I never cared for Indian food until recently. \u00a0I spent off and on in my 20\u2019s and 30\u2019s living in an ashram with a monastic group and Indian food was the order of the day. \u00a0I found it not to my liking and thereafter avoided it. \u00a0Then in October 2006 while attending the Pranic Healing Workshop in Orlando, I was invited to lunch with Master Steven Co and his group. \u00a0Tom Park asked if I liked Indian food, since they were going to an Indian buffet. \u00a0I inwardly cringed and outwardly smiled and said \u2018Yes, I\u2019d love that.\u201d \u00a0To my delight, I found there were many dishes I loved, and they tasted nothing like I remember \u201cIndian food\u201d tasting. \u00a0So flavorful and so many vegetarian choices.<\/p>\n
In my new search for low fat, high flavor meal choices, I\u2019ve been studying up on Indian food and trying out some recipes. \u00a0The spices are very unfamiliar to me. \u00a0I am not only learning their names, but how to use them. \u00a0I am realizing the more creamy dishes contain yogurt or cream, which I don\u2019t care for. \u00a0I am anxious to learn more. \u00a0I found a website with good info at www.food-india.com.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had to buy a whole set of spices unfamiliar to me: coriander seeds, cumin seeds, coriander powder, cardamom seeds and powder, turmeric, garam masala. \u00a0I\u2019ve also had to learn to cook using chilies, or chili peppers. \u00a0The Indian foods use different flours, like besan (chickpea) and a lot of pastes, so you make (or buy) ginger paste, garlic paste, or puree onions and spinach into pastes to thicken sauces. \u00a0That part interests me, since I am a gravy freak. \u00a0Oh! \u00a0To think I can have gravy! \u00a0I\u2019m excited!<\/p>\n
I am also learning how each spice tastes, alone and in combination with each other. \u00a0It\u2019s weird not being able to know right offhand, like I do with garlic, cumin, basil, oregano, tarragon: my staples. \u00a0My remedy is to continue dining at the Indian buffet on a regular basis and question the server about the dishes I like. \u00a0Then go home and go onto to www.google.com and search the name of the dish and find the recipe.<\/p>\n
Then I got in a chile pepper stage and tried cooking with different chiles. \u00a0I first tried the tiny hot Thai peppers and found they were \u201cburn my face off\u201d hot. \u00a0A little goes a long way with me, so a few slivers in a stirfry or soup was my limit. \u00a0Next I tried the larger, sweeter varieties: Poblanos, Hungarian wax, Anaheims and Cubanelles. \u00a0These went well with the Indian curries and also led me into the arena of Mexican recipes. \u00a0I like any kind of latino food, but I prefer the lighter versions with very little fat or cheese.<\/p>\n
My first Poblano recipe was a casserole version of chiles rellenos, which sounded good\u2026 on paper. \u00a0In reality, it was an underspiced dish of peppers stuffed with heavy ricotta and chedder, nestled into a quiche type mixture and overcooked. \u00a0 I pondered what to stuff the peppers with next, and tried 2 different ways I\u2019ll share with you here:<\/p>\n
No. 1: \u00a0I defrosted a dozen shrimp and sauteed them with leftover rice, an onion, a cup of chopped fresh basil and 2 tbsp chopped garlic. \u00a0Also some salt and pepper, 2 tsp lime juice, and 4 tbsp light cream cheese. \u00a0This is what I stuffed 2 fat peppers with. I had a can of green chiles, so I found a recipe online and made a green chile sauce: cook an onion with garlic and cumin, add equal parts of canned, chopped green chiles and chicken broth, cook down about 20 minutes. \u00a0I topped the stuffed peppers and put them in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
No. 2: \u00a0The second thing I did was take 2 Poblano peppers and cut them into long 1\u201d strips and boiled them for 3 minutes to soften them. \u00a0I put some of the green chile sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. \u00a0Then I took some corn tortillas and softened them in the microwave for 30 seconds. \u00a0Inside each one, I put a strip of chile and some of the rice shrimp basil mixture from No. 1 above, and then rolled it up and lined the bottom of the pan with them. \u00a0On top I put the remaining green chile strips, then the remaining chile sauce, then a layer of shredded cheese on top, then baked at 350 for 40 minutes.<\/p>\n
I ate some of each and they were all flavorful. \u00a0I\u2019d add a few slivers of a hotter pepper inside the rice mixture if I make them again. \u00a0The shrimp and chile was a good combination, and the lime juice and basil made a big difference in giving high flavor.<\/p>\n
With the new cooking regimen, I\u2019m often asked what do I have in my pantry and fridge right now?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see, I have Thai eggplants and bok choy,I have fresh mushrooms, onions, basil and bean sprouts,potatoes white and sweet, onions, red and Vidalia, carrots,celery, scallions, cherry tomatoes, eggs, feta,tahini, garlic paste, ginger paste, fresh ginger, chopped garlic,garlic chili sauce, fish sauce, corn tortillas, Bragg\u2019s Liquid Aminos,a jar of Peanut Wonder, mango jam, soy milk and Earth Balance vegan spread,which I do finally prefer over butter.
\nIn the pantry I have linguine pasta, Raisin Bran, tom yum paste,some canned curry sauces, Campbell\u2019s Chicken Noodle soup andItalian Wedding soup. \u00a0I have Irish oatmeal, Scottish oatmeal,rice noodles, egg noodles, a variety of the Lundberg Farms rice blends,canned tomatoes, canned green chiles, canned chipotle in adobo sauce for when I\u2019m feeling brave, and a selection of canned and dry beans: black, pinto, navy, garbanzo, split pea.<\/p>\n
In the freezer, besides my secret stash of breads, I might have salmon or tilapia and white shrimp, lemongrass, gangalal and keffir lime leaves for my beloved tom yum soup. \u00a0Most days I keep it simple and breakfast might be a cup of chicken noodle soup with a teaspoon of tom yum paste and some beansprouts and fresh basil leaves in it.<\/p>\n
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I never cared for Indian food until recently. \u00a0I spent off and on in my 20\u2019s and 30\u2019s living in an ashram with a monastic group and Indian food was the order of the day. \u00a0I found it not to my liking and thereafter avoided it. \u00a0Then in October 2006 while attending the Pranic Healing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5vW9k-I","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/goddessgrub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}