Recipe Two on the List: Okra Fries

Another Recipe from “Chai and Pani,” a hometown Indian Street food restaurant of mine. Okra fries were often a popular appetizer there and EXTREMELY delicious. It was like a healthier version of a potato chip…you can’t just have one. My mother use to cook Okra all the time southern style. I never had any interest in even so much as trying it. Yet this amazingly simple and delicious recipe changed my pallet entirely for the vegetable. I remember I would get a family sized plate of the stuff at Chai and Pani and eat most of it by myself! Believe me, if you are a fellow okra hater, you’ll change your mind once you have this.

The original recipe for Chai and Pani is slightly different then what I went with. Not owning a deep fryer and preferring different ingredients I made some substitutions and “winged it.” This was an experiment for me of playing around until I got it pretty close to right. If you would like the original recipe, please see the reference cited below[i]. I subbed the canola oil for extra virgin olive oil, the lime for lemon, and used my roommates air fryer instead. I imagine you could also easily do this recipe sautéed on a skillet as long as you evenly space each okra strip and flip them as you go.

Recipe I went with:

• More or less 1 Lb of Okra
• 1 Lemon (go with lime if you can, I just used lemon cause it was on hand)
• Cooking oil (I used EVO or Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
• Salt to taste (or soy sauce if you prefer)

Preparation:

1^st: wash okra and be sure to rube it some with gloves on as you rinse it. Being a farmer’s son I grew up handling this stuff to sell it often. It has tiny spikes that will prick you like a tiny micro thin hair. If you get it in a supermarket it’s likely already cleaned well for you…but it may still have one or two that will give you a tiny sharp prick. Make sure you rinse it well with gloves on.

2^nd: slice okra into thing long strips. The thinner the better. The more thick they are the more difficult it will be to make them crispy when you attempt to fry or Sauté them. So it’s super important to make the slices as thin as you realistically can. A thick slice isn’t the end of the world…it just won’t likely get that delicious crispy effect when you fry it.

3^rd (This is intended for an Air fryer if you have one): place strips in a bowl and drizzle in oil of choice (mine was Olive Oil). Cover bowl or container and shake until oil is evenly coating all okra strips. Place okra in Air Fryer for 5 mins on 400 Degrees F for 5 mins.

4^th: Slice lemon/Lime into halves. Squeeze one half on to Okra evenly after first five minutes. Stir Mixture. Put Okra back in fryer for 5 mins. Then squeeze other half of lemon onto okra and stir mixture, put back in fyer for another 5 mins. Add light amounts of salt throughout process as you go. You may need to continuously add more 5 min segments until all Okra Strips become crispy and blackened. Be sure to mix the okra strips up each time you move through the 5 min. segments until satisfactory.

 

Personal Notes: A super simple recipe! But given I had to improve some and substitute some things, it wasn’t EXACTLY like Chai and Pani’s. I will say though it was pretty close though! I was able to use an Air Fryer but I imagine you could easily Sauté it instead if you don’t have an Air Fryer. Just be sure to evenly space out each strip and flip them some through the process until blackened and crispy. Place the strips in a paper towel to absorb excess oil as you go then serve. Just gradually add Lemon/lime juice and light salt as you go.

This is a delicious appetizer if it comes out right. Frankly its so addictive that one could easily just munch on these and not actually eat much of the main course. The bitter flavors of okra and the sour taste of Lemon/lime is perfectly balanced with some salt and presto! You have an addictive finger snack food!

References:

[i] https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/crispy-okra-fries/

Recipe one from the List: Spiced Pickled Chilies: Part I

In one of my favorite Indian restaurants back home in Asheville, NC “Chai and Pani”[i] they served what they called Indian Street food. From what I understood, this meant food every day Indians would eat from little street stalls in major metropolitan areas in India. Even after a year living in New York City, I’ve yet to find an Indian restaurant serving anything like what they use to serve. Their menu was truly unique and Indian dishes you would not find in any mainstream Indian place. One little thing I use to love was that they would provide little (what seemed like “pickled”) whole chilis on the side of the dishes they gave you to add to the flavor of the meal. I loved them so much I often requested they give me a whole handful extra instead of just 2-3. My favorite was this Uttapam Sandwich, which was a sort of veggie Samosa-like pastry in a burger patty shape between two hamburger buns. It was served with these chilis, and I would add a spicy mango relish. I would often just add 6-7 of the chilies to the sandwich along with the mango relish and it was the perfect combination of sour, spicy, and undertones of sweet.

As simple as these tiny chilies were, they were the perfect addition to any meal I would eat at Chai and Pani. I sometimes think what I could add them to in my own daily meals. Among one of the cookbooks I’ve collected over the years I found a recipe for pickled chilies. I’ve never actually pickled anything before. Given my general hatred of Pickles it’s not surprising. But this sounds like a fun thing to try and see if it adds something fun to garish meals with. Or, in my daring love of all things hot, have a fun thing to munch on.

