When Sarah wrote about organic eggs with air ticket vs. not so organic and local road weary eggs she hit the nail on one of my biggest quibble about life in the emirates – my ecological food-print. The ecological ‘foodprint’ that I was once so proud of has all but collapsed under the weight of the large pile of plastics I collect every time I shop for groceries. There are cans, cans and more cans, then there’s packaging, shopping bags, little bags to pick up vegetables in. Honestly, my waste doesn’t get separated and no I don’t make my own compost for the 4 and a half pots I grow on my window sill. No garden fresh vegetables so naturally no room for my 0 to 100 mile food ideology.

100 mile diet is a phrase familiar to anyone who has decided to make local food a larger part of their diet, and it refers to food that’s grown or sourced within a hundred miles of where you live. Local food systems are an alternative to the global corporate models where producers and consumers are on two opposing sides, separated by a sea of middlemen, manufacturers, shippers and retailers. If local food systems are in place there’s a return of a ‘relationship’ between the consumer and the producer, encouraging quality control not only in the product but also in the method of production. In the UAE it therefore becomes imperative that we as consumers acknowledge and encourage local growers. If local growers are encouraged, in time we can create a right market for ethically treated, organic products as well.

For me its difficult to take sides, while on one hand organic is good, importing food by airplane has a carbon footprint 6 times larger than getting the same food by road. When I cook my traditional meals at home, more often than not, the ingredients are sourced from more than 3 to 4 countries outside the Emirates. But yes living here in the harsh climates of the deserts it is a decidedly unequal battle we have to wage. But small changes can make our choices better for our environment and for us.

Go Vegetarian (of course I would say that!) The biggest thing you can do to reduce the environmental impact of your food consumption is to eat less or NO meat! I read somewhere that producing 1 pound of beef uses up 50 times more water than 1 pound of soybeans, and some more statistics which were quite shocking. Eating fruits and vegetables that are in season, locally grown or grown close to home, for all of us living in the emirates, could be a good place to start. Cooking more at home is another way of reducing your foodprint.

Environmental vegetarians call for a reduction of first world consumption of meat. According to the United Nations Population Fund “the ecological footprint of an average person in a high-income country is about six times bigger than that of someone in a low-income country and many more times bigger than in the least-developed countries.” UNPF goes on to say how the Americans consume meat 1.5 times the industrial world average, three times the East Asian average, and 40 times the average in Bangladesh. At the same time, Worldwatch Institute says, “massive reductions in meat consumption in industrial nations will ease the health care burden while improving public health; declining livestock herds will take pressure off rangelands and grainlands, allowing the agricultural resource base to rejuvenate. As populations grow, lowering meat consumption worldwide will allow more efficient use of declining per capita land and water resources, while at the same time making grain more affordable to the world’s chronically hungry.” And finally my favourite argument, from a 2010 UNEP report, “Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.”

In the Emirates it’s a challenging call for vegetarians who often have to make do. But on the flip side I’d say things are good in a convoluted sort of way, since we end up cooking and eating more at home. Here’s the recipe from today’s lunch, crunchy winter vegetables cooked in mustard oil seasoned with Bengali style five spice (paanch phoron) and methi dhal, my absolute favourite dhal to make.

ACHARI WINTER VEGETABLES (my own invention)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup cauliflower florets, use as much stem as you can, I even chop up the stalk and leaf
1 carrot sliced
1 Indian radish/mooli sliced
1/2 cup of fresh green peas
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon paanch phoron (seeds of mustard, fenugreek, nigella, cumin, and fennel, in equal measure)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar
salt to taste
2 tablespoon mustard oil to cook, or any oil of your choice

Method
1. Heat the mustard oil in a pan upto smoking point, then lower flame to cool down the oil a little – this is the general method followed while cooking with mustard oil I suppose its to reduce the pungency of the golden oil – splutter the five spices, add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste, turn on the heat and saute until the onions turn pink.
2. Add the turmeric, paprika, salt, sugar, stir.
3. Add the vegetables and teaspoon vinegar, combine, cover and cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Then mix once more, cover and cook on low heat, until the vegetables are tender but still have a bite to them.

