Tag Archive for ‘food’ at spacekadet blog

Tag Archive for 'food'

Recipe: Chana Masaledar

Published on March 5, 2009 in food and recipes. 1 Comment

This chana, featured in Wednesday’s food diary, is yet another winner from The Essential Madhur Jaffrey. It’s simple, healthy, and absolutely delicious with raw red onion and tomato.

Chana Masaledar

Serves 4.

180 gm dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in cold water (or 360 gm cooked chickpeas)
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely grated ginger
1 tbsp tomato puree
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
1 vine-ripened tomato, cut into wedges
1 red onion, cut into thin wedges
To serve: long green chillies, halved lengthways,

Drain chickpeas and place into a large saucepan, cover with water and simmer for 1.5 hours or until tender. Remove from heat and stand until required.

Heat oil in a large frying pan, add cumin and stir over medium-high heat for 2 minutes or until fragrant, then add onion and stir occasionally for 8 minutes or until golden.

Reduce heat to low and add garam masala and coriander, then garlic and ginger and cook for 2-3 minutes or until toasted.

Add tomato puree and stir to combine, then drain the chickpeas and reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid. Add chickpeas and reserved liquid to frying pan with 1/2 tsp salt, cayenne pepper and lemon juice, cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Serve chickpeas with tomato, onion and chillies.

Sneak Peak in an Indian Kitchen

Published on February 26, 2009 in London and food. 2 Comments

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

One of my fantasies is to go to India and learn to cook from the people who invented dal, channa masala, and numerous other favorite foods of mine. Last night at Hot Stuff, I felt pretty close.

Stu (The Damp Cad) invited Tim and I to Hot Stuff after seeing one of my dal recipes on SmarterFitter.

“Hot stuff is LEGENDARY,” he said. “I’ve been such a long time customer that we’ll get various freebies chucked in PLUS!! If you ask nicely and go early enough you can go into the kitchens and watch your order be cooked.”

How could I refuse an offer like that?

So last night Tim and I ventured to Vauxhall where we found Hot Stuff down a quiet little sidestreet handily located next to an off license where we picked up a few Tiger beers before we found our table (Hot Stuff is unlicensed and does not charge a corkage fee… in fact, it’s pretty hard to tell what Hot Stuff charges for. More on that later).

The dining room barely seats 20 people and every table but one was taken. The crowd was buzzing under the soft blue lights and strings of chili peppers dangling from the ceiling. Stu wasn’t lying about the staff - I’ve never been to a friendlier place in London. This felt more like a house party than a restaurant, and like all good parties, this one ended up in the kitchen.

Although the kitchen was even smaller than the dining room and already filled with at least four cooks, they didn’t mind packing us in to have a look at the operations and take some photos. It was all sparks and fire as the cook whip up a shrimp biryani. “This is punjabi style,” he explained and he seasoned it from the handy tins of spices sitting above the stove.

“Four basic spices form the foundation of almost every dish: turmeric, ground coriander, chili, and garam masala.”

The kitchen envy really kitched in when I watched another cook prepare the naan. I’ve never been so close to a tandoori oven before. As a lover of naan, chapati and all things bready, this was very exciting. Even though the oven was hotter than hell, I got chills.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so close to a restaurant kitchen before, even when I used to wait tables at Perkins in Champaign, Illinois. What impressed me most was how SIMPLE cooking seemed when everything you need to cook with is out and ready to go.

In addition to their spice station, Hot Stuff also had a table with big bowls of pre-chopped garlic, ginger, fried and ground onion, tomato paste, salt, ghee of course. I aspire to be so organized. I also aspire to have their ability to use these spices without needing a measuring spoon.

So the kitchen was smokin’. What about the food?

Hot Stuff is not strictly vegetarian, but there were plenty of veggie options to choose from, including a couple of specials. We started with bhajis, like vegetable fritters. They were crispy on the outside, soft and tasty on the inside, but the chutney didn’t do them justice. No worries - the chili paneer made up for it - what could be better than soft, spicy nuggets of cheesy goodness?

