Eggplant saute with coriander and ginger masala

A simple, delicious vegetable for Indian breads and rice. Check out more recipes on swamyskitchen.com.

Use long or small Asian/chinese eggplants, fresh coriander and ginger. Subsituting fresh ginger or using coriander powder is not recommended if you'd like to experience the fresh, authentic taste of this dish.

Ingredients:

• 3 long or about 8 small eggplants

• 2 cups fresh coriander

• 2" long fresh ginger

• 2 green chillies

• Olive or canola oil to sauté

• 1/2 tsp. tamarind or lemon juice

• 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds

• Salt to taste

Method:

Cut eggplants into 2" long pieces. Grind to a paste ginger, coriander and chillies. Take a pan or wok^ and warm on low heat. Use a Tbsp. of oil, raise the heat and throw in the mustard seeds. After they sputter, lower the flame. Add the ground mixture and sauté for about 8 minutes.

Add cut eggplant to the mix. When they are half-done, add salt to taste and the tamarind or lime juice. Let the mixture cook until done. Garnish with a sprinkle of coriander right before serving.

Mango Salsa

Now that spring is here, it's time to enjoy fresh dips, sides, sauces and salads. You are likely to find recipes that include these items in my blog and swamyskitchen.com website.

Here is a delicious salsa for your nachos and tortilla chips.

Pasta with sautéd veggies in garlic and olive oil

Pastas may be prepared any which way if you want to be creative. Here's one of those simple, yet delicious recipes. Preparation time: 20 minutes.

Check out the recipe here - swamyskitchen.com.

Doodh Peda, milk dessert

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups carnation milk powder
• 1 can, sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1/s tsp. saffron

Mix ingredients together to form a smooth mixture like that of a thick pancake batter.

Cook on high heat in microwave for 2 minutes. Remove, mix well,and heat again for 3 minutes.

Cool mixture for a few seconds. While still hot but bearable to handle, rub some of the melted butter in your hands and roll them out to balls, then flatten slightly to the regular size of a peda. Or flatten on a board, then cut to any shape with a cookie cutter.

May top the peda with a mix of nuts or dry fruits. I generally like the pure taste of the dessert as is. Store them in refrigerator. Warm for 10 seconds to get the fresh taste of again for the next serving.

Homemade yogurt

Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon whole or low fat milk
• 1 1/2 Tbsps. plain yogurt



Method:
Boil the raw milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil stirring often. Do not leave stove unattended to prevent the milk from boiling over. Once it gets to the boiling point and rises up, turn off stove.
Cool down to a temperature that's warmer than lukewarm. Mix in the yogurt, cover container and let it stand overnight undisturbed in a warm place. It takes about 5 hours to turn to yogurt. During winter it might take up to 10 hours. As soon as the yogurt sets, store it in the refrigerator to prevent it from becoming tart.
For more recipes go to swamyskitchen.com.

Bread Uppuma

This is one of the best recipes for transforming an ordinary bland starch such as bread to something quite interesting.

Ingredients:

• 6 bread slices cut into small cube
• 1 medium onion, coarsely cut
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 4 green chillies, chopped
• A sprig of curry leaves
• 2 cloves, garlic
• 2 spoons, ginger chopped into tiny pieces
• 2 tsps. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• 1/5 cup water
• 2 Tbsps. oil
• Salt to taste
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh coriander for garnish

Method

Add oil to a warmed pan, increase heat, splutter mustard seeds, add cumin and let it turn light brown. Add chillies, garlic, onion and ginger, sauté lightly. Add tomatoes, turmeric powder and curry leaves. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes, do not pulp.

Add the bread cubes and mix in with the contents of the pan. Add water and salt, toss lightly. Cover and turn off heat. Before serving onto a plate, garnish with coriander leaves.

Cooking time with prep is about 30 minutes.

New Year's Eve dinner at Lorenzo's Trattoria on the Hill. An experience.

Our 10-day trip to Costa Rica exceeded expectations in every way. We came back rejuvenated - indescribable nature, food, people ... What a country!  Life there seemed to be uncomplicated, pure, and innocent.

While still reminiscing the trip and still in a daze, I went to work the next morning and took care of several of the pending items. I didn't realize we were just a day away from New Year's Eve. So, what do we do on the 31st? I had no plans. And, really was not in a mood to party. The flip side was nobody had invited us either!

At almost 10 P.M. on December 30th, I called up a few restaurants on 'The Hill', the center for some of the best Italian restaurants around here. Note, the words 'around here'. That's because Italian food in St. Louis, i.e. even on The Hill is at its best mediocre compared to the Italian restaurants in Philadelphia. Good food can completely spoil you and turn one into a unforgiving critic. That's me.

I got reservations for 6 P.M. at Lorenzo's on The Hill. We were there at 6:05 P.M. and seated immediately. The place appeared to be a home turned into a homey restaurant, extremely elegant. We started off with an appetizer. I will stick to what I ordered and not tread on areas that are not my expertise or hardly of any interest. So, strictly sticking to vegetarian here.

Tomato Mozzarella

Tomato and fresh mozzarella with red onions, capers, Kalamata olives, fresh basil and red wine vinaigrette. Nothing unusual and quite delicious. 

Potato Gnocchi

House-made potato gnocchi with luganiga and arugula in gorgonzola, fontina and parmesan sauce.  The presentation as you see here looked delectable. However, I found the white sauce was so white and bland lacking any kind of intrigue or interest. I doused it with crushed red pepper but that hardly added much except for a kick here and there. I was quite hungry, so dug in right away but after a few helpings decided to abandon it completely. Hmm, on a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 4.5.

What was quite annoying through this expensive dining experience was the fact that at least four times if not more, the waiter and the maître d' asked us if they can box our dishes while we were just about a fifth done. Maybe they were trained to do so or maybe they had people waiting for the next seating. We had not planned to be seated at 6 P.M. to get up and leave at 6:45 P.M.

Tiramisu

The next course was the dessert, a traditional Tiramisu, the best of course of the evening. I should have ordered one for just myself but we decided to share as people around seemed to be in a hurry to be seated, and couldn't wait to get us off our seats.

The final vote? It would be our first and last time. There are other Italian restaurants to try anyways. We will come back to The Hill but definitely not to Lorenzo's. They lost us not so much for the average food as for the service. We did not feel it was a dining experience at all.

A dessert with puffed rice called 'Aval'

This dessert is called Aval Kesari, a no frills, no drills kind of a dessert.

In India, it is made as offering for prayers. Follow the steps in my recipe, start to finish it should take about 20 minutes.

Take a look at the recipe here from Swamyskitchen.com.

Shredded Brussel Sprouts baked with Olive Oil, garlic and Parmesan Reggiano cheese

This is one of the best recipes for making brussel sprouts delicious. Serves as a great side dish to Italian pastas or meat dishes.

Check out the recipe at swamyskitchen.com.

Aloo Mattar Gobi Paneer (Potato Peas Cauliflower cheese) in an exotic, aromatic, mildly spiced red sauce

This is today's side dish for my home-made bread called chappathi, along with raita.

The ingredients consist of organic Indian cheese, one small potato, some cauliflower shreds (2 Tbsps), and half a cup of green peas.

For spices and flavor, you would need cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, cumin seeds, red chilie powder, garlic, ginger, onions, tomatoes, salt, yogurt, fresh coriander/cilantro leaves and of course salt.

You'll find the recipe at swamyskitchen.com. Enjoy!