Preserving recipes and memories
Brinjal curry with milk: -
Cook this entire curry in medium flame.
You might go with 1 big onion for 1 big brinjal
Adding lot of green Chilies and less red chili powder gives more taste to this curry - 6 green chilies.
Onions should be mediumly chopped for this curry.
When you cut brinjal, soak it in saltwater to remove any bitterness /color change.
1st Tadaka --- No garlic, no ginger, add curry leaves if you have.For tadka adding lot of oil gives more taste.
Add onions and sauté until transparent
Then add brinjal, I also prefer to add Drumsticks incase if you have the frozen ones.
Now add salt and red-chili powder according to the taste.
Cover the lid and sauté every 3-4 minutes to avoid sticking in the bottom.
In medium flame I think it doesn’t take more than 15-20 min for the brinjals to cook based on the quantity.
Note: - don’t cook until brinjal turns mushy or paste.
Once brinjal seem to be cooked, add 1 rice cup of milk of 1 big brinjal and cook it in the slow flame.
After adding milk cooking in low flame and sauté continuously to avoid breaking of milk.
Once it forms a nice consistency you can turn it off (it need not be thick) . it shouldn’t take you more than 3-5minutes in low flame.
Brinjal Curry -
- Once you add the milk, does the dish keep long or do you have to eat it all at once? --- Taste does not go bad untill 2 days , but I wouldn’t suggest to heat it more than 1-2 times .
- I have frozen drumsticks - when do I add them? Just add it with brinjals
- Should I follow the ingredients in your recipe which is fewer than the YouTube and also did not have dal tadka.
I think you can go with the ingredients in the word document and you can completely ignore dal for tadka , jeera and mustard seeds are sufficient I guess.
Badi Curry - what was the mix of dal tadka that the person was using? He was using jeera, broken urad dal, Toor dal, and mustard seeds .
Like the reigning king and queen of hearty minestre: pasta e fagioli and pasta e ceci, pasta e lenticchie is a dense, hearty, elemental soup with pasta. Most regions have a version of pasta e lenticchie and Lazio, more specifically Rome, is no exception. I’m reliably informed that the key to pasta e lenticchie Roman style is a serious battuto. Now battuto, which comes from the verb battere (to strike) describes the finely chopped rabble of ingredients produced by striking them on a chopping board with a knife. Like many Roman dishes the battuto for pasta e lenticchie is a mixture of guanciale, onion, garlic, carrot, celery and parsley. Strike.
Having prepared your battuto you need to sauté it over a modest heat in a heavy based pan until the vegetables are extremely tender, golden and – with much of their water sautéed away – intensely flavoured. This is the soffritto. Some people like to add the battuto in stages: onion and guanciale first, carrot, celery and parsley a few minutes later and last, but by no means least, the delicate garlic. I don’t, I do however keep an eagle eye on the pan. Once the vegetables are soft and your kitchen is filled with the most tremendous heady scent, you add a couple of peeled plum tomatoes and let the contents of pan bubble a little longer. Now add the lentils – ideally the lovely browny-grey ones from Castelluccio di Norcia – nudge them round the pan so they are well coated with the fragrant fat. Next water, enough to cover the lentils by a couple of centimeters. Bring the soup to the boil and them reduce it to a trembling simmer – keeping a beady eye on the water level – for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Taste, season generously (remember you are going to add pasta) and taste again
To finish, you cook the pasta in the soup. The tiny tubes called ditalini are particularly nice. Bring the soup to a boil, making sure there are still a couple of centimeters of liquid above the lentils and tip in the pasta. Keep stirring attentively, nudging and adding more water if the soup becomes too thick or the pasta starts sticking to the bottom of the pan. Keep tasting too, lunch is ready when the pasta is tender but al dente and the soup is thick but eminently spoonable and rippling. Don’t be afraid to add a little more water, even just before serving! Just check the seasoning again.
