Saturday, October 3, 2009

Ich sehe Film.


Day 3!
So I'm in Woodstock, NY for the weekend with 5 of my friends. It's now a 5 year tradition that every fall we attend the Woodstock Film Festival and stay at our friend's house up here. It's the highlight of my Fall.
Yesterday I spent my day off cooking for this ocassion (and for the blog) and brought all the food up last night. Normally we pig out all weekend (it's never too late for that) and it can be quite expensive so I figured brining some comfort food on a cold night would be a good idea.

Apparently I was right. Once my friends got to trying it they loved it.
An hour later my friend S's mother, her two friends, S's brother and his girlfriend came home from the movies they were seeing and the parade of questions about the food began! I loved it.

Once in a while I get annoyed by all the questions you get asked when you practice veganism. But more often than not I really enjoy talking about what I'm doing, the reasons for it, what I eat. I'm proud of myself and my choices and I honestly find my lifestyle choice interesting.
Within 15 minutes all the food shown here was gone:



(I chose to make what I did to try and get rid of what veggies we had left from our garden)

The veg pakoras are from this recipe. I used broccoli, eggplant, peppers and one potato.
I also made a tamarind sauce from this recipe for dipping the pakoras.

For the masala:
1 eggplant, sliced and cut into wedges
3 medium potatoes, sliced and cut into wedges
3 small onions, diced
3 plum tomatoes and 1 heirloom (so you could basically use 4-5 plums, 2 heirlooms, about 20 cherry or 3 big boy tomatoes)
a frozen package of peas
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
about a tbs of fresh ginger, chopped finely
a tbs of cumin seeds*
a pinch of fennel seeds*
a tsp of methi/fenugreek seeds*
2 tsp of garam masala mix
1 tsp coriander
dash of cinnamon
1 tbs of salt
1 tsp of sugar (just a touch of sweetness)
a tbs of rice milk or coconut milk (Optional)

* You can substitue ground spices instead. Probably 2 tsp for every 1 tsp of seeds.

Heat some oil in a medium-large pot and add the seeds. (If you're using ground cumin, fennel, methi spices instead you can skip this step) Once the seeds pop add the onion, ginger and garlic.
Stir them well.
Once they're near-translucent push them to the sides of the pot, add a little more oil and lightly sautee the eggplant in it. Once they're cooked (no need to be perfect) add the potatoes.
I then like to add about tbs of rice milk or coconut milk but this is not necessary. The tomatoes provide more than enough moisture.

Add the tomatoes and stir.

Now add the rest of the spices. Stir a couple of times and put the lid on for about 5 minutes.
The masala should now be more like a sauce. Now add the peas, allow them to get fully heated and serve! Preferly over basmati or with bread.

1 comment:

  1. WOAH! That all looks so good. I love Indian food and I LOVE Pakoras and I'm loving the idea of tamarind sauce.

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