Stu said the spinach and butternut squash curry would make us feel like we had “died and gone to heaven”. I wouldn’t go that far, though this may be a personal bias - I love the flavor of spinach and butternut squash on their own, but they seemed to get lost when put together. Still, it was enjoyable, as was the sliced cabbage curry. The split channa dal was delicious.

Like most Indian restaurants, all of the dishes came with a liberal dose of ghee, just shy of being too over the top. The exception was the garlic coriander chili naan, which looked like a halo on our table, and indeed tasted like it came from above. If any of the other dishes were lacking, the naan picked it up and put it in its place: right into my hungry mouth.

If it weren’t for Raj and the awesomely cool people who run Hot Stuff, this might be just another Indian restaurant on just another tiny street in London. But Hot Stuff definitely is special. It’s more an experience than a restaurant. And you can’t beat it for the price. Dinner for three with leftovers and a tour of the kitchen cost just £35. Could this be right? There was no way of knowing - the waiter just told us the price without handing us an actual bill.

Hot links:

More photos and vids in my Hot Stuff Flickr photoset
Hot Stuff’s website which proudly proclaims “DON’T EAT AT HOT STUFF” - “The restaurant is so popular that it doesn’t need a website. So we removed the fancy one that we did as a Xmas 7 present years ago.”
Jay Rainer’s Hot Stuff Review
Customer reviews

Hot recipe:

Hot Stuff’s Lentil Dal with Courgette

Courgette - that’s the same as zucchini for you American folks! Stu learned this recipe from the cooks and passed it on to me. These are his words, and I hope you’ll enjoy his English vernacular.

150g red split lentils
2 gloves of garlic finely chopped or pressed
1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped green chilli
bunch of fresh coriander
2 medium courgettes sliced lengthways
pinch of cumin
salt and pepper
300g creamed tomato, tomato frito, or passata
olive oil

Put some of the chopped coriander with the sliced courgette on a plate and marinate with olive oil for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a griddle pan and lay on the courgette slices. Cook well on both sides.

At the same time in either a large frying pan or large saucepan (i use the latter), heat 2 tablespoons of oil and chuck in your garlic, chilli and onion. Sweat them for a few minutes (but don’t crisp up or burn). Then throw in your split lentils, stir and coat all the lentils and then pour in your tomatoes. If you’ve used a jar then pour in the same amount of water plus half again. I swill around the water in the tomato jar to make sure nothings been missed.

Heat a pretty fierce flame for a few minutes whilst stirring to ensure nothing sticks. Then turn down to a steady simmer - ensuring the non-sticking principle during the cooking process!

When you turn the heat down take your cooked courgettes, dice them and put in the mix. Stir, and add in the coriander. (Being a big fan of said herb, I chuck in loads, but put in as much as your comfortable with.)

Season with salt and pepper, add the cumin, if you have some paprika add that as well. If you love hot food you can of course put 2 chillis in at the beginning.

Vegetable Tagine

Published on October 19, 2008 in food, photos and recipes. 0 Comments

Autumn in London can seem a cold and dreary place, but there is sunshine in the vegetable aisle as some of my favorite vegetables are starting to come into season. Cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and butternut squash are slowly overtaking last month’s peppers and tomatoes, and I am armed with plenty of good reasons to warm up the house with a hot oven. Roasted winter vegetables are one of my favorite things. Winter blues be gone - bring on the comfort food.

Last night, I made my first foray into Morrocan cuisine with a tagine recipe I found on BBC Good Food. A tagine is a type of conical clay pot used in Moroccan cuisine to make slow-cooked stews. This particular stew consists of mixed vegetables, onions and prunes in a chermoula marinade consisting of onion, garlic, ginger, lemon juice and spices.

