Samosas, Basmati rice, and whole wheat roti
Last night we attended the monthly dinner sponsored by Vegetarians of Washington. Each month a vegetarian dinner is catered by a different Seattle area restaurant. The dinners are always vegan, but the diners are a very diverse group that includes eaters of all ages, occupations and dietary persuasions. Last night we had a great time with a particularly congenial group of people, and we all enjoyed an Indian meal presented by Pabla Indian Cuisine, with restaurants in Renton and Issaquah.
Kabli Channa (Punjabi style garbanzo beans)
Mixed vegetable curry
Aloo gobi (spiced potatoes and cauliflower)
In addition to the foods pictured above, we also had rice pudding for dessert, and received Nature's Path Peanut Choco chewy granola bars as an extra treat.
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Kasha and bow-ties
In my last post I displayed a photo of kasha and bowties (kasha varnishkes) made with shiitake dashi, shiitake mushrooms* and miso, promising a recipe. I'm posting a recipe with less exotic ingredients, instead, and a note on using shiitakes. For one thing, I'm out of dried shiitakes and need to make a trip to our favorite Asian market to restock our supplies. Instead of trekking down to the International District, my husband headed to the closest supermarket to purchase fresh mushrooms and raw, hulled buckwheat groats.*
As I have written in an earlier post, "traditionally, in Russia, kasha means porridge and can be made from any whole grain or combination of grains. To me, it means buckwheat groats, and kasha varnishkes is buckwheat and noodles, specifically bowtie noodles. Kasha varnishkes is a traditional comfort food brought to America by Russian Jewish immigrants.
Buckwheat is actually the seed of a fruit, not a grain. (You can read all about buckwheat and its possible appropriateness in gluten-free diets here.) It is very nutritious, delicious and quick cooking. Hulled, raw buckwheat is called buckwheat groats, and that's what I'm starting with in this recipe. After it's toasted it's called kasha."
Kasha and bow-ties
- 8 to 10 ounce package bow-tie pasta (or other small pasta or flat noodle)
- 1 cup raw, hulled buckwheat groats*
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped (about 1 to 1-1/4 cups)
- 4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 8 or 9 mushrooms or 2 heaping cups)
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1-1/2 cups hot water
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 teaspoon tamari (or soy sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon brown rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon evaporated cane juice (natural sugar)
- heaping 1/2 cup minced parsley
- Cook the pasta, drain, (toss with 1 teaspoon of oil if desired) and set aside.
- In a large, heavy, dry pan such as cast iron, toast the buckwheat until fragrant (about 4 to 5 minutes) stirring continually.
- Add the oil to the pan then add the onions and mushrooms. Cook and stir until the onions begin to soften (about 5 minutes).
- Stir in the garlic and a pinch of salt (less then 1/8 teaspoon). Cook and stir for about a minute.
- Add the 1-1/2 cups of hot water to the pan slowly. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to simmer, and cover the pan. Cook until the buckwheat is tender and dry. (about 12 to 15 minutes)
- Meanwhile, add the tamari to the warm water. Add the sugar and vinegar and stir to dissolve sugar.
- When the buckwheat is tender, mix in the noodles. Stir in the tamari mixture.
- Stir in the parsley, reserving some for a garnish. Grind black pepper over the kasha. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. Serves 4 to 6.
*You can also make this with dried shiitake mushrooms and mushroom broth. Soak 8 to 10 dried mushrooms in 2 cups of warm (not hot) water in a bowl for at least an hour, or until soft. Squeeze out the mushrooms into the bowl, remove the stems and slice the mushrooms. Add enough water to the broth, if necessary, to make 1-1/2 cups. Make the recipe using the shiitakes and broth instead of the fresh mushrooms and water.
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Bye bye, summer
Spider web-draped still-green tomatoes and a lone pepper from our tabletop garden.
With fall officially here, there's no choice but to bid summer a sad goodbye. I'm not one of those people who can't wait for the cool, damp, RAINY days of fall. (Oh wait, wasn't "cool, rainy" supposed to be a description of winter? Or was that spring? Or maybe even a good part of this past summer, here in the PNW?) Cool-rainy is not my favorite type of weather (and thank heavens I spent the summer in the blazing Midwest where I soaked up heat like a sponge) so I hate to see summer — even a less-than-perfect summer — end. I like soup, and and other cold-weather foods like kasha, as much as anyone, but I like sunshine more. Come back, sun come back. Sigh.
I photographed some of the "end of summer" herbs and veggies growing at our house and around the neighborhood. You can see a lone Asian pear in our tree. When we went out to gather the fruit the other day, there was another couple happily picking them all. We asked if they could leave a few for us since it was our tree (we're living in the house and paying rent!) and they informed us the house's owner said they could pick the pears. They carted off all the reachable fruit, and that was that. We're not very argumentative and don't like to cause trouble with the neighbors, so we let it go. But we were a little sad.
An Asian pear beckoning from our tree.
The last sprays of fennel withering in a neighbor's garden.
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Spam, anyone?
Every blog gets spammed, and this blog is no exception, but it's been getting a lot of crazy spam lately, and I thought I'd print a few of the messages (though not the links) for you to admire. I'm leaving out the male-enhancement spam and the totally unintelligible stuff, and just including a sampling of the "jokes" and "friendly messages" I receive. Blogger has been doing a good job of filtering this stuff out so it almost never makes it to the comments section. Only I see it, but really, I wanted to share. So here are five examples of the weird spam this blog attracts, with the types of links in brackets.1. well, it suppose to be in 3D. Can I download and watch? Will it show normally? [no links]
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5. It is very interesting for me to read this post. Thank author for it. I like such topics and everything connected to them. I definitely want to read a bit more on this blog soon. BTW, rather nice design you have here, but don't you think it should be changed once in a few months? [Jane Smith escort agency in london.]
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Eggy tofu, avocado and tomato on toast. Sourdough bread was better.
