Paneer Biriyani

Okay, this is a culmination of experiments and recipes. 

Ingredients; for about 4 people

• 2 cups of long grain rice
• 250 gms of paneer
• 250 gms of potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 1 cup birista (dry fried onions)
• 1 large tomato
• 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
• 1 cup of chopped mint
• 1 cup yogurt
• 2 table spoons of ghee
• 2 star anise
• 8 peppercorns
• 2 sticks of cardamom
• 8 cloves
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tea spoon chilli powder
• 2 tea spoons of turmeric
• 2 tea spoons of coriander powder
• 2 tea spoons kasuri methi
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tea spoon rose water
• 1 tea spoon kewra water
• Cashew nuts
• 4 green chillis

Process:

The rice: You want to wash well and soak a good long grain rice for at least 1-2 hours in cold water.  Then in a nice pot, heat up some ghee and temper it with cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, star anise, and peppercorn and toast the rice in the ghee till every grain of rice is nicely coated.  Once done, you want to add about 3/4 of the usual amount of water and then cook the rice till the water is all evaporated.  Turn it off and keep aside.

The paneer: First, let's marinate the paneer.  In a bowl mix in 1/2 of the yogurt, 1/2 of the chopped birista, 1/3rd of the chopped coriander leaves, salt, honey, kasuri methi, black pepper, chopped mint, red chilli powder, turmeric, and crushed cloves.  Keep aside till needed.

The potatoes: Peel and cut the potatoes into nice large pieces, maybe quarters.  In a microwave safe bowl, add a bit of water and salt and cover with wrap and microwave for 4 minutes or so. Set aside.

Okay, now everything happens in one pot - preferably something you can "seal".

The masala: In a pot, I used a Dutch oven, heat up some ghee, with a little bit of oil (to prevent the ghee from burning).  Once hot, add cumin seeds, bay leaves, peppercorns, star anise, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick.  Once you start getting a nice aroma, add in sliced or diced onions and fry till they are turning golden.  Then add the ginger-garlic paste. Once the raw smell of ginger-garlic is gone, add in chopped tomatoes.  Now add salt to get the tomatoes to soften up.  Then add turmeric powder, crushed black pepper, coriander powder, garam masala, kasuri methi, green chilies, and 1/3rd of the chopped cilantro and mint leaves. Add the rest of the yogurt and a dash of water to stop the masala from burning and stir and mix well till you get a nice, pulpy paste.

Putting it all together: Drop in the potatoes to the masala. Add about half the rice to the masala - just layer it on top.  Add half the milk. Then layer on the marinated paneer.  Then layer the rest of the rice.  For the finish, the rest of the chopped cilantro and mint leaves, some cashew nuts, the rest of the birista, a nice helping of ghee, 1/2 the kewra and rose water, and then mix the saffron into the rest of the milk and pour it on top.

Now seal the pot, I just used foil, and cook for about 20 minutes on low heat.  Then let it sit, covered for another 20 minutes.  This process is called "dum".

Before serving add the rest of the rose water and kewra water.  

Dim’er Dalna (Bengali egg curry)

 Best served with Bengali fried bread called “Luchi”, otherwise, white rice and raita are a really good combo as well.

Ingredients (for the egg curry) - serves 3-4 people

- 6 eggs, hard boiled and peeled.  Then if you’re a beginner, take a toothpick and prick small holes in the egg all around, I would say about 10-15 per egg.  If you’re confident with your knife skills, make slits into the eggs, 6 per egg along the length of the egg.  Do not cut too deep otherwise your egg will fall apart.

- One large red onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped up.  The choice of cut depends on the texture of the gravy.  If you want it chunky, use sliced onions, for a smoother gravy use finely chopped.  If you’re unsure of your knife skills you can make an onion paste as well.

- 1 large ripe red tomato diced, seeds and skin and all.  Again, if you want, you can make a tomato paste

-  An inch of ginger and a couple of cloves of garlic, smashed

- Yogurt

- Dry spices: cumin,

- Olive or mustard oil

Preparation

In a wok or a large pan, heat up about a table spoon of olive oil.  Now, coat the eggs in a bit of salt, pepper, and turmeric (and red chili powder, optional).  Once the oil is hot, fry the whole eggs till you get a nice sheen on all sides. Move them around.  If it sits for too long on the pan the skin will start to wrinkle and the texture gets rubbery.  So once you start seeing a golden color, you’re done.  Typically takes about 2-3 minutes.  Take the eggs out and keep aside.

