Green Salad

Maybe it's because I'm sick of "winter" foods, but recently, what you see here has made up 50-100% of our dinners for the past two weeks. Those winter dishes--often meaty, always filling and warm--are comforting and welcome at the first hint of cold air. However, when spring rolls around I start dreaming of crisp veggies, a bountiful variety of produce, grilled food, and yogurt and fresh cheeses like feta and mozzarella.

The particular green salad shown here consists of a bed of mixed greens and arugula, topped with sliced red onion, julienned carrot, tomatoes, cucumber slices, avocado chunks and of course, salt and fresh-ground pepper. I use a simple balsamic vinaigrette, just balsamic vinegar whisked with a little bit of olive oil.

I love that such salads are fast, flavorful and healthy--you easily get 2-3 vegetable servings at one sitting!

Vinagret

The main part of today's lunch is pictured here: pelmeni (Siberian meat dumplings) and vinagret. Vinagret and olivier are what I think of as the "Big Two" of Russian salads. Both are extremely classic, everyone knows them, and you probably won't go to a Russian party or holiday celebration where they aren't present.

Even though everyone knows them, of course everyone has their own way of preparation. And of course, everyone is surprised to find out when someone else makes one of these salads differently, as they are "classics" for which the preparation is set in stone. ;-)

Here is how I've made it, which I believe is a pretty standard preparation. At least, my boyfriend proclaimed that it was "a real one."

Ingredients:
1 medium to large beet
1 large potato, boiled and peeled
1 large dill pickle (like this), or 2-3 smaller sized (baby dills)
1/2 a medium apple
1.5 c kvashennaya kapusta (or substitute drained sauerkraut)
1.5 c canned or jarred peas (you could use cooked frozen ones, but for some reason I've always liked the taste of canned peas)
A couple of tablespoons of oil (we use a mix of sunflower and olive, and it's tasty)

Method:
Boil the potato and the beet. Peel them. I usually boil first and then peel. It's easy, and the vegetables retain more nutrients and taste. (Experimentally verified!) It's best to do this in advance, if they are cooled off they are easier to chop into nice little cubes.

Everything except the cabbage and peas will be chopped into smallish cubes (in the neighborhood of .25"x.25" to .5"x.5"). Start with the beet and potato. Add them to a salad bowl. Salt just a little bit. You'll be adding other salty things (pickle, cabbage) so don't add too much, but the beet and potato should get a little salt of their own. Chop the apple and pickle(s) into small cubes. Drain the peas. Add these things to the salad. Now add the cabbage (or sauerkraut). Drizzle the salad with the vegetable oil, and stir well.

Notes and Serving Suggestions: This is probably my favorite Russian salad. I love all the ingredients separately and together they're awesome. Plus, there's no meat or mayonnaise! (Well, some people add herring. And some people use mayonnaise. See the intro to this post.)

This is great as an appetizer or part of an appetizer course, or, as we had today, as sort of a side dish.

Kvashennaya Kapusta

This is the fermented cabbage we made this weekend. It's kind of like magic. The first day you don't want to eat it, but of course you try a little bit out of curiosity, and it is insanely salty. I kept asking my BF, "Are you sure we didn't add too much salt? Are you sure?" And he'd just respond, "Don't worry, you can't spoil this with too much salt!" I had my doubts. But then the fermentation actually happened, and it turned into the sour cabbage that I remembered eating in Ukraine.

Ingredients:
2 medium/large heads of white winter cabbage*
2-3 medium carrots
about 5 pieces dried horseradish**
A LOT of salt

*Using the winter kind, which is white and sort of flatter, is important because the leaves are firmer. I think it may still be tasty with regular cabbage, but the texture is better with the winter one.
**This is optional but I strongly recommend it! Each of the dried horseradish pieces I have is about .25"x.25". I'm sure you can substitute fresh, but it's probably stronger, so use less in that case.

Method:
Wash the cabbage, wash and peel the carrots. Grate the carrots on your grater's rough setting. Shred the cabbage (like for coleslaw or other salad). In a large vessel (I use a wide, deep bowl, like this but about 2-3x as deep), put a few handfuls of cabbage and carrots, then add a lot of salt. Sprinkle liberally all over the cabbage. Now, scrunch the cabbage and carrots with your hands, really work the salt in there. Toss in a piece of the horseradish. Add the next layer, a few more handfuls of the cabbage and carrots, and repeat. When you have exhausted all your vegetables, they're all in the bowl and thoroughly scrunched with salt, put a weight of some kind on the cabbage. We put a salad plate on top of the cabbage, and then a large pickle jar filled with water on top of the plate. Let it sit at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Ours took about 2.5 days before it wasn't salty anymore, but nice and sour. The cabbage should still have crunch, but it's softer. There will be a lot of liquid in the bowl, too. Keep it, it's tasty. And while the cabbage is sitting at room temperature, you don't have to worry about stirring or anything. If the liquid rises above the veggies that's fine.