Pickling requires more time then a simple prep and cook. That said, I will blog this is three parts discussing the process and experience. This is part one where I will introduce the recipe, ingredients and first part of the process.

Spiced Pickled Chilies recipe[ii]:

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp Yellow Mustard Seeds
• 4 tbsp Whole Cumin Seeds
• ¼ cup Ground Turmeric
• 2 ozs Freshly Chopped Garlic
• 20 Small Cloves of Garlic
• 2/3 Cups of White Vinegar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup Mustard Oil
• 1 Lb small fresh green Chilis
• Mason Jars for pickling process

 

Personal Notes: The original recipe calls for chopped Chilies, I am planning to leave them whole. While I was at the market looking for mustard seeds it’s an easy mistake to go for regular mustard seeds and not yellow ones. Be sure to get the yellow ones. Regular ones appear black. Mustard Oil was not located with regular cooking oils when I looked for it, I had to go to an area of my market where ethnic Indian foods were specially stocked to find it.

1^st: Get one of your mason jars and mix in yellow mustard seeds, cumin seeds, Turmeric, chopped garlic, vinegar, sugar and salt. Seal mason jar and shake. Store mason jar for 24 hours. See next instructions are part two of this blog after 24 hour period has passed.

Seems pretty simple first step right? Just put spices and vinegar together in a jar and wait a day. Ideally the mixture is supposed to infuse with the vinegar and the salt and sugar melt. In the next part we’re going to poor this mixture into a skillet with the mustard oil, whole cloves of garlic, and chilis. Which I will detail in part two. After which be prepared to store the contents for up to one week before serving. When I actually serve this recipe that will be part three. So if you take on doing this yourself, be sure you are prepared to wait about 8 days before you actually eat them.

References:

[i] http://www.chaipaniasheville.com/

[ii] Retrieved from “Best Ever Indian Cookbook” by Baljekar, Fernandez, Husain, & Kanani

A Vegetarian Julie & Julia Project for Pandemic Past-Time

Do you remember that cute film “Julie & Julia?” The story about Julia Child and her story becoming a cook in a fiercely patriarchal time and environment and writing a French cooking book? How also Julie a modern day blogger wrote a blog about cooking and eating each of the recipes she published? I do. I remember it was charming to me when it came out. I am a vegetarian. So maybe I don’t appreciate what it’s like to cook and prepare meat, nor do I wish to boil a lobster live, dead, or otherwise. But I do love cooking delicious vegetarian food. And like Julie, the person that blogged about about going through Julia Child’s cookbook in the movie, I live in Queens. In fact, I live in the neighborhood bordering north of where she lived in Long Island City, Queens: Astoria, Queens.

Like many during this pandemic time, I am looking for something fun to do. My mental health is up and down. Motivation to do some of the most basic every day things gets hard when you’re just sitting at home, on furlough, everything is closed, you have to avoid non-essential outings, and social luxuries. However, like so many, I have the option of staying at home and trying to find something to do. I wish I could say I want to give my apartment a deep cleaning and thorough dusting…but I’m just not thrilled at the aspect of that…much though I know it would be good for me.

I used to have a joy in cooking food before I entered graduate school. I got a joy in being creative with dishes and making something I loved to eat. Even cooking for others, (only if they had the pallet for spicy food…otherwise lol they wouldn’t like my cooking). However, I am not like most eaters of the world. I am a vegetarian, have many sensitivities to foods, and my pallet cannot tolerate bland food lacking the spicy sweat and tear effect.

Truthfully my stomach has always been oddly intolerant of many foods, sometimes even conventionally healthy ones, since as long as I remember. My mother always struggled to get me to eat a healthy balanced meal I wouldn’t vomit back up as a kid. When I turned Veggie at the young age of 14, she gave up on trying to cook for me and insisted I cook for myself. Which I don’t blame her, I already cooked for myself some as she was a single working mom and a frozen pizza (or something similar) was a dinner of choice already, given she got home late and I almost always did that instead. But becoming veggie was actually was a good choice for me, I started an adventure of learning how to make things for myself. Like many veggies new to the lifestyle, I just ate a bunch of easy to find veggies in the typical school cafeteria and developed a protein deficiency. I hated beans (and still do unless they’re lentils, they give me deadly gas and just taste so terrible to me). My mother and others around me were not seasoned veggies to give me advice on how to develop better and healthier dietary habits that gave me my protein needs. After my hair slowly started to thin and I was notably weaker and fatigued, my mother insisted I educate myself on better veggie options for protein. My first ever step on this was when my mom had an acupuncture school friend of hers (she was in acupuncture school at the time) come over and teach me how to make a basic tofu dish. Being a sensitive and picky eater I had sooooo much anxiety about over eating something new, but I ended up loving it! It was simple, suateed tofu with some olive oil, some simple herbs (rosemary, basil, oregano, etc.), and Tamari soy sauce. My mother was pleased I was finally getting some protein in my diet and I’d found something that satisfied my pallet and didn’t make me feel sick when I ate it. My mother’s friend left me a simple cook book to play around with on my own that she once used as a veggie hippie back in the 1960’s “Tofu Madness” compiled and edited by Nancy Olszewski. It was an old book, small, faded, and falling apart at the seam, and I still own it. No doubt it was from the 1960s or 70s.