In the same pan, add 2 table spoons of mustard oil (or olive oil).  Before the oil heats up too much and smokes, add the tempering ingredients: bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin seeds, and cloves.  If you’re using olive oil, you can throw in some mustard seeds as well.

Fry for a couple of minutes till there is an aroma.  Turn the heat up. Now add the onions.  Remember if you’re using onion paste it will cook a lot faster than chopped or sliced onions.  I prefer sliced onions.  Add a bit of salt and sugar.  Fry for about 2-3 minutes.  Now add the smashed ginger and garlic and continue to fry for 1 more minute.  Remember the garlic can burn easily so you want to keep an eye on it.  Cooking it till the raw smell goes away is enough.  Now add the tomatoes.  The water from the tomatoes will prevent any burning so you don’t need to worry about that anymore.  Make a slurry of the dry spices: cumin powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, and a bit of hot water.  Add the slurry and fry.  You want the tomatoes to melt away and most of the water to evaporate.  This will take about 5-6 minutes, you’ll have to keep stirring.  Lower the heat and cover.

In the meantime, peel and cut up two big potatoes into 1/8ths or about 1 inch cubes.  Put them in a microwave safe bowl, add a bit of salt, and a couple of spoons of water, cover with cling wrap and microwave for 3 minutes. 

Okay back to the main attraction.  Uncover, stir, and turn the heat up to medium.  Most of the water should have gone by now.  Add 2 heaped table spoons of beaten yogurt and mix thoroughly.  Add the potatoes, graham masala, and the fenugreek.  Stir till everything is coated.  Add the eggs and gently mix.

Now there are two options.  You can keep it as a dry gravy, in which case, lower the heat, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes.

For a lighter gravy for rice, add about 200 ml of water, lower the heat, cover and let it cook for about 7 minutes.

Uncover, sprinkle in roughly chopped cilantro and a bit of ghee and you’re done!

Mushroom Risotto a la Maity

Okay the mushroom risotto is a classic, but here's my take on it, and we got here after a lot of iterations.  It's a simple recipe with few ingredients so make sure you get good ingredients.  

Ingredients for 2 people:

1. A good Italian risotto rice like Arboreo or Carnaroli - a fistful person, so two.

2. A good extra virgin olive oil

3. Unsalted butter

4. A good chunk of actual Parmesan cheese

5. Your favorite mushrooms.  You can get whatever kind you like best - you can mix and match too

6. A medium white onion or a couple of shallots

7. A good white wine - the one you drink is the one you cook with.  You can also experiment with Vermouth.

8. Stock - you'll need about a liter.  I prefer veggie stock, but you can use chicken or mushroom stock.  Beef or others are too strong.

9. Parsley, lime or lemons, a couple of cherry tomatoes, tarragon, basil, rosemary (whatever you're feeling like.  This is a garnish, not part of the main risotto)

10. Thyme 

Process:  This meal takes time and patience to make. So put on a good audiobook or an album before you begin.

In a deep pot heat up a couple of table spoons of olive oil.  Finely chop the onions or shallots and throw in them in the pot once the oil has warmed.  You want the heat to stay low to medium all the way through - it's all about the slow cooking.  Sweat those onions.  Add in a couple of sprigs of thyme to flavor the oil.  Once the oils release a nice aroma, toss in the rice.  Now, you can blanch the rice in cold water for five minutes if you want if the rice looks unclean but this is not necessary from a fresh bag.

Give it a good stir.  You'll be stirring a lot to make a nice risotto.  Now you want to toast the rice till you get a little bit of browning and a lovely nutty aroma to arise.  Don't worry about anything sticking to the bottom of the pan, we'll be deglazing it in a moment. Once the rice is nice and toasted and nutty, usually 5-6 minutes.  Now you want to add in the white wine - at least a cup or so.  Don't worry, all the alcohol will evaporate.  The wine deglazes the pan as you stir it in.  Let it reduce and evaporate.

Once most of the wine has evaporated, pour in one ladle of the stock.  DO NOT pour in all of the stock at once.  This is critical.  You're only going to put in one cup at a time and keep stirring till it is all absorbed by the rice.  If you don't, you'll get a soft exterior and a hard interior of the rice.

In the mean time, in a pan toss in 3/4th of your mushrooms.  Chopped up, torn up mushrooms.  Don't worry so much about elegance here.  Add a small, about a tea spoon of butter and let the mushrooms release their water.  Stir 'em up till the water is gone and the mushrooms have nicely browned from the butter.

