Tandoori Baby Bellas (Oil Free Recipe)

I'm always so excited when I find new ingredients to experiment with. And I'm so thankful there are people close to Bombay growing all these lovely vegetables that would only otherwise remain fond memories of holidays I have taken in the past.

Since my last post on the  amazing "foreign" produce I found in Mumbai, I have come across so many new vegetables and leafy greens that are coming in now. One among the new finds is Baby Bellas, also known as "crimini mushroom, baby portobello, baby bella, mini bella, portabellini, Roman mushroom, Italian mushroom, or brown mushroom" says Wikipedia

I love mushrooms and I was super kicked when we started getting Oyster Mushrooms in Bombay. Now of course there are gourmet food stores selling dried and tinned varieties of many kinds. To find fresh, locally grown stuff is rare and I almost pounced on the packet of Baby Bellas when I saw them.

Portobellos have a fond food-memory corner in my brain. I ate a lot of them when I was travelling through the US. The yummiest of which was a grilled Portobello Burger I had a B.A.D. Burger in Brooklyn. I wish I had the sense to click a picture of it. After walking past the Brooklyn Bridge and walking around Brooklyn for almost two hours I was starving and I all I could think of was to eat that burger.

The first time I bought the Baby Bellas, I don't quite remember what I used them for. It was a while before I found them at my usual vegetable vendor again. This time I decided I would make something more worthwhile and document the process.

Tandoori food is something us vegans cannot enjoy at a restaurant. Everything is marinated in spicy yogurt and then grilled over a coal barbecue. I love the smell of the spices used in a Tandoori and may be one day I will gather my lazy bones to make the tandoori spice mix. This time I used a ready mix that I use every so often when I make my version of Tandoori vegetables.

It has no Chicken!

This recipe can be used on almost any vegetable like Potatoes, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Zucchini, Carrots even Tofu. I usually steam the vegetables that take longer to cook for 10 minutes or so before I marinate them. Since Mushrooms cook quickly, there is no need to steam them. This recipe is also oil free because for one, the cashews have enough (good) fat in them to see the mushrooms through to the end and secondly who needs oil in their diet?


You need:

250gms of Baby Bellas (Or whatever vegetable you are using)
1/2 cup of raw, unsalted cashews powdered
3 tsp of Tandoori Chicken Masala (I like it spicy but you can start with 2tsp and add more if you like)
2 cloves of Garlic
1 inch piece of Ginger
1/2 tsp Rock Salt
1/4 tsp of Black Salt
Juice of 1 Lime
Water

Wash and cut off a small portion of the stems of the mushrooms. Halve or quarter the mushrooms.

In a small bowl, mix the cashew powder, tandoori masala, garlic, ginger, salt and lime juice. Add water and make a thick paste. It should be a thick mayonnaise-like consistency. Add this to the mushrooms, mix well and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Let it rest in the fridge overnight or for 6 to 8 hours. I kept mine for almost a whole day.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 25 to 35 mins covered with aluminium foil.

My herb mill being put to good use

Serve hot with some mint chutney

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Vegan Yogurt - Peanut and Cashew

Let me start with a disclaimer first. No matter what you do, your alternative to dairy in any form (milk, cheese, butter and so on) is never going to taste as if it is made from an animal milk. So if someone tells you to add coconut/ cashew/ rice/ peanut/ almond/ oat milk to your tea or coffee, know that in doing so you will not get what your tongue has been used to 20 years. Instead you will get a brand new flavour that will require some unlearning and relearning but is so much more better than an animal product in so many ways.

Dairy products play a big part in every Indian meal.  I love how people say they eat "half a teaspoon of curd" for lunch or add "one drop of milk" to their coffee or tea. It's never true. Dairy is so prevalent in our food and our culture, it is very hard to avoid if you are not paying attention.

This post deals with something most people attempting veganism are struggling to give up or replace - yogurt / curd. The best part about dairy alternatives for curd is that you can make curd out of so many different raw materials and each has its own taste and flavour that can be adapted to savoury and sweet needs. Imagine having 10 different kinds of plain yogurt.

I have tackled peanut and cashew curd in this post. Many people use dairy curd to start off their yogurt cycle, but I prefer not to contaminate mine. To set it into curd, I have used the stems of fresh green chillies. This practice is known to a few and is used to set dairy curd. But the idea to use it for non-dairy curd was thanks to Harini of Tongue Ticklers. She has done it before here.

When I gave up dairy, I also gave up the south-indian idea of eating a big serving of curd after every meal. So I do not make curd on a daily basis.

Soaked and drained peanuts

When you are starting off, always make them in small quantities because most often than not, they are not going to set as you want the first time. If you are using green chillies, wash the entire green chilli and carefully pluck out the stem. Do not wash the stem again. Store a small portion of this curd to set the subsequent curds as you would do with dairy milk. You can also freeze a portion to use it later.

You will need:
a grinder
a sieve

For the peanut curd:
1/2 cup peanuts soaked for 4 hours and drained
1 1/2 cups water
stems of 8 to 10 green chillies

Grind the peanuts in a grinder with half a cup of water. Put it through the sieve and squeeze out the milk from the fiber into a heavy bottom vessel. Put the fibre back into the grinder with half more cup of water. Grind and sieve. Repeat once more. You now have peanut milk, a white frothy liquid that has a concentrated taste of peanuts.

Warm this peanut milk while stirring continuously. It takes about 3 minutes to get to a lukewarm temperature. Take it off the stove. If it is too hot wait for it to cool a little bit. Add the stems of the green chillies and it is remain in a cool dark place for 10 to 12 hours. I usually keep it in the oven overnight.

