrette:

1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (I used a mix of basil and spinach)
1/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil (more if you dare)
1/2 c grated Parmesan (I added half parmesan, half pecorino)
1 large lemon, zested and juiced
3 tbsp red or white-wine vinegar (I used Balsamic)
9 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped (you can use less)
1/4 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper

Pasta Salad:

1 package tofu, drained
440 grams whole grain pasta (I used fusilli)
300 g green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup peas
1 medium zucchini, sauteed in 1 tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

Method:

Cut the tofu into bite size chunks. Place them a little apart on a baking tray lined with oiled-foil and bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes until they turn golden.

Slice the zucchini. Place a sauce pan over medium heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the slices for about a minute. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep aside.

Make the pesto vinaigrette:

In a mixie or food processor, add the basil/spinach/coriander,olive oil, Parmesan, lemon juice, lemon zest, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Blend until a smooth, mint-chutney-like consistency develops and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

In a large pan, bring 5 litres of salted water to the boil.

Add the green beans and boil for about 5 minutes until they are cooked, but still retain that bite/snap.

Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.

Add the peas to the leftover boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes until they're cooked (but don't let them mush up too much!) Remove and keep aside.

Add the pasta to the leftover boiling water. Cook until al-dente, as per package instructions. Whole grain generally requires a bit more cooking time, so pay heed!

Your pasta is now ready to be mixed! You can either

1)Place the drained pasta, tofu, zucchini, peas, beans, toasted walnuts in a big bowl and toss them with the vinaigrette. Stash in the refrigerate for about 15 minutes and serve. If you're planning to serve it later (this gives time for the flavours to meld into the pasta), cover with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate. Tastes best cold, like any other pasta salad.

2) Or if your family/friends are a little choosy, you might have plate up for each person separately, mixing-and-matching.

Arrange the stuff (as per requests/demands) on a plate.

Pour over as much vinaigrette as the person desires. Warning: there might be a shortage later.

Toss. Garnish with extra toasted walnuts or Parmesan curls.

Get a load of that goodness. The peas, garlicky pesto, hearty pasta and the nut, in one bite. Mmm. Not cookie-dough-brownie-bar mmm, but Mmm-glorious-food indeed.

Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms, Lemon with Chilli-Garlic Shrimp

Fact: I shed all apprehension and made a gourmet dish. Contrary to my expectations, it was a winner!

As a child, I did not like rice. It seemed like everything I ate had some form of rice in it.

Mornings would start off with mum coaxing me to comb my hair, apply kohl on my eyes (to a strict "convent" school, that too) and eat two fat idlies (that would invariably find their way into my lunch box, as well.) Coming back home, she'd have a plate full of white rice, mixed with greens and sambar and chicken curry and whatnot waiting for me along with the Arabic master (hazarath).

I find it depressing that I got fat on food like that, but c'est la vie.

However, I discovered rice in other avatars: the fried rice (Nasi Goreng Ayam) I had in Indonesia is definitely one of the best things to have entered my mouth and soul; the Kashmiri Pulao at Tandoor with Rogan Josh made my month and this sweet Basmati rice saffron kheer that makes its appearance at Muslim weddings completed me. Oh, and Koji rice!

While organic and raw is all good, try looking beyond Basmati/Zeera Samba and Ponni. Beyond fried rice and biryani. For example, a great risotto, may be?

Risotto gets a bad rap it does not deserve. It is the Quickstep/Kiss of Death ("So You Think You Can Dance?") for Masterchef Australia contestants. People who try it at restaurants (even at Tuscana) give it a thumbs-down. And the harder it is to get my hands on something good, the more I desire it.

You've heard this line before, but make it yourself.

If you're in Madras, this might be something you want to bookmark and try after a couple of years when exotic ingredients stock up on our grocery shelves. Unless, of course, you have a few kickass friends/relatives or a job that takes you on a jetplane.

Dad came back from Italy with a Duty Free bag full of ingredients from a painstakingly formulated list I sent with him. Porcini mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, Extra virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Arborio Rice and the like.

Risotto. The ingredients were begging to be made into a risotto.

Mum had some gorgeous fresh prawns that she wanted me to use up, so I sauteed some of it in chilli-garlic paste and popped it on top of the risotto, but this could easily be made into a gourmet vegetarian dish. I don't know if any rice other than Arborio or Vialo Nano could be used, but since Arborio travels and keeps really well, order it online or call a foreign-settled relative/friend. Fresh mushrooms and mushroom soup can be used, but Porcini mushrooms give out such a delicious depth and saline quality to the dish. This easily is the best Umami dish I've knocked up.