Keep going at it on the rice.  Add stock, stir, let the rice soak it, repeat.  Keep going till there is one ladle of stock left.  You will typically need about 1 liter of stock.  With the last ladle of stock, drop the cooked mushrooms.  This allows the mushrooms to also soak up some of the stock.  Once most of the liquid is gone, add about a cup of freshly grate Parmesan cheese and about a tablespoon of the butter.  Give it a nice stir... everything should start taking on a beautiful creamy texture.  Cover it, turn off the heat and let it sit and chill.

In the meantime, toss in the remaining mushrooms in the heated pan where you cooked your mushrooms.  No butter this time.  Let them toast nicely and char a bit.  Cut up some de-seeded cherry tomatoes, say about 5 into small pieces.  It's an odd choice I know, but trust me, the tomatoes add this nice little fresh crunch that make all the difference.  Roughly chop up some parsley, tarragon, rosemary, basil... whatever is handy, some olive oil and the juice of half a lemon or lime. Finally add in the toasted mushrooms and give it a nice mix.  This is your amazing garnish.

Serve up the risotto on two pre-warmed deep dishes with the garnish and some freshly grated Parmesan and cracked black pepper.  It'll knock your socks off :)

Vegan Thai Green Curry with Jasmine Rice and Toppings

The secret to making a good Thai curry is making a fresh curry paste at home, preferably with a mortar and pestle instead of a blender.  This is an elaborate and time-consuming process, so if you're making it, make enough so you can freeze and reuse later.

Paste ingredients (will make enough paste for 2 large pots of curry)

• 1 large shallot 
• 1 square inch of ginger
• 1 square inch of galangal (it's in the ginger family, great if you can find it - has citrus-y notes - it's fine if you don't)
• 1 big bunch of cilantro (stalks and all.  Traditional Thai curry uses cilantro roots, but that's hard to find)
• 5 cloves of garlic (optional)
• 5 Thai green chilies (as many as you would like depending on how hot you want it - remember that the coconut milk will significantly mollify the heat so go for more than you think you can handle.  You also don't want to overwhelm all the subtle flavors with heat.) 
• Kafir lime leaves a bunch
• Zest of one lime

Veggies for the curry

You can use whatever and as much as you like.  My recommendation is to go with some classics/traditional:

• Thai eggplant - they're a little firmer than regular ones so they won't become very soggy in the curry
• Baby corn - hard to find everywhere though
• Carrots
• Mushrooms - whatever kind you have available
• Tofu for the protein (if you want - I didn't use it)
• Potatoes (if you want)
• Brat-paprika
• Green beans
• Coconut milk
• Coconut oil
• Fish sauce (or if you want true vegetarian, a mix of soy sauce and rice wine will do as well)
• Some nice granular salt - will help draw out the moisture

Topping

Completely optional but adds a whole new layer of flavor.  Julienne ginger and red chili pepper, and mix with chopped Thai basil and the rest of the lime zest/lime juice that might be leftover from making the curry paste.

Cooking process

Finely chop all the ingredients for the green curry paste and put into a large mortar and pestle.  You could, of course, blitz this in a grinder, but what happens from smashing in a mortar and pestle is the essential oils from the ingredients begin to seep out, which doesn't really happen in a grinder.  Still, it's not a deal breaker - it'll still be better than anything store bought.  If you're using the mortar route, then it's going to take a while.  You probably have to pound for a good 15-20 minutes to make sure you get everything into a paste like consistency.  It's perfectly okay if it doesn't feel like a spread - it never will, so don't stress about it.  You'll probably need about two tablespoons of the paste for this dish, so you could freeze the rest to use another time.

Okay, wash and next cut up the vegetables how you would like.  I would recommend braising the eggplant (if you're using this) before adding it to the curry - it's going to make the texture a lot nicer.

Now, in a large pot, add a healthy amount of coconut oil and once it's hot, add the green curry paste and fry.  Once the raw smell is gone, slowly start adding the coconut milk - like you would do with stock when making risotto.  A ladle at a time and let the oil separate from the milk slowly.  After about 10-15 minutes or so you should see a layer of oil separated from the coconut milk.  Now we are ready to add the vegetables.

Add them in order of how long you want them to cook; hard veggies and mushrooms go in first, so start with the carrots, potatoes (if you choose to use them), and mushrooms.  The green beans, brat-paprika, and baby corn go at the end, about 5 minutes.