For lack of a traditional tagine pot, I made do with a Chasseur covered casserole which seemed to do the trick. The chermoula is amazing - I bet it would be a tasty marinade for tofu. The prunes were also a great addition, though other dried fruits like apricots or figs would probably work as well. I love that this tagine can pretty much be made with whatever vegetables are handy. The original recipe called for potatoes and parsnips, but I used cauliflower and butternut squash, in addition to carrots, leeks, and red onion.

I served this with almond and chickpea couscous. As far as “complete meals” go, this one’s pretty solid: beans, grains, and way more than your five-a-day. I bet this is the kind of dish that tastes even better the next day (I will find out tonight when I eat what little tagine is leftover).

Moroccan Tagine in a Chermoula Paste

You can use whatever veggies you have handy for this. If you don’t have prunes, you could also try dried apricots or figs.

Serves 4

For the chermoua paste:
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/2-inch fresh ginger, peeled
juice of half a lemon
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp chili powder
handful cilantro

For the tagine:
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1/2 butternut squash, cut into chunks
1 green bell pepper, cut into chunks
2 leeks, cut into chunks
1 red onion, cut into chunks
1/2 head of cauliflower, divided into big florets
6 dried prunes
2 springs mint, leaves only, finely chopped

Pre-heat oven to 220 C / 430 F.

To make the chermoula, whizz paste ingredients in a blender.

Combine the olive oil and vegetables in an oven-proof casserole and cook on the stove until lightly browned, about 7 minutes.

Add the chermoula paste to the casserole, along with the prunes. Pour in 400 ml water, cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 45 minutes. Reduce heat to 180 C/ 350 F and cook for another 45 minutes.

Sprinkle with mint. Serve with almond and chickpea couscous (see below).

Almond and Chickpea Couscous

175g couscous
1.5 tsp harissa
(Moroccan chilli paste)
400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
small handful toasted almonds

Pour 400ml boiling water over the couscous in a bowl, then stir in the harissa with 1/4 tsp salt. Add the chickpeas, then cover and leave for 5 mins. Fluff up with a fork and serve with the tagine, flaked almonds and extra mint.

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Seasonal Food: Kale

Published on October 15, 2008 in food, nutrition and recipes. 0 Comments

I’m one of those rare people who actually enjoy eating their greens, especially when it comes to kale.

Kale is from the Brassica oleracea family, just like cabbage and brussel sprouts. This hearty green vegetable is delicious, versatile, and like all leafy greens, highly nutritious! Kale is very high in vitamins A, C and E, and is also full of sulfer-containg phytonutrients which are thought to lessen the occurrence of a wide variety of cancers, including breast and ovarian cancers.

Me? I love kale for its flavor and texture. There are several varieties of kale, including curly- and plain-leaved, but my favorite is is cavolo nero, also known as “black cabbage” or “Tuscan kale”. I’ve never seen it in US supermarkets but it’s popular here in London.

Last year, my favorite way to prepare kale was simple: lightly steamed with salt and pepper. When served with a bit of brown rice and lentils, you get a complete meal that is somehow comforting in its simplicity.

At least I think so, anyway.

This year, when I got my hands on the first kale crop, Tim asked me a simple question:

“Can you try to make them yummy this time?”

I guess not everyone shares my enjoyment of pure and simple kale.

Very well. I can appreciate a little flavor boost. So I’ve been experimenting…

Stir-fried garlic and kale never fails.
Even better is kale stir-fried with caramelized onion.
For a spicy kick, top steamed or boiled kale mixed with roasted chili and caramelized onion garnish
When all else fails, greenophobes can hide their kale in a big pot of soup or chili.
Kale also makes a great addition to tofu scrambles!
Kale pairs nicely with carrots. What do I mean? Read on…

One pairing I can definitely recommend is kale and carrots. In both stir-fries and salads (yes, kale can be eaten raw!), the sweetness of the carrot is a nice balance to the earthiness of the kale. Here are a couple recipes that take advantage of this combination.