METHI DHAL
Ingredients
1 cup cooked pigeon peas/arhar dhal/toor dhal
1 small onion, finely chopped
2,3 garlic pods, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
3 cherry bomb dried chillies (or any dried chilly)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon Kasoori Methi (dried methi leaves)
1 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in a pan, drop the chillies, splutter the mustard, and finally add the onions and garlic and saute on a high flame until the onions are pink.
2. Add the tomatoes, and cook until soft.
3. Season with turmeric, salt and kasoori methi, stir and combine.
4. Stir in the cooked dhal, and add more water if you want thin dhal, or leave it thick like I do. Cover and let boil for about 5 minutes on low flame. Enjoy hot, with rice or with chapattis.

Bisi Bele Huli Anna literally stands for hot, dhal/lentil, tamarind, rice – the four chief ingredients that make for this delicious meal in a pot that originates from Karnataka, South India. Also called bisibelabath, this spicy rice dish is a complete meal in itself. Red chillies, peppercorns, cumin, pulses, cloves, cinnamon, coconut and tamarind all work their way into the dish making it redolent with the rich flavours of the southern spice coast. The addition of lentil and vegetables make sure that this dish is high on proteins and fibre and could easily be on your kid’s menu as well.

I was introduced to it and various other out of this world kannadiga dishes by my friend and roomie when I was at university. Kannadiga cuisine is one of my favourite Indian cuisines, especially because each dish from Karnataka stands out with its own unique identity. Not surprising, considering the fact that this southern state shares its borders with Goa at the northwest, Maharashtra at the north, Andhra Pradesh at the east, Tamil Nadu at southeast, and Kerala at the southwest, as well as a long coastline on the west bordering the Arabian Sea.

I briefly lived and worked in Bangalore some years back, and have some of the most delicious  food memories of the place. While coffee and toast in smoke filled Koshy’s was good, nothing could beat the hot bhajjis and chai at the roadside thelawaala’s or the spicy gobhi manchurian on Commerical Street (wonder if its still there). Everytime I visited them my friend D’s mum Mrs. S would serve up one kannadiga favourite or the other, I was introduced to the joys of akki roti, gas-gase payasa, all kinds of gojjus, fat balls of ragi mudde dunked in ghee, hot gossips shared over crispy avarakkai kodubale, and a taste that I can never forget (I cannot for the life of me remember the name of this dish) large circles of roasted vermicilli (like kataifi) dunked in sweetened almond milk – heaven on a plate!

Ingredients
for the rice
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
1 cup toor dhal (arhar/split pigeon peas)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida/hing

for the spice mix
4, 5 kashmiri lal mirch/red chillies
1 tablespoon channa dhal
1/2 tablespoon urad dhal
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon of cloves, cinnamon, peppercorn
4 tablespoons grated fresh coconut

2 cups chopped mixed vegetables (potato, beans, carrot, peas), boiled

for the seasoning
2 tablespoons ghee/oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dhal
1/4 cup cashewnuts
5 shallots, sliced thinly
2, 3 sprigs of fresh curry leaves

2 tablespoon tamarind pulp, or 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind soaked in hot water
1 tablespoon grated jaggery/brown sugar
salt to taste