Now let the curry cook covered for 15 minutes.  Then add fish sauce, the rest of the kafir lime leaves and Thai basil torn up and the rest of the veggies.  Let it cook for 5 more minutes and you are ready to serve.  Make sure you taste the veggies for seasoning and cook through.

Serve with some nice Jasmine rice and add a dollop of the topping as garnish :)

Fluffy Omelette w/ Mushy Peas

Mushy Peas. Start with these as it will take the longest to cook.  Defrost green peas in a pot of boiling water and cook with any kind of aromatics you want.  I went with mint.  For a stronger flavor you can saute sliced garlic and chili with oil before cooking the peas.  So, in a nice pan, put some olive oil and/or butter, throw in some finely chopped shallots, minced garlic (optional), minced chili (optional) and season with salt and pepper.  As the shallots soften up, toss in the cooked peas with the mint.  Add some chopped parsley if you want.  Cook them for a while till the water dries.  Move it to a bowl and start mashing it.  Add red wine vinegar or lemon juice to compliment the spice.  Add some sour cream or cream cheese for texture. Top if off with some fresh, finely chopped mints and parsley.  

The filling.  Make the filling before you cook the eggs.  I went with spinach and mushrooms.  You could add bacon bits or julienne red peppers or carrots if you want some crunch.  In a warm heavy pan, add some olive oil and/or butter.  Toss in sliced mushrooms with a pinch of salt and pepper and saute on medium heat.  Once the mushrooms have browned a bit, add in the spinach and toss/mix well.  Spinach ha a lot of water, so you'll have to wait for the water to evaporate before turning the heat off.  Feel free to add any other seasoning here if you want such as chopped chives, etc. 

Fluffy eggs - the key is separating the egg whites and the yolk.  Whip the egg whites till it's nice and frothy.  Beat the yolks with 1 tbsp: 1 egg ratio of milk.  Salt and pepper if you want but not needed.  Mix the yolks and whites together and make a smooth, frothy mix.  Heat a pan with a little bit of olive oil and/or butter and pour in the mixture and cook uncovered on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. It's not a French omelette so don't mix!  Wait for the froth to settle a bit - flatten the froth and then drop in some cheese (optional) and the cooked filling.  Carefully scrape the sides and fold the omelette and dislodge it from the pan by gently knocking on the handle and flipping it onto a plate.   

Garnish with spring onions/chives or more cheese (optional).

   

Fettuccine with corn creme and charred green onions

I was pretty apprehensive about making my own fettuccine at home, especially without any equipment,  but we got there in the end - not perfect, some lessons learnt, but it came together :)

Bringoli with Pomodoro/Arabiata sauce

So this was my first attempt at making pasta and sauce from scratch, but I think it turned out pretty okay.

I decided on the Bringoli "Pomodoro", which is from the Tuscan region.  Pomodoro in quotes because it's more of an inspiration from pomodoro than being true to form, much like how Bollywood movies steal from Hollywood, and more recently from Korean movies, but that's a tale for another day.

Ingredients - for 2 people

- 200 gms of "00" or "550" unbleached flour

- 100 gms of water

- 5 gms of extra virgin olive oil (this is about a table spoon)

- a pinch of kosher salt

- semolina flour/regular flour for dusting

- some olive oil for coating with a brush

(for cooking - 1 liter of water per 100 gms of pasta and 1 tbsp of kosher salt per liter)

- generous helping of olive oil, a couple of glugs should suffice

- 1 medium onion (diced)

- 500 gms of fresh ripe vine tomatoes (quartered)

- 10 cherry tomatoes (halved)

- 2 cloves of garlic (sliced)

- 1 or 2 red chili (diced) - you can either keep or remove the seeds depending on the heat you want

- a sprig of rosemary

- a couple of bay leaves (fresh or dry)

- a fist full of basil leaves

- 1 tsp salt 

- 1 tsp sugar

- Parmesan cheese or Gran Padano cheese 

- Fresh basil

- Fresh mint

- Fresh crushed black pepper

The dough

So here is the most important thing I learnt about making pasta dough.  There is A LOT to learn about pasta dough.  Here are some beginner's pointers from my research:

1. Some pasta dough requires eggs, some don't - depending on the type of pasta.

2. Most people will recommend "00" flour - it's the most granular.  In Germany, that would be 550.  You can get away with unbleached all-purpose; or 405 in Germany.  Having some semolina flour on hand for dusting would be ideal; semolina is much courser and harder to work with, so not ideal for beginners.