Once the cabbage has fermented, keep it in a cool place, like the refrigerator, or outside (like we do) if it's cold enough.

Notes and Serving Suggestions: I really love this stuff. We made that huge bowl of it this weekend, and it's over half way finished! To serve it, put some cabbage in a serving bowl. Drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil, sprinkle with a teaspoon or two of sugar (to taste), and mix well. Let sit for a few minutes then serve. You can also add herbs, such as dill, and sometimes people add chopped apples. Served as a salad, or as a side dish.

Too-Many-Vegetables Soup

Yesterday I realized that we had way too many vegetables around that were going to start being too old any day. So I decided to make a big pot of veggie soup using whatever we had around.

Ingredients:
1/2 small red onion
1 large white onion
4 small carrots
2 leeks (bulb and lower leaf portion)
1 medium zucchini
2 big white mushrooms
1 c shredded cabbage
1/4 c parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 T balsamic vinegar
1.5 T olive oil
Salt to taste
A little soy sauce or fish sauce (about 1 t)
1 bay leaf
Water to fill the pot

Method:
Warm the oil in your soup pot. Slice the onions into half rings, add them to the pot and let them saute. Peel and grate the carrots, cut the leeks into half rings, and add them to the pot as well. Salt the vegetables and let them saute. Now add water to fill the pot almost full, and turn the heat up to bring the soup to a boil. Add chopped zucchini, chopped mushrooms, shredded cabbage and garlic. Put in the seasonings: bay leaf, balsamic vinegar, soy or fish sauce, salt and parsley. Add them to your taste. Let the soup simmer until the cabbage and zucchini are soft enough for you.

Notes: I was surprised how good this was. I mean, I was kind of begrudgingly making it, thinking I was basically cleaning out my fridge, and that it wasn't going to taste that great because there was just water, no meat based broth or long-cooking-full-of-goodness vegetable broth. But it turns out it doesn't take a lot of time for the veggies to flavor the water. It only took about 25 minutes or so total. Of course you can use whatever veggies you have around, but I think that the leeks and mushrooms made this especially tasty.

Serving Suggestion: Good with a piece of bread. My boyfriend put leftover roasted chicken meat in his bowl, and he liked it.

Spicy "Korean" Carrots

This was an attempt to recreate a dish that is sold in markets across the former Soviet Union. I had it in Ukraine, and got a craving for it in a bad way a few nights ago. But Switzerland is not the FSU, so if you want spicy "Korean" carrots here, you have to make them yourself. That is a problem, because it is a closely guarded secret. It's not an actual Korean dish, but those of Korean descent in the FSU who know how to make it don't tell anyone the recipe. There are, however, a lot of recipes on the internet, and I figured that they were all similar enough that the basic approach must be right.

The carrots in the market are sold in looong strips. I think they use one of these. Since I don't have one of those, I had to settle for attempting to julienne my carrots. Since I'm not a chef, and carrots are hard, I had to settle for thicker carrot sticks.

Spicy "Korean" Carrots

Ingredients:
2 very large carrots, 1 small one
1 small white onion
1 big clove of garlic
1.5 T vegetable oil
1 T powdered coriander
1.5 T chili powder*
2 t sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Salt to taste

*Note: My chili powder is mixed with a few other spices (oregano?!) and is a bit weak. You can adjust this based on your ingredients and your taste.

Method:
Cut the carrots into as close to a julienne as you can, or use a vegetable slicer of some kind. They shouldn't be shredded though. Slice the onion into thin half rings, and chop the garlic. Warm the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion, fry until translucent, soft and fragrant. Push the onions to one side, make sure there's enough oil pooled on the other side so you don't have to add more (we want to keep the fat down to some extent). This may mean tilting the pan slightly to get some on that other side. Once you have some warm oil on the opposite side of the onions, add the spices to it. Make sure that all the chili powder and coriander is immersed in the oil, let it fry for some seconds, it should smell really spicy. Add the garlic to the pan, and mix every thing together. Turn the heat down as low as it goes, add the carrots, the sugar, the lemon and the salt. Toss the carrots really well in the spice mix. Let them cook for a few minutes, you may need to keep tossing them so the spices don't burn and so they cook evenly. They should be still a bit crunchy when you serve them.