Method
1. Wash and cook the rice, dhal, hing, little salt & turmeric powder together with 6 cups water, using a pressure cooker or cover and boil until cooked. If using the pressure cooker, after the release of the first pressure, reduce the flame to low and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Dry roast, one at a time, every ingredient for the spice mix, grind to a fine powder in your spice mill, and set aside.
3. Setting aside a little of the boiled vegetables for the garnish, mix it into the cooked rice and dhal, along with the spice mix, brown sugar or jaggery, and the tamarind pulp. Combine and let simmer on low flame. Check for salt and add if needed.
4. Meanwhile prepare the seasoning, heat ghee or cooking oil, and saute cashews until brown, remove and set aside. In the remaining oil, saute sliced shallots, and curry leaves, when partially caramelised remove and set aside. Finally crackle the mustard, and urad dhal and mix into the rice, spice, lentil mix boiling away on the other flame.
5. Setting aside a little for the garnish, combine the cashews, shallots, and curry leaves into the rice as well. Your bisibele huli anna is ready to be devoured, but do wait for it to cool a bit, or there might be battle scars.
6. Serve warm, garnished with the remaining boiled vegetables, cashews, shallots and curry leaves.

Its great with chilled yoghurt, I served it with pineapple raita, just to offset the spicey rice with something sweet.

Indiblogger has teamed up with Akshaya Patra and there was a mail about how blogging about Akshaya Patra can feed 50 hungry kids. According to Akshaya Patra for over 13 million children in India education is hardly the priority, eating their next meal is. How they help is by providing free meals at school thereby ensuring that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”.

So this post is dedicated to Akshaya Patra’s commitment to removing ‘hunger’ from a child’s vocab. One of the things that really stood out to me about their work is the concept of centralized kitchens, there’s a video about that below:

About these centralized kitchens they say “Each kitchen has the capacity to cook between 50 000 to 150 000 meals daily thus achieving economies of scale. Cooking takes place in mechanized, steam heated custom built cauldrons…” and “Freshly cooked food is packed in stainless steel containers and transported to various schools in custom built vehicles (about 10 to 15 schools per vehicle). There are two types of menus prepared throughout the country: North Indian and South Indian. The North Indian menu consists of three items: roti, sabji and rice while the South Indian menu also consists of rice, sambar and curd.”

Akshaya Patra also runs community kitchens in remote areas where it becomes infra-structurally impossible to set up large scale kitchens. Such kitchens are run by trained volunteers from the community, while the raw materials are provided by the foundation. I thought it was fantastic that “… quite often, the women cooking the meals are the mothers of the children we reach out to. Hundreds of such mothers have benefitted from the program. Not only do they get to cook food for their own sons and daughters, but also gain a certain amount of financial independence from the employment created.” Do click on the links above and acknowledge the work done by this NGO, and if you wish to participate, you can donate here.

Tehri (not to be mistaken for Tehri Gharwal) is a native of Uttar Pradesh, its such a delicious one pot meal that, trust me, if you’ve had it once, its gonna catch you by your gullet for the rest of your life (in a nice way). It creates such a delicious craving in you, that you will need to get a Tehrifix every once in a while. I get my tehrifix once a month, sometime even twice.

Tehri is basically a biriyani for vegetarians, and is made with several vegetables cut haphazardly and a tantalizing combination of spices.  But really what’s so good about this rice is that once you’ve got the combinations figured out, its a fairly quick sort of dish to make. Tehrifix is great for kids as well, my daughter’s hooked for life I think. Here’s what you need,

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Basmati rice

the vegetables
1 onion
2 potatoes (essential)
couple of cauliflower florets
10 green beans
1 carrot
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup capsicum/bell pepper, in any colour, cubed (essential)
2 tomatoes, I used about 4 cherry tomatoes whole

the spices
1 teaspoon cumin
2 bayleaves
1 star anise, broken (essential)
1 black cardamom, crushed open
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon red chilly powder/cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
2 tablespoon cooking oil