Wait another five minutes or so for the flavours to settle. Serve your pasta e lenticchie with a little of your best extra virgin olive oil poured over the top and a shower of freshly grated pecorino Romano or parmesan cheese. A tumbler of wine is advisable too – this is good – after all I’m not back at work until Thursday.
This is one of the most deeply satisfying bowls of food I know! A judicious, delicious and auspicious one too. Also for someone like me, someone who lacks bean foresight and nearly always forgets to soak, lentils – which don’t require a long bath – are a precious kitchen staple. As a guanciale devotee, I relish its presence and the deep fatty notes it bestows on this dish. That said, pasta e lenticchie is (almost) as good when made with pancetta or very fatty bacon. It is also – hello Rosie and my vegetarian friends – excellent when made without any meat at all! Just remember to add a large parmesan crust to the pan at the same time as the water.
Eat.
Pasta e Lenticchie Pasta with lentils
serves 4
Very finely chop the guanciale, pancetta or fatty bacon. Peel and very finely dice the onion, garlic, carrot, parsley and celery. In a soup pot or deep sauté pan warm the olive oil over a modest flame and then add the guanciale, pancetta or fatty bacon, diced vegetables and a pinch of salt. Saute the ingredients, stirring and turning them regularly, until they are very soft and golden which should take about 15 minutes.
If you are using fresh tomatoes peel them, cut them in half, scoop away most of the seeds and then chop them roughly. If you are using tinned plum tomatoes simply chop them roughly. Add the tomatoes to the pan, stir to coat them well and then cook for another few minutes.
Add the lentils to the pan, turning them two or three times to coat them well. Add enough water to cover the lentils by a couple of cm’s. Bring the contents of the pan to a boil and the reduce the heat so the lentils and vegetables simmer gently, stirring every now and then for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Make sure the level of water is always more or less a couple of cm above the lentils, replenish with as much water as needed.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, taste and season again if necessary. Add the pasta and raise the heat so the lentils and pasta boil gently. Keep stirring attentively as the pasta will stick to the base of the pan. Add more water if necessary. Once the pasta is cooked (tender but still with a slight bite) remove from the heat and let the pan sit for 5 minutes.
Serve with a little extra virgin olive oil poured on top and pass around a bowl of freshly grated parmesan or pecorino romano for those who wish.
Phyllis Roddy, my paternal grandma, a good and gentle woman we miss greatly, had much to do with my liking for celery. For amongst the sandwiches, sharp cheese, pickled vegetables, fruit cakes and sweet tarts there would always be English celery when Phyllis made Tea. Tea the meal that is, the one served at 5 30 on special days in lieu of supper. Yorkshire tea: good and simple and not to be mistaken for the posher, highly creamed afternoon tea.
The icy-white, deeply ribbed stalks with soft feathery leaves would stand in a jug of very cold water – Phyllis knew this was the best way to keep them crisp and lively. In turn, the jug would stand in the middle of the starched linen cloth covering the dining table in my grandparents house in Cleveland Avenue. How can you not like celery? I might have thought, as I snapped yet another stalk between my teeth: cool and savory, the perfect foil for the soft sandwiches, rudely-pink beetroot, crumbling Cheshire cheese and dark fruit cake.
A few days ago I read this in Jane Grigson’s Good Things. “Put on the table two or three heads of celery, outside stalks removed, and the inner stalks separated, washed and chilled. Have a dish of unsalted butter at spreading temperature, and some sea salt. Each person puts butter fairly thickly into the channel of his celery sticks, then sprinkles a thin line of seas salt along it. Simple and delicious. Avoid embellishments. A good way to start a meal.”
I need little convincing to either eat celery – I’m talking about the good stuff here, commonplace but juicy and flavoursome – or to’ put butter fairly thickly‘ on anything. I am also completely enamoured with Jane Grigson so before you can say celery, butter and sea salt they were on the table.