3. Getting measurements right is critical.  Because of the nature of flour, i.e. that it can be compressed, it is not a good idea to use cup measurements, so everything is in grams here (yes, SI units, get used to it).

4. Be patient, and DON'T PANIC!

5. Kneading is everything. 

Making it

I used 405 flour for this and it worked fine.  About a 100 grams per person is ideal.  I used a bowl to start with because I didn't want the wet ingredients to go all over the place.  Weigh all your ingredients.  Put the flour in a heap in a bowl and then make a deep crater - this is going to your well to hold the wet ingredients.  Pour in the oil and water and salt in there and slowly start mixing in the flout from the top of the mound, don't try to get all the flour in all together.  Once you've managed to get all the liquid soaked up, start using your hands to start kneading.  Look up some videos on good kneading techniques - the standard rule I learnt was, use one hard, and be consistent.  Only use the heel of your palm.  Push down the dough with your heel, fold, rotate, repeat.  That's it.  Push down, fold, rotate, repeat.  Just keep at it for 15 minutes.  You know when you're done when you end up with a springy ball of dough - pressing it down causes the dough to bounce back up.  Wrap in cling wrap and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes or in room temperature for an hour or so.  Just let it rest and the gluten get more elastic.

In the mean time start working on the sauce.   In a pot, pour in the oil and get the oil warmed up.  Throw in the onions, garlic, and chili.  You don't want to fry them, you want to make them sweat.  So you don't want to oil to be too hot.  Once the onions become translucent add the quartered tomatoes salt and sugar.  Add the bay leaves and rosemary, bring the heat down to simmer, cover, and just let the tomatoes stew for about 30-40 minutes or so - splash in a bit of hot water if needed (depends on how ripe your tomatoes are).  Check-in after 30 minutes.  If the tomatoes should have mostly dissolved, if not, turn up the heat a bit and cook for another 10 minutes.  Fish out the rosemary and bay leaves.  If you have a hand held grinder, you can run the paste through that, if not, no worries.  Put in the rest of the tomatoes, basil, and mix well.  Cover and keep on simmer.

The pasta dough has probably chilled out by now.  Unwrap the dough.  You want to flatten it out into a disc about 3-4 cm thick on an un-floured wooden board.  It's okay for the dough to stick a bit to the surface.  Now, take a bit of olive oil and brush the exposed side of the dough disc to prevent it from drying out.  

In a baking pan or on foil, spread some of the semolina flour - we'll need this for coating once we roll out the dough noodles.  

Cut out 2-3 cm thick strips of dough from the disc using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter. 

Now take the strips and roll them with your hand into noodles.  The key is to slowly pull your hands apart as you roll.  Don't worry about getting the thickness even, this is handmade art :)  You want to keep the bringoli as long and thin as possible - about 1 cm in diameter - they're going to expand in the water.  Please them in the tray with the semolina and dust it so it stays dry.

Get the water to a roiling boil with plenty of salt.  Place the pasta in the pot.  Remember this is fresh pasta so it's going to cook rather quickly - you only need them in for about 4 minutes.   Best way to check if the pasta is done to your liking, is to get it out and take a bite.  Get them out just as they get to the point of being done to your liking and transfer them out of the water to the pasta sauce.  Let it sit in the sauce for a bit to finish cooking and soaking in the sauce.  

Serve it up in a plate with grated Parmesan and the basil leaves and a rice glass of Chianti or a northern Italian red.

Parmesan crusted haddock with sides :)

So this was the first time I made fish at home, so I was quite nervous of messing it up, but I think it turned out quite alright.  I watched dozens of different recipes to come up with this final version.

There are multiple components to this meal, so I've broken these down by parts.  Because each component cooks quite quickly (except for the potatoes), it's critical to get the timing right.  I've listed out the ingredients by item and in the cook cycle I've done it by process to get all the pieces done, not by meal.

The quantities listed is ideal for two people.

