Quick Skillet Garlic Green Beans

Sometimes there is perfection in the simplest of things. Like a bunch of french beans, quickly sauteed in light olive oil, with a little caramelized garlic and a sprinkling of chilli flakes for heat. Served over rice, with a soft boiled egg, this is my idea of a perfect meal.

We eat beans a lot. All kinds. This long beans stir fry is a favorite. And then of course there are dried beans ( lentils) of all kinds. Red Beans and Pumpkin Eriserry, Yellow Dal and Green Mung, and another simple ever-favorite, the humble Horsegram (Muthira) What's not to love about legumes? They are inexpensive, easy and quick to cook, nutritious and delicious.

I am sharing this green beans saute with some other legume lovers over at My Legume Love Affair that was started by Susan  and is now being run by Lisa, and if you love legumes as much as we do, you should definitely join in the fun. 

Do you think beans are boring ? Or do you think of magic, and of Jack and the beans stalk? Of something amazing that can come from something so ordinary? 

Whenever I see beans, I think of my little brother. He is not so little now, but when you have a brother who is nine years younger than you, he is your first baby and will always be. My sister and I and we were fiercely protective of him from the second he was born. While my sis and I went through our share of sibling rivalry and quarrels, with my brother things were different. We big sisters were happy to pamper him. He was just the cutest little kid. Light brown eyes framed by long lashes, and the sweetest, widest smile on his chubby face. Most little girls had dolls to play with. My sister and I were lucky enough to have our own live, little doll! Yes, the poor thing had to go through a lot of tea time, dress-up and worse! 

I could not believe it when I went off to college and during that time our happy chatterbox grew into a quiet teen who towered over us at 6 feet tall. Today I cannot believe he is twenty, almost done with his studies and ready to join the work force.

But once, he was five, and a sweet little boy who, like Jack, had a beanstalk. Well, my mother planted it, but it was the five year old, whose job it was to water it and he did so, enthusiastically. One of my most cherished photographs has a disheveled, chubby little toddler, who (in my mind at least) can never grow up, dutifully watering his beans plant. And that's the image that came into my mind, looking at that bag of beans at Costco.

 

I don't shop at Costco ( a popular warehouse store that has stores across the US and some other countries) too often, but every two months or so I make a trip there, armed with a long list. I bring back giant bottles of nuts, bags of rice, cereal, pasta and sugar and other staples and very occasionally some treats like those fantastic chocolate covered berries or giant bottles of nutella that really should be out lawed. I take shopping for groceries very seriously and like to take my time, moving slowly from one aisle to the next, scanning every ingredient list and tasting samples. Grocery shopping is just one of those things I really, really enjoy. I think I just like to be surrounded by food or the promise of the many meals I will get to cook :)

This time I was happy to see a huge bag of tender green beans, and I had only this one thing in mind to do with them- sautee them with garlic, and that's all I did with the entire bag. No complaints.

Quick Skillet Garlic Green Beans

Ingredients:

• French Green Beans or String Beans- 1 1/2 pounds
• Garlic- 5 cloves sliced into wedges
• Chilli flakes- 1-2 tsp ( optional) 
• Extra light Olive Oil or Canola oil- 2 tbsp 
• Salt to taste

Directions:

Cut the end off the green beans and if you like cut them up into shorter pieces ( easier to eat this way)
Heat the oil in a skillet and saute the garlic until crisp and light brown.
Add the chilli flakes and salt and stir for a few seconds
Add the washed and cut beans and stir to cover evenly with the oil.
Cover the skillet with a lid and leave to cook, stirring occasionally.
The beans should still have a bite to them but no longer taste raw.
Serve with rice or as a side to meat or pasta. 

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blueberry coconut vegan scones - no butter, no eggs

Hope you are all having a good summer. Can you believe that it's almost August already? I think this is my favourite season (but then, I do say that every season! ) Picnics, trips to the beach, bbqs, road trips...summer is just the perfect time for fun and for portable, finger friendly food, that you can pack and take along, like these blueberry coconut scones. 

We made a trip up to beautiful Carmel some time ago and I baked up these blueberry scones to take with us.  I made them with coconut milk so my little dairy allergic munchkin could have them too, but you could use any kind of milk. For good measure I tossed in some shredded coconut and blueberries which bubbled and burst in the oven, leaking rivulets of purple juices.

Isn't it kind of weird that blueberries are actually a translucent green inside? When you bake them, the inside turns purply too. Baking really makes blueberries even better, turning them jammy and juicy and wonderful.

These are not exactly like the traditional butter scones. These are super simple and quick to make- everything gets mixed together in one bowl with a fork.  The batter is somewhat loose and you drop them by the tablespoons and bake. That's it. They are as delicious though, with a crisp exterior and all tender and soft inside- good on their own, fantastic with some buttery spread and preserves. 
You can skip the coconut if you are not a coconut lover and replace the coconut milk with any other milk. Play around with them- a little zest, some spice, dried fruit?  