Notes: In recipes I've seen online they use vinegar, not lemon. But I had half a lemon, so guess what went in, and guess what tasted good? Also, in the real recipe the carrots aren't cooked. They sit in the marinade for a long time. But I cooked them because I was really hungry and couldn't wait. I think it especially worked out because I had thicker carrots. The flavor was close enough to the real thing to satisfy a craving. I think it would be even closer if I didn't cook the carrots and had really nice and thinly cut ones.

Serving suggestion: This was part of a dinner that included frozen and microwaved spinach souffle and perfectly boiled eggs (thank you, boyfriend!). I think they'd make a really good side dish to poultry or pork. Or even hamburgers, come to think of it.

Red Cabbage Sauté

In case you couldn't tell from last post, kasha + fried eggs + veggie saute = fast, tasty and nutritious dinner. Reasonably cheap, too.

Ingredients:
200 g red cabbage sauerkraut
2 t oil (any kind)
1 small onion
1 small apple
Salt to taste
A splash of apple cider vinegar if you want extra tart flavor

Method:
Warm the oil in a pan. Peel the onion and slice into demi-rings. Saute them until golden with hints of brown caramelization. Turn heat to low, add the apple, cut into matchsticks (peeled if you prefer), the cabbage, salt to taste and the optional vinegar. If your sauerkraut is not very wet, add a tablespoon or two of water to keep things from burning. Saute till apples and cabbage are warm.

Notes: Satisfying and tasty on a fall evening. Also, light and healthy.

Serving Suggestion: We had this with kasha (roasted buckwheat groats) and fried eggs. I think a dollop of sour cream or thick Greek style yogurt would have been good on the cabbage.

Turkish Style Eggplant with Rice-Pasta Pilaf

Eggplant recipe just sort of made up with what I had around, especially some stuff from the freezer (one chopped eggplant, 2 whole tomatoes). Before we go on a trip, if there's any produce that we didn't finish I just pop it in the freezer. The eggplants I chopped, but tomatoes I freeze whole. When I want to use them, I run a tomato under hot water for a few seconds. The skin is really easy to peel off after doing that. The tomato is still rock-hard, it's really easy to chop up.

The pilaf is my attempt to recreate something I had at a Turkish co-worker's home.

Turkish Style Eggplant with Rice-Pasta Pilaf

Ingredients:
For the eggplant:
1 eggplant
2 tomatoes
1 small onion
4 cloves garlic
1 large or 2-3 small carrots
1 T olive oil
2 T chopped fresh parsley
2 lemon wedges
1/3 c of a tomato sauce (any kind you like)
1/3 c water
2 bay leaves
Salt to taste

For the pilaf:
1 small onion
1 T olive oil
1.5 c raw rice
.5 c small pasta (orzo, vermicilli, stars)
3.5 c water
Salt

Method:
Eggplant: Mine was frozen, so to remove the excess water I just had to thaw in the microwave and drain. If yours is fresh, chop it and put it in a bowl. Salt it a little and let it sit about 10 minutes, the salt will draw the liquid out. Drain. Warm the oil in a pan. Saute one onion, chopped. When soft, add the carrot(s), shredded and the minced garlic. When the carrot is soft, add the remaining ingredients: eggplant, chopped tomatoes, juice from the lemon wedges, tomato sauce, bay leaves, parsley, water, salt to taste. Let it simmer while you prepare the pilaf. You can let it cook just until the eggplant is soft, or keep it simmering as long as you want (may need to replenish liquid in that case).

Pilaf: rinse the rice. In a pot, warm the oil. Saute the chopped onion till soft. Add the rice, and saute it for a few minutes. Don't let it brown, but the grains will become more translucent, and shiny. Add the water, pasta and salt. Cook as normal. I let it boil gently till the water is all gone, then I remove it from the heat and cover it, letting it steam for about 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Notes: My friend made her pilaf with orzo, which was really good. Mine was with vermicelli, which is what I had around. It was fine, but it was kind of like normal rice. Next time I will use orzo. The tomato sauce I used had peppers (not spicy ones) in it. You could use plain, or even just tomato paste. I think a spicy tomato sauce, like arrabiata, would be tasty in it. This meal was fast and easy to prepare.