Here you have it, Parmesan crusted halibut with green asparagus, mushroom wild rice pilaf, potato medallions, served with a beurre blanc sauce, which is just a fancy French way of saying lemon butter sauce :)

The fish
- I went with halibut.  You could swap with cod, or an equally flaky white fish, make sure it's fresh.  A 200 gram filet per person is about ideal since we have a lot of accompaniments.  If you're planning on just making the fish, then you can go with a larger portion for the filet.
- a bed of panko/bread crumbs mixed with grated Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- cayenne pepper (optional)

Wild rice and mushroom pilaf
- Long grain wild rice
- about 100 grams of wild mushrooms (or any other kind is fine)
- 1 tea spoon of olive oil or butter
- 1 table spoon of fresh cilantro
- 1 table spoon of crushed pistachio or cashew nuts (optional)
- 1/4 cup of sliced onions (optional)

Rosemary potato medallions 
- 2 large potatoes (you can get any type, it should work fine)
- 1 table spoon of fresh chopped rosemary
- 1 tea spoon of olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tea spoons of balsamic vinaigrette or creme (optional)

Asparagus
- 500 grams of fresh green asparagus; you don't need to peel, just cut off about 5 cms from the bottom of the stalk - those parts are really hard and don't cook well.
- 1 tea spoon of chopped garlic
- 1 table spoon of broth; any kind will do, I went with veggie
- 1 table spoon of acid of some kind, you could go with white/red wine vinegar, rice wine, lemon juice; I went with mirin - which is a slightly sweeter Japanese alternative.
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tea spoon olive oil

beurre blanc sauce
- 1 cup of white wine
- the juice of one large lemon
- about 4 table spoons (in cubed form) of cold butter (it's important that this be cold)
- 1 table spoon of shallots
- herbs of choice - I went with a table spoon of crushed thyme
- a table spoon of finely chopped parsley to finish 

Preparation - start to finish takes about 90 minutes for everything
So, the potatoes will take the longest to cook so let's start with those.  Keep the skin on, cut into circles about 3 cm thick and put the potatoes in a bowl of cold water to wash off excess starch.  Pre-heat the oven to 200C or 450F.

In a bowl, put in the rest of the ingredients for the potatoes. After rinsing off potatoes in cold water, put them in the bowl and mix nicely.  Put the potato slices in foil and cover.  They're going to go into the oven for about 40 minutes.  If the oven is ready, in they go, otherwise, put them aside and wait.

We'll start on the pilaf.  If you have a rice cooker, put the washed wild rice and set it to start.  Else, put it in a pot wand set to boil as per instructions.  In the mean time, slice up the mushrooms.  In a hot pan toss in the mushrooms.  You should hear the sizzle of the water escaping the mushrooms - if you don't, the pan isn't hot enough.  Once the mushrooms brown a bit, put in the butter and the crushed nuts and onions if you're using those. Saute till the mushrooms basically lose half their volume.  Over with foil and set aside.  We'll need this once the rice is done.

Let's get started on the asparagus.  Cut the bottom of the asparagus and wash them and dry them.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on the asparagus and toss it together.  Get a pan (ideally cast iron), piping hot.  Once the pan is smoking.  Reduce the heat to medium and pour the olive oil in and toss in the asparagus.  The asparagus should blister and sizzle in the heat of the pan. The cook time will depend on how thick the stalks are.  Once the stalks begin to soften put in a small knob of butter if you like if the pan is getting dry and add the acid of choice here. Continue cooking till the stem begins to wilt.  You're almost done.  Pour in the broth.  Turn the heat off, cover with foil and set aside - let it cook in the steam of the broth.

Before we start on the fish, you have to get the butter sauce going simultaneously.  In a sauce pan, pour in all the ingredients together except for the butter and set on high-medium heat.  Let all the liquid reduce to about 75% of the original amount. 

Now, let's get started on the fish.  In a plate or pan, spread the panko and Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.  Lay the filet on the the crumbs and pat down nicely.  You can flip and coat the other side as well, but I preferred not to.  I just sprinkled and rubbed the other side with salt, pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper.

In a medium hot pan, put the olive oil in and lay down the halibut crumb side down.  Make sure the pan is not too hot otherwise you will burn the crumbs.  Lift the edges a bit and swirl the oil around the pan.  Watch the edges, once those turn golden brown it's done.  Carefully flip the filet, it might break if you're not careful.  Toast the other side as needed.  Turn off the heat.

While the fish is cooking, you have to keep an eye on the butter sauce and make sure it is not burning.  Once the liquid has reduced, turn the heat down to simmer and start adding the cubes of cold butter and start slowly whisking it in.  As you keep adding the butter and you keep reducing the liquid, and whisking, the sauce will thicken.  Once it has the consistency of a gravy, take off the heat and strain it through to a warm bowl.  This sauce does not stay nice if not kept warm.  Add in the chopped parsley.  You're done.  