Method
1. Wash the rice and keep aside. Wash all the vegetables. Peel and cube the potatoes, & carrots, slice the onions thinly, chop the tomatoes in large chunks, string the beans and cut them into inch long pieces. Get together the cauliflower florets, cubed bell pepper, and green peas.
2. Heat oil in a deep skillet, add the cumin, bay leaf, star anise, and cardamom, followed by onions and ginger garlic paste. Saute until the onions get lightly brown.
3. Now its time to add the spices, and one by one drop in the masalas – coriander, cayenne/chilly, turmeric, garam masala, and salt. Give the masalas a good stir.
4. Add the vegetables (except the peas and bell pepper) to the masalas, mix well, cover and cook on medium heat for about 4 to 5 minutes. The vegetables should have lightly wilted and changed colour.
5. Next, add the rice and mix well, its going to make a woosh woosh sound – that’s good! Go get the water to cook the rice with.
6. Add about 2 and 3/4 cup water (not exactly double because the vegetables will be having some moisture in them as well), mix, and let it come to a boil.
7. At this point, reduce the heat to a minimum, cover the skillet with a lid and do your dishes.
8. After about 10 minutes, check on your tehri, add the bell pepper and peas, mix and cover again. The flame should be at its lowest while cooking Tehri, and keep the skillet covered, basically the steam should cook it through.

Pretty soon an irresistible aroma will lure you back to the kitchen. Open the lid and fluff up the rice with a fork. You’re allowed an org**m!!

Serve with chilled cucumber raita and rice crisps or pappadams

Last week saw a belated Mother’s Day celebration at my daughter’s school. To spread the word on healthy eating the school had set up a Cookery Competition for Kindergarten 1 mums, the theme was ‘cooking without fire’. I thought the idea was terrific and wanted to do something more than a salad or sandwich kind of thing. We’ ve all been reading about the raw food movement and how rawtarians are recommending that to get maximum benefits out of food we must not cook it. Cooking is believed to diminish the nutritional value and life force of food. Ofcourse I like to think that everything in moderation is a good idea, so generally strive to include raw foods along with cooked foods into our family diet.

But this was a good time for me to experiment with something that I have been dying to take a shot at for some time now – Raw Carrot Cake. I found a good source at The Raw Chef: Carrot Orange Cake. I adapted the recipe with what ingredients I had on hand, I also used fresh whipped cream to ice the cake. Very very nice cake, its the kind I would like to take a bite into once in a while.

The cake won the 1st prize at the competition. Look at the table for the winning recipes, there’s nothing left of my cake, it had been demolished! sans a cupcake wrapper someone was too polite to remove

Ingredients
4 Carrots, finely grated
1 c Raisins, soaked
¼ c Dried apricots, chopped
½ c Mixed peel
½ c Date purée *
2 c Almond flour
1½ c Desiccated coconut
1 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
5 cloves

Method
1. Pulse carrots, raisins, date paste & spices in a blender.
2. Drop in the chopped apricots, and mixed peel and pulse a couple of times.
3. Remove the mixture into a large bowl, along with the almond flour and desiccated coconut.
4. Mix well, press into place in a large cake pan, and refrigerate uncovered till it sets.
5. Cut into bite sized squares, frost it with whipped cream or roll them into balls and dust with desiccated coconut.

* Make the date purée by grinding 1c soft dates and 1/2c orange juice in a food processor until smooth.

copyright 2010 eat.right.think

I was recently visiting my dad in Madras and he decided to make kali and kootu for breakfast since I had skipped making this dish for Thiruvadurai this year [kali kootu is traditionally made on this day – I am clueless as to why this particular dish and even why this festival is celebrated – but I refuse to google it since I’m a lover of mystery and I like figuring out stuff through various well-informed and ill-informed sources and piece together my own version of celestial events!]

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

In our family, kootu is made using an amazing root vegetable much like Yam that we call Kavathu – its looks quite odd with its skin on [sadly it had been scrubbed before I could take a pic] but once it is peeled and chopped, kavathu reveals its purple hues. Another important ingredient is avarakkai – the larger variety. Our recipe for kavathu kootu is mind-bogglingly simple and delicious.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Ingredients

Equal quantities of kavathu, avarakkai and carrots chopped.

a cupful of peas

green chillies to taste

1 cup of grated coconut

a little bit of tamarind soaked

salt to taste

1 teaspoon turmeric

coconut oil

Method

1. Cook the vegetables [drop in the kavathu first, then as they are half cooked the rest] in tamarind water – add salt and turmeric.