Serving Suggestion: Very good served with yogurt. You could add the parsley at the end instead, if you want, sprinkling it over the dish just before serving

Rhubarb-Apple Compote

We got some nice rhubarb in the store, and we still have a bunch of apples that aren't the best for eating (a little mealy/soft) but are good for cooking. I threw this together and surprisingly it was delicious.

Rhubarb-Apple Compote

Ingredients:

4-5 stalks of rhubarb
3 small apples
1/4 c dried sour cherries
30 roasted peanuts (unsalted)
A squeeze of lemon
Cinnamon stick (1"-2")
A piece of ginger root (1/2")
3/4 c of sugar

Method:

Wash and peel rhubarb stalks, also removing any leaves (they are poisonous). Chop. Core and chop the apples. Peel the ginger and slice into matchsticks. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil slowly, and then let simmer until fruits are soft and the mixture is not liquid.

Notes and Serving Suggestion:

We at this with crepes (blini). I use Yulinka's recipe, but with sour milk (is it the same as buttermilk?) and a bit more sugar. I especially liked the peanuts! It's kind of a breakfast dish (especially for week end) or dessert, but we had it for dinner.

Amy's Knock-Off

I made the filling tonight for another round of pirozhki. As I said before, I was going for a knock-off version of the Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza topping. I think it was pretty successful!

"Amy's" Roasted Vegetable Pizza Topping

Ingredients:

8 small onions (I did 7 yellow, 1 red)
2-3 T oil (I used sunflower)
1/4 c nice balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
2 roasted red peppers (make your own if you like, I used jarred ones)
About 4 artichoke hearts (frozen, canned, bottled, fresh cooked)*
1 1/2 cups of shiitake or oyster mushrooms (I used oyster)

*I didn't read the can on mine that carefully, turns out I actually bought artichoke bottoms. Also tasty, and much less expensive.

Method:

Caramelize the onions. When done caramelizing, deglaze the pan/pot with balsamic vinegar. Remove from heat. Chop the mushrooms, stir them into the onions. At this point: if you're going to use this for pizza, I suggest spreading this mix over your pizza crust, and then topping with strips of pepper and whole artichoke hearts (you may want to use more of them in this case). If you're going to use it to stuff a sandwich/pirozhki, or even to mix with pasta: chop the artichokes and the peppers slightly larger than the mushrooms and stir it all together. It's ready to go!

Serving Suggestion and Notes: I think this would be really nice on a pizza, or stuffed into a baguette for a quick sandwich. You could also easily use it as a dip at a party. It was tasty and easy! The most time consuming thing is slicing so many onions (and I sliced them pretty fine), and taking the time to caramelize them nicely. But, it is a great thing to make ahead and have around. You could even put it into small containers and freeze for fast use. As far as whether or not this tastes like Amy's version, well, I think it is very similar, but I think hers uses less red pepper. In my version, the red pepper over-dominated a bit. This may also be because her version uses tomatoes and a little lemon juice ... maybe the acidity balances out the pepper and the sweetness of the onions and balsamic vinegar.

Cheap but Good: Tomato Soup

This is easy, fast, cheap and good. It was the first thing I made for my boyfriend on my mission to prove that many American foods can be tasty, AND not make you die of heart disease. What's more American than tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich (which doesn't have to be unhealthy)?

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1 small to medium sized onion
1 medium carrot
2 T oil
3 T tomato paste
1 800 g can of peeled whole tomatoes (corresponds to US 15 oz can, I think)
2 cans of water
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
about 1 T dried parsley
about 1 T dried basil
about 1 T dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Chop the onion, begin to sautee it in the oil. Peel and grate the carrot, add it to the onion. Remove the whole tomatoes from the can and chop them, saving the juice. When onion is soft and translucent, stir in the tomato paste, the chopped tomatoes, and the juice from the can. Also add two canfuls of water, the bay leaf, the peeled and minced clove of garlic. Salt and pepper and herbs to taste. (I add about a T of each herb, but mostly parsley, second most oregano, least basil.) Let it come to a boil and then simmer it until the carrots are soft enough for your taste. For me this can be as little as 10 minutes if I'm in a rush, but it's best if you simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: I think this soup is best with a little sour cream or creme fraiche. I either stir it into the pot at the very end, or let each person put a little on their bowl. I don't sautee the garlic because I like the sharper taste; if you want it more mild, simply add it in when you add the carrots. This is very good even with just bread. I've also tried it with grilled cheese, which was great. Once I added noodles, and that was good, but the soup was much thicker. You could also try adding rice (cooked, or cook it in the soup).