Curly Kale With Carrots, Raisins, Walnuts and Chili

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced into thin rounds
2 carrots, julienned
10 raisins
5 walnuts, crumbled into pieces
4 cups kale, de-stemmed and chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
salt

Heat oil in a large pan. Add carrots, onions, raisins, walnuts and chili and saute until onions are soft.

Add the kale, salt and a couple tablespoons of water. Cover pan with a lid.

Check the kale after a couple of minutes. Add more water and cook longer if necessary.

Raw Kale and Carrot Salad

200g curly kale, chopped
2 tbsp flax oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 carrots, shredded
1 red onion, sliced
salt to taste
cayenne pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Dear Diary, I’m through counting calories

Published on October 6, 2008 in fitness, food and nutrition. 0 Comments

stock.xchng - Red notebook (stock photo by biewoef).png Most of us already know that keeping a food or workout diary is an incredibly effective way to increase fitness. There is plenty of research and anecdotal evidence to support this. Just last July, a Kaiser Permente study showed that people who kept a daily food diary dropped more than twice the amount of weight as those who didn’t record their food. And just check out the huge popularity of websites like SparkPeople, Gyminee and The Daily Plate.

A few years ago, after several hits and misses in the fitness department, I started tracking my food calories. I kept it up for a few months and it worked like a charm - the food diary taught me portion control and helped “kick start” the “healthier habits” I have today. But there was a downside.

Counting calories, while a great way to lose weight, is also a great way to become obsessed with numbers and ridden with mixed priorities. I stopped counting calories over two years ago but I’m still getting over the irrational worry that an extra walnut here or splash of cream there is going to instantly undo all of my progress. Cranky Fitness has an excellent post that really sums up the problem with this “data-driven” approach:

You may have all kinds of healthy nutritional goals–eating more whole foods, less processed crap, avoiding transfats or whatever. But it’s hard to track a bunch of different goals, and what most people end up paying attention to at the end of the day is a number. How Many?

When I was counting calories I used to allow myself one free day a week a la Bill Philips’ “Body for Life” advice. This day was usually a Friday and involved lots and lots of beer. Then on Saturday, I was supposed to return to my “diet”, which unfortunately precluded me from indulging in the ultimate hangover cure: a mushroom, onion and cheese omelet with buttered toast, orange juice and coffee. What a dilemma. Fine, I was losing weight, but was I really any healthier? My Friday night beer binges suggest otherwise. And the way I felt on Saturday, both in mind and body, certainly didn’t feel very healthy.

There must be a better way

I’ve since stopped tracking calories, but I haven’t stopped tracking my food. I seem to have replaced my numeric obsessions with an overall obsession with eating (whether this is a good thing is open for debate). My recent food diary efforts have traded numeric trends for other patterns, such as

Recipes - noting little tweaks and changes, an extra pinch of thyme here, a dash of vinegar there, that sort of thing
Seasonal trends - it’s fun watching the cabbage and kale of winter slowly replace the cool salads of summer
Various body patterns - sleep, cycles and all that other fun stuff stuff I should probably keep to myself
Time of day - Okay, this is a number, but since I’ve been doing yoga in the morning I’ve noticed that my performance is effected by the time I ate dinner the night before. It seems like an early, light dinner is good for yoga in the morning. But if I’m going swimming, I have a much better swim if I pack it in at dinner time.
Taste changes - Earlier this year, my diet seemed to follow variations on the theme of of bean mush - lentil soup, Indian dal, a pile of puy lentils, veggie chili. I guess we got sick of eating with a spoon all the time and now we’ve been experimenting with more stir fries, pasta dishes and other forkable foods. But the dal will never die!

