Chaat Inspired Salad

In order to make this delicious salad, you will need 2 things from an Indian Grocer. The Indian Grocery is one of my favorite spots to get alternative grain flours and snacks. The first thing you will need from there are the crunchy, spicy chick pea flour snack bits-- Bhel Puri. Any one of these, really. I think Haldiram's Kashmiri mixture is my favorite one so far.

The other thing you'll need is pani puri paste. Now, this is refrigerated, so it's hard to order online. The one we get is Deep brand and it looks like this. It also comes in a powder form (looks like this), but I like the paste better if you can find it. While you're there, pick up other stuff that is way cheaper here than at specialty stores like buckwheat flour (under the name kuttu flour) and seasonings.

And Now For the Recipe:

1 bag spicy snack mix bhel puri/kashmiri mixture/whatevs

3-4 T. Pani Puri Paste

1/2 c. plain vegan yogurt or vegan sour cream

1 bunch of spicy mustard greens, or spicy mix

Cilantro to taste (optional)

1 large potato

1 jalapeno, diced

1 red onion, finely chopped

2 cans of chick peas

Scrub the potato and cut it into small cubes. Boil in salted water until soft, then drain and rinse with cold water. Drain and rinse the chick peas. Wash the greens and chop into small pieces-- think fresh parsley sized. Chop the fresh cilantro as well. In a large bowl, mix together the greens, potato, chick peas. Add the jalapeno and the onion. Cover and let ruminate for a few hours and chill in the fridge. I guess you don't have to do this, but I think the flavors are better on the second day.

In a separate bowl, mix equal parts pani puri paste and yogurt/sour cream to make the dressing.

When it's time to eat, top each individual serving with dressing and crunchy snack bits. I like to mix it all up. Sam mixes the dressing in and then leaves the crunchy bits on top, unmixed, so they stay crunchy.

Once, Sam also deep fried some tofu cubes and threw those guys into the salad too. It was good.

Be prepared to never want to stop eating, and THEN be prepared for the best bowel movement of your life. Seriously. You're welcome.

celebrity cooking

to attract more traffic to my blog and exploit my friends for my own internet notoriety and eventual fame, the ever attractive and popular liam p wilson, bassist for the dillinger escape plan, is making a guest appearance today. this afternoon, we made a delicious thai-inspired coconut curry.

i was gonna post a picture of liam "shredding" on bass, as they call it, but i don't feel like googling for one, so here he is tasting the delicious curry and looking like a creep.


ingredients:
-2 cans of coconut milk
-small can of bamboo shoots
-2-3 heapings tsps of green curry paste (to taste)
-half a bunch fresh spinach, washed and chopped
-1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
-one red pepper, sliced
-one vidalia onion, chopped
-6-8 leaves of fresh basil, chopped
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-shiitake mushrooms, sliced
-salt to taste
-rice or noodles

in a skillet or saucepan, bring the coconut milk to a boil add the sweet potatoes and cook them until soft in the coconut milk. add the curry paste, chopped spinach, and basil. in a separate skillet, sautee the onion in some oil, turn down the heat and add the garlic, then add the mushrooms and the red peppers. sautee them for a few minutes, and then dump them in the other saucepan where, by now, the potato should be about cooked. add salt to taste and serve over rice or noodles-- i like the soba buckwheat and wild yam noodles.

As-Indian-As-My-Last-Name Curry Dish

Inspired by the disappointingly nonvegan Navratna Curry I accidentally ordered from ekta, ate anyways, and have been dreaming of recreating authentically. Not even close, but fast and cheap and delicious in its own way.

-1 bag of frozen vegetables of your choosing. I used Target's Archer Farms "Harvest Blend"(broccoli, carrots, onions, baby cob corn, sugar snaps, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and red pepper), along with some frozen peas, and some frozen chopped spinach. Harvest Blend mix was fantastic, and my brother works at Target so you should shop there.
-1 can of coconut milk
-1 can of water
-tumeric, curry powder, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper, sri rocha, salt to taste... plus any other seasonings you want
-1 little cup of plain soy yogurt
-1/2 c raw cashews
-1/2 c raisins

1. Dump everything except the yogurt and the raisins and cashews into a pot and simmer it for like 20 minutes
2. add the raisins and cashews for the last few minutes
3. add the little cuppy of yogurt at the end
4. eat plain or have it over rice or quinoa. I eat it plain.
5. For added protein, add some tofu or tvp. if you get firm tofu and cut it into big squares you can pretend it's paneer.