The Mushroom Risotto made its way to the table at iftiari/breaking of the fast time. The rains were pouring outside, thunder punctuated our conversation and this steaming hot risotto was finished in record time. A touch of lime cut through the creaminess of the risotto... the only source of creaminess being the Parmesan cheese and starchy rice itself. Not a bad deal, eh?

And minus the shrimp, it makes for a smashing vegetarian dish. Unless you think mushrooms aren't vegetarian (this I've heard too many shocking times), in which case tofu or cottage cheese makes for a kick-ass substitute.

Citrus and Mushroom Risotto with Spicy Sauteed Shrimp:

Recipe source: adpated from Man Eat Food (originally Food and Wine magazine)

Ingredients:

3 dried thai red chillies (I used Kashmiri lal mirch)

6 cloves garlic, peeled

2 cups fresh button mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup dried porcini mushroom

1 cup boiling water

1.5 cups arborio rice

6 cups chicken/vegetable stock

1 small onion, chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

zest of a lemon

200 g shrimp/prawn, deveined and peeled

1/4 cup chopped parsley (I used mint)

1/4 Parmesan cheese, grated

1 tbsp Unsalted butter

3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil.

salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Prepare the stock. I dissolved Vegetable Bouillon cubes in about 1.5 litres of water and reduced it down. A little extra stock is OK, because you can never tell how much stock the rice is going to soak up.

Pour the boiling water over the dried Porcini mushroom in a small bowl. Close the bowl with the lid and let it steep for at least one hour. Drain the liquid through a fine sieve to take out any muddy particles. Chop up the mushrooms into little bits.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Saute the fresh mushrooms until the mushrooms are softened and let out the delicious mushroom liquid. Keep aside.

In a big pan, heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until softened, not browned.

Throw in the arborio rice. Keep sauteeing until all the plump grains of rice become transclucent.

Add in the porcini mushroom stock and cook until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed.

Add in the stock, one cup at a time. Keep stirring, so the bottom doesn't scorch. After you've added about 5 cups of the stock, take out a few grains and check to see if it's cooked al dente. If it has add in the mushrooms (both soaked-dried and fresh-sauteed) and some more stock and stir. This process should take around 20 minutes to half an hour.

Check to see if the rice grains are tender and the sauce creamy. If not, add some more stock/hot water (depending on the saltiness and the flavour). Remove from heat, add in the lemon juice, lemon zest, parmesan. Taste and add salt, pepper and butter to taste, and cover.

This risotto should ideally be served immediately.

Chilli-garlic shrimp:

For the chilli-garlic paste:

Blitz the chilli and garlic in a food processor/mortar and pestle until roughly chopped.

In a non-stick skillet, add 1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil. When hot, add the shrimp, season with salt and pepper and sautee over high heat until the shrimp turn almost pink.

Add the chilli-garlic mix and cook for around a minute and remove from heat. Add in the parsley/mint.

Overcooking the shrimp will lead to a rubbery texture, so be careful. My sister-in-law suggested marinating the shrimp in the chilli paste with a little salt for 15 minutes, ensuring that the shrimp soaks up the flavour and doesn't taste bland on the inside.

Stir the risotto. Serve in bowls. Add the shrimp, oil and all, top.

Serve with some shavings of parmesan, a wedge of lemon and some more chopped herbs. Moral of the day: homemade scrumptious posh food = not an oxymoron.

Moussaka/It's all Greek and Greek to me.

Logically, I should be exploring/exploiting my heritage/roots, in a Kylie Kwong-esque way (who I have total respect for, by the way). I should be telling you how to make idi appams (String hoppers) and coconut-milk stew. Or at least do a post on how to make 13 different types of chutneys to accompany your idlis. Instead, I give you yet another Greek-style dish.

I'm not crazy. Hear me out.

I'm sure you can make vadais better than I can. And I bet you anything there's a good Idli-Dosai kadai within a ten minute radius of your house. Assuming you're in Chennai/Madras, of course. If not... I'll work on it another night? Tonight, it's Moussaka.