One last thing.  Get the potatoes out of the stove and make sure they are cooked through.  Get those mushrooms and onions cooked from before and mix in the cooked wild rice. Pilaf is done as well.

Alright you're all done.  Now to serve.

Plating
In a nice large plate, set a thin bed of the pilaf.  Layer on the asparagus on top of the rice.  Now the fish comes on top of the asparagus.  Put the potato medallions on the side and drizzle a bit of the vinaigrette. Pour the beurre blanc sauce on top and serve :)

Lentil Curry Soup w/ Coconut Shavings

Heart warming, healthy, vegan meal for the quarantine.

Ingredients to serve 4
- 1 large carrot (diced)
- 1 large potato (diced)
- 1/2 cup of red lentils (soak the lentils overnight or at least for as many hours as you can)
- 1/2 cup of yellow lentils
- 1 large tomato (diced)
- 1 large onion (diced)
- 1 inch of ginger (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 cup coconut milk or coconut yogurt
- 1 tbsp coconut shavings
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp butter or ghee
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds (or cumin powder)
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds (or coriander powder)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp garam masala (if you are not tempering the oil)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 bunch of fresh coriander leaves for garnishing (finely chopped) - you can use parsley too if you prefer that taste
- 2 cups of water

For tempering the oil (optional)
(if you do this you can skip the garam masala)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 black cardamom
- 4 green cardamoms
- 4 cloves
- 5 black peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves 
- 1 tsp cumin seeds (or you can use Bengali paanch phoron)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds (or you can use Bengali paanch phoron)

Preparation (1 hour start to finish)
In a hot wok/pan/pot, add the oil and the tempering ingredients and wait till the seeds start spluttering.  Add the diced onions and stir for 2 minutes on medium high heat.  Add the chopped ginger and garlic.  Fry for another 2 minutes.  Add the diced tomatoes and fry on high heat for another 4 minutes.  You want a thick paste. In order to aid this process, add the 1/2 the salt and 1/2 the dry spices.  Once the "oil separates" - I've never actually understood what this means, but what you should look for is the mixture becoming a pulpy paste.  Now, add the carrots and potatoes and the rest of the salt and dry spices and fry for another 2-3 minutes.  Now add the lentils and fry for another minute.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Add the water and 1/2 the coconut milk (or yogurt) and give it all a good stir.  Bring to a boil and cover and let cook for 20 minutes.  Add the rest of the coconut milk and coconut shavings and half the chopped cilantro and cook for another 10 minutes.  Add more water/coconut milk if needed.  Before serving add the rest of the cilantro and the butter/ghee (and the garam masala powder if you didn't temper) and stir.  It's ready to eat!

Serve with rice or pao or naan.

Veg. bhaji burger

These veggie burgers are amazing!  I love a good meat burger like anyone, but these were out of the world.

Ingredients to make 4 patties
- 3 medium potatoes (boiled, peeled, and mashed)
- 1 medium red onion (sliced)
- 1 large carrot (long grated)
- 1 bunch of cilantro (roughly chopped)
- a small fist full of spring onion greens (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp of olive oil
- 3 table spoons of gram/chickpea flour (besan)
- 2 table spoons of water
- 1 tea spoon of cumin powder
- 1 tea spoon of coriander powder
- 1 tea spoon of red chili powder
- 1 tea spoon of turmeric powder
- 1 tea spoon of salt
- 1 tea spoon of black pepper
- 1 tea spoon of chaat masala (optional)

For the rest of the burger
- 4 Hawaiian buns or soft toastable burger buns (toasted)
- 4 small poppadoms (crushed)
- Mango salsa - I have a great recipe here
- Mint-cilantro yogurt paste or mint chutney if you have it
- A nice piece of iceberg lettuce or some other crunchy green of your preference

Prep and cooking
Put all the ingredients for the patties together and kneed them well.  You could also leave the besan out and then coat the patties with it before frying if you want.  Make into 4 patties about an inch thick.  

Put a bit of olive oil on a hot pan and set the burgers to fry - about 5 minutes on each side on medium high heat.  In the mean time, toast the burger buns and microwave the poppadoms and crush them.

Take some cilantro, mint, green chili, garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper and a couple of heaped spoons of yogurt and blend it together to make the yogurt chutney.

Putting it all together
1. Take a spoon of the yogurt chutney and put it on the burger base bun.  
2. Crunchy green leaf of choice
3. Sprinkle some crushed poppadoms
4. Place the burger patty on top
5. A dollop of the mango salsa or mango chutney
6. Put another spoon of yogurt on the top bun

Eat! 