Now it may sound odd to the uninitiated but I assure you celery, butter and salt is delicious. Truly delicious: the celery crisp, savory and just a little bitter contrasting with the soft fattiness of the butter and shards of granular salt. It goes without saying the celery must be good, the unsalted butter excellent and the salt best quality, unadulterated and reeking of the sea. Maldon is ideal. Don’t be shy with the butter, imagine you are plastering a deep hole in a particularly important wall. As with life, avoid embellishments.
As for those outer stems! We made Jane Grigson’s celery soup from Good Things, a simple soup that tastes – as she promises – exceptionally good. Standard practice here, onion and chopped celery sautéed in plenty of butter and a dash of olive oil. You add chopped potato for body and a litre of chicken stock before leaving the soup to simmer gently for about 30 minutes. To finish you blast the soup with the immersion blender before adding a little heavy cream and freshly grated black pepper.
Simple, savory and tasting as it should, most resolutely of celery. It felt like the perfect antidote the excess of the past weeks but didn’t for a second feel anything but generous and good.
Celery soup
Adapted from Jane Grigson’s Good Things
Stew the celery and onion gently in the butter and oil in a covered pan for 10 minutes. Add the potato and stir to coat well with butter and oil. Don’ let the vegetables brown. Add the stock. Bring the soup to the boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer for 30 minutes or until the celery is very tender. Blend or pass the soup through a mouli. If the celery is particulary stringy you might like to pass it through a seive. Taste and add salt and freshly ground black pepper as you see fit. Ladle the soup into warm bowls, spoon over a little double cream, swirl and eat.
Goats cheese, pea and lentil salad with pesto.
The jar of pesto I was so happy to have sitting in the fridge, the green and basily one, the one Vincenzo patiently pounded in the pestle and mortar is – as Alison Krauss sings so beautifully- gone gone gone.
Of course it has.
The last spoonful was maybe the best.
It was the final dollop on something which would have been perfectly delicious without it, a plateful of earthy, nutty lentils with a handful of sweet green peas, some fragrant basil leaves topped with 2 and a half slices of soft, creamy goats cheese.
There is something about this combination, the lentils are soft and hearty, the peas pop with fresh sweetness. the cheese is creamy, fudgy and just a little acidic, melting and softening just a little with the warmth of the peas and lentils and the pesto gives everything a velvety, basil filled kick.
This is Nigel Slaters recipe which caught my eye a while back and then buzzed around my head nagging me to make it every-time I saw a pea – which was pretty much a daily occurrence now the market is full of delightful green pods at this May moment.
Nigel recommends a straightforward boil for the lentils, but I cooked them as I usually do with a carrot, a stick of celery, an onion, a bay leaf and several whole black peppercorns because I love the depth of flavour that emerges when you cook lentils this way.
I fear I am always declaring my new favorite lunch – which is by far my favorite meal – and today is no exception.
Nice bread is nice with this
It is even nicer with a glass of Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi.
Goats cheese, pea and lentil salad with pesto.
Adapted from Nigel Slater’s recipe
Serves 2 for lunch or supper or 4 as a starter
It seems fitting that this post should be as succinct, straightforward and swift – three admirable qualities I’m not generally noted for – as this lunch. It could of course be supper.
Fat, tender white beans, cannellini or haricot, drained and mixed with the best tuna packed in oil you can afford (look for tuna belly which is called ventresca, good Italian grocery shops will sell it by weight from a large round tin), thin slices of spring or red onion, a flick of coarse salt and plentiful extra virgin olive oil. Serve with bread – or toast if your bread is a little jaded – and the bottle of olive oil nearby in case you need another glug. Fork in one hand, bread in the other, I particulary like the scoop, squash and mop involved in this meal. Needless to say, a glass of wine would be nice.
The artichokes I preserved under oil are ready, so I popped open the first jar and sliced three of the pale hearts into the deliciously oily heap the Italians call fagioli toscani col tonno.
Lunch. One of my favourites.
This is also a fine antipasti. I’d double the quantities for 4 – 6 people, afterall leftovers, if there are any, are always welcome. Perfect alongside a dish of olives, a few red radishes and some good bread.