Here is a picture from Carmel, on a drive to Big Sur. I had to walk down small trail, braving poison oak and stand on the edge of a cliff, risking my neck to take this pic for you all. It is a truly beautiful place, simply spectacular sights and if we stopped every time I wanted to enjoy the jaw-dropping view and take pictures, the drive would have taken us several days at least. 

Downtown Carmel is like walking into a fairytale. There are moss covered cottages filled with sweets, quaint tea shops, galleries and secret passages. The Monterey Bay aquarium is also close by so if you are making a trip that side, it is definitely worth visiting too.

It was quite sad to come away from a truly dreamy weekend there, but I'm glad to have the memories, pictures and these scones!  

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Kerala Beans Stirfry/ Payar Mezhukkupuratti

When ever our large clan gets together in Kerala, all the women folk converge at the kitchen table and you will hear them laughing and talking as their fingers fly splitting open long pods of beans into neat little piles of shiny plump little beans. We kids used to run around the group of aunties who didn't seem to mind or even notice us as they peeled and chopped onions, pounded spices, sizzled mustard seeds, stirred curries and efficiently cooked enough food to feed an army or one hungry brood!

This time when I visited Kerala, I very eagerly joined my aunts in the kitchen. They were very patient with how slow I was compared to them and they overlooked the fact my pile comprised of more pod bits. I still don't have the patience to carefully pry open even the stubborn tender parts of the bean pod which house the tiniest of beans so I break off that part of the pod with the skin though my aunts can coax a bean out of even the narrowest parts of the pods.





This simple garlicy and spicy stir fry of beans is made very often and it's one of my favourites. I could eat a bowlful and it is very easy to make, if you can get past the pesky shelling or do what I do and simply break up the pods into little sticks if you don't mind the skin like me.


I was very happy to see these long beans at the farmer's market here. I think they are called Red Chinese long beans here and are available all year round. As soon as I saw the bunch I immediately wanted to make them into this beans stir fry which is all I can imagine making with them! You can use any variety, even french beans which you wouldn't be able to shell but simply break up. 


This type of preparation using just oil and spice sometimes onion and garlic is called "Mezhukkupuratti" in most parts of Kerala, meaning smeared with oil. It is often used to cook a variety of vegetables and is one of the most basic and popular ways to cook vegetables in South India. Thoran is a similar vegetable preparation but with the addition of shredded coconut and often tempered mustard seeds as well.


I know I post a lot of cake on this blog. I enjoy baking and I do love cake. But what we eat most of the time are simple vegetable or lentil dishes like this that get cooked in a hurry, usually about an hour before  dinner time and it's too late and too dark to take pictures. This year I hope to share more of these delicious and healthy dishes which very unfairly didn't get the attention that they deserve. Hopefully this will motivate me to also start cooking earlier, not scramble around in the evening trying to throw a meal together. Thankfully quick, healthy meals like this can also be super delicious!

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Peas and Tomato Curry and Happiness

It's a little late to wish you a Happy New Year. Still I hope you all had a great time and have a truly wonderful, blessed year ahead. 
Our New Year was pretty low key, just the three of us at home, still it was nice. A bottle of champagne, The BEST pizza EVER - and it was home made! (recipe coming soon, I promise) chocolate truffles from Wholefoods (Surprisingly good. Surprising since it is vegan) and a movie in our pj's. 

I didn't even make a long list of resolutions to go and break in a week. Infact it was only today, as I was typing this post-my first, shiny new post of year 2012,  that I decided to make just one. 

No, this year I am not even going to bother resolving to hit the gym or to only eat salad. I know I would rather dance and jump around with my toddler than lift weights right now. It cracks me up that he's learnt to say "Shake it!"  and that most of his dance moves right now involve clapping or spinning around dizzily. 
I know that I will try to cook healthy food like this green peas curry in tangy tomato gravy that I will enjoy eating too, but sometimes I will want a slice of cake. 

Yes, this year I have only one resolution: To be happy. 

My dad told me once how he read somewhere- that even if you are not feeling happy, if you decide that you are and even if you act happy you can convince your brain that you are!
In other words, happiness is in your mind and you can make up your mind that you will be happy no matter how anxious, guilty, or just plain sad you feel. 
And if you are happy then people around you, you kids, your spouse will be happy and you end up uplifting your whole family, your workplace, heck maybe even the world! 
I really hope you try this easy and healthy peas curry. I am quite sure that it will make you happy -at least while you eat it :) 

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Sambhar and Cilantro Coconut Chutney

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free, Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.....Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake" Rabindranath Tagore 

 I am grateful to be free today and not shackled by terror and fear, pain, disease, anxiety, guilt, and hunger. While celebrating freedom, and everything Indian that I love and hold dear today, being India's 64th Independence day I decided to post a very simple recipe for Sambar and Coconut Cilantro Cutney as an accompaniment for morning idlis. Sambar a typical Tamilian dish, is a simple lentil stew with vegetables and spices is one of the most well known and common everyday dishes, not just in the south but thanks to the popularity of masala dosa and idlis, everywhere in the country.  Truly, sambar, idli and dosa makes the nation come together!