Mango salsa

Making mango salsa at home is pretty easy and delicious.  It goes well on almost everything as a condiment.

Ingredients to serve about 4, but of you have more just store it in a jar in the fridge:

- 1 large mango, ripe - look for creasing around the stem and give to the touch (diced)

- 1 medium to large red onion (diced) - you can also add some spring onion greens if you want that flavor

- 1 small to medium red bell pepper (diced)

- 1 bunch of cilantro (finely chopped)

- 1 bunch of mint (finely chopped)

- 5 cherry tomatoes (seeds removed and diced)

- the juice of 1 lemon or lime or 1/2 of each

- 1 tsp of olive oil

- Finely chopped green chili or jalapeno (optional)

- A pinch of kosher salt, or rock salt - fruit and salt is a great combo

- A pinch of fresh ground pepper

- A pinch of cayenne pepper - even if you skip the jalapeno peppers, you don't want to skip this, the mix of salt, sweet, sour, and spicy work really well together.

Mix it all up together and let it sit at least an hour in the fridge before serving so all the flavors can blend together.

Homemade Vegan Pho

Nothing like a hot bowl of spicy pho on a cold winter day.  This week I tried making a vegetarian pho at home, and while purists will say that's blasphemy (as pho broth must be made with meat), I think it turned out rather well and was quite quick - took about an hour form start to finish.

Ingredients (serves 3-4, depending on how hungry you are)
Broth
- 1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut in half
- 2 small shallots, peeled and cut in half
- 2 star anise
- 6 cloves
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of peppercorns
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut in half
- 2 inches of ginger, peeled and cut in half
- 1 teaspoon of non-aromatic oil like avocado or white oil
- 1/2 cup mixture of light soy sauce and rice vinegar (50-50)

Toppings/veggies
- 1/2 head of broccoli, washed and cut into bite sizes
- 2 carrots, washed and cut into slices
- A handful of mushrooms of choice, sliced
- 1 tea spoon of oil of choice
- Salt and pepper to taste
(I also added a sliced white sausage, lightly sauteed, for myself)

Dressings (this is the game changer, mix and match and see what works best for you)
- Hoisin sauce
- Shiracha
- Sliced fresh jalapenos
- Fresh Thai basil
- Fresh chopped cilantro
- Bean sprouts (I really don't like bean sprouts so I don't put any in mine)
- Sliced radish, red or white
- Wedges of lime

Noodles
- I used rice vermicelli (cook as per instructions on packet), you could use glass noodles too, works well

Process
Cut the onions, shallots, garlic, and ginger in half and toast the onions on a dry hot pan and set aside. Add the salt.  Add water and cook for as long as possible.  Add the spices 30 minutes before you want to finish meal prep in a tea bag or something like a muslin cloth and cook for 15 minutes in the broth. 

Stir-fry the mushrooms with a little bit of oil.  Blanch the carrots and broccoli and then stir fry them with the soy sauce and vinegar. 

Soak the noodles as per package instructions. Put some in a bowl. Pour the broth in through a strainer.  Add as many veggies as you would like.  Add as many toppings you prefer. Chow down :)

Curry noodles with pork sausages

A very simple recipe to make some quick noodles at home.

Ingredients:
- 1 pack of egg noodles
- 2 sprigs of spring/green onions (finely chopped)
- 1 egg
- 5 cherry tomatoes (halved)
- a couple of cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice white vinegar
- 1 green chili (optional)
- 1 pork sausage (chopped)
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tbsp of sesame oil

Process:
Soak the noodles as needed based on the packaging.  While the noodles are soaking, in a hot wok or pan heat the olive oil.  Before the oil starts smoking, throw in the white parts of the spring onions, the garlic, the green chili, and the pork sausages.  Toss it up for a few minutes while the pork sausage glazes over like the eyes of a lost puppy.

Once the noodles have soaked through, strain the water and throw in the sesame oil and toss it around so it doesn't clump.  Throw the noodles in to the wok with the sausages.  Give it a nice stir.  Add the soy sauce, the rice vinegar, curry powder, and the cherry tomatoes. Toss it around till everything mixes.  Transfer to a bowl.

In the same pan/wok fry up an egg till the bottom is nice and crispy.

Put the egg on top of the noodles and top it off with the rest of the chopped spring onions and some freshly ground pepper.

Eat wile hot!