White beans with tuna and onion
Serves 2 (technically !)
Put the beans, onion and tuna in a bowl, then using a wooden spoon gently stir and break up the tuna into nice fat flakes. Sprinkle over a little salt, season with black pepper and pour over the olive oil liberally – quite how liberally is entirely up to you. Serve with bread.
My Little Expat Kitchen
My Little Expat Kitchen is the brainchild of Magda, born and raised in Athens. Leaving her homeland in 2007 in search for a bit of adventure and another culture, she landed in The Hague in the Netherlands. With a love for cooking, she created the food blog as a hobby in 2009. Little did she know that she would even get recognition for it. In 2015, she was awarded Best Cooking Blog at the Food Blog Awards. Available in English and Greek, My Little Expat Kitchen is a great blog to introduce yourself to Greek cooking.
Award-winning registered dietitian, nutritionist, and writer specializing in the Mediterranean Diet, Elena Paravantes, now based in Athens, is the creative force behind Olive Tomato. Moving back to Greece as an adult after spending her entire life in Chicago, Elena was saddened to discover upon returning that Greeks were snubbing traditional food for international dishes. Furthermore, when she discovered that 35 percent of the Greek population is overweight, she decided to do something. Enter Olive Tomato, a blog where she shares traditional recipes as well as cooking and eating tips. Also offering vegetarian options, the blog is a real treasure trove of goodies.
Ready to Eat Yourself Greek? No, don’t worry – it is not like the bucket challenge, just the name of a brilliant food blog. Eugenia, a Greek wanderer who lived in Athens and the UK, is the creator of this blog. Now back in Athens, she shares recipes, travel posts, suggestions about her favorite restaurants in town, and even hosts cooking lessons. Her delightful site, also awarded at the Food Blog Awards 2015 for Best Cooking Blog in English, is full of insights and is ideal when you are in need of cooking inspiration.
The Greek Vegan is another great food blog to follow. The photos and recipes look so good that even a meat eater will want to have a try. Kiki Vagianos began her blog when she started writing down the recipes, cooking tips, and techniques her father shared with her. Her blog includes staple recipes like her scrumptious melomakarona, traditional Christmas sweets in Greece. Go ahead. Have a look. No doubt it will make your mouth water in an instant.
A highly visual blog, Souvlaki For The Soul was created by Greek-Australian photographer Peter Georgakopoulos in 2007, and not because of his love for cooking but mostly out of boredom. He, indeed, entered the blogging sphere as a way to discover something new. The blog features excellent recipes and top-notch photos, so go have a look, even if you’re not into food blogs – the photos alone are worth it.
This bilingual blog is all about food, but not junk food. Like Ioanna Dimopoulos says, she is a food junkie but without the junk food. She shares Greek recipes, of course, but also has an intriguing selection of tasty Lent recipes. You may or may not know that Greece is very observant of the religious calendar, especially Lent. Restaurants switch up their menus to include dairy- and meat-free recipes during that period. And if you think that the result is tasteless, you’ll be surprised to discover that it is quite the opposite. You may want to try one of them sometime.
Theodora is the cook and baker of a group of friends, but she mostly likes baking. Sweet Applepie is where you can find not only recipes but also her tips on baking and pastry making. Pâte brisée, chocolate mousse, strawberry galette, and much more are all on her blog. Guess who’s going to be having cake for breakfast?
In Cyprus, Kopiaste is a polite expression to invite somebody into your home, and it is particularly relevant for Ivy, a delightful Greek-Cypriot pensioner who lives in the lovely town of Nafplio. After retiring, she started rewriting and organizing the discarded recipes she had. After her son had suggested that she write a blog instead, she decided to give it a try, creating Kopiaste. Discover traditional recipes and tips that Ivy shares with love. And better yet? Ivy has published two cooking e-books so that you can have direct access to her recipes. Now, isn’t that lovely?