***Cost Analysis***
Can of tomatoes: 82 cents
Carrot: 15 cents
Onion: 10 cents
Tomato paste: 50 cents
Garlic clove: 5 cents
Herbs:
I have large jars of parsley, basil and oregano that each cost about 2 euro and have probably 70 one T servings inside. So those three together cost 9 cents approximately.
The bay leaves came in a bag with like 100 leaves inside, and was also about 2 euro. So one leaf is about 2 cents.

Total cost of soup recipe: 1.73 euro, about $2.33 today

The recipe makes about 5.5 bowls, so that is 31 euro cents ($.42) per small serving (1 bowl), and 62 euro cents ($.83) per larger serving (2 bowls). Small serving is usually enough for me, with a bit of bread and a little sour cream.

Nutritional Info: Each bowl has approx. 110 calories (calculated using www.calorieking.com).

Aloo Paratha and Aloo ka Mattar

So a couple of nights ago I made my first rotis. I was surprised at how incredibly easy it was! I was motivated to make them because I brought a dozen back from the States, and we discovered that my boyfriend really likes them. The thought occurred to me: "He's gonna eat all my rotis. I'm not going to have any left!"

And so, even though I'd always been intimidated in the past at the idea of making my own, I did so.

They came out ok. I decided to use only wheat flour and water, so they were a little brittle and definitely could've used some salt. But they made me brave, by coming out ok and tasting decent. Thus, tonight I felt up to making something a step up: aloo paratha.

This is a roti, basically, with spiced potatoes mixed into the dough before it's cooked. And lucky everyone, today I'll basically be posting 4 recipes: basic spiced potatoes, Aloo ka Mattar, basic roti dough, and Aloo Paratha.

First I made the spiced potatoes.

Spiced Potatoes
(I used 1/2 for the paratha, 1/2 for dinner):

Ingredients:

4 small potatoes
1 t cumin seed
1 t black mustard seed
1 chili
1 t tumeric
1 t cumin ground
1 t coriander ground
salt to taste
1 t chopped ginger
1 clove garlic chopped
1 small onion chopped
2-3 T oil (I used sunflower)
Fresh cilantro (1 handful)

Method:

Cut the potatoes into cubes, peeling if desired. Boil the potatoes till very soft (soft enough to mash). Drain and set aside for the moment. In a pan, heat the oil, and sautee the onions. When they become translucent, add the chili, ginger and garlic. Stir, sautee a little less than a minute. Now push all the stuff in the pan to one side, and let the oil pool on the other side. I like to position the pan such that the oil side is over the flame/heating element and the onions etc. side is cooler. Dump the spices into the pool of hot oil. You should be able to hear them cooking, and smell them becoming fragrant. Cook for about 30 seconds, then stir everything together in the pan. Add in the potatoes and stir well, mashing with a wooden spoon as you do it. Chop the cilantro, and mix it in too. You can now turn off the heat and salt to taste. Reserve a little less than 1/2, about 1/3 for the paratha. The rest you can eat, or you can make more paratha dough and use it all. I used the remaining to make aloo ka mattar (potatoes with peas), recipe to follow. Or you could just eat this by itself! Or use it to stuff samosas ... hm, that sounds like a future post! ;-)

Aloo ka Mattar

Ingredients:

Spiced Potatoes from above (you can use a portion, or all of them. I used about 2/3.)
1/2 a medium sized tomato
1 c frozen green peas
1 T oil (I used sunflower)
Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan. Chop the tomato. When the oil is hot, drop the tomato in it. It will sizzle and make the skin wrinkle. When the tomatoes begin to get soft, add the peas and the potatoes. Stir all together. You may have to add more salt to taste. We ate this with fried eggs, it was tasty.