When I was studying I lived in our college hostel in Tamil Nadu and  what started off as dhal or parripu in the afternoon, would sometimes turn into rasam at night or sambhar in the morning! Perhaps not the best place to develop a love affair with Sambhar, but I blame that daily morning dose or (rather dosa! ) for my lifelong obsession with Sambhar and with lentils. One time during the rainy season while we were all gathered in the mess hall for breakfast, the usual morning chatter of over a hundred hostelites was broken by a loud shriek. What happened was this: one of the girls was eating her dosa and sambar and took a dab at a curry leaf and to her shock, it moved! turned out the "curry leaf" was actually a small slug that had fallen into the sambhar!  Not the nicest story to associate with sambhar, but everytime I eat sambar, I remember that rainy morning, and the many meals made better because it was shared with large groups of chattering girls. How I miss them all! 


Here is a more delightful little story entitled I love him and he does not like sambhar  over at mylittlemagazine that I chanced upon today which I really identified with, being a Madrasi ( actually Malayali from Kerala) in Mumbai for two months, I was asked hilarious questions like " Is Bangalore in Madras?" No, they are two cities in two different states, I would patiently reply to much nodding for anything south of Mumbai is termed South India and loosely Madras! I sought to explain how each state has its own distinct identity, language, culture and food. And seriously, it never ceases to amaze me. 

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Kerala Kitchen: Idiyappam, Noolappam, String hoppers

If you have been to Kerala you would have most likely come across String hoppers or Idiyappam, which  is a noodle like dish eaten mostly at breakfast. It is made from steamed rice flour forced through a special mold. The beautiful brass mold or "kozhal" in the pictures belongs to my mother-in-law and so does this recipe.

Strangely I didn't like noolappam very much as a kid and I noticed my little nephews didn't take to them too much either, preferring their PBJ's to this weird looking dish that seemed like a cross between noodles and idlis! You can try serving them soaked in coconut milk and sprinkled with sugar, the way my grandmother tried to entice us to eat them. But don't be too disappointed if they don't like them- more for the rest of us!

These idiyappams made me very kerala-sick and I dug up some pictures of  the river next to my grandmother's house in Kerala. Isn't she beautiful?Perfect for little girls to stare into her depths from the vangi or canoe cut out of the bark of a coconut tree, perfect to go swimming in with a bunch of cousins and their dogs. We would stretch out a towel under the water, drop a few grains of rice and catch the little fish that greedily attacked the rice. I still love to skittle pebbles off it's surface, watch buffaloes being bathed, watch long snakelike onam boat racers pass by leaving behind floating garlands. These Noolappams are just meant to be eaten while you sit at the water's edge and listen to your grandmothers stories. 

Stringhoppers/Idiyappam/ Noolappam

Recipe source: My mother in law

Equipment

• Idiyappam mold
• Idli steamer
• Large covered pot or pressure cooker which will fit the idli steamer
• Mixing bowl & spoon / stand mixer
• Stove 

Ingredients:

• Rice flour- 2 cups ( I recommend the double horse brand available at most Indian grocery stores.It yields very soft and delicate results!)
• Water- 2 cups ( you might need upto 2 cups more depending on the type of rice flour you use) 
• Salt- 1/4 tsp

Method

• Roast the rice flour in a wok over the stove. Stir it occasionally so that the flour at the bottom does not burn and turn brown. You will know that its done when the rice flour no longer clings to the side of the vessel but comes off easily. Also if you take a pinch between your fingers you will see that its much coarser texture now.
• Boil water until bubbling
• Take the roasted rice flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and attach dough hooks and mix on slow setting. You could also use a bowl and a wooden spoon.
• Add the boiling water a little at a time and mix until well combined and the dough starts coming together as a ball. 
• Take enough of the still warm dough and fill the idiyappam mold
• Press out the equivalet of an idli size into the greased (with vegetable oil) idli steamer.
• Continue and stack the idli steamer tiers alternatively so that the depressions don't squish the idiyappams on the tier below.
• Steam them for about 5-10 mins in a large covered pot with about an inch of water, not touching the dough, until done and cooked through.If using a pressure cooker, don't use the whistle.

Idiyappams are usually served hot with  spicy egg masala or a coconut milk based curry/stew or even with chickpeas. If your prefer your sweet to savoury, you can soak these noolappams in coconut or regular cow's milk and sprinkle sugar on top.

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