Since I quit counting calories, I’m enjoying food more than ever, and I love to cook. Taking pictures is part of the process; if I’ve created something in the kitchen, I feel compelled to capture it permanently in a photo. I was chuffed to read about the research that suggested photo diaries may be more effective that traditional journals for helping people lose weight. Sure, the photos are a great way to reinforce ideas of portion control and nutritional balance, but my photos aren’t about weight loss. I simply enjoy the nostalgia of looking back on all the food I’ve eaten and I’m fascinated by the way my tastes evolve over time.

In addition to photos, I’ve also been keeping a very lazy written journal that simply lists meals and exercise. The trouble with both the diary and the photos is that I’m horribly inconsistent. Keeping a food diary is a pain in the ass! Photos can be annoying too, especially when I’ve taken ten pictures of the same salad and impose on myself the necessity to choose one of basically identical photos to upload to Flickr. And Flickr, though great for sharing photos, isn’t as good for taking notes or tracking days of the week.

I am inspired by people like jenna, an AFPA-certified nutritionst and blogger at Eat, Live, Run, who religiously photograph and post every bit of food and drink she consumes, from cocoa to quiche. I love Jenna’s approach to this whole calorie business:

I do not set a certain number of calories for myself per day. I find that too restricting for my active lifestyle. A trend in my life/diet has shown that I intake about 1800 calories or so a day and that’s fine with me. It just seems to usually be within that amount without me regulating it…it just comes naturally I guess–that’s what my body wants.

I’m also trying to listen to what my body wants rather than spend pointless minutes scouring the food database for how many calories are in a prune. I know calorie-counting works for some and it certainly worked for me in some ways, but these days I want something different.

So how do I motivate myself to keep better track of my foods? I took a picture of my breakfast this morning. Will I remember to take a photo at lunch? Will I write any of this down in my journal? I haven’t yet… and I didn’t yesterday. Do I need more motivation or do I just need to let go and give up on all this OCD diary malarky?

What do you think?

How do you feel about food and exercise diaries? Hate em’? Love em’? Do you journal in words or pictures? What would be your ideal way to track all of this stuff? What would you want to measure?

As I mentioned earlier, Crabby’s post, But I don’t Wanna Write it Down, is a pretty good summation of what sucks about food diaries.

Jenna’s blog, Eat, Live, Run, is fantastic inspiration for any of us who want to to be a food-photo fiend.

Diet Blog has a few good pointers on keeping a food diaries, plus some pretty good reasons to do so that aren’t related to calories.

Want to become a better food photographer? Then check out this recent post from VeganYumYum, Food Photography for Bloggers, which covers everything from plates to lighting.

Sharing means caring

For other Flickr users out there, I’ve created a Flickr group called SmarterFitter. I’m posting my food diary there along with other SmarterFitter-related photos. Feel free to share your own by adding your photos to the group pool!

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Seasonal Recipes: Roasted Ratatouille

Published on September 27, 2008 in food and recipes. 0 Comments

Lightroom Catalog.lrcat - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Library.png

Tis the season of eggplant, zucchini, peppers and tomato. What better way to enjoy them all at once than in a delicious ratatouille!

Ratatouille is traditionally made by cooking all of the vegetables separately. I’m sure the results are fantastic, but who has that many pots? Never mind the time! Screw it - why not chuck all the veggies in the oven with some herbs and olive oil and PRESTO! Easy ratatouille with a blackened bonus. This stuff is good hot or cold and it only gets better with time. You can use leftover ratatouille in sandwiches, as pizza topping, in a salad, with pasta, or on its own. I love it with polenta and a simple green salad. Add a few chickpeas and you’ve got a well-rounded meal on your hands (or in your tummy). Good stuff.

I borrow my technique from the ever-talented Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini.

Roasted Ratatouille

This is even better with fresh rosemary and thyme - use 2 sprigs rosemary and 3 sprigs thyme.

- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 2 green peppers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 16 cherry tomatoes
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- salt, pepper
- olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

Combine the vegetables, herbs and a liberal dose of salt and pepper in an oven-proof dish. Drizzle with olive oil (about 2 Tbsp) and toss to ensure an even coating.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. At this point the vegetables should be cooked but not colored, and there should be cooking juices at the bottom of the pan.

Remove the foil and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes, until the cooking juices have evaporated and the vegetables start to blacken.

Serve hot or cold.

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Quick Tip: Add beans to pasta for a quick protein kick

Published on September 1, 2008 in food, nutrition, photos and recipes. 1 Comment

We all know that protein is important, especially for active folks trying to put on a little muscle. For vegetarians like me, this is a little tricky - many of the foods we eat don’t contain complete proteins. That is, beans and whole grains may contain lots of amino acids, but on their own, they don’t contain enough of the right amino acids to form a complete protein (you can read more about this in Nutrition by The American Dietetic Association). As a result, I usually try to balance my meals with grains and beans so I’m sure to maximize the protein punch!

Most recently, I’ve been doing this with pasta. There’s no meal like a pasta meal that cries CARB FEST. But you can easily turn pasta into a more well-rounded meal by simply adding a few beans. Pasta is actually high in the amino acids methionine and cysteine, but low in lysine. Legumes such as kidney beans, however, are low in methionine and cysteine, but high in lysine. Put the two together and you get a complete protein. Science!

Adding beans to pasta is as easy as, well, simply adding beans to pasta. Beans compliment most sauces just as well as pasta, but some combinations work better than others. Here are my preferences:

Chickpeas or kidney beans with tomato sauce
White beans or chickpeas with pesto sauce
White beans or broad beans with garlic and olive oil

I’m not even going to touch alfredo (some foods you just shouldn’t mess with).

Here’s the recipe for the meal I had this evening (pictured above - it inspired me to write this post). Pesto linguine with chickpeas and arugula. YUM! I served this with a tomato, cucumber and red onion salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Bliss, I tell you. Pure comfort.

Pesto Linguine With Chickpeas and Arugula

Serves one 5ft tall shortcake

50 grams dry linguine
100 grams cooked chickpeas
2 Tbsp pesto
1 Tbsp parmesan
1 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 large handful arugula (aka rocket)

Cook the pasta and heat up the beans. Toss together with the pesto. Pile on a plate and top with arugula, pine nuts and parmesan. Serve with a nice glass of red wine.

Per serving: 455 Calories; 19g Protein; 12g fat; 67g Carbohydrate

Indian Cucumber and Coconut Salad

Published on April 20, 2008 in food. 1 Comment

I like my dals with something refreshing on the side. Lately, I’m all about this salad, adapted from Das Sreedharan’s “The New Taste of India”, a fantastic cookbook filled with delicious vegetarian recipes from Southern India.

The salad takes a bit of chopping, but it’s totally worth it, both for its flavor, and for the rave reviews it gets everytime I serve it.

Indian Cucumber and Coconut Salad

For the salad:
1 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tbsp desiccated coconut (or more to taste)
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
a small bunch of fresh cilantro (i.e. coriander), finely chopped
salt

For the dressing:
2 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 dried red chilli, halved
1/2 tsp asafoetida
~10 dried curry leaves
juice from half a lemon

Place all the salad ingredients in a bowl and set aside in the fridge.
Put the oil in a large frying pan with the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chilli, asafoetida and curry leaves. Turn the heat up to medium and wait for the seeds to start sizzling and smelling delicious.
When the mustard seeds begin to pop, pour the oil and seeds over the salad. Add the lemon juice and some salt to taste and mix thoroughly. If you can wait, cool in the fridge before serving.