The only time I've had Moussaka in Madras was at Kryptos. If you've read the post, you might remember how I raved like a lunatic over it. Meat and cheese in a tomato-onion-garlic broth? You seriously didn't think I'd be Googling around for Moussaka recipes and shoving one into the oven very, very soon?

It's like Lasagne, only with zucchini and Aubergines/Eggplant/Huge-ass Brinjal instead of the pasta sheets. It's hard to top that argument. Another thing Moussaka has going for it is that it is very Veggie-friendly. You can make a show-stopping, centre-piece style dish without any meat. I doubt even hardcore carnivores would miss the meat too much.

That's how thick the zucchini/courgette should be cut if you want it to stand out in the dish and have a bit of a bite to it. Replace with more potato and aubergine if you can't track it down at the greengrocers'!

Salt the aubergine well and let it drain the bitter juices out. Not dehydrating these babies and roasting them prior to using them in the Moussaka would be disastrous!

 This recipe is relatively healthy; I don't fry the potato or aubergine. I also sneak in a little garam masala because having an Indian palate, I can't eat meat unless it's well-spiced and well-cooked. Old habits don't die, let alone hard or not.

Moussaka.

Serves 6-8 hungry people.

Ingredients:

Method:

3 medium-sized potatoes, parboiled.

2 aubergines, sliced 

1 zucchini, sliced

500 g lamb meat, minced (can substitute with veg or tofu) 

6 cloves of garlic, minced

1 onion, finely chopped

400 g tomato, pureed in the mixie

4 tbsp tomato paste or ketchup 

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garam masala (yes, GARAM MASALA)

1 stick cinnamon

4-5 cloves

2 bay leaves

Olive oil, as required

For the bechamel

3 tbsp flour

3 tbsp butter

750 ml milk 

1 tsp nutmeg 

2 egg yolks

A handful of grated parmesan cheese or crumbled feta.

Salt and pepper

 Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 250° degrees centigrade.

2)Prepping the veggies:

Potatoes: Parboil for 15 minutes or so, so that it is cooked but not falling apart. Peel, cut into slices.

Brush with a little olive oil on both sides, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in an oven at 250 for 10-15 minutes.

Aubergines: Can be used peeled or not. Cut into slices. Salt them well and let it drain over a colander for 30 minutes. Discard the juice. Rinse the slices well. Pat dry with a kitchen towel or tissue. Brush with olive oil on both sides and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.

Zucchini: Slice and use.

3)For the meat filling:

In a hot pan, add the meat, little at a time, so it sears/sizzles the second it's put in the pan. Add a teaspoon olive oil if necessary.

When the meat is nicely browned, add the onions. Saute. When the onions are pinkish, add the garlic. Saute for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomato paste, mix well with the meat. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomato puree, mix well. Add the spices-bay leaves, cloves, cumin, cinnamon and garam masala(if using). Add salt and pepper, as per your taste. Mix until well combined.

Cook for 20-25 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally so that the bottom doesn't burn. Taste and adjust seasoning.

4)Bechamel sauce:

Heat the milk until warm, not boiling. Set aside. Bring another pan to heat. Add the butter. When melted, add the flour and stir.

Add the milk now to the roux and whisk until completely blended. Heat until the sauce is thick and bubbly. I used my Braun blender to get rid of the lumps.

Take the pan off the heat. Add the egg yolks, mix well.

Add salt, pepper, grated nutmeg and half the cheese.

5)Assembling the moussaka:

Layer the baking dish with half the potato slices.

Place on top, a layer of aubergine and zucchini slices.

Make a layer out of half the meat filling.

Place the remaining aubergine, zucchini and potato.

Add another layer of the meat sauce.

Finally, drown the whole thing with bechamel.

Sprinkle over the parmesan cheese.

6)Reduce the oven's temperature to 180 degrees centigrade. Bake the moussaka for 30 minutes. The top should be golden brown.

7)Take the moussaka out, and rest it at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Recipe source: loosely adapted from videojug.com

The moussaka is eaten warm, not hot. The resting stage is important, as the spices need to meld together. This is one of the dishes that taste best the next day, when all the components have marinated well in the tomato-y goodness. Sort of like biryani.

Speaking of biryani, that is also something we don't make at home because it'll be an insult to the marvel that biryani is. I grew up eating a lot of biryani, though, so if I come across or manage to cook up great biryani, I promise to share it with you guys. You don't even have to keep it a secret.