Just before we ate, I prepared the basic roti dough, so it could rest during dinner:

Basic Roti Dough

Ingredients:

1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white wheat flour (all purpose flour)
Sprinkling of salt
Drizzling (about 2 t) of vegetable oil
water (no specific amount, depends)

Method:

Put the flours in a bowl with the salt. Mix well. Drizzle the oil uniformly, then begin to pour in water into the center of the mound of flour a little at a time, stirring as you pour it, stirring from the inside out. It will be sticky on your hand at first, stir in more of the flour. If there's not enough water it'll be crumbly. Add water, stirring/mixing the dough with your hand until it's not sticky, but not crumbly. You should have a silky ball of dough. Knead it a bit. The dough should start to spring back when you lightly push it with your finger. Let it sit in the bowl covered with a damp towel for 30 minutes at least. This isn't to make it rise like other breads, but to make sure the flours absorb the water. This is the basic dough! This can probably make about 6-8 rotis. To make them, split the dough into balls of equal size. Roll out with a rolling pin until they're about 8 inches in diameter. I do this one at a time. When I have the first rolled out, I put it on a very hot pan. I just use a large concave non-stick skillet (kinda wok-like, but not as sharply sloped at the sides). The roti will start to puff, which is fine. When brown spots start to appear on the bottom, flip the roti and cook the other side (about a couple of minutes each side). When it was cooking, I usually roll out the next one, so it's ready to go into the pan when the other one comes out. The one that's ready I put on a plate, and smear all over with butter (helps make it tasty and pliable). Continue till done.

Aloo Paratha

Ingredients:

Spiced Potatoes from above
Basic Roti Dough from above
extra flour, about 1/2 to 1 c

Method:

Take your big ball of roti dough, roll it out into a big circle. Sprinkle a bit of flour, add the potatoes in the center, sprinkle a bit more flour, then fold the dough over the potatoes, closing the ball up well. Now roll the whole thing out again, as before, this will well distribute the potatoes. They are wet, though, and will make the dough a bit more sticky, so add flour to it as needed, to make it silky, not sticky, in texture again. Roll it into a ball. Now you have a ball of dough with potatoes well mixed in. Separate into 8 equally sized balls. Heat a pan, as described above for rotis. Roll out one ball at a time, you will need to dust the board and the ball itself with flour, likely. Roll till 6-8 inches in diameter, place in the hot pan, and cook both sides as directed above. Transfer to plate when finished and spread each side with butter.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: The parathas came out really well. I like the mix of whole wheat and white flours. You may use more white flour, or all white flour if you like for rotis, but parathas really benefit from the whole wheat. I think it's good, because they're traditionally a travel food, so they should provide tons of nutrients! You can eat them with some yogurt, or a raita, or by themselves. Rotis are better for curries and dhals because they're plain and don't distract from the flavor of the dish. Adding some fat (oil) to the roti dough makes them pliable, I find. I like my breads not very salty, but my boyfriend wants me to add more salt next time. To each their own, I guess. Rotis are also delicious with butter and sugar, or dipped in mango puree that's been mixed with some whole milk. That is a great breakfast! (So is roti crisped up a bit in the toaster or a skillet, served with eggs!)

Sour Cherry Rice

Tonight I made this rice in an attempt to duplicate one of my favorites from a Persian restaurant in Dallas. It came out really tasty, but it just needed a little more lemon juice and some chopped fresh dill added in at the end. But I'm posting what I did:

Sour Cherry Rice

Main Ingredients:

1/2 glass of uncooked white basmati rice (about 1/4 c)
1 glass water (important ratio is 2 parts water to 1 part rice)
about 1/4 c (a small handful) of dried sour cherries (I get mine at Whole Foods in the bulk foods aisle)
one VERY small onion (or about 1/2 of a regularly small one)
1 clove of garlic
Salt to taste
1 T oil (I used sunflower seed oil)
Squeeze of lemon

Spices:

1 black cardamom pod
2 small green cardamom pods
2 whole peppercorns
1 "petal" of a star anise
1 small bay leaf
2 whole gloves
1 tsp. of cumin seeds

Method:

Wash the rice well, then set it aside. Have the water ready to pour into your saucepan. In the saucepan, warm the oil. When it shimmers, add the onion, chopped, fry till golden brown (careful not to burn!) and stir in the garlic, minced. Push the onion-garlic mix to one edge of the pot, and let the oil pool on the other side. Add the spices (except bay leaf) into the oil. The oil should be hot enough that you can hear a quiet sizzle. Once you can smell the fragrance of the spices (about 30 seconds), stir everything in the pot together, add the rice, let the whole thing lightly fry for another 30 seconds or so, and then add the water, cherries and bay leaf, salt and a squeeze of lemon. Let the rice gently boil until it's just almost dry, then remove from heat and let sit covered for about 10 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork. If your rice is still a little too wet, you can pop it in the microwave for a few minutes, or gently cook it on the stove, stirring, until it's drier.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: I thought this was really tasty, and a good approximation of the rice at the restaurant. Theirs is a little drier and fluffier than mine came out, and also less pink (from the cherries). Probably they add the cherries in just at the end, and they get kind of plumped from the steaming rice, but aren't cooking with it. Chopped fresh dill would've been great, but I didn't have any.