2. Meanwhile grind the coconut and green chillies to a fine paste.

3. When the vegetables are done, add the coconut-chilly paste. Let it simmer once. Stir well to combine. Switch off. Pour a little coconut oil on top. Some of my relatives like to splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves in coconut oil on top. That tastes good too.

Now you’ve got to eat this kootu with kali – it’s the most amazing combination of a sweet and spicy meal.

We make kali with coarsely ground wheat instead of rice. I can’t list exact ingredients because I really don’t know – basically what you need to do is dissolve jaggery in water – I guess about half cup powdered jaggery to a cup of flour depending on how sweet the jaggery is – when the water with jaggery starts boiling, add a pinch of salt and add the wheat flour and stir like you would an uppuma…when everything is cooked, stir in some finely cut coconut pieces.

Switch off and enjoy it steaming hot with kootu on the side.

About the author: Nina is a film maker based in Bangalore, India.  She likes to eat and feed her friends; loves animals and a good laugh. To see more about her work visit Elephant Corridor.

I remember the Christmas parties at my mum’s unit mess in Dehradun and luscious fruitcakes made by an anglo indian family friend. Chattelier Uncle had a way around cookies and cakes, such a fabulously talented craftsman – carpenter – chef. His specialities were petits fours, marshmallows, nougats, macaroons and cakes of all sort. And for every christmas, birthday and diwali he and wife would dutifully drop off a mixed bag of these goodies at our place. Aunty ofcourse never ventured near the kitchen, and claimed that it was not the place for her ‘lily white hands’. I think my mother secretly disapproved and I remember telling her that her hands were lily white too. I really thought so.

So this christmas I’ve been wanting to make mincemeat pies. A few of mum’s recipe books have found their way to my house and one of them contains a picture of these pies & tarts that I’ve been drooling over for many many years. So first up, tackling the mincemeat. And a little departure from the traditional apple base – here’s a carrot and almond mincemeat recipe from my kitchen. (I had no apples at home that’s why.)

Ingredients

Carrots – 3
Cinnamon – 1 stick
Chopped Almond – 1 cup
Chopped Prunes, dried fruits (figs, dried cherries, mixed berries) – 2 cups
Glazed cherries – 100 gms
Candied peel – 100 gms
Muscovado sugar – 1 cup
Lemon rind – 1 tsp
Rind of 1 large orange
Juice of 1 large orange
Powdered clove – 1/2 tsp
Powdered cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
Grated nutmeg – 1/2 tsp
Butter – 1 walnut sized knob
Whiskey – 4 Tbsps

Method

1. Cut up the carrot in chunks and pressure cook along with a stick of cinnamon – for 1 whistle. Take off fire. Let cool, then remove the cinnamon and excess water and mash the carrots using a potato masher. (I got about 1 + 3/4 cups of mashed carrot)

2. Mix the mashed carrots, dried fruits, cherries, peel, sugar, almonds, orange juice, rinds, melted butter, and spices in a large bowl.

3. Add the whiskey (or sub it with a little more orange juice). Mix again, leave it covered with a tea towel for 24 hours.

4. Mix again – let all the flavours come together – inhale exhale, sneak a bite, pour yourself a drink – feel the glow.

5. Pour into clean, dry glass jars and let rest. Leave to mature for 3, 4 weeks.

The mincemeat tasted FANTASTIC – the carrot gave it a distinct rich, red festive colour, the taste had depth (could it be the whiskey? hic). I decided to use only almonds because I think carrots and almonds make a neat combination.

Now it remains to be seen how long it will keep – the traditional mincemeat keeps for a couple of months, I still have to figure out the longevity of my carrot almond mincemeat. I will update the post in a little while.

Its so much easier to prepare than jam, and I think its totally okay to experiment with flavours.