Tag: cumin

Indian cooking

A while ago, one of my former student from India offered me a set of Indian spices… It took me a while to know what to do, and finally, upon recommendation of a Canadian friend who cooked for me an amazing Indian curry some years ago, I asked for Vij’s at Home: Relax, Honey: The Warmth and Ease of Indian Cooking as a xmas present. I browsed it several times, looking for inspiration, and was overwhelmed by the abundance of recipes I wanted to test, not knowing where to start. But when I saw beautiful cauliflowers at the farmers market on Saturday, I remembered that cauliflower recipe I saw and rush for one. We are lucky that in Chiba they also grow tomatoes that in winter are perfect for tomato sauce: large, very ripe and sweet.

So back home in front of the pantry full of bins with so many spices I don’t know about yet… I started to cook following the recipe, more or less… oups I don’t have coriander seeds… nor fresh ginger…

So here is my version of Vij’s cauliflower steak, that I served with Japanese rice, like a vegetable curry-rice. It was super delicious, so I imagine that with the two missing ingredients it is probably even better… but now who cares!

Spicy cauliflower (for 2)

– 1/2 cauliflower

– 1 large ripe tomato

– 1/2tsp of salt

– 1/2tsp of ground tumeric

– 1/2tsp of ground chilly pepper

– 1tsp of ground cumin

– 4 cloves

– 1 stick of cinnamon

– a bit of oil (I used olive oil and rice oil)

In a bit of oil I first reduce the tomato to tomato sauce. Then add all the other ingredients but the cauliflower and stir well. When it’s all creamy, I add the cauliflower cut in 4 pieces. Cook at low heat under cover until tender but not mushy.

Serve and eat immediately!!!

Canola – 菜の花

The season has come already for canola – 菜の花 – nanohana. They mark that we are now heading towards the coldest times of the year and slightly more gloomy. January is marked by beautiful weather and it moves slowly  into more rainy days. The bright green of the leaves and yellow of the flowers are illuminating these cold days and given a very first taste of spring. They also offer a good green option to spinach and cabbage! They can be cooked in many different ways and are part of Japanese traditional preparation of the season. I’ve already presented a few different, not very classic, recipes with canola: a quiche, an omelet…

Today I tried a new preparation and used the canola as I would use broccoli or cauliflower. I prepared it with chickpeas (boiled before) and with carrots. I first cooked the carrots in a bit of olive oil, then added the chickpeas, a tsp of cumin powder, salt, pepper, then added the washed and cut canola, and cooked under cover for s few minutes until the green leaves become very bright. Then I just added a little of olive oil, stirred and served. That’s all!

Vegan patties and cumin baby spinach

I got a nice bunch of fresh baby spinach at the farmers market and wasn’t sure about what to do about it. A salad of course, but lately evenings have been chilly and I wanted to eat something warm. Yet not completly ruined them: like in a tart or in an omelet. So I just washed them and steam them for a few minutes, add some cumin piwder and cumin seeds, that’s it!  I served it with some ripe and sweet tomatoes diced and some grilled cereals patties. Here I use a vegan burger mix. I usually don’t use these kind of products and I should work on my own mix but really this vegan burger mix, slightly spicy is really good, I just don’t look at what are the ingredients inside for once!!

I didn’t use any seasoning with the tomatoes because they are ripe, juicy and swwet, just on the side a bit of curcuma powder and salt and pepper.

Pasta dinner!

Recently I’ve been cooking Japanese a lot for dinner. For sure I love Japanese rice, but I also love pasta!!! So I come up with a little autumn recipe for some delicious fusilli: leek, tomato and kabocha, with a few cumin seeds and plenty of olive oil. A perfect dinner before my evening meeting with the other side of the world!!

I simply cut in small pieces all the veggies, cook them in a bit of oil then under cover until golden add generously pepper and cumin seeds. Boil the pasta, and serve together.

Spinach and tomato tart with chick pea dough

Chick pea flour is really easy to use. Mixed with some water and fried, you make soca, a little bit thicker you can make panisse. I love pies because they can prepared in advance and are handy when work is really busy. Today I wanted to try a pie dough with chick pea flour. I mixed chick pea flour, water, olive oil, salt and pepper to obtain a soft dough. I roughly shape it to my pie dish with ghe fingers. Then I’ve cut tomatoes and lined them on the bottom, cover with finely cut spinach, snd a batter of tofu and eggs season with cumin, and finish with a few tomato slices. Bake for 30 minutes and it smells so good… can’t wait to try it!!!

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