I cooked my first ever independent, from scratch, Indian inspired dish from that book. A delicious Indian-inspired curry with baked apples, tofu, spices, and all from scratch…nothing processed, nothing premade for me. I felt a swelling sense of excitement and pride. That was the first dish I can remember making for myself from scratch and it sparked an interest in cooking that I fostered for many, many years. I would go on to develop an interest in Asian cuisines, the best cuisines for a vegetarian diet. I would start with simple spices inspired by Indian cooking…then I would venture into Thai and Japanese cooking. I would start with a low tolerance for spicy heat…and would eventually not even be able to tolerate something unless it was doused in Habanero or Thai Chilies. For years I loved making my own meals, trying new and interesting things. I would start with a recipe in a book, but then make it my own by adding and experimenting with things to taste and perfection. I would also test my own recipe against those I ate from local restaurants of the cuisine in question and attempt to find and correct the perfect taste. My mother started to get impressed with the diversity of my diet after several years passed. Seeing me make stuffed peppers, stuffed with homemade paneer from scratch with tomato-based curries and home made naan. She couldn’t believe I would make things so complex. Laughably it was not to her paleo diet-like taste…but she was impressed I developed such a diverse dietary interest when my diet use to be so restricted and hyper sensitive. We still to this day do not like the same foods and often have to eat at different restaurants or cook separately when together…but it worked for us and still does!

I lost touch with the side of me that loved cooking after I started graduate school. All the things I loved to cook were very involved and time consuming after all. Given it was all pretty much fresh ingredients from scratch, this was not a surprise looking back on it. The more time I put into my studies and internships, the less time I made to prepare good, wholesome, delicious meals…I did take-out more often and frozen dinners. I’ve occasionally still cooked but only rarely, and that dietary pattern has persisted till present. I admit cooking is work and sometimes I just don’t want to do it. But yet, it’s work that breeds satisfaction that you get to enjoy when you eat it.

So I’m going to try a little experiment to get me back in the pattern. The Gods know I have the time being furloughed in pandemic life. I’m going to take inspiration from Julie & Julia. I’m going to cook some of the following dishes taken from cook books I used to use that my mom recently sent me from back home and blog about each one. To end the adventure I will finish with the first dish I’ve ever made from “Tofu Madness”. In each Blog I’ll detail the recipe, changes I made to it, pictures of the food, and any other excerpts I can think of. I may even share some with my roommate and share his thoughts, if he wants too share :P. Though honestly I make my food so spicy very few people enjoy it except me lol. The dishes I have in mind are as follows.

 

• List of Things to Make During Pandemic Times:
  • Green Chili Pickle (Pickled Chilies to add Heat to a Meal)
  • Okra Fries (From my own Hometown’s Asheville, NC Chia and Pani)
  • Curried Stuffed peppers
  • Mushroom Curry (sub Shiitake for Baby)
  • Stuffed Aubergines (baby Eggplant) in Seasoned Tamarind Juice
  • Masala Okra
  • My own personal recipe for Tofu Tomato Creamy Curry
  • My own Personal recipe for Tofu Chili with Shiitake Mushrooms
  • My own Personal Recipe for Stuffed Bell Peppers with Homemade paneer/curry/tomato sauce stuffing
  • My own Personal recipe Tofu Chili Sushi roll with zesty sauce
  • My own Personal recipe for Thai Red Curry w/ Shiitake, Pineapple, Greens and Tofu
  • Lotus Stem Curry (requires real Lotus, special shopping required)
  • Tomato Mahashas (Stuffed tomatoes)
  • Rasam (Pepper Water, Digestion aid)
  • Lentil Soup
  • Sesame Slices
  • Anne’s Broiled tofu
  • Scrambled Tofu (Breakfest Dish, a sub for scrambled eggs)
  • Stir Fry Veggies and Tofu w/ homemade Sauce
  • Fantastic Curried Tofu from “Tofu Madness” (the first Dish I made)

We’ll see how this goes. My goal is to start with 1-2 by the end of this week, being Sunday. See how it goes.