What you should get after it "sets" is a light yogurt floating on top and excess water below. Remove the chilli stems. If you want a thick curd, scoop out this floating mass. If you are going to make buttermilk use it with the water. Store it in the refrigerator.

Peanut curd is very strong in taste. It is quite putting off if consumed plain. The best way to consume peanut curd is to make it into a raita by adding flavouring spices, salt, chillies and grated vegetables. Or make it into a buttermilk by adding salt, asafoetida and a chilli-curry leaf paste. I have also used peanut curd to replace dairy curd in cooked dishes like kadhis, kurmas and avials.

Peanut Curd

For cashew curd:
1/2 cup cashew pieces soaked for 4 hours and drained
3/4 cup water
stems of 8 to 10 green chillies

Grind the cashew in a grinder with the water into a smooth fine paste. Put it in a heavy bottom pan and heat it for 3 minutes.

Add the green chilli stems and let it sit still in a cool, dark place for 10 hours or so.

This one sets much more thicker than the peanuts. There is no seperation. Once it is set, it bubbles as you touch it. Store it in the refrigerator.

Cashew curd tastes a bit more sour but sweeter. It doesn't have a dominating flavour like peanuts so it can be enjoyed plain. It can be used for raitas and also in sweet dishes.

 Cashew Curd

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UFO attacked my pasta- How I saved the world one bite at a time

As I was walking down the supermarket aisle I noticed an odd looking pasta shape. I picked it up thinking we could use it for dinner that night and then kept it back because we decided to make our own pasta. But then when I looked at it again I actually noticed what it was. It was UFO shaped pasta! I remember seeing all kinds of unmentionable shapes and colours in Italy. But UFOs?! As weird as it may sound, the pack was filled with the cutest little durum wheat alien vehicles. How could I not pick it up?!

Uncooked UFOs

Cooked UFOs

We ended up making Lasagna for dinner that night, but the next morning our pasta quota wasn't over just as yet. It was almost brunch time till I decided I was going to attempt the American junk classic Macaroni and Cheese. I searched the internet for inspiration and then finally came up with my own version using whatever I had and thought was healthy enough to be added into the sauce.

Here's how it went.

You need:

1 cup whole cashews
1/3rd cup Nutritional Yeast
3 cloves of Garlic
1 small Onion
1 tbsp Corn Starch
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
Salt
Pepper
Water

2 cups Cooked Pasta

Blend the cashews till they are a fine powder. Don't let it get to the butter stage. Add in the nutritional yeast, garlic, onion and blend. It might all clump up together. Add a little water to make it a fine paste.

In a saucepan, mix the corn starch, soy sauce and mustard powder. Add a little water and bring to a boil. Add in the cashew paste and add water little bit at a time till it gets to a nice thick consistency. Add salt, pepper and take it off the stove.

At this stage I added some chopped capsicum but you could leave it out if you want or add any vegetables of your choice.

Mix it with the cooked pasta in a bake proof dish and bake for 10 minutes at 175C till the top browns a bit.

Serve hot.

We're safe now. I ate the last UFO.

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Cashew, Coconut, Cows and Cholesterol

Lets get this straight, Cholesterol is only made by animals (including our own livers) and hence found in animal origin products like milk, butter,curds/yogurt, ghee, cheese, eggs and all kinds of meats (fish is also meat).

When I tell people I make/ eat cheese made with cashews or I use Coconut milk, many times they are baffled about how much cholesterol I am putting into my body. A Vegan diet is absolutely free of cholesterol because it omits anything that comes from an animal.

What baffles me even more is that when I look at dairy product labels, they say it's cholesterol free. I once read the nutrient table on a pack of flavoured yogurt (Go Dahi by Gowardhan Dairy) and I was surprised that the cholesterol content was a nice, big zero. I wrote to them asking how is that possible? Are they actually removing the cholesterol out of milk?! I got a reply saying that milk contains 10mg of cholesterol per 100g and since they only have to list the 'nutritional facts' till the first decimal per 10gms of the product, they are not bound by law to mention how much cholesterol is there in 100gms or 200 gms or whatever the weight of their product.

I don't know how much cholesterol is there in milk. The site promoting the Indian dairy industry states that cows milk has 3.14mg of cholesterol per gram. But it could be wrong since there are many conflicting articles about the amount of cholesterol in milk. All I know is that it has cholesterol and I don't need it.

Anything that comes from plants including plant based oils like peanut and coconut oil, all the nuts like cashews, almonds, peanuts - do NOT have any cholesterol, despite what people tell you. Just ask them to do some reading (which they don't do and continue to believe some crazy things). I don't think that most doctors even remember what cholesterol is anymore, so asking doctors might not be a good idea. But you have to know that oils are highly refined foods and devoid of any nutrition. It is much better to eat some peanuts rather than add peanut oil to your food, that way the food is going into your body with the fiber intact. Oils have zero fiber like all animal products (meat, fish, milk and eggs) and when you consume a diet high in non-fibrous food you are asking for trouble. Many people have successfully reversed heart disease, diabetes and obesity just by eating only fibrous food and omitting all animal products, oils and other refined foods.

Besides the questions and worried looks I get about cholesterol, I also get questions about calcium and protein. I found a good article about cows milk and implications of its consumption here: http://veg.ca/content/view/139/110/

Cholesterol is essential for our body, but our livers make it for us. Many people have been able to lead healthier lives by totally eliminating the cholesterol and the unnecessary saturated fats that are found in all products of animal origin. Plants do contain minuscule amounts of sterols (28gms in about 565 kgs) which are similar in their structure to that of animal origin cholesterol. But no one will ever tell you that the carrot on your plate is going to give you a heart attack.

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