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

Chai Pani Restaurant Review

Published on March 22, 2008 in Freelance Writing, London and food. 0 Comments

Chai Pani

64 Seymour Street
London, W1H 5BW
020 7258 2000
http://www.chaipani.co.uk/

Category: Indian

Travel: Marble Arch
Open Daily 6pm-10.30pm; Mon-Fri 12pm-2.30pm; Sat-Sun 1pm-10.30pm

Devotees of chicken tikka masala will be disappointed by Chai Pani’s menu, which proves that India brings more to the table than fried samosas and korma curries. Chai Pani is the only restaurant in London to serve the vegetarian cuisine of Marwar, a desert region in west India. With dishes like Bhindi Subzi Vg (okra in “a sauce”) and Ker Saangri (a “concoction of desert berries and desert beans”), the vast menu leaves everything to the imagination.

Times like these, it’s usually best to let the kitchen decide, so I ordered a vegan thaali (another tough choice as Chai Pani offers a staggering 16 thaalis, including wheat-free, low GI and ayurvedic). Everything arrived hot and on time, and the waiter was only too happy to decipher the mysterious array of dishes before me. I now know that “dessert berries” look and taste more like shriveled twigs than actual food, and “sauce” is Chai Pani’s code word for “oil”. Fortunately, other dishes were more inspiring. The veganized raita was good enough to eat with a spoon thanks to a liberal dose of salt and chili. The daal was the best I’ve had in London - simple, fresh and very spicy, just begging to be sopped up with Bajra roti, a traditional Rathasthan millet bread. The chilled Ghugri salad of wheat berries, tomatoes and tangy lemon dressing was a refreshing accompaniment. When it came to endings, however, Chai Pani pushed the envelope of simple cooking a little too far, with bowls of jaggery (sugar) passing for dessert. This was a poor lead-in to the bill, which came to nearly £40 a head (including drinks).

Adventurous diners will go giddy over the eclectic offerings of Chai Pani, and the dietarily-challenged will find comfort in their meatless and wheatless offerings. But others will be confused. Chai Pani means well, but they need to come to terms with the palate (and pocketbook) of its western audience.

Dinner for two with drinks and dessert: £66

Seeded Whole Wheat No Knead Bread

Published on March 9, 2008 in food. 1 Comment

Tim and I both agree that this is the best batch of no knead bread ever to emerge from our oven. It’s a perfect balance of sunflower seeds, flax seeds, white and whole wheat flour. The nuttiness of the seeds and whole wheat is buttery and wonderful. The white flour gives the bread a spongy lightness. But everything really comes together with the crust. I coat the entire dough ball in olive oil (a delicious trick I discovered accidentally and is much more effective than Jim Lahey’s cornmeal technique) then sprinkle on a generous dose of sesame seeds.

Seeded Whole Wheat No Knead Bread

300g white flour
170g whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
13g salt
olive oil
sesame seeds

In a large bowl combine flour, seeds, yeast and salt. Add 350 grams of water and stir. Add more water a little bit at a time and stir until the dough has the consistency of a shaggy ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest in a warm place for at least 12 hours, preferably closer to 24. The dough is ready when it’s about double in size and spotted with big bubbles.
Give the counter top and your hands a generous sprinkle of flour. Turn the dough onto the counter. Pull the dough at either end to form a strip. Fold this strip into thirds (like a business letter). Give the dough a quarter turn and fold in thirds again. I’ll refer to these folds as “seams”, i.e., “right now your dough is on the counter, seam side up.” Cover with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Oil a large bowl with olive oil. Lightly dust the dough ball with flour and put it into the bowl seam side down. Cover with the plastic wrap and let sit for 2-3 hours. The dough is ready when it has more than doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, remove the HOT pot and pour in a bit of olive oil. Swirl it around so that oil covers the entire inside of the pot. Now, take the bowl containing the dough and quickly turn it upside down over the pot so that the dough falls in seam side up. Cover the pot with a lid and bake for 40 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake another 5 or so minutes, until the loaf is browned and the sesame seeds are toasted. Cool on a rack at least 45 minutes before slicing.

Crossposted to SmarterFitter.com

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