Cheap but Good: Chana

This is a very easy Indian recipe. It's perfect for winter: warming, cheap, good the next day, hearty. It's nice and spicy too!

Chana

Ingredients:

1 large can garbanzo beans
2 small onions or 1 large one
1 t cayenne pepper
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
2-4 T oil
about 5 cups of water
salt to taste

Method:

Open your garbanzo beans, and drain them and rinse them well. Set aside. Sautee chopped onion in about 2 T of the oil. Let them get really nice and brown (but not burned). If you don't let them caramelize, this will have almost no flavor. So be patient. When they're ready, push them to one side of your pot. Pool the oil on the other side by tilting the pot a little. You may need to add a bit more oil if the onions have soaked almost all of it up. Ok, put the pot back on the burner now, and dump your spices into the oil pool (not on the onions). Let them fry for about 30 seconds, and then stir everything in the pot together. Dump the beans into the pot, and stir them well. Let that cook for about a minute, then add the water. Allow it to come to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. It can cook longer if you want, but should cook at least 30 minutes for nice soft beans. Add salt to taste. You can also add a bay leaf when you add the water.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: This is perfect with a loaf of French bread ... soft on the inside, crusty on the outside. And soup + bread makes for a pretty darn cheap meal. To make the soup more or less spicy, you can change the amount of spices in it. The important thing is the ratio: 1 part cayenne pepper to 3 parts chili powder and 3 parts cumin (ground).

Mattar Palao: Rice with Peas

This is a very basic Indian recipe that you can serve on it's own or with curry or dhal.

Mattar Palao

Ingredients:

1.5 cup basmati rice
3 cups water
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cumin seeds
2 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 whole cloves
optional: 1 cardamom pod
1/2 c frozen peas
1 T oil

Method:

Wash the rice very thoroughly, until the water runs clear when you rinse it. Set it aside. Warm the oil on medium/high heat in a saucepan that you'll use to cook the rice. When it shimmers, fry the cumin seeds, but keep aside the clove, peppercorns, and if you're using it, the cardamom. Fry the cumin for about 30 seconds, you'll be able to smell them cooking and they may pop. Put the rice, water, salt and bay leaf and other spices into the pot. Set the heat to high, and let the water come to a boil. Once it boils, set the heat down a little so it's still boiling, but very gently. When almost all of the water has evaporated/absorbed, and small "holes" may appear in the pot of rice, stir in the peas, turn off the stove, and cover the pot for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes has passed, you should open the pot up and stir/fluff the rice with a fork. If the rice is still too wet, turn the heat back on to a low setting, stirring everything till it's not too wet anymore. Probably it'll be just right, though.

Serving Suggestion and Notes: This recipe can easily be expanded/scaled down. For basmati rice, the important ratio is 1 part rice to 2 parts water. You can add more spices to your taste or as needed. For a complete (and inexpensive) meal, I like to scramble some eggs and combine them with the cooked rice, especially the next day. You could also add cashews or some other nut. It's also good garnished with chopped cilantro and/or a squeeze of lemon. Serving this with plain dhal (recipe posted earlier, just leave out eggplant) makes it a bit more complete.

Cheap but Good: Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup

This soup is delicious, low fat/calorie, and full of vitamins! It reminds me of the sweet and sour cabbage soup I used to get at a Jewish Deli style restaurant (Ella's Deli in Madison, WI) when I was a kid, but without the meat. Actually, this recipe came from an attempt to recreate that taste. I use a 3 quart pot to make this.

