Potato, green bean, kidney bean curry

Whenever my son announces he wants to cook dinner I'm delighted because I know we'll be having great food. He doesn't use recipes in a conventional way or measure ingredients, so it's usually hard to pin him down on just what he's added; but this time he was inspired by a recipe from one of my favorite Indian cookbooks, and I grilled him on what he did, so I could share his interpretation of the recipe.

He started with "Spiced Green Beans" from Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi and David Baird." With this recipe as inspiration, he changed spices and added ingredients to come up with a truly delicious main course dish.


Potato-green bean-kidney bean curry

• 1 – 2 tablespoons oil (or half oil and half Earth Balance margarine)
  
• 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 12 ounces fresh green beans, stems trimmed
• 12 ounces canned chopped tomatoes in their juice
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 small potatoes, cubed and steamed until half cooked
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• handful chopped fresh cilantro
• salt to taste

1. Heat the oil and fry the cumin seeds and mustard seeds until the cumin seeds darken and the mustard pops and turns gray, about a minute.
2. Add the onion and saute until it softens, about a minute or two. Add the green beans and cook about 2–3 minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes and simmer about a minute.
4. Add the water, potatoes, turmeric and kidney beans, cover and simmer 10 minutes.
5. Add the sugar, some cilantro and salt to taste, cover and simmer about 10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and the sauce reduces and thickens.
6. Garnish and serve with brown basmati rice.

Quick post on my continuing affair with granola

Affair? Yes. I've fallen in love with granola. I've been making granola pretty regularly - I'm obsessed, actually - ever since I posted a recipe. I've revised the recipe slightly by adding a cup of raw walnuts, which toast up to crunchy perfection. I also mostly use regular rolled oats instead of instant (or a mix of both) and I've changed my mind about the chocolate chips. The first time I added them I thought it was daring — now I think it's necessary! Sometimes I add an extra cup of oats (7 instead of 6) so it will last a little longer, and I tried using dried apples instead of dates. Dates are better. I've gotten lazy about the stirring, too. I recommend stirring in from the edges every 10 minutes, but I only did it every 20 last time. I actually look forward to getting up and eating breakfast when the granola is in the cupboard. Who knew that was all it would take...



Buffy says hi

Vegan Pad Thai

We went to another cooking class last weekend but this one wasn't vegan. It was a Chinese spring roll, scallion pancake and won ton soup class. I checked with the instructor beforehand, and he promised to include some vegan friendly versions. He did make a vegan (and a shrimp and a chicken) spring roll, and the pancakes were vegan, but our samples were pretty meager compared to the rest of the class, who got to sample everything, including pork won tons and soup. Oh well. It was great to watch his technique for rolling up spring rolls and folding won tons. And the pancakes were excellent. I admit that I find it incredibly exciting to watch a professional chef mince garlic and ginger, whether I get to taste the results or not, and our teacher minced the garlic so fast you could barely see the knife move. (Is my life too sheltered?) He gave us recipes but he didn't actually measure anything himself as he cooked. He said he had a "feeling" about how much to add, which makes perfect sense to me. I know that feeling. I'm itching to go make scallion pancakes right now without a recipe, but then I won't be able to post about it. (We had scallion pancakes in Seattle but they were much greasier than these.) I'm sorry to say I didn't take any pictures. Honestly, the food didn't stay on the plates long enough to photograph it - there were some very hungry people in that class! The teacher will be doing a vegan Chinese class in May. Woohoo.

I don't have anything to post yet from the class (I may make the pancakes), but I do have something from the last class we took. I'm finally going to post a recipe for vegan pad thai, but first a few words about tamarind. I've been reading about the tamarind fruit and I can't quite figure out how to describe this ingredient correctly - there are so many versions. I've only experienced two of the forms, so I'm limiting myself to those. The tamarind in our class came in a can and was pre-mixed. It was a "cooking" tamarind rather than the sweeter dessert kind of tamarind. We just opened the can and poured it out. That seemed to work. At our house we have a small jar of something called tamarind concentrate. It is actually from India, not Thailand, and is quite thick and tart with a little jab of sweet. If this is what you have, I'm recommending you mix a teaspoon into 1/4 cup of water and the juice of a lime for a little extra tang. Add judiciously, until it seems right to you. You may need all of it or not, depending on personal preference.

Pad Thai (adapted and printed with permission)

• 2 limes, one juiced and one cut into wedges or half moons
  
• 1/2 cup canned tamarind paste (look for "cooking tamarind" rather than sweet tamarind) or 1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate in 1/4 cup water and the juice of one lime
  
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground dried chilies (more to taste)
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1/3 cup agavé syrup
• 3 tablespoons tamari
• 1 package Thai rice noodles (1/4"-wide flat noodles)
• 2 tablespoons veg. oil
• 8 green onions, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 2/3 cups bean sprouts (half will be cooked and half used for garnish)
• 1 large carrot, cut into 1" x 1/2" x 1/8" thick (or whatever small size you want)
  
• 2 cups broccoli, cut small (I'm sure I used much more than 2 cups. Who measures broccoli?)
• 8 ounces firm tofu, small cubes (optional)
  
• 1/3 cup chopped peanuts, toasted (best if you toast them yourself but pre-toasted will do)
  

1. Soak the rice noodles covered with warm water in a large bowl until they are limp and white, about 20 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the garlic and cook until golder, about 1 minute. Add the carrots, broccoli and tofu (if using) and stir-fry about 4 minutes.
3. Drain the noodles and add to the wok. Add bean sprouts, green onions, shallots, tamari, tamarind, agave and chilies. Toss until the noodles are heated through and the veggies are cooked.
4. Sprinkle with peanuts, bean sprouts and raw green onions and serve immediately with a slice of lime.