Sweet and Sour Schi

Ingredients:

1/2 medium head cabbage (I used what was leftover after making Golubtsy)
1 small onion
1 medium carrot
1 T oil
2/3 of a 765 g can of peeled roma tomatoes packed in juice + juice from can
3 T balsamic vinegar
3 T sugar
water
bay leaf
sprinkling of caraway seeds
salt to taste

Method:

Warm the oil in a pot. When it shimmers, you're ready to sautee veggies. First add the onion, sliced thinly in semi-rings, and sprinkle some salt. When it is soft, add the carrot, peeled and diced, and sprinkle salt. While it's cooking you can cut the cabbage. Add the cabbage sliced into thin strips about a handful at a time. Sprinkle salt after each addition, and don't add the next handful until the one in the pot is soft. I do this because I have a small pot; if I put it all in at once, it would be too much. At this point, the salt has caused the vegetables to release their juices, and the veggies are stewing. When the cabbage starts to become soft and translucent, add tomatoes chopped and their juice. Add about a can and a half (using the can from the tomatoes) of water, the caraway and a bay leaf (basically, I add enough to fill the entire 3 quart pot). Bring to a boil and simmer until the cabbage is soft enough to your liking. Stir in the vinegar and the sugar. You can add more sugar if you want it sweeter, less if you like it more sour. Likewise with the vinegar; more if you like it more sour, less if you like it sweeter. Add salt to taste. Serve hot. You can serve it with sour cream (I prefer it without), a lemon wedge, or chopped herbs like parsley or dill. Приятного Аппетита!

Serving Suggestion and Notes: I think that this soup is filling enough that 1-2 bowls is a complete dinner. My boyfriend needs a couple of slices of bread with it. We had this last night for dinner with black (rye) bread. For dessert (and tea today) we had pancakes, the thick kind Russians call oladi. Americans will recognize them as silver-dollar pancakes. Было очень вкусно! You can also serve this with crusty bread or grilled cheese sandwiches.

***Cost Analysis***
Cabbage: 1 head = 1.30 euros. 1/2 = .65 euros
Carrot: 8 carrots = 1 euro. 1 carrot = .125 euro
Onion: ~100 onions = 5 euros. 1 onions = .025 euro
Oil: 500 mL = 5.67 euro. 1 T = 14.79 mL = .168 euro
Tomatoes: 1 can = .82 euro. 2/3 can = .547 euro
Balsamic vinegar: 1 bottle= 250 mL = 1.70 euro. 3 T = 44.36 mL = .302 euro.
Sugar: 1000 g = 1.80 euro. 2 T = 24 grams = .043 euro.
Water: 0 euro
Bay Leaf: ~50 leaves = 2 euro. 1 leaf = .04 euro
Salt: cost negligible

Number of Servings: 8 bowls

Total cost of recipe: 1.90 euro = $2.40 at today's currency exchange
Cost per Serving: .24 euro = $.30

Nutritional Info:
Calories per Serving (calculated using info at www.calorieking.com):70
Calories in Recipe: 559

Eggplant Dhal

Dhal is a staple food in India. It is made with many kinds of lentils. I usually use red dhal, because it cooks quickly and doesn't need soaking, or chana dhal (garbanzo beans), because I can buy it canned and I like them. This recipe uses red lentils (dhal). The original recipe, my Mom's, is an adaptation from the book A Spicy Touch. Both those use yellow lentils.

Rozmin's Red Dhal With Eggplant

Ingredients:

1 tsp. fresh ginger
1 tsp. fresh garlic
2 Tbsp oil

½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
2 – 4 whole cloves
1 – 2 whole hot peppers, split in half
1 small tomato, chopped
¾ tsp. cumin powder
¾ tsp. tumeric
¾ tsp crushed red pepper

about 500 g red lentils
water
1 eggplant

1 Tbsp. cilantro leaves
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
salt to taste

Method:

Sautee garlic and ginger in the oil. Cut the eggplant into cubes (you can leave the skin on). When the ginger and garlic is soft, push them to the side of the pot and let the oil pool on the opposite side. Fry the spices in the oil for about 30 seconds. Set heat to a low simmer. Mix the contents of the pot together, adding the tomato. Let cook for about 30 seconds. Add the eggplant and stir well, coating all the eggplant with the mixture. Add the lentils and immeadiately add water to cover everything (probably about 4 or 5 cups). Keep an eye on the dhal, stirring from time to time, and adding 1-2 cups of water when it becomes too thick to stir; this means all the moisture has been absorbed into the lentils and it'll burn if you don't add more. You can cover it if you want to lose less moisture to evaporation. Make sure the heat is on low so the bottom doesn't burn. It's ready when the lentils and eggplant are completely soft; when red lentils are cooked they turn mushy and yellow. Salt it to taste.

Serving Suggestion: Serve garnished with lemon juice and cilantro. It's also very tasty with plain yogurt.